ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team plays its final true home games for more than two months when it takes on ECAC Hockey and Ivy League foes Brown (7 p.m. Friday) and Yale (7 p.m. Saturday) at Lynah Rink.

Game Information:

Brown at #10 Cornell
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y. 
TIME: 7 p.m. Friday, November 19 
BROADCAST: ESPN+
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
TICKETS: Cornell Athletic Tickets
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell  |  Brown

Yale at #10 Cornell
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y. 
TIME: 7 p.m. Saturday, November 20 
BROADCAST: ESPN+
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
TICKETS: Cornell Athletic Tickets
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES (PDF): Cornell  |  Yale

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:

•  Cornell had a night to remember on Saturday, when it matched its highest offensive single-game output in 42 years with an 11-3 victory over visiting Rensselaer. It gave the Big Red a weekend sweep over the ECAC Hockey's Capital District teams after a 4-1 triumph against Union on Friday.
•  Senior forward Max Andreev was named the league's Player of the Week on Monday after an astounding eight-point effort on the weekend. He had a pair of assists against Union, but the pièce de résistance came in the form of four goals and two assists against RPI. It was the Big Red's first six-point performance since Nov. 8, 2003, and he was the team's first scorer of four goals in a single game since Jan. 29, 1991.
•  Not surprisingly, Andreev's linemates have also been producing. Junior Matt Stienburg had five points on the weekend and rides a five-game scoring streak into the weekend, and freshman Ondrej Psenicka has now scored in three straight games.
•  Freshman Joe Howe started both games in net and made a combined 44 saves to earn the victories.

Friday's Highlights:

Saturday's Highlights:

By The Numbers:

•  Senior forward Max Andreev (#15, 4-5–9, plus-7) has surged to a tie for the team lead with junior forward Matt Sitenburg (#20, 3-6–9, plus-7). The duo has played on the same line in every game to date, with freshman forward Ondrej Psenicka (#26, 3-1–4, plus-8) joining them for the games against the Capital District teams.
•  Powered by a hat trick Nov. 6 at Dartmouth, junior Ben Berard (#29, 4-3–7) now ranks third in team scoring. Along with Andreev, he gives Cornell consecutive ECAC Hockey Player of the Week honorees after Ben Berard's claim to the award on Nov. 8.
•  Sophomore defenseman Tim Rego (#12, 2-3–5) scored his first two collegiate goals on Saturday to move into a tie for the team lead for scoring among blueliners with junior Sam Malinski (#24, 1-4–5).

No Experience Required:

•  Freshman Joe Howe (#34, 3-1, 1.75, .922, SO) started both games last weekend after splitting starts with senior Nate McDonald (#33, 2-0, 2.98 .850) in the team'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.
•  The Big Red entered the season with zero varsity collegiate experience within its goaltending corps for the first time since the 1983-84 season.

A Night To Remember:

•  Last Saturday's 11-3 victory over Rensselaer created a long list of occurrences that had not been achieved by the Big Red in a long time. Among them:
    »    Cornell scored at least 10 goals for the first time since Nov. 20, 1999 (10-4 vs. Clarkson).
    »    Cornell scored 11 goals for the first time since Feb. 21, 1979 (11-3 vs. Harvard).
    »    Andreev's six points were the most for a Big Red player in a single game since Ryan Vesce '04 had seven on Nov. 8, 2003 (7-0 at Princeton).
    »    Andreev's four goals were the most for a Big Red player in a single game since Ryan Hughes '93 on Jan. 29, 1991 (5-4 loss vs. Boston College).
    »    Cornell scored at least 15 goals in a two-game span for the first time since March 8-9, 1996 (both games vs. Colgate, 8-3 and 8-1).
    »    Cornell scored at least 11 goals in a single game against Rensselaer for the second time in 115 all-time meetings (the other was 13-1 on Feb. 16, 1924).

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 had the honor on Oct. 29, tipping in a shot by junior forward Zach Tupker (#21, 1-3–4).
•  Junior forward Jack Malone (#13, 2-0–2) scored the Big Red's first goal in 2019-20 (at Michigan State) and senior forward Max Andreev 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, having won 57.4% of faceoffs over the last four games. That pulls Cornell up to a tie for 10th in the country with a 53.3% 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.

Flair For The Dramatic:

•  No one on the Big Red's roster had won a collegiate game in overtime before Oct. 29-30, but they were all been a part of two such victories 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.

