College Hockey:
Goulet, Ellis Lead Mercyhurst Past Army

USCHO Staff Report • Jan. 5, 2001

WEST POINT, N.Y. — Linemates Louis Goulet and Eric Ellis scored two goals apiece to lead visiting Mercyhurst to an 8-1 decision over Army Friday night at Tate Rink.

Adam Tackaberry added four assists to keep the Lakers unbeaten in MAAC play at 8-0-1 and improve their overall record to 8-4-2. Army is winless (0-3-1) in its last four games and is now 5-10-1 overall, 4-7 in the MAAC.

The eight goals allowed were the most by an Army team since a 9-3 loss to Princeton early in the 1997-98 season and the most in a home game since a 9-3 loss to Boston College in the fourth game of the 1994-95 season.

Mercyhurst benefited from two quick three-goal flurries. Peter Rynshoven, Mark Stamp and Jamie King all scored within a span of 3:34 midway through the first period to help the Lakers open a comfortable lead. Rynshoven and Stamp knocked in rebounds, while King beat Scott Hamilton with a high shot from the right point.

Army’s Mike Fairman cut the lead to 3-1 on a five-on-three power play at 4:26 of the second period, but Ellis scored twice in 12 seconds to cap the Lakers’ second three-goal outburst. Tackaberry fed Goulet from behind the net for a power-play goal at 13:04 to make it 4-1 before Ellis tallied twice. The three goals in 3:07 made it 6-1 after two periods. Jeff Gould and Goulet added third-period insurance against Army backup goalie Ford Lannan.

Mercyhurst, which defeated Army 2-1 on a Gould goal with 0.9 seconds left in regulation on Dec. 9, outshot Army 40-28. Peter Aubry made 21 saves before giving way to Matt Cifelli (six saves) for the final 10:07. Hamilton stopped 22 shots in two periods for Army, while Lannan made a career-high 10 saves in 20 minutes.

Mercyhurst was 3-for-7 on the power play, while Army was 1-for-5 against the nation’s top-ranked penalty-killing team.

Goulet added two assists to his two goals for a four-point night, and Rynshoven also chipped in two helpers.

The Black Knights travel to Sacred Heart on Saturday at 5 p.m., while Mercyhurst visits Colgate at 7 p.m.

