DENNY KEARNEY
Yale
Sr. | F | Hanover, N.H.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 4-4–8, GWG, plus-7 rating

His Impact: Everyone in the country, with possibly the exception of Miami’s Carter Camper, has to be impressed with Kearney’s eight-point weekend to start Yale’s regular season. He had a three-goal, one-assist night in the season-opener for the Bulldogs against Brown and then popped in another goal and added three assists against Dartmouth.

Kearney has increased his offensive production each year that he’s been on campus, and produced career-highs of 12 goals, 25 assists and 37 points in his junior year. With the departures of high-scoring players like Sean Backman and Mark Arcobello, Kearney could be in line for another big year. Yale scored seven goals each night, and he was a big reason why. A 40-plus point season is well within reach.

His Runners-Up: Nate Condon, Minnesota; Adam Hartley, RIT; Kevin Petovello, Alaska; David Warsofsky, Boston University

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On more than one occasion last season, we buried the members of Atlantic Hockey for their abysmal non-conference record, so it’s more than fair that we give the league its due. This past weekend alone, both Holy Cross and Bentley beat Northeastern, RIT topped Cornell, and Connecticut tied Union. Earlier this season, AHA clubs beat Ohio State and Western Michigan and tied Merrimack, Michigan, and Maine. It may not seem significant, but from top to bottom, the league continues to improve.

To weekly visits to the infirmary. Last week in this space, we discussed the status of Miami defenseman Will Weber, who was inadvertently clipped by a Northern Michigan player’s skate blade in an Oct. 23 game and needed 100 or so stitches to heal the wound. This time, it’s an update on Denver senior forward Jesse Martin, who broke his neck after being checked by North Dakota forward Brad Malone in the second period of the Pioneers’ 3-0 win in Grand Forks Saturday.

Martin, who was knocked unconscious and had no use of his extremities, was taken off the ice on a stretcher, rushed to a Grand Forks hospital, then transferred to a hospital in Minneapolis.  According to the Denver Post’s Mike Chambers, Martin has been outfitted with a halo-style neck brace and has regained feeling in his arms and legs, but still has some numbness in his body. Martin is expected to undergo surgery Tuesday or Wednesday. He’s definitely out for the rest of the season; whether Martin will be able to resume his hockey career is unknown.

Hearing that Malone was distraught over the incident, Martin called Malone and told him he has no hard feelings and that he didn’t think it was an illegal hit.

“Malone obviously didn’t mean to hurt him,” DU defenseman Jon Cook told Chambers Monday. “I don’t know much about the phone call, but that’s very classy and Jesse is that kind of guy.”

Over the years, the Denver-North Dakota rivalry has evolved to one of the fiercest in college hockey. It’s a credit to both programs to see civility and compassion reign in this instance.

“It’s going to be a war, and not [only] because we don’t like them or they don’t like us—there’s a healthy respect there—but more because that you just have two good hockey teams that are playing hard, that are playing well, and there’ll be points on the line.”

Rensselaer coach Seth Appert, previewing his team’s ECAC Hockey home-and-home series with Union later this month, after the rivals skated to a 3-3 draw in a non-conference match in Lake Placid Saturday. Appert told Ed Weaver of the Troy Record he likes playing Union in a non-league setting because it prepares his team for “the intensity and animosity” of conference play.

We admit, as authors and proprietors of the INCH Power Rankings, that it’s difficult to fairly judge teams in the early part of the season. Throw in another wrinkle with Ivy League teams that don’t start their seasons until late-October, and there’s some difficulty in stacking up some teams. However, once they’ve played over one weekend and lost a pair of games at home, we’re reasonably sure that 0-2-0 Cornell wouldn’t have a spot among our top-20. That wasn’t the case with the electorate of this week’s USCHO Division I Men’s Poll, as Cornell earned 91 total points and held down the 19th spot. Sure, it’s early, but the Big Red don’t deserve a spot at this point in the season.

@UnionHockeyBlog The game ends in a tie… This is going to hurt later in the PWR… Awful final 40 minutes for the Dutchmen… This feels like a loss. (Oct. 28, 9:08 p.m.)

OK, let’s hang on a second here. First of all, any discussion of PairWise prior to mid-February is essentially meaningless. It was unsettling to read this on a Thursday night in October. Secondly, you don’t know yet. If UConn goes on to roll through Atlantic Hockey and rack up a huge winning percentage, this is a game that could help you in the PairWise. Too much, too soon.

