Coaches usually hope to find a good physical player, or a fine finesse player, but to find both in the same set of skates is a blessing for any coach.
The Icers have such a package wrapped in the form of No. 19 Ross Cowan, and are taking full advantage of his versatile talents.
“He is perhaps one of the most talented pound for pound players that I’ve seen,” Icer Coach Joe Battista said. “He likes to play a physical game, but he also likes to quarterback the puck, and he can kill penalties. He’s just one of those guys you like to get the puck to.”
Cowan obviously gets the puck a lot, he is the high scorer for the Icers with 17 points already this season, and is rapidly approaching the 200 mark for his carreer, which is a glacier only six Icers have melted.
In his skate for 200 he has worked his way in to contention for many Icer landmark records. In last weekend’s 10-0 bout with West Chester and 8-3 exchange with Deleware, Cowan raked in three goals and three assists to find himself the ACHL player of the week. These points also moved him into the top ten career goals in Icer history, and has also placed him firmly in the top ten list for career points.
Cowan’s line, which consists of himself, Don Lamison, and newcomer Rob Keegan, has 42 of the Icer’s points thus far this season. This high impact line is not yet satisfied with their performance, and looks to play a steadily increasing role in the march of the Icers, starting with this weekend’s trip to Maryland.
“We’re still getting to know each others tendencies,” Keegan said. “We’ll score our share of goals this season.”
The Icers are slated to meet up with the 3-3-1 Terrapins today, and the Navy Midshipmen tomorrow.
“We haven’t heard much about Maryland,” Keegan said. “We’re going to treat it like we would any other game, go in play our best, and give them all we’ve got.”
Coach Battista does not seem overly concerned with Maryland, but does not want his team to let up because the following day they face a fresh, fiery Navy.
“(Maryland) is giving up an average of seven goals a game,” Battista said. “They have a young goalie, but we have to stay up because we have to play Navy Saturday, and we will be their first game of the weekend.”
Battista warns that nobody can be taken lightly no matter what the opposing team’s record.
“The one thing I have learned over the years,” He said, “is on any given night any team can come up and beat another. That’s just something we’re going to have to guard against happening to us.”