Blake Kessel has a shooting percentage that might make his brother envious. Heck, it even puts Shaquille O’Neal’s free throw percentage to shame.

Madison, Wis. native Blake Kessel returns to his hometown as the leading scorer for the New Hampshire Wildcats.

Kessel, the New Hampshire sophomore defenseman who is also the younger brother of Toronto Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel, is off to a blistering pace on the stat sheet. Through four games, he’s tallied three goals, a team-high seven assists and is tied for the Hockey East lead with 10 points. This is after he compiled six goals and seven assists in 37 games as a freshman.

“I think I’m definitely a little more comfortable this year,” Kessel said. “I feel a bigger responsibility, and I feel I’ve got to step up after losing our seniors last year. Those guys were huge to our team. I kind of took it personally this offseason to make sure I got myself better for the team, and I feel like I’ve got to step up along with the rest of our defensive corps because we are kind of young at that spot. I proved that I can do it in the past, and last year wasn’t a bad year but it wasn’t a year I was looking for. This year, I’m hoping to continue on with the early success that I’ve had.”

Kessel’s three goals this season have come on six shots.

“I’d say I have one good shot,” Kessel said. “The other ones were questionable. Obviously, I need to put the puck on net more often. Hopefully, I’ll get more shots and continue to get more goals, but I’ll take them when they come.”

Kessel has a homecoming this weekend when UNH visits Wisconsin for a pair of games that will be mightily important for the Wildcats, who are 0-2-1 in non-conference games this season. They lost to Rensselaer in the season opener before going 0-1-1 in a home series with Miami. After this weekend, UNH’s last two non-conference contests are against Cornell and Dartmouth, so the Wildcats have little room for error against some tough opponents.

Kessel understands teams can slip out of the NCAA tournament picture by not experiencing success out of conference, and he said the team is aware of what is at stake this weekend.

“Obviously, you’ve got to look at the end of the season when those rankings come out,” Kessel said. “We want to play our best, and we feel like we do need to rebound, one way or another. This is one weekend we have to have, especially with us only having two other games besides these next two out of conference. We’ve got to really show the rest of the country who we are, and hopefully we’ll be jumping up the rankings at the end of the season.”

UNH’s early struggles outside of the league were contrasted last weekend with a pair of convincing Hockey East victories against rival Maine and Northeastern. Kessel had a goal and an assist against the Black Bears in Saturday night’s win at the Whittemore Center, and he knows a victory against Tim Whitehead’s crew is always helpful to jumpstart a run for the Wildcats.

“It sets the tone for the season, especially in Hockey East,” Kessel said. “Against a team like that, they’re always going to battle you hard, and that’s why we’ve got the great rivalry between us. But getting that win sets the stage for Hockey East and shows that we’re here to play. That little momentum will get us excited, our fans excited and get things going in the right direction.”

Boston University celebrates the lone goal of last year's Hockey East championship game.

This weekend features the first marquee home-and-home of the Hockey East season, when Boston University and UMass Lowell square off in a two-part rematch of the 2009 league championship game.

BU and Lowell, Hockey East’s top-two teams according to the preseason coaches’ poll, meet Friday at Tsongas Arena before shifting to Agganis Arena on Saturday.

“They’re the team that ended our season last year, and we’re going to want to try to get back at them,” said Lowell junior forward Scott Campbell, who has three goals and two assists this season.” They’re ranked No. 1 in Hockey East, and we want to see how we match up against them going into this weekend. Even though it’s still early, we want to judge to see where we’re at.”

The Terriers claimed last season’s Hockey East championship by a 1-0 margin before they won the national title in Washington D.C. The River Hawks needed to pull off an upset to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, but the defeat left them out of the picture, which was tougher to swallow because they were one of the hottest teams in the country in March.

BU has entered the 2009-10 season knowing it will get every team’s best effort, but that will have a whole new meaning against the revenge-driven River Hawks.

