February 14, 2011

ATHLETIC REPUBLIC PLAYER OF THE WEEK #35 JOE CANNATA, MERRIMACK COLLEGE (Junior Goaltender; Wakefield, Mass.) Stopped 65 of 69 shots (.942 save%) over the weekend, including 38 in Saturday's 3-2 overtime win. Stopped 12 shots on the power play, including five during a 5-on-3 four minute advantage. PRO AMBITIONS CO-ROOKIE OF THE WEEK #6 JAMIE OLEKSIAK, NORTHEASTERN (Freshman Defenseman, Toronto, Ont.) Scored his first-career game-winning goal in overtime for the Huskies on the power play against UMass- Lowell on Friday night at the Tsongas Center in a 3-2 victory. PRO AMBITIONS CO-ROOKIE OF THE WEEK #4 JORDAN HEYWOOD, MERRIMACK COLLEGE (Freshman Defenseman; Regina, Sask.) Scored the game-winner in overtime Saturday, while picking up a career-high three points in the 3-2 victory over UNH on Saturday night at Lawler Arena. PURE HOCKEY DEFENSIVE PLAYER/WEEK #1 JOHN MUSE, BOSTON COLLEGE (Senior Goaltender; East Falmouth, Mass.) Muse stopped 58 of 60 shots (.966 save%) faced in an overtime win over Boston University and a shutout win at Providence College. He registered 34 saves in the win vs. the Terriers Monday and had 24 stops in his 11th career shutout on Friday at Schneider Arena. HOCKEY EAST TEAM OF THE WEEK MERRIMACK COLLEGE WARRIORS The Warriors posted two victories against No. 6 ranked UNH in a home-and-home series by scores of 4-2, and 3-2 (OT), on Friday and Saturday night, respectively. The Warriors won the season series with the Wildcats, 2-1-0.

Athletic Republic Player of the Week Joe Cannata of Merrimack College ARMY ROTC THREE STARS AWARD At the conclusion of each Hockey East game, the " Army ROTC Three Stars of The Game" are selected. Here are the 2010-2011 season leaders to date: Rk. Name Cl. Pos. School 1. Paul Thompson Sr. F UNH 2. Kieran Millan Jr. G BU 3. Cam Atkinson Jr. F BC 4. John Muse Sr. G BC 5. Wade MacLeod Sr. F NU 6. Chris Rawlings So. G NU 7. Chris Barton Sr. F MC   Chris Connolly Jr. F BU   Stephane Da Costa So. F MC

HOCKEY EAST WEEKLY TOP PERFORMERS

Alex Beaudry, PC (Jr., Cumberland, Ont.) Totaled 72 saves over the weekend, including a season-high 42 at UMass on Saturday.

Michael Budd, UML (Jr., F, Burlington, Ont.) Scored two goals on three shots against Northeastern, his first career multi-point game.

Tyler McNeely, NU (Sr., F, Burnaby, B.C.) Set a career-high with a six-game point streak after burying the first goal at UMass Lowell on Feb. 11.

Mike McLaughlin (Jr., F, Seaforth, Ont.) Scored his 10th goal of the season and his second of the short-handed nature.

Alex Chiasson, BU (So., F, St. Augustin, Que.) Matched his career high with three points (1g, 2a) in 4-3 overtime win at UMass.

Mike Collins, MC (Fr., F, Boston, Mass.) After scoring his ninth of the season in Friday's win, he picked up two assists in Saturday's OT win.

Tommy Cross, BC (Jr., D, Simsbury, Conn.) Scored the overtime gamewinner in the team's 3-2 win over BU in the first round of the Beanpot.

Anthony DeCenzo, UVM (Fr., F, Hibbing, Minn.) Posted a two-goal one-assist performance in a 7-2 victory at No. 18 Maine, Friday.

Jimmy Hayes, BC (Jr., F, Dorchester, Mass.) Recorded a team-high four points (1g,3a) and +3 rating in victories over BU and PC.

Rob Madore, UVM (Jr., G, Pittsburg, Pa.) Stopped 72 of 77 shots (.935 save%), only letting in two five-on-five goals on the weekend at No. 18 Maine.

Carter Madsen, MC (Jr., F, Okotoks, Alta.) Picked up two goals and an assist in the sweep of UNH, getting the game-winner in Friday's 4-2 victory.

Chris McCarthy, UVM (So., F, Collegeville, Pa.) Registered a six-point weekend (1g, 5a) at No. 18 Maine.

Wade Megan, BU (So., Canton, N.Y.) Scored a goal in each of the Terriers' games this week against BC and UMass.

Garrett Noonan, BU (Fr., D, Norfolk, Mass.) Scored the overtime winner at UMass on Friday and also picked up an assist in his first-ever Beanpot game.

