2008 Woodie Awards
Hockey enters Nationals
By Matt Chandik
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Sports
|
Coming off the heels of their first Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association playoff championship, the Rams will look to continue their hot streak against a familiar foe, the University of Rhode Island Rams.
WCU was swept by URI this season, losing 4-3 in a shootout in the first game and then getting crushed 7-2 the following day. However, the two teams have gone in different directions since that fateful meeting at Brad Boss Arena at URI.
West Chester is 22-4 since that series, including wins over four teams that will be participating in the National Tournament. Some of the more notable wins include a 3-0 mark against Stony Brook and CHMA champion West Virginia, ranked 15th and 14th respectively. Other impressive wins include a 7-3 win over No. 6 Liberty University and a two game sweep of ECHL champion Robert Morris.
In that same time span, Rhode Island has seen its level of play deteriorate with losses against No. 4 Delaware, No. 3 Penn State, No. 15 Stony Brook, No. 6 Liberty, No. 16 Robert Morris and Arizona State. URI went 0-4 against both Delaware and Penn State this season, and have struggled to find consistency down the stretch.
The Golden Rams have the potential to be national champions by the time this tournament comes to a close, but there are a plethora of questions that must be answered about this team.
Can Jim Gehring and Pat Johnson continue their torrid scoring streaks against some of the country's top teams? Will players such as Drew Mervin, Mike Longo and Robert Bushman continue to chip in offensively? Is the defensive corps strong enough and balanced enough to shut down some of the country's top offenses?
For the record, I do believe that all three of those questions can be answered with a resounding yes. Gehring and Johnson are two of the country's finest players and should be able to score against the big boys, as they've done all year. Gehring leads the ACHA with 102 points in merely 35 games, and Johnson is right behind him with 90 points in 33 games. The third-ranked scorer in Division I is nearly 40 points behind Gehring, a shocking disparity.
As far as the issue of balanced scoring goes, it has slowly diminished into a near non-issue.
The Golden Rams saw nine players register at least 15 points this season and also saw five players with at least 12 goals. In addition, the Golden Rams have received significantly better contributions on offense from their defensemen lately.
RSS Feed
Be the first to comment on this story