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Attack Of The Men In Black

As a member of the media covering North Dakota hockey in advance of the Frozen Four, I’ve spent the past week asking tough, probing questions of the Fighting Sioux coaches and players.

Curiously, I seemed to be the only reporter willing to broach a delicate subject, a subject UND coach Dave Hakstol was not eager to address: Will the Sioux wear their black Nike Swift jerseys when they play Boston College in St. Louis on Thursday?

To some, inquiring about the jerseys UND wears on game day might appear trivial. That, however, indicates a lack of understanding about the power and mystique surrounding these incredible garments. The fact is, the Sioux are 6-0 in games in which they’ve worn their black uniforms with the Nike Swift jerseys.

North Dakota fans hope the Sioux can continue their winning ways while wearing their new and improved black uniforms (photo: John Dahl, SiouxSports.com).

North Dakota fans hope the Sioux can continue their winning ways while wearing their new and improved black uniforms (photo: John Dahl, SiouxSports.com).

Evidence suggests that these jerseys helped UND rebound from a poor first half of the season (7-10-1) to an implausible second-half finish (17-3-4), paving the way for a third consecutive Frozen Four appearance. For example:

• UND was one of nine college teams selected to debut the Nike Swift jerseys in late December. Three of those teams — the other two being Maine and Michigan State — are in the Frozen four.

• The first time UND wore the jerseys was against Dartmouth Dec. 29 at the Ledyard National Bank Classic in Hanover, N.H. Coming off a 1-7-0 losing streak, the Sioux beat Dartmouth and went on to win the tournament, now considered a key turning point of the season.

• When UND wore its traditional green road jerseys on St. Patrick’s Day to play Minnesota for the WCHA Final Five championship in St. Paul, the Sioux lost to the Gophers 3-2 in overtime. The following weekend, when UND played Minnesota at the NCAA West Regional in Denver, the Sioux wore the black Nike Swift jerseys and won 3-2 in overtime.

• UND punched its ticket to the Frozen Four at the West Regional by wearing the Nike Swift jerseys for wins against Michigan and Minnesota, the first time all season that the jerseys were worn in back-to-back games.

What makes these jerseys so special? According to a Nike Bauer Hockey Inc. news release (and who doesn’t believe news releases?), the wind tunnel-tested jersey designed by the Advanced Innovation Team “reduces overall uniform weight, adds increased mobility and comfort while making the jersey the most advanced in the world.”

If this is the case, why wouldn’t a hockey player want every advantage he can get on the ice, especially during the Frozen Four? The best people to answer that were the team members themselves. When I put the question to them, here’s what they said:

Forward Jonathan Toews: “They make me feel pretty good. Hopefully we can keep the streak going if we keep wearing that jersey. They’re not that different. I just think they look good. It’s not the traditional Sioux jersey. All that black and green goes pretty good together.”

Forward Kyle Radke: We’re undefeated in them — knock on wood. I’m sure we’ll be wearing them come Thursday. Personally, I don’t like the way they fit. There is more ventilation through them, definitely. It’s nothing significant, not enough to make a difference where you really notice it. They’re intimidating.”

Forward Rylan Kaip: “Yeah, I like them. They’re a little bit lighter than the other ones. Lots of guys don’t like the way it feels, but I’m not going to complain.”

Forward Erik Fabian: “Do they feel a little lighter? Yeah. I just like the way the black jerseys look. That’s the only preference I have for them. They make us look thinner out there.”

Defenseman Taylor Chorney: “It’s a little different material than the regular ones. It’s a new look for us and our team plays with a lot of confidence in them. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the jersey, but I guess we are undefeated in them. I know we like wearing them.”

The form-fitting Nike Swift jersey is said to be lighter, more aerodynamic and cooler.

The form-fitting Nike Swift jersey is said to be lighter, more aerodynamic and cooler.

Defenseman Robbie Bina: “Personally, I like the black jerseys. I like the way they feel and the way they look, too.”

Defenseman Zach Jones: “I just like the way they look. I think they’re pretty cool.”

Defenseman Chay Genoway: “I like them just because as a smaller guy, they make everyone look slim. It just brings me to everyone else’s level. I kind of like them in that sense. It kind of makes me look bigger in relation to the bigger guys.”

Goalie Philippe Lamoureux: “I love them. They’re a little bit different kind of material, a little bit thinner and not as hot to wear on the ice. When they get wet, they don’t get heavy. I personally like wearing the black jerseys.”

As for the coach’s opinion, when I asked if he liked the Nike Swifts, Hakstol replied: “I don’t know. They’re jerseys. They’re a new look and a nice change. We’ve had a little bit of success in them. The jerseys don’t win hockey games. The people in them do.”

On SiouxSports.com, a website for UND fans, the initial reaction to the new uniforms last December was decidedly mixed. Many either disliked them or preferred the traditional style. But because the black Nike Swift jerseys have played a role in improving UND’s fortunes this season, most Sioux fans would like to see the team wear them in St. Louis.

In an unscientific poll conducted at SiouxSports.com, almost 90 percent of the 180-plus voters said UND should wear the black jerseys during the Frozen Four. Nearly two-thirds said it was because the team won when it wore them and 24 percent it was because they liked the looks of the Nike Swifts.

Hakstol has good news for the players and fans who want the team back in black jerseys against Boston College: “I don’t know if they’ll be hanging in the stalls or not, but they’ll make the trip to St. Louis — as will the greens and the whites.”

As the visiting team, Hakstol will decide Thursday morning whether UND wears its green or black jerseys. However, he might have tipped his hand on his preference for the Nike Swifts when he said, “Every little thing counts. If there is a little extra excitement when the players walk in the locker room, it’s a positive for us.”

As for me, let’s face it: These jerseys weren’t designed to appeal to middle-aged guys with paunches. I’ll wear my traditional, voluminous replica Sioux jersey to cover up my spare tire until the day I manage to acquire a Bowflex body.

In other words, no matter how popular they become, Nike’s not going to sell me a new Swift jersey any time soon.

Gateway To The Top

While no one following college hockey with any regularity is ready to compare the amateur hockey programs in St. Louis, the host for the upcoming Frozen Four, to those in Minnesota, Boston or Michigan, all those involved in St. Louis hockey have to be smiling these days.

The explosion of amateur hockey in St. Louis, which began in the late ’60s with the birth of the NHL Blues, has finally began to pay dividends with the appearance of more than a few significant contributors to Division I U.S. college programs today. Seven sophomores are having an impact this year, with a handful of juniors and freshmen joining in the fun.

Jeff LoVecchio, one of three Chesterfield natives who were sophomore forwards this year, finished as Western Michigan’s third-leading scorer for the 2006-07 season, racking up 19 goals and 15 assists for 34 points.

Ben Bishop of Maine is among the rising crop of talent coming out of St. Louis and its environs (photo: Melissa Wade).

Ben Bishop of Maine is among the rising crop of talent coming out of St. Louis and its environs (photo: Melissa Wade).

Travis Turnbull, the son of former Blues player Perry, had eight goals and 17 points for CCHA rival Michigan in the recently completed season. Turnbull’s coach at Michigan is former Blues legend Red Berenson.

Sean Muncy contributed eight goals and 17 points for Brown of the ECACHL, while Joe Vitale of St. Louis notched seven goals and 16 points for Hockey East’s Northeastern Huskies, fourth-best on the team.

Rounding out the sophomore forwards is Webster Groves native Thomas Fortney, who scored six goals and 13 points for Hockey East’s New Hampshire Wildcats.

Anchoring the defense is Denver’s Chris Butler, who was arguably the team’s MVP this year. His 10 goals and 27 points in 39 games were tops among all Pioneer defenseman and fifth overall on a team featuring balanced scoring with a strong duo guarding the nets.

While three of the players mentioned above had legitimate shots at advancing to this year’s Frozen Four in their hometown and experiencing a “dream come true” storyline, only Maine goaltender Ben Bishop will have that opportunity among St. Louis’ outstanding sophomore class.

A native of Des Peres, Bishop will be all the talk leading up to the first national semifinal on Thursday afternoon. Assuming the Black Bears’ starting duties from All-American netminder Jimmy Howard in 2005-06 as a freshman, Bishop posted a 21-8-2 record with a 2.28 goals against average and a .907 save percentage. He then led Maine to its 10th appearance in the Frozen Four, as Maine fell to eventual NCAA champion Wisconsin in the semifinals.

Bishop followed up his stellar freshman season, when he was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team, with an identical 21-8-2 record this year entering the Frozen Four. His season was somewhat derailed by a groin injury that eventually forced him out of the lineup for four games late in the year, all Maine losses.

But Bishop returned for the NCAA regionals last weekend, stopping 67 of 69 shots in wins over St. Cloud and Massachusetts. In an era when premier college goaltenders seem to be multiplying every year, Bishop finished sixth in the NCAA with a 2.08 GAA and eighth in the country with a .925 save percentage.

While he didn’t play hockey himself while growing up in St. Louis, Bishop’s father, Ben Sr., followed the Blues as a kid. With some help from his brother-in-law, Dad remembers taking Ben out for his first skate like it was yesterday.

“My son started playing when he was four and a half years old, and hockey has always been his passion,” said the elder Bishop. “Even though he was a very good athlete at four different sports, hockey was what he wanted. He was able to make it into the Blues AAA program, and as hockey has evolved over the years, it has become more of a full-time sport. By the time he was in the ninth grade, he committed to hockey.”

Turnbull, Fortney, Butler and Bishop were all teammates on the St. Louis Blues AAA teams growing up. Butler, for one, credits the many former NHL Blues players who have stayed in the St. Louis area and currently coach in the amateur ranks as a factor in the explosion of St. Louis natives now playing major college hockey.

“Mike Zuke and Perry Turnbull both have sons that are my age and they both coached teams that I was on when I was around 12-14,” Butler said following a team practice in January. “Having guys around like them, Basil McRae, Al MacInnis and Tony Twist really helped. Anytime you can get a guy who has played at the highest level to coach and give back to the area I think is tremendous. You look up to them and then they are coaching you at the same time. It is pretty special.”