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 486 victories at the Division I level. He also leads all active coaches of Cornell's 37 varsity teams in career victories.

About Brown:

•  The Bears started off the their season with a 2-0 victory over Yale, then was swept at home by Princeton (6-3 on Nov. 5) and Quinnipiac (1-0 on Nov. 6) before sitting idle last weekend. 
•  Graduate student Luke Kania (#35, 1-1, 3.09, .915, SO) backstopped the win over the Bulldogs, but was then pulled late in the second period of the loss to the Tigers. Freshman Mathieu Caron (#31, 0-1, 1.46, .964) has tended goal since, including a 34-save effort in a hard-luck loss to the Bobcats. 
•  Junior linemates Nathan Plessis (#11, 2-0–2) and Cole Quisenberry (#29, 0-2–2) are the forwards among the early scoring leaders, along with junior defenseman Samuli Niinisaari (#19, 0-2–2).
•  Both of the team's power-play goals so far have come from the top defensive pairing of junior Luke Krys (#2, 1-0–1) and freshman Brett Bliss (#4, 1-0–1) — the latter of whom is the younger brother of former Cornell defenseman Ryan Bliss '18.
•  The Bears' penalty kill is off to a strong start with a 95% success rate, having conceded just one goal in 20 opportunities.
•  Brendan Whittet is in his 11th season as the head coach at his alma mater after previously serving as an assistant coach at Dartmouth.

The Series With Brown

•  Cornell has a commanding 82-43-8 lead in the all-time series with Brown, entering Friday's game on a 16-game unbeaten streak (13-0-3) dating back to to Jan. 26, 2013.
•  Mike Schafer is a dominating 40-7-6 against the Bears during his 25-plus seasons as the Big Red's head coach.
•  The Big Red swept the 2019-20 season series via victories of 4-1 at home on Nov. 8, 2021 and 3-0 on Feb. 22, 2020 in what was ultimately the team's final road game before the Covid pandemic shutdown. Junior defenseman Sam Malinski scored in both games, meaning two of his four goals as a freshman came against the Bears. 

About Yale:

•  The Bulldogs are winless in their first four games after a 6-3 loss last Friday at Army West Point. All five of the team's goals to date have come in its last two games after season-opening shutout losses to Brown and Quinnipiac. 
•  All of the team's four goals from forwards have come from a line centered by sophomore Niklas Allain (#11, 2-2–4), son of 15th-year head coach Keith Allain. Junior Cole Donhauser (#23, 1-0–1) and sophomore Teddy Wooding (#16, 1-0–1) have typically flanked the younger Allain.
•  One of just three seniors on the team, defenseman Graham Lillibridge (#24, 1-0–1) has Yale's other goal. Another one of the elder statesmen, forward Justin Pearson (#18, 0-1–1) leads the team in shots on goal with 19. He ranked second in the team in scoring during the 2019-20 season with 24 points.
•  All three goaltenders on Yale's roster of a scant 24 players have started games already. Sophomore Nathan Reid (#47, 0-2, 4.04, .869) started the games against Quinnipiac and Princeton, while junior Connor Hopkins (#1, 0-1, 4.06, .911) made 41 saves in last Friday's game against the Black Knights.
•  Yale's most recent outing was actually an exhibition, when it suffered a 3-1 home loss to nearby Sacred Heart. Freshman forward William Dineen (#17, 0-0–0) scored the goal.

The Series With Yale:

•  The teams have tangled 154 times since the series started in 1902, with the Cornell holding a 87-61-8 lead. The Big Red is 8-3-3 in its last 14 games against the Bulldogs.
•  Cornell swept the season series in 2019-20 by a cumulative score of 10-2. A hat trick from Morgan Barron '20 inside 23 minutes plus the first collegiate goal in the career of junior forward Zach Tupker highlighted a 6-2 Big Red victory in the Bulldogs' last visit to Ithaca on Nov. 9, 2019. Cornell then rolled to a 4-0 win in the rematch on Feb. 21, 2020 in New Haven.

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 this weekend's games against Brown and Yale, the Big Red is 25-4-4 in its last 32 Ivy League contests.

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:

•  Cornell 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.
•  The Big Red then wraps up the fall semester portion of its schedule with an ECAC Hockey road trip to the North Country, taking on St. Lawrence at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 3 and Clarkson at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4.