ITHACA, N.Y. — After an arduous stretch of seven straight games away from home, the Cornell men's hockey team finally returns to Lynah Rink this weekend to wrap up its non-league schedule with a two-game series against nationally-ranked Northern Michigan. The teams are set to faceoff at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. Featuring the call of Grady Whittenburg and color commentary from former assistant coach and team captain Topher Scott '08, the games will be broadcast on ESPN+ in the U.S. (with an option for international viewers also available through portal.stretchinternet.com). The games can also be heard on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM) with Jason Weinstein back for his 16th season on play-by-play and Tony Eisenhut '88 on color commentary.

Series Information:

#17 Northern Michigan at #1 Cornell
GAME 1: 7 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 17, 2020
GAME 2: 7 p.m. EST Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020
PLACE: Lynah Rink  •  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 12-1-2, 8-1-1 ECAC Hockey;
                    Northern Michigan 13-7-2, 11-5 WCHA
BROADCAST: Friday | Saturday
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
TICKETS: Friday | Saturday
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell | Northern Michigan

Big Red Rewind:

•  Cornell has ascended to #1 in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls, having lost just once in its first 15 games despite playing the nation's fewest home games to date (four). It's the first time the Big Red has claimed the top spot in both national polls since Jan. 29, 2018. 
•  The Big Red took three of four points in league play on the road last weekend, blanking Rensselaer on Friday, 3-0, before erasing a pair of deficits to muster a 3-3 tie Saturday at Union. Junior forward Tristan Mullin had a goal and an assist in both games, and junior forward Brenden Locke also scored in both contests.
•  Junior goaltender Matthew Galajda made 25 saves against the Engineers for his second shutout of the season and the 16th of his collegiate career.
•  The Big Red enters the weekend with the nation's best winning percentage (.867), having lost just once despite playing 11 of its first 15 contests away from home. While Cornell trails Clarkson by one point for the ECAC Hockey lead, the Big Red has a game in hand on the Golden Knights.

Highlights From The Rensselaer Game:

Highlights From The Union Game:

By The Numbers:

•  The Big Red ranks second in the country in team defense (1.47 goals against per game) and ranks sixth in offense (3.67 goals per game). That leads to the nation's third-largest scoring margin (+2.20).
•  For the first time in the program's modern-era history, Cornell had not surrendered more than two goals in its first 14 games of the season — a stretch that came to an end Saturday with a 3-3 draw at Union. Not only was the Big Red the last team in the nation to yield three goals in a game, it's remains the last remaining team yet to concede four and one of just six teams that hasn't been gouged for five (Clarkson, Michigan, Michigan Tech, Penn State and UMass-Lowell are the others).
•  Cornell's power play is 3-for-8 since the semester break, which it entered on an 0-for-18 slump. The Big Red now ranks seventh in the nation with a 27.3% success rate on the power play.
•  One of the keys to Cornell's hot start has been its ability to play with the lead. The Big Red has scored first in each of its last 11 victories and it has only trailed for a scant 16 minutes, 5 seconds in its 12 wins.
•  The Big Red has scored 27 of its 55 goals in second periods this year. That's an average of 1.80 goals per middle stanza, which leads the country for any period. The next closest is Northern Michigan's average of 1.73 goals per third period.

The Red's Barron:

•  Junior forward Morgan Barron (9-9–18) leads the team in scoring and ranks tied for third in ECAC Hockey and 17th in the nation with an average of 1.20 points per game.
•  Barron became the first Cornell men's hockey player with at least 12 points through six games since Matt Moulson '06 and Ryan Vesce '04 both did so in the 2003-04 campaign.
•  A sixth-round draft pick of the New York Rangers, Barron was named to the All-ECAC Hockey first team last season after leading the squad with 34 points on 15 goals and 19 assists. He was tabbed a Preseason All-ECAC Hockey selection in September.

