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BU Suspends Four Indefinitely

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Boston University’s woes this season don’t show any sign of turning around soon.

Already saddled with a disappointing 4-9-2 record, the Terriers will be without four players indefinitely due to a suspension. Three seniors and one junior comprise the group: Captain Brian McGuirk, leading scorer Bryan Ewing, former Hockey East Rookie of the Year Brandon Yip, and defenseman Dan McGoff.

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No details were provided on the reasons for the suspension beyond a statement issued by Terrier coach Jack Parker. “I’m disappointed that these four chose to break one of our team rules,” said Parker. “This is strictly a team matter.”

The team also announced that “in light of the suspensions,” senior Pete MacArthur “has been named captain of the Terriers” with senior Ryan Weston and junior Matt Gilroy serving as alternates. It is not clear whether McGuirk could be reinstated if and when the suspension is lifted. The timeframe for the suspension is also unclear for now.

BU will be able to suit up exactly 18 skaters for tomorrow night’s against at UMass-Lowell. In addition to the four suspensions, freshman defenseman Colby Cohen will miss the game due to injury. Jason Lawrence was already out with a badly separated shoulder. As a result, the Terriers likely will dress four players who have combined to play just 12 games of the team’s first 15 games this season: Ryan Monaghan, Steve Smolinsky, Victor Saponari, and Craig Sanders.

This Week in SUNYAC

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New Homes

In Division III, it is relatively easy for a college athlete to transfer to another school. Whether that’s good or bad is best left for another discussion.

For some players, their transfer has worked out for the better for both themselves and their new teams. There are a few players who so far this year are making the most of their decision to switch schools and teams.

One of those players who has seen a reversal of fortunes is Peter Vaisanen who went from Neumann to Potsdam.

“A kid who didn’t get a lot of playing time at Neumann because they are just loaded,” Potsdam coach Aaron Saul said. “But I knew him from recruiting him from the junior ranks. I knew he was a talented player who could get the job done.”

In his freshman year at Neumann, he played 13 games, notching only one goal. The following year, the forward got into 12 games with two goals and one assist. So far in 13 games for Potsdam, he already has five goals (team leader), four of them on the power play, and six assists. The 11 points is tied for the team lead.

“Brought a ton of energy to our team,” Saul said. “Tough gritty player but with a nice touch around the net. He’s not afraid to go in the corners, and he’s scored some really pretty goals for us.”

Potsdam has another transfer who is doing quite well, except in this case he also did well where he came from. That would be Nick Carelli who originally played one year at Morrisville where he accumulated six goals and nine assists in 16 games. The 15 points were tied for second best for the Mustangs.

“His experience in playing has helped us a lot because he knows what to do in a key situation,” Saul said.

The forward hasn’t slacked off after moving up north. In 12 games he has four goals, which includes one power play and one shorthanded tally, and five assists, which places him fifth in team scoring.

“Great player,” Saul said. “Works very hard on the penalty kill unit. Great shot. Really quick wrist shot.”

Another player who did well before and after his move is Kevin Galan who went from Plattsburgh to Geneseo. He scored a lot of goals, especially on the power play, for the Cardinals (18 in his rookie year with 15 on the power play, 13 the following season, six coming with the man advantage), and is on pace to do the same with the Ice Knights as he already has seven in 10 games with five of them being a man up. Despite getting eight and 17 assists, respectively, at Plattsburgh, he has none in Geneseo.

“Big strong power forward,” Geneseo coach Chris Schultz said. “Brings with him a really, really good shot. Has a pretty good knack for the net. He’s stepped up and been a leader with the team.”

Casey Smith is another player who went from Plattsburgh to Geneseo. The junior defenseman went 4-4-8 and 6-12-18 with all his sophomore goals on the power play in his two years with the Cardinals. On Geneseo, so far he is 1-5-6.

“Good two-way defenseman,” Schultz said. “Spends a lot of time on the power play. He’s dedicated to seeing the team do well. He’s a good presence in the locker room.”

The goaltending position has also seen a transfer go well. Travis Moore, who performed well at Morrisville in his freshman year, now tends net for Buffalo State. Like with the Mustangs, Moore is seeing the most playing time, which is a surprise considering the Bengals still have fellow sophomore Kyle Gunn-Taylor.

While at Morrisville, Moore had a 3-6-0 record in ten games with a 3.98 GAA and a .901 save pct. This year, he is 2-5-0, the only two wins Buffalo State has, a 3.57 GAA, and a .884 save pct.

Moore’s success allows coach Nick Carriere the option of two solid goaltenders. Whether Carriere decides to go with one in the second semester will depend a lot on how well the transfer works out this year.

Transferring to a different school is a difficult decision that should not be taken lightly and can be quite stressful. It doesn’t always work out. But for some, it is the right decision that either turns around a career or enhances it.

SUNYAC Short Shots

C.J. Tozzo scored the overtime game winner while shorthanded to give Plattsburgh a 5-4 win over Geneseo … Zach Dehm scored a hat trick, two on the power play, as Cortland upset Buffalo State, 5-3 … Ryan Ellis scored on a first period penalty shot for Oswego to tie Fredonia, 2-2, which eventually ended 3-3 … Dylan Clarke scored two goals and Eric Satim got three assists as Plattsburgh beat Brockport, 6-1, out shooting the Golden Eagles, 50-27 … Oswego and Buffalo State combined for three goals within 50 seconds in the third period as the Lakers won, 4-2, going three for five on the power play with Garren Reisweber scoring twice … Fredonia scored their last two goals 43 seconds apart, beating Cortland, 6-2, with Colin Sarfeh scoring twice … Potsdam got the winning goal 38 seconds after Geneseo tied it in a 4-3 victory … It
took Brockport 47:24 before they scored, but they still beat Potsdam, 3-1 … Morrisville let up only 16 shots in their 4-1 victory over Johnson & Wales … Dave Schultz scored twice and six other players notched a goal in Morrisville’s 8-4 romp over Johnson & Wales.

Game of the Week

Two key contests get consideration.

From an emotional standpoint, the game that stands out is Potsdam at
Elmira. Those are the only two schools that have played a role in Saul’s
collegiate career. He played at Elmira for four years, was assistant
coach at Potsdam for three where he earned his masters degree, took the
same role at his alma mater for another six, and is now back with the
Bears as the head coach.

What’s it going to be like standing behind the “other” bench?

“It’s going to be definitely a weird feeling for sure,” Saul said. “I
got six years in that program, 10 if you count my playing days. A lot
of good friends in town and a lot of good people who supported the team
and myself. Definitely will be a strange feeling on the other bench.”

Potsdam and Elmira have been linked before. This game used to be
unofficially called the Glenn Thomaris Cup. Now, it can be called the
Aaron Saul Cup.

“I’m hoping we can play well and maybe knock off the number one team in
the country,” Saul said.

He paused and then added, “But, it’s with mixed feelings.”

There are only two conference games to be played for the last weekend of
the first semester. Oswego and Morrisville play a home-and-home,
starting on the shores of Lake Ontario. There are some interesting
non-conference match ups as the SUNYAC and ECAC West do battle with each
other: Fredonia at Neumann twice, Geneseo at Utica, and Potsdam at
Hobart. Castleton at Geneseo also bears watching.

The most interesting non-conference match-up and the pick for the Game of
the Week is between two Primelink foes: Plattsburgh at Middlebury.
This pairing did not occur in the Thanksgiving tournament, so it will be
eagerly anticipated by the fans.

Plattsburgh has one of the toughest non-conference schedules — Elmira,
St. John’s, Norwich twice, Middlebury, Williams, Tufts, Skidmore and a
team to be announced. This type of tough schedule could go a long way in determining the Cardinals NCAA fate and seeding.

But for the fans, it’s simply a great game. Plattsburgh comes in as the
newly ranked number one team (tied with Elmira) with an 11-1 record.
Middlebury has struggled slightly in the early going with a 3-2-1
record, but are still ranked No. 13 in the country.

More importantly, there is a lot of history between these two storied
programs, and whenever they face off against each other, it’s an
entertaining affair.

On The Periphery

The BCS is sure taking a bashing this year. However, it’s not the only
entity in college football that is messed up.

Take the Division III league known as the New Jersey Athletic
Conference. Now, you would think with the name New Jersey
Athletic Conference, the teams would all be from New Jersey.

You would be wrong. In fact, starting next year when two schools join
the conference to make it 10 teams, the schools from the Garden State
don’t even make up more than half.

That’s right, only five teams in a 10 team New Jersey Athletic
Conference are actually from New Jersey — College of New Jersey, Kean,
Montclair State, Rowan, and William Patterson.

Four of the remaining five teams are the four Division III SUNY schools
that field a football team — Brockport, Buffalo State, Cortland, and
Morrisville. The final school is Western Connecticut.

So, why is it called the New Jersey Athletic Conference when just
as many schools are not from New Jersey as are? Probably the same
reason the BCS left Missouri out in the cold.

When it comes to college football, one has to wonder whether it’s being
run by folks from institutions of higher learning.

This Week in the ECAC East and NESCAC

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As Yogi Berra once said, “90 percent of the game is mental.”

For many of the teams starting out this season, they are learning that there is much more in play for their teams than just their physical capabilities and talent on the ice. In fact, both good and bad, the mental approach to how teams are playing and executing on the ice right now has some coaches delighted while others are looking to turn things around before the holiday break.

The good news is that it is still early in the season. The flip side arises if some teams don’t address some inefficiencies now they may have bigger problems in the second half of the season. Here’s a look at some of the good and some of the not so good leading into the semester break and what teams are looking at changing to improve performance on the ice.

Castleton Back to Basics

One of last year’s clear success stories was the emergence of Alex Todd’s Castleton Spartans as a contender in the ECAC East. Having reached the conference tournament final four last season before bowing out in the semi-finals to New England College, a strong returning nucleus augmented by a strong recruiting class, things looked very positive for the still young Spartans entering the season. But after a 1-4-1 start and 0-3-1 in the league, coach Todd has some issues to address and most of it isn’t physical.

“Our issues are really all in the mental approach to the game right now,” stated Todd. “We were successful last year because we were very committed to a strong defensive system, working hard for 60 minutes and making good decisions on the ice. This year we really haven’t done that and I think because of the success we had last year, some players thought it would be easier this year and the competition is too good in this league to take that approach.”

One of the primary areas of focus is looking to reduce the number of shots and scoring opportunities for the other team.

Noted Todd: “We really need to cut down on the shots on goal. We are giving up almost 30 shots per game and have been outshot in almost every game so far this season. We need to get back to the committed style of play we were successful last season if we are going to turn this season around and our seniors will be needed to lead the team in that direction.”

Seniors Travis Martell (0-3-3), Matthew Link (1-1-2) and Tyler White will be looked to re-instill the mental discipline among themselves and their teammates in order to get the Spartans back on the right track.

“These are guys who were here when we didn’t have any wins and know what those struggles were like,” commented Todd. “It doesn’t matter if you are going from one win to two or 15 to 16, the same preparation and commitment to the system has to be there and executed on the ice. I hope we can make some improvements in the final three games we have before the break and finish with some positive momentum.”

The Spartans are on the road this weekend against Cortland and Geneseo before closing out the first half at home next Wednesday against ECAC northeast foe, Plymouth State.

Thoroughbreds Stumble Out of the Gate

Skidmore was another surprise team last year that had created great expectations around the league based on their returning core group of players and strong incoming freshman class. Like their travel partners, Castleton, the early going has been tough for coach Neil Sinclair’s team as they look to improve on their 1-3-2 start overall and 0-3-1 in conference play.

“Every year is different,” noted head coach Neil Sinclair. “We are still a young team making progress and understanding what hard work means in terms of the mental commitment to come and compete as close as you can to playing a full 60 minutes every game. Our mental effort isn’t quite there and we are not doing the little things for each other on the ice that we need to be successful.”

Right now the Thoroughbreds are looking to turn things around and are looking inward to do so.

“Hockey teams need to create their own luck,” said Sinclair. “Bowdoin certainly did last weekend against us [more on that below] and we need to tighten up the details in our own game. It’s all about us right now — not the opponent.”

One area of strength for the Skidmore squad last year that has lacked strong performance in the early going has been the penalty kill.

“Last year our penalty kill unit was at 90% or better for the season,” noted Sinclair. “We need to be committed to working hard in those situations and keeping people off the scoreboard — it’s an important part of the game, an area where we have been proficient and something we really need to improve upon.”

Senior Mike Gibbons (3-5-8) is leading the team in points so far this season but Skidmore will need to see some of last year’s offensive leaders step forward to carry the team in the second half. Freshmen Brett Bandasian (3-1-4) and Alex Mykolenko (2-2-4) are among the team leaders for a team that is still looking to find its scoring touch.

“The good news about last weekend at Bowdoin was that we scored five goals in the game including three power-play goals,” said Sinclair. “The bad news is we gave up a bunch more and that goes with the fact we are playing lots of people in new spots and are still figuring out where everyone goes together for this group.”

Another focal point for the Thoroughbreds will be the play of goalie DJ Delbuono (.864 save percentage and 4.00 goals against average) who last year backstopped Skidmore with outstanding goaltending and is expected to return to form along with the improved play of the guys in front of him.

</b>Sophomore DJ Delbuono has his eye on saving pucks in more Skidmore wins.</p> <p>” /></p> <div class=Sophomore DJ Delbuono has his eye on saving pucks in more Skidmore wins.

Commented Sinclair: “DJ is DJ. He will be fine. He’s a solid goaltender and we have no worries about his play. We just need to focus and get mentally involved for the whole game and we should see some better results.”

Skidmore closes out their first half of the season on Friday night against ECAC Northeast opponent, Wentworth on the road.

A Bowdoin Six-Pack

Ok, so the connectivity continues here but this time the transition goes to the positive mental side of the game and the strong start by Bowdoin in the NESCAC conference.

“Our goal for the first half has always been to be at .500 at the break and anything better than that is a real plus,” commented head coach Terry Meagher. “Right now the Polar Bears are off to a 4-1-0 start and 3-1-0 in conference which has the people in Brunswick excited about this year’s team.”

Last weekend the home fans were treated to a hockey rarity as freshman Ryan Leary (6-1-7) scored two hat tricks — in the same game — for a total of six goals in the 10-5 win over Skidmore on Saturday afternoon. Leary scored a natural hat trick in 3:27 in the first period to help Bowdoin take control early and then added a single goal in the second period before adding two more in the third. An amazing feat for any player these days and one that has even his coach scratching his head a bit.

“Ryan’s performance was legit,” noted Meagher. “He scored those goals against a good team and a good goalie. Four of the goals were really position goals in terms of being in the right place at the right time and two were definite skill goals.

The natural hat trick was something you don’t see very often and it was great to see how his teammates handled the situation on the bench — they really received it well. We didn’t double shift Ryan or give him any extra chances but the building was buzzing when he scored number six.”

The six goal outburst from one player and 10 by the team was a surprise for Meagher who still feels his team is goal challenged.

“It’s still a challenge for us,” said Meagher. “We need to work very hard for goals and with this group it doesn’t seem like work. They just love to play. They are really well connected and come up with some really interesting ’games’ to play after practice in what I call the arts and crafts session — it’s great to see how much they enjoy and work hard in practice and games — this is a great group.”

Leading the group right now is senior Mike Westerman (4-6-10) who is providing strong leadership on and off the ice. A well-rounded and diverse student with a variety of interests including a musical group on campus, Westerman has been Bowdoin’s best player so far.

Senior Mike Westerman leads the Polar Bears against arch rival Colby this weekend.

Senior Mike Westerman leads the Polar Bears against arch rival Colby this weekend.

According to Meagher, “he has got a rhythm right now. He’s zoned in on what he needs to do on the ice and is executing really well out there — it’s fun to watch.”

This weekend brings a close to the first half of the season with one of the best rivalries in all of college hockey. Friday night at Colby will be the conference game with two points on the line and Saturday night back at Bowdoin will be for state bragging rights in this hotly contested rivalry.

“This is a good week to keep the team inside the glass,” observed coach Meagher. “There is so much going on with both schools and the possibility that this may be the last year of playing this game in Dayton. The schedule is really tight right now so it may not be possible to do this in the new building next season but that is adding to all of the excitement around here with fans, students and alumni.”

It’s a big hockey weekend and if you can’t get to Waterville or Brunswick, try listening on the Internet at www.D3Cast.com on Friday night for league battle at Colby — it should be a beauty!

Everyone is wrapping up the first half and trying to end on a positive note so…drop the puck!

This Week in the NCHA and MCHA

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By now we’re used to the NCHA standings turning into a disaster zone about this point of the season, but for our enjoyment the MCHA is also shaping up to be a mess.

Before we take a look at each, and also finally take the promised looks at Adrian and Concordia-WI, let’s see where everyone is stacking up in terms of national recognition.

Led by St. Norbert at no.3, three NCHA teams sit in the top fifteen of the USCHO.com Division III poll. River Falls and Stout follow at no. 4 and no. 5, respectively, and the Falcons actually held the top spot for two weeks until a 5-0 loss at St. Thomas dropped them a few spots in this week’s edition.

Superior finds itself just out of the top fifteen, but still receiving votes, as do a pair of MCHA teams in Adrian and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

And just as luck would have it, St. Norbert squares off with Stout and River Falls this weekend while MSOE travels to Adrian for a two game set. Could it have been drawn up any better?

MSwhOE?

With Adrian drawing a lot of attention due to some early success and the novelty of being a new team, no one has been talking much about the Raiders.

In light of such, it would be wise to not forget they are three-time defending MCHA regular season champions, return almost their entire club from a year ago, and are off to a strong start in their own right.

MSOE currently stands at 7-2-0 overall, and with a 5-1-0 mark is tied with Marian and Adrian for the MCHA South division lead. Aside from a 3-0 non-conference loss to Superior and a 6-5 MCHA setback to Lawrence — due only to a gargantuan third period comeback from the Vikings — MSOE has been perfect.

The Raiders hit the road this week to take on none other than Adrian in a key MCHA South two-game set.

After losing three goaltenders to graduation following last season, MSOE’s one big question mark this year was in net, but much of its success has been fueled by the solid play of freshman netminder Chris Keller.

Keller looks to have assumed the starting role for MSOE, having started seven of the Raiders’ nine games. He currently holds a 5-2 record with a 3.12 goals against average and a save percentage of .876, and could probably be expected to see both starts this weekend. His goal against average currently ranks third best in the MCHA.

Though Finlandia was unable to get a win against Adrian, MSOE offers a lineup just as potent and with just as much depth as the Lions, which should work to its favor against Adrian.

Senior forward Lee Swallow has paced the Raiders thus far with 17 points. A trio of forwards stacks up behind Swallow on the score sheet as freshman Mike Soik, sophomore Steve Smiddy, and senior Blair Hanberg all have scored in double digits.

Partly due to its overall depth, one thing the Raiders have done better than almost anyone in the country is get scoring from their defense.

Led by junior defenseman Jason Yolo’s nine points, the Raiders have four defensemen who have scored six or more points already on the season.

