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A Prior Engagement

By Jon Paul Morosi
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Each game at Boston University’s Walter [nl]Brown Arena begins the same way.

And with the same voice.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Hockey East,” starts longtime public address announcer Jim Prior as the fans settle in. “The teams are ready … soooooooo let’s play hockey!”

The statement is simple, but the delivery is as unique as Prior himself.

“It’s funny that people recognize me,” said Prior, who began announcing at BU in 1986 after working at high school games for eight years. “They’ll look at me and say, ‘Hey, aren’t you the announcer from BU?’ I just laugh about it.

“They say they know the voice.”

Small wonder. Boston area hockey fans probably hear Prior in their sleep. After all, he is currently the regular PA announcer for five schools — BU, Wentworth, Salem State, Arlington High School and Arlington Catholic.

“He’s more or less a legend,” said BU assistant captain John Sabo. “All of the guys on the team know him, and he knows more people in hockey than any of us. He’s just great to have around the team.”

Jim Prior has been working the microphone at Walter [nl]Brown Arena, and then some, for 17 years. (photo: Scott Weighart)

Jim Prior has been working the microphone at Walter [nl]Brown Arena, and then some, for 17 years. (photo: Scott Weighart)

“He’s an icon now, since he’s been around so long,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “He’s our guy. He’s been our announcer of record, so to speak, for a really long time, and all of the other announcing he does reflects on his professionalism and enthusiasm.”

Prior appears regularly at the FleetCenter, announcing the annual Beanpot and Hockey East tournaments and occasionally filling in at Boston Bruins games. He’s also worked NCAA regionals and the 1998 Frozen Four.

Prior has substituted at all but one of the Hockey East schools, as well, but never with the Terriers as the visiting team.

“I’ll never announce against BU,” Prior said. “I just wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it. I’ll do it when they’re playing at neutral sites like the Beanpot, the Hockey East tournament or the NCAAs, but just not at another rink.”

Amazingly, he finds time to work the Super Eight and MIAA high school championships at the Fleet, in addition to Hockey Night in Boston, which brings some of the nation’s best high school talent to town each August.

Prior says he averages four games a week and at least 100 overall — numbers that put the NHL regular season to shame.

After all, do the teams schedule home games around him?

“I don’t know,” said Prior, who works full-time for the Eastern Junior Hockey League. “It just seems to work out.”

As much time as Prior spends at rinks now, it’s surprising to learn that his involvement in the sport didn’t begin until his son Dennis, a 1985 Malden Catholic graduate, began to play.

After running the clock at a few rinks, Prior began announcing for Arlington High School and Arlington Catholic in 1978.

Interestingly enough, Prior kept announcing in Arlington while Dennis played at Malden Catholic — even when his team and his son’s team played one another.

“When Malden Catholic came to play at Arlington Catholic, [Arlington Catholic coach] Dan Shine told me, ‘Remember, you’re my announcer,'” Prior recalled, smiling. “It was just a thrill for me to announce my son.”

Around that time, Prior began his ‘Let’s play hockey!’ introduction, which has since become his announcing trademark.

“I wanted to add a little bit more to the games, for the kids,” Prior said. “Once the official checks that the goal lights are working, that’s when I start. It’s all on queue.

“But sometimes the refs don’t drop the puck on time,” Prior lamented. “I’ll say that the teams are ready, but then the ref backs away and leaves me hanging.”

It took some luck for Prior to bring his unique introduction to BU. He was announcing a high school game at Walter [nl]Brown in 1986 when he heard the BU announcer needed a substitute for one game while he was on vacation.

Prior snapped up the chance. The rest is history.

“I guess I was in the right place at the right time,” he said.

He gladly accepted a full-time offer later that year.

“Ben Smith, who was my assistant coach at the time, really pushed me to hire him,” Parker said. “He told me that [Prior] would really get the crowd going, and he has. He’s a great announcer.”

Prior has missed just one BU game since he began.

“It was the season my son got married — 1993-1994,” Prior recalled. “He had just gotten engaged [that summer], so I was thinking that the wedding would be in May or June. But then he said it would be October 17th. I said, ‘October 17th? I can’t go! That’s BU’s home opener.’ And I got up and walked out of the room.

“But then I thought my wife was going to have a cardiac,” Prior said, laughing. “So, needless to say, I went to the wedding.”

Prior said that Chicky, his wife of 38 years, doesn’t hear him announce too many games. She does, however, keep close track of when he’s at the rinks.

“If she wants to go to dinner and she knows I don’t have a game,” Prior said with a smile, “then we go out to dinner.”

But, then again, anything that requires Jim Prior’s schedule to be free of a hockey game couldn’t happen too often.

Elmira Captures First Place in Women’s DIII Poll

USCHO Staff Report
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Elmira captured all twelve first-place votes in the Division III Women’s Poll for the first time this season. The Soaring Eagles was idle this week, as was No. 2 Manhattanville.

The highlight of last weekend’s action was a pair of games between No. 4 Wis.-Stevens point and No. 8 Gustavus Adolphus. After a 5-0 Pointer win on Friday, the Gusties managed a 2-2 tie Saturday, which left both schools unchanged in their respective poll positions from last week.

Making a move this week is No. 9 St. Thomas, which impressed voters with a 1-0 win over last week’s No. 9 team, Wis.-River Falls. The Tommies will face Augsburg on Friday and Saturday.

RIT won three games over the last week to improve to a perfect 5-0-0. However, all three games were against unranked opponents, and so the Tigers stayed at No. 10.

Next weekend features one of the great conference match-ups available this year in Division III, as No. 6 Plattsburgh travels to No. 1 Elmira for what promises to be an exciting two game set. Manhattanville, Wis.-Stevens Point and Gustavus Adolphus will also see action this weekend.

The USCHO.com Poll is compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online, and consists of 12 voters, all coaches of Division III programs.

Harvard Makes Noise In Women’s Poll

USCHO Staff Report
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Here comes Harvard!

The Crimson got the 2002-2003 season underway in grand style, outscoring opponents 22-2 in two weekend wins. And while one opponent was Vermont, in the ECAC cellar so far this season, the other was No. 4 Dartmouth, which the Crimson handily defeated by a 9-2 margin. Harvard was happy to have last-year Olympic players Jennifer Botterill (4 goals, 8 assists for 12 points on the weekend), Angela Ruggiero (2-7–9) and Julie Chu (3-3–6) on the ice.

Harvard didn’t move up from No. 3 in this week’s USCHO.com Division I Women’s Poll, but received one first-place vote and narrowed the gap with No. 2 Minnesota to just one point.

The Golden Gophers didn’t help their cause with a 2-2 tie with unranked Bemidji State. Minnesota was missing four players from the Four Nations Cup, being held in Canada this weekend, but it is worth noting that Bemidji has gone to overtime with Minnesota in four of the team’s last six meetings, dating back to last year.

Minnesota-Duluth retained the No. 1 ranking for the sixth time this season with a sweep of Ohio State, shutting out the Buckeyes twice and outscoring their opponent 8-0 in two games.

Next week just might be the biggest weekend of the season for women’s college hockey, next to the NCAA Tournament in the spring. No. 7 Brown and No. 3 Harvard travel west to square off with No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth and No. 2 Minnesota on Friday and Saturday. While still early in the season, the games could have lasting implications for poll position, and, more importantly, NCAA selection come tournament time.

The USCHO.com Poll is compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online, and consists of 15 voters, including 11 coaches of Division I programs and four women’s hockey writers.

BC Gets Nod, Tops Poll

USCHO Staff Report
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Boston College, with an undefeated 6-0-1 record, captured the top spot with 29 first-place votes in this week’s USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll. The Eagles played just one game this week, a 7-0 thrashing of Merrimack on Thursday night. BC is one of just three teams without a loss this season, but the other two, No. 9 Cornell and No. 15 Brown, have played just three games so far.

Brown makes its debut in the poll this season in the No. 15 spot after winning a pair of conference games over Dartmouth and Vermont. The Brown Bears are alone in first place in the ECAC after the wins.

Three Hockey East teams received first-place votes. Along with top vote getter BC, No. 2 New Hampshire earned seven first place votes and No. 11 Providence earned one. The Friars saw their perfect game streak end at seven with a 4-3 loss at Northeastern on Friday night. New Hampshire and Providence will face off on Friday night in Durham.

Last week’s top team, Denver, was the only other team to receive first-place votes. A split with unranked Minnesota-Duluth cost the Pioneers their No. 1 ranking, but they retained three first-place nods.

It was a tough weekend for ranked teams. Denver, No. 4 North Dakota, No. 6 Minnesota, Providence, and No. 14 St. Cloud all lost a game, while No. 5 Michigan earned a tie.

This week showcases several intriguing match-ups, including a Tuesday night battle between Boston College and Providence. The Eagles barely have a chance to catch their breath before traveling to Walter Brown Arena to take on archrival No. 7 Boston University on Friday. Saturday the Terriers then host the No. 10 Black Bears from Maine. Over in the WCHA, No. 8 Colorado College puts an eight game unbeaten streak on the line with a trip to No. 6 Minnesota for two games.

