Air Force forward Kyle DeLaurell, Atlantic Hockey's leading scorer, was the league's offensive player of the week after scoring six points in the Falcons' sweep of American International..

Flying high: Air Force junior forward Kyle DeLaurell was named the Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week. He scored twice and posted a career-best four points in an 8-3 win over American International on Friday. He had the game-winning goal and a helper in a 7-3 win on Saturday. His 21 points leads Atlantic Hockey and his 11 goals is tied for first.

Crusading in net: Holy Cross freshman Matt Ginn was named the Atlantic Hockey Goalie of the Week. He stopped 30 of 32 shots in a sweep of Canisius, winning 3-2 and 4-0. The shutout was his first as a collegian. Ginn improved to 5-5.

Fresh faces: Robert Morris freshmen Scott Jacklin and Cody Wydo shared the league’s rookie of the week award following a sweep at Sacred Heart. Jacklin extended his goal-scoring streak to five games, tying a school record set by Christ Margott in 2007-08, with three goals and an assist. Wydo’s point-scoring streak is five games with three goals and an assist. He had two goals in the Friday win.

Getting healthy: Robert Morris posted 15 goals in two wins over Sacred Heart. The Colonials won 5-2 on Friday and 10-4 on Saturday. It was the first weekend sweep of the season for the now-hot Colonials, who are unbeaten (4-0-1) in their last five outings. The 10 goals matches the school record set in a 10-2 win over AIC on Jan. 4, 2008, while the 20 assists and 29 points are school marks.
Air Force scored 15 goals in a road sweep of American International. The Falcons prevailed, 8-3 and 7-3.

All even: Air Force coach Frank Serratore evened his career record at 243-243-46 in his 15th season in Colorado Springs.

Close D: Canisius is the only team in the league averaging less than two goals per game, both on offense and defense. The Golden Griffins have netted 16 goals in nine league contests (1.78 per) and allowed just 17 (1.89 per). Mercyhurst leads the league slate with 15 goals allowed (1.67 per).

Still in search of one: Sacred Heart remains the lone team without a victory in league play (0-10-1). The Pioneers’ last regular-season league victory was a 5-1 decision over Army on Feb. 26.

All knotted up: Army tied a school record with its sixth draw of the season. The Black Knights could not hold leads of 2-0 and 3-2 in a 3-3 tie with Mercyhurst on Saturday. Niagara forged its fifth draw, a 2-2 decision with Bentley on Saturday. Bentley and Canisius each have three ties. Holy Cross (7-7) is the lone Atlantic Hockey team without a tie.

Beat us once, shame on you: Rochester Institute of Technology lost 3-2 at Connecticut on Friday but bounced back with a 2-1 win on Saturday. Shane Madolora made 28 saves, including stopping a breakaway by Cole Schneider with under two minutes to play. RIT has lost just one weekend league series since joining the league (Oct. 23-24, 2009, at Air Force).

Thisclose: Eleven of Niagara’s last 13 games have been decided by one goal-or-less.

Calling on the troops: Army played with just 17 skaters in Saturday’s tie with Mercyhurst following a string of injuries and one team suspension. Coach Brian Riley employed just five defensemen for the contest.

For the troops: Holy Cross will raise money for the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund, which provides educational assistance grants to the children of in-state service members who were killed while serving in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. The Crusaders will wear special camouflage jerseys in the 4 p.m. game against Army. The jerseys will be auctioned off during the game. Former Army hockey player Derek Hines was killed on Sept. 1, 2005, in Afghanistan. Hines hailed from Newburyport, Mass.

In memoriam: Army honored former player Robb Ross and his family with a ceremonial face-off on Saturday. Ross, who played on Army’s 2007-08 championship team, was killed in a motorcycling accident in May. In 130 games over four seasons, Ross posted 29 goals and 34 assists with Army.

His parents, Debbie and Jim, his sister, Katie, and brothers, Jim and Tom, were on hand. Former teammates Chase Podsiad, Ken Rowe, Ian McDougall, Jeff Fearing, Chris Spracklen, Drew Pierson, Chris Migliaro, Casey Bickley, Chris Blair, Lyle Gal and Seth Beamer were also on hand to honor Ross, who had 21 goals and 14 assists in 26 games with Belgian team Turnhout White Caps in the European lower leagues this past season, his first action since graduating from West Point.

Coming up: It’s a light schedule this weekend with only 10 games. American International travels to RIT for a pair. Canisius hosts Mercyhurst on Friday and plays at Robert Morris on Sunday. Niagara plays at Robert Morris on Friday and at Mercyhurst on Saturday. In solo league affairs, Bentley plays at Connecticut on Friday and Holy Cross hosts Army on Saturday. Sacred Heart plays a couple ECAC foes, heading to Quinnipiac on Friday and Dartmouth on Sunday.

Not one of our top four matchups of the week, but certainly the best tournament name in hockey history.

Michigan State vs. Michigan (Friday at Ann Arbor, Saturday at East Lansing): Pretty safe to assume that, at the start of the season, no one predicted the Spartans would come into this weekend as the team playing with an abundance of confidence and the Wolverines would be searching for answers. But that’s what has happened. Michigan snapped a five-game losing streak and seven-game winless streak with a 1-0 overtime win at Alaska last Saturday. Michigan State, on the other hand, is 8-1-1 in its last 10 games. The Spartans might be the hardest-working team in college hockey, the the Wolverines have more talent. Maybe this rivalry will provide the spark U-M needs to get on track.

