ITHACA, N.Y. — Making its third consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament for the second time in program history, the third-seeded Cornell men's hockey team will take on second-seeded Northeastern in an East Region semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The game will be broadcast on ESPNews with Leah Hextall on play-by-play and Billy Jaffe providing color commentary. The broadcast can also be streamed through ESPN's website on the WatchESPN app in the United States. In Canada, streaming will run through TSN.ca and the TSN app. In his 15th season on play-by-play for Cornell, Jason Weinstein's call of the game can be heard on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM) and worldwide via the station's website.

GAME INFORMATION

NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championships
East Region, Semifinal #2
#10 Cornell vs. #5 Northeastern
4:30 p.m. Saturday, March 30, 2019
PLACE: Dunkin' Donus Center  •  Providence, R.I.
RECORDS: Cornell 20-10-4, 13-5-4 ECAC Hockey (3 seed)
                    Northeastern 27-10-1, 15-8-1 Hockey East (2 seed)
TV: ESPNews
VIDEO (U.S.): ESPN.com/watch
VIDEO (Canada): TSN.ca
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS: NCAA.com
TICKETS: CornellBigRedTickets.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell | Northeastern
 

How We Got Here:

•  Cornell shook off a difficult start to the season by surging through the middle part of the slate to earn a share of the program's 10th Cleary Cup — awarded annually to ECAC Hockey's regular-season champion. It's the Big Red second consecutive Cleary Cup and the fifth during the tenure of 24th-year head coach Mike Schafer.
•  Cornell advanced to the finals of the ECAC Hockey Championships for the second time in the last three years, but it suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in overtime last Saturday in Lake Placid, N.Y. Junior Noah Bauld opened the scoring on a two-on-one, then sophomore Tristan Mullin forced the extra session after a tip-in goal with 5:41 left in regulation.


•  The Big Red mathematically secured itself of an NCAA tournament berth with a 6-0 thrashing of Brown in last Friday's first semifinal. Cornell cashed in three times on the power play, and Matthew Galajda made 17 of his 30 saves in the third period for his fifth shutout of the season and 14th in his collegiate career.

 

The Red's Barron:

•  Sophomore forward Morgan Barron (14-19–33; 7 PPG) leads the team in goals, points and power-play goals. He also averages 4.38 shots on goal per game, which ranks third-most in the nation behind just Arizona State's Johnny Walker (4.94) and Princeton's Ryan Kuffner (4.71).
•  Barron is the first Cornellian to eclipse the 30-point plateau since Greg Miller '13 had 33 points during his senior season on East Hill. The last Big Red underclassman with 30 points was Riley Nash's 35 points during a 2008-09 campaign in which he was a sophomore.
•  Barron has named to the All-Ivy League and All-ECAC Hockey first team and was a finalist for ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Forward.
 

Super Sophs:

•  An all-sophomore line of Brenden Locke (6-11–17) between Morgan Barron and Cam Donaldson (12-12–24; 4 PPG) was formed after Locke returned to the lineup following the season's five-week semester break.
•  Donaldson, a All-ECAC Hockey third team and All-Ivy League honorable mention pick, ranks second on the team in goals and rating (plus-16).
•  Fifteen of Locke's 18 points on the season have come in the 22 games since starting to pivot a line flanked by Barron and Donaldson.
•  The Big Red's sophomore class averages 1.38 goals per game, which is highest in ECAC Hockey and fourth-highest in the nation.
 

In The Clutch:

•  There's an old adage in hockey that secondary scoring is paramount to postseason success, but Cornell is taking it a step further. Through five playoff games, the Big Red has goals from four players who didn't score at all during the 29 regular-season games: Junior forward Noah Bauld, sophomore forward Kyle Betts, sophomore defenseman Alex Green and freshman defenseman Joe Leahy.
•  The forward line of sophomore Tristan Mullin, Betts and Bauld has nine goals in the playoffs (three goals apiece) after combining for just five goals during the regular season. Bauld leads the team in postseason scoring with seven points on three goals and four assists after posting four points during the regular season.
 

Friday Practice Photo Gallery:

•  Click here to see photos from Cornell's practice day in Providence.

 

Forward Thinking:

•  Senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan (10-19–29) ranks second on the team in scoring. The Big Red's second-year captain is also the team's active leading scorer with 96 points in 130 collegiate games. He's earned All-Ivy League honorable mention for a second straight year.
•  The Big Red has scored first in 79.4 percent of its games this season (27 times in 34 games), which leads the nation. Cornell also is tops nationally in goals during the first two minutes of a game (seven), and it's outscoring opponents 41-15 during first periods this year.
 

Freshman Force:

•  Freshman forward Michael Regush (11-3–14) scored nine of his goals in ECAC Hockey play, which tied for the most in the league among newcomers.
•  Regush is the first Big Red freshman with five power-play goals in a single season since Riley Nash had seven during the 2007-08 campaign.
 

More Than Just Defense:

•  With 18 assists in his last 20 games, junior defenseman Yanni Kaldis (4-23–27) leads the team in assists and leads blueliners in overall scoring. His 23 assists are the most for a Big Red defenseman since Steve Wilson '97 had 26 during the 1995-96 campaign. Kaldis was named to the All-Ivy League first team for a third time — a first for a Cornellian since Matt Moulson '06 from 2004-06 — and also earned a spot on the All-ECAC Hockey second team.
•  Matt Nuttle (4-15–19), one of three senior pillars on defense, has been named the ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Defenseman Award. He boasts a lofty plus-17 rating that is tied for fifth in ECAC Hockey. He is a staggering plus-40 over the last two seasons, becoming the second Cornellian to win the award in as many years. Nuttle and Alec McCrea (3-4–7) are the first classmates to ever both win the award.
 

