Senior forward Chris VandeVelde leads North Dakota in scoring with 11 points in 10 games.

North Dakota at Denver (Fri.-Sat): Hockey fans have had this series circled on their calendars since the season started. Unfortunately, the storyline for this matchup featuring the Fighting Sioux, second in this week’s INCH Power Rankings, and the third-ranked Pioneers centers on who might not be playing. The returns of DU goaltender Marc Cheverie and defenseman Patrick Wiercioch from injuries aren’t a given; NoDak rearguard Chay Genoway, meanwhile, didn’t make the trip west.

Scoring goals shouldn’t be a problem for either side, but keeping pucks out of the net could be an issue for the Pioneers if Cheverie can’t go. Freshman Adam Murray enters the weekend with a 4.15 goals against average and a .840 save percentage in four appearances this season. He was yanked in his last start, a 7-3 loss at Alaska Anchorage two weeks ago.

Merrimack at UMass Lowell (Saturday): Has Hockey East gone mad? The Warriors are the highest-scoring team in the league, averaging four goals a game while the River Hawks are tied with UMass for second in scoring offense at 3.7 goals per game. Lowell’s got great balance—seven players have eight or more points through 10 games. Merrimack, meanwhile, has sensational rookie Stephane Da Costa, who missed his team’s season-opening series at North Dakota because of an eligibility issue but still leads the Warriors in goals and points.

Princeton/Quinnipiac at Colgate/Cornell (Fri.-Sat.): As Joe Gladziszewski mentioned in his ECAC Hockey rundown, central New York is the place to be for that league’s best action this weekend. Colgate and Cornell host Quinnipiac and Princeton; all four are in the top half of the ECAC Hockey standings and all currently reside in the INCH Power Rankings. The team or teams able to emerge from the weekend with two wins gets an early leg up in the race for the conference regular-season title.

Boston University vs. New Hampshire (at Durham Friday, at Boston Saturday): Which is more amazing: the fact that Boston University ranks 36th nationally in scoring offense with an average of 2.56 goals per game, trailing such offensive juggernauts as Lake Superior State and Alaska, or that New Hampshire is tied for 54th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing an average of four goals per game. Something’s gotta give, right? Right?

Also: How many WCHA teams played their final game of the 2008-09 season at Mariucci Arena? Answer: Three, St. Cloud State, Denver, and Minnesota Duluth, which lost to Miami in the NCAA West Regional final. The high-scoring Bulldogs return to Mariucci this weekend to face the host Gophers … Couple neutral-site games in the CCHA this weekend as Michigan and Bowling Green meet in Toledo, Ohio, Saturday and Michigan State and Notre Dame play in Fort Wayne, Ind., Sunday … Wisconsin has won five of its last six, but all of those games were at home. The Badgers start a stretch of eight games, all but two of which are on the road, this weekend at St. Cloud State.

TV schedule: Friday—Minnesota Duluth at Minnesota, FSN North, 8 p.m.; North Dakota at Denver, FSN Rocky Mountain, 9:30 p.m.; Saturday—New Hampshire at Boston University, NESN, 7 p.m.; Minnesota Duluth at Minnesota, FSN North, 8 p.m.

Even with the optimism surrounding John Beilein’s cagers, the last month of Michigan athletics has been one of the bleakest in recent or distant memory. While the collapse of the Wolverines’ football team hasn’t been a total surprise, the early season struggles of the Maize and Blue icers—normally the campus bright spot—have Ann Arbor sports fans shaking their heads in disbelief.

Michigan started the season respectably, winning four of six with the losses coming on the road against Alaska during the Kendall Hockey Classic in Anchorage and at Boston University. But the past two weekends have been less fruitful, as the Wolverines dropped into the CCHA’s bottom three after being swept by Miami and Michigan State consecutively.

Captain Chris Summers and Michigan will try to snap a four-game losing streak this weekend against Bowling Green.

What’s worse is that three of the four losses came at the usually impenetrable fortress known as Yost Ice Arena—perhaps a harbinger of a long year to come.

Despite the early season struggles, coach Red Berenson and Captain Chris Summers are optimistic that Michigan can turn things around and avoid becoming this year’s Michigan State.

“I don’t think that we’re far off the mark, but the margin for error has been so slim,” Berenson said. “We played Miami, the best team in the country, and we gave up a bad goal in each game and that was the difference in each game.”

