Gary Wright was very enthused about the prospects for his American International College hockey team headed into the season. Nothing has been diminished there, but now he has to focus efforts on recovery from a freak injury which has sidelined the 26-year veteran coach before the first puck was dropped.

An accident with a garage door at his home left Wright with serious leg injuries. Surgery has repaired the tendons that were ripped off the bones of both quadriceps muscles, and he has been getting around with braces and a walker.

Assistant coach Mike Field has been running the team in Wright’s absence. Field is in his second season at AIC, having served as a graduate assistant coach last season.

Wright, one of the classiest coaches in Atlantic Hockey, was in attendance as the Yellow Jackets recorded their first victory of the season on Friday, a 3-0 home victory over Holy Cross. The next night, AIC earned a 4-4 tie with the Crusaders on the return trip to Worcester.

October awards – Dan Ringwald, a senior defenseman with RIT, was named the Atlantic Hockey player of the month. In seven games, the Oakville, Ont., resident posted three goals and six assists, and has a five-game point streak. He had three assists in a 6-2 win over Connecticut on Oct. 30, and followed that with RIT’s first natural hat trick at the Division I level.

Thomas Tysowsky, a freshman with Holy Cross, was named the goaltender of the month. The Amherst, N.Y., resident posted his first two collegiate victories. His 2.39 goals against ranks second in the league and his .912 save percentage ranks third. He has made five starts.

Adam Pleskach, a freshman from Beausejour, Man., was named the rookie of the month, posting five goals and two assists. Pleskach had a goal in three of four games, scoring twice in a loss to RPI. He had three goals and an assist in the weekend series with RPI and Union.

Getting on the scoresheet – Atlantic Hockey has 21 players averaging at least one point per game through the first month. Senior Dave Jarman of Sacred Heart has nine points through five games to lead the way at 1.8 per game. Junior Andrew Favot of RIT leads the league with 10 points (two goals) through seven games. Sacred Heart senior Nick Johnson leads the league with six goals in five games – last season he only had three tallies in 24 games.

RIT Beats UConn to Win Column – Rochester Institute of Technology snapped a five-game season-opening losing streak by posting a sweep of visiting Connecticut, 6-2 and 7-0.

UConn falls to 0-6-0 overall and 0-3-0 in league play – the Huskies got off to an 0-5-0 start in 2006-07. The Huskies have been outscored 29-8, with 11 opponent tallies on the power play as the Huskies are killing at a .744 rate.

Too bad the points don’t count – Army got off to a 0-4-1 start but rebounded with a solid run through ECAC territory last weekend. The Black Knights forged a 4-4 tie at Colgate on Friday, coming from behind four times. Joey Spracklen made 38 saves. Army posted a pair of third-period goals in a 2-1 win at RPI on Halloween. Jay Clark turned aside 39 shots, including 14 in the third period.

“You could tell early that Jay was on top of his game,” said Army coach Brian Riley. “Obviously, he was our most valuable player. He made some key saves. We made it hard on ourselves by taking penalties. Your goalie has to be your best penalty killer and he was tonight.”

It was Army’s first win over an ECAC Hockey school since beating Colgate 3-2 on Oct. 30, 2004.

Remember when? – Army and Colgate met for the first time in 1917, a 5-2 Colgate victory. The series with RPI goes back even longer, to 1906 when Army used to play on a makeshift frozen pond at West Point.

Back on top – Air Force sits atop Atlantic Hockey with a 3-1 record following an 0-4 non-conference start. A sweep of visiting RIT was followed with a split at Canisius – the Falcons dropped the opener 3-1 and bounced back with a 4-1 win on Sunday.

Nearly half (10) of the Falcons’ 21 goals have come on the power play: Jeff Hajner has three with Jacques Lamoureux and Matt Fairchild notching a pair apiece. Senior Andrew Volkening has a 2.22 goals against and .933 save percentage in league play, far more representative of his play than the 5.91 and .801 he posted in the opening four setbacks.

Time to man up – Mercyhurst has bounced back from an 0-4-0 start with a 2-1-1 effort in league play. The Lakers’ special teams, however, are still lagging behind. Mercyhurst is 3-for-49 (.061) on the power play and just 35-for-48 (.729) on the penalty kill. Last season the Lakers posted a .215 percentage on the power play and .855 on the kill.

