January 3, 2012
First Semester Division I: Power Rankings
Who's Number 1 in D1?
1) West Chester University Golden Rams (10-1-0)
It’s very hard to find anything
wrong with this team while looking up and down the roster. It is even harder to
believe that rumor has it that this roster may be getting some serious
bolstering come next semester; negating what seems like will be a successful
2012 for the Rams, this past semester has been Golden for WCU as they’ve passed
about every test thrown at them in the past calendar year.
Of the 10 everyday roster players
on the Rams roster none of them are averaging below a point per game and three
of them are averaging more than two Adam St. Clair (2.18), Jack Grossman
(2.72), and offensive dynamo Jonathan Lucente (3.81) those three have been key
in their key comeback wins against both Neumann and West Chester so they’ll
start off at number one.
Unsung Hero: Goaltender Roman
Chiokadze has been stellar in net for the Rams with a 2.00 GAA but what makes
him more remarkable is his poise to bounce back regardless of the last goal
against as seen in the West point win where after allowing 4 early goals shut
down the Knights with 26 saves in the final two periods.
Let the debate begin, although the Knights
have the two ties on their record, they have been absolutely dominant in most
games against whoever has tested them, even besting the SECRHL leading
University of Central Florida 5-3 in their clash at Skate Safe America.
Much like their cross town rivals the
Neumann Knights are led by a trio of excellent players averaging over 2 points
per game in Andy Zubak, Ed Jones and AJ Ehinger who remarkably has scored 8 of
his 18 goals this season on a power play which is 80% of his teams PP goal
output. However without the depth
of West Chester they struggle with secondary scoring which places them at
number two.
Unsung Hero(es): Justin Brown and Mike
Maczynski that lack of secondary scoring is being made up in a two part
equation, first by Brown’s hardworking effort day in and day out; he kills
penalties scores goals and generally produces everything that’s asked of him by
his team. The second part is the timely goaltending of Maczynski who for the
most part has put the team on his back through his bend don’t break mentality.
SBU who may be the biggest surprise of this
season garnishes a gaudy 9 win record in 10 games with their only loss coming
to the aforementioned Neumann Knights. This team at times plays more like they belong
in an ice rink with their high tempo hard forechecking style of play. Oh! also
by the way they have a brick wall in net by the name of Adam Melillo who leads
the ECRHA in both wins and shutouts.
2) Neumann University Knights (8-1-2)
3) Stony Brook University Seawolves (9-1-0)
It’s hard to overshadow Melillo this season
if it wasn’t for the play of the trio of Justin Zim, Derek Blatchley, and John
Kaszubski who are fourth, third, and second in the league in points and have
generated 57 goals and 50 assists for 107 points leading the Seawolf attack.
While there’s so much NCRHA talk about Michigan St., Lindenwood, Ohio St. and
even UNLV. Stony Brook is my surprise to compete deep into the elimination for
the national championship come Mid-April especially after pounding eight goals
home on Central Florida in front of a home crowd at Skate Safe America.
Unsung Hero: Eric Urso if was a sibling in
the metaphorical “Stony Brook Family” he’d be the often forgotten middle child
who secretly does everyone else’s housework with none of the credit. He has
produced a goal a game been excellent on both sides of the puck in all three
zones while being one of the most balanced contributors in the Stony Brook
arsenal.
4) Hofstra University Pride (7-3-1)
They have beaten almost everyone they’re
supposed to beat and pushed both Stony Brook and West Chester to the very limit
in respective 4-1 and 4-6 games.
The team organizationally is deep with players who can plug in and out
of coach Jim Tamburino’s system that demands the absolute best of his players
on all areas of the floor. 24 players have suited up for the Pride this season
and while not all have been able to produce on the scoresheet most have made a
meaningful contribution on the Pride this season players like Devin Gee and
Richie Schwartz who have either spent time this or last year along side the B
players before being mainstays with the DI squad.
