ITHACA, N.Y. — Ranked inside the top 10 of both major national polls for the first time since its preseason, the Cornell men's hockey team returns home to take on the team with which it shares the #9 and #10 rankings – Clarkson – at 7 p.m. Friday at Lynah Rink. 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

#10/9 Clarkson at #9/10 Cornell
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Feb. 8, 2019
PLACE: Lynah Rink  •  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 13-6-2, 9-3-2 ECAC Hockey
                    Clarkson 18-8, 9-5 ECAC Hockey
VIDEO: ESPN+ — United States | International
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
TICKETS: CornellBigRedTickets.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell | Clarkson
 

Big Red Rewind:

•  Cornell took three of an available four points in the ECAC Hockey standings on the road last weekend, blanking Union on Friday, 4-0, before settling for a 1-1 tie the next night at Rensselaer. The results leave the Big Red in sole possession in the league standings at 20 points.
•  Reigning ECAC Hockey Player of the Month Morgan Barron continued his torrid scoring streak, potting two goals against the Dutchmen before assisting on Mitch Vanderlaan's power-play goal at RPI.
•  Matthew Galajda started back-to-back games for the first time since November, making 38 saves on 39 shots between the two nights. He made 24 stops against Union for his 11th collegiate shutout.
•  Cornell is now 8-1-2 since Dec. 1, which ties it with Ohio State for the best winning percentage in the country over that span (.818).



 

Pairwise Power Move:

•  Cornell sits at No. 10 in the Pairwise rankings, which is an improvement of 22 spots since a Nov. 30 loss at Dartmouth.
 

Forward Thinking:

•  Sophomore forward Morgan Barron (11-13–24; 5 PPG) continues to lead the team in points and power-play goals. He has 16 points over 10 games since Jan. 1, which is most in the league and tied for fourth-most in the nation.
•  Barron also remains one of the most prominent shooters in the country, with his average of 5.05 shots on goal per game ranking second-most, behind just Arizona State's Johnny Walker (5.07).
•  Sophomore Cam Donaldson (11-9–20; 4 PPG) is tied for the team in goals, is second in rating (plus-12) and scoring. His three assists last Friday 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 (4-3–7) following the semester break, with all four of Locke's goals coming in that 10-game span. The sophomore trio has scored 16 of the team's 31 goals since Jan. 1.
•  Senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan (5-13–18) is tied for the team lead in assists and is third in scoring with seven points in his last eight games. The Big Red's second-year captain is also the team's active leading scorer with 85 points in 117 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 31.62.
•  The Big Red has scored first in 18 of its 21 games so far and is outscoring the opposition in first periods, 24-6.
 

More Than Just Defense:

•   two-time All-Ivy League first-team selection, junior defenseman Yanni Kaldis (4-11–15; 2 PPG) leads the team's blueliners in scoring with five assists in his last six games.
•  Matt Nuttle (1-11–12), one of three senior pillars on defense, has a lofty plus-17 rating that ranks fourth-best in ECAC Hockey. He is now a staggering plus-40 over the last two seasons.
•  Senior Brendan Smith (1-2–3) celebrated his return to the lineup Jan. 4 with a goal, but he's also started off as one of the country's best shot-blockers at 2.36 per game — which would lead ECAC Hockey and rank sixth in the nation if he had enough games under his belt to qualify.
 

Goaltending, Inc.:

•  Sophomore Matthew Galajda (9-5-1, 1.96, .911, 2 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 1.04 goals against average ranks third in the nation and .952 save percentage ranks fourth. Both statistics are also best among ECAC Hockey goaltenders over the same span.
•  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.
 

#OneIvy Update:

•  Even though it isn't playing an Ancient Eight opponent this weekend, Cornell can clinch the program's 23rd Ivy League championship Saturday. Entering the weekend with a six-point lead, Cornell can repeat as the Ivy League titlist if Princeton ties or defeats Yale.
•  Having won the Ancient Eight crown 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 27 spots to 29th at 50% just 10 games later. 
•  Since Dec. 1, Cornell's penalty kill is second-best in the nation with a 93.1% success rate, and the power play is tied for fourth succeeding at a 28.6% clip.
•  Cornell enters the weekend with 24 consecutive successful penalty kills.
 

Wasting No Time:

•  Underclassmen have been at the forefront of Cornell's arsenal, scoring 39 of the team's 61 goals (63.9%).
•  The Big Red's sophomore class averages 1.48 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:

•  Cornell has already lost 25 man-games to injury from its top six defensemen, with last Friday marking just the second time this season that all of them have been in the lineup at the same time (Nov. 2 vs. Yale was the other).
•  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.
 

Best Behavior:

•  The opposition has had more power plays than the Big Red just four times in 21 games this year. Cornell has been on the penalty kill just 68 times so far, which is tied for 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 fifth in the nation in team faceoff percentage (54.2%). Senior Beau Starrett leads the Big Red in draws taken with a 56% success rate.
•  Max Andreev (60.5%) ranks second among the nation's active freshmen in faceoff percentage and ranks 11th 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 Clarkson:

•  On the heels of an eight-game winning streak, the Golden Knights (18-8, 9-5 ECAC Hockey) have split their last two weekends of league play. Most recently, they suffered a 4-2 home loss to Quinnipiac last Friday before rebounding with a 3-1 win over Princeton the next night.
•  Junior center Nico Sturm (12-20–32) leads the team in scoring, and the reigning ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Forward also has a league-best plus-20 rating a team-best 56.9 winning percentage on faceoffs. 
•  Clarkson typically plays its three leading scorers all on the same line, with junior Haralds Egle (12-16–28) flanking Sturm on the right and Jack Jacome (4-15–19) on the left.
•  Junior winger Devin Brosseau (8-10–18) and junior defenseman Greg Moro (5-11–16) are tied for the team lead with four power-play goals apiece.
•  Junior Jake Kielly (18-8, 1.85, .931, 5 SO) returns for a third year as the starting goaltending, tied for second in the nation in shutouts, fourth in goals against average and sixth in save percentage.
•  Like Cornell, Clarkson has excelled at grabbing the early lead. The Golden Knights have scored first in 20 of 26 games. Clarkson also outscores the opposition 35-13 in the third period.
•  Casey Jones, a 1990 graduate and former associate head coach at Cornell, is in his eighth season as the head coach of the Golden Knights.
 

The Series Against Clarkson:

•  The Big Red owns a 65-55-18 record against the Golden Knights, though Clarkson did not surrender a goal to Cornell last season. Clarkson won the season's first meeting, 4-0, on Nov. 18, 2017 at Lynah Rink before the teams played to a scoreless draw on Feb. 9, 2018 in Potsdam.
•  Cornell ended Clarkson's season two years ago with a three-game win in an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinals series in March. The Golden Knights stunned the Big Red in the opener, 6-2, but Cornell responded with a pair of 2-1 wins. 
•  Cornell is 10-6-5 against Clarkson since Casey Jones '90 became head coach.