Inside College Hockey, focusing on the CHA

With the CHA coming to it’s extinction, Inside College Hockey decided that it might be time to write a fluff article about how the CHA finds a way to make upsets, almost validating the conference.

This doesn’t surprise me that INCH would take this sort of stance on using the words “validating” and “CHA” in the same sentence.

Why you ask…

They’re affiliated with ESPN.

“Oh.” (could be your first response)

Regardless to the feeble attempt for INCH.com to make the CHA sound like an up-and-coming powerhouse conference, the article does point out one major theme in College hockey that could continue, a level playing field.

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Beavers sweep weekend series, RMU falls to 2-6-0

With technical difficulties from the B2 Networks, anyone outside of the Bemidji area was restricted to the Live audio feed and the Live stats feed. It almost seemed as if Robert Morris was climbing back into the game and picking up their own tempo in the 2nd Period after being out shot in the 1st and not getting much time on the offensive attack, but Bemidji was just too strong, putting up 6 goals en route to sweeping the series for the weekend.

Robert Morris lost Friday nite’s game 2-0, and Saturday nite’s game 6-1. The following is a recap from the Bemidji Pioneer:

Bemidiji Pioneer
By: Eric Stromgren
The Bemidji State men‘s hockey team charged through another weekend with its unbeaten record intact.

The Beavers scored the first three goals of the game and went on to sweep Robert Morris with a dominating 6-1 victory at John Glas Fieldhouse Saturday night.

“We are very happy with this win because we put more of 60 minutes together rather than last night where we had just 30 good minutes,” Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore said. “We were fortunate enough to get the sweep and I’m very proud of the energy level we had in the third period.

The Beavers will put their unbeaten record (7-0-1 overall, 4-0-0 CHA) to the test next weekend against the WCHA’s Minnesota Golden Gophers in a Saturday-Sunday series at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis.

Minnesota moved to 3-4-1 on the season with a 5-2 victory at Wisconsin Saturday night.

Darcy Findlay, Tyler Lehrke, Ian Lowe, Matt Read, Jordan George and Emil Billberg scored goals for the Beavers. Dan Bakala earned his sixth win by making 27 saves.

“I thought our fourth line played really well tonight and they all had a part in the three goals we had in the third period,” Serratore said. “It’s nice to have that balance and the production was nice tonight.”
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Saturday Nite: RMU takes on Bemidji

After dropping Friday Nite’s game, 2-0, RMU will see Bemidji one more time tonite.

Game time is at 8:05pm Eastern.

Bemidji has improved to 6-0-1, where as Robert Morris has dropped to 2-5-0 after Friday nite.

Listen here: 103.7 KKBJ FM – Free to Listen
Watch here: B2 Networks Online – Average cost $7 to view the game
-Update: B2 Networks is posting that the broadcast stream has been canceled, most likely due to technical problems, this has occurred with BSU in the past.
Live Stats: BSU Athletics

Some line changes have gone into affect, last night, Schooley paired Hervato, Longpre and Kushneriuk on the top line, with Lewis, Kobialko and South on the second line.

At the end of the Ferris State series, it was noticeable that Longpre was getting the majority of the pressure when his line was out on the ice, as the Bulldogs raced after him, being the top threat on the line and on the power play.

Cody Chricton was also scratched from last nite’s game, there is a possiblity that will happen again, with the Coaching staff looking for more out of him on the ice in his defence.

Eric Levine will be starting in goal tonite.

Robert Morris Colonials
LW 10 Trevor Lewis – C 21 Nathan Longpre (A) – RW 17 Chris Kushneriuk (A)
LW 14 Zach Hervato – C 16 Scott Kobialko – RW 25 Furman South
LW 18 Ron Cramer – C 27 Brandon Blandina – RW 6 Joe Harcharik
LW 9 Nick Chiavetta – C 29 J.C. Velasquez – RW 15 Tom Brooks
LD 4 Brock Meadows – RD 44 Denny Urban
LD 5 James Lyle – RD 24 Dave Cowan (C)
LD 8 Josh Jones – RD 28 Cullen Lundholm
G 30 Eric Levine
G 35 Brooks Ostergard

*Still attempting to get the site back up and in order after the domain change issue. I apologize for the delay on recaps and upcoming information on games.

Friday Nite Recap: RMU 0 – BSU 2

Robert Morris dropped their first CHA matchup of the season 2-0, to the #11 Bemidji State Beavers.

Lineup changes were made this week, after some matchup situations against Ferris State. Chris Kushneriuk & Zach Hervato were moved up to play with Nathan Longpre on the top line, moving Trevor Lewis to the second line with Scott Kobialko and Furman South.

Cody Chrichton was a healthy scratch from the game, which may seem odd as he has played well offensively but this decision seems to be due to his lack of defensive play.

Here is a game recap from the Bemidji Pioneer:

Bemidji State hockey: Read turns the trick again on Robert Morris, Beavers stay unbeaten
By: Eric Stromgren, Bemidji Pioneer
Matt Read did it to Robert Morris again.

The junior forward broke a scoreless tie midway through the third period and Bemidji State went on to defeat the Colonials 2-0 Friday night at John Glas Fieldhouse.

“It was kind of ugly early on, but I felt that we got gradually better and better as the game progressed,” Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore said. “But we’re always happy to get a shutout and we credit this as a team shutout. We take pride in our team goals against average and I’m happy to see the hard work in practice from Monday to Thursday pay off.”

No. 11-ranked Bemidji State remained unbeaten with the victory and improved to 6-0-1 overall and 3-0-0 in College Hockey America play. Bemidji State wraps up the weekend series with Robert Morris Saturday at 7:05 p.m.

