MEN'S HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
Vermont heads back out on the road this weekend for a single contest as they will face AIC at the MassMutal Center in downtown Springfield. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. Saturday night and the action will be streamed live through FloHockey. As always, the game will also be broadcast live on WVMT with the voice of the Catamounts Adam Lafleur in the Handy Toyota Broadcast Booth. 

RELATED LINKS
CatamounTV Weekly Press Conference: Wiedler
Live Video: FloHockey ($)
Listen Live: WVMT
Live Stats
 
BUCHELER'S HISTORIC NIGHT IN AMHERST
Last Saturday graduate defenseman Jérémie Bucheler scored two goals and added three assists in Vermont's 6-2 win over No. 14 UMass. Bucheler matched a program single-game record for a UVM defenseman with his five points. He was the first Catamounts defender to post five points since 1972.
 
Following his historic output Bucheler was named Hockey East Co-Defender of the Week and UVM Athletics' TD Bank Student-Athlete of the Week. Saturday was Bucheler's 117th collegiate game, before Saturday he had never posted a multi-point or multi-goal game. Saturday in 11:02 of game action he had two goals and two assists. 
 
RICHARDS NETS FIRST UVM HAT TRICK SINCE          
Sophomore forward Jens Richards scored UVM's first shorthanded goal of the season Saturday on his way to the Catamounts first hat trick since January 20, 2018.
 
CATAMOUNTS STARTING STRONG
Vermont has started the 2023-24 campaign under first year Head Coach Steve Wiedler quite strong. Entering this weekend's action UVM was tied for fourth place in Hockey East. The 3-4-1 start for UVM is its best after eight games since the 2016-17 campaign.
 
THEODORE RETURNS FOR AIC ALUMNI WEEKEND
Graduate forward Chris Theodore is back at the MassMutal Center fittingly enough for AIC's Alumni Weekend. Theodore played four years at AIC, recording 58 points (20-38-58) in 91 games. During the 2021-22 campaign with the Yellow Jackets Theodore had 24 points in 24 league games and was named the Atlantic Hockey Player of the Year. He helped the Yellow Jackets to four consecutive regular season titles and three Atlantic Hockey tournament championships.
 
WIEDLER BACK IN THE CITY OF FIRSTS TOO
Theodore isn't the only former Yellow Jacket returning to Springfield this weekend, the UVM bench boss was the recruiting coordinator at AIC, and he helped build the 2018-19 and 2019-20 AIC teams that won back-to-back Atlantic Hockey Conference (AHC) regular season championships. During his tenure at AIC recruiting highlights included AIC's first Division I All-American, 11 AHC All-Conference selections, AIC's all-time points leader, AIC's all-time defenseman scoring leader, AIC's wins and shutouts leader. Under Wiedler's tutelage, the team's defense had great success, allowing a mere 52 goals in 28 AHC games during the 2019-20 campaign, the fewest in AIC's history and second-fewest in AHC history.

SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS
AIC was selected third overall in the Atlantic Hockey preseason poll and they are 4-5-0 this season. They enter Saturday nights action having won four of their last five contests including a home-and-home sweep of Holy Cross last weekend.
 
Senior defenseman Brian Kramer and graduate forward Dustin Manz are tied for the team lead in scoring with seven points apiece. Kramer is also tied with sophomore forward John Lundy with three goals to lead the squad. First year goaltender Nils Wallstrom has started eight of AIC's nine games this season. He's posted a .917 save percentage and 2.47 goals-against average.

SERIES HISTORY
Saturday's contest will be just the eighth matchup between these two teams. After topping Vermont 4-0 at Gutterson Fieldhouse last January the Yellow Jackets lead the overall series 4-3-0. On the road Vermont is 1-2-0 against the Yellow Jackets.
 
DRAFT CAPITAL
The Catamounts enter the new season with six NHL Draft picks on the roster. Eli Barnett (San Jose, 2022 7th Rd.), Andrei Buyalsky (Colorado, 2021 3rd Rd.), Luca Münzenberger (Edmonton, 2021 3rd Rd.), Isak Walther (Nashville, 2019 6th Rd.), Timofei Spitserov (San Jose, 2020 7th Rd.) and Joel Määttä (Edmonton, 2022 7th Rd.) are sure to bring NHL attention to the program this season.
 
GUT HOCKEY GOES INTERNATIONAL
The Vermont roster is comprised of student-athletes from nine different countries. There is at least one player from Finland, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Germany, Kazakhstan, Canada and the United States. There are eight student-athletes from Ontario alone, including five newcomers this year.

Handy Toyota is the presenting sponsor of the UVM men's hockey program