“I’ve talked to you a lot of times here when I wasn’t in a good mood, so I’ll talk to you now,” said Robert Morris head coach Derek Schooley upon entering the pressroom at Dwyer Arena in Niagara after his team rode Chris Kushneriuk’s first career hat trick to earn just their third win all-time in 15 games in western New York.

“We came out and battled and that was our theme of the week. We did the simple things and at times outworked them. But that’s a very good hockey team that’s not indicative of that team.”

RMU got off to a 2-6-0 start with wins against Alaska-Anchorage and Quinnipiac, but had scored more than one goal just once in their last five games leading to the Niagara series. They netted five in the win and three more in a tie in Moon Township the next day in the home-and-home series.

“If you look at our schedule, we’re playing all ranked teams and our strength of schedule is number one in the nation. We traveled to Alaska, traveling to Big Rapids, home against a ranked and unbeaten team in Quinnipiac, then to Bemidji and back on the bus to come here, we’ve put a lot of miles in.

“At times we’re a little fatigued, but I’m happy with our offense, but we need to make sure to tighten up defensively.”

Kushneriuk, who played at Wayne State two seasons ago in their final campaign, took over the team lead with his fourth, fifth and sixth goals of the season.

“I like to lurk around the net and try to find rebounds,” said the Ottawa native. “I’m never going to be an extremely flashy player, but when you’re playing with guys like (Nathan) Longpre and (Zach) Hervato, it makes everyone’s job a lot easier. I think our line right now has the right mindset.”

With the 3-3 tie at Robert Morris, Niagara ended their eight-game losing streak. Four days later, they finally earned the first win of the season on home ice against RPI thanks to three goals from freshmen Brent Vandenberg (2) and Giancario Iuorio—his first collegiate goal.

The Purps may have answered a few other season-long questions over the last five days as well with junior goaltender Adam Avramenko making 19 saves with one goal allowed against the Engineers after a 31-save effort in the Robert Morris tie.

And the Niagara power play, last in the nation with one marker over the first seven games, has exploded with six goals in their last 13 chances.

Robert Morris travels to Colorado College, currently seventh in the INCH Power Rankings, before again making the trek to Niagara the day before Thanksgiving.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

· Just five days after the Niagara coaching staff thought they would be making an announcement about senior defenseman Ryan Annesley being lost for the season due to a shoulder injury, the Purps’ best defenseman appeared in the lineup for both games against the Colonials and then tallied two assists in the win over RPI.

· Bemidji State announced the signing of forwards Radoslav Illo (Bystrica, Slovakia) and Jeff Jubinville (Edmonton, Alberta) during the fall early signing period and will join the program for the 2010-11 campaign. Illo was a fifth round draft choice of Anaheim in June.

· Bemidji State is averaging exactly three goals per game more in the second game of a two-game series than the first game this season. They have scored 11 goals in series-openers while piling up 26 goals in the second tilt of the weekend.

· After managing just one goal over two home losses to UMass-Lowell last weekend, Alabama-Huntsville takes a 119:14 scoreless streak into Bemidji State this weekend. The Chargers are riding a six-game losing streak, but two of those losses were to the Beavers and both went into overtime Halloween weekend. UAH hasn’t scored more than one goal in a game since Oct. 17.

BRIAN O’NEILL
Yale
So. | F | Yardley, Pa.

His Statistics: 2GP, 2-3—5, +3 plus-minus rating

His Impact: Yale’s high-scoring sophomore was involved in a very good weekend for the defending ECAC Hockey champions. After a so-so start to the season, the Bulldogs earned a 4-2 win over unbeaten Cornell and rallied for a 3-3 tie against first-place Colgate. O’Neill factored in prominently with two goals and three assists on the weekend.

He assisted Yale’s first goal as well as the eventual game-winner in the victory over Cornell and sealed the victory with an empty-net goal. In Saturday’s game against Colgate, Yale trailed 2-0 in the second period before O’Neill’s goal got them on the board. He then assisted Sean Backman’s goal later in the period to pull the Bulldogs to within 3-2.

His Runners-Up: Stephane De Costa (Merrimack); Andrew Favot (RIT); Justin Fontaine (Minnesota Duluth); Chris Kushneriuk (Robert Morris); Drew Palmisano (Michigan State)

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

The RIT Tigers have bounced back from a slow start to move into first place in Atlantic Hockey. After starting the season with five straight losses, RIT has run off six consecutive wins—the nation’s longest winning streak—and is the only team in Atlantic Hockey with a winning overall record. 

Barely six weeks into the season, a number of high-profile players have been sidelined with various dings and dents—Minnesota’s Jay Barriball and Nick Leddy, Yale’s Thomas Dignard, Rensselaer’s Tyler Helfrich, Northeastern’s Steve Quailer, and Notre Dame’s Ted Ruth among them. Injuries affect every team, but we don’t have to like it. This weekend’s North Dakota-Denver series, for example, should be a doozy … but how much better could it be if we were assured Marc Cheverie, Patrich Wiercioch, and Chay Genoway would be healthy?

“We’re not that good. We’ve got one returning 20-goal scorer, and he’s got one goal, and outside of that … we don’t have a lot of prolific offensive players.” — Michigan coach Red Berenson to the Michigan Daily following his team’s back-to-back losses to Michigan State this past weekend.

If Michigan’s season keeps going in this direction, we may have to officially name this segment of the First Shift in honor of Berenson. The Wolverines have scored a total of four goals in their last four games—all of them losses—and anyone who has watched their last two series against Miami and Michigan State can see that Berenson’s club is severely lacking playmakers and their ability to create scoring chances is virtually non-existent.

This week we won’t point to any unusual voting patterns in the national polls, but to some of the circumstances that we considered when stacking the INCH Power Rankings. Michigan State and Colorado College made huge jumps in both the INCH Power Rankings as well as the national polls after conference sweeps on the weekend. That’s mainly due to the work of MSU and CC, but partially due to a middling bunch of efforts by teams ranked in the 6-15 range. It’s early, sure, but it seems like there’s a definite drop in stature from the top 5-7 teams and the rest of the pack in college hockey.

runwiththedogs: about 4 hats on the ice … pathetic

The people behind the Minnesota Duluth Runnin’ with the Dogs blog tweeted this message shortly after the Bulldogs’ Justin Fontaine scored his third goal in Saturday’s 8-1 rout of Michigan Tech (he would add a fouth goal before all was said and done). The message touches on an INCH pet peeve: If you are wearing a hat to a hockey game and a player scores three goals, it is your duty to toss said hat onto the ice.

Don’t want to chuck your favorite lid? Bring one you don’t care about. And even if it is your best hat, throw it anyway—the good karma you’ll get from the hockey gods will far surpass the out-of-pocket cost of replacing it.

The Cinderella of last season’s Frozen Four - Bemidji State - finds itself as one of just two undefeated Division I programs. Cornell is the other, with five fewer games played. With their torrid start and the nation’s longest current winning streak, the Beavers find themselves ranked in the top 10 in the INCH Power Rankings and in other polls for the first time in the program’s history.

The Beavers have swept two-game series against Air Force and Robert Morris at home, earned a win and a tie at Northern Michigan and swept Alabama-Huntsville on the road.

After the Jordan George-Matt Read-Ian Lowe line accounted for all the offense and Dan Bakala stopped 23 shots for his first career shutout in the series-opener against RMU, it was the fourth line that came alive in the second tilt. Emil Billberg-Aaron McLeod-Darcy Findlay combined for two goals, three assists and a +7 as BSU completed the conference sweep over Robert Morris.

“We are very happy with this win because we put more of 60 minutes together rather than last night where we had just 30 good minutes,” Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore said to the Bemidji Pioneer after the second game. “We were fortunate enough to get the sweep and I’m very proud of the energy level we had in the third period. “I thought our fourth line played really well tonight and they all had a part in the three goals we had in the third period,” Serratore said. “It’s nice to have that balance and the production was nice tonight.”

Next it’s future conference rival Minnesota on the wider sheet this weekend for a Saturday-Sunday series. The last time the two teams collided was 2003-04 during the Beavers first 20-win season as a Division I program. The Golden Gophers swept the series.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

· Bemidji State sophomore defenseman Tyler Jundt is no longer listed on the Beavers roster after reporting leaving the team. He appeared two games this season without a point after seeing action in 20 games during his freshman campaign.

· Alabama-Huntsville wraps up their longest homestand in three seasons when they host UMass-Lowell this weekend. But Chargers fans should take a picture with a 10-game road marathon covering 4,608 miles between next weekend and Jan. 29 when they return to the Von Braun Center.

· Robert Morris managed just one goal over the two conference games this season and that was scored by a defenseman. They head into a home-and-home with Niagara looking to take advantage of spotty Purple Eagles goaltending. Starter Adam Avramenko was pulled in the second period in the home loss to UMass Sunday. “Two very, very bad goals,” said Niagara head coach Dave Burkholder as to the decision to switch goalies. “This team is fragile enough…we couldn’t wait to see if he would snap out of it. It’s undue stress on Greg (Assistant Coach Gardner) and myself, but we’ll sort it out and who deserves it will get the call (Friday).” Niagara won the regular season series last year 4-0-2, but the Colonials rebounded with a 2-1 decision in the CHA semi-finals.

· UAH and Niagara hold the bottom two spots in the nation in power play percentage. Combined, they are 3-for-74 for the season and 0-for their last 27 chances.

Everyone loves a good story, and this week’s college hockey slate is full of ‘em. Whether its the rematch of conference finalists, a historic rivalry that renews with the specter of an ugly on-ice incident from last season hanging over it, or a rematch featuring two teams that have gone in the opposite direction since their first meeting a month ago, we’ve got it all for you.

Drew Palmisano and his Michigan State teammates were winless in five games against Michigan a year ago.

Michigan vs. Michigan State (at Ann Arbor Friday, at East Lansing Saturday): Any more storylines for this series and we’re going to need J.J. Abrams to sort it all out. Beyond the obvious rivalry—the most heated in the CCHA and among the three or four best in college hockey—there’s Spartan forward Corey Tropp, the country’s leading scorer, returning to a building where last January he used his stick in a confrontation with Steve Kampfer as the Michigan defenseman was flat on the Yost Arena ice surface. Then there’s MSU seeking a measure of redemption; the Spartans dropped all five games to the Wolverines last season, losing by an average score of 5-2.

Coach Red Berenson read his team the riot act after getting swept by Miami in Ann Arbor last weekend, calling them “spoiled brats” after they piled up a number of undisciplined penalties in third period of Saturday’s series finale. Will they be able to keep their emotions in check? Conversely, how will the young Spartans deal with the intensity of this series? Of the 18 skaters Rick Comley had in the lineup for last Saturday’s game with Nebraska-Omaha, half were freshmen.

Bemidji State at Minnesota (Sat.-Sun.): Lost in the clamor of swirling rumors regarding Jordan Schroeder’s future, Jay Barriball’s season-ending injury, and Sam Lofquist’s defection to the OHL is this: The Gophers have played pretty good hockey the last two weekends, scoring 16 goals and allowing just eight in winning three of four against Alaska Anchorage and Wisconsin. Goaltender Alex Kangas has been sterling all along, and he’s finally getting some offensive support. He’ll need it against a Bemidji State team that ranks tied for seventh in the nation in scoring offense (3.75 goals per game). After scoring 40 points in 37 games last season, Beaver junior forward Matt Read has seven goals and 14 points in eight games. By the way, BSU also leads the country in scoring defense, allowing an average of just 1.25 goals per game.

Cornell at Yale (Friday): It’s a rematch of last year’s ECAC Hockey championship game when Yale hosts Cornell in New Haven. The Big Red appear to be the early favorites atop ECACH, but will be playing away from Lynah Rink for the first time this season. Yale won all three meetings against the Big Red last year and comes in after earning just one point on the road in a loss at RPI and a tie against Union to start its title defense. The third period has been the best for both teams. Through three games this year, Cornell has outscored its opponents 7-1 in the final 20 minutes and Yale has a 6-2 advantage over its opponents in the third period.

Vermont at Boston College (Sat.-Sun.): It doesn’t seem like a terrific series on paper given that the Catamounts are a .500 team while the Eagles enter the weekend with a 3-2-1 mark. These two clubs met in Burlington on Oct. 18-Vermont scored a 4-1 victory—but their fortunes have since diverged. UVM is 1-2-1 in four games since beating BC; the Eagles, meantime, are 3-1-1 since the loss at the Gut. Both are currently tied for third in Hockey East and, yeah, it’s early in the year, but a sweep either way would make the possibility of a top-four finish in the league standings that much more remote for the losing side.

Also: Two of ECAC Hockey’s early-season surprises meet Saturday when Rensselaer faces St. Lawrence … St. Cloud State is at North Dakota. The Huskies’ Garrett Roe won’t play Friday; he’s serving a one-game team-issued suspension … Can Merrimack continue its impressive start in its series with Boston University?

TV schedule: Friday—Harvard at Quinnipiac, NESN, 7:30 p.m. ET; Michigan State at Michigan, FSN Detroit, 7:30 p.m. ET; Ferris State at Miami, NHL Network, 7:30 p.m. ET; Alaska Anchorage at Wisconsin, FSN North Wisconsin, 8 p.m. ET; St. Cloud State at North Dakota, Fox College Sports, 8:30 p.m. ET. Saturday—Bemidji State at Minnesota, FSN North, 8:30 p.m. ET. Sunday—Bemidji State at Minnesota, FSN North, 7 p.m. ET.

CODY REICHARD
Miami
So. | G | Celina, Ohio

His Statistics: 2-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .959 save pct. in sweep at Michigan

His Impact: Miami made a strong statement in winning two games convincingly against CCHA rival and top-five ranked Michigan at Yost Ice Arena over the weekend. Reichard, the sophomore goalie who shared time with classmate Connor Knapp as a freshman, has emerged as Miami’s no. 1 in net and played very well in allowing just one goal each night against the Wolverines.

Reichard made 27 saves in Friday’s 3-1 win and stopped 20 shots in a 5-1 RedHawks victory Saturday. He and the Miami defense held the Wolverines to just one power-play goal in 14 opportunities on the weekend. Reichard and the RedHawks became the first team to sweep a weekend series at Yost since the early part of the 2001-02 season.

His Runners-Up: Brad Hunt, Bemidji State; Jeff Larson, Connecticut; Chase Polacek, Rensselaer; Carl Sneep, Boston College; Billy Sweatt, Colorado College

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

Former Michigan State standout Craig Simpson was the second overall pick in the 1985 NHL Draft and enjoyed a 10-year career with Pittsburgh, Edmonton, and Buffalo. He’s now the lead analyst for Hockey Night in Canda on the Canadian Broadcasting Company and, based on his performance last night, could be the winner of the CBC’s first Battle of the Blades.

Blades, a reality television series pairing ex-NHLers with figure skaters for a competition best described as Dancing With the Stars on ice. On Sunday, Simpson donned a blue crushed velvet suit and thick glasses as he and his partner, 2002 Olympic figure skating pairs gold medalist Jamie Sale, skated to Quincy Jones’ “Soul Bossa Nova”, better known as the theme from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Corny for sure, but Simpson’s bringing it.

The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs entered last weekend’s series at Colorado College as the nation’s second-most penalized team, and after racking up 51 PIMs in Saturday’s 6-2 loss they became the nation’s most penalized team. Among the infractions was a double-minor for roughing and instigating and a game misconduct assessed to Chad Huttel of the Bulldogs, who reportedly left the bench to start an altercation. These penalties came just 34 seconds after UMD closed to within two goals. Minnesota Duluth’s Drew Akins was called for a charging major and Dylan Olsen got a 10-minute misconduct, all with 2:18 remaining when CC scored its sixth goal..

“I’m embarrassed. We played like a bunch of spoiled brats. When you’re getting beat, you just keep working hard for the team. You don’t take it out on the other team and take stupid penalties that are going to hurt your team even further.” — Michigan coach Red Berenson following his team’s 5-1 loss to Miami Saturday.

The Wolverines racked up 51 penalty minutes in the third period, including a five-minute major and game misconduct to defenseman Tristin Llewellyn for checking from behind and misconducts to defenseman Chad Langlais and forward Kevin Lynch.

In eight years of compiling the INCH Power Rankings, the editors of this site can’t recall a team falling from the rankings in such dramatic fashion as Boston University has over the last two weeks. The Terriers were fourth in the Power Rankings of Oct. 25. We dropped them six spots last week, and completely from the Power Rankings this week. Why? Because they’re 2-5-0 and in last place in Hockey East. We don’t expect the Terriers to languish with that type of record over the long haul, but we can’t justifiably give them any recognition as one of the 20 best teams as they currently stand. That obviously wasn’t the case with many of the 50 voters in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll, as BU was ranked 17th and received 235 total points on ballots. 

CoachTimArmy a disjointed game yesterday … after a day off today we’ll get back at it tomorrow … we’ll regroup and sort some areas of our game out.

The Providence coach, who has his team off to a respectable 5-3-0 start including wins at Massachusetts and Notre Dame, tweeted this message folloing the Friars’ 3-0 loss to Vermont Sunday. And while Army’s focus is obviously on hockey, he certainly hasn’t turned a blind eye to the rest of the world. The tweet that appeared just moments after the one above read, “and by the way … 27 and counting … go yanks!”

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.