“They’re obviously going to be pumped up,” said BU sophomore defenseman David Warsofsky, who assisted Brandon Yip’s goal in the Hockey East championship. “It’s a big game for them, kind of to get a little revenge on us from last year. The win last weekend we got against Michigan boosted our confidence a little bit, so I think we’ll be ready to match [the River Hawks].

“Once you get on the ice, it’s kind of a regular game. We know we’re going to get everyone’s best game. Yeah, there might be a little more on the line because we knocked them out last year, but in the end, it’s just another game for all of us.”

It wasn’t just last year, though. The Terriers defeated the River Hawks in three games in the first round of the 2008 Hockey East playoffs. While the 2009 championship was predictably competitive, the 2008 series wasn’t expected to be close at all. Part of that series helped Lowell establish some of the grit it displayed all of last season and through the opening weeks of this season. It’s also fueled Lowell’s fire for its games against the Terriers, as the two teams have developed a growing rivalry.

Both teams areimpressed by the other’s passion and talent, and there is a good amount of mutual respect between the sides. Warsofsky and Campbell also remember last year’s league championship very similarly.

“[I remember] just how hard the guys battled,” Campbell said. “BU had our number. They were such a dominant powerhouse all year. But the way the guys battled, we went down 1-0 and we just kept coming. [Our] guys had a no-quit attitude, and hopefully that’s something we can continue to build on going through this year with most of the guys coming back.”

“It was a hard-fought game,” Warsofsky said. “Nothing came easy that game. Lowell’s a great team. They come hard every shift. They have four lines that can really work, and they get solid goaltending. I just remember it wasn’t an easy game, and I don’t think this weekend is going to be any different.”

And don’t think the River Hawks are looking at this weekend as two regular old games. They aren’t hiding from their history with Boston University.

“From the past two years, BU has been the team that has ended our season both years,” Campbell said. “We are starting to get a pretty good rivalry with them. We’re always looking forward to BU games because they’re always up-tempo, they’re always exciting and a lot of fun to play in. I think this weekend will be no different.”

MARC CHEVERIE
Denver
Jr. | G | Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2 shutouts, 60 saves.

His Impact: It was a weekend of historic proportions for the Pioneers and for Cheverie, who whitewashed Minnesota on back-to-back nights—the first time that has happened to the Gophers since 1930—with identical 30-save efforts. In doing so, Cheverie extended his personal shutout streak to 203:19, second in the DU hockey annals behind Peter Mannino’s run of 208:42 without allowing a goal.

Cheverie has three shutouts this season—he also blanked Ohio State on Oct. 15—and seven for his career. Minnesota has been the victim of Cheverie’s perfection on three separate occasions. In addition to the shutouts this past weekend, he was also the goalie of record in a 4-0 win over the Gophers at Magness Arena on Nov. 22, 2008.

Heading into the Pioneers’ weekend series with Minnesota State, Cheverie leads the nation in shutouts, is tied for first in wins with four, ranks second with a .966 save percentage, and is fourth with a 1.00 goals against average.

His Runners-Up: Blake Kessel (New Hampshire); John Kruse (Air Force); Jerry Kuhn (Western Michigan); Chris McKelvie (Bemidji State); Brandon Pirri (Rensselaer); Bill Sweatt (Colorado College)

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

This past weekend was fairly enjoyable for hockey fans in Colorado. In addition to Denver’s series sweep at Minnesota, Colorado College took two games from visiting Michigan Tech. The Tigers were paced by senior forward Bill Sweatt, who in the two games piled up 1-6—7. Up the road a spell, Air Force got off the schneid with a pair of wins over RIT at Cadet Ice Arena. Rookie forward John Kruse led the Falcons with 1-5—6 and a plus-minus rating of +4. (As an aside, INCH hopes Kruse has designs on being a fighter pilot, and gets tagged with the nickname “Maverick.” We feel the need for speed.)

