ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team embarks on a road trip this weekend that could go a long way toward deciding if it will ultimately secure a first-round bye for the ECAC Hockey Championships. The Big Red takes on Rensselaer at 7 p.m. Friday before shuffling down Route 7 to battle with Union at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Game Information:

#16 Cornell at Rensselaer
SITE: Houston Field House — Troy, N.Y. 
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, February 11, 2022 
BROADCAST (U.S.): ESPN+
BROADCAST (Int'l): Stretch Internet
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
STATS: rpiathletics.com

#16 Cornell at Union
SITE: Messa Rink — Schenectady, N.Y. 
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, February 12, 2022 
BROADCAST (U.S.): ESPN+
BROADCAST (Int'l): Stretch Internet
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
STATS: UnionAthletics.com

Cornell game notes (PDF)

How To Watch:

•  The games will be broadcast through the host school 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 enters the weekend in the peculiar position of being winless in its last five games, though with only a cumulative minus-2 goal differential over that span. The Big Red has a pair of one-goal losses and three ties since a 2-1 overtime victory against Quinnipiac — the nation's top-ranked team at the time.
•  Most recently, Cornell settled for a 2-2 tie with Colgate on Saturday after goals by Jack Malone and Matt Stienburg staked the hosts to a two-goal lead inside 26 minutes.  The Raiders rallied to force extra time, then won a shootout after a scoreless OT period.
•  The front end of the home-and-home between the regional rivals ended with Colgate hanging on for a 3-2 victory on Friday in Hamilton. 
•  Both Cornell goals came in the opening minute of periods to erase one-goal deficits. Ondrej Psenicka scored his 10th goal just eight seconds into the middle frame, then Kyle Penney converted an unassisted goal off a defensive turnover 54 seconds into the third.
•  Special teams have been at the heart of the Big Red's recent struggles. The power play is 3-for-24 (12.5%) over the last five games, while the penalty kill is just 8-for-14 (57.1%) during the dry spell. 

Saturday's Highlights vs. Colgate:

 

By The Numbers:

•  Junior forward Matt Stienburg (#20, 10-12–22) leads the team in scoring, and after scoring on power play in Saturday's tie with Colgate he now shares the goal-scoring lead. His average of 0.53 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, 8-11–19), who leads the squad in faceoff winning percentage (58.0) and sports a robust plus-14 rating — but he has been out of the lineup for the Big Red's last seven games.
•  Junior defenseman Sam Malinski (#24, 4-14–18, plus-14) ranks third in overall team scoring while leading the team in blocked shots (26) and power-play scoring (nine points).
•  Senior forward Brenden Locke (#28, 6-10–16) has 75 career points, which is highest among Cornell's 27 skaters coming into the weekend. He has often centered a line flanked by junior Ben Berard (#29, 9-7–16, 3 PPG) and Jack Malone (#13, 7-7–14). 
•  Freshman forward Ondrej Psenicka (#26, 10-3–13) shares the team's goal-scoring lead with Stienburg, and his plus-16 rating is also highest on the team. His average of 0.43 goals per game is fourth-highest among freshmen nationally.

No Experience Required:

•  Freshman Ian Shane (#30, 4-3-3, 1.84, .928, SO) has emerged as the team's primary goaltender, becoming the third Cornell goaltender to win his collegiate debut this season. Shane — who comes into the weekend ranked seventh nationally in goals against average and ninth in save percentage — won consecutive ECAC Hockey MAC Goaltending Goalie of the Week honors (Jan. 3 and Jan. 10).
•  Prior to Shane's ascent, senior Nate McDonald (#33, 5-1-1, 2.49, .896) and freshman Joe Howe (#34, 4-2, 2.35, .905, SO) had shared starts in the crease 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 — 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 — has the unique distinction of becoming the first goaltender in modern program history to make his collegiate debut as a senior.

