LAS VEGAS — The Cornell men's hockey team plays for the championship at the inaugural Fortress Invitational at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Saturday, when it battles Providence in a rematch of the 2019 NCAA East Region final at T-Mobile Arena. The game will be broadcast through FloHockey.tv, with Darren Milard providing play-by-play and Mike McKenna on color analysis. Featuring the call of Jason Weinstein, the game can also be heard on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM) and worldwide through the station's website.

Game Information:

Fortress Invitational, championship game
#2 Cornell vs. #14 Ohio State
5:30 p.m. PST Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020
PLACE: T-Mobile Arena  •  Las Vegas, Nev.
RECORDS: Cornell 11-1, 7-1 ECAC Hockey;
                    Providence 11-5-4, 6-4-2 Hockey East
BROADCAST: FloHockey.tv
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
LIVE STATS: Friars.com
TICKETS: FortressInvitational.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell

Friday Night Redux:

•  Cornell showed no signs of rust in Friday's semifinals, powering past Ohio State, 5-2, in a match-up of national top-10 teams and the Big Red's first game action in four weeks. 
•  Freshmen scored Cornell's first three goals, including two from forward Ben Berard that book-ended forward Matt Stienburg's first collegiate strike.
•  Berard's first goal and junior forward Tristan Mullin's tally in the third period gave the Big Red a perfect 2-for-2 performance on the power play for just the third time in the last 10 years. Cornell had entered the game on an 0-for-18 slump on the man advantage. 
•  Junior goaltender Matthew Galajda made a season-high 30 saves, half of which came in the first period alone. Just five of Ohio State's first 20 shots on goal came from inside the faceoff dots, according to the game's shot charts.

About The Fortress Invitational:

•  T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is hosting a midseason college hockey tournament for a third straight season, though this is the first season under the tournament's new moniker. Arizona State won the first rendition of the Ice Vegas Invitational in 2018, then Western Michigan won last season. The tournament has since been rebranded after the local NHL team came on board as hosts for the event.

The First "Half":

•  Cornell boasts the nation's best winning percentage coming into the new year for the second time in the last three seasons, with last night's victory pushing the team to 11-1. 
•  The Big Red was the last team in the nation to suffer its first loss, rattling off 10 consecutive wins to start the year before a 2-1 loss Dec. 7 at Dartmouth wrapped up game action before a four-week break for final exams and the holidays.
•  Cornell's 10-0 start marked the program's best in 50 years, dating back to a memorable 1969-70 campaign that ended with an unprecedented 29-0 record and the program's second national title.
•  The Big Red entered the weekend ranked second in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine national polls.

By The Numbers:

•  The Big Red not only leads the country in team defense (1.42 goals against per game), it also ranks third in offense (3.92 goals per game). That leads to the nation's second-largest scoring margin (+2.50).
•  For the first time in the program's modern-era history, Cornell has not surrendered more than two goals in its first 12 games of the season. Not only is the Big Red the last remaining team in the nation yet to yield three goals in a game, it's also the last remaining team yet to concede four.
•  Despite enduring an 0-for-18 slump over five games entering this weekend, Cornell now ranks third in the nation with a 28.6% success rate on the power play. The Big Red was 2-for-2 on the man advantage last night, with goals coming from freshman Ben Berard and junior Tristan Mullin.
•  One of the keys to Cornell's hot start has been its ability to play with the lead. The Big Red scored first in each of its 11 victories and only trailed for a scant 16 minutes, 5 seconds in that stretch — all in its season opener at Michigan State. In fact, Cornell hadn't trailed for a stretch of 571:34 until Dartmouth opened the scoring in what was ultimately a 2-1 loss on Dec. 7.
•  The Big Red has scored 25 of its 47 goals in second periods this year. That's an average of 2.08 goals per middle stanza, which by a wide margin leads the country for any period. The next closest is Massachusetts' average of 1.68 goals per third period.

The Red's Barron:

•  Junior forward Morgan Barron (7-8–15) leads the team in scoring and ranks tied for 15th in the nation with an average of 1.25 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 (5-7–12) ranks second in team scoring with a team-best plus-14 rating that ranks tied for ninth in the nation. Since being reunited on a line with junior forward Cam Donaldson (2-9–11), both players have a plus-12 rating over 10 games.
•  Locke's five goals have come on just 12 shots on target, giving him a national-best average of .417 goals per shot on the frame.
•  Sophomore forward Michael Regush (5-4–9) is tied with Locke for second on the team in goal-scoring after netting 12 goals in his collegiate debut. His two power-play goals are tied for the team lead with Barron, sophomore forward Max Andreev (2-7–9) and junior forward Tristan Mullin (3-3–6).
•  Scoring depth has powered the Big Red in the early going. Nine forwards already have multiple goals for Cornell through 12 games compared to 12 for all of last season.

