February 7, 2011

ATHLETIC REPUBLIC PLAYER OF THE WEEK #23 CHRIS BARTON, MERRIMACK (Senior Forward; Calgary, Alta.) Barton recorded a nine-point (2g,7a) weekend for the Warriors in two victories. He opened the weekend with career-high four assists Friday in the 4-3 overtime victory vs. Northeastern and followed that up with a career-high five points on two goals and three assists against UMass Saturday. He finished the weekend with six shots and +5 rating. PRO AMBITIONS ROOKIE OF THE WEEK #27 KEVIN GOUMAS, NEW HAMPSHIRE (Freshman Forward; Lake Worth, Fla.) Goumas tallied two goals and an assist over the weekend in the sweep of Maine. He netted the game-winning goal on Friday night and followed that up with a goal and an assist on Saturday night. He had five shots and was a +3 on the weekend. PURE HOCKEY DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK #29 ROB MADORE, VERMONT (Junior Goaltender; Pittsburgh, Pa.) Madore stopped 70 of 72 shots (.972 save%) on the weekend in the three point weekend against Providence. Vermont went 10-for-11 on the penalty kill over the weekend including a 5-on-3 kill anchored by Madore. HOCKEY EAST TEAM OF THE WEEK NEW HAMPSHIRE WILDCATS The No. 6 ranked Wildcats scored 11 goals on the weekend in the weekend sweep of the Maine Black Bears to take sole posession of first place in the Hockey East standings. UNH scored six of its 11 goals in the opening period on the weekend.

Athletic Republic Player of the Week Chris Barton 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. Wade MacLeod Sr. F NU 5. John Muse Sr. G BC 6. Chris Barton Sr. F MC   Chris Connolly Jr. F BU   Stephane Da Costa So. F MC   Chris Rawlings So. G NU

HOCKEY EAST WEEKLY TOP PERFORMERS

Cam Atkinson, BC (Jr., F, Greenwich, Conn.) Tallied three points, including his 20th goal of the season, in the team's 5-0 home win over Massachusetts.

Kyle Beattie, Maine (So., F, Avondale, Ariz.) Scored a pair of goals in Maine's 5-4 loss to UNH on Saturday. It was the first two-goal game of his career.

Mike Beck, UNH (Sr., D, Long Beach, Calif.) Scored a goal and dished out two assists in UNH's sweep of Maine.

Marc Boulanger, UML (Fr., G, Olds, Alta.) Stopped 35-of-38 (.921 save%) at #14 Boston University, allowing only one even strength score.

Adam Clendening, BU (Fr., D, Wheatfield, N.Y.) Assisted on two goals in BU's 3-1 victory over UMass Lowell.

Joe Cucci, MC (Sr., F, Melrose Park, Ill.) Record six points on the weekend and netted his second-career hat trick while scoring the OT game-winner at NU.

Stephane Da Costa, MC (So., F, Paris, France) Picked up four points on the weekend, including a goal and two assists in Saturday's victory.

Drew Daniels, NU (So., D, Suffern, N.Y.) Scored his first goal of the season. It was also his first tally as a defenseman at Northeastern.

Phil DeSimone, UNH, (Sr., F, East Amherst, N.Y.) Had four assists on the weekend including three in Friday's 6-3 win over Maine.

Brendan Ellis, MC (Fr., D, Kelowna, B.C.) Tallied his first career goal in a career-high three-point effort against UMass Saturday.

John Henrion, UNH, (So., F, Holden, Mass.) Scored a pair of goals in Saturday night's 5-4 win over Maine and added an assist in Friday night's 6-3 win.

Drew MacKenzie, UVM (Jr., D, New Canaan, Conn.) Registered a pair of power play goals and added an assist to go along with a +5 rating and nine shots.

Tyler McNeely, NU (Sr., F, Burnaby, B.C) Recorded his fifth multi-point game of the season with a goal and an assist in a 4-3 overtime loss to Merrimack.

Kieran Millan, BU (Jr., G, Edmonton, Alta.) Extended his shutout skein to 123:05 and made 30 saves before allowing a late tally in BU's 3-1 win vs. UML.

Gustav Nyquist, Maine (Jr., F, Malmo, Sweden) Scored four goals in Maine's weekend series at New Hampshire with his first career hat trick on Friday.

Ian O'Connor, PC (Sr., F, Londonderry, N.H.) Scored the game-tying goal in a 1-1 at Vermont on Friday.

Will O'Neill, Maine (Jr., D, Salem, Mass.) Scored a goal and added a pair of assists in Maine's weekend series at New Hampshire.