Although it hasn’t yet been formally announced, all indications are that next summer’s NHL Entry Draft will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles, home of the Kings. We know that the North American geographic footprint for the NHL is significantly larger than that of college hockey, but it was nice for college hockey fans and media to consider nearby locales such as Montreal, Ottawa, and Columbus in recent years.

“They outworked us at times but I think we deserved at least one this weekend.”—Minnesota captain Tony Lucia, to Roman Augustovitz of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune following Denver’s second shutout of the weekend at Mariucci Arena Saturday.

When Lucia the younger says “one”, is he referring to a win or a goal?

INCH has stood by without comment for two weeks, but in this, the third week of absurdity, we are compelled to shed our cloak of silence. What, we ask, is up with one renegade pollster consistently going off the board with his/her first-place vote in the national polls?

It started two weeks ago when Boston College garnered a lone no. 1 mention in both the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today and USCHO.com/CBS College Sports rankings. Last week, another Hockey East school, Vermont, earned a sole no. 1 vote in both polls. This week, Yale got the outlier in the polls.

Don’t get us wrong; we’re certainly open to radical thinking when it comes to voting in the national polls. Perhaps the voter in question can only give his/her top spot to institutions located in one of the 13 original colonies. We’ll know that’s the case should Old Dominion gets a first-place vote. But this pattern is odd, to say the least.

Obviously, we don’t know the identity of this person (or people). We don’t even know if it’s the same person responsible for the lone vote each week. We’d love to hear this particular voter’s rationale, however. One thing we can tell you is that it’s not us. INCH casts a vote in the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll every week. The ballot we submit aligns with the top 15 teams in that week’s INCH Power Rankings.

@ThatKevinSmith: Via @nerdbastards “If Gozer the Gozerian asked you to choose the form of your destructor, what would it be?” Gretzky, circa ‘84 Oilers.

The successful writer/director (”Clerks”, “Chasing Amy”, etc.) is a big hockey fan, a bigger New Jersey Devils fan, and an even bigger Gretzky fan. A prolific Tweeter, Smith will soon start production on “Hit Somebody”, a hockey-themed flick based on the Warren Zevon song of the same name.

The headline of this piece doesn’t refer to the prowess any member of the INCH family has as a deejay, though, if asked, we’re more than happy to dust off our Eric B. and Rakim vinyl and take a turn on the wheels of steel. Instead, it refers to the picks for this week’s most intriguing matchups—a pair of single games pitting CCHA and Hockey East powers against one another and two conference series.

Junior goaltender John Muse allowed four goals on 16 shots in Boston College's season-opening loss at Vermont Sunday.

Boston College at Notre Dame (Friday): Notre Dame has won four of the last five games in this series with the lone loss coming to Boston College in the 2008 Frozen Four championship game in Denver. The Fighting Irish were shaky in series splits with Alabama-Huntsville and Providence, but shut out a listless Boston University team at Agganis Arena Tuesday. Listlessness must be spreading like H1N1 in the Hub of Hockey, because the Eagles looked as much in a season-opening loss at Vermont Sunday.

The most intriguing matchup in this contest pits the Irish forwards, who’ve yet to fire on all cylinders, against a young BC defensive corps that struggled against UVM. Notre Dame defenseman Teddy Ruth, who hasn’t played this season because of a lower body injury, will not dress against the Eagles.

Denver at Minnesota (Friday-Saturday): In this very space last week prior to its series at North Dakota, it was mentioned that Minnesota was a great unknown that could win by six goals or lose by the same margin. Two games into the season, I don’t know that we have any greater handle on the Gophers other than the fact that goaltenders Alex Kangas and Kent Patterson were pretty sharp.

The Pioneers won’t have standout center Joe Colborne in the lineup—he broke a finger in a loss to Ohio State last week. Also, DU coach George Gwozdecky tells Mike Chambers of the Denver Post that he plans to rotate goalies Marc Cheverie and Adam Murray for the third straight series.

