ITHACA, N.Y. — Off to the program's best start in 15 years, the men's hockey team will play its lone non-conference road games of the regular season with a two-game series this weekend at Miami (OH). The series opener is set for 7:35 p.m. Friday, while Saturday's rematch is slated for an opening faceoff at 7:05 p.m. Both games will be streamed by NCHC.tv. Jason Weinstein will provide play-by-play that can be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM) and worldwide via the station's website here.

Game 11: #5/5 CORNELL at MIAMI
TIME: 7:35 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Dec. 1, 2017
PLACE: Cady Arena  •  Oxford, Ohio
RECORDS: Cornell 9-1, 5-1 ECAC Hockey; Miami 6-6-2, 2-3-1 NCHC
VIDEO: NCHC.tv
RADIO : WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
LIVE STATS: MiamiRedHawks.com

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Miami game notes (PDF)

Big Red Rewind:
•  Cornell is coming off a 4-3 victory against Boston University on Saturday in front of 14,606 fans at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Big Red held a pair of three-goal leads before surviving a late Terriers rally to win the Kelley-Harkness Cup in the sixth edition of the biennial Red Hot Hockey series.
•  Tristan Mullin's first collegiate goal proved to be the winner with 8:09 left in the third period. It's the second straight year the game-winner at MSG came from a freshman, following in the footsteps of Noah Bauld in a 2016 Frozen Apple game against New Hampshire.
•  Beau Starrett started the scoring for the Big Red with a goal on the rush in the first period. Trevor Yates' strike doubled the lead, and served as his 50th collegiate point, then Alec McCrea's power-play goal gave Cornell a 3-0 lead by the game's halfway point. Matthew Galajda made a career-high 35 saves to earn the victory. 
•  The Big Red started last week by scoring four third-period goals to surge past Niagara for a 5-4 win on Tuesday at Lynah Rink. Cornell erased a pair of two-goal deficits to escape with the victory. 
•  Junior defenseman Matt Nuttle had three assists, the last coming on Yates' winning goal with 2:49 to play.
•  Freshman defenseman Alex Green was named ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week on Tuesday after scoring a goal and adding three assists in last week's games.

Highlights From The Red Hot Hockey Game vs. BU:


Let's Get It Started:
•  Cornell has won at least nine of its first 10 games for the seventh time in program history, having last accomplished the feat with a similar 9-1 start to the 2002-03 campaign. The only two times the Big Red has started a perfect 10-0 were its national championship seasons in 1967 and 1970.
•  The Big Red was the last team in the country to suffer its first loss, and it enters the weekend with the nation's highest winning percentage (.900).
•  The only other team to win its first seven games this season was St. Cloud State. Cornell's only loss came to #3/4 Clarkson on Nov. 18, ending the Big Red's the longest winning streak to start a season since 1971-72. 

Big Red By The Numbers:
•  Despite surrendering 11 goals over its last three games, Cornell still ranks third in the nation in team defense (2.00 goals against per game).
•  Long known as a defensive powerhouse under head coach Mike Schafer, Cornell is also showcasing its offensive wares this year. The Big Red ranks sixth in the nation in team offense at 3.60 goals per game. Cornell scored five or more goals in four of its first nine games for just the third time in Schafer's 23-year tenure behind the Big Red bench.
•  The Big Red surrenders the second-fewest shots on goal per game in the nation (23.60), just behind its opponent this weekend, Miami (23.57).

Forward Thinking:
•  Senior forward Trevor Yates (7-4–11; 3 PPG) leads the team in scoring and is the team's leader among forwards with a plus-8 rating. He's also among the most efficient shooters in the country, ranking eighth at .292 goals per shot on goal.
•  Sophomore forward Jeff Malott (3-6–9) is tied for second in team scoring with three multi-point effort in the first six games. He was the Big Red's leading goal-scorer among freshmen last season.
•  A New York Rangers draft pick playing in Madison Square Garden for the first time, freshman forward Morgan Barron (3-6–9) had his first multi-point game Saturday vs. BU to move into a tie for second in team scoring. 
•  Junior forwards Anthony Angello and Mitch Vanderlaan (2-5–7) are tied for fourth in team scoring. Angello leads the team with 26 shots on goal.

The Offensive Defense:
•  Cornell got a total of 13 goals from its defensemen in each of the last two seasons, but it already has 11 from its blueliners in just 10 games this year.
•  Junior Alec McCrea (4-1–5; 4 PPGs) ranks fifth in the country in power-play goals per game (0.40). One of the team's top defensive blueliners, McCrea has already quadrupled his goal total from a season ago.
•  Junior Brendan Smith (3-2–5), who typically plays on the same pairing as McCrea, is tied for a four-way tie for third on the team in goal-scoring. Smith also leads the team with a plus-9 rating. 
•  Junior Matt Nuttle (1-3–4) had all three of his assists in the same game, helping spur the Big Red to a 5-4 win Nov. 21 vs. Niagara.
•  Defensemen have scored Cornell's first goal of a game more times (five) than forwards (four). 