Goaltending, Inc.:

•  Sophomore Matthew Galajda (16-8-3, 1.85, .921, 5 SO) rounded into form after an early-season injury led to a five-game absence. Since Jan. 1, his 1.53 goals against average and .936 save percentage lead ECAC Hockey. He was named the league's Goalie of the Month for February and was placed on the All-ECAC Hockey third team.
•  When Galajda hasn't played, sophomore Austin McGrath (4-2-1, 2.15, .919) has made the most of his first collegiate starts — enough to earn All-Ivy League first team honors despite making just four starts in Ancient Eight games.
 

Two Crowns Down:

•  Cornell won the program's 23rd Ivy League championship, marking the Big Red's second straight Ivy crown and its 19th outright title. Cornell is 17-2-3 in its last 22 Ivy League contests.
•  In winning the Cleary Cup for a second straight year (though shared this time around), the Big Red has won the ECAC Hockey's regular-season title in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2002 and 2003.
 

Circle Time:

•  Cornell is tied for seventh in the nation in team faceoff percentage (53.9%). 
•  Max Andreev (56.9%) and Michael Regush (56.3%) both rank in the top 10 nationally among rookies. Senior Beau Starrett once again leads the Big Red in draws taken at an even 600 with a 55.2% success rate.
 

Next Man Up:

•  Through 34 games this season, Cornell has used 21 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 86 man-games to injury from 10 different players. 
•  The team's top six defensemen 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.

 

Special Stuff:

•  Since Jan. 1, the Big Red leads the nation on the penalty kill with a success rate of 92.3 percent. That stretch includes a streak of 41 consecutive penalty kills, which is the program's longest since the turn of the century. Of the five power-play goals Cornell has surrendered since the new year, three have been against Clarkson.
 

Paring Down The Pairwise:

•  Cornell was ranked 11th in the Pairwise rankings at the time of the NCAA tournament selection, making Cornell and Denver the only two teams in the country that have ranked at that position or higher in each of the last three years. 
•  The Big Red's average Pairwise ranking over the last three years is 8.3 — fourth-highest in the nation (Denver 4.7, Minn.-Dulth 5.3, St. Cloud 7.3) and highest in ECAC Hockey (Cornell 8.3, Clarkson 13.0, Harvard 14.7, Union 16.0, Quinnipiac 20.0).
 

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 collegiate 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.
 

The First Program To 100 ECAC Hockey Championship Wins:

•  The Big Red now owns 114 victories in the ECAC Hockey Championship playoffs, which leads the league. 
•  Cornell has won eight games in the first round, 63 in the quarterfinals, one in the preliminary round of championship weekend, 23 in the semifinals, seven consolation games and 12 championships. 
•  Of note: Preliminaries and consolation games are no longer part of the ECAC Hockey playoff format.
 

Watch The Team's Reaction To Its NCAA Selection:

 

Scouting Northeastern:

•  The Huskies (27-10-1) won the program's third Hockey East title last weekend, using a three-goal first period to power a 3-2 victory over upstart Boston College in the final. It was Northeastern's 12th victory over its last 14 games, three of which have come in overtime.
•  The team is led in scoring by junior defenseman Jeremy Davies (8-27–35), who is one of five players tied for the team lead with four power-play goals.  He's tied for seventh nationally in points per game for blueliners, with 20 of his 35 points coming on the man advantage.
•  One of the top lines is centered by freshman Tyler Madden (12-16–28), who is typically flanked on the left by senior Brandon Hawkins (12-20–32) — the team's leading scorer among forwards.
•  Sophomore Zach Solow (15-8–23) leads the team in goals, including a couple shorthanded strikes and six game-winners.
•  Sophomore Cayden Primeau (25-9-1, 2.00, .936, 4 SO), a Montreal Canadiens draft pick, is in his second year as the team's primary goaltender. He ranks second in the country in save percentage and 10th in goals against average.
•  Northeastern is tied for second in the country in third-period scoring, outscoring its opposition 51-28 in third periods throughout the season — plus six more in overtime.
•  Jim Madigan is in his eighth season as the head coach of his alma mater.
 

The Series Against Northeastern:

•  The Big Red owns a commanding 14-2 lead in the all-time series against the Huskies, though the programs have met just six times since Northeastern joined the faction leaving ECAC Hockey to start Hockey East in 1984. Cornell is 5-1 against Northeastern since that split.
•  The last meeting between the teams also marked the only time they've played each other during the postseason — a 3-2 victory for Cornell in the NCAA Midwest Region semifinal on March 28, 2009 in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Big Red was a perfect 7-for-7 on the penalty kill and scored three unanswered goals, capped by Evan Barlow's tally with just 18 seconds left in the third period.

 

NCAA Championship History:

•  The Big Red is appearing in the NCAA's national championship tournament for the 22nd time, which is tied for the third-most among 2019 qualifiers.
•  Since the NCAA tournament switched to single elimination in 1992, Cornell has advanced to the regional final or beyond in seven of 11 appearances. 
•  No other coach in this year's event has brought his current team to the NCAA tournament as often as Mike Schafer, who has guided the Big Red to its 12th trip to NCAAs in 24 years at the helm.
 

The Road Through Rhode Island:

•  For most, the road from Ithaca to Buffalo doesn't go through Providence — but Cornell will be looking to take that route for a second time in its recent history. The last time the Big Red competed in an NCAA regional in Providence was in 2003, when it defeated Minnesota State and Boston College. The Frozen Four was held in Buffalo that season — as it is this season — marking the last time Cornell has advanced as far as the national semifinals. 
 

Up Next:

•  The winner of Saturday's game will advance to a 4 p.m. Sunday contest against the winner of the regional's first semifinal between top-seeded Minnesota State and fourth-seeded Providence. The regional final will be televised on ESPN2.