Forward Thinking:

•  Junior forward Brenden Locke (7-8–15) ranks second in team scoring and classmate Cam Donaldson (2-11–13) is third, with the duo typically playing on the same line together. Locke's plus-17 rating is tied for fifth in the nation. 
•  Donaldson's average of 0.85 assists per game ranked 10th in the nation, and his plus-15 rating is ranked tied for 11th in the nation.
•  Locke's seven goals have come on just 17 shots on target, giving him a national-best average of .412 goals per shot on the frame.
•  Sophomore forward Michael Regush (6-5–11) is third on the team in goal-scoring, just ahead of junior forward Tristan Mullin (5-5–10). Mullin leads the team with three power-play goals, while Regush, sophomore forward Max Andreev (2-7–9) and junior forward Morgan Barron have two apiece.

More Than Just Defense:

•  Junior defenseman Alex Green (3-8–11, plus-11), a fourth-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning, has already more than doubled his point production from an injury-riddled sophomore campaign.
•  Tied with Green in scoring is senior defenseman Yanni Kaldis (2-9–11), who is the team's leading active scorer with 72 collegiate points. The three-time selection to the All-Ivy League first team was also a Preseason All-ECAC Hockey selection in September.
•  Sam Malinski (2-8–10, plus-11) ranks fifth nationally in scoring for freshman defenseman with an average of 0.67 points per game. His 42 shots on goal are tied for second-most on the team and is tops among blueliners.

Goaltending, Inc.:

•  Junior goaltender Matthew Galajda (12-1-2, 1.46, .939, 2 SO) ranks second in the nation in goals against average, having surrendered just nine even-strength goals through 15 games. His save percentage also ranks fifth nationally.
•  Galajda recorded a 25-save shutout last Friday at Rensselaer, which was the 16th of his collegiate career. That keeps him in third place on the program's all-time list, trailing just 18 posted by David McKee (2003-06) and 19 by Ben Scrivens '10.
•  Galajda has returned to form after sophomore season was cut short by multiple injuries. As a freshman, he was a Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist, a Mike Richter Award finalist, a first-team All-American, the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year and Ivy League Player of the Year.
•  The Big Red has the rare claim of two all-league goaltenders from a season ago in Galajda and classmate Austin McGrath. Though McGrath hasn't appeared yet this season, he was an All-Ivy League first-team selection last year.

Honor Roll:

•  Cornell laid claim to five of ECAC Hockey's weekly awards over its first five weeks of the season and two monthly awards for November. Junior Matthew Galajda was named the league's goalie of the month and freshman defenseman Sam Malinski was tabbed rookie of the month.
•  Three of the team's five weekly honors to date were rookies of the week. Malinski earned the accolade after each of his first two weekends in the collegiate ranks (Nov. 4, Nov. 11), then freshman forward Ben Berard claimed it Nov. 25 after scoring his first collegiate goal two days earlier against Princeton.

The Twin Tradition:

•  The arrival of freshmen Ben and Zach Tupker give the Big Red its fourth pair of twins in Mike Schafer's 25-year tenure as the program's head coach. The others were the Devins (Joe and Mike, 2007-11), the Abbotts (Chris and Cam, 2001-06), and the McRaes (Mark and Matt, 1999-2003).

Feel The Draft?:

•  Cornell has six players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft — at least one in each of the last five drafts. Freshman forward Matt Stienburg (Colorado Avalanche) was selected earliest in that group, having been taken in the third round with the 63rd overall pick in June.
•  Junior defenseman Matt Cairns (Edmonton Oilers) was also taken in the third round with the 84th overall pick in the 2016 draft. Classmate Alex Green was taken with an overaged selection by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2018 draft, and Misha Song (2015 sixth round, New York Islanders) gives the Big Red blue line three NHL picks.
•  Two sixth-round picks also give Cornell three NHL picks when joined by Stienburg. Junior Morgan Barron, a fellow St. Andrew's graduate, was snagged in the sixth round by the N.Y. Rangers in 2017. Freshman Jack Malone was taken by the Vancouver Canucks in the sixth round last summer.

