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Tuesday Morning Quarterback: January 15

By Jim Connelly and Scott Brown
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Scott: Before we get to the opining, thanks to Theresa Spisak for ably filling in for me the past few weeks. It’s good to be back, and with that said, I’ve got the Maize and Blue in mind today. No. 1 Michigan has lost just twice all season, and the Wolverines have racked up eight straight wins since losing to Ohio State. If you’re looking for the reason, the obvious difference between this year and last is in net: junior Billy Sauer, who has taken more than his share of criticism the last two seasons, has been stellar — currently in the top five in the nation in both goals against average and save percentage). Jim, what’s your take on Sauer’s sudden rise?

Billy Sauer has stepped up in net for Michigan this season (photo: Melissa Wade).

Billy Sauer has stepped up in net for Michigan this season (photo: Melissa Wade).

Jim: I think that Sauer’s rise has to be stemming from maturing as a goaltender. His numbers have taken a significant turn for the better and are downright impressive at this point. There seems, when goaltenders numbers spike for the positive, to be reasons external to the crease as to why this happens. Don’t be surprised if Sauer’s getting better support this season from his defensemen. I’ve only seen one game that Sauer has played this season, a 6-0 shutout victory over Providence. Michigan’s defense allowed 50 shots in that game but, without taking anything away from Sauer or Providence, the defense did a nice job keeping those attempts to the perimeter. That always makes like easier for a goaltender.

Scott: Yeah, and most people forget that Sauer came in as a 17-year-old freshman — heck, his 20th birthday was barely a week ago — which is a far cry from most incoming players these days. Shifting geographies, the rise of Massachusetts, Mass-Lowell and Northeastern in Hockey East has been one of the stories of the year so far. That’s your neck of the woods, so what gives?

Jim: I actually think that there’s a different story behind each team. Northeastern is a team that over the past couple of seasons has continually improved. The talent is pretty deep on this club, starting from the goaltender position all the way out to the forwards. The biggest challenge the Huskies face is not taking nights off. Last Friday’s loss to Merrimack, after grabbing a 2-0 lead early on, can’t happen if the Huskies want to battle for the top spot in the league. They have to have the ability to go for the jugular when they have a team on the ropes. As for Lowell, the River Hawks seem to be all drinking from the same Kool-Aid. Coach Blaise MacDonald has his team believing that they can win and the players seem to be translating that to incredible efforts on the ice. I saw Lowell play on Saturday. They got outplayed pretty badly by Providence but came out on the winning end. Twice in the game, the River Hawks played hard to the buzzer and it paid off — once in a goal as the buzzer sounded to end the second and again in overtime when Scott Campbell scored with 1.3 seconds remaining. Speaking of buzzer-beaters, I’m anxious to hear your take on Magnessgate. Are the WCHA officials just that inept or is the video replay system that’s in place a tiny bit flawed?

Scott: Ay-yi-yi. The Magness cluster-job is just the kind of situation video replay was supposed to prevent, but in this case it managed to create the controversy instead of resolving it. For those who haven’t followed this closely, Wisconsin lost 3-2 to Denver Friday night when a goal by UW’s Matthew Ford with one second left in regulation was disallowed by referee Randy Schmidt after video review — a call that was horribly wrong. The heart of the matter appears to be that Schmidt only saw limited footage in the video booth. According to some accounts, Schmidt only looked at a still image of the puck lying in the crease after bouncing back out of the net, and never reviewed the full sequence of events starting with Ford’s shot. Other reports say there were communication problems between Schmidt and the video official, which would partially absolve Schmidt, but my take is that the ref has to take the lion’s share of the blame for not getting it right, which is his job. The WCHA issued an apology acknowledging the error, but UW is unlikely to get what it wants, which is a reversal of the call. Any way you slice it, it’s an embarrassing episode for the league and potentially lost points for Wisconsin, which can’t spare many right now.

Jim: I agree, Scott, that the referee will get and deserves the lion’s share of the blame here. Worst off, he saw the play real-time. His own instincts as a referee should have told him that the puck was in and out of the net before the horn ever sounded. The replay, regardless of what he saw, should’ve seemed strange to him and forced further examination. Alas, it did not and it leaves hacks like you and me to debate the merits of video replay, something that I believe just about every coach in the country favors. Anyway, moving past that, here’s another minor controversy. The Hobey Baker Committee launched its “Vote For Hobey” website this week with a list of candidates for this year’s award. It seems some all-star players were left off the lineup, most notably the aforementioned Billy Sauer at Michigan. It’s been tough to get a straight answer as to how these nominations were made but it seems clear to me that someone like Sauer is more deserving of a place on the ballot than half the players listed. What’s your insight on this?

Scott: The Vote for Hobey list baffles me. Not only is Sauer missing, but so are Brandon Wong of Quinnipiac, who’s tied for fifth in the nation in assists, and Joe Whitney of Boston College, who’s second in assists (first on a per-game basis) and 12th in points. But the listmakers managed to find room for 20 Atlantic Hockey nominees, versus 13 from the ECAC and a whopping three — three? — from the CHA. Yes, the CHA has half as many teams as the AHA, but half of 20 isn’t three by a long shot. And of the 20 AHA names, nine of them are from the sixth-, eighth- and ninth-place teams (Canisius, Holy Cross and AIC), whereas none are from RIT, the defending regular-season champion, and there are none from national No. 14 Quinnipiac either (the aforementioned Wong being the obvious pick). I’m at a loss to explain how this list was put together, but it’s not too late to fix it.

Jim: Well, I think what we’re seeing is the gimmick phase of the Hobey Baker Award. The committee uses this “fan vote” to garner some recognition and buzz for the award before people would typically pay attention. Thankfully, and this isn’t critical of the fans themselves, the fan vote holds little weight. As a member of the media, though, I can’t give any credence to the numerous press releases I’ve received saying so and so is a Hobey Baker candidate. As far as I’m concerned every player in the country is a Hobey Baker candidate until the 10 finalists are announced. Until next week …

St. Norbert Top Team for Third Consecutive Poll

By Nicholas Jon Wood
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For the third consecutive poll, the St. Norbert Green Knights are the top team in college hockey. Their hold on that honor, however, is more tenuous after it took overtime in each game to defeat St. Mary’s and fourth ranked St. Thomas. Despite their unbeaten streak reaching 14, their first place tallies were pared to 17.

The Elmira Eagles, equally brilliant over the last month and now the nation’s only team sans a defeat, posted convincing wins over Morrisville (5-1) and Geneseo (6-1) to recapture two first place votes lost last week. Separated now by just 16 points, these two teams earned all top accolades.

Plattsburgh remained third with a 3-2 win over Norwich and the aforementioned Tommies — after a 5-1 rout of Lake Forest and the tough OT loss to top-ranked St Norbert — stayed in the fourth position. In outscoring their two opponents 13-3, University of Wisconsin-River Falls jumped one spot to fifth.

Hobart, winners of 12 of their first 14, ascended three spots to No. 6 as Manhattanville, who was upset by Potsdam, fell two rungs to seventh. 1-1-1 on the week — including their first defeat of the season — Southern Maine dropped a spot, as did UW-Stout who lost to St. Johns, 4-3, before shutting out Concordia (MN), 4-0.

Rounding out the top 10 is Middlebury, who has begun to reassert themselves offensively — 4-3 and 6-1 wins over Castleton and Skidmore, respectively — as they claw their way back among the national elite.

Two resounding victories were not enough to cancel out a loss to third ranked Plattsburgh as Norwich descended one spot to No. 11. Equaling Hobart’s feat, Bowdoin — now 9-2-0 on the season — leapt three spots to No. 12 after outscoring New England College and St. Anselm, 11-6, while Babson fell a couple of spots to No. 13.

Defending national champion Oswego remained at No. 14 while Adrian made its poll debut by outscoring Concordia (WI), 17-5, in a two game sweep.

After losing to new No. 12 Bowdoin and besting Colby, New England College failed to remain among the top 15 Division III squads.

Michigan Again No. 1 In USCHO.com/CSTV Poll

USCHO Staff Report
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A sweep of Western Michigan kept Michigan in the top spot in Monday’s USCHO.com/CSTV Division I men’s poll, as the Wolverines racked up 45 of 50 first-place votes to retain the national pole position.

Michigan was trailed once again by Miami, which picked up two wins over Nebraska-Omaha and earned the remaining five first-place nods to stay at No. 2, while Colorado College and Denver swapped places this week after the Tigers swept Alaska-Anchorage and the Pioneers split with Wisconsin. CC is No. 3 and DU No. 4 this time around.

Comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack in fifth place was New Hampshire, which made a statement by taking two decisions from then-No. 5 Massachusetts, handing the Minutemen their first losses since November. The Wildcats jumped three places as a result of last weekend’s performance.

In at No. 6 this week was North Dakota, which climbed two spots after a sweep of Michigan Tech, while Michigan State rebounded three places to seventh with a three-point weekend against Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish slipped to eighth, right behind the Spartans.

Northeastern finished ninth in the latest rankings, down two spots after a split with Merrimack, while UMass fell to 10th after its losses to UNH.

Opening the second half of the poll was Boston College, twice a winner over Vermont, and Clarkson stood fast at No. 12 after losing to Dartmouth but rebounding to beat Harvard.

St. Cloud State edged up to 13th with a win and a tie against Minnesota, and Quinnipiac moved up to No. 14 after topping Brown and Yale. At No. 15 was Massachusetts-Lowell; the River Hawks split a pair of overtime decisions against Providence last weekend.

Minnesota-Duluth finished at No. 16, up three spots with a win and a tie versus Minnesota State, while Wisconsin was No. 17 this week. Minnesota fell to 18th, followed by Princeton, which moved into the rankings at No. 19 with wins over Yale and Brown. Rounding out the poll was Minnesota State, holding its ground from last week’s rankings.

Dropping out this week was Michigan Tech.

Upon Further Review…

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I guess if I’m going to write about how instant replay is used in college hockey, I best do my home work. In my blog posting earlier today, I wrote about how the Denver-Wisconsin game used instant replay to determine that Wisconsin’s tying goal came after the buzzer.

After a fellow USCHO staffer wrote me an email, though, I realized that a quick check of YouTube would’ve pointed me in the direction of the clip that clearly shows that the video review official totally botched the call. The tying goal, in fact, had entered the net when there was nearly a full second remaining. In fact, both officials stationed on the goal line indicate goal while there was still 0.2 seconds remaining on the clock.

So maybe this whole replay system isn’t beyond flaws.

But my question on this is why? How the heck did this get screwed up? Anyone who was at the game or has more insight should email me ([email protected]). I’m interested in learning more of how this play was so massively bothced.

The email I received referenced a couple of solutions on how to right this wrong. Included was that you award Wisconsin a point in the standings without taking anything away from Denver, so that the game would go as a tie for Wisco and a win for the Pioneers. Unfortunately, I believe that once a game has been deemed complete by the officiating crew, you can’t change the decision.

I’m sure similar to baseball and basketball (as we learned last week) there is likely a protest procedure in hockey. I know that in baseball, that protest has to be filed with the umpire before the next pitch. How the rules read in hockey, I’m not sure.

The one thing I do know, though, is whoever the official was who made the call needs to be reprimanded by the league. Video replay is a clear cut, black and white part of hockey (sometimes, as we see in the NFL, there is gray when there isn’t enough irrefutable evidence to overturn a call). But watching 50 seconds of YouTube makes it pretty clear to me that someone screwed up this call.

Again, if anyone has a different perspective on this than mine, please email me. I wasn’t at the game so everything I know is from third-party or YouTube.

How Sweep it is!

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It seems this past weekend that the sweep was the preferred method of dealing with opposition, at least for some of the nation’s top teams. Michigan, Miami, Colorado College, New Hampshire and North Dakota all posted back-to-back Ws on the weekend that with either maintain or improve the poll positioning.

The sweep that probably had the most impact was New Hampshire’s over #5 Massachusetts. UMass had climbed to its highest ranking in school history but stands to take a major slide after letting a third-period lead slip away Friday night at home and then never really getting things started in a 5-3 loss at UNH on Saturday. This could cost the Minutemen a spot in the top ten.

North Dakota posted two impressive wins over Michigan Tech that should help get the Sioux higher standing in the poll, which possibly pushing the Huskies out of the top 20 (they entered the weekend at #18).

While the poll will not have any type of significant movement at the top, one thing to watch this weekend is the release of the USCHO.com PairWise Rankings. This is the first look that college fans will get at their team’s standing in the overall national picture as the NCAA Tournament selection looms just 10 weeks away.

Buzzer Beaters and Replay

Many of you may have already read of the near buzzer beater that negated in Denver on Friday night by instant replay. Wisconsin appeared to have tied the game at the buzzer of regulation but a look at the play using instant replay – standard in all WCHA facilities – showed the the puck crossed the line after the clock read 0.0.

The following afternoon, I sat at UMass-Lowell as the River Hawks battled Providence. At the conclusion of the second period, Lowell scored a goal that, to my naked eye appeared to enter the net almost simultanesouly to the buzzer sounding. The referee, positioned perfectly on the goal line, immediately signaled goal.

There was no instant replay available for the game, as Hockey East only using video review in televised games.

It’s impossible for me to say whether or not the goal should have stood. But I’m sure there were enough people in Tsongas Arena who wondered themselves what the clock read as the puck entered the net.

This contrast of incidents that took place in Denver and Lowell, though, certainly makes the case for schools and league to invest in video replay. No one wants to leave a game having doubt, and instant replay certainly takes that away.

Denver’s coach George Gwozdecky, whose team was the beneficiary of instant replay, verbalized well the benefits of instant replay:

“The one reason that our coaches in this league and administration, and the referees especially, pushed so hard and for so long for a very expensive but effective tool like instant replay was to get the call right. It’s tough when it goes against you, no question about it, but as tough as it is, you can’t argue against it.”

No One Hotter than Gerbe

There are streaks in college hockey all over the nation, but few may be as impressive as the one that Boston College’s Nathan Gerbe has going.

Gerbe has what you’d consider a modest eight-game scoring streak. He also has a pretty impressive eight-game goal scoring streak.

Neither of those hold much weight as to the overall offensive that the junior has produced over those eight games. Gerbe has potted 13 goals and added 12 assists for 25 points in the eight game stretch (a little better than three points per game for the match-challenge in the audience). If he were to maintain that pace through the remainder of the season, Gerbe would have 82 points BEFORE the playoffs even begin.

It’s ridiculous to think that he’d maintain such a pace, but that comparison certainly put into perspective how impressive a streak BC’s top forward is on.

It’s also not coincidence that Gerbe’s production began shortly after he was handed a one-game suspension by the league for spearing. It seems that Gerbe has focused more on his game and less on playing chippy, all of which has translated to improved performance on the ice.

