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Coming into the 2007-2008 season, North Dakota junior forward Ryan Duncan faced a lot of expectations. Duncan, winner of the 2007 Hobey Baker Memorial Award, could have parlayed his success last year into a chance to play in the NHL, much as one of his linemates, Jonathan Toews, did. Instead, Duncan, along with T.J. Oshie, the other key player of the feared “DOT line,” returned, in part to try to help the Fighting Sioux capture that elusive national championship.

The hockey ranks are filled with players who follow up a very successful year with a so-so one. Some might have argued that Duncan, an undrafted and unsigned player, risked more than most by coming back to college hockey. In fact, Duncan is only the fifth player in college hockey history to return to school after winning the Hobey Baker. How has Duncan responded?

Ryan Duncan won the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as a sophomore last season, and is back for more with North Dakota (photo: Melissa Wade).

Ryan Duncan won the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as a sophomore last season, and is back for more with North Dakota (photo: Melissa Wade).

Through the first nine games of the year, Duncan, who finished as the Fighting Sioux’s leading scorer last year, is tied for the team lead in scoring with none other than Oshie. One week after getting the assist on Oshie’s 100th point in a Fighting Sioux uniform, Duncan himself passed the 100-point mark against Colorado College in a 6-2 win.

Says Oshie of Duncan, “I think his offensive ability is unreal. He can score from just about anywhere. He always seems to find a way to get the puck and get it into the net.”

For Duncan, who stands only 5-foot-6 and weighs a slight 158 pounds, the points and awards might be seen as sweet vindication, considering that many doubted his ability to play college hockey, but Duncan doesn’t see it that way.

“I was disappointed, obviously, when I wasn’t drafted, but I don’t think it’s any sort of vindication,” he said. “I’ve never had a lack of confidence in my ability to play the game. I just knew if went out there and worked as hard as I can and just hopefully go out there and prove the people wrong who didn’t think I was good enough to play at a certain level, one day I’ll be able to play at that level.”

Duncan grew up in Calgary, Alb., and started playing hockey at the age of three. His father played hockey at North Dakota as well and introduced Ryan to the game. Like many other young hockey players, Duncan was a two-sport athlete, playing baseball in the summer, and even sometimes a little golf. However, he eventually had to choose as he got older, since hockey has become a year-round sport, and picked hockey.

In Calgary, Duncan often got to watch the Mac’s Midget tournament, an event that would have a formative impact on his hockey career, since it is where he discovered Shattuck-St. Mary’s.

“Shattuck, they were kind of becoming the big powerhouse in that tournament about two or three years before I got involved, so I got to watch guys like Zach Parise and Ben Eaves and Brady Murray and people like that. Later on, I had a chance to play in the tournament in my first year for the Calgary team and it just so happened that I was fortunate to have a good game at a time slot just before Shattuck was playing, so they had caught notice of me and then we both showed some interest and went from there.”

While at Shattuck, Duncan helped his team win a national championship, and played with several of his future Fighting Sioux teammates, including Toews and Taylor Chorney. He also got to skate with Pittsburgh Penguins phenom Sidney Crosby during the 2002-2003 season. Duncan treasures his time at Shattuck.

“I learned a lot about hockey and the most about life, and it’s just a great place because everybody’s focused and motivated on the same things, with hockey and schooling, and it’s kind of a neat situation where you’re living in the dorms with your teammates and all of your buddies that you’re going to school with, so you can form some deep bonds and friendships with them and it’s just a great all-around experience.”

Given that his father was a Fighting Sioux alum, it was natural that Duncan would have been expected to play at North Dakota. However, Duncan considered several options.

“I think my dad and my mom, they wanted to push me towards college hockey, not North Dakota, in general. I think growing up in Canada, major junior is the big thing, with the WHL up there, so I definitely took a look at that route, but my dad took me down to a game at North Dakota when I was in about eighth grade, and I got to see what that was all about because not a lot of people know what the college hockey atmosphere, the game, is like, so I was just glad I got to open my eyes a little to that.”

Fighting Sioux coach Dave Hakstol said he and his coaches saw a lot of the same positives in Duncan, and felt Duncan had already answered any questions about being able to compete despite his size.

“We saw an intelligent, very competitive hockey player,” says Hakstol. “I think Ryan answered the question (regarding his size) early on in his career at the AAA/Midget level, both in Calgary and certainly at Shattuck, when he was playing there. He’s a guy I think has probably had to deal with that his whole life, but his hockey sense and his competitiveness, he rises above that issue because of those traits.”

Duncan was almost immediately successful at North Dakota. As a freshman, he finished fifth on the team in scoring with 36 points. Oshie had 45 that year, while Toews had 39.

In the first half of his sophomore season, Duncan only played a handful of games with Toews and Oshie as his linemates. For those who might think that Oshie and Toews are mostly responsible for Duncan’s success, Duncan’s offensive output during the first half of the year gives the lie to it, something Oshie acknowledges.

“Before Christmas, we couldn’t really get anything going,” says Oshie. “Our role on the team was to create offense, and right around Christmas when Jonny got back we started feeding off each other and started putting pucks in the net a little bit more. Before that, it was all Duncan.”

For the second half of last season, the DOT line terrorized opposing netminders, and was a big reason that the Fighting Sioux got as far as they did in the NCAA tournament. After a series against Denver in Denver in January, Denver coach George Gwozdecky said of the DOT line, “That’s like trying to play against a National Hockey League line. Those guys are extremely talented and they play so well off each other that just trying to contain them is tough. They’re really good with the puck and without it.”

Asked about his success with Toews and Oshie last season, Duncan downplays his contribution, praising Oshie and Toews.

“They have tremendous talent to go along with unbelievable work ethic. That’s something that you don’t find very often, and it was just pleasure for me to play with those guys; they make being in hockey a lot easier for you, and I just went out there and tried to complement their talents, stay out of their way and let them go out there and make the plays and hopefully get into a position where you can give them the puck or get the puck and put the puck in the net.”

For his part, Hakstol isn’t surprised by Duncan’s comments, but believes Duncan elevates those around him.

“Well, that’s just Ryan’s personality. He deflects praise quite often, he’s very complimentary of the people around him, and he’s just a humble young man. I think that’s a great quality. When you put him on the ice, he becomes extremely competitive. He’ll tell you part of his success is he’s played with a lot of great players; I think he’s been a big part of the players around him being successful.”

Oshie enthusiastically agrees with this sentiment.

“His best quality is how easy it is to play with him. On the ice, he makes everyone around him better, and when people do that, he brings people up to his level and I think your linemates definitely feed off of that.

“As far as him crediting me and Jon, it definitely goes both ways, because like I said, we weren’t giving him too much help last year early, and he just kept scoring and scoring every game, and he definitely earned everything that he got last year. It’s amazing how humble he stayed through all of his success last year and even going into this year he still credits everyone else besides himself and that’s just a great teammate.”

For Duncan, winning the Hobey Baker was a thrill, as well as a bit of a surprise. “Like I mentioned before, just playing on the line with T.J. and Jonathan opened a lot of doors for me. I could just fly under the radar playing with those two guys; they did most of the work. I was fortunate to benefit from their skill and talent; I was pretty fortunate to get some publicity at the right time and things just worked out for me.”

Even after he, Oshie and Chorney announced their commitment to return to North Dakota last spring, almost immediately after the loss to Boston College, Duncan did get some interest from pro teams, and he attended the St. Louis Blues’ camp over the summer.

Duncan himself has a realistic attitude about his size and his ability to be competitive, and for the most part doesn’t worry about it, trying instead to focus on playing to the best of his abilities.

“Obviously I don’t have the physical attributes some other players I’m playing against have, but I just think you have to use other tools to be successful. I just think I have to use my speed and quickness to my advantage and also use my teammates as much as I can. It’s not often I’m going to burn a guy one-on-one or beat him with my physical strength, so I have to use my brain a little bit and hopefully use my teammates; they can help me, and hopefully we can be successful and make some plays out there.”

Duncan does hope to play in the NHL one day, and he acknowledges that he and his Fighting Sioux teammates have been following Toews’ success closely, including his amazing goal against the Colorado Avalanche in October.

“We’ve seen that goal numerous, numerous times,” Duncan exclaims. “It’s unbelievable to me how he can do that kind of stuff at full speed. We’re definitely very proud of what he’s doing so far.”

For now however, Duncan is pleased to be back at North Dakota. “Like I said, I’m just worried about having a great year this year, because I have no guarantees, no ties to any teams, no NHL team has any guarantees to me or owes me anything, so I have to go out there and prove myself every game. Hopefully I can put myself in a position where the ball’s kind of in my court and I can make the decision that I feel is best for my hockey career.”‘

Middlebury Remains Tops in D-III Hockey Poll

By Nicholas Jon Wood
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Their season debut still four days away, Middlebury nonetheless increased its hold on the nation’s top spot, adding three first place votes to last week’s total of 10 in this week’s edition of the USCHO.com Division III men’s hockey poll. Manhattanville, now 4-0-1, is just nine points back but lost a first place vote to Wisconsin-River Falls, now third, who has an identical record.

Plattsburgh — who along with Wisconsin-Stout has the nation’s best mark at 7-0 — rose one spot as did Stout; both received the final first place votes. Norwich, previously fourth, fell to No. 6 despite not yet playing a game.

Seven and eight, St. Norbert and Elmira, remained in their current positions while Hobart, now an impressive 6-0, ascended three spots to ninth. Continuing to struggle, Oswego dropped again, this time just one spot to tenth.

Babson, St. Thomas, undefeated (4-0) Bethel, Bowdoin and Mass.-Dartmouth round out the poll. Interestingly, all five of those teams just swapped positions amongst themselves, leaving no more new entrants in this week’s rankings.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback: Nov. 13

By Jim Connelly and Scott Brown
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Scott: So, Jim, a wild weekend is behind us, and with the dust settled we’re suddenly looking at three CCHA teams — Miami, Michigan and Michigan State — at the top of the USCHO.com/CSTV poll. The CCHA has struggled a bit in recent years come NCAA tournament time, but with MSU winning the national championship last April and now this, are we seeing a resurgence in that league?

Jim: “Wow” is all I can say when I look at this week’s poll and see the CCHA at the top. That league has suffered so many postseason disappointments in recent years, so I think it’s good for the league and for the game that there is a solid resurgence going on. I’m not sure if, or maybe the better term is “how much,” leveling off still needs to happen. The WCHA is clearly a strong conference, but its members are beating one another up with probably six or seven of the 10 teams extremely strong. In the CCHA, it seems like you have four extremely strong teams — Michigan, Miami, Michigan State and Notre Dame — and a lot of also-rans. Sure, those bottom-of-the-barrel teams are good spoilers, but the true picture of the league will uncover itself when those top four clubs all battle. We saw it a little last week when Miami and Notre Dame locked horns, handing Miami its first loss. We’ll likely see it again this weekend when Michigan State and Miami go.

Jeff Lerg and third-ranked Michigan State will try to unseat No. 1 Miami this Thursday and Friday (photo: Ray Bartnikowski).

Jeff Lerg and third-ranked Michigan State will try to unseat No. 1 Miami this Thursday and Friday (photo: Ray Bartnikowski).

Scott: True enough. The WCHA has already had several top-tier skirmishes, with Minnesota having played Colorado College and Denver, and North Dakota taking on Wisconsin last weekend after playing CC the previous week. I’ll be very interested in how this weekend’s Miami-Michigan State series shapes up, with those teams now No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, in the poll. Moving East, though, what the heck is going on in Hockey East? Every team has at least one tie in conference play already, and we’re seeing results like Northeastern beating New Hampshire and Merrimack tying Boston College. Now, I know that on any night, any team can beat any other team and all that, but factor in Hockey East’s 12-14-1 nonconference record — with eight of those wins coming against the CHA and Atlantic Hockey — and you have to ask if there’s something in the water.

Jim: This certainly seems to be a crazy year in Hockey East. There’s more parity top to bottom than we’ve seen in recent years, but I think it’s a combination of reasons. First, the bottom of the league has gotten stronger. Programs like Merrimack and Massachusetts-Lowell might not be championship-caliber clubs, but they’re definitely more competitive this year than last. At the same time, early departures, injuries and suspension have led to some of the top teams in the league becoming a bit weak. Maine lost Teddy Purcell, arguably the best rookie in the league. BC lost Cory Schneider a year early and is without top defensemen Brock Bradford (injury) and Brett Motherwell (suspension). And that’s only part of the list. The good news is that the season is a long one and it’s better to peak in March than November. But that doesn’t make early-season losses for the traditional Hockey East powers any easier to stomach.

Scott: Agreed. And early or late, those losses will weigh on the PairWise Rankings when the time comes. Speaking of a wild weekend, tempers flared between North Dakota and Wisconsin on Saturday, culminating in a brawl that saw 122 penalty minutes handed out and words exchanged between UND head coach Dave Hakstol and UW bench boss Mike Eaves postgame. Now, I’ve seen footage of the scrum on YouTube — which started with a hit on Brendan Smith by Rylan Kaip — and it’s no “Punch-up in Piestany,” but you don’t often see most everyone on the ice taking part in a melee in the college game. The result was a bunch of roughing minors handed out, with an extra one to Kaip, and a series of 10-minute misconducts for the players involved, meaning no one misses a game. Was this the appropriate reaction by the officials?

Jim: Not a chance. I wrote in my blog this week that with all of the supplemental discipline that leagues have handed down this year based on video review, this seems like a situation where the WCHA must react. Almost every player on the ice could have been assessed fighting majors and game disqualifications for their participation in this mess. There were true haymakers being thrown, not to mention third-man-in and abuse of officials penalties that could’ve been given as well. If the WCHA doesn’t react, I’m not sure the precedent it sets. Speaking of, as I just made reference to it here, what do you think about the suspension that Hockey East levied to BC’s Nathan Gerbe, basically saying that the league has had enough of cheap stuff behind the play?

Scott: Gerbe’s case is an interesting one since his suspension is the cumulative impact of a pattern of behavior. Quoting commissioner Joe Bertagna from the league’s press release, “While a suspension might not have been forthcoming on last night’s actions alone, this is not the first time this season that I have been made aware of inappropriate behavior from Nathan. Given the fact that he had already been put on notice, I felt that supplemental discipline was in order in this instance.” Now, I don’t get to see Gerbe much, but a reputation for this sort of stuff is hard to wash away, especially once the league office notices. I only hope that the suspension has the desired effect, which is to keep everyone — not just Gerbe — clean. The CCHA sent a similar kind of message with its recent three-game suspension of Bowling Green’s Kai Kantola for hitting from behind, and the most good that can come out of these sorts of things is if the punishment means that they don’t happen again. As an aside, we prominently mentioned Clarkson, Princeton and Miami last week, and all three lost at least one game over the weekend, though Miami is still No. 1 and Clarkson is still in the top 10. Are we putting on a hex in this column?

Jim: Could we be the creators of the SI jinx in college hockey? That would almost be a dream come true. Seriously, though, I’m pretty sure Clarkson and Miami are very legit teams. For Princeton, the jury is further out now than a week ago. The fact of the matter is that no matter how long I’ve been around the game, it still amazes me how much parity there is in the ECAC. You can throw a dart to pick those games — and speaking of darts, we’ll have more to toss next week.

Should there be a new No. 1?

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The headline on USCHO.com’s front page on Friday night was simple: “No. 1 No More.”

That, of course, was referring to the fact that Miami, the nation’s number one team entering the week, had dropped a 2-1 decision to No. 12 Notre Dame, the first loss of the year for the RedHawks. Miami rebounded a night later for a 3-1 victory, which left the question at weekend’s end: Does Miami’s loss combined with a sweep of Alaska by No. 2 Michigan justify a swap in the top poll positions?

As I sat down to fill out my ballot for the USCHO.com poll, I needed to weigh each team’s merits.

Both team’s have identical 9-1-0 records, so that’s a wash. Both team’s losses came against nationally-ranked teams: Michigan’s against Minnesota; Miami’s against Notre Dame.

What I hoped would be the differentiator to me, though, was the overall strenght of each team’s schedule to this point. Each team scored series sweeps over Northern Michigan and Nebraska-Omaha to account for four wins each. Michigan then beat Boston College, Boston University twice and Alaska. Miami on the other hand defeated Vermont, which was winless until this weekend, twice, as well as a struggling Ohio State team and Saturday’s second game with Notre Dame.

A part of me believes the schedules, then, are a wash as well, though BC and BU do seem tougher teams than Ohio State and Vermont. So what it came down to is the ol’ “What have you done for me lately.”

Thus, as I expect to happen on most ballots this week, Michigan grabs my top spot… for this week, at least.

Supplemental Discipline

This Saturday night, two of college hockey’s conferences were put in rare circumstances. Both Hockey East and the WCHA handed down suspensions due to actions that took place in Friday night’s games that origianlly were not whistled as penalties requiring suspension.

In Hockey East, it was BC forward Nathan Gerbe. He butt-ended a Merrimack player on Friday night without the referee seeing it. Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy sent the tape into the league, and commissioner Joe Bertagna suspended Gerbe for one game – not based solely on his actions Friday, but because similar actions had been brought to his attention before and he had been warned by the league office.

Over in the WCHA, the situation was a little bit different. On Saturday, the league suspended Colorado College forward Derek Patrosso for a check from behind in Friday’s game against Minnesota-Duluth. In this case, Patrosso was whistled for a major penalty and game misconduct for hitting from behind, which doesn’t carry with it any suspension. In suspending Patrosso, the league simply did the equivalent of escalating the penalty to a game disqualification, which carries with it a one-game suspension.

Each case raises a question that I’ve heard asked a couple of times since Saturday night: Should the leagues get into the practice of using video review to hand out discipline? Does this open a can of worms where coaches will be submitting video tapes of their games every weekend for review?

My thought is that this is not only a good practice on behalf of the league, but it’s a necessary one.

Referees are human and can only see so much of a game, which by the way is moving at an extremely fast pace in front of their eyes. They can’t see everything and, as was the case with Patrosso’s hit, even if they see the penalty they might not realize how severe the infraction was when viewing at full speed.

The league’s ability to hand down supplemental discipline is nothing new. Coaches have been able to and have submitted video tapes to leagues to review for years. It just seems that this season league are actually taking additional actions.

It’s unlikely, though, that there’s any can of worms to open here. An official at Hockey East said that requests for the league to review tapes are somewhat rare, though Friday night’s request from Dennehy wasn’t the first the office has received this season.

A perfect example of where video review is most definitely necessary occured on Saturday night in a game between North Dakota and Wisconsin. With just under four minutes remaining, a full-out line brawl started between the two clubs. After reviewing the tape myself, it’s apparent that just about every single player on the two teams that participated in the altercation should have received major penalties and game disqualifications – whether it be for punching, fighting, third-man-in – whatever. Instead, though, the referees in the game (I’d include names but the box scores online are somewhat cryptic on who the exact referees were) chose to assess no major penalties or disqualications, instead opting for minors and double minors along with 10-minute misconducts.

At the time, that might have seemed like the best option as all ten players were sent to the locker room and in case the referees, who were engrossed in the melee, couldn’t identify exactly which player did what, they wouldn’t hand out penalties that resulted in suspensions.

