ITHACA, N.Y. — With a first-round bye in the ECAC Hockey Championships already secured, the Cornell men's hockey team will look to improve its positioning and make one last push for the Cleary Cup this weekend, starting with tonight's game against Rensselaer. Tonight's game will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network, with Jason Weinstein on play-by-play and Tony Eisenhut providing color commentary. Their call can also be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM) and accessed worldwide here.

GAME #28: RENSSELAER at #9/9 CORNELL
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017
PLACE: Lynah Rink · Ithaca, N.Y.
CORNELL: 17-6-4 overall, 12-4-4 ECAC Hockey
RENSSELAER: 7-25-1 overall, 5-15 ECAC Hockey
TV: None
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Rensselaer notes (PDF)

Big Red Rewind:
•  Cornell extended its unbeaten streak to seven games (5-0-2) by earning three points last weekend on a road trip through the North Country.
•  The Big Red moved into sole possession of third place in ECAC Hockey by completing a season sweep of St. Lawrence with a 4-2 victory last Friday.
•  Cornell scored three goals in the first period against a ranked team for the second time in two weeks, then Jake Weidner scored a key goal early in the third period to restore Cornell's two-goal lead.
•  Mitch Vanderlaan and Matt Nuttle scored third-period goals to pull the Big Red ahead Saturday, but Clarkson scored less than a minute later to force a 3-3 tie. Mitch Gillam made 18 of his 28 saves in the third period and overtime, and both teams had successful penalty kills in the extra frame.

Highlights From The 3-3 Tie With Clarkson:


Who's Who at CU:
•  Sophomore forward Mitch Vanderlaan (12-11–23) leads the team in goals and points. He's riding a three-game goal-scoring streak, which is the Big Red's first of the season and the first of his career. His plus-12 rating is also tied for a team-best with senior forward Eric Freschi (1-10–11).
•  Senior defenseman Patrick McCarron (4-17–21) continues to lead the team in assists after picking up two last Friday at St. Lawrence. He averages the fifth-most points per game for ECAC Hockey blueliners (0.78) and had an eight-game points streak earlier this season — the first for a Cornellian since Greg Miller from Oct. 29 to Nov. 22, 2011, and the first for a Big Red defenseman since Mark McRae from Jan. 25 to Feb. 21, 2003.
•  Junior forward Trevor Yates (10-10–20) leads the team with six power-play goals and 11 power-play points. He has seven points in his last seven games.
•  Sophomore defenseman Alec McCrea (1-8–9) leads the team with a plus-15 rating, which is third-best in ECAC Hockey for blueliners.
•  Senior forward Jeff Kubiak (3-10–13) ranks second on team scoring relative to points per games played (0.81), having missed 10 of the team's first 11 games due to injury. Linemate sophomore forward Anthony Angello (10-6–16) has five goals in his last seven games.
•  Senior Mitch Gillam (17-5-4, 2.18, .917, 2 SO) had the nation's longest active unbeaten streak for goaltenders snapped Jan. 27, having backstopped the Big Red to a 10-0-1 record over 11 starts. The Big Red's lone nominee for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award had a 1.63 goals against average and .931 save percentage over that span.

Road Warriors:
•  Cornell completed the road portion of its schedule with a sterling 9-2-2 record, with the .769 winning percentage ranking fourth-best in the country entering the weekend. This mark's the Big Red's best road winning percentage since the 2002-03 season (.821), when Cornell reached the Frozen Four.
•  This year marks the first time since 2004-05 that the Big Red has swept three ECAC Hockey road weekends in a single season.
•  Cornell has played just 11 home games this season, which is tied with Harvard for the lowest total in the country.

A Little Perspective:
•  Cornell will finish the ECAC Hockey regular season anywhere from first to fourth place, meaning the Big Red has a first-round bye in the playoffs and will host a best-of-three quarterfinals series March 10-12. For a complete breakdown of possible finishes, see "Scenario Central" at the bottom of Page 2 on the PDF version of the game notes.
•  Cornell jumped up three spots to 10th in the Pairwise Rankings after this weekend's results, giving the Big Red its highest Monday PWR of the season. If the season ended today, the Big Red would be in line for a berth to the NCAA tournament.