Merrimack at Colgate (Saturday): The second-place team in Hockey East travels to central New York to face the second-place team in ECAC Hockey. Merrimack’s 10-game unbeaten streak came to an end last weekend when the Warriors were swept by Providence, but the Warriors rebounded nicely with a win against Vermont Tuesday. The Raiders, in the midst of a stretch in which they play six of seven at home, They’ve won five in a row and have outscored opponents by a 21-7 margin during that span.

Boston College at UMass Lowell (Friday): The surprising River Hawks are in great shape in the Hockey East standings—with 12 points, they’re in a fourth-place tie with Providence, but UML has played just nine league games. Boston College and Boston University, two of the teams currently ahead of the River Hawks in the standings, have played 12 conference matches. UML has won four in a row and seven of its last eight, but the Eagles swept the River Hawks in a late October home-and-home series. Goaltender Brian Billett has led BC to wins in his last three starts, in which he has allowed a total of four goals.

Miami vs. Ohio State (Friday at Columbus, Saturday at Oxford): In the most recent INCH Podcast, much of the discussion on Ohio State centered around Cal Heeter, the Buckeyes’ remarkable goaltender. Let it be known that the Bucks can score a little bit, especially in CCHA play—OSU averages 3.5 goals per league game. The Bucks can further solidify their status as one of the country’s top teams in this weekend’s home-and-home with Miami. After an ugly 2-6-0 start, the RedHawks ran off an eight-game unbeaten streak to get back to .500, a run that ended last weekend with two disappointing losses at Northern Michigan in which Miami scored a single goal each night.

Also: Nebraska-Omaha heads to North Dakota for a WCHA series. And, yeah, Dean Blais returns to Grand Forks, but that’s not as quirky and awesome as the three UNO freshmen whose fathers are ex-NoDak standouts—forward Josh (Jim) Archibald, goaltender Dayn (Ed) Belfour, and forward Dominic (Rick) Zombo. … Two teams fresh off disappointing sweeps—Ferris State and Notre Dame—tangle in a home-and-home this weekend. The series starts in Big Rapids, then moves to Notre Dame. … Once again, Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Union, and Rensselaer schlep off to Lake Placid for a Saturday doubleheader (Knights vs. Saints and Dutch vs. Engineers) at a rink of some significance to hockey fans in this country. But this time, the event has a name, and a fantastic one at that—the Festivus Faceoff. I got a lot of problems with you people.

SPENCER ABBOTT
Maine
Sr. | F | Hamilton, Ontario

Spencer Abbott

His Statistics: 5-4—9 in the Black Bears’ sweep of Vermont, including both game-winning goals and a hat trick in Friday’s 6-4 win.

His Impact: Abbott, Maine’s top points-getter with 10 goals and 13 assists in 14 games crammed a month’s worth of scoring into one weekend in his team’s sweep of Vermont in Burlington this past weekend. The senior forward scored five goals and four assists as the Black Bears evened their record at 6-6-2 overall and 5-5-1 in Hockey East play.

In Friday’s 6-4 win, Abbott had a hand in all but one of Maine’s goals. Most notably, he scored three goals, including two in a 2:47 span of the third period that gave the Black Bears a lead it would not relinquish. In the series finale, Abbott scored twice in the second period to put the Black Bears up by a 4-0 margin. Maine would take a 5-0 lead early in the third period on a goal Abbott set up en route to a 5-2 win.

His Runners-Up: Kyle DeLaurell, Air Force; Tyler Gron, Northern Michigan; Brock Nelson, North Dakota; Austin Smith, Colgate

It’s been a rough go for Alabama-Huntsville. Not only had the Chargers gone 0-14-1 in its first 15 games while being outscored by a 60-11 margin, but University of Alabama bigwigs in October decided to pull the plug on varsity hockey at the end of the season. With that in mind, it’s hard not to feel good for Huntsville finally recording its first win of the year last Friday when the Chargers topped Nebraska-Omaha, 3-1 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. UAH forward Brice Geoffrion, who hails from the Nashville suburb of Brentwood, led the Chargers with two goals, while goaltender Clarke Saunders stopped 44 of the 45 shots he faced.

Incidentally, the Chargers’ last win came on Jan. 29 of last season, when UAH beat—you guessed it—Nebraska-Omaha in OT by a 2-1 score. Brice Geoffrion’s brother, Sebastian, scored the game-winner that night, and Saunders made 58 saves.

When social media and advertising go wrong, presented on Twitter by @Easton_Hockey.

Last week, the hockey manufacturer saluted the scorer of BU’s game-winning goal at Madison Square Garden as well as its own product in a series of tweets:

Exciting stick news: a stick we’re releasing next year was used in game action for the 1st time Saturday. (1/3)

Unbelievably, it was used to bury the OT winner. Ross Gaudet of BU used it to take down Vermont in MSG in front of 18,200 people. (2/3)

It’s the “Mako,” and it looks like this: http://twitpic.com/7m6dx1 (3/3)

The first and most obvious error is that the game was against Cornell. That’s a credibility problem. Second, calling out an individual player as a beneficiary in a pseudo-endorsement had to drive NCAA compliance personnel at BU nuts. Thirdly, did they see the goal? Gaudet deflected a puck off his own leg and into the net. The stick model was at least as effective as a shovel or canoe oar might have been under the same circumstances.

What Happened?: The past 10 months or so have been slightly chaotic for the sport, with the Big Ten announcing its intentions to form a college hockey conference, a handful of CCHA and WCHA expatriates breaking away to form the National College Hockey Conference, the remaining CCHA refugees flocking to the WCHA, and Notre Dame shuffling off to Hockey East.