Truly, this sends a bad message – that fighting is a part of the college game and, if you fight, you’ll only get a minor/misconduct and not have to worry about missing additional games.

So as we seem to have reached the age of league offices handing out supplemental discipline, let’s hope that the WCHA cracks the whip at this altercation.

Quick hits

– There’s currently a five-way tie atop Hockey East, which says a lot of the league’s parity. When parity was mentioned to BC coach Jerry York after his team’s 3-3 tie with Merrimack on Friday, he responded with a smile: “We don’t really like parity.”

– Though games in hand could play a factor, it’s still a breath of fresh air to see Bentley at the top of the Atlantic Hockey standings.

– Biggest shocker for me this weekend: Providence’s two-game sweep against Maine at Orono.

– After I praised Princeton a week ago, it appears the Tigers came back to Earth last weekend, dropping two games at home to Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

– Now that another season has passed that no one can challenge Cornell’s perfect 29-0-0 season of 1969-70, we can take a look at which clubs have a chance to be the first team since Maine in 1992-93 to finish the year with just one loss. Those candidates include: Michigan, Miami, Michigan State, Harvard, and New Hampshire.

– Thoguh a stat that I always question the validity of in college hockey, Army’s Luke Flicek is currently a +9 over eight games. Conversely, Mercyhurst forward Ben Cottreau hasn’t shown the same defensive prowess to compliment his offensive abilities. Despite scoring 10 points in 10 games, Cottreau is also a -10.

Miami Slim No. 1, Michigan Close Second In USCHO.com/CSTV Poll

USCHO Staff Report
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Despite its first loss of the season, Miami hung onto the No. 1 spot in the latest USCHO.com/CSTV Division I men’s poll, released Monday.

The RedHawks lost Friday to Notre Dame before recovering Saturday for a split with the Fighting Irish, while No. 2 Michigan won a pair against Alaska, leaving the teams with identical 9-1-0 records. Voters were split between the RedHawks and the Wolverines, with Miami netting 26 first-place votes and Michigan 22.

Leaguemate Michigan State made it a sweep of the top three spots for the CCHA, as the Spartans beat Mercyhurst twice to take the remaining two first-place votes and the No. 3 position in the poll. Miami and Michigan State face off for a pair this Thursday and Friday.

Idle Denver inched up a notch to fourth place, passing North Dakota, which fell two places to No. 5 after splitting with Wisconsin.

New Hampshire held its ground in sixth after a tie with Massachusetts-Lowell and a win over Boston College, while Colorado College moved up to No. 7 by sweeping Minnesota-Duluth.

No. 8 this week was Clarkson, which lost to Quinnipiac but beat Princeton. The Golden Knights were followed by Wisconsin and then Notre Dame to round out the top half of the poll.

Boston College fell four spots to No. 11 with a tie against Merrimack and the aforementioned loss to UNH, while Minnesota eased up to No. 12 after winning twice against Minnesota State.

St. Cloud State made a move up to 13th by sweeping Michigan Tech; next up, Massachusetts was the week’s biggest gainer, up six positions to No. 14 with a win against Boston University and a tie with UML. In 15th place this week was Rensselaer, which lost to Harvard and beat Dartmouth.

Maine was No. 16, which lost twice to Providence to fall five slots. Minnesota-Duluth was No. 17, followed by Michigan Tech. Harvard entered the poll at No. 19 by beating RPI and Union, and Niagara completed the poll after splitting with Robert Morris.

Dropping out this week was Princeton.

MIAC Season Preview

By Derek Martin
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The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference seems to be separated into three tiers of teams. In the first tier is Bethel and St. Thomas, the second consists of Augsburg, St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, and St. John’s, and the third includes St. Mary’s, Concordia-Moorhead, and Hamline.

Now, this breakdown of the MIAC might seem obvious since it was the way the teams finished last season. However, both Bethel and St. Thomas have not taken any steps down to the lower tier, instead they have both improved. The second tier teams don’t seem to have the weapons to compete with the two powerhouses, and the lower tier teams are still struggling to fix major issues such as penalties, goaltending, and recruiting.

The teams are organized below by predicted order of finish.

St. Thomas Tommies

Coach: Terry Skrypek, 21st season at St. Thomas (372-165-36)
2006-2007 overall record: 17-10-0
2006-2007 MIAC record: 12-4-0
2006-2007 MIAC finish: Second
2007-2008 predicted finish: First

St. Thomas graduated several all-conference talent, however the Tommies are also returning several all-conference players. Nick Pernula returns off a 58 points (28 goals, 30 assists) performance last season in 42 games.

St. Thomas restocked its depth chart with ten new players this season. Sophomore goaltender Tyler Chestnutt, a transfer from Holy Cross, will challenge junior Cameron Voss for the netminding position. Junior defenseman Adam Davis, a transfer from Minnesota-Duluth, will give the Tommies experience at the blue line.

St. Thomas has more depth than any other team in the conference, as each position is solid from top to bottom. The Tommies could possibly only see two or three losses in the MIAC this season.

Bethel Royals

Coach: Joel Johnson, first season at Bethel (2-0-0)
2006-2007 overall record: 18-10-1
2006-2007 MIAC record: 12-3-1
2006-2007 MIAC finish: First
2007-2008 predicted finish: Second

Bethel was a bit of a surprise last season as they finished with the best record in the conference. This season the Royals should remain a force in the MIAC despite having young scorers. One major obstacle in Bethel’s path is trying to fill the holes that graduation left. With 12 veterans missing from last season’s team the Royals will need to find young players who can pick up the slack.

Incoming forwards Christian Fogerty, Lukas Jorgensen, Tom Menozzi, and Ian Vanbiesbrouck need to be key players if Bethel wants to continue its success from last season.

Seniors Dan Bonne and Jeff Balvin will need to provide leadership to the young crew of forwards. The Royals have an experienced defensive unit returning from last season that allowed the fewest goals per game (2.83) in the conference. Sophomore Aaron Damjanovich, who led the MIAC in goals against average, save percentage, and winning percentage, is the anchor of the Bethel squad.

The Royals were the top pick in the MIAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll and ranked 15th in the USCHO.com Preseason Poll. Clearly, the expectations are very high for Bethel and with such young forwards it will be interesting to see how first year coach Joel Johnson handles the pressure his team faces.

Gustavus Adolphus Golden Gusties

Coach: Brett Petersen, eighth season at Gustavus (83-87-15)
2006-2007 overall record: 11-13-2
2006-2007 MIAC record: 9-6-1
2006-2007 MIAC finish: Fifth
2007-2008 predicted finish: Third

Gustavus lost three of its top four scorers to graduation but retains its top scorer from last season, Eric Bigham. The main concern for the Gusties this season should be goaltending. All three sophomore netminders from last year’s squad left the team and coach Brett Petersen brought in two first-year players and a junior transfer to fill the void. This could be the factor that makes or breaks the Gusties’ season.

Gustavus added six first-year skaters to its roster with three forwards and three defensemen. These newcomers will see minimal playing time with so many veterans on the team.

The Gustie defensemen do not have much size, as the tallest is 6’1”, however two of the goaltenders are listed at 6’3” and 6’4”. Without the ability to clear the traffic in front of the net the goaltenders must be able to handle added pressure. It will be interesting to see what kind of netminding the Gusties have.

St. John’s Johnnies

Coach: John Harrington, 15th season with St. John’s (229-131-29)
2006-2007 overall record: 9-14-2
2006-2007 MIAC record: 6-9-1
2006-2007 MIAC finish: Sixth
2007-2008 predicted finish: Fourth

St. John’s had its first losing season (9-14-2) last year since 1994-95. The good news is that they lost only six players to graduation and will have a lot of experience returning to the lineup this season. Senior Pat Eagles will be the leader of this year’s squad and will be expected to boost the offense that the Johnnies lacked last season.

Junior goaltender Vince Wheeler will be back between the pipes as the team’s top goalie this season. Wheeler posted respectable numbers last year with a save percentage of .890 while surrendering 2.89 goals against per game.

It will be up to this season’s junior class to take what they learned from their hardships last year and show improvement. Two important members of that group are forward Joel Stacklie and defenseman Clayton Rehm. Last season Stacklie recorded eight points (5 goals, 3 assists) in 19 games and Rehm notched seven points (7 assists) in 18 games.

If St. John’s is to rebound from last season’s disappointment it will need to increase its goals per game — 2.81 — which ranked seventh in the MIAC.

Augsburg Auggies

Coach: Chris Brown, second season at Augsburg (12-12-4)
2006-2007 overall record: 12-10-4
2006-2007 MIAC record: 9-3-4
2006-2007 MIAC finish: Third
2007-2008 predicted finish: Fifth

Augsburg will be looking at the 2007-2008 season as a reloading year. After losing players like Aaron Johnson, last season’s top scorer, Critter Nagurski, Greg May, A.J. Hau, and Chad Georgell, the Auggies need to find returners to fill their skates.

Augsburg has several players who will be expected to fill the void left by graduation. Defensemen Dan Leopold and Ben Bradbury will be the leaders on an experienced blue line. Sophomore Chris Johnson is the top scorer returning from last year’s squad with 19 points (8 goals, 11 assists). Junior Brett Way and Senior Danny Carlson will be big factors in the Auggie offense.

Andy Kent was one of the top netminders in the MIAC last season and should continue his solid play into this season. Kent compiled a record of 10-8-4 last season and was an All-MIAC selection. Senior Michael Henrichsen and junior Adam Hendel give Augsburg a lot of depth between the pipes.

The Auggies come into the 2007-08 season with nine first-year players on the roster. Defenseman Ben Roberts, and forwards Joel Sauer, Jim Jensen, Gerrit Hooker, and Cory Ellertson are the top newcomers to the program.

This season Augsburg may take a step back but it would be hard not to with the firepower they lost. However, the Auggies should still be competitive this season in the conference and will be a force in a couple years with its current first-year players.

St. Olaf Oles

Coach: Sean Goldsworthy, 11th season at St. Olaf (99-133-28)
2006-2007 overall record: 11-14-2
2006-2007 MIAC record: 9-5-2
2006-2007 MIAC finish: Fourth
2007-2008 predicted finish: Sixth

St. Olaf is anchored by its blue line unit, which is led by All-American John Paulson. Paulson led the Oles in goals last season with eight in 25 games. Junior Dylan Mueller led the team in scoring last year with 19 points (7 goals, 12 assists) in 25 games. Mueller has led the Oles in scoring in each of the last two seasons.

In goal, St. Olaf has a void to fill after Jeff Wilde graduated last season. Junior Jake Busch and sophomore Brycen Eberwein will compete for the starting job in net.

St. Mary’s Cardinals

Coach: Don Olson, 31st season at St. Mary’s (366-386-40)
2006-2007 overall record: 7-17-1
2006-2007 MIAC record: 4-11-1
2006-2007 MIAC finish: Seventh
2007-2008 predicted finish: Seventh

St. Mary’s recorded its third straight losing season last year with a 7-17-1 record. This was due, in part, to a high amount of penalty minutes (19.3 per game) and the worst power play unit in the conference.

Senior Dan Smith will be the Cardinals’ go-to-guy in the net this season. Last year Smith ranked third in the MIAC with a .904 save percentage along with a respectable 3.17 goals against average. Smith will give St. Mary’s consistency at the goaltending position while it must find answers at the other positions.

The Cardinals have experience on their side with six seniors on the roster and only two first-year players. Seniors Jesse Polk and Adam Gill are the Cardinals’ top scorers. In 25 games last season Gill posted 22 points (13 goals, 9 assists), while Polk racked up 15 points (10 goals, 5 assists) in the same number of games.

If St. Mary’s is going to improve on last season’s seventh place finish it needs to find scorers in its sophomore and junior classes. Without any new veterans stepping up and showing improvement the Cardinals will remain at the bottom of the MIAC pile.

Concordia Cobbers

Coach: Steve Baumgartner, 22nd season at Concordia (231-295-32)
2006-2007 overall record: 7-18-0
2006-2007 MIAC record: 3-13-0
2006-2007 MIAC finish: Eighth
2007-2008 predicted finish: Eighth

The Concordia Cobbers have not had a winning season since 2002-03 when they had a 13-11-2 record. It is difficult to find something positive for this program to head into the 2007-08 season. However, optimism could be just around the corner if the Cobbers can fix a few areas.

Concordia ranked last in the conference in penalty kill with a 69.4 percent success rate and ranked first in penalty minutes with 22.4 per game. The Cobbers must play more disciplined, smart hockey. It does not bode well for hockey teams when they have a bad penalty kill and they take a lot of penalties.

The goaltending position must find some consistency and reliability. Junior Jeremy Boniface saw the majority of time in the net last season and ranked near the bottom among MIAC starting netminders in every major category. If the Cobbers are going to have any success it starts with solid goaltending.

Hamline Pipers

Coach: Scott Bell, third season at Hamline (11-38-3)
2006-2007 overall record: 7-18-0
2006-2007 MIAC record: 3-13-0
2006-2007 MIAC finish: Eighth
2007-2008 predicted finish: Ninth

Hamline is a young team with no senior leadership and seven juniors on the roster. Goaltending is also an issue as the Pipers’ Matt Wanvig finished last season in last place among conference starting goaltenders in goals against average and save percentage. There are plenty of holes in the Hamline depth chart and it is hard to see the Pipers improving from last year without the veteran experience.

NCHA Season Preview

By
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I spent a huge amount of space in last season’s preview blathering on about how tight and competitive the league was going to be. Though it was pretty much stating the obvious, it turned out I was right. The top seven spots were up for grabs heading into the final weekend of the season; when all was said and done three teams were tied for first and another was only one game back.

If it’s even possible, things might be even tighter this season. It’s anyone’s guess how St. Norbert, Stout, River Falls, Superior and St. Scholastica compare to one another, and Lake Forest almost certainly will improve on its winless league ledger.

What really might add to the confusion, however are the two wildcards: Eau Claire and Stevens Point.

The Blugolds are under new leadership and are entering the second year of a massive overhaul initiated by former head coach Luke Strand. With Strand accepting an assistant coaching position with the AHL Houston Aeros this offseason, the head job now belongs to Matt Loen.

The Coon Rapids, MN native spent the prior two seasons as a Blugold assistant. Also a former Blugold player from 1991-95, he garnered first team all-american honors as a senior. Following his collegiate playing days he logged over 500 games on the professional circuit, playing with teams in the UHL, AHL and IHL.

After sixteen seasons with Joe Baldarotta at the helm, the Pointers find themselves under new leadership in the form of Wil Nichol. Nichol, a defenseman, played for Stevens Point from 1994-1998 and captained the Pointers’ 1998 national runner-up squad. Since then, Nichol has held head coaching positions with IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL, the Chicago Steel (USHL), and Stevens Point high school. He has also served as an assistant at Division I Miami of Ohio.

As there is no amount of rambling from me that would be able to figure out exactly how the league is going to shake out, we might as well get on with it and let the teams and a little time take care of it for us.

I will mention one thing though: After pegging Stout for seventh last season only to watch the Blue Devils rampage their way to a 21-5-1 season and a share of the NCHA title, I have absolutely no confidence in these predictions whatsoever. I am already conceding the fact that some team is going to make me look like a dunce. It’s not going to stop me from trying, though.

Teams below are ordered by the reverse of their predicted finish.

Lake Forest Foresters

Head coach: Tony Fritz, 30th season overall and at Lake Forest (334-369-49)
2006-07 overall record: 3-21-3
2006-07 NCHA record: 0-11-3 (8th)
Key returners: F Mike Kneeland, jr., (7-6-13; F Chris Wilson, jr., (6-10-16), G Scott Campbell, jr., (3-10-1, 3.67, .913); G Brandon Kohuch (0-11-2, 4.74, .891); D Matt Oke, jr., (2-9-11)
Key losses: F Tyler Canal (9-19-28)
2007-08 projected finish: Eighth

The Foresters are an interesting case study when it comes to the volatility of sports. In terms of wins and losses, last season’s 3-21-3 record was the worst in school history dating back to 1966.

The interesting thing about it is they are still only two years removed from winning back to back playoff series. In fact, in the three years prior to last season, the Foresters posted an overall record of 46-33-5.

With nine players returning from the 2005-06 team that went to the conference semifinals, something has to give this year.

The strongest aspect of this year’s team might be its talented goaltending duo. Juniors Brandon Kohuch and Scott Campbell split-time two years ago and played a large role in the Foresters finishing 15-13-0 overall and fourth in the NCHA.

Scoring only 2.30 goals per contest last season, the Foresters offense ranked worst in the NCHA but should be bolstered as unlike last season, junior forward Mike Kneeland will playing from the get-go. To those familiar with Lake Forest, there is little doubt Kneeland might be one of the best, and most underrated, forwards in the nation.

He can’t do it all, however, and junior Chris Wilson will be expected to increase his production this year as well.

Due to recent roster turnover, the Foresters don’t return much scoring aside from Kneeland and Wilson. With eleven underclassmen forwards on the roster, however, there is little doubt head coach Tony Fritz is expecting some of them to step up and play vital roles.

Though the offense may be a bit shaky, the Foresters are hoping to rely on a defense that brings a little more experience to the table.

Juniors Matt Oke and Joe Papineau lead a unit that should provide some stability early in the season. Them along with junior Chris Jackson and Chris Ghidina will hopefully be enough to bide some time for the Foresters to figure out its offense.

Overall they are a bit of a mystery. It’s highly unlikely they go winless in the NCHA again, but with so many questions and new faces, it’s tough to tell at this point how much of a fluke last season really was.

Wis.-Eau Claire Blugolds

Head coach: Matt Loen, 1st season overall and at Wis.-Eau Claire (0-0-0)
2006-07 overall record: 9-14-4
2006-07 NCHA record: 2-9-3 (t6th)
Key returners: F Sean Garrity, sr., (13-14-27); D Greg Petersen, jr., (7-17-24); F Jesse Vesel, jr., (4-18-22); F Aaron Johnson, jr., (10-7-17);
Key losses: F Steve Dus (4-7-11); D Kyle Garner (1-8-9); G Ryan Mensing, jr., (6-14-3, 3.04, .900)
2007-08 projected finish: Seventh

Eau Claire’s 2-9-3 finish in NCHA play last season certainly didn’t set the world on fire, but it is a little deceptive. The Blugolds lost seven NCHA games by two goals or less last season, including a pair of losses at St. Norbert in the conference playoffs. The Blugolds also took part in six overtime games against conference foes, posting only a 0-3-3 record in those contests.

The lesson here is that there is a big difference between a 2-9-3 team that gets hammered every night and one that is very young and drops a lot of close games. The Blugolds would be the latter.

In fact, one NCHA coach predicted last season, “I won’t guarantee you Eau Claire will make a run next season, but within two years they will be challenging for the top of our league.”

If the Blugolds look to challenge for the top spot, they will need to find a way to replace netminder Ryan Mensing. The Division I transfer anchored a Blugold defense that only allowed three goals per game last season, but his departure leaves Eau Claire with a trio of goalies who only have six total games of D-III experience.

Senior Mike Gatzke and sophomores Aaron Johnson and Tyler Brigl expect to compete for playing time, but Brigl will likely end up being the number one. Brigl posted a 3-0-1 record in a relief role last season.

