Hockey East Online

	Hockey East Player of the Week David Warsofsky of Boston University

WAKEFIELD, Mass. -- All three Hockey East series this weekend were splits, which included the visiting team winning four of the six games.

No. 4 ranked Boston University opened with a 5-4 overtime win at Lowell on Friday and the River Hawks turned around the next night with a 3-2 victory to hold serve.

Terriers’ defenseman Colby Cohen (Villanova, Pa.) notched the OT game-winner at Tsongas Arena with 1:06 remaining in the extra frame, while Hockey East Player of the Week David Warsofsky (Marshfield, Mass.) tallied three points on the weekend and a +4 plus/minus rating, which included two goals in Friday’s win. UML’s Michael Scheu (Buffalo, N.Y.) potted a goal in each of the game vs. the Terriers. Senior goalie Nevin Hamilton (Ashland, Mass.) made 24 saves on Saturday for his second victory of the season for the River Hawks.

Massachusetts notched a 5-3 comeback win at Providence College on Friday at Schneider Arena on the heels of a three-goal third period. The Friars then returned the favor the next night in Amherst, edging the Minutemen by a 2-1 score. UMass’ offense leads the league, scoring 3.80 goals per contest. Junior goaltender Paul Dainton (Genelle, B.C.) made 35 saves on Friday for the Minutemen. PC’s Alex Beaudry (Cumberland, Ont.) made 78 saves on the weekend, including a career-high 47 stops on Saturday in the Friars’ victory. His .951 save percentage helped him earn Pure Hockey Defensive Player of the Week honors for the second time in four weeks.

The No. 12 BC Eagles opened with a 4-3 win Friday night at Conte Forum against Merrimack and the Warriors came back on Sunday with a convincing 5-3 score to run their home record to 5-0 on the season. Brandon Brodhag (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) had a goal and an assist in each game for the Warriors, while the Eagles were paced by Brian Gibbons (Braintree, Mass.), who also notched a four-point weekend.

Maine downed No. 10 Vermont in a single game on Friday at Alfond Arena in Orono. The Black Bears were led by Pro Ambitions Co-Rookie of the Week Adam Shemansky (Robbinsville, N.Y.), who notched two goals in Maine’s first league win of the season. Sophomore goalie Scott Darling (Lemont, Ill.) had his finest game of the season with 31 saves vs. the Catamounts.

UNH was defeated in a pair of game at WCHA foe Wisconsin over the Halloween weekend. The ‘Cats goalie Brian Foster (Pembroke, N.H.) did all he could to keep UNH in the game, making 77 saves in the two-game set in Madison. Foster posted a career-high 47 saves in the losing cause on Friday.

Andrew Braithwaite, MC (Sr., G, Kingston, Ont.) Stopped 29 saves in the victory vs. BC on Sunday for his third straight win.

Paul Carey, BC (So., F, Weymouth, Mass.) Recorded his first three points (1g,2a) including a multiple-point effort in the team’s 4-3 win on Friday.

Alex Chiasson, BU (Fr., F, St. Augustin, Que.) Opened the scoring in the 5-4 win at UMass Lowell on Friday with his team-leading third goal of the season.

Colby Cohen, BU (So., D, Villanova, Pa.) Scored the overtime winner in Friday’s 5-4 win at UMass Lowell and added an assist in Saturday’s loss.

Stephane Da Costa, MC (Fr., F, Paris, France) Notched four points in two games this weekend, including a goal and an assist in a 5-3 win over BC Sunday.

Scott Darling, Maine (So., G, Lemont, Ill.) Made a season-high 31 saves in the 4-1 victory over No. 10 Vermont.

Mark Fayne, PC (Sr., D., Sagamore Beach, Mass.) Assisted on both goals in PC’s 2-1 win at UMass. Also scored one goal the night before in a 5-3 loss.

Brian Foster, UNH (Sr., G, Pembroke, N.H.) Registered a career-high 47 saves on Friday at Wisconsin; he had 77 saves in two games this weekend.

Brian Gibbons, BC (Jr., F, Braintree, Mass.) Recorded a team-high four points (1g,3a) in the home-and-home split with Merrimack.

Jimmy Hayes, BC (So., F, Dorchester, Mass.) Tallied three points – two goals and one assist – in a two-game split with Merrimack.

Matt Irwin, UMass (So., D, Brentwood Bay, B.C.) Had three points (2g,1a) on the weekend in the split with Providence.

