PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Cornell men's hockey team takes to the road for four of its final six regular-season games, starting with a trip to a streaking Brown squad on Friday night at Meehan Auditorium. The game will be broadcast by the host school and can be seen 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

#8 Cornell at Brown
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Feb. 15, 2019
PLACE: Meehan Auditorium  •  Providence, R.I.
RECORDS: Cornell 15-6-2, 11-3-2 ECAC Hockey, 7-1 Ivy League
                    Brown 10-10-3, 7-6-3 ECAC Hockey, 2-4 Ivy League
VIDEO: ESPN+ — United States | International
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS: BrownBears.com
TICKETS: BrownBears.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell | Brown
 

Big Red Rewind:

•  In the only national match-up of the night with teams ranked in the top 10, Cornell delivered a resounding 5-0 victory over Clarkson last Friday before capping the weekend sweep the next night against St. Lawrence with a 3-1 win.
•  Jeff Malott scored twice against the Golden Knights, then added an assist Saturday en route to being named men's ECAC Hockey Player of the Week.
•  Michael Regush scored power-play goals both nights to earn ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week honors. Of his seven goals this year, four have been game-winners and four have been on the man advantage.
•  Matthew Galajda yielded just one goal in two starts for a second straight weekend. He remains one of the hottest goaltenders in the nation with three shutouts in his last six starts.
•  Cornell is now 10-1-2 since Dec. 1, which ties it with Ohio State for the best winning percentage in the country over that span (.846).
•  The Big Red remains in first place in ECAC Hockey with 24 points, three ahead of Quinnipiac and four ahead of Harvard and Clarkson.



 

Pairwise Power Move:

•  Last weekend's home sweep of the North Country teams helped Cornell climb a couple positions to eighth in the Pairwise rankings, which are used to determine and seed the NCAA tournament field. The team's current placement is an improvement of 25 spots since a Nov. 30 loss at Dartmouth.
 

Forward Thinking:

•  Sophomore forward Morgan Barron (12-15–27; 6 PPG) leads the team in goals, points and power-play goals. He has 19 points over 12 games since Jan. 1, which is most in the league and tied for second-most in the nation. The New York Rangers draft pick has multiple points in eight of his last 11 games.
•  Barron also remains one of the most prominent shooters in the country, with his average of 4.96 shots on goal per game ranking third-most.
•  Sophomore Cam Donaldson (11-10–21; 4 PPG) ranks second on the team in goals, rating (plus-14) and overall scoring. His three assists Feb. 1 at Union were a career first and Cornell's first three-point game of the season.
•  Barron and Donaldson were placed on a line pivoted by Brenden Locke (5-5–10) following the semester break, with all five of Locke's goals coming in that 12-game span. The sophomore trio has scored 18 of the team's 39 goals since Jan. 1.
•  Senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan (6-14–20) is tied for second on the team in assists and is third in scoring. The Big Red's second-year captain is also the team's active leading scorer with 87 points in 119 collegiate games.
•  Cornell hasn't averaged more than 30 shots on goal per game in a season since the 2005-06 campaign, but it currently has an average of 31.04.
•  The Big Red has scored first in 20 of its 23 games so far and is outscoring the opposition in first periods, 28-6.
 

More Than Just Defense:

•  A two-time All-Ivy League first-team selection, junior defenseman Yanni Kaldis (4-14–18; 2 PPG) leads the team's blueliners in scoring with six assists in his last eight games.
•  Matt Nuttle (2-12–14), one of three senior pillars on defense, has a lofty plus-19 rating leads ECAC Hockey lead and is tied for second-best in the nation. He is now a staggering plus-42 over the last two seasons.
•  Sophomore Alex Green (0-3–3) had a pair of assists last weekend for his first points since a 16-game absence due to injury from Nov. 3 to Jan. 31.
•  Senior Alec McCrea (2-2–4) is the reigning ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Defenseman.
 

Goaltending, Inc.:

•  Sophomore Matthew Galajda (11-5-1, 1.78, .918, 3 SO) a first-team All-American last year, continues to round into form after an early-season injury led to a five-game absence. Since Jan. 1, his 0.90 goals against average and .957 save percentage lead ECAC Hockey and rank second in the nation.
•  When Galajda hasn't played, sophomore Austin McGrath (4-1-1, 1.92, .927) has made the most of his first collegiate starts. He's unbeaten in his last five decisions, and was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week on Jan. 7.
 