The obvious problem for Michigan has been scoring goals, as the team has averaged just one per game during its four-game slide. Junior forward Louie Caporusso, who had scored nine goals at this point last season en route to 24 total markers, has scored only once thus far. After finally cracking the score sheet in the season’s fifth game, Caporusso and his teammates were hoping he could keep finding the back of the net, but he has now been held scoreless in five consecutive contests.

In addition to Caporusso, sophomore forward David Wohlberg, a 15-goal scorer last year, also has only a single marker thus far, and several other potential scorers are struggling a well.

It would be easy to write the year off and suggest that Michigan may never find its way, but a look at last year’s North Dakota team that started with a 4-6-0 mark and eventually made the NCAA tournament—almost advancing to the second round in a wild contest against New Hampshire—after finishing the regular season 22-12-4 suggests that a turnaround is possible with the right attitude.

To bounce back in similar fashion, the goals will have to come, but another key component will be the defense—an extremely deep and experienced unit—cutting down on turnovers in the transition game. Against Michigan State, Berenson was extremely frustrated to see two turnovers at the blue line result in Spartan goals.

“The team that wins the games on most nights is the one with the best defense and the one that can get the puck out of the zone,” Berenson said. “We’ve been really inconsistent in that area. We gave MSU the puck coming out of the zone twice, and gave up two goals—that’s absurd.”

Compounding the transition game struggles has been a few costly mistakes by the reliable Bryan Hogan in net, who has committed some rare but deadly turnovers himself. Summers is confident that Hogan, who he describes as a “championship-caliber” goaltender, can bounce back and eliminate some of these mistakes, and Berenson admits that his defense needs to help offset these mistakes.

“(Hogan) definitely looked okay in the early game, but then he went through a stretch where we gave up one bad goal a game,” Berenson said. “And those goals cost us against BU and Miami. He has given us a chance every night, we’re just not used to him giving up a bad goal—we’ve been spoiled.”

Should Michigan clean up their home-zone game and develop some improved offensive chemistry, perhaps these early season struggles will help inspire a hunger that the Wolverines have seemed to lack come tournament time the past few years.

While Michigan arguably outplayed Air Force in a disappointing loss during the first round of the NCAA tournament last year and played well in a run to the Frozen Four the year before, the few years before left a lot to be desired.

Those teams, stacked with skaters who are now everyday NHL players, cruised through the regular season, finishing near the top of the CCHA standings easily.

Might the present adversity help this year’s cast of Wolverines—complete with 12 NHL draft picks—avoid a similar fate come April?

“I think that we’re a team that expects to do well,” Berenson said. “But maybe we haven’t had to pay the price to do well.”

Coaches are generally happy when their charges arrive on campus ahead of the start of the academic year to organize informal workouts and begin team-building exercises. That’s what happened at Rensselaer in the late summer months and it resulted in a great start for the Engineers. The Engineers started with seven wins in their first 11 games following a Nov. 13 5-2 win at Clarkson. The didn’t achieve seven wins last season until Feb. 13, the 29th game of the year.

Chase Polacek

The other side of the story is that it comes with a price. Too much, too soon can take a toll on a team’s mental and physical strength once the season begins and according to head coach Seth Appert, that’s what RPI has faced in back-to-back losses.

“The last two games we’ve probably hit a wall a little bit. All of our guys came back early in the summer to get together and work out and prepare for the season, but you worry about fatigue,” Appert said. “That’s one of the reasons we left this weekend open so that guys can go home if they want, allow them to refresh and recharge. We didn’t have a lot of life or energy the last two games and we were pretty lethargic.”

A relatively young lineup that has also been affected by injuries is still learning about the heavy game workload and travel that ECAC Hockey’s non-Ivy League teams face in the early parts of the season. RPI has missed talented junior forward Tyler Helfrich for the last seven games and had five regulars out of its lineup in Wednesday’s game against Niagara.