Michigan at Boston University (Saturday): Offense shouldn’t be a problem for these teams, but it has thus far. The Terriers, a few days removed from being shut out by Notre Dame, have two goals in two games. The Wolverines, meanwhile, have nine goals in three games. Keep an eye on a pair of talented forwards who’ve yet to get untracked-or is it on track? Because untracked would seem to indicate derailment, and that ain’t good. Semantics aside, Michigan’s Louie Caporusso, who scored 24 goals and 49 points last season, has bagels thus far. BU’s Nick Bonino scored 50 points as a rookie; he, too, is scoreless.

RIT at Air Force (Friday-Saturday): Atlantic Hockey’s preseason favorites enter the weekend with a combined 0-7 record (to be fair, the league’s 10 teams are 1-23-0 thus far.) Air Force, which started last season with 13 straight wins, is 0-4, its longest losing streak in more than two years. Senior goalie Andrew Volkening has been abysmal as evidenced by his 5.91 GAA and .805 save percentage. RIT, meanwhile, has three narrow losses to ECAC Hockey opponents. In those three games the Tigers have fired a combined 119 shots on target, but have scored just six goals. That a shooting percentage of a little better than five percent.

Also: An offensive explosion could be in the works in Oxford—Miami and Michigan State have each played four games and scored a combined 34 goals … Is there a trio of forwards in the country better than Minnesota Duluth’s Justin Fontaine, Jack Connolly, and Mike Connolly? They’ll meet a St. Cloud State team that has yet to click offensively … UMass Lowell readies for a rugged stretch to open its Hockey East slate (Northeastern, Boston University, at Boston University, at Vermont, New Hampshire) with a non-conference match against Colgate at Tsongas Arena … Exhibitions for Ivies Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Princeton this weekend.

There is still a buzz circulating through Burlington that is an aftereffect of Vermont’s run to the 2009 Frozen Four. The Catamounts already have a passionate fan base, but the town’s denizens and campus coeds have picked their intensity up a notch for the 2009-10 season.

Senior Brian Roloff has goals in both of the Catamounts' wins thus far.

The team is certainly noticing.

“Obviously, we created quite a buzz last year, but I’d say that people are more aware and on top of our season starting this year,” senior forward Brian Roloff said. “Just walking around the athletic facility, it just seems like everyone knows who we’re playing and what’s going on with the team, so that’s certainly exciting to see that people are following us.”

Vermont’s early-season play has been another cause for excitement around the team’s rink. The Catamounts split their opening-weekend series at top-ranked Denver which, despite blowing a two-goal lead in the third period of the first contest, is a pretty successful road trip. UVM backed that up by beating Boston College, 4-1, Sunday at Gutterson Fieldhouse.

Most notably, the Catamounts have been firing offensively, scoring 14 goals in three games. Roloff, who coach Kevin Sneddon said will drive the UVM offense this season, is one of five players on the team with two goals. During Vermont’s two victories, Roloff’s line has accumulated four goals and four assists, and he is definitely backing up Sneddon’s beliefs.

“I certainly would expect us to score more than we have the last couple of years just from a standpoint that it wouldn’t be a surprise if any line on the ice scored,” Roloff said.

Roloff wasn’t worried about Vermont’s defense, even after the Catamounts allowed nine goals in the two games against Denver. He chalked that up to a combination of early-season mistakes that won’t be an issue once the season progresses and the defense tightens up, which has been a staple of Sneddon’s winning formula during his seven seasons in Burlington.

This season, obviously, is already off to a different start. Vermont is coming off of its most successful campaign since entering Hockey East in 2005, and with a good chunk of the team back in Burlington, the goals are even higher this time around.

“I’m very happy with how we come back,” Roloff said. “There was a group of guys who stayed up here this summer, and you get a sense that there is some unfinished business. Certainly, we were happy with last season, but we didn’t get to our goal. We got a taste of it last year, and that just made everyone much more hungry for it this year.”