One Crown Down:

•  Even though it didn't play an Ancient Eight opponent last Saturday, Cornell clinched the program's 23rd Ivy League championship when Princeton defeated Yale. It marks the Big Red's second straight Ivy League crown and its 19th outright title.
•  Having won the Ancient Eight championship with a sterling 9-0-1 record last season, Cornell is 17-1-2 in its last 20 Ivy League contests (the one loss was Nov. 30 at Dartmouth).
 

Special Teams Resurgence:

•  The Big Red's special teams have steadily improved as the season has progressed. The team's combined special teams percentage was ranked 56th as of Dec. 1, but it has risen 38 spots to 18th at 51.9% just 12 games later. 
•  Since Dec. 1, both Cornell's power play (33.3%) and penalty kill (94.1%) lead the nation.
•  Cornell enters the weekend with 29 consecutive successful penalty kills.
 

Wasting No Time:

•  Underclassmen have been at the forefront of Cornell's arsenal, scoring 43 of the team's 69 goals (62.3%).
•  The Big Red's sophomore class averages 1.43 goals per game, which is highest in ECAC Hockey and fourth-highest in the nation.
 

Hobey Hopefuls:

•  Junior defenseman Yanni Kaldis and sophomore forwards Morgan Barron and Cam Donaldson were announced among the 81 initial nominees for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award earlier this month.
•  The process for selecting college hockey's most outstanding player is in the fan voting phase, with Cornell looking to place someone in the round of 10 finalists for a second straight year. Matthew Galajda was in that elite group last year, becoming the first freshman goaltender to ever be selected among the final 10.
 

Next Man Up:

•  Through 23 games this season, Cornell has used 17 different combinations of skaters in its lineup, due to injuries. The Big Red has had its most preferred lineup for less than one period all season (Nov. 2 vs. Yale, before an injury about 10 minutes in).
•  Cornell has already lost 28 man-games to injury from its top six defensemen. All of them have been in the same lineup just twice this season (Nov. 2 vs. Yale; Feb. 1 at Union).
•  The Big Red's injury woes on defense are in stark contrast to last season, when Cornell lost just 10 man-games to injury from its top seven defensemen all year.

 

Best Behavior:

•  The opposition has had more power plays than the Big Red just four times in 23 games this year. Cornell has been on the penalty kill just 73 times to date, which is third-fewest in the nation.
•  Cornell and Princeton played a rare penalty-free game on Jan. 4. It was a first in the Division I men's ranks since AIC 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.
 

Circle Time:

•  Cornell ranks 10th in the nation in team faceoff percentage (53.7%). Senior Beau Starrett leads the Big Red in draws taken with a 56.1% success rate.
•  Max Andreev (60.5%) ranks second among the nation's active freshmen in faceoff percentage and ranks 12th overall.
 

Understudy Extraordinaire:

•  With Mike Schafer not in attendance for the Jan. 4-5 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.
 

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.
•  Senior 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 Brown:

•  Having won eight of its last 11, the Bears are 10-10-3 and reached the .500 mark in February for the first time in five years.  At 7-6-3 with 17 points, Brown sits sixth in the ECAC Hockey and is currently aligned for a home playoff series for the first time since reaching the finals in 2013. 
•  The Bears wrapped up a stretch of five straight on the road with a pair of wins last weekend, rallying on Friday to defeat Princeton, 4-2, before stunning Quinnipiac, 4-1, on Saturday.
•  Senior Tommy Marchin (6-9–15) leads the team in scoring and, by a wide margin, shots on goal (88). He typically plays on the left wing opposite sophomore Chris Berger (4-6–10), with freshman Tristan Crozier (4-9–13) becoming the pivot of choice last weekend.
•  Six different players have five or six goals for Brown, with freshman Justin Jallen (6-4–10) joining Marchin for the team's goal-scoring lead.
•  Senior Max Gottlieb (3-9–12) and junior Zach Guittari (5-6–11; team-best plus-10 rating) are the team's top-scoring defensemen. 
•  While junior Gavin Nieto (7-5-1, 2.45, .912, SO) has been the primary starting goaltender, a recent injury has opened the door for sophomore Luke Kania (3-5-2, 2.84, .914) — who was named ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Week on Monday.
•  While Brown's power play ranks last in the nation statistically at 10.8%, two of the team's eight PPGs this season came in the team's last two games.
 

The Series Against Brown:

•  The Big Red has a commanding 79-43-7 lead in the all-time series with Brown. Though Cornell enters Friday's game on a 12-game unbeaten streak (10-0-2) coming into Friday.
•  Cornell won this season's first meeting, 3-2, on Nov. 3 at Lynah Rink behind three second-period goals — including Michael Regush's first collegiate strike.
•  Mike Schafer is a dominating 37-7-5 against the Bears during his 23-plus seasons as the Big Red's head coach.