| PLAYER OF THE WEEK |
SCOTT GREENHAM
Alaska
Jr. | G | Addison, Ontario
His Statistics: 2 GP, 44 saves, .957 save pct., 1.00 GAA in wins over Union and Colorado College
His Impact: Greenham won a pair of goaltending duels against very good teams with notable netminders at the other end of the rink during the Brice Alaska Goal Rush this past weekend in Fairbanks.
In Friday’s 2-1 win over Union, Greenham made 22 saves and only allowed a first-period power-play goal to the nationally-ranked Dutchmen. He outdueled Union’s Keith Kincaid, a preseason all-league selection in ECAC Hockey. Saturday’s victory over Colorado College, also a 2-1 triumph, was a similar story. CC’s Joe Howe, WCHA All-Rookie Team Goalie last year, was defending the other goal and Greenham was only beaten by a power-play goal.
His Runners Up: Cam Atkinson, Boston College; Chase Polacek, RPI; Justin Schultz, Wisconsin; Everett Sheen, Holy Cross
The INCH Player of the Week is brought to you by The INCH Shop.
| STICK SALUTE |
More than 10,500 fans crammed into Blue Cross Arena in Rochester Saturday to see RIT take on UMass Lowell in the Tigers’ first home game since last April’s surprising run to the Frozen Four. The River Hawks spoiled the occasion for the sellout crowd when Scott Campbell scored with 1.3 seconds remaining in the third period to salvage a 4-4 tie. According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Saturday’s game marked the fourth sellout for a sporting event since the arena was renovated in 1997.
The Tigers frequently play in front of full houses on campus at Ritter Arena, but this shows that the entire Rochester community is carrying last season’s momentum and that RIT hockey is a big show in town.
| BENCH MINOR |
Homecoming weekend is a pretty busy for members of the Michigan State band. But it was disappointing to arrive at Munn Ice Arena Friday to learn the Spartan band eschewed the hockey team’s series finale with Maine in favor of the men’s and women’s basketball Midnight Madness event across the street at the Breslin Center (which didn’t start until after the hockey game ended anyway) as well as the homecoming parade that preceded the hockey contest. Sure, hoops is a big deal in East Lansing, but the band couldn’t spare a dozen members to liven up the Munn-soleum?
| SAY WHAT? |
“They’ve got to crack down on all this hitting from behind.”
That’s what North Dakota assistant coach Cary Eades said after the Fighting Sioux bus was rear-ended last Thursday en route to a weekend series at Bemidji State. NoDak sports information director Jayson Hajdu passed Eades’ gem along to Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. Fortunately, no one was injured in the collision.
| RANKINGS OUTRAGE |
On the strength of its sweep of Minnesota this past weekend, Nebraska-Omaha debuted at No. 10 in the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll and climbed seven spots to tenth in the USCHO.com rankings. Good on you, Mavs; that makes for a nice WCHA debut. Pollsters, can we drop the notion that sweeping Minnesota is a big deal? In the last two seasons and change, the Gophers have been swept nine times – they’re an average to slightly above-average team, not the juggernaut that rolled to two national championships nearly a decade ago.
| TWEET OF THE WEEK |
@fetch9 Corban Knight had a nice game. Perhaps the @inch a to z mention is the opposite of the SI jinx (Oct. 8, 2010)
Sure this one goes back a few weeks, but the short reply to this tweeted observation is that is exactly the theory and reasoning behind INCH A-Z. Our summer profile series tries to identify some under-the-radar players who might have big seasons and the track record of success is pretty strong over the last several years.
Some of this past summer’s profiles already off to strong start include Ron Cramer (Robert Morris), Joey Diamond (Maine), Alden Hirschfeld (Miami), Alex Hudson (Nebraska-Omaha), Corban Knight (North Dakota), Adam Pleskach (AIC), Austin Smith (Colgate), Craig Smith (Wisconsin), Joe Sova (Alaska), T.J. Syner (Massachusetts) and Jeremy Welsh (Union).