The NHL’s Central Scouting Service has released its early-season listing of the top North American players eligible for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft from Canadian Junior A leagues and U.S. high school and prep school ranks.

Players are divided into four cagetories: A-rated players are predicted to be selected in the first or second round of the 2008 draft; B-rated players are considered potential mid-round selections; C-rated players are plotted as late-round picks; players CSS scouts haven’t seen enough to form an evaluation fall under the limited viewing category.

Next month, Central Scouting will release its list of draft-eligible collegians to watch as well as ratings of the top 25 prospects from the United States Hockey League and the U.S. National Team Development Program. The Central Scouting Service mid-term rankings appear in January.

The list below contains only those players who have verbally committed to college programs. The full prospect list can be found at NHL.com.

Intrigue abounds in this, the season’s first full weekend of the regular season, assisted by the 2009-10 debuts of some familiar teams.

Jay Barriball and Minnesota open the 2009-10 season at North Dakota this weekend.

1. Minnesota at North Dakota (Friday-Saturday): Beyond the rivalry, this series intrigues me because I have no idea what to expect from the Golden Gophers. I wouldn’t be surprised if North Dakota beat ‘em by six goals, nor would it shock me if Minnesota won by six (on second thought, that would shock me just a little). There are so many questions-Who replaces Stoa? How will the heralded newcomers fare? Which Alex Kangas shows up this season?-that anyone who says he or she has a handle on the Gophers is lying.

As was mentioned in this week’s INCH Podcast, North Dakota may not have the one dominant, dynamic forward like a Zach Parise or Jonathan Toews, but the balance across all four lines is impressive. Brad Eidsness is a capable goalie, but he seems like the college hockey version of Kyle Orton-you don’t have to win the game for us, but don’t lose it.

2. Miami at New Hampshire (Friday-Saturday): The RedHawks’ month-long death march continues this weekend with a pair at the Whitt. On paper, it seems as if UNH, which dropped a 3-1 decision at Rensselaer last Saturday, doesn’t match up well with Miami-the RedHawks should be able to wear the Wildcats down with their superior depth-but I’m more interested Miami’s focus. My feeling is the RedHawks are really locked in on a) putting April’s NCAA championship game loss behind them and b) proving to everyone that it’s behind them. That said, since Dick Umile has been behind the Wildcat bench, UNH has never started a season with two losses.

3. Michigan State at Maine (Friday-Saturday): Yeah, we know Maine isn’t what it once was. But did you see Michigan State last season? There were times the Spartans barely resembled a hockey team. These are important games for MSU if it wants to continue rebuilding its confidence-winnable road matches against a quality opponent in a hostile environment. The Black Bears, meanwhile, need to bounce back after two losses to a better-than-you-think Union team last weekend. The return of no. 1 goalie Scott Darling from a two-game suspension for violating the school’s student-athlete code of conduct will provide a boost.

4. Boston College at Vermont (Sunday): Even though Denver rallied in the third period to win, Vermont was impressive in its season opener at Magness Arena Friday, then beat our preseason no. 1 team the next night. The Catamounts’ top two lines, in particular, looked very sharp. How they match up against a relatively untested BC defensive corps will likely decide the game. Also, John Muse, the Eagles’ goaltender, took a step back last season after an outstanding freshman campaign. His return to form is critical to his team’s success.

Also: Former BU goalie Brett Bennett makes his debut for Wisconsin against Colorado College tonight … high-scoring forward Mike Connolly returns from a two-game suspension for Minnesota Duluth in its series with Minnesota State … can Union get a win at St. Cloud State? … fresh off wins against Army and UMass Lowell at home, Nebraska-Omaha visits Colgate … Alabama-Huntsville can pull off another road upset when it visits Air Force.

