This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Nov. 29, 2007

This story first appeared on the USCHO website.  To view the original story by Chris Lerch click here.

by Chris Lerch
Atlantic Hockey Correspondent

Close Call

We've heard it all year from the coaches of Atlantic Hockey - for several years actually. The parity in the league. How close the games are. How close in talent the teams are. On how any given night, anybody can beat anybody.

All coaches tend to say these things. But in the AHA, it happens to be true. For example:

• The point differential between the first place team (Army) and the last place teams (AIC and Canisius) is seven points. Only Hockey East is comparable. (I'm not including CHA which has played so few league games). The difference in the CCHA, for example, is 18 points; 13 in the WCHA.
  
  
• Four points separates teams tied for fifth (Holy Cross and RIT) and first (Army), and both Holy Cross and RIT have a game in hand.
  
  
• It's all about the losses, and eight of the ten teams have between three and five losses. No one has more than five
  
  
• Last Saturday, all three league games ended in ties. On Friday, two of the three games went to overtime.
  
  
• Army is in first place, but has split three of its four weekend series so far. Air Force, Holy Cross, Mercyhurst, and RIT split or have at least taken one point in every weekend series each has played to date. There have only been three sweeps total so far, and AIC was involved in two of them, getting swept by Army and sweeping Canisius, so that washes out.
  
  
• The epitome of this was last weekend's series between RIT and Army, where nothing was decided over 130 minutes of hockey, and it was really good hockey. Neither team led by more than a goal the entire weekend, and both games ended in ties.

Will everybody be at .500 at the end of the season?

"I think tiebreakers will definitely come into play," said Army coach Brian Riley before his team took the ice at RIT. "I think things will stay this close all season long."

The games between the Black Knights and Tigers featured just about everything. Great goaltending from Army's Josh Kassel (Friday) and Jay Clark (Saturday) and RIT's Louis Menard, a late extra-attacker goal by Army on Friday, RIT missing a penalty shot in overtime and Army unable to capitalize on a power play just after on Saturday.

"Both teams played great team defense and went at it, making for some great hockey," said RIT coach Wayne Wilson. "We expect to see them at the end of the year in the playoffs. We will take a lot of positives out of the weekend series, especially on the defensive end."

"I thought they were both great games," said Riley after Saturday's contest. "Both teams fought hard and deserved to get some points."

It looks like it's going to be that way all season long.

Ups and Downs

It's been an interesting season so far for the Connecticut Huskies. UConn has trailed in every game so far but has come back to win four times, its last three victories coming in overtime.

For coach Bruce Marshal's squad, it's a never a dull moment...and a question of which team shows up - the one that lost 7-1 to Colgate, or the one that matched the Raiders blow for blow the following night and gutted out a 2-1 overtime win.

"I thought Colgate played well both nights. We were the difference," said Marshall in assessing the weekend. "We would have lost 7-1 to my son's Pee Wee team (on Friday). We didn't go anything with any sense of purpose. But it was a good lesson for this team, especially our young guys. It showed the difference between what we can be and what we need to do to win."

The difference was evident on Saturday, when the Huskies responded with one of their better efforts of the year.

"It's been that way this season," said Marshall. "We play poorly on Friday and then better on Saturday. It's the symptom of a young team. They need to learn that being good one game doesn't cure everything and you have to get ready for the next weekend. Our older players understand this. Our seniors know how short the season is and how fast it goes by. Some of our younger guys still have that juniors mindset where you say, ‘Well, we'll play plenty more games and then have a couple of seven game playoffs'. They're starting to learn that it's not like that in college hockey.

"On Saturday, we showed the difference of what can happen when we play a good game, when we play harder."

The young players are responding on the score sheet. Three of the Huskies' top four scorers are freshmen and sophomores. Rookie Andrew Olsen leads the team in goals with six so far. He's already almost halfway to Chris Myro's (now a junior) rookie record of 13 in a season.

Sophomore Beau Erickson has been the mainstay in net, starting all 11 games so far for the Huskies. He got off to a rough start on Friday against Colgate, however, and Marshall pulled him in the second period after he gave up four goals on 17 shots.

"It really wasn't his fault," said Marshall. "They scored some tap-ins that you or I could have put in. I didn't want to frustrate him. And sometimes it wakes the team up. But it's not going to if you're determined not to play well, which we were on Friday."

UConn got outshot 45-27 in that game, but the wake-up did come, just a day later. Shots on Saturday were 36-34 in favor of the Huskies and Olsen got the game winner 1:23 into overtime.

"Now we'll see how we respond against Holy Cross," said Marshall. That series, plus a single game with AIC will conclude play for the Huskies for the first semester. They'll return to action in their own tournament on December 29 and 30. Brown and Ferris State are coming in, and UConn will play Army in the first game, which will also count as an AHA contest. The teams did the same thing last season.

"It makes sense," said Marshall. "You only have to look for two (other) teams and making it a league game gets you an extra (non-league) game."

And, as his team is learning, every game is important.

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week for November 25, 2007:
Eric Ehn - Air Force.
Last season's AHA Player of the Year had a five point weekend as his Falcon's split with Holy Cross. He had a goal and two assists in Friday's 3-1 win and a goal and an assist in Saturday's 5-5 tie, bringing his point total to 15 on the season.

Goaltender of the Week for November 25, 2007:
Louie Menard - RIT
Menard stopped 62 of 65 shots in 130 minutes of play last weekend to help the Tigers earn a pair of ties with Army.

Rookie of the Week for November 25, 2007:
Everett Sheen - Holy Cross
The rookie forward tallied a hat-trick in a 5-5 tie with Air Force on Saturday. Sheen now has six points on the season. His four goals is tops among Holy Cross freshmen.

Around the League

Air Force: The Falcon's power play was 55th in the nation (7.8%) going into last weekend but broke out with three goals in six attempts on Saturday.

AIC: The Yellow Jackets' 1-1 tie against RPI was the first time in school history AIC has taken a point from a ranked team. Unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, the Engineers won the ensuing shootout to advance in their own holiday tournament. AIC has a new volunteer assistant on the staff - former Connecticut player Brian Burns.

Army: The rich get richer in terms of goaltending. With junior Josh Kassell and freshman Jay Clark off to fine starts, sophomore goalie Joe Spracklen is now eligible to play after sitting for a season and 10 games because of some time spent in major juniors.

Holy Cross: Holy Cross came into last weekend with the top power play in the nation at 29.8 percent. That percentage went up after going two for six last weekend. It's now at 30.2 percent, and still the best in Division I.