ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team hosts Division I's newest men's program while also closing out its non-league schedule this weekend. The two-game series with Arizona State with potentially big Pairwise ranking implications starts at 7 p.m. tonight. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ in the U.S. The same production can be viewed by international viewers through a different platform via Stretch Internet. The game can also be heard on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM) and worldwide via the station's website with 15th-year play-by-play man Jason Weinstein on the call.

GAME INFORMATION

#13/13 Arizona State at #17 Cornell
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Jan. 11, 2019
PLACE: Lynah Rink  •  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 7-5-1, 5-2-1 ECAC Hockey, 5-1 Ivy League
                    Arizona State 16-7-1 (independent)
VIDEO: ESPN+ — United States | International
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
TICKETS: CornellBigRedTickets.com
GAME NOTES: Cornell | Arizona State | ECAC Hockey
 

The Big Red Rewind:

•  Cornell had a successful start to the unofficial second half of its season, taking three of an available four ECAC Hockey points last weekend in a road trip. The Big Red completed a regular-season sweep of defending league champion Princeton with a 3-2 win Friday, then rallied for a two-goal hole the next night for a 2-2 tie at highly-ranked Quinnipiac.
•  Against the Tigers, Alec McCrea's one-timer with 7:05 to play served as the game-winner — but only after video review prompted officials to reverse the initial washout of the goal for goaltender interference.
•  Brenden Locke and Brendan Smith scored first-period goals for Cornell in their first action following injuries suffered Nov. 9-10 at Northern Michigan.


•  The shoe was on the other foot the next night with the Big Red facing a two-goal deficit inside 15 minutes against the Bobcats, but Cornell clawed back into it with Cam Donaldson's power-play goal. Morgan Barron then tied the game for good on a two-on-one in the second period.
•  Austin McGrath made 65 saves over the two games, including stops on Quinnipiac's final 26 shots on goal Saturday. For his efforts, ECAC Hockey named McGrath its goaltender of the week.
 

Forward Thinking:

•  With a goal and two assists last weekend, sophomore forward Morgan Barron (6-5–11; 2 PPG) moved into a tie for the team scoring lead. He also leads the team with 57 shots on goal and ranks third in the nation with an average of 4.38 shots on goal per game.
•  Barron joins senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan (1-10–11) atop the team's scoring tables. The Big Red's second-year captain is also the team's active leading scorer over his collegiate career with 78 points in 108 games.
•  Sophomore Cam Donaldson (6-3–9; 3 PPG) is tied with Barron for the team goal-scoring lead and has a team-high three goals on the man advantage. His plus-5 rating is second-best on the team.
 

More Than Just Defense:

•  A two-time All-Ivy League first-team selection, junior defenseman Yanni Kaldis (4-5–9; 2 PPG) ranks 10th among the country's blueliners in goals per game (0.31).
•  Matt Nuttle (1-5–6), one of three senior pillars on defense, is off to a quick start with a plus-11 rating. He was second in the nation last year at plus-23.
•  Senior Brendan Smith (1-0–1) celebrated his return to the lineup last Friday with a goal, but he's also started off as one of the country's best shot-blockers. His average of 3.57 blocks per game would lead the nation if he had enough games played to qualify.
•  The trend started last year of generating more offense from the blue line has continued for Cornell. The Big Red has nine goals from defensemen through 13 games (Kaldis 4; McCrea 2; Cairns, Nuttle and Smith 1 each).
•  The Big Red had 21 goals from defensemen last year after receiving just 13 goals from blueliners in each of the previous two seasons.
 

Goaltending, Inc.

•  After making his collegiate debut earlier this season, sophomore Austin McGrath (2-1-1, 2.03, .926) has played admirably in his first four starts. 
•  McGrath's opportunity has come with sophomore Matthew Galajda (5-4, 2.59, .885) shelved with an injury. A first-team All-American as a freshman last year, Galajda was rounding into form in November when he was tied for the ECAC Hockey lead with five victories.
 

Understudy Extraordinaire: 

•  With Mike Schafer not in attendance for last weekend's games due to illness, Associate Head Coach Ben Syer continued his unbeaten streak as an acting head coach. Now in his eighth season with the program, Syer is 7-0-4 all-time when at the helm. All but one of those games has been at Cornell.
 

