There’s no doubt that the fans in Marquette, Mich.,  are amongst some of the most knowledgeable, passionate, and loyal fans in college hockey, yet it’s fair to say that sellouts at the Berry Events Center aren’t exactly a regular occurrence. But eight games into a campaign that has seen Northern Michigan go toe-to-toe with some of the CCHA’s best, the Wildcat faithful are coming out in droves, filling up their home arena on two consecutive Saturdays—the first time Northern has sold out multiple games in a season since 2005-06.

Senior captain and Marquette native Justin Florek leads Northern Michigan with 10 points in 10 games.

A quick glance at the CCHA standings might leave something to be desired for the Wildcats and raise eyebrows about their supporters’ enthusiasm. They currently sit in seventh place with a 1-2-3 conference record and two shootout wins. But take a deeper look at their schedule thus far and focus on the special teams; it’s clear that this team has the potential to keep filling up their home rink regularly with a squad that has a chance to once again be competitive when March rolls around.

Led by senior Justin Florek, who boasts 10 points, three power-play goals, and a plus-minus rating of +1 in 10 games, the Wildcats lead the CCHA in penalty killing and rank second in power-play efficiency due to a solid work ethic and depth on both units that has helped keep NMU in games against the likes of Wisconsin, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Western Michigan.

“I think it’s just the guys and the chemistry we have,” Florek said. “We’ve been together for a couple of years—we’re a young team but we played together last year so we know how to read each other. We’ve been putting a lot of hard work into (special teams) and taking pride in it. Instead of looking at it as two more minutes on the ice, we say that’s two minutes where we have to score a goal because special teams can make or break the games.”

The team’s success on the penalty kill, where they’ve vanquished impressive 49 of 54 of their opponents’ extra-man chances, is especially key with a young team that has taken more penalties than a veteran group might. And that poise has paid off for the Wildcats. Take, for example, killing off a five-minute major penalty in the final minute of regulation and overtime against Michigan last month. The match ended in a tie and though the Wolverines earned a shootout victory, the draw preserved a valuable point for NMU.

“We take a lot of penalties,” Florek said. “It’s unfortunate, but it gives us more reason to focus on the penalty kill. I really credit all of the guys who kill penalties this year because it’s the depth we have that has really helped us out. We have forwards who work hard on the penalty kill, great goaltending, and a lot of depth on defense.”

Florek and the Wildcats head to Ohio State this weekend for a matchup of two teams trying to convince themselves and the rest of the conference they can be contenders. A pair of wins, or even a respectable showing in a split could do wonders for Northern Michigan’s confidence going forward, helping the young team continue to gel and enable the positive chemistry they’ve seen in special teams spread to all facets of the game.

Should they find a way to maintain the special-teams success and carry it over to even-strength play, Florek believes NMU can reach the goals—a trip to Joe Louis Arena for the CCHA championship, an appearance in the league title game, and an NCAA Tournament berth—that some of the earlier Wildcat teams Florek was a part of were able to reach.

“I don’t think anyone really knows (how far this team can go) yet,” Florek said. “But we see where we can get to and that’s the exciting part. We’ve competed with some of the best teams in our league and in the country and we see that the potential is there. All of the hard work and our depth is something we take pride in.

“Being a captain, I want to make a huge impact. I want to be a leader and to show the younger guys the ropes and show them what it takes to be a good hockey player. In my sophomore year we reached the CCHA championship game and the NCAA Tournament and I’ll never forget that.”

TIM SCHALLER
Providence
Jr. | F | Merrimack, N.H.

Tim Schaller

His Statistics: 2 GP, four goals, hat trick, 3 PPG, SHG, GWG

His Impact: Schaller was all over the scoresheet in Providence’s Friday victory over Vermont. He had two power-play goals, scored a short-handed goal in the second period that proved to be the game-winning goal to complete his first-career hat trick in a 5-2 win over Vermont. In Saturday’s 5-1 win over the Catamounts, Schaller scored a third-period power-play goal.

You’ve got to get a lot of shots to score a lot of goals, and Schaller is doing his part. He had 14 shots on the weekend, five Friday and nine Saturday, and his four-goal weekend moved him into the team’s goal-scoring lead with five on the season. He entered the season with seven goals in 67 career games. Providence has four wins this year, all of which have come in Hockey East play. That matches last year’s win total in conference games (4-16-7).

His Runners-Up: Nick Dineen, Colorado College; Troy Grosenick, Union; Jordie Johnson, Ferris State; Max Strang, Mercyhurst

Tough break, literally, for St. Cloud State senior forward Drew LeBlanc, the Huskies’ captain and leading scorer, who slid into the boards late in the second period of the Huskies’ 3-3 tie against visiting Wisconsin, fracturing two bones in his leg. So why the salute for LeBlanc, who has played in 129 straight games for the Huskies since arriving on campus? Well, we’re struck by his demeanor following the injury.

“I got out there [to LeBlanc] and he said, ‘Coach, I broke my leg,’” SCSU head coach Bob Motzko told Mick Hatten of the St. Cloud Times. “[The injury] was one of the more gruesome things I’ve seen. He’s got two broken bones and a compound fracture and he’s on the ice and he did not show one ounce of pain.”

