The Paolini power play

Spencerport native and Cornell senior forward Sam Paolini scored one power play goal and assists on another against Boston University and the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance is the benefactor. In fact, all three of his goals this season are on the power play. Paolini was the initiator of the fund-raising program, where each Big Red power play goal results in donations from Ithaca area businesses and fans to help breast cancer patients and their families. That he directly affects the amount of money donated through his on-ice actions is just an added bonus. This is just the latest of his community activities.

Paolini is in his senior season with the nationally ranked Big Red (4th in the country at press time) and was recently awarded the Richie Moran Award—the highest honor a student-athlete at Cornell can receive—"for his efforts in academics, athletics and ambassadorship." The black-tie event was held during a Cornell hockey game and Paolini wasn’t told of his winning until after the game, so he appeared in his hockey sweats to accept. "It was a total surprise and I didn’t know anything about the award until I read up on it the next day. I am still very honored—looking back to even last year, the student who won it is just a great person and to follow in those kind of footsteps is unbelievable."

The breast cancer program is called the Power Play for Prevention. "I saw what my mom went through when she was diagnosed. She battled hard and had a lot of resources and people around her that knew what they were talking about and educated her on the correct way to treat it and so did my grandmother two years earlier. When I do charity work, I pick specific things that have an impact on people and this is one of the things that I felt could impact this community and raise awareness especially among college-age women. I wanted to make sure all patients had the same opportunities to fight this disease as they did."

Cornell was one of the top teams in the country last season on the power play and was off to a fast start this season with 13 power play goals in 11 games -- good for tenth in the country. If they continue on the pace, it would means thousands of dollars donated to the program. "Everyone thinks that they can’t make a difference in people’s lives, but I’ve been put in a situation where the community looks up to us so we can make a difference."

On the ice, Paolini was the winner of the team's Crimson Cup Award, which is presented to the player whose contribution to the team was outstanding during the season series against Harvard and was a second team All-Ivy pick last season. He also led the team with 15 goals and 32 points last season in 35 games as Cornell won the ECAC regular season title.

This season, a four-point weekend against Boston University in late-November helped launch Paolini to the top five in scoring on his team and he was named the ECAC Player of the Week December 2. The team is number one in team defense, allowing just 1.36 goals per game and their 10-1-0 start is the best in over 30 years, but their sights are set a bit higher this year. "Our ultimate goal is the ECAC championship and then the NCAA championship. We want to restore the winning tradition to Cornell. This class has been really focused since we came in as freshmen and we have a great group of underclassmen as well and great goaltending. We’re just trying to put it all together and see what happens. I really can’t think about a pro contract at this point, though I want one. I think that’s why I got off to a slow start -- now I’m just playing hockey instead of putting pressure on myself. Obviously I would love to play pro hockey, but I don’t know what level I’ll need to start. If it’s the East Coast League for a couple of years, I’ll do it."