Best Behavior: 

•  Cornell and Princeton played a rare penalty-free game last Friday. It was a first in the Division I men's ranks since American International and Bentley met Dec. 1, 2015. 
•  It was Cornell's first outing without any penalties since a 4-1 victory over Brown on Feb. 19, 1999 — a span of 660 games.
 

#OneIvy Update: 

•  With its victory last Friday at Princeton, Cornell improved to 5-1 in Ivy League play and extended its lead to four points. The defending Ancient Eight champions are now 15-1-2 in its last 18 Ivy League contests and could potentially clinch the 2019 title as soon as next weekend.
 

Wasting No Time:

•  Underclassmen have been at the forefront of Cornell's arsenal in the early going, scoring 22 of the team's 35 goals (62.9 percent).
 

On The Mend:

•  Cornell has already lost 18 man-games to injury from its top six defensemen, having played six straight games without two of its top four before Brendan Smith's return last weekend (Alex Green remained out).
•  The Big Red's injury woes on defense are in stark contrast to last season, when Cornell led the country in team defense. For the entirety of the 2017-18 season, the Big Red lost just 10 man-games to injury from its top seven defensemen.
 

Circle Time:

•  Despite losing 50 of 81 draws last Saturday at Quinnipiac, Cornell still ranks sixth in the nation in team faceoff percentage (54.0%). Beau Starrett is leading the team in draws taken for a second straight year, now boasting a 57.4% success rate.
•  Max Andreev (59.3%) is tied for fifth among the nation's freshmen in faceoff percentage and ranks 22nd overall.
 

Feel The Draft?:

•  Cornell has five players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft — one in each of the last five drafts. Sophomore defenseman Matt Cairns (Edmonton Oilers) was selected earliest in that group, having been taken in the third round with the 84th overall pick in 2016.
•  Junior forward Beau Starrett (Chicago Blackhawks) was also taken in the third round during the 2014 draft. One other forward is a draft pick in Morgan Barron, who was snagged in the sixth round by the N.Y. Rangers in 2017. He then became the first freshman in program history to have at least one point in each of his first seven games. 
•  Three underclassmen represent the Big Red's three NHL Draft picks along the blue line. Alex Green leads that group after his outstanding collegiate debut led to a fourth-round selection by the Tampa Bay Lightning last summer.
•  Defenseman Misha Song (N.Y. Islanders in 2015) is the only newcomer to have his NHL rights already owned.
 

Scouting Arizona State:

•  At 16-7-1, the Sun Devils are a surprise national leader in victories and currently aligned for the fledgling program's first at-large bid to the NCAA tournament with a Pairwise ranking of 10th. 
•  Arizona State is coming off a home sweep of Boston College, scoring four third-period goals to rally for a 5-2 victory on Friday before posting a 2-0 shutout on Saturday. It pushed the team to 6-1-1 over their last eight.
•  The Sun Devils are no stranger to ECAC Hockey opposition split a series at Harvard (Nov. 16-10), swept two games at Princeton (Dec. 7-8), then were blanked by Clarkson in the Desert Hockey Classic (Dec. 28).
•  Sophomore winger Johnny Walker (18-8–26; 8 PPG), an Arizona native, leads the country in goals, power-play goals and shots on goal.
•  Junior defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk (7-12–19) ranks second in team scoring and is tied for third in the nation with a plus-18 rating. He's also tied for the team lead in assists with junior forward Tyler Busch (4-12–16).
•  Junior Joey Daccord (16-7-1, 2.08, .933), an Ottawa Senators draft pick, has been the team's exclusive goaltender to date. He leads the nation with six shutouts.
•  Greg Powers is in his 11th season as the head coach at his alma mater, dating back to the program's club-level days.
 

The Series Against Arizona State:

•  This weekend marks the first clash between Cornell and Arizona State, reducing the number of current Division I teams that the Big Red hasn't yet played to four (Alaska Anchorage, Bentley, Connecticut and Holy Cross). 
•  With Arizona State unaffiliated with any conference, Cornell will be opposing an independent program for the first time since taking on Alabama-Huntsville in two games Dec. 3-4, 2010 at Lynah Rink.