I had the trip from hell getting back from Minnesota on Monday/Tuesday — I imagine that the eighth level of Hades must be very similar to O’Hare Airport at 1:00 a.m. Not a cool way to spend New Year’s Eve. But it was worth it. I saw some wonderful hockey. A major upset, a near upset, a shootout and a couple of great individual performances.
In a nutshell, here’s what I learned after seeing all four games of the Dodge Holiday Classic:
RIT and Air Force can be very good and, on any given day, beat just about any team in the nation…except maybe Boston College.
Minnesota, shorthanded due to three players at the IIHF World Juniors tournament and the sudden departure of Kyle Okposo (also at that tournament, but not coming back), still dressed 10 NHL draft picks and unachieved in front of its home crowd, failing to win this tournament for the first time in nine years. The Gophers played better on Sunday than they did on Saturday, but they’re still not playing up to their potential, especially in the third period, where they continue to struggle.
Boston College is on fire.
BC junior Nate Gerbe is good at hockey.
The Tiger’s 4-3 victory over Minnesota is the biggest win for the program since moving to Division I three years ago. RIT fell behind 1-0 after the first period, but opened a 2-1 lead early in the second. After that, each time the Gophers would tie, RIT would answer and re-take the lead, closing with Matt Smith’s game-winner, his second goal of the contest, off a deflection from a shot from Dan Ringwald at 9:00 of the third period.
The Tigers had to withstand a furious comeback attempt by the Gophers, including weathering 1:47 of five-on-three with under five minutes to play. RIT goaltender Louis Menard was brilliant down the stretch, stopping all ten Minnesota shots in the third.
“A real big win for our program,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “We’re still trying to build, and we understand that they’re shorthanded here, but any time you get to just play Minnesota, it’s Minnesota, so it’s good for us.
“We had the goalie make some saves and got some bounces.”
On the winning goal, Ringwald was on the ice because Justin Hofstetter had gone to the bench after breaking his stick. Ringwald come off the bench, barely kept the puck in at the blue line and took a slapper that went off Smith’s leg and in for the winning goal.
“Yeah, we work on that broken-stick play a lot in practice,” Wilson deadpanned. “It usually doesn’t turn out as well.”
“It’s an insult to them to say we overlooked them,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “In college hockey, there has been a huge compression from the top to the bottom. They have 25 players with junior experience that know how to play the game.”
In the other semifinal, Air Force got behind early to BC and never recovered, losing 8-2.
“We haven’t been beaten like that for a long time,” said Air Force coach Frank Serratore after the game. “We’re not a very good team right now. We haven’t been playing well for a while, but we’ve been getting away with stuff.
“I’ve been telling these guys we’ve got a lot of holes in our game. Today we got exposed. We’ve got to get better. The only good thing was that it wasn’t on TV.”
Serratore was in much better spirits the next night after a 2-2 tie with Minnesota that saw the Falcons score an extra-attacker goal by Brent Olson, his second of the game, with 62 ticks left on the clock. After a five-minute scoreless overtime, the Gophers won the ensuing shootout 2-0, finally giving the home crowd something to cheer about, but the game goes into the books as a tie.
“It was a good tie,” said Serratore. “Any time you score in the last minute it’s a good tie. I thought we played much better. We had great chances in overtime.”
“It’s a good tie and a bad tie for us,” said Lucia, whose team is now 1-2-1 all-time against Atlantic Hockey squads. “I thought we played well, better than last night.”
“It starts with goaltending, and [Andrew] Volkening was much better tonight,” said Serratore of the sophomore, who was pulled after giving up three goals on 11 shots in the BC game.
RIT came crashing back to earth in the championship game, losing to BC 6-0. It was a 1-0 game going into the third, but Gerbe scored a big goal and the Eagles rolled from there.
“They’re a really good team,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “We needed a goal early to get some excitement on our bench but couldn’t capitalize on our chances.”
Despite beating both Atlantic Hockey teams by six goals, Boston College coach Jerry York had good things to say.