Those players have been privy to the playmaking abilities of Chris Culot
and the finishing of Pat Rosa. The junior tandem has accumulated 175 points
together in the last 3 years and are a mainstay in the infrastructure that
makes the Pride a contender for the regional championship this spring. Culot is
a miraculously talented playmaker who has racked up 24 assists this season and
six goals. It must be said however that if Culot wants to push himself into the
upper echelon of players in the NCRHA he’s going to have to pull the trigger a
lot more often in 2012.
Unsung Hero: Jared Occhicone is definitely
a difference maker in the net, and it’s quite obvious when he struggles so does
the rest of the Hofstra team, while his numbers are significantly better year
after year Occhicone still seems to lack the same game changing prowess that
led his Hofstra team to an impressive run in 2009 at Nationals in San Jose.
5 ) Towson University Tigers (5-3-2)
Towson has been among the "Who's, who?" of the Collegiate hockey world since the days of the CRHL in the early 2000's with some past greats suiting up for them like current Hofstra coach Jim Tamburino and Gene Gsell among others. 2010 for the Tigers was rocky to say the least, but in a short year the Tigers have restocked and regrouped matching their win total from last year in just one semester; with a couple of impressive four goal victories over West Point and Temple. While tying Neumann and UConn at the Skate Safe tournament in November.
t The Tigers have been the beneficiaries of some great defense led by goaltender Scott Fensterer who has been giving up less than 4 goals a game with a .845 save percentage in his first year with the Tigers. This is a pretty impressive feat judging Towson offense is only generating around 4 goals a game scoring 46 goals in 10 games which is good only for a +2 goal differential. The offense is led by Mike Seyglinski who has netted 14 goals in 9 games played while getting some secondary support from Drew Fitzhugh and Brian Woodzisz. The three of them also lead the team's power play unit which is working at an efficient 45.2% but has also allowed 5 short handed goals in 31 power play chances.
Unsung Hero: A.J. Nisbet who in 20 games last year had a total of 15 points has already reached 11 points in half the games. On a team where scoring is tough to come by Nisbet is adding some depth as well as a steady presence on the defensive side of the puck; his leadership is definitely prevalent in the defense first identity of this edition of the Towson squad.
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6 ) US Military Academy at West Point Black
Knights (5-5-0)
There was a time at the Columbus day event
when I was convinced that West Point and West Chester were going to be the the
top two teams in the east. The Black Knights had come out the gates swinging in
the first two events in Feasterville and Lemoyne however since stumbled in some
tough losses against Rowan, Hofstra and the disaster of a loss against West
Chester after holding a 5-0 lead early into the second period. Despite those
setbacks the Black Knights are a seriously resilient bunch of players; who
despite a lack of scoring prowess manage to come into the all-star weekend with
an impressive .500 record.
The Black Knights have managed to keep
themselves in close games regardless of their lack of scoring with a staunch
defense led by goaltender Bradford Witt who is sporting an impressive .915 save
percentage in 4 starts with the West Point squad. The Black Knights have also
gotten help from goaltenders Tony Day and Michael Lesmeister during the first
semester and are going to need to find a steady starter to take the reigns for
the Knights heading into March. Unsung Hero: Matt Riopelle with ten points
in ten games the 22 year old from Fargo, ND has been a solid producer for the
Knights. More so Riopelle on a team typically blasted for its knack for
untimely penalties, has only 2 minutes in the box in 10 games and has scored 2
short handed goals while working hard on the top PK unit.