Michael Scheu, UML (So., F, Buffalo, N.Y.) Scored a pair of goals, his first two of the season, in the home-and-home split with BU.

Ben Smith, BC (Sr., F, Avon, Conn.) Recorded two goals, including the decisive goal in Friday’s 4-3 win, and finished with three points in the split with MC.

David Vallorani, UML (So., F, Hamilton, Ont.) Tallied three points (0g, 3a) in UML’s weekend split with Boston University.

Alex Velischek, PC (Fr., F, Kinnelon, N.J.) Had one assist in each game of a weekend split against No. 17 UMass.

Paul Worthington, UML (Sr., F, Penndel, Pa.) Tallied three points (1g, 2a) in the River Hawks’ weekend split with Boston University.

Matt Bergland, PC (Faribault , Minn.) On a four-game point streak with seven points (4g,3a) in that span

Kyle Bigos, MC (Upland, Calif.) Notched his first career goal on the power play Friday.

Brandon Brodhag, MC (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) Tallied his first career goal and assist on Friday

Brian Foster, UNH (Pembroke, N.H.) Stopped 77 shots in 107:12 in two games at Wisconsin

Matt Irwin , UMass (Brentwood Bay , B.C.) Has scored a point in eight straight games (8g,5a) dating back to last season

Brian Keane, UMass (Shortsvile, N.Y.) Scored the game-winning goal at PC for his third in seven career goals

Pat Kimball, MC (Framingham, Mass.) J.C. Robitaille , MC (Des Ruiseaux, QC) Each appeared in their 100th career game on Friday for MC

Jordan Kremyr (Cloverdale, B.C.) Has recorded at least one point in six of the seven games

Maine’s power play The Black Bears have scored at least one power play in every game this season. The Black Bears have 13 goals in 47 power play opportunities this year for a 27.7 power play percentage

Tyler McNeely , NU (Burnaby, B.C.) Played in his 75th career game at New Hampshire

The MERRIMACK line of Jeff Velleca, Stephane Da Costa , Brandon Brodhag Combined for 11 points in two games against BC

Stevie Moses, UNH (Leominster, Mass.) has three goals in the last three games for the Wildcats

Will Ortiz, UMass (Framingham, Mass.) Played in his 100th career game against Providence on Oct. 31

David Vallorani, UML (Hamilton , Ont.) Has six points (2g, 4a) in his last four games

The early season results to date seem to indicate that it is going to be tough to earn a weekend sweep when playing a league opponent on consecutive nights. Through this same date last year, four such series had been completed and here are the results:

Northeastern took two games at Maine; Massachusetts swept a home-and-home series with Providence; Boston College swept a home-and-home series with Merrimack; and UNH took three of four points in a home-and-home series with Northeastern.

This year, there have been three home-and-home series, all of them played this past weekend. The results? BU and Lowell split, UMass and Providence split; BC and Merrimack split. What is also interesting to note is that in the four games played by BU-UML and PC-UMass, the visiting team won all four games.

We talk a good deal about parity in Hockey East and the ability for any team to defeat any opponent on a given night. It sounds like propaganda at times. This year, the early results seem to back up the claim. There are seven more home-andhome series in the month of November. Let’s check back after Thanksgiving to see if anyone is able to enjoy a four-point weekend in that stretch of games. It is this type of competition, weekend after weekend, that prepares Hockey East teams for the post-season and leads to the league-wide success enjoyed in March and April in recent years.

Nov. 1, 1986: Billy Riley collects his 300th win behind the Lowell bench as ULowell defeats Merrimack, 4-3, at the Tully Forum.

Nov. 1, 1996: UNH defeats Northeastern 7-3 to begin a program-best 14-game winning streak that ran until Jan. 3, 1997.

Nov. 1, 2002: The Friars defeated UMass 2-1 in overtime to improve to 6-0, the best six-game start in school history.

Nov. 2, 1991: Former NHL star Bruce Crowder earns his first victory as UMass Lowell’s head coach as the River Hawks defeat Elmira, 9-2, in the first round of the USAir Classic in Providence, Rhode Island.

Nov. 7, 2005: Jon Quick earns his first-ever Hockey East Rookie of the Week honor after making 49 saves in a loss to Providence.