The Engineers have nine full days between games, before hosting their annual holiday tournament next weekend. They’ll have time to recharge as their coach wishes, but can also build on some positive indicators from the season’s opening stretch. RPI’s improvement in record has already been mentioned, and one of the reasons for that has been an improved power play. The Engineers have cashed in 13 PPGs in 13 games after scoring a total of just 17 in 39 games last season. Two freshman play on RPI’s top power play (Brandon Pirri and Jerry D’Amigo) and sophomore defenseman Mike Bergin has only 17 total games of collegiate experience (four as a freshman) due to injury. Senior Paul Kerins and junior Chase Polacek round out the unit. Polacek leads the team and is among the nation’s leaders in goals (9) and points (17).

All factors considered, it’s been a great start for RPI. They’re scoring more goals and getting more consistent play from a growing defense corps that experienced some pains in learning the collegiate game at a relatively young age over the last few seasons.

“We’re getting there but we have a long way to go. When we play fast, physical, energetic and in your face we’re a pretty good team,” Appert said. “The majority of the first 11 games we were an aggressive, attacking team. Also, our defense has played more maturely.”

THREE MORE THINGS WORTH KNOWING

• Yale coach Keith Allain played as a goaltender during his playing days with the Bulldogs and earned a reputation as being a goaltending specialist as an assistant coach at the professional level. Therefore, when he turned to freshman Nick Maricic to make his first collegiate start against top-five opponent Cornell last weekend you had to trust that Allain knew what he was doing. Maricic responded with 25 saves in the win over Cornell and stopped 19 shots the following night in a tie against Colgate. He made 32 saves in Thursday night’s loss to Massachusetts.

• Quite a nice little pair of weekend sets on tap as Colgate and Cornell host Quinnipiac and Princeton for a pair of games at Starr Rink and Lynah Rink. All four teams are in the top half of the ECAC Hockey standings and all of them currently reside in the INCH Power Rankings. This weekend could go a long way toward sorting out the contenders and pretenders near the top of ECAC Hockey.

• The Good: It’s not too early to look ahead to intriguing and challenging non-league games during the holiday season, right? Harvard-Minnesota, Cornell vs. Colorado College and North Dakota, Princeton-Lowell, RPI-BU … the list keeps going. The Bad: With 22 goals against in five games, Harvard ranks dead last in the nation in overall defense, allowing 4.4 goals against per game. The Ugly: With Niagara’s win over Rensselaer on Wednesday night, that leaves Brown and Dartmouth as the only winless teams in the country.

First-year Sacred Heart head coach C.J. Marottolo has guided the Pioneers to a 3-4-1 overall mark and a 2-1-1 record in league play.

Sacred Heart University hired former Yale assistant coach C.J. Marottolo on Oct. 9, right as the college hockey season was starting. Marottolo replaces Shaun Hannah, who resigned in September for family reasons, and becomes the newest head coach in Atlantic Hockey.

Marottolo, 43, played for Choate Rosemary Hall and four years at Northeastern. He was a player-coach in France for two years before retiring. John Dunham offered Marottolo a graduate assistant coaching job at Trinity College in 1992 and he’s been in the coaching business ever since.

Marottolo was enthralled with the Sacred Heart campus and the employees in the athletic department from the first. “Now that I’ve gotten the job, my instincts are right,” he said. “It’s a great place and I am loving every minute of it.”

The Pioneers have gotten off to a 3-4-1 start, including a 2-2-1 mark in Atlantic Hockey.

Inside College Hockey interviewed Marottolo this week and got his thoughts on the new job and the challenges of taking over a program so close to the start of the season.

INCH: Why did you apply for this job?

Marottolo: There are so few jobs and so many great candidates. There’s a lot of people out there that are assistant coaches who would be wonderful head coaches. It’s so difficult to get these head coaching jobs.

The home run part of the whole equation for me was a head coaching job where I didn’t have to move my family at this late a date. My family is very important to me.

INCH: Were you worried about not being able to get a Division I head coaching job?

Marottolo: You never know what’s in store for you. It was wonderful at Yale. I wasn’t getting discouraged because I loved my job at Yale, I loved the people there and I loved the kids. I grew up watching Yale hockey, I played Yale youth hockey. It was great for me to be able to work at Yale. I spent most of my life at Yale, from a young kid until I left Yale this year. Working at Yale was a dream job, so, no, I was happy at Yale but when a head coaching job came up and I didn’t have to move, you couldn’t ask for anything better.

INCH: You took over a team right as the new season was beginning. How difficult was that?