Robert Morris played its first game back in the John Glas Fieldhouse since last year’s CHA tournament championship. In that game, Read scored in overtime to lift the Beavers to a 3-2 win over the Colonials. It gave the Beavers the automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament that began the memorable Frozen Four run.

“It thought it was a good first two road periods for us,” Robert Morris captain Dave Cowan said. “But we were just not good enough in the third period, especially against a team like Bemidji State with such powerful forwards … the guys on the ice need to be aware where (Read) is on the ice. He’s a good player and you can’t let him roam free or give him the space.”

Bemidji State goalie Dan Bakala had 23 saves to earn his first collegiate shutout and Jordan George scored an empty-net goal with 23 seconds remaining to ice the game for the Beavers.

Serratore said the team is not feeling any pressure after extending the current winning streak to four games and the unbeaten record to seven.

“There’s no pressure at all,” Serratore said. “I think that’s an overrated term and I think each win we have actually takes more pressure off. Each time we win in the conference, we get separation. It when you start losing that you feel pressure because you have to win the next one.”

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CHA article on IllegalCurve.com

Eric (or “Goon”) of IllegalCurve.com & “Goon’s World,” wrote a brief snip about the CHA today, highlighting the fact that the UAH Chargers have come out of the gates battle ready, and how the CCHA may have made a horrible decision (let’s face it, they did make a horrible decision).

To show the CCHA they made a horrible mistake, the Chargers went out and beat the Fighting Irish to open the season. You know, the same Notre Dame that has been sitting at the top of the CCHA with Miami and Michigan. Question: is Notre Dame overrated or is UAH that good? I want to believe that UAH is that good. Notre Dame got a little pride back the next night as they beat the Chargers 3-1. UAH followed that loss with a victory against Air Force Academy last night 4-2. So hockey fans are you paying attention? UAH is not just going to go away.

Read the rest of this article at IllegalCurve.com

More CHA Season Previews

Mike Prisuta, now of rmucolonials.com, has written his own Colonial Season Preview, highlighting some quotes from Coach Schooley, as well as Nathan Longpre and Denny Urban. Prisuta points out that the Colonials were trying Cody Chrichton out on the top line in the Blue-White game, at Right Wing, playing in place of Chris Margott (Trevor Lewis on the Left and Nathan Longpre at Centre). Cody did score twice in that blue white game.

Read Prisuta on Pucks here: Colonials look for tune up against Queens

USCHO.com’s Matt Mackinder has written a CHA Preview, picking the Colonials to finish fourth in the conference. Again, no respect, but as always paper articles don’t prove anything on the ice. There’s no real substance to the article on how each team has looked early on in practice or in their own scrimmage games, but what else would you expect from USCHO.

Read Matt’s take here: 2009-2010 College Hockey America Season Preview

Colonials picked to finish 3rd in CHA

The official poll from College Hockey America came out today, and this year the Colonials are slotted to finish in 3rd yet again:

1) Bemidji State Beavers -’08 Record: 20-16-1 (12-5-1), 2008 Regular Season & CHA Tourney Champions

2) Niagara Purple Eagles -’08 Record : 16-14-6 (9-5-4)

3) Robert Morris Colonials -’08 Record: 10-19-7 (5-8-5)

4) Alabama-Huntsville Chargers -’08 Record: 5-20-5 (3-11-4)

Two Colonials were also picked for the 2009 All-CHA Preseason Team:

F Chris Moran, Niagara, Senior

-6th in CHA in Scoring – 31 Points (12 G, 19 A), 18 Points in CHA Play

F Matt Read, Bemidji State, Junior

-3rd in CHA in Scoring – 40 Points (15 G, 25 A), 15 Points in CHA Play

F Nathan Longpre, Robert Morris, Junior

-2nd in CHA in Scoring – 41 Points (12 G, 29 A), 21 Points in CHA Play

D Brad Hunt, Bemidji State, Sophomore

-1st in defencemen in CHA in Points [32 Points (9 G, 23 A)]

D Denny Urban, Robert Morris, Junior

-2nd in defencemen in CHA in Points [27 Points (4 G, 23 A)]

G Cameron Talbot, Alabama-Huntsville, Junior

-2.95 GAA, .907 Save %, (2.88 GAA & .903 Save % in CHA Play)

More reactions and analysis to come later this evening, so check back.

THN Poll: Best CHA Jeresey – Vote August 24th

The Hockey News is putting together a poll, where they are taking the top 40 jerseys from the NHL, AHL, ECHL, CHL, IHL, SPHL, NCAA (1 bid per conference), QMJHL, WHL, and OHL.

The NHL gets the most bids with 9, and each NCAA conference (including the CHA) will get 1 bid to the tournament. Voting has not begun yet for the CHA, but will start on August 24th.

So get the word out Colonial fans and vote for your RMU Men’s Hockey team as the best CHA Jersey, and maybe even the best of all!

Follow the link to vote here: THN Poll

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Do your part: Save UAH Hockey

In case you haven’t seen the site yet, there is an effort from the UAH Hockey Supporters, specifically G.F. Morris in the creation of “Save UAH Hockey.com.”

You can follow on Twitter here: SaveUAHhockey

and join the Facebook group here: Save UAH Hockey

Geof has done a great job so far getting people involved with saving their program, the FB group alone has well over 2,000 members, currently nearing 100 members on Twitter as well. Spreading the word is the best step, getting people in the know and letting them hear your voice.

I wanted to share some of Geof’s ideas of how to get people involved, so I quoted his post below.

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