OXFORD, Ohio — Coming off its first non-conference loss of the season, the Cornell men's hockey team will attempt to earn a road weekend split by winning a rematch with host Miami at 7:05 p.m. Saturday. The game will be streamed by subscription-based 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 12: #5/5 CORNELL at MIAMI
TIME: 7:05 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017
PLACE: Cady Arena  •  Oxford, Ohio
RECORDS: Cornell 9-2, 5-1 ECAC Hockey; Miami 7-6-2, 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)

Friday Night Redux:
•  Alex Rauter scored just shy of the 4-minute mark, but Cornell's special teams struggled in a 2-1 loss on Friday night at Miami's Cady Arena.
•  Shortly after Rauter's third goal of the season, the Big Red failed to capitalize on a lengthy power play created by a five-minute major. Cornell ended the night 0-for-4 on the power play, spanning 11 minutes.
•  Miami was efficient when it had the man advantage, scoring on its only shots on both of its power plays. Cornell's penalty kill is now just 8 for its last 16.

Big Red Rewind:
•  Cornell came into this weekend on the heels of a 4-3 victory against Boston University last 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.
•  Freshman defenseman Alex Green is the reigning ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week. He earned the accolade on Tuesday after scoring a goal and adding three assists in last week's games against BU and Niagara.

Let's Get It Started:
•  At 9-2, Cornell has had a better winning percentage after 11 games just five times in its program history. The only two times the Big Red has started a perfect 11-0 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 tonight's game with a lofty winning percentage (.818) that ranks second in the country to only St. Cloud State (.833).
•  Cornell's only other loss this season came to #3/4 Clarkson on Nov. 18, ending the Big Red's seven-game winning streak to start a season — its longest since 1971-72. 

Big Red By The Numbers:
•  Despite surrendering 13 goals over its last four games, Cornell still ranks second 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 12th in the nation in team offense at 3.36 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 fewest shots on goal per game in the nation (22.64). Tonight's opponent, Miami (24.00), ranks second in that area.

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 also leads the team in shots on goal with 30.
•  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 ranks second on the team with 27 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 11 games this year.
•  Junior Alec McCrea (4-1–5; 4 PPGs) ranks sixth in the country in power-play goals per game (0.36). 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 five-way tie for third on the team in goal-scoring. Smith also leads the team with a plus-10 rating. 
•  Junior Matt Nuttle (1-4–5) had an assist last night after his first three of the season came in a Nov. 21 win vs. Niagara.
•  In the 10 games in which its scored goals this season, defensemen have opened the scoring for the Big Red just as often as forwards (five times each). 

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 (8-2, 2.10, .909, 2 SO) ranks ninth in the nation in goals against average, 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.
•  Despite last night's loss, the Big Red remains 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 five of its 11 games so far, and it's actually faced deficits of at least two goals on four of those occasions. The Big Red has rallied to win via three unanswered goals in three of those four games in which its trailed by two goals.
•  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:
•  After last night's victory, the RedHawks are now unbeaten in four straight.
•  Nineteen of Miami's 28 rostered players are underclassmen, including leading scorer Gordie Green (6-12–18; 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).
•  Freshman forward Casey Gilling (3-4–7) scored the first goal and assisted on Green's winner last night. Both strikes came on the power play. 
•  Junior Josh Melnick (6-8–14) typically centers a line with Green on the wing. Melnick ranks third in team scoring and is the most frequent faceoff man (49.0%). 
•  Senior defenseman Louie Belpedio (5-10–15) is second in scoring and serves as the squad's captain. Now riding a six-game point-scoring streak, 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.
•  Despite being ejected before the seven-minute mark in last night's game, junior defenseman Grant Hutton (7-5–12; 6 PPGs) still 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:
•  With last night's victory, the RedHawks have regained the advantage in the all-time series with the Big Red, 4-3.
•  Cornell evened up the series last season 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.
•  Last night was 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 takes a four-week hiatus for final exams and the holiday before reconvening to prepare for its non-league finale on Dec. 30 against Canisius.
•  The Big Red then closes out the season with 16 straight ECAC Hockey games, starting with home contests Jan. 5 vs. Princeton and Jan. 6 vs. Quinnipiac.