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

Boston College coach Jerry York pointed to a pint-sized problem that proved to be the most difficult for his team to overcome last season while attempting to defend its national championship—the early departure of leading scorer Nathan Gerbe.

A year later and just a few miles down Commonwealth Ave., Boston University coach Jack Parker is dealing with a similar issue. His Terriers are forging on without Colin Wilson, the smooth-skating power forward who could dominate a shift and lift his linemates because of his playmaking ability. BU has plenty of talent returning—particularly, Hobey Baker candidate Nick Bonino—and is still the best team in Hockey East, but the Terriers have to find some other scorers if they don’t want a demotion from the penthouse to the doghouse.

Parker has recently spent time seeking the advice of Don Lucia, who led Minnesota to national championships in 2002 and 2003, and George Gwozdecky, who guided Denver to titles in 2004 and 2005. Parker, who is entering his 37th season on the BU bench, has won three national championships. He followed his first two with productive seasons in 1978-79 and 1995-96, but the Terriers fell short of the title each time.

Because of this, Parker is studying former champions and drawing upon previous experiences with the hope of finding the recipe to repeat.

“What we’re concerned about—that was a problem most of the other years—was the fact that we were still pretty impressed with ourselves from the year before,” Parker said. “I’d settle for either one of those years as far as the number of wins, but the quality of the games and the way we were focused at the end was not there for us. That’s a long way out. We’ve got to make our team better during the course of the season and then worry about what happens in the playoffs later on.”

BREAKTHROUGH TEAM

UMass Lowell was listed in this same exact spot last year, but for a different reason. The River Hawks were coming off of a seventh-place finish in Hockey East in 2007-08, and were expected to challenge for home ice for the first time in a few years.

They missed out on hosting a playoff series but they did indeed grow, as the River Hawks were the most improved team between October 2008 and March 2009. Lowell cashed in by making a valiant run to the Hockey East championship game before falling short to Boston University, 1-0. Nearly everyone is back in 2009-10, and contending for a league title is a realistic possibility.

“Those were really good tangible experiences we had,” Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald said. “I don’t think we were overly excited about [the way 2008-09 ended]. It was disappointing, quite frankly. We thought we deserved a little bit better. I like that attitude in our team. I think that comes from having strong leadership. Not only do we have a lot of seniors and upperclassmen, but we’ve got the right guys, guys that hold each other to a high standard and are accountable. And we understand that last year means zero today. I think our team feels confident about our style and how we play, and they’ve seen the results.”

PRIMED FOR A FALL

Brad Thiessen is gone, leaving Northeastern with questions to answer.

Brad Thiessen, the 2008-09 Inside College Hockey Goaltender of the Year, left Northeastern after his junior season to sign with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ organization. The only player in Northeastern history to be named Hockey East Player of the Year was the driving force behind the Huskies’ run to the NCAA tournament, NU’s first in 15 years. Thiessen’s .931 save percentage was the best in the league and fourth nationally, and his 2.12 goals-against average was third in Hockey East and 12th in the nation.

Most importantly, Thiessen made 1,195 saves last season, more than any other player in the nation. He lifted a defense that allowed high amounts of shots and an offense that struggled to find the back of the net, as the Huskies were ranked 24th in the nation with 2.95 goals per game. Northeastern had 18 games last season in which it scored two goals or less and managed to come away with four wins and four ties because of Thiessen, who was the only Husky to play between the pipes in 2008-09.

Northeastern will give the keys to junior Mike Binnington and freshmen Chris Rawlings and Bryan Mountain (cue the puns). The Huskies return a good chunk of their scorers in junior forward Wade MacLeod (14 goals and team highs of 21 assists and 35 points last season), sophomore forward Steve Quailer (10-15-25), sophomore forward Alex Tuckerman (8-14-22) and junior forward Tyler McNeely. However, Northeastern lost forwards Ryan Ginand (led the team with 20 goals and second on the team with 32 points) and Joe Vitale (second with 20 assists and third with 27 points).

