There was quite a bit of preseason talk about Niagara’s early schedule that featured a six-game road trip through Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Michigan, Cornell, Colgate and UMass after the Purple Eagles’ home opener October 9.

Senior defenseman Tyler Gotto has a hand in six of Niagara's 16 goals (two goals, four assists).

Included were home openers for three teams, but even with the strength of schedule, very few people envisioned Niagara being one of just five teams in the nation without a victory after an 0-5-1 start.

“It’s been an exciting time, but going in we expected to fare better,” head coach Dave Burkholder said. “(Playing) three home openers in some of the greatest venues in college hockey has tested where we are as a team.

“We are not satisfied with our record as a whole, but there have been positives on the ice. Moreso than in other leagues, our schedule allows us to test ourselves early, so why wouldn’t we?”

Looking deeper their current won-loss record, the Purps held leads in four of their six games so far. They had 2-0 and 4-1 leads at home against Colgate before allowing the Raiders to tie the game in the third period.

The trip to northern New York saw a 2-1 lead at Clarkson and a 3-0 advantage at St. Lawrence disappear. And the squad held a 2-1 lead midway through last weekend’s game at Colgate before falling.

“The power play is a work in progress (ranked 56th of 58 at 4% with one goal in 25 chances),” Burkholder said, “but we have some young kids in key spots and some of our older players are not off to great starts.”

The statistics also bear out their late-game struggles, being outscored 7-1 and outshot by 28 shots in the third period. Add in two overtime goals against and a .500 or better record seems like just an eyelash away.

“Our guys have been very honest in their self evaluations and you don’t get leads in three buildings like we have without doing something right,” Burkholder added. “Bemidji State last season started the year 2-7 and went to the Frozen Four.”

It doesn’t get any easier this weekend with a home-and-home Friday and Sunday against UMass, 17th in the INCH Power Rankings, before kicking off their conference schedule next week. The Minutemen have scored 11 of their 19 total goals with the man advantage and outscored their opponents 8-2 in the final period over five games.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

· Alabama-Huntsville is off this week and has just six games on the schedule before the holiday break. After a pair of overtime conference losses last week, it is a key stretch for the Chargers with four of the six in conference and on the road.

· Bemidji State hosts Robert Morris this weekend for a pair. The Colonials last season accounted for the only two losses the Beavers had over the final 17 games of the season before the Frozen Four.

· Bemidji State’s Jordan George, Niagara’s Marc Zanette and Alabama-Huntsville’s Justin Cseter are putting in early bids for the CHA All-Rookie team forward spots with a combined eight goals and seven assists.

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.

After Bemidji State ran the table in the CHA Tournament and the NCAA Midwest Regional on their way to the Frozen Four last season, they lost six seniors who accounted for 38 percent of their scoring and a sophomore goaltender who turned pro early.

Fast forward to 2009-10 and the parts have changed, but the car is still purring.

A home-opening weekend sweep against Air Force was followed by a win and tie at Northern Michigan last week, and has set up the Beavers with a little momentum as they open conference action at also-off-to-a-great-start Alabama-Huntsville.

Goaltender Dan Bakela has been solid in his first collegiate action with freshman Mathieu Dugas not only winning his first game last Saturday, but picking up a shutout in the process.

“It was a great effort,” Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore said to the Bemidji Pioneer about the 5-0 Saturday win. “You look back over the course of the last 10 years since we have been Division I and you think about some of the big wins, and this ranks right up there.”

One night prior, Ben Kinne scored with 10.6 seconds remaining to help the Beavers earn a 3-3 tie.

“This is not an easy place to play,” Serratore said. “It’s tough to get one point out of Marquette let alone three. Our guys played with just a ton of jam. I’m really proud of the way our guys played.”

Over four games this season, Bemidji State has the nation’s best offensive average with 18 goals, 4.5 goals per game.

Matt Read is leading the team in scoring, but freshman Jordan George, Ryan Cramer, Chris McKelvie, Tyler Lehrke and defenseman Brad Hunt are all averaging one point per game.

