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2009-10 Bemidji State Season Preview

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Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore is done talking about last season’s Cinderella run to the Frozen Four.

Believe it or not, he’d rather talk about this season and the Beavers’ chances.

“There never really was a hangover,” said Serratore, whose squad also won the CHA regular-season and playoff titles. “We shouldn’t even be talking about last season. There are memories, but we’re all beyond that. This is a different team now with different players.”

Any chances to replicate the 2008-09 season, however, might be dimmed by the fact BSU has two freshmen goalies and a sophomore that saw few minutes after sophomore Matt Dalton signed with the Boston Bruins last spring and Orlando Alamano graduated.

“What are you going to do?” Serratore asked. “Any time you lose a player to the NHL it’s a big loss, but there’s nothing you can do. That’s the hand you’re dealt. You just move on. We have three capable goaltenders and we hope one of them can step up and take charge.”

Dan Bakala didn’t see any regular-season action last year, but did go 3-0-0 in exhibition games. Mathieu Dugas and Travis Bosch had decent junior careers and should see game action immediately.

Still, the loss of Dalton will sting, at least in the early going, as will Tyler Scofield’s graduation. Scofield finished as the third-highest scorer for BSU’s Division I-era teams last year.

“Matt Dalton is a big loss; he had a very solid year last year and will be missed,” BSU senior captain Chris McKelvie said. “With that being said, I have a lot of confidence in our goalies this year. They are very hard workers who are eager to get better and are also very competitive. Not only that, but our defensive system and defensive core is solid as evident from last season, and it’s great to have knowing those guys are on the blue line for us.”

Sophomore Brad Hunt is expected to anchor a solid Bemidji State defense this season (photo: BSU Photo Services).

Sophomore Brad Hunt is expected to anchor a solid Bemidji State defense this season (photo: BSU Photo Services).

The BSU defense is where Serratore feels the strength of the Beavers lies. He also said that he doesn’t see any freshmen making an impact this season.

“We have a lot of returning guys back in our ‘D’ corps and have a lot of maturity back there,” Serratore said. “With our freshmen, as a program, we don’t put much emphasis on our freshmen. If they play, it’s a bonus, but to expect them to take the next step right away and be significant players is unfair to them.”

McKelvie, an assistant captain last season, sees being named captain this year as just a sign he’s a role model for the rest of the team, freshmen included.

“I think a big thing with leadership is that you always let your actions speak louder than your words,” McKelvie said. “Guys are going to see through you if you say one thing and don’t follow through with it yourself. There have been some great captains in this program’s history and I think the one common denominator is that they always put the team before themselves. You have to do everything you can to make sure the team brings their best every day.”

Junior forward Matt Read and sophomore defenseman Brad Hunt made the All-CHA preseason team and emerged last year as legit players at the Division I level. Improvement is expected not only of them, but also from the entire team as it may be a bit of a bumpy road.

“We have a lot of work to do with some very tough challenges throughout the season,” McKelvie said. “It’s a special group of guys in the locker room who are very determined to win this year and I fully expect us to have success. We must come prepared for every weekend and the results will take care of themselves.”

Even if there is no NCAA tournament appearance this season, any team that plays the Beavers will quickly see that last year was no fluke.

2009-10 Harvard Season Preview

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Last Year

For the second year in a row, a promising start was massively derailed by a midseason skid.

Following a 4-2-0 start to the year, the Crimson fell flat on their faces for the better part of a financial quarter as the Cambridge club hit a 1-12-4 wall across the end of 2008 and into ’09. The Beanpot Bounceback was in full effect, though, as the crew finished the regular season 4-0-2 following Boston’s annual February foursome.

The resurgence was not meant to be, however, as Brown stunned the Crimson at the Bright Hockey Center on consecutive evenings to terminate Harvard’s bipolar season.

One big problem was an utter lack of offense from coach Ted Donato’s forwards. Nobody achieved more than eight goals, only two players topped 20 points, and the first senior leader to show up on the scoring list was way down at No. 8, Nick Coskren. He tied junior Doug Rogers for the team lead with eight goals, but it was Rogers who took the scoring title with 21 points.

On the bright side, dynamic blue-liner Alex Biega registered 16 assists in his third year on the job, and 17 different players lit the lamp for the Crimson, including 11 who did so thrice or more.

In goal, rookie Matt Hoyle played the most minutes, but sophomore Ryan Carroll finished strong with a team-leading .933 save rate and a 2.31 goals against average.

This Year

Where will the offense come from this year? Just about everywhere, many Crimson observers predict.

“Alex Killorn and Michael Biega are poised and ready to have breakout years for us,” Donato said. “Matt McCollem is also poised to have a real breakthrough season. I think it’s going to be a very competitive lineup night-in and night-out, and there’s going to be potential there to be a little bigger and a little faster, and be a little bit more offensive than we’ve been over the last few years.”

From the incoming class, “[Alex] Fallstrom’s a guy I think is very very talented, and can come in and make an immediate impact for us. He had a great year for Shattuck-St. Mary’s last year as their leading scorer. Connor Morrison comes in, and I think he was second in points last year in the British Columbia league and in the top-five in goals. He played for Germany in the World Juniors last year. Marshall Everson had a tremendous career at Edina High School, and took the team deep in the state tournament the last few years so we’re excited about Marshall as well.”

The high expectations kept coming.

“David Valek is coming off playing very well for the U.S. Team in the Under-18 World Championships,” Donato said. “Brendan Rempel and Danny Biega will both come in and add some size and speed for us. Danny’s probably a little bit bigger than Alex, plays a little bit more physical, strong game; he plays a very strong game, moves the puck well. Maybe not as flashy offensively as Alex, but certainly very effective, and he’s a guy that has looked mature beyond his age for a few years. You can never be completely comfortable depending solely on freshmen, but I think we have guys that can come in and make an impact for us.”

And of course, a few words for blue-chipper Louis Leblanc, the 18th overall pick in this summer’s NHL draft.

“Louis comes in with a lot of accolades,” Donato said. “He had a very good season last year in the USHL, and is a determined, hard-working player that I think will push all our players with his level of work and skill. Our guys are excited about adding that kind of talent to our lineup. It’s always a challenge any time you move up a level to continue being a high-level player, but we have every confidence that Louis will be able to do that.”

Harvard lost some key cogs from recent successful campaigns.

“With Brian McCafferty we lost a real leader, and a guy that had played some tremendous hockey for us,” said the coach and Harvard alumnus. “Last year Brian was saddled with injuries and was never able to play to his high standards. Jimmy Fraser was very good for us all the way through, and really gave us the ability to defend against other teams’ top lines. We lost some leadership also, with guys like Steve Rolecek and Nicky Coskren, so we definitely lost some things with the guys going out, but we’ve added some things with the guys coming in.”

For the next few months, though, it’s all about what Donato has on hand.

“I think once again we’ll be very young, which isn’t much different from last year,” he said. “We have a big incoming class, and not a huge outgoing class. We’ll be young in the fact that we’ll only have one senior forward, and six seniors in total. We’ll be slightly on the young side, but I really like the steps we took in the latter half of the season last year. I felt Ryan Carroll stepped up and played some pretty good hockey for us, we return Kyle Richter, which I think everybody is excited about, and I think we’ve added some playmakers up front. I think it’s going to be an exciting year, I really do.

“We have a tough schedule to start off — we’re on the road for the first five games [all in league] — which is tough with a young team, with a team that didn’t win a game on the road last year, so that’s a challenge. But as we get our feet wet and get on the other side of the holidays, I really believe we’ll be a team that has got a chance to challenge.”

With Richter coming back after taking a year away from school, it could be an interesting battle for the Harvard starting gig.

“I don’t know if [Kyle] has any edge,” Donato said. “I think Ryan played very well at the end of the season, but Kyle’s also coming off being goalie of the year so I think we’ll just let it play out. I think we’re a lot more excited about the certainty of competition at that position [than we were last year].”

On the blue line, “I think the obvious strength is Alex Biega,” Donato said. “Even though he didn’t receive first-team honors last year, he was outstanding for us. He had a great summer and worked hard, and Alex will really provide us with some great leadership. I believe he’s one of the top players in the country, and he’s certainly the leader back there for us. We have guys like Ian Tallet and Chad Morin coming back for us, and Ryan Grimshaw, who had a tough year last year with injuries.

“We’re excited about the level of talent back there with guys like Brendan Rempel and Danny Biega coming in. We’re excited about what that group can be. It could be a bit of a learning curve for some of the younger guys, but we have a lot of reasons to think that it’s going to be a strength for our team. I think Chris [Huxley] made a step forward, he had some time on the power play for us … he had a good year. He handles the puck very well, he can move the puck; he’ll be in the mix for us.”

2009-10 Princeton Season Preview

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Last Year

The Tigers, unanimous No. 1 picks to enter the season, got off to a white-hot start in going 9-1-0 in their first 10 games and 13-2 after 15.

Then the wheels began to wobble a bit.

Three straight losses in early January precipitated a 7-7-0 conclusion to the regular season, and after edging Union in the quarterfinals, the Tigers lost a heartbreaking double-overtime semifinal contest to Cornell in Albany. The Garden State icers qualified for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, only to see their ambitions crushed in the cruelest of ways: Minnesota-Duluth scored twice in the last 40 seconds of the first-round game to tie the Tigers, and inevitably vanquished the stunned Stripes in the 14th minute of extra time.

Guy Gadowsky’s hard-charging but ultimately snakebit crew was led in goals and points by junior Dan Bartlett with a 16-12-28 line. Classmate Mark Magnowski had 11 goals, bookending a pair of seniors — Brett Wilson and Lee Jubinville — who had 12 and 10 goals, respectively. Thirteen Tigers finished at 10 points or better on the year, and Zane Kalemba was immense in net, sporting a .932 save percentage and a superb 1.82 goals against rate.

This Year

In 2009-10, 10 of those 13 double-digit scorers will return to the ice wearing the orange and black. Kalemba enters his senior year and has been spectacular in his career to date, and only four members of last year’s national-caliber team departed with spring’s commencement ceremonies.

“Losing three extremely important players that are also great people and great leaders … in terms of numbers, we didn’t lose a lot,” Gadowsky said. “We lost three. But each of them were extremely important to the team, both in terms of how they played the game and the leadership they provided, so the difference is we lost some key quality people. I’m very confident in the overall quality of the locker room, but we certainly need guys to step up and take leadership roles because Kush and Jubs and Willy were so exceptional in that area.”