7) University of Connecticut Huskies (3-6-2)
I won’t lie it is hard to pick a UConn team
over PSU and Temple who has played more games and garnished less wins than
their ECRHA counterparts this season. But I think the woes the Huskies had to
endure in the first semester are (for the better part) now in the rearview
mirror. The Huskies dropped some key first semester games in Feasterville to
Rowan and West Point by one goal each. However those losses were in part to the
absence of former 50 point scorer Nick Tomczyk and former all star Tyler
Dasilva; whose much needed return sparked the Huskies to an imperative 2-1-1
record at Skate Safe America last semester. In their absence Cody Gabor had no problems
shouldering their load for the first half of the Huskies semester where he
eclipsed his prior year’s totals; and continued his dominant performance on the
UConn Power Play when they desperately needed goals. Gabor is likely to thrive
with the re-additions of Tomczyk and Dasilva who now allow forwards like Gabor
and AJ Grocki to play the lesser tertiary and secondary defensive pairs of
teams in the division
Unsung Hero: Zach Bach has been the jam of
this year’s team after a suspension late last year that most likely cost his
team some serious points going down the stretch in 2010-11. Now Bach is the
leader of the team off the rink and is doing a superb job handling the
adversity of finding a new coach and replenishing the UConn roster in the
second semester. Bach is also on pace to see over 460 shots this year which is
a career high while posting an .819 save percentage that has been trending
upward in recent competition.
The Owls definitely have an argument to be
sitting at the sixth or even fifth spot on this power ranking, but the issue is
the Owls at every opportunity given have yet to beat a team that sits higher
than them in the standings aside from Penn State. The Owls haven’t even lost
those games by a significant amount either aside from a thrashing in Lemoyne by
West Chester.
8) Temple University Owls (4-6-0)
Temple can play with just about anyone you
throw their way from any of the tiers of the elite division in the ECRHA. Alas
they don’t have the killer instinct to finish against the Neumanns and Stony
Brooks of the league. This is best evidenced by one goal losses to Neumann and
Hofstra who both beat the Owls with third period tallies the most stinging of
so was AJ Ehinger’s dagger with 8 seconds to go after the Owls had a one goal
lead with less than 20 seconds on the clock. Those kind of losses hurt when the
Owls still have to play Suffolk, UConn, Stony Brook, Neumann and West Chester
all in the next calendar year on top of a interregional where they’ll play East
Carolina, George Mason, and North Carolina State.
Unsung Hero: on the team so far is the
continued brilliance of Scott Kalbfleisch who has been amazing for the Owls for
the last three years but often went unnoticed playing with Josh Altman who of
late has been nowhere near his form last year. Kalbfleisch along with former
Shippensburg standout Trevor Davis are most likely the jam the team will need
to snag its first ever DI regional playoff bid.
9) Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions
(4-5-1)
I can clearly remember in 2009 when players
Brett Dzura and Adam Bogart along with goaltender Mitchell Reinhold were
holding the B division national championships above their heads after reeling
in impressive wins versus Lindenwood and Central Florida. That was a very
different time in the Penn State roller hockey history when the DI squad
couldn’t get a sniff at a Nationals Bid; things have changed since then, the Nittany
Lions have gotten back on track as a DI contender playing with the best of what
the ECRHA has to offer winning tight games against Hofstra and Towson. However,
they do struggle with some serious consistency issues. The Lions were unable to garner wins
against a struggling Brockport team, tied a short handed UConn squad, and
suffered a one sided loss to Temple in October after dropping a one goal
decision to West Point.
Scoring
has been sporadic at best for the Lions with all of it being generated from the
top four players and only sporting 3 players with 10 or more points and one
player with greater than 8 goals. The path to Nationals is much reliant on the
play of goaltender Mitchell Reinhold who is struggling to meet his career marks
set in 09-10 with a 1.80 Goals against average with a .911 save percentage
against his 3.90 GAA and .847 SV% of this year; still is one of the best
goaltenders in DI and will have to really play the role of Atlas and carry what
seems to be the world on his shoulders heading into March. With the Lions
dropping 3 of their last four they’ll sit at the eighth spot of the power
rankings.
Unsung Hero(es): First year players Kevin
McGraw, Sean Stahl and Brian Milici have been welcome additions to this year’s
Nittany Lions roster. The three players have combine for 30 points with McGraw
being up amongst the leader in assists and Milici holding the second spot on
the team in goals scored. They’ll have to perform at the same level next
semester as well if they plan to make a run deep into regionals.
