November 5, 2012

ATHLETIC REPUBLIC PLAYER OF THE WEEK #4 JORDAN HEYWOOD, MERRIMACK (Junior Defenseman; Regina, Sask.) Heywood scored a career-high two goals in a 5-2 win Friday at Northeastern. He netted the game-winner and added an assist in a 4-2 win Saturday, giving him a four-point weekend (3g,1a). He finished the week with a +5 plus/minus rating and four shots on goal for the Warrors. PRO AMBITIONS CO-ROOKIE OF THE WEEK #37 BRODY HOFFMAN, VERMONT (Freshman Goaltender; Wilkie, Sask.) Hoffman stopped 45 of 48 shots (.938 save%) over the weekend against Providence and picked up his first career shutout on Saturday night vs. the Friars with a 24-save effort. PRO AMBITIONS CO-ROOKIE OF THE WEEK #29 MATT O'CONNOR, BOSTON UNIVERSITY (Freshman Goaltender; Toronto, Ont.) O'Connor stopped 26 of 28 shots (.929) to lift BU to a 4-2 victory over North Dakota on Saturday at Ralph Engelstad Arena. HEA DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK #29 CASEY DESMITH, NEW HAMPSHIRE (Sophomore Goaltender; Rochester, N.H.) DeSmith posted 0.97 GAA and a .974 save percentage (76 of 78 shots) during the weekend, which included a season-high 42 saves in his second shutout of the season on Sunday at Maine. HOCKEY EAST TEAM OF THE WEEK MERRIMACK COLLEGE WARRIORS The Warriors scored nine goals in their four-point weekend against Northeastern. Merrimack recorded 30+ shots in each game in the series and went 2-for-6 on the power play on Friday night at Matthews Arena.

Athletic Republic Player of the Week Jordan Heywood 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 2012-13 season leaders to date: Rk. Name Cl. Pos. School 1. Johnny Gaudreau So. F BC   Jordan Heywood Jr. D MC 3. Parker Milner Sr. G BC 4. Brody Hoffman Fr. G UVM 5. Mike Collins Jr. F MC   John Henrion Sr. F UNH   Kevin Roy Fr. F NU 8. Casey DeSmith So. G UNH

HOCKEY EAST WEEKLY TOP PERFORMERS

Bill Arnold, BC (Jr., F, Needham, Mass.) Recorded three points (1g,2a) in BC's 2-0-0 weekend.

Austin Block, UNH (Sr., F, Thousand Oaks, Calif.) Netted a pair of goals in UNH's 4-0 blanking of Maine on Sunday.

Greg Burke, UNH (Sr., F, Lee, N.H.) Recorded a goal in each of UNH's games on the weekend.

Mike Collins, MC (Jr., F, Boston, Mass.) Posted a five-point weekend (1g,4a) in the weekend sweep of NU, picking up assists on both game-winning goals.

Johnny Gaudreau, BC (Jr., F, Carneys Point, N.J.) Scored the game-winning goal in the win at Maine and notched an assist in Sunday's win vs. UMass.

Jon Gillies, PC (Fr., G, South Portland, Maine) He stopped 42 of the 46 shots (.913 save%) he faced in the weekend split at Vermont.

Connor Hardowa, UNH (Sr., D, Edmonton, Alta.) Registered a pair of assists in Sunday's win over Maine.

Mark Jankowski, PC (Fr., F, Dundas, Ont.) Scored the game-winning goal in Providence's 3-2 win at Vermont on Friday night.

Michael Matheson, BC (Fr., D, Pointe-Claire, Que.) Registered a team-high three points, including his first collegiate goal in BC's two victories.

Chris McCarthy, UVM (Jr., F, Collegeville, Pa.) Had three assists over the weekend against Providence

Parker Milner, BC (Sr., G, Pittsburgh, Pa.) Stopped 57-of-61 shots faced (.934 save percentage) in two-game weekend sweep of league opponents.

