Cavosie returns to AHL, joins River Rats

TROY — There couldn’t have been a better setting for Marc

Cavosie to get his first taste of life with the Albany River Rats.

The Cohoes native skated through drills Tuesday morning at RPI’s Houston Field House, where he starred for three college seasons from 1999-2002, scoring 109 points in 97 games.

Heck, his photo is even encased behind glass just beyond the rink’s entrance doors in a display honoring a select group of Engineers to be named NCAA All-Americans.

“If you’re going to go somewhere and feel as comfortable as you can be, it’s going to be here for me,”

Cavosie said. “I played a lot of hockey here growing up and in college, and we even skated here last summer. If there’s somewhere I can go to be as comfortable as possible, this is it.”

Having split 41 games for ECHL teams in Columbia and Reading, Cavosie, 26, is with the Rats on a 25-game professional tryout. The first one comes tonight as Albany (31-24-1-3), winner of three straight, hosts Binghamton in an East Division matchup at the Times Union Center..

It will be Cavosie’s first regular-season AHL game since April 15, 2006 for Philadelphia. That season, he skated twice in Albany for the Phantoms: a 2-1 win Nov. 25, 2005, where he picked up an assist in a 2-1 win, and Jan. 21, 2006, in a 3-2 OT victory.

“It’ll be fun,” Cavosie said. “My mom has only seen me play once this year, so she’ll be out. My grandmother can’t really travel as much, so she’ll be out. We’ll have a good crowd there. I’ll try not to let it

affect me. I’ll be a little more excited, probably a little jumpy in the first period, but eventually you settle in, and it’ll be the same game I’ve always known.”

A player the parent Carolina Hurricanes considered inviting to Albany’s training camp last fall,

Cavosie was brought in both for his natural offensive ability and his saavy as a sixth-year pro.

“He has a lot of skill, and he’s real intelligent,” Rats head coach-GM Tom Rowe said. “We need some skill and we need some experience, and he fills the void in both categories. He definitely brings some creativity, which is what we’re looking for.

“He reminds us a lot of Matt Murley. They’re similar players. It looks like he skates a little bit better, but has the same hockey sense offensively that Murls has. If he comes in and plays well, we could have him for the rest of the season. It’s up to him.”

Following Murley, a Troy

native who was his RPI linemate for three years, and Kirk MacDonald, Cavosie is the third former

Engineer to play for the Rats. Murley is playing for AHL San Antonio, and MacDonald is with Carolina’s ECHL affiliate in Florida.

This is the third AHL go-around for the 6-foot, 180-pound Cavosie, who also played three seasons in Houston, winning a Calder Cup as a rookie in 2003. He will wear

No. 9 for Albany.

Cavosie skated Tuesday on left wing with Jakub Petruzalek at center and converted defenseman Brett Carson on the right. That trio, along with defensemen Joey Mormina and Mark Flood, also worked as a power-play unit.

“I know I can do it. I’ve done it in Philly and I’ve done it in Houston,” Cavosie said. “I felt really comfortable down in the ECHL. I think in the beginning, you’ll see a lot of simple plays and, as I get more comfortable and get more used to the players I’m playing with, be a bit more creative.”

This season, Cavosie was 10-13-23 and plus-9 in 24 games for Reading after being acquired from Columbia, where he was 2-4-6 in 17 games. Among his ECHL teammates were current Rats defenseman Bryan Rodney (Columbia) and forward Chris Blight (Reading).

Cavosie had 26 points in 35 games down the stretch following a slow, injury-plagued start in Philadelphia, which brought him in on tryout and ended up signing him to an AHL deal. He spent half of the 2006-07 season in Sweden before being bought out of his contract and returning home to finish his degree at RPI.

“I wanted to keep playing. I just needed to take a little time to refocus and come back,” Cavosie said. “Being back here is great.

“I knew I was going to have to work my way up this year. It took a little longer than I wanted to, but I’m here. We’ve got four games this week, and if I play the way I know I can, I feel like I can put them in a position where they want to keep me.”

NOTEBOOK

Carolina assigned right wing Jeff Hamilton to Albany on Tuesday. Hamilton cleared NHL waivers on Jan. 31, but had remained with the Canes. . . . Rowe said injured left wing and leading scorer Brandon Nolan is still another week away from returning. He has yet to resume skating. . . . Center Nicolas Blanchard, hurt in Sunday’s 2-1 shootout win at Bridgeport, will not play tonight, but could be back by the weekend. . . . Tonight will be left wing Trevor Gillies’ 500th pro game, and 282nd in the AHL, and Rowe’s 300th as an AHL head coach.