After playing with the AAA Blues, Bishop played his junior year for Chaminade High School in St. Louis before spending his senior year with the Texas Tornado, where Bishop’s 35-8 record and a 1.93 GAA led the Tornado to the 2005 NAHL Championship. During his year in Texas, Maine assistant coach and primary recruiter Grant Standbrook began pursuing Bishop. Shortly after they were introduced to Standbrook, both Bishops felt early on that Maine was the place for Ben Bishop to continue his career.

“Grant has a great pedigree of finding and training goalies for college hockey, many of which go on to the NHL,” added Ben Sr. “While recruiting Ben, Grant spent some time with Ben and the two hit it off very well. They bonded almost immediately and he has really been a tremendous mentor to Ben. I would say in the last two years Ben’s game has gone from a C game to a B+ game.”

Both Bishops will be busy this weekend, as Ben Sr. is a board member on the St. Louis Sports Commission, which is hosting the Frozen Four.

“I have volunteered my time over the last couple of years,” he added, “to help the commission successfully plan and execute our strategy for the Frozen Four in part with the thought that hopefully my son might be a part of the action. We knew that with Maine’s reputation of having a very competitive program by being in the Frozen Four a number of times, that there was a very good chance this could happen.”

Bishop has already experienced a number of career highlights, especially for a 20-year-old, but reaching the Frozen Four in his first two seasons with Maine and being selected by the hometown Blues in the third round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft have to be right at the top.

Another one of Bishop’s and Butler’s teammates on the AAA Blues is enjoying a pretty respectable year. Colorado Avalanche rookie Paul Stastny remains in a tight race with Russian phenom Evgeny Malkin for NHL’s Calder Trophy as top rookie as the regular season enters its final week.

Although he wasn’t born in St. Louis, Stastny moved to the area with his family when he was eight years old after his father, NHL Hall of Famer Peter, signed with the Blues. Both he and his brother Yan, who was recently traded to the Blues organization, noticed how the hockey landscape has changed in St. Louis over the years.

“When my brother played,” Stastny recalled recently, “you could only find ice maybe a couple of times a week, but as I got older, ice became more available. The talent grew more and more every year, and with more St. Louis players going on the play in college, the skill, talent and dedication has improved in St. Louis hockey. ”

While Bishop will be the star attraction this week, he won’t be the only St. Louisan playing in the Frozen Four, as Michigan State junior defenseman Jeff Dunne from Grover will be lining up against him on Thursday. Dunne has contributed one goal and 11 points from the blueline for the Spartans so far this year.

Goaltender Charlie Effinger, who hails from nearby Belleville, Illinois, is another junior who made an impact this year. He shared time this season with Jeff Zatkoff in the nets for the Miami RedHawks, posting a 10-6-1 record with a 2.67 GAA for a team that reached the NCAA tournament.

Two freshmen also burst onto the college scene this year, led by Chesterfield’s Michael Davies. Davies 11 goals and 24 points ranked third on the team this year for Wisconsin. St. Louis’ Kyle Kraemer followed Joe Vitale to play for Northeastern this year, finishing second on the Huskies’ scoring charts with seven goals and 19 points.

Other St. Louis natives to play Division I hockey this year included Eric Slais with Brown, Andrew Meyer with Quinnipiac, Derek Pallardy and Brock Wilson with Merrimack, and Ian Tallett and Sam Bozoian for Harvard.

While most of the local collegiate players won’t get the opportunity, perhaps Dunne or both Ben Bishops will have the opportunity to see a dream come true come Saturday night.

BC’s Schneider In Frozen Four Focus

Solving a standout goaltender is a difficult art to master: It takes precision and a tremendous amount of effort for the opposing team, though his own teammates should have a better idea of how to sneak the puck by him in practice. To the frustration of many of his fellow Eagles, however, this is not the case for Boston College’s Cory Schneider.

The BC junior prides himself on being close to perfect in practice and carrying that attitude and skill into games. His teammates struggle to score on him almost as much as opposing teams. But, when the other Eagles beat the first-round draft pick of the Vancouver Canucks, they make sure that he is well-aware.

“That’s the funny thing; whenever we score on Cory, we’re always celebrating and stuff, because he doesn’t let in a lot in practice,” joked teammate and close friend Mike Brennan.

Schneider responded: “All the guys let me know when they score on me. They don’t let me get off the hook ever. It’s very competitive. It’s a fun little rivalry, but we all push each other.”

It’s not by accident that Schneider has become one of the elite goalies in college hockey. He works tirelessly to perfect his game, and makes himself not only a better hockey player, but a better athlete every day. And that is something that his teammates notice and respect in him.

“As a player, every day in practice, he comes to get better. He’s focused. He’s always taking extra shots, he works out after practice. He wants to be a player; he wants to be an athlete,” Brennan said about Schneider’s work ethic.

Schneider has a bright future, as he continues to progress and develop as a player, but he often opts to focus on the present — and the present is a good place to be right now, as the Eagles embark on their second consecutive trip to the Frozen Four in search of BC’s third national championship.

Over the past three seasons, the junior has developed a penchant for coming up big when the team needs him the most: in the big games when the spotlight is shining the brightest. Schneider has played some of the best hockey of his Eagles career over the past six weeks, backstopping the squad to the nation’s longest winning streak, which is now at 12 and counting. In that stretch, the junior goalie has posted a 1.60 goals-against average and .946 save percentage, collecting three shutouts in the process. He is making tough saves almost look routine and has certainly returned to the form that made him an All-American during the 2005-2006 campaign.

Schneider came to BC as a highly touted recruit, but his emergence on the Eagles squad came while sharing the spotlight. He spent his freshman year splitting time with since-graduated goalie Matti Kaltianen and adjusting to the change in tempo of the college game, a move he feels has helped in the long run.

“Coach kind of eased me into it. He didn’t throw me against UNH and Maine the first few games,” Schneider said. “Matti was there to kind of take those games and coach could put me in where he wanted to and kind of get in a nice rotation where they weren’t counting on me every single night. I think that helps a lot as a freshman. It lets you get your feet wet and get used to the college game, and I think Matti really helped take a lot of pressure off my shoulders.”

But late in the season, coach Jerry York decided to ride the young freshman in the playoffs and into the national tournament.

Schneider has proven that he can play at the highest level — and win at the highest level — having backstopped not only BC to Hockey East titles, but the U.S. under-18 national team to a gold medal in the 2003 world junior championships.

Schneider, though, struggled in his first run through the NCAAs freshman year, but felt that that experience helped him.

“I kind of got some exposure to it my freshman year in the Hockey East and the NCAA’s and I think that helped a lot because I struggled a bit in the tournament my freshman year. When it’s a big game, it’s easy to get up for it, easy to get focused. You’re nervous for a little bit, but once you see a few shots, you settle down. I think that the excitement and anticipation makes you more ready to go,” he said.

Now, Brennan says, “He’s a big-game goalie without a doubt. He comes up big whenever we need him in a huge, huge game, as you can see by this playoff run that we’ve had. I think it’s his focus, his focus before games, during practice, he’s always trying to get better.”

Schneider and the Eagles battled through a rough stretch in the early portion of the season, dropping in the national polls from No. 1 to as low as No. 15. This year, BC has at times seemed in jeopardy of not making the NCAA Tournament, and part of the Eagle’s struggles were between the pipes. On Oct. 20, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish came to Conte Forum and smoked the Eagles, 7-1. Schneider had one of his toughest outings of his career — though BC was able to recover, they couldn’t gain any momentum or put together a winning streak longer than three games.

Inconsistency continued to plague the Eagles throughout the season, but when the Beanpot rolled around, the whole season turned for Jerry York’s squad. Cory’s early-season struggles, said York, could have stemmed from his previous success.

“I think we expect an awful lot of him,” he said. “Our expectation is that he’d stop every single puck. I think he got into that framework during the year that, ‘hey Coach, I have to be perfect, 1.000 percent save percentage, I’m a returning All-American.’ He put a lot of pressure on himself.”

York, who leads all active coaches in victories, explained how he helped his netminder, saying, “I just talked to him and told him to be athletic, relax a little bit Cory. It’s almost like the golfer on the first tee, you’re expecting him to hit it right down the middle all the time — and hey, Tiger doesn’t hit it down the middle all the time.”

“The whole year, the team was inconsistent in the first three quarters of the season,” Schneider said. “But I think once they started playing well, I started playing well too. They started playing a little tighter D, and I started taking care of my own business. This streak here at the end has been huge, just to get back to where I know I can play and where I should have been playing the whole year.”

And Schneider has been at the forefront of the turnaround. He has been lights-out recently and is certainly ready to carry the Eagles to a national title, the school’s first since 2001. It is hardly surprising that Schneider’s play has elevated at the same time as that of the entire squad. When he is at the top of his game, the rest of the team is able to play with the confidence that he will stop everything, and thus it allows the rest of the squad to take more chances and play in a more relaxed frame of mind.

“Having him back there gives you a lot of confidence,” Brennan said. “But, at the same time, you can’t get stuck in a complacent state of mind, which you can because he’s so good and he’s always back there when you need him and he comes up big for us.”

And his teammates and the Eagles faithful hope that Schneider can come up big in the next two games.

“This year we’re not just satisfied to be in the Frozen Four; we want more than that, so I think that’s going to be a big driving force,” Schneider said about the team’s goal. “We want to finish out what we started here. For right now, I’m just focused on winning these two games.”

UNH Soph Trevor Smith Signs With Islanders

Sophomore forward Trevor Smith of the New Hampshire men’s hockey team has decided to forego his last two seasons as a Wildcat to sign a two-year contact with the New York Islanders of the NHL.

Smith was then assigned to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League, where he signed an amateur tryout contact (ATO) for the remainder of the 06-07 season and playoffs. He played in his first professional game April 1 and registered three shots on goal in a 4-2 win over Albany in Bridgeport, Conn., at the Arena at HarborYard.