Among the forwards returning to the fold, “Dan Bartlett had an amazing year last year, all over the ice,” Gadowsky said. “He put up tremendous offensive numbers, but I think he works so hard at the other aspects of his game that I hope that other forwards take a cue from that. He’s a tremendous player. Cam MacIntyre (who was injured much of last year), in my mind, might be the most effective forward in the league. He’s big, he’s got amazing hands, he’s tough, he scores, he’s got a nose for the net; he does so many great things. I think he makes a huge difference for us when he’s in the lineup.

“There are a number of other players that contribute offensively but also contribute all over the ice: Mark Magnowski, Kevin Kaiser, Matt Arhontas, Kevin Lohry; you can name a ton that have really logged a lot of important minutes for us in the past and will obviously have to do that for us in the future as well.

“You never know in terms of injuries, but it was a goal of ours to get production from all four lines, and I certainly am optimistic that that’s going to happen again.”

The Tigers didn’t lose a single blue-liner from last year’s squad, creating a formidable obstacle for anyone hoping to test Kalemba.

“We played with seven D all last year and we’re bringing another one in in Michael Sdao, who’s a very big, strong, tough defenseman and he’s going to add to our defensive corps,” Gadowsky said. “That’s one area that I think we can feel somewhat confident in, in that we have a lot of experience back there. In the past few years we were very young at defense and now it seems that we’re quite experienced, so that’s one area that we feel confident in.”

Finally, but certainly not to be overlooked, “we have two excellent athletes that are here with (Kalemba): Both Alan Reynolds and Michael Condon are great athletes who have put up tremendous numbers in net on their own,” Gadowsky said. “We have a lot of faith in Zane, as obviously we should — he’s earned every bit of that and deserves every bit of that — but our goaltending situation as a whole is, in my mind, as good as it’s ever been here.”

Are Condon and Reynolds legitimate threats to take a few games off Kalemba’s docket?

“Yes, they are. Absolutely, they are,” assured Gadowsky.

But not everything is completely smooth in Princeton; the incoming class is already hampered by a couple of injuries.

“James Kerr and Will MacDonald have had knee surgery over the summer and won’t be ready for us right away,” Gadowsky said. “But we do expect immediate contributions [from the class]. We already talked about Michael Sdao, we have the other forwards with Eric Mellon and Rob Kleebaum … they’re going to be called upon to make immediate contributions for sure.”

As for the sting of last year’s heartbreak, it’s anything but old news for this year’s team.

“We certainly haven’t forgotten about it,” Gadowsky said. “Just going through it doesn’t mean you’ve learned a lesson, so I’m optimistic to see that we have learned how to handle those situations and I hope we get in a lot more experiences like that that will prove that we did learn something. It’s nice that the one aspect of [losing only three players] from that game … [is that] the majority of guys in our locker room went through that, and I think that can be a benefit.”

2009-10 Union Season Preview

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Last Year

The Dutchmen had a fairly successful campaign last season, in no small part because they finally ditched their postseason albatross. On the way to vanquishing Clarkson in the first round, Union also came across some young point-producers and didn’t stumble through many prolonged ruts. The team endured only four losing streaks, the worst of which were two three-game skids straddling the winter break.

The Dutch took Princeton to three games in the Garden State before falling, and second-year goaltender Corey Milan was respectable in posting a .907 save rate and a 2.57 goals against average. Junior Adam Presizniuk led the team with 16 goals and 38 points, while juniors Mario Valery-Trabucco and Jason Walters weren’t far behind with 15 and 13 goals, respectively. Sophomore Stéphane Boileau also tipped the double-digit mark in goals, potting 10 in 39 games.

This Year

Milan looks to hold the edge in net, but is expected to improve on last year’s performance if he wants to stay between the pipes. The Dutchmen lose 31 goals with the departure of last year’s seniors, but the production they will especially miss came from defender Lane Caffaro, who scored 23 goals with 59 assists in his career in Schenectady. Fortunately, Nate Leaman’s team has seven double-digit point producers back in the fold for this year’s run.

“We graduated five boys, and four of them signed pro contracts,” Leaman said. “So any time that 90 percent of your class that’s graduating has signed contracts, you’re losing something. Three of the boys were on defense, so we’re taking a little bit of a hit on defense, including Lane Caffaro, who led the league in points among defensemen. Brendan Milnamow had nine goals from the blue line, which I think was up there within our league, and I believe he set a Union record for goals by a defenseman in a season. We lost Matt Cook up front, who was our captain and our half-wall guy on the power play, and Chris Potts, who was a tremendous penalty-killer. We didn’t lose any of our top-four scorers, but a lot of the points we lost were on our blue line.”

One of Leaman’s big concerns is with his greenhorn defensive unit.

“I think we’re going to be young and inexperienced back there. That’s our challenge, of trying to bring our D-corps along. It’s also about playing a smart game early on, and making things as easy as possible for our young defensemen. On the flip side, I really like our set of forwards. I feel like we have three very good recruits coming in, and we only graduated two. We scored 111 goals last year, with us not losing much up there. I think that could be a real strength.”

In goal, “Corey probably didn’t have the year that he’s capable of last year, but he wasn’t getting pushed from behind at all. We have a freshman coming in by the name of Keith Kinkaid who, in my opinion, has to be one of the top five goaltenders coming into college hockey, if not top three. He was the MVP of his league, he was the MVP of the playoffs in his league, they won a championship, he went to the New York Rangers’ prospect camp and he went to the St. Louis Blues’ prospect camp. So Keith has a lot of experience. He did everything he could possibly do in junior hockey, and he performed very well at the [camps].

“We feel in net, with Corey coming back as a junior and having a lot of experience and with Keith coming in to push Corey and compete for that job, I like where we’re at there. I think our No. 1 position is up for grabs, and [senior] Rich [Sillery] is in there as well. Rich doesn’t have the experience that Corey has, but he’s going to get a crack for sure.”

Leaman makes no bones about his team’s early-season priorities: supporting its young defensive corps.

“Our game’s going to revolve around making things easy for our young D,” he said. “We don’t know if we’re going to have one [experienced] pair or if we’re going to split those guys up, but I will tell you about Mike Schreiber: I think Mike Schreiber has outstanding offensive potential. He’s got as good a stick as I’ve seen at that position at Union College.

“Mario [Valery-Trabucco] is extemely gifted,” Leaman continued. “He led us in goals last season, and he had a lot of his goals in the second half of the season. There’s no doubt in my mind he can get to the high-30s [in points]. Jason Walters is heading there as well: Jason led us in points in ECAC play last year, and Adam [Presizniuk] had 38 points last year and was really consistent all year long. I doubt there were two games in a row that Adam didn’t have a point last year. He’s just a really consistent player, and he brings it every night for us. Stéphane Boileau, when he put up points, they were always in big games and big situations. I really like our set of forwards and I think that’ll be one of our assets, that we’re going to be deep in that position. Hopefully we’ll be able to be more than a one-line team.

“Justin Pallos is a smart, gritty player who has the potential to be one of our top penalty killers because he’s such a smart player. He’s a guy that has performed exceptionally at practice, and it just hasn’t translated completely to the games. I feel that it can for him, without a doubt. He’s still putting weight on, and I think that’s helping his game every year.”

Among the freshmen, “Wayne Simpson is a terrific player, he led all of prep school in scoring last year. He has the potential to really be able to put up points at this level,” praised his new coach. “Jeremy Welsh is 6-3, he has a very good skill set for a player who’s 6-3. We feel we can play him at center or the wing, and I think he’s going to add a dimension that we don’t have to our team. Kyle Bodie finished third in the league in the British Columbia league in scoring. He’s a tremendous offensive player, he’s got great vision, he competes well. We’re excited about all three; I think all three … have a chance to make an impact. On the D-corps, I know Greg Coburn coming from Saskatchewan has really been a tremendous player out there. He led his team in scoring as a defenseman, which doesn’t happen very often. We know he has a good deal of potential.”

Overall, Leaman isn’t quite sure what he’s got, but he knows it will be exciting.

“We have potential to be [a run-and-gun team]. We’re going to make some mistakes, but I think we’ve got the right goalies back there. We’ll have to live through those, we’ll have to make some saves and on the other end, we’ll have to score some goals.

“I truly believe that we underachieved last year. I know that we had 19 wins, but our record was 3-7 in games in which we gave up 20 shots or less. That’s a remarkable stat. This year if we give up 20 shots or less in 10 games, I’ll be a happy guy. I definitely thought our record could’ve been better in those games.”

2009-10 College Hockey America Season Preview

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What can one say about College Hockey America that hasn’t already been said?

This is the final year of the conference? Check.

Niagara and Robert Morris are off to Atlantic Hockey next season? Check.

Bemidji State finally got into the WCHA starting with next year? Check.

Alabama-Huntsville doesn’t have a home yet for 2010-11? Check.

While the league has never been considered one of the “big four” conferences, there has never been any denying the fact that the CHA, in whichever form one chooses, has always been competitive not only in the conference, but on the national stage.

Leading scorer Matt Read is back to lead Bemidji State's offense (photo: BSU Photo Services).

Leading scorer Matt Read is back to lead Bemidji State’s offense (photo: BSU Photo Services).

Need we bring up Bemidji State winning the CHA regular-season and playoff titles last year and then going all the way to the Frozen Four? Talk about representing the small-time CHA, eh?

In any event, that was then and this is now, and all four teams are ready to start the 11th and final season of the CHA.

“We know how the league is and because we play each other so many times, we tend to get to know each other pretty well,” UAH coach Danton Cole said. “There are a lot of tight games and each game is really a playoff atmosphere.”

Niagara coach Dave Burkholder seconded Cole’s thoughts.

“This has been a great league for a lot of years,” said Burkholder, whose Purple Eagles will host the last CHA tournament next March.

It also seems that whichever CHA team gets to the NCAA round of 16 performs well, a la BSU last spring.

Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley said this season may have the most parity he’s seen since RMU entered the conference in 2004.

“Each team has elite players from top to bottom,” Schooley said. “We’ve got [Denny] Urban and [Nathan] Longpre, Bemidji has [Brad] Hunt and [Matt] Read, Niagara has [Chris] Moran and [Egor] Mironov and Huntsville has [Cody] Campbell and [Cameron] Talbot. Each team is also very well-coached.”

Longpre (12-29-41), Read (15-25-40) and Hunt (9-23-32) finished in the top five among CHA scorers last season and are all back this season. Hunt and Urban were the top two scorers from the blue line and Moran and Mironov return to NU for their senior season to pace a balanced Purple Eagles’ attack.

