ITHACA, N.Y. — Sporting the nation's best winning percentage and sitting atop the polls for a third straight week, the Cornell men's hockey team hits the road this weekend for ECAC Hockey games Friday at Quinnipiac and Saturday at Princeton. Faceoff for both games is set for slightly after 7 p.m. both nights. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+ in the U.S. (with an option for international viewers also available through Stretch Internet). Featuring play-by-play from Jason Weinstein, the games can also be heard on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM) and worldwide through the station's website.

Game Information:

#1 Cornell at #18 Quinnipiac
7 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 31, 2020
PLACE: People's United Center  •  Hamden, Conn.
RECORDS: Cornell 14-1-4, 9-1-2 ECAC Hockey;
                    Quinnipiac 14-9-1, 7-4-1 ECAC Hockey
BROADCAST (U.S.): ESPN+
BROADCAST (Int'l): Stretch Internet
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS: GoBobcats.com
TICKETS: GoBobcats.com (password to access Cornell-specific ticket options is "cornell")
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell | Quinnipiac

#1 Cornell at Princeton
7 p.m. EST Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020
PLACE: Hobey Baker Rink  •  Princeton, N.J.
RECORDS: Cornell 14-1-4, 9-1-2 ECAC Hockey, 5-1-1 Ivy League;
                    Princeton 3-12-4, 1-8-3 ECAC Hockey, 0-4-1 Ivy League
BROADCAST (U.S): ESPN+
BROADCAST (Int'l): Stretch Internet
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS: GoPrincetonTigers.com
TICKETS: GoPrincetonTigers.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell | Princeton

Big Red Rewind:

•  Cornell extended its unbeaten streak to eight games with a 3-2 victory over Dartmouth on Friday and 1-1 deadlock with rival Harvard on Saturday. The Big Red is now 4-0-4 since suffering its lone loss to date, giving it the second-longest active unbeaten streak in the nation (Denver is 8-0-3 in its last 11).
•  Cornell retains the #1 spot in both national polls for a third straight week for the first time in program history. The Big Red collected 40 of 50 first-place votes in the USCHO.com poll and 30 of 34 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll.
•  The Big Red has lost once to date despite playing just eight home games to date – tied for fewest in the nation. This marks the first time since the undefeated, untied 1969-70 NCAA championship team that the Big Red has one or fewer losses through 19 games.

Highlights From Friday's Game vs. Dartmouth:

Highlights From Saturday's Game vs. #16 Harvard:

By The Numbers:

•  The Big Red leads the nation in winning percentage (.842) and team defense (1.47 goals against per game). Cornell also ranks 10th in offense (3.37 goals per game), which leads to the nation's third-largest scoring margin (+1.89).
•  For the first time in the program's modern-era history, Cornell did not surrender more than two goals in its first 14 games of the season. That helped the Big Red remain the last team in the nation to yield three goals or four goals in a game, and it's also one of just four teams that hasn't yet been gouged for five (Clarkson, Michigan and Michigan Tech are the others).
•  Cornell's power play ranks ninth in the nation with a 25.4% success rate. Junior forward Tristan Mullin leads the team with four goals on the man advantage, the latest of which came Friday against Dartmouth.
•  One of the keys to Cornell's success is its ability to play with the lead and – failing that – erasing deficits. Opponents have taken a one-goal lead on the Big Red 13 times this season, and in 12 of those instances Cornell has scored the next goal. The Big Red is not only the last remaining team in the country to suffer a two-goal loss, it's also the only team in nation to have not yet faced a two-goal deficit at any point.

Forward Thinking:

•  Junior forward Morgan Barron (9-12–21) leads the team in scoring after leading the team with 34 points a season ago. The Preseason All-ECAC Hockey selection 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.
•  Junior forward Brenden Locke (7-10–17) ranks second in team scoring, traditionally centering a line with Barron on the left wing. Classmate Cam Donaldson (4-12–16), who's tied for third in team scoring, typically joins them on the right wing. Locke (plus-18) and Donaldson (plus-17) both rank in the top 10 nationally and rank first and second in ECAC Hockey in plus-minus rating.
•  Locke's seven goals have come on just 26 shots on target, giving him an average of .269 goals per shot on the frame that is tied for fourth nationally.
•  Sophomore forward Michael Regush (8-6–14) ranks second on the team in goal-scoring after scoring a dramatic six-on-four goal inside the final two minutes of last Saturday's tie with Harvard. It was Regush's third power-play goal, which is one behind the four posted by junior Tristan Mullin (6-5–11).