He had a breakout sophomore season recording a career-high 43 points (21G, 22A) in 39 games helping UNH to its sixth regular-season title in school history and its sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

Smith, who led the Wildcats in points and goals, was the first UNH player in school history to be named a Hockey East First-Team All-Star. He ranked fourth in the conference in scoring and his 32 points in 27 league games was second best among league skaters.

He had posted a point in 26 of 39 games for the ‘Cats with 12 multi-point efforts on the season. Smith notched a point in 10 of the first 11 games of the season with 21 points (11G, 10A) in that time, which included a career-high four points against Colorado College on Oct. 21.

Quick End To Bright Career At UMass

Before Jon Quick ever stepped foot in Amherst, there was always the possibility of the talented goaltender leaving before completing his four years on the Massachusetts hockey team.

Quick brought that possibility to reality late last week when he decided to forgo his final two years of eligibility at UMass and join the professional hockey ranks.

He signed an entry-level contract with the Los Angeles Kings, the team that selected him in the third round (72nd overall) of the 2005 NHL amateur draft. Quick is the highest UMass hockey player taken in the draft.

The terms of the contract were not disclosed, but the Springfield Republican reported it may be in the $300,000 range for the first three years.

The Minutemen turned in the best season in school history this year making their first NCAA Tournament, a feat they owe in large part to the play of Quick in net. The team voted the sophomore its 2006-07 Most Valuable Player at its annual banquet on Saturday.

Quick finished this season with a 19-12-5 record while posting a 2.16 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. The latter two stats ranked him 11th and fifth in the nation, respectively.

The 21-year-old Quick says he left the Minutemen to pursue greater challenges and his lifelong dream of playing in the NHL.

“I felt that I was ready for a new challenge,” Quick said of his decision to turn pro. “My goal in life is to play in the NHL, it always has been. I feel that the opportunity that I have in front of me is the best opportunity for me to complete that goal.”

Before he can make the jump to the Kings, Quick must first make a stop in the American Hockey League. He will report to the Manchester (New Hampshire) Monarchs as early as this week. While he admits the professional game will be much different than what he’s used to, Quick is more excited than nervous about joining the Monarchs.

“I’m excited because it’s going to be a new experience and I’m looking forward to that,” Quick said. “I’m a little anxious to get up there. I kind of just want to get up there and see what it’s like.”

In two years at UMass – one as a fulltime starter – Quick’s record isn’t astounding (23-22-6), but he still possesses the physical skill to play hockey at the next level. Some of his career highlights include defeating Boston College in Amherst last season, a win over No. 2 New Hampshire this season, four straight wins over Maine to close out this season and open the Hockey East playoffs and, of course, this season’s NCAA Tournament.

UMass coach Don Cahoon said the topic of Quick leaving had been at the forefront ever since the Minutemen lost to Maine in the second round of the tournament on March 24.

“I’ve known for a long while that’s what he really wanted,” Cahoon said of Quick’s desires to play at the next level. “This decision was his. He did what he felt was his homework. With Jon, he really wanted to do this and no one should deny him of that.”

Cahoon was sure to point out there were no hard feelings about Quick leaving UMass early. The coach said he’ll cheer loudest for his former player and wishes him the best of luck.

When informed of Quick’s decision late last week, Cahoon said he gave his “last sell,” but there was nothing he could do to sway the young goaltender.

“I’m delighted for him,” he said. “Now that the initial shock is by me, I’m a big cheerleader. I’ll be watching the box scores and watching where he’s playing.”

Although the Minutemen would rather play the next two years with Quick in net, the timing of the decision gives the team time to prepare for next season without him. Cahoon said UMass has a goaltending recruit lined up, but couldn’t get into specifics because the player has yet to sign a National Letter of Intent.

What is certain, is that Quick’s departure opens the door for Dan Meyers. Should Cahoon bring in a recruit, his goaltending corps will consist of Meyers, Jamie Gilbert and the unnamed freshman. Meyers has to be the current favorite as Gilbert hasn’t shown much in his three years at UMass.

Meyers played in five games as a freshman this past season, three starts, and garnered praise from Cahoon on a number of occasions. He recorded a win in his first career start in the Minutemen’s season opener against Sacred Heart. Meyers was playing in that game because Quick received a one game suspension for a violation of unspecified team rules.

He then led UMass to victory over Northeastern in the midst of UMass six-game winning streak to close out the season.

Jon Pelland can be reached at [email protected]. Log on to the Daily Collegian’s sports blog at dailycollegiansports.blogspot.com for more coverage of all UMass sports.

A Spartan And A Sabre

It is a good time to be a Spartan — or a former Spartan.

Back in January, when Michigan State’s chances of making the Frozen Four looked remote, former Spartan goaltender and Hobey Baker winner Ryan Miller made his NHL All-Star debut as the starting goaltender for the Eastern Conference. Miller is a an enormous favorite in Buffalo, where the locals remind everyone why the word “fan” is derived from “fanatic.”

Ryan Miller went from a Hobey Baker at Michigan State to NHL stardom.

Ryan Miller went from a Hobey Baker at Michigan State to NHL stardom.

I caught up with Miller a few days after the All-Star Game, just after the Sabres dropped a rare 3-2 decision to the Blue Jackets in Columbus. The game atmosphere was electric and there was no doubt that Nationwide Arena was packed in part because Miller was in town.

Many Buffalo fans also made the five-hour trip. The Sabres led by one going into the third, so Miller was as happy as you might expect to talk to any press following the loss, but he was a complete professional in spite of his obvious frustration.

He was as I remembered him from Michigan State, but more so: intense, serious, intelligent. He still looks so young — Miller is 26 — that I had to remind myself that his last season in the CCHA was 2001-02, his junior year at MSU.

Miller is, apparently, a favorite among Buffalo’s younger and female fan base; he’s tall, dark, handsome, young, single, rich … and plays for the Sabres. It’s a natural. At least, that’s what my Western New York friends’ 14-year-old daughters think.

Our conversation in January began with the All-Star Game and ended with chicken wings, the local Buffalo culinary masterpiece that Miller doesn’t like, proving that no one is perfect.


Paula C. Weston: You started for the Eastern team in this year’s NHL All-Star game. What was that like?

Ryan Miller: I still don’t know where to place it. I was so excited to be a part of it, play with a lot of my heroes. I got to skate against Joe Sakic, who’s one of my all-time favorite forwards, and Nicklas Lidstrom. Martin Brodeur is probably one of my favorite goalies. He and Curtis Joseph rank right up there for me as the top two guys I’ve always looked up to.

I got to sit next to Brodeur and really just pick his brain a little bit, talk to him about some stuff, come away with some perspective about why he’s a champion. It’s all in his approach, his ability to just lock it in when he needs to. It’s pretty amazing. He can be light and calm, and a nice person, and when it’s time to go play hockey he turns the focus on.

Weston: What are the fans in Buffalo like?

Miller: The fans, obviously, are what got me in to be a starter. I think that if it wasn’t how crazy it’s been in Buffalo, I’d like to think that I had a good chance of making it, but our fast start and our season so far has put me in a great position.

They’re pretty diehard. They love their sports and the town. It’s a topic everywhere. Politics might rank second there. People that get fired up about politics that I’ve met, they always seem to be talking about sports.

Weston: What kinds of adjustments did you have to make going from the college game to the pros?

Miller: Not getting so hyped up for games. I’m an intense person as it is. I just need to play hockey. In college, it was a football-kind of mentality, where you just get hyped for a big weekend. Then you kind of let things go and have some fun being a student, and then you hype up for a weekend.

Here it’s so many games and situations that you just have to remain [calm] — in my case, I like to think that in my approach, I remain pretty level and consistent so that guys know what they’re getting from me, night in and night out. Play a certain way, and we should be able to communicate and talk and control our zone most times.

Weston: How did Michigan State and college hockey prepare you for your role as a professional player?

Miller: We kind of had a lot of hype around us in my sophomore year. Coming through and winning the Hobey Baker and getting some expectations thrown at me in the next year — just that season and a half, I’m going to call it because halfway through the year, people started paying attention to us, and then my entire junior year, we were expected to do well — just that hype, when you have to deliver, night in and night out.

And the ability to learn to play with a group of guys and not worry about what’s going on around you. Because that’s really what it comes down to here. We’ve built a strong team here and it feels a lot like college sometimes, the camaraderie. I’ve been with a lot of these guys longer than I have been with my college boys. It’s my fifth year pro, and I was only in college for three.

We have fun, and try to have a good time, and live our lives by hanging out and having good times when we can, but we’re traveling a lot, we’re playing hockey a lot [and] it just helps to have a good group of guys and attitudes. So, college really helped me do that.

Weston: Has college hockey influenced professional hockey at all, in your opinion?

Miller: College had the hook-and-holding situation, and there were more systems in college than were being used in the OHL. Kids are just a shade bit older on average in the college ranks. They’re going to play a different brand of hockey. It doesn’t mean that they’re any less skilled.

I think the systems that they learn there … are essential here, because you see guys coming up who are 18, 19, and can shoot the lights out with their skills, but they get lost on the ice, they’re getting beat on their assignments — but they’re not going to be able to play hockey on this level. That’s why you see college kids holding up the ranks. They can play a responsible brand of hockey. They’re not going to be a liability out there, but the skill level has gone up as well.

Weston: Your hair is pretty long. What’s up with that?

Miller: It’s just more me.

Weston: Have you been to the Anchor Bar?

Miller: Yes, but I don’t like wings too much. I think you should include that. It’s me.

There’s No Place Like Home For Bishop, Maine Men’s Hockey

At 6-7, University of Maine sophomore netminder Ben Bishop knows he is bound to turn heads when walking to and from class. He’s used to it. For the better part of 15 years, Bishop has grown accustomed to the stares. In his own words, it “comes with the territory.”

Still, on March 1 life was different for Bishop.

On this day, he isn’t getting the standard looks for his towering height. Despite the miniscule Memorial Union workers surrounding him, the strange looks come for a different reason. As Bishop slices his way through the emptied-out Maine Marketplace, his teammates are approximately 200 miles away.