Boston College: BC lost to Merrimack for the first time since Feb. 15, 2003 spanning 21 games during which BC went 17-0-4. The Eagles won Friday’s game at home and are 20-0-2 against the Warriors inside Conte Forum since Halloween 1997...Freshman goaltender Parker Milner (Pittsburgh, Pa) made 15 saves to earn the win in his collegiate debut in Friday’s 4-3 win over Merrimack, snapping a string of 83-straight starts by junior John Muse (East Falmouth, Mass.)...Senior defenseman Carl Sneep (Nisswa, Minn.) tallied one point in each game this weekend and leads all BC defensemen in points with three (1g,2a) through four games...Freshman center Pat Mullane (Wallingford, Conn.) notched an assist on Hayes’ goal for his first collegiate point.

Boston University: The Terriers used the first two-goal performance of sophomore David Warsofsky’s career to post a 5-4 overtime victory at No. 8 UMass Lowell on Friday…Junior Colby Cohen, who scored the overtime winner in last year’s national championship game, did the same against the River Hawks on Friday, helping the Terriers keep alive an impressive streak. They have not lost a conference game in overtime since Feb. 21, 2003 (5-4) at Providence…The Terriers are undefeated (9-0-1) in their last 10 games in which they have been outshot. This streak dates back to Jan. 26, 2008, as UNH was the last team to top BU while recording more shots… BU successfully killed off 22 of its opponents’ first 23 power plays this season…The Terriers will visit Northeastern and Maine next weekend. BU is a combined 22-2-6 against the Huskies and Black Bears over the past four seasons. The Terriers have not lost a regular-season game against Maine since Jan. 22, 2005.

Maine: Freshman Adam Shemansky scored a pair of goals in Maine’s win over #10 Vermont to take over the team lead in goals scored with five. Shemansky has four power play goals…Maine has 13 power play goals and are scoring at a 27.7 clip with the man-advantage…The Black Bears are averaging 1.86 power play goals per game…Maine has scored at least one power play goal in all seven games this season…The three power play goals against Vermont were the most since Maine scored four against Boston University on March 14, 2009…Maine’s Gustav Nyquist extended his point scoring streak to six games with an assist in the game against Vermont…Maine’s top three scorers have 24 points between them, yet have been whistled for just one penalty for two minutes between them…The Black Bears recorded a season-high 39 shots on goal against Vermont…Former Black Bears Keith Carney was inducted into the UMaine Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009.

Massachusetts: UMass started the year 4-0 for the first time since 2003-04 and with a 3-0 mark in Hockey East prior to the loss to Providence was off to its best start in league play ever… UMass ranks 6th nationally in scoring offense (3.80 gpg) and 3rd in power play conversion (11/36 – 30.6%) …11 of UMass’ 19 goals scored have been on the power play…UMass is outscoring opponents 8-to-2 in the third period this season…UMass will face Niagara in a home-and-home series this weekend, the first meeting between the two schools since 2006…UMass is 4-0-0 all-time in the series with Niagara.

UMass-Lowell: #8 UMass Lowell (4-2-0, 2-1-0 HE) split its homeand- home series with the #4 BU Terriers…Saturday marked the River Hawks’ first win against BU since March 15, 2008, snapping a six-game losing streak to the Terriers…Senior Paul Worthington (Langhorne, Pa.), who recorded a career-high three points in the last win over BU, tallied three points (1g, 2a) in the series including an assist on Saturday’s game-winner…Following the weekend series, four of the last five meetings between the two clubs have been decided by one-goal…The River Hawks are averaging a conference low 10 penalty minutes per game…Nick Schaus (Buffalo, N.Y.) became the first UML skater to score a point in his first three games of the season since Barry Goers (Ivyland, Pa.) in 2007-08…David Vallorani picked up three points on the weekend and is now tied with Kory Falite (Billerica, Mass.) for the River Hawk lead as both have six points on two goals and four assists…Michael Scheu returned from an ankle injury this weekend to score his first two goals of the season…Up next, UML will travel to Vermont on Friday night before returning home for a Sunday showdown with UNH on ESPNU.