Marottolo: It’s been a whirlwind. The team had already played an exhibition game and had been practicing. I was on the ice with the team one week prior to us going to RPI and Union. It’s been great. The guys have been working extremely hard on and off the ice. I really like the kids on this team.

INCH: You had a week or so to have all your contract and school paperwork finalized. What did you do in the meantime?

Marottolo: I couldn’t go on the ice with the team until that Monday before we played RPI and Union. I had a week where I was with the team but I couldn’t go on the ice for practice because I had to go through my background check and drug test and for insurance purposes—I hadn’t signed the contract yet. I was running practice from the bench and not going on the ice. It was a unique perspective because I got to sit back and watch. The assistant coaches were kind of doing things on the ice, so I got to evaluate the guys for a week without having to be on the ice with them. I learned a lot. I didn’t pick up their names until the St. Lawrence weekend.

INCH: So how did you address the players?

Marottolo: I was thinking of putting names on the back of helmets so during the game I would know who was who because I didn’t know the numbers. There was a lot of, ‘Hey, 25, get out there.’ The guys got a kick out of it.

INCH: What were the first things you wanted to accomplish with the team?

Marottolo: Shaun Hannah did a great job with that program. Sacred Heart is an emerging school in a lot of ways. The first thing I wanted to do in my first team meeting was telling them about myself and what I demand as a coach. I explained to them I want everybody, first and foremost, on this team to have an incredible work ethic and I want you to love to come to the rink with a smile on your face and eager to go. Everything after that will fall into place. I think we’ve accomplished that.

A lot has to be attributed to the senior group, who have done a tremendous job of setting the tone prior to me getting the job. We talked about a lot of things as a team and our goals, right now, will stay within our locker room.

INCH: What is possible with this team?

Marottolo: I think everything is possible. We’re very excited about how the team is evolving. It’s still a learning curve.

INCH: How do you like being a head coach, where all the responsibility is yours?

Marottolo: It’s great. Part of being the head guy is having good support people. (Assistant coach) Lou Santini, who stayed after the coaching change, has been terrific. He told me this is what we should be doing and what we shouldn’t be doing. He has been a great sounding board for me. Don Cook, the athletic director, has been unbelievable.

INCH: Did you get a lot of well wishes for your new job?

Marottolo: I’ve got hundreds of text messages. I have gotten notes. … The hockey coaching community is terrific, for them to take time out of their day to think about somebody else.

INCH: Who are your hockey influences?

Marottolo: A great influence was (former Yale head coach) Tim Taylor, and not just in hockey. It was about how he treated people and treated players as people, how he treated parents and recruits in the process. I learned a lot about integrity—it’s so important in this business. Keith Allain, I have taken a lot from. He is a wonderful new coach at Yale who has done an outstanding job. A big person in my life who I learned a lot from is my father (Carl). He was a youth hockey coach and I take a lot of things from him. He was one of the founding fathers of the Yale youth hockey program and ran the Yale clinic for a long time.

INCH: What is your favorite NHL team?

Marottolo: My favorite team would the Rangers.

INCH: Aside from the obvious of winning a championship, what do you want to accomplish as a head coach?

Marottolo: I want the young men who choose to come to Sacred Heart to leave Sacred Heart with a wonderful hockey experience. I want them to come into Sacred Heart as boys and have them leave as men, and have them understand about integrity and dignity and know how to treat people. I want them to do the right thing when no one is watching. I want them to understand it’s important for them to be good people. I want them to be good husbands, good friends, and good fathers. That would make me feel like I have done a good job as a coach.

It’s nearly impossible to empathize with Miami goaltender Cody Reichard’s experience at last April’s Frozen Four. Few people ever have the opportunity to play on such a grand stage and fewer run such a dramatic gamut of emotions in a startlingly short period.

That weekend provided the highest of highs for the then-freshman when he stopped 24 of 25 Bemidji State shots in the national semifinal to lead his team into the school’s first-ever national championship game in any sport. But then after 59 minutes of continued success in the title game against Boston University, Reichard’s spirits came crashing down as the Terriers scored twice in the final minute of regulation and on a fortuitous bounce in overtime to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Miami sophomore goaltender Cody Reichard enters the weekend ranked fifth nationally with a 1.61 goals against average.

Having seen the disappointment unfold so rapidly in April and given the well-documented quirkiness of the goaltending breed, any sane hockey fan would question how Reichard might respond to a potentially traumatic situation.

