No goals opening night, six the next game. Three goals in 12 minutes, then none for four and one-half periods before scoring two in four minutes.

Hobey finalist Louie Caporusso hopes his first goal sparks a streak entering a big series with Miami.

Needless to say, Michigan’s offense, while productive, hadn’t been the archetype of consistency over the team’s first four games against both Alaska schools, Niagara and Boston University. During last wekeend’s sweep versus Lake Superior, however, the Wolverines finally spread the wealth throughout both games, scoring in five of the six periods to win 5-1 and 6-3 contests.

One key to Michigan’s offensive improvements was the most classic of hockey tactics — attacking the opponent’s net.

“We were going to the net more,” Michigan junior Louie Caporusso said. “We were capitalizing on rebounds and getting the ugly goals, and that’s where the majority of goals come from.”

Caporusso, who led the team with 24 goals last year, finally found the back of the net in Friday’s victory after failing to score in the team’s first four contests. The junior was frustrated to miss on what he described as 20 chances to score in the early stages of the season, but made an effort to keep that frustration from affecting his game. Seeing big league superstars like Sidney Crosby, who suffered through a four-game drought earlier this year before scoring five goals in three games, struggle through stretches and rebound helped Caporusso realize that patience is the key.

“I think it’s as stressful as you make it on yourself,” Caporusso said. “The key is just to not get down on yourself, it was only four games and the best players in the world go through slumps.”

Heading into this weekend’s pivotal – well, as pivotal as an early season series can be – matchup with Miami, Caporusso would like to build a scoring streak of his own, but he knows that the defensive zone is where Michigan needs to separate themselves from the RedHawks.

“It’s going to take a lot of focus on the defensive zone,” Caporusso said. “If (Miami) gets the puck in the zone, they can get a cycle going and make it hell for you in your own zone.”

With all of the pleasant surprises in East Lansing, Omaha and Fairbanks and the perennially strong play in Oxford, South Bend and Ann Arbor, this year’s CCHA title race has the makings of a season to remember. For all the positive karma, however, it’s tough not to notice Columbus, Ohio’s absence from that earlier list.

Eight games into the regular season, Ohio State has yet to find its groove, starting the season at 2-5-1 and sitting near the bottom of almost every statistical category in the conference. While the Buckeyes have looked promising at times, beating Denver at home and stealing a shootout victory at Notre Dame, coach John Markell knows that his team needs to establish some consistency to contend for their second consecutive NCAA tournament bid.

“We’re a team that has to have 20 guys going,” Markell said. “And that’s from the specialty units that are doing a lot better than they have and they’re executing better, to young kids who have to learn how to be consistent at this level, and the emotion that that takes.”

The Buckeyes were a remarkably young squad last year, and even with an additional season of experience under everyone’s belt, Mathieu Picard is the team’s only senior.

While it has to be frustrating for Markell, the veteran head coach who has helped Ohio State rebound from three consecutive disappointing seasons after a second place in 2004-05 with a near miss of a first-round bye last year, Markell is optimistic that his team can turn it around. With a few key cogs playing their second consecutive series, Markell is hoping some of the load will be taken off the shoulders of younger players who may be squeezing their sticks.

“We’re continuing to learn, we’re evolving,” Markell said. “I certainly like the team that I had on the road the last two weeks, it’s just certain guys need to be more consistent. We’re plugging some holes with Hunter Bishop coming back, and we’ve got Ian Boots back in the lineup, and there are some guys who can add some offense to us, and it should pay its dividends while the other guys who might be struggling with their game or their consistencies continue to grow and understand their role on our hockey club.”

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.

While few would argue that Western Michigan has been a perpetually a tough opponent on any given night, it has been more than a decade since the Broncos have been considered a serious contender in the CCHA. But after starting the season with four straight wins for the first time in 20 years, the icers from Kalamazoo have their eyes set on more significant prizes than the home playoff series victory over Lake Superior that is the team’s legacy from last year.

Veteran goalie Riley Gill is an experienced member of a Western Michigan club that is enjoying early-season success.

Having finally seen the pieces come together during the team’s present winning streak in addition to a 5-2-1 stretch to close out last year’s regular season which helped the Broncos earn a home-ice playoff series, the Broncos have now set their sights on making it through the next round of the playoffs to the bright lights of Joe Louis Arena and the CCHA Championship weekend.

“I don’t think we’re going to settle for anything less than being the best in this league,” sophomore J.J. Crew said. “We think we can make it to (Joe Louis Arena) and we think we can hang with anyone in this league.”