More to Come…

I’m hoping to write more this week once the PWR debuts. Check back later.

Third Period – Ice Knights and Soaring Eagles

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It’s been a fairly uneventful third period as things are getting a little chippy at the midway point.

Elmira gets its fifth goal, its first non-special teams goal, with 6:52 to play. Karl Linden finds Jan Velich all alone on the weak side, and he buries it to make it 5-1.

The Eagles finish it off with their fourth power play goal of the game. On a 5×3 with 25 seconds to go, Nick Dumoulin one-times a feed from Mike Richard.

And that’s your final.

Here’s the recap.

Second Period from Geneseo

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As the team takes the ice for the second period, the Genny band is playing a kicking version of “Don’t Stop Believing”.

Elmira scores it second power play goal of the evening at 1:06, with just six seconds left on the man advantage. Sebastian Gulder’s shot from the point is stopped by Jokic, but Stefan Schoen is on the doorstep to bang in the rebound. Some argument from Geneseo that Schoen was in the crease prior to the shot, but the goal stands.

Elmira scores shorthanded at 5:38 with a bad, bad goal. A simple clearing shot by Larry Willard hits Jokic in the breadbasket. The puck drops to his skates, and he proceeds to fall back, kicking it into his own net. 3-0 Elmira. Jeff Pesemko now in net for the Knights. He’s only played 15 minutes so far this season.

Things are looking bad for Geneseo as it takes another penalty, but just as it expires, the Knights get a 3×2 rush and Jeff McPhee beats Elmira netminder Casey Tuttle low stick side from just inside the blue line.

The teams trade penalties and Elmira gets its third power play goal of the game with 32 seconds to go. A shot from the high slot by Russell Smith glances off of Pasemko’s glove and into the net.

Some extracurriculars at the end of the period will give Geneseo a power play to start the third.

First period recap – Elmira vs. Geneseo

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With the fairly small crowd still finding their seats, Elmira scores on the power play just 3:11 into the contest. Ryan Amrone took a feed from Michael Richard and beat Kights goaltender Derel Jokic to make it 1-0.

There’s a nice contingent of Elmira fans who made the trek up route 390 for this one. With school out of session, there’s not too many students here, but give credit to the Geneseo band, who has only six musicians….but is making their presence known.

Midway through the period, Elmira kills off a 5×3 with some good hustle and giving up the body to block some shots, limiting the Knights to just one SOG.

Geneseo kills off an Elmira power play with about seven minutes to go, and then Elmira takes one with 2:39 to play in the period. It’s negated by another Geneseo penalty, and Elmira finishes the period still on the man advantage.

Shots were 6-1 in favor of Elmira early, and they hold a 10-5 advantage at the end of the first period.

Blogging Geneseo-Elmira

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I’m not traveling with RIT this weekend – I get one off after trips to AIC, Minnesota and Holy Cross – and had fun last night at home with the family tracking several games at once. I was watching the AHA games on B2, following D-III scores on the USCHO.com message board, and switching between TV games – Cornell-RPI, Michigan State-Notre Dame, Miami-UNO and Denver-Wisconsin.

Heaven, right?

Well, there’s still nothing at beats LIVE hockey, so tonight I made the trek to Geneseo to check out the Knights and the second-ranked Elmira Soaring Eagles. Stay tuned for updates.

This Week in the ECAC East and NESCAC

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Happy New Year!

Can’t you just see the confetti, the ball, er puck, dropping at the stroke of midnight over and over again in a scene reminiscent of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? Over and over again in flashbacks, the league coaches have had various amounts of time during the holiday break to think about what the first half brought and what the second half really needs to see change for the clubs to be successful and play their best hockey at the right time of the year.

No Santa list or visit this year kids! Nope, the jolly old elf is burned out dealing with some D-I columnist (who made frequent guest appearances with D-III updates in Connecticut last season) who annually makes him visit the very needy Hockey East coaches every year in hopes that they find a little Christmas magic in their stockings.

No this year is all about resolutions and the New Year’s wishes the D-III coaches have for their teams in the ECAC East and NESCAC conferences leading to a prosperous January and beyond. So without further ado and in reverse order of the standings, here is what this writer thinks 20 teams are renewing commitments to in the second half as the regular season recommences this weekend across the league.

ECAC East

Skidmore — Breaking their winless streak in the league is probably tops on the list for the Thoroughbreds following Tuesday’s loss to travel partner Castleton, but at the core of it all is a need to score more goals from the guys who produced last year and stop more opposing goals where last year’s team found success. Matt Czerkowicz had four points in a solid effort Tuesday which hopefully bodes well for the second half.

Teddy Gowan getting on track offensively and some solid goaltending is definitely needed and that now looks to be squarely on the shoulders of senior Ted Levine who will step in for sophomore DJ Delbuono, who left the team and was taken off the roster prior to Tuesday’s game against Castleton. Interesting times for the Thoroughbreds to start the new year.

Salem State — The Vikings enter the new year having lost the championship game in their holiday tournament to longtime league rival Bowdoin then rebounded nicely in a non-league win over Fitchburg State. Coach Bill O’Neill would just assume keep his young guns popping off as Aaron Blades, Chris MacInnis and Justin Fox all have eight goals apiece already and the Vikings will need the firepower in the second half. Keeping the power play cranked up is a resolution Salem State would like to keep.

St. Michael’s — What better way to start the new year than with a three game win streak over the holidays including a win in their own tournament. Coach Chris Davidson has the Purple Knights playing pretty well but will need his team’s resolve in scoring more goals and more even strength goals as nearly 50% of their production is coming off the power play, led by Erik Caron and Ryan Mero. Transfer Tyler Bilton has been solid in goal and needs to stay committed to backstop his team as the Knights look to move up in the standings.

UMass-Boston — Very quietly the Beacons are starting to make people notice they can play and for the first time in many seasons they come out of the break posting a winning record at 5-4-1. Their current three game unbeaten streak includes a tie that felt like a win against travel partner and league leader Babson by a 1-1 score and two 5-4 victories over Suffolk and Fitchburg State, respectively, to capture the Codfish Bowl Tournament during the holiday break. Coach Peter Belisle is resolving that his kids keep the faith in the second half and looks to Eric Tufman to continue his team leading scoring and Kris Kransky to play big and continue his hot start.

Castleton State College — The Spartans got a big two points on Tuesday night in a high scoring affair that isn’t typical of the style that coach Alex Todd has brought to his team. They’ll take the win but the coach is probably looking for a commitment to tighten things up and staying committed to the style that worked so well for them last season. The Spartans could use a few more seven goal outbursts and have some talent upfront — led by Brandon Heck and Steve Culbertson — to do it.

St. Anselm — The only blemish on the Hawk’s record is a loss to streaking New England College just before the break but for a young team coach Ed Seney has to be happy with how his team has played particularly on defense and in the goal. Resolutions are probably easy here in looking for more offense and a power play that can help lessen the burden on even-strength play. Goalie Jason Zuck continues to impress in his sophomore season and St A’s will need his consistent play to challenge the league leaders in the second half.

Norwich — Funny to be writing about the Cadets sitting in the four spot at the break with a 4-1-0 record but last year proved the Cadets can turn it on in the second half. After winning the Times-Argus tournament with quality wins over UMass-Dartmouth and ECAC East league leader Babson, the Cadets suffered a tough loss against third ranked Plattsburgh by a 3-2 score in a game decided in the final 76 seconds of regulation. Coach McShane resolved before the season to have a better power-play and at 29%, it wasn’t hard to renew that resolution come the new year. Continued production from Rick Cleaver and Nikita Kashirsky is expected but added scoring from the likes of DJ Famiani and Chad Anderson will make this team more formidable for league opponents.

Southern Maine — 10-0-1 from a team that has made it mandatory for second half excellence in recent seasons, coach Jeff Beaney must have pushed some New Year’s resolutions on the boys early in the season based on the fast start. Goalie Jamie Gilbert has stepped right into David Beckles crease and has been rock solid while Mike Stevens has been a key offensively scoring key goals including three game winners so far this season. The power play is killer and so too is the balance up front. These Huskies have been close each of the past three seasons. Maybe this is the year.

New England College — Only a close 4-3 loss to host and defending national champion Oswego this past weekend mars the Pilgrims season entering league play this weekend with a trip to Maine to face Bowdoin and Colby. The Pilgrims are down right stingy on defense and must have resolved to support the solid goaltending from Ron Baia with tight play in front of him especially a man down where the y have an extraordinary 93% kill rate. The Pilgrims are strong up the middle and have the depth and balance to be dangerous with all of their lines — watch out for Mark Ehl especially on the power play where his six goals lead the team.

Babson — Only the loss at Norwich blemishes the Beaver’s opening half and the defending conference champs are right back at the top playing with great balance in all phases of the game. Ten players led by Jason Schneider and Brad Baldelli have more than two goals and the defense has been solid in front of goalie Skylar Nipps. Coach Jamie Rice will surely resolve that his team not dwell on last season but focus on the opportunity at hand and continue to play aggressively in the new year.

NESCAC

Hamilton — Following a tough season last year, the Continentals have only won one game in their first eight to star the season. The win was a big one for Coach Phil Grady who recorded his 300th career win while at Hamilton. This year’s team is still very young and the coach must have made a number of resolutions and wishes for some goals as the team has been offensively challenged early in the season. Sophomore Jerome Wallace leads the team in scoring with six points on four goals and two assists. The power play has not been effective yet so getting into a rhythm when a man up might help some of the Hamilton forwards get on track in the second half that begins at home against ECAC East leading Babson and resurgent UMass-Boston.

Wesleyan — After a sluggish start to the season, a quality win over UMass-Dartmouth seemed to be just what the team needed to get on track and play like they did last season. Coming off the break, the Cardinals lost a 6-0 decision to Manhattanville before beginning league play this weekend where they are in desperate need of goals and points starting the second half. Like Hamilton, Wesleyan has had difficulty putting the puck in the net and the power play hasn’t helped much. JJ Evan leads the team with just three goals and as a team they have just five tallies with the man advantage. The defense and goaltending can improve but a little more offense will go a long way in taking some of that burden off the back line.

Williams — For coach Bill Kangas’s team, a resolution towards consistency would help the Ephs in the second half. Like other teams struggling early, Williams needs offense and better special teams play on both ends. The power play is only clicking at a 10% success rate while the opposition scores 25% of the time with the advantage. More consistent goaltending from either Mark Pulde or Dick Raymond would certainly help the latter category. Brandon Jackmuff and Alex Smegelski account for almost 40% of the team’s goals so Williams will need better balance in the second half.

Trinity — Still young is what first year coach Dave Cataruzolo says about his Bantam squad. That said they have not seen any losing streaks this year of greater than one game so their experience and maturity are starting to show in their favor as compared with many of the tight contests that did not go their way last season. The goaltending duo of David Murison and Wes Vesprini have been consistent and sophomore Naoto Hamashima is among four players with four goals each for the Bantams. A resolution to a better penalty kill and maybe a bit better production from the power play would help Trinity a lot especially opening the second half at Southern Maine and Salem State.

Conn. College — Another one of last year’s surprise teams has been off to a rough start and for coach Jim Ward, the needed item is what everyone else was making New Year’s resolutions about — his team needs offensive chances and goals. The Camels are being outshot in aggregate in every period by their opponents so despite having a stellar .910 save percentage, goalie Greg Parker is giving up 3.53 goals per game and his team is scoring just over two per contest. Freshman phenom Ryan Howarth needs to get going in the second half and look for Rob Campbell to lead the offense in the second half of his senior season.

Tufts — See comments above. Seriously, until the new year the Jumbos were playing pretty well but suffered back-to-back losses at the Plattsburgh tournament by resounding 9-2 and 6-0 scores to Plattsburgh and Trinity, respectively. This team has always been known for its power play but this year has struggled. The penalty kill has also struggled and one of two talented netminders needs to step up in the second half if this team is going to challenge for a playoff berth at the end of the season. Senior Greg O’Connell and junior Joe Milo need to help the offense with more production starting a five game home stand in eight days.

Middlebury — Last year’s team needed a late run to navigate the league tournament as well as the NCAA tournament before falling in the finals to Oswego. By coach Bill Beaney’s own admission his best two players are his goaltenders and only of them can play at a time. The injury bug struck early as did the inability to score goals. The team hopefully has resolved to stay healthy and help freshman Chaz Svoboda on the scoresheet — seniors Mickey Gilchrist and Tom Maldonado will need to find their All-American caliber games in the second half for the Panthers to challenge yet again for the league title.

Amherst — The Lord Jeffs have perennially found themselves fighting at the top largely due to timely scoring, great special teams and some better than expected goaltending. This year coach Jack Arena has resolved to keep that formula in place and hope they can finish the second half better in the final six games than they have over the past three seasons. The goaltending has been pretty solid among three netminders including freshmen Cole Anderson and Jonathan Larose along with junior AJ Scola. A better second half from last year’s leading scorer Joel Covelli will help Amherst stay in the hunt.

Bowdoin — Coach Terry Meagher can complain all he wants about how goal-challenged his team is but it is hard to swallow when freshman Ryan Leary has found the magic touch and already connected for 11 tallies in his first seven collegiate games — that’s about a quarter of the team’s total this season so far. One resolution for the coach should then be to keep Ryan doing whatever it is that his him scoring at a record pace. Lost in Leary-mania is the solid season being had by senior Mike Westerman who continues to be Bowdoin’s best all-around player this season. They picked the wrong game to lose in the home-and-home with Colby where the first game was for the two points in league play but as is the case every year, the Polar Bears have the game to be in the hunt when it counts most.

Colby — The White Mules sit on top on the strength of their win over travel partner and in-state rival Bowdoin before the break. Coach Tortorella’s early resolution was to let the goaltending sort itself out and it appears freshman Cody McKinney has grabbed the job and will look to improve on his save percentage in the second half. Seniors TJ Kelley and Josh Reber are in their customary spots leading the offense but defenseman Arthur Fritch has been off to a slow start with point production and his impact is needed on both ends of the ice for Colby to stay in their current position.

With roughly 10 to 12 games under their belts, most teams know what they have and more importantly know what they need to do to improve in the second half. We are off to a great start and the excitement is just beginning in the new year! Make your resolution to cheer your school on and enjoy the ride in the second half.

The holidays are over — drop the puck!

This Week in D-I Women’s Hockey: Jan. 10, 2008

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The late, great Harry Nilsson once wrote a tune about “one” being the loneliest number.

Applied to women’s hockey (and what a leap that is), that number would be four.

As in the small number of programs that make up College Hockey America.

It begs such musical questions as, “When is a League Not a League?”, or “Will You Notice If We’re Gone?”.

In considering the state of women’s college hockey, and the viability of the scuffling CHA, once could ruminate on the old hit by Mental As Anything, “If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?”.