The Sum of Intangibles Is Tangible:
•  A quick glance at Cornell's traditional statistics illustrates some of the team's storylines, though several others fly beneath the radar.
•  Through 27 games, the Big Red has already accumulated 106 man-games lost to injury — which includes lengthy absences from the team's leading scorer last year (Jeff Kubiak, 10 games) and a top-four defenseman (Ryan Bliss, 27).
•  Senior Jake Weidner has the massive task of being the Big Red's leading faceoff man. He enters the weekend fourth in the nation in average faceoffs per game (24.7), and his 60.3 winning percentage since Dec. 1 is fourth-best among those taking at least 200 draws over that span.
•  By a wide margin, Weidner is also far and away the nation's top shot-blocker among forwards (2.30 per game).

What, Me Worry?:
•  Seven of Cornell's 17 victories so far this season have come in games in which the Big Red has surrendered the first goal.
•  The Big Red's resilience from an early deficit has become somewhat of a trend, with the team sporting a very respectable 12-11-4 record when conceding the game's first strike since the beginning of the 2015-16 campaign. 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).

Blip On The Radar:
•  The Big Red has killed off 21 of its opponents' last 22 power plays after an ultra rare stretch of teams scoring multiple power-play goals against Cornell in three straight games. Before that slump, the Big Red had the third-best penalty kill in the nation on Jan. 29.
•  Cornell's Jan. 28 loss to Dartmouth marked the first time the Big Red has lost a game in which it held a two-goal lead since Nov. 7, 2015 (a 5-4 overtime loss to Quinnipiac). The Big Red watched another two-goal lead evaporate
Feb. 3 at Union only to surge ahead with two late goals to salvage a 5-3 victory, then it yielded the final two goals of a 2-2 tie with Yale on Feb. 11.

Never Too Close For Comfort:
•  Cornell's 1-0 win Jan. 7 at Merrimack was hardly new territory for the team. The Big Red had four 1-0 victories last season for the first time in program history. Cornell also set a team record by going to overtime in 14 of its 34 games last year. The previous record was 12, set in 1985-86, then matched in 2010-11 and 2011-12.
•  Cornell went to overtime in seven of its final 15 games last year, with a 4-3-7 record in those games.

Turning The Trick:
•  Mitch Vanderlaan's hat trick Nov. 12 at Yale was Cornell's first since Jan. 22, 2011, when Tyler Roeszler scored three times against Colgate. Subsequently, Vanderlaan was named the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week on Nov. 15.
•  Vanderlaan 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 at the start of the 2009-10 campaign.
•  Freshman forward Jeff Malott (4-3–7) 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.

Gillam's Groove:
•  Senior goaltender Mitch Gillam moved up to a tie for fourth on the program's all-time list for career shutouts after a Feb. 7 against Colgate. By stopping all 28 shots from Colgate, Gillam earned his 10th career clean sheet.
•  Gillam posted the third-longest shutout streak in program history last season, spanning 213 minutes, 17 seconds over four games in November 2015 — 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 10 career shutouts is that he's only won eight of them — Dec. 28, 2014 against Lake Superior State and Nov. 20, 2015 against Yale were both scoreless ties.

First Ivy League Coach To 400:
•  Already the winningest coach in program history and in Ivy League history, Mike Schafer has eclipsed another milestone in his career with his 400th victory in January. He 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).

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 the summer. 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, Dan Wedman, Alex Rauter, Hayden Stewart, Trent Shore, Jared Fiegl and Dwyer Tschantz were on this year's trip, as well as Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey.
  