Interestingly, senior captain Ross Chawansky has yet to score on the year. As Chawansky is one of the Raiders’ top overall defensemen it merely speaks to the overall depth at the position.

As a team, MSOE looks to be able to compete with the high scoring Bulldogs as witnessed by its healthy 4.78 goals per game so far this season. MSOE also appears to be in a decent position to slow down the highest scoring offense in the nation, as it leads the MCHA in scoring defense having conceded only 2.89 goals per game.

If there is one element of the match-up that looks to be a potential problem for the Raiders it could be a propensity to put their opponents on the power play. MSOE enters the weekend averaging 27.4 penalty minutes per game, which could prove fatal considering the Adrian power play is scoring at in impressive 31.0% clip.

Additionally, though ranked third in the league, the MSOE penalty kill has a success rate of 82.6% .

Overall, this could be one of the finest early season series in the MCHA, though the two teams will meet again later in the season in Milwaukee with perhaps even more on the line.

Marian dropped Adrian last weekend with an impressive performance, but no one else in the conference has been able to take it to the Bulldogs on a consistent basis.

Perhaps that’s only because they haven’t played the three-time defending league champs yet. We’ll find out this weekend.

Last First Impressions

As promised three weeks ago, it’s finally time to catch up with the two first year programs, Adrian and Concordia-WI.

As has been discussed here numerous times before, Adrian’s talent is no secret. At least on paper the Bulldogs look to have enough firepower to beat anyone, but how exactly has it translated thus far?

Well, the Bulldogs sit at a respectable 7-3-0 overall and are tied for the MCHA South Division lead with a 5-1-0 mark. Included in Adrian’s wins is a road victory at then-No. 7 Neumann and a road sweep of the defending MCHA playoff champion in Finlandia.

A nice start for a new program certainly, but as expected, there have been some ups and downs along the way.

There is no finer example than the opening weekend of the season in which Adrian beat Potsdam 9-1 on Friday but lost 6-4 on Saturday. Though they did split two tight contests the following week with highly touted Neumann, inconsistency reared its ugly head yet again the following weekend as the Bulldogs hammered Lawrence 9-2 on Friday but barely escaped with a 4-3 win the following night.

Some have suggested Adrian is subject to Friday night letdowns, but head coach Ron Fogarty doesn’t think that’s necessarily the case.

“The games are closer on Saturdays because other teams are very well coached. They see us the first time and then come out with a different game plan. As expected, they have shown tremendous capabilities to come out and do different things so it’s no so much us, but the great capabilities of other teams to adjust.”

The numbers don’t seem to back up the Friday night letdown theorists, as two of the Bulldogs’ losses have come on Friday. Additionally, they have outscored opponents 32-16 in Friday games and 26-19 in Saturday contests. So while they haven’t been quite as dominant on Saturday, the difference is hardly enough to consider it some form of epidemic.

Overall, Adrian has averaged a robust 5.8 goals per game, which actually leads the nation, significantly outpacing Plattsburgh who checks in at second with 5.17 per contest. However, the Bulldogs only rank 41st nationally in scoring defense, having surrendered 3.5 goals per game.

“We are very happy with our efforts,” said Fogarty. “We have the ability to score goals and score in bunches. Our big downfall has been the ability to play consistently for 60 minutes.”

Adrian’s defensive numbers might be a tad misleading, as emergent number one netminder Brad Fogal has played quite respectably, allowing 2.67 goals per game while posting a save percentage of .912. Smart money says Fogal may be the Bulldogs’ guy from this point on.

In terms of Adrian’s scoring prowess, Fogarty’s comments might even be an understatement. The Bulldogs’ top line of Eric Miller, Adam Krug and Shawn Skelly are currently three of the top seven scorers in the nation, and Skelly leads all players nationally with 24 points.

Adrian freshman forward Shawn Skelly leads the MCHA, and nation, in scoring this season.

Adrian freshman forward Shawn Skelly leads the MCHA, and nation, in scoring this season.

With a top line that has been so dominant, questions of depth are bound to arise, but Fogarty is pleased with what some of his other players have brought to the table, specifically forwards like Chris Kuzyk, Brad Houston and Mike Dahlinger, who have accounted for 22 points so far this season.

“(They’ve) put up good numbers as well,” said Fogarty. “They’ve done it with less ice time, though. They don’t see as much time overall, and they don’t see as much on the power play.”

Speaking of the power play, Adrian suffered early from excessive penalties, a problem that was highlighted in the loss to Potsdam as the Bears rattled of three first period power play goals that put the Bulldogs in a hole they would never climb out of.

Fogarty insists this problem has been rectified.

“We’ve eliminated the stick penalties — hooking, holding, interference; we’ve gotten away from the lazy penalties so I don’t think it’s a problem anymore.”

Though Adrian flying relatively high for a first year program, no one is without weaknesses and they are no exception.

“We need to have mental toughness,” said Fogarty. “We have to be ready for the unexpected. We’re largely all freshman, and going to new rinks and new arenas — it’s a new experience at the college level.”

He continued, “We have no reference points for travel, teams, etc. — the tough part is being prepared for the unexpected.”

Fogarty’s worries are clearly illustrated by the events of last weekend, as an aggressive and speedy Marian team came out and, quit frankly, smacked Adrian right in the chops en route to a 7-5 win that included two shorthanded goals. The Bulldogs earned the series split with a 7-2 win on Saturday, but it goes to show that while unfamiliarity can work in Adrian’s favor, it can also work against it.

Ups and downs aside, however, Fogarty seems pretty pleased overall with the progress of his club.

“Everyone is finally on the same page with the systems,” he said. “We went through it again this week and I think it’s finally second nature. I know we are sound in our systems and with what we want to do. Now all we have to do is concentrate on being consistent with what we have to do to be successful.”

Moving over to the other new team in the MCHA, Concordia-WI, we find a little different story line but it is full of just as much optimism as Adrian’s.

The Falcons currently stand at 1-8-0 overall and 1-5-0 in the MCHA South Division. In what could best be described as rude awakening, the Falcons opened their season against one of the top teams in the nation in UW-Stout. Though Stout rolled to a 10-1 victory, Falcons’ head coach Tony Hrkac still thought it was an excellent learning experience for his young squad.

“It’s something we learned right away in that first game against Stout,” he said. “Most of our guys had not seen competition like that anywhere before, and it really opened their eyes to what it takes to compete at this level.”

The Falcons didn’t fare much better in their next game, as they dropped their MCHA opener to Finlandia 10-3 and were out shot 65-23. In a somewhat telling series finale, however, the Falcons lost 5-2 to the Lions the following night and cut the shot deficit to 52-31.

“It’s all part of the learning process,” said Hrkac. “A lot of it is physical, but a lot is mental. Our guys are learning that they have to be mentally ready for every game and that you have to start preparing for Friday on Monday or Tuesday, not on Friday night.”

I like to think that it’s somewhat obvious when coaches are firmly entrenched in the land of “coachspeak” and when they are not; having said that, numerous opposing coaches have offered legitimate praise to the Falcons for quickly developing a reputation as a team that does not give up and does not stop working hard — no matter the situation.

It is encouraging praise as far as Hrkac is concerned.

“We never give up,” he said. “It can be easy to do when it is 7-0 or 8-0, but even when that’s the case our guys are out there working hard to get that first goal. That’s a tribute to the leadership on this team and to a guy like (captain) Sam Aide. He goes out there every shift and works as hard as possible which sets a great example for the rest of the team.”

Concordia’s determination paid off the following week as it notched its first win in school history by downing Northland, 3-2. They also out shot the Lumberjacks 49-22 in the contest.

“Well, it was great,” said Hrkac. “Players can see that they are improving and it was a great thing for our program. It shows that if they keep at it and work hard we can come out and get a few wins.”

Freshman forward Justin Maciuk has paced the Concordia-WI attack thus far.

Freshman forward Justin Maciuk has paced the Concordia-WI attack thus far.

The Falcons already have had fifteen players get on the score sheet this season, with freshman forward Justin Maciuk’s six points leading the way. Two of their top six scorers are defenseman and Hrkac feels it’s definitely a positive so many players are getting in on the mix.

“Just get the puck to the net, go to the net, and we’ll get some goals. Everyone on this team has to contribute to the scoring, contribute to the defense, and contribute to the offense. Guys have to have a desire to go to the net and accept all that comes along with it and we have a lot of guys on this team willing to do that.”

Defensively, the Falcons have stuck to a three goalie rotation comprised of freshmen Alex Koeppen, Dustin LeClaire and Justus Neumann. According to Hrkac, the rotation will remain unchanged unless one really makes a push for a number one spot.

Overall, things have been much worse for first year programs on the results sheet and in the score column, but few have probably been as lucky to have so quickly established a winning attitude within the program.

Though it’s never easy to lose some games by wide margins, Hrkac thinks it will work to Concordia’s benefit somewhere down the road.

“When you take the ice you always want to give it your all. These guys have learned they need to practice hard if they really want to improve,” he said.

Continuing, “We have seen some good teams, and now we know what we have to do to get to that level and compete with some of the teams we’ve seen like Stout, Stevens Point, Finlandia and MSOE. Our guys now know what it will take to get to that level.”

300: More Than a Bad Movie

Almost three weeks ago St. Norbert head coach Tim Coghlin hit the road with his Green Knights to take on Stevens Point. The Knights skated away with a 3-1 win but it wasn’t just any win. It also marked the 300th of Coghlin’s coaching career — all of which have come at St. Norbert.

Coghlin’s career record now stands at 302-92-32, good enough for a glittering .746 career winning percentage behind the bench. The winning percentage is so good, in fact, that it ranks him third all-time among NCAA hockey coaches at any level.

“I think the hype going into that weekend was a little blown out of proportion,” said Coghlin.

Part of the hype stemmed from the fact Coghlin played and coached at Stevens Point.

“If anything, there is a little bit of irony in that I played there and that I began my coaching there, but aside from that it really doesn’t matter,” he said.

“The important thing with that game was getting our first NCHA points of the season. To go into Stevens Point and do what we needed to do is what mattered and I was far more interested in getting the NCHA points.”

Though Coghlin himself crossed the 300 barrier with a healthy dose of humility, a congratulations is still in order as he becomes the 59th coach in the history of the NCAA to amass 300 wins, but only the second to win 300 within the NCHA.

Even more impressive is that it only took him a little over 14 seasons in which to do it.

Status Quo, or No?

As usual, I babbled this preseason about how tight the league was going to be and what a mess the standings would likely end up being. So far, I’m sort of right, though in an interesting twist the standings are nearly identical to where they were at the conclusion of last season.

Last year’s tri-champs River Falls, St. Norbert and Stout are the top three, followed by Superior in fourth and St. Scholastica in fifth. Eau Claire and Stevens Point are once again in the six and seven holes and Lake Forest rounds out the league.

In terms of the standings and the undying quest for home ice in the playoffs, this weekend may prove to be a veritable powder keg as the top three teams square off, as do all four teams bunched up from fourth to seventh. The potential for a major shuffling up of things looms large.

If there’s been one surprise in the league thus far it has been the relatively slow start of St. Scholastica. The Saints’ record stands at 3-5-2 and they have only managed three conference points in two weekends. The sluggish start is interesting considering the fact that two NCHA coaches actually picked St. Scholastica to win the league in the preseason poll and with a talented corps of experienced juniors this would be a likely season for the Saints’ to really put a foot down.

“There is no doubt this is not the start we were hoping for,” said Saints’ head coach Mark Wick. “If you had asked me the first time we talked this season if I thought we’d be 3-5-2, I would not have thought it possible.”

A major reason for the Saints’ lack of success in the win column is the same problem that plagued them at times last season: the inability to hold a lead. In fact, the Saints held leads on St. Thomas, Hamline, River Falls and Stout but ended up losing to all but Hamline, though they did escape with a tie.

“The biggest thing is that we have not been paying attention to detail,” said Wick. “Our losing third periods is not a physical thing I don’t think. Our guys came in already extremely well-conditioned and there are even more so now so I don’t think that’s the problem.”

He continued, “It’s been more of a mental thing, plain and simple: guys getting beat, not blocking shots, not picking guys up. If you make those types of mistakes against good teams like those it just won’t work.”

The final straw came on Nov. 21 as the Saints conceded the final three goals of the game in a 7-4 home loss to Bethel. Following another disappointing third period effort, Wick returned to the drawing board.

“After the Bethel game we said, ok, we’re going to watch some tape. It gave us a great opportunity to work on our mental game and just teach; to get back to the fundamentals and that type of stuff.”

The extra focus seems to have paid dividends as the Saints hit the road and picked up three conference points last weekend. The weekend included a notable 2-2 tie on Friday at St. Norbert in which the Saints overcame a 2-1 deficit after two periods — something that visitors to the Cornerstone don’t often accomplish.

They then fought through an ice storm, power outage and an 18 hour delay to defeat Lake Forest 2-1 on a late shorthanded goal by sophomore forward Jordan Chong.

With the Saints’ returning home to host Eau Claire and Stevens Point this weekend, Wick hopes they have finally turned the corner.

“I hope so, we’ll see,” he said. “You always like to be at home and we’ve had more success at home overall. These are games against teams that we expect to be battling for home ice with — they are two teams we are right in that mix with. This is a big weekend against teams we want to finish ahead of.”

Up Top

Last season was a rarity as there was no regular season champion in the NCHA. Instead there were three. River Falls, St. Norbert and Stout all finished with 10-3-1 league marks and all claimed a share of the conference title. With the same three teams back at the top of the league, this weekend offers bountiful opportunity for all as River Falls and Stout hit the road to take on St. Norbert and Lake Forest.

Though Lake Forest is never an easy place to win, all eyes will be on the Cornerstone this weekend as it will host two match-ups between top five teams.

Despite St. Norbert’s ludicrous success at the Cornerstone (82-4-3 in its past 89 games), the Green Knights might almost be considered home underdogs this weekend, a circumstance about as rare as a sighting of Halley’s Comet.

If one wishes to call St. Norbert underdogs this week, it would stem partly because River Falls and Stout enter the weekend with teams largely reminiscent of the ones that went a combined 2-1-1 against St. Norbert in the regular season last season, partly because they both may be even better this season, and partly because St. Norbert still remains a bit of an unknown entity.

Yes, the Green Knights are ranked third nationally and hold a hearty 7-1-1 record, but they feature a vastly different lineup from the past few seasons. As Coghlin sees it, this is cause for concern as well as a test for his young club.

St. Norbert's head coach Tim Coghlin.

St. Norbert’s head coach Tim Coghlin.

“We’ve questioned thus far if our young guys are up to the task. (Some of our past teams) were veteran teams and this one is not,” he said. “At the same time, the early season has allowed us to gain some confidence. The fact we are able to play four critical NCHA games at home early in the season with this young group gives us the opportunity to build that confidence.”

He continued, “We don’t have the guys we had on some of those other teams. This is new for our young guys and you don’t know how strong our willpower is.”

“This is going to be a battle of wills.”

St. Norbert’s relative inexperience has led to them not manhandling early season opposition in the fashion many are used to witnessing.

Thus far, the Green Knights only rank fourth in the NCHA in scoring at 3.33 goals per game, and have scored more than three goals only three times this season. One upshot is the always solid Green Knight defense leads the league by conceding a paltry 1.78 goals per game.

“That is going to be the key match-up of the weekend I think: Our D corps and goaltending versus their D corps and goaltending. If we get into a 7-5 type of game with either of these teams it’s not going to go into our favor.”

Though the Green Knight defense is strong as usual, it will be tested to its fullest this week by the top two offenses in the league. Stout leads the league with 5.08 goals per game and River Falls is close behind with 4.91 per contest.

“Right now I think they are the best two teams in our league,” said Coghlin. “Everything about us is different. They are two teams who play a little different style than us.”

He continued, “River and Stout are both sort of track meet sort of teams. Again, it’s really going to be a battle of wills.”

That it will be as the Falcons have added scoring depth, which the lack of hurt them last season, and the Blue Devils have been getting scoring from all over the place with solid goaltending to boot.

The two enter this weekend with a combined record of 17-2-4 so it’s certainly going to be trial by fire for a young Green Knight team.

Whether they pass the test remains to be seen, but if they don’t, the Green Knights could be looking up at the top of the league with nearly two-thirds of their league home schedule already out of the way — something they are certainly unaccustomed to doing.

On the Periphery

Sure I stole the title from fellow columnist Russell Jaslow, but I like it and I’m only going to do it once.

A few weeks ago I posted on the Fan Forum about the poor hospitality I received while attempting to cover a game at St. John’s. I thought long and hard about whether to do so, but decided to go ahead with it because reality is well…reality. Especially when the fans we serve will at times question why such and such is or isn’t covered.

Well, much to my surprise, way more people than I ever would have thought commented to me about that post — many of them in person. It seems there isn’t anyone who isn’t aware of it.

Due to that, I’d like to qualify a few things. First, if I ever do return to St. John’s I’m quite certain things would be much different, and one bad experience in no way changes the fact John Harrington has a heck of a team and program there. And second, I feel a little bad my one negative experience is the one that has garnered all the attention, because it is by far the exception rather than the rule.

So in turn, I’d like to point out that every single coach I’ve ever had to deal with has been more than accommodating at all times. I’d also like to thank everyone at every place I’ve ever covered a game in the past 14 months. That includes St. Thomas, St. Mary’s, Superior, St. Scholastica, River Falls, St. Norbert, Stevens Point, Lake Forest, Lawrence, Marian, MSOE, and Finlandia. My apologies to those places I’ve never made it to. I’ve never been to Northland but I will be this Sunday and I’m certain I’ll have yet another great experience as others have set a wonderful precedent.

What’s even more impressive is that often times those who accommodate me are often working long hours for relatively little pay, or are straight up volunteers.

Division III hockey is a niche sport followed by an even smaller niche of fans, and looking back, it’s highly encouraging that so many other people have worked hard to make things easier for me.

So mark my words, someday I’m going back to St. John’s and it’s going to be great. And once I do, I’m going to come back here and tell all of you exactly how great it was. How do I know? Easy. It’s Division III hockey…it’s always great.

This Week in ECAC Hockey: Dec. 6, 2007

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Gettin’ Blased

Billy Blase has played some pretty frustrating hockey for Yale so far.

Frustrating, if you’re in Alec Richards’ position.

Now I’m not insinuating that there’s anything but the finest camaraderie between the two netminders. But with the way Blase has been playing, it’s suddenly up to the former incumbent Richards to earn starting time tending the twine.

Hailing from the hockey hotbed that is Santa Monica, Calif., Blase has made the most of his opportunity this year, rocking a .935 save percentage and a 1.75 goals-against average in eight and a half games played.

While the Yale defense has been strong, Blase has nonetheless been called upon to stop upwards of 25 shots a game, and is a huge reason why Yale’s penalty kill is currently second-best in the nation (94.4 percent, 34 kills in 36 tries).

The six-foot sophomore stopped 23 of 26 in a 3-3 tie with Harvard a week and a half ago. I wonder who his sister was rooting for in The Game (on Ice)…she captained the Crimson women’s varsity fencing squad between 2002-04.