Talbot was steady last season and even though the Chargers won just a handful of games, Talbot was perhaps the biggest reason.

The NHL is also noticing the CHA as four players went to prospect camps over the summer. Urban and Longpre saw time with Pittsburgh, incoming RMU forward Reid Edmondson went to Washington and Mironov headed north to Toronto. Add to that the NHL contract BSU goalie Matt Dalton signed with Boston, forgoing his last two years of eligibility, and the future looks bright for the four schools that next year will no longer call the CHA home.

Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore, who adamantly does not talk about last season, instead took a philosophical approach to the way he sees the season shaking out, a season in which the Beavers were picked in the league poll to again win the conference.

“Our guys have to really take charge,” Serratore said. “They need to take their games to the next level. We’ve only had a few practices and we get right into the fire this weekend against a nationally-ranked team [Air Force]. There are no easy games on our schedule and we have to play well every game by outworking and outcompeting the other teams and reinforcing the values the players are taught here.”

Below are individual previews for each of the four CHA teams, listed in order of predicted finish. Each individual preview can be accessed by clicking on a given team’s name.

Niagara

Last season: 16-14-6 overall, 9-5-4 CHA (2nd)
Head coach: Dave Burkholder (144-121-28, 9th season)
2008-2009 team offense: 98 goals scored (2nd)
2008-2009 team defense: 92 goals allowed (1st)
2008-2009 power play: 30-190 (15.8%)
2008-2009 penalty kill: 132-165 (80%)
2009-2010 predicted finish: 1st

Bemidji State

Last season: 20-16-1 overall, 12-5-1 CHA (1st)
Head coach: Tom Serratore (140-118-29, 9th season)
2008-2009 team offense: 106 goals scored (1st)
2008-2009 team defense: 97 goals allowed (2nd)
2008-2009 power play: 40-191 (20.9%)
2008-2009 penalty kill: 171-202 (84.6%)
2009-2010 predicted finish: 2nd

Alabama-Huntsville

Last season: 5-20-5 overall, 3-11-4 CHA (4th)
Head coach: Danton Cole (11-41-9, 3rd season)
2008-2009 team offense: 62 goals scored (4th)
2008-2009 team defense: 98 goals allowed (3rd)
2008-2009 power play: 24-163 (14.7%)
2008-2009 penalty kill: 133-169 (78.6%)
2009-2010 predicted finish: 3rd

Robert Morris

Last season: 10-19-7 overall, 5-8-5 CHA (3rd)
Head coach: Derek Schooley (59-94-20, 6th season)
2008-2009 team offense: 93 goals scored (3rd)
2008-2009 team defense: 121 goals allowed (4th)
2008-2009 power play: 36-195 (18.5%)
2008-2009 penalty kill: 159-197 (80.7%)
2009-2010 predicted finish: 4th

2009-10 Yale Season Preview

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Last Year

Yale was simply magical last season. The Bulldogs wrested their first-ever league championship in the same year that they claimed the regular-season crown. The Elis featured four 30-point scorers despite the abbreviated 34-game Ivy schedule, and three players who averaged better than a point per game.

The Blue and White dropped consecutive games only once, and it was just that: a single two-game losing streak straddling the winter break. On the flip side, the Bulldogs boasted two three-game win streaks, two more such quartets and an eight-gamer that swung them into first place to stay.

The program even co-hosted an NCAA regional in Bridgeport, Conn., but to the vocal crowd’s dismay, the Bulldogs had a less-than-optimal outing in a 4-1 loss to Frozen Four participant Vermont.

Junior Sean Backman potted 20 goals to pace the pack, but classmate Mark Arcobello took the team scoring title with 17 goals and 35 points. Wait, not so fast: second-year sniper Broc Little also tallied 35 points on the year, by way of 15 goals and 20 helpers. Yale got goals from 18 different players, and only the oft-injured defenseman David Inman — who played in 11 contests — failed to record a point among Bulldog skaters.

Alec Richards played net in his senior year, saving better than 92 percent of shots faced in 25 appearances.

This Year

The only concern for Yale, really, seems to be in net. While Richards was good last year, now-senior Billy Blase was the primary starter for much of the 2007-08 campaign. Blase played in only four games last season, with Ryan Rondeau — now a junior — playing in a half-dozen contests. Is there really anything else to worry about for coach Keith Allain?

Nothing outside the worries that face every coach in every sport. Catastrophic injuries, illnesses, arena collapse and so forth.

“You always lose something,” Allain mused. “We lost great leadership in that senior class, and I think one of the assets of the team last year was our cohesiveness. And we lost our starting goaltender, so those are two areas we’re going to have to work to fill.

“I do like my team, I like the group coming back, and it’s nice to see the kids get a little bit of recognition for their hard work.”

Regarding the firepower that is returning to New Haven this fall, “I think if we approach the games with the same mind-set and work as hard as we did last year, I would think that we would be able to produce some offense with this group,” Allain understated. “I think our guys have had a great summer. I think to a man, they’ve shown a commitment to the training program that our strength coach gave them, and we tested them when they came back to school — I think we’re where we need to be.”

Despite the well-known thoroughbreds in the stable, Allain isn’t above a little friendly competition for playing time.

“One of the things we’re based on down here is competition, and we have daily competitions for the opportunity to play on Friday and Saturday night. We brought these guys in because we think they have a chance to contribute, and they’ll have the opportunity,” he said of his newest Bulldogs.

In the back, the Yale alumnus actually thinks that his team may be better off than last year.

“We actually played the last 12 games last year without our No. 1 defenseman (current senior Thomas Dignard), so we’ve got lots of guys coming back that have experience on the back end and we also have two freshman defensemen joining the mix,” he said.

As for the goaltending dilemma, the former goalie said the job is wide open.

“I think if you look at our team last year, we played three goaltenders right up to January,” Allain said. “Alec emerged as the guy, but I do believe that that competition helped make him mentally tough, and gave him what he needed to take us down the stretch and into the playoffs. We’re going to have an open competition in goal. They’ll all get an opportunity, and we’ll make a decision based on whom we think is most qualified to carry the ball.”

From the incoming class, Allain picked a few intriguing players to highlight.

“Andrew Miller led the USHL in scoring last year, basically wire-to-wire, so we expect him to be a kid that’ll produce offense. Josh Balch is a year younger than him; he’s kind of a dynamic, fast player who’s constantly working. And Antoine Laganiere is a big 6-foot, 4-inch center-iceman who … is a really good playmaker, has good offensive vision, and we’ll see how he makes that jump from prep-school hockey to college hockey.

“On defense, we’ve got two boys from western Canada — Colin Dueck and Jesse Hudkins — and they’re both good-sized kids who I would refer to as solid two-way defensemen. They can make the crisp outlet pass, they’ve got size and strength, and they’re smart positionally.”

Just to make things interesting, a couple of new netminders were cracked into the batter as well.

Jeff Malcolm and Nick Maricic “have both got good size, I think they’re both good athletes, and it’ll be interesting to see how that battle goes,” Allain said. “That’ll be a fun battle for us.”

So what Yale backers really want to know is, what was it about last year’s team that made them so successful, and how can it be re-distributed to this year’s Blue on Ice?

“As the year went on, I really grew to admire this bunch, their daily approach to their work and the way they seemed to truly enjoy working hard and competing, and the way they enjoy each other’s company, and how far those elements can take a hockey team,” Allain said.

2009-10 Brown Season Preview

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Last Year

The Bears struggled mightily in what was to be Roger Grillo’s 12th and final year behind the bench. A shocking first-round sweep at fifth-place Harvard did little to ease the pain of a three-win regular season, a campaign in which the team scored fewer than two goals a game and featured only one player with more than six (Matt Vokes, who graduated).

Bruno was outshot by more than a 2-to-1 margin, and in fact registered a shot advantage in only two games all year.

Vokes and Ryan Garbutt left with 57 career goals and 122 points between them, but while they led the pack for the woeful Bears, it’s not a statistical loss that would be missed much on better teams. That is to say that practically any scoring that Brown can find this year will already compensate for what the talented but unsupported duo took with their diplomas.

This Year

The hiring of new head coach Brendan Whittet is the big story right now, but he’s not starting from scratch. Sophomore rearguard Jeff Buvinow finished second on the team in scoring last season with three goals and 14 assists, and senior co-captain Devin Timberlake looks to rebound from an injury-shortened year in which he still notched four goals and four helpers in 10 games.

The defensive-minded Whittet hopes to build a more supportive team around besieged netminders Dan Rosen and Mike Clemente, who split last season’s minutes.

One of the first things Whittet did, of course, was to hire new assistant coaches in Jerry Keefe and Mark White.

“It wasn’t an indication of the job that the previous staff had done; it was more along the lines of, I wanted a fresh start,” Whittet said. “I wanted the guys to hear different voices, and I wanted to create a new energy.”

On the topic of his newly acquired charges, Whittet sees no reason to force relative strangers into prescribed roles.

“I wanted to come in with the premise that it’s a clean start for all these guys,” he said. “I’ve been very, very impressed with the individuals that we have in the program, in terms of their dedication and enthusiasm and positive attitudes. The senior leadership is tremendous. Jordan Pietrus, Devin Timberlake and Aaron Volpatti are my tri-captains, and just talking with them … about how to change the culture … and create sustained success, they’ve been spot-on with their observations and their thoughts. They are elite-level leaders, which is what you need as a coach going into a new situation. You need those guys to support what you’re trying to do.

“With the seniors, I said, ‘You guys are going to look back on this moment in 20 years from now — on this moment and this season — and you’re going to be really proud of what you guys have been able to do in terms of creating a culture and changing the environment, creating a winning atmosphere. I don’t want you to think that you’re just creating a foundation for the future’ … I want them to experience success.”

The freshly minted head coach played his undergrad hockey at Brown, and got to taste a fair amount of success playing under current Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet. He later served as a longtime assistant on Gaudet’s Big Green staff, from whence he was plucked by Brown’s administration.

“As an alum, as someone who experienced success here as a student-athlete, as someone who believes in the mission of the school, I love the place,” Whittet said. “Brown is an absolutely wonderful place with wonderful people. The environment is such that I feel very much supported. The administration is going to allow me and afford me to sustain success. I feel very confident about the people involved with this program, and again, I love the place.