Twelve games into the new season, college hockey nation has its answer—Reichard has bounced back stronger than ever. In nine starts, the sophomore has compiled a 7-0-2 record on the strength of a 1.61 goals against average and .931 save percentage, and has mustered the strength to see how he can benefit that championship game disappointment.

“It was a great experience, not many guys can say they have played in a national championship game,” Reichard said. “We got pretty close, but it just wasn’t meant to be. It was a great experience, not only for hockey, but also in life.”

While he has successfully recovered from the disappointment and has used it for motivation to become a better all-around goaltender, Reichard admits that it wasn’t easy to move past.

“You think about it for quite a while,” Reichard said. “It’s not something you just shake off in a couple of days. It took a little bit of time, but then I worked hard and trained hard all summer long.”

Reichard’s play has helped the RedHawks to the top spot in the INCH Power Rankings, and Miami sits in prime position to contend for the CCHA regular-season title, despite a pair of ties with shootout losses against Ferris State last weekend.

Skating into Kalamazoo this weekend, Reichard will have to stay on top of his game against a struggling Western Michigan team that was swept at Ohio State last weekend. The RedHawks will be heavy favorites at Lawson Ice Arena, but they need to stay sharp for an extremely difficult Thanksgiving weekend.

Miami heads to Grand Forks for North Dakota’s Subway Holiday Classic Nov. 27 and 28, where they will face two of the nation’s hottest teams in Bemidji State and North Dakota. But even with those tantalizing opponents appearing over the horizon, Reichard knows that his team must stay grounded and take as many points as possible against the Broncos.

“We’re just trying to take everything one game at a time,” Reichard said. “We have our sights set on a league championship, a playoff championship, and a national championship, but we just take them one game at a time. First we play Friday, then Saturday and then the next weekend.”

Thirty-seven times last season, Boston College goalie John Muse left the ice, changed out of his uniform and had trouble walking out of the rink.

He was playing with a torn labrum in his right hip, an injury he certainly felt throughout the entirety of the 2008-09 season. After all, he was given a stinging reminder every time he extended his right leg to make a save. But Muse kept his iron-man streak alive, starting all 37 of BC’s games despite the injury.

The pain started at the tail end of the 2007-08 season - Muse’s freshman year, in which he started all 44 of the team’s games - but he thought nothing of it, particularly because the Eagles were driving toward a national championship and Muse’s stellar play was a major reason why.

He was named to the Hockey East All-Tournament Team after going 4-0 with a 1.28 goals-against average and .959 save percentage, and he was selected to the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team with a 2-0 record, 1.00 goals-against average and .961 save percentage. All the while, Muse thought he was playing with a strained groin, but he had the makings of a torn labrum.

“It wasn’t excruciating pain,” said Muse, who is now in his junior season. “It hurt on certain movements. When I’d overextend, I’d get a pinching in my hip, and mostly it was afterward when it hurt. It would hurt to walk pretty much every time after I played in a game.

“It started to hurt at the very end of my freshman year. It was giving me problems, and we thought it was a groin strain or something along those lines. That summer [in 2008], I ended up getting mono, and I think I was out for six weeks. I figured once I came back [the groin pain] would be all gone, and I would be healthy again. But when I started playing again, I had the same pain. I think I suddenly realized I should have it checked out. Once we had an MRI done on it, they determined there was something wrong inside and it wasn’t just the groin problem.”

Muse had the MRI during Boston College’s Christmas break in 2008, which was already 16 games into the season. At that point, Muse had a 2.58 goals-against average, which was 11th among all Hockey East goaltenders, and his .907 save percentage was tied for 10th. While his numbers suffered, it’s fair to note BC’s defense fell off from its championship run, too.

When asked if he was diagnosed with a torn labrum after the MRI, Muse responded, “We didn’t really go over what it was. I think they knew, but I wasn’t planning on getting it fixed during the middle of the season just because I wanted to finish off the regular season and figure out what I could do to make it better. I didn’t really pursue anything until after the season was over.”

Muse said it was a pretty consistent pain throughout the season that didn’t really worsen through time - “It was torn pretty early on, and I don’t think it got worse as the season went on or anything.” - but he didn’t think it really hindered his performance. After all, the kid backstopped a national championship on the balky hip. Because of that, he also didn’t want to make a big deal of it around the locker room.

