September 17, 2006

GT head coach Greg Stathis felt his team did not take advantage of most power play situations last season and wanted to increase the power play production for the 2006-07 season.

For the final training camp session at the Pelham Civic Center in Pelham , AL , coach Stathis had his young team on the ice and the subject was power play performance.

For 90-minutes, the team worked on proper power play breakout systems, face-off positioning and techniques, pulling the goalie for another attacker, re-grouping, attacking the net, rebound drills and specific strategy for both 5 on 4 and 5 on 3 advantages.

The players worked hard and applied their lesson to their first game of the 2006-7 season against the University of Alabama by scoring 8 power play goals in a convincing 9-2 victory.

Mike Zaucha and Brendon O’Leary led the way with 2 goals and 2 assists each. Also scoring goals for Tech were Tom Porter and Drew Baker.

Tech’s defensemen added to the scoring with goals by BJ Stapleton, Pat Kelley and freshman rookie standout Austin Kasse on a blazer from the blue line.

Also picking up assists were Drew Baker, Tom Porter, BJ Stapleton, Austin Kasse, Pat Kelley and Josh Krissinger.

Senior goalie Nick Rice turned away 21 shots for the win.

Tech had 60-shots on goal and saw some outstanding saves by the Alabama netminder who single handedly kept the score respectable.

The game was played under the new ACHA “zero tolerance” rules resulting in 20 penalties for Alabama and 12 against Tech. Most of the penalties were minor infractions for obstruction, roughing and interference even though the game was played clean by both teams.

Georgia Tech and Alabama were either short handed or on the power play resulting in absolutely no flow to the game. The game dragged on for over 3-hours and was frustrating for both teams and the fans.