ITHACA, N.Y. — The long wait for the 2012-13 season finally comes to a close on Friday when the Cornell men's hockey team starts off the new campaign with a two-game set against WCHA power Colorado College. Both teams are ranked in the most recent USCHO.com national college hockey poll, with the Big Red pulling down the No. 7 ranking and the Tigers coming in at No. 19. Jason Weinstein will handle the play-by-play for both games on WHCU-AM (870) in the Ithaca area, and his call can be accessed worldwide along with live video streaming with Cornell's Redcast subscription service.
 
GAME 1-2: #19 COLORADO COLLEGE at #7/7 CORNELL
DATES: Friday, Oct. 26, 2012 and Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
2012-13 RECORDS: Colorado College 3-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA; Cornell 0-0-0, 0-0-0 ECAC Hockey
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 4-2-1
LAST MEETING: Tied, 3-3, on Jan. 7, 2012 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Cornell won the night before, 3-1.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/mhockey/scoreboard.aspx
LIVE VIDEO: www.cornellbigred.com/showcase
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Colorado College game notes (PDF)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell enters the season with a streak of five consecutive appearances in the ECAC Hockey Championship semifinals, which is the longest active streak in the league. The Big Red also returned to the NCAA tournament and defeated Michigan, the Midwest Region's top seed, before bowing out with a loss to Ferris State. Cornell was 19-9-7 on the season, and most of its key pieces from a season ago return. Eight of the squad's nine top scorers are back, including senior Greg Miller — who has topped the team's point list in each of the last two seasons. Sophomores Joel Lowry and reigning ECAC Hockey and Ivy League Rookie of the Year Brian Ferlin will look to build on promising debuts, when they tied Miller for the most points on the team in ECAC Hockey contests. Goalie Andy Iles also returns for his junior season after serving as the Big Red's exclusive backstop last year, recording six shutouts in the process.
 
ABOUT COLORADO COLLEGE
The Tigers are in their final season competing in the WCHA before becoming one of the charter members in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference next season, which shares the base city of Colorado Springs, Colo. The Tigers started off the season with a pair of 5-4 victories over visiting Clarkson, then extended its winning streak to three games with a 6-2 triumph at crosstown rival Air Force. UMass-Lowell then handed Colorado College its first loss of the season on Saturday, Oct. 20 by a score of 3-1. ... The Tigers are heavy on experience up front. Senior right winger Andrew Hamburg (4 goals-1 assist—5 points) leads the team in goal-scoring and is tied for the team lead in points with fellow classmate and right wing William Rapuzzi (2-3—5). Dallas Stars draft pick Scott Winkler (3-1—4) centers one of the top two lines, while senior Rylan Schwartz (1-3—4) pivots the other between Alexander Krushelnyski (1-2—3) and Rapuzzi. ... Junior Josh Thorimbert has started three of the four games in goal with a 2-1 record, 2.68 goals-against average and .905 save percentage.
 
THE SERIES WITH COLORADO COLLEGE
The Big Red holds a 4-2-1 advantage in the all-time series, thanks in part to the victory and tie it obtained in a two-game set last season at CC's World Arena. This weekend will mark the first time the Big Red will take on the Tigers in New York state since the teams' first meeting on Dec. 28, 1973. Cornell was the victor in that wild 9-8 affair at the War Memorial at the Oncenter in Syracuse, but this weekend's games will be Colorado College's first trip to Lynah Rink. The Big Red has an all-time record of 18-20-2 against teams currently competing in the WCHA.
 
LET'S GET IT STARTED
Cornell has an all-time record of 55-32-6 in season openers and will try to claim its fourth win over its last five season debuts. Last season, Mercyhurst skated away with a 5-4 victory over Cornell to break the Big Red's three-game winning streak in season openers. The previous season, Cornell defeated Niagara on the strength of an overtime game-winning goal from Joe Devin. In 2008-09, the Big Red scored a 1-0 victory against Princeton to kick off that campaign. Under current head coach Mike Schafer, the Big Red is 10-5-1 in season openers.
 
EARLY RETURNS
Cornell earned a win and a tie in its exhibition games last weekend, with senior forward Greg Miller leading the scoring change with two goals and two assists. Freshman forward Christian Hilbrich scored his first two goals at Lynah Rink in the first period of Friday's 6-2 win over the U.S. National Team Development Program's Under-18 Team. Sophomore defenseman Jacob MacDonald had three assists over the two games, including helpers on both goals in the 2-2 tie with Brock on Saturday. John McCarron, Madison Dias and Nick D'Agostino all had two assists apiece on the weekend.
 
EXHIBITIONS IN NAME ONLY
Just because exhibition games don't count in the standings doesn't mean the Big Red takes a soft approach to them. Cornell has posted a 16-1-3 record in exhibitions since 2000, and even that one loss came at the hands of a future Big Red player. Andy Iles made 39 saves for the U.S. Under-18 team in a 3-2 victory over the Big Red at Lynah on Oct. 24, 2009. The average margin of victory for Cornell's 15 wins is a whopping 4.5 goals.
 
CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Cornell head coach Mike Schafer is quickly moving up the ranks of the coaching fraternity in his win totals. Now in his 18th season, Schafer has 332 career victories, ranking him second in ECAC Hockey. Schafer trails only Quinnipiac's Rand Pecknold by three games. Schafer is tops among Ivy League coaches, with Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet entering this season with 314 career victories in his 23 seasons at the helm of the Big Green.
 
ILES FILES
Andy Iles is the only goalie in Division I this season who was used exclusively by his team last season. By playing all of the Big Red's games in 2011-12, Iles became the first goalie at Cornell to accomplish that feat since Darren Eliot in 1982-83, and the first Cornell sophomore to do so since Laing Kennedy in 1960-61 — when the season was just 19 games long.
 