Gustav Nyquist, Maine (Jr., F, Malmo, Sweden) Scored three goals and added one assist in Maine's weekend spilt with Vermont.

Philip Samuelsson, BC (So., D, Scottsdale, Ariz.) Tallied one goal and one assist against Boston University in the Beanpot.

Shawn Sirman, Maine (So., G, Blezard Valley, Ont.) Finished the weekend with a 1.71 GAA and a .900 save percentage. Made 17 saves Saturday.

Mike Sislo, UNH (Sr., F, Superior, Wis.) Dished out two assists against Merrimack on Saturday.

Sebastian Stålberg, UVM (So., F, Gothenburg, Sweden) Notched a pair of power-play goals and two helpers on the weekend, at No. 18 Maine.

Corey Trivino, BU (Jr., F, Toronto, Ont.) Tallied a goal and an assist in Friday's 4-3 overtime win at UMass and also added a goal in the Beanpot vs. BC.

Paul Thompson, UNH, (Sr., F, Derry, N.H.) Recorded a goal and an assist factoring in both UNH goals in a 3-2 overtime loss to Merrimack.

CAREER FIRSTS/MILESTONES/WHO's HOT

Marc Boulanger, UML (Olds, Alta.) Has recorded 30+ saves in each of his last six starts

Michael Budd, UML (Burlington, Ont.) Recorded the multi-goal game of his career with two scores against Northeastern

Mike Collins, MC (Boston, Mass.) Has 10 points in his last six games

Paul Dainton, UMass (Iqaluit, Nunvut) Now has 2,961 career saves needing just 89 to tie the UMass program record (3,050, Brian Regan)

Anthony DeCenzo, UVM (Hibbing, Minn.) Tallied his first multi-goal game in a 7-2 win at Maine Friday

Jordan Heywood, MC (Regina, SASK.) Had a career-high three points in Saturday's OT win

Chase Langeraap, UMass (Cayuga, Ont.) Has 8 goals and 3 assists in the last 13 games

Merrimack in Overtime Has won the last three games that went to OT and is 3-0-4 on the year

Gustav Nyquist, Maine (Malmo, Sweden) Has eight points (7g,1a) in his last four games

PROVIDENCE PENALTY KILL In the last 13 games the Friars have killed off 72 of 79 penalties (91%)

Vermont Special Teams Went 15-for-16 on the penalty kill this past weekend at No. 18 Maine and has now killed 25 of the last 27 power plays that it has faced. Power play went 5-for-13 over the weekend

Vermont Offense has scored 16 goals in the last three outings (5.33 gpg)

Matt White, UVM (McMurray, Pa.) Registered his first three-assist performance at Maine Friday

TEAM NOTES

Boston College: With the team's 3-2 overtime win over Boston University in the first round of the Beanpot, BC played its first overtime period of the winter and won its first game when trailing after two periods … BC captured its 20th victory (a 3-2 overtime win over Boston University) in its 26th game and is the fastest BC team to 20 wins since the 2003-04 Eagles went 20-3-3 in its first 26 games. The Eagles advanced to the four-team tournament's championship game for the fifth time in the last six seasons and the 31st time overall. BC's victory over Boston University marked its fifth straight over the Terriers and third straight in Beanpot play … Senior goaltender John Muse made 24 saves in a 3-0 win over PC, Muse's 80th career win, his third shutout of the season (the team's sixth) and the 11th shutout of his career. BC has won eight straight over the Friars and is unbeaten in the last 12 (10-0-2). The team's senior class improved to 10-2-2 in 14 meetings in their four years vs. PC … The Eagles successfully killed all 10 opponent power plays in two games this week to improve its kill rate to 90.6 percent.

Boston University: The Terriers are 4-0-1 in their last five Hockey East contests... Junior Corey Trivino has scored a goal in consecutive games for the first time since finding the back of the net in both games of the 2009 NCAA Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H.... The Terriers' last two overtime losses during the regular season have come in the opening round of the Beanpot against Boston College (2008, 2011)...BU has 10 come-from-behind victories this season after only having five all of last season...Junior Kieran Millan (Edmonton, Alta.) now sits in fifth place all-time on BU career goaltender wins list with 56, six away from the record holder Sean Fields '04..BU's freshmen hold an 80-67 lead over the juniors in the race for scoring by class and the sophomores lead the way in goals with 27... The Terriers have already played two non-conference opponents (Brown, Notre Dame) twice and that total now reaches three with Monday's match-up with Harvard in the Beanpot consolation game...With season series' wins over New Hampshire, Maine, UMass Lowell and Massachusetts, BU will look to add Providence to that list when they face off in a home-and-home tilt this weekend.

