SETTING THE SCENE: The American International College men's ice hockey team, which is in its 15th NCAA Division I season, hosts a non-conference contest tonight against eighth-ranked Union College at the Olympia Ice Center.

ABOUT AIC: The Yellow Jackets enter tonight's game with a record of 1-2-0 overall and 0-1-0 in Atlantic Hockey after dropping a 6-2 contest to Holy Cross last Tuesday night. Junior forward Jon Puskar leads the team in scoring with three goals and two assists for four points, and has the team's lone game-winning goal this season. Sophomore forward Nathan Sliwinski has two goals and one assist for three points, while senior forward Adam Pleskach has one goal and two assists for three points. Freshman forward Chris Porter has one goal and one assist through his firth three career games played. Senior goalie Ben Meisner is 1-2-0 in goal with a 3.89 goals against average and a .922 save percentage with 142 total saves, which are the second-most in the nation entering the weekend.

LAST TIME OUT: AIC dropped its home and league opener to Holy Cross October 16 at the Olympia Ice Center. Puskar scored a pair of goals in a span of 6:25 in the second period to give the Yellow Jackets a 2-1 lead, but the Crusaders answered with four unanswered goals, two of which were scored in the first minute of the third period. Meisner finished the game with 41 saves.

AHA WEEKLY HONORS: Puskar earned a spot on this week's Atlantic Hockey Honor Roll after scoring both AIC goals against Holy Cross in the Yellow Jackets' only game of the week last week. Meisner, Pleskach and Porter each landed on the Honor Roll after AIC's opening weekend at Penn State. Meisner was additionally named the New England Hockey Journal's Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week after breaking both the AIC and Atlantic Hockey records for saves in a game with 61 in the Yellow Jackets 3-2 overtime win against the Nittany Lions.

MILESTONE/RECORD WATCH: Pleskach enters tonight's contest with 86 career points (45 goals, 41 assists), and is now 14 away from becoming just the second 100-point scorer since the Yellow Jackets became a Division I program. The first was Guillaume Caron, who scored 117 points (61 goals, 56 assists) from 2000-04. Caron's totals in goals, assists and points are all AIC Division I records. Meisner is closing in on the career saves record. He now has 2,717 career saves and is 200 away from surpassing Novello's career 2,916 saves. Chance Thede holds the all-time record for career saves, stopping 3,014 shots on goal from 1997-2001).

ABOUT NO. 8 UNION: The Dutchmen, who reached the Frozen Four last season, enter tonight's game with an overall record of 2-1-0 for the season after sweeping a non-conference weekend set at Bowling Green October 12-13, winning game-one 5-3 and game-two 4-1. Union opened the season with a 4-1 setback against Merrimack. Junior defenseman Mat Bodie leads the team in scoring with two goals and three assists for five points, while junior forward Daniel Carr is second on the team with one goal and three assists for four points. Sophomore defenseman Shayne Gostibehere and freshman defenseman Sebastian Gingras each have two goals and one assist for three points. Gostisbehere was drafted by the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers. Junior netminder Troy Grosenick is 2-1-0 in goal with a 2.34 goals against average and a .908 save percentage. He has 69 total saves in his three starts this season.

ABOUT THE SERIES: AIC is 1-11-0 all-time against Union, with the Yellow Jackets' lone win being a 7-3 decision during the 1987-88 campaign. The two teams have met in each of the last four seasons, with each meeting taking place at Union. The then 11th-ranked Dutchmen beat the Yellow Jackets 5-2 on October 29, 2011. Senior forward Steve Mele tied the game at one in the first and brought AIC back with one at 3-2 in the third, but a pair of Union goals in the final four minutes sealed the win for the Dutchmen.

NEXT UP: The Yellow Jackets will be back at the Olympia tomorrow night when they host a non-conference contest against Alabama-Huntsville at 7:05 p.m.