The USCHO.com Poll is compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online, and consists of 40 voters, including 28 coaches from the Division I conferences and 12 beat writers from across the country. The poll is published weekly by the Associated Press.

DIII Men’s Poll Shows St. Norbert on Top

USCHO Staff Report
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The 2002-2003 season continued its topsy turvy tribulations, as St. Norbert, with a perfect 7-0-0 record, topped this week’s USCHO.com Division III Men’s Poll by the narrowest of margins: a single point. St. Norbert has handled threats from ranked opponents each of the last two weekends, earning one-goal victories against No. 6 Wis.-Superior and No. 10 Wis.-Stevens Point.

Norwich, which had earned every No. 1 ranking this season prior to this week, fell to No. 2 and still has not played a game this season. The Cadets play an exhibition game this Friday, and officially gets underway on November 22 against Connecticut College. Norwich still received more first-place votes, seven to St. Norbert’s three.

RIT, also perfect at 5-0-0, was just seven points behind Norwich, settling in at No. 3 following a two-win weekend. The Tigers fought off a challenge from conference opponent, No. 12 Manhattanville, in a 3-1 contest Friday night, which was deadlocked at one apiece after two periods, and in which host RIT was out-shot by a 40-29 margin. The Valiants are undoubtedly already eyeing a December 7th rematch at Manhattanville’s rink.

Just ten points separate four teams, No. 4 Middlebury, No. 5 Wis.-River Falls, No. 6 Wis.-Superior, and No. 7 Plattsburgh.

On the strength of a weekend split with No. 8 St. Thomas, Concordia enters this week’s poll at No. 14. The Cobbers stand at 4-1-0 in the early goings, with a match against No. 10 Wis.-Stevens Point on the docket for Friday.

In other key games between the MIAC and the NCHA, No. 8 St. Thomas faces No. 6 Wis.-Superior on Friday and No. 13 St. John’s makes a trip to Stevens Point to play the No. 10 Pointers on Saturday.

The USCHO.com Poll is compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online, and consists of 15 voters, including coaches and beat writers from across the country.

2002-03 Fredonia Season Preview

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The Obvious

When you are coming off a year in which you got less than two goals a league game and had the league’s worst power play at 10.8%, it’s fairly easy to spot what needs improvement.

“Obviously, we need to score some goals to be there at the end,” said Fredonia coach Jeff Meredith. “We’re not looking for five to six goals a game. Three to four would do.”

Three to four goals a game will be enough as long as goalie Will Hamele continues to play up to par. The senior, and former SUNYAC Player of the Year, comes off another fine season where he had a 2.97 GAA and a .906 save percentage.

Waiting at the doorstep is freshman Simon Maignon, whose previous squad was the French National Team.

Helping him out will be 6-3, 215-pounder Dan Rohanna, Craig Florkowski, Marc Fattey, and Chris Wells. Expect newcomers Nick Malina and Mark Malone, both 6-3, 200 plus pounds, to make their presence known on defense.

So, Who’s Going To Score?

With Fredonia only losing four players, it would be the Blue Devils’ luck that two of them, Dave Barnett and Dan Showalter, were a solid scoring tandem. Returning players will have to pick up the slack. This includes captain Christian Fletcher, their top scorer last year with 14 goals and 11 assists. Matt Crane and Max Catelin will most likely be on his line.

Three sophomores will need to step up their game — Riley McTaggert, Ricky Furmasoli, and Nick Grove. And the freshman will need to make an immediate impact. Look for Mike Fleming and Tom Briggs to do just that.

If Fredonia doesn’t solve its offensive woes, it could see another year without playoff games. Last year’s disappointment ended a 13-year streak of making the SUNYAC Tournament. For a team that was once one of the most feared in the country, it has been a gradual, painful fall.

Mixed Bag

Fredonia’s nonleague schedule is tough at times and easy at times. The Blue Devils once again face RIT, who they stretched to overtime last year before succumbing, as well as Hobart and Utica twice each. Yet, they have some “easy” ones on their schedule, facing Neumann twice, as well as exhibitions against St. Clair College and Seneca.

Within the conference, the key may be how they play against their travel partner, Buffalo State, as that could be the spot that they will need to eke back into the playoffs. Otherwise, as Meredith said, “We’re looking up at six other teams in the league.”

No Illusions

With the situation Fredonia now finds itself in, Meredith, who was at the helm for the glory years, has no illusions about the challenges he faces.

“We are a seventh-place team,” he said. “We will remain that until we show differently.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Especially on offense.

2002-03 Buffalo State Season Preview

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Looking For More

The Buffalo State Bengals achieved a first last year — a SUNYAC playoff spot. Now, they will be looking for more, such as home ice in the postseason and a winning record. It won’t be easy, as they lost 10 players, many of them key personnel, and their Western New York rival, Fredonia, will be hungry to get that spot back.

According to coach Jim Fowler, the long-term goal remains the same: “Make the SUNYAC playoffs.” To achieve that, they will have to fulfill the coach’s short-term goal: “Compete every single game.”

On And Off The Ice

Buffalo State was in the national limelight last year when Rocky Reeves won the Hockey Humanitarian Award at last April’s Division I Frozen Four. Reeves not only is a major contributor to society, but he has been a steady producer for the Bengals as well. His senior year should be no different.

Interestingly, Fowler decided to take the “C” from Reeves and give it to senior defenseman Dan Vogel. This was no slight to Reeves, as it was made with his blessing. As Fowler explains, “It’s to let him enjoy his senior season.” Reeves can go out and just worry about playing hockey.

The team will need him because missing from this year’s squad is their all-time scorer and first All-American, Todd Nowicki, and last year’s third- and fourth-leading scorers, Jason Comardo and Jad Ramsay, respectively. Helping Reeves to fill the hole will be the runner-up all-time point-getter, Joe Urbanik, Mark Yoder, Henry Jurek, and Sean Mask.

“Hopefully, my veterans start putting the puck in the net,” said Fowler.

If they don’t, newcomers who could lend a hand are Morgan McElman, Greg Prybylski, Dave Cadarette, and Brian Janke.

Stopping The Puck

Buffalo State didn’t have too many problems scoring last year; it was keeping opponents from doing the same that proved difficult. Returning is Dan Vogel along with Ricardo Hernandez, who took last semester off, and Cyle McCorkie. These three are also great scoring threats.

Mark Infantino and Guy Duquette are the workhorses who will do the pounding down low. Two newcomers will also concentrate on defense rather than trying to score — Matt Stankevich and Matt Connelly.

All three goaltenders return this year. Nick Berti saw action in just over half the games, while Steve Thering and Adam Horvath split the remaining games. This year, the number-one goalie spot is up for grabs.

“Our biggest problem last year was inconsistency,” said Fowler. “One goalie would play great one night, and then falter the next. I challenged the goalies to take the job.”

So far, it appears Thering has won that position.

Avoiding The Collapse

Despite last year’s breakout season, Buffalo State had to stave off a late collapse to hang on to that elusive playoff spot. They started the season out 9-6-0, and that was after dropping the first two games. Then, the bottom fell out, going 1-8-1 before splitting the playoff series with Cortland but losing in the mini-game.

So, what caused this? Injuries, grades, and discipline.

Fowler, however, believes he has that problem licked. He said, “Knock on wood, we don’t have any injuries now. We kept a big roster of 29 guys. Hopefully, with more depth, we won’t have that problem. The folks with the grades really buckled down when they were away from the team, and we took care of the discipline issues.”

The Bengals got a taste of postseason play. They have every intention of not messing with the chance to repeat that experience.

2002-03 Oswego Season Preview

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Strong Tandem

Of the teams with strong goaltenders, Oswego may be in the best position of all. The Lakers have the best tandem in net, each of whom would probably start for any other team. Instead, they will most likely get to share the starting role, as they did last year.

Senior Joe Lofberg comes off a year with a 2.59 GAA and a .917 save percentage. He was also 5-1 in league play. Junior Tyson Gajda had almost identical numbers — 2.50 GAA and .908 save percentage. So equal were they in conference play, they both sported a .918 save percentage.

It doesn’t matter who coach George Roll throws into the frying pan, he can relax knowing the job will get done.

Loaded Up Front

Outside of Plattsburgh, the Great Lakers may have the most scoring power. Oswego hardly lost anyone — Nate Elliot, a defenseman who was fourth in scoring being the top impact player — yet has stocked up even more. Don Patrick transferred in from Ferris State while freshmen Scott Irwin, Jocelyn Dubord, and Mike Johnson are hoping to be major contributors.

However, the returning players alone are quite capable of carrying the load. The top three scorers return — SUNYAC Co-Rookie of the Year Andy Rozak, Rob Smith, and Mike Lukajic. Meanwhile senior captain John Hirliman and sophomore Brady Crooks return after double-digit goal seasons. Matt Vashaw should continue to set up many goals.

For the fans’ sake, they will be hoping that when Oswego faces Plattsburgh, the two schools decide to forego a defensive style.

There will be changes on defense as four players will need to be replaced. Anchoring that unit will be junior Joe Carrabs, one of the league’s top defensemen. Mark Strzoda’s physical presence returns for a second year. Kevin Tracey and Mike Bartell will need to step up their games, while newcomers Justin Perron, Tony DuFour, and Brian Gent will need to shine early.