If you want to talk about anemic offences
this is one of the best possible example in the entirety of the ECRHA. There
are offences that have scored just about the same or less but those teams do
not have the same skill as the Eagles who of late have been underperforming.
Last year’s team scraped their way into the playoffs and surprised their way
into nationals much on the back of former SUNY Buffalo standout Alex Durinka
and 40 point scorer Joseph Chappius. With Durinka transferring for the second
time in as many years to Ohio St. Chappius has struggled to find the chemistry
he once had with this year’s edition of the Golden Eagles.
10 ) SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles (3-7-1)
Easing the pain of the Brockport scoring
woes is the play of who in my opinion is the most naturally talented goalie in
the entire ECRHA, Patrick Keyes, Keyes by no means is having a good year statistically with a goals against
average around five and a save percentage below 85% but Keyes does enough to
make Brockport a contender against stronger teams for the most part. Best
example is his performances against
Hofstra, Penn St., and Central Florida. Keyes legitimately cannot have an off
game from here until March if the Golden Eagles want to make the Regional Championships which
is a lot to ask of your only DI goaltender. However if anyone is going hold the
keys to the proverbial Brockport car on their drive to Feasterville it’s him.
(Terrible pun.)
Unsung Hero: Kevin Galante has a brother
who carried another SUNY team to a regional championship game in DIII for the
Oswego St. Lakers and hopes to do so for them again this year. Kevin has
decided to follow suit and decide to do his best effort for this year’s
Brockport side as he leads the offence with 6 goals. Hopefully for Galante,
based on the last event in Lemoyne, Joe Chappius can provide some primary goal
scoring help.
11) Rowan
University Profs (3-6-1)
A pleasant surprise has been the twosome of
Talyor Devlin and Alexander Schmitt who have accounted for 18 of the 43 goals
on the Rowan roster which is great considering that Schmitt is only a freshman,
and the Rowan organization has both a B and a PCRHL squad to pull from.
Unsung Hero: Coach Jones has done a
phenomenal job with both the B and DI teams for Rowan this year pulling the
most potential possible out of his players who fell into his lap as an absolute
hodgepodge and are now shaping up to be a contender for the 8th, 7th,
or even 6th spot in the region.
12) University Rhode Island Rams (2-9-1)
Rowan who expected to be having a serious
rebuilding year, had the hardest hit of the year with graduating players. All
but 7 points (5 goals 2 assists) remained on this year’s team from players Jon
Adams and Brendan Scalley; the two of whom coincidentally don’t even lead the
team in goals, points, or assists. That for sure has to be a welcome relief for
a team that is still trying to find its swagger. The Profs are definitely a
team that can make a late push for the playoffs if they can get some better
efforts out of their two goaltenders who have yet to break the 80% save plateau.
This team is very much different
than their 0-18-0 team from a year ago and even more different than the team
that lost their 7th game against temple in Feasterville earlier this
season. The Rhode Island Rams are very much trending in the right direction in
the recent years thanks largely in part to leading goal scorer Cody Allard and
set up man Dave McFillin; the two of whom are starting to emerge as some
seriously talented players in the ECRHA.
More so the transformation can be
attributed to the two coaches Dan Leonard and Corey Allard who as former Rams
themselves are looking to instill a winning tradition back into the URI roster
that was synonymous with the URI teams from only a few short years ago.
Unsung Hero: Team Chemistry is
going to be a huge part in whether this team can break the five win mark or
not. For the most part this team has been absolutely disjointed with one
another. 1 on 3 rushes into the offensive zone, committing too many people to
the forecheck, not enough on the backcheck, and a plethora of turnovers have
led to some losses that were preventable. However the team is starting to show
signs of cohesiveness which is most likely too little to late but for that
reason they sit at 11th on the list.
