ITHACA, N.Y. — Off to its first 5-0 start since the 2006-07 season, Cornell continues a five-game home stand tonight against Ivy League rival Harvard. The rematch of the 2017 ECAC Hockey Championship game will start at 7:30 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 here.

Game 6: #5/5 HARVARD at #12/14 CORNELL
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017
PLACE: Lynah Rink  •  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 4-0, 2-0 ECAC Hockey, 1-0 Ivy League; Harvard 2-1, 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)
Harvard game notes (PDF)

Dartmouth Game Redux:
•  Cornell started the weekend with a 3-0 whitewashing of Dartmouth last night. Freshman goaltender Matthew Galajda needing to make just 16 saves for his
second shutout in just five collegiate starts.
•  Junior forwards Anthony Angello and Mitch Vanderlaan each had a goal and an assist, and senior forward Trevor Yates scored his fifth goals in as many games.
•  Cornell's penalty kill was a perfect 4-for-4, including a full five-minute major during the second period.


Big Red Rewind:
•  Cornell recorded 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 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.

About the Big Red:
•  Cornell has won its first five games for the first time since 2006-07. The Big Red hasn't started with six straight victories since the 1971-72 campaign.
•  Senior forward Trevor Yates (5-2–7; 3 PPG) leads the team in scoring
and is one of three players nationally averaging at least one goal per game. He has played on a line with freshman forward Morgan Barron (2-3–5), who is the first freshman in program history to record at least one point in each of his first five collegiate games.
•  Cornell's penalty kill has been tremendous in the early going, leading the nation with a 96.0 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 38 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 (4-0, 1.16, .948, 2 SO) has started all five games to date, and senior Hayden Stewart (1-0, 1.50, .929) was solid in last Saturday's relief appearance. Galajda enters tonight's game ranked second in the nation in both goals against average and save percentage.

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 (2-3–5) and Cam Donaldson (0-4–4) are the top scorers among newcomers, and forward Brenden Locke (1-1–2) 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 five games. That's a first for a Cornell freshman since first-year students were permitted to compete with varsity teams for the first time in 1975-76.

The Offensive Defense:
•  Not only has Cornell opened the scoring in each of its five games to date, four of those five 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 Harvard:
•  The Crimson dropped its road opener last night at Colgate, 2-1. The Raiders scored the first two goals of the game, then Ryan Donato scored the lone Harvard goal on the power play late in the second period.
•  Harvard split its games last weekend. Yale scored three unanswered goals to secure a 5-2 upset of the Crimson on Friday, then Harvard rebounded with a 3-0 blanking of Brown on Saturday. It was the second shutout of the young season for Harvard, which opened with a 5-0 blanking of Dartmouth.
•  While Harvard graduated a lot of key pieces from a 2016-17 team that won ECAC Hockey and Ivy League titles en route to the national semifinals, the Crimson still has a trio of shoo-in All-ECAC Hockey Preseason Team selections in junior forward Ryan Donato (3-3–6), sophomore defenseman Adam Fox (0-6–6) and senior goaltender Merrick Madsen (2-2, 1.76, .923, 2 SO).
•  Two of the team's top point-getters in the early going are defensemen — Fox and reigning ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week Reilly Walsh (2-2–4), whose goals have come on the power play.
•  Ted Donato is in his 14th season as head coach of his alma mater.

The Series Against Harvard:
•  Cornell has been battling with ancient rival Harvard since 1910, and they have matched up 150 times with the Big Red holding a 74-65-11 lead.
•  The Crimson won both regular-season meetings between the squads last year, then earned a 4-1 victory in the ECAC Hockey Championship final in Lake Placid.
•  Cornell was in control for the better part of Harvard's last visit to Lynah Rink on Jan. 27, but the Crimson broke through in the third for a 4-1 victory.
•  Cornell head coach Mike Schafer is 34-18-6 in 57 games against Harvard.

Up Next:
•  Cornell returns to Lynah Rink for another pair of ECAC Hockey games, starting with a visit from St. Lawrence on Friday, Nov. 17 followed by a showdown against emerging contender Clarkson on Saturday, Nov. 18.
•  The Big Red then closes out the home stand by hosting Niagara on Tuesday, Nov. 21, marking the first of five consecutive non-league games to close out the calendar year.