“I tried to keep it quiet,” Muse said. “I tried not to let it bother me because I feel like if I go and tell everybody how much it hurts then I would start to realize how much it hurts. I was just keeping it quiet, trying to keep it out of my mind.”

The Eagles’ 2008-09 season ended with a 3-2 loss to Boston University in the Hockey East semifinals. The Terries scored three goals during a league-record 44-second stretch in the second period. BU forward Zach Cohen started the scoring with a couple of nice moves before backhanding the puck past Muse’s outstretched left skate, which may have caused some discomfort, and BU added two decisive goals within the next minute.

When it was determined the Eagles wouldn’t get a berth in the NCAA tournament, Muse was sent to a doctor in Boston who has worked with Tommy Cross’s knee issues. Coincidentally, a week before Muse’s visit, the doctor diagnosed former New Hampshire goalie Kevin Regan - who was playing with the Providence Bruins at the time - with a torn labrum. The doctors told Muse it has become a fairly common injury, and until medical knowledge improved, it was being misdiagnosed for years as a groin injury.

“When I went in there,” Muse said of the doctor’s office, “within five minutes of seeing me, he knew exactly what was wrong and what needed to be done.”

BC coach Jerry York gave Regan’s number to Muse, who called Regan the day before his own surgery. Regan gave him some advice on how to handle the situation and what to expect after the surgery.

Muse underwent surgery April 30, about five and a half weeks after BC’s season ended at the Garden. He was on crutches for “a tough nine weeks” afterward and finally put some skates on a week after he tossed the crutches aside. It wasn’t until the final week in August when he started taking shots in net.

“It was awesome,” Muse said. “I took a little over five months from completely not playing hockey. That’s pretty tough when you’re used to playing hockey every single day. It was really nice getting back out there finally.”

Even when he was away from the rink, Muse was working out every day with the Boston College training staff. He worked on upper-body strength while waiting for his hip to heal, and then he moved toward stabilizing his right hip. Still, Muse was kept on a very strict schedule, as the team trainers made sure he didn’t overwork himself, which could have led to a setback. Even now, his workout routine is being monitored until the hip fully heals.

Before the season, York anticipated giving Muse a much lighter workload and said he would rely more on backup goalies Parker Milner and Chris Venti. To date, though, Muse has started seven of BC’s eight games, while Milner has played once.

Muse said his right hip was “pretty sore” at the beginning, but things are improving as the season has progressed. He is 3-3-1 with a 2.85 goals-against average and .885 save percentage.

More impressive than Muse’s numbers is his resiliency. Boston College has played on back-to-back nights on two occasions this season, and Muse has played both games each time. He might be ahead of the doctor’s initial prognosis, which called for four to six months of recovery time, but Muse is right on schedule with his own plan.

“I knew I was going to be ready for the beginning of the season,” said Muse, who has played in the Eagles’ last five games. “They told me if I did everything I was told to throughout the summer then I would be ready for the season. I was there working every single day during the summer so I could get ready and be on the ice for the first game. Luckily, everything worked out and went according to plan, and I was able to play in the first game.”

Muse still isn’t pain free, but he’s getting there. He has obviously passed the physical constraints, and the emotional tests are way back in the rearview mirror. For a young athlete who has already accomplished so much, that original gut check can be pretty difficult to take. The mind can play some crazy games on a person who was once indestructible.

Now that Muse has been reconstructed, the Eagles have their workhorse in net and can put themselves in position to return to the national tournament.

“There’s always that thought that it might not heal correctly and I could be out for more than four months,” Muse said. “I could miss the first half of the season or something like that. But luckily, everything has gone according to plan so far, and hopefully it continues that way.

“It was a little difficult just knowing that I was having pretty major surgery on my hip, which is something I use every time I’m on the ice. It’s something that I need to be healthy, and I wasn’t too nervous about it afterward because I saw how many people had gotten the surgery and come back healthy.”

“I’ve talked to you a lot of times here when I wasn’t in a good mood, so I’ll talk to you now,” said Robert Morris head coach Derek Schooley upon entering the pressroom at Dwyer Arena in Niagara after his team rode Chris Kushneriuk’s first career hat trick to earn just their third win all-time in 15 games in western New York.

