PRINCETON, N.J. — Coming off its longest mid-season hiatus in program history, the Cornell men's hockey team resumes its campaign on the road tonight against defending ECAC Hockey champion Princeton.
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
#20 Cornell at Princeton
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Jan. 4, 2019
PLACE: Hobey Baker Rink • Princeton, N.J.
RECORDS: Cornell 6-5, 4-2 ECAC Hockey, 4-1 Ivy League
Princeton 5-8-2, 3-4-1 ECAC Hockey, 1-1-1 Ivy League
VIDEO: ESPN+ —
United States |
International
RADIO:
WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS:
GoPrincetonTigers.com
TICKETS:
GoPrincetonTigers.com
GAME NOTES:
Cornell |
Princeton
#20 Cornell at #3/5 Quinnipiac
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019
PLACE: People's United Center • Hamden, Conn.
RECORDS: Cornell 6-5, 4-2 ECAC Hockey
Quinnipiac 15-3, 6-2 ECAC Hockey
VIDEO: ESPN+ —
United States |
International
RADIO:
WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS:
QuinnipiacBobcats.com
TICKETS:
QuinnipiacBobcats.com
GAME NOTES:
Cornell |
Quinnipiac
The Big Red Rewind:
• Cornell entered the semester break riddled with injuries, but still salvaged a 6-5 record thanks to a 2-1 victory Dec. 1 at Harvard.
Cam Donaldson and
Tristan Mullin scored power-play goals in the second period, and goaltender
Austin McGrath made 23 saves to earn his first collegiate victory. The Big Red played the game without its top two centers, two of its top four defensemen and All-American goaltender
Matthew Galajda.
• The previous night at Dartmouth,
Jeff Malott had a goal and an assist in his return to the lineup after a three-game absence, but the Big Green survived Cornell's third-period onslaught for a 3-2 victory.
• Freshman defenseman
Joe Leahy recorded his first two collegiate points with primary assists on both Cornell goals. It marks the only loss in the Big Red's last 17 Ivy League games (14-1-2).
About The Big Red:
• Senior forward
Mitch Vanderlaan (1-10–11) had three assists in the games at Dartmouth and Harvard to take over sole possession of the team's scoring lead. The Big Red's second-year captain is also the team's active leading scorer over his collegiate career with 78 points in 106 games.
• Sophomore forward
Morgan Barron (5-3–8; 2 PPG), a New York Rangers draft pick, leads the team with 48 shots on goal and ranks fourth in the nation with an average of 4.36 shots on goal per game.
• Joining Barron for the team lead in goal-scoring is fellow sophomore
Cam Donaldson (5-3–8; 2 PPG).
• Junior defenseman
Yanni Kaldis (4-5–9; 2 PPG), a two-time All-Ivy League first-team defenseman, has already matched his goal total from last season. He ranks eighth among the country's blueliners in goals per game (0.36).
•
Matt Nuttle (1-4–5), one of three senior pillars on defense, is off to a quick start with a plus-10 rating. He was second in the nation last year at plus-23.
• Sophomore goaltender
Matthew Galajda (5-4, 2.59, .885), a first-team All-American as a freshman last year, was tied for the ECAC Hockey lead with five victories in seven November games.
Ring In The New Year Right:
• Cornell is 9-2 in its first game after New Year's Day over the last 11 seasons. That includes a 7-1 win over Princeton last year at Lynah Rink, which kicked off the Big Red's undefeated month of January (7-0-1).
Wasting No Time:
• Underclassmen have been at the forefront of Cornell's arsenal in the early going, scoring 19 of the team's 30 goals (63.3 percent).
•
Max Andreev (2-4–6) scored the Big Red's first goal Oct. 26 against Michigan State, making the program's first native of Russia also the first freshman to score the team's first goal of a season since
Joe Devin '11 did so against RIT on Oct. 27, 2007.
The Offensive Defense:
• The trend started last year of generating more offense from the blue line has continued for Cornell. The Big Red has seven goals from defensemen through 11 games (Kaldis 4; Cairns, McCrea and Nuttle 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.
On The Mend:
• Cornell has already lost 16 man-games to injury from its top six defensemen, having now played its last six games without two of its top four —
Alex Green and
Brendan Smith.
• 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:
• Cornell ranks fourth in the nation in team faceoff percentage (56.1%), with
Beau Starrett continuing to lead the team in draws taken with a 60.6% success rate.
•
Max Andreev (61.5%) leads the nation's freshmen in faceoff percentage and ranks 12th 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 Princeton:
• The defending ECAC Hockey champions ended a seven-game losing streak by scoring three unanswered goals to salvage a 4-4 tie with nationally-ranked Penn State on Dec. 15. The Tigers then followed that up with a home sweep of Maine last weekend by scores of 1-0 and 7-3.
• The Tigers brandish three preseason All-ECAC Hockey Team picks in senior forwards Ryan Kuffner (12-11–23; 5 PPG) and Max Véronneau (6-16–22), and senior defenseman Josh Teves (3-9–12). Kuffner and Véronneau typically play on opposite wings pivoted by classmate Alex Riche (3-9–12; 3 PPG).
• After a hot start to the season, Princeton's power play ranks seventh in the nation with a 25.5% success rate on the power play — though it is a more mundane 5-for-33 (15.6%) in its last 10 games.
• While sophomore Ryan Ferland (4-8-1, 2.97, .911, SO) is the primary goaltender, senior Austin Shaw (1-0-1, 1.97, .933) backstopped the rally for a tie against Penn State and started last Saturday's game against Maine.
• Ron Fogarty is in his fifth season as the head coach at Princeton.
The Series Against Princeton:
• Cornell has been dominant against the Tigers, holding a 93-52-8 lead all-time with wins in eight of the teams' last nine meetings.
• The one Princeton victory over that stretch was a 4-1 win over top-seeded Cornell in the 2018 ECAC Hockey Championship semifinals in Lake Placid.
• Cornell won the first meeting between the teams this season, 5-1, on Nov. 17.
Cam Donaldson and
Max Andreev had a goal and an assist apiece with the Big Red scoring three times in the game's final eight minutes.
• The Big Red has scored 27 goals in its last six games against Princeton (4.5 goals per game), and Cornell's penalty kill has a 90% success rate against the Tigers' vaunted power play over their last eight meetings.
• Sophomore
Cam Donaldson has points in all four of his career games against Princeton, and
Jeff Malott has produced multiple points in three of his five games against the Tigers (4-3–7) — including a first-period hat trick Jan. 13, 2017 at Princeton.
