ITHACA, N.Y. — Off to its first 4-0 start since the 2006-07 season, the men's hockey team opens a five-game home stand tonight against Ivy League rivals Dartmouth. The game against the Big Green will face off at 7 p.m. and be streamed on the Ivy League Network. Jason Weinstein (play-by-play) and Tony Eisenhut '88 (color commentary) will have the call, which can also be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM) and around the world via the station's website here.

Game 5: DARTMOUTH at #12/14 CORNELL
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Nov. 10, 2017
PLACE: Lynah Rink  •  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 4-0, 2-0 ECAC Hockey, 1-0 Ivy League; Dartmouth 2-2, 2-1 ECAC Hockey, 2-1 Ivy League
VIDEO: Ivy League Network
RADIO : WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Dartmouth game notes (PDF)

Big Red Rewind:
•  Cornell is coming off a road sweep via one-goal victories over Quinnipiac and Princeton last weekend in what boiled down to a tale of two very different games.
•  The Big Red started ECAC Hockey play with a 2-1 victory over the Bobcats last Friday. Playing a textbook road-game style for 40 minutes, Cornell took the lead on sophomore defenseman Brendan Smith's goal on a counterattack. Freshman forward Morgan Barron's power-play goal midway through the third served as the game-winner before a late Quinnipiac push.
•  Cornell then found itself in a barnburner the next night at Princeton, where it rallied for a three unanswered goals and a 5-4 victory to start its Ivy League slate.
•  Sophomore defenseman Yanni Kaldis and senior forward Trevor Yates scored 49 seconds apart to tie the game at 4, then freshman forward Brenden Locke scored his first collegiate goal for the winner with 6:41 to play.
•  Senior goaltender Hayden Stewart earned the win in relief, making 13 saves.

Highlights From Saturday's 5-4 Win at Princeton:


Highlights From Friday's 2-1 Win at Quinnipiac:


About the Big Red:
•  Cornell has won its first four games for the first time since 2006-07, when it started that season with a 5-0 mark en route to a NCAA regional final berth.
•  Senior forward Trevor Yates (4-2–6; 3 PPG) leads the team in scoring and is one of three players nationally averaging at least one goal per game. He has play on a line with freshman forward Morgan Barron (2-2–4), who is tied for second in team scoring with sophomore forward Jeff Malott (2-2–4).
•  Cornell's penalty kill has been tremendous in the early going, ranking second in the country with a 95.2 percent success rate. The Big Red opened the season with 17 consecutive penalty kills.
•  The Big Red's victories last weekend push its record to 10-0-1 in its last 11 road ECAC Hockey games. Cornell's last road lost in league play was a 4-3 setback on Nov. 5, 2016 at Harvard.

Power Play Ace:
•  Senior forward Trevor Yates' power-play prowess has picked up right where it left off last year. After leading the team with eight goals on the man advantage last year, Yates potted three power-play goals in two opening-weekend games against Alabama-Huntsville. That effort earned Yates ECAC Hockey Player of the Week honors on Oct. 31. He now has 11 power-play goals in his last 37 games.

A New 'Tender's Turn:
•  The Big Red graduated three-year starting goaltender Mitch Gillam '17 after last season, but the team hasn't yet missed a beat. Freshman Matthew Galajda (3-0, 1.51, .938, SO) has started all four games to date, and senior Hayden Stewart (1-0, 1.50, .929) was solid in Saturday's relief appearance.

Fresh Faces:
•  Eight freshmen made their collegiate debuts during the Big Red's first two games last weekend, including seven in the opener. It marked the first time Cornell had seven freshmen skate in its season debut since 1997.
•  Forwards Morgan Barron (2-1–3) and Cam Donaldson (0-3–3) are tied for the most points among newcomers, and forward Brenden Locke (1-0–1) scored the winning goal last Saturday at Princeton.
•  Barron is the only member of the Big Red to have points in each of the first four games. The only other time that's happened at Cornell over the last 20 years is when junior Anthony Angello did it to start off the 2015-16 season.

The Offensive Defense:
•  Not only has Cornell opened the scoring in all four of its games to date, each of those goals have come from defensemen — a first-time occurrence in the program's Mike Schafer era. Junior Alec McCrea (2-1–3) has two of those goals, both on the power play, and juniors Matt Nuttle and Brendan Smith have the others. That trio combined for four goals all of last season.

Polls Prose:
•  The Big Red's road sweep last weekend has vaulted it up four spots in the USCHO.poll to 14th, and into the USA TODAY/USA Hockey Magazine Poll for the first time this season at 12th.
•  Cornell ranks third-highest of the four ECAC Hockey teams in the USCHO.com poll behind Harvard (fifth) and Clarkson (11th).

