The heart and soul of the offense is the lethal combination of Steve Moore (18 g, 13 a1) and Bala (5, 10). Together they form one of the most potent scoring tandems in the conference with Moore as playmaker and Bala as the sniper. Barring further injury, each of them ought to hit at least 40 points this year.

Both players are NHL prospects with Moore taking the central spotlight right now. Moore sees the ice exceptionally well and nobody on the team hits harder along the boards. The Athletic Department is already starting to tout him as a future Hobey Baker candidate.

"Yeah, Steve and Chris are two of the guys we're looking at to really score for us," Jonas said. "But we have a lot of other guys too."

Moore and Bala should have plenty of help from players who formed the "7-8-9 line" last year. Senior winger Brett Chodorow (9, 10), who has a blistering wrist shot, junior center Harry Schwefel (5, 13), officially named last year's most improved player, and senior winger Scott Turco (5, 12) ought to continue their progression this season.

Allman (6, 10), of course, will contribute his usual numbers crashing the net.

"I think we are going to need a total team effort on offense," Bala said. "Every team has guys that you look to produce but everyone needs to have success."

Among last year's rookie class, none impressed more than sophomore center Jeff Stonehouse (6, 5). Stonehouse, at times who played on the top line, is a very good face-off man and contributor on the power play.

Sophomore Kyle Clark (0, 2) will be one player watched closely for improvement. The Washington Capitals took a chance this year in the 6th round on his prodigious size (6'6, 215-pounds), but he needed to improve his skating and positioning. He has great potential to wreak havoc along the boards and screen goalies.