Scouting Northern Michigan:

•  The Wildcats have won five straight to bring itself squarely back into the mix for NCAA tournament at-large contention, now sitting at 13-7-2 overall, 11-5 in WCHA play and 15th in the Pairwise. Northern is coming off a two-game sweep of Alaska-Anchorage at home last weekend with scores of 4-1 and 6-3.
•  Sophomore left wing Griffin Loughran (17-11–28; 5 PPG; plus-13) is tied for the national lead in goals, but he also leads his team with 20 penalties in 22 games. He typically plays on a line centered by junior Joseph Nardi (5-14–19; plus-14).
•  Sophomore right wing Vincent de Mey (12-9–21; 5 PPG) leads the Wildcats in shots on goal while ranking second in goals and overall scoring. He has played opposite Loughran before, but more recently has flanked a line with sophomore Ty Readman (4-12–16) at center. 
•  Senior defenseman Philip Beaulieu (3-16–19; plus-12) leads the team in assists and ranks tied for 10th nationally in scoring from the blue line.
•  Sophomore Nolan Kent (9-2, 2.50, .916) has taken over as the team's primary goaltender role from freshman John Hawthorne (4-5-2, 3.03, .887, SO).
•  Northern Michigan has outscored its opponents in third periods, 38-15. 
•  Grant Potulny is in his second season as the head coach of the Wildcats after serving as an assistant coach at Minnesota, his alma mater, for eight years.

The Series Against Northern Michigan:

•  Cornell swept a two-game set Nov. 9-10, 2018 in Marquette to take a 5-3 lead in the all-time series against Northern Michigan.
•  Michael Regush scored game-winning, power-play goals in both games for the Big Red — an effort that would lead to him being named ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week.
•  Cam Donaldson opened the scoring in the first game, later adding an assist in a 3-1 victory that saw the Big Red yield just 13 shots on goal.
•  In the rematch the next night, Cornell struck for three power-play goals. Morgan Barron had one of those on a five-on-three, and Matthew Galajda made 24 saves to preserve the victory.
•  Prior to last year's series in Marquette, the teams last met in the first round of the final iteration of the Florida College Hockey Classic on Dec. 28, 2016 in Estero, Fla. Cornell prevailed, 5-2.
•  The first three meetings came in NCAA tournament play in 1980 and 1981, then Cornell won 4-3 in overtime on Jan. 2, 1987 in Hartford, Conn.

Rare Territory:

•  Freshman forward Jack Malone is doing something that no Cornell men's hockey player has done in more than 50 years — wear #13. The perceived unluckiest of numbers has only been donned by five previous members of the Big Red, all in the first nine years of the program's resurrection in 1957. The last to wear 13 was James Wallace during the 1965-66 season. The number must not be too unlucky, though. Malone scored in his first collegiate game; a goal that was also the team's first of the season.

Two Crowns Down:

•  Cornell won the program's 23rd Ivy League championship last year, marking the Big Red's second straight Ivy crown and its 19th outright title. Cornell is 20-3-3 in its last 26 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.

First Ivy League Coach To 400:

•  Already the winningest coach in program history and in Ivy League history, Mike Schafer '86 ranks fifth among active coaches with 470 victories at the Division I level. He also leads all actives coaches of Cornell's 37 varsity teams in career victories.

Neither Here Nor There:

•  Cornell is one of four remaining teams in the nation to not have a short-handed goal for or against in a game yet this season. The others are Brown, Rensselaer and New Hampshire. The Big Red hasn't scored a non-empty-net short-handed goal since Nov. 4, 2016 (Mitch Vanderlaan '19 at Dartmouth).
•  The Big Red has yielded just one even-strength goal inside five minutes of any period this year. That one occurrence happened to be in Cornell's lone loss to date — Dec. 7 at Dartmouth, when Matt Baker's goal inside the first minute of the second period proved to be the winner for the Big Green.
•  In four-on-four play this season, Cornell has outscored its opposition, 1-0 (Tristan Mullin; Nov. 23 vs. Princeton), after holding a 6-1 advantage in those scenarios last season.

Up Next:

•  Cornell continues its home stand with a highly-anticipated ECAC Hockey and Ivy League weekend. The Big Red hosts Dartmouth — the only team yet to defeat Cornell — at 7 p.m. Friday before a showdown with rival Harvard at 7 p.m. Saturday.