In Sunday’s St. Cloud Times, reporter David Unze did a remarkable job spelling out how that school’s leaders—namely, president Earl Potter, special adviser to athletics Gino Gasparini, and coach Bob Motzko—worked to secure the Huskies’ future as the college hockey landscape dramatically changed. It’s a great look at the behind-the-scenes machinations of a Division I program.

What We’re Watching: Here at INCH, we’re all about college hockey, but we realize that some of the pleasure of following the game includes tracking players after they’ve moved on to professional hockey … and also tracking players who will be playing college hockey in future years. INCH’s Joe Gladziszewski had an opportunity to check out a United States Hockey League game in person for the first time this past weekend in Indianapolis and came away impressed. The host Indiana Ice lineup featured 11 college commits in its lineup and the visiting Sioux Falls Stampede had eight commits on the ice. There was a consistently strong level of play and several of the already-committed players made nice plays. Uncommitted prospects Christian Hilbrich and Ryan Cole of Indiana also caught our eye. We’re looking forward to seeing all of them again in the near future on college rinks.

What the …?: We’ll give full credit to the Northeastern Huskies, who have won five straight games despite facing an unusual schedule thus far. Northeastern opened the year with a school-record 12 straight games against Hockey East opponents. Following that dozen, things didn’t project to get any easier with a single game on the road against Michigan and a two-game set at Notre Dame one week later. The Huskies flew from the east coast to Detroit, got a win at Michigan, and then returned for classes. A week later, the Huskies flew to O’Hare  in Chicago en route to South Bend, where they earned a sweep of the Fighting Irish – the first home losses for Notre Dame in its newly-constructed arena. It was fitting that Northeastern capped its two trips to the Midwest in a weeklong span against Notre Dame, foreshadowing some of the Irish’s upcoming travel responsibilities to New England once that team joins Hockey East.

@umichhockey Michigan Hockey

The boys took time for a little curling after practice today in Fairbanks pic.twitter.com/PLOvQm7c

• We love it when teams go on the road and take advantage of some of the opportunities afforded them by being in a different place. Plus, curling is tons of fun. Our applause goes out to the Wolverines for their Thursday post-practice session prior to a Friday-Saturday set against Alaska.

Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin was counting on a number of his 11 freshmen to step right into the Lakers lineup and perform because he had no other choice.

Seven of his rookies have played in at least 12 of the team’s 14 games thus far and a couple have stood out. Chris Bodo and Tyler Shiplo each have seven points, Nardo Nagtzaam has eight, and Daniel Bahntge leads them all with three goals and a team-leading 10 points. Eight of Bahntge’s points came in November and he was named the Atlantic Hockey rookie of the month.

With 10 points in 14 games, Mercyhurst freshman Daniel Bahntge shares the team lead in scoring with senior Derek Elliott.

“He’s very deserving,” Gotkin said. “He’s been great for us. He’s arguably been one of our best players all year, not just this month. We’ve been very happy with the way Danny has played. He needs to continue doing it.”

Bahntge had a point in six of the eight games played last month. He posted his first game-winning goal (and first power-play goal) in a 2-1 win over Bentley on Nov. 19. He had a pair of one-goal, one-assist outings against Connecticut and Bentley. His plus-minus rating for the month was plus-four.

The scouting report on Bahntge says he’s strong, especially for a 5-foot-8, 170-pound winger. He is strong on the puck, sees the ice well, and shoots the puck well. Gotkin uses him on his power play and penalty kill. Bahntge, who hails from Westlake, Ohio, some two hours west of Erie, played for the Jersey Hitmen of the Eastern Junior Hockey League.

“We knew Dan was an unbelievable kid,” Gotkin said. “We knew he was a great, hard worker and he had skills. You put those three things together and, no, I am not surprised at his start. We kind of expected it.”

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

Wishbone wish comes true: Sacred Heart dropped its first 11 games of the season, and yet the Pioneers found a way to stun No. 8 Yale, 7-6, during Thanksgiving week.

“We played tremendous, and I couldn’t be prouder of our bunch of guys in our locker room,” said coach C.J. Marottolo, a former Yale assistant coach. “We battled. We struggled all year, but tonight we showed great mental toughness, great resiliency against a very good, high-octane Yale team.”

League roll call: You don’t have to tell Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin which league he plays in.

“We’re not a very good WCHA team, we’ve learned that,” Gotkin said following a lost weekend at Wisconsin. Mercyhurst is 0-4 against the WCHA, losing earlier to Alaska Anchorage and Nebraska Omaha.

Mercyhurst trailed Wisconsin 3-1 headed into the third period on Friday and ended up losing 7-2. On Saturday, the Lakers trailed the Badgers 2-1 going into the final 20 minutes and wound up bowing 5-2.

“We felt we were right there,” Gotkin said. “We felt with a bounce here or there we might have been able to pick those guys off.”

Non-con success: Holy Cross beat Brown, 2-0, on Saturday, the only positive non-league action for Atlantic Hockey. In addition to Mercyhurst’s losses at Wisconsin, Rensselaer blanked RIT, 2-0 and Clarkson blanked Holy Cross, 5-0.

Player of the month: Connecticut junior defenseman Alex Gerke was the league’s player of the month. His three power-play goals and two assists against Sacred Heart on Nov. 16 certainly boosted his numbers. For November, Gerke posted four goals and five assists. His plus/minus rating for the month was plus-five.

Goalie of the month: Bentley sophomore Branden Komm went 3-2-1 with a pair of shutouts to earn goalie of the month honors. He posted 24 saves in a 2-0 win over Canisius on Nov. 5. He had 71 saves the following weekend in a pair of 4-1 wins over American International and Army. He stopped all 28 shots in a scoreless draw with Mercyhurst on Nov. 18. His 2.25 goals against ranks fifth in the league and his .936 save percentage ranks second.