Nice newcomers – Bentley’s Dan Koudys has produced three goals and four assists in his first five games with the Falcons. The Air Force tandem of John Kruse and Kyle De Laurell each have six points. AIC rookie Ben Meisner leads the league in goals against (1.51) and save percentage (.955).

DAN RINGWALD
Rochester Institute of Technology
Sr. | D | Oakville, Ontario

His Statistics: 2 GP, 3-3—6, 5 power-play points

His Impact: The RIT Tigers made the jump to Division I hockey just five years ago and have experienced a lot of success in that time. Entering last weekend’s games with an 0-5-0 record was unfamiliar territory for the Tigers, but they broke through with a big offensive weekend in a two-game sweep of Connecticut in an Atlantic Hockey series.

RIT scored 13 goals over the two games with a 6-2 win on Friday and 7-0 win on Saturday. The Tigers were 4-for-7 on the power play in the Friday win and 2-for-9 in Saturday’s win and power-play quarterback Dan Ringwald keyed the offensive surge.

Ringwald had three assists in Friday’s win, all of which came on the power play, and scored a natural hat trick in Saturday’s win. His three straight goals in the first period stretched RIT’s lead to 4-0.

He’s been a consistent point producer over his entire RIT career and entered the season as RIT’s all-time leader in assists and points by a defenseman at the Division I level and is a two-time All-Atlantic Hockey first-team selection. His big weekend helped start turning RIT’s season in a positive direction.

His Runners-Up: Alex Beaudry, Providence; Scott Greenham, Alaska; Alexander Killorn, Harvard; Nathan Longpre, Robert Morris; Tony Lucia, Minnesota

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

Could you tell last weekend was Halloween for college hockey, too? A bunch of defensemen across the nation got into the spirit by masquerading as Paul Coffey.

Ringwald had back-to-back, three-point nights, but five other blueliners put forth three-point games. Ringwald’s RIT compadre, Al Mazur, had three goals and an assist against Connecticut Friday, the same night St. Lawrence’s Peter Child recorded a hat trick against Sacred Heart.

On Saturday, a trio of defensemen racked up three assists—Cullen Lundholm of Robert Morris, who had three assists in a win over Quinnipiac; Wisconsin’s Brendan Smith, who did it against New Hampshire; and Minnesota State’s Ben Youds, who accomplished the feat against Denver.

We briefly mentioned that there was some market correction in this week’s INCH Power Rankings in regard to some Hockey East teams. Specifically, these are teams that are at or below .500 through the first month of the season. Defending national champion Boston University is 2-3-0, as is Northeastern—an NCAA Tournament team from a year ago. Vermont, despite some impressive early wins, is also 2-3-0. BC is at .500 with a 2-2-0 mark and New Hampshire is 2-4-1 after being blown out in two games at Wisconsin last weekend. Full credit goes to Massachusetts (4-1-0), UMass Lowell (4-2-0) and upstarts Merrimack (5-3-0) and Providence (5-2-0), but the trend of slow starts for many of the teams is troubling. 

“I think that’s a terrible precedent for a league, and I think the integrity of the league’s at stake when you make that sort of decision … You’re actually encouraging member institutions to cheat, as long as they don’t get caught before the game is declared over.”—Nebraska-Omaha athletic director Trev Alberts to Chad Purcell of the Omaha World-Herald following the Mavericks’ controversial shootout loss to Bowling Green Friday in which the Falcons used an ineligible player.

Alberts, the former All-American linebacker at Nebraska and football commentator, went on to say that he was disappointed by the CCHA’s “lack of leadership.” He never minced words on the air, and it appears that hasn’t changed. That’s great, because in our opinion the happy-happy-joy-joy CCHA could use a little piss and vinegar. 

We’re nitpicking here—isn’t that the point of this feature?—but New Hampshire somehow appeared on the ballots of enough voters to garner seven points in the latest USCHO.com/CBS College Sports just days after getting throttled twice at Wisconsin last weekend. With a 2-4-1 record, can anyone honestly say UNH is one of the 20 best teams in the country or has even played to that level? It begs the question, are voters actually casting ballots based on the previous weekend’s results? In this instance, it seems more like a vote for the program or a vote of familiarity (i.e. UNH has been good in the past, so they’re probably good this year, too) more than anything.

