ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team's chase to secure a bye through the first round of the ECAC Hockey Championships continues into the final weekend of the regular season, which takes the Big Red to league-leading Quinnipiac at 7 p.m. Friday before the finale against Ivy League foe Princeton at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Game Information:

#18 Cornell at #5 Quinnipiac
SITE: Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena — Hamden, Conn. 
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, February 25, 2022 
BROADCAST (U.S.): ESPN+
BROADCAST (Int'l): Stretch Internet
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
STATS: GoBobcats.com

#18 Cornell at Princeton
SITE: Hobey Baker Rink — Princeton, N.J. 
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, February 26, 2022 
BROADCAST (U.S.): ESPN+
BROADCAST (Int'l): Stretch Internet
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
STATS: GoPrincetonTigers.com

Cornell game notes (PDF)

How To Watch:

•  Both games will be broadcast through the host schools 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.

Big Red Rewind:

•  Cornell is coming off a restorative 6-2 victory over Clarkson on its Senior Night, powered by Kyle Betts and Ondrej Psenicka posting two goals and one assist apiece.
•  The Big Red was a perfect 2-for-2 on the power play, with Matt Stienburg setting up Psenicka's first goal before swatting in a rebound of a Psenicka shot for the second.
•  The Golden Knights cut a three-goal deficit to one after scoring on both sides of a five-on-three late in the second period, but Betts' first goal pushed the lead to 4-2 before a pair of empty-netters inflated the final margin.
•  The bounceback effort against Clarkson followed a 2-1 overtime loss on Friday against visiting St. Lawrence. Betts scored the only goal for the Big Red, which lost for the first time in nine overtimes so far this season.
•  Saturday's victory helped the Big Red maintain a three-point lead on Colgate for fourth place in the ECAC Hockey standings — which, at season's end, is rewarded with a coveted bye through the first round of the playoffs and home dates for a best-of-three quarterfinal series. Of note: Colgate would hold the potential tiebreaker with Cornell if the teams end up even following this weekend's results.

Saturday's Highlights vs. Clarkson:

Friday's Highlights vs. St. Lawrence:

By The Numbers:

•  Junior forward Matt Stienburg (#20, 11-14–25) leads the team in scoring and is in a three-way tie for the goal-scoring lead, and his four power-play goals are tied for the team lead with junior forward Ben Berard (#29, 11-8–19). Berard's average of 0.52 goals per game is highest among ECAC Hockey skaters.
•  Stienburg has spent the bulk of the season on a line centered by senior forward Max Andreev (#15, 9-13–22, plus-14), who had three points in the Feb. 11-12 games in the Capital District in his first game action since missing seven straight.
•  Freshman forward Ondrej Psenicka (#26, 12-6–18) has taken over the team lead in goals, and his plus-18 rating is also highest on the team. Psenicka's average of 0.44 goals per game is fourth-highest among freshmen nationally.
•  Junior Sam Malinski (#24, 5-16–21, plus-15) ranks third in overall team scoring while lead the team in power-play scoring (nine points). His 64 shots on goal are third-most on the team, trailing only Berard (68) and fellow junior defenseman Travis Mitchell (#10, 3-10–13, 66 shots on goal).
•  Senior forward Kyle Betts (#11, 6-11–17), who has already set a new career high for scoring in a season, has six points over the last three games.

No Experience Required:

•  Freshman Ian Shane (#30, 4-4-3, 1.84, .928, SO) has been the team's primary goaltender, though he has only played in one of the team's last four games. Shane, who became the third Cornell goaltender to win his first collegiate start this season on Jan. 7 at North Dakota, comes into the weekend ranked fourth nationally in goals against average and sixth in save percentage — won consecutive ECAC Hockey MAC Goaltending Goalie of the Week honors (Jan. 3 and Jan. 10).
•  Senior Nate McDonald (#33, 7-1-1, 2.38, .904) and freshman Joe Howe (#34, 4-3, 2.59, .890, SO) have also factored into crease equation after the Big Red entered the season with zero varsity collegiate experience within its goaltending corps for the first time since the 1983-84 season.
•  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.
•  McDonald has the unique distinction of becoming the first goaltender in modern program history to make his collegiate debut as a senior. He has backstopped the Big Red's to its two victories over the last nine games.