Joe Pereira, BU (Sr., F, West Haven, Conn.) Tallied a goal and added an assist to lead the Terriers to a 3-1 win against UMass Lowell on Friday.

Adam Ross, MC (Sr., D, Red Deer, Alta.) Recorded a career-high three points, scoring his first goal of the season against UMass Saturday.

Philip Samuelsson, BC (So., D, Scottsdale, Ariz.) Scored twice and finished with a career-high three points in leading BC to a 5-0 home win over UMass.

Sebastian Stålberg, UVM (So., F, Gothenburg, Sweden) Recorded his fifth multi-point game of the year with two assists Saturday.

Paul Thompson, UNH (Sr., F, Derry, N.H.) Netted three goals including the game-winner with 15.6 seconds remaining in a win over Maine.

CAREER FIRSTS/MILESTONES/WHO's HOT

Mike Banwell, Maine (Scarborough, Ont.) Played in his 100th career game on Saturday at UNH

Chris Barton (CALGARY, ALTA.) Joe Cucci (Melrose Park, ILL.), MC Combined for six goals and 15 points on the weekend

Marc Boulanger, UML (Olds, Alta .) Has recorded 35 or more saves in each of his last four starts

Paul Dainton, UMass (Iqaluit, Nunvut) now has 2,918 career saves needing just 132 to tie the UMass program record (3,050, Brian Regan)

Drew Ellement, NU (Winnipeg, Man.) Played in his 50th-career game against Merrimack

Brendan Ellis, MC (Kelowna, BC) Tallied his first career goal Saturday

Arthur Griem, UVM (Grosse Point, Mich.) Registered an assist Saturday for his first career point

Chase Langeraap, UMass (Cayuga , Ont.) Has 7 goals and 3 assists in the last 11 games

Merrimack's power play Has 11 goals in its last four games, including five on the weekend vs. NU and UMass

Kieran Millan, BU (Edmonton, Alta .) Owns a 5-2-2 record in past nine starts with a 2.10 GAA and a .941 save%

Kevin Moore, UMass (Belle Mead, N.J.) Made his first career appearance against Merrimack on Saturday and registered his first career save

Paul Thompson, UNH (Derry , N.H.) Became the 69th player in UNH history to join the century club with 100 career points on Friday night against Maine

David Vallorani, UML (Hamilton , Ont.) Scored his 75th career point with a power play goal vs. BU

TEAM NOTES

Boston College: Ten Eagles registered points in the team's 5-0 home victory over Massachusetts on Friday, BC's only game this week. The Eagles won their seven straight over Massachusetts dating back to Nov. 22, 2008... Captain Joe Whitney, who netted a first-period score, finished with multiple points (1g,1a), while goaltenders John Muse and Chris Venti combined for the shutout. Muse improved to 6-2-1 with a 1.21 GAA and a .952 save percentage in nine career games against the Minutemen while Cam Atkinson now has 15 points (8g,7a) in nine games vs. UMass...The team won its 11th its last 12 games...Philip Samuelsson recorded the second multiple-point performance of his career and his first three-point outing. He previously tallied two assists in a 7-0 home win over Merrimack on Feb. 23, 2010...BC finished 4-for-4 on the penalty kill to improve to 90 percent (135-for-150) on the season…Junior defenseman Edwin Shea played against his younger brother Colin, a UMass freshman, for the first time in his 84-game collegiate career…BC next faces Boston University in the 59th Beanpot on Monday, Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. in TD Garden.

Boston University: The Terriers are on a modest four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1) and are now 13-3-4 in their last 20 home contests…BU swept its season series with UMass Lowell and has also secured series wins this year against Maine and New Hampshire…BU boasts three of the top six freshman scorers in Hockey East…Charlie Coyle (East Weymouth, Mass.) leads all rookies in points (21) and shares the leads in assists (14) with teammate Adam Clendening…In their win over UMass Lowell, the Terriers scored multiple power-play goals for the just the second time in the last 26 games…Senior Joe Pereira has a team-high 12 goals this season after combining for 12 tallies over his first three years…Junior Kieran Millan is now tied for fifth all-time at BU in goaltender wins with 55…Thirty-five of BU's 80 goals this season have been scored in the second period…BU's most productive goal-scoring class this season has been the sophomores with 24 and the juniors are right behind with 23…The Terriers begin their quest for a 30th Beanpot crown on Monday (Feb. 7) against archrival and top-ranked Boston College…Each of the last seven Beanpot meetings between BU and BC have been decided by a single goal.