“We came out and battled and that was our theme of the week. We did the simple things and at times outworked them. But that’s a very good hockey team that’s not indicative of that team.”

RMU got off to a 2-6-0 start with wins against Alaska-Anchorage and Quinnipiac, but had scored more than one goal just once in their last five games leading to the Niagara series. They netted five in the win and three more in a tie in Moon Township the next day in the home-and-home series.

“If you look at our schedule, we’re playing all ranked teams and our strength of schedule is number one in the nation. We traveled to Alaska, traveling to Big Rapids, home against a ranked and unbeaten team in Quinnipiac, then to Bemidji and back on the bus to come here, we’ve put a lot of miles in.

“At times we’re a little fatigued, but I’m happy with our offense, but we need to make sure to tighten up defensively.”

Kushneriuk, who played at Wayne State two seasons ago in their final campaign, took over the team lead with his fourth, fifth and sixth goals of the season.

“I like to lurk around the net and try to find rebounds,” said the Ottawa native. “I’m never going to be an extremely flashy player, but when you’re playing with guys like (Nathan) Longpre and (Zach) Hervato, it makes everyone’s job a lot easier. I think our line right now has the right mindset.”

With the 3-3 tie at Robert Morris, Niagara ended their eight-game losing streak. Four days later, they finally earned the first win of the season on home ice against RPI thanks to three goals from freshmen Brent Vandenberg (2) and Giancario Iuorio—his first collegiate goal.

The Purps may have answered a few other season-long questions over the last five days as well with junior goaltender Adam Avramenko making 19 saves with one goal allowed against the Engineers after a 31-save effort in the Robert Morris tie.

And the Niagara power play, last in the nation with one marker over the first seven games, has exploded with six goals in their last 13 chances.

Robert Morris travels to Colorado College, currently seventh in the INCH Power Rankings, before again making the trek to Niagara the day before Thanksgiving.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

· Just five days after the Niagara coaching staff thought they would be making an announcement about senior defenseman Ryan Annesley being lost for the season due to a shoulder injury, the Purps’ best defenseman appeared in the lineup for both games against the Colonials and then tallied two assists in the win over RPI.

· Bemidji State announced the signing of forwards Radoslav Illo (Bystrica, Slovakia) and Jeff Jubinville (Edmonton, Alberta) during the fall early signing period and will join the program for the 2010-11 campaign. Illo was a fifth round draft choice of Anaheim in June.

· Bemidji State is averaging exactly three goals per game more in the second game of a two-game series than the first game this season. They have scored 11 goals in series-openers while piling up 26 goals in the second tilt of the weekend.

· After managing just one goal over two home losses to UMass-Lowell last weekend, Alabama-Huntsville takes a 119:14 scoreless streak into Bemidji State this weekend. The Chargers are riding a six-game losing streak, but two of those losses were to the Beavers and both went into overtime Halloween weekend. UAH hasn’t scored more than one goal in a game since Oct. 17.

St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko didn’t see the hit live. Neither, apparently, did any of the four men in stripes on the ice. At least not very clearly.

With North Dakota star defenseman Chay Genoway laying on the ice, obviously injured after getting hit from behind against the end boards, the officials had seen enough to know that the infraction warranted a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct. They just were a little fuzzy on who did it.

So with 2:33 to play in the second period of what would end up as a 4-2 Fighting Sioux win last Friday, referees Tim Walsh and Don Adam informed Huskies junior defenseman Chris Hepp that he was out of the game. According to Motzko, that’s when he first learned there was something wrong with the call.

“Chris went to (assistant coach) Eric Rud and said, ‘Why am I being tossed? I didn’t hit anybody!’” Motzko said. Hepp, who wears sweater number 18, had been confused with Aaron Marvin, who wears 17, and who had delivered what his coach called a “careless hit” on Genoway.

During the ensuing break between periods WCHA supervisor of officials Greg Shepherd, who was in attendance in Grand Forks that night, went over view of the play with the on-ice officials.

“We wanted to get it right, because we weren’t sure of the number,” Shepherd said.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door of the Huskies locker room, and officials informed the team that Marvin, not Hepp, was out of the game. Hepp, who was out of uniform and headed for the shower, quickly geared up and played the third period. Marvin got a one-game suspension from the league and did not play in Saturday’s 3-2 St. Cloud State win.