Aiding defensively will be a unit led by junior Greg Petersen. The twenty-point scorer is solid on both ends and many think he is the best offensive defenseman in the league. Petersen’s efforts will be assisted by sophomores Brian Plaszcz, Nicholas Kuqali, Tyler Trudell and DJ Clark, as well as freshman Tim Possehl.

It is essential the Blugolds improve on an offense that ranked seventh in the league last season in posting only 2.74 goals per game. The good news on this front is that nearly their entire forward crop returns.

Senior Sean Garrity led the way last season with 27 points, which was enough to land him first-team all-conference honors. 22 point junior Jesse Vesel also returns this season, as does 17 point junior Andrew Johnson.

Looking to add some scoring depth will be juniors Dan Fina and Sam Bauler, as well as freshman Ross Janecyk.

This is the season a lot of people are expecting the Blugolds to begin to make a move, but if they wish to they must find more scoring, and must find a way to win close games. The played St. Norbert as tough as anyone to close out last season and if they keep that up look for an increased win total in Eau Claire.

Wis.-Stevens Point Pointers

Head Coach: Wil Nichol, 1st season overall and at Wis.-Stevens Point (0-0-0)
2006-07 overall record: 7-18-2
2006-07 NCHA record: 3-10-1 (t6th)
Key returners: G Marcus Paulson, jr., (7-16-2, 4.02., .876); F Sean Fish, jr. (13-15-28); F Pat Lee, jr. (11-9-20); F Russell Law, jr., (6-5-11); D Nate Sorenson, sr., (1-0-1); F Brett Beckfeld, jr., (10-8-18); F Josh Calleja, so., (7-16-23)
Key losses: F Nick Zebro (6-7-13)
2007-08 projected finish: Sixth

Stevens Point’s 7-18-2 record last season was the worst record the Pointers have finished with since 1985. When looking for a reason for last season’s struggles, one stands out above all others: Defense – or rather, a lack thereof.

The Pointers allowed 4.37 goals per contest last season, which was enough to rate worst in the NCHA. As a result, it was one of the first things first year head coach Wil Nichol addressed after taking over the helm last offseason.

When asked if it was a priority to strengthen the blueline, his answer was a simple one: “Yes.”

As a result, the Pointers brought in three Division I transfers along with a freshman who boasts Division I talent. Leading the group is junior Tim Manthey. Manthey played his first two years at Army, posting 29 points last season while also claiming all-conference honors.

He is joined by junior Jon Ralph, a transfer from Bowling Green, and sophomore Creighton Scarpone who played his initial season at Quinnipiac. Rounding out the group is freshman Garrett Suter, who was initially recruited to play at Wisconsin.

Manthey and Ralph both have garnered captain’s duties this season.
The quartet is expected to play nearly every night and will likely be joined by the Pointers’ top two defensemen from a year ago, senior Nate Sorenson and sophomore Tom Upton.

No one knows if it will be a miracle cure, but Nichol is confident in the Pointers’ new defensive look.

“We had to find some legit defensemen to alleviate the problem,” said Nichol. “I think we did that. I’m now confident in our entire group, not just in those four guys.”

Junior goaltender Marcus Paulson has been a workhorse for the Pointers over his first two years, already ranking eighth all-time in saves among Pointer goalies. Though Paulson saw action in 26 games a year ago, freshman Thomas Speer is expected to challenge for playing time and Nichol hinted at some form of rotation early in the year.

“Marcus hasn’t shown me he has what it takes to be a number one goaltender,” he said. “At the same time, as a freshman, neither has Speer. Hopefully by the middle of the season someone steps up and shows they want the number one spot.”

If Stevens Point has one strength going into the season it’s at forward. A deep junior class is spearheaded by captains Sean Fish and Brett Beckfeld. Other juniors who will figure into the attack are Matt Stendahl, Russell Law, Ross Johnson, and Shane Foster.

Sophomores Pat Lee and Josh Calleja also return after freshman campaigns which saw them among the team leaders in scoring.
According to Nichol, freshman Nic Polaski will also be expected to play a significant role up front.

The Pointers have a sour taste in their mouths following last season’s disappointing showing, and Nichol has taken steps to turn things around. There is little doubt the Pointers are improved from last season, but in a league as tough as the NCHA it still may not be enough for a top-half finish.

For now, Nichol seems content with taking things one step at a time.

“I expect this team to play every second of every game for themselves, for this school and for this community. From there we’ll see.”

St. Scholastica Saints

Head coach: Mark Wick, 3rd season overall and at St. Scholastica (35-39-9)
2006-07 overall record: 15-12-2
2006-07 NCHA record: 6-7-1 (5th)
Key returners: F A.J. Tucker, jr., (10-16-26); F Joey Martini, jr., (9-7-16); F Jake Nelson, jr., (8-11-19); F Joey Hughes, jr., (6-11-17); F Trevor Geiger, jr., (6-9-15); D Kelly Reynolds, jr., (3-12-15); D Jordan Baird, so., (4-5-9); G Tyler Johnson (12-9-1, 2.62, .900)
Key losses: None
2007-08 projected finish: Fifth

Two years ago, in only Mark Wick’s second season behind the bench, the Saints surprised everyone by posting their first winning record in twenty years. Last season they took it a step farther, defeating Superior and River Falls on the road in the conference playoffs before dropping the Peters’ Cup final at St. Norbert.

Despite the strong finish, the Saints failed to land home-ice in the playoffs last season. If they wish to do so this year, much of the responsibility will fall on a strong junior class.

“That class has been very good for us,” said Wick. “They are juniors now and have to take it to the next level. This is the first time since I’ve been here that a majority of our kids are juniors and seniors.”

In fact, the Saints’ top nine scorers last season are juniors this season. A.J. Tucker led the way with 26 points last season and was follwed by Jake Nelson with 19, Joey Hughes with 17 and Joey Martini with 16.

Other juniors expected to contribute up front are Trevor Geiger, Kyle Luschinski, Matt Saler and Matt Stengl.

Wick also singled out a couple of sophomores in Aaron Spotts and Jordan Chong as players he is expecting a big impact from.

“Spotts had the overtime winner for us at Superior last season, and Jordan Chong is another guy we hope has a good year,” he said. “We think we can expect a little more production out of those guys.”

Defensively the Saints look to improve on a unit that conceded 2.76 goals per game last season, fifth in the NCHA.

The Saints’ blueliners are led by junior Kelly Reynolds, a solid two-way defenseman who chipped in 15 points last season. Joining him are sophomores Jordan Baird, Neil Sauter, Chris Meagher, as well as junior Shane Auger. Freshman Rob Rodgers also figures to be an every night player.

Though the Saints’ enter this season with essentially the same team it has had over the past two seasons, the goalie situation is a little unclear.

Senior Tyler Johnson saw a majority of the action last season, but junior Steve Bounds also has ample experience. New to the mix this season is sophomore Zack Kleiman, a Division I transfer from Quinnipiac.

“It’s been very competitive,” said Wick. “We’re unsure of what we have right now. We’re hoping someone steps up and takes the bull by the horns, but we really haven’t settled on how we’re going to do our rotation.”

As evidenced by the NCHA preseason coaches’ poll in which St.Scholastica received two first place votes, the Saints are expected to be in the mix. They took it a step farther last season, and it will be interesting to see how far they can take it this time around.

“This is going to sound like typical coach-talk,” said Wick. “But we need to focus on getting better every day. In our league no game is easy and you have to set yourself up as well as you can for the playoffs.”

Wis.-Stout Blue Devils

Head coach: Terry Watkins, 12th season overall and at Wis.-Stout (122-162-15)
2006-07 overall record: 21-5-2
2006-07 NCHA record: 10-3-1 (t1st)
Key returners: F Scott Motz, so., (18-18-36); F Derek Hanson, so., (12-16-28); G Mike Stone (15-5-1, 2.10, .926); D Bobby Kuehl, so., (3-14-17); D Jack Wolgemuth, jr., (2-10-12); F Jake Erickson, sr. (7-11-18); F Luke Schroeder, sr., (6-12-18); D Todd Wynia (2-4-6)
Key losses: F Andrew Stearns (5-12-17); F Andy Wiesener (15-18-33); F Matt Mlynarczyk (6-10-16); D Adam Boche (3-3-6); D BJ Garczynski (0-4-4)
2007-08 projected finish: Fourth

The Blue Devils were one of the best stories in the nation last year. After a bottom half NCHA finish two years ago, they came on like gangbusters and posted its best season in school history en route to a tie for the NCHA title.

Much of what fueled Stout’s success was a deep and talented squad that had a little bit of everything. Whether it was upperclass leadership, young talent, offense, defense, goaltending or overall consistency, the Blue Devils had it.

Last year will be a tough act to follow, but head coach Terry Watkins likes the look of his team heading into the season.

“I think we are deeper than we were last season,” he said. “I also think we’re a little more talented.”

Those being said, he admits it will be a tough act to follow.

“Whether or not we can get the same effort and work ethic and heart is another matter.”

Trying to replace a strong group of senior leaders may be the Blue Devils’ greatest challenge according to Watkins.

“That’s one of the things we talked to the kids about,” he said. “But every team has to deal with it. You have to replace them with different players.”

He continued, “We have to be as consistent as we were a year ago. We came out every night. We did not have lapses. If we can do that consistently we should be ok.”

The Blue Devils return their top two scorers in sophomores Scott Motz and Derek Hanson, as well as double-digit scorers in seniors Luke Schroeder and Jake Erickson. Adding depth at the forward position will sophomore Joel Gaulrapp, a transfer from UW-Superior, junior Jeff Wheeler and freshmen Robert Carr and Danny Ryan. Watkins also expects a strong return from senior Scott Sekkink, who missed nearly all of last season due to injury.

Led by senior Todd Wynia, junior Jack Wolgemuth and sophomore Bobby Kuehl, the Stout defense also looks to be in fine shape. Both were all-conference selections a year ago and will be aided by senior Jeff DeFrancesca, junior Nick Klaren, and freshman Dave Larson.

Senior goaltender Mike Stone returns following a stellar junior campaign that saw him land first team all-conference accolades.

The Blue Devils surprised everyone last season, and though 21-5-2 will be extremely difficult to match in a league as tough as the NCHA, Stout appears to have the horses to make another push for a NCAA tournament bid — the one thing that narrowly eluded them last season.

Wis.-River Falls Falcons

Head Coach: Steve Freeman, 12th season overall and at Wis.-River Falls (220-91-21)
2006-07 overall record: 21-6-2
2006-07 NCHA record: 10-3-1 (t1st)
Key Returners: F Tyler Dahl, sr., (12-40-52); F Derek Hansberry, jr., (21-14-35); F Pat Borgestad, sr., (16-12-28); D Jim Henkemeyer, sr., (8-16-24); F Dustin Norman, jr., (10-10-20); D Jim Jensen, sr., (4-10-14)
Key Losses: G A.J. Bucchino (21-6-2, 2.12, .933); F Tyler Kostuik (9-12-21)
2007-08 projected finish: Third

Last season River Falls swooped to a 21-6-2 record, a tie for the NCHA crown, and a berth in the NCAA playoffs. Most teams would be elated with a performance as such, but the Falcons were hoping for more, particularly considering a home loss in the West Region play-in game to Bethel. The Falcons are expecting big things again this season, but two questions loom regarding this season’s squad.

The largest may be in net, as All-American A.J. Bucchino elected to play professionally at the end of his sophomore season. Bucchino played in every game last season and the void he leaves is a large one. Consider that backup Tony Stoehr also is not back and the void grows even larger.

In attempt to solidify the situation between the pipes, the Falcons enter the season with a trio of newcomers. Freshman Clark Oliver and sophomores Matt Page and Tyler Owens are all participants in a wide-open battle for the number one spot.

“Right now we are feeling our way through,” said head coach Steve Freeman. “We are taking a look at all of them; a couple of good goaltenders. We think they have good potential but none of them are battle-tested yet. We expect them to all play early in the season.”

The other big question mark for the Falcons’ is offensive depth. Although River Falls ranked second in the NCHA at 3.76 goals per game last season, it relied heavily on its top line — a weakness that even Freeman spoke to following the loss to Bethel.

Junior Derek Hansberry and seniors Pat Borgestad and Tyler Dahl re-unite to lead the Falcons’ top unit — a unit that hung 115 points on opponents last season. Dahl led the way with 52 points, which was enough to land him NCHA Player of the Year honors.

Offensively, the Falcons hope to receive larger contributions from senior Wade Harstad, junior Dustin Norman, and sophomore Mitch Kerns. Freeman pointed to Norman in particular as a player he hopes to have a breakout season.

“Dustin Norman scored a lot of big goals for us last season,” he said. “He had the game winning goal against Stout last year and is an outstanding player on both ends of the rink.”

Freeman also pointed to freshman Alex Lundblohm, Nolan Craner and Riley Riddell as players who will add depth at forward.

“Hopefully we have taken care of the (depth) problem,” he said. “It was one of our main focuses and we expect all of them to contribute right away.”

As usual, the Falcons’ defense ranked near the top of the league. Allowing only 2.24 goals per game last season, they can take solace in the fact the entire unit returns.

Led by a couple of seniors in two-way threat Jim Henkemeyer and big-hitting Jim Jensen, expect the River Falls defense to once again prove a formidable force.

With nearly the entire team back aside from Bucchino, the Falcons’ are looking for another NCHA title and a perhaps a deeper run into the NCAA tournament. If they can find some goaltending and just a little more balanced scoring, it just might happen.

Wis.-Superior Yellowjackets

Head Coach: Dan Stauber, 8th season overall and at Wis.-Superior (145-42-23)
2006-07 overall record: 20-6-1
2006-07 NCHA record: 9-4-1 (4th)
Key Returners: F Braden Desmet, so., (14-18-32); F Chris Berry, so., (16-14-30); F Corey Stark, so., (17-10-27); F Nate Rein, jr., (10-15-25); D Derek Paige, sr., (2-14-16); D Aaron Berman, jr., (3-11-14); G Chad Beiswenger, jr., (15-5-1, 2.29, .920)
Key Losses: F Myles Palliser (7-12-19)
2007-08 projected finish: Second

The Yellowjackets are one of the most intriguing teams in the NCHA this season. The fourth place league finish last season is a bit deceiving as they were only a game behind the three-way logjam for first. Additionally, their 20 win season was an accomplishment only a handful of teams in the nation can lay claim to.

Despite that as well as the fact they return nearly every impact player from last year’s edition, it appears not everyone is sold on the Yellowjackets.

Evidence enough of this is the NCHA preseason coaches’ poll. Superior was one of four teams to garner a first place vote, but overall they landed in fifth spot. It appears someone expects big things from the Yellowjackets, but as everyone clearly doesn’t it’s safe to say they might be entering the season with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder.

There is no reason Superior shouldn’t be able to contend for the conference crown, as no matter where one looks, strength is evident.

Junior Chad Beiswenger has a very strong season in goal last season, though was overshadowed by some his NCHA counterparts. Beiswenger would appear to be the number one heading into the year but don’t be surprised if sophomore Mike Rosett makes a push for playing time.

Superior allowed only 2.33 goals per game last season and returns every one of its blueliners.

Leading the Yellowjacket’s defense is senior Derek Paige, a first-team all-american and all-conference performer a year ago. Junior Aaron Berman also figures to play prominently into the Superior defense, as do senior Dustin Cosgrove, junior Jeff Herman and sophomores Brian Bina and Josh Seifert.

The Yellowjackets also look to be solid up front as they return a prolific trio of forwards who led the team in scoring as freshman. Corey Stark, Braden Desmet and Chris Berry combined for 89 points last season.

Junior Nate Rein should also be expected to provide plenty of offense this season, as should juniors Andrew MacKenzie and Eric Bausano and sophomore transfer Tyler Fletcher.

It’s been awhile since Superior has flown this far under the radar which is odd considering the Yellowjackets return a load of firepower. The coaches’ poll landing them in fifth will likely only be a motivating factor for a team that fully expects to compete for the conference title.

St. Norbert Green Knights

Head Coach: Tim Coghlin, 15th season overall and at St. Norbert (295-91-31)
2006-07 overall record: 25-4-2
2006-07 NCHA record: 10-3-1 (t1st)
Key Returners: G Kyle Jones, sr., (25-4-2, 1.79, .913); F Marc Belanger, sr., (21-20-41); F Matt Boyd, so., (10-21-31); F Shane Wheeler, so., (8-20-28); F Steven Sleep, jr., (11-16-27); F Ryan Petersen, jr., (13-7-20); D Jon Skoog, jr., (0-9-0); D Jason Nopper, so., (1-2-3)
Key Losses: F Jeff Hazelwood (17-23-40); F Troy Boisjoli (17-9-26); F Lonny Forrester (7-15-22); D Andrew Derton (7-21-28); D James Switzer (2-5-7); D Tyler Gow (0-7-7); F Kurtis Peterson (9-7-16)
2007-08 projected finish: First

Last year was more of the same for St. Norbert: another season, another conference title and another Frozen Four. Though the Green Knights failed to skate away with the national title, it was another in what is becoming a long line of tremendous years for the Knights.

St. Norbert will likely be a force again this season, though as usual there are a few question marks heading into the season.

Before getting to those, we might as well start with what isn’t a question mark for the Knights: Goaltender Kyle Jones. The senior has already plastered his name all over the record books. Jones is a three time All-American, owns Division III records for longest shutout streak and most career shutouts, and is less than ten wins away from becoming the all-time winningest goalie in Division III history.

Jones started every game for the Green Knights last season, but with zero game experience amongst their backups, head coach Coghlin suggests Jones won’t be carrying 100 percent of the load again.

“We are going to sit Kyle down at times this season,” he said. “We have to figure out what’s going on in goal behind him. This is his last season here and he has played every night for us, but he accepts and understands this, which says a lot about Kyle Jones.”

The Knights figure to once again be strong at the forward position, though they did sustain key losses in second leading scorer Jeff Hazelwood and assistant captain Troy Boisjoli.

St. Norbert does return plenty of offense, however, including leading scorer senior Marc Belanger. Senior Ryan Peterson and junior Steven Sleep also figure to play more prominent roles.

The Knights will enter the season with a strong group of sophomore forwards including Matt Boyd, Shane Wheeler, Tyler Allen, Matt Boyd, and Pete Fylling. As a group, they accounted for 77 points as freshmen.

“We are expecting a really substantial contribution from our sophomore class,” said Coghlin. “They need to figure out who they are and which ones are going to step up and be leaders for us.”

Coghlin pointed to Tyler Allen in particular.

“He has really opened eyes this season. He showed up in tremendous shape”

He continued, “He’s very physical and reminds me of Troy Boisjoli, who might have been our biggest hitter last year. Tyler is also very strong on the puck and we hope he can develop into the scorer Troy was.”

If the Green Knights have one major concern entering the season, it’s on defense. They will hit the ice with a highly inexperienced group following the graduation of five defensemen.

Returning are junior Jon Skoog and sophomores Jason Nopper, Sam Tikka and Dustin Dubas.

Nopper had a fine freshman campaign and Coghlin singled out Tikka along with freshmen Nick Tibisz and Adam Hammerbeck as players who have the potential to make big impacts on defense this season.

“(Tibitz) played two years in the USHL as a forward, but he grew up a defenseman and we elected to move him back to the blue line. He moves the puck well and shoots the puck very well.”