The conclusion is invariably this. Having a fourth thriving loop to compliment the established ones — Hockey East, ECAC, WCHA — is in everyone’s best interest.

“We need that fourth league,” said Brian McCloskey, whose New Hampshire squad has dominated Hockey East since that league‘s inception. “We really do. I think the ECAC is solid. Obviously the WCHA has won seven (NCAA) titles. Our league’s growing, and I can see us expanding. We need the CHA to develop into a solid, six or seven team league.”

Agreeing on solutions for bolstering the six-year-old CHA is another matter.

The CHA features one perennially ranked power (Mercyhurst), one former Frozen Four entry (Niagara), plus fledgling programs Wayne State and Robert Morris.

Bumping up the membership to six teams, the number needed for an NCAA auto-bid, is the conundrum.

“Hopefully it happens in my lifetime,” said Niagara coach Margot Page, who no doubt has placed such a wish on her “bucket list”.

It wouldn’t be a problem, of course, if schools were lining up to ice Divisions-I squads.

But they’re not.

The only new D-I program on the horizon is Syracuse University, which everyone agrees would be a good fit for the CHA. But that marriage has yet to be consummated.

Heck, they haven’t gotten to the flirting stage. Not yet, anyway.

And indie Sacred Heart’s invitation seems to have gotten lost in the mail.

“It’s a growing pain that can be alleviated pretty quickly,” said Page, “if people look at things more globally. You look at the ECAC, Hockey East, WCHA, they all have plenty of teams in their leagues. If they want to, they can create a fourth league. It can be done. Especially with Syracuse ready to go.

“At some point in time, people have to wake up and say, ‘what can we do to help women’s hockey.’ It’s a big picture thing, and I hope people open their eyes. For me as a coach in that four-team league, I see the possibility of that league. Perhaps if we bring Syracuse in, and get one other team, we can wait the two years and get an ‘AQ’ (auto-qualifer/bid). Perfect. But if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. And it tells me that not many people care so much about the growth of the game. Because not many [schools] are going to open up teams if they can’t go somewhere.”

For those already skating in the CHA, the best approach is to bulk up the loop from the inside.

“The big picture is this,” said Robert Morris coach Nate Handrahan. “The CHA has had four teams in the women’s conference for a long time. We’re very solid at this point. The growth of the game is going to help us. I believe that [for] a school like Syracuse, it’s the right fit for them. But obviously, they have to make that decision.

“We’re a good league. We have good teams in our league. Sometimes, because we’re smaller, we don’t get the same recognition. But that’s okay by us. But for the growth of the game, there needs to be four conferences. I think we’re going to continue to exist. We’ll move forward and search for more teams.”

As Page sees it, the problems inherent in operating with just four teams are manifold.

“For me,” she said, “the four team league hurts in a lot of different ways. It’s tough to recruit, when you’re not going to get an auto bid. For us, we have to win every game, because the only way we could get in would be our record. Basically, the only we could get in is if we finish in the top five. From a recruiting standpoint, kids are looking at that, because they want to go to the post-season.”

McCloskey, for one, is sympathetic to their plight.

“It’s hard for them. It would be nice to see the CHA expand, somehow, someway. Just to give it a little more depth, and merit. I think that teams like Mercyhurst, and Wayne, and Niagara, they’ve really hung tough. And they’re icing pretty good programs. But the league is only as viable as its ability to stay competitive and get competition. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve always tried to play those teams within reason. We don’t want them to go south.”

If nothing else, teams in the CHA seem to have honed the edges on their coping skills.

And if you ask Robert Morris co-captain Morgan Beikrich, the current set up suit’s the Colonials just fine.

“If anything, we think of it as a positive,” she said. “We don’t look further than that. We don’t need to. In what other conference can you win two [tournament] games and be conference champions. We’re in a perfect position as a matter of fact. I don’t think we look at it as a negative. I don’t think we should. That’s just where we ended up, and we’re glad to take it.”

Maybe four’s not so lonely, after all.

Not as lonely as three, anyway.

This Week in ECAC Hockey: Jan. 10, 2008

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A Tale of Two Home Games

Quinnipiac saw two-goal first-period leads disappear by the final horn in each of its two games last weekend. Fortunately for the Bobcats, they didn’t lose either game.

Playing host to Harvard on Friday night, the ‘Cats jumped all over the Crimson and goaltender Kyle Richter with three first-period goals on seven shots. Out to a 3-1 lead at the first intermission, QU crumpled under intense Crimson pressure in the second frame.

Harvard scored four-on-four and five-on-four (A.K.A. “power-play”) goals in the second, and played a solid road game en route to a 3-3 tie.

“We lost a lot of first-period battles [despite the score] … the defense was sluggish,” admitted coach Rand Pecknold. “We were just opportunistic,” he said, and concluded that “Harvard played a great road game.”

Against Dartmouth, the hosts found themselves on the other end of an early lead. The Big Green were up 2-0 with 45 minutes to play, again by way of four-on-four and power-play tallies. Quinnipiac scored before the end of a wild first period in which QU outshot the Green 12-11.

The Bobcats knotted the game in the second, but surrendered another tiebreaking goal four minutes into the third before roaring off with a 5-3 win.

“It was nice to battle back, but bad to be down [so early],” said Pecknold.

The ‘Cats hit the road for their next three games, including a Saturday-night showdown with Whitney Avenue neighbor Yale.

Which brings us to …

Watching Whitney

The Whitney Ave. rivalry (henceforth to be known as the Whitney War … or some variation thereof) has been a long time coming, and still has a little ways to go before matching the ferocity of, say, Harvard-Cornell or Clarkson-St. Lawrence.

“There’s definitely a rivalry with Yale,” said QU’s Pecknold. “The schools are only five or six miles apart … the games have been very intense.”

One interesting aspect of this local loathing is that in the seven years that Quinnipiac played D-I hockey before joining the ECAC, the two programs never met once.

“People kept asking me, ‘so when are you going to play Yale?’,” Pecknold recalled.

In the two and a half seasons since, QU has beaten the Bulldogs three times in four tries and has outscored them 21-12. Let’s see if the Eli can’t draw a little blood of their own.

Back to Basics

That’s the message that Harvard head coach Ted Donato is preaching this week.

“I think maybe we looked at long-term goals a little too much,” he said of his team. “We got away from what we were doing well: staying out of the box, running the power play, playing physical hockey.”

The Crimson are on an 0-5-2 skid dating back to a December 4 loss at Rensselaer. They’ve only scored 13 goals in that stretch, and only once potted more than two in a game (in last weekend’s aforementioned 3-3 draw with Quinnipiac). Meanwhile, the rearguard has surrendered twice as many — 26 — and has given up eight goals in 35 shorthanded situations.

The lowlight of the slide may have been the home 7-2 drubbing sustained at the hands of Beanpot rival Boston College. The Crimson allowed four power-play goals in 10 opportunities, and failed to mark Eagles sniper Nathan Gerbe, who scored four goals and added an assist for good measure.

“We’ve played well enough to win, but we’ve left the doors open to lose … and we have [lost],” said Donato of his team’s recent hardships. “We played a 50-minute game against Quinnipiac … and we were ahead at Princeton for [48] minutes. We tried to hold onto the lead, instead of adding to it,” he lamented.

“We’ve gotta get back to the basics. We played a lot of hockey at the end of November and in early December, and we got away from what we were doing.”

This weekend will pit the Crimson against last year’s first- and second-place finishers, Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

“Sometimes when you’re struggling, playing good hockey teams can be the best remedy,” Donato mused.

Harvard’s student population is also in the midst of the pre-exam reading period, and the big games may prove to be an effective outlet for so much mental stress. The Crimson have next weekend off, followed by a single game at Dartmouth on the 26th.

Just as the regular-season finish line becomes visible off in the distance, the Beanpot and league schedule conspire to really put Harvard to the test.

Familiar Face in a Different Place

When last we heard from Augie DiMarzo, the sophomore forward had been dismissed from Union College after playing seven games in the fall of 2006.

His separation from the hockey program and the institution at large was not for a lack of talent: in 44 games over two seasons, the agile DiMarzo netted eight goals with 22 assists. He finished second on the team in scoring as a freshman, and Union went 19-19-8 in his time as a member of the hockey program.

Since then, the 5’8″, 150-pound Connecticut native has been searching for a way to continue his hockey career. Union, on the other hand, has worked hard to dissociate from him entirely.

The fact of the matter is, DiMarzo left Schenectady on anything but good terms last year. Following an alleged incident on campus, the underclassman could’ve considered himself fortunate to stay out of prison. Union head coach Nate Leaman promptly cut DiMarzo from the team, and a student judiciary committee later ruled for DiMarzo’s expulsion.

Already barred from NCAA play for an academic year by transfer rules, Union also refused to grant his release to other ECAC hockey programs (standard practice given the circumstances). This meant that for one full year — the maximum length of time that his release could be withheld — Union’s league-mates were prohibited from communicating with DiMarzo in any way.

The 21-year-old returned home to southern Connecticut, and became a part-time student at Quinnipiac. According to Bobcats head coach Rand Pecknold, DiMarzo inquired of the hockey program, but was refuted on the grounds of Union’s non-release.

DiMarzo instead made his way to upstate New York, where he enrolled full-time at St. Lawrence.

Now two semesters separated from Union, DiMarzo is confirmed to be skating with the Saints, and is on track to become a full-time, game-playing member of the team next fall. (Even though he has not been a student at Union for a full year, transfer rules stipulate that an athlete must spend two full semesters at his new institution before he is eligible to play there.)

The four-in-five rule will still give DiMarzo the ’08-09 and ’09-10 seasons to play, and he would graduate SLU at the age of 24. DiMarzo’s drama may not be complete just yet, however: sources familiar with the situation have made it clear that Union policy prohibits expelled students from returning to campus in any capacity, including as a visiting student-athlete.

It should make for some interesting Saints-Dutchmen tilts in coming years, to say the least.

Coaches’ Corner

With last weekend’s St. Lawrence-UNH game on our minds, we went to the coaches wondering about NHL versus Olympic-sized rinks.

Not surprisingly, none of the league’s coaches specifically preferred the larger 100×200-foot Olympic sheets. Some said that they had no preference one way or the other, but all agreed that it definitely makes a difference: big ice means more skating, less hitting, and a lot more space … especially on a power play.

The second half of the two-part query, however, elicited some more passionate responses: should the NCAA regulate and standardize rink dimensions?

Feedback ranged from definitive “aye”s to more political “nay”s, but with different priorities in mind for each respondent.

One coach made the obvious point that many NCAA players have NHL aspirations, and should therefore be accustoming themselves to NHL dimensions. Perimeter play can counter perimeter play on the big ice as well, whereas the tighter nature of an NHL-style game encourages greater strength, quickness, decision-making and scoring.

Another coach believed that it should be up to each individual school to decide what’s best for its team and its program. It would be financially unrealistic to standardize all the existing rinks, and furthermore, the variability adds to the charm of college hockey, said one coach.

For what it’s worth, I personally believe that bigger ice is better for the players, and therefore the game. More space encourages more creativity and sharper skills: passes have to be that much crisper when they’re going 10 feet further. Trap-hockey would be much harder to play effectively, as would the dump-and-chase offense … of course, if there were no trap, there would be very little reason to ever dump-and-chase.

I strongly agree with one coach’s opinion, however, that all NCAA tournament games should be played on NHL ice. It’s the more common size for collegiate ice sheets, and it’s the size that the North American public is most familiar with.

Don’t even get me started on the NHL’s idea of changing the dimensions of the goal; this is a family-friendly column.

Snapshots

• St. Lawrence will be skating without Pat Muir for at least three more weeks. The senior forward is pointless in only four games this season, and is steadily recovering from a sports-hernia surgery. Goaltender Justin Pesony is still tending to a high-ankle sprain suffered in late November, and the team is hopeful that he’ll be back in a few weeks as well.

• Junior defenseman Jack Christian is doubtful for Harvard’s high-octane weekend, as is freshman goaltender Ryan Carroll.

• The Raiders are as healthy as they’ve been all year, but David McIntyre is still considered day-to-day after already missing the Badger Showdown over the winter break. The sophomore forward has scored four goals with 10 assists in 15 games thus far.

This Week in the CHA: Jan. 10, 2008

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There is still hope in Bemidji.

All the Beavers need now is a rink.

Or so it seems.

Bemidji State president Jon Quistgaard will still go through with his presentation to the WCHA on Jan. 13 with hopes of being admitted to the conference, even though a couple snags have hit the proposal for the new arena in town.

Last Thursday, the Bemidji city council voted in favor of a $50 million events center, but that number does not include suites, something the school wanted the rink to include. The details of what actually will be included is not yet known.

This new proposed smaller arena might not be able to house team offices, a second ice pad or a weight room, or be used as a practice facility, but the design team may still be able to incorporate suites and seating for about 4,000 fans.

Quistgaard said that for BSU, the suites are a necessity.

“We’re going to have to figure out some solution that would include suites,” he said in the Bemidji Pioneer. “I think, obviously, I would have preferred they’d have taken a different path, but I understand they’re under a lot of pressure … I’m still trying to digest everything.”

Reportedly, costs have been estimated to be north of $100 million to build all the talked-about components, including a second sheet of ice and a practice facility, of the events center that would be on the south shore of Lake Bemidji.

As secondary options, Quistgaard didn’t say whether remodeling the John Glas Fieldhouse could happen or what the situation would be if a smaller rink isn’t up to WCHA standards.

This past Monday, representatives from the BSU hockey team, athletic department, BSU Foundation and university administration met for nine hours to look at all the options, including financial liabilities.

Another meeting was planned for early Thursday, but results of that were not known as of press time.

Quistgaard said after next Monday’s meeting with the WCHA he would be able to give a more definitive answer about the university’s intentions on the events center.

City and BSU reps had been meeting in negotiations to hammer out guidelines for a lease agreement and had developed a still-unsigned memorandum regarding the proposed lease agreement.

Quistgaard was denied his request for a time extension to commit to the project by the council. He has said he didn’t feel confident that he could totally commit to the project without having a solid home conference for the Beavers.

That being said, what does it mean for the CHA?

Next Monday may be another story, so stay tuned.

Warriors Spanked At Minnesota

Wayne State’s losing streak reached eight games last weekend as the Warriors were defeated in two straight games at then-No. 16 Minnesota.

WSU is now 1-11-2 on the road this year.

Friday night, Jared Katz scored WSU’s lone goal in a 5-1 loss. Netminder Kyle Funkenhauser totaled 36 saves over the first 50 minutes before giving way to fellow rookie Mike Devoney, who made 10 saves in his first action of the season.

Minnesota senior goaltender Brent Solei, a walk-on who had previously never appeared in a regular-season game, made 28 saves for the win in his debut.