While Bishop contemplates whether or not he wants Cherry Coke or just regular, his blood brothers are cruising down Interstate 90 in Massachusetts hoping to lock up a home seed in the Hockey East tournament. Deciding on neither, Bishop shuffles his way toward the cashier. He’s not the same Ben Bishop fans have come to know and love. There is no smile. No cheery demeanor. Instead, what you see is what you get; and in this case what you get is a slightly disappointed Bishop who doesn’t know if he will touch the ice again this season.

“It was really tough, especially knowing that the Frozen Four was in St. Louis,” said Bishop about having to miss the final four games of the season, two of which came in the Hockey East quarterfinals. “Toward the end of season with every game we lost it seemed like it was slipping more and more through our hands. To not have a chance to even play for the Frozen Four was scary.”

As Black Bears fans are well aware, UMaine finished the season on a downslide, losing four in a row and six of their last eight. For the injured Bishop, who is nursing his second groin injury of the year, the situation couldn’t be any worse. With his teammates and friends over six hours away in Amherst, Mass., all he can do is listen.

“To not even be able to go on the trips and have to listen to them on the radio was real tough,” said Bishop.

According to Bishop, his experiment with the radio was a nightmare. Instead of watching the Black Bears on TV, Bishop had to listen to the dynamic duo of Dan Hannigan and Larry Mahoney on WZON.

And the news they were delivering wasn’t pleasing.

First, a Minuteman sweep in the regular season finale, then a return trip to western Massachusetts the following week for the quarterfinals. To make a long story short, they lose those games too. The outlook is not good.

UMaine must now wait and see what the hockey gods will bestow on them. Will North Dakota win out and help their tournament resume? Will underdogs make history and end the Black Bears’ historic eight-year post season streak? All Bishop and the team can do is wait.

F ast forward 21 days and it’s almost as if those two weeks never happened. In a ghostly quiet Alfond Arena, Bishop recalls those days with hardly a grimace or shrug.

“They made me stay up here and rehab but now it seems like it’s worked out,” said Bishop. “They knew what they were doing.”

The indifference with which Bishop remembers is not surprising because of how the games were, but because of what lies ahead — a trip home. More importantly, he will have a second straight starting gig in the Frozen Four. On Tuesday, Bishop and the gang will head to the program’s 11th Frozen Four, this time in St. Louis, which is no further then 15 minutes from Bishop’s childhood residence and current family stomping grounds in Des Peres, Mo.

“It’s really exciting that I get the chance to go back home and play in front of my family and friends,” said Bishop, who has already been drafted by the St. Louis Blues of the NHL. “They don’t get to see me play too much out in Maine.”

For Bishop, who made 68 out of 70 saves against St. Cloud State and UMass to help his squad get back to the college hockey’s biggest stage, the trip home is one he’s been envisioning for quite some time.

“It’s been a season-long goal for me,” said Bishop. “We sit down and write our goals with coach at the end of every year and last year that was one of the goals I wrote down. I wanted to get to Frozen Four this year in St. Louis.”

It was this desire and drive to get to St. Louis that fueled the childlike Bishop during those dismal early weeks in March.

“The last time I got to play hockey in St. Louis — in a real game — was my junior year of high school,” said Bishop. “That was three years ago, so it’s going to be fun to go back and play a game in front of St. Louis.”

Now, back at home and about to play in his first “true” home game in nearly three years, Bishop is eager to see family and friends, while tending to a little business.

“I’m extremely excited to see my mom and my dad,” said Bishop. “My dad gets to come out quite a bit and get to watch me play, but my mom is usually home with my little brother. It’s going to be fun to go home and play in front of them.”

“It’s been in the back of my head all year, so it’s nice to reach that goal of coming home. But there’s still a bigger one out there and that’s to win a National Championship.”

Standing in the way of Titanic-sized Bishop at the moment lies his exact opposite: a fiery netminder out of Michigan who comes in at 5-6. Yeah, we know. Roughly one foot shorter than Bishop.

“Everybody likes to comment on that, but I grew up playing against him, so I know him,” said Bishop of Michigan State netminder Jeff Lerg, the Black Bears’ national semifinal opponent. “He’s a great goaltender who is extremely quick. He might be small but he’s extremely good.”

The two foes met one game earlier last year, with Bishop stealing the victory.

“It will be a nice little rematch, so it should be fun,” said Bishop. “We’ve both had up-and-down seasons so it’s going to be a good match-up.”

“It’s always fun to play against the best goalies in the country,” said Bishop. “Once you get this far in the season, everyone is going to have a good goalie. Last week we got to play against a Hobey Baker finalist and Jon Quick who just signed the other day.”

If UMaine is able to tackle the upstart Spartans and move onto their third National Championship in the last six years, Bishop believes it will come down to their team defense against the Spartans’ elite forwards.

“They have that very strong top line, they call it the ’09 line. It’s kind of like St. Cloud and BC, they have that one top line and you can’t let them burn you,” said Bishop. “When the guys are playing good team defense, we are unbeatable.”

At the same time, though, if Bishop comes to play like he did in Rochester, N.Y. a week ago, there’s no denying that UMaine is an extremely dangerous team.

“I felt good out there,” said Bishop. “I felt real confident.”

In preparation for Thursday’s duel at 4 p.m. Eastern time, Bishop has already gone to the tapes in hopes of fine tuning his game.

“It’s actually kind of funny — Grant [Standbrook] and I were watching the game from last year against Michigan State and how big of a difference it is from my game now,” said Bishop. “I’m a lot more technically sound. I’m not flapping all over the place like I was last year and I have a lot less movement. I’ve tried to limit my movements as much as possible.”

This attention to detail and new found maturity is something even Bishop acknowledges as different from last year. Throughout his freshman campaign, Bishop was often plagued with a mental lapse here and there. Despite a commendable first year that put him among the top young goaltender talents in the country, the young Bishop still felt like he had work to be do. According to Bishop, the jump from freshman to sophomore was pivotal.

“I’ve matured a lot on and off the ice,” said Bishop. “Last year you get to live on your own for the first time and it’s something new. But this year, you’re used to it from last year and it’s not something you have to adapt to.”

“With the exception of getting hurt towards the end of the season, the season has been a success,” said Bishop.

Still, there was something missing from his own skill set that didn’t show up until he was forced off the ice. Although ending a 44-consecutive-game start can be viewed as a negative, Bishop believes it ultimately could be the biggest plus to his game.

“It was nice to kind of get a different perspective,” said Bishop. “Starting so many games in a row, you kind of lose that sense. When I did have to watch the games from the stands, I did gain an appreciation for what the guys do every day and how much fun we have doing it.”

With backup netminder and friend Dave Wilson between the pipes, Bishop saw his love of the game flare up anew.

“To take a second and take a step back and watch from the stands and get away from the game really gives you appreciation for the game and what you do everyday,” said Bishop. “When you get away from it, all you want to do is play.”

This newfound urgency is what Bishop hopes to bring to the Frozen Four, just like he did in his first few games for the Black Bears.

Arriving in Maine after being hotly pursued by both the University of Michigan and UMaine, Bishop was eager to prove himself.

“I was getting recruited from a couple schools,” said Bishop. “The big schools were the University of Michigan and the University of Maine. Those were the top two choices I had. Grant came down to Dallas and watched me play a couple games and came to our practice. He set up a visit and I came up in early December and it was freezing cold. I won’t forget all that.”

Another reason for Bishop choosing UMaine had to be it’s success rate with goalies, even if he doesn’t admit it outright. Already drafted by his hometown NHL team, the St. Louis Blues, Bishop is aware of his chances at the next level.

“That’s one of my goals — I want to play in the NHL and get to the next level,” said Bishop. “I keep that in the back of my head. When I’m working, or practicing I always have that there.”

In the end, Bishop is quick to note that he doesn’t want that talk or drive to overwhelm him.

“I don’t really think about if I’m going to sign at the end of the year or sign next year,” said Bishop. “During the season, I focus on the University of Maine and Maine hockey and winning a national championship. When you come to Maine, you have that opportunity every year to win a national championship and that is one of the big reasons everyone comes here.”

That is, however, for later. For now at least, Bishop has two concerns: No. 1, aiding the Black Bears in their quest for a third national championship. And No. 2?

A little Bishop family reunion, Frozen Four style.

“I talked to my dad a few days ago and the family count was 55 for the game,” Bishop said. “And that was three days ago, so it’s probably only gotten bigger.”

Quick Leaves Massachusetts For LA Kings

The Los Angeles Kings have signed goaltender Jon Quick to a multi-year entry-level contract, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced.

Quick, 21, led the Massachusetts Minutemen to their first-ever NCAA tournament bid while recording team records for wins (19), appearances (37), saves (1,046) and minutes played (2,224) this past season. The 6-1, 200-pound native of Milford, Conn., finished his sophomore season at UMass with a 19-12-5 record, three shutouts, a. 2.16 goals-against-average (tied for 11th in the nation) and a .929 save-percentage (fifth in the nation).

Quick stopped 30 or more shots in 17 games this past season and he allowed two or fewer goals to the opposition in 23 of his 37 games. In addition, Quick faced a season high 49 shots (and made 44 saves) at Boston College on December 9, and he was credited with a goal versus Merrimack by virtue of being the last UMass player to touch the puck before it went into the Merrimack net on January 6.

Quick, selected by the Kings in the third-round (72nd overall) in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, finished his career at UMass with a 23-22-6 record in 54 appearances, three shutouts, a 2.39 goals-against-average and a .925 save-percentage.

“I have enjoyed my two years at UMass and leave having made many lifelong friends,” said Quick. “This season in particular has been a special one for my teammates, coaches and the organization. I wish the team the very best as I pursue this lifelong dream.”

Quick will give up the final two years of his collegiate eligibility with the signing.

Oswego’s Gosek Named D-III Coach Of The Year

Ed Gosek, who led Oswego State to a 23-3-3 record and the school’s first NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey title, has been named the winner of the 2007 Edward Jeremiah Award, given annually to the Men’s Division III Ice Hockey Coach of the Year.

