• Final Sat, February 04
    4 Holy Cross
    0 at American Int'l
    BX | BX
    Final - OT Sat, February 04
    3 Bentley
    3 at Sacred Heart
    BX | BX | BX | LS | A
    Final Sat, February 04
    1 Robert Morris
    2 at Canisius
    BX
    Final Sat, February 04
    3 Mercyhurst
    2 at Niagara
    BX
    Final Sat, February 04
    1 Royal Military College
    9 at Army
    BX
  • Final Sat, February 04
    2 RIT
    4 at Air Force
    BX

February 5, 2010

Sacred Heart Streaking

Sacred Heart Streaking


Click here to read Allen Lessels' story on the New England Hockey Journal website.


The Tigers get their shot now.

Air Force had its turn. So did Mercyhurst. Others have had their turn. But none have been able to slow C.J. Marottolo’s red-hot Sacred Heart team down much at all.

This weekend RIT goes into the Milford Ice Pavilion and will try to get a point or two -- ideally three, even four -- off Sacred Heart.

The Pioneers have the longest unbeaten streak in the nation going at 10-0-2. They lost last on Dec. 5 at Army, when the Black Knights swept them in a weekend set.

Since then, they have been methodically moving up the Atlantic Hockey standings and head into the weekend in fourth place, just a point behind third-place Mercyhurst and a big four points ahead of Canisius in the race for the fourth and final bye for the first round of the league tournament.

RIT, meanwhile, sits atop the league standings, a single point ahead of Air Force and five up on Mercyhurst, and knows a thing or two about winning streaks. The Tigers had a 12-0-1 run in league games that ended in the middle of last month and are 15-2-1 in the league since Halloween.

Here’s the thing: Sacred Heart has shown little respect for first-place teams during its current run. Air Force was tied for first-place in the league the first weekend of January and got swept at Sacred Heart.

Mercyhurst was in first place all alone two weeks ago, got swept by Sacred Heart and slipped into third.

The Pioneers have been led by young and old -- freshman Steve Legatto was Atlantic Hockey’s Goaltender of the Month for January and senior forward Nick Johnson was the Player of the Month.

Now they’ll see what they can do about February.

NEHJ Player of the Week

Bobby Preece, sr., Bentley

The defenseman out of the hockey hotbed of Bonita Springs, Fla., continued the recent habit of hat tricks in the league. He scored three goals, and added an assist for good measure, in Saturday’s 5-4 win over RIT. His third goal was the game-winner.

Looking Ahead

Bentley at AIC, Friday and Saturday

Bentley is tied for sixth place in the league standings with Army, a point behind Canisius, and Sacred Heart is another five points ahead of that in fourth. AIC is in last place and trails ninth-place UConn by three points.

Around Atlantic Hockey

AIC

Off last weekend, the Yellow Jackets get back at it with Bentley coming in on Friday and Saturday. … In four of its last five games, AIC has scored one goal or fewer. The one game in which the Yellow Jackets did score more than one, they lost 5-3 to RIT.

Air Force

Looking up at RIT in the standings, the Falcons take a break from league play, but not tough competition, this weekend. They are at Colorado College on Friday to play for in-town bragging rights in Colorado Springs, and play Denver at home on Saturday

Army

The Black Knights got the edge in the clash of service academies by taking three points from Air Force with a 4-2 win on Friday night followed by a 3-3 tie on Saturday. … Army had to scramble big-time for its point on Saturday night: Eric Sefchick’s extra attacker goal with 11 seconds left in regulating knotted things up.

Bentley

Preece’shat trick in Saturday’s 5-4 win over RIT lifted the senior defenseman to 8-13-21 totals for the season. He is second on the team in goals and points. He also had an assist in the game. … Bentley is at AIC for two this weekend.

Canisius

The Golden Griffins have lost some ground in the standings and have fallen to fifth place, four points behind Sacred Heart. … They will try to close the gap on the Pioneers with this weekend’s series at Connecticut. … The Griffins took three points from UConn earlier in the season in Buffalo.

UConn

Maybe if they had scored at 9:45: Sophomore defenseman Chris Waterstradt tied Friday night’s game with Sacred Heart at 9:44 of the third period, but the Huskies lost on an overtime goal; the next night, freshman forward Sean Ambrosie got UConn another tie at 9:46 of the third period, but Sacred Heart scored five minutes later for the sweep.

HolyCross

The Crusaders, off last weekend, will try to ride their split at Air Force two weeks ago into the last nine games of the season. … The first task will be improving their home record with games against Army this weekend. The Crusaders are 1-4-5 at the Hart Center. … Army and Holy Cross tied 3-3 and 4-4 in a pair at West Point last season.

Mercyhurst

The Lakers were off last weekend and now head west for games against a couple of the best teams in the land. They are at No. 2-ranked Denver, 16-6-4, on Friday night and swap spots with Air Force to take on No. 11 Colorado College, 15-10-3, the next. Mercyhurst is 0-2 against Denver and 0-1 against CC.

RIT

Last week’s split with Bentley was enough to move RIT into sole possession of first place in the league standings, one point ahead of Air Force. Led by senior goalie Jared DeMichiel of Avon, Conn., the Tigers are allowing a league-low 2.23 goals a game. That number drops to 1.80 for conference games.

Sacred Heart

Another honor for senior forward Nick Johnson of Windsor, Conn.: The league’s leading goal scorer was named this week as one of 16 nominees for the Walter Brown Award, which is presented each season to the best American born player in New England. Johnson had 20-35-55 numbers in 92 career games coming into this season and is 21-15-36 in 26 games so far.