SchlossmanGF Which Halloween costume of Jonny Toews is better? Dumb and Dumber or Wolverine?

Brad Elliot Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald forwarded the above links Monday. In addition to former Fighting Sioux and current Chicago Blackhawks standout Toews, we get a look at the costumes of ex-collegians Adam Burish (Wisconsin), Duncan Keith (Michigan State), and Patrick Sharp (Vermont). Makes one wonder what these guys did with all the free time they had during the lockout.

MARC CHEVERIE
Denver
Jr. | G | Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2 shutouts, 60 saves.

His Impact: It was a weekend of historic proportions for the Pioneers and for Cheverie, who whitewashed Minnesota on back-to-back nights—the first time that has happened to the Gophers since 1930—with identical 30-save efforts. In doing so, Cheverie extended his personal shutout streak to 203:19, second in the DU hockey annals behind Peter Mannino’s run of 208:42 without allowing a goal.

Cheverie has three shutouts this season—he also blanked Ohio State on Oct. 15—and seven for his career. Minnesota has been the victim of Cheverie’s perfection on three separate occasions. In addition to the shutouts this past weekend, he was also the goalie of record in a 4-0 win over the Gophers at Magness Arena on Nov. 22, 2008.

Heading into the Pioneers’ weekend series with Minnesota State, Cheverie leads the nation in shutouts, is tied for first in wins with four, ranks second with a .966 save percentage, and is fourth with a 1.00 goals against average.

His Runners-Up: Blake Kessel (New Hampshire); John Kruse (Air Force); Jerry Kuhn (Western Michigan); Chris McKelvie (Bemidji State); Brandon Pirri (Rensselaer); Bill Sweatt (Colorado College)

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

This past weekend was fairly enjoyable for hockey fans in Colorado. In addition to Denver’s series sweep at Minnesota, Colorado College took two games from visiting Michigan Tech. The Tigers were paced by senior forward Bill Sweatt, who in the two games piled up 1-6—7. Up the road a spell, Air Force got off the schneid with a pair of wins over RIT at Cadet Ice Arena. Rookie forward John Kruse led the Falcons with 1-5—6 and a plus-minus rating of +4. (As an aside, INCH hopes Kruse has designs on being a fighter pilot, and gets tagged with the nickname “Maverick.” We feel the need for speed.)

Although it hasn’t yet been formally announced, all indications are that next summer’s NHL Entry Draft will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles, home of the Kings. We know that the North American geographic footprint for the NHL is significantly larger than that of college hockey, but it was nice for college hockey fans and media to consider nearby locales such as Montreal, Ottawa, and Columbus in recent years.

“They outworked us at times but I think we deserved at least one this weekend.”—Minnesota captain Tony Lucia, to Roman Augustovitz of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune following Denver’s second shutout of the weekend at Mariucci Arena Saturday.

When Lucia the younger says “one”, is he referring to a win or a goal?

INCH has stood by without comment for two weeks, but in this, the third week of absurdity, we are compelled to shed our cloak of silence. What, we ask, is up with one renegade pollster consistently going off the board with his/her first-place vote in the national polls?

It started two weeks ago when Boston College garnered a lone no. 1 mention in both the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today and USCHO.com/CBS College Sports rankings. Last week, another Hockey East school, Vermont, earned a sole no. 1 vote in both polls. This week, Yale got the outlier in the polls.

Don’t get us wrong; we’re certainly open to radical thinking when it comes to voting in the national polls. Perhaps the voter in question can only give his/her top spot to institutions located in one of the 13 original colonies. We’ll know that’s the case should Old Dominion gets a first-place vote. But this pattern is odd, to say the least.

Obviously, we don’t know the identity of this person (or people). We don’t even know if it’s the same person responsible for the lone vote each week. We’d love to hear this particular voter’s rationale, however. One thing we can tell you is that it’s not us. INCH casts a vote in the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll every week. The ballot we submit aligns with the top 15 teams in that week’s INCH Power Rankings.

@ThatKevinSmith: Via @nerdbastards “If Gozer the Gozerian asked you to choose the form of your destructor, what would it be?” Gretzky, circa ‘84 Oilers.