“I played on teams that were in the NCAA tournament, I played on teams that won Ivy League championships, I played on teams that were in championship games for the ECAC tournament playing in front of packed houses at Meehan. Is that something that I’ll be able to translate effectively to my team? Of course it is, I experienced it. I know how special this place is. I know how special Providence is as a city, and I know that Rhode Island is a hockey state. It is through-and-through a hockey state, and people will come out to support this program, from alums to the community to youth groups. I want our guys out there showing their faces … doing good things. A consequence will be people in our building. The school is about excellence, and it’s got to be about excellence in our hockey program too. They go hand-in-hand.”

The energetic Whittet preaches loyalty and passion, and expects his teams to be proud of their program.

“I want guys that will go through the wall for their teammates, and guys that will go through the wall to represent Brown University. When we play this year, what I want people to say is, ‘Look how hard that team plays. Look at how much energy that team plays with. Look how even-keel that team is, no matter if they’re up or down in a game.’ I know there are going to be growing pains and I know it’s not going to be something that happens overnight, but what I want is a team that day-in and day-out is striving to get better, striving to improve, and by the end of the year I believe that we will be a team to be reckoned with. I really do. We’re going to be relentless, in-your-face, aggressive, hard-working, disciplined, organized, professional-looking program.

“We are going to walk into buildings, and it’s not going to be the Brown team of old, I can tell you that.”

When building his team, he has specific types of players in mind, and a game plan that won’t surprise those who have tracked his career as a blue-line guru.

“I want guys that can think the game,” Whittet said. “I want guys who have some creativity and offensive flair to their game. I want guys that can play the game at a fast pace and execute at a fast pace. That being said, I am a big proponent of defensive responsibility. I like the up-tempo game. … I think it’s exciting, I think it’s fun to watch, but I will never [sacrifice defense]. It’s by and large how you win championships. You have to have a defensive scheme and a defensive team that can execute defensively and move the puck out of the zone efficiently. Some of that will be addressed through teaching this year, some of it will be addressed through recruiting.”

One thing’s for sure: this team will not be dull.

“I want people to understand that when they come to a game, they’re going to see a team that is absolutely driven to be successful at every aspect,” Whittet said. “They’re going to see a team that is going to be about excellence, they’re going to see a team that is absolutely fierce in its competitive nature. You know what? It’s going to be an exciting place to watch a game. When I think about Brown hockey … I think about a team that has a work ethic that is second to none … and is a team in every respect.

“No longer are we going to be pushovers. No longer is Brown going to walk into a rink and have the other team assume that it’s going to be an easy win. Our goal is to win championships. Our goal is not to be mediocre. Along the way, I want people to understand that while we strive to win championships, it’s going to be a great atmosphere to come to Meehan and see us play. I’m a proud alum, I love the place and I love the program. I love the guys that are involved in the program, and I know we’re going to get it done.”

2009-10 Rensselaer Season Preview

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Last Year

Despite formulating a single set of back-to-back wins through the entire regular season, the Engineers whipped up three straight W’s to open the playoffs to off Dartmouth and agitate Cornell. The Big Red finally ditched the pesky ‘Tute, but not before RPI had finally reached the 10-win mark on the season.

The offense was thoroughly inept, as the Engineers ended more games with one goal or none than otherwise: 20 times in 39 games, Rensselaer failed to score twice.

Four underclassmen topped the scoring chart, with Chase Polacek tallying 21 assists for the second time in his two years of service. He also potted 11 goals, edging rookie Patrick Cullen, who had 10.

Mathias Lange played 25 games in his senior season, but first-year Allen York put up better numbers in both goals against average and save percentage.

This Year

The squad bid adieu to only a single double-digit scorer from last year’s club, as Matt Angers-Goulet scored six times with eight assists in 39 games. Younger brother Alex scored once more than his senior sibling, generating 15 points his freshman year. The aforementioned top four scorers from 2008-09 are all either sophomores or juniors, and it will be intriguing to see how well they’ve matured over the offseason.

York topped the .900 save percentage mark, but will be asked to do better by coach Seth Appert if he hopes to claim the starting job all season long. A former goalie himself, Appert believes that .910 is the magic number separating decent goalies from great ones.

One area that Appert already believes to be in capable hands is the blue line.

“We’ll be looking better,” he said. “We weren’t as good as we wanted to be last year defensively, but we didn’t lose anybody, and we return one of our more talented defensemen in Mike Bergin. He’s a Dallas Stars draft pick, and was out really the whole season with an injury. So we’ll gain maturity, and we certainly gain a lot having Mike come back into the lineup.

“At the same time, we need that group to be better. We need to do a better job of coaching them, and instructing them how we want them to play, but we also need a stronger, more consistent performance in how they take care of the puck and how they get us out of our own end. It’ll be, certainly, an experienced group, as we have a lot of guys back there who have played a lot of minutes and a lot of games, so that won’t be an issue. We should be a very good defensive team.”

Up front, the coach is only seeing opportunity ahead for his young forwards.

“You lose experience, and sometimes you gain talent and enthusiasm and skill, and some different attributes that the kid brought to the table,” Appert said. “We have four extremely talented forwards that are coming in that will help us inject talent and intelligence and competitiveness into our lineup, but at the same time, you win in college hockey with your older players. So we need our older forwards — and we only have two forwards that are seniors [Paul Kerins and Garett Vassel] — to execute their roles very well, and then we need our junior and sophomore forwards … to take steps. They’ve been very good freshmen and sophomores, but now we need them to become strong, competitive, real high-end players in our league. You can’t stagnate and be a pretty good sophomore, and a pretty good freshman, and then just still be a pretty good junior. We need Tyler [Helfrich] and Chase [Polacek] and Patty [Cullen] and Alex [Angers-Goulet] … to really make elevations in their game.”

Appert is especially high on his incoming class, and was thorough in his analysis thereof.

“Brandon Pirri was a second-round draft pick to the Blackhawks, and is probably one of the more talented players entering college hockey this year,” Appert said. “We won a good recruiting battle for him; he’s really blossomed in the last year and a half. He and Jerry [D’Amigo] certainly highlight the freshman class. Jerry was the leading scorer at the World Under-18 Championships for the U.S. team. … He’s a draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and was at the World Junior camp and certainly performed well there this summer. He also has that year of collegiate experience that the U.S. Under-18 Team gets to have under his belt which is certainly going to help him in his transition.

“Then you have Marty O’Grady, who had a very good year at Wellington as a captain up there, and then he was also a captain for Team Canada East at the World Junior Challenge, and performed extremely well there. C.J. Lee, another freshman forward, was a captain for Green Bay, and they won the USHL regular-season championship, and was about 10th or 11th in the USHL in scoring. We’re expecting strong production from our freshman, but as I said before, I think it’s going to be our upperclassmen that set the bar if we’re going to have the type of season that we’re looking for.”

The coach is also big on his newest net acquisition, 21-year-old Bryce Merriam.

“I think that’s why we recruited him,” Appert said. “We think he’s one of the premier American goalies playing junior hockey last year. He wasn’t playing a very high level of hockey through most of his high-school days, and he’s really come into his own later in life. He has certainly earned his way to this opportunity; I like that quality in him. I think goaltenders, more than any other position, mature with age and with the amount of games he’s played — specifically in the last few years — combined with his age, and some adversity he’s had to overcome to get to this point, there are strong characteristics for a goaltender.

“At the same time, we’re really excited to have Allen York back. He was a very highly touted freshman last year, who probably struggled in the first half of the season, and we expected that. It was a big adjustment, he had some things to work out, and to his credit he put a tremendous amount of time before and after practice working on his own game and honing his skill development. He put in a lot of time in the weight room, he gained 25 pounds of muscle with no gain in body fat from this point last year. He was 6-4, 160 this time last year; he’s 6-4, 185 now. He had a great run down the stretch, played very well in the playoffs for us, allowed us to win the [Dartmouth] series and push Cornell in round two, and he had a good summer.

“We’re high on both of our goaltenders, but they’re still young, and that’s where the veteran defensive corps that we have really needs to step up and help them in their transition to a little bit more of an experienced goaltending tandem.”

Through one coaching cycle — four years, so he is now working exclusively with his own recruits — Appert has stuck to his guns.

“We’ve stuck to our plan,” he said. “We came in here as a staff … and we had a plan for how we were going to build [the program] the right way to represent RPI. It takes time, and it’s been frustrating at times, but it’s the path that we knew we were going to be on. We’ve had to adjust and we’ve had to be flexible, as all plans account for, but we’re striving forward on that plan and we’re excited about the year ahead and making strides for our program. At the same time, we know we have a lot of work left up ahead.

“I think that anybody that’s seen us play will say that we’ve attempted [to play up-tempo hockey]. We don’t trap, we don’t sit back and play four guys back. We’re an aggressive team. Maybe we haven’t always executed properly and maybe I haven’t gotten our guys at times to play the way I’d like them to play … and maybe at times we didn’t have the talent to put the puck in the net, but you can’t just look at the scoreboard and say, ‘We’re not scoring goals, so we’re not playing an attacking style.’ We’re going to continue playing an attacking style; we have been for three years.”

2009-10 Colgate Season Preview

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Last Year

A 4-1 record after five games had folks hopeful in Hamilton, but that was just about all she wrote for the Raiders in 2008-09.

Colgate’s 3-0 start wound up being the only winning streak of the Raiders’ whole season, as the team bellyflopped into an 8-17-7 tumble following the early five-game burst. The Raiders played a remarkable 19 overtime contests, including their last seven and nine of their last 11. The squad didn’t take the short end of the deal, going 6-6-7 in those extra sessions, so it’s hard to fault bad luck or sudden-death circumstances for the team’s troubles.

The ‘Gate did push Quinnipiac to the edge with three overtime contests in Hamden in the first round of the league playoffs, but it wasn’t meant to be as the Bobcats eventually muscled into the second round on the strength of Brandon Wong’s incindiary series.

Junior David McIntyre was a Hobey Baker Award finalist thanks to his 21-goal, 22-assist campaign, but frosh Austin Smith’s 17 goals and second-year Brian Day’s 14 kept opponents on their heels, as well. Four of the Raiders’ top 10 scorers were seniors, but the top four producers are all back in the fold this fall.

Junior Charles Long earned the lion’s share of the time tending the twine, playing 28 games and featuring a .909 save percentage and a goals against average right around 2.5.

This Year

McIntyre is clearly going to be a focus for anyone watching or playing the Raiders, so the question marks will fall hard on his supporting cast. Smith and Day will have to keep up with McIntyre if the offense is to produce, and other snipers will have to show themselves as well for Colgate to have sustained success.