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Blldgshockey11
Apparently you don’t know him yet, its CONNOLLY
- http://www.uscho.com Todd D. Milewski
  Apologies. I don’t think our Jim Connelly is up for the award this year, even though he’s mentioned in the story, too. I think I changed all of the incorrect references now.
Croquet1
You’re ignoring Steve Moses at UNH. A dynamic player having a great year on a team with a poor record.
mountainsun
Glad to see that somebody else gets confused on the spelling of Connolly, and also that somebody else thinks right now it is a run-away. I try to not be a biased fan, but after last years success, this year’s dire predictions yet continued success seem to bode extremely well for his shot at the award
RENCEB
Wow, I guess the Hobey voters should not even bother to consider anyone else. ”…the award all but belongs to…”, Connolly’s status as a prohibitive frontrunner…”.
Why not just say “Goalies need not apply”?
- Elliot Olshansky
  Don’t worry, the annual “Did Ryan Miller ruin it for every other goalie in 2001?” blog entry is coming. I’m not sure when, but we will address goalies.
Tom
Funny how bias the article is lol, especially with how close the scoring race is. IMO its more impressive having same points on a much weaker team.
- godogs
  how is it more impressive having the same points on a weaker team that means the talent you face is also weaker…
  - nogofer
    I wonder if you read what you wrote before you posted? You don’t think a player on WI or St. Cloud State faces a tougher task than the goal-scorer on the UM-Duluth squad or rodents? Really???
Phoenixfyre1313
Jack Connolly is one helluva a player, no question, but I think that the presumption to not include goaltenders at all in the article is rather comical. If you do a breakdown on what players are most critical to a teams performance it would be the goalie. You can have all the scoring you want, but with a poor goalie your going nowhere and with poor scoring and a great goalie you can win it all. Additionally the fact that you can be a player with the same caliber stats, but be on a poor team and be totally discounted from the start is a joke. So in essence your not voting on the individual, but team that is around him. That is not what this award is supposed to be about.
Joe
If It was based just on scoring nyquist woulda beat Blake having 11 more points that year.
14TheThumb
One thing the article – that is very well done – fails to mention is the fact that Connolly is the heart and soul of the team, a true leader. Booked my trip to Florida for the ceremony – and hopefully to take in a few games should luck have it.
- Fan Man
  Just booked a trip to Duluth to see Amsoil Feb 10th. Cant wait
18secondsuntilsunrise
Elliot, or is it Elliet or Olliot…what does a little misspelling of someone’s name really matter? Sorry, but I’m less than impressed with this article.
I do believe that Jack Connolly is a serious candidate for the Hobey Baker award, and he may in fact deserve the award at some point, but he’s a long, long way from winning it. First and foremost, you should go back and look at the Hobey criteria. Your article says NOTHING about Jack’s scholastic achievement, or his character off of the ice. I’m betting he’s very hobey-worthy in both of these areas, but you need to tell us why if you are going to use this sensationalized title for your article. Next, Connolly leads the Points per game race by a measly 0.02…over Spencer Abbott, and 0.04 over Mark Zengerle and Austin Smith. However, Smith has 9 more goals in the same amount of games. Abbott has played 1 fewer games and would only need 2 points in his next game to be tied with Connolly. ETC……..
Last time I check (just now), there were 6 weeks (11-12ish games) left in the regular season, plus league tournaments and then the NCAAs. Why don’t you write another article about this subject just before the NCAA tourney. Then you might get our attention, and deserve it.
Sorry for the rant, but I found you article to be quite biased and far to much opinion. That said, thanks for writing each week and putting yourself in the line of fire.
- JOhn
  agreed, far to early to be going over who you think has already won. The race is too close in points and in my opinion i’m more impressed with Austins granted weaker division, but also a weaker team, and hes putting up lots of goals. Of Spencer on a much weaker team and .02ppg behind, and Justin D man with those points is damn impressive.
  Seems if you are writing articles just about whos winning, I guess we won’t get any more Hobey Watch!!!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_H34H3N53RWXPTA2FB6VYBI5FOA JJ
Ok lets do this.. Do you want to go with stats..He’s leading the NATION in points this year. He’s the active leading career poins in D-1 College Hockey.
You don’t like stats, well then, he lead the team to a National Championship, if you say it’s all about this year..He leads the BEST team in college hockey AGAIN, Face-offs, PK, PP 5on5, don’t matter Jack does it all. Best all around hockey player I’ve seen in a long time.
- Jay
  whos leading the nation now?? Abbott is, again this is why this was written wayyyyyyyyyyy to early.
  - Taylor Birkelo
    Actually hes not the top in the Nation and he will not be able to win unless he plans on out scoring Jack by at least 10 to 15 he won’t win because the WCHA is way more comptitive then the Hockey East. They don’t have the teams like Minnesota, UMD, UND, Denver, CC, Wisconsin, UNO and the other teams would be good in other conferences too, showing their non WCHA records. So this article is right on.
HOBEY
You can’t ignore the fact that Smith has 24 goals and is 4 ahead of 2nd place. Also, 5 shorty’s and 5 game winners. You also failed to mention the UMD has 3 guys with more than 30 points. That takes a lot of the luster of Jack.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_H34H3N53RWXPTA2FB6VYBI5FOA JJ
