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SETTING THE SCENE: This weekends Atlantic Hockey series is between the University of Connecticut Huskies and your American International College Yellow Jackets.

ABOUT AIC: The Yellow Jackets come into the weekends series at UConn with an overall record of 1-3-1 and are 1-1-1 after a weekend home-and-home with Holy Cross. In the first game of the series at the Olympia Ice Center, AIC claimed it's first win of the season with a 3-0 shutout in their home opener. Senior #Josh Froese# put AIC out to a 1-0 lead when he buried his first goal of the season at 3:53 of the first period with assists from juniors #Steve McLeod# and #Mike Little#. Just over six-minutes late senior #Mike McMillan# netted the season's first short-handed goal, his second goal of the year, with assists from freshman #Chris Markiewicz# and McLeod. Freshman #Jeff Ceccacci# added an empty net goal from the Yellow Jackets own end of the ice, with less than a minute remaining in the third period. Froese dished out the assist on the goal after blocking a Crusader shot. Freshman #Ben Meisner# made 30 saves to record his first career shutout. In the series finale, AIC played to a 4-4 tie in overtime. Holy Cross struck first when freshman Erik Vos found the back of the net on the power-play at 9:44 of the first period. Junior Jordan Cyr put the Crusaders up 2-0 when he scored just under three-minutes later. With less than three-minutes remaining in the period freshman #Charles LaChance# buried the first goal of his collegiate career with assists from classmate #Steve Mele# and junior #Greg Vatrano#. The goal cut the Holy Cross lead to 2-1 at the end of the opening period. Freshman #Adam Pleskach# tied the score at 2-2 when he tallied his team leading fifth goal of the season, six-minutes into the second period. Classmate #Richard Leitner# dished out the assist on the goal. With just over four-minutes remaining in the period, LaChance tallied his second goal of the night with assists from Little and Mele, putting the Yellow Jackets on top 3-2 heading into the third period. Junior Everett Sheen tied the score for the Crusaders at 3-3 when he found the back of the net five-minutes into the third period. Just two-minutes later, senior Brodie Sheahan broke the tie for Holy Cross, when he scored on the power play, for a 4-3 lead. The lead did not last long, just 43-seconds later junior #Tom Mele# netted a goal on the power-play for AIC with assists from Leitner and Ceccacci, tying the score at 4-4. Junior #Dan Ramirez# played well in net for AIC making 42 saves on the night. Pleskach leads the team offense with five goals and two assists for seven points so far this season. Leitner and McLeod are tied for second with four points, including one goal and three assists, and four assists, respectively. Ceccacci, Froese, and T. Mele are all tied with three points with a goal and two assists each.

WEEKLY HONORS: Meisner was named the AHA Rookie of the Week, while McLeod and Pleskach made the Honor Roll. Meisner recorded the first shutout of his career, making 30 stops to lead the Yellow Jackets to their first victory of the season, beating Holy Cross 3-0. McLeod led the team in points over their three games this week, tallying four assists. He handed out an assist in the team's first game of the week at Sacred Heart, and then dished out two assists in the Yellow Jackets 3-0 shutout over Holy Cross. McLeod also had an assist in the series finale with the Crusaders. Pleskach continued to play well finding the back of the net twice and assisting on another in three games this week for AIC. He tallied a goal and an assist at Sacred Heart, and then buried his team leading fifth goal of the season at Holy Cross on Saturday.

MONTHLY HONORS: Pleskach was named the AHA Rookie of the Month. He scored a least one goal in three of his first four starts, with a career-high two goals in a 3-2 loss to Rensselaer. In a weekend series against Union and Rensselaer, Pleskach had a hand in all four goals the Yellow Jackets score as he notched three goals and an assist. Overall he has five goals and two assists for seven points.

ABOUT CONNECTICUT: The Huskies enter this weekend's series with a record of 0-6-0 this season and are 0-3-0 in the AHA after dropping both game at RIT over the weekend. In the 6-2 loss on Friday, UConn got on the board first when sophomore Corey Jendras found the back of the net seven-minutes into the opening period. The lead did not last long as the Tiger's rattle off three goals in a row to take a 3-1 lead. Junior Andrew Olson cut the RIT lead to 3-2 when he buried a shot 15-minutes into the second period for the Huskies. But the Tiger offense was to much for UConn, as they tallied three more goals in the third period to claim the 6-2 victory. Freshman netminder Jeff Larson made 33 saves in the loss. In the weekend finale RIT completed the sweep with a 7-0 shutout. The Tiger's scored four times in the opening period, once in the second, and then added two goals in the third for the win. Larson stopped 37 shots for the Huskies. Freshman Sean Ambrosie leads the team in scoring with three goals and one assist for four points, while junior Justin Hernandez is second on the team with three points, including one goal and two assists. Olson is third with a goal and an assist for two points.

LAST TIME THEY MET: UConn claimed a 6-2 victory over AIC on February 17, 2009 at the Olympia Ice Center. Chad Richardson and Andy Gevorkyan each scored for the Yellow Jackets, while Tom Fenton and Ramirez combined to make 24 saves.

2008-09 RECAP: AIC went 5-28-2 during the regular season and 5-22-1 in conference play with a team that consisted of eight first year players. The Yellow Jackets played well in the Atlantic Hockey Championship Tournament but came up short, losing in overtime to Holy Cross 1-0 in the first round. Sophomores #Michael Penny# and #Nielsson Arcibal# showed promise in their first season with AIC as both finished in the top five in points on the team. The Yellow Jackets placed 18 member on the AHA
All-Academic Team, with senior #Dean Yakura# and junior #Steve McLeod# sharing the Top Scholar Athlete award.

NEXT UP: AIC takes on Army in a home-and-home series beginning on Friday in West Point, N.Y. at 7:05 p.m.