According to Shepherd, the goal is to get the call right on the ice, but they can and do use video to ensure that the right players are penalized.

“You can’t go back and change penalties, but you can change the numbers,” Shepherd said.

Motzko said that in the confusion, mistakes happen, and he’s happy they took the time to eventually make the correct call, using the tools they have.

“One of the great things about video is that they can get it right,” Motzko said.

As for the hypothetical question about what would have happened had Marvin scored a goal during that 153-second span where he skated a shift for the Huskies when he should have been out of the game, Shepherd refused to speculate.

“I don’t even want to go there,” he said. “It worked out fine, and it’s over with.”

Inside College Hockey writers answered questions in our weekly chat at ESPN.com.

INCH Chat at ESPN.com

BRIAN O’NEILL
Yale
So. | F | Yardley, Pa.

His Statistics: 2GP, 2-3—5, +3 plus-minus rating

His Impact: Yale’s high-scoring sophomore was involved in a very good weekend for the defending ECAC Hockey champions. After a so-so start to the season, the Bulldogs earned a 4-2 win over unbeaten Cornell and rallied for a 3-3 tie against first-place Colgate. O’Neill factored in prominently with two goals and three assists on the weekend.

He assisted Yale’s first goal as well as the eventual game-winner in the victory over Cornell and sealed the victory with an empty-net goal. In Saturday’s game against Colgate, Yale trailed 2-0 in the second period before O’Neill’s goal got them on the board. He then assisted Sean Backman’s goal later in the period to pull the Bulldogs to within 3-2.

His Runners-Up: Stephane De Costa (Merrimack); Andrew Favot (RIT); Justin Fontaine (Minnesota Duluth); Chris Kushneriuk (Robert Morris); Drew Palmisano (Michigan State)

The INCH Player of the Week is presented by The INCH Shop

The RIT Tigers have bounced back from a slow start to move into first place in Atlantic Hockey. After starting the season with five straight losses, RIT has run off six consecutive wins—the nation’s longest winning streak—and is the only team in Atlantic Hockey with a winning overall record. 

Barely six weeks into the season, a number of high-profile players have been sidelined with various dings and dents—Minnesota’s Jay Barriball and Nick Leddy, Yale’s Thomas Dignard, Rensselaer’s Tyler Helfrich, Northeastern’s Steve Quailer, and Notre Dame’s Ted Ruth among them. Injuries affect every team, but we don’t have to like it. This weekend’s North Dakota-Denver series, for example, should be a doozy … but how much better could it be if we were assured Marc Cheverie, Patrich Wiercioch, and Chay Genoway would be healthy?

“We’re not that good. We’ve got one returning 20-goal scorer, and he’s got one goal, and outside of that … we don’t have a lot of prolific offensive players.” — Michigan coach Red Berenson to the Michigan Daily following his team’s back-to-back losses to Michigan State this past weekend.

If Michigan’s season keeps going in this direction, we may have to officially name this segment of the First Shift in honor of Berenson. The Wolverines have scored a total of four goals in their last four games—all of them losses—and anyone who has watched their last two series against Miami and Michigan State can see that Berenson’s club is severely lacking playmakers and their ability to create scoring chances is virtually non-existent.

This week we won’t point to any unusual voting patterns in the national polls, but to some of the circumstances that we considered when stacking the INCH Power Rankings. Michigan State and Colorado College made huge jumps in both the INCH Power Rankings as well as the national polls after conference sweeps on the weekend. That’s mainly due to the work of MSU and CC, but partially due to a middling bunch of efforts by teams ranked in the 6-15 range. It’s early, sure, but it seems like there’s a definite drop in stature from the top 5-7 teams and the rest of the pack in college hockey.

runwiththedogs: about 4 hats on the ice … pathetic

The people behind the Minnesota Duluth Runnin’ with the Dogs blog tweeted this message shortly after the Bulldogs’ Justin Fontaine scored his third goal in Saturday’s 8-1 rout of Michigan Tech (he would add a fouth goal before all was said and done). The message touches on an INCH pet peeve: If you are wearing a hat to a hockey game and a player scores three goals, it is your duty to toss said hat onto the ice.

Don’t want to chuck your favorite lid? Bring one you don’t care about. And even if it is your best hat, throw it anyway—the good karma you’ll get from the hockey gods will far surpass the out-of-pocket cost of replacing it.