DAVID WARSOFSKY
Boston University
Jr. | D | Marshfield, Mass.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-3-5, PPF, +3 rating

His Impact: Like Notre Dame and Wisconsin — the teams Boston University beat at the IceBreaker Tournament in St. Louis — the Terriers enter the season with a bunch of new faces as well as returnees who must now shoulder the load in the face of heavy offseason losses. But if last weekend was any indication, Warsofsky is poised to take over as BU’s leader on the blue line.

The 5-foot-9 defender had a solid sophomore campaign with 12 goals and 11 assists in 34 games, but he was overshadowed by teammates Colby Cohen and Kevin Shattenkirk. With those two now playing professionally, it’s up to Warsofsky, a junior, to guide a defensive corps that consists of three sophomores and two freshmen. With two goals and three assists in one-goal victories against the Badgers and Fighting Irish, it appears he’s up to the task.

His Runners Up: Jay Barriball, Minnesota; Cory Conacher, Canisius; Alden Hirschfeld, Miami; Kelly Zajac, Union

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In spite of our occasional ribbing, we here at INCH are big Michigan Tech fans, especially the Huskies’ status as one of the college game’s early powerhouse programs. And while Tech isn’t quite back to the days of John MacInnes, Tony Esposito, and Mike Zuke, things are a little brighter in Houghton this week after the Huskies rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat rival Northern Michigan in Marquette Friday and walloped Lake Superior State the following night — Michigan Tech’s first back-to-back wins since sweeping Northern Michigan on Dec. 19-20, 2008. Also, the Huskies’ 10 goals were the most during a weekend since sweeping Alaska Anchorage by 9-0 and 5-3 scores on Oct. 27-28, 2006.

Defense, it’s been said, wins championships. If that truly is the case, a few teams won’t have to worry about rearranging the trophy case any time soon. In seven of the 16 regular-season games Friday that didn’t go to overtime, the winning team netted five or more goals. In the three games that ended in ties that night, the final scores were 5-5, 5-5, and 6-6. Results from Saturday and Sunday were similar. Perhaps pucks should be stored in a humidor a la Coors Field.

“I settled in pretty well.”

That’s what former Wisconsin Badger Derek Stepan told reporters Saturday after scoring three goals to lead the New York Rangers to a 6-3 win at Buffalo. He’s the fourth player in NHL history to score a hat trick in his debut. Yeah, Derek, we’d agree with your critique.

It has been Inside College Hockey tradition to take a week off from publishing our INCH Power Rankings after the opening weekend of the year. With a reduced schedule of games on the docket and some teams inactive or only playing in early-season exhibitions, there’s too much uncertainty after week one. We can’t be outraged by anything at this point in the season.

@SabresDotCom Second period is underway.

We choose an example from the NHL to protect the accused, but could have easily cited numerous game update tweets from fans, media or sports information pros throughout the weekend from rinks around the country. We encourage people to take advantage of the 140 characters and include a score in every tweet. Even a shorthand lingo such as “WIS 3 – UNH 3″ would make all tweets more valuable. Fans are following more than just your tweets, so keep the big picture in mind.

BEN SCRIVENS
Cornell
Sr. | G | Spruce Grove, Alberta

Ben Scrivens

His Statistics: 2 GP, 1-0-1 record, 0.96 GAA, .964 save percentage

His Impact: Scrivens allowed just one goal in each game of Cornell’s regular-season wrap-up weekend against Union and Rensselaer. His 29-save effort against Union virtually clinched second place in the league and drew plenty of praise from Union coach Nate Leaman.

“I thought Scrivens was the difference in the game. It’s funny, not a lot of people are talking about him as a possible Hobey Baker candidate, but with that performance tonight and his numbers in the league, he should absolutely be in that talk,” Leaman said.

Scrivens made 24 saves Saturday in a 1-1 tie against Rensselaer. He’s got a .931 save percentage and 1.99 goals-against average this season with a 17-8-4 record and four shutouts.

His Runners-Up: Brayden Irwin, Vermont; Tim Kirby, Air Force; Dion Knelsen, Alaska; Chris Moran, Niagara; Rhett Rakhshani, Denver

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Two teams made particularly important moves over the weekend in helping secure postseason berths and improving their NCAA criteria. Alaska’s Governor’s Cup series sweep of in-state rival Alaska Anchorage was a perfect tuneup for the upcoming CCHA playoffs. Vermont righted its ship with a pair of wins over Boston University and back into the playoff posisitons in Hockey East with one weekend remaining.

It’s not a bench minor so much as it is a case of unfortunate timing for Boston University and Vermont, two Hockey East teams playing a Sunday afternoon game in front of a nationally televised audience. Of course, there was a game of some import starting at the exact same time on the other side of the continent, one that also served as the final athletic event of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The sellout crowd in Burlington went home happy – the Catamounts beat the Terriers, 3-2. Whether they were still happy after seeing the end of the Canada-U.S. gold medal hockey match, however, depended on rooting interest.