One Goal

A single tally is what separated Oswego from the SUNYAC championship last year. After ties in the first two games of the final round, Oswego lost the deciding game, 2-1. You can’t get any closer than that. And with a goalie tandem that may prove better than any netminder Plattsburgh has, this may finally be Oswego’s year.

A tough schedule greets the Great Lakers outside of SUNYAC play with a pair of games against both RIT and Elmira. However, Oswego would gladly trade any wins in those games for finally toppling Plattsburgh.

2002-03 Cortland Season Preview

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On The Right Path

The 2001-2 season was a turnaround for Cortland, which finished tied for third place at 7-5-2 and sported an overall record of 14-11-4. The Red Dragons will be looking to continue on that road, as second year coach Tom Cranfield continues to put his mark on the team.

“We’ll need to step up from what we did a year ago to be competitive again,” Cranfield said.

As with most teams in the SUNYAC, leading the charge will be the goaltender, John Larnerd, who is already the school’s saves leader.

Afterwards, Cortland will be looking at five players to be the key to putting the puck in the net.

Matt Donskov (17-20-37), the second-leading scorer on the team last year and the national leader in power-play goals with 12, should be the leader this year. Tim Earl, who got seven goals and four assists in his first year, will be looked upon to step up his game.

Nate Gagnon, a transfer from Maine, put up some solid numbers last year (12-19-31). Dave Ambuhl, another double-digit goal-scorer, and Kevin Watters are two sophomores the team will depend on.

Advantage … Power Play

Needless to say, with Donskov’s dozen power-play goals, the Red Dragons led the league with the man advantage at 24.1% without letting up a league shorthanded goal. Interestingly, they also took the most penalties. However, with the power play and shorthanded goals combined, they still end up on the plus side of the ledger with special teams.

Now, just imagine if they cut their penalty time…

Lots To Choose From

Cortland has a large roster this year, due to a number of walkons straight from high school. Cranfield doesn’t expect them to make an immediate impact, looking for some of them to make contributions in the future. But he is expecting a quicker return on his recruits.

One player to pay attention to is forward Jason Wilson, who has stepped right into the lineup. He and his fellow newcomers will have to act fast as Cortland jumps into the SUNYAC schedule after competing in the SUNYAC Challenge.

That doesn’t worry Cranfield. “We think we can play with just about anybody in the SUNYAC,” he said. “We feel we can compete with anybody on any given night.”

In order for the Red Dragons to stay on the right path, they will need to do that right away.

2002-03 Geneseo Season Preview

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Lost A Lot

Last year was a successful one for first-year coach Brian Hills. His Geneseo Ice Knights worked out early-season kinks, then went 11-7-2 for the rest of the year, finished tied for third, defeated Potsdam in the first round in a thrilling mini-game, and stretched Plattsburgh to a mini-game before losing.

With that sort of momentum, 2002-03 should be a breakout season, right? Well, not exactly.

The problem is, Geneseo lost ten players, mostly forwards, including their top three scorers. Many will be hard to replace.

Hills plans on sticking to the basics. “We’ll get there by working hard, playing solid defense, and with strong goaltending. Take it one step at a time.”

If The Crown Fits…

With Niklas Sundberg gone from Plattsburgh, sophomore Brett Walker may be the one to assume the throne of top goaltender in SUNYAC. There was a lot of talk amongst fans over the well-publicized incidents concerning Walker and his tendency to slug it out with anyone charging the net.

That is all in the past, according to Hills. “It was a learning process. There was no problem after the first two incidents. He’s a smart kid, and one of the team leaders. He understands what it is all about now.”

That understanding led Walker to be named SUNYAC Co-Rookie of the Year while posting a 3.19 GAA and .906 save percentage. If Walker performs, Geneseo can beat anybody at anytime.

He will have familiar help as the four top defensemen return: captain Paul Weismann who transferred in from Bowling Green last year, Jon Schnepf, Andy Ford, and Ryan Collins.

All Is Not Lost

Despite all the forwards who graduated, Hills is confident of his incoming class, “We’ve improved over last year.”

For starters, Geneseo grabbed another Division I transfer, Jay Kuczmanski, from Cornell. Two freshmen to keep an eye on will be Kris Heeres and Michael Bond.

The Ice Knights do have some solid scorers returning such as assistant captain Andy Rice, Jon Campbell, Brian Avery, and Derek Powell.

Besides the conference schedule, Geneseo faces off against the entire ECAC West, sometimes twice for some teams, as well as a matchup with Lebanon Valley.

A Tossup

In all, Geneseo’s season is a tossup. It could go either way. If Hills can replace the scoring power he lost and Walker continues to live up to his billing, then the Ice Knights will be a team to be reckoned with. If not, then they could once again find themselves struggling for a playoff spot.

Either way, the team is ready. “We’re looking forward to this season,” Hills said.

2002-03 SUNYAC Season Preview

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Goalies With A Capital “G”

“I played here in 1993. I don’t think there’s been a time when goaltending is so good.”

That was Cortland coach Tom Cranfield talking about the state of goaltending in the SUNYAC. He is not alone in his opinion.

Fredonia’s coach Jeff Meredith said, “One thing about our league, it’s dominated by goaltending. In the past, great forwards dominated the league. Now, not a lot of forwards that can single-handedly beat teams. Now, every team has a goalie that can beat you on any night.”

And this is after Niklas Sundberg, one of the top goalies ever to play in this league, left Plattsburgh. What that does is turn the spotlight on a plethora of goalies on other teams who were in Sundberg’s large shadow, but who deserved some of the limelight all along.

These include the Oswego tandem of Joe Lofberg and Tyson Gajda, Potsdam’s Ryan Venturelli, Brett Walker on Geneseo, and Will Hamele for Fredonia. And whenever they are not willing to take the headlines, there are plenty of other solid netminders who will, such as John Larnerd on Cortland, Brockport’s Brian Tefft and Steve Tippett, and Steve Thering or Nick Berti for Buffalo State.

Let’s not forget about Plattsburgh itself, which will be hoping that Tony Seariac can replace Sundberg. Those are large … well, huge … skates to fill, but if Seariac can do it, then the forwards in this league are going to be mighty frustrated no matter who they play.

Deceiving Domination

True, Plattsburgh has won the last six conference titles, 16 in all. And, granted, Plattsburgh has done extremely well on the national stage with that automatic bid, winning the national championship in 2001 and making it to the Frozen Four last year before losing in the semifinals.

However, it hasn’t been easy. For the past two years, the Cardinals have been forced to a third and deciding game in the final round, beating Potsdam the first time and then Oswego last year. It was even tougher last year. Geneseo forced a mini-game in the semifinal round, and Plattsburgh didn’t even beat Oswego until that final third game.

Which means the Cardinals are beatable. At least, that is what the other teams are going to believe.

Questions

Like with any new sports season, there are questions. And when following a college sport, there are even more questions as you always have the four-year turnover.

The biggest question of the year is what impact a coaching change will have on Potsdam? With only two coaches in program history until this season, Glenn Thomaris comes in at the last minute to take the job vacated by a departed Ed Seney.

Plattsburgh’s ability to replace Sundberg is the next obvious one.

Then how about these. Will Oswego finally put it all together to take the SUNYAC crown? Were Cortland and Geneseo’s fine seasons a path to better things or a one-hit wonder? Is Buffalo State ready to be a regular playoff contender? Is Fredonia ready to regain some of its former glory or will it continue to drift? Finally, will Brockport win a league game?

We won’t really know until the games are played. One thing is guaranteed, the 2002-3 season promises to be an exciting one that the fans will thoroughly enjoy.

Asked about the start of the season, Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said, “We’re looking forward to it.”

So is everyone else.

Going Out On A Limb

This is the part that’s sure to have fans of most of the teams laughing at the columnist when the season comes to an end. Well, that’s all part of the hazard pay we get. Click on any team name listed below, in order of predicted finish, for its respective season preview.

Plattsburgh State Cardinals
Coach: Bob Emery
2001-2 Overall Record: 20-9-4, NCAA Semifinals
2001-2 SUNYAC Record: 13-1-0, regular season champion, playoff champion
One-Liner: Until someone actually knocks the Cardinals off their perch, the King of the Hill is picked to repeat.

Potsdam State Bears
Coach: Glenn Thomaris
2001-2 Overall Record: 12-15-0
2001-2 SUNYAC Record: 6-8-0
One-Liner: The Hawthorne Effect will take place with a new coach.

Oswego State Great Lakers
Coach: George Roll
2001-2 Overall Record: 17-9-4
2001-2 SUNYAC Record: 10-3-1
One-Liner: Tired of playing the bridesmaid could very easily motivate them to the top.

"I played here in 1993. I don’t think there’s been a time when goaltending is so good."

— Cortland coach Tom Cranfield

Geneseo State Ice Knights
Coach: Brian Hills
2001-2 Overall Record: 12-15-2
2001-2 SUNYAC Record: 7-5-2
One-Liner: Hills will continue to work his magic and Walker will backstop them to a solid finish.

Cortland State Red Dragons
Coach: Tom Cranfield
2001-2 Overall Record: 14-11-4
2001-2 SUNYAC Record: 7-5-2
One-Liner: The wild card this season might cause havoc with these predictions.

