ITHACA, N.Y. – It didn't take long for Travis Mitchell to have his homecoming. Even though the freshman defenseman hails from outside the ECAC Hockey footprint, he played within an hour's drive of his hometown while making his collegiate debut last weekend in the Cornell men's hockey team's two-game sweep last weekend at Michigan State.
 
The extra support was easy to spot in Munn Ice Arena. While there was a smattering of Cornell hockey jerseys all around Michigan State's home arena, Mitchell's friends and family held up signs along the boards during warm-ups and his younger sister donned a Big Red jersey decked out with the Mitchell name plate and his number 10 on the back.
 
Mitchell said his hometown of South Lyon is close to the middle of the geographical divide in the heated rivalry between Michigan and Michigan State.
 
"I was always a part of the big rivalry," Mitchell said late last week. "Going back and playing there is going to be a lot of fun. But growing up, I was a Michigan football fan, so I really wouldn't say I like the Spartans as much."
 
It's safe to say the feeling is mutual. Michigan State was once in the running for Mitchell's services before he committed to Cornell, then Mitchell helped the Big Red to a pair of wins over the Spartans. He collected his first collegiate point with the lone assist on sophomore forward Liam Motley's goal in the second period in Saturday's 6-2 rout.

Andreev Taking Flight

A broken finger and a broken clavicle limited sophomore forward Max Andreev's rookie season to just 22 games, but there's plenty of reason to believe he will be a prominent contributor moving forward – as indicated by his role on a power-play unit and placement on a line centering reigning leading scorer Morgan Barron. Though now healthy, the physical act of getting Andreev to the Big Red's season-opening series at Michigan State provided its own challenges last weekend, as chronicled by the Cornell Daily Sun.
 
The Big Red's travel plan for getting to Michigan consisted of a bus trip that cut through southern Ontario. That wasn't a problem for the squad's Americans and Canadians, but it did pose a roadblock for Andreev – the team's lone Russian citizen. He isn't permitted to enter Canada without a visa, which meant the team had to send Andreev (with a chaporone) on a round-trip flight while the rest of the team endured four border crossings and roughly 16 hours on the bus.
 
"The only nice part about being a Russian," he quipped.
 
Andreev certainly made the most of the special trip. He was there to see the team's bus departure on Wednesday night, then was at the rink when the balance of the team arrived Thursday afternoon. He then greeted the Spartans with a game-winning power-play goal on Friday night.
 
The rest of the Big Red was encouraged – with tongue firmly in cheek – to enjoy the spoils of their winning efforts in Week 1.
 
"Enjoy it a little bit on the way home, catch an extra hour of sleep (from Daylight Savings Time) and get home around 5:30 in the morning," said Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell. "The beauties of college hockey."

Polls Prose

•  Cornell held steady at fourth in the USCHO.com poll this week after its sweep last weekend at Michigan State, though it gained 74 voting points. Minnesota State suffered an overtime loss to Bowling Green on Friday, which led to the team's falling to #3 and Massachusetts' ascension to #2.

•  The Big Red moved up one spot to #4 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine. The team is leaped over is Notre Dame, which had a tie and win on the road last week against Minnesota. 

Around ECAC Hockey

•  Cornell wasn't the only Ivy League team taking on a non-Ivy opponent in its first games of the season, and it wasn't the only one to secure a big win on the road. Princeton – predicted to finish in the bottom third of ECAC Hockey in preseason polls this year – flew to Minnesota to storm by nationally-ranked St. Cloud State on Friday, 5-3. The Tigers followed that up with a 5-5 tie the next night.
 
•  Of note in the North Country clash over the weekend (both non-league games and both overtime victories for Clarkson) is that the games were contested at Clarkson's Cheel Arena, because St. Lawrence's Appleton Arena is undergoing renovations that have taken the ice surface out of commission until around Thanksgiving. That means that when Cornell visits for a league game in a couple weeks, the Big Red and the Saints will clash up the road at SUNY Canton's rink.
 
•  Colgate, which had a win and a tie in a two-game set at UMass Lowell in October, delivered another quality result at a Hockey East rink with a 3-3 tie Friday at Providence.
 
•  Arizona State's first NCAA tournament last year was a quick one after it was handed a first-round loss by Quinnipiac. The Sun Devils apparently had that in mind when the teams met again last weekend in the desert, leading to Arizona State's first-ever sweep of a team ranked in the top 10 nationally. "The only way to feel whole again was to go out and have the kind of effort we had tonight," Arizona State head coach Greg Powers told the Arizona Republic after Saturday's victory.
 
•  Elsewhere, the hosts won both ends of a Yale/Brown home-and-home … Dartmouth yielded 12 goals in two games on the weekend – a 7-3 league-opening loss at Harvard and a 5-4 overtime setback at UNH … and Union is now 2-8 after splitting a pair of games at Canisius.

Alumni Update

•  Anthony Angello (2015-18) scored his third goal of the season for the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday, which is tied for second-most on the team. It's a solid start to his second professional season, though the numbers aren't necessarily what the first area his NHL parent team is targeting for immediate improvement.
 
WBS Penguins head coach Mike Vellucci told The Citizens' Voice that to make the next step to the NHL, Angello would need to be stronger on the puck in lower-percentage scoring areas.
 
"Too many times, the puck gets taken away from him and he's got to learn," Vellucci said. "It's something that we can work on every day, and he's going to get better at it. … He's got to get a heavier game. If he could add that dimension to his skill set, then he's an NHLer."
 
•  Cole Bardreau '15 is the latest Cornell hockey alum to make the NHL, and he seems to be making the most of his opportunity. NHL.com reports that Barry Trotz, head coach of the New York Islanders, has moved other pieces of his lineup around to keep Bardreau at center while his squad endures a rash of injuries. Bardreau has also made an impression on veteran players.
 
"Sometimes, all you need is that opportunity," Islanders captain Anders Lee said. "That mentality of next guy up has worked for us, but someone like Cole who has come in and given everything he has, it's really played to that precedent we've tried to set."
 
The Islanders have won eight in a row and are now 9-3 for the season. Bardreau has played in five games and collected his first NHL point on an assist last Monday in a game against Philadelphia.

Off The Crossbar is a weekly-ish notebook about the Cornell men's hockey team by assistant director of athletic communications Brandon Thomas, who is in his ninth season as his office's primary contact for the team following a stint as the team's beat writer at The Ithaca Journal. He can be reached at brandon@cornell.edu.