Saturday night’s “Red Hot Hockey” game between the Cornell University and Boston University men’s hockey teams will take place in New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden, but for Cornell defenseman Ryan Bliss the game will have a decidedly New England feeling.

The Big Red (6-1-1) and the Terriers (6-4-2) renew the biennial series on at 8 on Saturday night in the place that proudly boasts the moniker “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” This year’s meeting marks the first time in the series, which started in 2007, both teams enter the game ranked in each of the two major national polls.

The Big Red (6-1-1) moved into the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine rankings this week at No. 15. Cornell also moved up two spots in the USCHO.com poll to 16th. BU enters ranked 11th in the USCHO.com poll and 12th by USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine.

Bliss, a 6-foot-1, 198-pound sophomore from Chelmsford, Mass., grew up less than 40 miles outside of Boston, playing hockey as a child in the shadows of several big-time college hockey programs including both Boston College and Boston University.

“Hockey East I guess was kind of a big part of my childhood, especially playing youth hockey around there in New England,” Bliss said this week. “I used to go to a lot of UNH games and follow the Beanpot when I was little. I guess I still do, just because I have a lot of friends in that area that play for those schools.”

Not only will Bliss be familiar with the BU program the Big Red will butt heads with, but he’ll also be familiar with several of the opposing players. BU defenseman sophomore John MacLeod and Bliss grew up in neighboring towns, and both played in the U.S. National Under-18 Team along with Brandon Fortunato, another BU sophomore defenseman.

Bliss and MacLeod, who is listed at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, were paired up on defense for the national team. The two played together and against each other dating back to their days in youth hockey.

Bliss said he tried reaching out to MacLeod, but hadn’t heard anything back as of Tuesday. Bliss said his mother had been contact with MacLeod’s family during the summer and in recent weeks. Both families will be in attendance, according to Bliss.

“This is actually the first time I’ll have played against him since, I guess, I was 14 or 13 so it’ll be different playing again him or being on different sides,” Bliss said.

To his best recollection, Bliss claimed the outcomes of those match-ups between the two as youths were fairly evenly split. He recalled that even then MacLeod played for the Terriers, the Boston Junior Terriers.

Bliss played in every game last season as a freshman, and this season he has played in all eight games. He has five assists, including three on the power play.

Mitch and catch

Junior goaltender Mitch Gillam earned the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week on Tuesday after he posted back-to-back shutouts over the weekend at Yale University and Brown University. Cornell logged a 0-0 tie at Yale on Friday and beat Brown 1-0 on Saturday.

The shutout on Friday came in a match-up against Yale goalie Alex Lyon. Last season, Lyon earned First-Team America Hockey Coaches Association/CCM All-America honors as well as First-Team All-ECAC, First-Team All-New England and First-Team All-Ivy accolades.

“It’s great to go up head-to-head with Lyon, I mean, he’s a great goaltender and first-team All-American,” said Gillam, who pointed out that shutouts are a product of solid team play. “I feel like I can compete with him and any other goalie in the league.”

Gillam hasn’t allowed a goal in 167 minutes, 41 seconds, the sixth-longest shutout streak in program history. Even with his hot play of late, Gillam isn’t above some good-natured ribbing from teammates.

“Obviously, we’re really happy for him, that he’s finding success right now,” said senior forward Teemu Tiitinen, who scored a goal as a freshman in Madison Square Garden during Red Hot Hockey. “That’s huge for our team. But I think guys are being pretty good at keeping him level-headed too. We’re ragging on him a little bit (laughs). Nothing changes, it’s still a team sport.”

Red rivals

Cornell and BU have played 44 times in their all-time series with Cornell leading the series 23-19-2, though BU has won three of the first four Red Hot Hockey games. The other game in the Red Hot Hockey series ended as a 3-3 tie in 2009.

The Big Red’s first national championship came with a win over BU in 1967. The two programs were both part of the ECAC before several programs, including BU, broke away to form Hockey East. Current Big Red coach Mike Schafer was a player at Cornell when Hockey East formed (founding charter in 1983, first season 1984-85).

“Up until 1984, we played these teams on a regular basis,” Schafer said. “We only played them once a year, but you played all the teams in Hockey East. A ton of teams (in Hockey East now) didn’t even exist in 1984, three or four in our own league.

“The tradition or Cornell and BU has stood for a long period of time. That history was through the late 60s, early 70s, into the 80s. That strong tradition of success that existed at both schools is really what fueled the rivalry between the two schools.”

The programs have combined for seven national titles.