DENVER — Former Cornell men's hockey forward Matt Stienburg '23 made his NHL debut with Colorado as the Avalanche lost to the Boston Bruins, 5-3, inside Ball Arena on Wednesday night.
The debut for Stienburg marks the 40th Cornell men's hockey alumnus to appear in an NHL game and the 39th player to play in a regular-season game. Stienburg became the 26th Cornell player to have played for the Big Red under
Mike Schafer '86 during his tenure as the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Hockey, and the 30th NHLer to have played while Schafer has been on the men's hockey coaching staff at Cornell.
Logging 4:36 of ice time across nine
shifts, Stienburg registered three hits and fought Boston defenseman Nikita Zadorov after a hit on Matthew Poitras in the second period. Stienburg's fight helped spark the Avalanche to net its second of three power-play goals on the night.
"It didn't hurt, I'll tell you why," said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar on Stienburg's fight. "He goes out and gets a big hit. [Zadorov] goes after him, they fight, we get a power play and scored. It gave our bench energy and allowed us to put our best players on the ice with a man advantage and we capitalized. He made an impact. We shortened the bench a little bit, he didn't play a lot, but he made an impact in the game right then and there and that's what he needs to continue to do. He has a simple game plan, has a great identity, and he played to it tonight."
The NHL appearance for Stienburg made him and his father, Trevor, who played in 71 games with the Québec Nordiques from 1986-89, the fourth father-son duo to appear in a game in Avalanche and Nordiques history, joining Nikolai and Andrei Kovalenko, Peter and Paul Stastny, and Paul and Kurtis MacDermid.
Along with father-son history, Stienburg and former Cornell defenseman Sam Malinski '23 became the fifth pair of Big Red men's hockey alumni to be teammates in the same NHL game, joining goaltender Doug Dadswell and forward Joe Nieuwendyk (24 games with the Calgary Flames from 1986-88), defenseman Doug Murray and forward Ryan Vesce (19 games with the San Jose Sharks from 2008-10), forward Mike Iggulden and Murray (one game with 2007-08 Sharks), and defenseman Ryan O'Byrne and goaltender Ben Scrivens (one game with 2012-13 Toronto Maple Leafs).
Before his first call-up to the NHL, Stienburg appeared in the first two games of the season with the Colorado Eagles, the Avalanche's AHL affiliate, where he had two points (one goal, one assist). Stienburg's goal was a short-handed marker, which also served as the game-winning goal in the Eagles' season-opening 3-1 win over the Tucson Roadrunners last Friday, Oct. 11.
Stienburg's next appearance with the Avalanche could come as soon as Friday, Oct. 18, when the Avalanche entertain Anaheim at Ball Arena in Denver. Puck drop is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET (7 p.m. MT), which can be viewed live on ESPN+.