About Rensselaer:
•  The Engineers have largely scuffled to a 7-25-1 record and Pairwise Ranking of 57th — but RPI is a respectable 4-6 over its last 10 games.
•  RPI is averaging 2.24 goals per game, which ranks 55th in the country, but it has scored 16 goals in its past five games. Senior winger Riley Bourbonnais (15-12–27; 8 PPGs, 3 SHGs) has taken over the team lead in scoring after posting eight points in five February games.
•  Sophomore center Evan Tironese (6-20–26) leads the team in assists and is second in overall scoring. Freshman forward Jacob Hayhurst (7-11–18) is third in team scoring, with 14 of his 18 points coming on the power play.
•  Sophomore Chase Perry (5-17-1, 3.32, .910, SO) has taken over in goal since the team suspension of classmate Cam Hackett in mid-January.
•  RPI's power play is operating at a very effective clip of 21.1%. The Engineers are 6-for-18 (33/3%) on the man advantage so far in February.

The Series Against Rensselaer:
•  Cornell maintains a commanding 61-36-10 all-time series lead after Yanni Kaldis scored a game-winning, power-play goal with 24.6 seconds left in the third period of a 4-3 victory Feb. 4 at Houston Field House. The win was Cornell's first against RPI since Feb. 22, 2013 (1-3-3 over the last seven games).
•  In their last visit to Lynah Rink, the Engineers fought off three one-goal deficits Feb. 27, 2016, capped by Miloš Bubela's extra-attacker goal with 24 seconds left in the third period caroming into the net off a Big Red defender.
•  Mike Schafer holds a 28-16-8 career mark against RPI.

Apple Harvest:
•  Freshman Yanni Kaldis (1-12–13) ranks second on the team in assists. His passes set up the shots resulting in all three of the Big Red's power-play goals Nov. 5 at Harvard, making him the first Big Red player to record three power-play assists in a single game since Byron Bitz on Jan. 7, 2006.

Anniversary Season:
•  The Jan. 27-28 weekend marked a reunion for the 50th anniversary of Cornell's first national championship team in 1967. There were festivities throughout, highlighted by a special ceremony to honor the returning members of the team during the first intermission of the second game.
•  This is also the 60th year of hockey in Lynah Rink. The facility was dedicated April 6, 1957, a few weeks after it hosted an exhibition between the New York Rangers and the Rochester Americans (AHL).

The Offensive Defense:
•  Mitch Gillam leads the nation's goaltenders in career points. His quick outlet pass Jan. 21 against St. Lawrence set up the line rush leading to Patrick McCarron's goal, giving Gillam five career points on one goal and four assists.

Feel The Draft?:
•  Cornell has five players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including four from 2014. Sophomore forward Beau Starrett (Chicago Blackhawks) was selected earliest in the 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. Senior forward Matt Buckles was taken by the Florida Panthers in the fourth round of the 2013 draft.

An Empire State of Mind:
•  The Big Red's stars in the Nov. 26 win over New Hampshire at The Frozen Apple at Madison Square Garden all had ties to New York. Junior forward Alex Rauter, who scored on a penalty shot in the third period, is from nearby Chatham, N.J., participated in the New York Rangers prospect development camp in 2012 and once played youth hockey on MSG ice in between periods of a Rangers game. Freshman forward Noah Bauld, who scored the game-winner, was actually born in New York before moving to his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia when he was a toddler, and senior goaltender Mitch Gillam once attended the New York Islanders' prospect camp.

Freshman Force:
•  The jump to college hockey can be a big one for newcomers, but forward Anthony Angello — a 2014 draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins — clearly felt right at home as a freshman last season. Angello was 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.

Binational Interests:
•  Cornell has the unique distinction of having exactly 14 players hailing from both the U.S. and Canada. The Big Red joins just two other teams — Robert Morris and Michigan Tech — with an even split on their respective rosters.

The Streak Is Over!
•  Junior forward Alex Rauter's penalty-shot goal in The Frozen Apple on Nov. 26 ended a remarkable string of futility on such plays for the Big Red. Rauter became the first Cornellian to score on a penalty shot since Feb. 27, 1987 — 949 games since Joe Nieuwendyk scored on a penalty shot against Rensselaer.

Up Next:
•  Cornell will hold its Senior Night tomorrow when it hosts Union at 7 p.m. The Big Red has already earned a highly coveted first-round bye in the ECAC Hockey Championship playoffs, meaning it will prepare to host a best-of-three quarterfinal series against an opponent to be determined March 10-12 at Lynah Rink.