Buffalo State Bengals
Coach: Jim Fowler
2001-2 Overall Record: 11-15-1
2001-2 SUNYAC Record: 5-8-1
One-Liner: No repeat of last year’s slide will mean a repeat playoff appearance.

Fredonia State Blue Devils
Coach: Jeff Meredith
2001-2 Overall Record: 9-12-3
2001-2 SUNYAC Record: 3-9-2
One-Liner: Looking to regain respectability, but that will wait another year.

Brockport State Golden Eagles
Coach: Brian Dickinson
2001-2 Overall Record: 4-19-2
2001-2 SUNYAC Record: 0-12-2
One-Liner: Simply looking for a conference win.

2002-03 Potsdam Season Preview

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A Change At The Helm

In Potsdam’s 24 years as a varsity hockey program, the Bears have had only two coaches.

John Horan led the team from club to varsity to playoff status while earning three SUNYAC Coach of the Year awards. Then, he stepped down from coaching (but remained employed by the school), and Ed Seney took over. Seney led the Bears to their first and only SUNYAC title and NCAA playoff berth in 1996, building the team into an annual contender, and also earning three Coach of the Year awards.

Now, Potsdam has a third coach. Seney took the job as head coach at St. Anselm’s, leaving a vacancy at a school not used to looking for head coaches. To make it harder, Seney left late, just before classes were to begin, thus leaving the options limited for Potsdam.

Potsdam decided to reach out to someone familiar with the area — Glenn Thomaris. Thomaris is a Potsdam native, played hockey at Clarkson, started coaching at the assistant level at his alma mater as well as Potsdam (under Horan), then moved up as a head coach at Elmira, where he had great success before leaving that position a couple of years ago.

Learning The Team

So, what does a coach do when he inherits a team at the last minute without playing a part in recruiting a single player?

“I’m looking at the team from a talent level,” Thomaris said, “and playing the game on what he have.”

The first player that the new coach should notice is Ryan Venturelli, who enters his third year between the pipes. Venturelli will be right in the thick of any argument over who is the top goalie in SUNYAC. He will need to improve on his consistency, a weakness in the first two years, and learn not to wander out of the net too often.

Otherwise, Venturelli has all the tools for a top netminder — a quick glove hand, willingness to challenge the shooters, know-how to cut down the angles, and ability to make the big save to keep his team in the game.

In front of Venturelli will once again be a strong defensive corps, led by senior captain Dave Weagle. Other seniors bringing experience to that role include Jim Quilty and John Bernfell. Mike Smitko and Jason Brothers should contribute, and freshman Mike Taylor is expected to impress.

Scoring Problem

Last season, the weakness for Potsdam was offense. The Bears were a young team: nearly half were freshmen, with only three seniors on the squad. Typically, this affects defense, but in 2001-02, Potsdam lost nine one-goal games, mainly because they didn’t have that go-to sniper. In fact, a defenseman, Weagle, was their third-leading scorer.

Their top guns are returning — captain Anthony Greer and speedy Chris Lee. Mike Snow, Brett Barrer, and Scott Craig will need to up their production to help spread the scoring around. Thomaris is hoping for good things from Chris Brussa-Toi and Eric Peter-Kaiser.

So, is Thomaris worried? “We’re solid in the three key areas of the game: good goaltending, better than average defense, and we’re in pretty good shape with four good centers.”

What about the power play, which was miserable last year?

“We’re a year older, a year smarter,” Thomaris explains. “We need to move it around, and hit the net, so we can get those second and third chances.”

Tough Schedule

“This is a tough conference,” Thomaris says. “There are good skilled teams and good bangers.”

Outside of the SUNYAC, Potsdam doesn’t have it all that easy either. The Bears once again participate in arguably the toughest Division III tournament in the country — the Great Northern Shootout — where they play Plattsburgh in the first round and either Middlebury or Norwich the next day. They have another scheduled game against Middlebury and contests against tough ECAC West foes RIT, Elmira, Manhattanville, Utica, and Hobart twice.

The games that matter most are the conference matchups, since the best way to get into the NCAAs is through an automatic bid. Of course, this means being able to get by Plattsburgh, but first Thomaris is concerned about simply getting to know his new team.

“They’re learning about me. I’m learning about them,” says the third coach in Potsdam history.

2002-03 Brockport Season Preview

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It’s Been A While

February 15, 2000, to be exact. That was the last time that Brockport won a league game. Since then, it has gone 0-25-3 in SUNYAC regular-season play (and 0-1-1 in the playoffs right after that last win).

With that kind of streak, you set modest goals.

Brian Dickinson told his players, “Let’s take it game by game, and not worry about where we end up at the end of the season. We need to put the past behind us.”

A Veteran Team

This is a team that will have plenty of senior leadership, nine all together, with 21 players returning. Leading that contingent will be captains Dave Braunstein, a forward, and Nate Vankouwenberg, a defenseman. This means that there are a lot of folks that will be looking to rid themselves of winless records. To do that, they will need to make improvements in a lot of areas.

Though Brockport lost top scorer Darren Kennedy (11-7–18) to graduation, the biggest help on offense should come from its veterans, Nick Smyth, Mark Digby, Brian Bauman, and Braunstein. Newcomer Mike Blais, originally from St. Michael’s, should also make a contribution.

Last year’s midseason transfers, Ron Lien, originally from New England College, and the Stasko twins, Peter and Paul from Geneseo, were immediate hits on the ice. This year, they will be looked upon to play different roles, and may not see the scoring output from a year ago.

The key will be an early start. Brockport scored just four conference goals in the first period last year.

But First, Stop The Puck

More importantly, the Golden Eagles will need to worry about defense, or it may not matter how many goals they score. They ranked last in the league, and except for Buffalo State, nobody came close to letting the puck into its net as many times as Brockport.

It will all start with goaltending and a pair of seniors, Brian Tefft and Steve Tippett. Tefft emerged as the starting goaltender last season, but this year the plan is to alternate them game by game. Tefft will be the Friday goalie while Tippett becomes the Saturday netminder.

Explains Dickinson, “We wanted to loosen them both up, so that they didn’t have to worry about winning the number-one spot. They could just worry about getting themselves into game shape.”

Those goalies would sure like the guys in front of them to help out. Leading that effort will be VanKouwenberg, Brian Rochford, Kevin Graber, Chris Christensen, Ryan Shannon, and Casey Firko. Junior college transfers Mark Utzig and Sean Wheeler will be expected to contribute.

They also need to stop the power play, which they were only able to do 75% of the time last season.

Taking It Easy

Outside of SUNYAC play, Brockport has lined up a relatively easy schedule.

Nothing wrong with that. There is the old philosophy that nothing is better for morale than winning. And winning is winning, no matter who it is against. The Golden Eagles hope it is against the likes of Neumann (twice), Salve Regina, Curry, Stonehill, Plymouth State, and Framingham State. They only have two ECAC West opponents to face, Hobart and Utica.

“It’s been a long time,” Dickinson said in an understatement. Which is why winning in its own league will make Brockport the happiest.

2002-03 Plattsburgh Season Preview

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No More Sundberg

There is no beating around the bush. Niklas Sundberg is gone.

One of the top goaltenders ever at Plattsburgh, and in Division III for that matter, has done his four years. Now, Plattsburgh needs to replace the two-time All-American who led it to a national championship in 2001.

For now, that burden rests on the shoulders of sophomore Tony Seariac. So far, he has done the job. If he falters, freshmen Curtis Cribbie and Craig Neilson will be waiting in the wings.

Scoring Machine

When you score over five goals a game in conference play, there should be no worries. However, that’s not quite the case. Knowing that Plattsburgh has the firepower to knock you senseless, the opposition will adjust their game.

Coach Bob Emery said, “Up front, we won’t have problems scoring goals, but a lot of teams will be playing a defensive style against us.”

The players who will need to break through that noose will be All-Americans Jason Kilcan and Brendon Hodge as well as Adam Richards, Jeff Hopkins, and Rob Retter. Guy Come will have to make his contribution in the second semester, as he will sit out the first. All of them were in the double-digit range for goals last year.

With that kind of firepower returning, don’t expect a freshman to break through with big numbers.

If the goalies do have problems, they will have solid defenders in front of them, led by All-American Peter Ollari. Doug Carr and Chad Kemp will add to the veteran factor, while Emery plans on playing three freshmen at the blue line — Brett Gilmour, Bryan North, and Billy Fetherston.

Toughen Them Up

Emery makes no bones about it. He firmly believes in playing as tough as a schedule as possible.

He said, “The tough schedule prepares you for the playoffs. You’re only as good as the players you play against.”

And tough it is. Outside of the conference, which will be no cakewalk (“The SUNYAC is getting stronger and stronger every year,” Emery said), Plattsburgh once again participates in the Great Northern Shootout, facing league rival Potsdam on the first day and then either Norwich and Middlebury the next.

And, in case Plattsburgh misses either of those teams, games are scheduled against each of the Vermont powerhouses later in the season. The Cardinals also face off against archrivals Elmira, and RIT is back on the schedule.

