Commit Cycle: March 19 (Men)

It's that horrible time of year again, when the primary hockey season winds down and we start to remove players from the Commit Cycle posts, before pausing the series for the summer once they're all gone. Playing hockey at a high level is a year-round commitment of course, but information from all of the camps, showcases and leagues during the "offseason" isn't gained steadily enough to maintain a regular post (in cases where it is available, it will still be passed along, of course).

Here are the removed players and how their seasons concluded. As always, check M Current Commitments for full stats.

• A.J. Greer (Kimball Union Academy) enjoyed a highly-successful first year in New Hampshire after coming to the states from his native Quebec. The power forward finished sixth in scoring, with 16 goals on a 19 assists, on a stacked team that had ten Division I commitments and went 27-2-0 in the regular season - earning a second-team all-scholastic underclass team nod from Over The Boards. The season, however, ended in disappointment when the top-seeded Wildcats were stunned 4-1 by Gunnery in the opening round of the Stuart/Corkery Tournament, the New England prep championship tournament.

Chase Berger

Forward
St. Louis AAA Blues (Midget Major 18U)
6'0", 190 pounds
St. Louis, MO
Entering 2015
DOB 11/14/1994



Berger's Blues will play in the USA Hockey Tier I 18U national championships from April 3rd through 7th in Pittsburgh thanks to their win at the Central District tournament over this past weekend... the Blues defeated the Chicago Mission (3-2 on March 15th), Russell Stover (4-1 on March 16th) and Team Wisconsin (3-2 on March 17th) to sweep the field... Berger scored the game-winning goal with 3:04 remaining in the come-from-behind win over Team Wisconsin that clinched the bid... the Blues will open nationals March 3rd with the Mid-Am District champion Cleveland Barons.

Related stories:
St. Louis Blues teams take Central Tier I titles at 14U, 18U (usahockey.com)

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Ricky DeRosa

Forward
Port Huron Fighting Falcons (NAHL)
6'1", 189 pounds
Aston, PA
Entering 2013
DOB 2/9/1992

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/9	at Kalamazoo	W 4-3	1	0	1	0	Box Score
3/15	vs. Soo	W 4-2	0	1	1	0	Box Score
3/16	vs. Soo	W 4-3	0	1	1	0	Box Score

DeRosa, who just committed on March 12th, makes a triumphant Commit Cycle debut by posting three team wins and a point in each one, including an empty-net goal that turned into a game-winning goal when Kalamazoo found an answer before the final horn... the wins were vital for the Fighting Falcons, who are seeking to nail down the North Division's final playoff spot - Port Huron is two points behind the Johnstown Tomahawks in the race with five games to go.

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David Goodwin

Center
Cedar Rapids RoughRiders (USHL)
5'9", 170 pounds
St. Louis, MO
Entering 2013
DOB 2/27/1992

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/8	at Waterloo	W 2-1	0	1	1	0	Box Score
3/9	vs. Sioux Falls	L 4-6	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/14	at Team USA	L 2-4	0	1	0	0	Box Score
3/15	at Indiana	L 0-1	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/16	at Dubuque	L 0-1	0	0	0	0	Box Score

Goodwin has played well of late (six points in the seven games prior to the pair of 1-0 losses), but it hasn't been enough, as the RoughRiders are on the brink of mathematical elimination from the USHL Eastern Conference playoffs... Cedar Rapids is 15 points out with nine games remaining, and both fourth-place Youngstown, the last team in, and Chicago, which sits between the Phantoms and Riders, have games in hand.

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Kevin Kerr

Defenseman
Team Comcast (Midget Major 18U)
5'11", 162 pounds
Bensalem, PA
Entering 2015
DOB 2/9/1996



Kerr, with Team Comcast, will join Berger at the USA Hockey Tier I 18U national championships thanks to an Atlantic District tournament championship over the weekend, which essentially involved a best-of-three series win against the Jr. Flyers (by 6-3 and 8-5 scores), the other team at the top of the district standings at the end of the season... the news wasn't quite as good with Kerr's school team, Holy Ghost Prep, which beat Father Judge 2-1 in the Flyers Cup (the eastern PA championship) but lost to La Salle 5-2 in the championship game at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center to end their season.