Maine: Gustav Nyquist (Malmo, Sweden) set a Maine school record on Saturday night when he scored just six seconds into the game… The previous record for fastest goal to start a game was eight seconds set on Nov. 16, 1985 by Bruce Major against Northern Michigan… Nyquist had three goals on the weekend and now has goals in four straight games… Over that span, he has tallied seven goals… He currently sits 27th on Maine's all-time scoring list with 45 goals and 84 assists for 129 career points… Prior to the game on Friday, former Maine Director of Athletics and Hockey East Commissioner Stu Haskell was honored with the prestigious Hockey East Founders Medal… Maine is 10-1-1 on the season when scoring four or more goals… Joey Diamond (Long Beach, N.Y.) and Brian Flynn (Lynnfield, Mass.) each have three game-winning goals on the season… All three of Diamond's have come in Hockey East conference play… Junior Spencer Abbott (Hamilton, Ontario) tallied his 75th career point on Saturday night… Maine has eight different players who have seen action in 100 or more career games.

Massachusetts: UMass remains in 7th place in the Hockey East standings with an overtime loss to No. 14 Boston University and a tie against Providence … UMass is 1 point ahead of Vermont (8th place) and 3 points ahead of Providence (9th place) in the league standings … UMass will face Merrimack in a home-andhome series this weekend … UMass' 4-3 loss to Boston University was its 6th one-goal game of the year (1-5) and first overtime loss of the year … The tie against Providence was the 6th overtime game of the year (0-1-5) … The UMass penalty kill has gone 43-of-50 over the last 13 (86.0%) … The UMass power play has struggled recently going 1-for-41 over the last 8 games … UMass posted a season-high 45 shots against Providence … UMass averaged just under 3 goals per game over the last three contests after being held to just two goals in the three games prior … After giving up 3 goals to Providence in the 2nd period, UMass is now being outscored 37-to-26 in that period for the season.

UMass-Lowell: The River Hawks came up empty in an overtime thriller with Northeastern, 3-2, on Friday night … UMass Lowell's Michael Budd scored twice to take a 2-1 lead to start the third period ... The night marked the first multi-point and multi-goal game of Budd's career … Josh Holmstrom picked up an assist on Friday to become the fourth River Hawk freshman to reach double-digit points this season, the most at UMass Lowell since 2007-08 … The loss marked the 18th consecutive game in which UMass Lowell surrendered three or more goals and the team's first overtime loss this season (1-1-2) … Marc Boulanger made 31 saves in defeat, his sixth consecutive start with at least 30 saves … Over that stretch Boulanger has stopped 210-of-232 shots for a .905 save percentage— well above his season average of .887 … The River Hawks host Maine next weekend for a two-game set … Saturday's contest with the Black Bears will be televised live on NESN.

Merrimack: Following only the second-weekend sweep of UNH in school history, Merrimack made it 11 wins in 12 games and improved to 19-5-4 on the season, 13-5-3 in Hockey East, tied for fourth in the Pairwise rankings…The wins wrapped up a playoff spot for the Warriors for the second straight year and put them in the third place, three points behind BC and UNH and two ahead of BU with six games remaining…Fueled by wins in eight straight road games which is a Division I school record, Merrimack has captured all six completed season-series, with triumphs over UNH, BC, BU, UVM, UML, and NU…Boasting a 10-2-1 home mark this year, Merrimack is tied with Yale for the fewest losses nationally…The Warriors rank first in Hockey East in offense and second nationally and are second in HEA in defense, power play and penalty kill…Freshman Jordan Heywood's (Regina, SK) overtime goal improved Merrimack's OT record to 3-0-4 this year. Heywood had a career-high three points in the 3-2 OT victory…Merrimack became the first team in Hockey East to score 100 goals on the season when Brandon Brodhag (Brooklyn Park, MN) gave the Warriors the 1-0 lead Friday night. The Warriors have 106 goals on the season and are three shy of last year's output…The Warriors played in front of the sixth sellout crowd at Lawler Arena in 13 home games this season.

New Hampshire: With a goal on Saturday night UNH's Paul Thompson took over the nation's lead in goals with 24. In addition, Thompson's 44 points is first in Hockey East six ahead of linemate Mike Sislo (38 pt) and eight head of the next closest… UNH's magic number to clinch home ice is two with both Northeastern and Maine. New Hampshire is looking to become the first in Hockey East to clinch home-ice advantage for the Hockey East quarterfinals. The Wildcats have hosted the quarterfinals for a league-best 14-straight seasons and have not had to travel for the first round of the post season since 1995-96… New Hampshire is in the midst of playing five of six games on the road… The Wildcats are 8-3-1 on the road this season… Last night was the first time UNH lost back-to-back games this season. It was also UNH's second overtime loss of the season at 2-2-4… After four-straight games against nationally-ranked teams, UNH will play four-straight against teams not ranked in the latest poll… Senior Phil DeSimone sits on the doorstep of 100 career points at 99 points. DeSimone is looking to become the 70th UNH player all-time and the third on his line to earn this distinction… After holding games in hand for most of the season, all of Hockey East have played 21 games. UNH is tied with Boston College atop the standings with 32 points.

