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Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week

Matt Smith - R.I.T.
Junior, Forward, Toronto, ONT 

Smith scored two goals in a 2-0 week for the Tigers. He potted both goals in Friday's 6-2 win over AIC. Smith opened the scoring Friday night late in the first period and tied the score at 2-2 with his 10 power play goal of the season over 20 minutes later. The two goals give Smith 16 on the year, a team-high. His 10 power play goals ranks him third in all of Division I.

Atlantic Hockey Goaltender of the Week

Josh Kassel 
Sophomore, Goaltender, Greensburg, Pa. 

Kassel stopped 42 of the 44 shots he faced this past weekend against Connecticut. He turned away 26 shots in Friday night's 2-2 tie with the Huskies and then made 16 saves to earn the shutout in Army's 3-0 win Saturday night. The sophomore netminder now has a league leading three shutouts this season and the 19th best goals against average in the nation (2.32).

Weekly Honor Roll

Mike Phillipich, Air Force (So., F, Lansing, Mich.) - Assisted on AFA's only goal in the loss on Friday...Scored AFA's second goal in the 2-0 win on Saturday...Led AFA with seven shots on the weekend...Phillipich recorded his 20th assist and 30th point on Friday, both career highs...Has scored in eight of the last 10 games.
 

Ben Worker, Air Force (Sr., G, Thief River Falls, Minn.) - Posted first career shutout on Saturday Has not allowed more than three goals in any of his starts in six of the last seven games...26 saves are the second most of his career Has a 3-1-1 record this season...Former walk-on who made his first career start on Jan. 6 Worker now has a 1.50 GAA and a .930 saves percentage on the season.

Owen Meyer, Army (Fr., Forward, Dundee, Ill.) - Meyer scored a goal in each game this past weekend versus Connecticut. He tallied a short handed goal to even the score at 1 in Friday's 2-2 tie with the Huskies and then scored a power play goal that proved to be the game-winner in Army's 3-0 win Saturday night. The Littleton, Colo. native now has 13 points in Army's last 14 games and ranks 28th in points per game among college's rookies.

Pat Percella, Bentley (So., F, Bayonne, N.J.) - Percella scored the game-winning goal and added an assist on Friday.

Jeff Gumaer, Bentley (So., F, Webster Grove, Mo.) - Gumaer tied the Bentley Division I career goal-scoring record with a goal and added an assist on Friday.

Jocelyn Guimond, R.I.T. (Jr., G, Quebec City, QUE) - Guimond stopped 35-of-37 shots in Friday's 6-2 win over AIC. He was especially stout in the second period, stopping 14 shots, allowing RIT to come back from a 2-1 deficit. He is 8-5-2 with a 2.41 goals against average and .926 save percentage.

Al Mazur, R.I.T. (Fr., D, Burnaby, BC) - Mazur recorded three assists in Friday's 6-2 win over AIC. The freshman defenseman now has 21 points (four goals, 17 assists) in 21 games this season. Before Saturday's game, Mazur had 12 assists in his previous six games.

Stefan Drew, Sacred Heart (So., G, Dugald, MAN) - Drew made an impressive return to the SHU line-up, posting a shutout in his first start since November 7th Saturday night. Drew made 30 saves, inclduing 11 in the first period and 13 in the second period. It was Drew's first shutout of the season.

Eric Giosa, Sacred Heart (So., F, Northville, Mich.) - Giosa tallied a goal and two assists in SHU's weekend sweep of Canisius. In Friday's win he scored the first goal of the game, making him the fourth Pioneer in double digits in goal scoring on the year (10). Giosa also assisted on a goal in each game's third period. Giosa is third on the Pioneers in scoring with 10 goals and 8 assists, 18 points.

Team Notes

Air Force: With Saturday's win, AFA has not been swept in a conference series this season AFA now has three goaltenders with at least one shutout this season (Volkening shutout AIC, Harper shutout RIT, and Worker shutout Bentley) AFA scored just three goals in two games and came away with a split AFA killed all 11 Bentley power plays AFA killed three minutes of 5-on-3 hockey in the third period on Saturday AFA is now 4-2-2 in the last eight Eric Ehn was held scoreless on Saturday for just the sixth time this season AFA was out-shot for just the third and fourth times all season AFA won for the first time when getting outshot this season Despite having just one point at Bentley, Ehn is still tied for the national lead in scoring with 46 points AFA is now 6-7-2 on the road this season and 5-3-2 in the league on the road AFA earned its first win of the season when scoring two or less goals (now 1-6-3) AFA is now 10-0-4 when winning the special teams battle AFA hosts Mercyhurst, Feb. 2-3 at Cadet Ice Arena AFA swept Mercyhurst by scores of 5-3 and 3-1 in Erie, Pa in early January Mercyhurst has never played at Air Force.