“This is the first time we’ve played two teams from the Atlantic Hockey League back-to-back,” said York. “I was really impressed with the quality of play. If you look at it you see a 6-0 game, but it was anything but that.”
In the battle of Hobey candidates, Gerbe was clearly the winner, picking up seven points on the weekend. He’s now got 19 points in his last five games. Air Force’s Eric Ehn was held off the score sheet.
Player of the Week for December 31, 2007:
Josh Heidinger — Canisius.
The local product had a goal and two assists to lead Canisius to a 4-3 win over rival Niagara.
Goaltender of the Week for December 31, 2007:
Adam Roy — Holy Cross
The freshman stopped 36 of 37 shots to help his team to a 1-1 tie against host Vermont in the Catamount Cup tournament.
Rookie of the Week for December 31, 2007:
Everett Sheen — Holy Cross
Sheen wins the award for the third time this season. He was responsible for both Crusader goals last weekend as they played to a pair of 1-1 ties against Vermont and Western Michigan. His goal against the Broncos came shorthanded with 2:01 left in regulation.
Player of the Month for December:
Josh Heidinger — Canisius.
Heidinger had two goals and three assists last month, helping the Griffins to a 1-1-2 record.
Also nominated: Dain Prewitt (Bentley), Eric Boisvert (Sacred Heart).
Goaltender of the Month for December:
Ian Dams — Holy Cross
The sophomore had a 1.23 GAA and a .953 save percentage over the month, playing in overtime ties with Merrimack and Western Michigan.
Also nominated: Joe Calvi (Bentley), Andrew Loewen (Canisius), Matt Lundin (Mercyhurst).
Rookie of the Month for December:
Everett Sheen — Holy Cross
Sheen had five of the Crusaders’ seven goals scored in December. His 10 goals are first in the conference for rookies and second in the nation.
Also nominated: Vincent Scarsella (Canisius), Mike Gurtler (Mercyhurst).
Air Force and RIT weren’t the only AHA teams involved in tournaments last week. Here’s a summary of the rest of the action:
Connecticut finished second in its own tournament for the third year in a row, defeating Army 4-1 in the first semifinal (which doubled as a conference game) before falling to Ferris State, 5-0, in the title game. Against Army, sophomore goaltender Beau Erickson was outstanding, stopping 30-of-31 shots as the Black Knights outshot the Huskies 31-15. Army tied Brown 1-1 in the consolation game as sophomore Joe Spracklen made his college debut in net for the Black Knights, stopping 20 shots.
Holy Cross allowed just two goals in the Catamount Cup tournament at Vermont…and ended up finishing fourth. The Crusaders tied both games: 1-1 with the host Catamounts and 1-1 again versus Western Michigan in the consolation. Holy Cross lost both shootouts. Freshman Evertt Sheen scored both goals for Holy Cross, and Adam Roy (36 saves) and Ian Dams (28 saves) split time in net. The Crusaders have now tied four times in a row and in five of their last six games (1-0-5).
Sacred Heart also finished fourth in a tournament but in the typical way, by dropping a pair of games at the Denver Cup. In the battle of Pioneers, the ones from Denver triumphed, 5-0, in the semifinals and Sacred Heart dropped the consolation game to Northern Michigan, 5-2, despite 39 saves from Oliver St. Onge. The (Sacred Heart) Pioneers hope to change their fortune with some home cooking as they host Air Force this weekend in only their fifth and sixth home games of the season to date.
While not a tournament, Canisius played a huge game against local rival Niagara, coming out on top, 4-3, in the annual “Battle of the Bridge” contest (there are actually two bridges between the schools, but I’m nitpicking). Josh Heidinger led the way with two goals and an assist. A record 1,711 fans saw the game at Buffalo State, breaking the old record by almost 500. Canisius has averaged 1,337 fans this season, over twice what the Griffs drew last year. Hopefully, fans will follow them to their alternate home rink in Amherst, where Canisius will play its next four games.
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