LeBlanc, who had surgery Sunday to repair the damage, could return to the Huskies by season’s end. He was plotting an even quicker return to campus.

“He wanted to go to class [Monday] morning,” Motzko said. “His mom, dad and coach told him it would be OK for him to miss class. He’s a straight-A student and … he’s in the hospital room and mad he can’t go to class.”

Hockey is an emotional game, and one of the arguments for fisticuffs remaining in the rulebooks at higher levels is that players have the opportunity to take care of perceived transgressions against teammates with a scrap and five-minute major. That, of course, doesn’t exist in college hockey and instead you can end up with unseemly and awkward situations similar to what happened during Friday’s Minnesota-North Dakota game at Mariucci Arena. Gopher players took exception when they felt goalie Kent Patterson was run into by a North Dakota player midway through the second period. In attempting to stand up for their teammate, several one-on-one wrestling matches took place inside the Minnesota end of the rink and words were exchanged between players from both sides. Tempers were elevated and both penalty boxes filled. It got weird, didn’t it?

What Happened: From the Save UAH Hockey Facebook page: More than 2,500 people were at Huntsville’s Von Braun Center Friday to watch the Chargers face Ohio State. The announced attendance for Saturday’s series finale was 1,351. Now, what could’ve caused such a precipitous drop in paying customers from Friday to Saturday?

What We’re Watching: Perhaps this should be titled “What We Will Be Watching”, referring to Versus last week unveiling its 2011-12 national college hockey broadcast schedule. Versus, which becomes NBC Sports Network on New Year’s Day, kicks off its 16-game slate Dec. 31 with Boston University-Notre Dame and ends with the Hockey East tournament semifinals and finals. More televised college hockey is good for the sport, of course, and it won’t hurt to have it on an outlet that reaches more than 75 million households nationwide. And the initial lineup is quite diverse, featuring familiar names like Boston College, Denver, and Michigan and not-so-usual suspects like Dartmouth, Minnesota Duluth, and Yale.

What The … : The road trip is a time-honored tradition among college hockey fans, a tribute to camaraderie and the lengths they’re willing to go to in order to see their team play. But for Colorado College fans, the thought of hopping into the car and driving a few hours for a weekend series wasn’t an option; the trips were either way too far or, in the case of Air Force and Denver, ridiculously close.

This past weekend, however, the Colorado Springs Gazette’s Joe Paisley bumped into a dozen Tiger fans who made the 1,200-plus mile round trip from Colorado Springs to Omaha for the team’s series at Nebraska-Omaha. CC lost Friday’s opener but won Saturday’s finale, making the eight-hour trip home a bit more tolerable. And even though it was the first roadie for these fans, they traveled like seasoned pros and definitely captured the spirit of the thing.

“We just wanted to make sure we were [in Omaha] in time to drink beer,” CC fan Ken Rownd told Paisley.

@umichhockey Michigan Hockey

MICHIGAN GOAL!!! An empty netter for Kevin Lynch puts the icing on the cake at 19:00. The Wolverines now have a 5-2 lead.

• As a matter of consistency, we’d like to restate our preference that a No-Cheering-In-The-Press-Box expectation also applies to media and official team accounts on Twitter. Fortunately we don’t see as many exclamation marks in the team’s press releases.

With a veteran head coach who has experienced success at hockey’s highest levels and a great deal of talent returning in its forward lines and defensive corps, Western Michigan seemed to be in a position to build on last year’s breakout season with another strong campaign this year. The looming question heading into the year, however, was whether the team’s goaltenders could play at a championship caliber and thrust the Broncos into the mix for a CCHA championship.

With strong work ethic and a healthy competitive demeanor, the tandem of junior Nick Pisellini (2-0-2, 1.68 GAA, .931 save pct.) and freshman Frank Slubowski (3-0-1, 1.47, .918) has helped ease the on-ice loss of Jerry Kuhn and they’ve helped push the 5-0-3 Broncos to contender status once again.

“I’d say they have really strong numbers,” Western Michigan coach Andy Murray said. “Any NHL team would be happy with numbers like that.”

Murray considers himself lucky to have three goaltenders—the aforementioned pair and freshman Kris Moore—he believes he can count on.

Goaltenders Nick Pisellini (pictured) and Frank Slubowski have formed an effective tandem for unbeaten Western Michigan.

“Certainly Nick came into the year with the right of seniority,” Murray said. “He’s a junior and he knows what this league is about. And for me to start Frank over Kris, it’s a really tough decision for me. I think we have three goalies that can start on any given night.”

Heading into a key road series at Michigan this weekend, Murray declined to name a starter, saying the first goalie to come out of the tunnel at Yost Ice Arena would be his guy. That said, he’s confident that whichever goalie he chooses gives his team a chance to win.

With the goaltending fears somewhat assuaged, the Broncos have risen up into the top 10 in both the voter-driven polls; they’re also tenth in the INCH Power Rankings. Two wins this weekend would be a key in solidifying their status among college hockey’s early favorites for a conference title and an NCAA tournament bid.

