Men's Hockey Welcomes Sacred Heart For Rare Tuesday Matchup

Mike Schafer '86
The Jay R. Bloom ‘77 Head Coach of Cornell Men’s Ice Hockey

THE PUCK DROP
• The Cornell men's hockey team concludes a three-game homestand at Lynah Rink on Tuesday evening when the Big Red takes on Sacred Heart at 7 p.m.

PRE-TURKEY DAY TILT
• Tuesday's game against Sacred Heart will be the 14th time in program history that the Big Red will be playing on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

• Of the 13 previous instances, eight have been during the tenure of Mike Schafer '86. Cornell is 5-2-1 in those games and is unbeaten in its last five games under the circumstances (4-0-1).

• It will the fourth consecutive time Cornell is squaring off against an Atlantic Hockey opponent on the Tuesday leading up to Thanksgiving. The previous three meetings were against fellow Empire State program Niagara (2011, 2013, 2017).

LYNAH FAITHFUL
• Playing at Lynah Rink in front of the Lynah Faithful has favored Cornell since Mike Schafer '86 took over as head coach prior to the 1995-96 season.

• Under Schafer, Cornell has a 263-102-48 record at Lynah Rink, good for a .695 win percentage. According to data from CollegeHockeyNews.com's database, the Big Red has the sixth-best home win percentage over the last 28-plus seasons.

• Only Michigan (.751), North Dakota (.725), Quinnipiac (.720), Boston College (.713), and Denver (.703) have higher win percentages on home ice than the Big Red.

• Since the beginning of the 2017-18 season, Cornell has been one of the more hostile places to play college hockey. Cornell has a 47-12-6 (.769) home record over the last five-plus seasons, which is the second-highest home win percentage in Division I hockey. Minnesota State has a 104-point lead on the Big Red with its .880 win percentage (90-11-3) on home ice.

• Cornell, over its last 33 games at Lynah Rink, has a 24-4-5 record dating back to the 2018-19 season.

DONALDSON EARNS WEEKLY HONOR
• Freshman forward Sean Donaldson was named ECAC Hockey's Rookie of the Week on Monday morning, the conference announced.

• Donaldson recorded a team-high four points in the Big Red's pair of victories of Yale and Brown last weekend. The Vancouver, British Columbia, native registered a pair of two-assist games for Cornell.

• He is the first Cornell player to be tabbed ECAC Hockey's top newcomer since teammates Kyler Kovich and Ondrej Psenicka shared the honor last year following the Big Red's two-game road series at North Dakota.

• Donaldson has a freshman-best five points (one goal, four assists) for Cornell.

POWER PLAY HEATING UP
• Cornell took advantage of its power-play situations last weekend, going 4-for-6 with the man advantage. The Big Red has scored on four of its last five power-play opportunities.

• The four power-play goals last weekend marked the first time Cornell logged at least four goals with a man advantage since the last weekend of regular-season play in 2019-20 (5).

KEOPPLE EARNS FIRST WIN
• Freshman goaltender Remington Keopple earned his first collegiate victory on Saturday against Brown in the Big Red's 5-1 victory.

• Keopple stopped 17 of the 18 shots in the victory — including the final 15 he faced — in the Big Red's Ivy League foe, becoming the first Cornell netminder to record his first collegiate win at Lynah Rink since Joe Howe last year against Alaska Fairbanks (Oct. 30, 2021).

PUTTING THE BODY ON THE LINE
• Cornell defensemen Travis Mitchell and Hank Kempf both rank in the top 10 in ECAC Hockey for blocked shots per game.

• Kempf is tied for fourth with his average of two blocked shots per game. Mitchell's 15 shots over his eight appearances is tied for eighth among ECAC players with Yale's Kieran O'Hearn (1.88).

• The Big Red is one of four ECAC Hockey programs to have multiple players in the top 10 in blocked shots, joined by fellow Ivy League opponents Brown, Princeton, and Yale.

WINNING THE DRAWS
• After spending his first three seasons at Union — a fellow ECAC school — junior Gabriel Seger has the fourth-most faceoff wins by an active player in the conference (602). Quinnipiac's Skyler Brind'Amour has the most with 1,021. Senior forward Max Andreev has won 525 draws, ranking as the sixth-most faceoffs won by an active ECAC player.

• The tandem of Seger and Andreev are the second pair of ECAC Hockey teammates to have least 500 career faceoff wins, joining Quinnipiac (Brind'Amour and Desi Burgart).

SHANE'S SHOW
• Sophomore goaltender Ian Shane has the second-lowest goals-against average (1.76) and the second-highest save percentage (.929) by an active ECAC Hockey goaltender. Quinnipiac's Yaniv Perets has the lead in both categories with his 1.34 goals-against average and .935 save percentage.

ON THE PLUS SIDE
• Cornell defensemen Travis Mitchell and Sam Malinski, along with Andreev, rank in the top 10 in highest plus-minus figures among active ECAC players.

• Malinski and Mitchell are currently tied for the fifth-highest plus-minus rating (plus-35). Both players have the second-highest plus-minus rating by an active ECAC Hockey blueliner. The tandem trails Quinnipiac's Zach Metsa, who has an ECAC Hockey-leading plus-67 rating.

• Of the forwards currently listed in the top 10, Andreev has the fourth-highest rating by a forward. Quinnipiac's Ethan de Jong (plus-51) and Michael Lombardi (plus-50), and Clarkson's Mathieu Gosselin (plus-39) having higher career plus-minus ratings.