Let’s just presume strong and healthy relationships all around, shall we? There’s no evidence to support that Billy’s life is any more stressful than we already know it to be.

Red Storm Rising

Sorry Cornell, but it’s not always about you.

Seth Appert has Rensselaer rolling right now, though you may not suspect it at first glance.

“We’ve had a chance to win in every game we’ve played,” said the second-year Trojan. “We’ve had a chance to win in every third period we’ve played,” he added, almost incredulous at his team�s misfortune in translating effort into victories.

Appert pointed out that of the Engineers’ five overall losses, four were to highly ranked opponents (Minnesota, Boston College, Harvard and Notre Dame). The fifth loss was at highly potent and highly regarded Quinnipiac, who has fallen short of preseason expectations thus far.

However, it looks like the ‘Tute might finally be seeing some results to match their improved play.

With a 4-2 win over Harvard in the rearview, Appert was positively impressed with his charges’ game.

“It was probably our best effort of the season…as a combination of skill, execution, and physical intensity,” he said.

Putting four pucks past Kyle Richter should count as a victory in and of itself this season, but RPI made sure to take care of business on both ends of the ice to earn the true W.

“We got traffic to the net…where we were settling for fadeaway jumpers [before],” he said, to use a basketball analogy. “Part of the reason we were able to beat Harvard on Tuesday was playing BC, playing Minnesota, and coming close but not close enough.”

“There were more guys on the team who wanted the puck against Harvard and Princeton than there ever were against Minnesota and BC…they all wanted to sit back and wait out the win [back then].”

“It’s too early to say that we’ve turned the corner, but the signs are there that we’re taking the proper steps,” said Appert.

The End of ECAC Hockey

…well, until January 4th, at least.

Brown visits Yale on Friday in the final league game of 2007, and the standings are indicating a strong chance of continuing parity in 2008.

Clarkson’s still atop the rankings, like everyone figured they’d be, but head coach George Roll doesn’t think the team has played to its potential just yet.

Union earned its first league win last weekend, but Nate Leaman is certain that his team is better than its results.

Harvard’s played one more ECAC game (nine) than anyone else so far, and Quinnipiac, St. Lawrence and Colgate are dead sure that they’ve been delivered somebody else’s records by mistake.

Upon Further Review

It’s once in a blue moon that I get to report breaking news.

This isn’t one of those times…but wasn’t that an appealing image?

So instead, I try to justify my exorbitant USCHO paycheck by poking around in the quiet, forgotten corners of hockey, inquiring about parts of the game that often go unnoticed or unappreciated. The topic of this week’s Minutiae Minute:

Video scouting.

Unbeknownst to even myself, until recently, the NCAA specifically limits each hockey program’s staff to one head coach, two assistants, and a volunteer (e.g. a goalie coach).

Given the scholastic, strategic, recruiting, media, and personal demands already clamoring for priority in that office, there is no way that any program can afford to assign an assistant to full-time advanced scouting. Sure, coaches are free to take in another team’s game if they have a night off, but this is by far the exception to the rule.

Therefore, there are tape exchanges. Each league is free to govern itself — non-conference protocol falls under the category of “gentlemen’s agreement” — and ECAC Hockey dictates that each team provide its opponent with a tape no fewer than two weeks prior to the game. What any given staff likes to do with the footage is totally subjective.

However, it is fair to say that most coaches key in on a few universal concepts: the opposition’s forecheck, power play, and faceoffs.

“Every team does certain things,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold, a bit of an old hand at this whole coaching thing.

For example, “Princeton does a great job on the power play of getting pucks to the net. There are not a lot of passes…they make one or two, and do a great job crashing the net [looking for rebounds],” he said.

(Indeed, while the Tigers only went two-for-12 on the man-advantage last weekend, they still mustered 17 shots on net and 37 attempts in barely under 16 minutes of power-play time.)

“We try to pick up on overall tendencies,” said Leaman, like how aggressively a team will forecheck, or if an opponent prefers to play up the middle of the ice versus around the boards.

Faceoffs are a facet of the game that is frequently undervalued by those in the stands.

“A lot of teams run plays off offensive-zone faceoffs,” said Appert. “It’s the one play in hockey that is like football: the player will start off in formations, and will run set plays off those formations.

“[We analyze] for tendencies,” like where players will usually end up if aligned in a particular fashion.

But it’s not just about one team in one game. Where ECAC institutions are steeped in tradition and history, many of the league’s coaching staffs seem as enduring and emblematic as the university seals etched into the nameplates on their desks. Half of ECAC Hockey’s current head coaches have been so for 10 years or more.

“I’ve been in the league for 10 years now, and I’ve seen a lot of coaches’ tendencies,” Leaman hinted.

Some coaches prefer to dig a bit deeper in the tape, looking for weaknesses and mis-matches in such areas as goaltending (if the goalie likes to play out of the crease, make more lateral passes; if he stays deep, shoot for rebounds and look for screens) and key players. But one thing all the coaches agreed on is that you can’t arrange a successful game plan around a mere game tape.

“There’s always that risk of over-coaching,” said Princeton’s Guy Gadowksy. Elaborating, he said that it’s important to absorb most of the video material as a coach, but to only ingrain in the players the bare necessities about how the other side likes to play.

“There’s such a thing as too much information,” Gadowsky stated.

Midseason Mulligan

I’m not too stubborn to admit when I messed up.

Thanks to a couple of prompt emails from alert readers, I must hereby come clean: some of the figures used in the “Congrats and Encouragement” portion of last week’s column were regrettably misinformed.

Specifically, it appears my assessments of Cornell and Quinnipiac were off the mark.

For the quick-fix: the Lynah Faithful were lauded for drawing a remarkable 109.3 percent capacity average to the Big Red’s three home games so far. This should’ve struck me as odd, and for good reason…Lynah holds a lot more people this year than it did in years past.

During this past summer, Cornell renovated the 50-year-old arena by adding, among other things, approximately 450 new seats. So while the Faithful are still putting the rest of the league to shame, they’re doing it at a more reasonable 98.9 percent rate.

Thanks to Michael Madar, I now see that Quinnipiac’s seemingly lackluster attendance is likely due to the fact that the Bobcats have played on some undesirable dates. QU’s first two home games were each on Tuesday nights, and against Atlantic Hockey opposition at that.

Tilts with Clarkson and St. Lawrence each drew around 3,400 to the sub-3,300-seat TD BankNorth Center, but the following two home games — both on Saturdays against Princeton — sandwiched Thanksgiving, and drew poorly.

Fortunately for all concerned, the ‘Cats drew over 3,100 both nights last weekend. Perhaps things in Hamden aren’t as depressing as all that after all.

This Week in the ECAC Northeast

By Paul C. Altmeyer Jr.
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Suffolk Staying Under the Radar. . .for Now

Last week we focused on the ensuing battle between powerhouses Curry College and UMass-Dartmouth; a game in which UMass won, 3-1, to remain undefeated in conference play. Overlooked so far this season, though, is another team that has yet to see defeat in league play: Suffolk University.

Through 10 games, the Rams have won seven, a total that took them a full season to reach last year. They also boast a 5-0 record in conference play. Fourth year coach Chris Glionna couldn’t be happier with his team’s play so far:

“We’re really excited about the start. It’s good these kids are getting positive results, they did a lot of hard work last spring and summer, and it’s good to see the results.”

One of the keys so far has been the play of goalie Jeff Rose, and Glionna is quick to point that out.

“He’s really stabilized the position for us,” Glionna noted. “We didn’t know what we had when we recruited him, since he’s only a freshman.”

Rose, who played for the Valley Jr. Warriors in the Eastern Junior hockey League last year, has appeared in all 10 games so far, with a record of 7-2. His GAA is a stingy 2.73, which is the fifth best in the conference, and his save percentage is .905, ninth overall.

Up front, Suffolk has been getting outstanding play from the tandem of senior Dan Pencinger and junior John Rocchio. Pencinger leads the team in scoring, with 10 goals in as many games, along with eight assists. Rocchio has four goals and 10 assists in that span.

Rocchio has led the team in scoring in each of the last two years, but he’ll be facing competition this year not only from Pencinger, but also from senior forward Tim Dancey and junior forward Kyle Cook. Both have scored eight goals so far, and have proven to be effective on the power play. They are both ranked number three and four, respectively, in team scoring and give Suffolk great depth offensively.

On defense, the core group has returned, according to Glionna: “For the most part, all of the guys from last year are back. Last year they really learned while they were on the job.”

One blueliner making an impression on his coach is Nick Davis.

“He’s done a tremendous job,” Glionna said of the sophomore. “He logs huge minutes, both on the penalty kill and on the power play.”

Davis can also rush the puck, as his seven points and two game winning goals attest.

Another defenseman Glionna is happy with is junior Mitch Sabo.

“He’s plays both ends, on the power play and on the penalty kill, and he’s probably one of the better offensive defensemen in the league.”

The native of Bell Canyon, CA, also can dish the puck, and currently has six assists.

In looking ahead, Glionna only has to look as far as this Saturday, December 8, when the Rams will host the University of Southern Maine, currently tenth in the country.

“This will be a big game for us. Last year, we began our turnaround when we went up there and beat them.”

Last year, though, the Rams were listless through the first semester, gaining only two wins before the Christmas break, the second being a 3-2 win over USM in Maine. This year, Suffolk has an overall record of 7-3, and is off to one of their best starts in recent memory.

They have already matched their win total from last year, and their currently amidst their second three games winning streak. Their opponent is also off to a good start as Jeff Beaney’s squad is also unbeaten so far this year, sporting a 5-0-1 record.

The game versus USM will be the Rams last tilt until after Christmas, when they will play in the Codfish Bowl on December 27 and 28. The team may enter that tournament with a slightly different look, though.

Returning to the line-up should be Joe Drago, a top four defensemen last year who has been out with a knee injury. Glionna knows Drago can provide more depth to an already deep team. Also expected to join the squad will be center Paul Scola, a transfer from Merrimack College via the former Foxboro Stars of the EJHL.

There should also be a familiar face returning to the ice as well, with the imminent return of Alex Olson, a junior who could easily step in and center the first line. Last year, Olson averaged well over a point per game.

Around the Boards

Glionna and Suffolk will host a Toys for Tots drive this Saturday (12/8) evening at the Walter Brown Arena. Following the end of the first period, fans are asked to bring their wrapped presents down to the Suffolk bench, where some of Santa’s wingers will be there to gather them…. Four of the top ten scorers in the ECAC NE hail from Suffolk: Dan Pencinger and Tim Dancey (1-2) plus Kyle Cook (4) and John Rocchio (6). No other team has more than two representatives in the top ten.

Hot and Cold

The hottest offense belongs to Southern New Hampshire University, with an average of 5.29 goals per game. At the opposite end of the spectrum is New England College, averaging just 1.40 per game so far…. SNHU remains unbeaten in D-III play so far, sporting a 4-0-1 record…. Deadliest power play so far belongs to Franklin Pierce, connecting on 40% of their chances; the Ravens have four players averaging at least a point-per-game on the man advantage.

This Week in the ECAC West

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Not Our Legacy

Gut check time.

It has been said so many times in sports that it has almost become cliché. A team finds itself in a certain situation where they need to either dig deep from within to overcome the obstacle, or collapse like a house of cards.

Cliché or not, the Utica Pioneers found themselves in just such a situation as they played Hobart last Saturday night after the Statesmen scored two quick goals midway through the first period.

For only the second time in its history, Utica had lost two consecutive home games entering Saturday’s contest. The Pioneers have never lost three home games in a row, but found themselves on the verge of it, when the seniors on the team took control of the locker room during the first intermission.

“To get down two early, it was a turning point to which way you are going to go as a team,” said Utica coach Gary Heenan. “I am really happy that the team responded and came together between periods with ‘is this going to be our legacy here as seniors?’ We just came out with an edge and really dominated the second period against a really good hockey team. We actually sent four guys on our fore check and bottled them up.”

Utica dominated the second period by getting back to the kind of physical hockey the Pioneer faithful enjoy watching, out shooting the Statesmen 28-11 and scoring two even strength goals to win the game, 3-2.

“We responded in the second period with just playing more of what Utica College hockey has been defined as since our inception, which is getting back to banging bodies and playing simple hockey,” said Heenan. “It was the first time that we have played 60 minutes of physical hockey.”

Gut check passed.

But despite the victory to pull in to a three way tie for second place in the league, the Pioneer offense continues to struggle. Three goals is the magic number for the Pioneers. If Utica scores three times, put a win in the books; if the opponent scores three, another tally goes in the loss column.

“There is definitely truth to that, and we are aware of it,” said Heenan. “We were really pleased with our skill level going in to the year and this is without question the most talented team that I’ve had. There is a learning process here.

Something I’m learning is that maybe we went away from some grit as well. We’re trying to get some more skilled guys playing grittier. We’re back to the same place we seem to be every year, which is first in penalty killing, first in team defense, but last in the offensive categories. We know we’ve got to correct those things. Our offense just needs to kick in.”

Special teams illustrates coach Heenan’s point as the Pioneers have killed an outstanding 88.2% of its penalties, but has only scored on 10.4% of its power plays.

For the last three seasons, Utica has been a one goaltender team. Senior Adam Dekker quickly took over the starting role in his freshmen year and has played almost ever game since then. But this year, as Dekker plays his final season, coach Heenan is looking toward the future and getting sophomore Anthony Luckow game experience.

“Dekker has been our guy, and is our guy, but we have to prepare for post-Dekker hockey as well,” said Heenan. “And that is why we’ve been giving Luckow some games and he is earning the right to play games now. Both goalies are deserving.”

Luckow has answered the call in the five games that he has played, amassing an outstanding .939 save percentage, 1.62 goals against average, and is undefeated including backstopping the Pioneers against Hobart last Saturday.

“[Luckow is] ready for playing time and against Hobart was the first big game we’ve given him,” said Heenan. “He’s deserving of that because he’s playing so well. He plays the puck so well and has given us a big boost against teams like Hobart that dump the puck so much.”

Crucial Defense

Elmira continues to roll through the competition. Despite playing four of its eight games against nationally ranked teams, the Soaring Eagles are 7-0-1, lead the league at the holiday break, and share the top spot in this week’s USCHO poll with Plattsburgh — whom they beat three week’s ago.

The team’s latest test, and perhaps toughest to date, came this past weekend as Elmira beat Utica (5-2) and Manhattanville (4-3) on the road in front of very hostile crowds.

“It was a huge weekend for us,” said Elmira coach Tim Ceglarski. “Even before the season, I thought those games would be the crucial league games for us in the standings.”

Normally, a team leading its league, undefeated after eight games, and receiving number one votes would also be ranked near the top of the national team and player statistics in areas such as scoring, defense, power play percentage, or even goals and assists. But remarkably, Elmira’s name is nowhere to be found.

“We have broken down our stats against the top 15 teams in the country, and in most of the stats we are fifteenth,” said Ceglarski. “I think it is a combination of extremely good goaltending and limiting the quality chances our opponents are getting. We have a great team concept going right now. It is a fun group to watch play but also a fun group to coach.”

But it isn’t luck or magic that has gotten the Soaring Eagles to the top of the heap. It is a solid defensive corps, steady goaltending, and a group of forwards that have bought in to a system that is working.

“We probably have the best group of defensemen that I have seen in the 11 years I have been here,” said Ceglarski.

“They are poised with the puck. Their decision making and ability to cover people in our zone, combined with the work our forwards are doing in our zone, is shutting people down. One of the stats that they don’t keep track of is shots against, and we are averaging only allowing 22.8 shots against per game.”

“Elmira is as good as there is right now,” added Utica’s Heenan. “I am extremely impressed with their defensemen.”

Elmira’s opponents have only scored three or more goals in two games this season. The Soaring Eagles, including goaltender Casey Tuttle who has played every game in net for Elmira, has limited every other opponent to two goals or fewer.

“Casey Tuttle is a real steadying force in net and has only let in one soft goal all season,” said Ceglarski.

Leading the defensemen is junior Nicolas Dumoulin, who is tied for the team lead in points (11) and goals (six) for Elmira.

“Nick has really stepped up his play and has grasped the team concept,” said Ceglarski. “He is not only scoring some goals for us but is moving the puck very well, making good decisions, and has cut down on his penalty minutes.”

Those good decisions have the Thunderdomes rocking again at Elmira.

Holiday Greetings

During this time of cheer, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy and healthy holidays, full of friends and family.

This is the final ECAC West column for 2007 as USCHO takes a break for the holidays. The ECAC West column will return in January to watch the teams start the stretch run towards the playoffs.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback: December 4

By Jim Connelly and Theresa Spisak
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Jim Connelly: As December rolls around, so does the annual flu bug which has overtaken my partner in crime, Scott Brown. While he sits at home trying to muster enough energy to even turn on his computer, rookie WCHA correspondent Theresa Spisak joins me to talk shop. So Theresa, seeing as you have a pulse on all that is good in the WCHA, how about you take some time to enlighten me as to why this league’s members seem intent on beating one another up. There’s no doubt in my mind that the WCHA is home to some of the best players and teams in the country, but aside from Colorado College and Denver, everyone seems intent on hovering around .500. So what gives?

Theresa Spisak: Well Jim, teams in the WCHA always beat each other up, but they need to – each game is so important for the final rankings. If you recall, last year Denver was just one win away from not only making the NCAA tournament, but being a number two seed. When it comes down to it, you need to win every game. That partially explains Colorado College and Denver, but of course, both of those teams have extra incentive this year with Regionals in CC’s backyard and the Frozen Four in Denver’s. Granted, some teams have been surprising. I don’t think many thought Minnesota to be struggling this much. Really though, what it comes down to is that any one team in the league can win on any given day, making the conference so close. But, as you well know, there are surprises in the other conferences as well as a lot of parity. Northeastern leading Hockey East?

Jim: Hockey East truly has amazed me this year. Northeastern is a much improved team but it’s still difficult to say whether they’re a championship club. They’ve more than held their own against very good competition thus far. People argued that games in hand that other teams have would be a major factor. New Hampshire lost one of those games in hand last Saturday against Mass.-Lowell. So it’s still yet to be seen what can happen. One thing that was apparent last weekend is that Boston College is better than it’s record indicates. It man-handled Boston University on Friday night and then survived the Terriers onslaught on the road on Saturday. Back to the WCHA, you brought up a very good point about the Regional tournament and the Frozen Four both being played in Colorado this season. You live out there – how big would it be to have say Denver and Colorado College battling it out in the Frozen Four come April. I think a lot of the college hockey world (myself, included) isn’t really in touch with how big college hockey is out there. Care to shed some light?

