Pioneers' O'Brien Garnered Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week (3/6/06)

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Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week


Pierre-Luc O'Brien - Sacred Heart 

Junior, Forward, Nicolet, QUE

O’Brien tallied four points in Sacred Heart’s 8-3 win on Friday night over Connecticut. He scored the Pioneers second goal, a shorthanded marker, and then assisted on three goals which helped blow the game open.O’Brien led the AHA in scoring for the regular season, with 50 points. He tallied 19 goals and 31 assists, both team highs. He set new Sacred Heart records for points and assists in a single season.


Atlantic Hockey Goaltender of the Week


Tony Quesada - Holy Cross 

Senior, Goaltender, South Freeport, Maine 

Quesada went 2-0-0 and made 48 saves on 50 shots in the series with Bentley. He made 26 saves as he recorded his sixth career shutout and second of the season in the 1-0 win on Friday. In the 3-2 win on Saturday night, he stopped 22 shots. Quesada is now 18-5-2 on the season. Quesada’s 18 wins is a new career high and ties him for second on the single-season all-time list at Holy Cross.


Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Week


Bear Trapp - Sacred Heart 

Freshman, Forward, Regina, SASK

Trapp recorded his first career hat trick to power the Pioneer attack in Friday’s win over Connecticut. After scoring the Pioneers first goal, he waited until the third period to score the final two goals. He also assisted on a goal in the victory. Trapp is second on the Pioneers with 43 points, including 16 goals and 27 assists on the season. He finished the regular season tied for sixth in total points and fifth in goals and assists.


Weekly Honor Roll

Jaymie Harrington - Canisius (Jr., F, West Boylston, Mass.) - Harrington scored in each of the weekend’s games for the Griffs, to extend his point streak to four games, which ties his career best. Harrington had goals in consecutive games for the second time in his Canisius career, with the other occurrence coming Nov. 7-8, 2003, against Bentley.

Pierre Napert-Frenette - Holy Cross (Sr., F, Bathurst, NB) - Napert-Frenette scored the game-winning goal and added an assist in the 3-2 win over Bentley on Saturday night to clinch the Atlantic Hockey regular season championship. He assisted on the game-tying goal in the second period and then netted the game-winner with just 1:03 left in the third period. Napert-Frenette is second on the team in scoring with 13 goals and 24 assists for 37 points.

Matt Warren - Mercyhurst (So., F, Gatineau, QUE) - Warren scored the first and last goals of the weekend series against Canisius and finished with five shots and a +2 rating. He jumpstarted a shorthanded Mercyhurst team Friday by scoring 29 seconds into the game in Buffalo. He then scored an empty-net goal on his only shot of the game to seal Saturday’s win. Warren scored goals in back-to-back games for the second time this season.

Tyler Small - Mercyhurst (Fr., G, Kincardine, ONT) - Small stopped 55 of 59 Canisius shots in 3-2 and 4-2 wins over the Golden Griffins. He was particularly impressive Friday night as the Lakers played 3 skaters short while others played out of position. Small improved his overall record to 13-5-1 and his conference slate to 11-5-1. He lowered his overall and conference goals-against-averages to 2.83 and 2.75 respectively. Small has started the last 9 games and 15 of the last 16.


Team Notes


American International:

AIC has won its most games since 2002-03. Jereme Tendler’s (Viceroy, Saskatchewan) 15 goals are the most since Guillaume Caron lit the lamp 15 times in the 2003-04 season, and Tendler’s 14 goals in Atlantic Hockey play tie a school record for conference goals in a season in AIC’s Division I era. He is tied with Mike Sowa, who recorded 14 goals in MAAC play in 1998-99. Freshman Tom Fenton (Sarnia, Ontario) posted the most wins by an AIC goalie since Chad Davis had six in 2002-03. In two games at Army this season, Fenton has 50 and 47 saves (97 saves in 101 shots, .960 save percentage) and has a win and a tie to show for it. AIC has scored at least four goals seven times this season. Three seniors, Preston Cicchine (Kitchener, Ontario), Jeff Valdes (Falmouth, Mass.) and Andy Walbert (Ford City, Pa.) played in their final home game Friday night.

Army: The Black Knights split their season-ending home-and-home series against American International College, taking Friday’s game 6-3 and falling on Saturday, 4-2 … Army finished fifth in the league standings and will travel to Bentley for the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Hockey postseason tournament on Saturday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. … Army’s fifth-place finish is its highest in three years in Atlantic Hockey … the Black Knights will make their school-record sixth straight trip to the postseason ... Army hasn’t beaten somebody, other than AIC, in the playoffs since 1975-76 (Union) … freshman forward Ken Porter scored his first career goal in Friday night’s win on the road in West Springfield, Mass. … it was just his second game of the season and sixth of his career … Army’s line of Seth Beamer, Chris Migliaro and Michael Picone combined for nine points with each contributing three apiece … Beamer scored two goals in the final five minutes on Friday to turn a 4-3 advantage into a 6-3 win.

Bentley: Bentley dropped a pair of one goal decisions against Holy Cross over the weekend (1-0 on Friday and 3-2 on Saturday) ... despite the losses Bentley recorded its highest ever conference finish at the Division I level by fnishing fourth. By virtue of its fourth place finish, Bentley will host a playoff game for the first time at the Division I level as the Falcons will host #5 Army in the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals at the John A. Ryan Skating Arena in Watertown on Saturday, March 11 at 7:30. Bentley has a 1-0-3 record against Army this season, including a win (4-1) and a tie (1-1) at the J.A.R. back in November ... Freshman Anthony Canzoneri became just the seventh Bentley player to reach 20 assists in a season at the Division I level Saturday night. His team-leading 28 points are the eighth most for a Bentley player during a season at the D-I level ... There are seven Bentley players that played in all 34 regular season games this season and tied the school record for games played in a season - they can break the school mark on Saturday against Army ... the 1-0 loss to Holy Cross on Friday night was the first time that Bentley was shutout at the J.A.R. in over three years - the last time was a 4-0 loss against Canisius on November 22, 2002.