Mike Forgie and Jordan Inglis scored Saturday night, but WSU suffered a 5-2 setback. Starting goaltender Brett Bothwell allowed four goals on 13 shots before being relieved midway through the second period by Devoney, who stopped 15 of the 16 shots he faced.

WSU wraps up its nine-game road trip this weekend at Northern Michigan before returning home next weekend to play Niagara Friday night at the Taylor SportsPlex and Saturday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills as the first half of a doubleheader with Michigan and Notre Dame.

Niagara Drops Pair To Cornell

Ending 2007 as one of a handful of teams with 10 wins, Niagara didn’t start 2008 adding to that total in getting swept at Cornell.

The Purple Eagles got skunked, 6-0, Friday night. Adam Avramenko, playing just over 44 minutes of the game, made 21 saves, while Juliano Pagliero entered for the remainder of the game and stopped a half-dozen shots.

Down by two goals early in the third period Saturday night, NU scored two goals in five minutes, including one power-play goal to tie the Big Red at three. But he Purple Eagles were unable to seal the deal and allowed the game-winning goal in the late stages of the third period by Justin Krueger.

“We played so well and so hard and carried the play,” Niagara head coach Dave Burkholder said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have the result I thought we deserved. We were very physical and held up in every area of the game against a very good Cornell team.”

Kyle Rogers, Nate Bostic (playing in his first game this season) and Dan Sullivan recorded goals for NU and Pagliero kicked out 24 shots in defeat.

This weekend should yield above-average action as Niagara hosts Robert Morris.

“Niagara is a good hockey team that plays extremely physical and has some very good offensive talent,” Robert Morris head coach Derek Schooley said. “They are very deep up front, have a solid back end and excellent goaltending. Pagliero was very good against us earlier in the year at home.

“As always, this should be an intense exciting weekend of hockey.”

Beavers Split Duluth Home-and-Home

Each team won its home game in last weekend’s home-and-home series between Bemidji State and Minnesota-Duluth.

The Bulldogs used two third-period goals Friday night to upend the Beavers, 5-3. BSU rebounded for a 2-0 shutout at home Saturday night.

Bemidji State goaltender Matt Dalton’s third career outing will be one that he will remember, as he made 25 saves in Saturday’s win. The shutout was the first of his collegiate career and doubled as his first NCAA victory in front of 1,332 fans at the Glas Fieldhouse.

With the split, the Beavers retain ownership rights to the “Blue Ox” traveling trophy for the third consecutive season.

Blaine Jarvis and Emil Billberg scored for BSU Saturday night. For Billberg, it was his first collegiate goal and second point of the weekend as he tallied an assist for his first collegiate point in Friday’s loss.

“That was a real nice way to get my first college goal,” Billberg said in the Pioneer. “(Tyler) Lehrke hit me with a perfect pass and it was a wide open net.”

Friday night, despite scoring first, netting a pair of power-play goals and keeping pace with the Bulldogs through two periods of play, the Beavers ran out of gas down the stretch and came up short in the series for the first time in five meetings.

Graham McManamin scored his first NCAA goal in defeat. Jarvis and Matt Francis also scored. Matt Climie made 25 saves for the Beavers, who lost to UMD for the first time since Feb. 6, 2005.

“We won this game the right way — with hard work and determination,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore also said to the Pioneer. “It was an effort-based win. In the third period, we made plays, but were also difficult to play against.”

RMU Sweeps ‘Jackets On The Road

Outscoring an opponent by a 16-5 mark in two games generally means a series sweep and that’s exactly what Robert Morris did at American International last Friday and Saturday.

Led by a pair of two-goal performances by freshmen Denny Urban and Scott Kobialko, Robert Morris scored 10 goals en route to downing American International, 10-2, Friday night.

The Colonials set a boatload of team records against the Yellow Jackets, including most goals scored in a game and in a period with five during the second frame. RMU also set new game highs for assists (18) and points (28).

In a game that saw eight different Colonials score, RMU scored the game’s first eight goals, keeping the Yellow Jackets off the board until the third period.

Kobialko, David Boguslawski and Jason Towsley put RMU up 3-0 in the first period and goalie Christian Boucher picked up his second career assist on Towsley’s goal.

Robert Morris scored five goals in the second period, taking an 8-0 lead into the second intermission, from Urban (with two), Kyle Burton, Kobialko and Tom Biondich.

Ryan Cruthers and Brett Hopfe capped off the game’s scoring in the third period.

Nine Colonials finished with two or more points, including Cruthers, Jeff Gilbert, Kyle Frieday, Nathan Longpre and Chris Margott all with two assists and Hopfe, Towsley and Boguslawski with one goal and one assist.

Cruthers (tied for seventh with 13 goals and 26 points) and Margott (tied for 14th with a 5-18-23 line) are both among the nation’s top scorers. Cruthers is also tied for seventh with his 13 goals and Margott is third nationally in the assists department.

Boucher stopped all 22 shots he faced through two periods. Jim Patterson allowed two goals in the third period, but still made 15 saves.

With a 6-3 win Saturday, RMU’s offense continued to click as the Colonials have now scored 27 goals in their past four games.

“Any time you score 16 goals on the weekend and get two victories on the road against any team, you have to be happy,” Schooley said. “We got a lot of scoring from some people who have not scored in a while as well as contributions from players who have been scoring regularly. It was a good first weekend back from Christmas break.”

Chris Kaufman and Cruthers scored twice and Biondich and Sean Berkstresser added singles for RMU.

Boucher made 25 saves in the win.

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Jan. 10, 2008

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Home Cooking

Canisius College had five home wins by this time last season, and has four so far this year. The big difference is that last year the Griffs had six home losses to go with those five wins, while this time around they’re undefeated at home at 4-0-1.

While playing 16 of its first 21 games on the road, Canisius has taken seven of eight league points on home ice, plus an emotional 4-3 win over local rival Niagara in front of a record crowd at Buffalo State, where the Griffs play the majority of their home games.

The difference in fan support at Buffalo State from last season to this one has been astounding. Last year at this time Canisius was averaging only 292 fans per game there; this season it’s 1,337. The Griffs’ Dec. 30 win over Niagara came in front of a record crowd of 1,711, even though the game was televised locally.

“It was a physical, high-tempo game,” said Canisius coach Dave Smith. “The crowd was great. We haven’t had that many home games, so each one has had great crowd support, and generated an adrenaline rush for us.”

Canisius got three goals in the second period and held off a Niagara rally for the victory. Niagara had the only goal of the third period and outshot the Griffs 16-7 in the final stanza, but Andrew Loewen stopped 37 shots in all for the win.

Loewen continued his hot streak last weekend, stopping 69 of 71 shots as the Griffins took three points from Bentley with a 4-1 win and a 1-1 tie. Bentley outshot Canisius in both games.

“Andrew is our starter and has played very well for us,” said Smith. “He was under some pressure in all those games but made the saves when we needed them.”

Also making some big contributions was freshman Cory Conacher. The youngest player in Division I (Conacher recently turned 18) had been sidelined for the first half of the season with a wrist injury, but has made his presence known since getting into the lineup, with four points in three games. His linemate, Vincent Scarcella, who is also 18 and the fourth-youngest player in D-I, has five goals and nine assists on the season, tied for second on the team with 14 points.

“We really weren’t concerned about their age,” said Smith. “We thought they added an element that we needed and age wasn’t a priority. They have speed, skill and competitiveness.

“Their question for us was, ‘Are we really going to play?’ And we said, ‘Yeah, you’re going to play a lot.'”

Conacher had two assists in his first game of the season against Niagara, and had a goal and an assist in the 4-2 win over Bentley last Saturday.

But it’s not just the young guns who are making contributions. Smith points to senior Dave Kasch and sophomore Jason Weeks as key reasons for the Griffs’ current five-game unbeaten streak. Canisius has lost just once since Thanksgiving, including a pair of ties at first-place Air Force.

Weeks has scored at least one point in each of Canisius’ last six games, and Kasch is tied for second in scoring with 14 points so far.

“Weeks starting to get hot has been very important for us,” said Smith. “And Kasch does all the little things. We go three plus lines deep now, and that’s making a big difference.”

The Griffs played Bentley at their alternative home rink, the Pepsi Center in Amherst, N.Y. They’ll be there again this weekend, hosting Connecticut. They crowds have not been as large as at Buffalo State — around 450 a game. Still, Smith says it’s the right thing to do.

“We’re trying to establish a relationship beyond our students and with all of Western New York,” he said. “We scheduled these games for the period where school is out and there’s no students on campus. Amherst is right in the middle of some huge youth hockey organizations.

“I think the crowds (at the Pepsi Center) were smaller last weekend because of it being after the holiday and the Winter Classic (which saw the Sabres hosting Pittsburgh outdoors at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo). I think we’ll have better crowds this weekend.”

Smith says he’s wary of UConn, even though the Huskies are in a bit of a slump lately.

“Anybody can beat anybody,” he said, echoing a familiar mantra heard throughout the league this season. “UConn beat Army recently. Bentley started hot but has fallen back into the pack. RIT is playing well right now. It’s going to come down to the last weekend.”

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week for January 7, 2008:
Brennan Sarazin — RIT
The junior forward had a four-point weekend, including his first two goals of the season, to help RIT to its first sweep of the season, a pair of wins at Holy Cross

Goaltender of the Week for January 7, 2008:
Andrew Loewen — Canisius
The sophomore netminder stopped 69 of 71 shots to backstop the Griffins to a 1-1 tie and 4-1 win against Bentley.

Rookie of the Week for January 7, 2008:
Cory Conacher — Canisius
Conacher had two points in a 4-1 win against Bentley, including his first collegiate goal. Sidelined by an injury through the first semester, Conacher has four points in his first three games.

Nothing Settled

The top two teams in the conference squared off at Sacred Heart last weekend, as the Pioneers hosted league-leading Air Force. The teams split a pair of close games, with Sacred Heart coming out on top on Friday, 2-1, and Air Force returning the favor, 3-1, on Saturday.

While a split comes as no surprise to anyone following this league, Pioneer coach Shaun Hannah predictably wasn’t happy to settle for two points, even though it was the first time ever that his squad had beaten the Falcons.

“We’d always seem to play them there (Colorado Springs) or in a tournament,” said Hannah, referring to last year’s overtime loss in the AHA semifinals in Rochester. “We could have played better on Saturday. But credit Air Force. They’re Air Force. They just work and work. Both teams skated hard.”

The Falcons outshot the Pioneers 36-19 on Friday and 42-17 on Saturday. Friday was the first time all season that Air Force had held an opponent to under 20 shots in a game and lost.

“(Goalie) Stefan Drew was our player of the weekend,” said Hannah. “He was outstanding. He came up with some huge saves for us.”

Drew and company were able to hold the Falcon’s leading scorer Eric Ehn off the scoresheet. Ehn is in a mini-slump, not having scored a goal since November 30 and going pointless in his last four games.

Thanks to RIT’s sweep of Holy Cross, the Pioneers dropped into third place after their loss on Saturday, but are still looking good, with the fewest losses in the league and with two games in hand on RIT and four on Air Force.

They’re winning with goaltending and a balanced attack that has no player with more than seven goals.

“We’re solid and balanced,” said Hannah. “And it always comes down to the losses. We’re glad to have those games in hand. Now we need to win them.”

Around the League

Air Force: While Eric Ehn is having trouble lighting the lamp, the Falcons’ second line is taking over the scoring load. Junior winger Brent Olson is riding a five-game scoring streak and has eight goals in his last eight games, including both in a 2-2 tie at Minnesota on December 30. Linemate Jeff Hajner was held scoreless on Saturday, the first time he has failed to register a point in nine games.

Bentley: The Falcons are having a season very similar to last year, when they got points every weekend but had difficulty sweeping. Bentley Junior Dain Prewitt scored his 33rd career goal on Friday, moving him into second place all-time at Bentley in its Division I era. He trails classmate Jeff Gumaer, who has 41.

This Week in SUNYAC

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Midterms

With the second semester of the 2007-08 college hockey season underway, it’s a good time to take a look at the first semester for surprises, disappointments, and meeting expectations.

Perhaps the two biggest surprises sit on top of the league. One for good reason, the other due to disappointment.

A few weeks back, I talked about Plattsburgh being back as a dominating force. That trend continues. They are undefeated in the SUNYAC at 9-0, and hold an outstanding 15-2 overall record. And their two losses are nothing to be ashamed about. Both were by 3-2 scores against top ranked teams — Elmira and Middlebury — on the road. They have beaten Norwich twice and defeated Oswego on the road.

Their defense continues to be stingy, letting up less than two goals a game while their offense scores over five. It definitely appears to be the Plattsburgh of old.

Back at that time, Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said, “My goal is always to play better at the end of the year.”

They appear right on track to achieve that goal.

One would be hard pressed to say a team which has a 7-1-1 conference record for second place is a disappointment. But when you are the national champions and hold a 10-4-2 overall record, it is not up to par, especially when you only lose one key player from the previous year.

Oswego has struggled by the lofty standards their fans hold them to. However, looking closely at their record, perhaps those fans are being too harsh. They lost and tied Elmira who is currently ranked second in the nation. They lost to Plattsburgh, mentioned above. The Lakers lost to Hobart, another ranked team. Perhaps their only real blemishes on the season are a recent loss to Amherst and a tie against Fredonia.

However, there is no denying Oswego is struggling in the two key areas that won them the national title: scoring goals and goaltending. They have tallied less than four goals a game, and All-American Ryan Scott has struggled.

“Granted we haven’t been scoring the way we had hoped,” Oswego coach Ed Gosek said of Scott. “But in those situations, we need him to at least match what the other goalies are bringing.”

As for the team overall, Gosek admits:

“We haven’t been able to have a lot of fun this year. It’s been a grind. We’ve been trying to live up to everybody’s expectation. Teams have come in and played us very hard. At the end of it, we’re sick of the moral victory. We can say we outshoot teams. We’re working hard. The bottom line is we have to get results. I don’t care if we play a lousy game as long as we get the ’W.’ We’ve got 11 games to go here to get things going. We’re at ground zero and have to work our way up and peak at the right time of
the year.”

Potsdam has been a surprise on the good side of the ledger. The Bears came off a poor year, and most expected rookie coach Aaron Saul to need at least a year to turn things around. But Potsdam sits in third place and has an overall record of 6-7-3, including some strong games against very good teams. They have already won more games in league and overall than last season.

“Very proud of the team,” Saul said. “To be as high as third place in the SUNYAC was a lofty goal by our coaches. Very exciting for the team. Obviously, staying on top is something we’d like to do. We’re better than many thought we would be. We won’t be able to sneak up on teams anymore. Trying to host a playoff game was always our goal, and that is what we are going to try and reach.”

On the disappointment side, Geneseo and Buffalo State would both fall into that category. The Ice Knights are 4-5 in league and 5-10 overall. Included in that record are disappointing losses to Cortland and Potsdam.