Theresa: Gladly. We have three teams out here – the aforementioned Denver and Colorado College as well as Air Force, whom everyone knows now thanks to their performance in last year’s Regionals as well as it’s Hobey Baker candidate. As compared to a place like Minnesota, college hockey isn’t that big. Colorado – and Denver specifically – has a ton of other sports. That being said, the teams that are here do get quite a bit of support. Colorado College is really the only game in town so it’s games are usually rocking. Air Force’s fan base has grown some after last year and the Denver games always generate some interest. It also helps that we have a lot of fans from other teams here. North Dakota came out last week to play Denver and the arena probably was 60/40 Sioux fans to Pioneer fans. If any of the three teams made the Frozen Four – Denver and Colorado College especially – Pepsi Center will be rocking come April. Of course, there’s a lot of stuff for everyone to do here, so it will be a great fan experience, even if it is, say, a Clarkson/Miami final – two teams who also have early conference leads.

Jim: Clarkson and Miami, eh? That’s quite a harbinger of a statement. Truth be told, I guess it’s not out of the question that we could see some new faces in this year’s Frozen Four. Miami is certainly one. If they don’t make it, I’d be quite surprised, but there still is a long way (and a single-elimination) tournament to go. So I think, seeing as this is your first foray into TMQ, that you should be put on the hot seat. We’re just about at the midpoint in the season. When you look back at the first nine weeks of play, what is the one thing that shocks you the most? How about a top highlight? Anything you’ve seen – either live, on TV or on YouTube – that stands out?

Theresa: Hey, it’s still early. I can predict crazy Frozen Four finals at this point because there’s still a ton of hockey left to play and makes any prediction moot. That being said, to answer your question, I guess there have been a few things that have shocked me. First of all, I am surprised that even given all their troubles, Boston University actually has a good power play for a change. That was one thing I never saw during my four years there. I would also have to say the early play of Merrimack, although it’s tapered off a bit recently. Finally, in terms of highlights, I have been sucked into the hype about the goal that Denver’s Tyler Ruegsegger scored against Minnesota State which made the rounds on the Fan Forum here at USCHO. If I’m allowed to turn the tables, how would you answer that question?

Jim: Yes, you’re a rookie, but there’s no hazing permitted here, so you certainly can turn the tables. I guess what shocks me the most at this play is the national power of the CCHA. Certainly, after Michigan State won the national title, you had to believe that there’s some good hockey going on in that league but who would’ve thought that Michigan, Miami and Michigan State would become mainstays in the top five of the USCHO.com poll. I still haven’t seen Ruegsegger’s goal, but am about to scurry YouTube to find it. The play that stood out to me was the save that Shane Connelly (no relation) made against North Dakota back in mid-November. That was one for the highlight books. Okay, before we close here, I’ll toss one last question your way: Pick the winners in this year’s GLI, Dodge Holiday Classic (nee Mariucci), Denver Cup, Badger Showdown and Florida College Classic. Actually, just so we don’t seem to have a WCHA bias, throw in your pick at the Catamount Cup.

Theresa: You want me to make predictions? If you’ve read my column you know that I’m awful at these. Oh well, here goes nothing. The GLI is certainly the toughest, but I think I’ll go with Michigan State. As a BU grad, it pains me to say that I think BC will win the Dodge Holiday Classic (but Air Force will certainly give them a run for their money). Denver will not falter like last year and will win the Denver Cup and I think Wisconsin will take the Badger Showdown. Oh, let’s say Clarkson in the Florida College Classic and Quinnipiac in the Catamount Cup. And, so we don’t leave anyone out, Harvard will ride the play of Kyle Richter to win the Ohio Hockey Classic, Colorado College will take the Lightning Classic and Army will come out on top of the UConn Hockey Classic.

Jim: Wow, I think that’s enough predictions for the two of us, so you’ll be the only one on the hot seat with these picks. And with that, we’ll wrap it up for another week. Thanks, Theresa, for filling in for Mr. Brown. If he’s sick next week, you may just become the permanent fixture on this column.

Elmira and Plattsburgh New Co-Number Ones

By Nicholas Jon Wood
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The BCS has nothing on D-III hockey. For the fourth time in six polls, there is a new king in college hockey. Actually two: it’s a dual monarchy.

Each tallying 283 points, Elmira and Plattsburgh are the new number ones in Division III hockey. 7-0-1 and 11-1-0, respectively, the Eagles did receive nine first place votes to the Cardinals’ eight.

Previous number five St. Norbert (two first place votes) and former top dog Wisconsin-River Falls (one vote) were third and fourth in the latest poll. Buoyed by its impressive 10-1-1 mark, neighboring state school UW-Stout jumped up three spots to number five nationally.

After splitting contests with new co-number one Elmira (loss) and formerly second-ranked Hobart (win), Manhattanville remained at sixth. Little talked about St. Thomas — resounding 5-0 winners over then-top ranked UW-River Falls — rocketed up three spots to seventh while still undefeated Babson (6-0-1) walloped Trinity and Wesleyan by a combined margin of 12-1 to move up a rung to eighth.

Hobart precipitously dropped seven spots to ninth after losing to Manhattanvile (3-1) and Utica (3-2) while Southern Maine rode its upset of then-seventh ranked Middlebury (and a 4-4 deadlock with Williams) to an improved standing of tenth in the country.

The Norwich Cadets remain at eleven while Bowdoin continues to flex its offensive muscle (4-1 and 10-5 victories) in rising two spots to No. 12. The second roughest week — behind Hobart — belongs unceremoniously to Middlebury, who despite topping Salem State before losing to then-No. 14 Southern Maine, dropped six spots in the poll.

Defending champion Oswego and poll newcomer New England College (4-0-1) — 9-1, 4-3, and 3-1 winners this past week — each received 41 points to tie for No. 14. After being crushed by then-fifth ranked St. Norbert, 6-2, last week’s No. 13 UW-Superior dropped out of the poll.

This Week in SUNYAC

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Plattsburgh Wins Primelink

One of the premier tournaments in college hockey changed a bit this year. This alteration meant that only one SUNYAC team is now involved as Potsdam no longer participates with Plattsburgh, Norwich, and Middlebury.

The fourth team is now a different invited guest each year. This season it was St. John’s from the MIAC. However, despite the fewer participants, the SUNYAC won the Primelink Great Northern Shootout as Plattsburgh took the title on their home ice in two hard fought battles.

The first game went into overtime where Shawn Dennis scored the winner at 3:18. Prior to that, it was a see-saw battle all the way with each team notching a goal in each regulation period, but it wasn’t till the third frame before Plattsburgh started playing their game.

“They did a good job of blocking shots and keeping three guys back,” Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said of St. John’s. “We were getting frustrated for two periods. They had a good game plan. But, by the third, we got back to our game plan, cycling the puck and getting down low.”

The Johnnies took the early lead at 1:50 before Nick Rolls tied it midway through the first. The Cardinals grabbed their first lead at 8:02 of the second when Dan Sliasis scored only to have St. John’s tie it a minute and 44 seconds later.

Plattsburgh again got the lead late in the third with a Mike Schiavi goal. This time, it took St. John’s even less time to tie it: 40 seconds. Plattsburgh’s last goal finally ended the deal. Byran Hince got the win, registering 23 saves.

Next up was Norwich who defeated Middlebury, 5-2. That was nearly the same score in the championship final which Plattsburgh won, 5-3.

Again, Plattsburgh took a lead only to have the opposition tie it. This time it was 2-0 on goals by Sliasis and Riley Hill in the first 6:40 of the game. A late first period goal by the Cadets and then another one 24 seconds into the second period tied the contest.

Nick Rolls and Eric Satim scored 1:31 apart in the second, but Norwich got one back before the end of the period. Andrew Willock clinched it with a couple of minutes left in the contest. Hince made 21 saves for the win as each team got 24 shots.

“The game could have gone either way,” Emery said. “The key was us getting the right save at the right time. We were more opportunistic than they were.”

The Primelink is great for bragging rights, making predictions (seven of the previous nine winners went on to win the National Championship), and a heck of a lot of fun, but now it’s back to SUNYAC games.

“These games are much more important than the Primelink,” Emery said. “We’re only one game ahead in the loss column.”

Showing Improvement

Two teams picked by many not to make the playoffs (outside of Morrisville who is ineligible) were Potsdam and Cortland. Both got off to very poor starts, as expected. However, in recent weeks they have shown signs of improvement. In fact, Potsdam isn’t below .500.

That doesn’t mean the coaches are satisfied.

“We’re not to the point where I thought we could be,” Cortland coach Joe Baldarotta said. “We’ve had some injuries. We’ve had some setbacks.”

However, they did upset Geneseo, 3-2.

“Well, it was an overtime win,” Baldarotta downplayed the accomplishment. “Our guys just kept plugging away. I believe you need three components to be successful — you have to have a style, you have to have the fundamentals, and you have to have a system that allows you to use your fundamentals. For once this year, we had all three components in place.

“The game on Friday versus Brockport was closer, but we took some penalties. We played four bad minutes and that cost us.”

A highlight so far this year is the development of junior goaltender, Mike Mistretta. This has given Baldarotta an option over Ben Binga, whose ability to keep his emotions in check has at times cost his team. Mistretta has gotten more than twice the playing time so far.

On the offensive side, leaders include sophomore Frank Rizzo (5-5-10) and senior Barry McLaughlin (6-2-8). Two players (Zach Dehm and Brent Fallon) have seven assists.

Since beating Geneseo, the Red Dragons have also gotten a win over Morrisville and tied Skidmore. But, Baldarotta would like to see more.

“Couple of steps forward, more steps back, but that is part of the learning process,” he said. “Be consistent; trying to find an identity. We’re starting to get a grasp of that.”

One thing Baldarotta is looking forward to is being back home as they face Fredonia and Buffalo State.

“We already played them once in the SUNYAC Challenge,” he said. “Definitely going to be games up for grabs and up for points.

“We’re going to be back in our building. My bench seems so foreign to me — I’ve only coached two games on this bench so far.”

Potsdam started the season out giving up 24 goals in three games. They also averaged over 44 shots against them.

Since then, the shots and goals have gone down, and the Bears went on a five game unbeaten streak, albeit with three ties, which was snapped in their recent loss to Hamilton.

“We’re getting better every week,” Saul said. “We’re getting better defensively in our own zone not giving away as many chances. We’re also getting better on our power play.”

The bright spot offensively has been two transfers, both juniors, who lead the team scoring. Peter Vaisanen from Newmann has five goals and four assists, and Nick Carelli from Morrisville has the reverse, four goals and five assists. Second year player Luke Beck also has nine points with three goals and six assists.

Goaltender statistics are not that great, but that’s because Rick Miller and Rob Barnhardt are simply facing so many shots and good scoring opportunities. That’s something Saul is fully aware needs more improvement.

“You can always improve in every game,” he said. “Defensively, we’re looking to improve our five-on-five play, letting up less shots. Definitely looking to cut down the number of chances in our own end.”

If Potsdam can do that and continue to improve throughout the season, who knows, they just might be in the playoffs after all.

SUNYAC Short Shots

Kevin Galen scored two goals to lead Geneseo to a 3-1 victory over
Brockport … Steve Rizer scored the game winner for Fredonia with 1:09
left to beat Buffalo State, 4-3 … Jordan Delong and Jeff Zatorski each
got a pair of goals in Potsdam’s 6-3 win over Morrisville … The next
night, Peter Vaisanen scored twice for the Bears in a 5-4 win over
Morrisville whose Rob Sgarbossa notched two … Oswego’s Ryan Ellis and
Peter Magagna scored two goals apiece as the Lakers defeated Cortland,
6-1 … Brockport, down 5-1 to Hobart, scored four third period goals
with Mike Gershon scoring the last two to nearly comeback in a 6-5 loss
… Matt Nichols scored twice and Brennan Briggs got a goal and three
assists in Cortland’s 5-2 victory over Morrisville … Mike Mistretta
made 39 saves including five in overtime for Cortland in a 1-1 tie
against Skidmore … Smith’s scored three goals for Potsdam, Lance with
two and Fraser with one, as they tied Babson, 4-4 … Matt Damskov and Rob
Sgarbossa each scored twice for Morrisville, but they lost to Tufts, 5-4.

Game of the Week

This week, it’s more like trip of the week. Brockport and Geneseo
heading up to the North Country presents a number of crucial games.

For starters, you have Plattsburgh on a roll, but facing two teams that
can catch them sleeping if the Cardinals don’t pay attention.

“Both teams are good teams,” Emery said. “They both will focus on team
defense and take advantage of any mistakes we make. Brockport is a much
improved team, and Geneseo is always a good team.”

“We got to go up there and play a good road game,” Brockport coach Brian
Dickinson said. “We have to figure out a way to manage the game and
keep it low scoring. I don’t know what to expect from us — our first
road game of the year after nine home games to start the year.

We’ve got to find a way to contain them and not get beat off the wall.
Plattsburgh is notorious for their cycle and I’m sure Bobby will have
them going again. We got to go up there and play physical and not be
intimidated which with the level of play with the teams we have played
so far, I don’t think that will be the case. I think if we can keep it
close, good things can happen to us. If we keep it simple and work hard
from the opening face off, we’ll take our chances.”

If I was forced to pick a single game, it would be the next night when
Brockport moves over to Potsdam. The Bears, thanks to an easier
schedule and playing more games, are five points ahead of the Golden
Eagles. Brockport cannot afford to fall further behind and depend only
on their games in hand against easier opponents.

Meanwhile, Geneseo faces Potsdam, who surprisingly they are tied with
for second place with each having played seven games. All the while,
the Bears are looking at these games to make a statement of their own.

“They’re going to be very, very good teams,” Saul said. “Both teams
have excellent players. Both teams are well coached. We know both
teams can come in here and win both games. We’re hoping to knock them
off and win some points. If we sweep this weekend, it will be big for
our program which hasn’t seen that for awhile. Looking ahead, we know
these are very important games in the standings.”

Very important games in the standings, indeed. Thus, keep your eyes on
the doings up north, because what shakes out could be very interesting.

On The Periphery

Last Thursday morning, my wife looked outside and said, “It’s white out
there.”

Ugh! A white Thanksgiving.

The week before that I was talking to a SUNYAC coach mentioning how my
parents retired in Asheville, North Carolina, a beautiful area in the
western part of the state nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains. An area
that is a lot warmer than frigid upstate New York.

The coach joked, “Yeah, what are doing up here? We need to move where
it’s warmer.” He paused and then said, “But, there’s no college hockey
there. It’s college basketball and NASCAR country down there.”

Warm weather vs. college hockey…

There’s no debate.

They can have their warm weather!

This Week in the WCHA: Nov. 29, 2007

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Two months into the season and who’d’ve thunk that the Seawolves would be tied with the Badgers and the Gophers would be struggling to get league wins? North Dakota’s also middle-of-the-pack — much lower than they were predicted, but that’s just par for the course for the Fighting Sioux under Dave Hakstol in the first half of the season.

Of course, we still have about three months until the end of the season which means the coaches still think it’s “early” and, good for the rest of us, there’s still plenty of hockey left to play.

Red Baron Pizza WCHA Players of the Week

Red Baron WCHA Offensive Player of the Week: Chad Rau, Colorado College (again).
Why: Led all conference players over the weekend with four points in the Tigers’ split with the University of Denver — a hat trick on Friday and an assist on Saturday.
Also Nominated: Tyler Ruegsegger, DU; Ben Street, UW.

Red Baron WCHA Defensive Player of the Week: John Swanson, St. Cloud State.
Why: Was a plus-three, had one goal and two assists and helped his Huskies kill off 15 of 16 Clarkson power plays in the series against the Golden Knights.
Also Nominated: Nate Prosser, CC; Alex Kangas, UM.

Red Baron WCHA Rookie of the Week: Richard Bachman, Colorado College.
Why: Stopped 52 of 56 Pioneer shots in the weekend series with Denver as well as helped CC prevent the Pioneers from getting a power play goal on the weekend.
Also Nominated: Alex Kangas, UM; Ryan McDonagh, UW.

SCSU — Filling the Holes

At the beginning of the season, St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko said his team probably had the most questions coming into this season. It was easy to see why — the team lost its star goaltender, Bobby Goepfert, and basically turned over the entire defensive corps.

However, two months into the season, and it looks like the Huskies have had no problem answering those questions. If you count and keep DU and CC as the favorites for the top-two in the league, St. Cloud State looks to be an early contender for third — and home ice — not in the latter half of the league like I (and the other pundits) thought way back in late September. (Even though they’re there currently. Need I continue to stress that it’s still early, people?)

Granted, I haven’t seen the Huskies play yet this season (don’t worry — I will), but the current numbers speak for themselves:

• Ryan Lasch and Garrett Roe are tops in the WCHA (second in the nation) in scoring with 20 points.
• Lasch has the most goals in the WCHA (10) and is seventh in the nation.
• Roe is tied with most assists in the league (11) and is tied for sixth nationally.
• Roe has the most power play points in the WCHA (16) as well as the most power play goals in the league (6), good enough to be tied for fourth overall.
• Aaron Brocklehurst leads all WCHA defensemen in scoring with 12 points, good enough to be tied for second nationally.
• Roe is leading super-frosh Kyle Turris and the rest of the rookies in the nation with 20 points (Turris only has 15)
• Jase Weslosky, Goepfert’s replacement, is third in goals against average (1.67), good enough for eighth nationally, second/sixth in save percentage (.940) and third/tied for 13th in winning percentage (.667).
• The Huskies have the top scoring offense in the league (fourth nationally), averaging 3.75 goals per game; the third scoring defense (ninth nationally), allowing 2.08 goals per game, is the least penalized team in the league (four teams average the same amount and only two teams average fewer), averaging 11 minutes a game and have the best power play (sixth nationally), with a 24.1% success rate.

Motzko stresses that it’s still early — and his team has only played six league games as compared to 10 like most of the league — but is nonetheless happy with how things have turned out so far.

“Jase has done a tremendous job and we’re not going to say it’s a surprise,” said Motzko, noting his more than adequate job filling in for Goepfert last season. “[Goaltending] was just one big hole to fill and he’s done an outstanding job doing that.”

“A couple of our guys that were kind of [defensive] anchors last year came back — Matt Stephenson and Garrett Raboin — have just been so solid for us,” said Motzko. “The big thing that has really changed our D corps is we switched John Swanson from forward to defense … he’s got a chance to be awful special back there if he continues to utilize his talent like he does.”

Offensively, the Huskies have been getting contribution all over, from their back line (Aaron Brocklehurst) to having two solid offensive lines and some top offensive talent.

“We felt we had an awful good offensive player with Garrett [Roe] coming in,” said Motzko. “It’s almost been every single night he finds a way to find the scoresheet.

“Ryan [Lasch] has just picked it up from where he was a year ago,” he continued. “From the top of the circle in, I have not seen many better than this guy.

“We’ve had such balance with two lines and that’s been Nate Dey and [Andreas] Nodl — it can’t get overlooked how strong they’ve been and I think that’s the key. We kinda have two number one lines that we throw out there — it’s hard to defend two lines like that.”

As the Pendulum Swings

If you’ve ever watched (or listened) to a hockey game with announcers, you know they always talk about momentum swings — and typically after a goal, big hit or big save (or, if it’s the minors/pros, a fight).

Sometimes — okay, often times — nothing actually happens. Oh, okay, so Goalie A made the big save to keep Team A in it, and sure, maybe Team A got an odd-man rush out of it. However, Team B happened to pick off the centering pass and oh, look at that, Player B deked Goalie A out of his shorts and put his (or her) team up by two.

