Making up ground in the Atlantic Hockey chase is kind of like losing weight—all of the hard work doesn’t necessarily result in what you want to see.
Niagara, thanks to the hot hand of league goalie of the month Chris Noonan, has won six in a row. Still, the Purple Eagles remain in third place, a stone’s throw from the lead.
Niagara goaltender Chris Noonan enters the weekend ranked second in the nation in goals against average and first in save percentage.
“We’ve swept three weekends in a row and barely crept up,” sighed Niagara coach Dave Burkholder. “It’s that time of the year when you hope your team is still in the conversation. All you can do is have your team empty the tank and watch the out-of-town scoreboard.”
Noonan, a senior from Portage, Mich., has kept the Purple Eagles in the hunt with a tremendous month of January. He opened with a pair of two-goal losses at Connecticut but has since posted sweeps of Army (5-1, 3-0), American International (4-1, 6-1), and Robert Morris (a pair of 2-1 wins last weekend). He was 6-2 with a 1.18 goals against average and .959 save percentage, making 209 saves on 218 shots.
“We were hoping someone in the second semester, especially after the Minnesota tournament (Dec. 30-31), would be our no. 1 guy,” Burkholder said. “He certainly, when given the opportunity, has earned it and ran with it.”
Noonan is certainly in the conversation of the top netminders in the nation. His 1.69 goals against average ranks second (trailing only Union’s Troy Grosenick at 1.58), a considerable improvement over his 2.94 GAA mark of last season. Noonan’s save percentage is tops in the country at .942.
“He is just a very calming influence on the team,” Burkholder said. “He is one of the hardest working kids, always in the weight room and doing extra work. His game management and how he’s played and carried himself has been really good for this team.”
Standing tall at 6 feet, Noonan is athletic, cool in net, and game smart. “His emotions never show,” Burkholder said. “He’s never too high, never too low.” Sporting a tremendous glove, he’s very good at making the initial save and does a good job with rebound control. He handles the puck well and has the wherewithal to make a good breakout pass or throw the puck off the glass to clear the zone when necessary.
“He has the perfect goalie mentality,” Burkholder said.
Noonan played in one game as a freshman and by the end of his sophomore season, he helped Niagara knock off the country’s eighth-ranked team, Bemidji State, in a College Hockey America semifinal. Since the midway point of his sophomore season, Noonan has compiled a 19-7-5 record. “The kid is a winner,” Burkholder said.
No one is tearing up the scoresheet—Scott Arnold and Marc Zanette are tied for the team lead with 17 points—but the Purple Eagles are spreading the wealth with eight double-digit point getters and 16 players with at least two goals. Freshman Chris Lochner has been on a recent hot streak with seven goals, all since Dec. 31. Sophomore Patrick Divjak has vaulted to the team lead with 12 assists.
“These guys are confident,” Burkholder said. “There are smiles when they come to the rink.”
Niagara has home-and-home series with Mercyhurst (Feb. 3-4), Canisius (Feb. 14 and 16), and RIT (Feb. 24-25) and a two-game home series with Air Force (Feb. 10-11). Burkholder hopes his team can maintain its hot hand.
“We’re starting to play our best hockey,” Burkholder said. “There’s been years where we’ve limped down the stretch with injuries, fatigue, travel or whatever. We are refreshed, and winning has a lot to do with it.”
An old rivalry renewed: Army and the Royal Military College of Ontario resume a long-standing rivalry that saw its last contest in 2006. The series came to a disputed end when West Point objected to RMC’s use of post-graduate players. West Point will host the first two exhibition contests in 2012 and 2013 and the third game will be played in Kingston in 2014.
“We are thrilled to be playing RMC again and for our cadets to have a chance to compete against their cadets,” said Army coach Brian Riley, who was head coach in the last meeting. “Our guys will have a chance to experience this great rivalry like other Army players, and I really think they will enjoy playing in this series. The memories will last a lifetime.”
With six years between games, no current Army or RMC player has competed in this rivalry. Riley asked former players to send notes to the current Black Knights to express their feelings about how special this rivalry is to both schools. Saturday’s contest at Tate Rink will feature a reunion of long-time coaches Jack Riley of Army and Danny McLeod of RMC, both of whom are in their early 90s.
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG
More monthly awards: Bentley’s Brett Gensler and Alex Grieve were named the Atlantic Hockey player and rookie of the month, respectively.
Gensler produced seven goals and nine assists, notching a point in nine of 10 games. He had three goals and an assist against Holy Cross on Jan. 24. Gensler leads the league with 30 points and 20 assists in addition to his 10 goals.
Grieve scored seven goals and added six assists in January, raising his season totals to 10 goals and nine assists. He had a game-winning goal against Robert Morris on Jan. 6. Last weekend, Grieve posted three goals and four assists.
Weekly winners: Gensler and Grieve were the player and rookie of the week, respectively. Gensler had eight points in three games and Grieve posted seven points.
Garrett Bartus of Connecticut was the goalie of the week. Bartus stopped 64 of 65 shots as UConn beat Holy Cross, 3-1 and 3-0. He had 31 saves in the shutout win, his fourth of the season. Bartus owns the Huskies’ Division I career saves record with 2,439.
Finally, a win: It took 18 games but Sacred Heart finally won its first league contest of the season, 4-2 at American International. Drew George, Anthony Yelovich, Ben Ketchum, and Chad Filteau all scored for the Pioneers. It was the sixth time this season that Sacred Heart has managed to score four goals in a game. AIC answered with a 3-0 overtime win on Saturday in Milford. Sacred Heart is 1-17-1 in league play.
Finally, a bagel: Air Force senior Stephen Caple stopped 14 shots to lead Air Force to a 3-0 win at Canisius on Sunday. It was the Falcons’ first shutout of the season and the second of Caple’s career. It was the fourth time Canisius had been blanked this season, tying the school record. The teams played to a 1-1 draw on Monday.
Finally, a sweep: Connecticut beat Holy Cross, 3-1 and 3-0. Coupled with a 4-2 win in October, it was the first time the Huskies had swept the season series from the Crusaders as a Division I program.
A new leader: Rochester Institute of Technology took three of four points from Mercyhurst, jumping one point ahead of the Lakers for first place in Atlantic Hockey with four weekends of league play remaining. RIT got goals from five different players in Friday’s 5-1 win and secured a 2-2 tie on Saturday—it was the Tigers’ first home dates in nearly seven weeks.
Coming up: Home-and-home series pit American International and Holy Cross, Canisius and Robert Morris, Niagara and Mercyhurst and Sacred Heart and Bentley. RIT travels to Air Force for a pair, with Friday’s 10 p.m. ET game televised by CBS Sports Network.