Crew has played a significant role in Western Michigan’s early-season success, leading the team with six points. Teaming up with Max Campbell and Greg Squires on what may well be one of the league’s top scoring lines, Crew opened the season with a hat trick on opening night and a 1-2-3 line in the second game against Mercyhurst before being held scoreless during the trip to Alabama-Huntsville last weekend.

Despite his absence from the scoresheet in Huntsville, Crew was happy with his performance, and is encouraged by the results he and his teammates are seeing from hard work during the summer and preseason workouts.

“I think that we’re on the right track,” Crew said. “Everyone has been working hard since the summer and we have a lot of chemistry on the ice and we’re clicking on all cylinders.”

The chemistry Crew spoke of came is evident in the team’s ability to win in different situations. With two wins coming at home and two on the road, two leading from the onset and two come-from-behind victories and a blowout coming before three one-goal games, Western Michigan has faced an interesting spectrum of game situations that will help acclimate freshmen to the sometimes unpredictable nature of the college game and give veterans like senior goaltender Riley Gill a sense of optimism this year’s team.

Gill, who has compiled a .942 save percentage and 1.67 goals against average in his three wins, has won some big games in the past and knows that the Broncos’ ability to protect their own leads and erase opponents’ advantages will serve the team well as the begin the CCHA slate, starting with a home-and-home series against Michigan State.

“The first weekend against Mercyhurst we put goals up on the board and then we won a couple of tight ones on the road this past weekend,” Gill said. “I think that we’ve proven that we can win both ways.”

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.

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.

As hard as it was to believe how far Michigan State sunk into the depths of the CCHA standings last year, it seemed even harder to conceive a bounce back to contender status so quickly after the graduation of goaltender Jeff Lerg, the program’s cornerstone.

But through two weekends of the regular season, the buzz seems to be back around East Lansing and coach Rick Comley’s smiles have returned during his weekly press conferences. The Spartans swept Clarkson convincingly on opening weekend and split a hard-fought series on the road at Maine’s not-so-welcoming Alfond Arena this past weekend.

A key to Michigan State’s speedy recovery has been the play of a freshman class led by forward Derek Grant, who won the CCHA’s first rookie of the week award for this season, and blue liners Zach Josepher and Torey Krug, who have helped fill in some of the large chinks in last year’s Spartan armor. Having opened the season well against Clarkson provided a glimpse of just how potent a class this may be and, better yet, that potential withstood the test of a relentless and hostile crowd in Orono.

“They did great,” Comley said of his freshman class during his weekly meeting with reporters Tuesday. “I think it was a good trip for them, good bonding. It’s always good to get away for three or four days and they handled the atmosphere very well. The atmosphere at Maine is as good or second to none as far as noise in the building. And that crowd, boy, they have a purpose coming into that building.”

As trying of an environment as that can be for freshman who are just finding their college hockey legs, it wasn’t any easier on sophomore netminder Drew Palmisano—the brave soul charged with softening the blow levied by Lerg’s graduation.

Michigan State goaltender Drew Palmisano successfully battled Maine— and team's rabid fans—in Orono last weekend.

“You drive up to the building at five o’clock and there are 1,000 students lined up outside,” Comley said. “They’re there for the warm-up, they taunt your goaltender all through the warm-up. They’re throwing foam pucks on the ice to mix in with the regular pucks so your kids never know what they’re shooting. You know, it’s just non-stop.

“I thought Palmisano did a good job in dealing with that, because for four of the six periods, he’s just surrounded because they have a balcony at that end of the rinks. It’s as good of a college crowd as I’ve been around.”

It may be too early to call the Spartans a threat to revive visions of the impenetrable top four in the CCHA that reigned for several seasons prior to last year, but the development of Grant and his classmates and the (so far) steady Palmisano behind them give Comley hope. Add in the revived Corey Tropp, who has returned from last year’s season-ending suspension with nine points in four games, and Jeff Petry, who may just be better than he was during his dazzling freshman season, and MSU might just have the supporting cast to give opponents headaches.

When asked just how important a win or two in this weekend’s series at top-ranked Miami would be, Comley was confident that it would officially mean his program is back on track.

“I don’t know [about a] program win,” Comley said. “But I think it’s another key step on the road back to being competitive at the level that we want to be at, which I think we’re going to be before it’s all said and done … You know, I’m very much encouraged by this team and where I think it can get to. I like how they play hard, I like the areas of the ice that we can play in, we don’t get outmuscled now, we win faceoffs, we compete and we can score goals.”

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.