“It just comes down to finding ways to win close hockey games with [five] one-goal losses [three in overtime],” Geneseo coach Chris Schultz said before the break. “We’re not getting the job done. We’re close, but close isn’t good enough. We knew coming in when you lose [Mike] McDonald and [Mitch] Stephens, those were the big game breakers. Those were the guys you could depend on to get the tying and winning goals and turn it around.”

Buffalo State expected this to be a breakout year. Instead, they are 3-4-2 in the conference (6-8-2 overall), but the Bengals do have two games in hand, and they are currently tied for fourth. They have also won their last four games in a row. If this trend continues, perhaps they can still make this their breakout year.

However, one trend that has to be reversed is the number of penalties they are committing. The Bengals are the most penalized team in the league with 19.3 minutes per game.

It’s tough to determine whether Brockport has been a disappointment or not. Looking at their record, one would say yes, especially since they are currently out of the playoffs at 2-4-1 (3-9-2 overall). However, they have been playing some very good hockey, have given some excellent teams a scare or two, and are the fourth best offensive team both in conference play and overall stats.

Obviously, it ultimately comes down to wins and losses, especially coming off their first playoff year in a long time. With the way they are playing, one can see the Golden Eagles getting on a winning streak that will put them exactly where some expected.

Fredonia sits in a tie for fourth place with a modest 3-2-2 league record and 7-5-3 overall — pretty much what they were doing last year before they got red hot in the playoffs. Cortland also sits essentially where most people expected them to be. At 3-5 in the SUNYAC (6-8-1) the Red Dragons still have playoff hopes on their mind.

Morrisville is in last place. That may be expected, but so far they have not been able to do what they did last year — beat some SUNYAC teams. They are 0-11 in their new conference.

Missed Match Up

After Oswego defeated St. Norbert, 4-3 in overtime, in last year’s national semifinal, everyone was looking forward to the following season’s Pathfinder Bank Oswego Hockey Classic for a possible rematch as the Green Knights were the Western representative in the tournament.

However, the hosts did not accommodate the fans as Oswego lost to Amherst, 3-1, while St. Norbert won their semifinal game, 5-2, against Curry.

Next year, as Oswego will take a return trip out west, the two teams are guaranteed to meet each other.

“We definitely wanted to see Oswego,” St. Norbert coach Tim Coghlin said. “I wanted Oswego. I wanted that match-up. I promise you this, when they come back to us next year, and I already talked to Eddie about this, I said if we get the opportunity to see each other here, then he’ll probably play somebody else next year in the first game, but because that didn’t happen you’ll probably see a St. Norbert-Oswego game in the Friday opener at our place.”

Coghlin did get an appreciation of what hockey means to the Oswego community.

“They have treated us exceptionally well,” he said. “Just look at the venue. It’s unbelievable. The little restaurants where we stopped for a bite to eat. The fans here, they are rabid. I honestly being in this game as long as I’ve been around didn’t realize the hockey tradition and history in the city of Oswego. The people here have been spectacular. We would make this trip any day of the week. We’ve had a tremendous experience for us kids.”

SUNYAC Short Shots

Kyle Gunn-Taylor made 43 saves and let up three goals in Buffalo State’s sweep of Lebanon Valley, 4-1 and 3-2 … Garren Reisweber scored a pair of goals in Oswego’s 7-1 win over Morrisville … The next night, Keith Williams scored a pair of goals for Morrisville and Brett Freese made 44 saves, but the Mustangs still lost to Oswego, 6-5 … Plattsburgh scored two goals in the last 2:11 with the goalie pulled, but it was too little too late as they lost to Middlebury, 3-2 … In Brockport’s surprising 4-4 tie against Elmira, Gordon Pritchard scored the final goal 56 seconds into the third period … Plattsburgh only got 19 shots on goal against Williams but scored eight times by eight different players going 5-10 on the power play while letting up one goal on 48 shots as
Bryan Hince stopped 47 … Brendan McLaughlin scored two goals and one assist as Oswego took third place in their own tournament by beating Curry, 4-1.

Nick Petriello scored twice in Buffalo State’s 5-3 win over Morrisville … The Bengals won the second game, 3-2, on Nick Lynch’s goal with 59 seconds left … Plattsburgh and Tufts traded goals in the first minute of the game, in the third period the Cardinals scored three goals in 49 seconds with Riley Hill scoring twice in 18 seconds as Plattsburgh romped, 9-2 … Oswego always led in their 4-3 victory over New England College … Brockport which trailed Skidmore by two goals twice scored a third period shorthanded goal by Steve Seedhouse to tie the game only to lose in overtime 4-3 … Potsdam and Castleton State only got 19 shots each as the Bears won 3-2 on two goals by Jeff Zatorski … Fredonia
scored two goals within 16 seconds and then another two goals within 19 seconds as they routed Wentworth, 8-1 … Seven different Blue Devils’ players scored in their 7-2 second game victory over Wentworth.

Jarrett Gold got a hat trick for Cortland as they beat Lebanon Valley, 6-1, with 29 saves by Mike Mistretta … Bryan Hince was the difference for Plattsburgh against Norwich as he made 31 saves in a 3-2 victory sealed by Dylan Clarke’s second goal with 1:14 left … Ryan Ellis and Tony DiNunzio each got a pair of goals as Oswego scored twice within 1:05 in the second and twice within 32 seconds in the third to beat Hamilton, 5-1.

Game of the Week

With non-conference match-ups dominating the schedule before league play resumes, the most important games are the three conference match-ups that are taking place. All of them include Morrisville as first they host Fredonia for a pair and then travel to Cortland.

Needless to say, the Blue Devils need those four available points as these are the two games they have in hand over the three teams ahead of them. They cannot afford to be caught napping. Meanwhile, Morrisville is probably eyeing Cortland as an opportunity to grab their first SUNYAC win this year. After this week, the Mustangs will have only two league games left (at Brockport) and three all together.

Nothing too exciting amongst all the non-conference games with the only game that attracts some attention is the Elmira at Geneseo contest. Despite the Ice Knights struggles, they are still a team to be reckoned with. Elmira learned what happens if you take a SUNYAC team too lightly on the road. This has the potential to be an exciting game.

On The Periphery

Did any of you get to see the NHL Winter Classic, a.k.a., the Ice Bowl between Buffalo and Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day? I thought that was great fun to watch. I love the college bowl games, but I couldn’t turn away from the hockey game even though at one time there were four bowl games going on the same time. That outdoor game was simply a blast.

So, it naturally got me thinking about whether an outdoor game would work for Division III. Yes, I know Hobart has been doing it forever until this year, but I’m talking about a special outdoor festive affair like the Michigan-Michigan State game a few years ago.

I think if you pick the right school in the right place, it could work, especially if you schedule a rival at the same time. You don’t necessarily need to pick a school that already has a football stadium, as any good spot in the town will work.

How about Oswego in the middle of Oswego Speedway? Now, that would be interesting! Places like Plattsburgh, Middlebury, Norwich, Stevens Point could all be possible successes. Or, how about the famous (and sometimes infamous) Colby-Bowdoin games in one of their football stadiums? Now, that’s a game that would get me to drive all the way to Maine to see!

This Week in the CCHA: Jan. 10, 2008

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Zero

Lake Superior has three points to show for 12 CCHA games, but the last-place Lakers have yet to beat a conference opponent.

On the road last weekend, the Lakers lost spectacularly to No. 10 Michigan State, 8-2, before earning — and I mean earning — a 3-3 tie the following night.

After the loss, in which half of MSU’s goals were scored in the first period, Laker head coach Jim Roque said, “I thought we looked like we hadn’t played in a month.”

Fair enough, since the Jan. 4 game was Lake State’s first since Dec. 8.

After the tie, though, Roque was effusive. “Obviously, it was a lot better.” The LSSU coach did say that he was happy with how his team came back.

The Lakers came from behind in the tie, and first-year goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson made 36 saves on 39 MSU shots, an effort that Roque called “outstanding.”

Although winless, the Lakers have three points in their last four league games, after tying Nebraska-Omaha twice in Omaha, Dec. 7-8.

Firsts

Congratulations to the Bowling Green Falcons, who beat then-No. 1 Miami Friday night, 4-2, in BG. It was the first Falcon win over a No. 1 team since 1993.

Freshman forward Jacob Cepis, who netted two first-period goals in the contest and is this week’s CCHA Rookie of the Week, was understandably enthusiastic after the win.

“How great is that?” said Cepis. “We just beat the number-one team in the country. How many people can say that?”

I love this game.

Another first came Friday, Jan. 4, for the seniors on Alaska’s team when UA beat Ohio State, 4-2, in Columbus. In their last possible chance, it was the first time the senior Nanooks defeated the Buckeyes in Value City Arena.

“Being seniors, we were 0-4 coming in,” said forward Ryan Muspratt. “It’s been pretty tough in the past. It’s great to get the first game.”

It was, alas, the only win for those Alaska seniors, as the Buckeyes won the following night, 5-2. And that was the first CCHA home win of the season for OSU, which is now 1-5-0 in league play at the Schott.

Of course, that means it was the first home CCHA win for this year’s 80-member OSU rookie class. Okay, that’s an exaggeration. Seriously, I think it’s more like 20 freshmen.

“I thought we were the best team on the ice the whole game,” said Buckeye freshman Sergio Somma after Saturday’s win. Not a claim the Buckeyes have been able to make much this season, but 100 percent accurate this time.

It was the first league win for first-year goalie Dustin Carlson (who likes winning, by the way), who started in place of sophomore Joseph Palmer, who was off in Europe playing well but losing (see below).

Another Buckeye freshman, Shane Sims, registered his first collegiate goal. Sims was credited with a goal at the Ohio Hockey Classic, but later it was determined that the goal was scored by Tommy Goebel.

There were a few firsts in the MSU-LSSU series in East Lansing last weekend. Friday was the first time since Feb. 5, 2004, that the Spartans scored eight goals in a game. That, too, was a Friday-night home win against the Lakers, an 8-0 shutout. Saturday’s 3-3 tie in Munn Arena was MSU’s first conference tie of the season.

And in the 8-2 game, freshman Laker Zac MacVoy netted LSSU’s first shorthanded goal of the 2997-08 campaign.

And a belated congratulations to Notre Dame’s Brad Phillips. The freshman goaltender earned his first career shutout with ND’s 7-0 win over visiting Princeton Dec. 8. I forgot to mention it in last week’s column.

A Couple

As in, a couple of series this weekend not to be missed.

The first, of course, is the home-and-home series between No. 6 Michigan State (13-5-3, 9-2-1 CCHA) and No. 10 Notre Dame (18-6-0, 11-3-0 CCHA). The fourth-place Spartans are three points behind the Fighting Irish, who are tied for second place with Miami. MSU also has two games in hand on both the Irish and the RedHawks.

The defending national champions seem to be a target for negativity this season. I hear repeatedly from fans who think that the Spartans are underachieving, fans who don’t seem to remember that MSU finished fourth in the CCHA last season with 15 wins and most of the same Spartans as this season’s squad.

Fans of the Irish, however, are willing to give ND a bit of leeway this year based on the faulty logic that Hobey Baker finalist David Brown was the only reason for the team’s success. By the very nature of the season they’re having, however, the Fighting Irish are proving that Brown — while spectacular last season — wasn’t solely responsible for Notre Dame’s regular-season and CCHA tournament championships.

Two weeks ago, the Spartans showed so miserably at the Great Lakes Invitational that senior captain Bryan Lerg said that the team was very disappointed in themselves. Last weekend, MSU took out that disappointment on Lake Superior State. There can be no question that the Spartans’ 8-2 victory over the Lakers was fueled by two losses at the GLI.

“I think we all came out flying,” said sophomore defenseman Mike Ratchuk after the win. Ratchuk added that “everyone contributed” in a game that the Spartans felt as though they needed to win after the previous weekend in Detroit.

While the Spartans crushed the Lakers in that first game, they tied the second and allowed five goals in two home games versus an opponent averaging two markers per contest. Such lopsided victories, too, can mask real trouble, perhaps issues lingering from the GLI.

“I think when you score a lot, it hides the true quality of play,” said MSU head coach Rick Comley after the win. Comley, who said that his squad would have to play “an awful lot better,” is one smart one.

The Spartans will have to play much better than their last four outings if they are to earn points against Notre Dame. The Irish, .500 in their last four games after their split last weekend in Marquette against Northern Michigan, ended the first half of the season with a nine-game win streak.

The starting goaltender for most contests in that nine-game win streak was Jordan Pearce, who will start this weekend against Michigan State after Brad Phillips was in net for Saturday’s 2-1 win over NMU.

Phillips’ numbers are impressive, but Irish head coach Jeff Jackson told the South Bend Tribune this week that he is reluctant to throw the freshman into unfamiliar waters. “The next big test for him is playing against a high-end team that throws 25, 30 shots and some good scoring chances at him,” said the coach.

Here’s a look at how the Spartans and the Fighting Irish match up by the overall numbers:

• Goals per game: MSU 3.57 (3rd CCHA/4th nationally); ND 3.33 (4th CCHA/8th nationally)
• Goals allowed per game: MSU 2.76 (5th/31st); ND 1.92 (3rd/4th)
• Power play: MSU 23.0 percent (3rd/5th); ND 16.3 (7th/24th)
• Penalty kill: MSU 80.9 percent (9th/48th); ND 89.5 (2nd/5th)
• Top scorer: MSU Tim Kennedy (13-10–23); ND Erik Condra (10-16–26)
• Top ‘tender: MSU Jeff Lerg (.912 SV%, 2.59 GAA); ND Brad Phillips (.958 SV%, 0.75 GAA)

The second series that is particularly interesting this weekend is Bowling Green (9-9-0, 6-6-0 CCHA) at Lake Superior State (2-12-4, 0-9-3 CCHA). The Falcons are currently tied with two other teams, Ferris State and Northern Michigan, for sixth place in the CCHA standings. With 12 points, all three teams are three points behind fifth-place Nebraska-Omaha, and both BG and FSU have four games in hand on NMU and UNO.

If ever there was a weekend for the resurgent Falcons to distinguish themselves from the pack, this would be it. Northern Michigan is idle this week and Nebraska-Omaha hosts No. 2 Miami, so the Falcons (and the Bulldogs, incidentally) have a great chance at bettering their position.

BGSU split with then-No. 1 Miami last weekend, giving the Falcons a much-needed boost of confidence after a fourth-place showing at the Badger Showdown. And that win snapped a four-game losing streak, as BG finished the first half of the season with two close losses to current No. 1 Michigan.

The Lakers, on the other hand, really need a win.