Long, too, will have to improve along with his defense to prevent a repeat of last year’s slippery slides — the Raiders were victimized for four goals or more 13 times. The Raiders’ offense wasn’t that prolific then, going 2-11-0 in those games, and it’s highly doubtful that it will suddenly evolve to a level that can compensate for such sloppy work around the net.

“Defensively, we lost some senior leadership on the back end for sure,” coach Don Vaughan said of the departure of five graduated defenders. “That’s tough to replace on any team, but as a result we’re going to be playing with three freshmen on a regular basis this year.”

In the front end, however, things look a bit rosier.

“We have as much depth up front as we have in years at Colgate,” Vaughan said. “I’m pretty confident that we’re going to be OK. We want to continue to play an aggressive style of hockey; we have six or seven guys who have seen power-play time in the last few years. We need to do a better job producing on the power play though. It’s where a lot of goals are scored.”

While Vaughan isn’t ready to crown a first-string keeper just yet, he’ll acquiesce to curiosity.

“On paper, you’d think Longer gets the nod,” he allowed. “He attended New Jersey’s prospect camp” and did well there, Vaughan said.

Among the incoming class, the coach likes what he sees so far.

“We’re very confident with the group we’ve brought in. [On defense, NHL draft picks] Thomas Larkin and Jeremy Price could get some quality minutes early on, and [Mike] Leidl will provide stability. [Kurtis] Bartliff and Price think the game very well.”

One big advantage that this year’s team has over last year is depth, but that’s not important in the most obvious ways. Rather, the mere ability to run comprehensive practices is what has Vaughan giddy.

“The first thing that gets me excited is that we’ll have depth, especially at practice,” he said. “Last year, we had to get creative at practice. … We had some sessions where we only had five defensemen, and we had to hold back a bit. This year, the biggest difference in our game will be that we’ll be better prepared through having better practices.”

2009-10 Cornell Season Preview

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Last Year

Cornell was just about as good as you could hope for, dropping consecutive games only once all year during a single three-game losing streak in early February. The only problem was, Yale was just slightly better.

The Big Red played classic Big Red hockey, scoring modestly but defending with ferocious efficiency en route to another NCAA berth. Following a gritty three-game tussle with Rensselaer in the league quarterfinals, the Ithacans upended Princeton in double-overtime of the semis before wilting on tired legs against a fresher Yale side in the ECAC Championship.

Cornell then advanced further than its two ECAC Hockey brethren in the national tourney, slipping past Northeastern in the first round before caving to Cinderella Bemidji State in the regional finale.

Junior Colin Greening led the team with 15 goals, but sophomore Riley Nash took the team point title with 13 goals and 35 points. Seniors Evan Barlow and Michael Kennedy each eclipsed the 10-goal mark as well, and junior Blake Gallagher pumped 21 assists into the offense throughout a productive campaign.

Ben Scrivens had another Ben Scrivens year: 36 games, .931 save rate and a 1.81 goals against average.

This Year

Scrivens is back. The special teams remain overwhelmingly cohesive. The seven departed seniors from last year’s squad included two blue-liners, a goalie and four forwards … a nice balance, and it should leave most of head coach Mike Schafer’s units intact.

“Our goaltending coming back is obviously the same,” Schafer said. “Our power play coming back, with the exception of Evan Barlow … the special teams will be pretty much the same. We brought a big freshman class in, and I think the area that is going to be really critical to us is how much our players develop from last year … guys like Sean Collins and Patrick Kennedy and Locke Jillson and different guys that can contribute offense, how much they will step up to contribute this year. You hope that certain members of the freshman group can contribute, but it’s twofold: I think the biggest difference can come from having a lot more depth offensively.”

Speaking of the freshmen:

“It’s a real big class,” Schafer said. “With Braden Birch and Nick D’Agostino coming in, they give us more size and speed than we had last year with those guys at 6-3 and 6-4 that can really skate and get up and down the ice. We get great depth from our freshman class, especially up front with guys that are really proven offensive players in Eric Axell and John Esposito and Greg Miller. You go through the group of freshmen that have proven they can chip in offensively, and it’s just a matter of how they’ll adjust to college hockey.”

Despite losing a fair number of forwards, Schafer predicts a smooth transition for his front lines.

“The leadership is back up front, so we can put nine guys up front that played a lot last year,” he said. “We can put those guys up right away, and they’ll give us a lot of experience and a lot of leadership. The fact that we’ve got a lot of guys returning at multiple different positions (leaves us with fewer questions) and gives us a lot of leadership.”

On defense, “you’ve got guys like Brendon Nash and Justin Krueger, two big, mobile, very very good hockey players who’ve played a lot of minutes for us over the years, and you start to go down the classes at Mike Devin and … Keir Ross and Sean Whitney, I think we’ve got a lot of balance and we’re not loaded up on one class,” Schafer said.

“When you want to compete across the country, you want guys that are mobile and can get up in the play. That’s the emphasis, big enough and mobile to frustrate opposing forwards but also have that mobility to get up the ice and jump in the offense. Part of our strength is in our big, mobile defensemen; with those guys returning and the addition of three freshmen, we’ll be able to maintain that.”

While Cornell’s cage appears to be in pretty good hands, the coach still wanted to have his say regarding his netminders.

“All the preseason talk across the country [discussed] a lot of other goaltenders, but I think that people forget that Ben was, I believe, No. 3 in the country last year in goals against and save percentage and it continues to amaze me that he gets kind of overlooked,” Schafer said. “He had a great year last year and his senior year, we hope that he has his best year. [Michael Garman] is ready to go from last year. The nice part about Mike is that he’ll continue to push Ben for playing minutes, but he also knows that it’s a tall order and that he needs to continue to work on his game.”

In looking through his nine fresh-faced rookies, Schafer is cautiously optimistic.

“I think with all the freshmen, the proof’s in the pudding,” he said. “It’s always been a strength of our program that there’s a tremendous battle for jobs. There’s no entitlement for players who return; they’re not entitled to their roster spots from last year. The best 12 forwards, the best 16 [overall], the best goalie wins. When you bring players in, you owe it to those players — whoever they are — that they play. We hope the freshmen have a huge impact, but again, it remains to be seen which ones will step forward and contribute.”

As far as last year’s so-close-yet-so-far-away finish, even the wily veteran Schafer has learned a thing or two from the experience.

“Our team realized we need more depth in scoring,” he said. “You look at our roster, and it was quite evident as the season went on that we had a lot of guys that didn’t produce and a lot of guys that didn’t chip in offensively. If you go back, even if you had some guys chip in two or three goals, our offense would’ve gone from middle of the country to the top part of the country. A lot of the onus is upon the guys to contribute four or five goals. From the bottom of our roster, those guys have got to step up and make those kinds of contributions because the top part of the roster did their job.

“If you’re going to have success, you’re going to need contributions from everywhere. It hurt us last year, and it’ll make us a better hockey team for us this year. We need to get more contributions from more people to get a little further.”

2009-10 ECAC Hockey Season Preview

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Most leagues have one or two clear-cut frontrunners and some well-defined strata before anyone even dons a sweater.

Yale's Sean Backman is back after a 20-goal campaign (photo: Melissa Wade).

Yale’s Sean Backman is back after a 20-goal campaign (photo: Melissa Wade).

Not in ECAC Hockey.

Four teams seem to have legitimate claims to the title of Fall Favorite, but only one squad can be tagged as conspicuously having everything to prove.

As for everyone else, any order you could design would have its virtues and its flaws. So here’s merely one approach: Game on!

Below are individual previews for each team, listed in reverse order of predicted finish. Each individual preview can be accessed by clicking on a given school’s name.

12. Brown

Nickname: Bears
Head Coach: Brendan Whittet (First season as head coach)
2008-2009 Record: 5-23-5 (3-15-4, 12th)
Departed: F Ryan Garbutt, F Eric Slais, F Matt Vokes
Back For More: Sr F Jordan Pietrus, Sr G Dan Rosen, Sr F Aaron Volpatti, So D Jeff Buvinow
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 12
2009-2010 Media Poll: 12
Why: It’s a new dawn for Bruno, but the Bears haven’t earned anything yet.

11. St. Lawrence

Nickname: Saints
Head Coach: Joe Marsh (436-361-60, 24 years at St. Lawrence)
2008-2009 Record: 21-12-5 (11-7-4, 4th)
Departed: F Kevin DeVergilio, D Shawn Fensel, D Matt Generous, F Brock McBride, D Zach Miskovic
Back For More: Sr F Mike McKenzie, Sr G Alex Petizian, Sr F Travis Vermeulen, Jr F Jared Keller
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 10
2009-2010 Media Poll: 7
Why: When the Class of ’09 left Canton, the Saints lost the soul of their game: lethally potent scoring from the blue line.

10. Quinnipiac

Nickname: Bobcats
Head Coach: Rand Pecknold (281-183-45, 15 years at Quinnipiac)
2008-2009 Record: 18-18-3 (9-10-3, 7th)
Departed: F Bryan Leitch, F David Marshall, D Dan Henningson, D Matt Sorteberg, G Bud Fisher
Back For More: Sr F Jean-Marc Beaudoin, Sr F Eric Lampe, Sr F Brandon Wong, Jr D Zach Hansen, So F Scott Zurevinski
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: t-8
2009-2010 Media Poll: 11
Why: Until the Q-Cats discover defensive discipline and a steady No. 1 netminder, they’ll be little more than a high-scoring, higher-surrendering curiosity.

9. Clarkson

Nickname: Golden Knights
Head Coach: George Roll (106-99-27, six years at Clarkson; 212-161-41, 12 years overall)
2008-2009 Record: 10-19-7 (8-10-4, t-8th)
Departed: F Chris D’Alvise, F Shea Guthrie, D Philippe Paquet, D Tyrell Mason
Back For More: Sr F Matt Beca, Jr F Brandon DeFazio, Jr F Scott Freeman, Jr D Bryan Rufenach, So G Paul Karpowich
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 11
2009-2010 Media Poll: 8
Why: The departed have bequeathed some awfully big skates to this talented-but-unproven edition of the Golden Knights.

