Black Knights' Meyer Tabbed Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Week (11/27/06)

View Weekly Release (PDF)


Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week

Bear Trapp - Sacred Heart
Sophomore, Forward, Regina, SASK 

Trapp had another strong week, with four points in the Pioneers three games. He registered a goal and an assist in Tuesday's tie with Army and then tallied two helpers in Sunday's win over UConn. Trapp is second on the Pioneers in scoring with 20 points, seven goals and 13 assists.

Atlantic Hockey Goaltender of the Week

Tyler Small - Mercyhurst 
Sophomore, Goaltender, Kincardine, ONT 

Small stopped a combined 116 of 125 shots (.928) against Yale and Holy Cross (twice) in a 1-0-2 week. Included were a number of odd-man rushes (a 4-1 rush against Yale in Tuesday's second period as example) and a breakaway stop on Holy Cross captain James Sixsmith late in the second period of Friday's 3-2 win. He held the fort in the third period Friday against a pair of Holy Cross two-man advantages, one for 41 seconds and the other for 1:53 to preserve the 3-2 win. Four of the 9 goals he allowed during the week came on the power play.

Weekly Honor Roll

Eric Ehn, Air Force (Jr., F, Dexter, Mich.) - Extended his scoring streak to a career best seven games...Scored AFA's only goal at #10 Denver...Assisted on AFA's first goal of the game against RMU...Leads the nation in 15 goals and is tied for the national lead with 30 points.

Ian Harper, Air Force (Jr., G, Colorado Springs, Colo.) - Came off the bench on the Sunday to lead Air Force to a win over RMU...Earned his team best fourth win of the season...Earned his second win of the season when coming on in relief (UAH, Oct. 27...Came into a 2-2 game and stopped 10 of 11 shots...Did not give up a goal in the third period while making seven saves.

Scott Tomes, Connecticut (Sr., G, Windham, N.H.) - Tomes allowed just six goals and made 87 saves for a 2.50 goals against average for a personal 1-1-0 record. Tomes began the week by relieving UConn starting goaltender, Jon Anderson, in a 7-3 loss at Holy Cross. Tomes played the last 25:14 of the game and allowed just two goals while making 11 saves. Drawing the start in UConn's next game, Tomes tallied 36 saves en route to a 4-1 victory over Sacred Heart, a team that averaged 3.83 goals per game to start the week. In fact, Tomes was the first goaltender this season to hold the Pioneers under two goals for an entire game. At one stretch during the second period, Tomes and the Husky defense staved off a 10 minute stretch where the Pioneers played with a one man advantage. The Huskies committed five consecutive penalties, resulting in nearly 10 consecutive power play minutes for the Pioneers. Tomes, however, tallied 18 saves during the second period to keep the Huskies ahead. In Sunday's game at Sacred Heart, Tomes collected a season-high 40 saves as the Huskies fell just short in a 3-2 loss.

Rob Forshner, Holy Cross (Fr., F, Sundre, ALB) - Forshner had four points in three games with a goal and three assists. In the 7-3 win over Connecticut on Tuesday, he scored a goal and added an assist, while he had one assist in each game at Mercyhurst. For the season, Forshner has two goals and five assists for seven points.

Dale Reinhardt, Holy Cross (Jr., F, Livingston, N.J.) - Reinhardt scored two goals and added an assist in the 7-3 win over Connecticut on Tuesday. He scored Holy Cross' second goal of the game to give the Crusaders a 2-1 lead in the first period. Reinhardt then assisted on the team's fourth goal and netted Holy Cross' sixth goal. He leads the team in goals with nine, while he is tied for fourth in assists with seven and third in points with 16.

Matt Pierce, Mercyhurst (So., F, Pakenham, ONT) - Pierce had a goal and an assist against Yale, an assist in Saturday's game with Holy Cross, and excelled in penalty killing for the Lakers. He finished the 3-game week +3.

Neil Graham, Mercyhurst (Fr., F, Calgary, ALB) - Graham scored his first collegiate goal, a third period power play, which tied the Yale game at 3-3. He then scored the game-winning goal and added an assist in Friday's 3-2 win over Holy Cross.

