The Quad

Issue date: 1/21/08 Section: Sports

Ever since the initial drop of the puck this season, the WCU Golden Rams' hockey team has searched for balanced scoring to complement their top snipers Jim Gehring and Pat Johnson, who are respectively #1 and #2 in scoring in the country. Gehring recently broke the WCU single season points record against Drexel, and he and Johnson will likely be entrenched in a dogfight down the stretch to see who ends up with the record in the end.

However, for much of the season, it has appeared as if that top line was the only one who could light the lamp on a nightly basis.

However, the winds of change may be upon us. Starting with a split last week against #5 Liberty, the team has seen other players besides the usual suspects start to show up on the scoresheet. Senior Tom Waite, a player who has struggled to find his niche this season, had a goal in both games against Liberty, and has appeared much more aggressive. Junior forward Drew Mervin has seen his ice time increase as a direct result of seeing his production go up. However, this weekend's series against Drexel may have been the coming out party of the entire team.

Faced with the inenviable task of playing three games in three days this weekend, two of which were against bitter rival Drexel, the Rams looked to some different sources of scoring, and it paid off. Besides riding Gehring and Johnson's usual superhuman efforts, the Rams saw goals coming from almost everyone as they absolutely annihilated Drexel by the scores of 12-3 and 10-0. Senior forward Kenny Bergeron scored twice against the Dragons, and sophomore Jeff Shockley scored his first three career goals in the Saturday tilt.

"It felt great to finally get the monkey off of my back," said Shockley.

The Rams also got contributions from junior Robert Bushman, sophomore Jon Hendricks and sophomore Mike Longo, amongst others. This is exactly what the team needs as they will try to navigate a tough schedule littered with potential trap games. Heading into Sunday's game against Duquesne, the Rams have eight more games left before the post-season begins.

Of those eight games, seven come against teams currently ranked in the top 25, including a physically demanding three game set next weekend against #28 Navy, #13 West Virginia, and #15 Stony Brook.

Sunday's game against Stony Brook will decide the conference's regular season championship in addition to determining which of the two ECHA powerhouses will clinch the league's automatic bid to the national tournament.

Continued...

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