13) SUNY Buffalo Wings (2-8-0)
What a difference a year makes, from
regional runners up, to being stuck in the ECRHA cellar. The SUNY Buffalo name
has been a recognized Nationals contender year after year since its inception;
this year however is abundantly different. Beyond Bryan Feiler and Josh Sibenik
there is almost no help on this team offensively, and while Feiler does have
both the flash and substance that is tantamount with the players of Buffalo
teams past it is not enough to make up for the absence of secondary scoring on
the squad. Nobody on the team aside from Feiler and Sibenik have managed to
score more than 2 goals this season and on the flip side the -24 goal
differential isn’t anything positive either.
It doesn’t make sense to pine over the losses
of Alexx Christie, Alex Durinka, Shaun Golden, Chris Kendall, Tyler Walser and
Matt McNeil the team if they want to compete they’ll have to commit to either
the offensive side of the puck, or the defensive side of the puck to win games
finding an identity for this years Wings’ team is going to need to be first on
the agenda for this team to rebuild for years to come.
Unsung Hero: Next year. There’s always next
year, and with Buffalo having a couple of professional inline teams, a division
I club ice hockey players a world class inline rink and a plethora of ice rinks
in the immediate area this team could be a powerhouse in one year given the
correct consideration by its executive board/front office. There is a ton of talent to be had by
this Buffalo organization that for its first year in ten years doesn’t have a B
team. I have a premonition that this Wings team will see an immediate
turnaround next season, but the recruiting efforts have to start today.
14) Rutgers University Scarlet Knights (1-9-0)
Rutgers, much like SUNY Buffalo, were a
team a year removed from a nationals bid and a late push into regionals. They
like the aforementioned Buffalo team have no shortage of woes heading into
2012, struggling to score and having all sorts of struggles keeping pucks out of
their own net this Rutgers team lacks both a game changing scorer and
goaltender.
The brightest spots on the squad have been Gary
Rokozak and Chris Notley who have led the Scarlet Knights in scoring.
Unfortunately the goaltending of Matt Strickler and Dan Yulo have not been very
good both with goals against averages greater than five and failing on average
to save greater than 77% of the shots they have faced. The Rutgers squad in
general has been a bit schizophrenic as well with lop sided losses to Rowan,
Stony Brook, Buffalo, and UConn but less than three goal losses to Brockport,
Towson, Suffolk and remarkably a 3-1 game to Neumann. Perhaps if Rutgers can
pull out some second half wins against Brockport and Rowan, and hope for some
help for losses from the teams above them.
Unsung Hero: Organizational strength is
something that I have cited a lot while recapping these teams, but I cannot
emphasize how much having the support of a B team, a recreational team or even
an organized team-run a intramural team can assist in rebuilding a team in less
time than expected. Rutgers has that depth organizationally and the benefit of
being located directly in the center of one of the roller hockey hot beds in
both the nation and the northeast. Rutgers might be on the snide now but soon
they could be back where they were just a short year ago.
Unranked) Suffolk County Community College Sharks
(7-3-1)
This Suffolk team is unranked on
this list due to the fact that although they play in the premier division of
the ECRHA; they aren’t able to qualify for the Division I regionals, since they
are in fact, a Junior College team. With that they are one of the best teams in
the entire ECRHA, they beat a WCU squad, tied Neumann, and only suffered
(non-forfeit) losses to Hofstra and Stony Brook. The team has one outrageous issue,
which is getting the majority of the team to show up but beyond that there’s
some serious talent. Most of the players spent time as leading point getters in
either the Suffolk or Islandwide high school leagues. Guys like Troy Wengaar, William Coogan,
James Reiger and Ed Clark have all picked up the slack scoring for the Sharks
while Mike Alonzo has yet to lose a DI game in his ECRHA career.
Unsung Hero: The Auto-Bid to
nationals. The Sharks can book their tickets to SLC right now if they want to
and I suggest they do, because not only is Nationals an experience to behold,
but this team has a legitimate shot at winning the JC crown nationally. They
have just about every asset to do so: Scoring, Defense, Goaltending, Coaching,
Strong competition, and Organizational Depth. Look for the Sharks to take a
serious bite out the competition in 2012 especially late in April.
That’s it for this month’s recap, thanks for reading and
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