However, sometimes those momentum swings really do happen — as was the case for the University of Denver Pioneers last Saturday against Colorado College.

“Sometimes you’re really looking forward to getting into intermission and sometimes you’re not, depending on how things are going,” said DU head coach George Gwozdecky. “Tonight was one of those games where I was thinking, ‘If we could just hang on to get to that first intermission only down one …’.”

He continued on a bit later, saying how “it’s just amazing to me to see how psychologically this game works.

“The Tigers score early and for the rest of the period — and probably early in the second — we just seemed to be just a little bit slow, a little bit short at plays and CC on the other side just seems to be a lot more in control being able to make plays and having us on our heels and being able to penetrate into the offensive zone and being able to stand players up and able to defend plays a lot easier.

“We get that first goal and all of a sudden there’s just that huge, enthusiastic swing for us where, all of a sudden, our guys are now a lot more excited and we’re back in the game, so to speak, and from that point on, the whole thing changes. Now all of a sudden, we’re the ones who are making the plays and [are] a lot more aggressive and we’ve got our opponent on [their] heels and at that point you’re saying, ‘Well, okay, I don’t want intermission to get here — I want to keep playing’.”

Random Recruiting News

Michigan Tech inked four players for next season and two for the 2009-10 season. Seth Soley (Omaha Lancers/USHL), Brett Olson (Waterloo Black Hawks/USHL), Ricky Doriott (Sioux City Musketeers/USHL) and Bryce Reddick (Cowichan Valley Capitals/BCHL) will join the squad next season with Evan Witt (Vernon Vipers/BCHL) and Jacob Johnstone (Green Bay Gamblers/USHL) following the year after.

Match-Ups By the Numbers

Everybody is playing this weekend and for the first time all year, all 10 WCHA teams are playing each other. Here are the numbers:

No. 10 St. Cloud State @ No. 13 Wisconsin
Poll Movement: SCSU — stayed put after splitting with Clarkson. UW — down one after earning one point at the College Hockey Showcase.
Overall Records: SCSU — 7-3-2 (3-2-1 WCHA). UW — 5-6-1 (2-4 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UW leads the overall series 36-20-8.
Top Scorers: SCSU — Ryan Lasch (10-10-20) and Garrett Roe (9-11-20). UW — Kyle Turris (5-10-15).
Goaltenders: SCSU — Jase Weslosky (9 gp, 6-3, 1.67 GAA, .940 sv %). UW — Shane Connelly (10 gp, 4-6, 2.91 GAA, .899 sv %).

No. 20 Michigan Tech @ No. 14 Minnesota
Poll Movement: MTU — down one after being idle. UM — down one after earning one point at the College Hockey Showcase.
Overall Records: MTU — 5-6-1 (4-5-1 WCHA). UM — 7-6-1 (3-5 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UM leads the overall series 163-74-13.
Top Scorers: MTU — Tyler Shelast (7-2-9) and Drew Dobson (1-8-9). UM — Blake Wheeler (5-6-11) and Ben Gordon (4-7-11).
Goaltenders: MTU — Michael-Lee Teslak (8 gp, 3-3-1, 1.63 GAA, .939 sv %). UM — Jeff Frazee (10 gp, 5-5, 2.90 GAA, .893 sv %).

No. 4 Colorado College @ Alaska-Anchorage
Poll Movement: CC — stayed put after splitting with DU. UAA — went from receiving five votes to three after being idle.
Overall Records: CC — 8-4 (8-2 WCHA). UAA — 4-3-3 (1-3-2 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: CC leads the all-time series 41-11-3.
Top Scorers: CC — Chad Rau (9-6-15). UAA — Kevin Clark (5-6-11).
Goaltenders: CC — Richard Bachman (10 gp, 8-2, 1.70 GAA, .944 sv %). UAA — Jon Olthuis (9 gp, 3-3-3, 2.93 GAA, .888 sv %).

Minnesota State @ No. 12 Minnesota-Duluth.
Poll Movement: MSU-M — still out of the polls completely. tUMD — up three after splitting with UND.
Overall Records: MSU-M — 3-6-1 (1-6-1 WCHA). tUMD — 6-4-2 (5-4-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: MSU-M leads the overall series 12-11-3.
Top Scorers: MSU-M — Mick Berge (6-2-8). tUMD — Josh Meyers (4-5-9).
Goaltenders: MSU-M — Mike Zacharias (7 gp, 2-3-1, 1.93 GAA, .926 sv %). tUMD — Alex Stalock (12 gp, 6-4-2, 2.33 GAA, .915 sv %).

No. 8 North Dakota @ No. 3 Denver
Poll Movement: UND — down two after splitting with tUMD. DU — stayed put after splitting with CC.
Overall Records: UND — 6-4-1 (4-4 WCHA). DU — 9-3 (6-2 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UND leads the overall series 125-108-7.
Top Scorers: UND — T.J. Oshie (7-4-11), Ryan Duncan (3-8-11) and Robbie Bina (0-11-11). DU — Brock Trotter (6-8-14).
Goaltenders: UND — Jean-Philippe Lamoureux (11 gp, 6-4-1, 1.61 GAA, .933 sv %). DU — Peter Mannino (12 gp, 9-3, 1.68 GAA, .935 sv %).

As Always …

… it’s been a pleasure. See you next week.

This Week in the CHA: Nov. 29, 2007

By CHA Correspondent
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Tom Balog says he’s “just” the Wayne State public address announcer, but he’s one of a small handful of people that has been involved with the Warriors’ hockey program since its inception back in 1999.

He’s seen the ups and downs, the championships and the rash of recent downfalls that concluded with the program shutting down at the end of the season.

Matt Mackinder (MM) recently sat down with Tom (TB) to discuss the nine-year history of the Warriors, the positives and negatives from his perspective and what he plans on doing next fall when the lights will no longer be lit (those that actually work) at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum.

MM: Back in 1999, how did you come to be involved with the WSU men’s team?

TB: I was working at a fascinating all-news AM radio station and we got a tip that Wayne State was adding hockey. I was doing on-air sports at the time and had graduated from WSU just a few years before, so I thought, “Why not give it a shot?”

I made a few calls and was eventually connected with the legendary Costa Papista who was helping the school set up their program. I had a quick interview, started doing the games and the rest is a long, nearly frozen history.

MM: What do you remember most from that inaugural game at the Coliseum against Western Ontario?

TB: The first game was incredible. For the only time in school history, all 5,500 seats were full and the place was vibrating with excitement. Gordie Howe dropped the first puck and signed autographs of his book “And…Howe!”

I also remember vividly that there were holes in some of the windows in the ceiling and a flock of pigeons had taken up residence in the Coliseum. Every time the music played or someone scored a goal, the pigeons would dive bomb from the rafters and occasionally drop bombs on the ice, fans, etc.

MM: What stands out as your fondest memory (good or bad) about the early years of the program (1999-2003)?

TB: There are so many great memories in the first four years, but the culmination of the team playing in the NCAA regionals against Colorado College at Yost Arena was probably the best. People who go to the “bigger schools” like Michigan, Michigan State, or even Ferris State or Northern Michigan for that matter, have seen their teams in big games many times. I wasn’t expecting the sense of pride and emotion as I watched the ol’ Green and Gold hit the ice put a scare into the Tigers. It was a fantastic feeling I’ll never forget and, sadly now, will never be able to duplicate.

MM: How have you seen the program progress (or regress) from that first sold-out game to where it is now?

TB: It seemed to me that after the first wave of guys left, reality set in. They went so far, so fast, where could the program go now? I honestly got more and more disillusioned every year after that. The team still fought their tail off every night and dropped some big names like the Spartans at Munn. The coaches and staff kept up all their hard work, but where were the fans now and the fabled arena?

If a team could have all the success that they did over the first four years and not get the backing that a program needed to survive, then I guess the writing was on wall back then. I guess I was too optimistic or oblivious to see it.

MM There were always the rumors that the men would fold, but what went through your mind when that became reality?

TB: My reaction was one of “you’ve got to be kidding me.” Eight years in and a new season is just about to start and you’re pulling the plug now? I was mad about it then and honestly I still am. I’m just the PA announcer and I feel horrible every time I walk into the Coliseum and realize that this is it. I can’t imagine how the players who have literally bled for the school, the terrific coaches who never gave less than 100 percent and the parents who trusted the program with their boys must feel about it. It’s a sick feeling.

MM How will you fill your time next season with no WSU men’s hockey?

TB: I’m still a proud WSU grad and I hope to keep working with the women’s hockey team. Coach [Jim] Fetter and his staff have put together a great program with outstanding athletes and I’ve had the honor of doing play-by-play for a large portion of their games for the last three years. I’m hooked on college hockey, though, so I’ll be making the drive to Yost and Munn to see some games, too. I’ll also be spending time tracking all the former Warriors who will hopefully be scattered around college hockey.

MM Being a Wayne State grad, was hockey always something you hoped to see at the school?

TB: Yes, I always thought it would be a great addition in our area. The lack of a permanent arena did more to kill the program than anything else. If WSU had even a small, 2,000-seat barn on campus then I really don’t think we’d be having this conversation. Adrian managed to put one up in less than a year. How can you argue that a major institution like Wayne couldn’t do it in nine?

MM Any other thoughts about the program?

TB: It’s been a great ride and lots of fun working with the team over the years. Coach [Bill] Wilkinson has been fantastic since Day 1 and it would be a shame if such a great coach has his career end like this. If he wants to, I certainly hope he gets a spot somewhere else.

I’ve also made so many friends doing this that it’s going to be hard to step away when this is done. I don’t want to get too melancholy, but it’s sad to see it all come to an end.

UAH Take Consolation Game at RPI Tourney

Alabama-Huntsville held ninth-ranked Notre Dame off the scoreboard for more than 37 minutes, but the Irish advanced to the finals of the 57th Annual RPI Holiday Tournament with a 4-1 win over the Chargers last Friday afternoon in Troy, N.Y.

The Chargers rebounded to win the consolation game against American International, 5-3, on Saturday night.

Freshman netminder Cameron Talbot turned away 37 shots while Joe Federoff scored the lone UAH goal against Notre Dame.

Andrew Coburn collected his first collegiate point with an assist on the goal.

“When you run into a really good goaltender, you just can’t lose your patience,” said Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson. “That’s what I stressed between periods, to be patient and just play our game. Sometimes you have to sacrifice your ego and just go win the hockey game.”

For some on the Irish, the game brought back memories of last season’s double-overtime first round game in the NCAA regionals, a game Notre Dame eventually won.

“I think last year was in the back of our minds a little bit before Ian [Cole] scored,” said UND center Kevin Deeth. “Credit their goalie, he really played well. Coach just kept telling us to be patient.”

Tom Train scored twice to lead UAH past AIC. Coburn (first NCAA goal), Kevin Morrison and Matt Sweazey also tallied to back Talbot’s 31 saves and first collegiate victory.

“We played really well Friday,” UAH head coach Danton Cole said in the Huntsville Times. “[Saturday] we started out slow, there wasn’t a crowd, the players were flat.

“But they picked it up and we saw good things.”

Wayne State Finally Wins at St. Lawrence

WSU gained its first victory in four trips to Canton since 2000 with a 3-2 win over St. Lawrence last Friday.

Freshman Jordan Inglis made his first career goal a memorable one in netting the game-winner at 7:05 of the third period.

The Warriors earned their first road win of the season despite being outshot, 44-15.

Senior captain Mike Forgie and freshman Tyler Ruel also scored for Wayne State and Jeff Caister set a career high with three assists.

Brett Bothwell made 42 saves, his third career game with over 40 saves and his highest total since posting 53 saves in his second career start last October at Alabama-Huntsville.

Saturday night, WSU got third-period goals 1:37 apart from Matt Krug and Stavros Paskaris to come back and tie the Saints, 2-2.

Saints defenseman Zach Miskovic had the puck in the faceoff circle and attempted to send it down the ice, but his stick snapped in half and the puck hopped to Derek Punches, who walked in with Jared Katz and Paskaris. Katz set up Paskaris right on the doorstep of Saints goalie John Hallas for the game-tying goal.

“Wayne State played a very solid game defensively and blocked a lot of shots,” said St. Lawrence head coach Joe Marsh. “They are really coming on and are a good young team.”

Before the game, WSU head coach Bill Wilkinson, a former Saints captain and assistant coach, was presented a game jersey by the St. Lawrence coaching staff in recognition of his contributions to the sport as a coach at both Wayne State and Western Michigan.

Kyle Funkenhauser stopped 37 shots for the Warriors.

The WSU power play, which went 1-for-8 against St. Lawrence, currently ranks third in the CHA at a conversion percentage of 15.3%. The Warrior penalty-kill, which held the Saints scoreless on all 11 power plays they had, currently ranks tied for third at 78.1%.

Dowd to Niagara — 3 in 3

For Chicago Steel forward Brian Dowd, when he steps on to the ice at Dwyer Arena next fall, it’ll be his third team in three years.

Two seasons ago, the Williamsville, N.Y., native played at Thayer Prep Academy in Braintree, Mass., and is currently in his first season in the United States Hockey League.

Next season he’ll don the colors of Niagara.

“We are happy for Brian that he has gotten his commitment,” Steel head coach and general manager Steve Poapst said. “It was a school that has been interested since day one and it is our job to make sure he is ready for Niagara next year.”

RMU Ready for Colgate

Robert Morris has never played Colgate in their brief four-year history — until this weekend when the Colonials head to Hamilton, N.Y., for a Saturday-Sunday dip.

“Colgate has done a great job in the past few years in the ECAC by being well coached and having some high level skill players,” RMU head coach Derek Schooley said. “This year is no different. They have some excellent offensive talent with solid senior goaltending. This is a team that is going to be a very difficult opponent and we are looking forward to playing at Starr Rink.”

Robert Morris is 2-6 all-time against ECACHL teams. Last season, the Colonials lost to Quinnipiac and Cornell, but did defeat Princeton.

No Update on CHA’s Future

CHA commissioner Bob Peters commented this week on the seemingly slow-moving process of determining the future of the league.

“We continue to work on the issue and, as you might expect, it takes time to visit and discuss all the aspects that are involved in the operation of an athletic conference,” said Peters.

Essentially, nothing new, just different words.

Stay tuned.

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Nov. 29, 2007

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Close Call

We’ve heard it all year from the coaches of Atlantic Hockey — for several years actually. The parity in the league. How close the games are. How close in talent the teams are. On how any given night, anybody can beat anybody.

All coaches tend to say these things. But in the AHA, it happens to be true. For example:

  • The point differential between the first place team (Army) and the last place teams (AIC and Canisius) is seven points. Only Hockey East is comparable. (I’m not including CHA which has played so few league games). The difference in the CCHA, for example, is 18 points; 13 in the WCHA.

  • Four points separates teams tied for fifth (Holy Cross and RIT) and first (Army), and both Holy Cross and RIT have a game in hand.

  • It’s all about the losses, and eight of the ten teams have between three and five losses. No one has more than five

  • Last Saturday, all three league games ended in ties. On Friday, two of the three games went to overtime.

  • Army is in first place, but has split three of its four weekend series so far. Air Force, Holy Cross, Mercyhurst, and RIT split or have at least taken one point in every weekend series each has played to date. There have only been three sweeps total so far, and AIC was involved in two of them, getting swept by Army and sweeping Canisius, so that washes out.

  • The epitome of this was last weekend’s series between RIT and Army, where nothing was decided over 130 minutes of hockey, and it was really good hockey. Neither team led by more than a goal the entire weekend, and both games ended in ties.

Will everybody be at .500 at the end of the season?

“I think tiebreakers will definitely come into play,” said Army coach Brian Riley before his team took the ice at RIT. “I think things will stay this close all season long.”

The games between the Black Knights and Tigers featured just about everything. Great goaltending from Army’s Josh Kassel (Friday) and Jay Clark (Saturday) and RIT’s Louis Menard, a late extra-attacker goal by Army on Friday, RIT missing a penalty shot in overtime and Army unable to capitalize on a power play just after on Saturday.

“Both teams played great team defense and went at it, making for some great hockey,” said RIT coach Wayne Wilson. “We expect to see them at the end of the year in the playoffs. We will take a lot of positives out of the weekend series, especially on the defensive end.”

“I thought they were both great games,” said Riley after Saturday’s contest. “Both teams fought hard and deserved to get some points.”

It looks like it’s going to be that way all season long.

Ups and Downs

It’s been an interesting season so far for the Connecticut Huskies. UConn has trailed in every game so far but has come back to win four times, its last three victories coming in overtime.

For coach Bruce Marshal’s squad, it’s a never a dull moment…and a question of which team shows up — the one that lost 7-1 to Colgate, or the one that matched the Raiders blow for blow the following night and gutted out a 2-1 overtime win.

“I thought Colgate played well both nights. We were the difference,” said Marshall in assessing the weekend. “We would have lost 7-1 to my son’s Pee Wee team (on Friday). We didn’t go anything with any sense of purpose. But it was a good lesson for this team, especially our young guys. It showed the difference between what we can be and what we need to do to win.”

The difference was evident on Saturday, when the Huskies responded with one of their better efforts of the year.

“It’s been that way this season,” said Marshall. “We play poorly on Friday and then better on Saturday. It’s the symptom of a young team. They need to learn that being good one game doesn’t cure everything and you have to get ready for the next weekend. Our older players understand this. Our seniors know how short the season is and how fast it goes by. Some of our younger guys still have that juniors mindset where you say, ‘Well, we’ll play plenty more games and then have a couple of seven game playoffs’. They’re starting to learn that it’s not like that in college hockey.

“On Saturday, we showed the difference of what can happen when we play a good game, when we play harder.”

The young players are responding on the score sheet. Three of the Huskies’ top four scorers are freshmen and sophomores. Rookie Andrew Olsen leads the team in goals with six so far. He’s already almost halfway to Chris Myro’s (now a junior) rookie record of 13 in a season.

Sophomore Beau Erickson has been the mainstay in net, starting all 11 games so far for the Huskies. He got off to a rough start on Friday against Colgate, however, and Marshall pulled him in the second period after he gave up four goals on 17 shots.

“It really wasn’t his fault,” said Marshall. “They scored some tap-ins that you or I could have put in. I didn’t want to frustrate him. And sometimes it wakes the team up. But it’s not going to if you’re determined not to play well, which we were on Friday.”

UConn got outshot 45-27 in that game, but the wake-up did come, just a day later. Shots on Saturday were 36-34 in favor of the Huskies and Olsen got the game winner 1:23 into overtime.

“Now we’ll see how we respond against Holy Cross,” said Marshall. That series, plus a single game with AIC will conclude play for the Huskies for the first semester. They’ll return to action in their own tournament on December 29 and 30. Brown and Ferris State are coming in, and UConn will play Army in the first game, which will also count as an AHA contest. The teams did the same thing last season.

“It makes sense,” said Marshall. “You only have to look for two (other) teams and making it a league game gets you an extra (non-league) game.”

