PRINCETON, N.J. – Cornell concludes a stretch of four straight ECAC Hockey road games at 7 p.m. Saturday. with a visit to Ivy League foe Princeton at Hobey Baker Rink. The game can be viewed on the subscription-based Ivy League Digital Network. Jason Weinstein will also handle play-by-play, which can be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM).
 
GAME 23: #17/RV CORNELL at PRINCETON
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATES: Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016
PLACE: Hobey Baker Rink   ·  Princeton, N.J.
RECORDS: Cornell 11-7-4, 6-6-3 ECAC Hockey  ·  Princeton 5-15-2, 3-10-2 ECAC Hockey
WEBCAST: Ivy League Digital Network
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
LIVE STATS: GoPrincetonTigers.com
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Princeton game notes (PDF)
 
The Big Red, In Brief:
Cornell battled back from a pair of deficits to scratch out a 2-2 tie last night at Quinnipiac, the nation's top-ranked team. Jeff Kubiak scored the Big Red's first goal on a wraparound off the rush, then set up Mitch Vanderlaan's equalizer with 2:42 left in the third period during four-on-four play. Mitch Gillam made 39 saves to earn the tie, and Cornell remained undefeated this season against No. 1 teams (1-0-1). ... Junior goaltender Mitch Gillam (11-7-4, 1.97, .929, 4 SO) has started all 22 of the Big Red's games to date and logged the program's third-longest shutout streak (213:17) during November. Despite the team's current seven-game winless skid, Gillam still ranks 11th in the country in goals-against average and his four shutouts are tied for sixth-most in the country. ... Junior forward Jeff Kubiak (7-12–19) leads the team in scoring and rating (plus-14), and he's doing so without taking a single penalty to date. For the entire season, he's centered a line with a pair of freshman wingers on the JAM line (an acronym of their first names) — Anthony Angello (8-8–16) leads the team in goals, and Mitch Vanderlaan (7-7–14) is third in points and tied for second in goal-scoring. ... Junior forward Jake Weidner (3-9–12) is fourth in scoring and the team's top faceoff man (57.1%). ... Junior forward Matt Buckles (5-3–8) leads the team with four power-play goals.
 
About Princeton:
The Tigers are 5-15-2 overall and 3-10-2 in ECAC Hockey play in Year 2 of head coach Ron Fogarty's rebuild. Princeton had a pair of two-goal leads but ultimately lost a 5-4 affair to Colgate last night. Prior to that, the Tigers were swept on the road last weekend by Harvard (4-1) and Dartmouth (2-0). ... Freshman forward Ryan Kuffner (4-11–15) leads the team in scoring, and classmate and linemate Max Véronneau (8-4–12) leads in goals. ... Junior Colton Phinney (5-15-2, 2.84, .924) has started all 22 games in goal. ... The Tigers are 5-2 when scoring the first goal and 0-13-2 when their opponent opens the scoring.
 
The Series Against Princeton:
Cornell has been dominant against the Tigers, holding a 87-51-8 lead all-time. The Big Red won this season's first meeting in exciting fashion when Jeff Kubiak scored with 49 seconds left in the third period to vault Cornell to a 4-3 win on Nov. 6. Freshman Anthony Angello scored twice and classmate Beau Starrett scored his first collegiate goal against Princeton. Although the Big Red has the historical edge, the Tigers shut down Cornell on Nov. 7, 2014 to earn a 2-1 victory in the Big Red's last visit to Hobey Baker Rink.
 
Gillam's Groove:
Junior goaltender Mitch Gillam was named ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Week on Nov. 17, then earned Player of the Week and NCAA First Star honors on Nov. 24 followed by a 40-save effort Nov. 28 against Boston University. In that span, he posted the third-longest shutout streak in program history, spanning 213 minutes, 17 seconds over four games — including consecutive shutouts at Yale and Brown. That marked the Big Red's first back-to-back shutouts since Andy Iles did so Dec. 2-3, 2011 against St. Lawrence and Clarkson, and it was the Big Red's first consecutive road shutouts since Ben Scrivens blanked Princeton and Quinnipiac from Nov. 7-8, 2008. An odd twist on Gillam's five career shutouts is that he's only won three of them — Dec. 28, 2014 against Lake Superior State and Nov. 20, 2015 against Yale were both scoreless ties.
 
The Little Things Aren't So Little:
While junior forward Jake Weidner is fourth on the team in scoring (3-9–12), his contributions go way deeper than those numbers — especially with increased ice time as a result of the early-season absence of John Knisley. Entering the weekend, Weidner is the team's top faceoff man (57.1%), and he ranks eighth in the country for shot blocks per game among forwards (1.23).
 
What, Me Worry?:
Four of Cornell's 11 victories have come in games in which it has surrendered the first goal. The Big Red had a combined record of 14-34-5 over the previous three seasons when it faced a 1-0 deficit. Cornell was a remarkable 4-0 when yielding the first goal until its Dec. 29 loss to Ohio State.
 
Wasting No Time:
Junior forward Jeff Kubiak entered the season with 17 career points through his first two seasons, but he followed that up with nine points in the first six games this year. He had the Big Red's six-game point streak since Brian Ferlin's seven-game stretch from Dec. 28, 2013 to Jan. 31, 2014. Kubiak has already more than doubled his career point totals this season after 57 games through his freshman and sophomore seasons.
 