Merrimack: Merrimack improved to 5-0 at home with a 5-3 win over #12 Boston College Sunday, its best start at home since the 1998-89 season, its last season as a ECAC member before joining Hockey East…Chris Barton (Calgary, Alb.) continues to lead all Hockey East players with seven goals, while Stephane Da Costa (Paris, France) is second with six goals and has 10 points, tops among rookies…Merrimack snapped a 20-game winless streak (0-16-4) against Boston College dating back to February 15, 2003 with the 5-3 victory...The victory was the first for BC alum Mark Dennehy against the Eagles as coach of the Warriors…Merrimack is 2-1 in Hockey East play for the first time since the 1998-99 campaign…With a power play goal in each game against the Eagles, Merrimack has at least a man-advantage tally in six straight games…Senior captain Pat Bowen (Marshfield, Mass.) notched an assist in each game this weekend, extending his point streak to five games. Bowen leads all Hockey East defensemen with eight assists…The line of Da Costa, Brandon Brodhag and Jeff Velleca combined for 11 points in two games against the Eagles, with each registering a goal and an assist in Sunday’s win…Merrimack exploded for five unanswered goals in Sunday’s victory…After playing a league-high eight games in the first month of the season, the Warriors will be idle this weekend before opening a home-and-home series with Boston University on November 13.

New Hampshire: UNH dropped a pair of non-conference games at #19 Wisconsin. The Wildcats are now 0-9 lifetime at Wisconsin… Brian Foster turned away a career-high 47 shots of Friday night…Peter LeBlanc (Hamilton, Ont.) potted a short-handed goal on Friday night. It was his first tally of the season and the first shorthanded goal for the Wildcats this season…Stevie Moses score UNH’s lone goal on Saturday at Wisconsin. Moses has three goals in the last three games for New Hampshire…UNH is the only unbeaten team in Hockey East...The Wildcats will play a pair of television Hockey East games this weekend when they play host to Boston College Friday night (7 p.m.) live on NESN and at UMass Lowell Sunday afternoon (5 p.m.) live on ESPNU.

Northeastern: The freshman class continues to impress as the young nucleus of Huskies leads the sophomores, juniors and seniors with 10 overall points (5-5-10). Both the juniors (5-4-9) and seniors (2-7-9) have totaled nine points while the sophomore class (1-3-4) has contributed for four points. The newcomers have accounted for 31.3 percent of the Huskies’ offense through five games.Freshman Chris Rawlings has made at least 30 saves in four out of his five starts. The North Delta, B.C. native stopped 30 shots at both UNH and UML this past weekend coupled with a 33 and 34-save effort in the weekend opener at CC, respectively. He has amassed 154 saves through five games (30.8 saves per game). Only two others goalies in the conference (Alex Beaudry , PC (186 saves) and Brian Foster, UNH (182 saves) have totaled more saves than Rawlings...Northeastern has converted at least one powerplay goal in all five regular-season games thus far.

Providence College: The Friars earned a weekend split against No. 17 UMass, losing, 5-3, on Friday at Schneider Arena before handing the Minutemen their first loss of the season (2-1 on Saturday at the Mullins Center )…Sophomore goaltender Alex Beaudry made a career-high 47 saves, including 20 in the third period during Saturday’s win…Prior to Saturday’s performance, Beaudry’s career high was 42 saves, a feat he accomplished on January 16, 2009 in a victory at UMass. Beaudry’s 47 saves are the most by a PC goalie since Tyler Sims made 59 saves in a Hockey East Quarterfinal double overtime game at UNH. In addition, the 47 saves are the most by a PC goalie in a regular-season game since Bobby Goepfert recorded 47 stops against Northeastern on January 4, 2004…The Friars, who won four road games last season, already have four victories away from Schneider Arena this season…PC also has already matched the number of one-goal victories from last season (3)…Prior to Friday’s 5-3 loss, the Friars had held opponents to two goals or fewer in five consecutive games…After not scoring on the man advantage in the first three games, the Friars have scored four power-play goals in the last four contests…PC has 11 players with at least one goal this season.

Vermont: Sophomore Matt Marshall (Hingham, Mass.) scored his first goal of the season in Friday’s loss to Maine…It was Marshall’s first goal since Nov. 2 of last season in a win at Dartmouth…Marshall became the 11th different Catamount to score a goal this season…Senior Brayden Irwin (Toronto, Ont.) extended his scoring streak to five games with an assist against the Black Bears…The Catamounts play 11 of their next 14 games at home after playing four of their first five contests on the road…Vermont has started the season 1-3 on the road after going 12-6-1 away from Gutterson Fieldhouse last season…Sophomore goalie Rob Madore (Pittsburgh, Pa.) is averaging 31 saves per game…Vermont hosts UMass-Lowell on Friday (7:05 p.m.) and Providence on Sunday (4 p.m.)…The Catamounts went 1-1-1 against the River Hawks last season and 2-0-1 against the Friars.