Feel The Draft?:
•  Cornell has six players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including four from 2014. Junior forward Beau Starrett (Chicago Blackhawks) was selected earliest in that group, having been taken in the third round with the 88th overall pick.
•  Classmate Anthony Angello, also a forward, was selected in the fifth round by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Junior forwards Jared Fiegl (Arizona Coyotes) and Dwyer Tschantz (St. Louis Blues) were then picked in the seventh round.
•  Two newcomers are also NHL draft picks — forward Morgan Barron (N.Y. Rangers in 2017) and defenseman Matt Cairns (Edmonton Oilers in 2016).

First Ivy League Coach To 400:
•  Already the winningest coach in program history and in Ivy League history, Mike Schafer eclipsed another milestone in his career with his 400th victory last January.
•  Schafer ranks 10th in victories among active Division I coaches and is Cornell's fifth-winningest coach across all sports — second among current coaches, behind just Dave Eldredge (men's and women's polo).

Turning The Trick:
•  After having no hat tricks since 2011, the Big Red had two last year. Mitch Vanderlaan's hat trick Nov. 12 at Yale earned him ECAC Hockey Player of the Week on Nov. 15. He potted a couple more goals Nov. 19 against Princeton to become the first player from Cornell with seven goals in the first seven games of the season since Blake Gallagher did so in 2009-10.
•  Jeff Malott then scored his first three collegiate goals in a span of 8 minutes, 44 seconds during the first period to power the Big Red past Princeton on Jan. 13. He was subsequently named ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week after becoming the first Cornell freshman with a hat trick since current NHLer Matt Moulson on Feb. 7, 2003.

What, Me Worry?:
•  Eight of Cornell's 21 victories last season came in games in which the Big Red surrendered the first goal, with the team maintaining a winning record even when it conceded first.
•  The Big Red's resilience from an early deficit has become somewhat of a trend, with the team sporting a very respectable 21-20-8 record when yielding the game's first strike over the last two years. That's a stark turnaround from the team's 14-34-5 record when yielding the game's first goal from the previous three seasons (2012-15).

Helping Out:
Members and friends of the Cornell men's hockey program embarked on another mission trip to the Dominican Republic through the Portal de Belén Foundation over in the summer of 2016. It was the fourth time the program has participated, following trips in 2009, 2012 and 2014. Current members of the team Ryan Bliss, Alec McCrea, Anthony Angello, Alex Rauter, Hayden Stewart, Trent Shore, Jared Fiegl and Dwyer Tschantz were among current team members on the trip, as well as Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey.


About Dartmouth:
•  Like the Big Red, the Big Green is also coming off a weekend sweep after home victories of 4-3 over Brown last Friday and 3-1 over Yale on Saturday. That levels Dartmouth's record at 2-2 after season-opening losses to Holy Cross, 5-3 on Oct. 27, and Harvard, 5-0 on Oct. 29
•  Junior forward and captain Kevan Kilistoff (3-3–6; 2 PPGs) leads the team in scoring after posting two goals and an assist against the Bears. he's tied for the team's goal-scoring lead with sophomore forward Daniel Warpecha (3-2–5), who scored shorthanded goals in each of last weekend's games. They've been playing on a line with sophomore Charley Michalowski (1-2–3).
•  Senior goaltender Devin Buffalo (2-2, 3.99, .861) returns in a starting role.
•  Bob Gaudet is in his 30th season as a head coach and 20th at Dartmouth.

The Series Against Dartmouth:
•  Cornell and Dartmouth have met on 134 occasions since 1909, with the Big Red holding a wide margin in the series with a 80-48-6 advantage.
•  The Big Green, however, extended its unbeaten streak at Lynah Rink to five games (4-0-1) with a 4-2 victory on Jan. 28. Cornell scored the first two goals, including junior defenseman Matt Nuttle's first collegiate goal, but the Big Green later scored three power-play goals to rally.
•  Cornell's last win over Dartmouth in Ithaca was March 10, 2012.
•  Since taking over the reigns as Cornell head coach, Mike Schafer is 23-21-6 against Dartmouth.

Up Next:
•  The Big Red returns to Lynah Rink at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for a rematch of the 2017 ECAC Hockey Championship game against rival #5/5 Harvard.
•  Cornell then continues its home stand with another pair of ECAC Hockey games next weekend, starting with a visit from St. Lawrence on Friday, Nov. 17 followed by a showdown against emerging contender Clarkson on Saturday, Nov. 18.