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News 04-05 , News 05-06

Alumni Game recap:
After last year's game where the Alumni absolutely destroyed the current Aggies 14-5, this year's team had something to prove to the men who have passed through UC Davis. Carrying momentum from the Sac State win over 2 months ago, the Aggies trained hard by watching tv and going to a pickup hockey session the week of the alumni game. This hard work proved to be the deciding factor as the current Aggies defeated the Alumni by a score of 10-9 in overtime, thanks to the heroics of soon-to-be-super-Senior Andrew Le who received the saucer pass from Ben Dines on a 2 on 1.

The game was back and forth, as the score difference was never greater than 3 goals. Matt Coleman and Eric Chao lead the Alumni with 2 goals a piece, while Andrew Le paced the current Aggies with 3 goals, and Alternate Captain Tobin Dennis and rookie phenom Charlie Cohn had 2 goals each. One of the best players in team history, Jeff Imahara, only scored one goal on the night due to the amazing saves the trio of current Aggie goaltenders made (Firrend Naaman, Angelo Arias, and Jon Drinnan). You could say that he's kind of washed up. Speaking of goalies, Christy Roberts came back to strap on the pads after 1 and half years off, and Mike Amerikaner played as well.

Notes: The game wasn't without controversy as departing graduate student Jeremy Brooks was set to play for the current team, but Nick Rood stole him away for the Alumni...Tobin Dennis played his final game as an Aggie and had 4 points (2 g, 2 a)...Andrew Le scored his 3rd ever hat trick...but this doesn't really count...Stephen Priest scored his first ever UC Davis goal...too bad it doesn't count either...Dave Kim missed the game, because it was a Friday night and he had no way to get from downtown Davis to the game...Dr Bruce German broke 2 ribs and suffered a partially collapsed lung in the 1st period, but still managed to finish the game.

Alumni game stats:

Season Awards:
Statistical Awards:
Sniper (most goals): Tobin Dennis
Playmaker (most assists): Tobin Dennis
Berk Nelson Award (most points): Tobin Dennis
Chris Cress Award (most PIMs): Chris Cress

As voted on by the team:
Most Valuable Player: Tobin Dennis
Rookie of the Year: Jon Drinnan
Most improved: Andy Roberson
Eric Lindros Award (most injured): Calvin Chu

1/29/07: After taking the tough 3-0 loss against Fresno State the week before, the Aggies came out energized to play ACHA ranked San Diego State. After an amazing 1st period, where the Aggies battled to keep the game tied 1-1, the flood gates opened as the Aztecs scored 10 unanswered goals. The Aggies could not bail out goalie Jonathan Drinnan with some goals, as the opposition put 55 pucks on nets. Tobin Dennis scored the only goal on a tip from a shot from Charlie Cohn in the 1st period.
Notes:With that goal, Tobin Dennis passed Andrew Le and Ben Dines for the team lead in points with 13...Nick Stromberg recorded his 100th PIM on the year...He still has a shot to catch Chris Cress, who leads the team with 132 PIMs.

1/23/07: The Aggies came off a tough road trip, going winless against UCSD, SDSU, and UC Irvine. Playing UCSD Friday night, the Aggies came out strong, but a momentary lapse led to two quick Triton goals in the middle of the first. After the 1st period, the Tritons took over scoring nine more goals for the 11-0 win over the Aggies. The 2nd and 3rd periods were full of penalties, including a melee in front of the Triton net as Andrew Le got called for charging the goalie while Andy Roberson and Dan Nguyen jumped in to fight off Tritons. Another time in the 3rd period, while the Aggies were on a 5 on 3 power play, there became a 5 on 3 fight on the fight with all 8 players being sent to the penalty box. While the theatrics made for an exciting game for the fans, Coach Rood could be seen shaking his head at all the action.

The next night against SDSU, the Aggies came out as strong as ever, even though Eric Wulfemeyer was suspended and Chris Cress was at a family function. Sean McGill would not be stopped and he put the Aggies on the board first for the 1-0 lead. It was all for naught, as SDSU mounted a quick comeback led by #52 Ben Nicoll, who scored a natural hat trick in the 1st period with all three goals being short handed. The Aztecs scored nine goals total for the 9-1 win.