Unless the Huskies have another Thiessen in waiting or learn how to consistently score four goals, they won’t have enough to repeat their second-place performance from 2008-09.

PRESSURE TO PERFORM

Boston College junior goalie John Muse has started all 81 of the Eagles’ games over the last two seasons, but his role will take a big hit in 2009-10. Muse is coming off of hip surgery to repair a torn labrum, and he spent eight weeks on crutches over the summer. Jerry York classified Muse as “day-to-day” once the season starts, and it’s a positive sign that he played in BC’s exhibition game last weekend.

Muse has a 43-25-13 career record with a .913 save percentage and 2.44 goals-against average, and he was the Eagles’ rock in net during their national championship run in his freshman season. Without Muse, York will rely on sophomore Chris Venti and freshman Parker Milner. Venti relieved Muse for 7:56 of a game against Northeastern in the first round of the Beanpot last season and stopped all three shots he faced. It was the only time in the Muse era someone else was between the pipes for BC.

Even when Muse is healthy enough to return, he won’t play every game, according to York. Boston College missed the NCAA tournament last season for the first time since 2002 and is already faced with the challenge of trying to return to the national spotlight. There will be a tremendous burden on Venti and Milner to provide the effort the Eagles need while Muse is sidelined.

TOUGHEST ACT TO FOLLOW

Boston University’s insanely improbable comeback to beat Miami, 4-3, in overtime in the national championship was a remarkable way to end the season. Surely, the game belongs in the conversation among the greatest of all-time, but that’s a debate that could last forever.

Vermont defeated Air Force in an overtime thriller to advance to the Frozen Four last season, just one of many memorable postseason contests involving Hockey East teams.

What cannot be debated were the dramatics that overtook the string of games involving Hockey East teams that wound down the 2008-09 season. After an exciting first round of the league playoffs, UMass Lowell erased a two-goal deficit to shock Northeastern, 3-2, in overtime in the Hockey East semifinals. In the following game, Boston University scored three third-period goals in 44 seconds to top Boston College, 3-2. Less than 24 hours later, the Terriers took a 1-0 thriller against Lowell in the league championship.

In the first round of the NCAA tournament, New Hampshire stunned North Dakota with a tying goal with one-tenth of a second remaining in the third period before winning, 6-5, in overtime. A day later, BU knocked out UNH, 2-1, by scoring the game-winning goal with 15 seconds to play. (In a 3-2 defeat, Northeastern surrendered two goals to Cornell in the game’s final four minutes, including the decisive tally with 18 seconds remaining.)

Then there was Vermont, which downed Air Force, 3-2, in double overtime to reach the Frozen Four. After a boring national semifinal between Miami and Bemidji State, BU and Vermont geared up for another thriller. The Catamounts erased a 2-0 deficit and took a 4-3 lead midway through the third period before the Terriers rallied with a pair of strikes in 1:13 to capture a 5-4 victory. Two nights later, Boston University scored two extra-attacker goals in the game’s final minute and then beat Miami 8:13 into the extra session.

Last year was a celebration of Hockey East’s 25th anniversary, and the teams certainly made it one to remember.

BEST PLAYER

Boston University lost five of its six leading scorers from last season. The one remaining is junior forward Nick Bonino, who turned down the Anaheim Ducks to return to the Terriers. Bonino had 18 goals and 32 assists last season—one more goal and six less assists than Colin Wilson—and he centered one of BU’s top two lines.

Bonino said he gained 5-10 pounds of muscle over the summer—he definitely looks bigger than last year—and spent time working with a skating coach in Connecticut, so his skills have elevated as well. Bonino is an early-season Hobey Baker candidate, and Jack Parker believes his assistant captain is a key to going back-to-back.