More Than Just Defense:

•  Not only has Cornell surrendered just 15 even-strength goals this year (an average of 0.79 per game), it also ranks second in the nation with 2.89 points per game for defenseman.
•  Senior defenseman Yanni Kaldis (2-14–16), who is the team's leading active scorer with 77 collegiate points, had four assists last weekend to take over the team lead in that category. He's now tied for 12th nationally among defensemen with an average of 0.84 points per game. The three-time selection to the All-Ivy League first team was also a Preseason All-ECAC Hockey selection in September.
•  Junior defenseman Alex Green (4-8–12, plus-15), a fourth-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning, has already tripled his point production from an injury-riddled sophomore campaign.
•  Travis Mitchell (2-8–10, plus-15) leads the nation's freshman defensemen in rating.

Goaltending, Inc.:

•  Junior goaltender Matthew Galajda (14-1-4, 1.46, .940, 2 SO) was named the ECAC Hockey MAC Goaltending Goalie of the Week on Monday after stopping 49 of 52 shots against Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend. It was his second weekly accolade of the season.
•  Galajda ranks second in the nation in goals against average, having surrendered just 15 even-strength goals through 19 games. His save percentage also ranks third nationally.
•  Galajda recorded a 25-save shutout Jan. 10 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:

•  In addition to junior Matthew Galajda's collection of ECAC Hockey MAC Goaltending Goalie of the Week honors on Monday, Cornell laid claim to five of the league's weekly awards over its first five weeks of the season and two monthly awards for November. 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 in November 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 Quinnipiac:

•  Quinnipiac is 14-9-1 overall and 7-4-1 in ECAC Hockey play, coming off a second-place finish in the inaugural Connecticut Ice event in Bridgeport. Quinnipiac defeated UConn, 3-2, on Saturday before suffering a 4-1 loss to Sacred Heart in Sunday's championship game.
•  The loss to Sacred Heart was just the Bobcats' second in their last 10 games. A split of a home-and-home with Massachusetts on the final weekend of November started a six-game winning streak.
•  Quinnipiac slipped one spot to 18th in the USCHO.com poll this weekend, making Friday's game the Big Red's seventh against a ranked team in its nine games since the intersession break. The Bobcats are 8-2 at home.
•  One of three forwards selected to the ECAC Hockey Preseason All-League Team, junior Odeen Tufto (3-23–26) leads the team in scoring. He typically centers a line with the team's leading goal-scorer, sophomore Wyatt Bongiovanni (12-7–19), on the left wing and sophomore Ethan de Jong (5-8–13) on the right.
•  Junior Keith Petruzzelli (14-8-1, 2.28, .911, SO) has started all of the team's 24 games in goal after serving as the primary backup over the last two seasons. He's a draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings.
•  Traditionally strong on special teams, the Bobcats have struggled in those scenarios this year. The team's combined special teams percentage of 45.2 ranks 54th among the nation's 60 teams.
•  Quinnipiac is 9-1 in one-goal games. That one loss came against Cornell (2-1 on Nov. 22).
•  Rand Pecknold is in his 26th season as the head coach at Quinnipiac. 

The Series Against Quinnipiac:

•  Cornell leads the all-time series against Quinnipiac, 23-17-4, including a 2-1 victory in the teams' first meeting of the season on Nov. 22 at Lynah Rink.
•  All of the game's scoring came in the second period. Brenden Locke scored Cornell's first goal, then Michael Regush netted the winner on the power play a little more than two minutes after Quinnipiac had tied it.
•  Matthew Galajda made 13 of his 22 saves in the third period to earn the victory, which pushed Cornell's record to 7-0 at the time.
•  In its last trip to Hamden, Cornell rallied for a 2-2 tie on Jan. 5, 2019. Morgan Barron helped set up Cam Donaldson's power-play goal late in the first period, then scored an unassisted goal in the second to tie it.