Kyle Murphy, PC (Sr., F, Fairhaven, N.J.) Posted a career high two assists, the first of his career, in Providence's 3-2 win on Friday night.

Matt Nieto, BU (Jr., Long Beach, Calif.) Scored the game-tying goal on Saturday at North Dakota and added an assist on Friday.

Danny O'Regan, BU (Fr., F, Needham, Mass.) Scored a goal in each game at North Dakota and added an assist on Saturday's game-tying goal

Alexx Privitera, BU (So., D, Old Tappan, N.J.) Had two assists, 10 blocked shots and a plus-3 rating in split at North Dakota.

Kevin Roy, NU (Fr., F, Lac-Beauport, Que.) Notched three points (1g,2a) vs. Merrimack, which included a goal and an assist on Friday.

Brandon Tanev, PC (Fr., F, Toronto, Ont.) Led the PC to a 3-2 win at Vermont Friday night with his first career goal and first career assist.

Shane Walsh, UMass (Fr., F, West Roxbury, Mass.) Assisted on the overtime game-winning power-play goal to beat No. 10 UNH.

Matt White, UVM (Jr., F, McMurray, Pa.) Had the game-winning goal against Providence on Saturday

CAREER FIRSTS/MILESTONES/WHO's HOT

Bill Arnold, BC (NEEDHAM, MASS.) has seven points (2G,5a) in the last three games

Casey DeSmith, UNH (ROCHESTER, N.H.) is 5-1-1 with a 1.54 GAA and a .947 save percentage through seven games. He allowed three goals or fewer in all seven starts for the Wildcats

Rocco Carzo, UMass (Media, Pa.) Played in his 100th career game on Sunday vs. BC

Kevin Czepiel, UMass (HOLYOKE, MASS.) Played in his 100th career game on Sunday at BC

Jacob Fallon, UVM (SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS) Scored first career goal FOR Vermont Friday

Brody Hoffman, UVM (WILKIE, SASK.) Posted first career shutout on Saturday vs. PC

Justin Hussar, MC (Lancaster, NY) Netted his first career goal in Saturday's win

Matt Lane, BU (Rochester, N.Y.) His first collegiate goal Saturday at North Dakota

Michael Matheson, BC (Pointe-Claire, QUE.) Has five points (1g,4A) in the last three gameS

Mike McMurtry, NU (Greely , Ont.) Scored his first collegiate goal Saturday at MC

Will Merchant, Maine (Eagan, Minn.) Scored his first career goal on Friday vs. BC

John Micheletto, UMass Earned his first Hockey East victory Friday vs. UNH

Kyle Murphy, PC (FAIRHAVEN, N.J.) Notched the first assist of his career on Friday

Ahti Oksanen, BU (Kirkonummi, Finland) Scored his first collegiate goal Friday at North Dakota

Danny O'Regan, BU (Needham, Mass.) Has seven points (4g,3a) in his four-game point streak

Tim Schaller, PC (MERRIMACK, N.H.) Played his 100th game of his PC career Friday at UVM

Brandon Tanev, PC (TORONTO, ONT.) Posted the first goal OF Friar career on Friday

Rasmus Tirronen, MC (Espoo, Finland) Notched his first career win in net Saturday vs. Northeastern

TEAM NOTES

Boston College: BC has won six straight and 25 of the last 26 games dating into last winter…BC finished 4-for-8 with a man advantage over the weekend. The Eagles are converting 40.0 percent (10-for-25) of their power-play opportunities this season and lead the country in that category…BC is averaging 29 shots per game and its opponents are averaging 29 shots per game…With four power-play goals this season, junior Kevin Hayes leads the country in that category…The team scored seven goals by seven skaters over the weekend, including first career goals from Isaac MacLeod (at Maine) and Michael Matheson (against Massachusetts)…Steven Whitney and Johnny Gaudreau assisted on Matheson's goal to extend each of their scoring streaks to seven games. Whitney now has 90 career points (33g,57a) in 129 games…Senior defenseman Patrick Wey recorded three assists over the weekend and has five assists in eight games this season, matching his single-season career high registered as both a freshman and junior…With two victories this weekend, coach Jerry York has 919 career wins in 41 seasons…Johnny Gaudreau, who scored his third game-winning goal of the season in Friday's 4-2 win at Maine, leads the nation in decisive scores.