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Patrick Koudys

Defenseman
Muskegon Lumberjacks (USHL)
6'3", 198 pounds
Smithville, ON
Entering 2013
DOB 11/15/1992

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/8	at Lincoln	L 2-5	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/9	at Tri-City	W 6-3	0	2	2	2	Box Score
3/10	vs. Omaha	L 1-4	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/15	vs. Team USA	L 1-2	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/16	vs. Youngstown	L 1-4	0	0	0	0	Box Score

Defensive defenseman Koudys provided an unlikely source of offense against Tri-City on March 9th, but otherwise, it was rough sledding for a team on the verge of comfortably clinching an Eastern Conference playoff spot (and, perhaps, playing like it)... fifth-place Chicago, the first team out, is 18 points behind third-place Muskegon, and the Steel has just 22 possible points still on the table.

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Alec Marsh

Forward
Cedar Rapids RoughRiders (USHL)
5'10", 175 pounds
Bridgewater, NJ
Entering 2015
DOB 11/28/1995

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/8	at Waterloo	W 2-1	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/9	vs. Sioux Falls	L 4-6	0	1	1	0	Box Score
3/14	at Team USA	L 2-4	0	0	0	2	Box Score
3/15	at Indiana	L 0-1	-	-	-	-	Box Score
3/15	at Dubuque	L 0-1	0	0	0	0	Box Score

Marsh, on the opposite end of his USHL career from teammate Goodwin, is similarly trying to finish a likely losing season as strongly as possible... his assist against Sioux Falls gave him seven points this season, a solid start to things, given his 32 games and lower-line minutes in most of those games.

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Eamon McAdam

Goaltender
Waterloo Black Hawks (USHL)
6'2", 185 pounds
Perkasie, PA
Entering 2013
DOB 9/24/1994

Date	Opponent	Score	SA	GA	Sv%	GAA
3/8	vs. Cedar Rapids	L 1-2	--	-	---	---	Box Score
3/9	at Dubuque	W 4-3	31	3	0.903	2.77	Box Score
3/12	at Chicago	W 4-1	--	-	---	---	Box Score
3/15	vs. Lincoln	L 4-6	27	6	0.778	6.18	Box Score

McAdam checked in with a huge shootout win over league-leading Dubuque, as he stopped three of four shooters in the skills competition to clinch vital points for a team trying to stay in one of the Western Conference's last two playoff spots with ten regular season games left... he didn't fare as well in the loss to Lincoln on Friday, and it will be interesting to see if and how it affects his present 50-50 split with fellow 2013 NHL Entry Draft hopeful Cal Petersen - the division of minutes between the two has proven quite volatile this year.

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Bo Pellah

Defenseman
Alberni Valley Bulldogs (BCHL)
5'11", 150 pounds
New Westminster, BC
Entering 2014
DOB 5/25/1995

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/8	at Nanaimo	W 5-4	0	1	1	2	Box Score
3/9	at Victoria	W 6-4	-	-	-	-	Box Score
3/15	at Nanaimo	L 3-4	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/16	at Nanaimo	L 2-3	0	0	0	2	Box Score
3/18	vs. Nanaimo	W 4-1	0	0	0	2	Box Score

Alberni Valley won their final two games of the regular season to finish 29-20-7 and as the third-place team in the Island Division - then promptly found themselves on the verge of elimination after dropping the first two games of their best-of-five first-round series to Nanaimo... the Bulldogs were able to rally in game three, and will now need to win both Tuesday and Wednesday night to keep the season going.

