Golden Griffins' Loewen Earned Atlantic Hockey Goaltender of the Week (11/20/06)

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Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week

Andrew Ramsey - Air Force 
Senior, Forward, Noblesville, Ind. 

Career best four goals on Friday. The most by a Falcon since Justin Kieffer vs. UConn, in 1998...He scored the first goal in both games in the series...Ramsey now has a career-best three game-winners this season to tie for the national lead...Five goals in the series also a career best...Scored the game-winner on Sunday...10 shots on Friday were a career best and the most by any Falcon this season...Is second on the team with 10 goals and 19 points this season...His line combined for seven Air Force's nine goals in the series.

Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Week

Louis Menard, R.I.T. 
Freshman, Goaltender, Chicoutimi, QUE 

Menard played a key role in RIT's 5-1 win against Bentley on Saturday. The freshman net minder made 29 saves and was 1:54 away from his second shut out of the season. He was active in net, making several spectacular saves to keep the Falcons at bay.

Weekly Honor Roll

Andrew Volkening, Air Force (Fr., G, Genoa, Ill.) - First career shutout in the 3-0 victory on Sunday...Earned the second win of his career...His shutout is the first by a Falcon freshman since Peter Foster blanked Army in 2004...His shutout is the second by a Falcon this season...His shutout is the first by a Falcon freshman in a conference game in school history...Made 10 saves in the third period when it was still a two-goal game. Made two big short-handed stops in the third period.

Casey Bickley, Army (Sr., D, Faribault, Minn.) - Bickley tallied a goal and two assists in Army's weekend series with Holy Cross. The senior team captain posted an assist in Friday night's 4-3 loss then posted a goal and an assist in Saturday's 5-2 defeat.

Ray Jean, Bentley (Sr., G, Randolph, Maine) - Jean made 37 saves and allowed only two goals on Friday to earn the first star of the game and collect the win. Followed that up with 24 saves on Saturday.

Dain Prewitt, Bentley (So., F, Westminster, Colo.) - Prewitt scored the game-winner in overtime to give Bentley a 3-2 win over RIT on Friday.

Ian Dams, Holy Cross (Fr., G, Manotick, ONT) - Dams stopped 49 of 54 shots in the two wins over Army. He made 22 saves in the 4-3 victory on Friday night, while he stopped 27 shots in the 5-2 win on Saturday. With the two wins, Dams is now 4-3 on the season.

Dewey Thomson, Holy Cross (So. F, Northbridge, Mass.) - Thomson scored four goals and added an assist for five points in the two wins over Army. In the 4-3 win on Friday, he assisted on Holy Cross' first goal and then he scored back-to-back goals to give the Crusaders a 3-1 lead. On Saturday, Thomson netted two goals again including the game-winner in the 5-2 victory. His 10 points this season are currently fourth on the team as he has five goals and five assists.

Cody Collins, Mercyhurst (Fr., F, Winfield, BC) - Scored first collegiate goal, a power play, in Saturday's 3-3 tie with Canisius.Brett Robinson, Mercyhurst (So., F, Alton, ONT) - Scored Lakers' lone goal, shorthanded, Friday and cashed a power play goal Saturday.

Simon Lambert - R.I.T. (Jr., F, Ste.-Therese, QUE) - Lambert tallied four points this week for the Tigers. On Friday he scored the game-tying goal late in the second period. He followed that up with two goals and an assist on Saturday in a 5-1 win over Bentley. Lambert is tied for the team lead in scoring with 14 points on five goals and nine assists.

Dan Ringwald - R.I.T. (Fr., D, Oakville, ONT) - Ringwald was excellent this weekend versus Bentley. He had two assists in Friday night in a 3-2 overtime loss to Bentley. On Saturday he was a +1 and played a key role in RIT's special teams.

Pierre-Luc O'Brien - Sacred Heart (Sr., F, Nicolet, QUE) - O'Brien had another three point game, in the Pioneers win over RPI Friday night, scoring a goal and adding two assists. He set-up SHU's first goal, a shorthanded marker, scored the third goal and assisted on the fourth. It was the fifth straight three point game for O'Brien and sixth straight multi-point game for the senior. O'Brien now has 20 points in his last six games (9 goals and 11 assists), bringing his point total up to a team leading 22 on the season, with 10 goals and 12 assists.