Northeastern: Northeastern's victory over UMass Lowell marks the first three-game sweep of any Hockey East opponent this season. The Huskies never lost to Massachusetts in their regular-season set, but skated to a draw on Jan. 29. The win against UMass Lowell also marks the longest winning streak in program history against the River Hawks. Northeastern has never defeated UML fourstraight times, but put together six three-game winning streaks in the 99-game series. Northeastern's victory marks the first time the Huskies have come from behind after trailing through the first 40 minutes of regulation. It also marks the first overtime victory for NU in seven tries. Tyler McNeely broke a career-best by assembling a six-game point streak with NU's first goal of the game. McNeely has touched upon a five-game spurt twice in his career. The Burnaby, B.C native has notched seven points (3-4-7) within the current streak. Wade MacLeod matched his career-best with a six-game stretch as well, turning in nine points (3-6-9) during that time. Steve Silva is riding a four-game point streak for the first time since his freshman season with five points (2-3-5). Mike McLaughlin has scored goals in consecutive games four times in his career. The Seaforth, Ont. native netted a pair in Monday's Beanpot tilt against Harvard. Rob Dongara has posted assists in consecutive games twice in his rookie campaign thus far. The Huskies are now 32-30-3 in games played in between Beanpot tilts.

Providence College: Providence College played No. 1 Boston College on Friday marking the first time since March 8, 2009 that PC played a top-ranked team (Boston University) … The Friars have played in 10 overtime games this season, matching a school record (PC also had 10 ties in 1984-85 and 2007- 08) … Nine of the 10 overtime games have been against Hockey East teams … In addition, PC has seven ties which matches a school record that was set during the 2003-04 season … Senior Kyle MacKinnon's career-high 14 goals this season marks the most by a Friar since 2007-08 when Jon Rheault finished with 17 … In the last 13 games, the Friars have killed off 72 of 79 penalties (91%) … The Friars have climbed to 14th nationally on the penalty kill (84.8 %) … The three second period goals scored by PC on Saturday at UMass marked the most by the Friars in one period this season … Junior goalie Alex Beaudry made a season-high 42 saves in a 3-3 overtime tie at UMass on Sunday … Beaudry now has 2120 career saves which ranks ninth all-time at Providence … Beaudry also is tied for ninth at PC with 74 career games played as a goalie.

Vermont: Vermont picked up where it left off the previous weekend, scoring seven goals for the second consecutive game, as it rolled past No. 18 Maine Friday night with 10 skaters picking up points (five having a multi-point game)…Anthony DeCenzo (2g, 1a), Jack Downing (2g), Chris McCarthy (1g, 3a) Sebastian Stalberg (1g, 2a) and Matt White (3a) all had multi-point games for Vermont Friday...For Stalberg, it was his second in as many games…The Catamounts went 3-for-6 on the power play and 8-for-8 on the penalty kill (Including a 5-on-3), anchored by the play of Rob Madore (37 saves) once again Friday night…Saturday night the Cats were feeling the shortage in numbers and took costly penalties as they fell to the Black Bears 4-2 at Alfond Arena…Maine received a pair of goals from Gustav Nyquist (Including an empty-netter)…Downing notched his third goal of the weekend and Stalberg tallied a power-play goal for the second straight night…Vermont went 7-for-8 on the penalty kill and 2-for-8 on the power play Saturday…Madore stuffed 35 Black Bear attempts and moved into fourth all-time (2,406 saves) in career saves among Vermont goaltenders with his 23rd stop of the night in the second frame…Vermont (14 points) trail Massachusetts (15 points) by one point for the seventh seed in league standings…The Catamounts return to action when they host No. 6 New Hampshire for a two-game series at Gutterson Fieldhouse, Friday (Feb. 18) and Saturday (Feb. 19).

COMMISSIONER's CORNER by Joe Bertagna

Last year at this time, as both the men's and women's standings were taking shape down the stretch, the possibility of a four-way tie existed on both sides. Actually, one league, and I can't remember which, could have had a five-way tie. Neither happened. If there are ties of three teams or more, the ties are broken by reducing a threeteam tie to two and then re-applying the criteria. The ties are broken "from the top;" that is, the better teams are identified first and then the criteria are re-applied to the remaining teams. This is significant because there are scenarios where if you reduce the first block by the weakest team first and then re-apply, you end up with a different order of teams.

The criteria Hockey East uses, by the way, are: 1) points in league play, 2) head to head play; 3) league wins; 4) record against #1 team; 5) record against #2 team, and so on.

It is now on the record. Let's see how it plays out.