The successful writer/director (”Clerks”, “Chasing Amy”, etc.) is a big hockey fan, a bigger New Jersey Devils fan, and an even bigger Gretzky fan. A prolific Tweeter, Smith will soon start production on “Hit Somebody”, a hockey-themed flick based on the Warren Zevon song of the same name.

One-and-23. Ouch.

Atlantic Hockey has stumbled out of the gate this season, winning just one out of 24 non-league contests over the first two weekends. It certainly leaves a sour taste for a league that would like to make more inroads in terms of visibility and top-talent recruitment.

Remember how Air Force jumped out to a 13-0 start last season? That vaulted the Falcons toward a top-10 ranking and raised the consciousness of the league. This year: 0-4-0.

Rochester Institute of Technology got off to a ho-hum start last season and then turned blazing hot in the second half, again making voters consider the Tigers for top-20 consideration. This year: 0-3-0.

Mercyhurst got off to a horrid start but the Lakers found a solution in goal and started filling up the net on the other end, becoming the second-most prolific scoring team in the nation. This year: neck-and-neck with Air Force at 0-4-0.

Throw in an 0-3-0 for Army and 0-2-0 for Bentley, Connecticut and Holy Cross. Only Canisius (1-3) has managed a victory: a 1-0 shutout of Ferris State securing an opening-weekend split.

Air Force, an NCAA quarterfinal squad last season, traveled to Bemidji State and bowed 3-1 and 7-3 to the Beavers, a Final Four squad. Former CHA partner Alabama-Huntsville visited last weekend and posted a pair of 4-2 victories.

Coach Frank Serratore was not happy but saw some progress in the second UAH meeting.

“In my opinion, the better team won tonight,’’ Serratore said of the Saturday contest. “Last night I thought we shot ourselves in the foot but not tonight. They got the lead and then battled back after losing the lead. They did it without scoring a power-play goal. They did it the old-fashioned way. We took some steps in the right direction this weekend. We scrapped and fought hard. We are a struggling team right now and we just have to go back to work and stick together to get through it.’’

RIT has dropped three close contests. Colgate prevailed 3-2 in an Oct. 10 game played before 7,421 fans at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester. The Tigers headed to the North Country next, falling 3-1 at St. Lawrence (the Saints got an empty net goal) and 5-3 at Clarkson.

The high-flying Tigers – who ranked second in the nation in goals per game last season – have managed just six so far, and the power play has been somewhat anemic at 1-for-13.

“We are doing a lot of good things, but not getting rewarded,’’ RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “We went into two tough arenas and fired nearly 90 shots in two games. We have come a long way in the last few years. Now we just have to finish our chances and stay positive.’’

Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin has always liked the travel miles, it seems. The Lakers headed to Alaska for the second season in a row and came away with a 5-3 loss to Alaska Anchorage and 5-1 setback to Alaska. An eight-game season-opening road trip continued with a lost weekend at Western Michigan as the Broncos prevailed 5-1 and 4-3.

The Lakers flip the compass from west to east the next two weekends with trips to Army and Bentley.

Bentley had a strong showing in a pair of 3-2 losses to No. 20 Northeastern and No. 18 Quinnipiac. Canisius fell to 1-3 with a pair of losses at Lake Superior State, 5-4 and 3-0. The shutout loss snapped a school-record string of 45 consecutive games with a goal.

One good thing about those conference games coming up this weekend: Atlantic Hockey is virtually guaranteed of more than doubling that woeful win total from the first two weeks.

Aaron Volkening's grip on the goaltending position at Air Force seems to have weakened in the first two weeks of the season.

The Iron Horse sits – Air Force senior goalie Andrew Volkening played the entire 2008-09 season. A preseason All-America candidate, Volkening has started all four games this season but has been pulled twice in favor of sophomore Stephen Caple.

Volkening has absorbed all four losses thus far. His goals against is a un-Volkening-like 5.91 and his save percentage is a tick over 80 percent. Heading into the season his career numbers were 2.08 and .914.

Caple, from Rice Lake, Wisc., has looked impressive. He has stopped 16 of 17 shots in 57-plus minutes.

Before this season the last time Volkening had been pulled from a game was Dec. 29, 2007, against Boston College in the Dodge Holiday Classic in Minneapolis, when he gave up three goals in the opening 15-plus minutes. Ian Harper finished the contest.