He added, “We expect (Hammerbeck) to be a mainstay at the blueline…and Tikka has the potential to be a top-four guy for us.”

While the Green Knights certainly have questions on defense, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone to see them at the top of the league again. Until someone steps up and dethrones them they are the team to beat, and besides, the last time St. Norbert had this many freshmen they went to the NCAA championship game.

This Week in the NCHA and MCHA

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After three weeks, it is safe to say the season has officially begun. Nearly all MCHA and NCHA teams will be hitting the ice this weekend as the MCHA begins league play and the NCHA confronts week two of the MIAC Interlock.

Speaking of the NCHA-MIAC Interlock, things didn’t go the way the NCHA had hoped last season. Only River Falls and Stout managed 2-0 weekends; Superior checked in at 0-1-1 and Lake Forest at 0-2. The rest of the league split its series, with St. Norbert’s home loss to Gustavus Adolphus being perhaps the most surprising of all, as it was only the fourth loss for the Green Knights in their last 86 games at the Cornerstone.

That makes it 8-7-1 in favor of the NCHA after week one, which is a marked change from the past three seasons.

Over the past three years, the NCHA has posted a regular season record of 113-54-17 against MIAC competition, including records of 30-18-9 in 2004-05, 37-20-6 in 2005-06, and a resounding 46-16-2 advantage last season.

Though last weekend’s tight contests might have surprised some, it should be noted these things are always cyclical and the MIAC did hold a winning record against the NCHA in 2003-04.

With the NCHA teams hitting the road for round two, it will be interesting to see if the MIAC hangs tough again, or the NCHA reasserts its dominance.

One Game at a Time?

I know it has been brought up before, but these early season games have the potential to play a major role down the road.

Last season was a prime example, especially the situation with UW-Stout. Finishing 21-5-2, the Blue Devils had their greatest season in school history and tied for the NCHA title. Unfortunately for the Stout faithful, the Blue Devils did not receive a berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Often overshadowed by Stout’s surprising season is UW-Superior. The Yellowjackets also finished with 20 wins on the season but were left on the outside looking in.

It’s quite intriguing that the depth of Division III hockey these days makes it possible that multiple programs, from the same league no less, can post 20 win seasons and still be left home. That being the case, it would seem to put an absolute premium on winning every single game. There simply is no room for error; this, of course, is what makes the MIAC Interlock contests so potentially critical.

As the NCHA figures to once again have numerous teams in the running for the NCAA Tournament, it is interesting to examine the varying degrees of importance NCHA coaches put on the inevitable number crunch.

Interestingly, the coach least concerned with it is UW-Stout’s Terry Watkinsn.

“Yeah, there’s some pressure,” he said. “But if you worry every night about getting into something in February, it’s not going to be a lot of fun.”

On the other hand, St. Norbert coach Tim Coghlin realizes that it’s just a fact of Division III hockey.

“It goes without saying you can’t take any games for granted. It’s the same thing every year, particularly in the playoffs.”

He continued: “It’s highlighted by the Stout situation last year, but it’s this way every single year. If you look at it critically, it does not really matter, as with the way it is the West Region gets three teams every year. It’s been that way for ten years.”

There is plenty of merit to Coghlin’s statement, as the last time the West Region landed four teams in the field was the 1997-98 season.

Steve Freeman of River Falls and St. Scholastica’s Mark Wick appear to take a little more direct approach.

“We stress this to our players how important it is,” said Wick. “Within our league you have to set yourself up for the playoffs. As we saw last year, everyone knows the only guaranteed way in is to win the playoffs.”

Freeman shared similar sentiments, stating, “[The NCAA’s] are the goal. You know the only way in is to win games. We’ve talked about this with our players already — we have to get out there and not horse around and have to win some games.”

Wick added, “Again, as we saw last year, you get four or five games against top-ranked opponents. That’s it. The margin for error is just so slim.”

And slim it is.

Not to put the cart ahead of the horse, but with five NCHA teams legitimately holding designs on the NCAA tournament, Stout and Superior’s failures to get in with twenty wins last year only amplifies the urgency of these early season games — especially considering conference losses are going to be inevitable this season.

River Falls and Stout held court at home last weekend, but with St. Norbert, Superior and St. Scholastica all dropping games to MIAC competition, there is little time, as Freeman pointed out, to be “horsing around.”

First Impressions

Here’s our first look at early returns of one of the four NCHA and MCHA programs with first-year head coaches. Stay tuned as next week I’ll catch up to speed with Adrian, Concordia-WI and Eau Claire.

Under new head coach Wil Nichol, Stevens Point’s season didn’t exactly get off to an ideal start, as three giant defensive breakdowns led to the Pointers trailing St. John’s 3-0 a mere seven minutes into the Nichol era.

“I thought we’d have a better start on Friday,” said Nichol. “St. John’s was ready to go and I think we were a little bit nervous. We have a pretty young team with only one senior and for a lot of our guys this was their first game here at Stevens Point.”

The Pointers did respond with three consecutive goals to tie the game up only five seconds into the second period and from there things settled down.

“It’s not easy to get down right away like that, but our guys didn’t quit. That game had a lot of ups and downs with some great teaching moments for our staff. I’m happy with the effort of my guys.”

Things didn’t pan out for the Pointers, however, as a Johnnie goal with under ten minutes to play in the third would put them up 4-3. The Johnnies added an empty netter and the Pointers would drop their opener, 5-3.

Stevens Point fared a little better on Saturday, downing Concordia-MN, 4-2, in front of a raucous crowd and landing Nichol his first win as head coach.

The Pointers didn’t suffer a hangover from Friday’s slow start as Saturday they put up two goals of their own in the opening four minutes, and would add two more later in the period to take a 4-1 lead into the first intermission.

“I think we were just a lot more comfortable on Saturday,” said Nichol. “I think the guys got it all out of their systems on Friday.”

The final two periods turned into a bit of a quagmire, littered with penalties and stoppages in play but the four first period goals would be all the Pointers needed.

Heading into the weekend, Nichol admits he was a tad worried about his teams’ powerplay, but the Pointers finished the weekend 4-14 (28.6%) with the man advantage. One weekend does not a season make, but that nearly doubles the dismal 14.7% clip the Pointers’ powerplay unit sputtered at last season.

“I thought we’d struggle more on the powerplay,” he said. “It was not a good week of practice, but we scored four powerplay goals so that was a pleasant surprise.”

In Nichol’s mind, the early returns are also positive when it comes to the Pointers’ heralded new-look defense.

“If you take out the first six minutes on Friday I thought we played well defensively. After that, we allowed one five-on-five goal the rest of the weekend.”

The Pointers hit the road this week to take on St. Mary’s and St. Thomas. St. Thomas in particular should pose quite the test after sweeping Superior and St. Scholastica last weekend.

“Our biggest thing is probably the same thing most teams need at this point. We have to put 60 minutes together and I don’t think we did that in either game last week. Against teams like St. Thomas and St. Mary’s you have to put a full game together. It’s going to be a tough test, but hopefully it will help us out come league play.”

This Week in SUNYAC

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Road Warriors

There’s no doubt that the most intense rivalry in the SUNYAC is Plattsburgh vs. Oswego. What’s surprising is how much the road team dominates this rivalry.

One would think that with a rivalry such as this, where sellout crowds are guaranteed, crowds that need no prodding to be whipped into a frenzy, the home team would have a psychological edge. Not so.

Plattsburgh is not at all afraid playing in Oswego whether it was at one of the most intimidating places to play at in college hockey — the old Romney Fieldhouse — or at the brand new but very loud and boisterous Campus Center Ice Arena.

Since the 1996-97 season, Plattsburgh has gone 13-5-1 at Oswego. Three times during that time span, Plattsburgh eliminated Oswego in the playoffs despite the Lakers having home ice advantage. Plattsburgh also won the only two meetings in the new arena.

Meanwhile, playing at Stafford Ice Arena is no picnic either. Yet, Oswego has faired pretty well recently. The Lakers have not lost in the last three games at Plattsburgh, going 2-0-1. And since 2001-2, they have a winning record at 4-3-3.

Perhaps the players get too uptight when they play in front of a crowd that expects nothing less than a win.

Plattsburgh looked very relaxed in their game against Oswego. When they did get a bit uptight trying to protect a lead in the third period, their coach took care of things.

“It didn’t sink in to all the guys,” Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said. “Don’t play the game not to lose, play the game to win. We had some guys panicking with the puck in the defensive zone. We had to shorten the bench and get those guys out of the game.”

“The guys are trying so hard and they’re squeezing the sticks so tight,” Oswego coach Ed Gosek said. “We need to relax and try to have some fun.”

Gosek was referring to the poor start the Lakers have gotten off to this season, but it could just as easily apply to hosting your most hated rival.

After all, the road team has nothing to lose. It’s the home team that has to answer to their crowd.

Hard Work

There were a lot of intense games over this past weekend besides the Plattsburgh-Oswego contest. Four games were either one-goal decisions or tied, with two of them going to overtime. All four involved the far western New York area and Rochester area travel partners.

The most intense game was the tie between Brockport and Buffalo State. Thirty-three penalties were called for a total of 82 minutes. A bunch came with one second left in overtime when Chris Koras ran the net trying to get the winning goal.

After Koras bumped the goaltender, Buffalo State came to his protection. Knowing the game was essentially over, many players decided to join in. When it was all said and done, Buffalo State got five minors and a ten-minute misconduct while Brockport received four minors and a 10-minute misconduct.

Speaking of one second, Buffalo State scored a key goal with one second left in the first period by Jeff Mok to give the Bengals a 2-1 lead. The Golden Eagles reversed the scoring in the second period for a 3-3 tie. They traded goals in the third period but no one scored in overtime despite nine shots in the extra period, six by Buffalo State.

Geneseo hosted two tough contests, splitting the games with the loss coming in an extra period.

“Both games were extremely competitive,” Geneseo coach Chris Schultz said. “Against Buffalo State, a couple of breakdowns on face offs, including the overtime goal, cost us the game. Other than those mistakes, we played well enough to win. But minor mistakes will cost you the game against good teams.

“The Fredonia game was an exciting game up and down the ice. Each team got over 40 shots, so that tells you what type of game it was. We had to really work for our goals. They weren’t beautiful goals by any means.”

Buffalo State came away the winner out of the weekend with three points. That puts them in third place, but have a number of games in hand against the two teams ahead of them.

Quotable

Ed Gosek after Oswego lost to Plattsburgh dropping their record to
0-2-1: “We’re 0-2-1, or you can look at it as oh, gloom, and despair.”

SUNYAC Short Shots

Neal Sheehan scored a pair of goals including the game winner as Fredonia beat Brockport, 3-2, as Sean O’Malley got a pair for the losing side … Buffalo State’s Nick Petriello scored 40 seconds into the game, notched a second tally later on, and Jason Hill scored in overtime to beat Geneseo, 4-3 … Potsdam outshot an opponent for the first time this year, 28-26, in defeating Cortland, 4-2; both Red Dragons goals were scored by Barry McLaughlin in a game that took less than two hours … Trent Cassan scored two goals, Mathieu Cyr got three assists, and Derek Jokic made 42 saves as Geneseo defeated Fredonia, 4-3, with no scoring in the third period … Ryan Scott made 22 saves and just missed a shutout when Oswego beat Potsdam, 5-1 … Cortland led Plattsburgh, 1-0, after two periods when the floodgates opened and the Cardinals exploded for a 5-2 win … Keith Williams scored twice leading Morrisville to their first win of the year, 3-1, over Western New England.

Game of the Week

This early in the season along with the offset schedule now that there are an odd number of teams in the SUNYAC makes it difficult to look at any game as a must win situation or even a key game.

Nonetheless, with 16 league games to be played, there are certainly some contests that will have an effect on the final standings.

For one, there is Cortland at Brockport. This is a game the Golden Eagles absolutely cannot afford to fall asleep if they are to continue to be taken seriously.

Plattsburgh at Buffalo State has many connotations for both squads. Plattsburgh is red hot, and has run off a 5-0 conference record. However, it could be argued that four of those wins came against weak opponents and the win over Oswego had more to do with the rivalry than being a better team. The Bengals are a tough team, and this is the sort of game Plattsburgh can prove they truly are an undefeated team. And if they do, they got to prove themselves again the next night at Fredonia.

Meanwhile, Buffalo State has an opportunity to prove they are truly ready to make the leap into a bona fide frontrunner while Fredonia has an opportunity to prove last year’s playoff run was not a fluke.

The game I’m going to pick is Oswego at Geneseo. It should be a great game between two offensive teams in front of a sellout crowd.

“I’m expecting what we always see out of them,” Schultz said. “A team with tremendous speed that throws four lines at you. They are a more offensive team than we are, so we have to make sure our defense is perfect. And then capitalize on every grade A opportunity we have to score.”

“We have some things we certainly need to work on,” Gosek said. “Try to adjust to their powerplay and some of the things they like to do.”

If Oswego makes those adjustments and Geneseo takes advantage of their opportunities, this will be a very entertaining game to watch.

On The Periphery

I didn’t have any idea what I was going to write in this section. Then, I received my alumni newsletter. I flipped through the announcements, marriages, and births (and unfortunately, deaths) when I saw someone from the class of ’85 announcing the birth of their child.

Someone starting out late or perhaps having one last kid before calling it quits, I thought. Then I read the end of the announcement, “… celebrated the birth of their 13th child …”
Thirteen? THIRTEEN?!

That’s more than you need for a football team. A Canadian football team!

You can have them split up and play each other in hockey and have one kid leftover to be the ref.

Thirteen?

Haven’t they heard of Dr. Stopp? Seriously. The top vasectomy surgeon in Rochester is Dr. Harold Stopp. I kid you not. You can’t make this stuff up.

Thirteen?

If they are hockey fans, there is no way they can afford to take the family to an NHL game. Hopefully, they know all about Division III hockey — the best bargain for a great sport.
Thirteen … wow!

ECAC Northeast Season Preview (Part II)

By Paul C. Altmeyer Jr.
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Click here for part one.

This week we’ll continue with the previews of the ECAC NE, when coaches feel good about their squad’s chances and can’t wait for that first puck to be dropped.

Curry College

Curry College coach Rob Davies has seen the league improve greatly over the last three to four years, and he couldn’t be happier about it.

“I like the idea of other teams strengthening the league from the bottom up. This should be a good season with a lot of parity.”

Davies feels the strength of his team clearly lies with the goalies.

“We’ve got a sophomore, Zach Cardella, coming back, and he played the bulk of the games last year. We also have Steve Jakiel, a transfer from the University of Michigan. We these two in the mix it gives us a very nice situation. It’s one we’ve never had, and I really believe they’ll be the backbone of our hockey club.”

Both goalies certainly have size. Cardella is listed at 6’2”, 200 lbs., and went 11-7-1 last year. Jakiel, also a sophomore, specs are 6’4” and 210 lbs.; he was projected as a third-string goalie for Red Berenson’s squad.

Up front, offense should not be a concern for Davies. Returning is Ross Enmark, a sophomore who averaged 1.13 points per game is his first college season. He also scored 23 goals in 26 games, and had five game winners and eight power-play goals included.
He’ll have a complement up front with St. Norbert’s transfer Jeff Hazelwood. Last year, the junior was one of St. Norbert’s leading scorers, and Davies certainly hopes he keeps that up for the Colonels.

“I’m so comfortable with six or seven forwards we have that can put up impressive numbers,” Davies said. Some of those other forwards include juniors James Pentecost and Jeremy Hmura, and freshman Jason Yuel, a 6’, 190 lb. right handed shot. “He’s big, strong, and gets pucks to the net,” his coach said of the Winnipeg, MN, native. Senior Trevor Speridi will also be counted on this season.

“I don’t think scoring goals will be a big problem. We’ve got some firepower up front,” Davies said. Behind the blue line, the Colonels have a younger crew, but expect to see them anchored by sophomore Donald Rankin, who’s not afraid to rush the puck, and juniors Jason Tarbell and Jarrett Souza. Davies also expects significant contributions from senior Nate Robie.

Becker College

“We want to make continuous, measurable improvement,” were the first words out of mouth of Becker College coach Steve Hoar when asked about his team. “We want to make a good showing in our first year. We didn’t get any respect last year, and duly noted. We didn’t deserve it. Hopefully with freshmen and sophomores, being a brand new program, we’ll make some improvements.”

The newest team to the ECAC NE will also undoubtedly be the youngest team, with only sophomores and freshmen. One of those sophomores is Tony Stoehr, a Wisconsin native who already has a year of collegiate hockey under his chest protector after seeing very limited duty last year at Wisconsin-River Falls.

Also vying for playing time will be freshman Billy Dillon, out of Scituate, MA., and possibly the best goalie from the seaside town since Andy Marhoffer, who played at the former North Adams State College from 1980-1983.

Another freshman, Anthony Libonati, certainly brings size to the Hawks. The 6’2”, 220 lb. forward spent the last two seasons with the Blind River Beavers of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL) where he was lauded not only for his point (plus) per game average, but his leadership skills, on and off the ice. Libonati will be joined by another NOJHL alum, defenseman Peter Landem, last since helping the Soo Indians win the league title.

Also expected to contribute to Becker’s efforts are freshman forward Mark Persic, and sophomore defenseman Brad Jones. Both players are coming out of junior programs.

Suffolk University

“I’m really excited. For the most part, we have everybody back from last year, and they’re all a year older and more mature.” Coach Chris Glionna sounds genuine when describing his team, which has improved their win totals in each of his first three years behind the bench.

“We have two of the better players in the league, in Dan Pencinger, who’s one of the fastest kids in the league, and John Rocchio, who wasn’t an All-Star last year but was nominated for being one of the top three players in division three.”

Rocchio, who led the Rams in scoring last year with 13 goals and 30 assists in 23 games, was a semi-finalist for the Joe Concannon Award, given by the Gridiron Club, which honors New England’s best American-born Division II/III college hockey player.

Glionna will also be looking for a pair of forwards who transferred to contribute to the offense. Kyle Cook, a junior who played at Nichols College last year, has proven that he can put the puck in the net. Tim Dancey is a senior who spent an injury-riddled year at St. Michael’s College in 2006-07, appearing in less than half of the Purple Knight’s games.

On defense, Glionna is happy.

“We’re pretty excited. Last year we played a lot of newcomers. They’re all back, led by Nick Sabo, who’s strong, offensive-minded, and a threat on the powerplay. He’s a definite workhorse. We also have Nick Davis, who was our freshmen of the year last year, and he looks even better with a year under his belt.”

In goal, that may be a question mark for Suffolk.

“Last year we lost about seven or eight one-goal games,” Glionna recalled. We didn’t get great goaltending last year.”

Glionna will look to freshman Jeff Rose, who he feels could be “one of the better goalies in the league.” Bill Gilbert and Mark Grigon will also see action between the pipes.

Hoping to see his team’s win total improve once again, Glionna knows it won’t be easy.

“The league gets better by the day. There are no easy games anymore, and anyone can make the playoffs.”

Wentworth University

RJ Tolan returns for his second year as coach at Wentworth, and feels this year should be a little easier for him.

“I can feel my way around the school a little better, and the recruiting helped with this year. I just try to communicate and get the most out of the each kid.”

