October 12, 2009

Feels good to be back, doesn't it?

We're trying something different this season in order to get more of a national feel to our early-week coverage before delving into the conference stuff as the weekend nears. Every Monday, the First Shift will feature INCH's national Player of the Week, Stick Salute, and Bench Minor. We'll also take a lighter-hearted look at the weekend that was in our Say What?, Poll Outrage of the Week, and Tweet of the Week segments.

This is a work in progress, to be sure. But unlike Phil Cuzzi, we'll try not to miss anything.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

RICH PURSLOW
Nebraska-Omaha
Jr. | F | Greenlawn, N.Y.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-2—4, +3 vs. Army and UMass Lowell

His Impact: If the results from this past weekend's Icebreaker Tournament in Omaha are any indication, Dean Blais's tenure as the Mavericks' head coach should be, at the very least, exciting. UNO, which ranked 42nd in the country in scoring offense last season with an average of 2.45 goals per game, exploded for 10 goals in wins against Army and UMass Lowell.

Purslow, the Icebreaker MVP, led a balanced scoring attack with a goal and an assist in each of the Mavs' two wins. He helped set up Terry Broadhurst's game-winning goal in Friday's 6-4 decision against Army and sparked UNO's come-from-behind triumph against the RiverHawks Saturday with a first-period goal less than three minutes after UML jumped out to an early 2-0 advantage.

His Runners-Up: Dan Bakela (Bemidji State); Mike Cichy (North Dakota); Scott Greenham (Alaska); Brayden Irwin (Vermont); Dan Morrison (Canisius); Eric Lampe (Quinnipiac); Cameron Talbot (Alabama-Huntsville).

The INCH Player of the Week is presented by The INCH Shop

STICK SALUTE

Good on the hockey fans in the Rochester area (7,421 of them, to be exact) for showing up at Blue Cross Arena for Saturday's Colgate-RIT tilt. The game turned out to be a real treat—the Raiders' Austin Smith scored a shorthanded goal in the third period to give his team a 3-2 victory. The building's primary tenant, the American Hockey League's Rochester Americans, averaged a little more than 4,000 fans in 40 home dates last season.

BENCH MINOR

Apologies for being somewhat CCHA-centric here, but the opening weekend wasn't a high-water mark for the league's upper echilon. Most notable (and by notable, we mean cringe-worthy) were Notre Dame's 3-2 loss to Alabama-Huntsville at the Joyce Center Friday, Michigan's shutout loss to Alaska in Anchorage that same night, and Ohio State's pair of losses to visiting Quinnipiac, a team picked to finish in the bottom third of ECAC Hockey.

SAY WHAT?

“I'm not one who's going to make a lot of changes when things are working." — UNO coach Dean Blais to the Omaha World-Herald's Chad Purcell following the Mavs' Icebreaker Tournament championship game win Saturday.

But when things aren't working—especially for a goaltender—Blais gets out the hook quicker than Tony LaRussa. UNO senior Jeremie Dupont learned as much against Army and UMass Lowell, allowing six goals on 20 shots in just under 54 minutes of work. Sophomore John Faulkner earned both wins in relief..

THIS WEEK'S
POLL OUTRAGE

It's early and it's gonna take a while for the national polls to sort themselves out. That said, we're not sure how Boston College, the 12th-ranked team in this week's USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll, earned one first-place vote. By the way, 27 teams received at least one vote in the same poll. The Alaska Nanooks, who beat Michigan and Mercyhurst at the Kendall Hockey Classic in Anchorage, were not one of them.

TWEET OF
THE WEEK

@HackswithHaggs: God bless the dude at Angels stadium wearing a Whale T-shirt while waiting in line for a hot dog. What are the odds?