Treys Wild in Atlantic Hockey

Click here to read Allen Lessels' story on the New England Hockey Journal website

Threes were wild.

Three guys. Three teams. A trio of three-goal efforts.

Canisius senior defenseman Carl Hudson and Mercyhurst junior forward Nick Vandenbeld turned their tricks on Saturday. Sacred Heart junior forward Dave Berube got into the act on Tuesday night.

Good things like goals, it seems, come in threes, too.

Canisius was 3-for-6 on the power play in its 5-5 tie with Sacred Heart. Check that. Hudson was 3-for-6 on the power play.

Each of the goals in his first career hat trick, one in each period, came with the man advantage. His was the 10th hat trick at Canisius since the school joined Division 1 and the first by a defenseman.

Hudson, who already has a defenseman’s season record 26 points on 10 goals and 16 assists, was a likely candidate for goal-scoring honors.

Vandenbeld and Berube? Not so much. Neither’s role has been primarily as a goal scorer. You wouldn’t have known that this week.

Mercyhurst led 2-1 in the second period against Sacred Heart when Vandenbeld took the game over, at least as far as putting the puck in the net. He had scored 13 goals in 111 career games going into that period. He scored three more in a span of 6 minutes and 27 seconds to break the game open.

Tuesday night, Berube and Sacred Heart gave what they had gotten: Berube’s three goals included the game-winner. He entered the season with four goals and 10 assists in 72 career games. He’s up to 9-4-13 so far this year.

So yeah, let’s hear it for the hat-trick boys.

Player of the Week

Nick Johnson, sr., Sacred Heart

Hudson, Vandebeld or Hudson would have fit in here fine. So does Johnson, the Windsor, Conn., product who spread his four goals and two assists over three games. He leads Atlantic Hockey in goals with 19 and is tied for second in points with 33.

Looking Ahead

Air Force at Army, Friday and Saturday

The Falcons are tied for first place in the league with RIT and the Black Knights are in seventh, a point out of sixth place and four out of fourth. But it’s about more than hockey when these two meet.

“When it’s over on Saturday, the seniors from each school will line up together on one blueline and the rest of the teams will line up on the other and they’ll play the school’s alma maters,” said Army coach Brian Riley. “Ultimately, when it’s all said and done, these guys are really on the same team.”

Around Atlantic Hockey

AIC

Freshman forward Adam Pleskach had three of AIC’s four goals in three games, a pair of losses to RIT and one to Sacred Heart. Freshman defenseman Chris Markiewicz went into the week with one assist and had an assist on each of Pleskach’s goals. … Pleskach is at 11-4-15 for the season. The Yellow Jackets did not have a player hit double figures in goals last season.

Air Force

Sophomore defenseman Tim Kirby has a thing for timely goals. He scored with .6 of a second left in overtime to give Air Force a 4-3 win over Holy Cross to salvage a weekend split. It was his fourth goal of the season and third late game-winner. The others: with 2:46 in the third period to beat Connecticut, and with 1:45 left to beat RIT.

Army

Junior goaltender Jay Clark had a busy weekend against UConn. He had 31 saves in a 5-0 win on Friday night and had an assist on Danny Colvin’s first period game-winning goal. He and the Black Knights killed off all four UConn power plays, including more than a minute of a 5-on-3. … Clark made 20 saves on Saturday night, but lost a 2-1 decision.

Bentley

Brett Hartung, a freshman from Tallahassee, Fla., scored Bentley’s last two goals in a 4-2 win over Mercyhurst on Friday that snapped a three-game losing streak. … Hartung is at 9-3-12 on the season and is tied with senior Marc Menzione for the team lead in goals. … The Falcons are at RIT this weekend. They lost a pair of close games to the Tigers last season.

Canisius

The Golden Griffins had a most productive power play in January, capped by a 3-for-8 effort against Sacred Heart last weekend. They were 11-for-28 (39.3 percent) for the month. At 21.6 percent for the season, they are second in the league and eighth in the nation. … Hudson’s 1.04 points per game is second in the league and fourth in the country for a defenseman.

UConn

The Huskies have won two of their last four goals, both games by 2-1 scores. Junior forward Justin Hernandez scored with 39 seconds in the latest, over Army on Saturday night. … UConn continues to have problems putting the puck in the net. The Huskies have not scored more than two goals in a game since Nov. 21, a span of 16 contests.

Holy Cross

The Crusaders got their first Atlantic Hockey win over Air Force with Friday night’s 6-4 decision. Holy Cross had been 0-7-4 against Air Force since the Falcons joined the league. … Senior Rob Forshner had a goal in each game. … The six goals were the most by the Crusaders since a 6-4 win at Providence on Oct. 10, 2007.

Mercyhurst

The Lakers sit in third place in the league -- three points behind Air Force and RIT and five ahead of Canisius and Holy Cross -- after last weekend’s split with Bentley. … They are off this weekend and don’t play another league game until a home-and-home series with Canisius on Feb. 12 and 13. Mercyhurst is at Denver on Feb. 5 and at Colorado College on Feb. 6.

RIT

Senior goalie Jared DeMichiel of Avon, Conn., led the Tigers back into a first-place tie with Air Force. He had 18 saves for a 4-0 win over AIC and his second shutout in three games on Saturday. His shutout streak had been stopped at 197 minutes and 44 seconds on Friday night. No problem. He started another one the next night.

Sacred Heart

The Pioneers ran their best-in-the-nation unbeaten streak to 10 at 8-0-2 with a win and tie against Canisius and 6-1 win over AIC on Tuesday night. The five points pulled Sacred Heart into a fourth-place tie with Canisius in the standings. The Pioneers play a pair at Connecticut this weekend, looking to pull ahead of the idle Golden Griffins.