ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team welcomes ECAC Hockey play to Lynah Rink for the first time this season, kicking off a four-game home stand with contests against Union (7 p.m. Friday) and Rensselaer (7 p.m. Saturday) at Lynah Rink.

Game Information:

Union at #13 Cornell
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y. 
TIME: 7 p.m. Friday, November 12 
BROADCAST: ESPN+
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
TICKETS: Cornell Athletic Tickets
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell  |  Union

Rensselaer at #13 Cornell
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y. 
TIME: 7 p.m. Saturday, November 13 
BROADCAST: ESPN+
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
TICKETS: Cornell Athletic Tickets
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell  |  Rensselaer

How To Watch:

•  Featuring the call of Grady Whittenburg and color commentary from Tim Vanini '91, the games will be broadcast on ESPN+ in the U.S. (with an option for international viewers also available through Stretch Internet).
•  The games can also be heard on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM) with Jason Weinstein in his 17th season on play-by-play and Tony Eisenhut '88 providing color commentary.

Big Red Rewind:

•  In dramatic fashion, the Big Red split last weekend's road trip on junior forward Ben Berard's hat trick-capping goal with 6.2 seconds left in Saturday's 5-4 victory at Dartmouth. The strike came after the Big Green scored on a six-on-five to tie the game, tying the score for a third time.
•  Jack Malone and Kyle Penney scored the other goals, and despite having three leads evaporate the Big Red won a game in which it conceded four goals for the first time since Nov. 21, 2017 (a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over Niagara).
•  Cornell's weekend started with a bitter 3-2 loss at rival Harvard after it had scored the game's first two goals inside 21 minutes.
•  Junior forward Matt Stienburg opened the scoring with his second power-play goal in as many games, and junior defenseman Sam Malinski doubled the lead on a fortuitous bounce 47 seconds into the second.
•  Harvard scored three unanswered goals to take its one and only lead of the night, and Berard's bid to tie the game with 10 seconds left hit the post.

About the Big Red:

•  With his hat trick Saturday at Dartmouth and an assist the night prior at Harvard, junior Ben Berard (#29, 3-2–5) is both Cornell's leading scorer and the reigning ECAC Hockey Player of the Week.
•  Junior defenseman Sam Malinski (#24, 1-3–4) ranks second on the team in point and is tied with Berard for a team-best plus-3 rating.
•  Junior forward Matt Stienburg (2-1–3) has both of the Big Red's power-play goals to date — one in 4-on-3 play; one in 5-on-4. He joins Berard in entering Friday's game on a three-game scoring streak.
•  Sophomore forward Kyle Penney (#22, 1-0–1), sophomore defenseman Tim Rego (#12, 0-2–2), freshman defenseman Hank Kempf (#4, 0-1–1) and freshman forward Kyler Kovich (#6, 0-1–1) all recorded their first collegiate points last weekend.

No Experience Required:

•  The Big Red entered the season with zero varsity collegiate experience within its goaltending corps for the first time since the 1983-84 season.
•  Freshman Joe Howe (#34, 1-1, 1.50, .929, SO) and senior Nate McDonald (#33, 2-0, 2.98 .850) have split starts in goal for Cornell's first four games.
•  By making 20 saves Oct. 30 against Alaska, Howe became the first Cornell freshman goaltender to earn a shutout in his collegiate debut since the aforementioned 1983-84 season, when Don Fawcett '87 blanked Wilfrid Laurier (while Mike Schafer '86 was a sophomore on the blue line).
•  McDonald — the lone incumbent among the Big Red's goaltending trio who backed up All-American Matthew Galajda '21 and All-Ivy League first-teamer Austin McGrath '21 for his first two seasons at Cornell — became the first goaltender in modern program history to make his collegiate debut as a senior, making 21 saves to earn the overtime victory over Alaska on Oct. 29.