Matt Gordon, Sacred Heart (Fr., F, Lynnfield, Mass.) - Gordon scored what turned out to be the game winning goal in Sacred Heart's win over UConn Sunday. The goal, which was Gordon's second of the season, came early in the second period and was the first game-winner of his career.

Jason Smith, Sacred Heart (Sr., G, St. Lambert, QUE) - Smith had two excellent performances in net this week. He made 31 saves in Tuesday's tie with Army and stopped 32 shots to preserve a one goal win over UConn on Sunday.

Team Notes
 

Air Force: AFA has won four of its last six games...Eric Ehn continues to lead the nation with 15 goals and is tied for the national lead with 30 points...AFA ended a six-game losing streak to Robert Morris with a 4-3 win...AFA earned its fourth come from behind win of the season...AFA has scored four or more goals in nine of the 16 games this season. AFA scored four or more just six times all last season...AFA is 3-0 vs. the CHA this season with two wins over Alabama-Huntsville and on over Robert Morris...AFA is 3-0 in Commissioners Cup games...AFA held DU and Robert Morris to just 22 shots. AFA has allowed an average of just 22 shots per game this season...Freshman David Martinson earned his first career point with an assist on Sunday...Brian Reese scored the second game-winner of his career and first of the season...AFA is now 3-1 on Sunday this season...AFA plays Sacred Heart Friday-Saturday at Cadet Ice Arena...AFA has never lost to Sacred Heart with a 3-0-1 record vs. the Pioneers...AFA swept Sacred Heart at home in 2000. The teams last played at the RPI Tournament in 2004 and the Falcons won 3-2 in overtime.

Army: The Black Knights went 0-1-1 this past week, tying Sacred Heart on Tuesday (3-3) and falling at Union on Friday (4-1) ... Sacred Heart's victory over Connecticut on Sunday bumped Army out of first place in the AHA standings for the first time this season ... Army's tie at the Milford Ice Pavilion against Sacred Heart was its first non-loss in Milford since the 1998-99 season ... Sophomore A.J. Drago drew the starting nod in goal for both games this past week for the Black Knights, sporting a 3.36 GAA with a .825 save percentage ... freshman Owen Meyer logged three assists in Army's 3-3 tie versus Sacred Heart, earning his first career play-maker ... Tim Manthey logged a goal and an assist this past week, helping climb to fifth among NCAA defensemen in points per game averaging 1.07 points per outing ... Army returns to the ice on Wednesday, Dec. 6, when they host Holy Cross at West Point's Tate Rink at 7 p.m.

Bentley: Bentley had a weekend off after splitting a two-game series at RIT on Nov. 17-18 ... The Falcons host Canisius this weekend in their only meetings of the season ... Bentley won last season's series with the Golden Griffins, 3-1-0, and the Falcons have won the last two meetings between the schools ... Bentley is 2-1 at Ryan Skating Arena this season ... The Falcons have split all four of their Atlantic Hockey series so far this season ... Bentley is averaging 24.7 penalty minutes per game, fourth-most in the nation, but Bentley's penalty kill numbers are ranked ninth in the nation with the Falcons killing 88.1 percent of opponents' power plays.

Canisius: Canisius played one game last week - an exhibition contest in Ann Arbor, Mich. against the U.S. National Under-18 Team. The teams tied 2-2. It ended a three-game winning streak by the Under-18 Team over Canisius. The Griffs are on a three-game unbeaten streak and have seven points through nine conference games for the third time in four seasons. Canisius has four freshmen among the top 48 in the points per game among rookies and is the only school in the country The Blue and Gold is also the only school with a freshman goaltender in the top 10 in save percentage along with a rookie in the top 10 among rookies in points per game. Canisius returns to the ice this weekend with a two-game set at Bentley. Last season, Bentley won three of the four games between the teams with the schools splitting the games in Massachusetts. The conference road games are the last for the Griffs until Jan. 9, 2007, at RIT.