Maybe that schedule borders on masochism, but Plattsburgh will be hardened for the key games down the stretch.

Make It Lucky 7

“Numbers-wise, we didn’t lose a lot,” Emery said. “I want to make sure we replace Nik first before I make any predictions.”

Here’s a prediction, then — Plattsburgh may stumble at times as it figures out the goalie situation, but like the past two years, will peak when it counts and win a seventh consecutive SUNYAC title, then proceed to make some noise in the NCAAs.

Morris’ Future Uncertain as Clarkson Investigates

By Adam Wodon
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Mark Morris, in his 15th season as head coach at Clarkson, has been placed on administrative leave while the university investigates an incident that occured during a practice last Saturday.

In the interim, assistant coaches Fred Parker and Jason Lammers will take over full responsibilities of handling the team. Parker will be considered the head coach behind the bench this weekend, when Clarkson plays at Rensselaer and Union, according to Clarkson sports information director Gary Mikel.

Morris

Morris

In a statement released Tuesday night, the university said it was investigating an incident “that involved a player and coach Morris. We were made aware of the incident after last weekend, and the university will determine what action is warranted after the investigation is completed.”

According to various sources, Morris had a physical confrontation with a player during a 3-on-3 pickup game after practice. Post-practice pickup games normally involve players who aren’t dressing for that night’s game. The Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times is reporting that the player is junior forward Zach Schwan, who filed a complaint after Morris retaliated against him for a bodycheck.

Morris, athletic director Sean Frazier and Schwan’s family all declined to comment.

This came on the heels of last week’s suspension by Morris of six players, including the two captains and the assistant captain, for missing an early-morning workout session last Wednesday. Morris initially suspended the players — captains Dave Reid and Kevin O’Flaherty, assistant captain Chris Bahen, plus Dustin Traylen, Randy Jones and Jay Latulippe — for Saturday’s game against St. Lawrence, but rescinded that after more information came out on Friday. As a result, the players sat for the first period, but did dress for the game.

“It wasn’t really that big of a deal,” Bahen said to the Daily Times. “I don’t really have anything more to say about it.”

Parker is in his first season as assistant coach, after coaching in Canada’s junior program the last 10 years. His Ottawa team went to Canada’s Tier II championship last season.

“I think ever since you were a young kid and played hockey, one of the great things is once you hit the ice you seem to forget about everything else,” said Parker to the Daily Times. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. I think these guys are mature enough to play hard and play well.”

Morris’ future is in the hands of Clarkson’s board of trustees, but there is no word on how long it will take before a decision is reached, according to Clarkson’s director of public relations, Anne Sibley.

Clarkson is the only head coaching job Morris has ever had. A native of New York’s North Country, Morris was an assistant for St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh before taking over the Golden Knights program in 1988. He was hired by then-athletic director Bill O’Flaherty, who was also Clarkson coach at one point and is now player personnel director for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.

Clarkson went 16-13-3 in Morris’ first year, then reeled off 10 straight 20-win seasons, including 29-9-2 in 1990-91, when the Golden Knights went to the Frozen Four. In those 10 seasons, Clarkson made nine NCAA tournament appearances, but never made it back to the Frozen Four after 1991, and hasn’t been in the tournament since 1999.

Morris has a 306-153-42 career record entering the season, with five regular-season and two ECAC-tournament championships. He has been named ECAC Coach of the Year twice.

The list of NHL players Morris has coached include Craig Conroy, Todd White, Chris Clark, Todd Marchant and Erik Cole.

Jayson Moy also helped with this report.

This Week in the ECAC: Nov. 7, 2002

By Jayson Moy and Becky Blaeser
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Wow. What a week it’s been in the ECAC.

Yale has a quartet of players sitting out Friday’s game against Cornell. Among them is Chris Higgins, who was perceived as going after Matt Jones of North Dakota. That precipitated a melee at the Yale Whale and wound up getting eight players game disqualifications.

Then in the North Country Clarkson head coach Mark Morris is on administrative leave pending a university investigation. No one knows what really happened at the moment, but we think it’s safe to say that it’s not good.

But there are games this weekend — the first full weekend of ECAC action as all 12 teams match up against one another.

Middle

Clarkson and travel partner St. Lawrence head down to the Capital District to take on Rensselaer and Union. The Golden Knights are in a state of flux, considering losses in their first three games of the season and the cloud surrounding the team and Morris.

Nevertheless, the Knights are always a dangerous team and it will be a matter of how this team comes out this weekend. That will be the key to what happens to the Golden Knights.

The Saints are flying high after their win over Clarkson last Saturday to open up ECAC play. Kevin Ackley made 36 saves in the 2-1 win, including stopping a penalty shot on Clarkson’s Jay Latulippe.

“I think your No. 1 star has got to be Ackley,” said Saints head coach Joe Marsh. “He played a fabulous game. He had some pretty good games last year, but that’s certainly a big one. This is a good, solid effort from him [Friday].

“I can’t think of a better way (to start the league season), and it was against a good team. That’s important that we play hard against a team of that caliber.”

The Saints will continue to look for consistency, something that hasn’t been there in the previous six games of the season.

The Dutchmen of Union had a great weekend at Bemidji State and faced Mass.-Lowell and Holy Cross hoping to capitalize on the momentum they had gained. Instead, the Dutchmen dropped two and momentum heading into the first ECAC weekend has shifted.

“I’m disappointed but now the boys understand that there are points on the line,” said head coach Kevin Sneddon. “If we can’t get up and excited to play against the North Country teams, well then we don’t have a lot of hockey players in that locker room.

“The job of the coaching staff is to pull as many positives as we can from the weekend. [Friday] we played good hockey. It’s indicative of a young team that we’re inconsistent right now, and it’s our job to shake that out of them.”

The Engineers went west for the second time in four weeks and the result was the same — a split. The Engineers defeated St. Cloud on Saturday night after getting shut out on Friday night. Things didn’t look that good after the Friday-night 3-0 loss, but the Engineers pulled out a good win on Saturday, 3-1.

“Sometimes when you throw out a challenge to your team you see what kind of character they have in their response,” said head coach Dan Fridgen. “We made some adjustments on our power play and penalty kill, but we challenged them and they responded favorably.”

Left

Out to the left of the Capital District, Cornell and Colgate play host to Yale and Princeton.

The Big Red started out strong with a win at Ohio State.

“It was a great win for us,” said Cornell head coach Mike Schafer. “I’m really proud of my guys. We’ve had 12 practices. We knew we had to win ugly, and that’s what we did tonight. We kept things pretty simple … and ground out a defensive win.

“This victory was huge for us. I think Ohio State is going to be a top-15 team in the country, and we haven’t played a game but we’re ranked seventh. That’s a coach’s worst nightmare. So we knew that people around the country were going to look at this game and judge us on this game … so we knew we had to come and try to play solid.

“We didn’t play perfect, but we did play solid.”

The Big Red may still be a little shorthanded, but the first regular-season game at Lynah provides a huge boost.

The Raiders of Colgate hammered out a tough win over Findlay on Friday night, then lost to Ohio State Sunday to continue their streak of inconsistency.

Another team looking to reverse a streak is Princeton, coming off season-opening losses to Providence and North Dakota. Taking on two nationally-ranked teams was quite a chore for a Tiger team that is going to face growing pains after graduating several top players last season.

Sophomore Neil Stevenson-Moore gave Princeton its only lead of the weekend just 1:20 into the game against North Dakota on Friday night, but that was about the only highlight offensively. The team was outscored 13-3 overall.

“It showed us right now where we are on the learning curve as a team,” said head coach Len Quesnelle. “Heading into league play, we better have a much better idea on Friday night of what the little things are and what we need to do to execute.”

Considering that three of its first four opponents this season have been ranked in the top 10, the Tigers are getting a good temperature read as to where they stand against the best.

One team trying desperately to figure out where it is heading into league play is Yale. The Bulldogs showed progress and cohesion during exhibition contests — against two very different types of teams — and then came North Dakota.

After nearly two periods of play, Yale trailed the fifth-ranked Fighting Sioux only 2-1 and looked strong. With less than three minutes remaining in the period, the well-documented fight broke out which led to the disqualification of four Yale players, including Chris Higgins, whose initial hit against the boards led to the melee.

“There is no place for that kind of stuff in college hockey — or any hockey,” said Yale head coach Tim Taylor following the game. “I do not think Higgins’ initial hit was illegal, there was no penalty for that; it is a shame that what followed had to happen.”

As a result, Yale will take on Cornell and Colgate without the services of Higgins, Evan Wax, Stacey Bauman and Nick Deschenes, who were all disqualified as a result of the fight. This leaves Yale without three of its top forwards and one of its top defensemen for the weekend, leaving Taylor with the unenviable task of revamping his lineup.

“It’s a hard game to evaluate,” said Taylor. “There was a pretty rough stretch there. Situations came up that were not typical.”

Right

Heading into this weekend Brown can already boast a league victory. The confident Bears scored an impressive, and somewhat shocking win — a 4-0 blanking — over highly-touted Harvard in Providence on Saturday night. According to head coach Roger Grillo, memories of the loss to Harvard last year in the ECAC quarterfinals were a major motivational factor.