Player of the week: Sacred Heart senior forward Matt Gingera posted four goals and an assist in three games. He had the first goal in a 7-6 win over Yale. He had two goals in the third period of a 4-4 tie with Niagara.

Griffin magic: Canisius sophomore Tony Capobianco and senior Dan Morrison shared the conference’s goalie of the week award. Capobianco had 39 saves in a 2-1 win over American International. His .942 save percentage ranks fifth in the nation. Morrison had 38 saves in a 2-1 win over AIC, including 16 during the third period. Within league play, Morrison tops the AHA with a 0.99 goals against and .970 save percentage.

Top rookie: Robert Morris freshman forward Scott Jacklin was named the rookie of the week. He had two goals and an assist in the weekend series with Army—RMU took three of four points. Jacklin leads all Colonial freshmen in points.

Tough break: Word has it Army defenseman Cheyne Rocha is out for the season with a broken leg suffered in a Nov. 19 tie with Brown.

No home cooking: Army is 0-3-1 at Tate Rink this season, losing to Union, Connecticut, and Bentley and tying Brown. Mercyhurst visits for a pair this weekend, the last home games until Jan. 6-7 when Canisius visits.

Fit to be tied: Army has posted five ties this season, tops in Atlantic Hockey. The Black Knights have drawn Colgate, RIT, AIC, Brown, and Robert Morris. The only Division I teams with four ties are Niagara of Atlantic Hockey and Western Michigan of the CCHA.

Army posted six ties in 2001-02, 2005-06, 2008-09 and 2009-10. Army’s first draw came during the 1908-09 season.

Looking ahead: Air Force plays a pair at American International. Holy Cross hosts Canisius for a set. Mercyhurst plays two at Army. UConn hosts RIT for two games. Robert Morris visits Sacred Heart for two games, including a Saturday affair at Webster Bank Arena. Bentley hosts Niagara for a set.

RYLAN SCHWARTZ
Colorado College
Jr. | F | Wilcox, Saskatchewan

His Statistics: Hat tricks in the Tigers’ losses at North Dakota this past weekend.

His Impact: It’s not often that our Player of the Week honoree comes from a team that lost twice the previous weekend. Of course, it’s not often that someone records hat tricks on back-to-back nights.

In front of approximately three dozen family members and friends who make the seven-plus hour trek from Wilcox, Saskatchewan, to Grand Forks, Rylan Schwartz netted three goals in Colorado College’s wild 7-6 loss to North Dakota Friday. He followed that effort with three goals in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Fighting Sioux.

Schwartz, who ranks third in the WCHA with 13 goals, also had a hat trick in the Tigers’ Oct. 15 win against Bemidji State in Colorado Springs. Rylan and his younger brother, Jaden, who on Monday was picked to attend Canada’s national junior team selection camp in advance of the 2012 IIHF World Junior Championship, share the team lead in scoring with 17 points in 11 games.

His Runners-Up: Scott Greenham, Alaska; Tim Kirby, Air Force; Stevie Moses, New Hampshire; Jeremy Welsh, Union

We raise our sticks in salute of Sacred Heart, which picked up its first win of the season last Tuesday in a big way. The Pioneers earned their first-ever win against a nationally-ranked team with a 7-6 win over Yale in a game at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn. The back-and-forth game featured five ties and five lead changes, and Sacred Heart’s Chad Filteau scored the game-winner with 4:14 remaining in the third period. Despite allowing six goals, Sacred Heart goalie Steven Legatto was a key to the victory with 47 saves. It was also a nice victory for head coach C.J. Marottolo, who worked on Yale’s coaching staff for 13 years prior to taking the head-coaching job at Sacred Heart. The Pioneers had started the year with 11 straight losses and allowed 58 goals in those games. Following the win over Yale, a one-goal loss and tie on home ice against a solid Niagara team shows that Sacred Heart is headed in the right direction.

Every program has different benchmarks to meet and a victory for one program carries different significance than it does for another. We recognize that American International’s 3-0 win last week at Brown was a good one. It was the first time that AIC defeated a member school from ECAC Hockey, and MassLive.com writer Dick Baker presents a nice story on the background of the achievement that includes AIC coach Gary Wright calling the win significant. Our issue comes from what we believe to be an over-zealous headline claim of it being a “signature” win. It’s another example of media overstating the importance of something — how many Game of the Centuries will we see, how many teams and athletes will “shock the world” before we back off on the hyperbole?

What Happened?: A seemingly harmless shot at goal late in the third period of Saturday’s Red Hot Hockey game at Madison Square Garden turned into the game’s biggest post-game talking point after a couple of strange bounces resulted in the puck crossing the goal line into the net behind BU goalie Kieran Millan. The play was correctly and appropriately ruled as a no-goal. Cornell forward John Esposito shot wide of the upper corner of the net, and the puck hit the dasher where the glass connects to the boards. The puck deflected into the air for at least three seconds, and eventually fell down into the crease area, where it hit the back of Millan’s right shoulder and fell into the net. The referee stationed approximately 20 feet away below the goal line whistled the play dead after losing sight of the puck. View the abbreviated and full-length versions of the MSG broadcast for your own review. It was a tough bounce for the Big Red, as BU went on to an overtime victory.

What We’re Watching: Michigan is in the midst of a four-game home losing streak, something you’d think is pretty rare, but it actually happened two seasons ago. So maybe it’s a good thing the Wolverines only have seven home games remaining.

