LCS Hockey - College Hockey

College Hockey
Early-Season Wackiness
by James Clippinger, College Hockey Correspondent

Okay, due to the general lack of interesting games to preview this week in Division I, we go to the hinterlands of college hockey (also known as the ECAC Northeast) for this week's Game of the Week:

Lebanon Valley College Flying Dutchmen (0-0-0 ECAC; 4-0-0 overall) at UMass-Dartmouth Corsairs (0-0-0 ECAC; 0-0-0 overall)

Lebanon Valley College's brand-spankin'-new Division III hockey program isn't doing too badly for itself. The Flying Dutchmen have yet to trail in a game, riding an offense that puts up 8.75 goals a game to a perfect 4-0-0 record. They've led an astounding 89.0% of all playing minutes and converted power plays at a long-playing 33.3% clip. Hell, they've even thrown in four short-handed goals just for fun.

Even more impressively, Lebanon Valley is spreading around the scoring wealth. Freshman forward Greg Kutchma (5-7--12) leads the ECAC Northeast in overall scoring, but is only one of the eight Flying Dutchmen in the top 20.

LVC will face its first real test on Saturday night, though, as they hit the road to visit UMass-Dartmouth. The Corsairs have yet to play a game, yet last year's ECAC Central playoff champions come into the contest as the league coaches' #1 preseason pick. They also enter the matchup with all of three seniors, so there won't be much leadership on the ice to settle down any early-season choppiness.

This game really marks a new era for ECAC Division III hockey. The new Northeast league merges the former North, Central and South leagues, which were always weak sisters to the East, West and SUNY leagues. With the new alignment, the Northeast's best teams may finally be able to challenge the other league's powers, especially if high-line programs like Lebanon Valley's force other teams to upgrade. The Flying Dutchmen have a terrific head coach in two-time SUNY Coach of the Year Allan MacCormack and play their home games in Hersheypark Arena (home of the AHL's Hershey Bears), both of which will be huge recruiting advantages.

Anyway, I think this game may well signal a sea-change in the ECAC. Flying Dutchmen 4, Corsairs 2.