American International: Over its last eight games, AIC's opponents have gone just 3-33 on the power play, while the Yellow Jackets have also scored three shorthanded goals. Thus far this season, the Yellow Jackets have tallied five shorthanded goals, the most since joining Division I. The Yellow Jackets have not been shut out in each of their last 13 games, while they saw a string of leading at some point in each of the last nine games stopped Saturday against RIT when the Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

Army: The Black Knights are currently tied for second place in the Atlantic Hockey standings with Sacred Heart following their weekend series with Connecticut ... Army tied the Huskies on Friday night (2-2) and then went on for a 3-0 victory on Saturday to claim the season series, 3-0-1, their first season series win over Connecticut since the 1999-2000 season ... the Black Knights also improved to 8-1-3 at home this season ensuring their 17th winning season since moving into Tate Rink during the 1985-86 campaign ... sophomore Josh Kassel recorded his league leading third shutout of the season on Saturday night ... his goals against average dropped to 2.32 following his play this weekend and he now ranks 19th in the nation in that category ... freshman Owen Meyer scored his first career short-handed goal Friday night ... he also scored on Saturday giving him 13 points in Army's last 14 games ... Tim Manthey collected an assist in Saturday's win and ranks 11th among college's defensemen in scoring ... the Black Knights scoring defense improved to 15th in the nation (2.48) ... Army's penalty kill unit held Connecticut scoreless on their six power play opportunities and jumped to 24th in the country (84.3) ... this week the Black Knights travel to AIC to take on the Yellow Jackets on Tuesday night, then return to West Point to face Holy Cross on Saturday ... Army is 3-0 this season versus AIC and 0-2-1 against Holy Cross ... the Army Athletic Association and Army hockey family will celebrate "Jack Riley Night" on Saturday with a special banner unveiling to honor the legendary Hall of Fame mentor prior to the Black Knights skirmish with the Crusaders.

Bentley: Bentley and Air Force split the Battle of the Falcons this weekend in Watertown with Bentley winning 3-1 on Friday and losing 2-0 on Saturday... The two teams split the season series, 2-2 ... Bentley was shut out on Saturday for the first time since Holy Cross blanked the Falcons, 1-0, on March 3, 2006 ... Sophomore Jeff Gumaer tied the Bentley Division I career goal-scoring record with his 32nd career goal on Friday night ... Sophomore Jason Kearney made his first starts since October and had two 20-save performances while allowing only three goals over the weekend and earning the win on Friday ... Sophomore Pat Percella scored his second game-winning goal of the season on Friday ... The Falcons face American International in a home-and-home series next weekend with the teams skating in Watertown on Friday and West Springfield on Saturday ... Bentley and AIC split their previous series this weekend with each team winning on its home ice.

Canisius: The Golden Griffins dropped both games at Sacred Heart last weekend - falling 5-2 and 4-0. Canisius has lost its last five games in Milford, Conn. and eight of the last nine games between the programs overall. David Kasch (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) and Michael Cohen (Williamsville, N.Y.) scored for the Griffs in the 5-2 loss. Both goals came on the power play as Cohen tallied his 40th career goal and 20th career power-play goal, which extends his career record. Cohen is five points away from reaching 100 for his career. Canisius was shut out for the second time this season with the other occurrence coming Oct. 24, 2006, at Colgate. The last conference shutout loss for Canisius was Feb. 17, 2006, a 1-0 loss at the Buffalo State Sports Arena to the Bentley Falcons. Canisius returns to the ice next weekend with a home-and-home series against the Tigers from the Rochester Institute of Technology. The opening game of that series will be the eighth road game in nine contests for the Griffs, who then start a three-game homestand. The game on Feb. 3, will be the fourth and final game of the season for the Griffs at the Amherst Pepsi Center.

Connecticut: The University of Connecticut men's hockey team picked up a point over the weekend as the Huskies registered a tie and suffered a loss to Army from Tate Rink. Friday night's game marked the first tie of the season for UConn as the Huskies and Black Knights played to a 2-2 draw. In that game, senior Cole Koidahl picked up an assist for his 60th career helper. The assist moved him into sole possession on the school's all-time assist list since becoming Division I. The Huskies went on to lose 3-0 to Army Saturday night despite freshamn goaltender Beau Erickson turning away a career-high 44 saves. The 3-0 loss marked the first time UConn was shutout since exactly one year ago to the day. Last season, Canisius defeated the Huskies 5-0 on Jan. 27, 2006 from the Freitas Ice Forum. Ironically, the last team to shutout the Huskies on the road was Army as the Black Knights accomplished the feat Jan. 8, 2005 with a 1-0 win.