8. Rensselaer

Nickname: Engineers
Head Coach: Seth Appert (31-68-14, three years at Rensselaer)
2008-2009 Record: 10-27-2 (6-15-1, 11th)
Departed: F Matt Angers-Goulet, F Seth Klerer, G Mathias Lange, F Andrei Uryadov
Back For More: Jr D Bryan Brutlag, Jr F Tyler Helfrich, Jr F Chase Polacek, So F Patrick Cullen, So F Alex Angers-Goulet, So G Allen York
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: t-8
2009-2010 Media Poll: 10
Why: Goaltending will be a question mark to start, but things seem to be on the upswing in Troy following a disastrous ’08-09 campaign.

7. Union

Nickname: Dutchmen
Head Coach: Nate Leaman (91-105-25, six years at Union)
2008-2009 Record: 19-17-3 (9-11-2, t-8th)
Departed: D Lane Caffaro, F Matt Cook, D Mike Harr, D Brendan Milnamow,
Back For More: Sr D Mike Schreiber, Sr F Mario Valery-Trabucco, Sr F Jason Walters, Jr F Stéphane Boileau, Jr G Corey Milan, Jr F Adam Presizniuk
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 6
2009-2010 Media Poll: 6
Why: Schenectady welcomes back a lot of key names, but the pressing concern is what will the nameplates on the blue line read?

6. Colgate

Nickname: Raiders
Head Coach: Don Vaughan (269-253-59, 16 years at Colgate)
2008-2009 Record: 12-18-7 (6-11-5, 10th)
Departed: F Peter Bogdanich, D Jason Fredricks, D Nick St. Pierre
Back For More: Sr G Charles Long, Sr F David McIntyre, Jr F Francois Brisebois, Jr F Brian Day, So F Austin Smith
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 7
2009-2010 Media Poll: 9
Why: The Raiders are poised to make a move, so long as some new names step forward to take some pressure off McIntyre.

5. Dartmouth

Nickname: Big Green
Head Coach: Bob Gaudet (177-165-44, 12 years at Dartmouth; 270-307-75, 21 years overall)
2008-2009 Record: 14-14-3 (11-9-2, t-5th)
Departed: F Rob Pritchard, F Connor Shields
Back For More: Jr F Adam Estoclet, Jr F Scott Fleming, Jr D Evan Stephens, So F Doug Jones, So G Jody O’Neill
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 5
2009-2010 Media Poll: 5
Why: Dartmouth has all the pieces, but will they click together as sweetly as they did last year?

4. Harvard

Nickname: Crimson
Head Coach: Ted Donato (82-68-17, five years at Harvard)
2008-2009 Record: 9-16-6 (9-7-6, t-5th)
Departed: F Nick Coskren, F Jimmy Fraser, D Brian McCafferty
Back For More: Sr D Alex Biega, Sr F Doug Rogers, Jr F Michael Biega, Jr F Matt McCollem, Jr G Kyle Richter, So F Alex Killorn
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 4
2009-2010 Media Poll: 4
Why: If the Harvard net is adequately tended, a first-round bye shouldn’t be considered an achievement for this squad … more like a requirement.

3. Princeton

Nickname: Tigers
Head Coach: Guy Gadowsky (76-80-10, five years at Princeton; 144-169-32, 10 years overall)
2008-2009 Record: 22-12-1 (14-8-0, 3rd)
Departed: F Lee Jubinville, F Brandan Kushniruk, F Brett Wilson
Back For More: Sr F Dan Bartlett, Sr G Zane Kalemba, Sr F Mark Magnowski, Sr D Jody Pederson, Jr D Mark Godlewski
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 3
2009-2010 Media Poll: 3
Why: Between Cornell and Princeton, it seems the Tigers graduated just a little bit more of their essence than their Big Red rivals.

2. Cornell

Nickname: Big Red
Head Coach: Mike Schafer (276-149-49, 14 years at Cornell)
2008-2009 Record: 22-10-4 (13-6-3, 2nd)
Departed: F Evan Barlow, F Michael Kennedy, F Tyler Mugford, D Jared Seminoff
Back For More: Sr F Blake Gallagher, Sr F Colin Greening, Sr D Brendon Nash, Sr G Ben Scrivens, Jr F Joe Devin, Jr F Riley Nash
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 2
2009-2010 Media Poll: 2
Why: Despite a merely mediocre offense last season, it’s still the only thing keeping Cornell from the top spot. The defense and Ben Scrivens are just that good.

1. Yale

Nickname: Bulldogs
Head Coach: Keith Allain (51-39-9, three years at Yale)
2008-2009 Record: 24-8-2 (15-5-2, 1st)
Departed: F Patrick Brosnihan, F Matt Nelson, G Alec Richards
Back For More: Sr F Mark Arcobello, Sr F Sean Backman, Sr D Thomas Dignard, Jr F Denny Kearney, Jr F Broc Little, So F Kevin Limbert, So F Brian O’Neill
2009-2010 Coaches’ Poll: 1
2009-2010 Media Poll: 1
Why: The only preseason concern in New Haven rests in the abbreviated blue arc in front of the net. Everything else looks golden for the Elis.

2009-10 Clarkson Season Preview

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Last Year

The Golden Knights were positively wracked by injuries last season, and found themselves at 3-13-4 before cobbling together their only consecutive victories of the season in a false-hope-feeding four-game win streak. The season had effectively ended long before its formal termination, a defenseless double-drubbing by Union in the Dutchmen’s first-ever playoff series triumph.

Junior Scott Freeman led the squad in scoring with 29 points, but recent alumni Chris D’Alvise and Shea Guthrie led the team with 13 goals apiece. Senior Matt Beca is the only returning player to tally 10 goals last year. Rookie goaltenders Paul Karpowich and Richie LeVeau each mustered better than .900 save percentages despite their team’s hapless offense, and look good for a fierce competition for minutes this autumn.

This Year

Last year’s team took the stage with a lot of promise and a lot of unproven talent, but the curtain fell with nothing proven and no promises fulfilled. The pieces are still there this year, and the group has the potential to surprise the league a la last year’s young Dartmouth side, should the pucks start bouncing right for George Roll’s squad.

“Obviously, the seniors we lost were extremely skilled players,” said the fifth-year head coach, “and they put up good numbers. I think two of them [Guthrie and D’Alvise] were 100-point producers. That’s the biggest thing we lose with that class graduating: their skill level. That being said, I’m really confident that the guys who are returning can pick up the slack.

“The sophomores that were freshmen last year, I think they have the ability to make the jump that our junior class did last year with Freeman, [forward Lauri] Tuohimaa, [forward Brandon] DeFazio … they had very good sophomore years. So if they can make that same jump that those guys did, it should compensate for the losses.

Regarding last year’s disappointment, “[injuries] were a big part of it, but I certainly think we had chemistry issues in terms of commitment and a lot of other things that go into it,” Roll said. “I don’t see those things this year; we’ve only been going at it … for a month, but it seems they’re extremely focused and all on the same page. I don’t know if we had that last year. Injuries were a part of it, but certainly only a part of it. It’s a new year, and I think we all learned from last year.”

Up front, Roll doesn’t foresee the same dead-puck doldrums that plagued the punchless Knights in 2008-09.

“I think we’re good. We’re fairly young in all areas of our lineup, but I think we have three good scoring lines,” he said. “There’s not a lot of difference between our top line and our third line, and our fourth line will be a very good checking line and energy line. I think we were one of the lowest-scoring teams in Clarkson history last year — I’m not going to attribute everything to the chemistry aspect, but I think that’s a big part of it. Teams that are on the same page and all pulling in the same direction are going to have success. To me, that’s going to be our strength this year. Every team goes through it, every team loses players, and that’s part of the process. Other guys step up, and that’s where we’re at.”

The chemistry issues to which Roll referred ate at him as last season wore on, and just as players mature with experience, so do coaches.

“As a coach, clearly I need to be more demanding of my players and not as leniant,” Roll said. “I think sometimes you make decisions based on your heart instead of your common sense, and I think I should have done a better job of being tougher on the players and holding them more accountable. From the moment last season ended, we made some changes in that area, and the players realize that and I think they’ve responded to it.”

On defense, Roll feels equally confident about a bounce-back campaign.

“Last year, with the injuries to Phil [Paquet] and Ty [Mason], they were never 100 percent the entire year,” Roll said. “We’re going to be young back there. We only have one senior who because of injuries hasn’t played a whole lot, so we are young back there. But again, I’ve been really impressed with what I’ve seen so far, and we have a couple of guys back there in [sophomore Mark] Borowiecki and [junior Bryan] Rufenach who, in my opinion, can be two of the better defensemen in the league and they’ll see a lot of minutes. If we can stay healthy back there, we’ll be fine.”

In net, Roll shed a little light on what had been a bothersome downward trend in Karpowich’s game last season.

“The freshman [Cody] Rosen, in time, will push [Karpowich and Leveau],” Roll said. “Paul had a very good freshman year but kind of slipped at the end, and I think that’s primarily because he broke his hand at the Ohio State tournament and played with a cast the rest of the year. People didn’t know that, but it certainly affected his play.

“We have confidence in all three guys, and I think Paul’s going to have a breakout year for us, again as long as we can stay away from the injuries. Knock on wood, so far we’ve been good; at this time last year we had three players out already and we hadn’t even been on the ice yet.”

The one thing that does concern Roll is numbers, but that will only work to the rookie class’ advantage.

“I think they have to [compete for starting roles],” he said. “Given our situation right now, we don’t have a lot of depth. We only have seven defensemen and 14 forwards, so yeah, everybody’s going to play and get ice time. For me to sit here and tell you who’s going to make an impact and who isn’t, I’m not sure right now. Some guys will adjust quicker than others, but we feel good about this class and I think they’re all going to get opportunities because of our depth situation.”

2009-10 Robert Morris Season Preview

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This is Robert Morris’ last chance to win a CHA championship.

And with a 1-in-4 chance, those are pretty good odds.

RMU made the CHA finals last spring after upsetting defending champion Niagara in the semifinals. The Colonials hope to go farther next spring.

“Everyone wants to look toward the end and hope to be champions, and that is what success is based on, championships,” Robert Morris senior captain Dave Cowan said. “But we are taking the season as it comes, trying not to look too far ahead and stay focused on what’s in front of us now. We need to win in our conference. We need to win at home and stay consistent.

“I think that our biggest downfall in the past is consistency, so if we can stay consistent, we should be able to keep ourselves in the hunt.”

Sophomore goaltender Brooks Ostergard finished with two shutouts, a .917 save percentage and a 2.57 goals against average a year ago, and while Ostergard was a no-name to some, his name is now very common in the Pittsburgh area.

