Mike Schafer is the men's ice hockey coach at Cornell University. He graduated from Cornell in 1986 with a degree in business management after leading the team to its first conference tournament championship in six years. Schafer retired as a player after his senior season and immediately became an assistant with the Big Red. Schafer left his alma mater after the 1989–90 season, taking a similar position with the Western Michigan Broncos of the WCHA. Five years later, after a downturn in the program that saw three consecutive losing seasons (including back-to-back single digit-win years) Cornell replaced Brian McCutcheon with Schafer as head coach. Schafer quickly returned the Big Red to prominence, winning the ECAC Hockey conference tournament his first two seasons back in Ithaca. Schafer has remained with Cornell ever since, becoming the longest tenured and the winningest coach in team history.

Career

Schafer has been credited as one of college hockey's premier defensive coaches as his teams consistently produce among the lowest goals allowed annually. Two of Schafer's goaltenders (

David LeNeveu David LeNeveu (born May 23, 1983) is a Canadians, Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. He has previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Phoenix Coyotes and the Columbus Blue Jackets. LeNeveu was rostered for th ...

in 2003 and David McKee in 2005) hold the second and third lowest goals against averages in NCAA history for one season with the former backstopping the Big Red to their first frozen four since

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

and first overall seed in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

(a rarity for ECAC programs). Schafer has made more appearances in the ECAC tournament championship game than any other head coach with 11 and is tied (with Joe Marsh) for the most victories at 5. Schafer's 2003 team is thus far the only one to reach 30 wins in Cornell's history (though the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

undefeated and untied championship team only played 29 games, finishing 29-0-0). Schafer was named co-winner of the 2020

Spencer Penrose Award The Spencer Penrose Award is awarded yearly to the top coach in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey by the American Hockey Coaches Association. The finalists for each year's award comprise the conference Coach of the Year winners from each Divisi ...

as Division I Coach of the Year with

Brad Berry Bradley L. Berry (born April 1, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 241 games in the National Hockey League. He played for the Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota North Stars, and Dallas Stars. He is currently the head coac ...

of University of North Dakota. The Big Red went 23-2-4 (18-2-2 ECAC) before the season was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schafer, Mike Canadian ice hockey coaches Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players Western Michigan Broncos ice hockey coaches Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey coaches Ice hockey people from Ontario Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian ice hockey defencemen

Career

Head coaching record

See also

References

External links