Hockey East Online

	Hockey East Players of the Week David Vallorani of UMass Lowell

WAKEFIELD, Mass. -- The Maine Black Bears swept their weekend series with Providence College, while Boston College and New Hampshire also picked up two victories over the weekend. Vermont picked up a shutout of Yale in a rare Monday night game, while UMass-Lowell downed Massachusetts on Saturday night at the Mullins Center. Boston University and Vermont ended their game Friday in a 3-3 deadlocked tie.

Pure Hockey Co-Defensive Player of the Week Scott Darling (Lemont, Ill.) led Maine to a pair of wins against the Friars with 47 stops on the weekend and a .959 save percentage. Gustav Nyquist also continued his torrid scoring pace with two goals, including the game-winner in the victory on Friday. PC goalie Alex Beaudry (Cumberland, Ont.) notched 60 saves on the weekend in the losing effort. Maine was the first league team to sweep the same opponent in a weekend series this year.

UNH’s Brian Foster (Pembroke, N.H) also had a fine weekend of play with 57 saves (.950 save%) in victories vs. the River Hawks and Catamounts to earn Co-Defensive honors, along with Darling. The Wildcats are undefeated in their last six league contests (5-0-1). UVM forward Justin Milo (Edina, Minn.) posted two assists in the loss on Sunday.

UMass-Lowell rebounded from a 2-1 loss to UNH on Friday with a 5-3 win at Massachusetts on Saturday. Sophomore forward David Vallorani (Hamilton, Ont.) notched his first career hat trick in the game to propel the River Hawks to victory, earning him Hockey East Player of the Week honors for the first time in his UML career. Blueliner Nick Schaus (Buffalo, N.Y.) also notched three assists in the game vs. the Minutemen.

The Eagles opened the weekend with a 3-1 win at UMass Friday with a solid performance from freshman Parker Milner (Pittsburgh, Pa.) in net, stopping 23 of 24 UMass shots. Milner earned Pro Ambitions Hockey Rookie of the Week honors for his efforts on the weekend. BC junior netminder John Muse totaled 30 saves in the 4-1 win vs. BU on Saturday night at Agganis Arena.

Northeastern and Merrimack split their weekend set with a 3-1 Warriors victory Friday and a 2-1 NU win on Saturday at Matthews Arena. Merrimack improved their home record to 7-1 on Friday with a 26-save effort from senior goalie Andrew Braithwaite (Kingston, Ont.). Freshman goalie Bryan Mountain (Bryn Mawr, Pa.) made 24 saves for the win in his second collegiate start for the Huskies.

The Terriers amassed 40 shots on goal Friday night with UVM’s Rob Madore (Pittsburgh, Pa.) notching 37 saves in the tie. Corey Trivino (Toronto, Ont.) got the game-tying goal with just 5:18 remaining in the game.

Cam Atkinson, BC (So., F, Greenwich, Conn.) Recorded three points (2g,1a) road victories over UMass and BU.

Alex Beaudry, PC (So., G., Cumberland, Ont.) Averaged 30 saves in two games at Maine over the weekend.

Justin Bonitatibus, MC (Sr., F, Arlington, Mass.) Netted a goal and an assist in a 3-1 win over Northeastern Friday.

Andrew Braithwaite, MC (Sr., G, Kingston, Ont) Stopped 26 shots in a 3-1 win over Northeastern on Friday night.

Stephane Da Costa, MC (Fr., F, Paris, France) Tallied an assist in both games, extending his point streak to nine.

Joey Diamond, Maine (Fr., F, Long Beach, N.Y.) Opened the scoring with a power play goal in Maine’s 3-1 victory over PC on Saturday night.

Brian Gibbons, BC (Jr., F, Braintree, Mass.) Notched two goals, including the decisive goal on Friday, in road victories over UMass and BU.

Blake Kessel, UNH (So., D, Verona, Wis.) Potted a pair of goals including the game-winning goal in Friday night’s 2-1 win over UMass-Lowell.

James Marcou (Jr., F, Kings Park, N.Y.) Scored a goal against #15 Boston College and added an assist against #8 UMass Lowell.

Stevie Moses, UNH (So., F, Leominster, Mass.) Dished out three assists over the weekend leading all Wildcats in points

Justin Milo, UVM, (Jr., F, Edina, Minn.) Had four assists in three games for the Catamounts last week.

Bryan Mountain, NU (Fr., G, Bryn Mawr, Pa.) Earned his first collegiate victory with 24 saves in a 2-1 win over Merrimack on Saturday night.

Gustav Nyquist, Maine (So., F, Malmo, Sweden) Scored two goals including the game-winner in Maine’s 3-1 victory over Providence on Friday night.

Nick Schaus, UML (Sr., D, Buffalo, N.Y.) Tallied four assists in the 5-3 win over the Minutemen. For the weekend, Schaus maintained a +3 rating.