Scouting Princeton:

•  Leading into Friday's game against Colgate, Princeton has been idle since Jan. 10 due to a two-week hiatus for exams.
•  The Tigers are 3-12-4 overall and 1-8-3 in ECAC Hockey, with that lone victory coming in its last time out. Junior forward Luke Keenan (5-3–8) scored with 0.6 seconds left in overtime to cap a 1-0 victory over St. Lawrence at SUNY Canton, backstopped by Jeremie Forget's 22-save shutout.
•  Sophomore right wing Corey Andonovski (6-10–16) leads the team in overall scoring, goals, and his three power-play goals are tied with senior defenseman Derek Topatigh (3-4–7) for most on the team. Andonovski is typically on the right wing of a line centered by Keenan.
•  Senior forward Jackson Cressey (4-9–13) ranks second in scoring, having eclipsed the 100-point plateau for his career earlier this season.
•  Princeton has scored just seven goals in the first period this season, which is fewest in the nation. Despite that fact and their overall record, the Tigers have been ahead or tied at the end of two periods in most of their games (11 of 19).
•  While junior Ryan Ferland (1-6-2, 3.23, .894) is still the team's primary goaltender with nine starts, sophomore Jeremie Forget (2-4-1, 2.22, .929, SO) has gotten the nod in the Tigers' last four games.
•  Ron Fogarty is in his sixth season as the head coach at Princeton after serving as the head coach at Adrian for seven years.

The Series Against Princeton:

•  Cornell has been dominant against the Tigers, holding a 95-52-8 lead all-time with wins in 10 of the teams' last 11 meetings.
•  The Big Red won the first meeting between the teams this year, scoring four times in the second period of a 5-1 victory on Nov. 23 at Lynah Rink. Cam Donaldson had a goal and an assist for Cornell, and linemate Ben Berard scored his first collegiate goal.
•  In its last visit to Princeton, Cornell came away with a 3-2 victory in a game bereft of any penalties on Jan. 4, 2019. Brenden Locke opened the scoring before the Tigers erased a two-goal deficit. Alec McCrea '19 scored the winner for Cornell.
•  The Big Red has scored 35 goals in its last eight games against Princeton (4.38 goals per game), and Cornell's penalty kill has a 88.9% success rate over the last 10 meetings – though the Tigers scored their lone goal in this season's first meeting on the power play.

Perfect Turns 50:

•  Last weekend marked a reunion for the 50th anniversary of Cornell's second national championship and the only team in men's hockey history to win an NCAA title after an undefeated season with no ties. The Big Red wore special commemorative jerseys for Friday's game at Dartmouth that listed the team's list of accomplishments from a memorable 1969-70 season that featured a sterling 29-0 record.
•  Festivities dotted the weekend, culminating with a ceremony to honor the returning members of the team during the first intermission of last Saturday's game against Harvard.

The League Within The League:

•  With last weekend's results, Cornell has pulled into solo possession of first place in the Ivy League standings. That means the Big Red can lock up its third straight and 20th overall Ivy League title if it wins each of its last three games against Ancient Eight foes. All of those games are on the road, starting Saturday at Princeton, then concluding with games Feb. 21 at Yale and Feb. 22 at Brown.
•  Cornell is 21-3-4 in its last 28 Ivy League contests.

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.

Chasing Whitelaw:

•  The Big Red enters this weekend tied with Clarkson atop the ECAC Hockey standings, though it will have a game in hand until Feb. 7. Cornell is the two-time defending Cleary Cup champion, sharing the honor last year with Friday's opponent, Quinnipiac. The Big Red has won the ECAC Hockey's regular-season title in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2002 and 2003, and winning it again this year would mark the first time in program history that it could boast three straight.

Draw Drama:

•  Cornell enters last weekend tied for sixth in the nation with a 53.4% success rate on faceoffs, but plummeted to 11th at 52.5% after rough performances last weekend. With two of its regular centers out of the lineup last weekend, the Big Red was 21-33 against Dartmouth (38.9%) and 30-31 against Harvard (49.2%).
•  Junior forward Kyle Betts leads the team by winning 57.6% of his draws, followed by junior forward Morgan Barron's 54.9% success rate. Junior forward Brenden Locke (54.0%) leads the team with 263 faceoffs taken.

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 472 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 two even-strength goals inside five minutes of any period this year. Both of those happened in second periods of the games against Dartmouth (Dec. 7 and last Friday).
•  In four-on-four play this season, Cornell has outscored its opposition, 2-0 (Tristan Mullin on Nov. 23 vs. Princeton; Michael Regush Jan. 17 vs. Northern Michigan), after holding a 6-1 advantage in those scenarios last season.

Up Next:

•  Cornell returns to the Empire State for a home-and-home series with Colgate next weekend. The teams first square off in the annual Courage Classic game at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7 in Ithaca before shifting over to Hamilton for a rematch at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8.