Canisius: Canisius dropped both of its games to Mercyhurst this weekend as the Lakers swept the Griffs on the season, winning the four contests by a combined five goals, with one of those being an empty-netter late in Saturday’s contest. The Griffs have a 3-9 record in one-goal games. Canisius has lost four additional games where its opponent added empty netters in the last two minutes while the Griffs have extended their leads in two games in such fashion. The nine losses by one goal are a school record, with the previous record coming during the 2001-02 season when the Griffs lost seven by one goal. Senior forward Fred Coccimiglio set the school record for most games played by participating in his 135th game Saturday night. Coccimiglio’s record breaks the old mark of 134 by former defenseman Tom Wnuk (1998-2002). Coccimiglio recorded two assist in the game for the first time since having two at Bentley Nov. 5, 2004. Senior defenseman Tim Songin played in his 134th game this weekend, which ties Wnuk’s mark for most games played by a defenseman. Songin can set the record in this weekend’s playoff game. The playoff matchup between Canisius and Mercyhurst will be the fifth game between the teams this season. The only other time Canisius played an opponent five times in a season was in 1998-99 against Holy Cross. The Griffs went 1-3-1 in those five games and lost the playoff game 4-3 to the Crusaders. The teams played once previously in the playoffs, which came in 2001 when the Lakers won 4-3. Canisius has never opened the playoffs with the team that closed its regular-season schedule. Greg Brown matched his career high with his second goal of the season coming in Friday night’s game. Bret Norris recorded his first assist in 16 games. Scott Follett had his second assist in three games for the first time in his career. Tommy Flikeid had the first two-game point streak of his career.

Connecticut: The Huskies finished the 2005-06 regular season with a 4-3 victory over top-ranked Sacred Heart on Saturday night. Saturday was also senior night for Connecticut in which they honored three graduating members. Co-captain Chris Uber (Ithaca, N.Y.) comemmorated his final game as a UConn Husky in the Freitas Ice Forum with two points. The assisted on the game-winner at 1:08 of the final stanza and score the team’s third goal in the second period. Also honored on Saturday were Aaron Kakepetum (Balmertown, Ont.) and Ryan Palmer (Groton,Mass.) The Huskies head into next weekend’s tournament in sixth place with 19 points this season. The team finished with a 10-22-2 overall record and a 9-18-1 record in Atlantic Hockey play.

Holy Cross: Holy Cross has won the Atlantic Hockey regular season championship for the second time in three seasons. Holy Cross’ 23 wins is a new school record. Both the 1998-99 and 2003-04 teams each won 22 games. The senior class has been a part of 78 wins, which are the most wins in a four year period in the program’s history. Senior goaltender Tony Quesada went 2-0-0 in the Bentley series and is now 18-5-2 on the season. Quesada’s 18 wins is a new career high and ties him for second on the single-season all-time list at Holy Cross with Rob McGlory who had 18 wins in the 1982-83 season. The record is 19 set by Mark Young in the 1979-80 season. His .760 winning percentage ranks third in the country. Quesada currently owns five of the six all-time career goaltending records at Holy Cross. He ranks first all-time for save percentage (.914), goals against average (2.50), wins (57), games played (100) and minutes played (5733:26), while he is second in saves (2551). Senior captains Tyler McGregor and Pierre Napert-Frenette each have 130 career points, which is good for 19th all-time at Holy Cross. The Crusaders won the season series with AIC, 3-0-1. Junior James Sixsmith has 97 career points which puts him three points shy of becoming the 37th Crusader to reach 100 points. Sixsmith is fifth on the team in scoring with nine goals and 23 assists for 32 points. The Crusaders have seven players who have played over 100 career games. Holy Cross’ .706 winning percentage is the third best in the nation.

Mercyhurst: The playoff game next weekend against Canisius will be the first between the two western AH conference rivals since March 15, 2001, when the Lakers edged the Golden Griffins 4-3 in a MAAC semifinal game at UConn. The Lakers now lead the all-time series against the Golden Griffins 27-12-4. Mercyhurst won all four meetings this season by a combined five goals. The line of Ben Cottreau, Dave Borrelli and Scott Champagne had a combined four goals and five assists in the two games. Cottreau stretched his scoring streak to 10 games and Borrelli to 5. Borrelli had a power play, game-winning goal Friday. Borrelli leads the team with 26 goals. 13 have come on the power play while another four have come shorthanded. His 13 power play markers are just 3 shy of tying the one-season record of 16. The team’s 51 are 8 shy of the one season record. Freshman forward Matt Pierce scored the first game-winning goal of his career Saturday.

Sacred Heart: The Pioneers split their weekend series with Connecticut, winning the opener 8-3 Friday in Milford before dropping a 4-3 decision in Storrs on Saturday. In Friday’s game freshman Bear Trapp had a hat trick and junior Pierre-Luc O’Brien tallied a goal and three assists. The split, combined with other results dropped the Pioneers to third place in the final AHA standings. O’Brien leads the team in scoring with 50 points including 19 goals and 31 assists. His 50 total points ties him for the most points in a single season of any player in Sacred Heart history. O’Brien’s 31 assists are also a record for most assists in a season. Junior goaltender Jason Smith has posted a .929 save percentage and a 2.22 goals against average, the best in Atlantic Hockey, this year. The third seeded Pioneers will hos an Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal against Connecticut Saturday night at the Milford Ice Pavilion.