Jackets Face Black Knights in Home-in-Home
THE MATCHUP: AIC (8-16-4, 8-12-2 AHA) winners of three
out of their last four contests will face the Army Black Knights
(12-12-4, 12-7-3 AHA) in a weekend home-in-home series.
THE SERIES: Army leads the all-time series 43-14-4. The Black Knights have taken both match-ups thus far on the season, winning in West Springfield 4-3, and back at West Point 7-1.
SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS: The American International College ice hockey team is coming off of the first weekend sweep of Bentley College in the Division I era. Prior to that, AIC split a series with conference leader RIT. The Yellow Jackets are 4-3-2 since dropping two out of conference contests to Robert Morris to start the New Year.
Mark Pavli and Mike McMillan are tied for the team lead with 22 points. McMillan has eight goals and 14 assists while Pavli has notched six scores and 16 helpers. After scoring a pair o f goals over the weekend senior Jereme Tendler now has 10 scores to lead the team.
Dan Ramirez has a 8-9-3 record on the season. He currently owns a 3.07 goals-against-average and a .901 save percentage. He has the most wins for a freshman goalie since the team joined the Division I ranks.
SCOUTING THE BLACK KNIGHTS: Army is in the midst of a seven game unbeatened streak (6-0-1). Last time the Black Knights suffered a loss it was to Canisius back on January 18th. They are coming off of back-to-back wins over Holy Cross.
Army has a very potent first line led by Owen Meyer, who has 14 goals and 11 assists, and Luke Flicek who is leading the team with nine goals and 19 assists for 28 total points. Bryce Hollweg is another dangerous scorer for the Black Knights, he has eight goals and 15 assists to place him third on the squad with 23 total points.
Josh Kassel has been the goalie of record for the Blackknights with 11 wins under his belt. He has a 2.07 goals-against-average and a .918 save percentage. He has 1.88 GAA in the conference, which leads the AHA.
THE BUZZ: AIC's weekend sweep of Bentley was the first set of back-to-back victories against the Falcons in the Division I era. The Jackets downed RIT at the Ritter Ice Arena for the first time in program history (2/01/2008). Dan Ramirez stopped a career-best 43 shots in that contest. AIC's 3-2 win over Holy Cross (1/8/07) was only the second victory in the last 20 match-ups over the Crusaders (2-16-2). Freshman Tom Mele notched his first collegiate goal (1/5/08) against Robert Morris. The victory over RIT (12/7/07) was the Yellow Jacket's first ever win against the Tigers. AIC killed nine out of a possible 10 power-play chances that RIT had on the weekend. Mike McMillan notched his sixth goal of the season against UConn, passing his total output of five goals from a year ago. The Jackets tallied three power-play goals against Air Force. They had only two man advantage scores prior to last weekend. AIC earned a 1-1 tie against No. 16 RPI (10/23/07). After starting the season 0-5-1 the Jackets have gone 4-8-1 in their last 11 contests. Freshman goalie Dan Ramirez was named Atlantic Hockey Association Goalie of the Week (11/18/07) and Rookie of the Week (12/11/07) this season. After sweeping Canisius (10/16/07) AIC earned their first four point weekend since the 2005-2006 season when they downed Canisius 5-2 and 3-1. Jereme Tendler, Bryan Jurynec, Greg Genovese and Chris Bolognino all played in their 100th collegiate match-up this season. Sophomore Chris Campanale notched his first collegiate goal against UConn (10/19/07). Freshman Steve McLeod and T.J. Smith captured their first collegiate point when they both assisted on a Chris Bolognino score against Quinnipiac (10/30/07). McLeod earned his first goal against Army (11/10/07). T.J. Smith notched his first collegiate goal against Canisius last Saturday. AIC has a strong non-conference schedule this season facing two teams that were ranked in the top 20 last year. The Jackets return three out of their top four scorers from a year ago, while adding an impressive cast of freshman recruits. Jereme Tendler earned a spot on the AHA Third-Team All-Conference list last season totaling 15 goals and 13 assists. He notched the team's first hat-trick since 2005 when he scored three times against UConn last season. It was the most points scored by a Yellow Jacket since Ryan Robin totaled four points off of two goals and two assists against the Huskies in round one of a 2005 AHA tournament game. The Yellow Jackets' victory December 1, 2006 over Mercyhurst was the first time AIC had defeated the Lakers in 15 attempts and was the first time AIC had downed Mercyhurst since February 2nd, 2001.
‘MELE' GOOD: Who leads the team in goals
since the start of the New Year? Freshman Tom
Mele does. He has five scores since notching his first goal
against Robert Morris earlier in the month.
OUT OF THE BOX: AIC is currently the 13th least penalized team in the country, averaging only 12.3 penalty minutes a contest.THE PUCK STOPS HERE: Freshman Dan Ramirez has been a hot topic in college hockey this season. Ramirez has eight wins on the year and was twice given major Atlantic Hockey awards. He has also been mentioned in the Boston Herald's hockey round-up and also on www.USCHO.com.
250 AND COUNTING: The Yellow Jackets victory over Holy Cross (1/15/2008) was win number 250 for AIC head coach Gary Wright. WELCOMING IN THE NEW YEAR: The Yellow Jackets have enjoyed bringing in the New Year. Last season the team was 2-14-0 in 2006 and 5-10-1 after the new year, including a first-round Atlantic Hockey Tournament victory over the Canisius Golden Griffins. In the prior season, AIC was 1-10-2 entering 2006, and finished the season going 5-11-3.
HEAD COACH GARY WRIGHT: Gary Wright is in his 2 4th season at the helm of the AIC hockey program. The winningest coach in AIC history, Wright has amassed a 253-399-46 record in 23 seasons. Wright led the Jackets to a 11-14-4 MAAC record in their first year of Division I play, earning MAAC Coach of the Year honors. He also led the Jackets to an ECAC East title in 1989-90. Wright is a 1976 graduate of the University of Vermont.
JACKETS FEATURED IN NEW ENGLAND HOCKEY JOURNAL: Check out the November issue of the New England Hockey Journal. The American International College hockey squad is featured in a two-page layout promoting the teams' positive push forward.
TENDLER FEATURED IN REPUBLICAN: Tuesday, December 11th, the Springfield Republican printed an article titled "center makes smart choice" in reference to Jereme Tendler's decision to play college hockey instead of major juniors.
JACKETS AGAINST NATIONALLY RANKED TEAMS: Last week RIT cracked the Inside College Hockey top-20 Power Rankings. American International downed the Tigers earlier this season 4-2. The Yellow Jackets also earned a 1-1 tied against RPI who has been in and out of the top 20 all season.
CAN'T CATCH THE GAME?: For scores and
highlights of men's ice hockey as well as AIC's 21 other varsity
sports, check out www.aicyellowjackets.com. The site is
updated regularly and available 24 hours a day to read about your
favorite Yellow Jacket teams.