“We had a bitter end to our season, and that carried over in our guys’ minds this past summer and motivated them to work that much harder for tonight,” said Grillo.

The team was propelled by four different goal-scorers and a strong performance by goaltender Yann Danis. Danis, who is being heralded by the Brown crew as one of the best netminders in the country, collected 30 saves on the night and also tied the school record for career shutouts

“We obviously have one of the best defenses in the country,” Danis said. “They did a good job [Saturday night] clearing the puck after saves. Most of Harvard’s shots were from the outside, and we didn’t give up too many good chances.”

A lackluster performance by Harvard that night did not provide a boost with the weekly poll voters; the Crimson fell out of the Top 15.

“We were running around in our zone like we had our heads cut off,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni after the loss. “They had two goals that came because of blown coverages by our wings on the points. Those guys just walked in uncontested and buried it.”

The Crimson, which entered the Brown game with only one informal scrimmage under its belt, will look to rebound this weekend with its home opener at Bright Hockey Center. And while the Bears are enjoying a refurbished Meehan Auditorium this year, Harvard has also made some cosmetic changes to its rink which will provide a new look and feel to players and fans.

Harvard and Brown will be hosting two teams in the midst of modest winning streaks — Vermont and Dartmouth. After a rocky start, Vermont finally got back on track with wins over Fairfield and Wayne State. Junior Jeff Miles has been the impact player for head coach Mike Gilligan thus far, posting seven goals in six games. His recent three-goal, one-assist performance against Wayne State earned him ECAC Player of the Week honors.

Meanwhile, the Big Green is coming off a 4-3 loss to Merrimack last Saturday night. This close contest capped off a weekend in which its special teams unit registered six power-play goals. Four of those extra-man tallies came on Friday in a 5-3 win over visiting Wayne State. The Big Green special teams — not usually known for their offensive proliferation — unleashed two additional goals the next night at Merrimack.

“You can’t expect to score six power-play goals in back-to-back nights,” said Dartmouth head coach Bob Gaudet. “But if you work hard and draw penalties, something that we’re doing and I like, you can cash in on those power plays.”

The good news for Dartmouth fans is that Nick Boucher played in both games and posted 47 saves on net.

“It’s the rules that we play with,” said Gaudet when asked about the lack of early-season games. “You try to prepare the guys a little in practice but there’s nothing like playing in competition. I wish we had a few more games under our belt.”

The Big Green was hit the hardest of any ECAC team by graduation, so those two games were much needed in terms of preparing the squad for its road trip to Providence and Cambridge.

Hmmm…

The last time we checked, noisemakers were still prohibited by the NCAA. So what were ThunderStix doing at the Harvard-Brown game at Meehan Auditorium last weekend?

A Quick Word

It’s been a turbulent week in Potsdam. The only official word is coming from the University Public Relations office, meaning that rumors are running rampant — some sane and some bordering on the outrageous.

The only thing that we know for certain is that Mark Morris is on administrative leave and that there is an investigation underway.

We, like everyone else, are waiting to hear exactly what happened in Potsdam. Let’s hope that for everyone involved it comes to a conclusion quickly and that things are settled so that everyone, not just with Clarkson, can get back to this great game.

The Best and Worst

We’re back with another edition of the best and the worst.

The Best — The Men Between The Pipes

There was some stellar goaltending this weekend. Kevin Ackley with 36 saves against Clarkson, Yann Danis with 30 in a shutout of Harvard and Nathan Marsters with 40 against St. Cloud. The ECAC has long been the home of great goaltending and last weekend proved it.

The Worst — Turmoil

Mark Morris controversy, Yale disqualifications, no one likes to see this stuff.

Thanks to Nick Clark, Paula C. Weston, Jim Connelly, Katie Baker and Elijah Alper for their contributions this week.

This Week in the CHA Women’s League: Nov. 7, 2002

By Craig Roberts
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Off to an 8-2-0 start, the first time it’s been over .500 through 10 games, Mercyhurst finds itself ranked 10th nationally.

Head coach Michael Sisti points to the experience of the team, in its fourth season, as the key to its current position.

Six of the Lakers’ eight losses last season were by one or two goals and two were in overtime. This year, the Lakers are 7-0-0 in games decided by two goals or fewer.

“Last year we started 2-4. We lost (three) games by one goal last year and had several others in which a late goal or an empty-netter finished it,” Sisti said. “This year, we’re winning those games. We’ve been in a lot of close games this year and won those. We’ve been in the hot seat and played with a lot of poise.”

"We lost (three) games by one goal last year and had several others in which a late goal or an empty-netter finished it. This year, we’re winning those games."

— Mercyhurst coach Michael Sisti, on his team’s strong start

It also doesn’t hurt that his team has allowed just 16 goals in eight games while posting three shutouts. Defense and goaltending are two things Mercyhurst has with five senior defensemen and a goaltending tandem with 79 games of experience.

“I think defense is the strength of our team,” Sisti said. “We look after our end first but realize that, with some of the games we have coming up, we’ll need more than that.”

Although they are allowing just 1.60 goals per game, the Lakers are only averaging 2.20, despite averaging nearly 37 shots.

Minnesota State’s Shari Vogt held Mercyhurst to five goals on the weekend despite facing 98 shots. The Lakers lack of goal-scorers also plays a role in that. Senior K.C. Gallo is the team’s active goal-scoring leader with just 38 and she has not found the back of the net in nine appearances this season.

Yet, the Lakers realize that you can’t score without opportunities and Sisti said he’s happy with the fact that his players continue going to the net and working hard.

“We’ve had some instances where we just can’t get a bounce,” Sisti said. “But I’m happy that they are continuing to create scoring chances. Last weekend was probably our best weekend of the season in that regard, but we ran into an extremely hot goalie.”

Capitalizing on opportunities will be a priority in the coming weeks for Mercyhurst, as it plays its first conference games of the season this weekend with a home-and-home series against Findlay, followed by a five-game stretch including nationally-ranked opponents in No. 5 Wisconsin and No. 7 Brown, along with Princeton, which has received votes in each poll this season.

The next seven games, according to Sisti, will go a long ways towards determining his team’s fate at season’s end.

“We’re about where we expected to be at this point,” he said. “But there’s a ton of hockey left to be played.

“These next (nine) games before Christmas are very important to put ourselves in a position to do some good things. We’ve got three league games, which are important in our standings, but also to put ourselves in position for the second half of the season.”

After Christmas break, the Lakers’ schedule gets easier with seven games in January, six of which are against teams in the lower half of the ECAC’s preseason poll. However, the final month of the season features their final three league games, including two against Niagara, along with home games against No. 3 Harvard and No. 4 Dartmouth.

The last month of the season may be what determines Mercyhurst’s fate; the Lakers have an opportunity to head into that stretch with aspirations for reaching the Women’s Frozen Four on the line, and Sisti realizes that that opportunity is now.

CHA “House”Hold Hints

Mercyhurst goalie Tiffany Ribble won her second consecutive CHA Defensive Player of the Week award after stopping 34 of 37 shots in a series sweep at Minnesota State … League rookie of the week, Danielle Lansing, notched her first two career goals in the two Laker wins … Seanna Murphy played in her 100th career game in Sunday’s 3-2 victory … Findlay will be two-thirds the way through its CHA schedule following this weekend’s home-and-home series with Mercyhurst … Three of the Oilers’ last four games have been shutouts, including a pair of 5-0 Findlay victories … After going 2-for-12 on the power play in its first four games, Niagara was 4-for-14 in splitting a pair with No. 7 Brown … With three goals in six games, Wayne State’s Cheryl Anderson has tripled her goal output of last year (31 games) … The Warriors went 0-for-14 on the power play over the weekend and have failed to score in 24 chances this season … They are 0-for-29 in their last seven games dating back to last season.

CHA Awards

Offensive Player of the Week–Cheryl Anderson, So., F, Wayne State
Defensive Player of the Week–Tiffany Ribble, Sr. G, Mercyhurst
Rookie of the Week–Danielle Lansing, Fr, D, Mercyhurst

Coming Up

Findlay at No. 10 Mercyhurst (Friday)
No. 10 Mercyhurst at Findlay (Sunday)

Mercyhurst won all five meetings between the two last season and is 10-2-2 all-time against Findlay … The Lakers are 5-0-2 at home against the Oilers … The Lakers are unbeaten in their last 34 games (33-0-1) when leading after two periods … Their last loss when leading after 40 periods was Nov. 25, 2000, when they allowed four third-period goals in a 4-1 home loss to Maine … Following Friday’s game at Mercyhurst, Findlay will play six straight home games … The Oilers have won three of five games in which they’ve allowed their opponent to score first.

Niagara at Wayne State (Friday)
Boston College at Niagara (Sunday)

Niagara has won all four of its previous meetings with Wayne State and its eight meetings with Boston College … The Purple Eagles are unbeaten in their last 45 games (42-0-3) when leading after two periods … New Hampshire scored three third-period goals, Dec. 5, 1999, to hand Niagara a 5-3 home loss — the last time it lost after leading through 40 minutes … Wayne State is 3-0-0 when scoring first and 0-3-0 when its opponent scores first … The Warriors have also won three times this season when leading after the first and second periods and lost three times when trailing after the first and second periods.