Team Notes

Air Force: AFA earned its first series sweep of the season...The sweep was AFA's first in Atlantic Hockey...AFA out-shot AIC, 88-35, in the series...The Falcon goaltenders (Peter Foster on Friday and Andrew Volkening on Sunday) stopped 34 of the 35 shots (97.2 saves percentage)...Eric Ehn had five points on the weekend (1-4-5). He leads the nation in goals (14) and points (28) currently...Ehn has now scored in five straight games and in 11 of the 14 games this season...Ramsey has scored in three straight games and in 10 of 14 this season...The line of Ramsey, Ehn and Phillipich was a combined +10 on the weekend and is now a combined +43 on the season...Freshman Brett Nylander scored his first career point with an assist on Jeff Hajner's goal Sunday...Junior Josh Print scored his first goal of the season on Sunday...Senior Peter Foster stopped 15 of 16 shots on Friday...AFA killed all nine AIC power plays in the series...AFA is now 10-0 all-time vs. AIC...AFA travels to 11th-ranked Denver on Friday. The Falcons have not beaten Denver since 1980, a 5-3 win at DU...AFA then plays former CHA rival Robert Morris on Sunday, Nov. 26. RMU beat Air Force five times last season. The Colonials are coached by former Air Force assistant Derek Schooley.

American International: Sophomore goaltender Tom Fenton (Sarnia, Ontario) returned to the Yellow Jacket lineup Friday against Air Force and made 38 saves. AIC will face an Ivy League opponent for the third time since joining Division I when it travels to Brown on Saturday. The Yellow Jackets played Brown and Princeton during the 2004-05 season.

Army: The Black Knights dropped a pair of conference games at Holy Cross this past weekend, despite the losses they remain in a tie for first in the Atlantic Hockey standings ... the latest point in a season the Army has been in first place in their league since joining the Division I ranks ... goalie Josh Kassel allowed three goals in the first period of each game, marking the most goals in a period against the sophomore net minder ... Kassel's five goals allowed on Saturday were the most he's given up in a game in his career ... the Black Knights converted on two power play opportunities on Saturday ending their string of four games with out a power play goal ... the Crusaders logged five power play goals on Saturday, Army had only allowed six such goals entering the contest ... sophomore Tim Manthey collected an assist in both contests this past weekend, he currently ranks sixth amongst NCAA defensemen and second in the AHA averaging 1.08 points per game ... Army takes on Sacred Heart in a battle of the top two teams in the AHA this Tuesday night, it is Army's first weekday game of the season ... the Black Knights and Pioneers skated to a 2-2 tie at West Point on Oct. 14.

Bentley: After splitting this weekend's series at RIT, the Falcons have now split all four AHA series so far this season ... Dain Prewitt scored his second game-winning goal of the season in overtime on Friday to send the Falcons off with a 3-2 victory over RIT ... it was the first time the Falcons won an overtime game in an opponent's arena since 2003 ... freshman Nick DeCroo notched his first collegiate point with an assist on Saturday ... sophomore Jeff Gumaer scored a goal on Friday for the fourth game in a row ... Gumaer now stands in seventh place among Bentley's all-time goal-scorers at the Division I level ... The Falcons have struggled on the power play lately and have not scored a power-play goal in their last three games ... The Falcons are off this weekend, but return to action on Dec. 1 and 2 to host Canisius at Ryan Arena in Watertown, Mass.