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 (8-1, 2.04, .914, 2 SO) has started all 10 games to date, and he was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week on Nov. 14.
•  Galajda's two shutouts are tied for the second-most in program history for a freshman goaltender. Only All-American David McKee had more (five; 2003-04), and Galajda joins senior Hayden Stewart (2014-15) and Brian 
Hayward (1978-79) as the only others with two.

Polls Prose:
•  Cornell has moved up to fifth in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls this week, marking the first time its been a consensus top-5 pick since Nov. 9, 2012.
•  Though early, the Big Red also sits in fifth in the Pairwise Rankings, which are used to determine the at-large berths for the NCAA tournament. 
•  The Big Red is 3-1 against teams ranked at the time in the USCHO.com poll, including wins over Quinnipiac, Harvard and Boston University. 

Fresh Faces:
•  The Big Red boasts one of the largest freshman classes in the country, with seven of the team's 10 newcomers appearing in the season opener — a first at Cornell since 1997. All eight freshman skaters have now debuted.
•  Forward Morgan Barron (3-6–9) is the first freshman in program history to record a point in each of his first seven collegiate games. 
•  Defenseman Alex Green (1-4–5) had four points in last week's two games, including his first collegiate goal Nov. 21 vs. Niagara. He was subsequently named the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week.
•  Forward Brenden Locke (1-2–3) scored the winning goal during the third period Nov. 4 at Princeton, and forward Tristan Mullin (1-0–1) scored the winner last Saturday against Boston University.

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).

What, Me Worry?:
•  Cornell has trailed in four of its 10 games so far, and it's actually faced deficits of at least two goals on all of those occasions — yet the Big Red has rallied to win via three unanswered goals in three of those four games. Cornell erased a 4-2 deficit Nov. 4 at Princeton to win 5-4, then shook off a 2-0 hole against Harvard to win 3-2 on Nov. 11, and most recently scored three goals in the final 15 minutes of Tuesday's 5-4 win over Niagara.
•  The Big Red's resilience from an early deficit has become somewhat of a trend, with the team sporting a very respectable 14-15-4 record when yielding the game's first strike over the last two-plus 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 Miami:
•  The RedHawks recorded a win and a tie last weekend in a non-league set against regional rival Bowling Green at Cady Arena. Miami won the opener, 6-3, and was in position to sweep the weekend before the Falcons knotted the finale with an extra-attacker tally late in Saturday's game.
•  Nineteen of Miami's 28 rostered players are underclassmen, including leading scorer Gordie Green (5-11–16; team-best plus-6 rating) and two of the team's three NHL draft picks — sophomore forwards Carson Meyer (4-2–6; Columbus Blue Jackets) and Karch Bachman (2-4–6; Florida Panthers).
•  Green typically plays on a wing with junior Josh Melnick (6-7–13) at center. Melnick ranks third in team scoring and is the most frequent faceoff man (50.3%). 
•  Senior defenseman Louie Belpedio (5-9–14) is second in scoring and serves as the squad's captain. The former teammate of Cornell's Jared Fiegl and Ryan Bliss from the U.S. National Team Development Program averages nearly four shots on goal per game.
•  Junior defenseman Grant Hutton (7-5–12; 6 PPGs) leads the team in goals, and he leads the nation's blueliners in both overall goals and power-play goals. 
•  Associate head coach Brent Brekke is in his 10th season with Miami after spending nine seasons on the coaching staff at Cornell. Enrico Blasi is in his 19th season as the head coach of the RedHawks.

The Series Against Miami:
•  Cornell evened up the all-time series with Miami at 3-3 by sweeping a pair of one-goal games Dec. 2-3, 2016 at Lynah RInk.
•  The RedHawks scored the first two goals of the opener, but the Big Red rattled off four straight for a 4-3 victory. Beau Starrett scored the tying goal midway through the third, then Anthony Angello notched the winner 1:13 later.
•  Cornell never trailed the following night en route to a 2-1 victory.
•  This will be the teams' first meeting in Oxford, with three previous meetings taking place in Ithaca and another three at neutral sites. One of those produced Cornell's other win in the series in an NCAA regional game on March 22, 1997 in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Up Next:
•  Cornell will take a four-week hiatus for final exams and the holiday, then reconvene in preparation for its non-league finale on Dec. 30 against Canisius.
•  The Big Red then remains home while returning to ECAC Hockey play the following weekend against Princeton on Friday, Jan. 5 and Quinnipiac on Saturday, Jan. 6.