FOR THE RECORD
With three consecutive shutouts last November, Andy Iles recorded the second-longest shutout streak in program history, spanning 213 minutes, 35 seconds over a five-game span. The only Cornell shutout streak that went longer was posted by Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Ben Scrivens, who held the opposition scoreless for 267:11 during the 2010 playoffs. But Iles wasn't done there — he posted back-to-back shutouts against St. Lawrence and Clarkson on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3, respectively, spurring another lengthy shutout streak of 152:36 that ranks ninth all-time in Big Red history. His success has stretched into the postseason, as evidenced by a career-high 46 saves in a March 9 double-overtime victory against Dartmouth. Iles was third in the nation with six shutouts and 10th in goal-against average (2.12). He also set a record for longest streak in ECAC Hockey play of 286:54 from November to January.
 
THE OFFENSIVE DEFENSE
The Big Red scored six shorthanded goals last season, its highest total since the 2005-06 season. Sophomore defenseman Joakim Ryan had two of those goals on the penalty kill, with the second coming in an NCAA tournament victory over Michigan. Other returning players who scored shorthanded goals last season include sophomore forward Joel Lowry and senior forward Vince Mihalek.
 
COLLECTING HARDWARE
Andy Iles became the first Cornell hockey player to earn a medal for the United States at the IIHF World Junior Championships when he was part of Team USA that claimed bronze at the 2011 tournament in Buffalo, N.Y. Iles is just the second Cornell player to be a member of the United States team, joining Jean-Marc Pelletier in 1998. The last Cornell player to earn a medal for any nation at the IIHF World Junior Championships was Sasha Pokulok, who claimed gold with Canada in 2006. The bronze medal won by Iles is the first bronze of the seven medals claimed by Cornellians at the world's most prestigious junior hockey tournament.
 
MAKING THE CUT
Sophomore forward Cole Bardreau competed for the U.S. throughout the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp over the summer in Lake Placid, N.Y. Bardreau,  who was a member of the U.S. team that captured the gold medal at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship in April 2011, was one of the 34 players that survived a mid-camp cut during evaluation for a possible spot on the national team for the IIHF World Junior Championships in December and January. Sophomore defenseman Joakim Ryan was also among the 45 players who started the camp with the U.S. before the roster was trimmed.
 
INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE
Junior Kirill Gotovets got a taste of the big time when he was selected to represent his native Belarus in the 2010 IIHF World Championships — not an age group World Championships (though he did play for Belarus at the U20 World Championship as well) — playing against some of the best players the world has to offer. He played in three of Belarus' eight games at the World Championships, recording two shots and two minutes in penalties, helping his nation to a 10th-place finish.
 
FEEL THE DRAFT?
Cornell has eight players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including three picks from last June. Freshman defenseman Reece Willcox was selected in the fifth round by the Philadelphia Flyers, then sophomore forward John McCarron was snagged in the sixth round by the Edmonton Oilers. The San Jose Sharks then selected sophomore defenseman Joakim Ryan in the seventh round, giving the Big Red its most NHL draft picks entering a season since it had eight in the 2006-07 campaign. Other NHL draft picks on this year's team include sophomore forwards Brian Ferlin (Boston Bruins) and Joel Lowry (Los Angeles Kings), senior defensemen Braden Birch (Chicago Blackhawks) and Nick D'Agostino (Pittsburgh Penguins), and junior defenseman Kirill Gotovets (Tampa Bay Lightning).
 
FIRST 1,000 DOWN
The Big Red's 2-1 win over Quinnipiac in game one of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals last season marked the 1,000th victory all-time for the Cornell men's hockey program. Cornell became the 17th program to reach that milestone.
 
GLOBAL INFLUENCE
The Big Red has 11 players on the roster born in the United States, the second-highest total for a Mike Schafer-coached team at Cornell (trailing only the 12 it had last season). The Big Red also now has players native to seven different countries on its squad. Aside from the bulk of its roster hailing from the United States and Canada, Cornell also has a player from Belarus (Kirill Gotovets), Denmark (Christian Hilbrich), Finland (Teemu Tiitinen), Singapore (Dustin Mowrey) and South Africa (Armand de Swardt).
 
CLOSER TO HOME
Hometown fans of the Big Red got a rare treat when goalie Andy Iles became the first Ithaca native to play for the team since Mike Tallman in 1988-89. Sophomore forward Kevin Cole then made his collegiate debut last season, marking the first time in at least 50 years — and perhaps the first time in program history — that two Ithaca natives have played for the Big Red in the same season. Cole was born in Ithaca and raised in nearby Lansing before heading off to junior programs in Syracuse and Cornwall, Ontario. His father, Dave, lettered for the Big Red in the 1981-82 season. Yet another Ithaca area connection came on board this season when the Big Red added junior defenseman Craig Esposito, who is also from Lansing and serves as one of the tri-captains on Cornell's men's golf team. Freshman forward John Knisley, who calls Pittsford, N.Y. home, also joins the Big Red this season to give Cornell five players that call Upstate New York home for the first time since 1963-64.
 
BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
Cornell has recorded at least one shutout in each of the last 17 seasons. The last time the Big Red went a full schedule without posting a shutout came during the 1994-95 season under former coach Brian McCutcheon, as Cornell finished that year 11-15-4. The following year marked the first season for current head coach Mike Schafer, and his clubs have never gone a full year without recording a shutout.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red starts ECAC Hockey play with its annual home-and-home series with Colgate — Friday, Nov. 2 at Starr Rink and Saturday, Nov. 3 at Lynah Rink. The next trip will be Nov. 9 at Princeton and Nov. 10 at Quinnipiac before Cornell returns home for a highly anticipated showdown with Harvard on Nov. 16. That game will be featured on NBC Sports Network.