You read that correctly. Michigan played a whopping 12 games at Yost Arena in October and November, winning seven and losing five. None of the remaining home dates are gimmes—the Wolverines host resurgent Michigan State Dec. 9, and play series with Lake Superior State, Miami, and Northern Michigan after the first of the year.

Although Yost hasn’t been particularly kind to Michigan as of late, the road has been less forgiving. In their four away games to date, the Wolverines are 0-2-2.

What the …?: Ex-Wisconsin Badger forward Craig Smith is off to a terrific start in his rookie season for the Nashville Predators—he entered the week tied for second among NHL first-year players in scoring with 16 points in 22 games. Unfortunately, the Madison native had his rookie moment Nov. 17 in front of more than 16,000 fans at Bridgestone Arena and countless others who saw live or on replay his inexplicable miss of an empty net in the waning moments of what turned out to be 4-1 win against Toronto.

“Things are going to happen in your life as a player, in your life as a human, you just have to go forward with it, you have to laugh at yourself,” Nashville coach Barry Trotz said following the game.

OHIO STATE TURNS FOCUS INWARD

Goaltender Cal Heeter has helped Ohio State to the top of the CCHA standings.

Heading into this season, second-year Ohio State head coach Mark Osiecki knew he had a lot of work ahead of him.

After taking over a young team that wasn’t living up to his standards in the weight room and in practice, Osiecki spent his first season and the early part of the current campaign getting his players to develop in all phases of being a college hockey player. Early returns say that that focus, rather than game-planning for specific opponents, has paid off.

“We talk about growth for our team,” Osiecki said following Saturday’s victory at Michigan. “Coming in with a young group, we ask our guys to take the next step and continue to improve, build on what we’ve been doing. The guys are really worried about themselves, not the other team, and continue to get better.”

Saturday’s win, a 6-5 triumph that gave Buckeye fans a strong start to a week culminating with the Michigan-Ohio State football game, completed Ohio State’s first sweep of the Wolverines since 1989 and their first sweep in Ann Arbor since 1986, propelling the team to the top of the CCHA standings.

The Buckeyes are off this weekend, and they’ll return to action Dec. 2 and 3 at home against another of the CCHA’s surprising top-four teams, Lake Superior State.

— James V. Dowd

BOSTON COLLEGE RIDES OFFENSIVE UPS AND DOWNS

A bit of a trend has begun to emerge for Boston College as the Eagles head into Saturday’s matinee at Yale. In eight of the Eagles’ nine wins on the year, they have scored four goals or more—in each of the four losses, Boston College has a total of six goals. That stretch is highlighted by BC’s last four games, a span in which the Eagles have gone 1-3.

Following Boston College’s heartbreaking 3-2 overtime loss last Friday at Notre Dame, junior forward Chris Kreider said he felt as though the Eagles’ recent offensive malaise was nothing more than the up-and-down cycle of a long season.

“There are parts of the season where you get into a little bit of a funk offensively, and it’s our job to work harder during the week to get out of that,” said Kreider. “Our power play could be a bit more efficient, and we’ll definitely go to work on that.”

Likewise, Boston College head coach Jerry York wasn’t overly worked up about his team’s lack of offense following the loss to the Irish.

“We’ve got to score more goals, there’s no question we’re a team that’s capable of scoring more goals,” York said. “We’ll keep working on it, getting better off the cycle, getting better off of faceoffs, off rushes. I don’t want to keep saying the other goaltender played well every game—we’ve got to bury some chances.”

— Kevin Zeise

DINGED IN THE DUB

A knee injury will keep Denver defenseman John Ryder out of action until January.

With a season that clocks in at anywhere from five to six months, college hockey can turn into a war of attrition. Just ask Minnesota State about the rash of injuries it endured earlier this season. The purple-frocked Mavericks aren’t the only aren’t the only WCHA battling health woes, however.

In Denver, the Pioneers will have to make do without junior goaltender Adam Murray, who re-aggravated a previous groin injury in last Saturday’s tie against Nebraska-Omaha and is expected to be out until January. Starting duties now fall on Finnish freshman Juho Olkinuora, who gets his first shot as the no. 1 netminder this weekend against Princeton and Miami in the Wells Fargo Denver Cup.

“I can’t think too much about Murray’s situation,” Olkinuora told Mike Chambers of the Denver Post. “Hopefully he’ll get better soon. But this is what I signed up for—not this way—but I still have to fill up that spot. I’m excited.”

Olkinuora has played well in limited action this season, posting a 2.11 goals against average and a .918 save percentage in 227:54 of work. Senior defenseman John Ryder, DU’s top defensive blueliner, is also on the shelf until January—he took a slap shot off the knee Saturday against UNO.

In a positive injury-related development for Denver, Chambers reports that goaltender Sam Brittain, the team’s top goalie last season who underwent major knee surgery in June, could also be back in the lineup in January.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin forward Ryan Little will have surgery next week to repair a thumb injury which will sideline him for three to six weeks starting with this weekend’s non-conference series in Madison against Mercyhurst.

“It’s wearing on me physically and mentally,” Little said to Madison.com’s Andy Baggott. “I decided I don’t want to go through this for four, five months, depending on how long the season is.”

Little, one of the team’s top penalty killers, is the third Badger this season to go down with a  hand injury. Junior center Derek Lee has a lacerated tendon in his right hand and freshman defenseman Jake McCabe has the same injury in his left hand.

— Mike Eidelbes

Cornell goaltender Andy Iles backstopped the Big Red to three straight shutouts.