Here are the numbers for this series:

• Goals per game: BGSU 3.11 (6th/; LSSU 2.06 (12th/)
• Goals allowed per game: BGSU 2.83 (6th/); LSSU 3.72 (12th/)
• Power play: BGSU 23.6 percent (2nd/); LSSU 13.8 (11th/)
• Penalty kill: BGSU 84.2 percent (7th/); LSSU 69.0 (12th/)
• Top scorer: BGSU Derek Whitmore (13-5–18), James Perkin (6-12–18); LSSU Nathan Perkovich (11-1–12)
• Top ‘tender: BGSU Nick Eno (.893 SV%, 2.64 GAA), Jimmy Spratt (.893 SV%, 2.92 GAA); LSSU Brian Mahoney-Wilson (.895 SV%, 3.03 GAA), Pat Inglis (.860 SV%, 4.34 GAA)

Six of Perkovich’s goals have come on the power play for Lake Superior State. Mahoney-Wilson and Inglis have identical records (1-6-2) in net for the Lakers, each having played 11 games.

Good Things Come In Threes

Nebraska-Omaha’s captain, senior forward Bryan Marshall, is en route to a career season. The Livonia, Mich., native leads the nation in overall assists (23) and is averaging 1.05 helpers per game to tie him with Boston College freshman Joe Whitney.

Marshall rides a nine-game point streak into this weekend’s home series against No. 2 Miami. Last weekend, Marshall had three assists in the Mavericks’ two-game road sweep of Western Michigan, UNO’s second weekend sweep of a CCHA rival this season after the Mavs beat OSU in Columbus twice in early November.

Marshall (8-23–31) leads all Mavericks in scoring this season. His 23 assists are just three shy of his career-high total of 26 in his sophomore season (2005-06), and his eight goals fall five short of his career-high total of 13 his freshman year.

Fourth Place Feels Like Dead Last

I know I’m not alone in the acute disappointment I feel this week in Team USA’s fourth-place showing in the IIHF World Junior Championship tournament. (See my buddy Jim Connelly’s blog for proof that misery loves company.)

What bothers me the most, though, was the impression I got — unscientific, not quantifiable — that because the kids from the U.S. weren’t playing for a gold medal, they didn’t care enough to attempt to medal at all. Their performance against bronze-winning Russia can at best be described as lackluster. Even their head coach said so. “We lacked the intensity we needed today,” said John Haynes.

Today? How about in four of the last six years.

For the past six years, Team USA has competed for either a bronze or a gold medal in the U-20 event. Last year, they came home with bronze medals. In 2004, they beat Canada for gold. In 2003, 2005, 2006 and this year, nothing.

And Team USA’s performance in the bronze-medal game against Russia leaves me feeling old and cynical. Maybe, through teaching, I’ve been exposed to too many college-aged people whose passions are completely narcissistic, among whom a common answer to questions is, “That happened before I was born, so how should I know?”

No passion when playing Team Russia? It’s not like 1980 is ancient history. These kids embrace ’80s nostalgia — everything from clothing to music — in an alarming fashion. They couldn’t embrace their own, sport-specific nostalgia for 60 little minutes?

Obligatory CCHA content: OSU goaltender Joe Palmer handled the last 40 minutes of that game, allowing just one of the four Russian goals.

.500, Sort Of

Part of what makes covering college hockey so much fun is observing the miniature passion plays that the game creates in its immediate communities. Because of circumstance — I live in Columbus, Ohio — I am also the arena reporter at Ohio State. When I’m very lucky, I get to see some terrific college hockey, as I did when OSU and Miami played for the title game of the Ohio Hockey Classic.

For much of this season, however, the struggling Buckeyes have provided hockey that was painful to watch. Not only was OSU a letdown after winning the Lefty McFadden Invitational to open the season, but the hockey played was hardly competitive in any real sense in October and November. The five first-half home Buckeye losses were boring hockey. Even the most lopsided opponent wins were dull eventualities rather than the rip-roaring spankings that would have at least been entertaining.

During the early going, it seemed that OSU’s primary talent lay in producing players of the week … for their opponents. No one, including the league offices apparently, knew the extent of the Buckeyes’ woes.

By midseason, though, almost everyone had figured out that Ohio State is a team that can be beaten. Perhaps an 11-game winless streak through most of the first half clued them in.

So through the Buckeyes’ last six home games, during which they’re playing .500 hockey, it has been amusing to see the post-game reactions of the coaches unlucky enough to lose to OSU now that the Bucks have remembered — sometimes — how to play the game.

In mid-December, OSU split with struggling St. Lawrence. In the OHC, Ohio State beat Harvard. Last week, the Buckeyes split with the Nanooks. After every one of OSU’s wins in that stretch, each visiting coach sat stunned in the post-game press conferences, kind of like the way the pundits looked this week after McCain and Clinton prevailed in New Hampshire.

Actually, SLU head coach Joe Marsh looked probably as he has most of the season, frustrated at his team’s inability to perform up to its potential. He wasn’t disbelieving so much as resigned; the Saints lost because that’s the kind of season they’re having, and Marsh knew it.

Harvard head coach Ted Donato looked positively insulted that the Buckeyes would even think of beating the Crimson. In fairness, he looked the same way after Harvard lost to St. Cloud the following day. That was amusing.

But last weekend, Alaska first-year head coach Doc DelCastillo revealed a grieving pain, looking for all the world as though the largest buck in the forest had just told him that he’d never see his mother again.

That was a pure college hockey moment, a true competitor feeling the pain of a league loss.

I do love this game.

This Week in the MIAC

By Derek Martin
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MIAC teams have a full slate of non-conference games against NCHA squads this week before returning to conference next week as each MIAC member faces difficult opponents. With all but two teams within three points of the MIAC leaders, next week’s games are extremely significant. However, we should not overlook this week’s tilts as just some humdrum non-conference games.

The NCHA is loaded with very good hockey teams so these games will be important to MIAC teams to gauge their talent. It will be interesting to see the outcomes of these MIAC/NCHA battles and if one conference displays dominance over the other.

Game of the Week

No. 4 St. Thomas @ No. 1 St. Norbert (Saturday, January 12) — This game will give the winning team huge momentum for the rest of the regular season. Both teams have only faced one ranked team this season. St. Norbert defeated No. 6 UW-River Falls, 5-2, on December 12. while St. Thomas also downed the Falcons 5-0 on November 27.

My prediction: All signs point to this game being a tie. These teams are so evenly matched that it’s impossible to say one team will definitely win. Both teams have outstanding goaltending, which usually helps to make a prediction. If I have to choose one team it would be St. Norbert in overtime because they are the higher ranked team.

MIAC Player of the Week

Sophomore Chris Johnson (Augsburg) notched a hat trick and an assist as Augsburg won 7-3 over UW-Eau Claire. The goals were the first three of the season for Johnson. Currently, he has three goals and six assists. Johnson scored a power-play goal and recorded an assist on Thursday night against Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. The Auggies won the exhibition match 2-1.

This Week’s Schedule

Thursday

St. John’s vs. UW-River Falls

Overall Records: SJU — 5-6-2 (2-2-2 MIAC); UWRF — 10-2-3 (4-1-1 NCHA)
Top Wins: SJU — Wisc.-Stevens Point; UWRF — Bethel
Top Scorers: SJU — Joel Stacklie (4-11-15); UWRF — Tyler Dahl (4-24-28)
Top Goaltenders: SJU — Vince Wheeler (13 GP, 5-6-2, 2.43 GA, .896 SV%); UWRF –Tyler Owens (11 GP, 7-2-2, 3.05 GA, .896 SV%

Friday

Augsburg @ UW-Eau Claire

Overall Record: AUG — 1-10-2 (0-6-0 MIAC); UWEC — 7-8-0 (3-3-0 NCHA)
Top Wins: AUG — UW-Eau Claire; UWEC — UW-Superior
Top Scorers: AUG — Jim Jensen (5-5-10); UWEC — Sean Garrity (7-11-18)
Top Goaltenders: AUG — Andrew Kent (8 GP, 1-6-1, 4.52 GA, .868 SV%); UWEC — Tyler Brigl (14 GP, 7-7-0, 2.65 GA, .890 SV%)

Concordia @ No. 6 UW-River Falls

Overall Record: CON — 1-10-0 (0-4-0 MIAC); UWRF — 10-2-3 (4-1-1 NCHA)
Top Wins: CON — UW-Eau Claire; UWRF — Bethel
Top Scorers: CON — Shawn Goos (3-4-7); UWRF — Tyler Dahl (4-24-28)
Top Goaltenders: CON — Jeremy Boniface (9 GP, 1-6-0, 4.40 GA, .885 SV%); UWRF –Tyler Owens (11 GP, 7-2-2, 3.05 GA, .896 SV%

Gustavus @ St. Scholastica

Overall Record: GAC — 6-7-0 (4-2-0 MIAC); SSC — 5-8-2 (2-4-1 NCHA)
Top Wins: GAC — St. Norbert; SSC — Wisc.-Stevens Point
Top Scorers: GAC — David Martinson (6-11-17); SSC — A.J. Tucker (8-12-20)
Top Goaltenders: GAC — Matthew Lopes (5 GP, 3-2-0, 1.61 GA, .927 SV%); SSC — Steve Bounds (7 GP, 3-3-1, 1.98 GA, .921 SV%)

Hamline @ UW-Stevens Point

Overall Record: HAM — 6-3-2 (3-1-0 MIAC); UWSP — 9-5-1 (2-4-0 NCHA)
Top Wins: HAM — Gustavus Adolphus; UWSP — St. Thomas
Top Scorers: HAM — Dustin Fulton (8-11-19); UWSP — Josh Calleja (6-11-17)
Top Goaltenders: HAM — Zachary Faust (8 GP, 3-1-2, 1.54 GA, .936 SV%); UWSP –Thomas Speer (10 GP, 7-2-1, 1.39 GA, .944 SV%)

St. John’s @ No. 8 UW-Stout

Overall Records: SJU — 5-6-2 (2-2-2 MIAC); UWSC — 11-2-1 (4-2-0 NCHA)
Top Wins: SJU — Wisc.-Stevens Point; UWSC — UW-Eau Claire
Top Scorers: SJU — Joel Stacklie (4-11-15); UWSC — Joel Gaulrapp (13-10-23)
Top Goaltenders: SJU — Vince Wheeler (13 GP, 5-6-2, 2.43 GA, .896 SV%); UWSC –Matt Koenig (14 GP, 11-2-1, 2.48 GA, .918 SV%)

St. Mary’s @ No. 1 St. Norbert

Overall Record: SMU — 5-5-2 (4-2-0 MIAC); SNC — 13-1-1 (5-0-1 NCHA)
Top Wins: SMU — Gustavus Adolphus; SNC — UW-River Falls
Top Scorers: SMU — Mike Glaesmer (8-9-17); SNC — Marc Belanger (13-13-26)
Top Goaltenders: SMU — Dan Smith (12 GP, 4-5-2, 3.78 GA, .901 SV%); SNC — Kyle Jones (10 GP, 8-1-1, 1.49 GA, .929 SV%)

St. Olaf @ UW-Superior

Overall Record: SOC — 5-6-2 (2-3-1 MIAC); UWSC — 8-4-4 (3-3-1 NCHA)
Top Wins: SOC — Mass.-Dartmouth; UWSC — Bethel
Top Scorers: SOC — Nick Stalock (10-7-17); UWSC — Kevin Huck (10-6-16)
Top Goaltenders: SOC — Brycen Eberwein (7 GP, 3-3-1, 3.93 GA, .874 SV%); UWSC — Chad Beiswenger (11 GP, 7-2-2, 1.49 GA, .940 SV%)

No. 4 St. Thomas @ Lake Forest

Overall Record: STU — 9-1-1 (4-0-0 MIAC); LFC — 2-12-1 (0-6-0 NCHA)
Top Wins: STU — Wisc.-River Falls; LFC — Skidmore
Top Scorers: STU — Nick Pernula (6-14-20); LFC — Mike Kneeland (6-5-11)
Top Goaltenders: STU — Tyler Chestnut (11 GP, 8-1-1, 1.96 GA, .924 SV%); LFC — Scott Campbell (9 GP, 2-6-1, 3.32 GA, .920 SV%)

Saturday

Augsburg @ UW-Stevens Point

Overall Record: AUG –1-10-2 (0-6-0 MIAC); UWSP — 9-5-1 (2-4-0 NCHA)
Top Wins: AUG –Wisc.-Eau Claire; UWSP — St. Thomas
Top Scorers: AUG — Jim Jensen (5-5-10); UWSP — Josh Calleja (6-11-17)
Top Goaltenders: AUG — Andrew Kent (8 GP, 1-6-1, 4.52 GA, .868 SV%); UWSP –Thomas Speer (10 GP, 7-2-1, 1.39 GA, .944 SV%)

Gustavus @ UW-Superior

Overall Record: GAC — 6-7-0 (4-2-0 MIAC); UWSC — 8-4-4 (3-3-1 NCHA)
Top Wins: GAC — St. Norbert; UWSC — Bethel
Top Scorers: GAC — David Martinson (6-11-17); UWSC — Kevin Huck (10-6-16)
Top Goaltenders: GAC — Matthew Lopes (5 GP, 3-2-0, 1.61 GA, .927 SV%); UWSC –Chad Beiswenger (11 GP, 7-2-2, 1.49 GA, .940 SV%)

Hamline @ UW-Eau Claire

Overall Record: HAM — 6-3-2 (3-1-0 MIAC); UWEC — 7-8-0 (3-3-0 NCHA)
Top Wins: HAM — Gustavus Adolphus; UWEC — Wisc.-Superior
Top Scorers: HAM — Dustin Fulton (8-11-19); UWEC –Sean Garrity (7-11-18)
Top Goaltenders: HAM — Zachary Faust (8 GP, 3-1-2, 1.54 GA, .936 SV%); UWEC –Tyler Brigl (14 GP, 7-7-0, 2.65 GA, .890 SV%)

St. Mary’s @ Lake Forest

Overall Record: SMU — 5-5-2 (4-2-0 MIAC); LFC — 2-12-1 (0-6-0 NCHA)
Top Wins: SMU — Gustavus Adolphus; LFC — Skidmore
Top Scorers: SMU — Mike Glaesmer (8-9-17); LFC — Mike Kneeland (6-5-11)
Top Goaltenders: SMU — Dan Smith (12 GP, 4-5-2, 3.78 GA, .901 SV%); LFC — Scott Campbell (9 GP, 2-6-1, 3.32 GA, .920 SV%)

St. Olaf @ St. Scholastica

Overall Record: SOC — 5-6-2 (2-3-1 MIAC); SSC — 5-8-2 (2-4-1 NCHA)
Top Wins: SOC — Mass.-Dartmouth; SSC — UW-Stevens Point
Top Scorers: SOC — Nick Stalock (10-7-17); SSC –A.J. Tucker (8-12-20)
Top Goaltenders: SOC — Brycen Eberwein (7 GP, 3-3-1, 3.93 GA, .874 SV%); SSC — Steve Bounds (7 GP, 3-3-1, 1.98 GA, .921 SV%)

No. 4 St. Thomas @ No. 1 St. Norbert

Overall Record: STU — 9-1-1 (4-0-0 MIAC); SNC — 13-1-1 (5-0-1 NCHA)
Top Wins: STU — UW-River Falls; SNC — UW-River Falls
Top Scorers: STU — Nick Pernula (6-14-20); SNC — Marc Belanger (13-13-26)
Top Goaltenders: STU — Tyler Chestnut (11 GP, 8-1-1, 1.96 GA, .924 SV%); SNC –Kyle Jones (10 GP, 8-1-1, 1.49 GA, .929 SV%)

Sunday

Concordia vs. No. 8 UW-Stout

Overall Record: CON — 1-10-0 (0-4-0 MIAC); UWSC — 11-2-1 (4-2-0 NCHA)
Top Wins: CON — UW-Eau Claire; UWSC — UW-Eau Claire
Top Scorers: CON — Shawn Goos (3-4-7); UWSC — Joel Gaulrapp (13-10-23)
Top Goaltenders: CON — Jeremy Boniface (9 GP, 1-6-0, 4.40 GA, .885 SV%); UWSC — Matt Koenig (14 GP, 11-2-1, 2.48 GA, .918 SV%)

This Week in the ECAC West

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Hat, Hat, Hat, Hat, Hat Trick

Over the holidays, Neumann junior Mike Hedden completed one of the most amazing feats in hockey amidst very little fan fare. It started on November 30 as Neumann defeated Lebanon Valley 8-2.