Tim Schaller, PC (Fr., Merrimack, N.H.) Scored one goal against Maine on Friday in the 3-1 loss at Alfond Arena.

David Strathman, NU (Sr., D, Tempe, Ariz.) Dialed up his first game-winning goal since NU last shut out Merrimack on Jan. 12, 2008, 3-0.

Corey Trivino, BU (So., F, Toronto, Ont.) Scored the game-tying goal and added an assist in BU’s 3-3 draw with Vermont on Friday

Cam Atkinson, BC (Greenwich, Conn.) Has five goals and eight points in BC’s last six games

GREG BURKE, UNH (LEE, N.H.) Scored his first collegiate goal on Sunday at Vermont

Stephane Da Costa , MC (Paris, France) Extended his point streak to nine with 13 points (3g,10) during that time

Brian Foster, UNH (PEMBROKE, N.H.) Owns a 5-0-1 in his last six games with a 2.30 GAA and a .927 save%

John Heffernan, MC (Scituate , MASS.) Netted his first career goal in Friday’s victory vs. NU

Matt Mangene, Maine (Manorville , N.Y.) Recorded his first career goal on Friday night against Providence

UMass’ James Marcou (Kings Park, N.Y.) and Casey Wellman (Brentwood, Calif.) Have combined for 21 points in the last six games. Wellman has 7 goals and 2 assists, while Marcou has 2 goal and 10 assists.

Gustav Nyquist (Malmo, Sweden) Has six goals and five assists for 11 points in his last six games

Will Ortiz, UMASS (Framingham, Mass.) Is having his best season since 2006-07 with 5 goals and 9 assists through 14 games. In 2006-07, Ortiz posted 7 goals and 14 assists.

Nick Schaus (Buffalo, NY) Is the first UML defenseman to tally four points in a game since Kevin Bertram on Mar. 4, 2000

Tim Smith, PC (Superior, Wis.) Recorded his first career assist on Friday against Maine

Edwin Shea, BC (Shrewsbury , Mass.) Scored his first career goal, the gamewinner, in BC’s 4-1 win at BU

Carl Sneep, BC (Niswa, Min.) Extended his scoring streak to five games (3-3-6)

I attended a high school jamboree in Marlboro, Mass., on Sunday, hosted by the Massachusetts State High School Coaches Association and sponsored by Bauer. More than 1,100 boys and girls on 64 teams participated in abbreviated games and a couple of workshops. A panel was put together to address the entire group and I was honored to participate along with the likes of University of Massachusetts head coach Don “Toot” Cahoon, Boston University strength and conditioning coach Mike Boyle, former Northeastern and 1998 Women’s Olympic head coach Ben Smith, UMass-Dartmouth head coach John Rolli, and Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli (a former Harvard University captain).

Each speaker had his own brief message but all encouraged the young players to enjoy where they were and to appreciate the opportunity to be part of something as special as high school hockey. There was a time when young players spent four years at one school prior to four years at college. Today, few Division I players cover this ground in eight consecutive years. There is is often a year between secondary school and college, for junior hockey or to PG at a prep school Perhaps a change of schools requires the repeating of a grade. For some, each of these is a factor, resulting in the typical freshman of today, 20 years old or older. The young Massachusetts boys sitting in Marlboro were told yesterday that the number of Massachusetts kids playing NCAA Division I hockey this year is 107, down from 188 in the 1998-99 season. The number of New Englanders has dropped from 288 to 176 in this period. These were sobering facts for the young men to hear and all the more reason for them to enjoy the special experience they are part of today.

Dec. 7, 1984: UNH defeats Michigan Tech 8-2 for its first victory as a member of Hockey East.

Dec. 7, 2001: Senior goalie Cam McCormick kicks out 27 shots and records his fifth shutout of the season as UMass Lowell beats St. Lawrence, 4-0, in Canton, N.Y. It is the seventh career shutout for McCormick, eclipsing Brian Doyle’s record set from 1976-80.

Dec. 9, 2006: Josh Soares tied a school record with two shorthanded goals in Maine’s 7-1 win at Northeastern.

Dec. 10, 2005: Sophomore Peter Vetri stops a school-record 53 shots against 12th-ranked New Hampshire.

Dec. 12, 1993: Senior Dwayne Roloson kicks out 28 shots and shuts out No. 4 Maine in a 5-0 win at Alfond Arena in Orono. It was the River Hawks first shutout in 216 games and the first time the Black Bears were shutout in 305 games. on

Boston College: Twelve players tallied at least one point on seven combined goals in wins over UMass and BU…BC improved to 4-2-2 in eight road games this season…Freshman Pat Mullane (Wallingford, Conn.) tallied three assists and has six points (2g, 4a) in the last six games…BC won its 40th game in the 53-game series (40-10-3) against Massachusetts…BC’s senior class improved to 7-5-2 in 14 meetings with Boston University over the last three-plus seasons…Senior alternate captain Ben Smith (Avon, Conn.) has 98 career points on 50 goals and 48 assists…Goalies Parker Milner and John Muse combined to stop 53-of-55 shots over the weekend (.964 save percentage)…BC and Harvard will meet in Cambridge this Wednesday for the first of two scheduled games this winter; the teams will play again in the first round of the Beanpot…BC will then play at Providence on Sat., Dec. 12 before the exam break.