This Week in the CHA: Nov. 7, 2002

By Geof F. Morris
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Quiet Time

It’s another quiet week around the league. Air Force and Alabama-Huntsville are taking the week off before the Falcons travel to Alabama to play the Chargers next weekend. Bemidji State heads down to Findlay for the only conference matchup of the week, while Niagara (Michigan State) and Wayne State (Ferris State) visit CCHA foes this week before conference play starts gaining traction.

With a quiet ranch around the CHA Beat, it’s probably worth taking a step back and looking at what can be learned from the early part of the season. The CHA has had a range of nonconference schedules, with varying results, so it makes sense to not only rate the results but the difficulty of the scheduling.

Air Force

Schedule: D
Results: C
Overall: C

Air Force has proven that it can play with MAAC schools, but so has the rest of the conference. The Falcons probably want to forget that the Lefty McFadden Invitational ever happened, and frankly, they’ve played like it since then. Andy Berg has established himself as a force on the Falcons’ power play, and the rest of the team is starting to firm up.

Air Force, as always, will get stronger as the season progresses. Right now, the Falcons seem to struggle with consistency, and the only team that they have outshot so far is perennial MAAC doormat Bentley.

Alabama-Huntsville

Schedule: A
Results: D
Overall: C-

There’s little to be said about the Chargers’ schedule that hasn’t been said already, other than the fact that the league’s southernmost team has been involved in Homecoming once [Wisconsin] and banner raisings twice [Denver’s WCHA championship and Minnesota’s national championship]. Those three trips, back-to-back-to-back, would test the mettle of any team in Division I.

The results have been mixed for the Chargers. They played decently against Wisconsin and perhaps should have won one of those games. The Denver series was forgettable, as UAH seemed lethargic on the ice. The nadir of the season had to be the 12-1 spanking by Minnesota, which could have broken the Chargers’ back. They fought back the next night, though, taking the Gophers to a draw for two periods before finally losing.

The question for the rest of the season for the Chargers has to be which team will show up: the one that looked outclassed against Denver and Minnesota, or the one that scrapped and fought against Minnesota and Wisconsin? For that, the players will probably have to look inside themselves.

Bemidji State

Schedule: C+
Results: C-
Overall: C

Bemidji’s winless streak stands at 14 going back to last season. Sure, injuries have hurt the Beavers, but one begins to wonder if the team remembers how to win. No one can doubt that they’ve played hard, though; five overtime games in six contests is proof enough that the Beavers will come out and give a full effort.

One thing to remember is that the Beavers started practice just four days before their first exhibition, later than many of the other CHA teams. With the loss of Clay Simmons and the absence of Jamie Mattie, combined with the injuries to Kurt Knott, Travis Barnes, and Grady Hunt, coach Tom Serratore has been playing a lot of guys and seeing what he has. He seems happy with the talent level he has, and now they just need to snap their winless streak and start turning the frustration into happier results.

Findlay

Schedule: B-
Results: C+
Overall: C+

The Oilers manhandled Canisius, and then played back-to-back nonconference games against Bowling Green and Colgate, losing each by a single goal. Findlay coach Craig Barnett is happy with his team’s overall effort, especially with the play of senior goaltender Jamie VandeSpyker, who anchors a defense that’s giving up just two goals a game, eighth in the country.

Unlike some of their CHA brethren, the Oilers have sprinkled their fall semester with doses of conference and nonconference games. The mix will probably be good for a young Oilers team still trying to find its identity and gain some momentum after last season, which they’d like to forget. They won’t forget, though, that they started well last year, only to falter. This weekend’s series against Bemidji will be a good gut-check for the Orange and Black.

Niagara

Schedule: A-
Results: C
Overall: B

Looking up and down the Niagara schedule, it’s tough to find a game where the Purple Eagles haven’t been in it. Their season-opening loss to Bowling Green had the Falcons pull away with two goals in the last five minutes; they hung tough with Michigan and outshot Union; they even kept it close with North Dakota despite being outshot 69-30 on the weekend.

The story for the Eagles is Joe Tallari, who leads all of Division I with 11 goals in his first six games. Linemates Barret Ehgoetz and Jason Williamson have been feeding the puck on over to Tallari, who gets “eight to 10” chances a game, according to coach Dave Burkholder. The question for Niagara is in net, where junior Rob Bonk [2-4-0, 3.20, .881] is getting challenged by freshman Jeff VanNyatten [1-3-0, 4.36, .855]. Says Burkholder, “There’s no clear number one” between the two, who have split playing time nearly down the middle so far.

Wayne State

Schedule: B
Results: C
Overall: C

Many around the conference expected Wayne State to do well against Vermont and Dartmouth last weekend, and the Warriors didn’t. The Warriors had their nation’s-best 14-game winning streak broken by a team that hadn’t strung together two wins together in two years, and then they were beaten the next night by the Big Green power play, which netted four goals on nine chances.

The Warriors have to be missing co-captain Jason Durbin. The senior forward is out until Thanksgiving with a knee injury, and with him missing, the defending champs don’t seem like the same team. The two most important changes the Warriors can make, though, are to limit penalties and tighten up the penalty kill. The Warriors may have their toughest nonconference tilts yet to come, with this weekend’s games against Ferris State and back-to-back trips to Michigan Tech and Alaska-Fairbanks later this semester.

Resetting the First Conference Tilt

Air Force zoomed into Niagara last weekend with five consecutive wins at the Dwyer Arena tucked into their epaulets. The Falcons left their avian tiff with the homestanding Eagles with their streak snapped but with a tie in the early conference standings.

“We had a great weekend with Air Force,” said Burkholder. “It shows you how tough the CHA is going to be when we all get in conference play. It was a very even series. They were the better team on Friday night, and we were the better team on Saturday night.”

The biggest surprise of the weekend may have been that Air Force’s Andy Berg was held to just two assists, but Burkholder is probably right: no CHA team has really shown itself to be head-and-shoulders above the rest of their brethren, and the conference race is going to be one heck of a dogfight until the teams sort themselves into some sort of pecking order.

Let’s go with a brash prediction: this year’s conference winner won’t finish above 30 points.

Into the Crystal Ball

Looking into this weekend’s games promises — more of the same. Bemidji has played every opponent close, and in the words of Findlay’s Barnett, “When I think of Bemidji State, I think of a lot of team speed and a team that competes for a solid 60 minutes. They’re 0-2-4, but they could easily be 6-0.” That sums it up pretty well for me.

Bemidji coach Tom Serratore noted last week that he was holding out goaltender Grady Hunt for this weekend. This should put it as the battle of two tough goaltenders, as VandeSpyker will match Hunt save for save. Bemidji is 3-3 in CHA season-opening series, and I see no reason to break that splitting trend. Look for the Beavers to rally around having Hunt back on Friday and break through for a win, and then expect the Oilers to bear down and pull through on Saturday. Anyone know where the good hotels are in Findlay?

Niagara will go off on yet another quixotic nonconference tilt. One of these games, the Eagles are bound to knock off a big-name school. Niagara hasn’t seen an opponent like the Spartans, though, who presently have three defensemen (Brad Fast, Duncan Keith, and John-Michael Liles) leading the team in scoring. It’s tempting to think that Joe Tallari and one of the Eagles’ goaltenders will get hot on the same night, but the Eagles have been routinely outshot by better competition. They will have to play a bit tighter to come away with a win.

Wayne State travels cross-state to go into Big Rapids and face the Bulldogs of Ferris State. The Warriors’ penalty kill has to be a concern, and they’re facing a team that’s converted on one of every four power plays so far. With Chris Kunitz (10-10–20) powering the Bulldogs’ offense and sophomore goaltender Mike [nl]Brown holding opponents to a 1.38 GAA, the Warriors, unused to playing in raucous environments, will have their work cut out for them.

This Week in the ECAC West: Nov. 7, 2002

By
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Hobart Wins

Hobart used two dramatic victories to take the title in the Buffalo State All-Sport Invitational tournament last weekend. The stats mavens in the Hobart SID office dug out the archives, and discovered that this is the first regular-season tournament that Hobart has won in 14 years. The last tourney win for the Statesmen was the 1988 St. Bonaventure Tournament, where they beat Buffalo State 13-4 and St. Bonaventure 6-1.

On Friday, Hobart was outshot by Fredonia 33-21, but managed to make its shots count and eke out a 3-2 victory. Justin Maklin, Will Bodine, and Chris Thornton each tallied goals for the Statesmen.

Saturday was a different story. Hobart had its power play working early against host Buffalo State, scoring two extra-attacker goals to build a 2-0 lead by early in the second period. However, Buffalo State battled back, and a two-minute lapse by the Statesmen late in the second period saw the lead erased.

The third period was a big-check bonanza as both teams sent bodies flying with open-ice hits. R.C. Schmidt finally woke up after an early-season scoring drought, and tallied the game-winning goal for Hobart with less than four minutes remaining. An insurance goal was added less than 30 seconds later by Wesley Scott, and Hobart celebrated the tournament win.

Back to Camp

The Buffalo State tournament was not so kind to the Utica Pioneers, who finished a distant last. Utica was coming off a rash of success against top SUNYAC teams, including a close loss against Potsdam and a big win over Oswego.