Boston University vs. Cornell at Madison Square Garden (Saturday): This marks the third meeting between BU and Cornell at Madison Square Garden over the last five years and the two previous events proved to be hugely successful. The Terriers claimed a 6-3 victory in 2007 and there was a 3-3 tie in the 2009 game. A sellout is expected for Saturday night’s game and for the first time in the Red Hot Hockey series, will be televised by MSG Network. Cornell carries a five-game winning streak into the game, including three-straight by shutout behind the efforts of Andy Iles. BU has won three straight, all in league play against Boston College, Vermont and New Hampshire.

Union at Michigan (Sunday): Michigan fans are frustrated with their Wolverines, who are winless in their last four games and 1-4-1 over their last six, but the big picture view isn’t quite as gloomy; U-M has lost five games by a total of six goals. Union is in the midst of a stretch of eight games away from home, but the Dutchmen have found opponents’ rinks to be to their liking—they’re 5-1-1 on the road this season and have outscored their foes by a 27-8 margin. Both teams have deep, skilled lineups that are gifted offensively, and goalies Troy Grosenick (Union) and Shawn Hunwick (Michigan) have been among the best in the country through the first two months of the season.

Boston College at Yale (Saturday): Some of the shine of this matchup has diminished due to recent results, including the shocker of the season thus far when Yale dropped a 7-6 game to previously-winless Sacred Heart on Tuesday. Things haven’t been going BC’s way either, with back-to-back losses against rivals Boston University and Notre Dame. This Saturday afternoon tilt at Ingalls Rink will be a chance for both teams to get turned in the right direction against a quality opponent. BC averaged over 4.5 goals per game in its first nine contests, and it resulted in an 8-1-0 record. In the last four games, BC has totaled just six goals, and the Eagles are 1-3-0. Yale goalies allowed seven goals to Sacred Heart on just 19 shots on goal, just 10 days after posting their third-straight shutout amid a four-game winning streak.

Colorado College at North Dakota (Friday-Saturday): It’d be foolish to write off the Fighting Sioux this early in the season, but this team has to start stringing together some wins and, on paper, North Dakota doesn’t appear to match up well with the Tigers. Goals have been at a premium for the Sioux—forwards Corban Knight, Danny Kristo, and Brock Nelson are responsible for 16 of the team’s 29 goals, and NoDak ranks an uncharacteristic 10th in the WCHA in scoring offense. The Tigers, meanwhile, have the nation’s second-best scoring offense with 39 goals in nine games, and have yet to score fewer than three goals per game. CC also spreads the wealth offensively; eleven skaters have at least two goals.

Also: In case you haven’t noticed—and judging by the attendance at Munn Ice Arena you haven’t—Michigan State has managed to win a few games recently. Five of six, to be exact. Coach Lou Brown Tom Anastos and the Spartans are back home for the first time in nearly a month as they welcome Minnesota to East Lansing for a two-game series. … Magness Arena is the site of the 20th installment of the Wells Fargo Denver Cup. Joining the host Pioneers in this year’s field are Miami, Princeton, and Providence. … Ah, the life of an independent. Alabama-Huntsville spends its Thanksgiving on a three-game New England tour—the Chargers visit Merrimack Wednesday, head to UMass Lowell Friday, and face New Hampshire Saturday.

J.T. BROWN
Minnesota Duluth
So. | F | Burnsville, Minn.

His Statistics: 2 goals, 3 assists, 1 power-play goal, and a plus-minus rating of +4 in the Bulldogs’ sweep of Minnesota State.

His Impact: The Bulldogs are the nation’s hottest team—they head into an idle Thanksgiving weekend with a 10-game unbeaten streak—and Brown has played a huge role in that surge. The 2011 NCAA Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player extended his scoring streak to six games with two goals and three assists as UMD swept the visiting Mavericks to move into second place in the WCHA standings, one point behind Minnesota.

In Friday’s 5-2 win, Brown had a goal and an assist and was on the ice for all but one of the Bulldogs’ goals. The following night, he added a goal and two assists as UMD cruised to a 7-3 victory. The sophomore enters the week ranked fifth in the nation in scoring (5-14—19) and tied for third in the country in assists.

His Runners-Up: Andy Iles, Cornell; Ludwig Karlsson, Northeastern; Alex Lippincott, Ohio State; Max Strang, Mercyhurst.

Colgate is off to a very good start. At 8-4-1 overall, the Raiders enter the week rated 14th in the latest INCH Power Rankings. Senior defenseman Kevin McNamara is also off to a great start. The Chestnut Hill, Mass., native, who entered the season with 38 points in 118 career games, has six points in 13 games thus far, but it’s what he’s doing off the ice that is more impressive.

During the offseason, McNamara spearheaded the Goals for Good effort, a charitable competition among the 12 ECAC Hockey schools. Goals for Good gives fans the opportunity to make a financial contribution to a charity chosen by their favorite team; donations can be tied to goals scored and/or wins. Pledges can be made at the Goals for Good website. At the end of the season, Goals for Good will make a $1,000 contribution on behalf of the team that raises the most money for its charity to the food bank in that community.

In an e-mail, McNamara said that the effort is off to a good start, but he’s trying to get the word out to fans from other ECAC Hockey schools. We’re happy to help, Kevin.

Saying big things were expected from Maine this season might be a bit of an overstatement, but certainly, the Black Bears’ current 3-6-2 mark is not indicative of where the bar was set for this team in October. Maine’s biggest issues appears to be goaltending — sophomores Martin Ouellette and Dan Sullivan have combined for a 3.12 goals against average and a .883 save percentage and have allowed three or more goals in eight of 11 games to date — and scoring depth, where the forward trio of Spencer Abbott, Joey Diamond, and Brian Flynn have scored 16 of the team’s 30 goals.