“It’s a slippery slope to be looking at penalties after the fact.”

That’s what WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod told Kevin Allenspach of the St. Cloud Times after handing down a three-game suspension to St. Cloud State’s Aaron Marvin for a hit to the head of Wisconsin’s Blake Geoffrion during a Feb. 20 game at the Kohl Center.

Unlike the hit Marvin laid on North Dakota defenseman Chay Genoway in November – one that likely ended the Fighting Sioux All-American’s season prematurely – this check wasn’t malicious. Had he not caught Geoffrion with his head down, it would’ve been a terrific open-ice hit.

But Marvin hit Geoffrion in the head, and that’s always a penalty regardless of intent. And even though Marvin wasn’t penalized at the time, the nature of the hit and his prior history led to the suspension. It’s a no-win situation for both the WCHA and Marvin – the league had to do something, even though Marvin was making a hockey play.

We’re probably guilty of sticking up for the so-called little guys, and have previously admitted that we value regular-season championships as a measure of consistent excellence over the course of a long season. That said, it seems that most voters in national polls don’t think a lot of the kind of run RIT has gone on in Atlantic Hockey. The Tigers won their third Atlantic Hockey regular-season title in the last four years and are 22-6-1 after an 0-5-0 start to the year. Sure, they don’t have any wins outside of the league, but most of those games were played early in the season and they’re playing their best hockey right now.

@inch Four of six players on Olympic all-star team played college hockey: Miller, Rafalski, Parise, Toews

Former college hockey players were among the best players during the Olympic men’s hockey tournament as evidenced by the all-tournament team. Further, Ryan Miller (Michigan State) was named as the tournament’s most valuable player, Brian Rafalski (Wisconsin) was the best defenseman and Jonathan Toews (North Dakota) was the best forward. Hard to argue with Rafalski, but we wonder how many panelists tried to grab their ballots back after the last shift.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 4-3—7, +2 vs. Minnesota State

His Impact: Geoffrion’s individual statistics show a strong weekend by him and reflected a national trend where the nation’s top teams took care of business over the weekend. Wisconsin was one of four teams atop the INCH Power Rankings to sweep weekend series.

Geoffrion had a goal and three assists to factor in all four of Wisconsin’s goals in a 4-3 win Friday night over Minnesota State. He added a pair of goals and an assist in Saturday’s 8-3 Badger win, including a power-play goal in the first period that put Wisconsin in front to stay. He leads Wisconsin with 21 goals and ranks third on the Badgers with 35 points.

His Runners Up: Bobby Butler, New Hampshire; Jared DeMichael, RIT; Tyler Lehrke, Bemidji State; Jaron Palmer, Miami; Chase Polacek, Rensselaer.

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Niagara made the right call in postponing Saturday’s home game against Alabama-Huntsville in light of the shooting incident that took place on that school’s campus Friday in which three members of the school’s biology department were killed and three others were wounded. Knowing that the Chargers return to Niagara for a series later this month makes the decision easier, but getting the Alabama-Huntsville contingent back to campus as soon as possible was the proper decision.

What has happened to the goaltending in college hockey? Don’t get us wrong — there are plenty of adequate goalies out there. But other than Denver’s Marc Cheverie and perhaps Miami’s Cody Reichard and Cornell’s Ben Scrivens, the list of netminders who can singlehandedly steal a game is non-existent. It’s a topic we’ll explore in greater detail in the next INCH Podcast.

“It’s frustrating because if they would’ve let it happen, it would be settled now. Now it’s just going to escalate and you get worse and worse things happening. … We’re grown men. We know what to do. We know how the game is played.”

That’s from North Dakota senior captain Darcy Zajac, who spoke to reporters following his team’s 8-1 win at St. Cloud State Saturday. Early in that game, Fighting Sioux forward Mario Lamoureux and the Huskies’ Aaron Marvin dropped the gloves and doffed their helmets in preparation for a fight, retribution for a dirty hit Marvin laid on NoDak standout defenseman Chay Genoway earlier this season. Of course, officials jumped in before punches were thrown.

The NCAA would sooner put Lane Kiffin in charge of compliance before allowing fighting in college hockey. But Zajac is spot on in his analysis; letting Lamoureux and Marvin settle the manner one-on-one would’ve been much better than letting the game deteriorate into a chippy affair that resulted in 109 minutes in penalties assessed in the second and third periods.