Deep Up The Middle:

•  The Big Red currently ranks ninth in the country with a 53.2% success rate on draws. That number slightly exceeds what Cornell posted in 2019-20, when it was tied for 13th in the nation and third among ECAC Hockey programs at 52.5%. The top five players taking draws for Cornell are all incumbents.

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 in October 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.
•  While Cornell has enjoyed great success in overtime this season (4-1-4), the proverbial buck stops there. The Big Red is 0-4 in shootouts.

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

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.

About Quinnipiac:

•  The Bobcats entered Tuesday's game against Yale with half of its losses for the season having come in their last three games. A 3-1 loss Feb. 12 at Clarkson was followed by a 5-0 shutout of Dartmouth on Friday before a 1-0 loss to Harvard on Saturday.
•  Quinnipiac leads the nation in team defense (1.00 goals against per game), penalty killing (92.5%) and ranks second in faceoff win percentage (56.8%).
•  Freshman goaltender Yaniv Perets (#1, 17-3-2, 0.85, .954, 10 SO) leads the nation in goals-against average, save percentage and shutouts.
•  Senior defenseman Zach Metsa (#23, 8-23–31) leads the team in scoring, assists and rating (plus-31). Senior center Wyatt Bongiovanni (#11, 14-16–30) leads the team in goals, and his four power-play goals are tied for the most on the team with sophomore winger Ty Smilanic (#96, 12-9–21).
•  The Bobcats have been heavy investors in the transfer market, adding six players that started their collegiate careers elsewhere. Graduate student Oliver Chau (#12, 11-18–29) — who ranks third in team scoring — is part of that group, playing in his first season with Quinnipiac after three seasons at UMass.

The Series With Quinnipiac:

•  Cornell leads the all-time series against Quinnipiac, 24-18-4, including a 2-1 overtime victory when the Bobcats visited Lynah Rink on Jan. 22. Ben Berard scored both Big Red goals on the power play, including the winner on a four-on-three with 16 seconds left in the extra frame. Ian Shane made 33 saves to earn the victory in net.
•  In the Big Red's last visit to Hamden, it was the top-ranked team in the country before being dealt a 5-0 setback on Jan. 31, 2020. It proved to be the final loss of Cornell's season, which concluded with nine victories in February.

About Princeton:

•  The Tigers have lost three straight, but continue to battle for home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Two of those losses have come to Dartmouth in a span of just six days (7-3 on Feb. 14; 2-0 last Saturday), book-ending a 4-3 setback against Harvard on Friday.
•  Senior winger Corey Andonovski (#27, 9-11–20) leads the team in scoring, and his five power-play goals are by far the most on the team. He shares the team lead in goal-scoring with sophomore center Ian Murphy (#12, 9-10–19), with the duo often playing on a line with Spencer Karsten (#15, 5-9–14) on the other wing.
•  While the Tigers' special teams don't stand out, the penalty kill's 77.7% success rate is reinforced by its three shorthanded goals.
•  Junior Aidan Porter (#35, 2-9, 3.81, .870) and senior Jeremie Forget (#1, 6-5-2, 3.44, .885) have split the primary goaltending duties. Only Forget — a former junior teammate of Cornell's Ben and Zach Tupker with the CCHL's Carleton Place Canadians — has faced the Big Red before (1-1, 4.53, .863 in three games).

The Series With Princeton:

•  Cornell has been dominant against the Tigers over the last several years, holding a 96-53-8 lead all-time with wins in 11 of the teams' last 13 meetings. But both of the losses in that stretch are memorable — the first, because it was in a 2018 ECAC Hockey Championships semifinal in which the Big Red was heavily favored, and the second because it was so recent. That Tigers victory came on Jan. 21, when Princeton took a three-goal lead through 28 minutes before eventually hanging on for a 5-4 win at Lynah Rink.
•  The game featured a wild finish that saw the teams combine for five goals over the final 2:57. The Big Red scored twice with its goaltender pulled in favor of an extra attacker, leaving Ian Murphy's empty-net goal for Princeton as the winner.
•  The Big Red has scored 44 goals in its last 10 games against the Tigers (4.40 goals per game).

Looking Ahead:

•  The Big Red has assured itself home ice for its first best-of-three series of the ECAC Hockey Championships — it just doesn't know yet exactly when that will be. 
•  If Cornell secures a placement of fourth in the final league standings, it will host a quarterfinal series March 11-13. If the Big Red falls to fifth or sixth place, it will host a first-round tilt March 4-6.