Rigorous Schedule Awaits Big Red

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A rigorous non-conference schedule featuring at least five games against teams that advanced to last year's NCAA tournament highlight the 2010-11 Cornell men's hockey schedule, announced on Friday. The Big Red opens the regular season with a near-repeat of the 2010 NCAA East Regional field, when New Hampshire and RIT visit Lynah Rink on Oct. 29-30.

Click here to access the Cornell schedule via the Cornell Web site

The season-opening series against the Wildcats and Tigers will reunite three of the four teams that played in last season's East Regional at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. New Hampshire defeated second-seeded Cornell, 6-2, in the regional semifinals, with RIT knocking off the Wildcats by the same score in the regional championship game to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four.

Other non-conference action includes the Big Red's annual trip to the Florida College Classic, where Cornell will open up against NCAA tournament team St. Cloud State. Maine and Miami round out the field, with Miami also in last season's field of 16 for the NCAA tournament, advancing to the Frozen Four before bowing out. Cornell will also play a two-game series at home against Alabama-Huntsville, the only independent team in Division I hockey. One additional non-conference contest will be announced in the coming weeks.

Cornell opens the season with eight home games before the end of the fall semester, though some of the biggest home contests highlight the second half of the season. Cornell will play home league series against Quinnipiac and Princeton on Nov. 12-13 and Yale and Brown a week later before closing out the fall semester with the two-game set against Alabama-Huntsville on Dec. 3-4 at Lynah Rink.

In the second half of the season, Cornell will welcome Clarkson and St. Lawrence to Lynah Rink on Feb. 4-5 and closes out the regular season with games against Harvard and Dartmouth on Feb. 18-19. The regular season comes to a close on Feb. 26 with a game at Yale, last year's regular-season league champion.

The ECAC Hockey tournament will follow the same format it has for the last eight seasons, with the first four teams receiving a first-round bye. Teams 5-8 will play host to the bottom four teams on March 4-6, with the four first-round winners being re-seeded for the quarterfianls on March 11-13. The four quarterfinal winners will advance to the league championship weekend, which moves to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., on March 18-19.

Despite the departure of one of the most decorated classes in program history that saw four players sign NHL contracts during the off-season, Cornell still returns 14 lettermen from the 2009-10 ECAC Hockey championship team that advanced to the NCAA tournament. The Big Red has six returning lettermen on defense, while seniors Joe Devin and Patrick Kennedy return as the top leading scorers from last season’s roster.