Notes: Early first-place showdown in Atlantic Hockey

By Jayson Hajdu

The top two teams in the Atlantic Hockey standings will square off this weekend when conference co-leaders RIT and Sacred Heart meet Friday and Saturday in Rochester. The Tigers (8-2-0, 7-1-0 AH) and Pioneers (6-1-1, 6-1-1 AH) enter the series with 20 points apiece, giving them a six-point lead over Niagara through eight league games.

Sacred Heart (4.0 goals/game) and RIT (3.9) rank fifth and sixth in the nation, respectively, in scoring offense.

This week’s schedule also features a slew of top-20 matchups, including:

No. 1 Minnesota vs. No. 7/8 Penn State
No. 2 Denver at No. 12/13 North Dakota
No. 3 Michigan at No. 18 Notre Dame
No. 4 St. Cloud State vs. No. 17 Western Michigan
No. 7/8 UConn vs. No. 9 Providence
No. 10/11 UMass vs. No. 14 Boston University

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Must Read:

College Hockey Inc.: From Alberta to the NCAA: A frequently traveled path
College Hockey News: A Frozen Four contender, Bobcats come out strong as ECAC play starts
College Hockey News: Peter Eigner’s journey, from cancer to forward to goalie
Denver Post: McNab, longtime broadcaster and former DU star, dies at 70: “Father of Colorado hockey”
EP Rinkside: Draft Retrospective: The evolution of Cale Makar
Grand Forks Herald: Q&A with Ralph Engelstad Arena’s Jody Hodgson on UND’s game in Las Vegas
Grand Forks Herald: Riese Gaber is on a hot streak and may have found a linemate to match
New England Hockey Journal: 10 things we learned from New England college hockey Nov. 4-6
NHL.com: Black women coaches make history in NCAA Division I
USCHO: Discussing parity in college hockey, figuring out poll rankings
USCHO: More changes coming at top of rankings, Harvard lone unbeaten, Lindenwood gets first sweep

Must Hear:

Analytics and Eyeballs: Featuring Lindenwood head coach Rick Zombo
CHN Insiders: Merrimack is Team of the Week and league schedules started in full force
Inside Atlantic Hockey: Featuring American International head coach Eric Lang
The CCHA Show: Featuring Bowling Green head coach Ty Eigner and St. Thomas D Garrett Daly
The Rink Live: Splits, protocol penalties, video reviews and more
THN American Pipeline: Devils prospects, Fantilli and more
USCHO Weekend Review: Penn State-Michigan lives up to expectations, looking at notable teams so far

Polin is Rollin’:

There’s no hotter goal-scorer in the nation than Western Michigan senior F Jason Polin (Holt, Mich.), who put together back-to-back hat tricks in the Broncos’ NCHC sweep of Miami last weekend.

Polin scored three times, including a short-handed tally, to key Friday’s 7-1 victory. One night later, he figured in on all five WMU goals in a 5-2 win by producing a hat trick and two assists.

In nine games this year, Polin has a team-leading nine goals to go along with 16 points and a plus-9 rating.

Spartan Sniper:

Perhaps something was in the air in the state of Michigan last weekend. On the same night Polin notched his first of two hat tricks in Kalamazoo, Michigan State senior F Erik Middendorf (Scottsdale, Ariz.) erupted for four goals in a 5-0 Big Ten victory over Wisconsin.

They were the first goals of the season for Middendorf, who became the first Spartan to score four times in a game since Sean Berens did it on January 10, 1998.

The 500 Club:

Cornell head coach Mike Schafer won his 500th career game in Friday’s 3-1 victory over Princeton, becoming the 15th NCAA Division I men’s coach to reach that milestone. Schafer is the third active Division I bench boss with 500-plus wins, joining Notre Dame’s Jeff Jackson (562) and Quinnipiac’s Rand Pecknold (511).

Schafer, who took over the Big Red in 1995-96, has guided Cornell to 13 NCAA Tournament appearances and six regular-season conference championships.

Remembering Peter McNab:

The hockey world lost one of its finest ambassadors with the passing of Peter McNab (Denver, 1970-73) on Sunday. McNab racked up 170 career points in three collegiate seasons at DU before embarking upon a 13-year NHL career that included stops in Buffalo, Boston, Vancouver and New Jersey. He totaled 813 career NHL points and enjoyed 10 seasons of 20-plus goals.

McNab, who most recently served as the TV color analyst for the Colorado Avalanche, was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2021.

You Can Quote Me On That:

“What can I say about Ross Mitton? He is in the zone right now, so I should probably just get out of his way.” – Colgate head coach Don Vaughan after his junior forward scored the OT goal Saturday at Princeton, Mitton’s third tally in the last four games.

NHL Note of the Week:

Winnipeg Jets F Blake Wheeler (Minnesota, 2005-08) will enter Saturday’s tilt in Calgary with 299 career NHL goals. He is bidding to become the sixth active NCAA alumni to reach 300, a club that already includes Joe Pavelski (427), Zach Parise (412), Phil Kessel (400), Jonathan Toews (364) and Max Pacioretty (323).

After opening the 2022-23 campaign without a goal in his first six games, Wheeler has lit the lamp three times in his last five contests.

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

UNO graduate F Tyler Weiss (Raleigh, N.C.) enters the week needing one point to reach 100 for his career, while Lake Superior State senior F Louis Boudon (Grenoble, France) is just two points away from the same milestone … Northeastern senior F Aidan McDonough (Milton, Mass.) collected his 100th collegiate point with a goal in Friday’s win over New Hampshire … Sacred Heart scored three times in a 21-second span during Friday’s 6-3 win over Mercyhurst. Two of the goals came 10 seconds apart, believed to be an Atlantic Hockey record … Penn State junior G Liam Souliere (Brampton, Ontario) had his school-record shutout streak snapped at 184:55 in Friday’s loss to Michigan … Lindenwood earned its first Division I men’s hockey sweep with 2-1 and 5-3 wins over Army last weekend … Michigan Tech head coach Joe Shawan picked up career win No. 100 last Friday at Bowling Green.

College Hockey Inc. Resources: