SURPRISE TEAM

Brandon Wong

Based on preseason expectations, very few people expected to see the Quinnipiac Bobcats among the top half of teams in ECAC Hockey. Instead, they ended up getting a spot among the top half of teams in the national rankings. They announced their presence with a sweep at Ohio State on the season’s opening weekend and went on to win their first five games. After a loss at Robert Morris, the Bobcats then won eight in a row including their first seven in ECAC Hockey play.

The questions existed because of a lack of an established goaltender and the graduation of Bryan Leitch and David Marshall, who combined for 105 points last year. A balanced offensive attack - including a big year from Brandon Wong (12-12-24) - has provided the Bobcats with plenty of scoring and …

SURPRISE INDIVIDUAL

Sophomore Dan Clarke has earned the number one role in net for the Bobcats and has had a very good first half. In 12 games, Clarke has compiled a 8-2-1 record. He is second overall among ECACH goalies in save percentage (.923) and goals-against average (2.43). Clarke played in 13 games as a freshman with a 5-6-1 record.

At the pro level, we’ll give a mention to two former ECACH standouts. Former Cornell sniper Matt Moulson is playing a prominent role with the New York Islanders, where he shares the team lead in goals (15) and ranks second on the team in points (26). Former St. Lawrence Saints forward Rich Peverley is having a huge season in Atlanta with 12 goals and 33 points in 33 games. He’s been almost a point-a-game player for the Thrashers since moving there from Nashville last year - Peverley had 35 points in 39 games for Atlanta last year.

WHAT HAPPENED TO? …

Speaking of goaltenders, what’s happened to two of the league’s best this year? Princeton’s Zane Kalemba, last year’s ECAC Hockey and Ivy League player of the year, has a 2-5-1 record and 3.36 goals-against average. He’s coming off of his best game of the year, a 45-save performance in a win at nationally-ranked UMass Lowell. Harvard’s Kyle Richter ranks dead last overall among qualifiers in goals-against average (3.89) and 12th in save percentage (.890). Richter was the league’s Ken Dryden Award winner following the 2007-08 season.

BEST NEW FACE

Jerry D’Amigo of Rensselaer was the leading scorer for Team USA at last spring’s under-18 World Championship and was projected as a high pick in last summer’s NHL Entry Draft. While his draft status slipped to the later rounds, the Toronto Maple Leafs are probably ecstatic about how D’Amigo’s season has started. He ranks third on the Engineers in scoring with 14 points in 18 games and is a candidate to make the United States’ entry in the World Junior Championships.

BIGGEST UPSET

Mike Clemente

When Brown hosted Quinnipiac on Dec. 5, it was actually the Bears that came in on a winning streak - they had recently defeated Connecticut, Harvard and Princeton - and Quinnipiac suffered just its first league loss the previous night against Yale. But the upstarts from Providence were facing their toughest test of the year and went on to a 2-1 win over first-place Quinnipiac. Jeff Buvinow and Sean Connauton scored third-period goals and Mike Clemente stopped 22 of 23 shots he faced, as Brown outshot Quinnipiac 31-23 in the game.

TOUGHEST ROAD OUT

Clarkson played only six of its first 16 games at home in Cheel Arena and played two road series against nationally-ranked Michigan State and Minnesota Duluth, and a single game against Boston College. They’ll be spending more time in Potsdam in the second half, and the road trips aren’t of significant distance. After playing in Minnesota’s holiday tournament Jan. 2-3, the Golden Knights won’t play a game outside of New York with the exception of the weekend at Brown and Yale, Feb. 19-20. Did Jim Boeheim make that schedule?

TOUGHEST ROAD IN

Cornell’s got league road games at Clarkson/St. Lawrence and Quinnipiac/Princeton, plus the road portion of the matchup with travel partner Colgate among its second half tests, but that’s only half the story. Also included are non-league matches with Colorado College , New Hampshire and two at Lynah against North Dakota. Winning a couple of those will prove Cornell as a top team and Frozen Four contender, or significantly impact its NCAA Tournament chances and seeding.

MUST-SEE GAMES

North Dakota’s trip to Cornell on Jan. 22-23 should make for great games in Lynah’s raucous environment. Both teams like to skate and have good size. It’s a great cross-regional matchup and it’s great to see at least one of the West’s elite teams willing to make trips to ECAC Hockey schools.

BIGGEST QUESTION ANSWERED

Was Yale’s 2008-09 season a one-year wonder or the sign of something bigger? Yale has proven itself this season and shown that last year wasn’t a fluke. Despite searching for some consistency in goal, the Bulldogs have won with a high-powered offense. Yale is the nation’s highest-scoring team at 4.33 goals per game and six players are averaging more than a point per game, led by sophomore Brian O’Neill with 16 points and Broc Little’s 10 goals.

BIGGEST QUESTION REMAINING

Jason Walters has 17 points and ranks second on Union in scoring.

Can Union make a run at its first ECAC Hockey championship? The Dutchmen have been no fun to play against for opponents for a couple of years but are poised to achieve bigger things this season. They’re unbeaten in 10 (6-0-4) and have some of the best offensive talent and depth in the league. Freshman goalie Keith Kinkaid has given Union strong goaltending and has been getting the majority of work in recent games ahead of junior Corey Milan. A top-four finish in the league and advancing to the championship weekend in Albany are certainly within the realm of possibility for Union.

INCH’s FIRST HALF ALL-ECAC HOCKEY TEAM

G-Ben Scrivens, Cornell: The league’s leader in goals-against average and save percentage will continue to be cursed by “it’s a product of the system” stereotyping, but his play has gradually improved all season.

D-Tom Dignard, Yale: The standout from the defending league champs missed the end of last season due to injury, but has been right back in the mix this year after missing the first couple games. He has 11 points in nine games.

D-Mike Schreiber, Union: The Dutchmen don’t get much offensive punch from the blue line, but they don’t need it. The senior has contributed four goals and eight assists in 16 games.

F-Brandon Wong, Quinnipiac: A dozen goals and a dozen assists for Wong leads the way for one of the nation’s most pleasantly surprising teams this year. Wong has four game-winning goals.

F-David McIntyre, Colgate: A premier player previously known for his goal-scoring proficiency has been more of a setup man this year, with a league-leading 14 assists.

F-Colin Greening, Cornell: He is second on the Big Red in scoring with 16 points and sets the physical and emotional tone for Cornell.

COREY TROPP
Michigan State
Jr. | F | Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.

Michigan State's Corey Tropp heads into the holiday break as the NCAA leader in goals and points.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 4-2-6, +4 rating. GWG in two wins over Bowling Green

His Impact: When Michigan State was in a couple of tough spots against Bowling Green, the Spartans’ leading scorer came through. In Saturday’s game at BG, Tropp scored the game-tying goal with 5:40 remaining in the third period to knot the score 2-2. He then assisted on Michigan State’s overtime winner, the first career goal by freshman defenseman Torey Krug.

The teams tussled again Saturday in East Lansing and Tropp continued his big weekend by factoring on all four Michigan State goals in a 4-1 win. He assisted on Jeff Petry’s first-period power-play goal and then scored three straight goals over the second and third periods for the hat trick.

He is the only player with more than one hat trick this season and he leads the nation in goals (16) and points (27). Tropp has been called for just seven minor penalties in 20 games this year.

His Runners-Up: Bryan Flynn, Maine; Blake Geoffrion, Wisconsin; Mario Vallery-Trabucco, Union; Paul Zanette, Niagara; Ryan Zapolski, Mercyhurst

The upcoming week is largely bereft of college hockey action with just six non-conference matches on the slate between Tuesday and Sunday. There is an exhibition game that piques one’s interest, however, as North Dakota hosts the U.S. under-20 squad this Saturday—it’s the U.S. team’s lone domestic tune-up prior to the start of the the IIHF World Junior Championship, which runs from Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. As an added bonus, the game is scheduled to be televised on Fox College Sports (DirecTV channel 617) at 8 p.m. ET.

Immortality takes many forms. For example, in his team’s loss to Rensselaer Saturday, Boston University defenseman Eric Gryba picked up a holding minor and a 10-minute misconduct at 8:13 of the second period to reach 295 career penalty minutes, eclipsing the school record of 288 set by Freddy Meyer. With all the PIMs he’s amassed, what’s another bench minor?

“We have a lot of guys who are underachieving now, or who overachieved last year.”

BU coach Jack Parker to John Connolly of the Boston Herald following the Terriers’ 5-3 loss to Rensselaer at Agganis Arena Saturday. The defending champs are in a death spiral that would make the Pittsburgh Steelers jealous. BU is 2-7-3 since Halloween and sits in ninth place in the Hockey East standings, one point ahead of 10th-place Providence.

This time around, we’re the subject of outrage.

Can you explain to the logic of how a team that splits with the No. 2 team in the country, and then splits with the No. 1 team in the country can fall three spots in your rankings?—Glen, St. Paul, Minn.

Glen refers to Minnesota Duluth dropping a few notches despite respectable splits against North Dakota and Denver. Our first impulse was to thank him for insinuating that logic plays a role in anything we do. He should listen to a podcast.

As we’ve often said regarding our Power Rankings, hockey is not played in a vacuum. And UMD’s slide isn’t really a result of anything they’ve done. As a staff, we felt the need to reward Ferris State (owners of a 10-game unbeaten streak) and Wisconsin (10-3-1 after a 1-2-1 start), so both crept ahead of UMD in recent weeks. Simple as that.

@CHockeyattheJoe Wearing my Blue and Yellow, because I am going to the U of M Game tonight!!! Come find me, I will be the one with the GLI stuff

Regional authenticity fail. Ask a Michigan fan if they wear blue and yellow, and you’re liable to end up wearing blue and black. As an aside, do you realize that there will be more nationally-ranked teams playing at the UConn Hockey Classic (Union, UMass) than at the Great Lakes Invitational (Michigan State)?

Most of the college hockey-playing country is in the grips of winter weather—snow, ice, sleet, freezing rain, Arctic air, or some combination therein. It’s perfect pucks weather, though, and we’re here with our picks for the four best matchups of the weekend.

Wisconsin at North Dakota (Fri.-Sat.): It’s the battle of an unstoppable offense against a stingy defense. Surprisingly, it’s the Badgers who pace the WCHA in scoring at four goals a game and the Sioux who share the league lead in scoring defense at two goals a game—NoDak is tied with Wisconsin for that honor, so it appears some things never change.

Anyhoo, the outcome of this series may be defined by who doesn’t play. North Dakota defenseman Chay Genoway is still sidelined by the lingering effects of a concussion suffered weeks ago, and top forward Chris VandeVelde was shelved for last Saturday’s loss at Minnesota Duluth. He could go this weekend, however. Among the Wisconsin wounded is goaltender Brett Bennett; he was hurt in practice this week and won’t make the trip to Grand Forks. Scott Gudmandson will go both nights for Bucky.

Michigan vs. Notre Dame (Fri. at Ann Arbor, Sun. at Notre Dame): Two teams whose first halves have not gone according to script meet in a home-and-home series this weekend. The Wolverines have rallied from last month’s five-game losing streak to win four of their last five. Notre Dame, meanwhile, is 2-4-3 in its last nine games. Scoring has been the Irish’s big problem—during the aforementioned nine-game stretch, the Fighting Irish have netted a total of 16 goals and have scored two or fewer goals in seven of those matches.

Zane Kalemba and Princeton will try to get off the schneid against UMass Lowell this weekend.

Princeton at UMass Lowell (Fri.-Sat.): Another candidate for “What Happened To?” honors in the first half of the season is Princeton. The Tigers are in the throes of a five-game losing skid and six-game winless streak. The problem? Not scoring enough and letting in too many—Princeton has been outscored in its last five by a 22-9 margin. UMass Lowell snapped a three-game mini-slide last Saturday by beating UMass at Tsongas Arena.

Colorado College at St. Cloud State (Fri.-Sat.): Despite its strong start, we’ve viewed Colorado College with a healthy dose of skepticism to date because of the Tigers’ relatively soft schedule and preponderance of home games. On the flip side, we’ve given St. Cloud State the benefit of the doubt because its first-half slate ranks among the toughest in the country and it has played the bulk of his games on the road.

The Huskies are two games above .500, but they’ve got a road win against Denver and those three-point weekends against Union and Minnesota Duluth back in October are looking pretty good right now. The Tigers, who played 10 of their first 14 games at World Arena, embark on a stretch during with eight of their next 10 are on the road.

Also: More ECAC Hockey-Hockey East crossover as Rensselaer heads east for a game against reeling Boston University and St. Lawrence travels to Vermont … Maine started the season 1-5-0, but is 7-2-1 since. The Black Bears host Northeastern Saturday … Minnesota Duluth hosts Denver in a key WCHA series.

TV Schedule (All times Eastern): Friday—Wisconsin at North Dakota, NHL Network and Fox College Sports, 8:30 p.m.; Saturday—Wisconsin at North Dakota, Fox College Sports, 8 p.m.

Though the last seven games haven’t gone particularly well in terms of results, the big picture at RPI this season is pretty nice to look at, and that’s a welcome change following three difficult seasons mired in the bottom third of ECAC Hockey. A strong start to the season included a 7-3-1 record through the first 11 games. RPI won its first three ECAC Hockey contests as well.

“I think our fans feel it, I think they like the way we’re playing. I think we play a fast and aggressive physical style when we play properly, and so I think the fans and the community and the school are excited about it. More importantly than that, I think the guys are. I think the guys sense that this could be a pretty good season. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get there, but we could be a pretty good team,” RPI head coach Seth Appert said.

Chase Polacek leads RPI with 25 points in 18 games.

The Engineers have added talent to the roster every year and this year’s incoming class includes NHL draft picks Jerry D’Amigo (Toronto) and Brandon Pirri (Chicago). That duo ranks second and third on the team in scoring. Pirri’s seven goals and 10 assists trail only junior Chase Polacek (12-13-25). D’Amigo has five goals and 14 points and has played every game this year, despite concern about a recent knee injury and speculation that he could miss a couple weeks of action. They’ve provided an immediate impact, but also a sort of energy to some of the team’s veterans that have seen some lean times in their careers.

“It’s exciting. I think that’s the best word to use. The previous three years I think we’ve been a very good team but maybe not as talented. With the kids we’ve brought in this year, they are unbelievable hockey players,” senior forward Paul Kerins said. “Unbelievable talent. Watching them play, it’s just fun to sit back and watch them do what they do. They make guys like me better, learning from them, watching the way they play.”

John Kennedy, the team’s junior captain, encouraged the team to stay together to work out on campus in May, and to return to Troy in August for workouts and team building. Upperclassmen like Kevin Beauregard, Christian Jensen and Kerins have taken on more significant roles on the team and are setting a good example.

“I like the way our upperclassmen have handled things. They keep coming every day to go to work. Now you’re getting those older guys that are role players and they’re having a great attitude and working hard which sends a great message to the younger kids about what it’s all about,” Appert said.

Another reason for RPI’s renewed energy and confidence was last year’s playoff run, in which they earned a first-round series victory at Dartmouth on the road and stretched Cornell to three games in the quarterfinal series.

“It made guys believe. I think it gave them an understanding of how hard it is, and that was just to go 3-2. I think people underestimate how hard it is, and how hard it is to win in our league because the depth is so good and the disparity between top and bottom is tighter,” Appert said.

After getting that taste of success last year, RPI is poised to make a run later in the season, and it’s a rewarding feeling for the team’s elder statesmen, like Kerins.

“I think the program definitely has come full circle and to see it from year one to four now, it’s pretty awesome.”

THREE MORE THINGS WORTH KNOWING

• Yale has nearly a month off between games after sweeping league foes Quinnipiac and Princeton last weekend. The Bulldogs handed Quinnipiac its first ECACH loss of the year, and Yale is quietly putting together another impressive season. Yale is 7-3-2 through its first dozen games and two of the losses - at Vermont and at Massachusetts have come to nationally-ranked teams from Hockey East. Yale is also the nation’s highest-scoring team with 4.33 goals per game (52 in 12 games). Junior Broc Little’s 10 goals lead the team, and senior Sean Backman has eight. After that, sophomore Brian O’Neill’s six goals are noteworthy but it doesn’t illustrate how balanced Yale’s scoring has been. Nobody else on the team has more than four, but a nine more players have at least two tallies on the year. Yale faces nationally-ranked Ferris State in the opening round of the Badger Showdown hosted by Wisconsin on the first weekend in January, and could face the nationally-ranked hosts in the second round.

• Yale’s not the only team lighting the lamp with great regularity. Four of the nation’s top-10 scoring offenses are ECAC Hockey outfits. Quinnipiac is fourth at 3.88 goals per game, Cornell is eighth overall at 3.64 goals per night including a nation’s-best 32.1 power play conversion rate. Union is tied for 10th with Colorado College, averaging 3.50 goals per game.

• The Good: Brown’s five-game winning streak is the program’s longest since the 2003-04 season. Included in this run was four victories in eight nights. The Bad: Princeton’s philosophy under coach Guy Gadowsky has simply been to try to score goals. If the effort is there, the results are not, as Princeton ranks 53rd of 58 teams in the country with just 2.09 goals per game. The Ugly: Three of the five worst teams in penalty kill percentage nationally are ECAC Hockey teams - Harvard (54th, 73.6 percent), Union (56th, 72.4 percent) and St. Lawrence (57th, 71.6 percent).

MIKE CLEMENTE
Brown
So. | G | Great Falls, Va.

His Statistics: 3 GP, 3-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .971 save pct.

Mike Clemente

His Impact: It wasn’t surprising to see Brown’s talented sophomore goalie come up with a big mid-week performance in a win at Harvard. Clemente stopped 42 of 43 shots on the night, his third straight win over the Crimson on Harvard’s home ice - dating back to last spring’s back-to-back shutouts in the playoffs. In those three games Clemente had a 0.33 goals-against average and stopped 128 of 129 shots, a .992 save percentage.

Clemente’s spectacular string continued through the weekend, with 36 saves in a 3-1 win over Princeton and 22 saves in a 2-1 win over first-place Quinnipiac. In Brown’s three victories for the week, Clemente stopped 100 of 103 shots.

The bigger picture for the Bears shows that things are trending upward after a couple of difficult seasons. Brown has won four straight and could earn a fifth straight win Tuesday when they host American International. Brown’s last five-game winning streak came back in the 2003-04 season when Yann Danis was a senior.

His Runners-Up: Cody Campbell, Alabama-Huntsville; Jacques Lamoureux, Air Force; John Muse, Boston College; Cody Reichard and Connor Knapp, Miami; Brendan Smith, Wisconsin

Can we call this group of dedicated fans Carter's Campers?

College hockey fandom takes many forms, whether it’s the Lynah Faithful chucking fish or the kids at Yost hurling obscenities. Down in Oxford, Ohio, Miami has always had solid support, but as the RedHawk program has risen to national prominence, the team’s fans have ratcheted up the fervor. Witness the accompanying visual evidence of RedHawk boosters camping outside Goggin 2.0 prior to last weekend’s series with Notre Dame.

It’s not Krzyzewski-ville, nor is it of the magnitude of the tent city that sprung up prior to the Miami-Michigan series of a couple years ago that pitted the nation’s two top-ranked teams against one another, but we love it. The only thing that could possibly make us happier is if one of the tents belonged to RedHawk forward Carter Camper.

An apparent officiating error was made at the end of Saturday’s game in Duluth between North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth. Late in the third period, the puck apparently struck the protective screen above the glass, and play continued. Later in the shift, Minnesota Duluth scored the game-tying goal with 33 seconds remaining in the third period. The Bulldogs eventually won the game in overtime.

Our beef isn’t that the call was missed, because it’s an extremely difficult call for refs to make for two major reasons - lighting and perspective. The officials are looking up at a dark puck on a dark net against a dark background. Fans and television cameras often catch the action from a higher perspective against the white background of the ice. It’s not an ideal situation.

The NCAA Rulebook says that a linesman’s responsibilities include making decisions on pucks being out of play, and from their perspective at the blueline while the puck is in an attacking zone, it makes sense to us that they should call the puck out of play more aggressively.

Compare the two quotes below.

US National Team Development Program goalie Jack Campbell: “My goal is to be playing in the National Hockey League within a year or two, and I did not want to put Michigan’s hockey program in a bad position where I left after one season.”

Michigan State senior basketball player Isiah Dahlman: “I just loved this place so much, it felt like home for me. I didn’t want to transfer somewhere (and) give up my goals just because it wasn’t going right for me.”

Campbell, a highly touted netminder, had verbally committed to Michigan but last month decided he would go the major junior route instead. Dahlman, a heralded recruit when he came to East Lansing a few years ago, saw a lot of action as a freshman but has played sparingly since. Campbell has been criticized by some for spurning Michigan, while Dahlman is seen as not having lived up to his billing. The interesting parallel regarding these quotes is that while Dahlman and (especially) Campbell have been vilified to a certain extent, they’re doing what they feel is best in order to achieve their goals–Dahlman’s, athletically and otherwise, have changed along the way, while Campbell feels he’s best served by taking an alternate route.

The bottom line is that while college sports fans may feel these student-athletes have failed to meet our expectations or let us down, we have to respect that they’re pursuing dreams and seeking fulfillment. Too often, we lose sight of that.

“I have a vote in the [USCHO/CBS College Sports] poll and I picked Union 14th,” the Schenectady Daily Gazette’s Ken Schott wrote in his Parting Schotts blog Monday. “Why not?”

The Dutchmen are 18th in the INCH Power Rankings and 20th in the USCHO/CBS College Sports poll and also received votes in this week’s USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll, so it’s not like Union doesn’t belong among the country’s top 20. They’re a definite contender in ECAC Hockey and we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them knocking on the door of the top-10 in the national rankings before the end of the season.

But Schott, who’s covers the Union hockey beat, issued a challenge, and we’re willing to bite because we think he’s holding a little bit of hometown reverence for the team at this early stage of the season. The Dutchmen (7-3-5, 3-0-3 ECAC Hockey) have no wins against ranked opponents and their best win was a 3-1 victory over Colgate at home this past weekend. Union swept Maine on the opening week of the season, also at home, but the Black Bears played without starting goalie Scott Darling. Also included in the Union c.v. is a home loss to Sacred Heart in overtime and a 0-0 tie against Lake Superior State in a neutral-site game.

@unomavmania UNO fell out of the INCH Power Rankings this week joining unranked programs Michigan, Minnesota and Notre Dame.

• That’s the kind of positive spin we like to see from Nebraska-Omaha fans and the MavMania fan site. Even though the upstart Mavs dropped from the INCH Power Rankings, associate yourselves with other traditional powers. Our only regret is that the tweet didn’t also throw Boston University in the mix.

@demike3316 Just got a twitter account for a class and I AM LOST

• We were honored to be one of the first Twitter accounts that RIT goalie Jared DeMichiel decided to follow when he joined the Twitter community, apparently for a class project. DeMichiel, by the way, has a 1.37 goals-against average and 8-0-1 record during RIT’s current 10-game unbeaten streak, the longest in the nation. He was also the 1,000th follower of @INCH. We’re grateful and flattered to be followed by so many great Tweeps.

Sometimes it’s difficult to judge, especially at the goaltending position, when to make a decision to turn to a freshman as your team’s starting netminder. A number of factors are considered, including the returning goalies, the freshman’s maturity and development in the college game, and how the rest of the club plays in front of each of goalie.

Keith Kinkaid is 3-0-1 in his last four starts.

Union freshman Keith Kinkaid arrived in Schenectady with numerous accolades from an outstanding junior hockey career. He led the St. Louis Bandits to the North American Hockey League championship one year ago and captured four prestigious individual honors. He was named league MVP, Goaltender of the Year and a First Team All-League pick during the regular season with a 30-5 record and 1.78 goals-against average, .935 save percentage and seven shutouts. He went on to earn Robertson Cup playoff MVP honors with even better numbers in 12 games (1.15 GAA, .951 sv. pct., 3 SO).

Despite that impressive resume, Kinkaid made just two starts for Union in the Dutchmen’s first nine games. His first start was a 3-1 loss at St. Cloud State, in which he made 30 saves. He started again at home against Sacred Heart, and was yanked after the first period during which he allowed four goals. Throughout that time, Kinkaid’s attitude and work ethic never wavered. He worked extra time with Union goaltending coach Jason Tapp, a former college goalie at Boston University.

“It was great. He competed in practice and was champing at the bit to get his opportunity. He got it last week and took advantage of the opportunity. He played two great games for us. That’s what you want from a young kid. He got his opportunity, he worked really hard to get better and better and he got his opportunity, took advantage of it,” Tapp said.

Kinkaid got his chance to get back on the ice during Union’s North Country trip Nov. 13-14. He started and won at St. Lawrence, stopping 20 shots. He made 18 saves in a 5-1 win at Clarkson the following night.

After some time off during an exam period at Union College, the Dutchmen returned to the ice at last week’s RPI Holiday Tournament and Kinkaid started both nights in helping Union to the tournament title. He posted his first career shutout with 33 saves in a 0-0 tie against Lake Superior State in the first round. He stopped all three shootout attempts in the tiebreaker to send the Dutchmen to the championship game, a 5-4 overtime win over the host Engineers.

“Our goalie coach, Jason Tapp has been working with us pretty well the whole season. After every practice we’ll stay with him for about 20 minutes and he helps us out a lot,” Kinkaid said. He said the things that he’s trying to improve on include challenging and staying square to shooters and recovering after making initial saves.

Kincaid has very good size in net, at 6-foot-3, and one of Kinkaid’s strongest attributes is lateral movement.

“He competes really well. He’s a big kid and he moves side to side really well. We’re trying to get him to move a little crisper but he uses his size well to get out of the net and make himself bigger,” Tapp said. “I think he’s going to be a very good college goalie. He has the potential to be a standout goalie in our division. It’s just a matter of being consistent. That’s what we’re going to work on. You’ve got to put it together every night in college hockey. You can’t have a bad night.”

After his most recent triumphs at the RPI Tournament, Kinkaid earned his second ECAC Hockey weekly honor, as he was named Goaltender of the Week. Two weeks earlier after the wins at St. Lawrence and Clarkson he earned Rookie of the Week honors. It’s no surprise to see his name on the honor roll after a decorated NAHL season in St. Louis, and we can expect plenty of other honors to go his way during his days at Union.

THREE MORE THINGS WORTH KNOWING

• RPI has been affected by injuries all season, including several to key players like Mike Bergin and Tyler Helfrich. There was additional concern last weekend when standout freshman Jerry D’Amigo left RPI’s tournament semifinal with a leg injury after catching his skate in a rut in the ice. Initial expectations were that D’Amigo would miss at least a few weeks while he recovers, but he was back on the ice for practice in the middle of this week and could play versus Colgate and Cornell this weekend.

• Mike Clemente dunno. What did you say? I say who own da Crimson? And what did he say? Owns. Owns.

Brown sophomore goalie Mike Clemente earned his third straight win over Harvard at Bright Hockey Center with a 42-save effort Tuesday in Brown’s 4-1 win. It was his third straight victory after last spring’s back-to-back shutouts of Harvard in the playoffs. Over the last three wins, Clemente has a 0.33 goals-against average and has stopped 128 of 129 shots - a .992 save percentage.

• The Good: Union won the RPI tournament despite sitting seven key players, including most of the team’s top scorers, one game each for violating team rules. The Bad: St. Lawrence got dinged for 10 goals against in a loss against Maine at Portland, Maine last weekend. The Saints yielded five goals in the first period and played all three of their goalies in the game. The Ugly: After a season-opening victory over Dartmouth, Harvard is 0-7-2 in their last nine games. Their next five games are against Boston College, Quinnipiac, at Minnesota (twice) and Yale.

We’re supposed to be professionals—emphasis on supposed—but there are days when we lack the creativity necessary to pull a witty headline from nether regions of our brains. And there are also times when we’d rather dispatch with the pleasantries and get right to the hockey. This would be a mixture of both.

Colorado College vs. Denver (Friday at Colorado Springs, Saturday at Denver): Colorado College ranks ahead of Denver in every major statistical category (scoring offense, scoring defense, power-play and penalty-killing success rates, fewest penalty minutes) and both teams are among the top seven in the INCH Power Rankings and the voter-driven polls. Still, a Tiger sweep would be considered a pretty big upset.

That’s not a rub on Colorado College, which has been one of the nation’s biggest surprises to date. But its resume is fairly pedestrian; the team’s biggest achievement is a win and tie at Wisconsin in the Badgers’ first series of the year. The Pioneers’ cache, meanwhile, is more impressive with a sweep of North Dakota and back-to-back shutouts at Minnesota—the Gophers might be down, but that’s still a quite an accomplishment. Don’t be surprised if the goaltenders, DU veteran netminder Marc Cheverie and CC neophyte Joe Howe, are the deciding factors in this series.

UMass forward James Marcou is the nation's leading scorer with 23 points in 12 games.

Boston College at Massachusetts (Friday): It’s the Minutemen’s annual attendance-drive game when Boston College visits. UMass has adopted and promoted the slogan Operation 8K with a goal of drawing 8,000 fans or more to Mullins Center for the contest. Last year’s Operation 8K game drew 8,389 fans, which is the single-game home attendance record for UMass.

They’re hoping to exceed that this time around, and it’s not just a matter of rivalry for this game. It’s a big game near the top of the Hockey East standings. These two teams are currently tied for second place, just two points behind New Hampshire, although UMass has two games in hand on both UNH and BC. The Eagles won two of the three meetings between the teams last season.

Notre Dame at Miami (Friday-Saturday): Someone taking part in INCH’s weekly chat at ESPN.com asked how we saw the series between the Fighting Irish and RedHawks shaking out. Our answer? Expect two ties—Notre Dame is 2-0-3 in its last five games, while Miami is 1-1-4 over its last six outings. If either team has a glaring weakness, it’s the Fighting Irish’s inability to score. Notre Dame averages just 2.4 goals per game but it’s not for lack of effort; in the 10 games the Irish have both outshot their opponent and attempted 27 or more shots on goal, their record is a ho-hum 4-4-2.

Quinnipiac at Yale (Friday): A matchup of ECAC Hockey’s Connecticut-based teams brings regional rivalry into the picture, but it’s also an important game in the ECACH standings. Quinnipiac is a perfect 7-0-0 in league games so far but travels to take on the defending league champions in this matchup, who are 2-1-2 through five league contests. If the Bulldogs can find a way to slow down Quinnipiac and hand the Bobcats their first league loss of the campaign, it could slow down Quinnipiac’s runaway start to the season. After the game against Yale, the Bobcats have five games against teams that have a combined record of 25 games under .500.

Also: Excellent slate of games in the Capital District this weekend as Colgate and Cornell visit Rensselaer and Union in ECAC Hockey action … BU hosts BC Saturday. Think Terrier fans will remind Eagle supporters which team is reigning national champ? Think Heights denizens will remind the hosts which team is in last place in Hockey East? … Minnesota Duluth welcomes North Dakota to the DECC. The Bulldogs are off to their best start in 14 years … RIT can extend its winning streak to 10 with a sweep of Holy Cross in Worcester … Ohio State hosts Michigan, which is 2-0 in the post-Robbie Czarnik era. That begs the question, why does someone who’s turns 20 next month go by Robbie?

TV Schedule (all times Eastern): Friday—Denver at Colorado College, Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, 9:30 p.m.; Minnesota State at Minnesota, Fox Sports North, time TBA (tape delay following Wild hockey). Saturday—Michigan Tech at Wisconsin, Fox Sports North Wisconsin, 8 p.m.; Colorado College at Denver, Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, 9 p.m.; Minnesota at Minnesota State, Fox Sports North, time TBA (tape delay). Sunday—New Hampshire at Vermont, ESPNU, 3 p.m.

Fifteen current collegians, including three players from both Boston University and Wisconsin, are among the 29 players on the 2010 U.S. National Junior Team preliminary roster, released today by USA Hockey. The group will participate in a pre-tournament camp Dec. 17-19 in Grand Forks, N.D., and the roster will be trimmed for the IIHF World Junior Championship that begins Dec. 26 in Saskatchewan.

Meanwhile, Canada’s 36-player selection camp will feature three college players - Louis Leblanc of Harvard, Patrick Weircioch of Denver, and Minnesota-Duluth defenseman Dylan Olsen.

Seven of the 15 college players on the U.S. preliminary roster play in the WCHA. Hockey East has four representatives, the CCHA has three and Rensselaer of ECAC Hockey has one.

One player on the roster (former London Knight John Carlson) plays in the AHL, nine play major junior hockey and four are with the U.S. National Team Development Program. The USNTDP selectees include Minnesota-Duluth commit Justin Faulk, Michigan commit Jon Merrill and Denver commit Jason Zucker.

A complete roster is available on usahockey.com (Word .doc).

TANNER HOUSE
Maine
Jr. | F | Cochrane, Alberta

His Statistics: 4-2—6, GWG, PPG, +5 in wins vs. UMass Lowell and St. Lawrence.

His Impact: Maine’s junior captain came through with a big weekend to help the Black Bears to a pair of noteworthy wins. House scored twice in Maine’s 3-1 win at nationally-ranked UMass Lowell. His first goal knotted the score 1-1 in the second period and he added another in the third period to give the Black Bears a 3-1 lead.

Saturday night’s 10-1 win over St. Lawrence at Portland included a two-goal, two-assist four-point effort from House. He scored a power-play goal in the first and scored again in the third period. Maine scored five goals in the first period en route to a big win.

The win over UMass Lowell helped Maine move into a tie for fourth place in the Hockey East standings as the Black Bears evened their conference record at 4-4-1. Maine is 5-2-1 in its last eight games to pull to within one game of the .500 mark after a slow start.

His Runners-Up: Carl Hagelin, Michigan; Keith Kincaid, Union; Danny Kristo, North Dakota; Chris McKelvie, Bemidji State; Eric Sefchik, Army

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

Brown’s 8-1 win over the weekend gave new head coach Brendan Whittet his first as a Division I head coach. The Bears emphatically defeated Connecticut after scoring five goals in the first period. Prior to that win, Brown had suffered three straight one-goal losses. His other rookie coaching colleagues, C.J. Marattolo of Sacred Heart got his first win in an impressive victory over Union and Bowling Green’s Dennis Williams is guiding an improved Bowling Green team that has wins over nationally-ranked Alaska and Michigan.

One reason the Big Ten wouldn’t mind adding hockey to the league’s stable of sports is to provide additional programming for the conference’s television outlet—especially on Friday nights, the dead zone of college athletics. But the Big Ten Network’s commitment to college pucks has to be called into question as based on its decision to forego televising any of last weekend’s College Hockey Showcase games, choosing to instead broadcast Northwestern men’s basketball on Friday and Saturday night.

In case you’re keeping track at home, four hockey programs—all of which have won national championships in the last 12 years—were bounced in favor of a hoops team that has never qualified for an NCAA tournament. That, Big Ten Net, is well below average.

“That was men against boys out there. They looked like the Maine Black Bears of old.”

St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh to Larry Mahoney of the Bangor Daily News following the Black Bears’ 10-1 thrashing of the Saints Saturday at Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center. Fifteen of Maine’s 18 skaters registered at least one point in the team’s best offensive output since a 12-5 win over Boston College on Nov. 22, 1997.

We could harp on voters who favored Michigan again—the Wolverines did beat Minnesota and Wisconsin last weekend to even their record at 7-7-0, so we’ll let it slide even though they’re 11th in the CCHA standings. We could pick on those whose ballots included sub-.500 teams Boston University, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Princeton. Our sights are set on an even bigger travesty, however.

In this week’s USCHO.com Division III men’s poll, bitter SUNYAC rivals Oswego and Plattsburgh are tied for first place and Plattsburgh has one more first-place vote—odd considering Oswego beat Plattsburgh, 5-2, in Plattsburgh’s rink a little more than three weeks ago. If two teams are considered the consensus top two in the country, wouldn’t logic dictate that the team that won the head-to-head matchup should be considered superior?

@kausatoday Who would have thought that Sidney Crosby and Dustin Penner would both have 15 goals and 15 assists after 27 games this season?

Other than Penner’s family, some die-hard Maine and Edmonton Oilers supporters, and INCH’s Joe Gladziszewski, probably no one. But as USA Today NHL scribe Kevin Allen pointed out recently, the ex-Black Bear—who NHL GMs point to as the poster boy for not spiriting away restricted free agents from other teams—has so far this season proven to be worth every penny of his $4.25 million annual salary.

Lots to talk about in the college hockey world this week led by an impressive gathering of talent in Grand Forks, the penultimate College Hockey Showcase, and a whole lotta red at Madison Square Garden.

Subway Holiday Classic, Grand Forks, N.D. (Fri.-Sat.): This on-again, off-again event hosted by North Dakota has a pseudo-Frozen Four feel with three top-10 teams—Miami, Bemidji State, and the homestanding Fighting Sioux—joined by Ohio State. It’s not a true tournament; Friday starts with the RedHawks and Beavers in a Frozen Four semifinal rematch from last April and NoDak and the Buckeyes in the nightcap. Saturday, it’s OSU facing BSU and top-ranked Miami butting heads with the Sioux.

The four games in this event range from intriguing to must-see. Naturally, the primary focus will be on Saturday’s finale pitting Miami against North Dakota, but Friday’s opener featuring Bemidji State and Miami is an interesting collision of a RedHawk team that prides itself on defense and has been the most consistent team in the nation to date and a Beaver squad that has been nearly unstoppable offensively. Plenty at stake for the hosts, too, as the Sioux have lost three in a row. Ohio State is more talented than its 5-8-1 record would indicate; the Buckeyes were victimized for 14 goals by Ferris State last weekend. 

Riley Nash and Cornell are off to Madison Square Garden this weekend to face defending national champion Boston University.

Cornell vs. Boston University, Madison Square Garden (Sat.): A couple of ancient rivals from the old-time ECAC meet in the Big Apple for the second time in three years. Coaches Jack Parker of BU and Mike Schafer of Cornell both played at the schools where they now coach and have an appreciation of what this rivalry meant to previous generations. Now, alumni and fans will fill MSG with much of the same passion. When the teams met in 2007, BU got off to a quick start, scoring three goals in the first 11 minutes and went on to a 6-3 victory.

This year’s game matches a Cornell team that has been pretty solid in winning six of its first eight games and an underperforming Terrier squad that has started its national championship defense with a 4-7-1 record. Cornell is looking forward to the opportunity to play in such a spectacle to help prepare itself for larger crowds and bigger games later in the year. This game might be considered small potatoes for the Terriers, who will also play in Fenway Park and the Beanpot later this season, but it’s a great opportunity for them to start to turn things around against a very good opponent.

Wisconsin at Michigan State (Fri.): When the Badgers and Spartans, Gophers and Wolverines annually get together for the College Hockey Showcase we’ve come to expect to see them all prominently placed in the national rankings. That’s not the case this year, and Friday’s game in East Lansing is the only one of the weekend pitting top-20 teams.

Both teams have excelled at the defensive end of the rink as Wisconsin ranks seventh nationally, allowing just 2.00 goals per game over its 12 games en route to a 7-4-1 record. The Spartans are ninth in defense, allowing 2.14 goals per contest over 14 games during which they’ve gone 9-3-2. Both teams can also score, and are averaging 3.00 goals per game or better. Success in Friday’s game will be found by the team that takes advantage of any defensive breakdowns, which could be rare. If they happen, both teams skill players are good enough to capitalize.

St. Cloud State at Denver (Fri.-Sat.): This series has trap written all over it for the Pioneers, who swept North Dakota at Magness Arena last weekend and have a home-and-home series with archrival Colorado College next weekend. Sandwiched in the middle is this set with the Huskies, the most deceiving .500 team in college hockey. That 5-5-2 mark doesn’t look great on paper, but it’s fairly impressive when you consider that the six opponents SCSU has faced thus far have a combined 40-23-10 record and four of them are ratedin the top 16 of this week’s INCH Power Rankings.

Also: Bentley, Lake Superior State, Union, and Rensselaer comprise the field for this year’s Rensselaer Holiday Hockey Tournament … Nice non-conference tilt on Saturday afternoon as Massachusetts travels to Quinnipiac … Michigan and Minnesota meet in Ann Arbor Friday. Since the two schools didn’t meet in football this season, does the winner of this game get the Little Brown Jug?

TV schedule (all times Eastern): Friday—Minnesota at Michigan, FSN North, 7:30 p.m.; Ohio State at North Dakota, Fox College Sports, 8:30 p.m.; St. Cloud State at Denver, FSN Rocky Mountain, 9:30 p.m. Saturday—Massachusetts at Quinnipiac, NESN, 3 p.m.; Miami at North Dakota, Fox College Sports, 8:30 p.m.;