Volkening played all the minutes over the final 22 games of that season and 41 games last season.

It’s March in October – RIT and Air Force are two solid contenders for the Atlantic Hockey title this season, and the clubs will open league play this weekend in Colorado Springs. The teams are 10-10-2 in 22 career meetings, and Air Force holds a slight 8-7-2 edge since the two schools joined Atlantic Hockey in 2005.

“We get right into conference play with a tough opponent in Air Force, so we must be sharp,’’ said RIT coach Wayne Wilson.

Home cooking – Canisius will play nine of its first 12 and 14 of its first 21 games at home this season. The Golden Griffins open a four-game homestand when Holy Cross visits for afternoon games on Saturday and Sunday. A decided scheduling advantage, though, may be muted somewhat because three-time league champ Air Force visits over Halloween weekend and Mercyhurst pops in for a Nov. 7 game.

The headline of this piece doesn’t refer to the prowess any member of the INCH family has as a deejay, though, if asked, we’re more than happy to dust off our Eric B. and Rakim vinyl and take a turn on the wheels of steel. Instead, it refers to the picks for this week’s most intriguing matchups—a pair of single games pitting CCHA and Hockey East powers against one another and two conference series.

Junior goaltender John Muse allowed four goals on 16 shots in Boston College's season-opening loss at Vermont Sunday.

Boston College at Notre Dame (Friday): Notre Dame has won four of the last five games in this series with the lone loss coming to Boston College in the 2008 Frozen Four championship game in Denver. The Fighting Irish were shaky in series splits with Alabama-Huntsville and Providence, but shut out a listless Boston University team at Agganis Arena Tuesday. Listlessness must be spreading like H1N1 in the Hub of Hockey, because the Eagles looked as much in a season-opening loss at Vermont Sunday.

The most intriguing matchup in this contest pits the Irish forwards, who’ve yet to fire on all cylinders, against a young BC defensive corps that struggled against UVM. Notre Dame defenseman Teddy Ruth, who hasn’t played this season because of a lower body injury, will not dress against the Eagles.

Denver at Minnesota (Friday-Saturday): In this very space last week prior to its series at North Dakota, it was mentioned that Minnesota was a great unknown that could win by six goals or lose by the same margin. Two games into the season, I don’t know that we have any greater handle on the Gophers other than the fact that goaltenders Alex Kangas and Kent Patterson were pretty sharp.

The Pioneers won’t have standout center Joe Colborne in the lineup—he broke a finger in a loss to Ohio State last week. Also, DU coach George Gwozdecky tells Mike Chambers of the Denver Post that he plans to rotate goalies Marc Cheverie and Adam Murray for the third straight series.

Michigan at Boston University (Saturday): Offense shouldn’t be a problem for these teams, but it has thus far. The Terriers, a few days removed from being shut out by Notre Dame, have two goals in two games. The Wolverines, meanwhile, have nine goals in three games. Keep an eye on a pair of talented forwards who’ve yet to get untracked-or is it on track? Because untracked would seem to indicate derailment, and that ain’t good. Semantics aside, Michigan’s Louie Caporusso, who scored 24 goals and 49 points last season, has bagels thus far. BU’s Nick Bonino scored 50 points as a rookie; he, too, is scoreless.

RIT at Air Force (Friday-Saturday): Atlantic Hockey’s preseason favorites enter the weekend with a combined 0-7 record (to be fair, the league’s 10 teams are 1-23-0 thus far.) Air Force, which started last season with 13 straight wins, is 0-4, its longest losing streak in more than two years. Senior goalie Andrew Volkening has been abysmal as evidenced by his 5.91 GAA and .805 save percentage. RIT, meanwhile, has three narrow losses to ECAC Hockey opponents. In those three games the Tigers have fired a combined 119 shots on target, but have scored just six goals. That a shooting percentage of a little better than five percent.

Also: An offensive explosion could be in the works in Oxford—Miami and Michigan State have each played four games and scored a combined 34 goals … Is there a trio of forwards in the country better than Minnesota Duluth’s Justin Fontaine, Jack Connolly, and Mike Connolly? They’ll meet a St. Cloud State team that has yet to click offensively … UMass Lowell readies for a rugged stretch to open its Hockey East slate (Northeastern, Boston University, at Boston University, at Vermont, New Hampshire) with a non-conference match against Colgate at Tsongas Arena … Exhibitions for Ivies Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Princeton this weekend.

