AIC Preps For Showdown with Robert Morris 

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THE MATCHUP: AIC (4-11-2, 4-9-1 AHA) will play host to the Colonials of Robert Morris University (7-7-2, 4-1-1 CHA). Friday night the two teams will square off at 7:05 pm, while Saturday's contest is scheduled for a 3:05 pm start time.

THE SERIES: Friday evening's match-up marks the first meeting between AIC and RMU.

SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS:  AIC hasn't played a game since the weekend of December 15th, when they dropped a pair to Mercyhurst College. The Yellow Jackets lost both games by one goal, 5-4 and 2-1, respectively.
    

Sophomore Mike McMillan leads the team with seven goals. He is tied with senior captain Jereme Tendler for first on the squad with 16 points. Tendler has six goals and ten assists. AIC's first line of Tendler, McMillan and freshman Steve McLeod have enjoyed success skating together. McLeod leads all freshman on the team with four goals and six assists.
  

The Yellow Jackets can attribute some of their early season improvement to freshman goalie Dan Ramirez. Ramirez has a .913 save percentage and a 2.57 goals-against-average on the year. He has been between the pipes for all four Yellow Jacket victories.

SCOUTING THE COLONIALS:  Robert Morris earned a win and a tie against conference foe Alabama-Huntsville last time out. The Colonials have had a string of impressive victories this season, which includes wins over national powers Ohio State and Boston University.   
    

Ryan Cruthers leads the team and the CHA with five goals and 11 points in conference action this season. He has 10 goals and 10 assists total. He also leads the conference in power-play goals and is second overall with six assists. Chris Margott is second on the team with five goals and 13 assists, good for 18 points.
  

Christian Boucher is 7-4-1 in net for Robert Morris this season. He has a .901 save percentage and a 2.93 goals-against-average.

THE BUZZ: 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 4-6-1 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 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.  

THE PUCK STOPS HERE:  Freshman Dan Ramirez has been a hot topic in college hockey this season. Ramirez currently has a .913 save percentage and a 2.57 goals-against-average on the year. He has twice been given major Atlantic Hockey Association awards.

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 24th season at the helm of the AIC hockey program.  The winningest coach in AIC history, Wright has amassed a 249-394-46 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.

AHEAD OF SCHEDULE:  AIC currently has four wins on the season. It took the Yellow Jackets until January 19th of their 2006-2007 campaign to garner their fourth win.

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.

BURNS JOINS STAFF: A four-year member of the Connecticut Huskies, Brian Burns joins the Yellow Jacket's as a volunteer assistant coach. Burns takes Pat Tabb's spot, who was inked as the head coach of the Springfield Falcons Junior B Team earlier this season.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: After shrinking to eight teams for the 2005-06 season with the departure of Quinnipiac, Atlantic Hockey has expanded to 10 teams last season.  Air Force joined the AHA from College Hockey America, while Rochester Institute of Technology, a Division I independent before joining the conference a year ago.  

CAN'T GET TO 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.