“It’s his job [to be the No. 1 goalie],” Colonials coach Derek Schooley said. “He’s earned it and it will be interesting to see how he can do for a full season. He just needs to be consistent.”

Junior forward Chris Kushneriuk is also a fan of Ostergard.

Brooks Ostergard became Robert Morris' go-to goaltender last season (photo: Robert Morris Athletics).

Brooks Ostergard became Robert Morris’ go-to goaltender last season (photo: Robert Morris Athletics).

“We all knew Brooks had the talent to be a top goalie right from the moment he got here last season,” Kushneriuk said. “He’s confident, talented and determined, and all the guys are comfortable having him behind us. He’s a great leader in his own sense because he keeps things loose and has a great sense of humor to go with it.”

While it’s easy to look past the season and to the CHA tournament, Cowan, as a competent captain should, has his team firmly on the ground at this point. 

“When looking at the season, you never want to look too far ahead,” Cowan said. “This preseason is the best we have had since my start to the program, and a lot of that is thanks to Jeremy Hoy, our strength coach. Hopefully, our hard work in the summer and in the preseason will pay off, as I’m sure it will. My expectations are always high for this program as they should be when looking at the guys we have coming back and our freshmen coming in.”

Losing key players like forwards Chris Margott (the school’s all-time leading scorer) and Jason Towsley and defenseman Matt Krug only opens the door for players like junior forward Nathan Longpre and junior defenseman Denny Urban, two All-CHA preseason team picks, to shine.

“It would be easy to say that Urban and Longpre will need to continue to have stellar seasons, but really we’re going to need all the returnees to lead the way,” Kushneriuk said.

“We only have two seniors and we are still a very young hockey team, but we have great leadership,” Schooley said. “Once we get back from Alaska next weekend and then go to Ferris State after that, we should know more.”

Even so, the talk of bringing a CHA title to RMU still cannot be avoided.

“With the core group of guys that we have and a very gritty and talented group of freshman, we’re expecting nothing less than winning the CHA championship,” Kushneriuk said. “Since this is the last year of the CHA, we’re looking at nothing less than winning the CHA championship. Robert Morris has been close too many times, but now we have the personnel and the drive to take it home.
 
“We need to stay true to our systems, be strong on our special teams, and continue to do what made us successful at the end of last year. All the returnees know the feeling we had in Bemidji, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

2009-10 Dartmouth Season Preview

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Last Year

The young team that everyone had pegged for a first-round road series would settle for no such nonsense.

Dartmouth shrugged off two season-opening losses to reel off five straight wins, and were 8-4-0 entering 2009. The Big Green struggled a bit down the stretch, culiminating in a disappointing home sweep at the hands of lowly Rensselaer, but the fifth-place finish was far higher than anyone outside the program had anticipated to start the campaign.

The squad’s top four scorers were composed of three sophomores and a frosh, and of the 11 double-digit point-producers, only two graduated in the spring. Second-year Adam Estoclet led the team with 24 assists and 32 points, but it was classmate Scott Fleming who took the sniper title with 13 goals.

Rookie goalkeep Jody O’Neill was simply superb, stopping over 92 percent of shots faced and holding a 2.6 goals-against rate despite a young and battered defensive corps.

This Year

Plain and simple, can this team repeat its accomplishments from last year? If coach Bob Gaudet can tease some full-season legs out of an equally productive group, the Green could make a serious run at a first-round bye, or better.

“We lost some really good leadership,” Gaudet said of his departed Class of ’09. “Rob Pritchard was an excellent leader, he was our captain and just a great guy. Hard-working, a really good person, a good guy. Connor Shields gave us a lot of speed. … Johnny Gibson ended up playing really well for us [despite career-disrupting injuries]. I think the main thing is the leadership that our senior class brought. But what we bring back is a team that was really young last year, but now is pretty experienced.

“We played a lot of young guys in the lineup last year, and they did a good job. There was a really big group of sophomores that made a really big impact, and obviously our freshmen last year in Jody O’Neill and [28-point Doug] Jones, obviously, kind of led the way in that freshman group. I was really pleased with that sophomore class, and now that they’re juniors, they’re establishing leadership positions and I feel really good about what we have coming back. We have fewer question marks; going into last year we had a lot of those, and we have fewer now.”

Despite Dartmouth’s dark-horse qualities last year, Gaudet was frustrated with last season’s lackluster conclusion.

“Quite honestly, we were very disappointed in the end result,” he said. “We had a lot of question marks last year … but we played solid hockey throughout the year, and then RPI beats us and that’s no disrespect to them at all, they deserved it, but we were disappointed in not being able to … play another series and go to Albany and play for a league championship.

“Our goal is to win the championship, and we want to find a way to take another step. That’s our job, that’s what we want to do. We’ve got a lot of pride here, and we want to put ourselves in a position to challenge for another championship.”

Gaudet assessed what he has to work with this time around, first in his forwards.

“[Adam Estoclet] really had a breakout sophomore year,” he said. “He was a young player as a freshman, right out of high school in Minnesota … and I think that he’s going to be even better this year. And then Scott Fleming, who’s one of our assistant captains, he’s just a real tenacious, good-skilled kid. Kyle Reeds had a really good freshman year, and then last year as a sophomore, it wasn’t that he didn’t play well, he just didn’t get as much for his efforts as he did the year before and I think he’s going to have an excellent year for us.

“Doug Jones had a great freshman year, and Joey Gaudet, who’s going to be a senior, is a big, strong forward and I think that … he’ll have a really good year. Dustin Walsh, a Montreal draft pick, is going to be an excellent player at the college level, as will Mark Goggin, the Bruins draft pick. We’ve got a good group coming back with a nice mix of young guys, a good mix of experience and youth, I think.”

On defense, “we’ve got some good depth there, and, I think, a really solid group,” said the long-time ECAC veteran. “Joe Stejskal is blossoming as a college hockey player. He’s a big, strong guy and he’s really developed here. Physically, he’s a big, physical defenseman, but his skating’s developed really nicely as has his puck-handling ability. He’s a real prospect, NHL-wise. Kevin Stephens is a really different player than Joe Stejskal, more of a guy that’s going to skate his way out of trouble, but a good passer, a good solid offensive player and I think he’s developing that consistency defensively and that’s really going to be our focal point. Those two guys are really key guys for us along with our captain, obviously — Peter Boldt, who’s a veteran senior defenseman.

“Last year we had [Connor] Goggin and Jimmy Gaudet, and [Danny] Markowitz has played quite a bit for us. I think we have a good, solid group of defensemen and the addition of a kid like Mike Keenan, who was a captain at Sioux City of the USHL — he’s a left-handed defenseman, and we’ve only got two in our program, him and Jimmy Gaudet — so even just positionally, that helps us, but he’s a really solid player. He’s going to be able to move the puck, he’s going to be tough, he’ll block shots … he’s going to be a good one, I think. Team defense is really going to be a critical thing for us. We really want to cut down on our goals against.”

Gaudet’s praise for his young goalie began to flow early last year, and has shown no signs of drying up any time soon.

“He’s one of those special kids, where his combination of work ethic, athleticism and mental toughness is just fantastic, and that’s a really nice combination,” Gaudet said. “And the ability to battle; when technique goes out the window, when technique just won’t get you there on a rebound or a desperate situation, he seems to find a way to get to the puck and I like that. He’s not a guy that’s satisfied with anything that he does, so he’s really focused on how to take that next step.

In relief, “James Mello looks great. Physically he’s much stronger than he was last year, and I think he’s going to challenge Jody, he’s going to really push him,” Gaudet said. “The young kid we’ve got in now, Charles Corsi, he’s going to be a viable option down the road, I hope, and something that could develop.”

And finally of his incoming class, “I think Walsh, [Mark] Goggin, and there’s guys that aren’t known as well: maybe Jason Bourgea, who’s a kid that played in Indianapolis last year and won the championship and played at St. Paul [Vermont] before that … is a very good player, very tenacious. Alex Goodship is a western Canadian guy with good size and great speed. It’s a class of six guys, and I like what each guy brings to the table. We have really solid depth in the program this year. We don’t have too many, but I think we have good depth and there’s going to be a lot of competition for spots, and these guys are right in the mix of it.”

2009-10 St. Lawrence Season Preview

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Last Year

The Saints finished one goal away from an NCAA at-large bid, but instead settled for a season-ending tie in the ECAC Hockey consolation game against Princeton. The team finished fourth in the league on the strength of an 8-1-2 finish to league play, and derived much of its success from its dynamic transition game and the production of a stellar senior class.

Senior forward Mike McKenzie and the graduated defender Zach Miskovic led the team with 16 goals apiece, and 13 players finished with double-digit points — including four defensemen. Four of the Saints’ top five scorers were seniors, as were five of SLU’s top half-dozen goal-scorers. Senior Alex Petizian made 31 appearances for SLU, allowing under 2.2 goals a game and saving shots at a .927 clip.

This Year

The Saints look secure in net with the same faces (Petizian, classmate Kain Tisi, and sophomore Robby Moss) as last year … but beyond that, there are an awful lot of question marks. McKenzie is clearly the team’s top returning forward, production-wise, but others will have to step up if St. Lawrence hopes to come anywhere close to approaching last year’s achievements.

“We’ve got a pretty big class to replace,” Saints coach Joe Marsh said, “and last year’s class was a pretty special group. For us, we’re just pleased with everything the guys have done to this point. Everything we’ve done, they’ve embraced. It’s a big group of guys and they’ve been willing to stand our pretty [ambitious] agenda. From a coaching perspective, it looks like a pretty low-maintanence group. We’ve got a lot of work to do, to be sure, but the guys seem willing to do it. Nothing too earth-shaking here, we’re just cautiously optimistic.

“[Losing players] just happens. It’s not going to be up to one guy, like Mike McKenzie, you know. He’s obviously a big part of it. [Senior] Jerry Cunningham has always been in shape, he’s a great athlete, but he worked extremely hard this summer and he looks great. A lot of the guys did that themselves; I didn’t have to say, ‘You’ve got to do this, this and this.’ They see that all of a sudden, opportunities are presented, and they’ve done some things since the end of last season to take advantage of them.”

Marsh doesn’t mince words when it comes to the diminished state of his offense.

“Maybe we’re not going to score as many goals as we did a year ago, but there are different ways to win hockey games. We have got to play good, sound defense. … We can be a strong team, physically. The discipline is a huge part of it … not just penalties, but how we play our game.”

