ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team will look to expand upon its lead in the ECAC Hockey standings when it returns to Lynah Rink to take on St. Lawrence at 7 p.m. Saturday. 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 games 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

St. Lawrence at #9/10 Cornell
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019
PLACE: Lynah Rink  •  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 14-6-2, 10-3-2 ECAC Hockey
                    St. Lawrence 4-22-1, 2-12-1 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 | St. Lawrence
 

Friday Night Redux:

•  In the only national match-up of teams ranked in the top 10 last night, the Big Red delivered a resounding 5-0 victory over Clarkson at Lynah Rink.
•  Brenden Locke opened the scoring, then assisted on the Big Red's next two goals for his first three-point effort of the season.
•  Jeff Malott's first of two goals and Michael Regush's unassisted strike late in the second period both came on the power play. Matt Nuttle had Cornell's other goal early in the second.
•  Matthew Galajda earned his third shutout of the season, all coming in his last five starts. He made 17 saves to earn consecutive clean sheets against Clarkson, after the teams played to a scoreless draw Feb. 9, 2018.
•  Cornell is now 9-1-2 since Dec. 1, which ties it with Ohio State for the best winning percentage in the country over that span (.833).


 

Pairwise Power Move:

•  Last night's victory moved Cornell up to eighth in the Pairwise rankings, which are used to determine and seed the NCAA tournament field. The team's current placement is its highest to date, and it's an improvement of 24 spots since a Nov. 30 loss at Dartmouth.
 

Forward Thinking:

•  Sophomore forward Morgan Barron (11-14–25; 5 PPG) continues to lead the team in points and power-play goals. He has 17 points over 11 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 5.00 shots on goal per game ranking third-most, behind just Princeton's Ryan Kuffner (5.09) and Arizona State's Johnny Walker (5.07).
•  Sophomore Cam Donaldson (11-10–21; 4 PPG) is tied for the team in goals, is second in rating (plus-14) 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 (5-5–10) following the semester break, with all five of Locke's goals coming in that 11-game span. The sophomore trio has scored 17 of the team's 36 goals since Jan. 1.
•  Senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan (5-13–18) is 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 85 points in 118 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 31.36.
•  The Big Red has scored first in 19 of its 22 games so far and is outscoring the opposition in first periods, 26-6.
 

More Than Just Defense:

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

Goaltending, Inc.:

•   Sophomore Matthew Galajda (10-5-1, 1.83, .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 0.88 goals against average ranks second in the nation and .958 save percentage ranks third. 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 tonight. 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 32 spots to 24th at 51% just 11 games later. 
•  Since Dec. 1, both Cornell's power play (31.6%) and penalty kill (93.5%) are the second-most efficient in the nation.
•  Cornell enters tonight with 26 consecutive successful penalty kills.
 

Wasting No Time:

•  Underclassmen have been at the forefront of Cornell's arsenal, scoring 41 of the team's 66 goals (62.1%).
•  The Big Red's sophomore class averages 1.45 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 26 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 22 games this year. Cornell has been on the penalty kill just 70 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 sixth in the nation in team faceoff percentage (54.1%). 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 St. Lawrence:

•  The Saints (4-22-1, 2-12-1 ECAC Hockey) got a pair of goals from Zach Ristau (5-8–13) last night, but it never led in a 3-2 loss at Colgate. Ristau's first strike was on the power play, and his second came with a minute remaining and St. Lawrence's goaltender pulled in favor of an extra attacker.
•  St. Lawrence halted a nine-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over Princeton last Friday. The Saints then lost, 7-2, to Quinnipiac on Saturday.
•  Alex Gilmour (5-3–8) scored the winner against the Tigers with 6:22 to play on his team-leading fifth power-play goal of the season.
•  Ristau's goals last night moved him into the team lead in scoring, just ahead of junior right winger Carson Gicewicz (3-9–12). Gicewicz has been playing on a line centered by freshman David Jankowski (6-5–11), who shares the team's goal-scoring lead with sophomore center Cade Gleekel (6-4–10).
•  St. Lawrence has three goaltenders that have started at least seven games.  Senior Arthur Brey (1-10, 4.16, .896) leads the team with 12 starts. Junior Daniel Mannella (2-8, 3.81, .913) has started four of the last eight, but it was freshman Emil Zetterquist (1-4-1, 4.34, .877) in net last night at Colgate. He made 18 saves. 
•  Among the Saints' struggles, the power play isn't one of them. St. Lawrence's power play is clicking at a 23.9% success rate in ECAC Hockey play. 
•  St. Lawrence has been outscored in the first period this year, 39-10. It has only scored the first goal in three of its 27 games to date.
•  Mark Morris is in his third season as head coach of the Saints.
 

The Series Against St. Lawrence:

•  In a series that began during the 1926-27 campaign, Cornell holds a 62-45-8 all-time lead and enters Saturday on a four-game winning streak.
•  The Big Red won, 6-1, in this season's first meeting Nov. 17, 2017 at Lynah Rink. Junior forward Noah Bauld had his first collegiate hat trick in the game.
•  Last year's rematch was much closer, with the Big Red scratching out a 1-0 victory in Canton on a goal by Jared Fiegl '18 and a second straight shutout from sophomore goaltender Matthew Galajda.