Cornell came away with five points in the ECAC standings this weekend after beating Brown in overtime on Friday and shutting out Yale on Saturday.
The Red was featured on the ECAC weekly awards for the third week in a row, with senior goaltender Nate McDonald earning goalie of the week honors.
The two wins were not enough to move Cornell up in the rankings, as the Red remained at No. 10 in this week’s USCHO.com poll.
Cornell is now riding a five game win streak heading into its showdown with rival Boston University at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
First star: Matt Stienburg
Junior forward Matt Stienburg was the hero in Friday night’s game against Brown. Late in the first period, Stienburg put Cornell on the board when he cashed in a rebound off a convenient bounce. 58 seconds into overtime, Stienburg won it for Cornell when he buried a one-timer off a feed from senior forward Max Andreev.
Stienburg added an assist on senior forward Liam Motley’s goal the next night to extend his scoring streak to seven games.
Second star: Nate McDonald
Senior goaltender Nate McDonald split time with freshman Joe Howe the first two weekends of the season, but did not play in either of the team’s games against Union and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. While Head Coach Mike Schafer ’86 said after those games that the starting job was still up for grabs, Howe’s strong play that weekend seemed like a strong claim on the gig.
With Howe unavailable due to injury this weekend, McDonald took full advantage of an opportunity to prove his worth. Starting in both games this weekend, McDonald allowed just two goals on 46 shots and notched a 14 save shutout against Yale.
McDonald’s stellar play earned him praise from Schafer and in the ECAC weekly awards, where he was named the goalie of the week.
“He stepped in there and got the job done and got a shutout,” Schafer said. “It’s awesome for him, his first career [shutout].”
Third star: Max Andreev
After a monster eight-point weekend last weekend, Andreev continued to generate offense, assisting on half of the Red’s six goals this weekend.
Andreev’s rebound fell right to Stienburg for his first period goal on Friday night. Andreev assisted Stienburg again in overtime. Andreev stormed into the offensive zone in the 3-on-3 and waited for Stienburg to get to his spot on the left circle before setting him up with a one-timer to win the game.
On Saturday night, Andreev notched his eighth assist of the year when his faceoff win led to Motley’s second period goal.