Hedden tallied three goals and an assist that night, and began a streak of scoring hat-tricks that would eventually span five games over a month long period.

The next night, also against Lebanon Valley, Hedden pitched in three goals and three assists. In back-to-back games against Fredonia on December 7 and 8, Hedden tallied again three goals in each game.

And he chipped in four goals against Becker on December 29 in the opening round of the St. Michael’s Invitational tournament.

Hedden almost extended the streak to six games in the tournament championship game against Concordia (MN), but whiffed on an open net shot after having scored two goals earlier in the game.

“He was on the left hand side of the net,” said Neumann coach Phil Roy. “The only thing he had to do was push it in and he got a little cute and kind of whiffed on it. The goalie stopped it, so I gave him a little bit of hell for that. He was already thinking of his celebration.”

The 18 goal outburst over this six game span has propelled Hedden to the top of the ECAC West scoring charts, double the number of goals by any other player in the league.

Unfortunately, neither the ECAC or NCAA keep a record of most consecutive games with a hat trick, according to the ECAC’s Michael Letzeisen. The only hat trick related record in the books is quickest to start the game.

But fortunately for USCHO, columnist and D-III blogger Chris Lerch and myself have been covering the ECAC West since 1995, so we dug deep into the memory banks this past weekend as we killed time on a five hour drive to broadcast a hockey game and came up with at least one instance of a similar streak.

That streak was at the start of the 1996-97 season, when RIT’s Steve Toll began the year with consecutive hat tricks in each of the first four games of the season. Toll started by tallying three in an 11-6 route against York in an exhibition game.

He then scored three in the opening game of the RIT tournament against Villanova, which the Tigers won 20-3. Long time ECAC West fans might remember this game as the Tigers out shot Villanova 98-34 in this wide open contest.

Toll scored his third consecutive hat trick against Niagara in the championship game of the tournament, as RIT defeated the Purple Eagles 9-4. He then completed his streak by scoring the first four goals, and the last goal, of the game, for a total of five tallies against Canisius on November 8, 1996 in a 6-3 RIT victory. Toll also added an assist on the Tigers only other goal of the night.

The streak finally came to an end on November 23 when Toll scored the first goal of the game in a 6-6 tie with Geneseo, but could only must four other assists during the game.

A Rochester Democrat and Chronicle article at the time read: “Toll opened the season with four consecutive hat tricks, tying an NCAA record and earning him a spot in Sports Illustrated’s Faces of the Crowd.” But I have found no confirmation of such a record currently with the NCAA.

Mike Hedden’s recent flurry of five hat tricks surpasses Toll’s record, and at least anecdotally sets a new mark for the ECAC West.

“He really lit on fire the last few games, and I am happy to see that,” said Roy. “He also academically got his GPA boosted up a little bit, so he is excelling all the way around.”

It has also helped vault Neumann to eight straight wins, after starting the season with a mediocre 4-4 record.

Helping the Knights get going was the return of senior Neil Trimm, who is the first Neumann player to ever surpass the 100 career assist mark. Trimm returned in the middle of November, after missing three games with an injury, and now has 13 goals and 22 assists on the season, and 59 goals and 106 assists in his 75-game collegiate career.

“Neil Trimm coming back is a factor,” said Roy. “He brings a presence on the bench and just the stature as a great leader on our team. There was a comment made to me a while back that even just sitting on the bench he boosts the morale. Subconsciously, that played a role.”

Neumann will need to hang on to their hot sticks, as they are in the middle of a two week lull in their schedule. The Knights only have nine games remaining to play in their season, and all are league contests.

Taking it to the French

Also over the holidays, Utica took a nine day excursion to the Rhone-Alps region of southeast France, fitting in four hockey games around sightseeing and camaraderie.

The Utica hockey team at the 1992 Olympic site in Albertville, France.

The Utica hockey team at the 1992 Olympic site in Albertville, France.

In the first game, soon after the Pioneers arrived, Utica lost 6-3 to Elite Division club Chamonix.

“We were down 5-0 right away, and they beat us 6-3,” said Utica coach Gary Heenan. “Just not knowing how to play on the big sheet and having travel legs hurt us. They moved the puck extremely well and it was a great experience for us.”

But then Utica dominated the other three games against lower First Division teams winning by a combined score of 33-7.

“It was a super trip for the guys to a beautiful part of the world,” said Heenan. “The hockey, to be honest, was a little disappointing. [After Chamonix] we played three first division teams, and to call those pro teams is a stretch. But for us, it was a good thing. Confidence is up. We worked on a lot of things. We haven’t been able to score goals, so to score the goals over there definitely was added to the holiday experience and let the guys have some fun.”

Scoring goals has been a problem for Utica so far this season in NCAA play, so the confidence gained by putting the puck past the French goaltenders may be just what the Pioneers need heading into the second half of the season here in the States.

Hockey wasn’t the only activity on the itinerary for the trip. Some of the team went skiing on Mount Grand Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps, trips were taken to see glaciers in the area, and the team also toured Geneva, Switzerland.

Many parents of the players took advantage of the opportunity to go along on the trip, and even a few fans were included in the travel party.

“It was a chance to bond and never forget the rest of their lives,” concluded Heenan. “It was just phenomenal.”

Game of the Week

This is the last weekend of non-conference games for most of the teams, who are looking for a bit of a tune-up before jumping back into the stretch run of the league.

Perhaps most interesting this week are Manhattanville at Potsdam on Friday and Elmira at Geneseo on Saturday. Both teams will look to extend the ECAC West’s dominance of the SUNYAC this season (19-6-3), while Elmira has the extra burden of trying to keep its undefeated streak going.

This Week in Hockey East: Jan. 10, 2008

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And Around The League We Go…

It isn’t often that we get a chance to cover all the teams in one column, but here’s pennace for all the New Year’s resolutions already broken.

Boston College

A major catalyst for BC’s 4-0-0 December was Nathan Gerbe’s 16 points. No, that’s not a misprint: 16 points in four games. That explosion earned the junior the Hockey Commissioners’ Association National Player of the Month award. He now leads the country with 1.71 points per game.

“He’s certainly an outstanding player,” coach Jerry York says. “In the last month and a half, he has been so strong on his skates and driving to the net.

“He really has a fire within him and he competes. That’s probably the biggest difference between himself and a lot of other skilled, smaller players. He’s so competitive that he wants to win every single shift that he plays and every single battle within that shift that he plays.”

In some ways, the one-game suspension he received from the league in early November may have proved beneficial.

“Sometimes, he has to control himself a little bit better and I think [the suspension] has helped him focus,” York says. “From that point on he has played so exceptionally well for us.

“There are a lot of good, small players in the country, but not many have the competitive drive that he has and the battle-hardness to him. He is awfully strong, too, for his size.”

In Wednesday night’s game against Vermont, the Eagles also got Brock Bradford back. Injury has sidelined the junior since the season opener. Last year, he scored 45 points, so he’ll make a potent lineup all the stronger.

“I think we have a good club,” York says. “To become a real good club, I think we need to be sharper in all areas.

“Our power play has had some excellent numbers, but we think it can get better. Our PK [penalty kill] situation has not been as strong as our power play, but recently we have had a surge. I think special teams could be a big plus for us down the stretch.

“I think Johnny Muse has to continue to play well in goal. He has played every minute of every game as a freshman and he has to show that he can do that through the months of January, February, March and April.”

Boston University

BU holds a very uncharacteristic 5-10-3 mark heading into the stretch run.

“The team has been up and down, not playing very consistently — especially at home,” coach Jack Parker says. “We’ve gotten pretty good goaltending the last couple of games from [Karson] Gillespie. In fact, I think he stole a point for us in our last game against Vermont.

“That had been a big problem in the first semester when we were getting very inconsistent goaltending. So hopefully that’s been straightened out a little bit and he’ll take the bull by the horns there.

“We’ve also been very sloppy in our own end. When we do play hard, we’re a very good offensive team — we need to get better defensively. If we don’t play hard, we’re not good in any zone.

“That inconsistency of effort has been troublesome as well.”

This weekend, the Terriers travel to Orono, where BU-Maine clashes have typically been huge in the standings. This year, however, huge means the number eight and nine teams in the league (based on winning percentage).

“It’s kind of weird going up there with both of us being under .500, in the bottom half of the league, and fighting to climb over people,” Parker says. “They’re a little bit of a different look than us as far as they have struggled to put the puck in the net and we have not done that.

“They’ve been pretty good defensively and we have not done that. They’ve got their star goalie back and we obviously are still trying to find something that is consistent there for us.

“We’re on different pages as far as who we are as a team, but we’re in the same block as far as where we are in the standings and what we’re thinking about ourselves.

“It’s a huge game in the standings, but it’s probably a bigger game as far as self-worth is concerned.”

After that, the next three league games are also on the road: against Merrimack, BC and UNH (before a rematch at home with the Wildcats).

“There is no question that any team in this league can leapfrog some people if they can put a winning streak together,” Parker says. “We have played better on the road than we have at home, so it might be good for us to go to Maine or to go to UNH — what have you.

“We can’t be looking past anyone. The only game we can worry about is the one that is ahead of us. The only game we can get ready for is the one that is ahead of us and the only game that counts is the one that is ahead of us. If we get that game, we’ll feel better about ourselves and move on to the next one.”

Maine

Maine did get back in the win column on Sunday against Rensselaer, but the Black Bears still have only a single league win since October. It’s a no-brainer that that has to change.

“We’ve had an interesting year so far as coaches,” coach Tim Whitehead says. “We expected a very challenging season. I don’t think that our players fully understood how challenging it would be, but they certainly do now.

“I think that they are starting to understand what it is going to take for us to be successful this year, but it is going to be a much longer process than in usual years.”

Motivating the team and maintaining a positive outlook has certainly required a different approach. The players and incoming recruits expected another winning season with a shot at returning to the Frozen Four.

“As coaches we knew we weren’t as talented this year as we have been the last six or seven years,” Whitehead says. “Typically, players don’t understand that.

“You don’t have that perspective as a freshman coming in. You are joining a team that has gone to the Frozen Four four out of the last six years. You are thinking, hey, we are just going to be there, it is going to happen automatically. Not just the freshmen, but also the upperclassmen who have been a part of that success.

“It doesn’t just happen. Each year is a clean slate. You don’t just get there because you have been there before. You have to earn it and in each of the past years we have earned it.

“Staying positive with the frustrations that come with false expectations is very challenging. Hopefully our experiences as coaches can keep them focused on the task at hand, which is the game coming up with BU.”

Speaking of which…

“When Maine plays BU the points are huge for whatever the reason,” Whitehead says. “Usually we are both in the top half of the league, and the points are to secure home ice.

“We are kind of early in the season, but we are getting to the point where these points are huge to get to a point where we can climb in the standings and then build [on that], and maybe get home ice.

“We are fortunate with the parity of the league that everyone is still in the mix. Obviously, we need to get moving sooner than later if we are going to challenge for any serious position in the league.

“We are trying to push our players without pushing the panic button, but that challenge is going to be ongoing.”

Massachusetts

These are heady times for UMass fans and players alike. There have been plenty of dues paid, but the Minutemen have lost only a single game since October and now stand at 9-3-5 with a number five ranking.

Has that prompted a different approach with the players?

“It is not so much this year but over the last few years that I think we have created an identity and culture, if you will, just like most of the programs out there are trying to do,” coach Don “Toot” Cahoon says.

“I think the kids have a good understanding about what the expectations are in terms of the way that they conduct business both athletically and academically. We are straight forward, there is nothing to hide here, we are the players advocate, not their adversary – we are just trying to create a mainstream where everybody is working towards a common goal, with each other and for each other.

“With the advent of good video as all the programs have, you don’t have to sit there and bang heads with these kids. You can put it up on the screen and look at what is going on on the ice without confrontation.

“There is not a lot of banging heads that there was initially when I was trying to institute change and that change came slowly. Obviously with the success that we have had on the way through that change, it improved our recruiting, allowed us to get some kids that were more competitive and who fit the mold of the type of kid that we wanted to recruit.”

As for the number five ranking, it has its advantages but according to Cahoon is mostly…well…overrated.

“What it does is brings attention to our program making people aware that we are playing reasonably well and people out there seem to respect us,” he says. “Other than that, it doesn’t matter much at all because it is only about where you finish not where you start.

“If we keep a consistent level of play, it will work itself to a positive end. But in the first week of January, the number next to your program doesn’t count for a whole lot.”

Massachusetts-Lowell

How ’bout them River Hawks? They’re winners of seven of their last eight (the only exception being a 3-2 loss to UNH), holders of a 9-4-4 record,
and ranked 13th in the country.

Considering the tribulations this past offseason, the victories are all the sweeter.

“I think I’d be severely challenged to put that into words on how sweet it actually is,” coach Blaise MacDonald says. “To know what we went through last year as a program, and then losing players coming into the season, and having some serious health issues for some of our incoming freshmen…to see us rebound and show the resolve that our players have this year is amazing to me.

“It’s great; it’s a real compelling story from our standpoint. Its almost like justice is being served.”

Oh, and by the way, Lowell has exactly one senior on its roster.

