CANTON, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team seeks its 20th win of the season tonight, when it wraps up the annual trip to the North Country with a 7 p.m. game against St. Lawrence at Appleton Arena. Tonight's game will be broadcast for free through the St. Lawrence Athletics website here. Additionally, Jason Weinstein will provide play-by-play that can be heard on WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM) in the Ithaca area and worldwide via the station's website here.

Game 25: #3/4 CORNELL at ST. LAWRENCE
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018
PLACE: Appleton Arena  •  Canton, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 19-3-2, 13-2-2 ECAC Hockey;
                    St. Lawrence 7-20-2, 3-11-1 ECAC Hockey
VIDEO: SaintsAthletics.com
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/stlawu/mhockey/

Cornell game notes (PDF)
St. Lawrence game notes (PDF)

Friday Night Redux:
•  The top two teams in ECAC Hockey played the part on Friday, trading punches without any knockouts in a scoreless tie at Cheel Arena. Matthew Galajda made 34 saves for Cornell and Jake Kielly stopped 32 shots for Clarkson, and the two goaltenders remain tied for the national lead in shutouts with seven. 
•  Playing without two top-six forwards and a top-pair defenseman, the Big Red scraped out the deadlock to stay three points clear of the Golden Knights for first place in the league with five games remaining in the regular season. 
•  Cornell's tie, plus St. Lawrence's win over Colgate last night, also clinched a first-round bye for the Big Red in the ECAC Hockey Championships.

Big Red Rewind:
•  The Big Red had an 11-game unbeaten streak snapped last Saturday with a 2-1 loss to Rensselaer at Lynah Rink. 
•  The Engineers scored just 20 seconds into the game, then added a short-handed goal in the second period that turned out to be the game-winner. It marked the first time this season Cornell has conceded a short-handed goal.
•  Jared Fiegl's unassisted goal early in the third represented all of Cornell's offense on the night. It was his second goal in as many nights after netting his first of the season in last Friday's 4-3 win over Union.

Highlights From Friday's 0-0 Tie at Clarkson:


Need-To-Know Numbers:
•  Cornell still possesses by a wide margin the highest winning percentage in the nation (.833) — its highest through 24 games since a 1969-70 season that ended with a national title.
•  Cornell leads the nation in team defense (1.46 goals against per game), having already posted eight shutouts — tied for the most in the country.
•  The Big Red surrenders the fourth-fewest shots on goal per game in the nation (24.92), trailing Minnesota State, North Dakota and Bemidji State.
•  Cornell has been particularly dominant at even strength, leading the country with a team rating of plus-37. The Big Red has only surrendered 22 even-strength goals so far — which is less than half of a whopping 55 of the nation's other 59 teams (Clarkson is second-fewest at 32). 
•  Cornell has three players in the top six nationally in rating, led by junior defenseman Brendan Smith and his plus-19, tied for the national lead. The other leaders are Alec McCrea (plus-17; tied for 3rd), and Matt Nuttle (plus-16; tied for 6th).
•  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 tied for 15th in the nation in team offense at 3.17 goals per game.
•  Cornell's penalty kill didn't concede a single five-on-four goal in the entire month of January. The Big Red had 19 consecutive kills until Union potted a pair of power-play goals last Friday.

Forward Thinking:
•  While Cornell's attack exemplified remarkable depth through the early going, junior forward Anthony Angello (12-9–21) was that nation's leading goal-scorer in January with nine. The reigning ECAC Hockey Player of the Month has 10 goals in his last 11 games.
•  The team's top six scorers are currently spread evenly across three of the team's most recent forward combinations. Also on the opposite wing of Angello's line, junior Mitch Vanderlaan (4-13–17) has 10 points over his last 10 games to take the team lead in assists.
•  Senior forward Trevor Yates (11-8–19; 4 PPGs) ranks second in team scoring, recording a pair of assists in a Jan. 27 win at Dartmouth to break a string of five straight without a point.

More Than Just Defense:
•  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 24 games this year.
•  Junior defensemen Matt Nuttle (2-9–11) has already more than doubled his point total from his first two collegiate seasons. His assist on Cornell's third goal last Friday moved him into a tie for the team lead in scoring among blueliners with sophomore Yanni Kaldis (3-8–11). An All-Ivy League first team selection last year, Kaldis had three assists two weeks ago in games at Harvard and Dartmouth and leads the team with seven power-play points.
•  Often paired together, Alec McCrea (4-5–9; 4 PPGs) and Brendan Smith 
(4-5–9) are among the nation's leaders in rating with a combined plus-36.
•  The Big Red has five defensemen with at least nine points, a first for the program since the 2009-10 campaign.