The Sunday game against UC Irvine featured a hungry Aggie team still looking for their first victory. The 1st period was one they would love to forget, when Irvine scored 4 unanswered goals. After the 1st, the rest of the game was played 0-0. The game featured only three penalties between the two teams, but of course the Aggies took two of the three. A few goals here and there and this would have been a great game down to the wire.

1/7/07: Congrats to the Aggies for notching their first point of the season with a tie against Palmer College. More to come.

Mid-Season Award Races:
-MVP: Tobin Dennis, Jon Drinnan
-Sniper (most goals): Ben Dines, Andrew Le, Charlie Cohn
-Playmaker (most assists): Tobin Dennis, Chris Cress, Charlie Cohn
-Most Improved: Stephen Gribble, Robin Liu
-Sin Bin (most PIMs): Chris Cress, Nick Stromberg
-Rookie: Jon Drinnan, Charlie Cohn

Quick Mid-Season  Notes:
-With his next penalty, Chris Cress will amass 100 PIMs on the year! His current PIMs total is the UC Davis record, which has already shattered last year's record of 76 PIMs.
-Speaking of PIMs, Nick Stromberg is in 2nd place with 72 PIMs. He is also on track to eclipse the century mark.
-Ben Dines leads the team with 6 goals, while Andrew Le and Charlie Cohn are tied for 2nd with 4. Dines and Le each had 6 goals all of last year.
-Ben Dines and Tobin Dennis are tied for the team lead in points with 10. Andrew Le and Charlie Cohn are tied again for 2nd place with 9 points each. Last year's points leaders (Cress and Eric Wulfemeyer) had 12 points on the year.

10/25/06: After having 17 players the week before, the Aggies barely managed to throw 3 lines out on the ice this past weekend. With some players out due to injury and others due to previous engagements, the Aggies fought as hard as they could against ACHA DII teams Cal and Stanford. The Friday night game against Cal proved to be a difficult game when they jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead after the 1st period. The Aggies, with only 13 players suited up, fought back hard in the 2nd period and matched Cal goal for goal with three. Rookie defenseman Nick Stromberg scored the first of his Aggie career with a blast from the point after Tobin Dennis made the play to get Stromberg the puck. The Aggies finished the 2nd period with two goals in under two minutes, with Andrew Le scoring on a semi-breakaway power play goal and rookie Charlie Cohn putting in a short handed goal. Cal finished just like they started and outscored the Aggies 4-1 in the 3rd period to put the game away. Andrew Le scored the lone 3rd period goal after Tobin Dennis caused all sorts of commotion in front of the net.

The next day against Stanford, the Aggies brought only 11 players to the game, as Calvin Chu hurt his back and Stephen Priest had grad student matters to take care of. Stanford scored the first goal of the game, but the Aggies came back with two straight to take the lead with an unassisted goal from Tobin Dennis and also Dan Nguyen's first career goal. The lead did not last, as Stanford quickly tied it up and also regained the lead with a heartbreaking goal late in the 1st period. Not discouraged, Ben Dines came out of the locker room furious and put one in the back of the net early in the 2nd period. Stanford mimicked the 1st period and scored two more goals to take a 5-3 lead. Once again, Ben Dines put the puck in the net with only 8 seconds left in the period to bring the Aggies within one goal! Unfortunately, Stanford did not pay for enough ice time, so the 3rd period was running time. Instead of a 20 minute period, the Aggies probably played about 10 minutes. Nonetheless, the Aggies were not able to mount a comeback and lost 6-4.
Weekend notes: The top line of Ben Dines (2 g), Tobin Dennis (1 g, 2 a), and Andrew Le (2 g, 2 a) finished with a combined 9 points in 3 games...With his 2 goals, Ben Dines kept pace ahead of Andrew Le to stay as the active Aggies career leader in goals with 23...At Stanford, Sean McGill was robbed twice by the goalie...and he was also robbed in East Palo Alto...just kidding.

