College Hockey:

This Week in Hockey East: Jan. 8, 2004

Red Hot When It Counts

Care to guess which Hockey East team not found in the national rankings has taken nine of its last 10 possible league points?

Massachusetts-Lowell.

(Maine has also achieved the feat, but that’s hardly headline news for the fourth-ranked Black Bears.)

Several factors make the River Hawks’ 4-0-1 record in their last five Hockey East games even more surprising.

First, all five contests came against teams that were in the national rankings: a win and tie against Boston University (then No. 10), a win over New Hampshire (then No. 4, now No. 10) and a sweep last weekend over Massachusetts (No. 11 at the time). And Lowell didn’t just take two from UMass, it shut the Minutemen out for the entire weekend.

“To sweep any team in Hockey East is huge,” UML coach Blaise MacDonald says. “For us to get two shutouts against a team that’s ranked number 11 in the country is just awesome.”

Not that both games were artistic masterpieces. After shutting down UMass at home on Saturday, the River Hawks had to hang on for the 1-0 road win on Sunday, getting outshot 10-1 in the third period.

“I didn’t mind our first two periods [on Sunday],” MacDonald says. “We didn’t play great; we played kind of an ugly road game. But in the third period the [Thomas] Pck factor and the [Marvin] Degon factor kicked in and we were kind of hanging on.

“The Hockey Gods were helping us out. There were a couple times when the puck went off our skates and into the corner, not right back to them. Or it hit the shaft of our stick and into the corner. So we got some fortunate bounces that we hadn’t seen in many, many months here.”

This writer displeased more than a few Lowell fans by picking UMass to pull off the sweep instead of the other way around. The rationale, however, seemed sound. Going into the weekend, the wheels appeared to be falling off for the River Hawk goaltending. Chris Davidson, who had been so instrumental in Lowell’s first half surge, gave up six unanswered goals in the 6-5 collapse to Niagara despite facing only 14 shots over the closing two periods. In the following game against Ferris State, he surrendered four goals on 13 shots before getting the hook less than a minute into the second period. He sat on the bench in the 5-3 win over Union.

John Yaros, the transfer who was expected to be eligible to play as soon as the second semester commenced, had missed nine weeks due to mononucleosis and was still waiting for one grade to be finalized before he could play. So it would either be third-stringer Paul Mammola, who had earned the win over Union, or a come-backing Davidson.

“Chris Davidson was coming off a series of giving up 10 goals on 23 shots, so I give him a world of credit,” MacDonald says. “Going into the weekend knowing that, I never would have predicted 3-0 and 1-0.”

While Merrimack, Boston University, Providence and Northeastern have all compiled winning nonconference records only to languish in the lower half of the standings with sub-.500 marks in the league, Lowell has played its best within Hockey East. The result is a third place showing (in terms of percentage).

“Last year we had a decent nonconference record and it didn’t do much for us,” MacDonald says. “This year we changed our focus a little bit toward conference games. I don’t know whether it’s subjectively or objectively, we just seem to have a slightly different approach for our conference games.

“I think we’re realistic in thinking and believing that for us to make the NCAA tournament, we’re going to have to do great in Hockey East, period. So if that’s the case, let’s focus on that. Whereas maybe my first year here, every single nonconference game had NCAA tournament implications to it so we really focused on that.”

The results are especially impressive considering that this is a young squad that most, this writer included, thought was a year or two away from making its impact.

“For us to have six wins and one tie in Hockey East at this point [is just remarkable],” MacDonald says. “People don’t realize that we’ve played the majority of our games with 17 to 18 freshmen and sophomores.

“And even some of the juniors who are playing don’t have a lot of experience. Chris Davidson is a junior, but he’s really a sophomore; he didn’t play as a freshman. We’re the youngest team in college hockey. It’s extraordinary.”

MacDonald is now in his third year at Lowell and the current roster consists overwhelmingly of “his” recruits. There are inevitably questions that arise when a new coach takes over. How well do the existing players fit the style the new coach wants? How well do they adapt to changing systems, practices, routines and expectations? To whatever extent these transition questions arose the past two years, they’re irrelevant now.

“It’s all the kids,” MacDonald says. “The kids are committed. They deserve all the credit. It’s like night and day around here in terms of commitment and passion for the game.

“In college hockey there are a lot of ways to win. It’s not always the most talented team. You need to find what fits in your program. We’re still in the process of getting those players here. But [assistant coaches] Kenny Rausch and Chris MacKenzie have done an outstanding job of identifying and recognizing the right types of players that we need here.”

So how far can this team go? Not only are the River Hawks in third place, they won’t be facing a Hockey East team with a winning league record until mid-February. Until then they’ll face Merrimack and Providence twice each as well as Boston University and Northeastern once. Don’t bother, however, talking to MacDonald in those terms.

“We clearly are taking the Bill Belichick approach here,” MacDonald says. “We’re just looking to have a good practice tomorrow. If we get through that, let’s see if we can have an even better one the next day. We’re so far from being able to handicap where we might be [in the upcoming weeks].

“It goes back to how difficult Hockey East can be. Any team can get on a roll. So Michigan State [this week] is just going to be a great experience regardless of how the scoreboard reads. [Next week] Merrimack and Lowell is a huge thing; for us, it’s [a rivalry] like BU and BC.”

On The Rebound

In a week of huge wins, none was bigger than Northeastern’s over second-ranked Boston College. The Huskies had posted four straight wins, but all of them had come in nonconference games. They desperately needed points in the standings, but getting them from an Eagles squad undefeated to that point in Hockey East play seemed like a tall order.

Northeastern rose to the challenge, however, and may now see some light at the end of the tunnel that is the Hockey East cellar.

“I’ve said this from day one and I’ll say it again; I like this team,” coach Bruce Crowder said after the 3-0 win. “It’s another step tonight. We’ve got a hole [in the standings] to get ourselves out of, but it’s a start.

“This team is getting better every time out. They have a great attitude. People were throwing a lot of stuff at us a couple weeks ago, but we’ve got a happy group of boys over there right now.”

The four nonconference wins following an 0-9-2 start played a big part in the upset of BC and, perhaps, the turning around of an entire season.

“We were going in the wrong direction,” Crowder said. “To quote a guy I used to work for, [former UMass-Lowell coach] Billy Riley, ‘Any win is a good win.’

“Winning becomes contagious. That’s what we’re looking at right now. That’s five in a row and in four of the five we played pretty well for 60 minutes.”

Assistant captain Brian Tudrick added, “Looking at our record, we were 0-9-2. We were playing well, but we weren’t winning any games. The [nonconference] wins just made you feel better about everything.

“Practice is better; all week is better. People think it’s just after the game where you feel better, but it’s all week in practice after a win. It’s not just Saturday night. You feel better Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and the rest of the wee