Ed Gosek and Oswego captain Ryan Woodward hoist the D-III trophy in Superior, Wis., on March 18. (photo: Larry Radloff/Oswego State Sports Information)

Ed Gosek and Oswego captain Ryan Woodward hoist the D-III trophy in Superior, Wis., on March 18. (photo: Larry Radloff/Oswego State Sports Information)

Gosek, who completed his fourth season as head coach of the Lakers after 13 seasons as an assistant, becomes the second Oswego coach to win the honor. George Roll also earned that distinction in 2003.

Earlier this week, Gosek was named All-USCHO D-III Coach of the Year.

After compiling the best regular season record in school history, Oswego captured the NCAA title by going up against the NCAA Division III iron. First came a 3-0 quarterfinal win over Norwich University. Then a 4-3 overtime win over St. Norbert in the NCAA semifinals at Superior, Wis. Finally, another 4-3 win in overtime, this time ending Middlebury College’s streak of 24 consecutive post-season wins and three consecutive NCAA titles.

Gosek, an Oswego native, graduated from Oswego in 1983. His career record in four seasons is 78-25-11. The Edward Jeremiah Award is named in honor of the great Dartmouth College head coach and was first presented in 1970. The runner-up for this year’s Edward Jeremiah Award was Terry Watkins of the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

College hockey’s Coach of the Year recipients are chosen by members of the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA). Winners will receive their awards at the annual AHCA Coach of the Year Banquet, held in conjunction with the AHCA Convention in Naples, Fla. This year’s banquet is scheduled for Saturday, April 28.

2007 Edward Jeremiah Award Nominees

Bill Beaney, Middlebury College@*
Mark Ostapina, Milwaukee School of Engineering
Chris Brown, Augsburg
Chris Potter, Wesleyan
Tim Coghlin, St. Norbert College*
John Rolli, UMass-Dartmouth
Brian Dickinson, Brockport
Neil Sinclair, Skidmore College
Ed Gosek, Oswego*
R. J. Tolan, Wentworth
Keith Levinthal, Manhattanville*
Terry Watkins, UW-Stout

*Frozen Four Participant; @ Former Jeremiah Award Winner

Clarkson’s Weller Signs With Ottawa

Ottawa Senators general manager John Muckler announced that they have signed Shawn Weller, Clarkson’s leading scorer, to an entry-level contract. Weller, 20, was the Senators’ first third-round choice (77th overall) in the 2004 NHL entry draft.

The South Glens Falls, N.Y., native set career highs in goals (19), assists (21) and points (40) while recording 62 penalty minutes in 39 games in his junior campaign with the Golden Knights. He gives up his remaining year of eligibility to sign with Ottawa.

“We are pleased for Shawn and wish him nothing but the best,” stated Clarkson head coach George Roll. “We think it is the right decision for him, but obviously it is a tough loss for us. He’s made a huge impact on our program and has certainly helped us in our turnaround. It reflects highly on our program that we can attract players of Shawn’s caliber. After seeing his development here at Clarkson, I am certain Shawn will have a long and successful pro career.”

Playing in 109 career games wearing the Green and Gold sweater, Weller tallied 78 points on 36 goals and 42 assists.

Colgate’s Campaner Announces MS Fight

Colgate senior defenseman Mike Campaner made public Thursday that he suffers from multiple sclerosis, an auto-immune disease that affects the central nervous system. Campaner was diagnosed with MS in December.

Campaner is managing his condition through medication, and he is currently in remission. Since his diagnosis, Campaner missed just one game for the Raiders, and played in 30 of the team’s 40 games during the 2006-07 season. An undrafted free agent, Campaner plans to pursue a professional playing career after graduation. He hopes to join goaltender Jordan Sigalet of the AHL’s Providence Bruins as the only two professional hockey players in the U.S. publicly playing with multiple sclerosis.

“Currently, I feel great and back to normal health; I work out every day,” Campaner said. “I decided to wait until now to go public with my diagnosis because I did not want it to be a distraction to my teammates during the season. Now, however, I want to tell my story because I want to give hope to others who are diagnosed with MS that they will be able to live a normal life and accomplish any goals that they set for themselves.”

Campaner, an ECACHL all-rookie team selection in 2004, finished his collegiate career this season as one of the most talented defensemen in school history. The offensive-minded Campaner scored a career-high 20 points as a junior, and completed his career with 62 points. He skated in 137 games over four years, which places him among the all-time leaders at Colgate in that category.

“We knew that something was wrong with Mike early this season,” said Colgate head coach Don Vaughan. “He had some vague and very unusual symptoms. But not knowing exactly what was wrong was very frustrating for Mike. Certainly the first few days after he was diagnosed with MS were frightening times for all of us. But I can’t begin to tell you how impressed I have been with how he has handled this situation. His courage and unselfishness and how he worked to get back on the ice was a huge inspiration to the entire team, and now he hopes that by making people aware that he has MS, it will inspire others with the disease to battle like he has to improve their quality of life.”

Multiple sclerosis affects the brain and spinal cord and can result in loss of muscle control, vision, balance, physical sensation, or thinking ability. With MS, the body’s immune system attacks normal tissues in the nervous system.

“Mike is an elite athlete who knows his body well,” said Colgate team physician Dr. Merrill Miller. “He has had low back disc disease causing some leg discomfort in the past, but in mid-November 2006 he pulled himself out of a game against Dartmouth because something was different. He had tingling of his calves and feet and said, ‘I just don’t feel strong.’ Within a week we had MRI testing that was strongly suggestive of MS. Additional testing was done in early December confirming the diagnosis. Mike has seen neurologists and MS specialists, and he is in remission. He returned to full-time ice hockey within weeks of the diagnosis. He is now on injectable medication to maintain his remission. We are appropriately full of optimism for Mike’s future and anticipate he will have a long professional hockey career.”

Colgate will announce plans for a fundraiser in honor of Campaner to benefit Multiple Sclerosis Resources of Central New York, Inc., at a later date. The Syracuse-based MS Resources is dedicated to education and awareness about multiple sclerosis, and provides resources to individuals with MS in Central New York. Ninety cents of every dollar donated to MS Resources is spent directly on their clients.

For more information on MS Resources, call 315-438-4790 or 1-800-975-2404, or e-mail [email protected]. Updated information about Campaner and his battle with MS will be available on his web page on the Colgate athletics website.

Spencer Penrose Finalists Named

Eleven coaches have been named finalists for the Spencer Penrose Award, given annually to the top NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey coach of the year. To be a finalist for this award, you must either be voted Coach of the Year in your conference or take your team to the NCAA Frozen Four.

Noteworthy among this year’s finalists:

• Five former Penrose Award winners, including Rick Comley of Michigan State (1980 and 1991 winner at Northern Michigan); Joe Marsh of St. Lawrence (1989 and 2000 winner); Dick Umile of New Hampshire (1999 winner); Tim Whitehead of Maine (2002 winner); and Jerry York of Boston College (1977 winner at Clarkson).

• Three coaches each from Hockey East and the WCHA. Three are NCAA semifinalists (North Dakota’s Dave Hakstol, Maine’s Whitehead and BC’s York); three were conference Coach of the Year winners (Hockey East’s Umile and WCHA Co-Coaches Bob Motzko of St. Cloud and Jamie Russell of Michigan Tech.)

• Army’s Brian Riley and Niagara’s Dave Burkholder are repeat finalists from a year ago.

• Notre Dame’s Jeff Jackson, in his second year at Notre Dame, is a finalist for the first time in over a decade. (He was at Lake Superior in the early 1990s.)

The award is named in honor of the former Colorado Springs benefactor who built the Broadmoor Hotel Complex, site of the first 10 NCAA hockey championships. It will be presented at the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) Coach of the Year Banquet on Saturday, April 28, in Naples, Fla.

Spencer Penrose Finalists

Dave Burkholder, Niagara*
Rick Comley, Michigan State#@
Dave Hakstol, North Dakota#
Jeff Jackson, Notre Dame*
Joe Marsh, St. Lawrence*@
Bob Motzko, St. Cloud State*
Brian Riley, Army*
Jamie Russell, Michigan Tech*
Dick Umile, New Hampshire*@
Tim Whitehead, Maine#@
Jerry York, Boston College#@

* Conference Coach of the Year
# NCAA “Frozen Four” Participant
@ Previous Winner of the Spencer Penrose Award

Badger Players Highlight Final U.S. Women’s Roster

U.S. National Team player Jenny Potter will be a little more cautious the second time around.

The veteran of eight Olympic and World Championship teams learned after giving birth to her first child in January 2001 that it takes time to get back into competitive shape.

Potter had her second child Jan. 8 and took six weeks off completely from training. Then she started running and skating and just now, as she prepares for the 2007 World Championship April 3-10 in Winnipeg and Selkirk, Manitoba, is she starting to return to full speed.

“I played up until my fifth month,” she said of her most recent pregnancy during a conference call Wednesday with Mark Johnson, coach of the U.S. Nattional Team and two-time defending NCAA champion Wisconsin, and Erika Lawler, one of four players selected from the championship team. On Tuesday, USA Hockey named 18 forwards and defensemen and three goaltenders to the team. although one netminder will be cut Friday since international rules only permit a team to bring two.

“Now I have to take it one day at a time,” said Potter. “After the first birth I tried to do too much. This time I just tried to stay in shape until I came back here.”

“With six weeks (off), it’s hard to remain an elite athlete,” she said. “That was trying for me.”

But it was the right course.

“I did a better job this time,” she said. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve been bringing my game back to the highest level. I’m a self-motivated person. It doesn’t take a lot to get me on the ice.”

For two weeks, just before the current training session, she played with the Minnesota Whitecaps of the WWHL but admitted she was tired and some days “felt awful. I could play but my legs weren’t there. I was off balance,” Potter said.” But I’ve improved a ton in two weeks. I’m here now. I’ve moved on.”

The team has just completed a four-day training camp at Grand Forks, N.D., where the roster was whittled down. They will play several exhibition games against Sweden, the team that eliminated them from the 2006 Olympics, before facing the two other teams in their group, Kazakhstan April 3 in Selkirk and China two days later. Both games are at 7:30 p.m. If they win the group they will advance to the group playoff round. The medal games are set for April 10.