But even with things bouncing his team’s way, Murray is still trying to get a feel for just how good this team is, as coaching college hockey is a new experience for the former St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings bench boss.

“I think part of it is that I don’t know where we are at for this time of year,” Murray said. “I’ve never coached at this level, so for me to make a comparison is tough to do. If we were an NHL team that had played eight games I might have a better idea where we are, but one thing I will say is that we’ve got a team that works extremely hard and has a great work ethic.”

And he’ll continue to form his own opinions of where this team stands, with the goal them of having them in position to play for the conference and national titles next spring.

“I think it’s funny that we’re ranked No. 4 in the country by some people right now,” Murray said. “I don’t even know if we’re the No. 4 team in the state of Michigan at this point. To me, the only rankings that matter are the ones at the end of the season in March.”

With Pisellini and Slubowski keeping pucks out of the net and strong performances both offensively and defensively, chances are Murray will find his team in great shape in the rankings that truly matter.

Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend—Sunday morning at 2 a.m., to be exact—so we must remember to turn our clocks back one hour or risk being late for work (like really late, as opposed to the typical five or so minutes late) Monday morning. But while we can’t forget to fall back, outcomes of some key hockey matches during this fall weekend could help the winners spring forward. Confused? Just read on, and don’t forget about that clock thing.

Defenseman Mark Alt has helped Minnesota to its best start in a decade.

North Dakota at Minnesota (Friday-Saturday): Over the past decade, this series has been more even than you might expect—North Dakota holds a 20-15-3 edge since the start of the 2001-02 season. Fighting Sioux fans would say that statistic is somewhat deceiving since four of the Gophers’ 15 wins during that span came in 2001-02; Gopher boosters would say they’ve out-national championshipped NoDak 2-0 over the last 10 years, so you can have those four wins.

At 7-1-0, Minnesota is off to its best start since that magical 2001-02 campaign (please note that based on winning percentage, 7-1-0 is better than the Gophers’ 5-0-3 start in 2008-09) and the Gophs lead the WCHA in scoring offense, scoring defense, and power-play and penalty-kill success. North Dakota, meanwhile, ranks 10th in the Dub in scoring offense and scoring defense and has the circuit’s seventh-best power play and penalty kill; scoring balance, goaltending, and across-the-board consistency have been concerns for the Fighting Sioux thus far.

As clichéd as it sounds, this is one of those rivalries where records don’t matter and in the recent past we’ve seen the struggling team manage a sweep or a win and tie. All signs point to a big weekend for Minnesota, but North Dakota is arguably the best backed-into-a-corner team in the nation.

Western Michigan at Michigan (Friday-Saturday): With five wins and three ties in its first eight games, Western Michigan is off to its best start since 1973-74 when, in its first season of varsity hockey, the Broncos reeled off 16 in a row against the likes of Algoma and Henry Ford Community College. This weekend, they’re off to Ann Arbor where WMU has won just 12 times in 51 tries.

The Broncos and Wolverines actually match up quite well. Shawn Hunwick gives Michigan an edge in goal, but Western probably has the better defensive corps with Dan DeKeyser, Garrett Haar, Matt Tennyson, and Luke Witkowski. U-M has more balance at forward, but WMU has been slightly better on special teams. The games could hinge on which team gets off to a better start—the Broncos have outscored foes in the first period by a 14-3 margin, but if the Wolverines jump out to the lead first, Western could start to press knowing full well of their woes at Yost.

Colgate at Yale (Saturday): Colgate, rated 13th in the most recent INCH Power Rankings, is an interesting team. Not Dos Equis man interesting; curious is probably a better choice of words. Every Raider game has gone down to the wire—their 4-2-1 record includes three one-goal wins, two of them coming in OT, and a pair of one-goal losses. They’ve beaten some quality opponents (Miami, Nebraska-Omaha) and had some head-scratching results (tying Army, losing at home to Niagara). They’re not a particularly high-scoring team, nor are they a lock-down defensive club. A visit to Ingalls Rink should serve as a measuring stick. Also, Saturday’s match gives fans the chance to see two of country’s top senior forwards—Yale’s Brian O’Neill and Colgate’s Austin Smith.

Minnesota Duluth at Denver (Friday-Saturday): Despite a loss and tie at Michigan Tech last weekend, the Pioneers enter this weekend with optimism. First, forward Beau Bennett, who missed the series in Houghton with a hand injury, is listed as probable this weekend. Second, goalie Adam Murray, who was hurt 10 minutes into Friday’s loss to the Huskies and sat out Saturday, returned to practice this week and should be full go. Third, freshman goalie Juha Olkinuora acquitted himself nobly in Murray’s stead, allowing three goals in 110 minutes of work. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have three wins and a tie in their last four games after starting the year with a win and three losses. Senior forward Jack Connolly is on the verge of three career milestones—his next goal will be his 50th, he’s two assists shy of 100, and is three points short of 150.

Also: Maine is 3-2-1 with losses to Merrimack and North Dakota. We should have a better read on the Black Bears after this weekend’s games at Boston College and New Hampshire. … Seems odd, but Colorado College has never played at Nebraska-Omaha. The second-ranked Tigers trek to the Qwest Center this weekend. … Northern Michigan is 3-0-1 at home and 1-3-0 on the road. The Wildcats, who play three of their next four series in Marquette, host Notre Dame. … Welcome to the dance, Harvard! The Crimson, the last team in the country to start its season, hosts Princeton and Quinnipiac this weekend. Saturday’s contest against Harvard is Quinnipiac’s 11th game of the season.

Michigan, led by goaltender Shawn Hunwick, welcomes Ferris State to Ann Arbor for a two-game CCHA series.

Ferris State at Michigan (Thursday-Friday): In spite of its early-season showing, some college hockey observers have lingering doubts about Ferris State. Regardless of what happens in Ann Arbor, the Bulldogs are legit, ranking among top 14 nationally in scoring offense, scoring defense, and power-play and penalty-killing success rates. On the other hand, consider the jury out on Michigan; in its first real test of the season, the Wolverines lost and tied at Northern Michigan. Confirmed, however, was Michigan’s reliance on goalie Shawn Hunwick. After Hunwick was ejected midway through last Friday’s match against the Wildcats, backup Adam Janecyk allowed four goals on 14 shots in a 5-3 loss to NMU.

Ivy Shootout (Friday-Saturday at Hanover, N.H.): Five of the six Ivy League schools start regular-season play this weekend, and four of them—Brown, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Yale—participate in this non-conference event at Thompson Arena this weekend. Big things are expected from Yale, the top overall seed in the 2001 NCAA Tournament, and Dartmouth should challenge for a top-four spot in ECAC Hockey. In two seasons under coach Brendan Whittet, Brown has climbed from 12th to 11th to seventh in the league standings, and Princeton enters its first season under the direction of new head coach Bob Prier.

Colorado College at Rensselaer (Friday-Saturday): After back-to-back trips to Ferris State and Notre Dame, the Engineers return home to face the second-rated team in this week’s INCH Power Rankings. Injuries have robbed RPI of three centermen—Marty O’Grady, Brock Higgs and Jacob Laliberte—which could explain the team’s early-season scoring woes. With October almost over and just two regular-season games to their credit, the Tigers could apply for honorary Ivy League status. CC plays seven of its next nine away from home with trips to Nebraska-Omaha, Denver, and North Dakota on the horizon.

Northern Michigan at Western Michigan (Friday-Saturday): It’s probably way too early to start thinking about this stuff, but these two teams should be in the mix for a CCHA playoffs first-round bye come March and any edge one can gain now is a plus. The Western Michigan goaltending duo of Nick Pisellini and Frank (The Big) Slubowski has been terrific, but Northern Michigan’s tandem of Reid Ellingson and Jared Coreau has been quite good, too.

Also: The only Ivies not participating in this weekend’s event in Hanover are Cornell, which opens its season Saturday against Mercyhurst, and Harvard, which doesn’t start until next weekend. … Despite netting eight goals in a loss and tie at St. Cloud State last weekend, New Hampshire still ranks 42nd in the country in scoring offense at 1.80 goals per game. Friday, the Wildcats host a Union squad that currently stands fifth nationally in scoring defense, allowing an average of, you guessed it, 1.80 goals per game. … Speaking of St. Cloud State, the Huskies are at North Dakota, which works out nicely for Doug and Lorraine MacMillan of Penticton, British Columbia. One son, Mitch, is an SCSU sophomore forward; another, Mark, is a NoDak rookie forward.

JUSTIN FLOREK
Northern Michigan
Sr. | F | Marquette, Mich.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 1-4—5 in the Wildcats’ win and tie against Michigan.

His Impact: Florek has always been a reliable scorer—he entered the season with 35 goals and 81 points in 120 career games—but the Marquette native looking more like the elite power forward people thought he’d be when he joined the Wildcats following a stint with the U.S. National Team Development Program.

With five points in NMU’s win and tie against previously unbeaten Michigan this past weekend, Florek now has nine points (five goals, four assists) in six games for the Wildcats, who are off to their best start since 2005-06. He’s figured in on nearly half of his team’s 21 goals this season, including five of eight goals against the Wolverines.

Among CCHA skaters, only Notre Dame’s Anders Lee and T.J. Tynan have more points than the 6-foot-4, 200-pound Florek, and only Lee and Ferris State’s Travis Ouellette have more goals. He’s second in the league to Oullette with three power-play goals and his six power-play points leads the conference.

His Runners-Up: Bill Arnold, Boston College; Ryan Leets, Army; Allan McPherson, Clarkson; Jason Zucker, Denver.

The issues surrounding the demise of the Alabama-Huntsville hockey program are too numerous and complex to attack in this limited space; it’ll likely be the lead item on an INCH Podcast later this week. Instead, we’ll focus on the many great moments in Charger hockey history, including NCAA Division II national championships in 1996 and 1998 and runner-up finishes in 1994 and 1997, College Hockey America regular-season championships in 2001 and 2003, and CHA playoff titles in 2007 and 2010.

Alabama-Huntsville was 0-2 in two trips to the NCAA Tournament, but they were memorable appearances—in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Midwest Regional in Grand Rapids, Mich., the Chargers took top-seed Notre Dame to double overtime before losing, 3-2, and in 2010, UAH nearly bounced another top seed, Miami, in the Midwest Regional first round in Fort Wayne, Ind, losing 2-1.

Every so often, a team will get bitten by the injury bug. Then there’s Minnesota State, which has been mauled by the injury grizzly.

The Mavericks headed to Denver with 18 skaters and two goaltenders—injuries kept forwards J.P. Burkemper, Michael Dorr, Max Gaede, and Eriah Hayes and defensemen Tyler Elbrecht and Danny Heath at home. Then things got worse. In Friday’s 4-2 loss to DU, forward Chase Grant suffered a lower-body injury that, according to Minnesota State coach Troy Jutting via Shane Frederick of the Mankato Free Press, could keep him out for a while. The following night, defenseman Brett Stern was hurt in the first period of MSU’s 10-2 loss and did not return.

Mercifully, the Mavs are off this weekend.

What Happened?: Notre Dame’s Compton Family Ice Arena is a beautiful venue, but like any new facility there are a few kinks to work out. About 30 minutes after the inaugural game at the 5,000-seat rink Friday, someone or something inadvertently set off a fire alarm, prompting the building to be evacuated until the Notre Dame Fire Department arrived and gave the all clear. We’re not sure what went down, but our hunch is that someone found out what they thought was a shortcut to the parking lot wasn’t that at all.

What We’re (Not) Watching: Harvard, yet. It was nice to see the Ivy League schools get into some sort of competitive action this past weekend with some exhibitions and scrimmages, including Harvard’s game against Western Ontario. Up next for the Crimson … no games this weekend. Harvard plays its first regular season games Nov. 4-5 at home against Princeton and Quinnipiac. By the time the Crimson and Bobcats take the ice that Saturday night at Bright Hockey Center, Quinnipiac will have played 10 games.

What the …?: Through five games this season, Boston University has been as predictable as a Tracy Morgan soliloquy. In their opener, the Terriers shut out New Hampshire (which seemed impressive at the time). The following weekend, BU lost at Providence, then beat Denver the next night. Then this past Saturday, the Terriers were beaten by Holy Cross. Sense a trend? No, neither do we.

@Walldawg27 Andrew Wallace

Big fan of the cauliflower ear look. Open invitation for someone to sock me in the ear #streetcredit

• The biggest problem we had in this selection was choosing which of Bowling Green sophomore forward Andrew Wallace’s tweets to choose for this honor. His entire timeline is gold, including the claim that he leads the nation in “practice bar-downs” – not bad for a guy with five career points in 45 games. He’s a beauty.

Speculating on the possibilities for this year’s team this past summer, Ferris State coach Bob Daniels had a feeling that this crop of players might look a little different than a typical Bulldog hockey team. While they sometimes find themselves in the hunt for an NCAA Tournament bid and other times in the middle of the CCHA logjam, there’s one thing Ferris State has always been able to count on: excellent defense.

Trouble is, they don’t always score goals. That’s where Daniels thought this year’s Bulldogs had great potential for a breakout season.

Five games into the year, his summertime instinct looks right.

“It’s not astronomical, but we’ve had solid enough numbers,” Daniels said. “I don’t know that we’ll ever be astronomical this year, but we will score at a much more consistent rate than we did a year ago.”

Ferris State forward Travis Ouellette has five goals through four games; he lead the Bulldogs with 10 goals last season.

After sweeping St. Lawrence to open the regular season two weeks ago, Ferris swept Rensselaer last weekend. The Bulldogs have 15 goals in four games—good enough for 14th in the nation in scoring offense at this point.

Leading the offense are juniors Kyle Bonis and Travis Ouellette, both of whom has five goals in those four games. Bonis is happy to see the team off to a great offensive start and he sees other teammates ready to break out, making the Bulldogs even more potent.

“It’s exciting to contribute—it’s something we’ve been waiting a few years to do,” Bonis said. “I think that for the start of the year it’s been good but we’re not firing on all cylinders like we could be.”

The quick start is especially sweet for Ouellette, who led the team with 10 goals last year despite a slow start. Four of those goals came in a three-game playoff series loss to Western Michigan to end the year; this year, he’s already got a pair of two-goal performances.

“Obviously I didn’t start off as well as I wanted to (last year),” Ouellette said. “But as the season went on, I got used to my linemates and started to play much better. I think it was my mindset. When you come in as a freshman you want to play really well and get off to a good start. … As a sophomore you’re not in a leadership role, but you’re not a rookie, and I didn’t play as hard as I could have.”

Despite their personal offensive success and the team’s increased ability to score goals, both Ouellette and Bonis realize that the defense is still what will help this team compete with the CCHA’s top teams like Miami, which visits Big Rapids this weekend. And that attitude is clearly pervasive through the entire team; the Bulldogs have given up just three goals in four games to lead the nation in scoring defense.

Daniels is grateful for the team’s continued attention to defense and stellar goaltending from senior Taylor Nelson and freshman C.J. Motte, as both netminders already boast a 2-0-0 record in the first two weeks of the season.

“I think that for us to be successful we really have to be a team and a program built around defense,” Daniels said. “We’ve always been blessed to have pretty good defensemen and offensive defensemen, and even though we lost (goaltender) Pat (Nagle), Taylor Nelson looks like he did during his freshman year and C.J. Motte has played well too. I don’t think that we’ll average 5 goals per game this year, so we will have to be stingy defensively.”

There’s a bit of a theme in this week’s Four-cast—three of the four matchups we spotlight pit teams we expected to do well against under-the-radar clubs with promising early results. And in each case, the upstart also serves as the host.

Reilly Smith and Miami open CCHA play this weekend with a trip to Ferris State.

Miami at Ferris State (Friday-Saturday): The Bulldogs, unbeaten in four games and outscoring foes by a 15-3 margin, notched an impressive sweep of Rensselaer last weekend, but Ferris State starts the CCHA portion of its schedule with a visit from Miami followed by a trip to Michigan. The RedHawks, who’ve split their first two series, have been outshot by a 108-83 margin through four games; in the first period, Miami has is getting outshot, 41-21.

Minnesota Duluth at Providence (Friday-Saturday): It’s far too soon to proclaim Providence is back and bury UMD, but there a couple trends that make this series one to watch. First, the Friars, who ranked 55th in the nation in scoring offense last season, scored a combined 11 goals in wins over Boston University and Massachusetts. The Bulldogs, 1-3 after getting swept by Minnesota last weekend, has given up 18 goals in four games including five in each of the last three games—all losses. UMD has scored 15 goals, however, including four from Travis Oleksuk and three from Mike Seidel.

Michigan at Northern Michigan (Friday-Saturday): The Wolverines have scored 24 goals in their first four games, all at Yost against non-league competition that would make Brady Hoke drool. We’ll know more about Michigan in a month; series with Ferris, Western Michigan, and Miami follow this trip to Marquette. The Wildcats, notoriously slow starters, won three of four against Wisconsin and St. Cloud State. Senior forward Justin Florek has four goals in as many games and goalies Reid Ellingston and Jared Coreau have been solid.

Union at RIT (Saturday): In its first three games, RIT played Niagara to a scoreless draw, beat St. Lawrence in overtime (tying the match with nine seconds left in regulation and getting the winner 14 second into OT), and dropped a 3-1 decision at Canisius. Does that mean Saturday’s game will be a shootout? The Dutchmen, fresh of a pair of ties against Western Michigan, start a stretch in which they play five of six away from home. Sophomore goalie Troy Grosenick has been outstanding in his three starts as evidenced by his 1.90 goals against average and .923 save percentage.

Also: Michigan Tech, a.k.a. America’s Team, has a chance to do something it hasn’t done in forever in its series at Bemidji State. A win Friday would be the Huskies’ fifth straight—Tech hasn’t won five in a row since 1990. With a series sweep, the Huskies would have a six-game winning streak for the first time since the 1983-84 season. … Rensselaer travels to Notre Dame in a dress rehearsal for the 2013-14 Hockey East regular season (we kid, we kid). Seriously, the game is the first at the Compton Family Ice Arena, the 5,000-seat venue replacing the quirky Joyce Center. … Most years, North Dakota at Wisconsin would be the highlight of the weekend. This year, it’s a series featuring a Fighting Sioux team that hasn’t hit its stride and a Badger club trying to infuse a bunch of new faces into the lineup.

• INCH Pick ‘Em is back for the 2011-12 season. Log in and make your picks by 4 p.m. Friday.

CAMERON BURT
RIT
Sr. | F | Detroit, Mich.

Cameron Burt

His Statistics: 1 GP, 2-3–5, 6 shots, +3 rating

His Impact: Burt was at the center of the action all night long as RIT played its annual early-season game at the downtown Rochester Blue Cross Arena. After a 0-0 tie in the season-opener against Niagara, this game had plenty of scoring. Burt got the Tigers on the board just three and a half minutes into the first period, but his most important contributions came at the end of the game.

RIT trailed 5-4 in the closing seconds of the third period, but Burt assisted on Adam Hartley’s goal with nine seconds left to send the game to overtime. On the first shift of the extra session, Burt was also in on the assists as Adam Mitchell scored at 14 seconds of overtime. RIT got a 6-5 win in front of an enthused hometown crowd of more than 10,000 at Blue Cross Arena.

The game in downtown Rochester has become a tradition for the Tigers and will continue for at least the next two seasons as part of the school’s Brick City Weekend (Homecoming). The next two opponents are Penn State in 2012 and Michigan in 2013.

His Runners-Up: Kyle Jean, Lake Superior State; Jeremy Langlois, Quinnipiac; Josh Robinson, Michigan Tech; Riley Wetmore, UMass Lowell

Well before Detroit and Warroad, Minn., staked claim to the moniker, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., the home of Lake Superior State University, was the first U.S. city dubbed Hockeytown. Based on the early-season play of the Lakers and their north-of-the-Mackinac-Bridge brethren Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan, perhaps Hockey Peninsula is a more appropriate nickname.

