ITHACA, N.Y. — The national #1 Cornell men's hockey team brings an 11-game unbeaten streak, its longest since 2005, into tonight's game against Rensselaer at Lynah Rink. With a victory and a simultaneous Colgate loss to Union, the Big Red would clinch a first-round bye in the ECAC Hockey Championship playoffs. The game will be broadcast on subscription-based Ivy League Network, with Jason Weinstein providing play-by-play and color commentary from Tim Varini '91 for WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM) in the Ithaca area and worldwide via the station's website here.

Game 23: RENSSELAER at #1/1 CORNELL
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018
PLACE: Lynah Rink  •  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 19-2-1, 13-1-1 ECAC Hockey;
                    Rensselaer 4-20-4, 3-10-2 ECAC Hockey
VIDEO: Ivy League Network
RADIO : WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Rensselaer game notes (PDF)

Friday Night Redux:
•  Brenden Locke had an apparent go-ahead goal waved off after video review in the second period, but his power-play goal with 2:18 left in third period stood to power Cornell to a 4-3 victory over Union.
•  Alex Rauter and Jared Fiegl scored goals in the Big Red's dominant first period, but Union's power play gouged the home side for two of the Dutchmen's three goals in the second period to tie the game.
•  Matthew Galajda made 24 saves to earn the victory, including four in the final 1:37 when Union pulled its goalie in favor of an extra attacker. 
•  Noah Bauld scored Cornell's third goal — his second in as many games.

Highlight's From Friday's 4-3 Win vs. Union:


Polls Prose:
•  Cornell has ascended to No. 1 in both the USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls for the first time in nearly 15 years. The Big Red last attained the No. 1 spot in the USA poll on Feb. 28, 2005, but hadn't seen the top spot in the USCHO poll since March 28, 2003. 
•  The Big Red also remains first in the RPI and KRACH ratings, but it slipped back to second in the Pairwise Rankings used to determine the at-large berths for the NCAA tournament after Notre Dame earned a weekend split with Minnesota.

One Crown Down ...:
•  Cornell clinched its 22nd Ivy League championship in program history last weekend. It's the 18th outright title for the Big Red, and the third its won in the last eight years. 
•  The Big Red is 7-0-1 in Ancient Eight play with just two games remaining (home vs. Brown and Yale, Feb. 16-17). The last time Cornell went undefeated through the Ivy slate was 1996 — Mike Schafer's first season as head coach.

Big Red Rewind:
•  Anthony Angello scored four goals last weekend, including his first collegiate hat trick in Friday's 3-0 victory over rival Harvard. He then scored the winning goal in Saturday's 3-1 win at Dartmouth.
•  Matthew Galajda made history last weekend with a 35-save shutout against the Crimson. It was his third consecutive shutout — a first for a Cornellian since Ben Scrivens in March 2010 — and it made Galajda the first goaltender in Big Red history to record six shutouts in his freshman season.
•  Cam Donaldson opened the scoring against the Big Green, and Noah Bauld potted an empty-netter to seal the Big Red's first regular-season sweep of both Harvard and Dartmouth since they became ECAC Hockey travel partners before the start of the 2005-06 season.

Need-To-Know Numbers:
•  By a large margin, Cornell possesses the highest winning percentage in the nation (.886) — its highest through 22 games since a 1969-70 season that ended with a national title.
•  Cornell leads the nation in team defense (1.50 goals against per game), having already posted seven shutouts — tied for the most in the country.
•  The Big Red surrenders the third-fewest shots on goal per game in the nation (24.36), trailing just Minnesota State (22.19) and North Dakota (24.29).
•  Cornell has been particularly dominant at even strength, leading the country with a team rating of plus-38. The Big Red has only surrendered 20 even-strength goals so far — which is less than half of a whopping 59 of the nation's 60 teams (Clarkson has yielded 29; Colgate and Harvard 40). 
•  Cornell has four players in the top six nationally in rating, led by junior defenseman Brendan Smith and his nation's best plus-20. The other leaders are Alec McCrea (plus-18; 3rd), and Matt Nuttle (plus-17; tied for 4th) and Anthony Angello (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 sixth in the nation in team offense at 3.41 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 in the second period last night.

Forward Thinking:
•  While Cornell's attack exemplified remarkable depth through the early going, junior forward Anthony Angello (12-9–21) is currently the hottest goal-scorer in the nation. He has seven goals in his last six games, and his nine goals in January led the nation.
•  The team's top six scorers are currently spread evenly across three of the team's forward lines. Also on the opposite wing of Angello's line, junior Mitch Vanderlaan (4-13–17) has 10 points over his last nine 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 last Saturday's 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 22 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 night 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 last weekend 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 the nation's top two in rating with a combined plus-38.
•  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 (15-2-1, 1.61, .935, 6 SO) owns the national lead in goals against average, is tied for national lead in shutouts, and he ranks fourth in the country in save percentage.
•  Galajda 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.

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 night from a four-game absence and recorded a highlight-reel assist in the first period.
•  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.
•  Forward Cam Donaldson (3-5–8) had points in each of last weekend's games, giving the Big Red 15 players with at least eight points.

Turning The Trick:
•  Last Friday, 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. 

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 six of its 22 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 Jan. 12 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).

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 Rensselaer:
•  The Engineers (4-20-4, 3-11-2 ECAC Hockey) are in their first year under Dave Smith, who took over the head coaching job after 12 years at Canisius'  helm. 
•  RPI enters tonight on a five-game losing streak, having won just once in its last 13. Last night, the Engineers were shut out by Colgate, 3-0. 
•  Sophomore center Jacob Hayhurst (7-10–17) leads the team in scoring. He is often on line with classmate and former NAHL scoring champ Todd Burgess (1-9–10) on the right wing, but the Engineers frequently shuffle their lines. Senior left wing Viktor Liljegren (9-1–10) leads the team in goals.
•  Three of RPI's top scorers are actually defensemen. Senior Mike Prapavessis (0-14–14) leads the squad in assists, and sophomore Will Reilly (7-5–12) and senior Jared Wilson (7-4–11) are not only tied for second on the team in goals, they have combined to score seven of the squad's 15 power-play goals.
•  Freshman Linden Marshall (3-13-2, 3.04, .908) has taken over the primary starting role in goal from junior Chase Perry (1-7-2, 3.55, .897). 
•  RPI has been outscored in the first period, 35-17, through 28 games — but it owns a 2-2-2 record when it opens a game's scoring.

The Series Against Rensselaer:
•  Cornell maintains a commanding 62-36-10 all-time series lead after sweeping last season's games. 
•  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.
•  Mitch Vanderlaan scored the Big Red's second of two second-period goals in a 2-0 shutout of the Engineers on Feb. 24 at Lynah Rink. Mitch Gillam '17 made 31 saves for his final collegiate shutout.
•  Mike Schafer holds a 29-16-8 career mark against RPI.

Up Next:
•  Cornell embarks on a highly-anticipated road trip to the North Country, starting with a matchup of ECAC Hockey's top two teams on Friday, Feb. 10 at Clarkson. The Big Red then shifts a few miles to the west to take on resurgent St. Lawrence the following night.