What Happened?: Cornell sophomore goalie Andy Iles has been kind of a big deal for a long time, dating back to leading his high-school team to the state finals as a freshman. A distinguished tenure in junior hockey, including the U.S. National Team Development Program, helped him get some international experience as a teenager. He chose to play college hockey at Cornell, in his hometown of Ithaca, N.Y. That decision brought lots of pressure, because of the local hockey knowledge and the outstanding history of success by Big Red goaltenders.

Iles proved to be capable in a platoon situation as a freshman, but now has the clear-cut number-one goaltending role in hand. Skeptics of Iles’ early performances both as a freshman and in the early part of this sophomore campaign were prominent, and some fans were claiming “Iles is not the answer” on a Cornell message board. He posted back-to-back shutouts this past weekend including a 32-save blanking of Quinnipiac on Saturday.

What We’re Watching: In researching the candidates for the First Shift’s player of the week, we were drawn to the interesting story of Ohio State sophomore forward Alex Lippincott. He earned CCHA Player of the Week honors following a four-point game in the Buckeyes’ Saturday victory at Michigan. That two-goal, two-assist performance came after Lippincott was a healthy scratch in the first game of the weekend series. In the game that preceded Ohio State’s trip to Yost, Lippincott had a goal and an assist in a win over Northern Michigan. Lippincott has dressed in just eight games this year, but has six points in his last two games. We’ll be keeping an eye on this guy when he gets back in the lineup.

What the …?: You may think the highlight of this weekend’s Minnesota State-Minnesota Duluth series was the four second-period goals the Bulldogs scored in a 96-second span—the goals came so quickly, UMD coach Scott Sandelin told the Duluth News-Tribune’s Kevin Pates that he didn’t see two of them—en route to a 7-3 win Saturday.

Nope.

UMD backup goalie Aaron Crandall provided the weekend’s crescendo when he was captured on the Amsoil Arena video board during a break in the action doing the Berney, an Internet-fueled dance craze that honors the titular character from the 1989 movie “Weekend at Bernie’s” backed by a song from Louisiana-based hip-hop artist Infiniti So Awesome. Well played, Crandall, but next time, do it on the ice.

Air Force still holds the lead in Atlantic Hockey but it was a lost weekend for the Falcons in a crucial two-game swing.

Shane Madolora returned to the RIT lineup and helped the Tigers defeat Air Force.

Rochester Institute of Technology produced a 3-1 victory last Friday, snapping Air Force’s seven-game unbeaten string, the second-longest mark in the nation. Bryan Potts scored in the first and second period and Matt Garbowsky added an empty netter to preserve the win for the Tigers.

Shane Madolora was back in nets for RIT after serving a five-game suspension from the NCAA for an eligibility infraction. Madolora made 25 saves.

RIT coach Wayne Wilson was thrilled with the way his team played.

“We look at Air Force as a team who will be there in the end, and I thought we received a great effort from all four forward lines and three defensive units in a big win,” Wilson said. “This win gives us some confidence, as we are on the right track. Air Force is a very hard-working team, and I thought we did a great job forechecking. Our effort was very good.”

Air Force head coach Frank Serratore wasn’t pleased with the way his team came out against RIT in a clash of the only two schools with Atlantic Hockey titles to their credit.

“We didn’t play with any teeth,” Serratore said. “We didn’t generate any offense tonight. We tried hard, but they won the majority of the one-on-one battles and face-offs. I am very disappointed in our ability to penetrate offensively. We played better than we did last weekend, but it wasn’t good enough. In my opinion, the better and hungrier team won.”

On Saturday, Mercyhurst shot out to a 3-0 lead on goals by Tyler Shiplo, Chris Bodo and Nick Jones and held on for a 3-2 win. Max Strang made 32 saves for the win.

It was the first two losses of the season for senior Stephen Caple, who has filled in admirably since Jason Torf went down with a groin tear.

“Maybe we needed to eat a slice of humble pie,” Serratore said after the loss to the Lakers. “Sometimes maybe we believe our own hype. We were picked to finish second and were receiving votes in the national polls. … We can’t live off of last year’s success. It’s all part of journey. Now we’ll see where this team goes. But we aren’t there yet.”

Air Force (5-4-2, 4-2-1 AHA) remains atop the league with nine points. Mercyhurst (5-5-0, 4-1-0) and Bentley (4-6-1, 4-1-0) are a point back in second place. The Falcons will have home-ice advantage in the return showdowns as RIT visits Colorado Springs on Feb. 3-4 and Mercyhurst visits on Feb. 17-18.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

Oh brother: Army captain Marcel Alvarez said it was a thrill to finally get a chance to play on the same team of his younger brother when Maurice enrolled at West Point. It only got better when coach Brian Riley put the Alvarez brothers on the same defensive pairing and Maurice netted his first collegiate goal off a pass from Marcel in a 2-1 win over Sacred Heart on Friday.

Mid-week tilts: Canisius skated to a 1-1 draw at Niagara on Tuesday night. Torrey Lindsay scored short-handed for Canisius and Niagara’s Ryan Rashid tallied on the man-advantage less than three minutes later. There would be no scoring over the final 60 minutes. Dan Morrison made 32 stops for Canisius. Cody Campbell made 21 saves for Niagara.

Connecticut produced six consecutive goals in an 8-3 rout of visiting Sacred Heart on Wednesday evening. The Huskies were perfect on five power play chances with Alex Gerke scoring his first three goals of the season on the man-up unit. Garrett Bartus made 19 stops for the win. Steve Legatto was yanked after 32-plus minutes, surrendering four goals on 33 shots. Andrew Bodnarchuk gave up four goals on 15 shots. Sacred Heart (0-11) has lost 13 games in a row dating back to last season.