The three teams have a combined 11-1-0 mark, with the lone loss belonging to NMU; the Wildcats dropped a 3-2 decision at Wisconsin on Oct. 8. We’re not sure how long this run will last—Northern Michigan hosts Michigan this weekend, and Michigan Tech faces Denver and Lake State goes to Miami next weekend—but if we know anything about Yooper hockey fans, they’re enjoying the moment.

In our slightly reformatted First Shift for the 2011-12 season, we’ve eschewed a dedicated space for Rankings Outrage and instead will be folding some of those ideas into our other categories. This season has been rife with surprising results in the early going, and that makes ranking teams a little difficult. One thing we can’t seem to reconcile with what we saw in the other national polls is the overall support for a 1-3-0 Minnesota Duluth team, that has played all four of its games on home ice. Sure, it’s no easy task to deal with Notre Dame nor Minnesota, but there wasn’t any room for the Bulldogs in the INCH Power Rankings. In our opinion, they haven’t proved that they belong to be listed among the nation’s top-20 teams.

What Happened?: Over the years, we’ve grown accustomed to New Hampshire’s method of restocking its lineup—freshmen and sophomores mature and assume the role as the team’s offensive weapons as upperclassmen. And while it’s worked in the past, the Wildcats are struggling mightily thus far, outscored by 15-1 margin in their first three games.

“It’s frustrating of course,” senior forward Stevie Moses told Al Pike of Foster’s Daily Democrat following UNH’s 5-1 loss to Boston College Saturday. “We expect to win every night. But I think we’ve gotten better each period … If we can finish a few more pucks and maybe tighten up in the D-zone a little bit I think we’re going to be pretty good moving forward.”

What We’re Watching: Our Friday Four-cast is reserved for later in the week, but there are already some interesting decisions to be made about which games matter most this early in the year. One of those series is taking place in Providence, as the undefeated, upstart Friars host the 1-3-0 defending national champions from Minnesota Duluth. Of course it’s only two games, but it’s another chance to gain some knowledge about two teams with eyebrow-raising results thus far.

What the …?: Whoa, whoa, whoa down everyone. Among several coverage stories forecasting end-of-season NCAA brackets, the publication of rankings of NCAA Tournament criteria, and the buzz in some social media circles there’s already thoughts on the end-of-year national showcase. We’re not even into November, people. Relax and enjoy the season. The NCAA Tournament stuff will sort itself out over the next several months. Forecasting and projecting the bracket now is like declaring the horse with the cleanest break to be the Kentucky Derby winner.

@derekschooley Derek Schooley – 15 Oct
We could have had a CHA reunion weekend as Niagara, Robert Morris, Air Force and Bemidji all in Col Springs. #goodleague #cha

• All Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley needed to do to complete the roundup of ex-College Hockey America members was extended an invitation to Alabama-Huntsville and get the Wayne State band back together. That last one might be difficult.

CCHA PLAYERS STEP INTO BIGGER ROLES

As INCH’s First Shift mentioned this week, two of the CCHA’s top teams were without two of their best players this past weekend, with Reilly Smith and Jon Merrill both suspended by their coaches for violating team rules.

While it’s certainly bad news for those teams, those players and the college game at large, a silver lining of the situation was the play of lesser-known veterans and rookies rising up to the challenge of eating up the minutes and offsetting the lost production – no small task – that Merrill and Smith and typically responsible for.

Michigan opened the year with three wins, beating Niagara last Tuesday and Bentley on Friday and Saturday nights and saw rookie blue-liners Brennan Serville and Mike Chiasson make their debuts and play three productive games.

Serville, expected to be a key player and a contender to be Merrill’s partner this year, finished with an assist, three shots on goal and three blocks in three contests, and Chiasson made his mark with an assist, six blocks and an impressive plus-4 rating.

Down the road in Oxford, Miami opened the year with a split against Bemidji State that saw the Smith-less Redhawks’ freshman class step in to the rescue with goals by Jimmy Mullin and Alex Wideman and some help from a short-handed, game-winning goal from senior forward Matt Tomassoni to give him his first career two-goal game.

“I think that Curtis McKenzie, Matt Tomassoni and many of our younger guys got more ice time,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. “Everything happens for a reason, and this gave guys the opportunity to get their feet wet.”

Miami gets Smith back for this weekend’s trip to Colgate, and Blasi is confident that Smith got the message that the suspension was put in place to teach. The Wolverines on the other hand, have several weeks to wait before Merrill will be back in the lineup, as his 12-game suspension will keep him out of the lineup until a Nov. 11-12 series at Miami, making Chiasson and Serville’s continued positive contributions key for Michigan.