Maine: Gustav Nyquist notched his first career hat trick on Friday night at New Hampshire. Nyquist finished the weekend with four goals and leads the Black Bears in scoring with 10 goals and 22 assists for 32 points…All three of his goals on Friday night came on the power play…Maine finished the game on Friday night 3-for-4 with the man advantage and tied their season-high with three power play goals…Tanner House (Cochrane, Alberta) was named one of the 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior Class Award on Wednesday…He is the lone finalist from Hockey East…Maine sophomore forward Kyle Beattie scored a pair of goals on Saturday night at New Hampshire. It was the first two-goal game of his collegiate career…Maine's top two lines combined for 17 of the team's 21 points on the weekend…Maine center Tanner House won 17 of 19 face-offs that he took on Saturday night at New Hampshire… Maine has outshot opponents 905-657 on the season…The Black Bears return home this weekend when they host Vermont for a two-game Hockey East series.

Massachusetts: UMass remains in 7th place in the Hockey East standings a pair of losses at No. 1 Boston University and at No. 12 Merrimack…UMass will host 3rd-ranked Boston University on Friday (CBS College Sports) and 9th-ranked Providence on Saturday…UMass is 1-3-1 in its last five outings… UMass' 5-0 loss at Boston College was the third shutout of the season… The 11 goals surrendered at Merrimack were the most given up since allowing 12 against Maine on Feb. 14, 1998…UMass allowed 4 power play goals to the Warriors which were the most of the season and the most in a game since 4 against Northeastern on March 5, 2005…The UMass penalty kill had gone 34-of-36 over the 10 games previous to the Merrimack game where the Warriors were 4-of-6 on the power play…The UMass power play has struggled recently going 1-for-31 over the last 6 games…UMass was outshot this past weekend 43-to-85.

UMass-Lowell: With just one contest on the docket, UMass Lowell fell to #14 Boston University, 3-1, in the Agganis Arena…The River Hawks held the game scoreless through the first 30 minutes before the Terriers broke through with the night's first goal…The only previous time that neither teams have scored in the first period of a UMass Lowell game this season was on Oct. 30 against Boston University in the Agganis Arena, a 2-1 loss…Goaltender Marc Boulanger stopped 35-of-38 shots in the narrow defeat. It marked the fourth consecutive start in which Boulanger made at least 35 saves…David Vallorani scored UMass Lowell's lone tally, a six-on-three power play goal from Riley Wetmore (Swanton, Vt.) and Joseph Pendenza (Wilmington, Mass.)…The score was Vallorani's 75th career point…The team's next victory will mark Blaise MacDonald's 150th career win as the River Hawks' head coach…The spacious scheduling continues next weekend as the River Hawks host Northeastern on Friday night in their lone contest of the weekend.

Merrimack: Merrimack made it nine wins in its last 10 games with a 4-3 OT victory at Northeastern before downing UMass 11-2…Those two wins give Merrimack 17 on the season, setting a program record since Merrimack joined Hockey East 22 years ago for wins…The 11 goals scored are the most for a Merrimack team since it defeated BC 11-5 on February 15, 1997 and was the most scored in all Division I college hockey since Union had 11 on February 5, 2010…It's also the most Merrimack has ever scored against UMass and was the first time 10 or more goals were scored in Hockey East since UNH had 10 against Merrimack on 1/5/02…Chris Barton (Calgary, AB) had nine points on the weekend, getting a career-high five on Saturday. Barton had points on the first eight goals of the weekend…Joe Cucci (Melrose Park, IL) had points on Merrimack's first six goals this weekend…The duo has eight goals and 22 points in the last three games combined…Eleven different Warriors had multi-point efforts in Saturday's win, including Brandon Brodhag (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) and Adam Ross (Red Deer, Alta.) who each had a career-high three points…Three Merrimack defenders had their first goal of the season…Scoring 18 goals in its last two home games, Merrimack is 9-2-1 at home this year…Tied for fourth in winning percentage nationally, the Warriors' scoring outburst moved them to third in the country in offense and second in Hockey East with 3.81 goals per game (99 overall)…Merrimack ranks second in offense, defense, power play and penalty kill in Hockey East, trailing BC in each category.