The INCH Power Rankings tend to fluctuate a great deal more than some of the other national polls, and also tend to factor current PairWise standing far less — and current conference standing and recent results far more — than some other voters. Vermont built up plenty of good momentum early in the year in a season that features many impressive non-conference wins over the likes of Denver, Yale and Minnesota Duluth. However, Vermont stands eighth in Hockey East and is 7-9-5 within league play following a tie and loss last week against Merrimack.

@without_a_peer  [Men] That’s it for one of the most bizarre first periods you’ll ever see. 3-3 after 20 minutes, but momentum clearly in RPI’s favor. 

@WHRBSports  Hockey of the absurd here at the Bright Center – Crimson 2-0 lead becomes 3-3 by the end of the period. Carroll pulled for Richter. End of 1.

An RPI hockey blog and Harvard’s student radio briefly recapped a wild opening period Friday night that set the tone for a greater trend across ECAC Hockey. RPI went on to a 5-4 win over Harvard. The same night, Union rallied from a 4-0 first period deficit to upend Dartmouth 5-4. The travel partners exchanged opponents Saturday and Harvard held on for a 4-3 win over Union, despite a late surge by the Dutchmen. RPI had a win in hand at Dartmouth, but the Big Green scored twice in the last three minutes to steal a win. Also, Clarkson picked up a four-point weekend with wins over Princeton and Quinnipiac. The Golden Knights went into the weekend with just one win in ECAC Hockey play.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 4-3—7, hat trick, +5 vs. Clarkson and St. Lawrence

His Impact: Valery-Trabucco led his Union team to a pair of wins and back into a share of first place in ECAC Hockey.

He factored on five of Union’s 11 goals (yes, 11) in Friday’s win over Clarkson with three goals and two assists. The following night, Valery-Trabucco led Union’s comeback against St. Lawrence. He scored the game-tying goal 3:09 into the third period that knotted the score 2-2. Union went on to a 4-2 win over the Saints.

Valery-Trabucco leads the Dutchmen with 16 goals and 35 points and shares the team lead with 19 assists. He is tied for 11th nationally in points for a Union team that ranks fifth nationally in scoring offense (3.64 goals per game).

His Runners Up: Cory Conacher, Canisius; Ryan Lasch, St. Cloud State; Craig Roehl, Western Michigan; Steven Whitney, Boston College

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This week we take time to salute a couple of programs that entered the year with high expectations. Instead of holding a top-10 national ranking, both Boston University and Princeton languished near the bottom of the standings in their leagues through the first three months of the year. We raise the branches to both teams for pulling themselves out of difficult first halves and making a run over the last six weeks. Prior to its Beanpot final Monday night, the Terriers were 7-2-0 in their last nine games and moved their overall record to 11-11-3. Princeton is 7-3-1 in its last 11 games and within one game of .500.

Though they’ve languished around the .500 mark all season, we’ve always left the light on for Notre Dame-with the way they’ve played the past two seasons and the talent on that team, we thought they’d make a late-season run and, at the very least, be on the periphery of the NCAA tournament picture. That ended when the Fighting Irish were throttled by 7-2 and 4-1 scores by Western Michigan, which was then the last-place team in the CCHA. Injuries have taken a toll on the Irish, for sure, but at 12-13-7 overall and 8-10-6 in the league, Notre Dame’s season must be considered nothing short of a monumental fail.

“You try to stay focused, but everything going through your head is about Brendan. With the emotions everyone’s had, I’m just so proud of all the guys. It’s something we’re going to go through as a team.”

A comment from Miami captain Tommy Wingels following the RedHawks’ 10-4 win over Lake Superior State Saturday, the team’s first game since learning that student assistant Brendan Burke was killed in a car accident the previous day. Whatever anguish Wingels and his teammates felt in last April’s stunning defeat in the NCAA championship game against Boston University pales in comparison to this loss.

This week, the outrage belongs to INCH reader Steve in Golden Valley, Minn., who says we “look silly” for putting Minnesota Duluth at No. 11 in the INCH Power Rankings even though the Bulldogs are tied for first atop the WCHA. Perhaps, but we’re not alone … sort of. UMD is ranked behind Denver, Wisconsin, and St. Cloud State this week in both voter-driven polls.

When we sat down to tackle this week’s rankings, we had UMD in our second tier of teams along with Bemidji State, Colorado College, Michigan State, and North Dakota. There’s no real science to why the Bulldogs ended up at the bottom of that grouping, but the loss at Michigan Tech didn’t help. The Huskies have just five wins this season, and UMD has been the victim in two of them.

