College Hockey:

Four Square

The playoffs are in full gear across six conferences this weekend. Here is a look at the WCHA, ECAC Hockey, Hockey East and the CCHA. This is not a slight to Atlantic Hockey or the CHA, but I have only seen Army and Air Force in those conferences this season and do not want to evaluate what I have not seen. I have seen everyone else either live or on film — DS.

ECAC Hockey

Yale at Princeton: Yale can score with dangerous offensive weapons. Two sophomores sandwich two freshmen to lead the team in scoring. Sean Backman led the way with 18-8–26, followed by Broc Little, Denny Kearney, and Mark Arcobello. Little has displayed a unique nose for the net and is always in a scoring area. Goaltending is strong as both have proven they can win a game by themselves. Billy Blas is the top guy. Princeton has Lee Jubinville and he was the Ivy League Player of The Year and posted a 1.41 points per game average. Princeton can move the puck, defend well, and open it up when they have to. Both teams are well coached by good tactical guys. Princeton has shown consistency all season and they get the nod here. The thing about Princeton is if you pull out some film on them, compare it to Gadowsky’s teams in Fairbanks, and his minor pro teams in the old WCHL, you can see the link. They skate, they attack, and they are focused on offense. However, if they underestimate Yale’s offense, it could be a tough weekend in New Jersey. Princeton is the choice here to make the trip to Albany.

Cornell at Union: Still getting used to seeing Cornell on the road in the second round, but Cornell is Cornell and they can win a game on the moon with the way they play. Great defensive team with solid goaltending, they don’t give up many chances and make it tough to get good looks at the net. Ben Scrivens can give up big rebounds but those aren’t much help when you can’t get to them. Colin Greening and Riley Nash provide offense and a presence on the rush and Topher Scott is a solid two way guy who always seems to be open. Raymond Sawada has always impressed with his work ethic.

Union is a scrappy team that works as hard as Cornell and that’s a compliment to Nate Leaman and his staff. They are your classic “find a way to win” team and those teams are dangerous. Defenseman Lane Caffaro has proven to be good on either side of the puck and adds a dimension of offense from the back line. He’s been more disciplined and that is a factor in his improvement. Junior captain Matt Cook has been the heart and soul of that team and leads a team that plays offensively and defensively as a team That’s tough to beat.

Only hangup here has been Union’s bad luck in the playoffs, especially in OT. There’s just something about Cornell, maybe it’s because they are Cornell. The tea leaves point toward the Big Red winning game three in this one.

Quinnipiac at Harvard: Love this matchup. It has everything. Size, strength, speed, skill, goaltending, contrasting styles, and good coaching. The Bobcats posses a team of big strong forwards who can own the offensive zone. They cycle well, protect the puck, and use that size and strength to muscle their way to scoring chances. They are an interesting team in that they can get swept by a team they should sweep but steamroll better teams.

Harvard is a great defensive team in addition to having goaltending in Kyle Richter. They are very hard to play against, the ultimate compliment to any team. Harvard has some dynamic faceoff guys in Jimmy Fraser Doug Rogers. Harvard can get the puck moving and can create offensively with guys like Jon Pelle and freshman Mike Biega, but their strength is how good they are defensively.

Can Quinnipiac’s big bodies on Harvard’s small ice get to the net consistently and generate offense? This one is almost too close to call but we’ll take the home team in the friendly confines of the Bright Center.

Colgate at Clarkson: I know I said I’d love to call Ferris State at Notre Dame this weekend, but I’d take this series also. Really like both programs. Clarkson can really move the puck and has big time high end weapons. Matt Beca and Steve Zalewski combined for 29 goals and 62 points and we haven’t gotten to Nick Dodge yet, who many feel is the team’s best player. Their forwards are very accountable defensively and get a lot of backside pressure against the rush.

Colgate has a unique factor in goalie Mark Dekanich. He’s streaky at times but when the streak is going well, he’ll throw up three consecutive shutouts. The feeling is that Clarkson, as good as they can be offensively, needs to score early in games before Dekanich gets his game into shutdown mode. Tyler Burton has been great his whole career and is very good at finding open space to get shots. Jesse Winchester is the third senior in this trifecta of experience and we all know winning takes good senior leadership.

I give Colgate a puncher’s chance here, but I was impressed enough with Clarkson in last year’s ECAC Hockey Final Four that they get my sentimental nod here.

Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, and Clarkson advance.

CCHA

UNO at Michigan: Bryan Marshall is every bit the Hobey Baker candidate that fellow CCHA stars Kevin Porter and Chad Kolarik are in some respects. Love how Scott Parse and Bill Thomas are gone and Marshall is still a scoring star and a great captain. Like the aforementioned two, as well as Ryan Jones at Miami, he proves that coming back for your senior year is a pretty smart idea in terms of player development.

That being said, Michigan, despite Scooter Vaughn’s injury last weekend, is pretty deep. Kolarik seems ready to come back and even at 75 percent, he’s just fine for me. UNO is a good skating team that demands you match their intensity; they are very well-coached but Michigan might be too deep, too focused, and have too many intangibles. UNO is no easy out so Michigan earns this series the hard way.

Ferris State at Notre Dame: I’ll be honest, if I had my choice of series to broadcast this weekend this would be the one. It’s not a sexy series but it’s ripe for surprises. Notre Dame has gotten great goaltending from Jordan Pearce and Eric Condra, Ryan Thang, and Mark Van Guilder have been terrific. Brock Sheehan could play for me any day. ND is a great shutdown team but it seems that the more they play shutdown they less they create and that could be an issue against a Ferris State team that is opportunistic, enthusiastic, and playing with house money.

ND is 2-3-3 in its last four weekend series and while the goals against are low, so are the goals for. That’s a lot to ask of a rookie goalie in the playoffs. Jimmy Howard as a junior at Maine could handle that pressure. Same goes for Jeff Lerg at Michigan State or John Curry at BU, who I think might have pulled off a win or two in last year’s tourney if his hip wasn’t so bad. Mitch O’Keefe for Ferris has had some great moments at FSU and he might be on the verge of stealing a series. Since a loss to Northern Michigan on CSTV in January, he’s 4-1-3 with wins over Notre Dame, Miami, and Michigan. That’s pretty good!

If there is a first-round upset, it just might be here. This should be a great series.

Bowling Green at Miami: Miami doesn’t get the credit it deserves for being an elite NCAA team but this team is really good in every area. Well-coached, good speed, gamebreakers offensively, shutdown defensemen and goaltending. They have a great home-ice advantage at Steve Cady Arena, which is an awesome building. BG is an improved team that can compete with the big boys, but they are depth challenged. Derek Whitmore has been great with 27 goals and has been the consummate leader. Jacob Cepis has 15 goals including an OT game-winner that helped propel BG past Lake State and sophomore Todd McIlrath is showing signs of a big series. Nick Eno has been solid in goal.

That said, Miami is loaded. Jones, Miele, Davis, Cannone, Ganzak, Martinez, and Zatkoff power that engine and that is a lot of horsepower. Pat Cannone as a rookie center has been a