New Hampshire: UNH has scored five goals or more in four-straight games, all Hockey East victories…Paul Thompson continues to be the red hot for the Wildcats. He has six goals and eight points in the last four games. In addition, Thompson's 36 points in league play is nine more than his closest competition. Thompson ranks first nationally in goals (23) and goals per game (0.88) and is second in the nation in points per game (1.62)...While the top line of Thompson, Phil DeSimone and Mike Sislo have garnered much of the attention; UNH got scoring from three lines in both wins over the weekend…The newly assembled third line, an all-sophomore line of Dalton Speelman, Austin Block and John Henrion, has scored seven goals in the three games since their formation…DeSimone had four assists on the weekend and has 99 career points. He is just one point away from joining his linemates and becoming the 70th Wildcat to join the century club. Overall, DeSimone has eight assists in the last four games…Freshman Kevin Goumas scored the first goal of his collegiate career on Friday night and followed that up with a goal and an assist on Saturday night.

Northeastern: The Northeastern men's hockey team was dealt a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss against #12 Merrimack on Friday night at Matthews Arena. Sophomore goaltender Chris Rawlings made 35 stops and slipped to 7-9-6. Senior Wade MacLeod assists on Tyler McNeely's power play goal and is now the 25th-most prolific scorer in Northeastern hockey history. The Coquitlam, B.C. native has tallied 52 goals and 66 assists in 136 career games for a total of 118 points, surpassing David Poile (1967-70) and Jim Averill (1981-85)...Northeastern's first line of forwards, consisting of Tyler McNeely, Steve Silva and Wade MacLeod, have now scored 62 points on the season. They have totaled 27 goals and 35 assists. Sophomore Drew Daniels also scored and it was his first goal of the season. It was also his first tally as a defenseman at Northeastern. It was his first goal in 27 games. The last time the Suffern, N.Y. native scored was against New Hampshire on Feb. 26, 2010.

Providence College: Providence College played in its ninth overtime game of the season on Friday at Vermont as it ended in a 1-1 draw…The nine overtime game are the most by a Friar team since the 2007-08 squad matched a school record with 10…The Friars also have six ties, one short of the school record of seven that was set during the 2003-04 season…Senior Ian O'Connor's goal in a 1-1 tie at Vermont was his seventh of the season, which matched a career high…Senior Kyle MacKinnon recorded his 20th point on Saturday at Vermont marking the second consecutive season in which he has posted 20 points or more…Classmate Matt Germain's powerplay goal on Saturday was his 15th point of the season, a career high…The Friar senior class has accounted for 63% of the team's goal scoring this season…Junior goalie Alex Beaudry ranks 10th at Providence with 2048 career saves, 17 stops short of climbing to ninth all-time.

Vermont: Vermont jumped ahead of Providence by a point with a 3-point weekend at Gutterson Fieldhouse…The Catamounts now currently sit in the eighth spot in Hockey East after a 1-1 (ot) tie Friday and a 7-1 win Saturday … Drew MacKenzie picked up a power play goal both nights capturing first-star on each occasion…The Catamounts had 13 different skaters tally points Saturday and five players record a multi-point game…MacKenzie, Chris McCarthy, Anders Franzon, Ben Albertson, Tobias Nilsson-Ross, H.T. Lenz and Jack Downing all recorded goals Saturday...Sebastian Stålberg, Kyle Medvec both had a pair of assists while Franzon, MacKenzie and Nilsson- Roos all added an assist to record a multi-point game.. Rob Madore made 70 saves on the weekend allowing one goal each night and remains unbeaten in his career against PC (4-0-3) with a GAA of 1.28...Vermont extended its unbeaten streak to 10 games against the Friars (6-0-4) and extended its home winning streak to six games over PC .

COMMISSIONER's CORNER by Joe Bertagna

In response to some questions that came to me, I thought I would provide some answers. A few were on the topic of Supplemental Discipline. Each hockey conference is encouraged by the NCAA to have a protocol in place for issuing "Supplmental Discipline" to address behavior not seen by officials or not covered by the rule book. A situation can be brought to the attention of the league by staff from the office or from a member school or from a referee. In Hockey East, initial action is taken by the commissioner with an appeal process involving three administrators. Sometimes action is not necessary by the league because an institution will step up and take its own action against a player or staff member. This has happened a number of times in recent years. In those instances, the league supports the institution and puts the offending player or staffer 'on notice" from the league. Because we have schools who frequently "do the right thing," the number of discipline matters that are public are relatively few.

The other questions were about the selection of games for television. The games in the two league packages (NESN and CBS College Sports) are chosen jointly by the office and the networks. Some questions have been raised about the same schools being on NESN more than others. Part of the confusion here is that member schools can arrange their own agreements with NESN, separate from the league package. This past weekend, for example, featured both Maine at UNH games. Friday's game was part of the league package and Saturday's game was part of an agreement between NESN and UNH.