Holy Cross: The Crusaders are in the midst of a four game road trip with three games to go. February 3, Holy Cross will play at Army and then on February 9-10 it will play at Canisius. The Crusaders will return for a game at the Hart Center with Sacred Heart on February 16. The Crusaders are no strangers to road trips as earlier this season Holy Cross played nine consecutive games on the road...Senior James Sixsmith leads the team in assists (26) and points (39), while he is tied for first in goals (13). His 1.44 points per game are seventh in the nation and his .96 assists per game are fourth.

Mercyhurst: Mercyhurst was idle last weekend for the first time (other than a holiday period) since early in the 2005-06 campaign. The Lakers sweep of Bentley January 19 and 20 was their first of the season. The 12 goals scored against the Falcons represented the largest two-game output against the same team this season. The Lakers were +20 on special teams' play in 2005-06; they're -6 at this point of the season. Mercyhurst is 1-5 in one-goal games (0-3-5 in overtime) and 1-6 in two-goal games. After winning 7-5 at Holy Cross October 21, the Lakers have dropped six straight two-goal contests. The Lakers were 6-6 in one-goal games last season and 3-1 in two-goal contests. Mercyhurst cashed 54 power play goals in 36 games last season. The team is on pace for just 40 this season. Mercyhurst's six power play goals in the Bentley series were the most against any one opponent since the Lakers scored 10 extra-man goals against the Falcons (5 each game) in a two-game sweep December 2 and 3, 2005 at the Ice Center. The Lakers travel to Air Force next weekend for the first time ever. The Falcons won the first two meetings between the teams by scores of 5-3 and 3-1 at the Ice Center earlier this month.

Rochester Institute of Technology: The Tigers maintained their three-point lead in Atlantic Hockey after a weekend sweep over AIC this weekend. The Tigers swept the season series from AIC, 4-0, outscoring the Yellow Jackets 25-7 in the four wins. RIT is now 6-0-1 all-time against the Yellow Jackets. The Tigers are an astounding 8-0-1 in the second half of a (Friday/Saturday) weekend series this season. They are 5-4-0 in the first game. Since December 1, the Tigers are 12-3-0. Before Saturday's contest, freshman defenseman Al Mazur had 12 assists in his previous six games. Mazur is tied for third in nation in scoring by defensemen and tenth overall in rookie scoring, averaging a point per game. Sophomore Steve Pinizzotto has points in 13 of his last 15 games. He has seven goals and 18 assists for 25 points during that stretch. The forward leads RIT with 24 assists and 35 points. Pinizzotto is tied for 13th in the nation averaging 1.35 points per game and is eighth in the country in assists per game (0.92). Junior Simon Lambert has five three-point games this season. Junior Matt Smith is tied for third in the nation with 10 power-play goals. The RIT offense is third overall in the nation, behind just Michigan and New Hampshire in goals per game. RIT is averaging 3.96 goals a game. The Tigers are fourth in goal differential per game, outscoring its foes by 1.38 goals per game (103-67). The Tiger power-play is second in the nation behind Maine, converting at a 23.6 percent clip. The penalty-killing is seventh, stopping its foes 87.7 percent of the time.

Sacred Heart: The Pioneers posted a weekend sweep of Canisius, posting 5-2 and 4-0 victories. Sophomore Stefan Drew made his first start in goal since November 7th Saturday night, making 30 saves en route to his first shoutout of the season and the first shutout for a Pioneer goaltender since Drew blanked Army on February 4th, 2006. Sophomore Eric Giosa had goal in Friday's win, making him the fourth Pioneer in double digits in goal scoring, join Pierre-Luc O'Brien, Alexandre Parent and Bear Trapp. Friday's win snapped a three game losing streak, the Pioneer's longest winless streak of the season. Friday night was the first time the Pioneers had won when none of the trio of O'Brien, Trapp of Parent scored a goal. O'Brien needs two more goals to set a new school record for goals in a career. He already holds the career marks for points and assists in a career. The Pioneers face UConn in a home-and-home set this weekend. The teams meet Friday night in Milford and rematch Saturday in Storrs.