At least the veteran coach has a few known quantities to work with among this year’s forwards.

“We keep one line intact: [senior Travis] Vermeulen, [sophomore Brandon] Bollig and [senior Alex] Curran, a good line for us last year, a big strong line, physically. [Sophomore Mark] Armstrong, [junior Aaron] Bogosian and [junior] Jared Keller make a good solid line, they played well together last year. Right now we’ve got Cunningham going with McKenzie, and maybe Kyle Flanagan, a freshman — he’s a really talented young guy.

“We have a lot of other guys battling it out for the other line. We’ve got five lines even, so that last fourth group could be any one of those [remaining] six guys. I think we can get some consistency. I like to play four lines. The way we play, I think it’s important that we play at a real high tempo.

“Probably the biggest question mark is replacing four senior defensemen who were extremely productive. Miskovic led the country in goals from a defenseman; he had 16 goals. All four of those guys fit very very well into the offense, our transition game was really good and a lot of our offense was generated form the D-corps. It’s not going to happen overnight, but we want our defensemen to step up and get involved in the play.”

On the back end, the Saints are just hoping for a few quick learners.

“Hopefully it doesn’t take too long [for the defense to acclimate]. We still want to play an aggressive style, we don’t want to play trap hockey … but we’ll have to work exceptionally hard. We’ll pull back the reins a little bit in certain areas, like pinching the defensemen, maybe we’ll be a little more conservative in things like that to allow guys to get their legs under them.”

NCAA Shrinks Capacity for Ford Field Frozen Four

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Capacity at the 2010 Frozen Four at Detroit’s Ford Field is shrinking to just over 36,000 from over 70,000, the NCAA announced Thursday.

The rink originally was to be placed in the middle of what normally is the football field in the stadium, but that location has been moved to the West end zone.

Risers with seating will be put in on both sides of the rink.

The top image shows the original layout for the 2010 Frozen Four at Ford Field. The bottom image shows the reconfigured layout with the rink at one end of the stadium.

The top image shows the original layout for the 2010 Frozen Four at Ford Field. The bottom image shows the reconfigured layout with the rink at one end of the stadium.

Joni Comstock, the NCAA senior vice president of championships, said sight lines for fans and the economy, particularly in having so many tickets available, factored into the decison.

Less-than-desired ticket sales likely factored into the equation.

“We are truly excited about the potential for a record-setting Men’s Frozen Four at Ford Field,” Comstock said in a news release. “The NCAA, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, Detroit Sports and Ford Field have been working together to ensure the 2010 Men’s Frozen Four will be one of the best ever.”

No one of those factors was more important than another in the decision to alter the layout, said Cameron Schuh, the NCAA’s associate director of public and media relations.

He said about 22,000 ticket packages are accounted for, including those being reserved for the competing teams, the NCAA and the local organizing committee.

Those who already have purchased ticket packages will have their ticket locations reassigned for the new layout.

2009-10 American International Season Preview

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After showing steady signs of improvement the past few years in their quest to escape the Atlantic Hockey basement, the American International Yellow Jackets took a step backward last season, racking up just five victories.

“We were ascending for a couple of years, and our hope is that we are still making progress,” said AIC coach Gary Wright, who is starting his 26th season begin the Yellow Jackets’ bench. “Our hope is to make valuable progress and develop our young players.”

The loss of all-star forward Jereme Tendler was especially felt last season, as AIC’s offensive output dropped by a half a goal per game to an anemic 1.89.

"We were ascending for a couple of years, and our hope is that we are still making progress."

— American International coach Gary Wright

“It’s obviously goal scoring and goaltending that win games, and we have to get better at both,” Wright said.

A bright spot last season was the play of freshmen Mike Penny (15 points) and Nielsson Arcibal (14 points). In all, the Yellow Jackets return eight of their top 10 scorers and three of their top four defensemen.

Junior Dan Ramirez split time in net last season with the departed Tom Fenton and struggled at times, posting a higher GAA (4.07) and a lower save percentage (.872) than he did his freshman year. Newcomer Ben Meisner (Wichendon School) may see some time in net this season.

Wright is excited about a pair of incoming defensemen. Jeff Ceccacci comes to AIC from the Green Bay Gamblers (USHL), and Chris Markiewicz hails from Calgary, Alberta, by way of the Brooks Bandits of the Atlantic Junior League. Both had strong junior hockey campaigns and are expected to contribute right away.

“I think we’ll be better in all areas,” Wright said. “It’s a tough league with each team getting better each season, but we know what we need to do to compete and we’re ready for the challenge.”

2009-10 Army Season Preview

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Coming off a regular season title in 2008, the Army Black Knights knew they were in for a challenge to repeat with 12 freshmen in the lineup.

All-American Josh Kassel struggled in net, and the young Army squad had to settle for a sixth-place finish last season.

Coach Brian Riley’s team is ready to turn the negatives from last season into positives this year. Those 12 freshmen now have a year of college hockey under their belts and are better acclimated to the rigors of a service academy, and junior Jay Clark stepped in for Kassel and earned the starting spot a year ahead of schedule with a .914 save percentage last season.

"Who can sleep this time of year? Everyone’s excited. Everyone has goals and at this point, all of them can still be achieved."

— Army coach Brian Riley

“Like last year, I think we are in a good position in net going into the year,” Riley said. “Jay Clark is among the group of top goalies in this league that can give you a legitimate chance to win every night. He’s an unbelievable role model with a great work ethic on and off the ice.

“And with our freshman from last season, I don’t think you see a lot of guys play to their potential until they’re into their sophomore and sometimes junior year. We’re really happy with the progress that they’ve made.”

Providing leadership and most likely plenty of points is senior Owen Meyer, one of the most dangerous players in the league. Meyer needs 20 goals this season to become the most prolific goal scorer in league history.

“He’s probably the best forward in the history of our program,” Riley said. “You’ve seen how he can take over a game by himself. But he’s a laid back guy with a great attitude.”

Riley says team defense and the ability to win on the road are two areas that the Black Knights need to improve upon to get back to the top part of the league.

“We killed penalties well but we’re a team that doesn’t take a lot,” he said. “That’s a plus because you don’t want to give teams like Air Force, Merychurst or RIT those opportunities. But I think we have to do a better job of limiting scoring chances in all situations.

“And it’s key that we get points on the road. We were a young team last year and played in some pretty hostile environments, and I think going through that last year will better prepare us this time.”

Army opens its season at the Icebreaker Tournament in Omaha against the host Mavericks, and then plays either St. Lawrence or Massachusetts-Lowell.

“We start off with some good competition,” Riley said. “I was up at 4:30 this morning. Who can sleep this time of year? Everyone’s excited. Everyone has goals and at this point, all of them can still be achieved.”

2009-10 Holy Cross Season Preview

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For the Holy Cross Crusaders, it’s all about looking forward. Paul Pearl’s team will try to put last season behind it, and focus on what on paper looks to be the makings of a successful 2009-10 season. Coming off a seventh-place finish, the Crusaders are picked to finish fourth in this year’s preseason poll.

It’s hard to argue with the coaches’ reasoning. Holy Cross finished strong last season, winning two of its last three regular season games and then putting a scare into RIT in a wild best-of-three series that saw the Crusaders score 14 goals in the series but come up short. The feeling is that this is a team that underachieved a bit last season and didn’t get many bounces.

That, and returning 96 percent of your offense makes you a contender.

“I suppose [when voting in the preseason poll] you look around at who you lost and who you gained,” Pearl said. “I don’t know if we’re a fourth-place team or where we are. Nobody does at this point; it’s just numbers. But I like the group talent that we have.”

Returning are juniors Jordan Cry (32 points last season), Brodie Sheahan (31 points) and Everett Sheen (25 points) as well as all but one defensive starter and the goaltending tandem of Ian Dams and Adam Roy.

Pearl thinks this team was close to being a contender last year, but not always getting timely goaltending and a power play conversion rate of 8.9 percent (down from 25 percent the year before) in league play were sore spots.

“You change your save percentage from 88 percent to 90 percent and that’s maybe a goal a game [against],” he said. “You finish better on the power play and that’s a goal a game [for].

“It was a funny thing last year [with the power play]. We just couldn’t find a trigger guy. It’s something we’re definitely working at this season.”

The Crusaders have seven freshman, and all will get their shot to contribute.

“We’re going to mix things up at the beginning of the year and see how things work out,” Pearl said. “We’re excited about our new players and think they’ll fit in well.”

2009-10 Air Force Season Preview

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When Air Force coach Frank Serratore took the podium at Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena for this year’s Atlantic Hockey media day, he expressed his love for the rink that’s hosted the last three AHA championships: “I’m glad to be back in the greatest hockey arena in the world,” he said.

One can understand why Serratore thinks so: his Falcons are 6-0 at Blue Cross, including 3-0 in championship games.

“We’ve been very good over the past three seasons,” Serratore said. “But we’ve been very lucky, too. We’re playing with house money, going for four in a row. But we’ll go out and take our swings and see what happens. The margin of error is so thin. We saw that in the NCAA tournament last season.”

The Falcons lost three of their top five scorers to graduation, but return scoring machine and Hobey Baker finalist Jacques Lamoureux, whose 33 goals were tops in the nation by a wide margin.

“It’s going to be tough to score 33 goals again, but we’re just going to let him do his thing,” Serratore said. “He’s a handy guy with the puck on his stick. There are very few players in college hockey — very few players in hockey, period — that you can say their strongest attribute is scoring goals.”

Matt Fairchild also is back. The senior was the Atlantic Hockey playoff MVP last season, and has a knack for scoring big goals in big games. Fairchild is one of at least three league MVP candidates on the Air Force roster this season.

“He’s our most complete player,” Serratore said. “He does everything at a high level.”

Air Force goaltender Andrew Volkening played every minute of every game last season (photo: Melissa Wade).

Air Force goaltender Andrew Volkening played every minute of every game last season (photo: Melissa Wade).

The other main man is Andrew Volkening, who played every minute of every game (2,503) last season after putting up 2,271 minutes the year before. The senior posted a 1.97 GAA last season, including a 43-save shutout of Michigan in the NCAA tournament.

Will Serratore try to ease another goalie (sophomore Steven Caple or freshman David Bosner) into the mix to prepare for 2010-11?

“I don’t worry about it one bit,” Serratore said. “I’m going to play the goalie that gives us an equal to or better chance of winning. If that’s Andrew Volkening, so be it. As someone once told me, ‘Worry about this year this year, and next year next year.'”

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