ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team wraps up the Ivy League portion of its schedule on Saturday night with a visit to Ingalls Rink to take on Yale. The game will be broadcast by the host schools 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 Yale
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019
PLACE: Ingalls Rink  •  New Haven, Conn.
RECORDS: Cornell 15-6-3, 11-3-3 ECAC Hockey, 7-1-1 Ivy League
                    Yale 12-9-3, 10-6-1, 2-3-1 Ivy League
VIDEO: ESPN+ — United States | International
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS: YaleBulldogs.com
TICKETS: YaleBulldogs.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell | Yale
 

Friday Night Redux:

•  Cornell held on for a 3-3 deadlock on Friday night after Brown scored three goals in a span of just 53 seconds in the third period to tie the game.
•  Tristan Mullin and Mitch Vanderlaan each had a goal and an assist in the first period, then Matt Cairns' second goal of the year pushed the Cornell lead to 3-0 after 40 minutes.
•  Brown's rally helped the hosts salvage a point, with Matthew Galajda making six of his 26 saves for the Big Red in overtime.
•  The Big Red remains in first place in ECAC Hockey with 25 points, three ahead of second-place Quinnipiac and Harvard with five games remaining in the regular season league-wide.
•  Last night's results left Cornell holding steady at 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.

 

Big Red Rewind:

•  Cornell is now 10-1-3 since Dec. 1, which gives it the best winning percentage in the country over that span (.821).
•  Jeff Malott is the reigning men's ECAC Hockey Player of the Week, and Michael Regush was named ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week on Monday after the Big Red's sweep of Clarkson and St. Lawrence last weekend.
 

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 13 games since Jan. 1, which is most in the league and tied for fifth-most in the nation. The New York Rangers draft pick has multiple points in eight of his last 12 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 second-most behind just Arizona State's Johnny Walker (5.03).
•  While sophomore Cam Donaldson (11-10–21; 4 PPG) ranks second on the team in goals and rating (plus-14) and third overall in scoring, he is out of the lineup this weekend due to an injury.
•  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 13-game span. The sophomore trio has scored 18 of the team's 42 goals since Jan. 1.
•  Senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan (7-15–22) is tied with Barron for the most assists on the team and is now second in overall scoring. The Big Red's second-year captain is also the team's active leading scorer with 89 points in 120 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 30.92.
•  The Big Red has scored first in 21 of its 24 games so far and is outscoring the opposition in first periods, 30-6.
 

More Than Just Defense:

•  A two-time All-Ivy League first-team selection, junior defenseman Yanni Kaldis (4-15–19; 2 PPG) leads the team's blueliners in scoring with seven assists in his last nine games.
•  Matt Nuttle (2-13–15), one of three senior pillars on defense, has a lofty plus-20 rating leads ECAC Hockey lead and is tied for eighth-best in the nation. He is now a staggering plus-43 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 (11-5-2, 1.84, .916, 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 1.13 goals against average ranks second in the nation and .948 save percentage ranks fourth.
•  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 crown and its 19th outright title.
•  Having won the Ancient Eight championship with a sterling 9-0-1 record last season, Cornell is 17-1-3 in its last 21 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 52.1% just 15 games later. 
•  Since Dec. 1, both Cornell's power play (32.6%) and penalty kill (94.4%) lead the nation.
•  Cornell enters tonight with 31 consecutive successful penalty kills.
 

Wasting No Time:

•  Underclassmen have been at the forefront of Cornell's arsenal, scoring 45 of the team's 72 goals (62.5%).
•  The Big Red's sophomore class averages 1.46 goals per game, which is highest in ECAC Hockey and fifth-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 24 games this season, Cornell has used 18 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 29 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 five times in 24 games this year. Cornell has been on the penalty kill just 75 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 is tied for seventh in the nation in team faceoff percentage (54.0%). Senior Beau Starrett leads the Big Red in draws taken with a 55.3% success rate.
 

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 Yale:

•  After being swept on the road last weekend by Quinnipiac, 4-0, and Princeton, 4-1, the Bulldogs rebounded with a 3-0 drubbing of Colgate last night. Junior Corbin Kaczperski needed to make just 18 saves for his first shutout of the season, and forward Mitchell Smith and defenseman Anthony Walsh each had a goal and an assist.
•  The win pulls Yale up to 12-9-3 and fourth in ECAC Hockey at 10-6-1 with 21 points, just one point behind the second-place tie between Harvard and Quinnipiac.
•  Senior forward Joe Snively (13-15–28; 3 PPG; 2 SHG), a Preseason All-ECAC Hockey pick who already has 131 career points, has nearly double the points of anyone else on the squad. He is typically on the left wing of a line centered by junior Robbie DeMontis (7-8–15), with freshman Curtis Hall (3-3–6 in 15 GP) joining them on the right wing last night. 
•  Freshman Jack St. Ivany (3-6–9; 2 PPG; team-best plus-9) and sophomore Phil Kemp (2-3–5) both played defense for the U.S. national team at the 2019 World Junior Championships.
•  Senior Sam Tucker (5-6-1, 2.37, .918, SO) and Kaczperski (7-3-2, 2.58, .906, SO) continue to split starts in goal.
 

The Series Against Yale:

•  The Big Red has tangled with the Bulldogs 153 times since the series started in 1902, with the Cornell holding a 85-60-8 lead. The Big Red is 6-2-3 in the last 11 games of the series.
•  Cornell opened a three-goal lead en route to a 4-2 victory when the teams first met this season on Nov. 2 at Lynah Rink. Morgan Barron scored the final two Big Red goals, and both Bulldogs tallies came on the power play.
•  The Big Red is 1-0-2 in its last three visits to Ingalls Rink, including a 3-3 tie last season in which the Bulldogs scored the equalizing with an extra attacker on the ice with 51 seconds left.