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SETTING THE SCENE: Tonight's single game is between AHA foe's American International College Yellow Jackets and the Sacred Heart Pioneers.

ABOUT AIC: The Yellow Jackets enter today's game with an overall record of 3-18-2 and are 3-14-2 in Atlantic hockey play after being swept by the RIT Tigers over the weekend. The Tigers took the first game 5-3 and then claimed a 4-0 shutout over AIC in Saturday nights finale. In Friday's loss, RIT opened the game with three straight goals in the first period. Sophomore Cameron Burt netted two goals, one on the power-play, while classmate Tyler Brenner found the back of the net once. AIC cut the Tigers lead to 3-1, when freshman #Adam Pleskach# buried a goal 3:30 into the second period with an assist from classmate #Chris Markiewicz# and sophomore #Michael Penny#. Brenner gave RIT their three goal lead back when he tallied a goal seven minutes later with an assist from junior Tyler Mazzei. Senior Steven Matic put the Tigers up 5-1 scoring a goal late in the second period with assist from senior Dan Ringwald and Mazzei. The Yellow Jackets attempted to pull of the comeback as junior #Tom Mele# tallied a goal on the power play at 3;07 of the third with an assist from #Nielsson Arcibal#. Pleskach scored his second goal of the night 13-minutes later, this time on the power play with assists from Markiewicz and Penny. But, RIT held on for the 5-3 victory. Junior netminder #Dan Ramirez# stopped 39 shots in the loss, while senior Jared DeMichiel made 23 saves in the victory. The Yellow Jackets were outshot 44-26 on the night, but went 2-6 on the power-play, while RIT was just 1-6. In Saturday's 4-0 shutout, RIT got out to a 1-0 lead when Ringwald found the back of the net at 14:59 of the first period. The Tigers netted two goals in the second period to extend their lead to 3-0. Junior Sean Murphy and sophomore Tyler Brenner both tallied a goal in the period. Freshman Adam Hartley capped of the RIT
shutout as he buried a goal early in the third period. Freshman #Ben Meisner# turned aside 40 shots in the loss, while DeMicheil made 18 saves to claim the shutout for the Tigers. The Yellow Jackets held RIT scoreless on the power-play, as the Tigers went 0-3. Pleskach leads the Yellow Jackets in scoring with 10 goals and four assists for 14 points thus far, while #Tom Mele# is second on the team in points with 11, including seven goals and four assists. McLeod is third on the team with four goals and six assists for 10 points, while seniors #Mike McMillan# (4g, 5a) and #Josh Froese# (3g, 6a), and junior #Mike Little# (1g, 8a) round out the top group, tied for fourth with nine points each.

ABOUT SACRED HEART: The Pioneers come into tonight's single-game match up with a record of 10-9-4 for the season and are 8-6-3 in the conference after going 1-0-1 over the weekend with Canisius. Sacred Heart claimed a 4-2 win in the first game and then skated to a 5-5 (OT) tie in the second. In Friday's win, the Golden Griffins were first on the board as senior defenseman Matt Zuke found the back of the net midway through the first period. The lead didn't last for long as senior forward Nick Johnson netted a goal with two-minutes remaining in the period to tie the score at 1-1. The Pioneers took a 2-1 lead at 3:46 of the second period when senior forward Erik Boisvert buried a goal. Sacred Heart stretched their lead to 3-1 when sophomore forward Anthony Yelovich scored just over 11-miuntes into the final period. Canisius attempted to pull-off the comeback when freshman defenseman Ben Parker put the puck into the back of the net to cut the Pioneer lead to 3-2. But Sacred Heart's offense was to much for the Golden Griffins, as Johnson netted his second goal of the night to cap off the 4-2 victory for the Pioneers. Freshman netminder Steven Legato turned aside 36 shots in the win, while sophomore Dan Morrison made 30 saves in the loss. In Saturday's 5-5 (OT) tie, Zuke again put the Golden Griffins up 1-0 when he buried a goal 20-seconds into the game. Senior Dave Jarman tied the score at 1-1 for Sacred Heart when he found the back of the net just 14-seconds later. Seven-minutes later Johnson put the puck in the net on the power-play to give the Pioneers a 2-1 lead. Just 36-seconds later graduate student Paul Ferraro netted a goal on the power-play to put Sacred Heart up 3-1. Senior Carl Hudson cut the Pioneer lead to 3-2 when he lit the lamp at 11:34 of the period. Jarman tallied his second goal of the night just a minute later to reclaim the two-goal lead for Sacred Heart. Junior defenseman Scott Jenks finished off what was a high-scoring period by burying a goal with less than five-minutes remaining to make the score 4-3. Freshman forward Eric Delong put the Pioneers on top 5-3 finding the net six-minutes into the second period. Hudson then netted two more goals to complete the natural hat-trick and tying the score at 5-5, where the game would end after a scoreless overtime. Legatto stopped 26 shots on the night, while Morrison made nine saves, before being replaced in the first period by senior Andrew Loewen, who made 35 saves of his own. Johnson and Jarman are tied for the team lead in points with 32 including 18 goals and 12 assists and nine goals, and 23 assists, respectively. Junior forward Patrick Knowlton is second on the team with seven goals and 14 assists for 21 points, while Delong and Boisvert round out the top group with 17 points each including eight goals and nine assists, and seven goals and 10 assists, respectively.

LAST TIME THEY MET: The Pioneer's skated to a 5-3 victory against AIC on October 27, 2009. McMillan, Pleskach, and Arcibal each netted a goal for the Yellow Jackets, while Boisvert, Delong, Johnson, Jarman, and junior Evan Mladenoff scored for Sacred Heart. Ramirez made 41 stops in the loss, while junior Oliver St. Onge turned aside 31 shots in the win.

MONTHLY HONORS: Pleskach was named the AHA Rookie of the Month for October. 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.

NEXT UP: AIC hosts Bentley for a weekend double-header beginning on February 5, 2010. Puck drops at 7:05 p.m. at the Olympia Ice Center.