“Our seniors are carrying the mail,” Serratore said. “We need our experienced players to elevate their games. Hopefully we can continue to score by committee.”

The Beavers took six of seven games last season against the Chargers including a playoff win. The one misstep was a first-game, first-series loss at Rocket Town.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

• The Bemidji State-UAH series this weekend is an unusual Saturday-Sunday affair with a matinee for the finale. The Beavers liked Sundays last season going 2-0-1 with wins over UMass and Cornell.

• Robert Morris hosts Quinnipiac this weekend in their regular season home-opening series. Last year in Quinnipiac, the two teams combined for 22 goals over a two game split. Good news for junior Nathan Longpre, who is still goalless over four games.

• Just like the early going last season, Alabama-Huntsville goaltender Cameron Talbot is among the top ten in Division I in save percentage at .942.

• One tie over four games does not look good on paper, but all three Niagara losses have been one-goal affairs. The first two involved watching early leads go away over the final 20 minutes but last week at Michigan reversed the trend with a pair of goals to close a three-goal gap. “Our third period has been our worst period, that’s the trend we were setting in the first three games,” Burkholder said to the Niagara Gazette. “To come out and play as well as we did in the third, we had some big-time body checks, and we outshot them.”

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.

Alabama-Huntsville forward Andrew Coburn leads the team in scoring with four points in four games.

When Alabama-Huntsville upset nationally ranked Notre Dame on the road in its season opener, some hockey fans pulled out the old “on any given day, any team can beat any other” excuse to explain everything.

After all, the Chargers began last season with a tight 1-0 loss on the road to nationally ranked Colorado College before going on to net a grand total of five victories all season.

So now explain away this start.

After the split in South Bend, the Chargers traveled to Colorado Springs and shocked Air Force, the current king of the Atlantic Hockey heap, not once, but twice.

UAH head coach Danton Cole has a bit of ho-hum in his voice when he said, “We’re working hard and sometimes good things happen to a team when you do that.”

Good things happen once in a while, but not three times in four games. That trend that will be tested on home ice this weekend against Western Michigan, a team that swept UAH in Kalamazoo last season, and next week when they open conference play at home versus Bemidji State.

“Getting more than five wins was definitely not a goal I put down at the start of the season,” said Cole. “Twenty wins is a good start and gives the team a chance a winning the regular season title and advancing to the NCAA [Tournament]—those are the goals the players are striving for.

“We’ve gotten more ownership from the players and I think they now have a decent feel for what we’re trying to do. It’s definitely more fun coaching this way.”

Junior goaltender Cameron Talbot is front and center as one of those players, with Andrew Coburn, Cody Campbell, and freshman James Cseter (pronounced SEE-dar) leading the way offensively.

“We knew we had two tough road trips to start and then it didn’t get any easier with Western, who hosted a first-round [CCHA playoff] series last year, Bemidji State, and then UMass Lowell coming in,” Cole said.

Cole added that he tends to divide the season into five or six six-game segments. The end of the first segment is Saturday and, with the level of competition they were scheduled to face, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone outside of the Chargers locker room who would have given them a shot at four wins in the segment … or a chance for even more.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

· Niagara traveled to Michigan Thursday where, under Red Berenson, the Wolverines improved to 22-1-3 in home openers with a 3-2 win over the Purps.

· Robert Morris junior forward Chris Kushneriuk has netted 17 points over his last 23 games. His Colonials travel to Ferris State after going 1-0-1 against the Bulldogs last season.

· Alabama-Huntsville has scored just one power play marker among their 12 goals this season. On the flip side, the Chargers have allowed six extra-man goals (plus one shortie) among its nine total goals allowed through four games.

· Bemidji State has received contributions from throughout their lineup in the early going with eight different goal scorers accounting for the team’s 10 goals, including three by freshmen.

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.

Opening weekend for College Hockey America went more than pretty well for all four teams with five wins, one loss, and one tie. You can credit fourth-line production for some of that success.

Bemidji State avenged last year’s two-game sweep at Air Force by a combined 12-2 score with a sweep of its own against the Falcons while putting up a 10-spot over the two games. 

Robert Morris forward Nathan Longpre is on track to eclipse the school's scoring records.

Niagara watched a 4-1 third-period lead evaporate at home against Colgate, but managed to escape with a 4-4 tie. It marked their first point against the Raiders since beating them in the championship of the Rensselaer Thanksgiving Tournament in 2006.

Robert Morris did allow six goals, but scored 11 in a two-game exhibition sweep over Queen’s.

The highlight of the weekend was Alabama-Huntsville’s 3-2 upset of Notre Dame, second in the INCH Great 58 preseason rankings, in front of a packed house at the Joyce Center on opening night. The Fighting Irish rebounded for a 3-1 win Saturday. UAH goaltender Cameron Talbot stopped 87 of the 92 shots he faced in the weekend split.

The official word was that there was no thought to paying back the CCHA for denying the Chargers entry to the league this past summer, but one would be foolish to believe it wasn’t at least hinted at behind closed doors in the locker room by the coaches or the players.

The Chargers got the game-tying goal in their opening win from freshman and fourth-liner Justin Cseter in the third period.

Niagara received a pair of goals from fourth-liners—freshmen Brent Vandenberg and Marc Zanette—in its Colgate tie.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

• Bemidji State has already revealed its 2010-11 schedule, which includes a two-game set with North Dakota Oct. 15-16 as they cut the ribbon on the new Bemidji Regional Events Center.

• Niagara senior forward Chris Moran can become the 12th Purple Eagle to join the program’s 100-point club during this weekend’s trip to Clarkson and St. Lawrence. He has 99 career points.

• After just two seasons, Robert Morris forward Nathan Longpre is on pace to break the all-time school mark for assists and points. He currently has 46 assists and 65 points with Chris Margott holding both marks with 72 career assists and 136 points.

• UAH goaltender Cameron Talbot stopped a career-high 48 shots in his team’s loss to Notre Dame Saturday. The Chargers’ team record is 62 by Barry Friedman in 1986.

• Speaking of UAH, senior Kevin Morrison will visit the site of his first collegiate goal in 2006 when his Chargers travel to Air Force this weekend for a pair.

Feels good to be back, doesn’t it?

We’re trying something different this season in order to get more of a national feel to our early-week coverage before delving into the conference stuff as the weekend nears. Every week, the First Shift will feature INCH’s national Player of the Week, Stick Salute, and Bench Minor. We’ll also take a lighter-hearted look at the weekend that was in our Say What?, Rankings Outrage, and Tweet of the Week segments.

This is a work in progress, to be sure. But unlike Phil Cuzzi, we promise not to miss anything.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
RICH PURSLOW Nebraska-Omaha Jr. | F | Greenlawn, N.Y.His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-2-4, +3 vs. Army and UMass LowellHis Impact: If the results from this past weekend’s Icebreaker Tournament in Omaha are any indication, Dean Blais’s tenure as the Mavericks’ head coach should be, at the very least, exciting. UNO, which ranked 42nd in the country in scoring offense last season with an average of 2.45 goals per game, exploded for 10 goals in wins against Army and UMass Lowell.Purslow, the Icebreaker MVP, led a balanced scoring attack with a goal and an assist in each of the Mavs’ two wins. He helped set up Terry Broadhurst’s game-winning goal in Friday’s 6-4 decision against Army and sparked UNO’s come-from-behind triumph against the RiverHawks Saturday with a first-period goal less than three minutes after UML jumped out to an early 2-0 advantage. His Runners-Up: Dan Bakela (Bemidji State); Mike Cichy (North Dakota); Scott Greenham (Alaska); Brayden Irwin (Vermont); Dan Morrison (Canisius); Eric Lampe (Quinnipiac); Cameron Talbot (Alabama-Huntsville). The INCH Player of the Week is presented by The INCH Shop
STICK SALUTE	Good on the hockey fans in the Rochester area (7,421 of them, to be exact) for showing up at Blue Cross Arena for Saturday’s Colgate-RIT tilt. The game turned out to be a real treat—the Raiders’ Austin Smith scored a shorthanded goal in the third period to give his team a 3-2 victory. The building’s primary tenant, the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans, averaged a little more than 4,000 fans in 40 home dates last season.
BENCH MINOR	The opening weekend wasn’t a high-water mark for the CCHA’s upper echelon. Most notable (and by notable, we mean cringe-worthy) were Notre Dame’s 3-2 loss to Alabama-Huntsville at the Joyce Center Friday, Michigan’s shutout loss to Alaska in Anchorage that same night, and Ohio State’s pair of losses to visiting Quinnipiac, a team picked to finish in the bottom third of ECAC Hockey.
SAY WHAT?	“I’m not one who’s going to make a lot of changes when things are working.” — UNO coach Dean Blais to the Omaha World-Herald’s Chad Purcell following the Mavs’ Icebreaker Tournament championship game win Saturday. But when things aren’t working—especially for a goaltender—Blais gets out the hook quicker than Tony LaRussa. UNO senior Jeremie Dupont learned as much against Army and UMass Lowell, allowing six goals on 20 shots in just under 54 minutes of work. Sophomore John Faulkner earned both wins in relief.
RANKINGS OUTRAGE	It’s early and it’s gonna take a while for the national polls to sort themselves out. That said, we’re not sure how Boston College, the 12th-ranked team in this week’s USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll, earned one first-place vote. By the way, 27 teams received at least one vote in the same poll. The Alaska Nanooks, who beat Michigan and Mercyhurst at the Kendall Hockey Classic in Anchorage, were not one of them.
TWEET OF THE WEEK	@HackswithHaggs: God bless the dude at Angels stadium wearing a Whale T-shirt while waiting in line for a hot dog. What are the odds?

THE SKINNY

It seems like just yesterday that Bemidji State ran through Notre Dame and Cornell in the NCAA Midwest Regional on their way to the Frozen Four in D.C.

Now heading into the terminal season of College Hockey America, the Beavers lost top goaltender Matt Dalton to the pros, and standout defenseman Cody Bostock and four of their top six forwards (Tyler Scofield, Matt Francis, Brandon Marino, and Travis Winter) to graduation. But winning breeds winning—at least according to the league’s preseason coaches poll that tabbed the Beavs to repeat as conference champions.

BSU’s goalie questions can also be transferred to last year’s second-place team, Niagara, as well. Junior Adam Avramenko takes the reins from three-year starter Juliano Pagilero, who is playing professionally in Italy.

The uncertainty extends to Robert Morris, which thinks it found a starter in net with the late run by freshman Brooks Ostergard. Alabama-Huntsville has the only returning full-season starter in Cameron Talbot. Despite having just three career victories, he was named to the preseason all-CHA team.

Simply put, any of the four teams could finish anywhere from first two four. All go about one line deep for certain up front, with Bemidji State and Niagara maybe a touch more experienced on the blueline.

Of course, this all pales to the questions surrounding the future of UAH, who a mere seven months from now will be without a chair—or conference—when the CHA music stops in the spring.

BREAKTHROUGH TEAM

Just four seasons ago, Alabama-Huntsville rallied around Doug Ross, its soon-to-be retiring coach, to sweep through the CHA playoffs and advance to the NCAA tourney. Now in their swan song season in CHA and stunned (or is it shunned?) by the CCHA no-vote, UAH will be out to prove that the powers-that-be were mistaken.

Losing just four primary seniors, the Chargers return 10 of their top 13 scorers including 2009 CHA all-Rookie selection Cody Campbell, junior Andrew Coburn, and senior defenseman Brandon Roshko. If they can find more consistent scoring, they could match the total number of wins (11) in head coach Danton Cole’s first two seasons combined.

As if they needed another challenge, the Chargers play just six of their final 20 games at home. Included is a two-month, 10-game stretch on the road encompassing November, December, and January.

PRIMED FOR A FALL

Bemidji State was picked by the league’s coaches to repeat as champions, and there is something to be said about the younger players learning how to win during their postseason run last spring. But a team whose three goaltenders have never played a college game, lost 48 percent of its goal-scoring and 38 percent of its offense is more than unpredictable.

All-CHA first team selections Matt Read and Brad Hunt are back, but the next-best returning scorer had all of 15 points last season. The good news is that all but one of the defensive core that helped launch the Beavers into the Frozen Four returns and will help whoever wins the goalie sweepstakes tremendously.

PRESSURE TO PERFORM

Prior to Valentine’s Day last season, Niagara was in contention for the conference crown. It was hardly a Hallmark moment, however, as the Purps managed just one win over their final nine games encompassing the regular season and playoffs.

The core of the team has changed, but remains solid with Chris Moran and Egor Mironov up front and senior defenseman Tyler Gotto and Ryan Annesley anchoring the blueline.

The main training camp questions are whether Brian Haczyk or David Ross centers the top line, and who steps into the wings on the second line. 

Robert Morris junior forward Nathan Longpre has 65 points in 69 career games.

TOUGHEST ACT TO FOLLOW

Robert Morris was in a dogfight with UAH trying to stay out of last place as late as the first week of February. Then the Brooks Ostergard show began, and the Colonials rode him to a 4-1-3 finish and the CHA title game.

With all-time leading scorer Chris Margott departed, the spotlight focuses on junior Nathan Longpre and junior defenseman Denny Urban to carry the load. Key will be whether second- or third-liners from last season—such as Chris Kushneriuk, Kyle Burton and Scott Kobilako—can step into higher profile roles.

BEST PLAYER

Bemidji State’s Matt Read had 15 goals and 40 points last season; RMU’s Nathan Longpre tallied 12 goals and 41 points … so you flip the coin.

Both play in all situations and very rarely take a shift off. If you had to split hairs, Read is probably the better faceoff man. An extended injury to either would be devastating to their respective team.

IMPACT NEWCOMER

He is listed as a sophomore on the roster, but Beavers goaltender Dan Bakela did not play a single minute in NCAA games last season. He did, however, appear in three exhibition games, allowing a total of three goals. The Calgary native will likely get first shot at filling the shoes of Matt Dalton, who backstopped the team past several powerhouses last season. Bakela will benefit from the collective experience of his defense, which lost just one starter to graduation.

UNSUNG PLAYER

Robert Morris junior defenseman Brock Meadows doesn’t put up a lot of points—just 15 in 63 games—but he is on the ice quite often against the other team’s top line.

Playing his first season for the Colonials after seeing 30 games in the final season of the Wayne State program, the Mission, British Columbia, product and his defensive partner typically played against the other team’s top unit to free up offensive defenseman Denny Urban on the next shift.

He was on the starting pair for the final 11 games of the season.

THREE BURNING QUESTIONS 

1) Which team’s goaltender will step forward to be the difference and take their team to the final CHA regular-season crown?

2) Will another freshman defenseman emerge in the conference to have the same impact Bemidji State’s Brad Hunt had on the Beavers last season?

3) Where will Alabama-Huntsville land for 2010-11 and beyond? 

MARK IT DOWN
Four things you can take to the bank in the CHA this season.

1. Robert Morris will not fly under the radar this season at the season-opening Brice Alaska Goal Rush in Fairbanks. Two years ago, the Colonials upset Boston University in Anchorage en route to the Nye Frontier Classic title

2. Alabama-Huntsville will view 193 movies during the course of the season. The Chargers’ sleeper bus visits Notre Dame, Vermont, and Clarkson this season in addition to the usual conference trips.

3. Niagara may have one of the toughest opening schedules in the nation. The Purps’ slate includes road games at Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Michigan, Cornell, Colgate, and UMass … all of which immediately follow the season’s lid-lifter at Dwyer Arena against Colgate.

4. There will be energy in the air for Bemidji State’s final regular-season home games. It is more than fitting that the final games at Glas Fieldhouse prior to moving the city’s new events center next season are Feb. 19-20 against longtime conference rival Niagara.