THE PUCK DROP
• The Cornell men's hockey team heads to the Big Apple to play No. 6-ranked UConn on Saturday in the fifth implementation of The Frozen Apple at Madison Square Garden. Puck drop between the Huskies and Big Red is slated for 8 p.m. from midtown Manhattan.
BACK IN THE BIG APPLE
• Cornell will be playing its 27th all-time game at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night — the 19th at its current location. The Big Red holds an all-time record of 16-8-2 at the World's Most Famous Arena, which includes a 5-1-1 mark in its last seven games played at the venue.
• Six different players scored for Cornell in its 6-4 victory over Boston University last year at Madison Square Garden in the biennial Red Hot Hockey game between the Terriers and Big Red.
• Sam Malinski and Brenden Locke each registered multi-point nights for the victorious Big Red, registering a goal and an assist. Goaltender Joe Howe stopped 27 shots in the win.
• Cornell is 3-1 all-time in the Frozen Apple, defeating Michigan (5-1) in 2012 before posting consecutive 3-1 victories over Penn State (2014) and New Hampshire (2016). Harvard won the last Frozen Apple contest, 4-1, in 2018.
SCHAFER REACHES 500-WIN PLATEAU
• Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom ‘77 Head Coach of Men’s Hockey, reached a historic milestone on Nov. 4 at Hobey Baker Memorial Rink in Princeton, N.J.
• With the Big Red's 3-1 victory over Princeton, Schafer notched his 500th career head coaching victory, becoming the 21st Division I hockey head coach to reach 500 career wins.
• Schafer is the seventh active head coach, and the fourth at the Division I level, to register 500 career coaching victories.
• The other Division I coaches with at least 500 career wins include Mercyhurst’s Rick Gotkin (591), ECAC Hockey counterpart Rand Pecknold of Quinnipiac (590), and Notre Dame’s Jeff Jackson (564).
• Schafer’s 504 career wins stand as the most by a Cornell hockey head coach and is the most by any active head coach of Cornell's 37 varsity sports.
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.
FINDING THE SCORESHEET
• Sophomores Jack O'Brien and Sullivan Mack, and freshmen Sean Donaldson and Dalton Bancroft enter tonight's game riding three-game point streaks, which are career longs for the Big Red quartet.
• O'Leary has points in four of his five games played this season. He and Mack both have one goal and two assists during their respective three-game point streaks.
• Donaldson has registered five assists over his last three games, which includes a pair of two-assist games against ECAC Hockey and Ivy League rivals Yale and Brown last weekend.
• Bancroft has four points (one goal, three assists) over his last three games.
POWER PLAY HEATING UP
• After scoring just one power-play goal in its first 15 opportunities, Cornell's power play has been clicking on all cylinders. The Big Red has gone 6-of-16 (37.5 percent) with the man advantage since Nov. 11 at St. Lawrence.
• 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 six power-play opportunities, after going 0-for-1 in Tuesday's outing against Sacred Heart.
• 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).
DOMINATING THE SECOND PERIOD
• Cornell has excelled in the second period this season, outscoring its opponents 11-4 in the middle frame this season.
• Opponents have fared better in the other two periods, outscoring the Big Red by a slim 15-14 advantage.
• In addition to its plus-7 goal differential in the second period, the Big Red have outshot its opponents 108-54 in the second period this season. In the other two periods combined, Cornell has just plus-15 advantage in shots on goal (154-139).
TOP 10 SHOWDOWN
• Cornell and UConn rank in the top 10 nationally in a pair of categories entering this weekend's matchup at Madison Square Garden.
• UConn has one of the best penalty kill units in the country, successfully killing 61 of its 66 man-down situations. The Big Red is tied with Northeastern for the eighth-best penalty kill (85.7 percent — 30-of-35).
• The Big Red enters the weekend with the eighth-best scoring defense, yielding just over two goals per game (2.11). UConn is right behind Cornell with its 2.13 goals allowed per game.
SHANE'S SHOW
• Sophomore goaltender Ian Shane has been strong between the pipes for Cornell so far this year, posting a 1.77 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage.
• Shane's 1.77 goals-against average so far on the year ranks second in ECAC Hockey, trailing Harvard's Mitchell Gibson. The .921 save percentage by the Manhattan Beach, Calif., native ranks fifth in ECAC Hockey.
• Over his Cornell career, Shane has the second-lowest goals-against average (1.73) and the second-highest save percentage (.929) by an active ECAC Hockey goaltender. Quinnipiac's Yaniv Perets leads both categories.
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 534 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).
ON THE PLUS SIDE
• Cornell is one of two ECAC programs to have at least three players ranking in the top 10 in career plus-minus rating. Travis Mitchell (5th — +36), Sam Malinski (6th — +35), and Andreev (8th — +32) are the Big Red trio currently in the top 10. Quinnipiac has four players, including the top three.
• Mitchell and Malinski rank second and third, respectively, for the highest ratings by an ECAC blueliner. Quinnipiac's Zach Metsa, who paces the conference with his +67 rating is ahead of the Big Red duo.