@rlenzi Maine, Cornell, St. Cloud State and Miami of Ohio to play in 2010 Florida College Classic http://bit.ly/bvVnle

Maine’s beat writer for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram reported Monday that the Black Bears and Cornell, co-hosts of the Florida College Classic, will welcome elite teams from the CCHA (Miami) and WCHA (St. Cloud State) to Estero, Fla. in late December. It’s not too early to get excited for a Frozen Four-type field that could feature the 2009-10 regular-season champions of four different conferences.

Travis Vermeulen has set career-highs for goals and points as a senior.

TRAVIS VERMEULEN
St. Lawrence
Sr. | F | Centerville, Minn.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-4-6, GWG, +3 rating

His Impact: Vermeulen recorded a point on six of St. Lawrence’s nine goals over the weekend and helped lead the Saints into a three-way tie for second place in ECAC Hockey. He had two assists in the Saints’ 5-2 win over Brown on Friday and then came back with two goals and two assists in an important 4-2 win over Yale on Saturday at Appleton Arena.

Vermeulen’s huge night against defending league-champion Yale included a strong start in the first period. He assisted SLU’s opener and then scored less than three minutes later as the Saints held a 2-0 lead. Yale rallied back to tie it in the first minute of the third period, but Vermeulen scored the eventual game-winning goal at 11:00 of the period. He then assisted on an insurance tally with 1:52 remaining.

The senior forward leads St. Lawrence in scoring with 11 goals and 24 points but hasn’t been counted on for offensive production throughout his collegiate career. He started the year with just 42 career points. That’s not to discount his contributions over the last three and a half seasons. Saints coach Joe Marsh told the Watertown Daily Times, “He’s the best defensive forward I’ve ever coached. He brings it every single night.”

His Runners Up: Michael Davies, Wisconsin; Brian Foster, New Hampshire; Dave Jarman, Sacred Heart; Ian Lowe, Bemidji State; Brandon Richardson, Nebraska-Omaha

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This weekend’s Denver-Wisconsin series lived up to its advance billing; it was a well-played, intense, highly entertaining affair between two legitimate national championship contenders in a playoff atmosphere. If the two games at the Kohl Center are an indicator, put our names on the list of those who’d like to see a rematch in March or April.

Generally speaking, last weekend wasn’t a great one for teams in the INCH Power Rankings. Of the 20 teams currently ranked, only St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, New Hampshire, UMass Lowell and newcomer St. Lawrence managed two wins. Five ranked teams, meanwhile, were winless-Boston College, Minnesota Duluth, and Union were swept outright, while Denver and Lake Superior State salvaged only ties against Wisconsin and Notre Dame, respectively.

“This guy has never had any coaching (at the University of Michigan). … Michigan is the worst. For hockey people, if you’ve got a choice between a kid-all things being equal-one’s going to Michigan and one’s going to Boston University, you all want your player (going to Boston University). … Red (Berenson) doesn’t coach. It’s ‘do what you want.’”

Asked about the maturation of defenseman Jack Johnson, Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi blasted Johnson, Berenson, and the Michigan program during a wide-ranging Q&A with Hockeytalk.biz blogger Gann Matsuda. The comments set the hockey world abuzz, and compelled Johnson to defend Berenson and the Michigan program. When asked about the comments a few days after they became public, Lombardi blamed Matsuda for taking his quotes out of context.

Maybe Lombardi is right-there exists anecdotal evidence that a fair share of high-profile ex-Wolverines (Andrew Cogliano, Al Montoya, and Jeff Tambellini, for example) haven’t panned out, but the flip side is that a number of lesser-heralded Michigan prospects have far exceeded expectations (think Matt Hunwick, David Moss, and Jed Ortmayer)-and he’s entitled to his opinion. But to make such statements and claiming his words were taken out of context is bush league.

An oddity in this week’s voter-driven rankings regarding Cornell and North Dakota, who split a series at Lynah Rink last weekend. In the USCHO.com poll, both the Fighting Sioux and Big Red edged up one spot to fourth and eighth, respectively. In the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll, however-a poll in which INCH casts a ballot weekly-the Fighting Sioux moved up one spot to fourth while the Big Red fell one rung from seventh to eighth. It’s nothing to get mad about (unless you’re a Cornell fan, perhaps) but it’s fascinating how two different groups of voters interpret the same results.

@SchlossmanGF – In Lynah Rink. It’s freezing in here.

@undsid – In Lynah Rink. It’s freezing in here. @SchlossmanGF: Stop whining!

@SchlossmanGF – @INCH_Gladdy Strange that two guys from North Dakota are complaining about the cold?

The Tweets of the Week share some levity from Grand Forks Herald beat writer Brad Schlossman and North Dakota media relations director Jayson Hajdu. Here are a couple of guys who wake up to sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures throughout the winter and got the chills in a 40-50 degree hockey rink.

