February
7, 2008
I'm
Thinking Of A Number Between Two And Four
By
Warren Kozireski
The magic number of the week in College Hockey
America was three.
Three different players scored three goals
in a game, 11 different players had three or more point
weekends, Wayne State won at Bemidji State for the first
time since 2003 and the Beavers, with their two point weekend,
are now 10-3-3 and their 23 points leads the pack.
College
Hockey America Notebook
Ted
Cook scored his first career hat trick in a 4-4 tie
against St. Lawrence, but was disappointed that Niagara
couldn't get a win over the Saints on a fun night
at Dwyer Arena.
It's your vote for most unexpected victory
last weekend. Was it Alabama-Huntsville breaking a 10-game
conference winless streak with a 7-5 win at Robert Morris?
Or was it Wayne State scoring three unanswered goals for
a 3-2 win in Minnesota?
UAH sophomore Cale Tanaka scored all of two
goals in 27 games during his freshman season and was 0-for-his
first 20-plus games this season until the third period Friday.
Two short-handed efforts on the same Colonial
power play 48 seconds apart followed by the game-winning
goal with 40 seconds remaining in regulation completed his
natural hat trick. An empty-netter by Josh Murray with one
second left made it 7-5 Chargers. It marked the most goals
the team has scored since; you guessed it, netting seven
in November 2006 at Robert Morris.
Brandon Roshko had a four-assist weekend while
Matt Sweazey, Andrew Coburn, Joe Federoff, and Kyle Burton
each had three-point efforts.
As mentioned, the Chargers' victory broke
a ten-game conference winless streak, the longest in CHA
since Robert Morris lost nine straight in 2004-05. Air Force
holds the single-season record with a 14 game winless run
in 2002-03 and Findlay is second with an 11-gamer in 2001-02.
Robert Morris rebounded the next night led
by Chris Margott's hat trick to earn a split of the weekend.
They now sit third, one point behind second-place Niagara
and nine points out of first with eight league games remaining.
Two of those eight are this weekend with their
trip to Wayne State. The Colonials grabbed the first two
meetings this season in Pittsburgh, but the Warriors won
all four meetings, including the two in Detroit, one year
ago.
Wayne State completed the underdog weekend
with an opening night 3-2 win at Bemidji State on Dylan
Exton's third period game-winner.
Sophomore Brett Bothwell was in net and made
28 saves for his third consecutive victory. He is the first
Warrior goaltender to win three straight since David Guerrera
won seven in a row to take Wayne State to the CHA title
and the NCAA playoffs in 2003.
Wayne State has now won five of its last eight
games while averaging 3.25 goals per game and is converting
25 percent of its power-play chances during the span.
The Beavers rebounded with a 3-2 overtime
win for the split on a Matt Pope goal. Blaine Jarvis scored
the first two goals and assisted on the game winner.
"This was as big of a win as last Saturday,"
said BSU head coach Tom Serratore to the Bemidji Pioneer.
"The guys showed a lot of character and resiliency.
They have a very difficult team to play against, especially
with a two goal lead. But the guys played the third period
with a lot of urgency and energy – it really showed.
"We want (the CHA title) bad. Who doesn't
want to hang a banner in their barn? This was a good win
and, hopefully, will bring us to another level."
After this weekend off, the Beavers have conference
series at Robert Morris and home against Wayne State sandwiched
around a non-conference series at The Ralph in Grand Forks,
North Dakota.
SEEN AND HEARD IN THE CHA
Niagara Still In The Mix:
With Bemidji State's stumble last weekend, Niagara, with
a sweep of their remaining conference games. can tie first-place
Bemidji State though the Beavers hold the head-to-head tiebreaker
with a 2-1-1 record.
Niagara received the first career hat trick
from Ted Cook, but saw a 2-0 first period lead melt away
before settling for a 4-4 tie against ECAC's ninth-place
team, St. Lawrence.
"The second period, I think we took off
a bit," Cook said to the Niagara Gazette.
"I think we got a little too high on our horse. You
always feed off a sold-out barn," Cook said. "For
warm-ups, we had almost 1,000 people out there, it was bobblehead
night for 'Gards' (former goaltender and assistant coach
Greg Gardner) and the student section was full. That's probably
the biggest thing for us."
The Purps are on a five-game unbeaten run
and host Alabama-Huntsville this weekend.
Great Weekend Getaway
Alabama-Huntsville
at Niagara
(Fri.-Sat.) The Chargers offense came alive last weekend
at Robert Morris and Niagara is unbeaten in its last
five and averaging over four goals per game during
that period.
While You're There: Catch one of
the eight pee-wee or squirt playoff hockey games at
both rinks during the day at Dwyer and see if you
could keep up…on double-runner skates.
Stick
Salute
Alabama-Huntsville
freshman Andrew Coburn has a three-game scoring streak
and has seven points (three goals, four assists) over
his last six games.
Bench
Minor
To those
"H" words and not H-E-double hockey sticks.
Wayne State's Matt Krug and Jeff Caister were called
for hooking and holding leading to two Beaver third
period power-play goals on their way back from a 3-1
deficit and an overtime win. Bemidji pounced on the
second extra-man chance in all of six seconds to tie
it.
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM
OF THE BAG
• Even though Frozen Four sites are
awarded through 2012 in Tampa, it's not too early to start
thinking about a site for 2013, and Robert Morris coach
Derek Schooley and VisitPittsburgh are strongly considering
a
bid for the 2013 Frozen at the Pittsburgh Penguins'
new arena.
• Former Niagara Purple Eagle forward
Mike Maier, after two years at Division I and sitting out
last season, joined Division III Cortland State in January.
He had 3 goals and 7 assists in his first 10 games.
• Wayne State forward Mike Forgie and
Bemidji State goaltender Matt Climie are among 16 players
under consideration for the 2008 Frozen Four Skills Competition
for the Men's West Team. You can cast
your vote.
• Niagara junior forward Les Reaney
is one point away from becoming the third Purple Eagle this
season to join the career 100-point club.
• Robert Morris has the fifth-best scoring
offense in the country (3.58 gpg), but have the fourth-worst
scoring defense (3.64 gpg). Ryan Cruthers and Chris Margott
are fourth and 12th respectively in the country in scoring
and Margott is sixth in assists.
• Ten seconds after UAH's Cale Tanaka
scored his first short-handed goal Friday, Robert Morris
called a timeout. Tanaka added another shorty just 38 seconds
later.
A variety of sources were utilized in
the compilation of this report. Warren Kozireski can be
reached at warrenkozireski@yahoo.com.