And, as his team is learning, every game is important.

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week for November 25, 2007:
Eric Ehn – Air Force.
Last season’s AHA Player of the Year had a five point weekend as his Falcon’s split with Holy Cross. He had a goal and two assists in Friday’s 3-1 win and a goal and an assist in Saturday’s 5-5 tie, bringing his point total to 15 on the season.

Goaltender of the Week for November 25, 2007:
Louie Menard — RIT
Menard stopped 62 of 65 shots in 130 minutes of play last weekend to help the Tigers earn a pair of ties with Army.

Rookie of the Week for November 25, 2007:
Everett Sheen – Holy Cross
The rookie forward tallied a hat-trick in a 5-5 tie with Air Force on Saturday. Sheen now has six points on the season. His four goals is tops among Holy Cross freshmen.

Around the League

Air Force: The Falcon’s power play was 55th in the nation (7.8%) going into last weekend but broke out with three goals in six attempts on Saturday.

AIC: The Yellow Jackets’ 1-1 tie against RPI was the first time in school history AIC has taken a point from a ranked team. Unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, the Engineers won the ensuing shootout to advance in their own holiday tournament. AIC has a new volunteer assistant on the staff — former Connecticut player Brian Burns.

Army: The rich get richer in terms of goaltending. With junior Josh Kassell and freshman Jay Clark off to fine starts, sophomore goalie Joe Spracklen is now eligible to play after sitting for a season and 10 games because of some time spent in major juniors.

Holy Cross: Holy Cross came into last weekend with the top power play in the nation at 29.8 percent. That percentage went up after going two for six last weekend. It’s now at 30.2 percent, and still the best in Division I.

This Week in the ECAC Northeast

By Paul C. Altmeyer Jr.
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A Showdown Looms

Sitting atop the ECAC NE right now is Curry College.

Coach Rob Davies seems happy, but realizes there’s a lot of work left to do.

“We’re pretty pleased, we’re 6-1-1, but we need to work on all facets of our game, obviously.”

The Colonels only loss was to Babson College, and in their last three wins, they have outscored opponents 18-4.

Davies is pleased that he’s getting offense from different sources.

“I think we have some skill, we’re playing well enough to win because we have skilled players and pretty good depth. We’re pretty evenly dispersed with the scoring; it’s pretty well spread out.”

When looking at Curry’s roster, there are 19 forwards or defensemen who have played in at least five games. Of those 19 players, 15 have scored goals. Six different players have scored power-play goals, and four different players have short-handed goals, so it’s no surprise that Davies is pleased with the balance he has.

So far, there are eight Curry players averaging at least one point per game, so Davies should have no fear that his offense is going to dry up at anytime soon. Between the pipes, Davies also has a pair of sophomores who are playing stingy hockey. Zachary Cardella has an overall record of 3-1-0 and a goals against average of 2.26, while Steve Jakiel is unbeaten at 3-0-1 with a 1.71 GAA.

In looking ahead, Davies knows there are challenges to be met.

“I think the next three games, against UMass-Dartmouth, Utica, and New England College, well, if our record stays intact after those three games, then I’ll have a lot more to say about out team. The next nine periods will really say a lot about our team and what we need to do.”

Obviously the game that people will be most interested in is the when Curry hosts UMass on Saturday, December 1. The Corsairs are a close second to the Colonels, sporting a perfect 3-0-0 mark in conference play; they are 3-1-0 overall.

To see how closely these teams are in terms of stats, UMass has scored 17 goals and only allowed three in their three conference games. Curry has scored 38 goals and allowed six in six conference games. Quick math will tell you that both teams are scoring nearly six goals per conference game, while only surrendering one.

To take the similarities one step further, both teams’ sole loss came to the same squad, the Babson Beavers, and both teams lost by two goals, with Curry falling 4-2, and UMass dropping a 3-1 decision. Interestingly, both Curry and UMass were trailing by one goal entering the final minute of their respective games as well.

This game will feature seven of the top 10 scorers in the ECAC Northeast. Curry’s trio of Jeffrey Hazelwood, Ross Enmark, and freshman Jason Yuel are ranked 1-2-3.

Hazelwood is averaging two points per game, with five goals and seven assists for 12 points. Enmark and Yuel are both tied for second, as both have 10 points in their first six games.

Off to a blazing start, UMass freshmen forward Joseph Hill is in fourth place with five goals and five assists in his first four games. His average of 2.50 points per game leads the conference. Fellow freshman Jason Stahl is also begun the season impressively, averaging 1.75 points per game, with two goals and five assists in his first four games. Both Hill and Stahl were teammates last year for the Valley Jr. Warriors of the Eastern Junior Hockey League.

Davies and UMass Coach John Rolli also have something else in common: both of their goalies are unbeaten in conference play. Curry’s Zachary Cardello and UMass’ Jeff Green are both 3-0-0.

One key to this game will be special teams. Curry leads the league in power play efficiency, scoring on 29 percent of their chances, while UMass is amongst the league’s more penalized squads, averaging 26 PIM per game. John Rolli will have to remind his troops to stay out of the sin bin and on the ice; otherwise Curry will make them pay.

This will be the only regular season meeting between the two teams that were ranked number one (UMass) and two (Curry) coming into the season. In the last two non-playoff encounters, UMass has won both games, each time by a goal. Face-off will be at 4:35 at the Max D. Ulin Rink in Milton.

Loose Pucks

Both Western New England College (0-8-1) and Framingham State (0-8) are still seeking their first victory. The two teams will tangle on Tuesday, December 4, at WNEC … Southern New Hampshire University is off to a good start, 3-1-1 overall, and 2-1-1 in Northeast 10 play. They host Assumption College on Saturday, December 1. Assumption is off to a good start also, with a 5-4-0 overall record and a 2-0 Northeast 10 mark … SNHU senior forward Brandon Hammermeister is off to a torrid start, averaging 2.2 points per game. The native of Calgary has five goals and six assists in his first five games … With his 2.25 points per game, UMass’ Joseph Hill is tied for fourth for Division III national stats … James Pentecost of Curry already has two short-handed goals … Curry’s team mark of 5.38 goals per game is third best in the nation for Division III.

This Week in the CCHA: Nov. 29, 2007

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Hail the Conquering Heroes

With a 2-0-2 record against the WCHA, Notre Dame’s capture of the Rensselaer Tournament crown and Miami’s home-ice domination of Canisius, perhaps “conquering” is a bit of a stretch.

But don’t it feel good?

With Miami and Michigan at the top of the national rankings and Michigan State and Notre Dame also among the top 10, the CCHA needed the Thanksgiving weekend performance of its current top dogs. Not only was this a significant showing for the league, but a real confidence-booster within the league. Any team that can at least hang with the RedHawks and Wolverines has to feel better about its program, and playing against such high-level performers on a regular basis is a learning experience.

That’s what we like to think, at least. Michigan State’s national championship has helped bring respectability back to the CCHA. The emergence of Miami and Notre Dame as powerhouse programs heightens the profile of the whole league. And Michigan’s consistency is something nearly everyone takes for granted (except for Michigan, of course).

But what if this sense that the WCHA was the dominant league for years — based on that five-year run of Frozen Four titles and who’s-your-daddy bragging rights in nonconference competition — is merely an illusion? What if we, the observers of the game, really don’t get it?

“To me, all this talk that the media tries to say that one league is better than the other, I don’t buy into that.”

So says Enrico Blasi, a fine head coach who should know of which he speaks. This was Blasi’s response to me when I asked him earlier this week about what last week’s play might say about the CCHA versus other leagues in the greater scheme.

“If you don’t play, you’re going to get beat,” said Blasi. “It doesn’t matter what year it is.”

The Miami head coach must be onto something, because no one can dispute the job he’s done in Oxford. The RedHawks have lost just once this season, to fellow top-10er Notre Dame, and most recently swept the Canisius Golden Griffins at home. The hosts shut out the Griffs Friday, 4-0, before embarrassing the visitors 11-1 on Saturday.

“Our guys were executing and there were shots to be made, and our guys took them,” said Blasi of the lopsided weekend. “We rolled four lines. Everybody had equal time on the ice.

It’s just a matter of how we approach every day. Chances presented themselves and we took them. We didn’t want to develop any bad habits.” He added that Canisius didn’t fold. “For the entire weekend their team worked hard.”

With 15 goals scored, you would think that someone would have stepped up and netted a hat trick. Instead, Miami fans will have to settle for several two-goal performances: Ryan Jones Friday night; Brian Kaufman, Alec Martinez and Justin Mercier Saturday.

Senior goaltender Charlie Effinger had his third start for his third win of the season Friday night.

Blasi said that “the captains and the seniors deserve a lot of credit” for what’s going on in Oxford, the confidence and consistency of the program, and a work ethic that won’t quit.

Miami is off until Alaska comes to town Dec. 7-8. The week began with a little respite for the RedHawks. “We gave the guys a couple of days off,” said Blasi on Tuesday. “We haven’t been able to take a few days off in a while. There will be 20 guys at the rink today. The sun is finally out in Oxford. It makes you want to do something.”

The RedHawks’ counterparts in South Bend, East Lansing and Ann Arbor have no such luxury this week. All are back in action this week against league opponents after doing their bits to establish a false sense of CCHA re-emergence last week.

It’s difficult to resist poking Blasi, just a little. He’s such a good-natured guy, so very earnest — and he may be right. About the whole dominant-league thing, and not just about how to coach a team in Oxford.

“I watched that BU-Cornell game [from Madison Square Garden] and I know one thing,” said Blasi. “You play either one of those teams, it’s going to be a dogfight.”

Boston University (4-7-1) is eighth in the Hockey East standings, while Cornell (4-4-0) is third in the ECAC, and BU won that game, 6-3.

“As for the records,” said Blasi, “it’s just results. It’s not what’s in the games.”

Heroes, Part II

Heading into December of last year, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were 10-3-1, and few in college hockey believed it would last.

A year later, the Irish are 12-4-0 and nobody believes it’s a fluke.

Last weekend, ND overcame a three-goal deficit to beat host Rensselaer to capture the Holiday Hockey Tournament after beating Alabama-Huntsville 4-1 to reach the title contest.

After capturing last year’s regular-season title and the Mason Cup and with such a great start to the season — the Irish are the only team to have defeated No. 1 Miami so far this year — hearing head coach Jeff Jackson say that the Irish are still struggling to put together 60-minute games is a bit surprising.

“We’re getting better at it,” said Jackson. “I don’t think that even in the RPI game or even the second night in Miami, I don’t sense that we’re as mentally prepared to start a game as we need to be. It’s not understanding how serious the opponent takes us.”

In other words, the Irish are ready to play. They’re just not ready to play as a team that everyone else thinks of as successful.

“We’ve made a lot of improvements since the first month of the season,” said Jackson. “The first month was a lot of new faces. Every team is a little different. It’s a new team so it’s got new personnel and it’s own personality.”

Last year was such a stunning turnaround for this Notre Dame squad that the players have yet to become accustomed to being considered a team to beat. “It’s learning how to play with high expectations and learning to play against opponents who take you seriously,” said Jackson, who tried “not to push the panic button” when he saw improvements to be made earlier in the season.

From the start of the season, junior goaltender Jordan Pearce (.915 SV%) proved that he’s more than capable of taking over for David Brown in net. Two upperclassmen, Erik Condra (6-12–18) and Mark Van Guilder (7-6–13) also rose to the occasion. With 18 goals last year, Van Guilder surpassed his scoring from his first two seasons by seven markers; this year, the senior is on pace to match last year’s performance, at least.

“He’s very consistent in everything about his game and his life,” said Jackson of the senior right winger from Roseville, Minn. “He’s made an effort to improve. He’s a complete player. He’s not just an offensive player, but he can play on the penalty kill.

“I think there’s even more potential for him to be better. He has a tendency to be accountable defensively, and sometimes that holds him back offensively.”

Not surprisingly, Jackson is happy where he is. “The thing that makes it enjoyable is the kids. I give [assistant coach] Andy Slaggert all the credit for bringing in the kinds of players he’s recruited.”

“Notre Dame kids are task-oriented, as I am,” said Jackson. “It’s a good marriage.”

This week, the Irish host Nebraska-Omaha. “I think they’re probably better than their record indicates,” said Jackson. “Going into the season, I expected them to be a team in the hunt for the top four.”

Heroes, Part III

“We had the seniors’ record in the Showcase on the board. This is just huge. You can’t go your whole career not beating a team, especially Minnesota.”

Well, you can’t if you’re Michigan.

After the Wolverines downed the Golden Gophers, 5-1, in the Showcase last week, UM senior Chad Kolarik revealed that the seniors were taking this one very personally. Until last week, this year’s Michigan seniors were 1-5 against Wisconsin and Minnesota in the annual College Hockey Showcase. They may now be 3-5 in the Showcase, but their 2-0 record last week was due in large part to the efforts of that senior class, which consists of Kolarik and Kevin Porter.

Each had three goals on the weekend; each scored once Friday in UM’s 3-2 win over the Badgers, and twice Saturday.

And these seniors felt like they had something else to prove.

“Everyone had been saying we hadn’t been playing great teams and we hadn’t,” said Porter. “We finally played two top-15 teams and we beat them. I think that was good for our team, good for our confidence, and hopefully we’ll keep going.”

It was the first time since 2002 that the Wolverines swept the CHS.

Up the road a bit, the Spartans were doing their part to prevent any WCHA victories. MSU tied UM 3-3 Friday before tying Wisconsin 4-4 on Saturday. In Friday’s contest, it was the Spartans who were always just a goal behind the Gophers, until Tim Kennedy’s shorthander at 12:41 in the third tied the game. Saturday, it was the Badgers who came back from two behind.

MSU head coach Rick Comley said that the Spartans are “in the process of trying to become the team” they think they can become. “Obviously, we aren’t there yet.”

Comley also called the two ties a “reality check a little bit” and said after Saturday’s contest that MSU will just try to shake it off and look toward this week’s play in Sault Ste. Marie.

“We’ve played fewer league games than a lot of people,” said Comley, “so we can’t let any of these get away. There’s a bad taste right now, and there should be.”

Surely the defending national champs aren’t happy with the ties, especially Saturday’s, but the league has to be happy with the 2-0-2 CHS result.

Apologies to Misters Porter and Kolarik

I can’t wrap my brain around how good these two are playing, so last week I combined their names in the sidebar and made up a new guy on the Michigan roster: Chad Porter.

By the way, Kevin Porter is leading the nation with 16 goals, a statistic that has a young colleague of mine marveling. He can’t believe there’s a player on pace to hit 40 goals.

So young, so young.

Perhaps Not Heroic, But Certainly Welcome…For the Wildcats, At Least

With their sweep of the Lakers last weekend, the Northern Michigan Wildcats vaulted themselves from cellar-dwellers to mid-packers…at least for now.

“We didn’t try to do anything special,” said Wildcat head coach Walt Kyle of the home-and-home sweep. “We’re not spending a lot of time focusing on our opponents right now. We’re just focusing on our game.

“The key to us is to grow from week to week, continue to develop, eliminate mistakes. I don’t think we did anything special. We’re playing a better brand of hockey than we did early in the season.”

The Wildcats are one of several CCHA teams paying for the success of the league, having to play top-ranked teams on a more regular basis.

“We have nine losses; seven of our nine losses are against top-15 teams,” said Kyle. “We haven’t been able to play against those teams; they’re too good for us. I like our team. I liked our team even when we were losing. Our effort’s been there.

“We’re hungry. It’s one of my favorite teams that I’ve coached.”

The 4-2 and 3-1 wins over the Lakers give the Wildcats a three-game win streak. The common denominator among those games? Freshman goaltender Reid Ellingson, a kid straight out of the Minnesota high school system. “He’s been a real stabilizing force for us,” said Kyle, who admitted that goaltending was “a big problem” for the Wildcats in the first eight games of the season.

“We went into this year with Brian [Stewart] in our minds, as the number-one guy,” said Kyle. Stewart is the sophomore who stepped into playoff hockey last year and helped NMU defeat Ohio State in the first round on the road.

“In fairness to him and Janz [Derek Janzen],” said Kyle, “not only were they average, but the people in front of them were giving up a lot of high-quality scoring chances.

“We were forced by where we were at that position to give Reid a kick at it.”

So far, Ellingson is 3-2-0 with a .905 save percentage. “He’s a true freshmen,” said Kyle. “We knew he was a high-end kid, knew he had a lot of a lot of potential, but we didn’t know when he’d realize it. Very few people come out of high school hockey and jump to Division I. At his position, it’s almost unheard of. Obviously, there’s a long road ahead and he’s got to develop, but we think he’s the real deal.”

This week, the Wildcats travel to Alaska to face the Nanooks, another really hungry team. Northern Michigan has 12 league games and four wins to its credit, while these will be just the seventh and eighth CCHA contests of the season for UA. Last weekend, the Nanooks tied Nebraska-Omaha, but Alaska has yet to register a league win.

And, thanks to Northern Michigan, the Lakers also remain winless in league play so far this season.

Odds and Ends

  • Ohio State picked up its first league win of the season when it beat Western Michigan, 3-0, last weekend. That win broke an 11-game winless streak for OSU.

  • Michigan State is winless in its last four games at home (0-2-2) and the Spartans have yet to beat a ranked team (0-3-2) this season.

  • Michigan is undefeated at home (6-0-0) this season.

  • Bowling Green hasn’t finished lower than sixth in the last 20 years when winning at least five games in the first 10 of the season. The Falcons are now 5-3-0 in league play.

  • Western Michigan earned the 600th win in program history with its 4-2 win over Ohio State Friday night.

  • Notre Dame players Brett Blatchford, Erik Condra and Ian Cole were named to the Rensselaer Holiday Tournament all-tourney team.

  • Lake Superior State (2-9-1) was 8-5-1 heading into December last season, and 6-5-3 in 2005-06.

  • Miami (13-1-0) and Michigan (13-1-0) are tied for the most wins in Division I play.

  • Alaska’s Landon Novotney scored the two goals in the third period to force the 4-4 tie with Nebraska-Omaha Saturday night.

  • Alaska has a player named Landon Novotney.

This Week in D-I Women’s Hockey: Nov. 29, 2007

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Rise and Shine

It was college hockey’s equivalent of “the long nightmare”.

That 33 game losing streak, the longest ever shouldered by a Division-I women’s team, one that saw 387 sunrises and two Thanksgivings come and go without Union College being able to celebrate victory.

It’s over. Finis.

The Dutchwomen shed that onerous string on Tuesday, with a 7-1 win (syn. victory, triumph, prevailing) over Sacred Heart in Bridgeport.

A happy bus ride back to Schenectady.

At last.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Union junior co-captain Gabi Wintner. “When you win, you win as a team. When you lose, you lose as a team.”

It’s that last part that Wintner and her mates plenty of experience dealing with, much too much for their liking.

Their last win (in fact each of their their last five wins) had come at the expense of Sacred Heart, a program having its own troubles finding its footing.