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Dylan Richard

Forward
Spruce Grove Saints (AJHL)
6'0", 185 pounds
Sherwood Park, AB
Entering 2013
DOB 2/5/1993

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/14	vs. Sherwood Park	L 2-3	0	1	1	0	Box Score
3/15	vs. Sherwood Park	W 3-1	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/17	at Sherwood Park	W 9-1	3	0	3	2	Box Score
3/18	at Sherwood Park	W 6-5	1	2	3	0	Box Score

The long layoff for Spruce Grove (the Saints wrapped up their regular season February 26th, received a first-round playoff bye, then finally opened their second-round series March 14th) didn't seem to hurt much after a game one loss to Sherwood Park followed by three consecutive wins... Richard's natural hat trick in game three made him an easy player-of-the-game choice, as his goals pushed the game from 1-1 to 4-1 to initiate the rout... he followed that up with another three-point effort in game four's double-overtime win, as well as another player-of-the-game nod... games five, six and seven (the latter two if necessary) of the series are Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

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Zach Saar

Right Wing
Muskegon Lumberjacks (USHL)
6'4", 210 pounds
Plainwell, MI
Entering 2013
DOB 6/22/1993

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/8	at Lincoln	L 2-5	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/9	at Tri-City	W 6-3	-	-	-	-	Box Score
3/10	vs. Omaha	L 1-4	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/15	vs. Team USA	L 1-2	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/16	vs. Youngstown	L 1-4	0	1	1	0	Box Score

It was a rather quiet two weeks for Saar, who - fairly uncommonly for him - didn't even beat anyone down in a fight... his assist in the ill-fated game against Youngstown was his first point as a Lumberjack following a mid-season trade from Des Moines and tied the game at one early in the second period.

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Eric Scheid

Forward
Lincoln Stars (USHL)
5'9", 163 pounds
Coon Rapids, MN
Entering 2013
DOB 5/5/1992

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/8	vs. Muskegon	W 5-2	0	0	0	2	Box Score
3/9	at Fargo	W 6-5	2	1	3	0	Box Score
3/12	at Fargo	L 2-4	0	0	0	5	Box Score
3/15	at Waterloo	W 6-4	2	2	4	0	Box Score
3/16	vs. Green Bay	W 6-2	1	1	2	0	Box Score

I suppose if McAdam has to give up six, you'd prefer a future teammate like Scheid to be the primary reason why... as part of an incredible eight-day stretch, the Minnesotan had a hand in four of the six goals against Waterloo... thanks largely to Scheid's hot streak, Lincoln is the one USHL team with Penn State representation presently playing well in the final push to the playoffs - and despite their third-place position, they'll need to keep doing so with the Black Hawks and archrival Omaha chasing closely in a three-teams-for-two-spots race.

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David Thompson

Defenseman
Chilliwack Chiefs (BCHL)
6'2", 187 pounds
Glen Mills, PA
Entering 2013
DOB 5/19/1992

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/7	at Langley	W 5-2	0	1	1	0	Box Score
3/9	vs. Langley	W 5-1	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/15	vs. Prince George	L 1-3	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/16	vs. Prince George	W 10-1	0	2	2	0	Box Score
3/18	at Prince George	W 5-3	0	0	0	4	Box Score

Similar to fellow BCHLer Pellah, Thompson's Chiefs wrapped up the regular season with a pair of wins, making their final record 33-21-2, good for second place in the Mainland Division... after losing game one of their opening-round playoff series to Prince George, the Chiefs exploded for a ten-spot in game two (Thompson was named third star in the blowout), and also won game three... Chilliwack now has two chances to advance, with a win Tuesday night, or with one Wednesday night should the Spruce Kings win on Tuesday.

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Mike Williamson

Defenseman
Spruce Grove Saints (AJHL)
6'3", 210 pounds
Leduc, AB
Entering 2013
DOB 9/5/1993

Date	Opponent	Score	G	A	Pts.	PIM
3/14	vs. Sherwood Park	L 2-3	0	0	0	0	Box Score
3/15	vs. Sherwood Park	W 3-1	0	1	1	0	Box Score
3/17	at Sherwood Park	W 9-1	1	0	1	0	Box Score
3/18	at Sherwood Park	W 6-5	0	0	0	4	Box Score

Williamson returned from an upper-body injury suffered at the end of the regular season (coincidentally, against Sherwood Park) to be a key contributor to the Saints' 3-1 series lead in their North Division semifinal series... Spruce Grove is looking to return to the top of the AJHL after their drive for a three-peat was derailed last season.