Special Threads:
The Big Red wore special jerseys for its home opener which were recently auctioned off to bids totaling $10,400. Proceeds from the auction will go to a mission and service trip to the Dominican Republic this summer, led by head coach Mike Schafer and current players. In addition to the special design the red jerseys with a thick horizontal white stripe across the midsection, the jerseys featured name plates of the greatest Cornell hockey player to have ever donned that number according to the player that currently wears it.
 
Freshman Force:
The jump to college hockey can be a big one for newcomers, but freshman forward Anthony Angello — a 2014 draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins — has felt right at home with Cornell. Angello is the Big Red's first player to have points in his first four collegiate games since Ryan Moynihan from Nov. 8-16, 1996 — which was Mike Schafer's second season as head coach of his alma mater. He then scored the overtime winner Nov. 14 at Colgate and later had two goals against Merrimack on Jan. 9 to garner ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week honors a few days later. Angello's eight goals lead the team.
 
Class of Captains:
On the day of its season opener at Niagara, Cornell announced that its entire senior class — Christian Hilbrich, John Knisley, Teemu Tiitinen and Reece Willcox — would serve as captains during its final season on East Hill. It marks the first time in program history the Big Red has shared the captaincy among four players, though it's worth noting that only two players will wear the 'C' at any given time. Hilbrich and Willcox will serve as on-ice captains for the team's away games, while Knisley and Tiitinen will do so in home games.
 
Blank You Very Much:
Cornell has recorded at least one shutout in each of the last 21 seasons – a streak that has easily been continued behind junior goaltender Mitch Gillam's four shutouts in just the first half of this season. The last time the Big Red went a full season without posting a shutout came during the 1994-95 season.
 
Onward and Upward:
With a Jan. 9 win over Merrimack, Cornell had already matched its win total from the 2014-15 season — and it still hadn't reached the halfway point of this season. The Big Red's two wins over the Warriors, coupled with victories over St. Lawrence and Clarkson in early December, also gave Cornell its first consecutive home sweeps since the 2008-09 season.
 
The 35th to 350:
Already the winningest coach in program history, Mike Schafer hit 350 victories for his career — all of which have come from behind the Big Red's bench — with a 4-2 win over Princeton on Nov. 1, 2013. He became the 35th coach all-time to rack up 350 victories across all NCAA divisions. Schafer is also just the third coach to pass 350 victories with Ivy League tenure, joining Ned Harkness (Cornell, Union and Rensselaer) and Tim Taylor (Yale).
 
Working Overtime:
The Big Red went to overtime six times before Jan. 1 for the first time in program history. Now with 10 overtime appearances, including the three in a row, Cornell is starting to approach the program record for overtime games in a season — the Big Red played 12 in each of the 1985-86, 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns. Cornell is 3-3-4 in its 10 overtime games to date, with its three OT winners tied for the national lead with Michigan Tech, Penn State and Yale.
 
Feel The Draft?:
Cornell has six players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including four from 2014. Freshman forward Beau Starrett (Chicago Blackhawks) was selected earliest in the group, having been taken in the third round with the 88th overall pick. Fellow newcomer Anthony Angello, also a forward, was selected in the fifth round by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sophomore forward Jared Fiegl (Arizona Coyotes) and Dwyer Tschantz (St. Louis Blues) were then picked in the seventh round. Junior forward Matt Buckles was taken by the Florida Panthers in the fourth round of the 2013 draft, and senior defenseman Reece Willcox was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the fifth round of 2012's event.
 
Global Influence:
The Big Red has 16 players on the roster born in the United States. Cornell also now has players native to four different countries on its squad. Aside from the bulk of its roster hailing from the United States and Canada, Cornell also has a player from Denmark (Christian Hilbrich) and Finland (Teemu Tiitinen).
 
Little Apples:
•  Cornell is undefeated against No. 1-ranked teams this season. The Big Red defeated then-undefeated defending national champion Providence on Dec. 28, 2-1 in overtime, then it mustered a gritty 2-2 tie last night at league-leading Quinnipiac.
•  Cornell is 6-0-1 in Friday night games at Quinnipiac since the Bobcats joined ECAC Hockey in 2005.
•  Cornell went 13 games before it faced its first two-goal deficit of the season (Dec. 29 vs. Ohio State). The Big Red hadn't trailed by at least two goals in a game at any other point this season before its Jan. 22-23 games against Dartmouth and Harvard, when it fell behind 3-0 in both games.
•  Cornell has scored just six goals in the third period. While that's the lowest total in the country, the Big Red has only trailed in the final period five times this year.
•  The Big Red became the last team in the country to either score or surrender an empty-net goal this season with Dwyer Tschantz's first goal of the season on Jan. 8. Cornell then yielded its first empty-net goals of the season Jan. 22-23.
•  With Alec McCrea, Trent Shore and Brendan Smith all in the lineup Jan. 9 against Merrimack, the Big Red dressed three freshmen defensemen for the first time since Jan. 20, 2008 against Clarkson (Jordan Berk, Mike Devin and Jacob Johnston).
•  Cornell is currently on a seven-game winless skid for the first time since a seven-game losing streak Jan. 19-Feb. 9, 2013. A home loss to Princeton was part of that stretch.
 
Up Next:
Cornell returns home for games against Brown on Friday, Feb. 12 and Yale on Saturday, Feb. 13. The Big Red then hits the road for its last Ivy League and ECAC Hockey road trip of the regular season with a Feb. 19 visit to Harvard and a Feb. 20 trek to Dartmouth.