  It takes luster away to be on a winner?!?! WHAT?!? I’m confused???
  - Jason
    It means he has a lot of goal scorers on his team, hence the 25 assists…
Spongebob Squarepants
The title to this article really caught my eye, and after reading it, along with the comments to go with it, I had to comment myself. While most of you probably can’t answer yes to “Do we know Jack yet” I can. I had the privilege to get to know Jack pretty well and what a privilege it was. Just thought I’d share some honest insight into why he deserves this award more than anyone on the planet.I’ll come out and say right away I am totally bias towards him. I grew up with Jack and let me tell you he’s come a long way since he was 10 years old with an aggressive bullcut. I’ve competed against him and mostly with him in numerous activites (the main one being hockey). He’s an amazing athelete and was literally the best at everything growing up…… except swimming. I don’t think I even need to touch on Jack’s college hockey career as his numbers speak for themselves…… But I will :)Most of you probably don’t realize UMD was trash and in the bottom of the WCHA before Jack arrived….. Granted he didn’t do it all himself but he sure had a lot to do with it. I mean the kid hasn’t missed a single game his entire college career. He’s going to be a three time All-Academic and All-American. Oh and by the way he won a National Championship and a WCHA Conference Championship. Not to mention doing this in his hometown, in front of family and friends, for the team he grew up watching. Not sure if any of you have been to the brand new Amsoil Arena, but in Duluth we refer to it as “The Rink that Jack built” For you people saying kids on bad teams with good numbers shouldn’t be counted out I understand your point. At the same time have you stopped to think about the numbers Connolls would put up in the CCHA, ECAC, or any other conference??? The WCHA is easily the best conference in College Hockey and it’s not even a question. …. Most conferences are a joke compared to the WCHA in terms of depth. Put him up against those brains in the ECAC and we wouldn’t be talking about 200 career points but 300 (slight exaggeration for dramatic effect but not really.) He has world class vision and makes everyone around him better (Trust me… I’ve reaped the benefits).For all you people asking about his character and so forth I’ll give you a brief rundown since the article didn’t. This is going to sound very very cliche but it’s honestly the best way I can put it. Jack is the kid you want your daughter to date and your son to grow up like. He’s an amazing hockey player but an even better human being. When it comes to character he has everyone beat because you couldn’t be a better person than this guy. He was always so enthusiastic and passionate about the game he reminded me of a little kid out there. I know this hasn’t changed. He plays exactly how you should play. He’s “The Guy” Jack has put SOOOO much work and effort into hockey. No one on the planet deserves this award more than him. Everyone always doubted his transition to the next level whether it was Bantams, High School, Juniors, and College because of his size. Instead of letting that get to him he used it as motivation to get better. Jack deserves every bit of success he’s had and it couldn’t happen to a better more deserving person.Do we know Jack yet? Chances are you probably don’t, but if you did, you’d understand that there has NEVER been anyone more deserving of the Hobey than this guy. It’s the only thing missing in his fairytale college career besides back to back National Titles, which he’s gonna have a shot at! And while the Jack I know would take a National Title over the Hobey 20 times out of 20; It’d be a crime to not give it to him.
- Fan Man
  I’ll give Jack my vote and thats even coming from a classless Sioux Fan! Well said and (well deserved)! I love a true player and he is it..
- Day Man
  Hi Mrs. Connolly. How’s the husband and kids?…wait I know how your kids are. They are doing quite well in College Hockey. Thank you very much for taking time to enlighten us more on your son. He seems like a great guy.
  - Spongebob Squarepants
    Day Man I don’t think Mrs. Connolly needs to promote her son on a message board when he’s arguably the best college hockey player in the nation. I think parents stopped doing that around Bantams, but you probably have a better idea of that then me :D. This was a great article with some insightful comments on a topic any hockey fan can appreciate. Stop trying to derail the thread with amateur trolling. With that being said, please leave the commenting to the people who are actually adding some insight and interesting outlooks on this great topic. I’m sure there are some active threads on minnhock.com you can blow some time on. Thanks.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_H34H3N53RWXPTA2FB6VYBI5FOA JJ
And one more thing..GO DOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m sick, I feel like crap..DO you think that will stop me from seeing my Dogs tonight against Mich Tech..HELLZ NO!!!
Taylor Birkelo
You guys that think Jack isn’t going to win is just dumb. With him and the Bulldogs doing better than anyone else in the Nation, hes bound to win. Spencer Abbott and Austin Smith are jokes, they play in bad conferences, Colgate more then Maine, but in Maine’s conference all they have got is BU and BC. As the list at the top shows 7 of those players that won it were on a WCHA team, which has the toughest conference in the Nation. So the Hobey Baker should go to Jack, no questions asked.
- Jablowme
  Oh shut up you biased WCHA fanboy