The League Within The League:

•  Despite having no wins among four recent games against Ancient Eight foes, Cornell is still a gaudy 28-6-6 in its last 40 Ivy League contests. The Big Red won its third straight and 20th overall Ivy League title in 2020, but it is now out of the hunt to repeat with only one Ivy game to play and a four points behind first-place Harvard.

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 (4-0-4), 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 494 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 Rensselaer:

•  The Engineers suffered a pair of one-goal losses last weekend, watching a pair of leads dissipate in a 3-2 setback Friday at Princeton before a 1-0 decision Saturday at Quinnipiac. That leaves RPI five points behind Cornell for fourth place in the ECAC Hockey standings — which, at regular season's end, equates to the final spot to earn a first-round bye in the playoffs.
•  Senior center Ture Linden (#19, 10-14–24) leads the team in scoring, six points ahead of senior left winger Ottoville Leppanen (7-11–18). The duo typically plays on a line with another senior, Jakub Lacka (#39, 4-10–14), on the right wing. 
•  Junior Simon Kjellberg (6-11–17), a New York Rangers draft pick, is third in overall scoring and tops among defensemen.
•  Similar to Ian Shane for Cornell, RPI has its own freshman goaltender with a midseason breakthrough — Jack Watson (#34, 4-4, 1.63, .944, 3 SO). While Watson has ascended to the primary option of late, graduate student Linden Marshall (#1; 8-12-3, 2.52, .897, SO) has still started 23 of the team's 32 games to date.
•  There are six transfers from other Division I programs on the Engineers' roster.
•  Dave Smith is in 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 66-38-11 all-time series lead and is 29-10-8 against RPI since 2000, including a memorable 11-3 victory on Nov. 13 at Lynah Rink.
•  The Big Red's victory over the Engineers earlier this season 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).

About Union:

•  The Dutchmen rebounded from a 2-1 loss to league-leading Quinnipiac on Friday with a resounding 7-3 win Saturday at Princeton. It marked the first time since Jan. 4, 2019 that Union scored seven goals in a game.
•  Union has the unique distinction of having a defenseman lead the team in scoring — senior Brandon Estes (#7, 5-13–18, team-high 60 shots on goal).
•  Sophomore Liam Robertson (#19, 11-4–15) leads the forwards in scoring, fueled by a whopping eight power-play goals. That enters the weekend as third-most in the nation and tops among ECAC Hockey skaters.
•  Robertson typically centers a line with sophomores Chaz Semdsrud (#8, 3-8–11) and Tyler Watkins (#13, 3-11–14) on the wings. Watkins is the reigning ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week after scoring once and adding a couple of assists last week.
•  Freshman right wing Collin Graf (#20, 7-6–13) leads the team in even-strength goals (5). He often plays on a line centered by junior Gabriel Seger (#11, 4-10–14).
•  Junior Connor Murphy (#31, 10-13-2, 2.58, .923), in his first season since transferring from Northeastern, has started all 27 of Union's games in goal.
•  John Ronan is serving as the interim head coach at Union after Rick Bennett resigned last month from a helm he had held for 10 seasons.

The Series With Union:

•  Cornell holds a 45-22-10 lead in the all-time series and is 11-2-2 in the last 15 meetings between the squads, including a 4-1 victory on Nov. 12 at Lynah Rink.
•  Kyle Penney and Ondrej Psenicka scored inside 12 minutes to help the Big Red take control early, then Jack Malone pushed the lead to 3-0 in the second period. Travis Mitchell closed the scoring and Joe Howe made 21 saves to earn the win in net.
•  In the teams' 16 meetings spanning the last four-plus seasons, Cornell's power play is 17-for-57 (29.8%) against Union, while the Dutchmen's power play is 17-for-68 (25%) against the Big Red over the same span.

Looking Ahead:

•  The Big Red returns home for its final regular-season home games of the season Feb. 18 against St. Lawrence and Feb. 19 versus Clarkson before making one last road trip to take on Quinnipiac on Feb. 25 and Princeton on Feb. 26.