The bigger picture is that one of the ideas for this week’s Stick Salute was to raise the branches to North Dakota’s willingness to travel east and set up a very good series between two very good teams. We understand that several high-profile Western teams have big rinks and big financial responsibilities to their athletic departments. That being said, North Dakota has made a commitment to get on the plane and play non-league games against prominent Eastern-based teams. Last year, it was the IceBreaker Tournament at BU with another game against UMass. This year, a trip to Cornell; and next year the Sioux embark on a two-game series at Maine.

CAM ATKINSON
Boston College
So. | F | Greenwich, Conn.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 3-2-5 in wins against Providence and Maine.

His Impact: The Boston College Eagles returned home to Kelley Rink for the first time since Thanksgiving and gave their fans a lot to cheer about in a pair of victories last week, which broke a three-game losing streak for BC.

It started with a midweek game against Providence, a 4-1 win in which Atkinson wasted little time in getting people out of their seats. He scored a minute into the first period and assisted on Brian Gibbons’ goal later in the period. The Eagles hosted Maine Friday night and kept up the high-scoring spree. Atkinson scored back-to-back goals in the second period as BC stretched its lead to 4-0, and he assisted Joe Whitney’s third-period tally in the eventual 6-1 win.

Atkinson’s three-goal week extended his team lead in goals (13). The sophomore product of Avon Old Farms was voted as the team’s best freshman last season after finishing fourth on the team in scoring with seven goals and 19 points. He has already surpassed those totals with 22 points this year and ranks second overall in scoring. Atkinson was a sixth-round draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

His Runners-Up: Will Acton, Lake Superior State; Andrew Blazek, Robert Morris; Tommy Grant, Alaska Anchorage; Patrick Knowlton, Sacred Heart; Kain Tisi, St. Lawrence

Obviously, college hockey is our first love here at INCH, but we’re fans of the game at all levels. That includes the American Hockey League, one rung below the NHL on the professional hierarchy in North America and home to a terrific brand of hockey.

A bevy of ex-collegians are on the rosters for Tuesday’s AHL All-Star Game in Portland, Maine. Familiar names in the AHL Canada lineup include defenseman Tyler Eckford (Alaska) and forward Jon Matsumoto (Bowling Green). Among those playing for the PlanetUSA squad are forwards Patrick Rissmiller (Holy Cross), Nathan Gerbe (Boston College), and Christian Hanson (Notre Dame); defensemen Andy Wozniewski (Wisconsin) and Sean Sullivan (Boston University); and goaltender Alex Stalock (Minnesota Duluth). Former Clarkson coach Mark Morris, now with the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs, will pilot the PlanetUSA team with help from former Maine standout Scott Pellerin, who also serves as assistant with the Monarchs.

The AHL All-Star Game will air live on a number of regional sports networks including NESN, MSG, and Altitude. 

Maybe it’s just us, but didn’t it seem like teams were blowing leads in epidemic proportions this past weekend? Most notable was Michigan State turning leads into a loss and tie against Notre Dame, but there were others.

For example, Bemidji State surrendered a two-goal lead in a 6-4 loss at Niagara Friday. The following night, Army frittered away a two-goal lead in a tie with Canisius, Alaska did the same in a tie at Michigan, and so too did Bowling Green in a draw at Northern Michigan. Minnesota Duluth almost followed suit by losing a two-goal edge at Minnesota State, but Mike Connolly saved the Bulldogs’ bacon by winning the game with a goal in overtime.

“I refuse to believe they are better than us. I believe in our guys. I have a lot of belief in that locker room. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Union. I think they are a top-10 hockey team and they have earned the position they are in. We have a lot of work to get our team in the position where we might get another chance at them. But I am not going to say they are better than us.”

That was the answer from Rensselaer head coach Seth Appert when asked by Albany Times-Union staff writer Tim Wilkin if he thought Union was a better team, following Union’s 3-1 win over the Engineers Saturday at Union. It gave the Dutchmen a 3-1-0 advantage in the season series between New York’s Capital District rivals. All four contests were contested to the final minute of regulation or in overtime.

To a Union fan, it probably reads as sour grapes from a defiant, sore loser—bulletin-board fodder for future meetings. To us, it’s the absolutely correct response. What do you expect a coach to say in that situation? Saturday’s game was the last regular-season game between the teams. If these teams eventually meet up in the ECAC Hockey playoffs, it’s a near certainty that we’ll read and hear about this statement again. Kudos to RPI’s coach for standing up for his players in a public forum, and should that postseason meeting take place, it’s likely that his team will remember those words and work especially hard to prove Appert right after expressing his belief in their ability. 