It came on Nov. 4, 2006, and was followed by a 22 skein of defeats (21 of them by three goals or more) to finish the season, as well as the three year tenure of former head man Tim Gerrish.

During the off-season, Union made what could turn out to be an inspired hire.

Claudia Asano, who played on some superb Harvard teams in the late ’90s and served a five-year apprenticeship under Crimson coach Katey Stone, was brought aboard to get the Dutchwomen skating in the right direction.

And while the wins didn’t come right away, a winning attitude did.

“She’s brought a lot of great things to our program,” said Wintner. “It’s really taken a turn for the better. I think that we’ve become a more disciplined team. We’re getting there step by step.”

Even if those steps are taken at a toddler’s pace, it still forward motion, helped along by that first win.

“We need to put a lot of work in to get this team better,” said Asano, who brought along former Harvard goalie Ali Boe to serve as her top assistant. “The kids are (only) used to what they’ve played for. Sometimes, it was (as) individuals because they didn’t win games. We’ve sort of had to address a lot of team concepts. Slowly, we’ll get there. I get more frustrated with myself because I want it more quickly. But we’re getting there. We’re doing things a lot better than we did at the beginning of the year. Those are things you have to look at and be proud of, and not how many games you win.”

So long as you get that first one.

“Our ultimate goal is to win a league game,” Asano said.

To wit, in five seasons the Dutchwomen have carded just one win over an ECACHL foe, that coming against Cornell back in 2004.

They have a few near misses this year, including a pair of one goal losses to Brown and Yale on consecutive nights.

And dead ahead are ranked league powerhouses Dartmouth (No. 8) and Harvard (No. 2), followed by an underrated Princeton squad, all of them at home.

And Asano, being only human, has especially strong feelings about facing the Crimson for the first time since she departed Cambridge.

“It’s going to be interesting,” she said, a bit understatedly. “I’ve thought about it a lot. I’ve imagined it. It’s where I went, and where I draw a lot of pride from. But I also know that I’ve built something here that I’m proud of. Still, it will be a lot easier that it’s up here.”

Running the Gauntlet

Another squad looking down the barrel of a loaded stretch of schedule is Niagara.

The Purple Eagles, missing several regulars, took a respectable 6-2-0 mark to New Hampshire last weekend, then took a pair of serious whackings from the No. 1 Wildcats, 6-2 and 11-1.

This weekend, they’ll host No. 7 Mercyhurst, twice.

Talk about an acid test, although Niagara coach Margot Page prefers not to think about it that way.

“Every game for us is a battle,” Page said. “We don’t look at it as ‘oh, my gosh, we’re going in to New Hampshire, now we have to play Mercyhurst. We can’t go in thinking lightly about any opponent. Every game for us, is a must for us. We can’t have a night off and hope for points. Are they tougher teams? Probably. But we have to play the same, no matter what. We are still looking for a game of good, physical hockey, and I don’t think we’ve played that yet.”

A Constant At Last

As for New Hampshire, they accomplished something no one (including themselves) had managed to do in nearly two months.

Hang on to the top ranking.

The nation’s No. 1 spot has been handed around like a bad cold from week to week, with UNH having gained it, lost it, then retrieved it again just before Thanksgiving.

With their twin routs of Niagara, there was no question of maintaining their lofty perch, even though, admittedly, such things don’t mean a heck of a lot at this time of year.

What means more to them is simply playing for the moment.

“I think with Princeton,” said sophomore top line wing Kelly Paton, “it wasn’t that we didn’t play well. We just got outplayed. As a team, we’re just looking to keep moving our feet. Winning the one on one battle, and not being outplayed. If we were to (have lost) against Niagara, it would be another bump in the road. But it wouldn’t (have been) the loss that bothered us, but getting outworked. We’ve got to get better if we want to win that National Championship.”

All in a Day’s Work

Kudos to Bemidji net minder Emily Brookshaw, who singlehandedly battled Wisconsin (then No. 2) to a scoreless draw on Saturday. Brookshaw, who hails from Webster, Wisc., turned away 50 Wisconsin shots, 20 of them in the third period, to frustrate the Badgers.

In the process, Brookshaw seized the school’s career saves mark (2,405 and climbing).

Wisconsin had won the previous 20 meetings with the Beavers, including a 7-0 laugher on Friday.

This Week in the ECAC East and NESCAC

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The season is finally underway and after one weekend of conference play and some terrific tournaments over the Thanksgiving holiday, the ultra-competitive nature of the league is already showing through just the first handful of games.

Quick: name the only team without a blemish (loss or a tie) on their record in the first couple of weeks of the season in either league? Here’s a hint: there is only one team unbeaten and untied in the first two weeks. Still no? Here’s your last hint … :

Huskies Hulk Up

By now you should recognize that it is the Southern Maine Huskies at 4-0-0 who is unbeaten early on. What that says about the level of competition in both leagues is that once again anyone can step up and win on any given night. What it tells you about Jeff Beaney’s squad is that they have reloaded nicely after the departures of key contributors from last year’s team including forward Mark Carragher and goalie David Beckles.

After opening the season with what many consider an upset over Norwich by a resounding 8-3 score, the Huskies followed that up with a shutout of St. Michael’s for two convincing home wins to open the season. This past weekend the Huskies won their Skidmore Invitational opener against Salve Regina by a 3-2 score and defeated Cortland for the tournament championship, 4-1.

The Huskies have outscored their opponents 19-6 early on and already have seven power-play goals this season to support some solid defense and excellent goaltending from the tandem of Ryan Sullivan and transfer Jamie Gilbert.

“We have pretty high expectations for the transfer students this year,” noted head coach Jeff Beaney. “We are going to need a group of players to step up and replace some of the goals from Sparkes and Carragher last season and hope that Ryan and Jamie can give us strong goaltending to keep us in the tight games.”

So far the goaltenders have alternated games this season and have a combined 1.50 goals against average with Gilbert picking up his first shutout against St. Michaels.

Offensively, the Huskies have exhibited some early balance led by senior forward Mike Stevens (3-4-7) and junior forward Kyle Smith (3-3-6) who both already have one game-winning goal among their tallies and have combined for five of the teams seven power play goals.

Freshmen Paul Conter (2-3-5) and Zack Joy (2-2-4) have also started out strong for Southern Maine. With Chris Travis, Dan Gordon (another UMass-Amherst transfer) and Dane Marshall expected to contribute more offense and balance to the team; the Huskies may find they have the depth to stay at the top of the ECAC East standings.

Next test is this weekend on the road against Williams and Middlebury and the battle of the Beaney Brothers with Jeff currently holding a one game winning streak and looking to extend the family bragging rights. Two very good teams in what should be a fun game to watch so mark it down if you are in Vermont on Saturday afternoon.

Win One for the Dunner?

Everyone is familiar with the expression “win one for the Gipper.” In Trinity’s case this past weekend represented an opportunity to recognize the recently retired head coach of the Bantams, John Dunham, for whom the holiday tournament hosted by Trinity was named after this weekend.

After opening the season on the road with a 4-1 loss at Amherst and a 1-1 tie at Hamilton, the Bantams — under first year coach Dave Cataruzolo — returned home to their still new arena to host the all-NESCAC tournament and found themselves with a pair of wins to claim the inaugural title.

Their first round win over Wesleyan by a score of 4-1 saw the Bantams limit the Cardinals to only 15 shots on goal and use two second period goals to open up a lead they never relinquished. In the championship game, Trinity had a rematch of opening night and used a late in goal in the third period to tie the game at 4-4 before winning it in overtime on a goal by senior Matthew Crum.

At the beginning of the season, coach Cataruzolo noted that he really thought that the experience gained by last year’s team would help them compete, maybe sneaking into the win column on some of the close one goal games that went the other team’s way last season.

Toward that end, much has been expected from junior defenseman Chris Powers (1-3-4). So far, he leads the team in points and has been a major contributor to the style of play that has the Bantams aggressively attacking the goal in the offensive end and strongly supporting the goaltending tandem of sophomore David Murison and freshman Wes Vesprini.

The power play really needs to get going as 1 for 22 isn’t going to help the offense much nor put a lot of pressure on their opposition if they can’t cash in on those extra man opportunities. This weekend the Bantams will be tested when defending ECAC East champion Babson comes to town on Friday night. For a young team looking to find out where they stand early in the season, this is a great test.

Babson Off and Running

Say what you will about superstitious athletes but coaches may be just as bad.

I don’t think this column has ever come close to the dreaded Sports Illustrated cover jinx but that said I can understand completely when a coach respects the streak his team is on and doesn’t want to chance things with alterations to the daily activities.

“It is just starting and there is a long way to go for sure,” stated head coach Jamie Rice. “It sure beats the alternative as to how we have started this year but there is a lot to be encouraged by so far with this team. This is a great bunch of kids — they are a really fun group that is very loose and relaxed but get ready and focused to compete hard.”

Certainly coach Rice has much to be excited about as his team has picked up right where it left off last season. And it definitely is hard not talking about when things are going well.

The Beavers have had one of the more challenging opening schedules in the country and have demonstrated how good this club can be against some of the best teams in the ECAC East.

After opening with home wins against Bowdoin and Colby, Babson defeated nationally ranked UMass-Dartmouth by a 3-1 score on the road. In the game, they controlled in shots and on the scoreboard, just missing a shutout for goalie Skylar Nipps in the last minute of play in the game.

Babson then took the title in its own Invitational Tournament for the first time since the 2002-2003 season by defeating Potsdam in a shootout, after a 4-4 tie in regulation. This came after they downed previously unbeaten Curry, 4-2, including a late empty-net goal to clinch the title for the home team.

Yes it’s only five games into the season but Babson is showing great balance with 11 players accounting for the team’s 19 goals thus far and 13 players contributing points on the score sheet, led by junior Brad Baldelli (3-4-7), sophomore Jason Schneider (4-2-6) and junior captain John Geverd (3-3-6).

“The balance is really the strength of this team,” noted Rice. “We don’t have a big roster and no JV team so everyone here is out to compete and contribute and really likes playing hockey at Babson so I am not surprised by the balance we have shown so far.”

Sophomore defenseman Casey Fazekas (1-3-4) has also stepped up to support the offense, including the decisive shootout goal against Potsdam in the tournament last weekend.

According to Rice, “Casey just loves to play hockey, a real rink rat, and it shows in his game. He has such joy from the playing the game that it has produced success and he was the fifth name on the shootout list having practiced his ‘Sid the Kid’ move in practice just a couple of days before in anticipation that a shootout was possible in the tournament format.

“It certainly was a great thing for our seniors who have played in the consolation game the past two seasons and very nice to beat a strong Curry team which is becoming a growing rivalry now that we are playing them every year.”

Junior goalie Skylar Nipps has been very consistent to start the season with a .908 save percentage and 2.16 goals against average to backstop the Beavers to the top of the league standings early in the season.

“Skylar has really earned his keep as the number one guy and even in the game against Potsdam where they made it very difficult for him to play well while they were aggressively attacking the goal, he made the first stop in the shootout and you had a feeling on the bench that he was going to shut them down,” observed coach Rice.

Another challenging weekend against NESCAC opponents awaits in Connecticut this weekend and for coach Rice’s team, a chance to build more confidence in their strong play to date against tough opponents.

It’s almost December and already it’s getting real good all around the leagues.

Hey ref: drop the puck!

This Week in Hockey East: Nov. 29, 2007

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On Slippery Slopes

Before moving on to look at a few specific teams, two coaches’ comments illuminate the parity within Hockey East.

“The margin this year between winning and losing, from my perspective, is very thin,” Boston College coach Jerry York says. “We’ve played 12 games, and seven have already gone into overtime.”

Northeastern coach Greg Cronin might have his team in first place, but he knows its hold on the lead is a tenuous one.

“With the exception of the North Dakota and New Hampshire games, the other ones were all one-goal games,” he says. “It’s a slippery slope we live on right now in Hockey East. If you slip, you could find yourself in the middle of the pack or in last place in the matter of a couple weeks.”

‘Nuff said.

In Second and Trying Harder

In the free-for-all known as the Hockey East standings, New Hampshire ranks second behind Northeastern both in total points and percentage. The Huskies have so far been UNH’s nemesis, delivering its only two losses. Considering that the Wildcats were expected to go neck-and-neck with Boston College for the title, the current result is either more or less on par — 7-2-1 and a number six national ranking isn’t exactly chopped liver — or perhaps just a little disappointing since BC has faltered.

“Overall I think we’re somewhat pleased,” UNH coach Dick Umile says. “We’re a little inconsistent playing a 60-minute hockey game, which you’re going to have to do in this league as we’re finding out. But we’re making progress.

“We lost to Northeastern, but they’re playing well. [Brad] Thiessen played well in the net. We played okay, but they found a way to beat us, bottom line.

“They’re a good team. There’s no question this is the year that the league is really up for grabs.”

The UNH offense leads Hockey East with 3.90 goals per game despite a mere 13.8 percent conversion rate on the power play. (Only Boston University is also over the 3.00 threshold.) The Wildcats have been dominant at times, scoring five goals in three of the last four games, but in the two losses to Northeastern the Huskies held them to only a singleton each night. Not coincidentally, those nights the power play was a collective 0-for-15.

“Short hand has been okay, but the power play hasn’t been great,” Umile says. “We’re still trying to find out what to do there, trying different combinations. Hopefully that will get better.

“We still like to move the puck and generate some offense. We like our forwards and our defense has been involved, which has been great. Brad [Flaishans] is playing well, so we’ve gotten some offense from our defense.

“We’ve got some young talented forwards that are getting better. [James] vanRiemsdyk, the Thompson kid from New Hampshire [Paul Thompson], and [Phil] DeSimone are playing well for us.

“But we’re always working at the defensive aspects of the game because that’s ultimately what you’re going to need at the end.”

As the number-two overall pick in the NHL draft, vanRiemsdyk was expected to make an immediate impact and he has, tying Matt Fornataro for the team scoring lead with five goals and nine assists. However, “the Thompson kid from New Hampshire” — he’s likely to keep that moniker for his full tenure at UNH as a Granite State native from Derry — has also made his presence known (6-4-10). When paired with vanRiemsdyk and Thomas Fortney two games ago, he immediately clicked, recording two goals and two assists.

“He’s a kid that played for the Junior Monarchs,” Umile says. “He was going to come in next year, but when Trevor [Smith] left early it opened an opportunity for him and he was ready to play.

“He’s a smart hockey player. He’s got a good stick. We’re very, very pleased with him.”

Umile has surprised some by giving backup goaltender Brian Foster more action (three starts in 10 games) than in the past. The sophomore has responded, matching senior Kevin Regan’s stats while going 2-0-1.

“Kevin [has been] nicked up, but he’s doing fine now,” Umile says. “He’s our goaltender. He’s going to play the majority of the games.

“But Brian proved last year that he’s a real good goaltender. He’s done a good job for us, and hopefully he’ll play a little bit more that he did last year. He’s gotten himself some starts and we’ll see where it goes.”

Looking ahead, Umile sees the current logjam in the standings as a good thing for his team.

“[The parity] will make us all better even though I think we’re beating each other up every weekend,” he says. “We’ll all be better teams at the end. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out.”

Resurgent But Thin

After three ties in four games, Massachusetts-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald had grown tired of the “kissing your sister” results. So a week ago last Tuesday, he pulled out all the stops.

“I took a page out of Richie Umile’s book,” MacDonald says. “I went to the mock turtleneck and it produced a victory.”

The River Hawks followed that 3-0 win at Merrimack with another, 6-2, at home.

“Merrimack is playing really well, so we knew we had to be at the top of our game to compete,” MacDonald says. “I was really happy with our effort and execution on that Tuesday night. It was one of our best games of the season. We got great goaltending and had terrific energy.

“[On Saturday], we were sluggish in the first period, but [Nevin] Hamilton gave us a chance to stay in the game and then we broke it open on some fortunate, timely goals in the second.”

The wins were Lowell’s first in league play, but the resulting 2-3-4 record was enough to vault the River Hawks into a bazillion-way tie for fourth place.

The Tuesday-Saturday sweep wasn’t a fluke. Over the past six games they’d also tied UNH, Massachusetts, and Providence. Their only loss came at the hands of first-place Northeastern, 2-1, with the difference coming on a power-play goal.

“We are most proud of our consistency,” MacDonald says. “We work very, very hard at practice every day. I think we’ve competed very well in every game, even the BU game where we had a 4-2 lead going into the third. We played well; we just got outmatched for 20 minutes.

“We’ve had a couple of great chances in most of our ties to win the game. We’ve been battling very, very well and easily could be in second place. But we’re happy with our overall consistent play against a very tight league.”

An important part of Lowell’s success has been its goaltending, a position that has sunk several recent River Hawk teams. Sophomores Carter Hutton (1.36 GAA, .945 Sv%) and Nevin Hamilton (2.61, .911) have formed a strong tandem.

“That’s been the most frustrating thing since we’ve been here,” MacDonald says. “We feel like we’ve changed a lot of the elements of our program and have played very well during that time but really lacked in consistent goaltending. When it seems everybody else gets it and you don’t, it’s even more amplified.

“Hutton and Hamilton have played as well as all the other goalies in the league. They’ve given us a chance to get some confidence. The underlying variable that drives success is confidence and usually that comes from your goaltending.”

On the offensive end, Mark Roebothan leads the goalscoring with six.

“I don’t look at Mark’s role as a real goalscorer for us as much as a guy that jumps into the battle zones and works for dirty goals,” MacDonald says. “Because of his behavior in getting into those areas recently, he’s scored some of those goals.

“We’re very much a collective unit when it comes to putting goals up on the board. It’s been great to see his gritty, hard work and determination pay off in goals lately.”

Despite the strong performances of late, MacDonald knows his already banged-up team doesn’t have the depth to withstand an onslaught of injuries. The uncertainty the program faced during the offseason scared away some recruits. Then serious illness and injury claimed another two players expected to be key contributors.

“We went into the season with one extra forward and one extra defenseman,” MacDonald says. “We’ve played 11 games and in eight of them we had zero healthy scratches, which might be a record.

“If some teams have the wrong guys get injured, it really can change the complexion of their team.”

On The Rebound

For a while there, things were looking pretty bleak for the Vermont Catamounts. They lost four of their first five, with the lone exception being a tie. Then following their first win, 2-1 over Merrimack, the Cats bottomed out with a 9-1 loss to Boston University.

Nine to one. Nine goals allowed. At home. Other than the lone win, the Catamounts had allowed three or more goals in all but one game.

Whatever had happened to the team that had been the master of the 2-1 win and consistently one of the top defensive clubs since it joined Hockey East?

“As a coach you spend that night, the next morning and all of the day waiting to play again and waiting to see how your team is going to respond,” UVM coach Kevin Sneddon says. “Obviously our team showed a lot of character in the way they responded from that embarrassing defeat at home and came back from a 3-1 deficit on Saturday night to come up with a 5-4 win.”

The Catamounts didn’t stop there. They followed that huge win up with another over UMass, 4-2.

“[Defeating BU] seemed to really spark our team,” Sneddon says. “We played very well the following Tuesday night against UMass. It was probably our best game of the year in that we played 60 complete minutes.”