Tolan must have done something right in his rookie year as coach, for he was named Coach of the Year last year in the ECAC NE.

One thing Tolan is happy about is the experience some of his players got last year.

“One strength of our team is that I have quite a few kids that got playoff experience last year. We have most of the role guys we had last year. It was a younger team last year, and some of the experience from last year can only help them mature this year.”

On defense, junior Joey Sides returns, as does sophomore Martin Windsor, who should log plenty of ice time. They’ll be playing in front of goalie Justin Marriott, a sophomore who played in 24 of the Leopards 28 games last year. Look for a pair of freshmen, Andrew Ricci and Matt Buchan, to serve as Marriott’s understudies.

Up front, Tolan has a wealth of returning players. “We want to work and grind our way back to last year. We won’t come out and blow anyone’s doors off, but we’ll make teams have to beat us. You look at Curry and Dartmouth [UMass] and obviously they’re a little more talented than most teams in the college hockey so we need to keep up with them.”

Plymouth State University

Up off up Route 93 in New Hampshire, Brett Tryder is getting ready for his fifth season behind the bench, and if there’s one position he feels confident about it is his goaltending.

“In goal, we’ll be deep,” Tryder predicted. “We have three goalies. Karl Helgesson has transferred back to us, and we also have Erik Shields, who came here midway through last year. We also have a freshman, Kevin Crosby, who will be keeping pressure on them both. I feel comfortable with any of them in net.”

Crosby had an outstanding year last year at Hebron Academy, and his save percentage was among the best in the prep ranks.

Helgesson, a native of Sweden, played his freshman and sophomore years at PSU, posting winning records in both seasons. He then transferred to Plattsburgh, where he again enjoyed a winning record last year.

Exactly half of the team is new, with 14 of the 28 roster spots filled by returning players.

“Offensively we can see some guys scoring goals, but time will tell,” Tryder said.

He’ll be looking to big (6’3”, 190 lbs.) sophomore Chris Chambers, who led the team in scoring last year with 17 goals and 17 assists in 26 games, to have another good campaign. Right behind Chambers last year in scoring was Deni Bojadzic, with totals of 13 goals and 15 assists in 26 games as a junior. Look for transfers David Dufresne and Chris Cantara, last seen at Brockport, to contribute as well.

On defense, Tryder acknowledges that his team will be pretty young.

“We’ve brought in a slew of defensemen.” Bryan Horrigan, out of the Eastern Junior Hockey League; and Kyle Tobin, an offensive minded player who was captain of Hebron Academy, will be counted on heavily.

In summation, Tryder said of his blue line corps: “We’re going to be decent. We’ll be athletic and move quicker. We’ll use a small concentration of foot speed and puck movement.”

Fitchburg State College

As is the case with so many of his coaching brethren, Fitchburg State College coach Dean Fuller spoke of his goaltending when asked what his team’s biggest strength is.

“We have our returning goalie, Devan McConnell, back, this will be his third year starting, and he’s our backbone.”

Why wouldn’t you refer to someone who played in more than 90% of the action last year, and posted a save percentage of .905 as your backbone? McConnell, who went 12-10-3 last season, will be counted on heavily in this, his senior year.

Defensively, Fuller has some veterans coming back. Senior Ross Goff and junior Wayne Bonkowski are two solid rearguards who will anchor the Falcon’s defense.

Up front, Fuller is glad to have Stephen Schofield back, and feels the senior will bolster his attack. Schofield missed all of last year due to injuries, but scored 81 points in 70 games throughout his first three years at Fitchburg.

Fuller will also rely on senior captain Ryan Tierney, junior Matt Arsenault, and sophomore Andrew Hutton to provide scoring punch.

Overall, Fuller, who will go behind the bench for his 23rd campaign, feels his team “has a great deal of speed up front, and that they’re working hard. We should be pretty solid.”

Southern New Hampshire University

While the press guide might list Southern New Hampshire University as having a first-year coach in Ken Hutchins, that only applies to Hutchins’ ‘head coaching’ experience.
Hutchins will indeed be behind the bench for SNHU this year, but it is a spot he’s most familiar with, after having served as an assistant to former coach Rene LeClerc for ten years.

Prior to that, the former SNHU player also was an assistant coach at Skidmore College from 1990-1997, and even spent time in the Adirondack Red Wings front office where he served as Corporate Marketing and Sales Manager, so hockey has been a major part of his life for a long time.

“I think our strong points will be that we have depth at each position this year. We have a good nucleus of freshmen and sophomores, and that’s added depth at each position.”

In goal, Hutchins has three candidates right now vying for playing time, and will most likely start out the season with a rotation. Expect sophomore Shane Brooks and junior Mark Courchesne to battle for the top spot, but don’t surprised to see freshman Todd Rowley see some time, also.

Hutchins is very happy with his defense.

“We’re carrying ten defensemen right now, where last year we were lucky to have seven. All of them are capable of getting into games, and will get into games. This has led to better practices, and more competition. David Carroll is our leader back there. He’s a real force, he plays with an edge, but composed at the same time.”

Carroll, a junior, is also capable of playing with an offensive flair as well, putting up decent numbers in his first two years, and proving an asset on the power play. Kent Honeyman, a sophomore, is another defenseman not afraid to rush the puck, and is starting to emerge.

On offense, Hutchins will look to last year’s leading scorer, Brandon Hammermeister, to carry the load. Hammermeister, a senior, had totals of 21 goals and 26 assists for 47 points in 27 games played last year. He also led the team in scoring as a sophomore.

“He’s unbelievable, the points he had last year,” Hutchins said of his captain. “He’s our top returning forward.”

Expect to see Hammermeister playing initially with sophomores Jon Frey and Ryan DiBartolomeo.

Johnson & Wales University

Third year coach Erik Noack feels optimistic about his teams’ fortunes this season.

“We had a pretty good recruiting class. James Shea has turned out to be a pretty good defensemen, and we also have Matt McGilvray and Craig Houle up front, and Mike O’Malley and Jon Madsen on defense.”

One newcomer who should make an impact is freshman Joe Simeone, a right winger out of Cranston, RI. Noack likes what he’s seen so far.

“He’s been impressive in dry-land, and in practice. He’s an energy guy who plays physical, and has speed.”

McGilvray, a senior, led the team in goals last year with 17, points with 30, power-play goals with 8, and also netted three short-handed goals. Ten of his team leading 15 goals in 2005-06 were powerplay strikes, and as a freshman he led the team in scoring, so there are obviously expectations he can do it again.

McGilvray won’t be able to do it alone, though.

“We have DJ McNaughton and Kevin Marchesi back, two roles players that have a year under their belt. Both had decent freshmen years, now they need to follow up,” Noack said.

The Wildcats will also need to have contributions from senior forwards Shawn Roach, Ryan Jacobs, and Adam Frew. Collectively, they scored 58 points last year.

Between the pipes, senior Charlie Bacon has three years, and many minutes under his chest protector.

“We’re expecting a lot out of him,” his coach stated. Another name to look for is that of JR Woodward, a freshman goalie. “He’s our first Canadian recruit, and we’re expecting things out of him. He can give Charlie a little bit of rest,” Hutchins said of the Picton, ON, native.

Noack, who played defense at RIT, feels the league will be outstanding this year, and that he’s got his work cut out for him.

“The league’s going to be unbelievable this year. Our goal is to get ourselves into a playoff spot. Do the little things right, and stick to the system. We have to rely on the veterans. It’s my first recruiting class that are seniors, so the pressure’s on. It will be an extremely challenging season with the way the league in shaping up. There are a ton of teams looking for eight playoff spots, and now there’s one more team looking with Becker added in.”

Stonehill College

Just about 20 miles south of Boston, in Easton, MA, sits Stonehill College, a Catholic school founded in 1948 by the Congregation of Holy Cross. Leading the hockey flock this year will be Garry Hebert, a man of deep faith and conviction himself, who hopes to sow seeds of faith that will last long after any hockey development.

Hebert, who was an associate to former head coach Scott Harlow for two years, couldn’t be happier to be where he is.

“It’s been great. The guys have been terrific. I think if you look at the total, composite whole of the team this year, you’ll notice our work ethic, character, and dynamic playmaking ability.”

Hebert, who was a Division I player at the University of Vermont before a head injury cut short any hopes of playing pro, went on to say:

“I think we should be a team that’s pretty fun to watch, and I think we’ll be a team that’s recognized by it’s work ethic, character, and its’ dynamic play-making ability. I’m big on creating an atmosphere of unity and harmony. I know it’s an unenforceable platitude, but it’s happening.”

The biggest challenge facing new coach Garry Hebert is not so much the nine freshmen on the team, but the three freshmen goalies. Vying for playing time between the pipes will be the aforementioned freshmen trio of Mike Manna, Peter Lucchesi, and Justin Zegel. Manna is coming off of a great year at Xaverian Brothers High School, and Lucchesi was a second team All New England player out of Kents Hill.

Hebert knows that with three young goalies, there will inevitably be growing pains.

“I’m counting on the goalies letting in some soft goals here and there. It’s understandable, and the team needs to shore up on defense.”

Up front for the Skyhawks, they’ll be expecting junior captain Brendan O’Brien to pick up where he left off from the previous two years, as the team’s leading scorer.

“He does some things in tight spaces that reminds me of the Great Houdini,” Hebert said. O’Brien has 22 goals and 65 assists for a total of 87 points in his first 47 games.

Last year, he was one of the least penalized players on the squad, with only 8 minutes in penalties.

Senior Matt Curran, an alternate captain, is described by his coach as “Immense, not huge in stature, but explosive, and a dangerous offensive weapon,” and was last year’s leading goal scorer, lighting the lamp 30 times, and he will be expected to put up big numbers again. Sixteen of his goals last year came on the powerplay.

On defense, a pair of big defensemen will anchor the blue-line. Alternate captain James Florentino (6’2”, 215 lbs.) and Billy Ninteau (6’3”, 220 lbs.) are both smooth skaters, and both can handle the puck and are not afraid to help out on offense.

Also on defense, Hebert is very happy to have freshman Mike Tuplin joining the team.

“He’s a real special player, and I’m just going to let him go. He can play offensively, he blocks shots, he’s tough as nails and he delivers punishing hits.”

Tuplin, who is 6’3” and 215 lbs., was one of the leaders of the Weymouth HS team that finished second in last year’s Super 8 tournament, just the second time in the 17 year history of the tournament that a public school finished that high.

Hebert, whose mantra this year is “Building Something Special” wants to start off strong.

“We have to get out and establish ourselves, and steer out of any ruts.”

So obviously, all seventeen ECAC NE head coaches feel optimistic about their teams, and their chances, at this time of the year, and why wouldn’t they? Every team starts off the campaign with the same record, but it will be the final record in five months they will all be judged by.

USCHO.com Teams With Humanitarian Award

USCHO Staff Report
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The Hockey Humanitarian Award, presented by Mellon Financial Corporation, has announced that U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO.com) will serve as the official media and marketing partner of the annual award presented to college hockey’s finest citizen.

USCHO.com, now in its 12th year of operation, is widely recognized as the leading source of news and information on college hockey, and under the leadership of founder Tim Brule, the organization will handle the media, marketing and administrative duties for the award.

“We are very excited to team up with the Hockey Humanitarian Award,” said Brule. “We believe strongly in the principles the Humanitarian stands for, and look forward to growing its national exposure. It is an honor merely to be nominated, and the winner represents the best ideals of the game and its participants.”

The Hockey Humanitarian Award Committee will continue to assist with award operations and each member of the committee will cast a vote to determine the recipient of the annual award.

This Week in the ECAC West

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No Hole This Year

Excluding exhibitions, Elmira hasn’t had a winning record four games into the season in any of the last five seasons. It has almost become expected that the Soaring Eagles will start a season slow, build momentum mid season, and end on a tare to run for the playoffs. Unfortunately, sometimes the early season deficit has proven too deep a hole to dig out of.

This season appears to be different. Elmira is off to a 3-0-1 start and did it the hard way defeating nationally ranked teams like Oswego and Neumann. The quick start has created quite a buzz both on campus and in the community, something that has been lacking for some time.

“There is no question that it is a lot better for everyone involved, especially for our guys that have worked so hard during the off season,” said Elmira coach Tim Ceglarski. “They were the impetus behind everything trying to do things a little bit differently.”

The Soaring Eagles began the season with a home and home series against the defending national champion Oswego Lakers. Elmira was in mid-season form, particularly for the first game, and came out of the weekend with a hard fought 2-1 victory on Friday night and 4-4 tie on Saturday.

“The first Oswego game, we played extremely well for sixty minutes,” said Ceglarski. “It didn’t look like Oswego had its legs, but our guys really competed and battled hard for sixty minutes. We changed our fore check three or four times during the game, and generally we’re not doing that until the latter part of the year.”

Then it was into league play this past weekend, hosting an increasingly competitive Lebanon Valley and strong Neumann team. Getting points in the league standings was the primary goal for the Soaring Eagles.

“Our captain, Mike Richard, has been preaching that it is important for us to get points and have other teams chasing us instead of us chasing them,” said Ceglarski.

And that they did, as Elmira swept both teams to earn four points and jump to a share of the top of the league standings. A quick start, indeed.

A School Record

Hobart is another ECAC West team off to a quick start this season. The Statesmen swept a weekend series with Buffalo State to open the season, marking the first time that Hobart has started a season with two victories in over a decade.

Next up was league play last weekend, reversing the order of opponents from Elmira. Special teams were the stars for both Neumann and Hobart last Friday night, as each team tallied three power play goals.

But Hobart tallied the games only even strength goal, with 2:45 remaining in the contest, to steal the 4-3 victory despite being out shot by the Knights 39-25.

The Statesmen were pushed again on Saturday, this time by Lebanon Valley, who used a pair of second period power play goals to make a game of it. But Hobart’s offense proved too much for the Flying Dutchmen and the Statesmen rolled to a 7-2 victory.

With that pair of league wins, Hobart is off to the best start in school history of 4-0. The Statesmen surpassed the school’s previous best start to a season record of three wins set in 1979, when Hobart defeated Syracuse (14-1), Lehigh (6-4), and Penn (3-0) during the team’s second season of play.

“We haven’t started this well in a long time,” said Hobart coach Mark Taylor. “It’s a good start, but we’re focused on playing good and finding ourselves.”

Reaching Out

Not only is play on the ice off to a quick start this season, teams are also already reaching out to the communities that they play in. Community service is an integral ingredient of every ECAC West team.

The life of a college hockey player is filled with an increasing number of demands for the few precious hours during a day. From classes to homework, practices to games to travel, and even a little social life, a college hockey player’s life is quite busy. So why would a coach take even more time away from his players?

“It is three fold why we do these things,” said Utica coach Gary Heenan. “Team building — getting the players outside of the rink hanging out together. Personal fulfillment — handing someone a meal that is a little less privileged than we are is very rewarding. And marketing — being out there in the community, where people can put faces to names and then return to see what we have put back into the community.”

The Utica Pioneers perform a litany of projects every year, from serving meals at an inner city rescue mission, to the Adopt-A-Highway program, to reading to elementary kids. The Pioneers have even played softball against a local prison team, and are in the process of arranging a paintball war against the Utica city police department to raise money for charity.

At Manhattanville, community service is expected, both as a way to give back and also as a growth opportunity for the players.

“Playing college hockey, how much better can your life be?” said Manhattanville coach Keith Levinthal. “I don’t want them to forget how lucky they are. At the same time, not only to have a chance to help other people, but putting them in positions to be role models helps them make better decisions in their own life too. By putting players in front of kids as much as we can, it makes an impact on kids and forces them to do the right things and grow up themselves.”

Valiant players are expected to perform 50 hours of community service each academic year, where giving back to the community is part of the college’s mission.

The Manhattanville players have already participated in multiple projects this academic year. Several players helped with event logistics for the 16th annual Hudson Swim for Life in early September that raised funds for several local charities.

“It was great to get out and help in the community,” Arlen Marshall, a sophomore forward, said. “The community has been very supportive of our team and we are definitely happy to help out wherever and whenever we can.”

The team also participates in the Coachman Project, mentoring teenagers who find themselves temporarily homeless.

Lebanon Valley has also made a commitment to giving back to the community participating in several projects this fall.

Ten players and members of the coaching staff helped Habitat for Humanity refurbish a house that had been damaged by a fire. And fifteen players helped clean up trails at a local wildlife refuge.

“We are getting ourselves in the community a lot more, and are getting support from the college, the community and from those who haven’t supported the program before,” said Lebanon Valley coach Ted Russell.

Game of the Week

As the other four teams, who started league play last weekend, head back out for non-conference games, Utica and Manhattanville get in to the conference swing of things on Friday.

The Valiants are undefeated (3-0-1) but have shown signs of missing the killer instinct of years past. Meanwhile, Utica has another superb penalty killing percentage this season (92.3%) but struggled to score goals in its opening games against Fredonia

The winner will keep pace with quick starting Elmira and Hobart, while the loser will be relegated to the bottom of the heap to start the season.

This Week in Hockey East: Nov. 8, 2007

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Atop The League

Many people, yours truly included, expected Maine to get off to a slow start this year. In addition to graduating stalwart defenseman Mike Lundin, the Black Bears lost six of their eight top-scoring forwards. You don’t lose that much firepower without a few resulting bumps in the road. So when Maine opened the season getting swept at Denver, few eyebrows were raised.

Since then, however, the Black Bears have swept both Mercyhurst and Northeastern as well as tying Boston College. As a result, they now sit atop Hockey East, at least in terms of percentage, with a 2-0-1 record accumulated entirely on the road.

So much for the bumps in that road.

“We’re still learning,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead cautions. “We want to be careful not to get too excited about our recent success, no different than we wanted to be careful not to push the panic button after our trip to Denver. We’ve got a lot of hockey ahead of us.

“What we’re pleased with is that our freshmen are contributing right away, which is very important for our success this year.

“We’re also pleased with some of our upperclassmen who had yet to play significant roles on the team but now are playing significant roles. Wes Clark, Chris Hahn, Vince Laise and Simon Danis-Pepin are guys that have been in the lineup for the most part, but have not been significant contributors until this point. Now they’ve elevated their game.

“We knew we had a strong senior class and we felt we had a strong freshman class coming in, but we also knew we needed some of our sophomores, juniors and some of our other seniors to elevate their game. We’re excited that we’re getting that.”

The improvement on the part of the returning players goes beyond simply getting bigger roles that they might have been ready for all along.

“There certainly is more opportunity because of the players we’ve lost over the last couple of years,” Whitehead says. “But there’s just a natural maturing process and also when guys think there’s more opportunity they’re going to work extra hard.

“We’re very proud to say we have a track record of developing players here. We’re not going to land all of the elite players that we want in the recruiting process. So we look for players that have some talent that may not have come out yet. Then we try to help them develop that.

“We understand that for our team to be successful year in and year out players need to develop. We put a lot of pressure on them to keep improving. It’s early but we’re starting to see some of that.”

A case in point is goaltender Ben Bishop, who was viewed as “a project” when he arrived in Orono but has become one of the team’s mainstays. Hockey East just named him Defensive Player of the Week. His stat line now reads an enviable 1.99 GAA and a league-best .935 save percentage.