Canisius: Canisius had a three-point weekend against Mercyhurst, the team's first three-point weekend against the Lakers since Dec. 10-11, 2004. Three players had multiple-point weekends for the Griffs who had 13 players record at least one point in the series against the Lakers. Joey Coccimiglio (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) had two points and extended his November point streak to 12 games. Andrew Loewen received both starts in net, the first two-start weekend of his career. Loewen stopped 47 of the 51 shots on the weekend (.922) and had a 1.93 goals against average. The Griffs also had their two best performances in terms of shots on the season, getting 35 in Friday night's game and 38 in Saturday night's game. The 15 shots in the first period on Saturday were the most by Canisius since the team had 16 against Connecticut Nov. 19, 2005. Greg Brown sent Saturday's game into overtime with an extra-attacker goal with 44.4 seconds remaining in the contest - the first game-tying goal or game-winning goal of the junior's career. Brown's goal was the first by Canisius to send the game into overtime with six attackers since Jan. 16, 2004. In that game, Billy Irish-Baker scored with 34 seconds remaining against Sacred Heart. Canisius has a three-game unbeaten streak for the first time since winning three straight from Jan. 21-28. The Griffs won their third home game of the season, matching last season's total, and Saturday's tie gave the team its first road point of the season. Canisius has one exhibition game this week - a Wednesday-night match-up against the USA Under-18 Team in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Connecticut: The University of Connecticut men's hockey team dropped an 8-1 decision over the weekend at No. 20 UMass in its second straight game out of conference. Freshman Alec Kirschner notched his first career goal on assists from Jarrett Scarpaci and Chris Myhro. With the assist, Myhro is now tied for the team lead with 12 points and is second on the team with six helpers. Saturday's game marked the first game of the season in which senior Matt Scherer failed to register a point. The Huskies return to conference play Tuesday with a trip to Holy Cross.

Holy Cross: Holy Cross is 5-2 at the Hart Center this season. The Crusaders will host Connecticut on Tuesday before playing their next nine games on the road...Senior captain James Sixsmith had two assists on Saturday night moving him into a tie with current San Jose Shark Patrick Rissmiller for first on the Holy Cross all-time Division I career assists list with 90. He has 16 assists on the season as his 1.45 assists per game are ranked second nationally...Senior defenseman Jon Landry had two goals and an assist on the weekend. Landry has recorded at least one point in eight straight games. He has seven goals and 10 assists for 17 points on the season, while he leads the nation in points per game by defensemen with 1.55...Junior Dale Reinhardt's three game-winning goals are tied for first in the country...Holy Cross' 3.82 goals per game are ranked ninth nationally, while its 22.6 power play percentage is eighth.

Mercyhurst: Mercyhurst is now winless in its last five games (0-4-1), all in the conference. Mercyhurst's four-game conference losing streak was its longest since moving to Division I in 1999. The Lakers are 1-5 when trailing after forty minutes and have been out shot in every game this season. Freshman winger Cody Collins registered his first collegiate goal Saturday. Sophomore forward Brett Robinson scored a shorthanded goal Friday and a power play goal Saturday. Sophomore Tyler Small stopped a combined 67 shots in the two games. Yale visits for a non-conference game Tuesday. The Bulldogs prevailed 6-3 at home a year ago. Mercyhurst and Holy Cross will conclude their four-game regular season next weekend in Erie. The Lakers, who lead the all-time series 15-8-2, split a pair of games at Holy Cross last month.

Rochester Instit. of Tech.: RIT spit a pair of games versus Bentley, losing 3-2 in overtime on Friday and winning 5-1 on Saturday. RIT's penalty kill unit was outstanding over the weekend. They held Bentley 0-for-8 on Friday and 0-for-5 on Saturday. The Tigers are now tied for ninth on the penalty kill in NCAA Division I. RIT's power play went 3-for-13 on the weekend including two power play goals on Friday. The Tigers are ranked sixth in Division I, converting 21.8% of their chances. RIT out shot the Falcons 71-65 on the weekend.

Sacred Heart: The Pioneers posted a huge non-conference win Friday night, beating 16th ranked Rensselaer in Troy by the score of 5-4. Sacred Heart was down 3-1 in the game but rallied for their second win over RPI in as many years. Sophomore Kyle Tyll scored the game winning goal, the first game-decider of his career. Sophomore Eric Giosa had two goals and Bear Trapp had three assists. Senior Pierre-Luc O'Brien had a goal and two assists for the fifth straight game and now has 20 points in his last six games. O'Brien needs five more goals to break the school record for goals scored in a career (65). He needs eight more assists to set a new school record for assists in a career (80), and he needs just nine more points to break the school record for points in a career, 142. The goals and points records are held by Martin Paquet '03, while the assists mark was set by Jon Yackmack '97. O'Brien leads the team in scoring with 22 points, 10 goals and 12 assists. The Pioneers have a busy holiday week, playing three games. Tuesday night Sacred Heart and Army will meet at the Milford Ice Pavilion in a battle for first place in the Atlantic Hockey standings. Over the weekend, the Pioneers will play a home-and-home set with UConn, meeting Saturday in Storrs and Sunday in Milford.