AIC Travels to Rochester to Square off Against the Tigers
THE MATCHUP: The Yellow Jackets of American International
College hit the road to take on the Rochester Institute of
Technology Tigers in a weekend Altantic Hockey match-up.
THE SERIES: AIC earned their first victory over the Tigers last time these two teams met in early December. RIT holds a 9-1-1 all-time edge over American International.
SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS: AIC took 11 days off before earning a 3-3 tie against Dartmouth, on Sunday. The Jackets held a 3-2 edge late in the third but gave up a goal with only one tick on the clock, forcing the game into overtime, where the two squads played to a draw. Prior to that contest, the Yellow Jackets fell to Holy Cross 5-3.
Jereme Tendler and Mike McMillan both lead the team with 19 points. Each player has eight goals and 11 assists to lead the first-line attack. Since the start of the new year, freshman Tom Mele has came on strong and leads the team with four goals. Mark Pavli is third on the team in scoring with five goals and 11 assists. David Turco and Chris Campanale lead the team with seven points since the start of the New Year.
Freshman Dan Ramirez raised his save percentage back up to .900 following the Dartmouth game. He has a 3.02 goals-against-average with a 5-8-3 overall record.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS: RIT earned one point via a loss and a tie to the Connecticut Huskies last weekend. Prior to that, the Tigers had won three games in a row. Before the loss to UConn, RIT was ranked Inside College Hockey's top-20 power rankings.
The Tigers have two of the top goal scorers in the league in Matt Smith and Simon Lambert. Lambert is in a tie for second in the conference with 11 goals while Smith sits in fourth with 10 scores in the AHA. Matt Crowell has nine goals and eight assists to land himself third on the team in scoring with 17 points.
Louis Menard is regarded as one of the better goalies in the conference. He has a 2.74 goals-against-average to go alongside a .904 save percentage.
THE BUZZ: 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 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 four scores since notching his first goal against Robert Morris earlier in the month.
OUT OF THE BOX: AIC is currently the 10th least penalized team in the country, averaging only 11.8 penalty minutes a contest.
THE PUCK STOPS HERE: Freshman Dan Ramirez has been a hot topic in college hockey this season. Ramirez has five 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 last Tuesday evening 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 24th season at the helm of the AIC hockey program. The winningest coach in AIC history, Wright has amassed a 250-398-46 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
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your favorite Yellow Jacket teams.