Flair For The Dramatic:

•  No one on the Big Red's roster had won a collegiate game in overtime before last weekend — and now they've all been a part of two in a span of just around 24 hours. 
•  With the caveat that college hockey's modified overtime rules encourage more scoring, Cornell's sweep of Alaska last weekend marks the program's first consecutive extra-session victories since March 10-11, 2006 — a pair of double-overtime wins over Clarkson to earn a sweep in an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series.

Wasting No Time:

•  One of the modern trends in college hockey is how much more quickly newcomers seem to be major contributors on their respective teams. The Big Red has been putting that reality on display in a variety of ways — including the fact that for a third straight season, the team's first goal has been scored by a freshman forward. Ondrej Psenicka (#26, 1-1–2) had the honor on Oct. 29, tipping in a shot by junior forward Zach Tupker (#21, 0-2–2).
•  Junior forward Jack Malone (#13, 1-0–1) scored the Big Red's first goal in 2019-20 (at Michigan State) and senior forward Max Andreev (#15, 0-1–1) got the scoring started in 2018-19 (also vs. Michigan State). 

Deep Up The Middle:

•  The Big Red rebounded from a rough opening weekend on draws, winning 60.3% of its  faceoffs over the road trip last weekend. That pulls Cornell up the 11th in the country with a 53.5% success rate on the season.
•  That's pretty close to where Cornell finished the 2019-20 season in faceoff rankings, when it was tied for 13th in the nation and third among ECAC Hockey programs at 52.5%. While that was two seasons ago, the Big Red still manages to return three of its top four centers from then.

Paring Down The Pairwise:

•  If not for the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cornell was a shoo-in to earn a berth to the NCAA tournament for a fourth consecutive season in 2019-20. That feat has only happened once in program history — a stretch from 1967 to 1970 that was book-ended by a pair of national championships.
•  The numbers bear out Cornell's standing as one of the nation's elite programs. The Big Red's season-ending average Pairwise Ratings Index scores over its last three seasons is 5.7. For comparison, that numbers ranks: 
       •  second in the country (trailing just Minnesota State, 3.7)
       •  first among ECAC Hockey programs (Clarkson 8.0, Quinnipiac 18.3, etc.)
       •  first among Ivy League programs (Harvard 22.7, Yale 36.0, etc.)

The First Ivy League Coach to 400 Wins:

•  Already the winningest coach in program history and in Ivy League history, Mike Schafer '86 ranks fifth among active coaches with 484 victories at the Division I level. He also leads all active coaches of Cornell's 37 varsity teams in career victories.

About Union:

•  The Dutchmen split league points at home last weekend with a 4-3 overtime win over Clarkson on Friday and a shootout loss to St. Lawrence following a 2-2 tie on Saturday. •  Freshman Collin Graf (#20, 3-2–5), who was moved from the wing to center last weekend, scored the winner against the Golden Knights. Junior center Gabriel Seger (#11, 2-4–6) scored an extra-attacker late in the third period to help Union salvage a point against the Saints the following night.
•  Freshman left winger Michael Hodge (#29, 4-4–8) leads the team in goals and shares the scoring lead with senior defenseman Brandon Estes (#7, 2-6–8).
•  Junior Connor Murphy (#31, 2-5-1, 2.98, .911) has started all 10 of Union's games in goal in his first season since transferring from Northeastern. Junior Garrett Nieto (0-1-1, 2.79, .850) has come on in relief twice, including Saturday's game against the Saints.
•  After having the 2020-21 season canceled due to the pandemic, Rick Bennett returns for his 10th season as the head coach at Union.

The Series With Union

•  Cornell holds a 44-22-10 lead in the all-time series and is 10-2-2 in the last 14 meetings between the squads, including a 5-2 victory on Feb. 14, 2020 when Union last visited Lynah Rink. The Big Red yielded just 11 shots on goal in that game.
•  In the teams' 15 meetings spanning the last four-plus seasons, Cornell's power play is 17-for-56 (30.4%) against Union, while the Dutchmen's power play is 16-for-64 (25%) against the Big Red over the same span.

About Rensselaer:

•  The Engineers have won four of their five last games following a split last weekend, losing 4-3 to St. Lawrence on Friday before defeating Clarkson, 3-1, on Saturday. 
•  Jakub Lacka (#39, 3-5–8, plus-7) and Ture Linden (#19, 3-5–8) are tied for the team lead in scoring, and Shane Sellar (#26, 4-1–5, plus-6) has taken the goal-scoring lead after potting the first two strikes against the Saints. Lacka and Sellar flanked sophomore John Beaton (#17, 0-4–4) on a line last weekend.
•  Sellar (via Dartmouth) is one of six transfers from other Division I programs on the Engineers' roster.
•  Graduate student Linden Marshall (#1; 5-2-1, 1.85, .919, SO) has reclaimed the starting goaltender's role for the first time since his freshman season after Owen Savory transferred to UMass Lowell.
•  After having the 2020-21 season canceled due to the pandemic, Dave Smith returns for his fourth season as the head coach at RPI after 12 seasons with the same role at Canisius.

The Series With Rensselaer

•  Cornell owns a 65-38-11 all-time series lead and is 28-10-8 against RPI since 2000. 
•  The Big Red swept the Engineers in the 2019-20 season series between the teams, cruising to a 3-0 shutout Jan. 10 at Houston Field House before also scoring the first three goals of what turned out to be a 4-2 victory Feb. 15 at Lynah Rink.
•  While RPI lost in its last visit, it left with victories in its two previous games in Ithaca — a 3-2 overtime win on Feb. 22, 2019 and a 2-1 victory on Feb. 3, 2018.

Here So Soon?:

•  The games this weekend will mark the first time Union and Rensselaer have played at Lynah Rink in November since 2005, when ECAC Hockey added Quinnipiac to its charges following the departure of Vermont for Hockey East.

Don't Forget ...

•  Despite the early end to the 2019-20 season, Cornell had already laid claim to its third straight and 20th overall Ivy League title. Entering next weekend's games at Harvard and Dartmouth, the Big Red is 24-3-4 in its last 30 Ivy League contests.
•  By a long shot, the Big Red enters this weekend on the nation's longest winning streak at nine games — although the obvious caveat is that the streak began Feb. 1, 2020. That's when Cornell defeated host Princeton, 5-3, to start a blazing-hot finish to the 2019-20 season, when all nine of its victories were by a margin of multiple goals. Just one of those victories consisted of fewer than four goals for the Big Red.

The Twin Tradition:

•  Juniors Ben and Zach Tupker give the Big Red its fourth pair of twins in Mike Schafer's 27-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 four players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, with the program laying claim to at least one selection in six of the last seven 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.
•  Another St. Andrew's College product, freshman forward Justin Ertel, was also selected in the third round of the draft. The Dallas Stars selected the budding power forward with the 79th overall pick last summer.
•  Junior forward Jack Malone was taken by the Vancouver Canucks in the sixth round in 2019, and freshman defenseman Hank Kempf was taken in the seventh round last summer by the New York Rangers.

Rare Territory:

•  Freshman goaltender Joe Howe is doing something that no Cornell men's hockey player has ever done before — wearing #34. It is the 36th number to be worn by a member of the Big Red, and currently only the second to be worn by just one player (fellow goaltender Eddie Skazyk '96 is the only to have worn #39).
•  Junior forward Jack Malone is the first Cornell men's hockey player to wear #13 in more than 50 years. 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.

Looking Ahead:

•  For last time before Jan. 21, the Big Red will play home games next weekend when it hosts ECAC Hockey and Ivy League foes Brown (Friday, Nov. 19) and Yale (Saturday, Nov. 20).
•  Cornell then turns its attention to one of the biggest dates on its calendar, when it takes on Boston University in Red Hot Hockey on Saturday, Nov. 27 at Madison Square Garden in New York.