ABOUT SACRED HEART
• Sacred Heart enters Tuesday's game with a 6-5-1 overall record and a 6-3-1 mark in Atlantic Hockey Association action.

• After starting the year with a 6-1-0 record, the Pioneers have been on a four-game winless skid, including dropping its last three games.

• Neil Shea leads Sacred Heart in scoring with 12 points in as many games (four goals, eight assists). Blake Humphrey (four goals, six assists) and Conner Hutchison (one goal, nine assists) also have double-digit point totals for the Pioneers.

• Luke Lush has started 10 of his 11 appearances this season, logging a 5-4-1 record with a 2.42 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage. Justin Robbins has started the remaining two games for Sacred Heart, posting a 1-1-0 record with a 4.20 goals-against average and a .833 save percentage.

THE SERIES
• Tuesday will be just the fourth meeting all-time between Sacred Heart and Cornell, and will be the first between the two programs since Jan. 6, 2007. The Big Red trails in the series, 1-2-0, but has outscored the Pioneers, 11-8, thanks to a 7-1 victory on Oct. 30, 2004.

• In the Big Red's six-goal victory during the 2004-05 season, future NHLer Matt Moulson scored two goals and was one of five players to register two-point nights for Cornell. Goaltender David McKee made 24 saves in the victory.

THE LAST TIME AGAINST SACRED HEART
RECAP

ITHACA, N.Y. (Jan. 6, 2007) – Alexandre Parent's third-period power-play goal snapped a 1-1 tie as Sacred Heart upset No. 11 Cornell, 2-1, at Lynah Rink.

The Pioneers took a 1-0 lead at 4:25 of the first period when Kyle Tull scored with assists from Nick Kary and Drew Sanders. Justin Krueger's first career goal tied the game for the Big Red at 11:29 of the second period.

Parent scored the game winner with one second left on a boarding penalty 5:31 into the third period. The power-play goal was the only one on four man-advantage opportunities for the Pioneers, while Cornell was held scoreless in its only power play of the night.

Troy Davenport made 19 saves for Cornell, and Jason Smith stopped 28 for Sacred Heart.

• Cornell scored five goals in both of its games this past weekend, aiding the Big Red to a pair of victories over Ivy League opponents Yale and Brown.

• The five-goal outputs in both games marked the first time Cornell had scored at least five times in each of its first two home games in a season since posting consecutive 7-1 victories over Army and Sacred Heart on Oct. 29 and 30, 2004.

• Freshman Sean Donaldson had a team-high four points, all of which came on assists, in the weekend sweep. Senior Zach Tupker (two goals, one assist), sophomore Kyle Penney (one goal, two assists), and freshman Dalton Bancroft (one goal, two assists) each had three-point weekends.

• Cornell excelled at the faceoff circle on the weekend, winning 72 of the 119 draws taken (60.5 percent). Junior Gabriel Seger had a team-best .760 win percentage on draws (19-of-25) in the pair of contests. Tupker had a Big Red-leading 21 wins at the faceoff dot.

• The Big Red also did not waste their power-play opportunities on the weekend, going 4-for-6 with the man advantage. Cornell went 2-for-3 on the power play in both games. 

BIG RED SCORE FIVE UNANSWERED IN WIN OVER YALE

RECAP I BOX SCORE
Senior Zach Tupker scored two of five unanswered goals to lead the Cornell men's hockey team to a 5-2 victory over Yale before 3,716 in the Big Red's home opener at Lynah Rink on Friday night.

Joining Tupker on the scoresheet was junior Gabriel Seger and freshmen Dalton Bancroft and Nick DeSantis.

Tupker, who registered his first collegiate multi-goal game, was one of three Big Red players to log multi-point nights, joining Sean Donaldson (two assists) and Bancroft (one goal, one assist).

Ian Shane posted his third victory of the season for Cornell, making 16 saves in the victory.

KEOPPLE LOGS FIRST CAREER VICTORY IN WIN OVER BROWN

RECAP I BOX SCORE 

Five different Cornell players found the back of the net to aid freshman goaltender Remington Keopple in recording his first collegiate win in the Big Red's 5-1 victory over Brown at Lynah Rink on Saturday night.

Jack O'Leary, Matt Stienburg, Jack Lagerstrom, Winter Wallace, and Kyle Penney all scored for the Big Red, who opened its home-opening weekend with a pair of wins over Ivy League foes.

Keopple, who was making his first start in front of the Lynah Faithful, made 17 saves to improve to 1-1-0 on the year.

2022-23 Roster

If you’ve never been to a Big Red hockey game at Cornell’s James Lynah Rink, there are quite a few things you’ve never experienced. You’ve never camped out in line just to get season tickets and ensure your spot as one of the raucous and devoted "Lynah Faithful." But most importantly, if you’ve never been to Lynah, you’ve never really experienced all the best that college hockey has to offer.

Lynah Rink, which turned 65 years old in 2022, is the home of Big Red hockey. The rink, which was dedicated April 6, 1957, was named in honor of the late James Lynah (class of 1905), director of athletics at Cornell from 1935-43.

• Cornell will head to New York City to square off against UConn at the Frozen Apple on Saturday, Nov. 26. Puck drop between the Huskies and Big Red is scheduled for 8 p.m. from Madison Square Garden.

• The matchup between UConn and Cornell will be the first time the two programs are squaring off against each other.

• Saturday's game will be Cornell's first against a Hockey East opponent that is not Boston University since it played Providence at the Fortress Invitational in Las Vegas on Jan. 4, 2020.