They even held a 5-3 lead going into the third period at Maine on Sunday before letting a point slip through their fingers when the Black Bears scored an extra-attacker goal.

“We did a lot of great things up at Maine,” Sneddon says. “Our team is starting to click offensively. We’re just giving up too many second and third opportunities right now defensively that are costing us.

“But we’re really pleased with the skill level of our team. We’ve come together as a team. I think it took that 9-1 blowout game to really pull us together, as strange as that may sound. We’ll hopefully be able to look back at that game and say that was a key turning point to our season.”

It hasn’t just been a switch from momentum going in the wrong way to the right. Vermont is on a goal-scoring binge — fourteen goals in three games — quite unlike Catamount teams of recent vintage. Not since the first game last season had they scored as many as five goals in a game. They’ve now done it twice in the last three.

“We switched around our lines after that 9-1 game and seemed to have found more
chemistry,” Sneddon says. “[Colin] Vock, [Dean] Strong and [Corey] Carlson have really caught fire not only on the power play but it seems to me every time they are on the ice they are doing something well offensively and defensively.

“Our second line is really starting to produce. Viktor StÃ¥lberg has been fantastic for us and so has Peter Lenes. I think Brayden Irwin slowly but surely is finding his way.

“Those top two lines obviously have created most of our offense but unlike in past years we’re getting some contributions from our defensemen joining the rush. We really didn’t have the ability to do that in the past. We’re really pleased in what we are seeing out of some of our young defensemen helping
us out offensively.”

The challenge will be to cut down on the goals allowed while maintaining the improved offense. After allowing exactly two goals a game last season, finishing tied for first with BU in that category, Vermont now ranks dead last, giving up on average 3.80.

“When you have five defensemen on your roster that haven’t played a game in college hockey, it’s a little different than when you are just a little young at the forward position,” Sneddon says. “When a young defenseman makes a big mistake, it leads to a scoring opportunity. When you have a forward make a mistake, a veteran defensive corps might be able to make up for that mistake.”

The defensive breakdowns, however, go beyond the blue line inexperience.

“I think it’s two-fold,” Sneddon says. “We’re giving up too many opportunities that we’re just not used to giving up. That is typical of some youth back on the blue line. [But] I think some of our veterans are more at fault than some of our freshmen of late. We’ve just had some bad turnovers at key points in the game. So you can’t point all of it to youth.

“I think that Joe (Fallon) has been very solid in net for us where we have maybe needed him to be excellent in every game early on to get through these growing pains. I think he has been average to above average.”

Sneddon, now in his fifth year at Vermont, has also made a conscious stylistic change.

“From a system standpoint, we used to out-number quite a bit in the defensive zone and pack our forwards down low,” he says. “You would see us give up no more than low twenties in terms of shots against. We blocked anywhere between 10 and 20 shots a game. That hard work didn’t really create anything from an offensive transition standpoint.

“[This year] we feel like we’ve got the skill level to be able to — I don’t want to say open things up because defense is obviously something that we still harp on an awful lot because we really feel that it does win championships — but instead of packing a lot of players in down low we’ve been a little bit more positional in terms of our defensive game, using our speed to our advantage.

“We’re able to attack coming out of our zone more so than we have in the past.
We’ve seen some great things over the last three games in particular. That shows we’re starting to get it. It’s a slow process with that youth. We’re trying to build our team for the stretch run and get better every week.

“I love our team. We’re under .500, but I think we can do a lot of great things in this league. I’m very excited about what I’ve seen so far.”

Trivia Contest

What with the Thanksgiving holiday, Scott Weighart thought it would be appropriate to offer a trivia question that might take several days to digest. With apologies to the late Chairman Mao, this trivia question was called the Great Leap Forward.

Recently Scott wondered: What former Hockey East players ended up putting up much better numbers in the National Hockey League than they ever did in college? As a result, readers were asked to submit a starting lineup — a goalie, three forwards, and two defensemen — that best exemplify that sort of great leap forward. But how did we quantify this, you may ask? It’s simple: Compare the “career year” of a given player in a college to his “career year” (to date) in the NHL. We’ll define that as points for skaters and wins for goalies.

For example, consider Chris Drury. In his best year at Boston University, he scored 67 points. In his best NHL year thus far, he scored 69 points. So his “score” for this contest is a +2. Your goal is to come up with the starting lineup that gives you the highest possible total score. Without trying too hard, Scott came up with a starting lineup that gave him a total of +208. So you had to match that or beat that to win.

A few rules:

• The player needed to play for a Hockey East team when it actually was in Hockey East. So guys like Joey Mullen of BC do not count, though he certainly had a Great Leap Forward.

• In terms of position eligibility for forwards and d-men — as well as for scouring the archives if so inclined — I would recommend that we defer to that most remarkable database, www.hockeydb.com.

• However, it appears that hockeydb.com is not a fantastic source for determining goalie wins unless the goalies were pretty recent. So if you’re citing goalie wins, give me the URL of your source to prove it.

In a bit of poetic justice, Kurt Zwald came up with the best answer after failing to win Scott’s early contest asking for a lineup that asked for a sextet who were very last in the alphabet. Here is Kurt’s response:

F – Bill Guerin (45 points in 1990-91 at BC, 85 points in 2000-01 with EDM/BOS, +40)
F – Keith Tkachuk (40 points in 1990-91 at BU, 98 points in 1995-96 with WINN, +58)
F – Kevin Stevens (70 points in 1986-87 at BC, 123 points in 1991-92 with PITT, +53)

D – Brian Leetch (47 points in 1986-87 at BC, 102 points in 1991-92 with NYR, +55)
D – Ryan Whitney (25 points in 2003-04 at BU, 59 points in 2006-07 with PITT, +34)

G – Rick DiPietro (18 wins in 1999-00 at BU, 32 wins in 2006-07 with NYI, +14)

TOTAL: +254

Much to most everyone’s surprise, BC and BU players comprise the whole lineup. Even some of the close-but-not-quite responses–Adrian Aucoin, Brian Gionta, and Scott Young–were all BU or BC guys. Go figure.

Kurt Zwald’s cheer is:

“Come on Eagles, let’s turn things around and wrap up with a hot second half. Go BC!”

This week’s question asks about “well-rounded” hat tricks. That is, on Saturday, UNH’s Mike Radja completed the trick with one goal on the power-play, one while shorthanded, and the other at even strength. Name the last Hockey East player before Radja to score a “well-rounded” hat trick.

E-mail me with the player and the date of the game. The winner will be notified by Tuesday; if you haven’t heard by then you either had the wrong answer or someone else beat you to it.

And Finally, Not That It Has Anything To Do With Anything, But…

Congratulations to my niece Cherie for a great weekend last Saturday and Sunday. A senior at Providence, she scored two goals along with three assists.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that her response to my congratulatory email was to focus on the two wins and not on the individual attention. She was the consummate teammate last year in a lesser role; she remains that this year with time now on the power play and penalty kill.

Way to go Cherie! Go Friars!

This Week in ECAC Hockey: Nov. 29, 2007

By ECAC Correspondent
-

So long, unbeaten streak. The St. Cloud State Huskies finally vanquished the Clarkson Golden Knights on their home ice, after 19 games and a year and two weeks without a defeat.

The longest current home unbeaten streak in the ECAC now belongs to…you’ll never believe this…Union, who have played four straight at the Achilles Center without a loss. Clarkson still holds the longest such streak in league play, of course, with 16 straight tilts and counting at Cheel without a defeat.

So Long, Big Apple

If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

So the question posed to the Big Red regarding their trip to the Big Apple is…can they now contend on a greater stage, because they actually made it to New York City? Or have we misinterpreted the line?

Given the pounding they endured at the hands of sub-.500 Boston University, it seems as though Cornell has a ways to go before booking airfare for Denver.

The up-and-down Terriers took a quick look at the Red, and found a way to win. While Harvard triumphed by hitting with a vigor equal to that of the visiting Ithacans two weeks ago, BU preferred to shirk the issue altogether. Cornell head coach Mike Schafer has preached physicality and strength since day one this season, and the Terriers countered by beating the Big Red forwards to the corners on dump-ins, and generally keeping the play toward the middle of the ice.

A three-to-one advantage for Cornell in the stands didn’t translate into such dominance on the ice at Madison Square Garden last Saturday, as Cornell was forced to play away from the boards, where they have found success so far this season. The Red defense didn’t clear the front of Ben Scrivens’ crease very effectively; combined with a few big rebounds, the Bostonians put three quick goals behind the sophomore goalie around the midpoint of the first period.

This isn’t intended as a recap; Mindy Drexel already did a fine job with that. Rather, it’s a foreboding assessment of Cornell’s play in two of the last three games. Even against a young Dartmouth team, Scrivens faced more shots than the Big Green’s Mike Devine.

Hold onto your hats, Lynah faithful; you might be in for a turbulent ride.

Congrats and Encouragement

While it may not seem like much, I’d personally like to congratulate the fans at Cornell, Harvard and Clarkson for hitting at least 90 percent average capacity so far this season.

It’s no surprise that the Lynah Faithful lead the pack; they numbered a good 10,000 strong in NYC last weekend, if not more, and — artificially or not — no one in the nation has a better capacity rate than Cornell’s 109.3 percent (nearly 4,200 fans a game in an arena for 3,836).

Clarkson is falling only a few hundred fans short of a sellout each game, as is Harvard, which is especially impressive given the competing attractions in greater Boston.

However, is there any excuse for Quinnipiac’s 83 percent average? A second-year, first-rate facility that seats nearly 3,300 should draw better than the 2,725 it’s getting now. Saints fans! You have a modest 3,000-seat arena and the defending regular-season champs on the ice. And you’re going to sit back and let Clarkson out-draw you by 450 fans a game?

Colgate, Brown and Princeton bring up the rear in the league, each drawing between 60 and 70 percent of their arenas’ respective capacities. To have a look for yourself, check it out. We think of everything here at USCHO.

Don’t accuse me of looking for filler; I believe passionately that it is the atmosphere that makes sports — any sport, anywhere — truly great. ECAC Hockey teams play in by far the smallest venues of the four major conferences; that fact is in and of itself a detriment to recruiting and, therefore, success.

The scholastics speak for themselves in this league, and the coaches and campuses are second to none. But is it so hard to believe that the aura surrounding RPI hockey, Yale hockey, Dartmouth hockey…feeling the boards quiver with the sheer volume of the crowd…can mean so much to the strength and energy of a program?

Your team, your game — for once — is in your hands.

The UC

References to The OC haven’t been topical in some time. The Dutchmen, on the other hand, are working hard to keep the UC material as relevant as ever.

While the rest of the league has a half-dozen conference games or more in its rear-view, Union and Rensselaer are content to play catch-up later on.

“We’re not out of it by any means,” said Union coach Nate Leaman.

The coach pointed out that four of the team’s six, pre-break games are on the road, and that the Dutch are outshooting opponents by a 32-21 average.

“[Opposing goaltenders] have stopped about .961 [percent] of our shots, while we’re at .865,” said the coach. “It’s just a matter of playing a 60-minute game.”

Leaman stated that Corey Milan will get the nod on Friday night, with Saturday’s starter yet to be determined. Milan stopped 50 of 55 shots at UMass last Sunday in a 5-2 loss, a game of which Leaman said “it was like we were still in exams”.

“We were making a lot of mental errors,” the coach said of his team’s only game since Union College’s exam period.

While the squad won’t have many point-games under its belt by New Year’s, the Garnet and White aren’t about to get rusty all over again. Union tangos with Hockey East foes Providence and Northeastern next weekend, then hosts Nebraska-Omaha to wrap up the fall schedule.

Improving, Tout Suite!

So is the ‘Tute sweet? Well, according to coach Seth Appert, RPI isn’t too sweet yet.

In a tie and loss in their own tournament, the Engineers simply couldn’t cobble together a complete effort.

“We had 46 shots [against American International], and six or seven others that hit the post. We created enough offense, we just didn’t finish,” said Appert.

Against Notre Dame, the Engineers were considerably more restrained. Despite only 18 total shots — and a mere deuce in the third period — the home team had a 3-0 lead on the top-flight Irish. Then the bottom fell out.

“We need to find ways to win close games,” said the coach after the eventual 4-3 loss. “Our problem is with experience. Our seniors and juniors haven’t won many games with RPI…they haven’t played in many big games.”

“You can not run from [disappointment],” he said. It must always teach a lesson.

Behind a defensive corps composed entirely of freshmen and sophomores, goaltenders Mathias Lange and Jordan Alford have been nothing short of stellar. Each has a goals-against average under two, and a save percentage over .930. Spectacular stuff guarding Troy’s twine.

Three’s a Crowd

Quinnipiac and Princeton tangled in an unusual regular-season three-fer last week, with QU taking two and Princeton grabbing a game for itself. Fortunately for the Tigers, one of the Bobcat wins counted as a non-conference game…hence the quirk-of-schedule.

“It certainly was unusual,” said Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold. “Both of us had back-to-back off weekends, so why not get the game done while the kids are on Thanksgiving break,” he said, instead of shoe-horning a non-conference game into a busy spring schedule.

There’s a phrase that reads, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” There are examples to back this up everywhere, both in the sports world and elsewhere. This series didn’t disappoint.

“The second and third games were much more physical. There were certainly some agitators on both teams,” Pecknold said of the combined 46 penalties in the three tilts.

Now thoroughly sick of each other, the travel partners have quite a while before they may meet again. Anybody say best-of-three?

Snapshots

Rensselaer head coach Seth Appert marked John Kennedy as “hopeful” for last weekend’s tournament. Unfortunately, he has yet to recover from a nagging injury, and is doubtful for this weekend as well.

Union’s Luke Cain is still unavailable, said coach Nate Leaman.

Quinnipiac is pretty banged up, despite Bud Fisher’s return. Junior forward Mark Nelson is out indefinitely. Sophomore blueliner Sami Liimatainen is a “maybe” for this weekend, along with senior forward Dan Travis and defensive classmate Matt Sorteberg.

This Week in the MIAC

By Derek Martin
-

There have been very few surprises so far this season in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. St. Thomas is atop the standings and everyone else seems to be falling into place.

One surprise is how poorly the MIAC has performed against non-conference opponents. It is no secret that MIAC teams have had their struggles against ranked opponents. They have posted a record of 3-11-6 against teams in the top 15. Wisconsin-Stout has dominated MIAC teams with a 4-0-1 record and has outscored them 22-12.

Next weekend brings with it another set of conference match-ups. The most intriguing series of the weekend will be St. John’s and St. Olaf. The Oles are tied with St. Thomas in the conference standings and could show the hockey world they are for real with a sweep. St. John’s was swept out east by Plattsburgh and Middlebury but played good hockey and will give St. Olaf all they can handle.

St. Olaf

(2-0-0, 4-2-1)

St. Olaf faced off against Concordia of Wisconsin on Friday. The Oles won 6-2 with junior Nick Stalock collecting two goals and an assist in the game. First year goaltender Nick Krauss made 19 saves and allowed two goals in his 60 minutes of work.

St. Olaf faces St. John’s in a big conference meeting. Both teams are struggling in the special teams area, which means the games will undoubtedly come down to even strength play and who plays smarter hockey.

St. Thomas

(2-0-0, 5-1-1)

St. Thomas and Wisconsin-Stout ended in a 3-3 tie last Tuesday. Nick Pernula had a goal and an assist in the game for the Tommies. St. Thomas upset top-ranked Wisconsin-River Falls this Tuesday, 5-0. The Tommies’ Tyler Chestnut shutout the top team with 28 saves, while teammate Tom Knutson notched two goals in the big victory.

St. Thomas is idle this weekend.

Bethel

(1-2-0, 5-2-0)

Bethel matched up against St. Scholastica last Wednesday and came out victorious by the score of 7-4. Seniors Jeff Balvin and Matt Hall each had two goals and two assists for the Royals.

Bethel takes on Augsburg this weekend in what should be a one-sided series. The Auggies have had trouble putting the puck in the net so far as they have been outscored 25-12 in five games. The Royals, on the other hand, have outscored opponents 36-22 in seven games this season.

Gustavus Adolphus

(1-1-0, 3-3-0)

Gustavus and St. Mary’s face off this weekend in a battle of teams that are 1-1-0 in conference play. The Gusties are winless on their home ice (0-2-0) while they are 3-1-0 on the road. The Cardinals’ troubles have come with not getting enough shots. They have been outshot by more than 2-to-1 on average this season.

Hamline

(1-1-0, 1-3-2)

Hamline and Concordia square off this weekend. Both teams were 3-13-0 last season in conference play and tied for last place. This series is important for both teams if they want to improve from last season and climb the standings ladder.

St. John’s

(1-1-0, 3-5-0)

St. John’s did not fair well against the East Coast powerhouses. The Johnnies lost to Plattsburgh on Friday and Middlebury on Saturday, both by the scores of 4-3. St. John’s was an impressive 2-3 on the power play against Plattsburgh. Senior Pat Eagles led the Johnnies with an assist on Friday and two goals on Saturday.

St. John’s faces St. Olaf in a big conference meeting. Both teams are struggling to put the puck in the back of the net so these should be hard-fought contests.

St. Mary’s

(1-1-0, 1-4-2)

St. Mary’s took on Wisconsin-River Falls on Tuesday and tied 4-4. Adam Gill recorded two goals in the game for the Cardinals. St. Mary’s converted on its only power play while blanking the Falcons on their four opportunities. St. Mary’s goaltender Dan Smith notched 55 saves in 65 minutes of play.

St. Mary’s and Gustavus face off this weekend in a battle of teams that are 1-1-0 in conference play. The Gusties are winless on their home ice (0-2-0) while they are 3-1-0 on the road. The Cardinals’ troubles have come with not getting enough shots. They have been outshot by more than 2-to-1 on average this season.

Augsburg

(0-2-0, 0-5-1)

Augsburg takes on Bethel this weekend in what should be a one-sided series. The Auggies have had trouble putting the puck in the net so far as they have been outscored 25-12 in five games. The Royals, on the other hand, have outscored opponents 36-22 in seven games this season.

Concordia

(0-0-0, 1-3-0)

Concordia and Hamline square off this weekend. Both teams were 3-13-0 last season in conference play and tied for last place. This series is important for both teams if they want to improve from last season and climb the standings ladder.

Conference Leaders

Goals: Nick Stalock (St. Olaf), Jr., F — 7 games, 8 goals
Assists: Jeff Balvin (Bethel), Sr., F — 7 games, 11 assists
Save Percentage: Zachary Faust (Hamline), So. — 77 saves, 4 goals against, .951

Co-Offensive Players of the Week

Jeff Balvin (Bethel) and Matt Hall (Bethel) — Each player had two goals and two assists in Bethel’s 7-4 win over St. Scholastica. Obviously, these two were key pieces in the game for the Royals

Goaltender of the Week

Dan Smith (St. Mary’s) — Smith faced 59 shots from Wisconsin-River Falls and stopped 55 of them. He is ranked fifth among MIAC goaltenders in save percentage with .908.

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