The exhibition games will give the coaching staff opportunities to evaluate players and give the players the chance to play in real competition, Johnson said.

“Everything has gone smoothly,” Potter said. “I’m not at the top of my form yet, but pretty close.”

Just recently she played with other athlete on her hometown rink where her husband, Rob Potter, is a fitness coach for youth hockey teams.

Johnson said he has been very impressed with Potter’s play so far. He said he saw her after the birth of her son and he could see a “twinkle in her eye and a readiness” to get back in training.
“As each day goes by, she feels more comfortable,” he said. “I’ve been very impressed with what she has been able to do here in the first seven and eight days.”

But like Potter, he knows patience is a virtue and that she has to take it step by step to get back at her former competitive level.

Potter has 58 points in world play, 19 more points than Angela Ruggiero, also on the 2007 team, who has 39 points in nine Olympic and World Championships.

In the 2005 World Championship, which the U.S. won, she had six points. At the Torino Winter Games in 2006, she had nine.

Lawler said she hopes she can continue to contribute to winning championships as she has at Wisconsin. She said the transition from college to international play has been interesting, especially since she has to join a whole new team. “We have to find comfort a zone with everyone, to feel [we] belong here, but the veterans really have made us feel welcome and comfortable.”

She said one of the things she’s noticed in play is that she has to make decisions about moving the puck more quickly than she did in college. “I’m happy winning,” Lawler said. “I hope the streak will continue.”

“We have a great core of players coming back from the 2005 World Championship team,” said Johnson, “and a lot of younger players.” Seven players are back from that team and 10 of the 18 players already chosen are Olympians.

Johnson said one of the keys to success is for the younger players to feel relaxed and comfortable around the veterans. “It can be intimidating off and on the ice,” he said, referring to incidents when young players are skating with older women who they have grown up emulating.

“The big thing is to get everyone comfortable. It’s tough to find cohesiveness in such a short period of time,” Johnson said.

He also said he’s glad the World Championship is in Canada because it will add a little juice to the U.S.-Canadian rivalry.

“Having it in Canada makes it special,” he said. The crowds will be huge and that creates an environment that’s special for the players no matter what flag they fly.”

Potter has more of a motive to the Canadian angle. It was depressing after the U.S. lost in Torino and never got a chance to play Canada, which won the Gold Medal, she said. “It was hard to come back home with a Bronze but most teams come back with none so it was better than no medal.”

She said in retrospect, she thinks the U.S. would have beaten Canada in the Gold Medal game.
“We would have given them a run for their money and beaten them but that’s irrelevant … that’s the way the chips fell,” Potter said. “What’s past is past and we’re moving forward.”

“We have a great opportunity to defend our World Cup and to also beat Canada in their home country and in front of their fans,” she said. “That’s enough of an incentive for any player.”

Final four for the NIT; and a little Hobey talk

Okay, so after carefully considering the field of the NIT, here are those teams that are moving on….

#1 Wisconsin, on a roll heading into the NIT, had no trouble dismantling the inferior Cornell. A Jake Dowell hat trick and a 23-save performance by Brian Elliott in net propels the Badgers to the final four.

Things weren’t a swimmingly for the #2 ranked Denver Pioneers. Unable to ever get things going, the Pioneers fell behind, 3-0, early and watched a late-game rally fall short as #7 Quinnipiac advanced, 5-3. An early power play goal by Reid Cashman and a 30-save effort from Bud Fisher led the Bobcats.

In the game of the night, #6 Vermont and #3 Michigan Tech needed overtime, and plenty of it, to decide their quarterfinal game. At 7:23 of the third overtime, Michigan Tech’s Jimmy Kerr poked home the rebound of a Lars Helminem blast to send the sellout crowd at MacInnes Arena into hysterics. One of the longest games in history ends with the two goalies combining for 118 saves.

Providing a perfect balance between East and West, #5 Dartmouth continued its strong play down the stretch, knocking off a struggling Colorado College team, 4-2. Hobey Baker finalist David Jones scored two goals, including an empty-netter to seal the victory for the Big Green.

So, folks, that sets up a pair of WCHA-ECACHL semifinal games. In game one, Wisconsin will face Dartmouth while Quinnipiac plays Michigan Tech in the nightcap (no, we don’t reseed in the NIT)

Who do you think will come out on top? Leave a message and please, feel free to flame away about the four finalists! :)

A little note about the Hobey

I’m really glad to see Air Force’s Eric Ehn get recognized as one of the top three vote-getters for the Hobey Baker. Though Ehn plays in Atlantic Hockey (something that, despite the league’s accomplishments, still carries a stigma with it), he also attends a military academy which, it alone, develops the character that is so important to the Hobey Baker Award. His on the ice performance, as well, certainly merits extremely strong consideration.

Gallant, Gosek Lead 2007 All-USCHO D-III Awards

Manhattanville senior goaltender Andrew Gallant has been selected the USCHO.com National Player of the Year. The Summerville, PEI native led his team to the national semifinals this season, and had a goals against average of 1.91 and a save percentage of .928.

USCHO.com has also named Oswego coach Ed Gosek National Coach of the year. Gosek led the Lakers to their first ever national title this season.

GALLANT

GALLANT

The winners and all-star teams are selected by the USCHO.com staff. A complete list follows:

East First Team

Goal — Andrew Gallant, Sr., Manhattanville
Defense — Arthur Fritch, Jr., Colby
Defense — John Halverson, Sr., Trinity
Forward — Rick Cleaver, Jr., Norwich
Forward — Mitch Stephens, Sr., Geneseo
Forward — Neil Trimm, Jr., Neumann

East Second Team

Goal — Ryan Scott, Jr., Oswego
Defense — Mike Gooch, Jr., Neumann
Defense — Tom Maldonado, Jr., Middlebury
Forward — Mike Hedden, So., Neumann
Forward — Brendan McLaughlin, So., Oswego
Forward — Greg Osbourne, Sr., Colby

Honorable Mention: Mark Carragher (S. Maine), Jeff Grant (Mass.-Dartmouth), Mickey Gilchrist (Middlebury), Jeff Green (Mass.-Dartmouth), John Huchko (Castleton), Chris Mills (Manhattanville), Mike Polsonetti (Hobart), Steve Sankey (Geneseo), Ryan Woodward (Oswego)

East Rookie Team

Goal — DJ Delbuono, Skidmore
Defense — Mike Corbelle, Bowdoin
Defense — AJ Mikkelsen, Manhattanville
Forward — Pier-Luc Belanger, Plattsburgh
Forward — Ross Enmark, Curry
Forward — Matt Ward, Neumann

Honorable Mention: Steve Culbertson (Castleton), Gerard Heinz (Cortland), David Layne (Wesleyan), Todd Sheridan (Brockport)

West First Team

Goal — AJ Bucchino, So., UW-River Falls
Defense — Jim Henkemeyer, Jr., UW-River Falls
Defense — John Paulson, Jr., St. Olaf
Forward — Tyler Dahl, Jr., UW-River Falls
Forward — Aaron Johnson, Sr., Augsburg
Forward — Nick Pernula, Jr., St. Thomas

West Second Team

Goal — Mike Stone, Jr., UW-Stout
Defense — Andrew Derton, Sr., St. Norbert
Defense — Derek Paige, Sr., UW-Superior
Forward — Marc Belanger, Jr., St. Norbert
Forward — Derek Hansberry, So., UW-River Falls
Forward — Brian Soik, Sr., MSOE

Honorable Mention: Neal Carlson (Bethel), Sean Fish (UW-Stevens Point), Blair Hanberg (MSOE), Kyle Jones (St. Norbert), John Keseley (Gustavus Adolphus), Josh Paquette (Finlandia), Greg Peterson (UW-Eau Claire), Ryan Van Bockel, (St. Thomas), Jack Wolgemuth (UW-Stout)

West Rookie Team

Goal — Aaron Damjanovich, Bethel
Defense — Jordan Baird, St. Scholastica
Defense — Bobby Kuehl, UW-Stout
Forward — Braden Desmet, UW-Superior
Forward — Scott Motz, UW-Stout
Forward — Shane Wheeler, St. Norbert

Honorable Mention: David Adams (St. Olaf), Nick Cinquegrani (Marian), AJ Hau (Augsburg)

D-III Coach of the Year: Ed Gosek, Oswego
Honorable Mention: Terry Watkins (UW-Stout)

D-III Player of the Year: Andrew Gallant, Manhattanville
Honorable Mention: Mitch Stephens (Geneseo)

Hendu’s Story: From Dream To Reality, Part IV

Part IV: High School

(This series reads best in sequence: Part I – Beginnings, Part II – Youth Hockey and Part III – Summer Hockey.)


Attending our local public high school was not an option if Ryan had any aspirations of playing collegiate hockey. Its team played at too low a level, hardly surprising given the small population it drew from but not conducive to continuing on at the next level.

As a result, we looked at the Catholic schools, even though we weren’t Catholic, and the preps. Ryan took the required entrance exams and we visited the schools. He performed well on the exams, especially the mathematical component, and even at that age was lights-out impressive in interviews. Throughout the process, my wife Brenda and I tried to remind ourselves that we had to consider what would be in Ryan’s best interest.

Normally, this would have needed no reminder; it would have been left unsaid. There was, however, one bogeyman lurking in our prep school closet.

Brenda and I didn’t want Ryan going away to a boarding school. Brenda’s attitude equated to “over my dead body.” Mine was only slightly more open-minded. If an opportunity so outrageously attractive to Ryan’s academic and athletic future presented itself, we might have to consider it no matter how much it might be anathema to us.

For many families, boarding school doesn’t seem to be such a big deal. I make no presumption of speaking for them. To each his own. But for us, it was, at best, a potentially necessary evil and, at worst, a nightmarish possibility.

Some boarding schools were worse than others. The first one we visited allowed kids to go home for only three weekends a semester. We were sweetly reminded, “You can always visit him on Saturday afternoons,” an admonition that conjured images for me of a correctional facility. Ryan would have also encountered problems getting away for the Sunday games that his Central Mass Outlaws team played outside of the high school season.