VETERAN EAGLES GET SEASON OFF TO FLYING START

Boston College took the first steps of putting last year’s disappointing finish behind them by getting the 2011-12 season off to a quick start last weekend. The Eagles claimed the Ice Breaker title in Grand Forks, N.D., including a decisive 6-2 victory over North Dakota in the title game. The schedule doesn’t get any easier, though, as Boston College opens its home slate on Friday night against third-ranked Denver, then travels to Durham for its Hockey East opener against New Hampshire on Saturday night.

In spite of the quick start, head coach Jerry York and his team have been quick to realize that national championships aren’t won in October.

“We came in on Monday morning and had a changed mindset, looking forward to this weekend’s games,” York said. “We’ve got a mature team, and they know that there’s a lot of the season in front of us. Yes, we played well, but we’ve only finished the first hole of the course – there’s a lot of potential pars and bogeys ahead of us.”

York was particularly impressed with the play of junior netminder Parker Milner, who had 39 saves on 43 shots in the two games in Grand Forks.

“Parker hasn’t had a chance to be the man here, playing behind John Muse the past two years, but his play was probably the biggest highlight we had last weekend,” York said.

GOALTENDING CONCERNS AT DENVER

Denver was the preseason favorite of both the coaches and the media to win the WCHA title. But as their season begins, a combination of injuries and suspensions has recently rendered the goaltending corps for the Pioneers as thin as the air at high altitudes.

We already knew that last year’s top netminder, Sam Brittain, would miss roughly half the season after having knee surgery over the summer. That left things in the hands of junior Adam Murray, who last season put up numbers (6-3-0 record, .879 saves percentage, 3.46 goals-against average) that can generously be called passable.

In last weekend’s Pioneers exhibition win over the USA Hockey Under-18 Team, Murray was pulled early with a lower body injury, giving way to rookie backup Juho Olkinuora (a name that fits perfectly at the school that gave us Sinuhe Wallinheimo).

Murray is healthy enough that he is expected to start both games this weekend as the Pioneers visit top-ranked Boston College and Boston University, but Olkinuora will not be available in the backup role.

According to the Denver Post, Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky revealed this week that Olkinuora will sit out the first three games of the season due to an eligibility issue.

What if Murray goes down in Boston? Well, there’s always Hope. That would be junior walk-on Zack Hope, who has seen plenty of pucks in practice for the Pioneers but has not yet gotten in a real game.

ALMA MATER RETURN FOR APPERT

RPI heads out on the road this weekend to face Ferris State for two games. It’s a homecoming weekend of sorts for Engineers coach Seth Appert, who was a four-year varsity goaltender at Ferris State from 1992-96.

Coincindentally, some former teammates might be around to say hello this weekend. Players from teams ranging between the years 1990 and 2000 will be welcomed back Saturday night in celebration of the second decade of Ferris State’s hockey program.

Appert was a goaltender, and it’s a special fraternity. He’s demonstrated that as much this season in answering any questions regarding RPI’s goaltending situation. Allen York left to sign a pro contract following his junior season that included 18 wins and a 2.17 goals-against average. Any doubts that outsiders had about the Engineer goaltenders have been emphatically discredited by Appert, and his netminders have proven his confidence to be well-founded through the opening weekend.

Freshman Scott Diebold stopped 19 of 20 shots in his first collegiate start but came out on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline against Minnesota State. The following night, junior Bryce Merriam, the forecasted starter for the Engineers headed into the year, made 31 saves on 32 shots in a 4-1 RPI win against the Mavericks.

ATLANTIC HOCKEY OPENING ACTS

The opening weekend of Atlantic Hockey is going to be remembered for what could have been. Defending champion Air Force held third-period leads on North Dakota and Michigan State and came out on the losing end. American International held a 3-0 first-period lead at Michigan Tech and couldn’t close the deal. Connecticut held a 2-0 first-period lead at Bowling Green and came out on the short end.

The optimist says it’s great to see Atlantic Hockey teams in contention in tough road contests. The pessimist laments the fact those teams did not get it done. The reality is Atlantic Hockey is going to have to put more of these opportunities into the win column if it wants to generate more interest with fans and recruits.

On Friday night, Air Force carried a 3-2 lead into the final seven minutes only to have Brock Nelson score twice in a span of 1 minute, 17 seconds for a 4-3 North Dakota win. On Saturday, the Falcons carried a 2-1 lead into the third period but Michigan State’s Lee Reimer tied the contest at 5:21 and scored the game-winner at 54 seconds of overtime.

Air Force coach Frank Serratore was none too pleased with the outcomes at North Dakota’s Ice Breaker tournament.

“We are way past moral victories,’’ Serratore said after the North Dakota setback. “We had them down, right where we wanted them, and we didn’t get it done. There is nothing to feel good about. We are plenty good enough to lose close to anyone in the country. The bottom line is that we were in a heavyweight fight and we were ahead and lost a decision. We just didn’t finish. Teams either find a way to get it done or they find a way to let it get away. Plain and simple, we didn’t get it done.”

Following the Michigan State loss, Serratore put out a challenge to his team, a message that should resonate throughout the league.

“If you want to aspire to be a champion, you have to find a way to win,” Serratore said.

For the record, Atlantic Hockey members were 0-13-1 against the rest of college hockey.