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. He enters tonight's game ranked ninth in the nation in scoring for defensemen (0.92 points per game).
•  Senior defenseman Yanni Kaldis (2-8–10) is the team's leading active scorer with 71 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 (2-7–9, plus-9) ranks second nationally in scoring for freshman defenseman with an average of 0.75 points per game. His 30 shots on goal are tied for second-most on the team and is tops among blueliners.

Goaltending, Inc.:

•  Junior goaltender Matthew Galajda (11-1, 1.42, .941) ranks second in the nation in goals against average, having surrendered just seven even-strength goals through 12 games. His save percentage also ranks fourth nationally. 
•  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.

Go West, Young Men:

•  This weekend marks just the second time in program history that Cornell has played games in the Pacific Time Zone. The first time came Jan. 3-5, 1986 at the Thunderbird Centennial Classic in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Big Red swept three games against British Columbia, Seibu (Japan) and Yale to win the tournament title.

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.

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 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). Zach Tupker (1-0–1) scored his first collegiate Nov. 9 vs. Yale.

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 Providence:

•  The Friars entered the weekend ranked 14th in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey polls, then improved to 11-5-4 with a 3-1 victory over Army West Point in Friday's first semifinal at the Fortress Invitational.
•  Sophomore forward Jack Dugan (7-29–36; plus-14) leads the nation in scoring. He typically plays on the right wing of a line opposite junior forward Greg Printz (12-9–21; plus-13), who ranks second in team goal-scoring. Dugan is an draft pick of the Vegas Golden Knights.
•  Providence has more than one potent line, with sophomore forward Tyce Thompson (14-16–30; 5 PPG) ranking third in the nation in overall scoring, and leading the team in goals and 76 shots on goal. Thompson usually centers a line flanked on the left by freshman Patrick Moynihan (7-5–12; 6 PPG), who is tied for fifth in the nation in power-play goals.
•  Freshman forward Parker Ford (6-8–14) has missed the team's last three games while competing with the United States at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship, though he may return in time for tonight's game.
•  Providence's power play ranks sixth in the nation with a 26.9% success rate, and the team's overall special teams rank fourth (56.7%).
•  Senior Michael Lackey (11-5-4, 2.21, .922, 2 SO) is in his first season as the team's starting goaltender after joining the Friars via graduate transfer from Harvard. He's 1-3 in his career against Cornell, but with a solid 1.81 goals against average and .941 save percentage in those games.
•  Nate Leaman is in his eighth season as the head coach after serving in the same position for eight years at Union. 

The Series Against Providence:

•  The Friars took the lead in the all-time series between the teams, 10-9-1, after defeating the Big Red, 4-0, on March 31 in the NCAA East Region championship game in Providence, R.I.
•  The last time the teams met during an in-season tournament was memorable, with Cornell securing a 2-1 overtime victory in a semifinal of the now-defunct Florida College Hockey Classic on Dec. 28, 2015 in Estero, Fla.
•  Jeff Kubiak '17 scored in overtime for Cornell to hand Providence, which was the defending national champion and No. 1-ranked team at the time, its first loss of the season.
•  A fair share of the previous meetings between the teams came in ECAC Hockey tournament play during the 1970s and 1980s with Providence winning the conference championship matchup by an 8-4 tally in 1981. 
•  Mike Schafer is 2-3 against Providence as the Big Red's head coach, with the first victory coming in his first season at the helm in 1996.

First Ivy Coach To 400:

•  Already the winningest coach in program history and in Ivy League history, Mike Schafer ranks fifth among active coaches with 469 victories at the Division I level. He also leads all actives coaches of Cornell's 37 varsity teams in career victories.

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.

Up Next:

•  Cornell returns to ECAC Hockey play next weekend when it wraps up its current stretch of seven consecutive games away from home. The Big Red visits Rensselaer at 7 p.m. Friday before venturing across New York's Capital District to take on Union at 7 p.m. Saturday.