Connecticut: The University of Connecticut men's hockey team played three conference games during the week and posted a 1-2-0 record during that span. The Huskies began the week Tuesday with a 7-3 loss at Holy Cross. Senior Scott McDougall notched his second two-goal game of the season, but the Crusaders scored five unanswered goals to break a 1-1 tie en route to a four-goal victory. UConn went on to post an impressive 4-1 win over Sacred Heart Saturday afternoon due largely in part to Scott Tomes' 36 saves between the pipes. Tomes held the Pioneers scoreless for just under 49 minutes and was the first goaltender to hold Sacred Heart to less than two goals this season. Freshman Alec Kirschner scored his third goal in as many games while Trevor Stewart picked up an assist in the game to up his team-leading total to eight. In the final game of the weekend, UConn traveled to Sacred Heart and dropped a slim 3-2 decision on the Pioneers' home ice. Trailing 3-0 midway through the second period, the Huskies scored a pair of goals to cut the Sacred Heart lead to just one. Sean Erickson picked up assists on both goals while Eric Dahlberg also assisted on the second goal for his first point of the season. Senior captain Matt Scherer notched his team-leading 10th goal of the season, giving him at least one point in all but one game this season. Following a near two week break, the Huskies return to the ice Dec. 7 when they host Air Force at the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum.

Holy Cross: Holy Cross opened its nine game road trip with the two games at Mercyhurst this past weekend. The Crusaders played eight of their first 12 games at the Hart Center and went 6-2. Holy Cross will return to the Hart Center on January 12-13 for two games with Air Force...With his three assists in the win over UConn on Tuesday night, senior captain James Sixsmith now holds the Holy Cross all-time Division I record for career assists with 93. The record was held by current San Jose Shark Patrick Rissmiller (1998-2002) who had 90 assists during his career. Sixsmith has 19 assists this season and he is second in the nation in assists per game with 1.36...Senior Jon Landry's 1.36 points per game by a defenseman leads the nation. His seven power play goals rank second in the country...Holy Cross' 24.8 power play percentage is ranked first in the nation...The Crusaders are averaging 3.86 goals a game which are fifth nationally.

Mercyhurst: The Lakers went 1-0-2 for the week and snapped a six-game winless streak (0-4-2) in the process. The Lakers have played five overtime games (0-2-3) in their first 13 games. They played in six (including an exhibition game) in all of last season. The season-record is nine set in 2004-05. After a 6-3 loss at Yale last year, the teams' first-ever meeting, the Lakers tied the nation's 17th-ranked team Tuesday at 4-4. Mercyhurst owned leads of 2-0 and 4-3. The Lakers won the season series against Holy Cross 2-1-1 and are now 16-8-3 lifetime against the Crusaders. Junior defenseman Jamie Coghlan's game-tying goal in the third period Saturday was his first since tally since March of 2005. He missed all of last season because of injury. He also had an earlier assist in the game marking the first two-point game of his career. Freshman Neil Graham had his first two collegiate goals in back-to-back games with Yale and Holy Cross. Junior Kerry Bowman scored his first goal of the season against Yale. The Lakers travel to AIC next weekend. Mercyhurst has a 20-1-1 advantage lifetime against the Yellow Jackets and won all four meetings last season.

Sacred Heart: The Pioneers went 1-1-1 in three games this week, tying Army Tuesday night and splitting a weekend series with UConn. The win over UConn allowed the Pioneers to take sole possession of first place in the AHA standings. Sophomore Bear Trapp led the Pioneer offense with four points on the week, one goal and three assists. Freshman Matt Gordon scored the game winner Sunday afternoon, this first game-winner of his career. Senior Pierre-Luc O'Brien had a goal and two assists on the week to raise his team leading total to 25. O'Brien needs four more goals to break the school record for goals scored in a career (65). He needs six more assists to set a new school record for assists in a career (80), and he needs just six 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 travel west this weekend to face Air Force in Colorado Springs. The teams meet Friday at 9:05 ET and Saturday at 9:35 ET. Both games can be heard on WICC 600 AM.