“We’ve gotten tremendous collective leadership from our ‘leaders’ of our team, our captains and assistant captains,” MacDonald says. “Ben Holmstrom has really
elevated his leadership skills, as well as Mark Roebothan.

“What proves to be great leaders are the people that are being led. Kelly Sullivan is our only senior, and he doesn’t have a heavy sweater. He’s very happy to be in line. He doesn’t want to be in the front of the line or the back, but just wants to be in line.

“A couple of our other juniors that aren’t assistant captains have found their role and have done very well with their role. They’re not disgruntled because they don’t feel like they’re entitled to be a captain of the team just
based on their status as an upperclassman.”

The margin between winning and losing is paper-thin, so no one is counting any chickens before they’re hatched. But the River Hawks are 6-1-1 at home and will finish with 11 of their final 17 at the Tsongas.

“It starts with our chancellor, Marty Meehan,” MacDonald says. “Going forward, you will see the dynamics and environment change to a level that we’ve never been able to dream about before.

“This year we’ve seen much more energy in the crowd. The student section has been much, much better and will continue to grow. That gives us an advantage that we haven’t had in the past. A few other Hockey East schools have the advantage of having that extra energy level created by their fans. We’re on the verge of doing that.

“Being at home allows you a more comfortable routine and your preparation, but also in your recovery. We’re able to do things after games to recover quicker. That should give us a greater margin for victory.”

Merrimack

Although Merrimack is in last place, the Warriors hold a none-too-shabby 7-9-2 overall mark and as with every other team in the league needs only a couple wins to leapfrog several opponents in the standings.

They’re also coming off not only a 4-1 win over Army, but a 1-0 loss to UNH in which they outshot the Wildcats and didn’t surrender the lone goal until midway through the third period.

“We’re still relatively inexperienced with over 20 freshmen or sophomores,” coach Mark Dennehy says. “We regularly play 14 to 18 underclassmen and they need to do a better job of playing consistently hard.

“That’s going to be our mantra: play hard. Our power play has been stable; our penalty kill has been good. And if we get good goaltending, we can play with anybody.

“I’d be a fool not to take a page out of Bill Belichick’s book in an era when we’re watching the best coached team in New England history. So shame on us if we’re not taking it on a day-to-day basis.

“That’s the way to approach it regardless of the makeup of your team. It’s back to trying to get better every day. If we do, the rest of it will take care
of itself.”

Sophomore goaltender Andrew Brathwaite stopped 44 of 46 shots last weekend to raise his save percentage to .922 while dropping his goals-against average to 2.14. He’s also no “dumb jock.”

“Andrew has the distinction of carrying the student-athlete mantra at Merrimack,” Dennehy says. “He is well on his way of repeating there. He has received a 4.0 at Merrimack since he started here.

“I tip my cap to him athletically. He came in, took what he got, and made the most of it.

“We recognized one area he needed to work on was coming off the bench. No goalie
wants to be in that role, but he’s worked hard all year. When we put him in against BU, he worked hard and earned the start against UNH and made some dynamic saves. He put together another good performance against Army.

“He’s putting himself in position to garner more ice time. We hope goaltending, with Pat Watson and Andrew, can be our strength down the stretch.”

New Hampshire

UNH is tied for first place with the Northeastern Huskies, who hold a game in hand. As such, the Wildcats are in position to make a run at the league title. This week’s home-and-home series with UMass could go a long way in determining that result.

“We are in the mix and it’s a huge weekend for us,” coach Dick Umile says. “It’s a great match up with UMass. Toot’s done a great job with the program there and he’s got them not only ranked high, but coming off a great Christmas tournament. Beating Notre Dame and Colorado College, those are two very very good programs and those wins say a lot about his team.”

“We played [UMass] about a month ago and in the third period they flat out beat
us. It’s become a pretty good rivalry for us the last several years.

“I think the last three out of five years we’ve met them at semifinals at the Garden in Boston and had some absolutely terrific games. We’re excited about the weekend.”

Umile also has to be excited about getting Mike Radja and James vanRiemsdyk back in the lineup. If vanRiemsdyk follows the path of others who have left to play in the World Junior Championships, he’ll be an even more effective player for the experience. He led Team USA in points with a 5-6–11 line, scoring a goal in five of the six games and being named one of the team’s top three players.

“Obviously, James is one of the top freshmen in college hockey and he played great during the World Junior Tournament,” Umile says. “[As of Tuesday], he just got back on campus.

“It will obviously be great to have him back. He brings a lot to the team: size, [strength], and scoring so it will be good to have him back in the lineup.”

Three other freshmen — Paul Thompson, Phil DeSimone, and Danny Dries — have each totaled 8-to-10 points. DeSimone and Dries filled in recently on the top line.

“They bring a lot to the team,” Umile says. “They have an awful lot of skill and we allow them to be creative and make plays. The learning process is learning how to play defensively in this league. When you play against the teams we play here in Hockey East, you have to be able to control them defensively.

“Our freshmen have done a very good job for us. We’re pleased with the freshmen, but they’re freshmen.

“Our expectations are that our upperclassmen have to do a better job.”

Northeastern

It’s a great time for the Northeastern Huskies and their fans. The team in first place and ranked seventh in the country.

“It’s great,” assistant coach Gene Reilly says. “I mean, you go from three wins two years ago to first place right now. But everything is in perspective.

“As a matter of fact, I had one player come up to me and ask, ‘Why isn’t there more excitement here around campus about the program?’ And there is, but they don’t see it, which is great.

“There’s a little bit of the Belichick ‘Humble Pie’ that’s thrown at these guys every day to make them realize that, yeah we’re doing well, but we have not won anything. From Jan. 11 to Mar. 8 will decide where we are because we now have a very formidable Hockey East schedule.”

Reilly and head coach Greg Cronin can also point to some pretty average team statistics. While wins are all that matters in the standings, it’s a slim margin when you’re middle-of-the-road in most categories and near the bottom in power-play percentage.

“I think our power plays really need to start getting going in a better direction,” Reilly says. “We have to increase that percentage. I think that’s the most significant area where we must improve. If we don’t, it’s going to be a difficult second half.”

Providence

The Friars are another team on the roll, having just won four of five with the only loss coming at the hands of top-ranked Michigan.

“We’re continuing to develop as a team,” coach Tim Army says. “We are fairly young in respect to the fact that we’re generally playing 11-to-13 freshmen and sophomores on a game-to-game basis. Our freshmen are starting to adjust to the level of play and I think our team is beginning to read off of each other.

“I think generally our overall play continues to become more consistent particularly within the framework with how we try to play. If you look at our numbers from the beginning of the year through the Great Lakes Invitational, it qualifies the progression as a group.”

Providence is now just five points out of first place. What will it take to win home ice?

“We have some games in hand, but games in hand are only effective when you win them,” Army says. “It’s about how you progress and how you play.

“So for us it’s continuing to develop as a group and doing the things that we try to do to be successful and play to our strengths and then obviously always recognize your opponents and what their strengths are. Each game poses different challenges and each team poses different challenges.”

“I think most importantly for us — and I’ve said it from day one — is just to keep getting better every day. That entails your group playing better and reading off of each other. If we can do that and stay persistent and stay focused, the other things take care of themselves.”

Vermont

Joe Fallon, one of the mainstays of past Catamount teams, struggled earlier in the year, posting his worst statistical results. Sophomore Mike Spillane moved in and Fallon was the ironic beneficiary.

“He’s really started to come on,” Coach Kevin Sneddon says. “We really felt like that was time for Joe to work on the mental side of the game. He was putting too much pressure on himself. He felt like he had to be perfect every time he stepped in the net because of our youth on the blue line.

“That’s a lot of mental bricks to pile up on the shoulders. We really felt like we needed to take some time to let him chip those bricks off the shoulders and get back to just having some fun with the game.

“He spent a lot of time with our Peak Performance Coach Brian Cain [sports psychologist]. They spent a lot of time doing what he calls ‘breaking it down’ to try and get back to what he needs to do to be successful. For some goalies that break might seem like an awful long time between starts, but I think it’s exactly what Joe needed.

“When we got back to tournament time, I thought he played great against Holy Cross. He didn’t see a lot of shots but he made some big saves and you could start to see him challenging more. I guess against Quinnipiac we just played so poorly in front of him I can’t really fault him on really any of the goals. Against Boston University, by the second half of that game, he looked like vintage Joe.”

At the other end of the ice and experience spectrum is Jack Downing, whose performance on the top line earned him Hockey East Rookie of the Week honors.

“Our top line needed some size, some strength and someone that was going to go to the net,” Sneddon says. “Someone that was going to have a physical presence out there and maybe could create some more space for players like Dean Strong and Corey Carlson.

“We felt like size and strength has helped a player like Peter Lenes. When Brayden Irwin plays physical on that line along with Viktor StÃ¥lberg, it gives Lenes a little more room out on the ice.

“So we moved Jack Downing up to the first line. He had been playing some really good hockey for us and has been really physical. Jack’s pretty smart in the offensive zone. He knows when to go to the net and I think when he’s playing with two intelligent players like Dean Strong and Corey Carlson he’s going to have his opportunities.

“That certainly happened against Boston University. He had a great game for us and as he continues to improve with his defensive side of the game he’s going to become a very good college player for us.”

Trivia Contest

Last week Scott posed called the puzzler “A Short Answer Question.” Readers were asked to come up with a full starting lineup of Hockey East men’s players — a goalie, two defensemen, and three forwards — that would comprise the shortest players at their positions in Hockey East history.

Two rules:

1. The player needed to play for a Hockey East team when it actually was in Hockey East. So even if a midget played for Vermont back in the Catamounts’ ECAC days, that would not count. Nor would a vertically-challenged Eagle from the 1970s.

2. In terms of judging the actual height of players, we will have to defer to www.hockeydb.com, that most impressive of databases.

Scott predicted that readers would think of several waterbug forwards but that D-men and goalies will present a more significant challenge.

Given that he always makes jokes about his height at his own expense, it goes without saying that Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald is on the short list to run this team.

The best entry we received was by Nicholas Raimondi. Not all of his listed heights stood up according to hockeydb.com, but the corrected heights were still good enough:

F Brad Zancanaro, BU 5’5
F Don Richardson, Maine 5’5
F Nathan Gerbe, BC 5’5 (actually 5’6)
D Jeremy Dehner 5’8 (actually 5’9)
D Brett Tyler Mass-Lowell 5’9
G Jason Tapp, BU 5’7

No one got the best possible answer. Scott came up with Cal Ingraham (5’5, though Scott swears he was listed at 5’3 when he played for Maine) and Mike Omicioli (5’5) of Providence, who would’ve fit the short list better than Gerbe. Adam Perry also came out just an inch behind Nicholas Raimondi with this lineup:

G Jason Tapp 5-7 BU
F Nathan Gerbe 5-6 BC
F Jared Mudryk 5-6 NU
F Brad Zancanaro 5-5 BU
D Jim Driscoll 5-9 NU
D Barry Goers 5-9 UML

In any event, Nicholas’s cheer is:

“JVR, leading scorer in world juniors returns to the cats…HOCKEY EAST BEWARE!!!”

The trivia contest returns next week. (The reason for the one-week hiatus is a long and boring story, a topic I’m an expert about.)

This Week in the ECAC Northeast

By Paul C. Altmeyer Jr.
-

While it may be human nature to always look at the top of the standings when scanning Web sites or even newspapers, this week we focus on the Golden Bears of Western New England College, a team still in search of its first victory of the season.

Chris Bernard, now in his second year as head coach of WNEC, refuses to let the 0-12-1 record get him, or his players, down.

“For us, it’s been a situation where we have had a highly competitive and ambitious schedule,” he noted. “We also have not had a lot of practices between some of these games to address problems.”

The coaching staff has been very careful not to let the record snowball into negative momentum.

“We don’t get overly focused on the overall record, but on one shift at a time, one game at a time,” Bernard said. “We’ve developed a mantra of ‘win today’ whether it’s in practice, or on your shift in a game. This has helped not to feel the weight and burden of an 0-12 record. We just try to get it in, get it out, and be good in front of both nets.”

A former goalie for Clarkson University in the mid-90s, Bernard feels that his own goaltending has been better than the record would indicate.

“Our goaltending has been very good all year long. We understand the mentality that you’re going to work hard every night and maybe not get a win.”

Junior Kyle Sagnella has appeared in all 13 games, making a total of 400 saves along the way, putting him first in the conference. He has also logged more minutes than any other goalie in the league. Bernard feels that his starting goalie’s GAA of 4.58 is certainly not a true reflection of his talent, especially given some of the opponents they’ve faced along the way, such as Hobart and Elmira.

“These are quality opponents, and long term they should help us be battle tested. Sagnella has seen a lot of shots, and his goals-against-average is not a direct reflection because of some of the top teams in the country we’ve faced.”

Also seeing some limited time in net has been Justin Richards, and Bernard likes what he’s seen of the freshman: “He’s been able to play, and he’s proven he’s capable.”

The goal crease will become a bit more crowded with the addition of sophomore transfer Dennis Harrsch from Plattsburgh State, and maybe take some of the workload off of Signella.

On his defense, Bernard commented, “They’ve worked hard as a unit, we’ve gone through a lot of different pairings looking for a hidden formula, and we’ve played a lot of young guys. Three of our six defensemen who have seen significant time are freshmen, and we know they’ll make mistakes, but they want to get better. Everyone’s done their best. We’re all collectively trying to get better.”

One glaring problem for WNEC has been their lack of offense. They have been shut out three times so far, and have yet to score more than three goals in a game.

“We have to score more goals,” Bernard stated. “We have the lowest total of goals in the conference. Part of the problem is we’re trying not to lose as opposed to trying to win. We’re pressing, looking for the perfect scoring chances. We’re squeezing the stick in front of the net, we need to loosen up.”

They’ll need to try something as their offense is ranked dead last in the ECAC NE, with a measly 1.13 goals per game.

Despite the fact that the last WNEC victory was on Feb. 3, 2007, Bernard tries to keep his troops up, while at the same time continue to rebuild the program.

“The kids have been great. They’re really working on individual skills development. The kids understand that when you’re mired in this situation, the only ones who can turn it around are in the locker room. They’ve become more accountable and more motivated to compete on an amplified, elite level.”

In looking ahead, Bernard feels optimistic. “We’ve got an outstanding chance now after playing high quality teams outside of the conference. That experience should allow us to compete within the conference. We’ve had a nice break, now it’s time to go out, compete hard, and take what we get. The first one [win] has seemed elusive.”

The Golden Bears returned to action with a road game at Plymouth State on January 9, which they dropped 5-1. That was the first of four games in 10 days, They’ll have a home game versus Potsdam State on January 13, followed by a trip to Franklin Pierce, and ending with a tough game when they host UMass Dartmouth on January 19.

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