“He’s made himself into an elite player,” Whitehead says. “He’s gotten better each year. I’m very pleased with his development.

“I’m not surprised. He works very hard off the ice. He’s a very tough kid mentally. Very focused.”

Senior defenseman Brett Tyler has also taken his game to the next level. Always gifted in the offensive end, Tyler leads the team in scoring with three goals and four assists in seven games, but just as importantly has recorded a plus-minus of plus-four.

“He’s really become a complete player from a defensive standpoint,” Whitehead says. “He’s always been an impact player from the offensive side of things and he’s always had tremendous toughness.

“Brett’s just a real hockey player. He’s a Black Bear through and through. He’ll block a shot, he’ll take a hit to make a play and then he’ll lead the rush down the ice the other way and finish it off. He’s really become an elite, complete player.”

Providence

Although Providence may be 1-5-1 with a weekend at Maine on tap, there aren’t any white flags waving at Schneider Arena. The Friars are a respectable 1-2-1 in league play and would be tied for second place if their 3-2 overtime loss to Northeastern had been flipped the other way.

“We played very well at Northeastern,” PC coach Tim Army says. “We were ahead late in the game, 2-1, but they were able to tie it on a five-minute major and then we lost in overtime. It was a really well-played game from both sides but a tough loss.”

Arguably, the key to this early juncture of the season was when the Friars rebounded from four losses and took three-of-four points from Massachusetts in a home-and-home series.

“I don’t know if it was a tide-turner,” Army says. “Every game is obviously so competitive in our league. [But] we went into the UMass weekend 0-4. We were just trying to play some good hockey against a team that’s very good. They had a great year last year and had gotten off to a very good start this year.

“It was nice to win that game on Friday night. We played very, very well. The next night, we showed good perseverance, good presence. We didn’t panic and we were able to tie the game with six seconds to go and come away from Amherst with a point. Where our record was, it was a real positive for us to get something to show for our efforts, to get some points on the board.

“Is it a trend? I don’t know, because then on Thursday we lost to BU at home. So I don’t really know.”

A surprising key contributor has been goaltender Chris Mannix, who has backstopped the last three games. Most observers had expected senior Tyler Sims to continue to get most of the time between the pipes, but some early struggles opened the door and Mannix has made the most of it.

“He played very well at the end of last year, too,” Army says. “He managed two of the biggest games of the year for us when we beat New Hampshire and then in the final weekend beat Merrimack to put us into that eighth and final playoff spot. So he’s played some pretty good minutes for us over the course of late last season and this year.

“Our expectation was that [sophomore] Ryan Simpson would have been ready to play, but he’s battled injury and Simsie struggled a bit out of the gate. We’re more than comfortable with Chris in the net. He played extremely well the weekend we played Amherst and then played well against BU the other night. He’s made it a position to compete for.”

Junior Kyle Laughlin has emerged as the team’s scoring leader with five goals and three assists. Laughlin posted a 9-5-14 line as a freshman but tailed off last year with two goals and nine assists.

“He was a surprise as a freshman,” Army says. “We had thought that he would give us some depth up front and would be a guy that could spell guys that were hurt or could give us good minutes if we needed to change our lineup. He didn’t play that first weekend [as a freshman], but he hasn’t been out of the lineup since.

“He was our leading freshman goal-scorer. Last year, he didn’t produce the way he had as a freshman. I think he maybe put a little too much pressure on himself to increase his totals from the year before. Sometimes that can work as a detriment. You get focused on the goal rather than the process. I think it disrupted his game through the first half and he didn’t find his rhythm until the second half when he played really well but didn’t get a lot to show for it.

“He came back this year just concentrating on playing well. He’s got a good stick and a good nose around the net and it’s transpired into some goals. He’s found that rhythm where he’s just focused on doing things right, not getting ahead of himself, not focusing on what his numbers are going to be. He’s got some natural goalscoring instincts when he’s playing well and paying attention to the details. Obviously he’s had a real good start.”

His contributions also go beyond the box score.

“He’s one of our captains,” Army says. “He has the highest GPA at Providence College for the junior class student-athletes. He’s just a terrific young man.”

Another key contributor has been Matt Taormina, who appears to be expanding on last year’s odd-looking (for a defenseman, that is) scoring line of 5-2-7. Already, he’s got three goals, including a shorthander, to go with a single assist.

“He played really well over the second half last year after taking some time to get comfortable following shoulder surgery,” Army says. “He’s continued his [strong play] this year with the three goals.

“We really encourage our defense to get very involved in the play. Their activity offensively is a big staple of what we preach. He’s got good instincts for jumping into a rush and getting himself available when we have possession in the offensive zone. Those instincts reflect his aggressiveness and assertiveness. He’s found a real comfort level with that assertiveness, that offensive aggressiveness.”

Despite the challenge of going to Maine this weekend, Army considers it nothing new.

“Every game in our league is difficult,” he says. “I know it sounds like a cliché, but it doesn’t matter who you’re playing or where you’re playing. It’s going to be very, very competitive.

“Obviously, Maine is a difficult place to play. They play well there, they’re well-supported and it’s not easy on the opposition.

“We just have to go and play well, play the best possible game we can play. We’ve got to do the things that we need to do within our game plan to be successful. We’ve got to pay attention to those details. We’ve got to play to our strengths and recognize what Maine’s strengths are.

“If you do that, you’ll have an opportunity to have some success. If you go in and you’re not prepared, you’re not focused, you’re inconsistent, or you’re prone to make mistakes, then it’s going to be difficult.”

Still Looking Up

Although Massachusetts-Lowell is coming off losses to Merrimack and Boston University and sits at the bottom of the Hockey East standings with just one point, coach Blaise MacDonald remains upbeat. Not that that should surprise anyone who knows the River Hawks’ dynamic leader.

“I was proud of how we battled,” he said after a 4-1 lead turned into a 7-4 loss at BU. “We have a ridiculously young team. I thought we were spurt-y in our poise. We didn’t show a lot of poise in the second period, but we did some good things.

“I was very proud of how [goaltender] Nevin Hamilton battled like hell under a lot of pressure. Ryan Blair as a freshman played really well. Maury Edwards as a freshman defenseman played really well.

“When we look at our roster we had a lot of growth moments. As a team, we struggled offensively [against Merrimack, but] all year we’ve played very well defensively. Tonight, I thought we did an excellent job offensively and really struggled in our own zone in spurts.”

Looking ahead to games this weekend against New Hampshire and UMass, MacDonald saw clear areas to focus on.

“We need our forwards to generate more offense,” he said. “We scored two goals by a defenseman [Edwards] again. We have to have some of our key offensive players produce more offensively.

“But I liked how we battled; I like the spirit of our team. When you look at our roster, I thought we showed a tremendous amount of poise for a young team. So we need to have a really rotten taste in our mouth after this game and do things to not have this feeling again.”

Quote Of Note

Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald after losing to BU, 7-4:

“If I was to create a model for how I’d like my team to be, BU would be that team more than any team in Hockey East.”

BU goaltender Brett Bennett on what went through his head when he was summoned to replace starter Karson Gillespie:

“The first thing I thought was, ‘Where’s my helmet?’ I put it on the end of the bench, and the next thing I know it’s gone.”

Trivia Contest

Last week Scott decided to strike a blow for the latter part of the alphabet. His trivia question was as follows: “I am asking our loyal readers to give me a starting lineup — goalie, two defensemen, and three forwards — that would represent the players at those positions who are closest to the end of the alphabet in the history of Hockey East men’s hockey.

“A few rules:

• You can only use a given last name once. If there were three former Hockey East players named, say, Zzywcyzk, you can only use one of them.

• The player needed to play for a Hockey East team when it actually was in Hockey East. So guys who played for that 1976-77 BU team — Dave Silk, for example — would not qualify.

• 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.”

This question proved to be quite popular with readers, as there were several correct answers and a few inspired guesses. Joe Ngo even offered a Hockey East women’s team:

F – Kaitlin Zeek
F – Jessica Zerafa
F – Rush Zimmerman
D – Hannah Westbrook
D – Amber Yung
G – Brittany Wilson

And Andrew Young couldn’t resist providing a full roster on top of the correct answer:

Line 2:
Scott Young BU 1985-87
Brandon Yip BU 2005-present
Matt Wright BU 1993-97

Line 3:
Paul Worthington UML 2006-present
Reese Wisnowski UVM 2004-08
Daniel Winnik UNH 2003-06

Line 4:
Chris Winnes UNH 1987-91
Jeremy Wilson BC 1999-00, MC 2003-05
Geoff Wilkinson NU 1995-98

Defense 2:
Tom Zabkowicz UM 2003-05
Phil Youngclaus UVM 2002-06

Defense 3:
Brian Yandle UNH 2002-06
Andy Wozniewski UML 1999-2000

Backup Sieves:
John Yaros UML 2003-05
Jason Wolfe MC 1998-2002

Sadly, though, Kurt Zwald did not respond quickly enough to give us poetic justice with a late-alphabet winner. Such is the price of living in Hawaii, with a time zone difference that doesn’t lend itself to expedient trivia responses.

Instead, this week’s honors go to perennial HE trivia champ, J.P. Joubert, who took special glee in noting that there were two players in his answer from J.P.’s native Indiana. Here is his entry:

Goalie: Matthew Yeats 1999-2002 (MAINE)
Defense: Scott Zygulski 1989-93 (BC) from South Bend, Indiana!!!!!!!!
Defense: Paul Zinchenko 1994-97 (MAINE) another Indiana boy, this one from Ft. Wayne!!!!!
Forward: J.R. Zavisza 1999-2002 (UMASS-AMHERST)
Forward: Ryan Zoller 1998-2001 (NORTHEASTERN)
Forward: Peter Zingoni 2000-04 (PC)

His cheer is GO MERRIMACK!!!!!! A BELATED BIRTHDAY PRESENT FROM YOU TO ME, WOULD BE A NICE WIN OVER BC!

Since last week’s question was such a challenge, this week’s question concerns the brainiac side of our sport. Part 1: Name the two student-athletes on last year’s Hockey East All-Academic Team who recorded perfect 4.0 grade point averages. Part 2: Name all the members of the All-Academic Team who were also either first or second-team All-Hockey East selections. E-mail me with your answer. 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…

Winning the World Series in 2004 was nothing like this year. In 2004, we got the monkey off our backs. This year, we became the 500-pound gorilla. Prepare for the door to get mashed down a few more times.

And, of course, there’s an extra dollop of glee since A-Rod has opted out, Andy Pettitte has declined his option, and all we need for a Screw-The-Yankees hat trick is for Jorge Posada to sign with the Mets. Go Omar!

Thanks to Scott Weighart and my wife Brenda.

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Nov. 8, 2007

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Not a Cliché

Coaches in Atlantic Hockey constantly talk about the balance in their league — how “on any given night …”. Well, we’re barely into the season, with each team playing anywhere from two to five league games, and everybody already has at least one loss in league play.

“Every team has good goaltending and good goal scorers,” said Bentley coach Ryan Soderquist. “Night to night, it really depends on who gives the best effort because every team has a goaltender that can shut you down if he’s playing great, and everybody’s got some guys that can put the puck in the net. Going into every game, you never know. You have to be prepared to battle.”

Bentley’s Back

Speaking of Bentley …

After making the league championship game in 2006, The Falcons faltered last season, finishing 12-22-1 and in eighth place. But after a tough start to the season in non-conference play, they are 3-1-1 in league contests, tied for first at this early juncture of the season. Wins over Air Force and Sacred Heart have turned heads.

“We’re playing pretty well right now,” said coach Ryan Soderquist. “Just taking it game by game.”

Bentley’s latest conquest was a 3-1 win over Sacred Heart on Tuesday.

“We didn’t play particularly well in the first period but turned it up in the second and third,” said Soderquist, whose team outshot the Pioneers 40-29. “It was a real goaltender’s duel. (Sacred Heart goaltender) Stefan (Drew) played really well.”

As did Bentley freshman goalie Joe Calvi, who has won the starting job, playing in seven of the Falcons’ nine contests so far, posting a 1.56 GAA and a .946 save percentage.

“He’s stepped in really well and shown he can play at this level right away,” said Soderquist of his rookie, who hails from New Lenox, Ill., and played for the New England Junior Huskies last season.

“I came in not knowing what to expect,” said Calvi. “I didn’t think I’d get to play as much as I have. I figured I would get some starts but not this many right away, so I’ve been glad for the opportunity.”

Calvi was Rookie of the Week this week in the AHA and was Rookie of the Month for the league in October. He’s allowed just six goals in five conference games so far this season.

The freshman netminder said the adjustment from juniors to college has had its challenges and benefits. “The game is faster, but the defense in front of me is better at taking away the pass, which allows me to me more aggressive and take on the shooter,” he said.

Calvi was recruited by several AHA schools but chose Bentley for the reasons one might expect.

“A chance to play right away and the quality of the school,” he said of his choice. “My family supported my decision, which was important. I’m glad to be here.”

And Soderquist is glad to have him. The Falcons are trying to put aside last year’s struggles, and the play of Calvi, Marc Menzione (five goals, four assists) and Dain Prewitt (four goals, two assists) have made that easier.

“There’s a completely different feeling this season,” said Soderquist. “Right from the fall, through practices, through the games so far. We’ve got 26 guys committed to winning. We’re all on the same page.”

Picking Up Where They Left Off

Despite the 3-1 loss to Bentley on Tuesday, Sacred Heart finds itself in a familiar position — at the top of the AHA standings. After the loss of a couple of key players, including all-stars Pierre-Luc O’Brien and Jason Smith, the Pioneers were expected to drop a notch or two, picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll after a second-place finish last season.

“I’ve never felt like this was a ‘rebuilding team,'” said coach Shaun Hannah. “It’s a new team and we’ve got to answer some questions in terms of our strengths and weaknesses. We have completely new line combinations and defensive pairings.”

And a new starter in net. Junior Stefan Drew, who played in 14 games behind Smith in two previous seasons, is the main man so far for the Pioneers, playing in all but one game so far this season, posting a 2.48 GAA and a .915 save percentage.

“Stefan’s our starter,” said Hannah. “(Oliver) St. Onge has played well too.”

The Pioneers’ loss to Bentley and two close games with Canisius didn’t mean that his team didn’t play well, according to Hannah.

“Tuesday was a good battle,” he said. “And Canisius is a good team. It’s the parity we all talked about at the beginning of the season. Each team is going to have to work hard and face adversity as the season goes along. Our goals are game-to-game … We have the ultimate goal of winning the league championship but along the way I’m looking for our freshmen to get more experience and for guys like (David) Grimson and (Nick) Johnson to continue to play well. They’re really playing well right now.”

The Pioneers have the weekend off but face a tough challenge on November 16 and 17 when they travel to Niagara, which is undefeated at home in its last 20 home games (18-0-2).

“It’s a pretty amazing streak,” said Hannah. “We’ll have our work cut out for us.”

Great Move, Coach

Prior to Canisius’ game versus RIT on Saturday, sophomore Andrew Lowen was announced as the starter in net for the Golden Griffins — but it was senior Bryce Luker who got the start for the second consecutive night for the Griffs. Luker was exceptional, making 36 saves and leading his team to a 6-2 win, his first victory in a Canisius uniform after going 0-11 last season and 0-2-1 this season.

What made coach Dave Smith change his mind? A hunch? Something he saw in warm-ups?

“Actually, Andrew took a shot off his knee in warm-ups and couldn’t play,” said Smith with a chuckle. “Made me look pretty smart. Genius coaching.”

Canisius wore its third jerseys for the game, the Griffs’ first home game of the season. Instead of each player’s name on the back of the gaudy gold sweaters, the word “Canisius” is there.

“We got the idea from Team Canada, who did it a couple of years ago,” said Smith.

After getting their first win of the season, something tells me we’ll see more of those jerseys.

Weekly Awards

Co-Player of the Week for November 4, 2007:
Marc Menzione, Bentley
The sophomore from Darien, Ill., tallied a hat trick in a 5-1 win over AIC. It was the first time a Falcon has scored three times in a single game since 2005.

Co-Player of the Week for November 4, 2007:
Brodie Sheahan, Holy Cross
Sheahan picked up four points last weekend in a split with Army, including two goals and an assist in Sunday’s 3-1 win in a nationally televised game.

Goaltender of the Week for November 4 2007:
Stefan Drew, Sacred Heart
The junior goaltender made 50 saves, 25 each night, to lead the Pioneers to a 4-2, 5-0 sweep over Connecticut.

Rookie of the Week for October 15, 2007:
Joe Calvi — Bentley
Calvi stopped 66 of 68 shots he faced this weekend as his Falcons took three points from AIC. Calvi ranks second in the AHA in both goals against average and save percentage.

Around the League

Air Force: The Falcons beat Mercyhurst for the first time ever at home as the teams split last weekend’s series. Senior Eric Ehn scored his first goal of the season in Saturday’s 6-2 win. He has five points through six games.

AIC: AIC didn’t get a league point until its 13th game of the season last year, but the Yellow Jackets picked up their first of the season in a 1-1 tie with Bentley on Friday. Rookie goaltender Dan Ramirez stopped 22 of 23 shots in that game.

Canisius: The Griffs earned a split with RIT with a 6-2 win on Saturday on home ice in front of 1,131 fans, the second largest crowd ever to see Canisius at Buffalo State, where the Griffs play the majority of their home games. Junior Spencer Churchill had three assists on the weekend, giving him six for the season. He had six all last season.

Mercyhurst: The Lakers broke out of their scoring slump with a 5-3 win at Air Force on Friday. Rookie Steve Cameron’s goal in the first period was the first time Mercyhurst had scored in the opening stanza through the first six games of the season.

RIT: The Tigers’ power play was clicking at an amazing 38.1% before going 1-for-9 on Saturday at Canisius. At 30%, it’s still fourth in the nation. On the other side of special teams, RIT has allowed just one goal in its last 25 penalty kills. RIT’s winning goal on Friday in a 4-3 decision over Canisius was scored on a penalty shot by senior Ricky Walton. The Tigers’ 6-2 loss to Canisius on Saturday was their worst losing margin since joining Atlantic Hockey and tied for their worst losing margin since becoming a D-I program. RIT lost by an identical 6-2 score in its first Division I game ever, October 13, 2005, at Quinnipiac.

Sad News

Fans of RIT Hockey will be sad to learn of the sudden passing of Dan Barrows on Thursday. Dan and his wife Laurie followed the team from the 1970s and were the Tigers’ biggest fans, and regular listeners to our broadcasts when RIT was on the road. Dan was also the official historian for the high school leagues in the Rochester area and the statistician for all of high school hockey in New York State.

When he wasn’t at a Tigers’ game, he could often be found in the goal judge’s box at a high school game. He just loved the great game of hockey, and took pride in former Rochester kids who went on to careers in college and the NHL, like Brian Gionta and Billy Sauer. I spent many enjoyable hours talking hockey with Dan, and I and so many others will miss him. My thoughts and prayers are with Laurie and the rest of the Barrows family.

This Week in ECAC Hockey: Nov. 8, 2007

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Let’s play word-association. Albany … tournament. Daylight savings … glorious. Season … winter. Harvard … Crimson.

ECAC Hockey … parity.

Talk to any coach in the league for more than two minutes, and I’d bet you top dollar (Canadian now, please) that he would say that word. To put it simply, out of 13 league games played, six have gone to overtime … and five are in the books as ties. Ten teams have one win or fewer on the league charts. Four teams — Brown, RPI, Union and Yale — have combined for a dumbfounding 0-0-8 record! Gary Bettman would wet himself in horror if he ever looked at these standings.

Cat’s Got His Tongue

After a four-point weekend to open league play, Guy Gadowsky is making Ben Stein look excitable.

The veteran coach iterated, reiterated and re-reiterated the fact that the season is still very young for the Tigers, who are 2-0-0 in the ECAC for the first time since 1998-99. The most the sedate Gadowsky would say with regards to the early points is that securing early wins “was an area we struggled in the last few years.”

However, the fourth-year Princeton headman did take the time to praise a few of his charges, especially his freshman defensemen.

“[Their] transition to the college game was good,” he said. “All three freshman defensemen were excellent [last weekend].”

The trio of Taylor Fedun, Cam Ritchie and Matt Godlewski played equal minutes with the returning blueliners in the victories at Cornell and Colgate, and Gadowsky specifically praised Godlewski and Brad Schroeder as being “the best [defensive] pair last weekend.”

Bedevilled Bobcats

I don’t think anyone out there really expected Quinnipiac to be struggling at this point of the season, at 2-3-1 and fighting for offense. However, coach Rand Pecknold believes that his team is starting to come around.

“We made some good competitiveness strides” over the weekend, he said, in tying Colgate at one and losing at Lynah 5-3 the following evening. “We need to play harder, we need to compete, we need to battle,” he said of his squad’s inconsistent efforts. “We haven’t done a great job on mental prep.”

However, the usual suspects are still atop QU’s scoring list, and the coach felt better about the team’s attitude last week. The year is young; don’t bury this cat just yet.

Skate Harder …

As mentioned prior, Brown is one of the four winless, lossless teams in the ECAC right now. Head coach Roger Grillo is none too happy about it, either.

“I’m disappointed in our first two games,” he said. “We were in constant chase mode.”

Bruno was outshot 35-18 in the 2-2 tie at Union, and had to kill off seven Dutchman power plays. However, the next night was a bit better for everyone … including goalie Dan Rosen.

“We started to pick up the pace [at RPI],” Grillo said.

Despite another 2-2 tie, Grillo said that the Bears’ performance at Rensselaer was far beyond their sloppy, slow-footed play at Union.

“We were at two different levels. Two different performances … same result,” he assessed.

Grillo complimented the play of Ryan Garbutt (“very consistent”), Paul Baier and Sean Hurley (“they’re playing really well”), and of course his sophomore goaltender Rosen.

“The numbers don’t lie,” he said of his goalie, who has allowed six goals against in 190 minutes of play, stopping 93.3 percent of 83 shots faced.

… And Smarter

Don Vaughan is a busy man, and can be difficult to track down … given my busy schedule, and his much much much busier schedule. But when he has a second to spare, he’ll give you your second’s worth.

Mostly, he’s happy to get incendiary forward Peter Bogdanich back in the lineup. The junior winger has yet to play a game this season, and the void had thrown the Raiders’ offense into a bit of a mess.

As far as last weekend goes, “I thought both games were good. We had opportunities to win both nights,” said Vaughan of the 1-1 tie with Quinnipiac and the 2-0 loss to Princeton.

“Princeton played very very hard,” he said, but he never doubted his own team’s effort.

“We [have been] working hard, but not always working smart,” he said. “It’s not about [lack of] effort.”
Praising solid goaltending, Vaughan pointed out that he had written up seven very similar lineups in Colgate’s first seven games, but that Bogdanich’s return will hopefully allow the offense to start performing to its potential.

“We’ve tried to up-tempo our game [this year],” said the coach after focusing on team defense in the last few years, and Bogdanich is a major cog in the team’s desired system.

Fortunately, the Raiders are getting help from other sources too. Brian Day leads the squad’s freshmen in scoring with five goals, and Francois Brisebois has four assists in his first year as well.

“[Day] is one of the most complete first-year players we’ve ever had here,” said Vaughan, who expects to play Day with Jesse Winchester and Tyler Burton this weekend.

Gimme More

First it was (Let’s Get) Physical, and now this. Hey, if I can get a bad song stuck in just one reader’s head each week, I’ve done my job.

Rensselaer head coach Seth Appert is asking his team for more shots, more shots, more shots.

“We’re being too selective at times,” Appert continued. “We need to crash and drive the net … and create rebounds,” he said.

The Engineers put only 94 shots on net in their last four games combined, including last weekend’s back-to-back overtime contests against Yale and Brown (both ties).

“The confidence starts to slip [when you’re not scoring],” explained the coach, leading to fewer drives toward the net, and more cutesy peripheral passing. Despite holding a 2-0-2 record over those previous four, RPI only totaled eight goals.

Snapshots

As always — apparently — Zane Kalemba will get the start for Princeton on Friday at home against St. Lawrence. The sophomore goaltender surrendered four goals in two complete games last weekend, and holds an early .930 save percentage.

Bud Fisher is hoping to return to action within the next two weeks, according to Rand Pecknold at Quinnipiac. The junior workhorse only played one game this year before getting hurt (a 4-1 loss at Air Force), but transfer-senior Peter Vetri has performed well in his absence.

Senior d-man David Robertson and frosh forward Harry Zolniercyzk are both out with shoulder injuries, said Brown coach Roger Grillo. Robertson was hurt in the regular-season opener at Yale, while Zolniercyzk has been out since the exhibition game. Both are in “questionable” status. Also hurting Bruno is the loss of sophomore defender Jeremy Russell, who is done for the year with a torn ACL.

Colgate blueliner Nick St. Pierre will miss time this weekend with an injured finger. The junior has stacked up four points in seven games thus far.

Rensselaer defenseman John Kennedy is doubtful to play this weekend, said coach Seth Appert. Details regarding his injury were not available.

This Week in D-III Women’s Hockey: Nov. 8, 2007

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No bull about it…

…these girls can play.

When you think of first-year programs, you normally think of sub-par records for a few seasons while the players get their feet wet and experience playing collegiate hockey, right? Well, Adrian College, located a little over an hour away from Detroit in southern Michigan, is proving that theory wrong this season.

The Adrian Bulldogs are 5-1 so far in this young season with their biggest win coming on the road against borderline nationally ranked Neumann. The Bulldogs have relied on balanced scoring and team depth as all but one player who has played in more than one game this season has scored at least a point.

“The biggest keys to our success this season have been the ability to roll four lines all game long and know that each player will be competing every shift,” said Adrian head coach Chandy Kaip. “Also, we have shown great discipline and accountability in our defensive zone which has kept us in a lot of games and given our offense a chance to win games.”

Adrian’s lone loss this season came at the hands of Neumann in a 3-2 decision. However, the very next night, Adrian got their revenge and their biggest win in program history by defeating the Knights 3-2.

“Beating Neumann was a bit of a surprise,” Kaip said. “Everything came together for us that day. We came in focused and I was very pleased with splitting a road series against a team as good as Neumann.”

Being a brand new program, Coach Kaip had the fortunate situation last year of only having to recruit players and put together the schedule for this season. However, unlike other coaches, Kaip had to recruit a full roster rather than just a handful of players to fill holes in the returning team. With a strong recruiting pitch and many opportunities other schools couldn’t offer, Kaip is now reaping the benefits of her hard work last year.

“Michigan is a state with a deep hockey tradition and a lot of female talent,” Kaip said. “We pitched our status as a brand new program with a brand new rink and the opportunity to come in and compete right away. I told girls they had the opportunity to be the first woman in Adrian College hockey history to score a goal.”

Whether it was Adrian’s location or Kaip’s recruiting pitch, all that matters is it worked. Adrian’s roster consists of 23 freshmen and three sophomore transfers. There are 11 players each from Michigan and Canada, two from Ohio, and one each from West Virginia, Louisiana, and Virginia.

The three transfers have almost been forced into leadership positions on Adrian’s young team. However, Kaip commended them on a job well done so far this season.

“Rachel Walters (Ohio State) and Nicole Zynda (Robert Morris) have stepped up and been awesome this year as our captains and leaders for this young team,” Kaip said. “They lead the team on and off the ice, in practices and in the classroom.”

This is Kaip’s first head coaching job, but she has already had many unforgettable memories.

“From having the Stanley Cup at our first game at Arrington Ice Arena to Stacey Kempson scoring the first goal in program history, it has been a great ride,” Kaip said. “When the train horn went off for Kempson’s goal all I could do was sit back and think, Wow…Everything has come together and the season has finally started. It was a wake up call and an experience I’ll never forget.”

The Bulldogs offense has been fairly consistent over their first six games and has been a big reason why Adrian is off their solid start. Stacey Kempson leads the way with 5 goals and 5 assists on the season. Keegan Castrillo is tied with Kempson for the team lead in goals with five as well. Rounding out the top 5 scorers for the Bulldogs are Jodi Meyers (2-3-5), Tracy McKay (0-4-4), and Rachel Walters (0-4-4).

Jessica Grubbs has been the clutch goal scorer for Adrian as she has three goals on the season, including two game winners on the power play, as well as the GWG against Neumann.

Over the next three seasons Kaip is hoping Adrian will become synonymous with a powerhouse women’s hockey program.

“I hope we can keep getting better and eventually get into the nationals polls and once there, stay there consistently,” Kaip said. “It will all start with establishing our defensive zone and then going from there.”

For the next two seasons, Adrian will be an independent team but they will play all the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) schools twice in hopes of being voted into the league and becoming the NCHA’s 8th member for the 2009-2010 season.

Up next, Adrian will face two tough consecutive weekend tests as they travel to Utica to take on a new-look Pioneers team that lost 11 seniors. Then, the following weekend, the Bulldogs will play host to eighth-ranked Wisconsin-Superior.

“Utica is a well coached team with the talent to bounce back from the loss of their senior class,” Kaip said. “Our main focus has been our defensive zone as well as burying the puck when we get chances. As far as Superior, we focus one week at a time, once the Utica games are over we will begin to focus on Superior. I hope to see our team come out strong and be competitive for 60 minutes. As a young team, I expect improvement each
game.”

Stevens Point downs Gustavus Adolphus

The Stevens Point Pointers got their 2007-2008 season off to a tremendous start this past weekend defeating St. Olaf 3-2 and downing third-ranked Gustavus Adolphus 5-1 in the Division-III Game of the Week.

Freshmen Jessica Edwards got her Pointer career off to a great start helping lead the offense with a goal and an assist along with sophomore Nicole Grossman, who matched her goal and assist. Fellow sophomore Jenna Daggit chipped in two assists to help lead the Pointers to the win. D’Andra Phillips picked up the win in goal for Stevens Point turning away 34 shots and holding the Golden Gusties’ power play at bay.

Coach Ann Ninnemann was pleased with getting the win but knows her team still has a lot of work to do to get to where they want to be.

“It was nice to get off to a good start and get a good morale booster beating Gustavus Adolphus,” Ninnemann said. “However, we still have a lot of work to do. We made the most of opportunities getting only 10 shots on net and scoring five goals but we never really had much of a chance to set-up our offense with all the penalties we took. We were fortunate to block a lot of shots and Phillips was up to the task making a lot of good saves.

Stevens Point won the NCHA title last season and made it all the way to the NCAA Frozen Four before falling 5-1 to Middlebury in the national semifinals. Ninnemann is optimistic the Pointers can repeat the same success this season as long as they stay focused and keep their eyes on the ultimate prize.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work on and off the ice for us to get back to the Frozen Four,” Ninnemann said. “We’ll have to compete every night and play sound defense as well as keep getting contribution from our freshmen class. Dana Carothers and Jessica Edwards are off to fantastic starts putting points up right away for us.”

The Pointers are off this weekend before traveling to Finlandia next weekend for a two games series in Michigan. Gustavus Adolphus will be looking for their first win of the season as they host Lake Forest on Friday night and then travel to River Falls in NCHA conference play.

This Week in the WCHA: Nov. 8, 2007

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We’ve finally completed our first full weekend of WCHA action (well, save for Minnesota State’s weekend against Alabama-Huntsville, of course) and at the end of it, we’ve got some surprises.

Granted, it’s still early (how many times have I said that so far?), but by this point in the season, who would have expected Michigan Tech to be at the top of the league and Minnesota at the bottom, with North Dakota somewhere in the middle? The crazy part is, the rest of the season will probably be as wild and, well, crazy as it has been to this point.

Red Baron Pizza WCHA Players of the Week

Red Baron WCHA Offensive Player of the Week: Ryan Lasch, St. Cloud State

Why: Scored five points (3g, 2a), had eight shots on goal and was a +1 during the Huskies’ weekend series with Alaska-Anchorage.
Also Nominated: Bill Sweatt, CC; Rhett Rakhshani, DU; Mick Berge, MSU-M; Ryan Duncan, UND; Kyle Klubertanz, UW.

Red Baron WCHA Defensive Player of the Week: Peter Mannino, Denver

Why: Stopped 68 of 70 shots for a .971 save percentage in the Pioneers’ first sweep of Minnesota since December 1994, earning his first two career wins over the Gophers.
Also Nominated: Kris Fredheim, CC; Drew Dobson, MTU; Brian Kilburg, MSU-M; Robbie Bina, UND; Aaron Brocklehurst, SCSU.

Red Baron WCHA Rookie of the Week: Tyler Bozak, Denver

Why: Scored five points against the Gophers, including two shorthanded goals and his first collegiate hat trick, as well as sporting a 68.4 winning percentage on faceoffs, 10 hits and two blocked shots.
Also Nominated: Richard Bachman, CC; Kurt Davis, MSU-M; Cody Goloubef, UW.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Gophers?

Fact: The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers are off to their worst start in the WCHA since the WCHA has existed.

Fiction: Head coach Don Lucia is concerned.

The Gophers are off to an 0-4 start in conference play — their worst since the advent of the WCHA in 1959-60 and their worst since they went 0-5 to start the 1956-57 season in the old Western Intercollegiate Hockey League when, weirdly enough, they also suffered their first four losses to Denver and Colorado College.

The most obvious problems are the offense — tied for 44th in the nation, averaging 2.12 goals/game — and the power play, which is the 10th worst in the nation, functioning at a measly 7.5% success rate (3-for-40). While one can’t really predict power-play success, Lucia thought his offense would be fine during the WCHA preseason teleconference call. Of course, the rest of us agreed with him, given that the Gophers had a good nucleus coming back that would continue to develop.

Obviously, real life throws a few wrenches into the mix.

“[Our offense has] obviously been a big problem so far within the league,” said Lucia, adding that his league competition so far has been top-notch. “I think it’s a combination of we can do things better, but we’ve also played good teams with very sharp goaltenders.”

When asked if he was worried, Lucia chuckled and (as I imagined) shook his head, before explaining what his team needs to do to turn things around.

“I think if we can get some of our top-end guys to start scoring, [that] will translate into more success on the power play, so I think those are obviously issues we have to get better at,” he said. “I think we have to play better as a five-man unit on the rink. I think there’s been too much of four players watching one — the puck carrier — play and not enough support for the puck carrier.”

Reader Mailbag

Not much to report here this week, though after perusing the work of my fellow columnists, I noticed that Scott Weighart and Dave Hendrickson of the Hockey East column run a contest. The idea intrigues me and I may run one myself. Stay here for updates — a definitive announcement will come around the holiday season.

Match-Ups By the Numbers

Only four series this week folks, but, as always, they should be good ones.

No. 15 Minnesota-Duluth @ No. 9 Colorado College

Shockingly, the Bulldogs didn’t move anywhere in the polls after their weekend off, though the Tigers didn’t move either after their split up in Grand Forks, getting a loss with Drew O’Connell and a win with Richard Bachman. As of press time, coach Scott Owens still hadn’t decided who was playing what nights this weekend. Since it’s at home, Bachman might actually get two starts. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs lost defenseman Evan Oberg to injury during practice and will be without the freshman until January. However, Michael Gergen, who missed the Denver series with an ankle injury, returns to the line-up.

Overall Records: tUMD is 4-1-1 (3-1 WCHA). CC is 3-3 (3-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: CC leads overall, 77-71-5. tUMD has the edge at the World Arena, 6-7-1.
Top Scorers: tUMD — MacGregor Sharp (2-3-5). CC — Bill Sweatt (4-3-7).
Goaltenders: tUMD — Alex Stalock (6 gp, 4-1-1, 1.65 GAA, .937 sv %). CC — Richard Bachman (4 gp, 3-1, 1.49 GAA, .950 sv %).

No. 3 North Dakota @ No. 10 Wisconsin

The Fighting Sioux continue to slowly slide in the polls, slipping down another spot to No. 3 after a split with CC — which really isn’t a cause for worry since the Sioux typically take half a season to get going anyway. Much like CC, the Badgers stayed put thanks to a split with Michigan Tech. The game features the nation’s top-scoring defense (UND — 1.29 goals allowed per game) and the nation’s second-highest scoring offense (UW — 4.67 goals scored per game) as well as the nation’s top power play unit (Badgers, 34.4%).

Overall Records: UND is 4-2-1 (2-2 WCHA). UW is 4-2 (1-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UW leads overall, 79-56-10 and at the Kohl Center, 10-4.
Top Scorers: UND — Ryan Duncan (3-5-8). UW — Kyle Turris (5-8-13).
Goaltenders: UND — Jean-Phillippe Lamoureux (7 gp, 4-2-1, 1.06 GAA, .958 sv %). UW — Shane Connelly (5 gp, 3-2, 2.60 GAA, .897 sv %).

No. 17 St. Cloud State @ No. 13 Michigan Tech

It’s the battle of the Huskies in Houghton. The Minnesota version of the Huskies rose two spots this week after earning three points from the Seawolves, while the state of Michigan’s Huskies stayed put after a split with Wisconsin. St. Cloud currently holds a five-game unbeaten streak against Tech. On a completely random note, the teams are also the least-penalized in the WCHA — St. Cloud averages 10.2 minutes per game while Tech averages 14 minutes per game.

Overall Records: SCSU is 4-2-2 (1-2-1 WCHA). MTU is 5-3 (4-2 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: SCSU leads overall, 25-42-2 and in Houghton, 18-16-2 (including before MTU was D-1).
Top Scorers: SCSU — Garrett Roe (6-7-13) and Ryan Lasch (5-8-13). MTU — Drew Dobson (1-7-8).
Goaltenders: SCSU — Jase Weslosky (5 gp, 3-2, 1.81 GAA, .935 sv %). MTU — Michael-Lee Teslak (6 gp, 3-2, 1.70 GAA, .937 sv %).

No. 14 Minnesota vs. Minnesota State Home-and-Home

Predictably, the Gophers continue to fall in the polls, down six spots this week after being swept by Denver. The Mavericks, on the other hand, still aren’t ranked, but are moving up in the world of polls, edging into the “Others Receiving Votes” category with four after their sweep of Alabama-Huntsville. The Gophers still haven’t won a game in the WCHA while the Mavericks haven’t beaten the Gophers in 16 tries. Also — before anyone asks about the records, there’s a discrepancy. Riddle me this — the Gophers led the series 20-2-4 going into last season, went 3-0-1 and thus now somehow lead 24-2-4 — how does this happen?