Colonial conquest: Robert Morris beat Mercyhurst, 4-3, on Friday, snapping a four-game win streak by the Lakers (who would go on to beat Air Force on Saturday). Nick Chiavetta had three points, and freshman Scott Jacklin scored his first two collegiate goals.

A nice buzz: American International has killed off 24 of 26 opposing power plays through six league games.

Spreading their wings: As Bentley posted a pair of 4-1 wins over AIC and Army, the Falcons got goals from eight different players.

Border patrol: Army has certainly had its share of problems traveling to the state of Connecticut this year. The Black Knights had to turn around on its trip to Storrs on Oct. 29 because of the freak Halloween weekend snowstorm. On Friday, bus problems caused Army to show up in Milford only an hour before its game with Sacred Heart but the Black Knights pulled it together for their first Atlantic Hockey win of the season.

Rough weekend: It was another tough weekend in non-conference action. Bowling Green swept visiting Canisius, 4-1 and 3-1, and Massachusetts beat up Holy Cross, 7-2. Atlantic Hockey falls to 6-36-4 against the other four collegiate conferences.

Coming up: Holy Cross travels to RIT for a pair. Bentley skates twice at Mercyhurst. Army plays at American International on Friday and hosts Brown on Saturday. Connecticut travels to Yale on Saturday. Lake Superior State travels to Buffalo for a Saturday-Sunday set with Canisius.

Nick D'Agostino

NICK D’AGOSTINO
Cornell
Jr. | D | Bolton, Ontario

His Statistics: 2 GP, 4 goals, 3 PPG, 2 GWG

His Impact: Talented defenseman Nick D’Agostino has shown offensive flair through his first two seasons at Cornell, but he never had a weekend like this. D’Agostino scored a pair of power-play goals in the first period Friday as Cornell took a 3-0 lead and went on to a 4-2 win at Harvard. The following night, D’Agostino scored a power-play goal to give Cornell a 2-1 lead in the second period, and then scored at the 9:23 mark of the third period that broke a tie and gave the Big Red a 3-2 victory.

D’Agostino has four goals and four assists through five games this year. He had 18 points as a freshman and 17 as a sophomore.

His Runners-Up: Conor Allen, Massachusetts; Josh Archibald, Nebraska-Omaha; Branden Komm, Bentley; T.J. Tynan, Notre Dame

We raved about the job Jeff Blashill did last season turning around moribund Western Michigan. Now, it looks like Norm Bazin might be doing something similar at UMass Lowell. The River Hawks swept Maine in Orono this past weekend for its fourth and fifth wins of the season—pretty heady stuff for a group that won five of 34 games a year ago. The sweep was the River Hawks’ first against a Hockey East opponent since beating Vermont in the first round of the league playoffs in 2008. The biggest differences? UML is on pace to score 131 goals (nearly 50 more than it netted a year ago) and goaltending, where sophomore Doug Carr (2.20 GAA, .913 save pct.) has emerged as the River Hawks’ go-to guy.

Sure, it’s still feels relatively early in the season, but as you examine schedules further; several teams have already played 12 games, which is equivalent of approximately one-third of the season. So, we’re standing at the season’s first-period intermission and really don’t know much yet. Every weekend brings surprises, but this past weekend’s set of results provided even more confusion. The top-seven teams in the Nov. 6 edition of the INCH Power Rankings combined to lose eight games. Unexpectedly slow starts for the likes of Rensselaer and North Dakota are head-scratchers at this point in the year.

What Happened?: How about, What Happened Again? Yale goalie Jeff Malcolm recorded his third consecutive shutout in three starts since getting dinged for six goals against in a home loss to Cornell. The following night, Malcolm denied all 39 shots on goal from Colgate. This past weekend Malcolm’s streak continued with 27 saves against RPI and a 45-save blanking of Union.

What We’re Watching: Each week, our Friday Fourcast highlights the best of the weekend ahead in college hockey, which usually means we bypass games during the week. Consider this item a Tuesday Twocast, then, because you’ll want to keep an eye on a couple matches tonight. One is Union at Rensselaer—even though the Dutchmen lost to Yale and Brown this past weekend and RPI snapped an eight-game losing skid by beating Brown Saturday, this rivalry has intensified in recent years. The other is Western Michigan at Notre Dame pitting the Irish, owners of a seven-game unbeaten streak, against the Broncos, who’ve dropped three straight after getting off to a 6-0-3 start.

What The …?: Even though it hosted a Frozen Four a few years ago, Ohio State’s Value City Arena is, first and foremost, a basketball facility. In the past, the Buckeyes hockey team has been bounced from the building for events sucha as the state girls’ basketball tournament. Last Friday, OSU’s game against Northern Michigan at VCA started at 12:05 p.m. so the Buckeyes’ men’s basketball team could have the building that night for its season opener against Wright State. Now we’re all for Friday afternoon hockey, especially if we can get away from work to watch, and it didn’t seem to bother the Bucks, who won 4-1, but being a third-class citizen in one’s home barn stinks. Wonder if these scheduling oddities will continue once Big Ten hockey play commences?

@scottmayfield2 Scott Mayfield

Huge win for @DU_Hockey last night against CC. Big step in the right direction for this season

 @GarrettNoonan13 Garrett Noonan

Beauty win for the boys against bc

• To the victors go the spoils, and those spoils include saluting your teammates for big wins in rivalry games – as did Denver freshman defenseman Scott Mayfield and Boston University sophomore defenseman Garrett Noonan. Those wins could be a launching point for both teams.