“When we didn’t lose Bonino, I thought maybe we’d have a good chance because he’s the key guy on our offensive end this year, no question about it,” Parker said. “Nick Bonino is a Hobey Baker candidate. He’s an All-America candidate, and he’s an All-Hockey East candidate. Nobody knows that because the most recognition he got last year was Honorable Mention All-Hockey East, and I think he had five less points than Colin Wilson last year, and he had more goals than Colin Wilson. And he was without question our best all-around defensive forward as well. Amazing. I think he’s as good a player as there will be in college hockey. When he didn’t sign [with Anaheim] this summer, I thought, ‘Boy, that’s a big boost to us maybe having a chance to have a good year this year.’”

BEST NEWCOMER

Boston University freshman Alex Chiasson is 6-foot-4, 195 pounds and a second-round NHL draft pick. He’s got good skills around the net and should have the ability to score on his own, but he’ll really see a spike in his numbers because he’ll be playing with so many other talented scorers. When asking people around Hockey East which freshmen will make the biggest contributions, Chiasson’s name seemed to come up the most frequently.

UNSUNG PLAYER

For good reason, forward Viktor Stalberg garnered much of the attention in Vermont last season, when the Catamounts put together their most consistent season as a Hockey East team and eventually wound up in the Frozen Four. Stalberg is gone, but his former centerman, Brian Roloff, is back for a senior season.

Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon credited Roloff for driving that line with his speed and puck-handling ability, and he had 10 goals and 19 assists as a junior, explosive numbers after tallying seven goals and 16 assists in his first two seasons combined. Expect Roloff’s progression to continue this season.

THREE BURNING QUESTIONS

1. Can Boston University repeat as national champions?

2. How will UMass Lowell handle its most significant preseason expectations of the decade?

3. Can Merrimack return to the postseason?

MARK IT DOWN
Five things you can take to the bank in Hockey East this season

1. They’ll play hockey outside. Boston University and Boston College will take their rivalry to a new level when they meet at Fenway Park on Jan. 8. The event sold out in hours.

2. UMass Lowell will be strong on special teams. Assuming not much changes due to the lack of roster turnover, the River Hawks ranked second in Hockey East last season for fewest penalty minutes (500, 13.2 per game), first in penalty kill (87.8), second in power-play percentage (19.2) and tied for first in short-handed goals allowed (two).

3. Maine has an interesting goaltending situation. Scott Darling emerged as Maine’s top goalie during his freshman season, but a slow finish hurt his overall statistics. He was 10th in Hockey East with a 2.76 goals-against average, 11th with an .895 save percentage, and he had a 10-14-3 record. Shawn Sirman enters with a nice resume from the Ontario Junior Hockey League, and he is INCH’s second-rated freshman goalie in the country. If Darling improves as expected and Sirman backs up his hype, the Black Bears will have their best 1-2 punch in quite some time.

4. Boston College will rebuild. BC has the third-ranked recruiting class in the nation, according to Inside College Hockey, and that’s a good thing in Chestnut Hill because you won’t know many of the returning Eagles. Gone are forwards Brock Bradford, Benn Ferriero, and Andrew Orpik and defenseman Nick Petrecki, among the team’s other top blue liners. The Eagles have some good talent, but their success will hinge on some bounce-back years from senior forward Ben Smith and junior forwards Brian Gibbons and Joe Whitney.

5. James Marcou will score, and he’ll gain national attention if UMass wins. The junior forward was fourth in Hockey East last season with 47 points (15 goals, 32 assists), and he was second with 1.21 points per game. Marcou was the league’s leading scorer among all non-BU players, so he had that going for him, which was nice.

Miami, which fell just short of a national title in April, is the 2009-10 preseason favorite according to the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine preseason poll, released Monday by USA Hockey. Miami collected four first-place votes and 457 points in the poll.

Denver ranked second after accumulating 455 points and the most first-place votes (13). Defending national champion Boston University claimed the No. 3 spot (438).

To view the complete poll, click here.