By Nate Ewell
Note of the Week
De Laurell, Falcons soaring – Air Force, Atlantic Hockey’s NCAA Tournament representative five of the past six seasons, seemed a long shot for another appearance when sitting at 5-8-4 on Dec. 30. Beginning that night the Falcons have gone 6-1-1, with the lone loss coming by a goal to Atlantic leader Niagara. Senior Kyle De Laurell has 6 goals and 11 points in those 8 games, and the sharpshooting Californian had a hat trick against rival Army. The first-team All-Atlantic Hockey selection a year ago leads the Falcons – who have climbed to second place in Atlantic Hockey – into a home series with American International this weekend.
Must Read/See/Hear Material
Canisius defenseman displays feats of inner strength – Buffalo News
Gensler’s the guy for Bentley – College Hockey News
Penn State hockey a hot property in first D-I season – Sports Business Journal
Yale’s Balch embraced role, made Bulldogs better – New Haven Register
LeBlanc has St. Cloud in the NCAA hunt – NCAA.com
An Outstanding 11 – Hockey Humanitarian Award
Five More Notes No One Should Be Without
Tough times at the top – The top four teams in the polls that played last Friday night came away with losses, and no result was more surprising than Maine’s win at No. 3 Boston College. The Black Bears won again Saturday night, producing their first sweep at BC since Paul Kariya’s rookie year (1993). Maine is now 5-3-2 since the Christmas break after a 2-11-2 start and host two more teams in the top half of the Hockey East standings – Providence and UMass Lowell – this weekend.
Colgate’s other rookie – Colgate’s freshman class has earned its share of accolades, in particular the trio of forwards – Kyle Baun and twin brothers Tylor and Tyson Spink – who played together on the Cornwall Colts last season. Their classmate in goal, Spencer Finney, deserves his share of praise as well. The Pontypool, Ontario, native only had two starts through mid-November, both losses, but is 8-3-1 with a 1.75 GAA and .937 save percentage since then. He allowed only one goal in each game of a sweep last weekend, including a 35-save upset of Yale Saturday night.
Colgate was hit with tough news Tuesday when it was revealed that sophomore defenseman Spiro Goulakos had to leave the team to receive treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. College Hockey News
Another freshman goalie leads Alaska – Freshman goaltenders are having success throughout college hockey – nine of them have save percentages over .920. That group doesn’t even include Alaska’s John Keeney, who – like Finney, above – has come on lately after playing sparingly early in the year. Keeney has led the Nanooks on an NCAA-best six-game winning streak headed into this weekend’s series at Miami. The RedHawks are the only team to sweep Alaska this season.
Opposite weekend in Grand Forks – North Dakota and Wisconsin enter this weekend’s series in Grand Forks with identical 8-5-5 WCHA records, tied for fourth in the conference. They’ve arrived there by different means, however, with North Dakota boasting the conference’s top offense and the Badgers allowing the fewest goals in the league (tied with Minnesota). Danny Kristo (MTL pick) and Corban Knight (FLA pick) lead the UND offense with 25 points apiece in WCHA games. UW has an impressive defense, led by captain John Ramage (CGY pick) and World Junior captain Jake McCabe (BUF pick), but the story lately has been the play of sophomore goaltenders Landon Peterson and Joel Rumpel. Peterson didn’t lose in January (3-0-0), while Rumpel posted the nation’s best GAA (0.99).
Both games are on FOX Sports College.
Boston’s big stage – The Beanpot faces off Monday night, and Harvard and Northeastern will attempt to wrest the title from BC or BU, who have combined to win the last 19 titles. Northeastern has posted wins against both BC and BU already this year (Harvard has also beaten BU). Freshman superstar Kevin Roy has 2g-2a in those wins for the Huskies, and also had a 5-point game against Harvard.
Monday’s games are on NESN.