The PairWise Rankings aren’t a poll per se, but they’re a recurring source of outrage for a few of us here at INCH. And it’s not because it’s an inadequate tool for choosing the NCAA Tournament field; the computers have done the right thing the vast majority of the time.

The problem is that PairWise becomes a focal point for fans earlier and earlier every season, and we forget that its relevance is geared solely toward one day in March. Moreover, the PWR obsession minimizes aspects of college hockey that are incredibly enjoyable and intense—regular-season conference races and battles for positions in the league standings and the league playoffs themselves. March will get here soon enough; until then, we should take just as much pleasure in the journey as in reaching the destination.

@paulrovnak Roller Hockey being played on Pennsylvania Ave about 300 yards from White House. No sign of football or basketball games.

This week we share a good news report from the nation’s capital on some noteworthy activity this holiday afternoon. That’s our idea of a good way to spend the day off. Our only regret is that we didn’t know about this group prior to visiting for last spring’s Frozen Four. Washington Post staff writer Katie Carrera (@WPKatieCarrera) featured the group of hockey nuts over the summer. 

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Ostergard stole the show against Miami.

BROOKS OSTERGARD
Robert Morris
So. | G | Chagrin Falls, Ohio

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .975 save pct.

His Impact: The sophomore goalie for Robert Morris was at his best this weekend in helping the Colonials to a pair of victories over previously top-ranked Miami. In Friday’s game at Mellon Arena, home of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, Ostergard made 39 saves and allowed just a power-play goal in a 3-1 win.

Sunday in Oxford, Ohio, Ostergard stopped 38 Miami shots and again was only beaten by a power-play goal. He made 14 saves in the third period when the Colonials were protecting their 2-1 lead, which held up as the final margin.

Ostergard was named First Star of the game after both wins. For the season he has a 4-9-21 record in 17 games with a .907 save percentage and 3.43 goals-against average.

His Runners-Up: Bobby Butler, New Hampshire; Brandon Coccimiglio, Mercyhurst; Mike Connolly, Minnesota Duluth; Mike Embach, Ferris State; Allan York, Rensselaer

There were a lot of impressive visuals from Fenway Park over the last two weeks when a hockey rink was built on the famous baseball ground and hosted a number of hockey events. When Boston University and Boston College took the ice on Friday night, our initial reaction was being overwhelmingly impressed by the special sweaters worn by the BU Terriers.

The font on front resembled that worn by the Boston Red Sox on their home jerseys, and the hanging skates shoulder-patch tribute to the Red Sox’ alternate logo was a particular fitting touch. The design was almost entirely the idea of head coach Jack Parker, as the Terriers used to wear warm-up jackets with a similar font in the late-1980s and early-1990s. He and equipment manager Mike DiMella worked with some of the team’s equipment providers to make the vision a reality. And if you’re hoping to get your hands on one … too bad. The idea behind the special design was so that the team members would always have something to hold on to and remember the experience.

We understand that people tend to think their own little corner of the world is the best there is, but sometimes that provincialism can be a bit misguided. Take Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, for example, who, in the afterglow of the NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park earlier this month, was prepared to lobby the league to have the event in Beantown every year. The notion was quickly shot down by NHL brass.

Fenway is one-of-a-kind setting and the Winter Classic certainly benefited from the aura surrounding the venerable ballpark, but suggesting the event should be permanently housed in Boston is a disservice to the cities that have hosted the Winter Classic in the past as well as those poised to host it in the future.

“I was a little smarter than he was. I gave my gold to my mom.”

Wisconsin sophomore defenseman Jake Gardiner, a member of the U.S. team that won first place at last week’s IIHF World Junior Championship, wisely sent his hardware home to suburban Minneapolis with his family following the tournament’s conclusion.

The U.S. team captain and Gardiner’s Badger teammate, forward Derek Stepan, planned on toting his medal back to Madison. The bauble went AWOL, however, when the airline lost his luggage. Fortunately, the bag and the medal showed up a couple days later unharmed.

Miami must have fostered a heaping helping of goodwill with poll voters somewhere, because the RedHawks managed to drop just one spot to second place in both the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today and USCHO.com polls despite managing a total of two goals in a pair of losses to Robert Morris, a team that entered the weekend series in the throes of a nine-game winless streak and hadn’t won consecutive games all season.

That the RedHawks only managed to score twice in 120 minutes against the Colonials is even more troubling (or impressive, depending on your perspective) given the fact that RMU ranks 54th among the 58 Division I teams in scoring defense, allowing an average of 3.75 goals per game, and ranks 52nd in penalty killing success rate.