Boston University: Boston University tied Vermont on Friday in its fourth straight overtime game - a program first. The Terriers had eight previous stretches of three consecutive overtime contests…In all three of its ties this season, BU has scored in the final nine minutes of regulation to send the game into overtime. Sophomore Corey Trivino has two of the three game-tying tallies, including one on the power play in the draw with the Catamounts on Friday…Senior defenseman Eric Gryba (Saskatoon, Sask.) scored his first goal since Nov. 1, 2007, in the game against Vermont. The veteran of 130 games has 283 career penalty minutes to tie him with Jack O’Callahan ‘79 for the second most in program history. Freddy Meyer ‘03 holds the record with 288…BU will host Rensselaer on Friday (Nov. 11) in its final game before the semester break. Assistant coach Buddy Powers, who is in his first year on Jack Parker’s staff, was the head coach at RPI from 1989-94.

Maine: Maine extended its winning streak to four games with a sweep of Providence…It’s Maine’s first four game winning streak since recording victories in six straight games from Oct. 31-Nov. 21, 2008…It is Maine’s first weekend sweep of a Hockey East opponent since sweeping Providence on Nov. 14 and 15, 2008…Maine goalie Scott Darling (Lemont, Ill.) has allowed just one goal in each of his last four games… Gustav Nyquist (Malmo, Sweden) continues his impressive season as he leads Maine in scoring with 11 goals and 13 assists for 24 points. He has goals in three straight games and points in six straight games… Earlier this season he had a seven game scoring streak. He has tallied at least one point in 13 of Maine’s 16 games this season…Maine held Providence scoreless on eight power play opportunities on Friday night…Maine is averaging 3.56 goals per game this season, as opposed to 2.38 goals per game after 16 games a year ago…Maine scored an empty-net shorthanded goal on Friday and an empty-net power play goal on Saturday…Maine has four shorthanded goals on the season, the same number that it finished with all of last year…The Black Bears have three empty net goals this season after not recording one during the 2008-09 campaign.

Massachusetts: UMass is looking to snap a three-game losing skid on Saturday against Merrimack – the first consecutive losses of the season for the Minutemen…UMass has won 10 straight home games against Merrimack with the last loss at the Mullins Center occurring on Mar. 3, 2002 (L, 3-5)…in that streak, UMass is being outscored 13-8 and is just 2-for-11 on the power play and 8-of-11 on the penalty kill…UMass had a season-best 8,169 fans on hand for the Boston College game – the fifth best attendance in Mullins Center history…UMass is now 0-4-0 on Saturday’s this season…maintaining good starts is key for UMass as it is 9-0-0 when leading or tied after the second period and 0-5-0 when trailing.

UMass-Lowell: Overcoming a two-goal deficit for a 5-3 win against ninth-ranked Massachusetts, the #8 UMass Lowell River Hawks snapped a three-game losing streak…The dramatic win in the Tsongas Arena was fueled by David Vallorani’s first collegiate hat trick…It marked UML’s first hat trick since Scott Campbell (Navan, Ont.) accomplished the feat on Nov. 29, 2008… Senior defenseman Nick Schaus also played a crucial role in the win, assisting on four of five River Hawk goals…Schaus now stands just two shy of collecting his 50th career assist…Paul Worthington’s (Langhorne, Pa.) momentum changing score on Saturday gave him 49 career points…In UML’s 2-1 loss on Friday night, Kory Falite (Buffalo, NY) scored his 49th career goal, the last River Hawk to tally 49 was fan-favorite Ben Walter…Falite is now tied with Dave Sullivan for 54th on the all-time UMass Lowell scoring list…Carter Hutton’s (Thunder Bay, Ont.) 32 saves on Friday night boosted his save percentage to .921 on the season, the 16th best mark in the nation…Heading into the holiday break, the River Hawks have only two games remaining with Princeton in the Tsongas Arena.