Utica lost a tight game to Buffalo State Friday night 4-2, a nail-biting contest down to the last few seconds of the third period. Utica held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 during the contest, but Buffalo State always seemed to be able to claw back in. With just 17 seconds left in regulation and the score tied 2-2, Buffalo State’s Morgan McElman scored off a deflection to win the game.

“Our third period is killing us this year,” said Utica coach Gary Heenan. Through the first three games of this year, Utica has given up third-period goals to the opposition in all three games and has been outscored 4-2.

Friday’s loss was deflating to Utica, and it showed in Saturday’s game against Fredonia. The Pioneers couldn’t keep Fredonia away from the crease, and the Blue Devils scored three goals off of scrambles in front of the net. Final score: Fredonia 4, Utica 1.

Heenan couldn’t find any positives to take away from the weekend.

“Everything we got over the past year, we earned,” said Heenan. “We had two great games to start the season, and the boys started getting a little cocky. All of the sudden we think they owe us something. We aren’t good enough to play like that, and that isn’t how I want my team to be.”

Utica has a two-week layoff, before kicking off its league schedule against Elmira.

“We need to start from scratch,” continued Heenan. “We need to refocus. It is back to a camp atmosphere. All spots are up for grabs again. Everyone has to earn a spot on the team.”

Home Opener

After a relatively unsuccessful road trip to St. Norbert, Elmira returned to play Oswego in its home opener. Oswego has trounced Elmira over the last couple of seasons, but this year it was different. The Elmira power play got rolling right off the bat and staked the Soaring Eagles to a quick 2-0 lead just 11 minutes into the contest.

“Thank the Lord our power play got going,” said Elmira coach Tim Ceglarski. “That was the difference in the game. They weren’t real fancy goals, but it was nice to get a few power play goals. We moved the puck around a lot better. This weekend the guys just seemed to relax and move the puck around, and we got the puck to the net.”

Just like Potsdam vs. RIT and Buffalo State vs. Hobart, Oswego came storming back against Elmira to knot the game 2-2. Once tied, the two teams continued to battle it out exchanging another goal each before heading into overtime.

“It was an extremely hard fought, competitive game,” said Ceglarski. “Both teams came in without a win, and were anxious to get a win, and it was a hard fought competitive game for 62 minutes.”

Just over a minute into the extra period, Jarrett Konkle tallied the game winner for Elmira.

Midway through the second period, Dean Jackson was involved in a fracas along the boards, resulting in Jackson receiving a fighting major and a game DQ. Fighting majors are rare enough in college hockey, but what made this situation truly unusual was that Jackson was the only player involved to receive the penalty.

“Having watched the video tape, Dean Jackson was along the boards and an Oswego player came in and received a charging call,” related Ceglarski. “A little scuffle, just guys grabbing each other, ensued and then a gentleman from Oswego came flying into the pile and crosschecked Dean straight to the head.

“His helmet came off, and the two of them went down and Dean ended up on top of this particular young man. Dean did in fact throw a couple of punches and did indeed deserve his fighting major. The person that threw the crosscheck received a two-minute minor. He deserved that two-minute minor and then some. Usually it takes two to fight. This kid came from downtown and just crosschecked Dean right across the head.”

Unable to Shift Gears

When the schedule first came out, the RIT faithful let out a collective groan. While they were happy to see Potsdam back on the schedule, the thought of doing an up-and-back to the North Country for a single game was not appealing. At least it was in mid-November before the weather really started to get bad.

Saturday’s game lived up to expectations on the ice, a close-fought affair leading to a thrilling 4-3 overtime victory for RIT.

The bus ride up and back exceeded expectations as well — the bad expectations.

All was well when the Tigers’ bus headed off campus and hit the highway. The team made good time all the way to Watertown before disaster struck. Pulling off Route 81, the bus driver couldn’t seem to get the bus back into gear.

Uh, oh, the transmission had burned out.

Luckily, the team was near some restaurants to wait it out the three hours while a new bus was sent from Syracuse, 75 miles away. Once they were back on the road, it was smooth sailing, and the teams hit the ice only about two hours late.

RIT stormed out to a two-goal lead midway through the first period, before Potsdam came storming back to tie the game 2-2. It was tit-for-tat in the third period as RIT scored only to watch Potsdam answer.

Finally, with time running out in overtime, Ryan Fairbairn scored for RIT to send the Tigers home happy.

Everyone piled back into the bus, and headed to the Syracuse bus terminal to change buses. The terminal was flooded, so the players had to wade through ankle-deep water to carry their gear to the new bus. Then it was slowly down the thruway through blinding lake-effect snow for the final leg of the trip home.

It seems like RIT has had a number of these bus Odysseys the last couple of years.

Game of the Week

The new travel partner system debuts this weekend when the Manhattanville/Neumann partnership travels to take on Hobart/RIT. The Game of the Week is Friday night, when Manhattanville visits RIT. The Valiants have been close to knocking off RIT, but haven’t quite gotten the job done yet. With a batch of highly-skilled freshmen on this year’s team, the time may be ripe for Manhattanville to knock off the Tigers.

Stepping Into the Spotlight

By Nick Clark
-

If any hockey coach, no matter the level, is ever posed the question of what is the most important position on the ice, the answer will always be the same.

No, it’s not the men or women who put the puck in the net. Nor is it the soldiers who guard the blue line. The resounding answer that coaches all over the world will give is … the goaltender. The crazy fool who stands in front of the vulcanized rubber traveling sometimes in excess of 100 miles an hour, voluntarily.

Jake Moreland had a 2.43 GAA last season in 18 games. (photos: Christopher Brian Dudek)

Jake Moreland had a 2.43 GAA last season in 18 games. (photos: Christopher Brian Dudek)

A goaltender shouldn’t be built with skin and bonesl; nuts and bolts seem more appropriate. You see, the human mind shouldn’t allow one to be subject to such abuse, but, as St. Cloud State senior netminder Jake Moreland put it, somebody’s got to do it.

Moreland is in his fourth and final year with the cardinal and black, and has been stopping pucks since his childhood days in Grand Forks, N.D. Last year, Moreland played in a career-high 18 games and charted a 2.43 GAA and .916 save percentage. In his career at SCSU, Moreland is 15-8-0, with a 2.42 GAA average and a .913 save percentage.

In his tenure with the Huskies, St. Cloud State has enjoyed the most successful four-year stint in the program’s young history.

In that time the Huskies have piled up 86 wins, including their three victories this year, and have made a trip to the national tournament all three years. Although Moreland has only been personally responsible for 15 of those wins, his presence in the Husky locker room and practices has been felt. And his patience has been a virtue.

He has played with some of the best over the past four years. First, it was All-American Scott Meyer. Then All-WCHA netminder Dean Weasler, who shared duties with Moreland most of last season. This season, it’s been redshirt freshman Jason Montgomery who has been spitting time. But in this, his senior season, Moreland finally appears to have the confidence to be “the man,” something that may have been lacking in the past.

“Mental toughness has probably been his toughest battle,” said Huskies head coach Craig Dahl. “In Jake’s case, you know last year he played in 18 games and stopped 91 percent of the shots he saw, but it would be that one funny goal he would let in that would kill him and then he would struggle after that. If you can get over that — because everyone’s going to let in a funny one once and a while — but if you can get over that and get back to battle, you’re going to be OK. I think Jake’s ready to make that step.”

Moreland

Moreland

He took some serious strides last season. Moreland, who played junior hockey with Sioux City in the USHL, began the year splitting weekend series with Weasler. Dahl tooled a bit with his goaltending tandem and then, for a short time when Moreland suffered a broken hand from a Mark Hartigan slapshot during practice, handed the job to Weasler.

Again, Moreland took his time and healed patiently. He returned to the ice during the third period of a Friday night loss in Denver after Weasler couldn’t continue due to the flu. He started the next night and helped lift the Huskies to a 4-2 win over the then top-ranked Pioneers.

He started both games against Minnesota the following weekend and he was in net when the Huskies clinched their WCHA playoff series over Minnesota-Duluth. Dahl also chose Moreland to start the Huskies’ Final Five opener last year against the Gophers.

The experience gained in those “big” games however have given Moreland and his teammates the confidence to know that, if needed, he will be ready.

“We’ve been in those positions a few times the last couple years and our starting goaltenders really haven’t played that well,” said Moreland. “But that little bit of familiarity with it will help.”

Familiarity is something that Moreland will have quite a bit of with this weekend’s opponent at the National Hockey Center. North Dakota is in town for a two-game series, a weekend that Moreland has to look forward to.

He grew up in Grand Forks and was a regular at UND games as a child. He even served a stick boy when he was in elementary school. He beat North Dakota last year for one of his more memorable college hockey moments, and another win this weekend over his hometown team would be even that much more meaningful to the guy who used to give Ed Belfour his stick and cheer on Jon Casey on a kid.

“It should be fun,” said Moreland, who had 38 saves in the Huskies’ 6-1 win over North Dakota last season. “I was pretty stoked [after last year’s win]. It’s bragging rights, which is always nice.”

And those bragging rights will be up for grabs again this weekend, as Moreland and the Huskies take on UND once again.

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