To my mind, that isn’t a boarding school; it’s a jail. Send your kid there if you hate his guts.

Other schools displayed far more flexibility. Even so, Ryan leaving home was a very unattractive option. And in Brenda’s mind, it wasn’t an option at all.

It seems to me that when a kid leaves home for a boarding school, you’ve gone from being 100 percent parent to only 10 or 20 percent with the school taking over the rest. The teachers and administrators who assume that responsibility are doing so for a large number of kids, all of whom are at an age where tantalizing but destructive new possibilities beckon. How effectively can that small group of adults guide all those students at such a curious stage in their lives down the right paths and away from those which destroy? How can they come close to matching two parents’ love?

Brenda and I strongly felt that we could be better 100 percent parents, in terms of love, guidance, values and everything else parenting involves, than any prep school could be. I only grudgingly kept the door open for a boarding school with other positive factors that could make a life-long difference that might compensate for Ryan losing so much of us.

For a while, we kept one such possibility on our list, but eventually it, too, fell off and we were left with Pingree School, a day school with no boarding population, and several boarding schools that kept a few slots open for commuting students.


Until Ryan and I went back for final revisits, we thought he’d be going to what I’ll call School X, having earned one of those highly contested commuter slots. The school’s hockey program seemed ideal, playing in Division I compared to Pingree’s mix of Division I and II games. The coach seemed quite interested in Ryan.

Revisit Day, however, went spectacularly at Pingree and disastrously at School X. At Pingree, Ryan liked the students, who seemed engaged and interested in their classes. Two of his friends from the New England Generals already went there and their friends eagerly tried to convince Ryan that Pingree was his best option. He felt very much at home.

At School X, however, the actions of the hockey player who took Ryan around with him prompted disgust. The kid described how the residents of his dorm hid their drugs and engaged in other prohibited behaviors. Then, as he and Ryan walked from one class to another, the kid said to a girl who was walking by, “Hey, show us your (bleep)!”

What struck Ryan was that the girl wasn’t shocked. This wasn’t unusual; she’d heard it all before.

Ryan’s disgust at the various behaviors earned him, if not enemies, at least a cold distance from his potential future peers. It provided a stark contrast to Pingree, where he had old friends and had quickly made new ones.

Ryan told Brenda and me that he would not be comfortable in School X’s environment. We discussed it for a while and concluded that strength of schedule didn’t really matter anymore. Not at all.

In our search for the best school, we had mistakenly looked only at the academic and athletic combination, ignoring the social component. Yet when today Ryan looks back on his years at Pingree one of his favorite characteristics is the sense of community he felt there.

With these schools coming at such a crucial developmental stage, not to mention costing almost as much as colleges, parents and student-athletes need to evaluate every angle. Not just the academics. Not just the athletics.

With a less mature son, Brenda and I might have regretted that oversight.


As a freshman at Pingree, where he first acquired the nickname “Hendu,” Ryan didn’t play very much. Veterans dominated the roster, especially up front. He also was small within his own age group and tiny by their standards: 5-0 and barely 100 pounds.

Ryan became

Ryan became “Hendu” at Pingree (photos: Karyn Hendrickson).

The skills were there, but when you’re “five-nothing and 100-nothing” you’re going to be physically dominated in prep school. Ryan had to adjust to not only the size but also the speed at this level.

“I remember him as a kid who the puck hit all the time,” Pingree coach Buddy Taft says. “Those are the kids who can play at the next level because if the puck is hitting them, it means they’re in the right place.

“Now with Ryan as a freshman, that was one of the more dangerous things. He was always in the middle of the play. But he was really small.”

In many a practice, he’d get crushed by a defenseman twice his size. But he learned how to avoid such hits the next time. He also worked on his strength training.

A year later, he centered one of Pingree’s top two lines, killed penalties, and contributed on the power play. He scored his share of goals, but what really emerged was the abilities he’d shown at other levels, namely seeing the ice so well and setting up linemates for prime scoring opportunities.

“I really credit kids who are undersized when they come here,” Taft says, “because they’ve developed so many skills to compensate for their lack of size that when they finally get some size they’re so much better of a package.”

Ryan also tried to master all aspects, no matter how minor, of Pingree’s systems and how they might be adjusted in certain situations. On Dave Brien’s teams, Ryan had been like another coach on the ice. He strove to reach that same level at Pingree.

“Talk about a kid who wouldn’t stop working,” Taft says. “He wouldn’t stop asking questions.”

That also held true off the ice. Taft, the Pingree Dean of Students, acted not only as Ryan’s hockey coach but also as his advisor. As such, he spoke frequently with Ryan away from the rink and about topics ranging far beyond hockey.

“His level of intellectual curiosity and social perspective was so much more developed than most of the other kids,” Taft says. “He was a really unique kid.”


Despite all his efforts and all our planning, Ryan’s future could have unraveled quickly in September of his senior year. The quirks of athletic fate certainly hadn’t been kind to Ryan’s older sister Nicole.

Nicole swims the 200-yard butterfly.

Nicole swims the 200-yard butterfly.

She’d fallen in love with competitive swimming as a six-year-old and become one of New England’s top distance swimmers. She didn’t have the long arms of a sprinter — thanks to her parents being 5-9 and 5-1 — but she had developed the technique and endurance to excel in events like the mile freestyle and the 200-yard butterfly, events that would put an untrained adult into traction.

Nobody ever outworked Nicole. As a seven-year-old, she swam 200 lengths of the pool as part of a fundraiser, refusing to quit because her sponsors had pledged on a per-length basis. Year after year, her team recognized her with the Hardest Worker Award. On more than one occasion, her coach allocated a practice lane just for her so that she could pursue a more grueling sequence than everyone else.

Nicole had all that energy, endurance and drive.

Until, that is, mononucleosis struck in December of her sophomore year in high school. It took her down hard. She just couldn’t get healthy. Even after missing the several weeks that are part and parcel of being a mono victim, she still couldn’t get healthy. One illness after another struck, most notably strep throat.

The following December she was again diagnosed with mono. That’s supposed to be impossible. After you get it the first time, the antibodies produced are supposed to prevent a recurrence. But the mystified doctors said that was what the tests showed. From the one nightmarish December to the next she avoided a trip to the doctor or to a hospital in only one month.

A few months later, doctors removed Nicole’s tonsils, considered a potential gateway for the recurrent strep throat infections. Only then did she begin to recover.

For 15 months, Brenda and I, who would have done anything for Nicole, had been able to do nothing. In that span of time, she missed 87 days of school and barely touched her toes in the water.

It changed everything for her. She never swam competitively again, her energy levels changed forever. The girl for whom school had always been so easy fell behind and was in a constant scramble to catch up. Most of her teachers cooperated, but one in particular — may she rot in Hell for her sadistic laziness — would give her five minutes after school and then tell Nicole she was on her own.

Nicole is now a wonderful young woman with a bright future. She possesses a sharp mind, a brilliant sense of humor and many interests. I’d love to be in her shoes at her age. But her life was unalterably changed when mono struck.

A similar fate could have befallen Ryan. A maniacal driver, who would later be prosecuted on several counts, almost stole Ryan’s dreams just as cruelly as illness had taken Nicole’s.

I was driving while Ryan, en route from one game to another, sat in the front seat and Brenda in back. We were in the middle lane of Route 495 when a car fishtailing violently out of control appeared suddenly in my rear view mirror. Estimated later to be traveling at about 100 miles per hour, it veered sharply to the left, disappeared from view for a split second, and then crashed sideways into us, steel grinding against steel.

I fought to maintain control as the car angled us toward the rightmost lane and then spun us perpendicular to the highway, off the blacktop, and down the grassy bank where we flipped over onto our side.

We came to rest with Ryan, sitting in the passenger front seat, hanging above me, suspended by his seatbelt. The three of us unbuckled, maneuvered to stand on the driver’s side doors, and opened the passenger side door, pushing it up enough for us to climb up and jump out of the car.

Brenda and I both suffered some neck stiffness for a while and I had some cuts on my arm from the broken driver’s side window. In time, though, we would be fine.

Ryan didn’t suffer so much as a scratch.

In accidents like this one, the percentages involving coffins or wheelchairs are high. If an 18-wheeler had been in the rightmost lane as we were forced across it, we would have all been killed. In The Big Picture, we’d have been very lucky if we’d emerged with only a single broken wrist or leg.

But if that “lucky” broken wrist or leg had been Ryan’s, how much would he have lost? He was about to enter the most important season of his life in terms of college recruiting. Had he been sidelined for that, he would have been lucky in terms of The Big Picture, but his dreams of collegiate hockey could have easily been ended.


Instead, Ryan capped off his career at Pingree with a big senior year. It was a talented team that included players like Chris Higgins and Danny Rossman who would go on to Boston University and New Hampshire, respectively. Although Pingree didn’t win the championship, it enjoyed a very successful season.

Ryan faces off against his cousin Kevin and archrival Brooks School.

Ryan faces off against his cousin Kevin and archrival Brooks School.

Ryan and “Higgs” worked particularly well together. Higgins, who would catch the eye of BU coach Jack Parker during a holiday tournament, possessed an outrageous goalscoring ability. If you put the puck on his stick, it went into the back of the net. He created plenty of chances all by himself, but he became even more productive when paired with a gifted playmaker like Ryan.

As a sophomore and junior, Ryan had played between talented linemates, most notably Josh Molk, who remains to this day Ryan’s best friend. But no one filled the net like Higgins. As a result, Ryan’s point totals climbed.

However, it may have been in his role as captain that Ryan shined the brightest. There would be no hazing of freshmen, no divisions between upperclassmen and the younger classes, no berating of less talented players.

“It wasn’t just the leadership he provided to that team,” Taft says. “It was the legacy of leadership. Kids learned leadership from him.

“In the next couple years, kids who weren’t as good at it as Ryan had a vision of what they should be doing. He set the target for other kids of what it meant to be a leader: the idea of inclusiveness and making kids feel at home and comfortable enough to perform at that level.”

