No. 10 Cornell men’s hockey (2-0-0, 0-0 ECAC) will embark on its first road trip of the season when it faces ECAC and Ivy-rivals Yale (1-0-0, 1-0 ECAC) on Friday, Nov. 3 and Brown (1-1-0, 0-1 ECAC) on Saturday, Nov. 4.
The Red had a hot start to the season, dominating then-no. 11 Minnesota Duluth in a two-game sweep last weekend, including a 3-0 shutout on Saturday thanks to the hard work of the Cornell defensemen and junior goaltender Ian Shane. Shane’s ninth-career shutout tied him for eighth-place with Andy Illes ’14 for most career shutouts.
His efforts in the sweep of Duluth earned him ECAC MAC Goaltender of the Week and ECAC MAC Goaltender of the Month honors.
“Last weekend’s games are kind of building blocks to get to where we need to go in the future,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “Right now, it’s trying to sustain that [and] come out and get ready to play on the road the same way that we played at home.”
Coming into this weekend, Cornell does have an advantage in overall games played, with the Red playing four (albeit two exhibition) in the past three weekends. Yale has just one game under its belt, while Brown has only its two from this past weekend.
“I don’t think it’s that much of an advantage … it’s their home opener, [so] they’ll work really hard,” Schafer said.
The Red enters the weekend on a six-game winning streak over the Bulldogs, dating back to Feb. 16, 2019, and in recent years, has had the edge in its series against Brown. Cornell has an 8-1-1 record in its last 10 contests against the Bears. However, that doesn’t mean much, as it’s a new season with a new team.
“When you go on the road, you have to be ready to execute [the] game plan, manage momentum, don’t let the home team get going a bit — those are all lessons we haven’t learned yet, [since] we haven’t played on the road.”
With rookies and underclassmen comprising most of the team, it’s a new adventure everyday for the team, whether it be the first road game or first ECAC game.
“I’m excited to see how they’re gonna go on the road and handle winning two games and how they are going to handle that pressure in ECAC play,” Schafer said. “There’s a lot of things we haven’t done yet, everything’s brand new and I look forward to watching these guys respond to that challenge.”
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. for both games and will be broadcast on ESPN+.