The NHL’s Central Scouting Service has released its early-season listing of the top North American players eligible for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft from Canadian Junior A leagues and U.S. high school and prep school ranks.

Players are divided into four cagetories: A-rated players are predicted to be selected in the first or second round of the 2008 draft; B-rated players are considered potential mid-round selections; C-rated players are plotted as late-round picks; players CSS scouts haven’t seen enough to form an evaluation fall under the limited viewing category.

Next month, Central Scouting will release its list of draft-eligible collegians to watch as well as ratings of the top 25 prospects from the United States Hockey League and the U.S. National Team Development Program. The Central Scouting Service mid-term rankings appear in January.

The list below contains only those players who have verbally committed to college programs. The full prospect list can be found at NHL.com.

Intrigue abounds in this, the season’s first full weekend of the regular season, assisted by the 2009-10 debuts of some familiar teams.

Jay Barriball and Minnesota open the 2009-10 season at North Dakota this weekend.

1. Minnesota at North Dakota (Friday-Saturday): Beyond the rivalry, this series intrigues me because I have no idea what to expect from the Golden Gophers. I wouldn’t be surprised if North Dakota beat ‘em by six goals, nor would it shock me if Minnesota won by six (on second thought, that would shock me just a little). There are so many questions-Who replaces Stoa? How will the heralded newcomers fare? Which Alex Kangas shows up this season?-that anyone who says he or she has a handle on the Gophers is lying.

As was mentioned in this week’s INCH Podcast, North Dakota may not have the one dominant, dynamic forward like a Zach Parise or Jonathan Toews, but the balance across all four lines is impressive. Brad Eidsness is a capable goalie, but he seems like the college hockey version of Kyle Orton-you don’t have to win the game for us, but don’t lose it.

2. Miami at New Hampshire (Friday-Saturday): The RedHawks’ month-long death march continues this weekend with a pair at the Whitt. On paper, it seems as if UNH, which dropped a 3-1 decision at Rensselaer last Saturday, doesn’t match up well with Miami-the RedHawks should be able to wear the Wildcats down with their superior depth-but I’m more interested Miami’s focus. My feeling is the RedHawks are really locked in on a) putting April’s NCAA championship game loss behind them and b) proving to everyone that it’s behind them. That said, since Dick Umile has been behind the Wildcat bench, UNH has never started a season with two losses.

3. Michigan State at Maine (Friday-Saturday): Yeah, we know Maine isn’t what it once was. But did you see Michigan State last season? There were times the Spartans barely resembled a hockey team. These are important games for MSU if it wants to continue rebuilding its confidence-winnable road matches against a quality opponent in a hostile environment. The Black Bears, meanwhile, need to bounce back after two losses to a better-than-you-think Union team last weekend. The return of no. 1 goalie Scott Darling from a two-game suspension for violating the school’s student-athlete code of conduct will provide a boost.

4. Boston College at Vermont (Sunday): Even though Denver rallied in the third period to win, Vermont was impressive in its season opener at Magness Arena Friday, then beat our preseason no. 1 team the next night. The Catamounts’ top two lines, in particular, looked very sharp. How they match up against a relatively untested BC defensive corps will likely decide the game. Also, John Muse, the Eagles’ goaltender, took a step back last season after an outstanding freshman campaign. His return to form is critical to his team’s success.

Also: Former BU goalie Brett Bennett makes his debut for Wisconsin against Colorado College tonight … high-scoring forward Mike Connolly returns from a two-game suspension for Minnesota Duluth in its series with Minnesota State … can Union get a win at St. Cloud State? … fresh off wins against Army and UMass Lowell at home, Nebraska-Omaha visits Colgate … Alabama-Huntsville can pull off another road upset when it visits Air Force.

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 week, 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?, Rankings Outrage, and Tweet of the Week segments.

This is a work in progress, to be sure. But unlike Phil Cuzzi, we promise 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 LowellHis 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	The opening weekend wasn’t a high-water mark for the CCHA’s upper echelon. 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.
RANKINGS 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?