One parent of a freshman was so impressed with Ryan’s treatment of his son that he wrote a letter of recommendation to Tufts, his alma mater and one of Ryan’s top choices.

That element of character proved a factor in the college selection process that followed.


Part V continues the series with a look at college selection.

Green To Lead New Potsdam Women’s Program

After announcing in January that women’s hockey will be making a comeback at SUNY Potsdam, the college has announced that Bears’ staff member Jay Green has been chosen as head coach of the new women’s team.

JAY GREEN

JAY GREEN

“Isn’t it ironic that a nation wide search for a women’s hockey coach led us right into our own back yard and uncovered Jay Green. He clearly distinguished himself from a very strong pool of candidates
with his enthusiasm for returning to the coaching world, his knowledge of the sport, and his own playing background. I have been amazed at the community’s show of support for the addition of women’s hockey to our sports offering and am confident that the program’s development is in capable hands with Jay as our coach,” said athletic director Jim Zalacca.

Green, currently Director of Athletic Facilities at SUNY Potsdam, was for three seasons assistant men’s hockey coach with former coach Ed Seney. Prior to coaching the Potsdam men, Green was head coach at Norwood-Norfolk for six years

“It is an exciting time for SUNY Potsdam athletics and me personally. Our university provides great facilities and resources for students to be successful both in the classroom and within athletics. I am
genuinely appreciative of the opportunity to serve in this position to establish Potsdam Bears Women’s Hockey as a legitimate program nationally,” Green said.

After completing his Bachelors Degree at Elmira College, Green received his Masters from Mansfield University. In his four years of varsity hockey at Elmira, he became the Soaring Eagles eighth all-
time leading scorer. His Elmira teams were the ECAC West League Championships in 1978 when they advanced to the NCAA semifinals and in 1980 as they skated to the NCAA finals.

After college, Green played professional hockey in Europe for three years before serving as a head coach in the Bay Harbor California Minor Hockey Association. Green was also head men’s hockey coach at
North Adams State College of Massachusetts in 1988-89. In 1989 he returned to Europe to head Sweden’s Sudrets Hockey Club for two years before returning to the US to accept the position at Norwood-Norfolk.

Hutchins Named At Southern New Hampshire

Ken Hutchins, a 1987 graduate of Southern New Hampshire University, has been promoted to head men’s ice hockey coach at SNHU. The announcement was made today by athletic director Chip Polak.

Hutchins succeeds Rene LeClerc, who announced his resignation earlier this week after heading up the program the past eight years.

“Having worked with Ken for the past ten years I have seen his dedication to the success of the hockey program, and the development of every student-athlete on the team,” said Polak. “I am confident in his abilities to lead the program.”

Hutchins, who brings with him nearly two decades of coaching experience, has spent the past 10 years as an assistant coach at SNHU and was named associate head coach prior to the 2006-07 season. He helped the Penmen to an appearance in the final NCAA Division II Championship Series in 1999 and has guided the Penmen to an appearance in the championship game of the ECAC Division II/Northeast-10 Conference Tournament four of the last eight years. Hutchins began his coaching career at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he served as an assistant coach for seven years (1990-97).

“As a graduate of SNHU I am honored and excited to be offered the opportunity to take over as head coach,” said Hutchins. “Rene has established a level of excellence with the program, and I hope to continue his hard work, and do my best to take the program to the next level.”

Hutchins also spent six years (1991-97) as the corporate marketing and sales manager for the Adirondack Red Wings of the American Hockey League. He was with the team during the 1991-92 season when the Red Wings claimed the Calder Cup under the guidance of head coach Barry Melrose.

A native of Dracut, Mass., Hutchins was a four-year member of the hockey team at SNHU (then New Hampshire College) and helped the Penmen to a combined 57-45-4 record. He was a freshman on the 1983-84 team that posted an 18-9-1 record and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament. As a senior he led the Penmen to their first-ever appearance in the ECAC North/South Tournament. He played in 79 games over his career and totaled 23 career points. He was a five-sport athlete at Dracut High School.

Hutchins currently resides in Manchester, N.H. with his wife Donna and son Jack.

Brown, Ehn, Duncan Make Up Hobey ‘Hat Trick’

David Brown of Notre Dame, Air Force’s Eric Ehn and Ryan Duncan of North Dakota make up the “Hat Trick” of three finalists for the 2007 Hobey Baker Memorial Award, announced Wednesday by the Hobey Baker Foundation.

The “Hat Trick” members were selected from 10 finalists by the 25-member Selection Committee and an additional round of online fan balloting to determine this year’s Hobey Baker winner. Criteria for the award includes: strength of character on and off the ice, displaying outstanding skills in all phases of the game, sportsmanship and scholastic achievements.

This year’s Hobey Baker winner will be announced Friday, April 6, from Scottrade Center in St. Louis during the Frozen Four. The announcement will be aired live on ESPNU at 6 p.m. CT.

Senior goalie Brown, from Stoney Creek, Ont., turned in a spectacular season in helping the Fighting Irish to a pair of school firsts: the CCHA regular-season championship and then the league’s playoff title. Advancing to the NCAA Midwest Regional as the number one seed, Notre Dame fell in the championship game to CCHA rival Michigan State, 2-1.

The CCHA Player of the Year, Brown finished the season 30-6-3. He leads the nation in goals against average with a 1.58 mark, and in wins, and is second in save percentage at .931. A Management Consulting major and a member of the school’s Dean’s List, Brown assisted in the Buddy Walk for kids with Down’s syndrome, volunteered for a Kindergarten Read-To-A-Kid program and assisted in team-sponsored Christmas parties for kids. A Pittsburgh draft pick, Brown set seven career and single-season team records.

Duncan, a sophomore forward, helped lead the Fighting Sioux to their third straight visit to the Frozen Four. In 42 games to date, Duncan has bagged 31 goals and 26 assists for 57 points, planting him fourth in the nation in scoring and second in goals. His 17 power-play markers are second nationally.

“It’s a tremendous accomplishment for Ryan, a very well-deserved honor,” said UND head coach Dave Hakstol. “It’s certainly a great honor for our program. I’m very proud of the way Ryan Duncan has handled himself. The Hobey Baker Award is much more than on-ice ability and on-ice play. It’s really an award that goes to a complete person. Ryan exemplifies every aspect of what Fighting Sioux hockey is about on the ice and off the ice. Certainly he’s been a tremendous leader for our team throughout the year.”

The WCHA Player of the Year, Duncan led the conference in points, goals, power-play goals and game winning goals. The Sioux defeated Minnesota 3-2 in overtime in the NCAA West Regional final, helped by Duncan’s first-period tally. Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, Duncan is a pro hockey free agent and is undecided in his major, and is a WCHA All-Academic selection.

Said Duncan, “It’s obviously a tremendous honor for me. It’s a surprise, actually. I just was honored just to be in the top 10 or even be mentioned in the same sentence as the guys who’ve won the Hobey Baker. The way I see it, it’s just a reflection of our team. I have to give most of the credit to my teammates. They helped me get to this point, and I share this acknowledgement with them.”

Ehn, a junior forward, helped bring the Falcons to new heights this season. The native of Dexter, Mich., led the nation in scoring for several weeks during the season and finished the year with 24 goals and 40 assists for 64 points in 40 games, sitting second in the nation in points and assists.

“This is a huge honor on the personal level, but is even bigger for the team and the program,” Ehn said. “Any time you get recognized for any award is great, especially one as big as this. I could not be happier for the team to get this kind of recognition and publicity. Hockey is certainly not a game played by one guy, and I think recognition like this shows that we have some pretty good hockey players with some talent here at the Academy. [Andrew Ramsey] is going to St. Louis as well for the skills competition, so this is definitely not about just one guy.”

The first player from a service academy to be a top-10 finalist, Ehn led Atlantic Hockey in points, goals and assists and set an AHA record for points in a season. The AHA Player of the Year sparked his Falcons to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance, bowing out in a close 4-3 loss to Minnesota in the West Regional semifinals.

Winning an excellent 63 percent of his faceoffs, the Air Force centerman is a Systems Engineering Management major and AHA All-Academic. He is the element leader for his squadron; assisted in the logistics of the Walk for a Cure for Juvenile Diabetes, has spoken and read books to numerous school groups, and helps dispense toys to hospitalized children during the team’s annual holiday toy drive.

Patrick C. Miller contributed to this article.

College Hockey NIT?

It’s probably going back about five or six years ago (maybe as far back as 2000), but the creative posters to the USCHO.com Fan Forum once developed a fictional post-season tournament named the “College Hockey NIT.” It certainly was enjoyable to pass some time reading the dramatic posts for each game that mimiced what now lives in the “Score Updates” folder on the Fan Forum. I believe that there was one main poster who was the catalyst behind drawing up the scripts for each game and narrating them online.

What I remember most about that was a group of media members who had all maybe had a few too many cocktails on the night before the Frozen Four deciding to call SportsTicker (the central repository for score reporting that fuels a lot of online and television tickers) and report fake score updates. If memory serves me right, SportsTicker actually reported the scores on their Website at one point, though I don’t think we ever had any proof of any media running the scores. Before the fake end of the game, SportsTicker caught on to the hoax, but nonetheless, fun was had.

In that vein, though, I ask the loyal readers of this blog to give their thoughts on who would win using the mock bracket that I lay out below. To keep it simple, I’ll only include eight teams – the final eight clubs that did not make the NCAA field (the original NIT thought up by the Fan Forum posters included EVERY team that didn’t make the NCAA tournament, including some Division III clubs, I believe).

So with the bracket:

College Hockey NIT Quarterfinals (higher seed hosts)

1. Wisconsin vs. 8. Cornell

4. Colorado College vs. 5. Dartmouth

3. Michigan Tech vs. 6. Vermont

2. Denver vs. 7. Quinnipiac

For now, just give me your quarterfinal winners (amazingly, I don’t have any first-round conference matchups :)

Tomorrow, I’ll play out the game based on stats, recent performance and the input of you, the readers, and post the semi-final matchups.

Hopefully, this will pass the time between now and the Frozen Four!

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