ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men’s hockey team has announced that senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan will be the team’s captain for a second straight year, with senior defensemen Alec McCrea and Matt Nuttle serving as the alternates.
Serving as a co-captain alongside Alex Rauter ’18 last year, Vanderlaan helped lead the Big Red to the program’s first 25-win season in 13 years and its second straight at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. He garnered All-Ivy League honorable mention and was named a finalist for the ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Forward Award. Despite a six-game absence in February, Vanderlaan is the leading returning scorer from last year (20 points on seven goals and 13 assists).
Vanderlaan is the first two-time captain at Cornell since John McCarron ’15 and the sixth under Mike Schafer, now in his 24th season as the Jay R. Bloom Head Coach of Men’s Hockey. He joins McCarron, Colin Greening ’10, Stephen Bâby ’03, Kyle Knopp ’99 and Brad Chartrand ’96 on that list.
“He’s in touch with everyone on our team, from the freshmen to the seniors,” Schafer said of Vanderlaan. “A lot of our guys do that, but when you have a guy that works so hard, is skilled and he’s in touch with everyone within the program, I think it’s natural for everyone to look at him as a leader.”
McCrea and Nuttle will both don the ‘A’ for the first time in their collegiate careers, both as significant contributors and leaders on a historically good Cornell defense. The Big Red led the nation in team defense (1.58 goals against per game) last season and becomes the first team to return its entire blue line after accomplishing that feat since Michigan State in 2001-02. McCrea has played top-four minutes throughout his collegiate career, while Nuttle has steadily climbed the ranks since playing just two games as a freshman to finish tied for second in the nation last year with a plus-23 rating.
After winning the program’s ninth Cleary Cup (ECAC Hockey regular season title) and 22nd Ivy League crown last year, the Big Red continues preparation for the new season with an exhibition game against Laurentian at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13 at Lynah Rink. Tickets are available now at www.cornellbigredtickets.com.
###
Link to web story: https://cornellbigred.com/news/2018/10/11/mens-ice-hockey-vanderlaan-tabbed-for-second-season-as-mens-hockey-captain.aspx
Brandon Thomas
Assistant Director of Athletic Communications I Cornell University Athletics & Physical Education
Schoellkopf House I 521 Campus Road I Ithaca, NY 14853
Cell: 585-705-4177 I Office: 607-255-5627 I Twitter: @BT_unassisted I @CornellSports
Instagram: @CornellSports I CornellBigRed.com I Facebook.com/CornellSports
…
[Message clipped] View entire message