10/15/06: Starting the season for the 2006-2007 Aggies were Tobin Dennis (C), Ben Dines (LW), Calvin Chu (RW), Chris Cress (D), Charlie Cohn (D), and Jonathan Drinnan (G). Rookie freshmen Chu, Cohn, and Drinnan impressed during tryouts and were rewarded for their hard work. Finally, the drop of the puck came and we officially started the season. Both teams battled hard in the 1st period, but UC Irvine managed to outshoot the Aggies by a wide margin of 14 to 6. Drinnan made some phenomenal saves to keep the Aggies close, but Irvine scored a huge momentum swinging goal with just under a minute left in the 1st to take the lead. Coming out strong in the 2nd, Irvine added another goal about 2 minutes into the period for the 2-0 lead, and also scored another late one for a 3-0 lead. The Aggies were playing on their heals as Irvine once again outshot the Aggies 14-2. The forward lines just were not clicking, so the coaching staff made a change, switching Andrew Le and Calvin Chu. During the intermission, Captain Chris Cress fired up the team with a motivating speech. After the game, Cress told us, "I just wanted to see some more passion from the boys. It's our home opener and we don't want to go out by getting shut out." The team came out strong to begin the 3rd period and late in the penalty kill shift, Ben Dines rushed in and fired the puck over the goalie's shoulder for his first of the year.  Aggies down 3-1. Irvine responded with another goal of their own to take back the 3 goal lead. Then, Charlie Cohn rushed the puck up on the power play and skated in 2 on 1 with Andrew Le. Cohn faked the goalie out and put the puck in himself, scoring his first ever UC Davis goal. With the pressure still and a 2 goal deficit, Andrew Le took a pass from Charlie Cohn and skated down the left wing. He picked up his head and fed a backhand saucer pass to Ben Dines for the easy tap-in power play goal to bring the Aggies within one. With the momentum in the Aggies favor, an unfortunate penalty gave Irvine the power play, which they scored on. The Aggies were not able to overcome this last 2 goal deficit and lost 5 to 3.
Notes: Both teams accrued 16 penalties each, many due to the new USA Hockey rule changes...The teams also skated 3 on 3 at times in the game...Last years PIM leaders were back at it, with Chris Cress taking 2 penalties and Andrew Le with 3...Ben Dines narrowly missed a hat trick with a few shots late in the 3rd period.

Season preview:
The season is upon us and your Aggies look to make a statement this year showing that last year was a fluke. Captain Chris Cress and Assistant Tobin Dennis return to lead a young pack of hockey players thirsty for their first win since the PCHA Playoffs back in 04-05. In addition to Cress and Dennis, top 3 goal scorers Eric Wulfemeyer, Andrew Le, and Ben Dines look to shoulder the load this year due to Assistant Eddie Birnbaum's torn ACL. Birnbaum tried playing through a knee injury only to completely tear his ACL and is now out for the 06-07 season. Wulfemeyer or Cress look to become the first player(s) since Berk Nelson to lead the team in points two years in a row. Dines (with 19 goals) and Le (with 20 goals) are the current active Aggie leaders in goals and are expected to contribute this year. Sean McGill, who has been training all summer in Australia, has regained his touch from back when he was the star for the Sacramento Flames. Rounding out the returning players are Dan Nguyen, Robin Liu, Stephen Gribble, and Drew Tanguay, who will be expected to bring energy to the ice every time they step on.
Some of the new blood seeking to revive the Aggies include defensemen Spenser Wagner, Charlie Cohn, Nick Stromberg, forwards Sean Judge, Calvin Chu, Andy Roberson, and Stephen Priest. Wagner, Cohn, and Chu all bring captaincy experience from their respective midget teams (Santa Rosa Flyers, Telluride Lizard Heads, and Oakland Bears), while Stromberg and Judge both bring extensive hockey experience. Roberson and Priest are up and comers who look to be able to contribute to the team.
In net, freshman Jonathan Drinnan appears to have won the starting goaltender job while Angelo Arias and Firrend Naaman continue to battle for the number two spot.

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