Merrimack: Merrimack improved to 7-1 at home with a 3-1 victory over Northeastern Friday…Justin Bonitatibus (Arlington, Mass.) registered his first multi-point game in his 82-game career, leading Merrimack to the win. Bonitatibus, who entered the 2009-10 season with three goals in 76 games, has four goals this year in seven games…Andrew Braithwaite (Kingston, Ont.) stopped 26 shots in the victory and is 4-1 this season…Stephane Da Costa (Paris, France) extended his point streak to nine with an assist in both games over the weekend. Da Costa continues to lead all rookies in the country in points per game with 1.50…The Merrimack power play has a goal in 12 straight games and is ranked sixth nationally…The Warriors saw their 11-game streak of scoring at least three goals snapped on Saturday. They reached the 50-goal mark in Friday’s victory…Dating back to last season, Merrimack is 10-3-1 in its last 14 home games…The Warriors are in the midst of a seven-game, 49-day road trip that will see them play Northeastern, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Maine, and Boston University.

New Hampshire: Friday night’s 2-1 win over #8 Mass.-Lowell was the 450th for head coach Dick Umile… The Wildcats have won three straight against nationally ranked foes, all Hockey East opponents… New Hampshire is 3-0-1 in its last four road games… UNH is riding the nation’s fifth-longest active unbeaten streak at six (5-0-1)… The Wildcats are a perfect 5-0-0 in the month of December going back to 2008… Brian Foster is 5-0-1 in the last six games with a 2.30 GAA and a .927 save percentage… Blake Kessel scored a pair of goals including the game-winning tally on Friday night. Kessel’s 17 points (5g, 12a) are second to only Wisconsin’s Brendan Smith nationally… Sophomore defenseman Damon Kipp has four points during an active three-game scoring streak… The Wildcats close out the decade on Friday night against Providence. They enter the final game with a 232-113-51 record, a .650 win percentage, eight NCAA appearances and 10 20-win seasons during this stretch… Freshman Greg Burke had a goal and an assist this weekend including a nifty play to setup the game-winning goal on Friday against Mass.-Lowell.

Northeastern: Northeastern earned its third split of the season with a 3-1 setback at Merrimack only to respond with a gritty 2-1 victory in the final home game at Matthews Arena. With the triumph on Saturday, Northeastern was able to hold its place in seventh, one point ahead of the Warriors. The Huskies make a trip to Orono on Saturday for a rubber match with the surging Black Bears before the holiday break... Freshman Bryan Mountain earned his first start in net after Chris Rawlings was shelved in a game-time decision. The Bryn Mawr, Pa. native made 14 saves on 17 Merrimack attempts, losing 3-1. Yet, the rookie was the defensive anchor in Northeastern’s much-needed 2-1 victory at home as the newcomer stopped 24 shots on 25 MC attempts. Mountain made his debut in a 6-2 loss to Maine on Nov. 13...Sophomore forward Matt Lipinski recorded his first-career assist on Saturday, five games after notching his first-career point via powerplay goal against Maine on Nov. 14...Senior Kyle Kraemer carried the second-longest pointstreak of Hockey East into Saturday’s tilt, but he was held scoreless through 60 minutes. The St. Louis, Mo. Native scored eight points, including five tallies and three assists, over the course of seven games. The Maine contest on Dec. 12 poses as a rubber match as Northeastern and Maine beat up on each other in the two-game stint at Matthews Arena almost a month ago.

Providence College: Providence College will close out the first half of the 2009-10 season with a pair of home games against New Hampshire and Boston College on December 11 and 12, respectively…The Friars are 3-1-1 at Schneider Arena this season, including a 1-1-1 mark in Hockey East games…Prior to the two losses at Maine last weekend, PC was 2-0-1 in its last three games at Maine’s Alfond Arena…Friday’s meeting between Maine and Providence was the 100th all-time between the two teams…Sophomore goalie Alex Beaudry made 20 saves in the first period against Maine on Saturday, marking the second time this season that he has had 20 stops in one period (Oct. 31 at UMass in the third period was the other time). He ranks eighth in the country with a .929 save percentage and 16th with a 2.25 GAA.

Vermont: Junior Justin Milo had four assists in three games for the Catamounts last week…Vermont went 15-for-16 on the penalty kill in the three games…Senior Mike Spillane (Bow, N.H.) made 26 saves in a 1-0 win over No. 10 Yale last Monday to earn his second shutout of the season…The Catamounts ended a streak of 14 consecutive power-play opportunities without a goal in Sunday’s loss to New Hampshire…Both Jack Downing (New Canaan, Conn.) and Colin Vock (Detroit, Mich.) scored on the power play against the Wildcats…Before Sunday’s game Vermont Director of Athletics Dr. Bob Corran and head coach Kevin Sneddon presented members of the Vermont National Guard with a game jersey that included a Green Mountain Battle Flag patch on it…Vermont varsity sports teams, including the men’s hockey team, will be wearing a Green Mountain Battle Flag on their home and away jerseys for the remainder of the 2009-10 season to honor the record number of troops from the Vermont National Guard that are deploying to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom…Vermont will play its next four games out of conference before returning to Hockey East play on Jan. 15…The Catamounts host St. Lawrence on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. in the 83rd meeting between the two schools.