ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team kicks off a home-and-home series against regional rival Colgate tonight with the fourth annual Courage Classic game at 7 p.m. at Lynah Rink. The game will be streamed by subscription-based Ivy League Network, featuring play-by-play from Jason Weinstein and color commentary from Tony Eisenhut '88. Their call can also be heard on WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM) in the Ithaca area or worldwide via the station's website here.

Game 18: #19 COLGATE at #4/4 CORNELL
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Jan. 19, 2018
PLACE: Lynah Rink  •  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 14-2-1, 8-1-1 ECAC Hockey;
                    Colgate 10-8-4, 6-3-1 ECAC Hockey
VIDEO: Ivy League Network
RADIO : WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Colgate game notes (PDF)

Big Red Rewind:
•  Cornell is unbeaten in its last six games (5-0-1) to possess the highest winning percentage in the nation (.853). The Big Red started off last weekend's road trip with a bitter 3-3 tie against Yale on Friday before rebounding with a 3-1 victory on Saturday against Brown.
•  The Big Red conceded the first two goals at Yale and couldn't break through hot Yale goalie Sam Tucker until Brendan Smith's tally with 34 seconds left in the second period. Alex Rauter tied the game early in the third, then Alex Green gave Cornell the lead a little more than a minute after Yale failed to convert a penalty shot. But the Bulldogs mustered the final strike on an extra-attacker conversion from Ryan Hitchcock with 50.5 seconds remaining.
•  Anthony Angello and Mitch Vanderlaan each had a goal and an assist against Brown, then Matt Nuttle scored 8 minutes into the third for an insurance tally. Matthew Galajda needed to make just 18 saves to earn the victory.

Courage Classic:
•  Tonight's game is dedicated to the children of Camp Good Days, which has assigned honorary coaches for both Cornell and Colgate.
•  This is the fourth consecutive season in which the Big Red's annual home game against the Raiders has served as the Courage Classic.
•  The honorary coaches will take part in a ceremonial puck drop at center ice.

Need-To-Know Numbers:
•  Long known as a defensive powerhouse under head coach Mike Schafer, Cornell is also showcasing its offensive wares this year. The Big Red now ranks seventh in the nation in team offense at 3.59 goals per game.
•  One of the keys to Cornell's success this season has been an increase in offensive production from its defensemen. After receiving 13 goals from blueliners in each of the last two seasons, the Big Red already has 15 goals from defensemen through just 17 games this year.
•  Cornell ranks second in the nation in team defense (1.71 goals against per game), having already posted four shutouts.
•  The Big Red surrenders the second-fewest shots on goal per game in the nation (23.47), trailing just Minnesota State (22.33).
•  Junior defenseman Brendan Smith (4-5–9) is tied for the national lead with a plus-18 rating. He's been on the ice for just four goals against at even strength while logging heavy minutes through 17 games.
•  Junior defenseman Matt Nuttle (2-7–9) is on a career-best point-scoring streak of four games and ranks second on the team with a plus-14 rating. 
•  Junior forward Mitch Vanderlaan (4-9–13) has multiple points in three of his last four contests. Junior forward Anthony Angello (6-8–14) has five goals in his last six games to move into solo possession of third in team scoring.

Polls Prose:
•  Cornell remains fourth in USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls this week. The Big Red also stood pat at fourth in the Pairwise Rankings, which are used to determine the at-large berths for the NCAA tournament.

Forward Thinking:
•  Senior forward Trevor Yates (11-6–17; 4 PPG) leads the team in scoring and is the team's leader among forwards with a plus-12 rating. He ranks 10th in the country in goals per game (0.65).
•  Sophomore forward Jeff Malott (4-11–15) is second in team scoring and leads the team in assists. He has five games with multiple points, including one goal and five assists for six points over the last five games.
•  Senior forward Alex Rauter (6-7–13) is tied for second on the team in goals after scoring Friday at Yale.

More Than Just Defense:
•  The Big Red has five defensemen with at least seven points, but none with more than nine. It's the first time since the 2011-12 campaign that Cornell has five defensemen with seven points in a season.
•  In addition to the aforementioned Smith and Nuttle, junior Alec McCrea (4-4–8; 4 PPGs) remains second in the national lead for power-play goals per game for defensemen (0.24). One of the team's top defensive blueliners, McCrea has already quadrupled his goal total from a season ago.
•  Sophomore Yanni Kaldis (3-4–7), an All-Ivy League first team selection last year, is tied for third on the team with two power-play goals. 

Goaltending, Inc:
•  Despite entering the season with just eight career collegiate starts among its three goaltenders, the Big Red has not only found one solid starter in net this season — it has two.
•  Freshman Matthew Galajda (10-2-1, 1.91, .919, 3 SO) is tied for the national lead in victories from rookie goaltenders. Galajda ranks sixth in the country in goals against average and 12th in save percentage.
•  Galajda is one of just two goaltenders in program history to have three shutouts as a freshman. Only All-American David McKee had more (five; 2003-04).
•  After making just one start over the last two seasons, senior Hayden Stewart (4-0, 1.01, .956, SO) started three straight from Dec. 2 to Jan. 5 and performed well. In his first start, Stewart made 26 saves at Miami for his third career shutout in just his ninth collegiate start.
 
Turning The Trick:
•  Freshman forward Kyle Betts gave Cornell its second hat trick of the season Dec. 30 vs. Canisius. Sophomore forward Noah Bauld had the first Nov. 17 vs. St. Lawrence. Cornell also had a pair of hat tricks last season, and once again it was then-underclassmen that delivered — Mitch Vanderlaan (Nov. 12, 2016 at Yale) and Jeff Malott (Jan. 13, 2017 at Princeton).

Fresh Faces:
•  The Big Red is the youngest team in ECAC Hockey and 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.
•  Freshman forward Morgan Barron (4-9–13) ranks 13th in the country in points per game for freshmen (0.76). He became the first freshman in program history to record a point in each of his first seven collegiate games.
•  Defenseman Alex Green (2-6–8) scored the Big Red's third goal last Friday at Yale, then had the primary assist on Anthony Angello's winning goal the next night at Brown.
•  Forward Brenden Locke (1-7–8) has four points over the last four games, finding a home centering a line with Anthony Angello and Mitch Vanderlaan.
•  Forward Kyle Betts (4-3–7) made the most of his four shots on goal over during consecutive games Dec. 2 and Dec. 30, scoring on each of them.

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 just six of its 17 games so far, including deficits of at least two goals in five of those contests. Remarkably, the Big Red has a 3-1-1 record in those games featuring a multiple-goal deficit.
•  The most recent occurrence of a two-goal hole came last Friday at Yale, but the Big Red rallied for three straight strikes in a span of 11:12 before eventually settling for a deadlock in its first overtime game of the season.
•  Cornell's resilience from an early deficit has become somewhat of a trend, with the team sporting a very respectable 14-15-5 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).

Eye On The Ivy:
•  There are no Ivy League contests this weekend, but Cornell can clinch the Ancient Eight title as early as Saturday, Jan. 27. 
•  The Big Red would win the title outright with victories against both Harvard (Jan. 26) and Dartmouth (Jan. 27), and it would clinch at least a share of the crown if it defeats Harvard and then ties Dartmouth.
•  Cornell has won 21 Ivy League titles — 17 outright and four shared. The Big Red's last Ivy League title came in 2013-14.

Scouting Colgate:
•  The Raiders (10-8-4, 6-3-1 ECAC Hockey) have been one of the league's biggest surprises this season, though Colgate is 4-7 in 11 games since its blistering 6-2-4 start. The Raiders beat Brown last Friday, 2-1, before suffering a 5-1 loss the next night at resurgent Yale.
•  At the forefront of the charge into the top half of the ECAC Hockey tables has been the emergence of sophomore goaltender Colton Point (10-5-4, 1.87, .940, 3 SO). The Dallas Stars draft pick ranks third in the country in save percentage and fourth in goals against average, having also won a gold medal while serving as the primary backup at the World Junior Championships earlier this month.
•  Colgate is one of the league's more inexperienced teams, with just five of its 17 everyday skaters being upperclassmen. 
•  All three of the team's leading scorers play on the same line, paced by sophomore left wing Bobby McMann (10-10–20; 3 PPGs). Junior center Adam Dauda (8-5–13) leads the team in power-play goals, and sophomore John Snodgrass (1-12–13) plays on the line's right wing.
•  The Raiders' blue line has no seniors, with a pair of freshmen leading the group in scoring — Nick Austin (5-6–11) and Trevor Cosgrove (3-4–7).
•  In his 25th season as the head coach at Colgate, Don Vaughan won his 400th career game last Friday at Brown.

The Series Against Colgate:
•  Cornell holds an 81-57-15 lead in the all-time series, which dates back to 1921. 
•  Jeff Malott notched his first collegiate point, assisting on the winner in a 3-2 win on Nov. 29, 2016 in the Big Red's first-ever game at Colgate's Class of 1965 Arena. Malott and Trevor Yates then capped the scoring of a 4-0 shutout in the rematch on Feb. 7, 2017 at Lynah Rink.
•  The Big Red is unbeaten in its last six meetings (5-0-1) with the Raiders and has lost only four times in the last 32 meetings between the teams.

Up Next:
•  Cornell hits the road for its next three games, and seven of the final 11 in the regular season. Up first is a rematch with Colgate at 7 p.m. Saturday in Hamilton, then the Big Red travels to New England for ECAC Hockey and Ivy League contests Jan. 26 at Harvard and Jan. 27 at Dartmouth.