Overall Records: UM is 4-4 (0-4 WCHA). MSU-M is 3-2-1 (1-2-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: Gophers lead 23-2-5, 14-1 as visitors and 9-1-5 as the home squad.
Top Scorers: UM — Blake Wheeler (4-2-6). MSU-M — Trevor Bruess (1-4-5).
Goaltenders: UM — Jeff Frazee (6 gp, 3-3, 2.82 GAA, .903 sv %). MSU-M — Mike Zacharias (5 gp, 2-1-1, 1.47 GAA, .943 sv %).

No. 5 Denver and Alaska-Anchorage

Both teams get to rest up with bye weeks. Denver moved up two spots in the poll after sweeping the Gophers while the Seawolves are still in the “Others Receiving Votes” category, but might not be for much longer. UAA went from 39 votes down to six after a one-point weekend in St. Cloud.

Overall Records: DU is 6-2 (3-1 WCHA). UAA is 3-2-3 (0-2-2 WCHA).
Top Scorers: DU — Brock Trotter (4-6-10). UAA — Kevin Clark (4-6-10).
Goaltenders: DU — Peter Mannino (8 gp, 6-2, 1.52 GAA, .940 sv %). UAA — Jon Olthuis (7 gp, 2-2-3, 3.05 GAA, .872 sv %).

Mavericks Giving Back

If you were in the Mankato area Thursday, you might have gotten your order filled by the Maverick hockey team. The players took part in “Skaters as Waiters,” a fundraiser for Campus Kitchen Mankato, a non-profit organization that helps prepare and deliver meals for families around the city. Several players served as waiters and bartenders at Junker’s Bar and Grill in North Mankato from 5-8 p.m. CST.

This Week in the CHA: Nov. 8, 2007

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Tyler Gotto came to Niagara last season as a player head coach Dave Burkholder envisioned could play in all situations and eventually run the defense from an offensive standpoint.

The Calgary native made the CHA All-Rookie Team and ranked sixth in defenseman and rookie scoring (16 points) while playing in all but one game.

This year, he has five assists in six games, picking up two of those in a 2-0 shutout of Bowling Green back on Oct. 18.

“With the rule changes that get rid of all the clutching and grabbing, Tyler benefits from that,” Burkholder said. “(Former Niagara assistant coach) Albie O’Connell saw him play a couple times and after we scoured the junior leagues, we found what we wanted with Tyler.”

Tyler Gotto has become a man for all situations for Niagara (photo: Niagara media relations).

Tyler Gotto has become a man for all situations for Niagara (photo: Niagara media relations).

The 6-foot, 195-pound Gotto plays on one of the Purple Eagles’ power-play units, kills penalties and is on the ice if NU is defending a one-goal lead or down a goal late in the game.

“When I came here, the coaching staff told me I’d play the power play and see where I would fit the best,” said Gotto, 22. “I think I fit in with the tactical style of play here. I think I have a role on the PK and really, I just want to see lots of ice. I just want to fulfill the expectations that the coaches have for me. I think eventually I can quarterback the power play and make more of a difference out there.”

In juniors with the Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, Gotto was runner-up for the league’s best defenseman in 2005-2006 after scoring 13 goals (eight on the power play) among 49 points and 129 penalty minutes. Before playing for the Canucks, he was a member of the Calgary Northstars Midget AAA national championship team.

Coming the 2,100 miles to Monteagle Ridge was a bit of a reality check for Gotto, who said Buffalo is nothing like “back home on the prairie, but in both places, the people are very friendly.”

“I thought in my mind that when I came here I was in good shape,” said Gotto. “You definitely have to keep raising your level of fitness and during the summer, I hit the gym hard. Hopefully, that helps to translate into success on the ice.”

“Tyler’s a very professional kid,” Burkholder said. “He’s taken our fitness program very seriously. Last year, he played at a little over 200 pounds and this year he’s playing at 190. He wanted to get quicker.”

Gotto’s speed is what Burkholder said is his greatest asset.

“I’ve told him personally that he has the green light to rush on his own,” said Burkholder. “We have that faith and that trust in him. We have some pretty good forwards, so if he can rush the puck more, hey, he has the green light.”

Gotto has played the bulk of this year with classmate Ryan Annesley on the blueline, but will be paired with redshirt junior Travis Anderson this weekend.

“I’ve always been the offensive-type player,” said Gotto. “Whoever I’m with, they know my style and I know they have my back.”

Still, being on the ice in pressure situations is when Gotto feels he plays his best.

“I like to get a head of steam and start up ice and see how far I can get and draw guys to me,” added Gotto. “I try and make the offensive play when I can. I think I see the ice and can find the open guys and set plays up before they happen. I want to be out there if we need a big goal and I want to be out there to help keep a lead.

“The coaching staff can rely on me. On the ice is where I want to be.”

Niagara, Bemidji Both Win At Glas

Niagara and Bemidji State split last weekend’s series at Bemidji in a series symbolic of the parity in the CHA this season.

Friday night, NU freshman Bryan Haczyk scored the game-winner shorthanded for a thrilling 3-2 win. Haczyk scored off a 2-on-1 break with junior captain Vince Rocco for his first NCAA goal.

“I have been working with (associate) Coach (Jerry) Forton about opening up when we are in positions like that,” Haczyk said. “Rocco gave me the pass and I was just thinking ‘Get it on net.’ It’s such a great feeling, but the most important thing is that we got the win.”

Last season, these two rivals played to three ties out of the four contests, including a pair of ties at the Glas Fieldhouse. Despite getting outshot, 36-18, NU was not going to settle for anything less than a win.

“What a courageous road effort,” Burkholder said. “We persevered through a lot of pressure (Friday). They are a fast transition team at home and there was no question that we were under fire. We bent, but we didn’t break, and we pulled through with some terrific defense.”

Juliano Pagliero made 34 saves for the win. Orlando Alamano made just 15 stops for the Beavers, who got goals from Blaine Jarvis and John Vadnais.

Annesley and Egor Mironov scored NU’s other goals. Sophomore Trevor Foster tallied his first career point with an assist on Annesley’s goal.

Saturday, a 3-0 win by BSU ended Niagara’s five-game winning streak.

Matt Climie stopped 31 shots en route to his eighth career shutout.

The victory, BSU’s first since Oct. 13, ended the Beavers’ longest losing skid since they lost five straight in the final month of the 2002-03 campaign, snapped a five-game winless streak versus the Purple Eagles dating back to Oct. 27 of last season and a put to rest a string of three straight losses at the Glas.

Matt Pope scored twice and Jarvis added a single. Joey Moggach assisted on all three goals to boot.

Niagara goalie Adam Avramenko posted 28 saves.

RMU-NU Series On Tap

In what could be a preview of the CHA title game next March, Robert Morris hosts Niagara this weekend in an early-season battle for first place.

“This weekend will be a battle,” RMU head coach Derek Schooley said. “We’ll see where we fit in. We just need to go out, play our game and let the chips fall where they may.”

“After going to Bemidji last weekend and this weekend to Robert Morris, these are the two toughest road trips of the season,” Burkholder said. “To have these trips back-to-back, maybe I wouldn’t have written the schedule that way, but we have to show we’re a good road team against a very tough Robert Morris team.”

Niagara leads the all-time series 9-5-2. Last year, the Colonials won the season series with a 3-2-1 record.

“This will be our biggest test of the year so far,” Colonials senior forward Ryan Cruthers said. “We are going to have to beat them to be a championship team.”

“Playing at Robert Morris is one of the biggest weekends of the first half, if not the whole season,” added Gotto. “We played them a lot last year, so we know their schemes and tactics, so we need to focus on that.”

Cruthers sits second in overall conference scoring behind Niagara co-captain Matt Caruana with three goals and four assists. Caruana has five goals and eight points. Cruthers, however, leads the CHA in scoring with four points, tied with teammate Chris Margott and Moggach.

The series will also be a battle of two of the top goalies in the CHA in Pagliero and RMU’s Christian Boucher. Both Pagliero and Boucher are 4-1-0 on the season, but Pagliero has a slightly better save percentage than Boucher (.952 vs. .939) and a better goals-against average (1.61 vs. 1.77).

“There are no easy games and no easy series in the CHA,” said Schooley. “Anyone can beat anyone — we’ve always said that. Niagara is the premier team in the CHA and we want to go out and just battle.”

UAH Shows Grit, But Drops Pair At Home

Alabama-Huntsville opened their home season falling 7-0 and 4-2 to Minnesota State last weekend.

Goalies Cameron Talbot and Blake MacNicol split time in Friday’s loss.

“It was a bad way to play a hockey game,” said Chargers head coach Danton Cole in the Huntsville Times. “Playing like that isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

Saturday, Brennan Barker and Joey Koudys scored for UAH and MacNicol turned away 31 shots

“Saturday was a lot better,” Cole told the Times. “They came out and played the best period of the weekend. They also proved that they can hang in there. I liked that our guys blazed right to the end. We’ll bank that and hopefully carry it through the weekend.

“They care and they work and they’re in there. I’m real impressed with the adjustments they’ve made. There’s an importance to keeping it a learning experience.”

The Chargers open CHA play this weekend hosting Bemidji State on Friday and Saturday at the Von Braun Center.

Prior to the contest on the ice, Cole and BSU head coach Tom Serratore will be part of a luncheon in the Varsity Room at Spragins Hall on the UAH campus tomorrow at noon.

Each coach will address the audience (at a cost of $7 a pop) and take questions in a Q & A-like setting.

CHA Update

No news is good news. Right?

Breaking New Ground

By Terese Karmel
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The pictures of the 2007-08 University of Connecticut women’s hockey team that grace the Mark Frietas Forum are not your standard headshots of angry-looking players in helmets carrying sticks.

Instead there’s a shot-putter, Justin Verlander, a snowboarder, a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream fanatic, a teacher holding a globe and an FBI agent with handcuffs — seven-year coach Heather Linstad’s idea to make sure the players, posed with their hobbies and soon-to-be professional tools, are regarded as individuals and not just numbers.

If the layout is special, it’s because this could be a special team having a special season.

“I think with the growth of the program and where the recruiting has gone, this was the year we were going to turn the corner,” said Linstad, “with more special years to come. The way we are recruiting kids, we’re building it the way we want to,” she said.

Senior co-captain Jaclyn Hawkins and UConn are a force to be reckoned with in Hockey East.

Senior co-captain Jaclyn Hawkins and UConn are a force to be reckoned with in Hockey East.

Entering this weekend’s key matchup at New Hampshire, UConn is off to its best start in the program’s seven-year history with a 9-1-0 (2-0-0 in Hockey East) record. The only loss was in the first game of the season when then-10th ranked Ohio State defeated the Huskies 3-2. UConn is ranked eighth in the latest national polls, again a first for the program. UNH is ranked first in national polls going into the game. In the preseason Hockey East poll, New Hampshire was picked first and Connecticut third, behind Boston College.

UNH is 8-1-0, having defeated Boston College Wednesday night. It is in first place in Hockey East with a perfect 6-0-0 record; UConn, meanwhile, is tied for second, but with far fewer HEA games.

UNH coach Brian McCloskey said he’s glad there’s more competition in Hockey East. “That’s what we all want … you want a tough league because the lion’s share of games are in your league.”

Slowly, Hockey East is building up, he said. UNH has always been powerful, last year Boston College emerged and this year it’s “Heather’s program,” he said. Boston University is also getting better. The WCHA has had that kind of balance because it has several established programs, he said.

McCloskey said some people may be surprised at UConn’s fast start but “probably no one in our league. Heather’s done a great job. A couple of years ago, she turned things over and this year she’s getting the fruits of that rebuilding as the team starts to mature.”

McCloskey said UConn is very balanced with solid goaltending, accomplished scorers and especially solid defense. “They’ve always been tough defensively. This year they’re winning a lot of tough games, not by blowing people out but by playing both sides of the puck. They’re a very patient team.”

Players say the strength of the team, especially some of the newcomers, the addition of speed and the coaches’ attitude to let them have fun while they are competing has made the difference so far.

But it’s a long season and last year, looking good coming out of the holiday break, UConn went into a mini-slide, losing games to teams it should have beaten such as Vermont, Brown and a pair to Providence to end the regular season. Those losses dropped the Huskies to the third seed in the Hockey East tournament, so that they had to play UNH in the first round, a game they lost 2-0.

“We were disappointed because we gave away two games to Providence,” said Linstad. “We would have played BC instead of Providence,” she said. As it turned out Boston College advanced to the Frozen Four, but Linstad’s point is that UConn wanted to set its own seeding rather than have regular-season losses determine it.

“A lot of players who had potential last season have stepped up this year,” said senior co-captain Jaclyn Hawkins. “And the recruiting got better and we have a lot more speed and are so much quicker on forechecks.”

Last season, Hawkins set a school record with 18 assists. She had a total of 36 points to lead the team, and with 116 career points is the UConn career leader in that category.

“The coaches also aren’t as set in their ways and know how to adapt to different teams,” added senior co-captain Bridget King. “The biggest thing is to stay consistent. Last year after Christmas break, we just crashed.”

The players said they let personal issues distract them, issues that have to be left outside the rink.

One of the biggest explanations for this year’s success is the growth of sophomore Dominique Thibault, a 5-foot-10 sophomore from L’Orignal, Ontario, who played with the U-22 Canadian National Team this past summer. To date she has a team-leading 10 goals and 10 assists and is well on course to break all school offensive records when she graduates.

Her freshman year she had 14 goals and 11 assists to finish with 25 points, second-highest on the team

Thibault said she is more confident on the ice this year. “I feel I can do anything … there’s nothing stopping me,” she said. “Last year I was a little fearful and nervous. I was on the U-22 Canadian team and so when I came in here I had to prove I could do everything. This year I’m just going with the flow.”

“She’s very aggressive, she’s smart and she always knows how to get to the puck,” said Hawkins of Thibault. “She also uses her size very well. It’s tough going up against her in practice.”

“Last year she put too much pressure on herself,” said King. “This year when she’s determined to get something, she gets it.”

Linstad said Thibault has matured mentally. “We knew she could skate and handle the puck well, but now she comes to practice every day to get better. As a freshman she didn’t realize the expectations.”

Players said the team is much deeper this year, with four strong lines. They’re also looser, dancing on the ice in warmups.

“We’re having more fun … we’re allowed to be more goofy,” said Hawkins.

Linstad said the team is closer than in the past and calls it a “classless program” because everyone knows their roles and they’re more accountable for what they want to accomplish. Thibault is having a great year, she said, and Hawkins and King, who have been forces on the team since they came,”just needed a few players to play with.”

The team was tested physically Oct. 25 when it beat Providence 5-0. “They tried to get physical but we have more depth and five different people scored,” Linstad said. “We haven’t bumped into a line we couldn’t score on yet.” UConn is averaging 3.2 goals a game while giving up an average of 1.6.

Linstad the team is working on improving in the defensive zone and with special teams.

The UNH game will certainly be a test, she said. “They rely on senior experience and they’re very balanced,” she said. UConn was 0-1-2 against UNH last season, losing to them in the Hockey East semifinals. Overall they’re 3-17-3 against the Wildcats, the last win in December, 2001.

This Week in D-I Women’s Hockey: Nov. 8, 2007

By
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“Heavy is the head that wears the crown…”

Sure, let’s start out by ripping off Shakespeare.

Then again, if the Bard of Avon had been watching the recent Division-I doings as they pertained to the Nation’s No. 1 ranking, he might well have summed matters up thusly.

It has, after all, been a tough time to be seated in the top spot.

In successive weeks, the bulls-eye shifted from Wisconsin to Minnesota-Duluth then back again, thanks to upsets pulled off first by St. Cloud, then Minnesota.

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks, indeed.

Now New Hampshire is taking it’s turn at the top, and it, too (et, tu?) nearly fluffed its lines during the first act, Wednesday’s tilt against No. 10 Boston College.

The Wildcats eventually captured the contest by a hefty 4-1 margin, but not before spending 40 minutes fruitlessly deploying the outrageous fortune of slings and arrows (shots were 19-3 at one point) in its arsenal at BC goalie Molly Schaus.

“I wondered about [the ranking‘s effect] in the first period,” said UNH coach Brian McCloskey. “We generated, but we weren’t really sharp. I felt if we kept working that way, we would score. I think our team generates a lot of chances. The key is to keep them hungry, and not frustrated when the puck’s not going in.”

Junior sniper Sam Faber said that as far as they were concerned, they weren’t consciously trying to live up to their newly minted status. They were merely trying to beat Boston College.

“I don’t think we thought about being No. 1,” she said. “We knew they (BC) were going to come out as hard as they did because we were No. 1. We just really had to play our game.”

And as any old bard will tell you, “the play’s the thing.”

RPI building a better mousetrap

One of the biggest surprises seen in the first month of the season has been the swift start registered by RPI.

The Engineers from Rensselaer have sprinted to an impressive 6-2-1 start in just their third season as a Division-I program.

This after struggling to a 12-22-1 mark last year, their first as an ECACHL member.

According to senior defenseman Kelly Barbera, the club isn’t doing anything different this year than before.

Just doing it better.

“Last year we got off to a slow start,” said Barbera. “So this year, we concentrated on starting off the season right, and getting a winning record right from the start. It definitely builds our confidence a lot, going into league play.”

The Engineers have been keeping their confidence up, and their goals against down, with goalies Ashley Mayr and Sonja van der Bliek combining to record a puny 1.20 GAA.

“We definitely think we’ll be very competitive this year,” said Barbera. “We don’t have any amazing superstars. But we all work very hard. We all have a common goal of making the playoffs again. Every practice, we’re working hard.”

Barbera said that she is heartened by the progress made in her team’s play, as well as her own.

“Personally, I’ve become quicker with my decisions,” she said. “That’s definitely been a big change. At first I was playing in Division-III, and all of a sudden I’m playing Division-I. You have to make every decision faster. I think that’s the biggest thing.”

Barbera was a freshman when RPI played its last D-III season, and she’s just one of four seniors who remain from that club.

She said that that little group, which also includes fellow blue liner Ellen McNamara and forwards Julie Aho and Brooke Thompson, feel like pioneers of a sort.

“We feel so lucky to be a part of this team,” she said. “We definitely prided ourselves in stepping up to the new level. Having that freshman year in D-III helped keep us well grounded. We realize how amazing it is to be able to play Division-I hockey. We realize more than anyone else in the league, what an accomplishment it is.”

Still, she said, the work has just begun.

She cited RPI’s two defeats, both of which came in overtime to ranked teams BC and Connecticut.

“We’re never happy with a loss,” she said. “And losing overtime games like that made us push ourselves that much harder in practice. But going to overtime with top ranked teams, we can’t really be upset about it. But we definitely want to turn those overtime losses into wins. I think we learned a lot about that last year, when we lost a lot of games by one goal.”

Just call her Miss Zero

One couldn’t help notice the impressive shutout string woven by North Dakota net minder Brittany Kirkham, who stopped all shots during a span of 201:23.

That was nearly double the previous women’s mark of 112:01 registered by Margaret-Ann Hinkley in 2004, and is second only to Gerald Schultz’s run of 249:41 way back in 1954 among all NoDak net minders.

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