Boston University: The Terriers opened up their November and non-conference schedules with a weekend split at No. 6 North Dakota, winning a 4-2 contest on Saturday after falling to UND by the same score on Friday...Saturday's result marked BU's first-ever win in Grand Forks in eight tries (1-6-1)...The victory ended UND's 12-game home unbeaten streak (10-0-2) and it was the first time since March 13, 2010, that it lost a home game in which it held a third-period lead...Freshman Matt O'Connor has won his first four collegiate starts in goal for the Terriers... Senior captain Wade Megan (Canton, N.Y.) has a goal in four of the last five games...Senior Sean Escobedo (Bayside, N.Y.), who has a team-best 17 blocked shots this season, assisted on the game-tying and game-winning goals on Saturday...All nine of BU's freshmen dressed for Friday's series opener in Grand Forks.

Maine: Maine (1-8-0, 0-4-0) played a pair of top-10 teams on the week… A week after tying his career-high with 39 saves last weekend at Providence, junior goalie Dan Sullivan (York, Pa.) set a career-high with 41 saves on Sunday against New Hampshire…Rookie Will Merchant notched his first career goal on Friday night against Boston College…Connor Leen (Chester, N.Y.) became the first multi-goal scorer on the season when he notched his second on Friday against Boston College…Four Maine rookies have played in all nine games this season.

Massachusetts: With power-play goals against both UNH and Boston College, the Minutemen now have at least one power play goal in all six games this season, matching the longest streak since Nov.-Dec. 2003 when the squad notched power play tallies in seven straight contests... UMass continued its success in the faceoff circle this past weekend and is now 232-of-414 over the dots this season…Conor Sheary was a perfect 7-0 last Friday against the wildcats, including winning the offensive zone faceoff that set up the OT game-winner...50% of the Minutemen's goals this season have come in non-5x5 situations as seven of the squad's 16 goals thus far have been scored on the power play and one via penalty shot (an opportunity that resulted from a shorthanded scoring chance)

UMass-Lowell: UMass Lowell will end a 12-day hiatus when it hosts Maine for a pair of games at the Tsongas Center Friday and Saturday. Last year, the River Hawks won both games in Orono (5-3, 4-3) – its first sweep at Maine since 1985 – before the Black Bears exacted revenge in Lowell on Feb. 11 (2-1).

Merrimack: Merrimack earned a weekend sweep of #15 Northeastern to give the Warriors the season-series 2-1 over the Huskies. It marked the third straight season that Merrimack has won the season-series over NU…Jordan Heywood and Mike Collins led the way combining for nine points. Heywood followed his first-career two-goal game by scoring the game-winner and adding an assist in Saturday's win…Collins leads Hockey East with 12 points, while Heywood is tied for second overall and first among defenders in scoring with eight points…In fact, Merrimack has three of the league's top four scorers on the blue line (Heywood, Dan Kolomatis (Basking Ridge, N.J.), and Brendan Ellis (Kelowna, B.C.)…For a team that struggled to score last year and lost four of its five top scorers from 2011-12, Merrimack leads Hockey East in scoring, averaging 3.50 goals per game…The Warriors are outscoring their opponents 15-5 in the third period this season…Against Northeastern, Merrimack had five third period goals to Northeastern's one.