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 (15-3-2, 1.54, .939, 7 SO) was named Monday the Hockey Commissioners' Association National Division I Rookie of the Month for January after he surrendered just five goals in eight starts and posted four shutouts.
•  Galajda now owns the national lead in goals against average, is tied for national lead in shutouts, and he ranks third in the country in save percentage.
He has also set a program record for shutouts by a freshman goaltender, topping the previous mark of five set by future All-American David McKee during his freshman season in 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.

Polls Prose:
•  Cornell has been tabbed third in the USCHO poll and fourth in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll this week. The Big Red remains the highest-ranked team in ECAC Hockey and is in the national top five in both polls for a seventh consecutive week.
•  For the first time in nearly 15 years, the Big Red was ranked No. 1 spot in both polls last week. The only other time that's happened since the polls started in the mid-90s was March 2003, when Cornell started its postseason run into the Frozen Four.
•  The Big Red also sits in the fourth in the Pairwise Rankings, which are used to determine the at-large berths for the NCAA tournament.

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 (4-10–14) became the first freshman in program history to record a point in each of his first seven collegiate games.
•  Defenseman Alex Green (2-7–9) returned last Friday from a four-game absence and recorded a highlight-reel assist in the first period vs. Union.
•  Forward Kyle Betts (5-4–9) has taken over the team's goal-scoring lead among freshmen, netting the final goal Jan. 20 at Colgate. He made the most of his four shots on goal during consecutive games Dec. 2 and Dec. 30, scoring on each of them.
•  Both goals from forward Brenden Locke (2-8–10) have been game-winners, coming in the latter stages of third periods vs. Princeton (Nov. 4) and Union (last Friday).  

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).

What, Me Worry?:
•  Cornell has trailed in just seven of its 24 games so far, including deficits of at least two goals in five of those contests. Remarkably, the Big Red has a 3-2-1 record in those games featuring a multiple-goal deficit.
•  The Big Red's resilience from an early deficit has become somewhat of a trend, with the team sporting a very respectable 14-16-5 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).

Turning The Trick:
•  On Jan. 26 at Harvard, junior forward Anthony Angello gave Cornell its third hat trick of the season — a first for the program since the 2003-04 season. 
•  The other hat tricks this season were Kyle Betts on Dec. 30 vs. Canisius and sophomore forward Noah Bauld on Nov. 17 vs. St. Lawrence.

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).

Scouting St. Lawrence:
•  While still in the ECAC Hockey cellar after a shockingly difficult start to the season, the Saints (7-20-2, 3-13-1) are 6-6-1 since a three-week semester break in December. 
•  St. Lawrence defeated Colgate, 5-2, last night. Sophomore forward Alex Gilmour (10-1–11) scored twice to move into a tie for the team lead in goals, and sophomore forward Carson Gicewicz (8-10–18) had four assists. Gicewicz now has 15 points in 13 games since the semester break.
•  Last weekend, St. Lawrence suffered a pair of losses at Princeton and Quinnipiac. After conceding three goals in the opening nine minutes Friday against the Tigers, the Saints scored four consecutive goals while also killing off a full two-minute two-man disadvantage before eventually losing, 5-4, in OT.
•  On Saturday against the Bobcats, an early Saints goal was answered with five straight Quinnipiac tallies in a 5-2 victory.
•  Junior Jacob Pritchard (8-11–19; 4 PPGs) leads the team in scoring, returning to the lineup last night after missing the previous five games.
•  Senior forward Mike Marnell (10-8–18) returned from a six-game absence in the fall and now is tied for the team in goals after potting an empty-netter last night. He has 13 points in his last 13 games.
•  Defenseman defenseman Nolan Gluchowski (2-16–18) leads the team in assists and shots on goal (88). He netted the winner last night. 
•  Junior Arthur Brey (4-18-1, 3.69, .898, SO) has been the primary starter in goal, with his one shutout consisting of 53 saves in a 1-0 win over Yale on Jan. 27.

The Series Against St. Lawrence:
•  In a series that began during the 1926-27 campaign, Cornell holds a 61-45-8 all-time lead and enters Saturday on a three-game winning streak.
•  The Big Red won, 6-1, in this season's first meeting Nov. 17 at Lynah Rink. Sophomore forward Noah Bauld had his first collegiate hat trick in the game.
•  Five of the last 13 meetings between the teams at Appleton have gone to overtime, with Cornell sporting a 2-1-2 record in those games.

Up Next:
•  Cornell returns home for its annual Senior Night weekend, hosting Brown on Feb. 16 before taking on Yale the following night in the final home games of the regular season.