@evalois What we learned yesterday? Defense, not defence, wins games. #wjc

http://twitter.com/evalois/status/7445063437

Similarities outnumber differences between Canada and the United States, but last Tuesday they seemed a world away, something a Toronto-based newspaper editor captured with this tweet. The World Junior Championship gold medal game was the most watched show in the history of TSN, Canada’s ESPN, while ESPN itself could barely mention it. Don Cherry later dismissed the result as USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program manufacturing a triumph over Canada’s natural superiority in the sport.

Whatever the rest of the United States’ interest was, the college hockey world watched with great interest as the Americans – including 11 current college players – upset the five-time defending champions. Team USA’s win was a source of great pride – and bragging rights throughout campus locker rooms populated by both American and Canadian players.

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DU's Rhett Rakhshani posted identical 2-1—3 scoring lines in wins against Nebraska-Omaha and Boston College.

RHETT RAKHSHANI
Denver
Sr. | F | Huntington Beach, Calif.

His Impact: Rakhshani was the catalyst as Denver captured its own holiday tournament with wins over Nebraska-Omaha and Boston College. Denver opened the tournament with a 7-0 win over UNO and Rakhshani posted two goals, an assist and was a plus-4.

Denver trailed Boston College 2-0 after two periods, but Rakhshani took over in the third period. He scored just 30 seconds into the period to cut the Pioneer deficit in half. Later in the period, he scored the game-tying goal with 5:16 remaining and then set up Joe Colborne’s game winner with 3:15 left on the clock.

His Runners-Up: Dan Bakala, Bemidji State; Brett Perlini, Michigan State; Kyle Rank, Bentley; Chris Rawlings, Northeastern; Jason Walters, Union

Among the longest shots to win any of the holiday tournaments, the Bentley Falcons left Storrs, Conn., with the trophy following 4-1 wins over host UConn and nationally-ranked Massachusetts in the UConn Hockey Classic. Goalie Kyle Rank was named tournament MVP after stopping 65 of 67 shots he faced in the two games, and made 42 saves in the win over UMass.

We panned Atlantic Hockey’s non-league performance in earlier editions of the First Shift, and will take this opportunity to salute Bentley’s big win. The Falcons are 6-4-2 in Atlantic Hockey, currently in fifth place, and have played fewer games than three of the teams ahead of them in the standings.

Regular readers of this site know that we’re not the greatest fans of post-game shootouts. Unfortunately, at many holiday tournaments across the country, the shootout is used to determine which teams advance and in some cases which teams win the tournament (Wisconsin). Our personal opinions aside, the holiday tournament season is probably the best time to use this format. With teams playing back-to-back nights and more than one game at each venue, there are time concerns and burdens on the players. Still, we applaud the Great Lakes Invitational and Beanpot for putting 20 minutes on the overtime clock.

We can accept that the CCHA uses the format for its league games, but why was there a shootout after Saturday’s 0-0 tie between Bemidji State and Western Michigan? When the host Broncos prevailed, fans left the rink with the perception that the Broncos won the game. Not bad for a team that failed to score an actual goal all weekend.

“Things just kind of turned for the worst and it just became a big distraction this year for us. And I think that’s one reason we were so up and down this year, because some of the things that he said to his players and some of the things that were done. People just didn’t cope with that.”

Texas Tech offensive lineman Brandon Carter made those remarks to ESPNDallas.com reporter Jeff Kaplan following the Red Raiders’ Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State last weekend. The situation surrounding the dismissal of Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach is bizarre, but the entire episode drives home an important lesson—that even though journalists and fans alike think they can dissect the problems plaguing Team X or get to the bottom of why Player Y isn’t performing, the truth is that we really don’t know.

Sure, we can speculate that a specific team’s issues stem from a lack of effort, an absence of finishers on offense, or zero attention to detail. And we might be right. Then again, maybe the guys hate each other, maybe they’ve tuned the coaching staff out, or, in the case of Texas Tech, the coach is a jerk.

On the strength of a pair of convincing wins over Michigan Tech and Rensselaer at the Great Lakes Invitational, Michigan State leapt past Bemidji State in this week’s INCH Power Rankings and both voter-driven polls. The Beavers didn’t help their cause with a scoreless tie at CCHA bottom-feeder Western Michigan, but the decision to flip the Spartans ahead of BSU wasn’t as easy as you might think.

@twolinepass America is a helluva country!

A simple statement from Ryan Lambert of Puck Daddy that captured a lot of the pride and emotion evident on Twitter Sunday night after the United States defeated Sweden in the semifinals of the World Junior Championship.

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.