New Hampshire: UNH earned a split of a difficult two game road trip this weekend…The Wildcats dropped its first game of the season, 2-1, in overtime at UMass on Friday night and bounced back with a convincing 4-0 win at Maine on Sunday afternoon…New Hampshire's 5-1-1 start is the best since the 2007-08 season when the 'Cats had a matching 5-1-1 mark through seven games…On Friday night, Greg Burke put UNH ahead 1-0 after one, but a second period goal and an overtime power play tally lifted UMass past the Wildcats…Sunday's 4-0 win over the Black Bears was the team's first win since Dec. 10, 2010, while it was the first shutout at Maine since Jan. 17, 1998…Casey DeSmith stopped a season-high 42 shots en route to his second shutout of the season and third of his career…DeSmith posted 0.97 GAA and a .974 save percentage during the weekend. Overall, he stopped 76-of-78 shots on the weekend. DeSmith ranks first in Hockey East in GAA 1.54m save percentage .947 and is first in league play in those categories as well with a 1.17 GAA and a .962 save percentage...Austin Block netted a pair of goals including the game-winner on the power play. He ranks first in Hockey East in goal scoring with five goals in seven games…Connor Hardowa notched a pair of assists on Sunday against Maine. He now has eight assists in seven games and ranks first in Hockey East and sixth nationally in assists per game. Additionally, Hardowa ranks sixth nationally in defensive scoring at 1.14 gpg.

Northeastern: On Friday night at home against Merrimack, newcomer Kevin Roy notched his second-career multi-point game with a goal and an assist to overtake the team points lead (3-2-5). Roy's first two-point game also occurred against Merrimack in the season opener on Oct. 10. Sophomore assistant captain Ludwig Karlsson curbed his scoreless draught and scored his first goal since the outing at Boston University last season on March 2, 2012. Karlsson also secured an assist, marking his first multi-point game since playing at Vermont on Jan. 27. Senior goaltender Bryan Mountain started in net on Friday, earning his first consecutive starts for NU since Dec. 4-5, 2009. The following night at Merrimack, senior captain Vinny Saponari tallied his first goal since netting the game winner last season against Boston University in the final contest of the year. In that same game, newcomer Mike McMurtry scored his first collegiate goal and added an assist on Saponari's marker to post his first-career multi-point game as a Husky.

Providence College: With freshman Tom Parisi making his career debut, the Friar lineup featured nine freshmen on Saturday night at Vermont…With their 3-2 win on Friday, the Friars won their third in a row (all in Hockey East play) and posted their first road win of the season (which was also Jon Gillies' first career road win)…Prior to Friday's night's win, the last time the Friars won three straight games that were all in Hockey East play was in January of 2010 when Providence downed UMass Lowell (4-2 on Jan. 10), Boston University (4-2 on Jan. 13) and UMass (5-4 on Jan. 16)...Friday's win was the fourth in a row for the Friars over the Catamounts, which had only happened one other time in the all-time series (when Providence won four straight meetings from Jan. 20. 1980 - Nov. 13, 1982)…With freshman Brandon Tanev netting the first goal and assist of his career and Derek Army netting his first goal of the season on Friday, 14 different Friars have now scored at least one goal on the year and 18 Friars have notched at least one point.

Vermont: Friday vs. Providence was "Jack Lyman Day" as the team dedicated the game to their new Team IMPACT teammate Jack Lyman, a 14-year-old from Shelburne, Vt. Jack was involved in a pre-game puck drop ceremony at center ice and his name appeared on the roster of the weekend program. Team IMPACT is a non-profit organization which improves the quality of life for children across the northeast who are facing life-threatening illnesses…Jacob Fallon picked up his first career goal in a Catamount jersey on Friday…Tobias Nilsson-Roos skated in his 90th career game, while Chris McCarthy played in his 80th career contest…Saturday night marked the 50th all-time meeting between Vermont and Providence…Nick Bruneteau skated in his 75th career game on Saturday, while Matt White played in his 70th career contest… Freshman forward Ryan Rosenthal made his Catamount debut on Saturday…Vermont entered the Saturday contest ranked 11th in the nation on the power play at 23.5%…UVM has had 10 different scorers on its 10 goals this season...The Cats blocked 18 shots in the win and had nine different players block at least one shot…Vermont allowed just seven shots on goal in the first 40 minutes of the win over Providence on Saturday.