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Middlebury Tournament Preview

By Brian Schulz
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No. 3 Elmira at No. 1 Middlebury, Sat. 7 p.m. Semifinal

This Saturday, the only two programs ever to win an NCAA Championship in Division III women’s hockey, will go head-to-head once more. The Elmira Soaring Eagles took the first two titles, while the Middlebury Panthers have captured the last two, including a thrilling 4-3 decision over Elmira in the 2005 title game that came nearly one month after the Soaring Eagles had tripped the Panthers 3-2 in overtime. Middlebury is the consensus choice to three-peat while Elmira seeks to replace its legendary inaugural recruiting class, but early returns indicate that the new-look Soaring Eagles have more than enough to support another classic this weekend.

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No Laura Hurd. No LeAnne Denman. No Edith Racine. None of the other 13 seniors who went 91-17-5 during their careers. It will indeed be a different Elmira team that visits Vermont this weekend, but Coach Paul Nemetz-Carlson still has a mix of old reliables and young guns at his disposal. The No. 1 goaltender position is unsettled, though sophomore Cara McGurry may have taken a big step toward securing top billing with a shutout of No. 7 Manhattanville last Friday. Both McGurry and Cubberley should benefit from a seasoned group of defensemen that includes four seniors. Speedy senior Jaclyn O’Neil steps out of Hurd’s shadow to pace the offense while Nemetz-Carlson expects freshmen Catherine Shears, Lindsay Laxton, and Kayla Coady to remain consistent contributors after the trio combined for 10 goals in the team’s first four games.

On the other side, Coach Bill Mandigo begins his 18th season with established personnel at all positions. Senior co-captain Kate Kogut is back for her swansong with a sparkling 41-4-4 career mark. The defense in front of her now has no less than 10 players who have at least one season in the program, headlined by two-time All-American Shannon Tarrant. And while the offense needs a sniper to replace two-time All-American Lorna Gifis (150 points, fifth best in school history), Mandigo has a stellar primary scoring option in Emily Quizon, whose 58 points in 2004-05 tied for the third-best single-season total in school history. In addition, 11 of the 25 players on the roster have the coveted experience of both winning a national championship and successfully defending a national championship.

Tale of the Tape

No. 3 Elmira (3-1-0 overall, 2-0-0 ECAC West)

Top Scorers: Jaclyn O’Neil, Sr., F (2-5-7), Kayla Coady, Fr., F (4-2-6), Catherine Shears, Fr., (4-1-5)
Top Goaltenders: Cara McGurry, So. (2-0-0, 0.00, 1.000), Allison Cubberley, Fr. (1-1-0, 2.00, .895)
Scoring Offense: 5.00 (8th)
Scoring Defense: 1.00 (T-3rd)
Penalty Minutes: 12.5 (16th)
Power Play: 5 of 24, 20.8% (11th)
Penalty Kill: 21 of 22, 95.5% (4th)

No. 1 Middlebury (0-0-0 overall, 0-0-0 NESCAC)

Top Scorers (2004-05): Emily Quizon, Sr., F (20-38-58), Alison Graddock, Jr., F (12-16-28), Karin Levin, So., D (6-22-28)
Top Goaltender: Kate Kogut, Sr. (19-3-1, 1.58, 0.927)
Scoring Offense: 4.77 (4th)
Scoring Defense: 1.47 (8th)
Penalty Minutes: 9.3 (30th)
Power Play: 42 of 156, 26.9% (1st)
Penalty Kill: 120 of 131, 91.6% (8th)

Series History

All-time: 3-2-0 Elmira

Last 5 meetings:
*3/19/05: Middlebury 4, Elmira 3
2/20/05: Elmira 3, Middlebury (OT)
**3/12/04: Middlebury 2, Elmira 1
1/9/04: Elmira 2, Middlebury 1
12/7/03: Elmira 4, Middlebury 2

*2005 NCAA Championship
**2004 NCAA Quarterfinals

Williams vs. No. 2 Plattsburgh, Sat. 4 p.m. Semifinal

Williams figured on having to replace its senior class but in early September, the Ephs learned that they would have to replace Head Coach Neil Sinclair as well when Sinclair left to become the men’s hockey coach at Skidmore College. Assistant Michelyne Pinard ascends to the top position. Along with fellow Dartmouth standout Alana BreMiller, she sets about finding the formula to push Williams above its third-place NESCAC finish of the last three years. The Ephs figures to remain one of the nation’s better defensive teams (less than two goals per game in 2004-05) with four seniors on the blueline and sophomore goaltender Denise McCulloch having a year of experience under her belt. The search for consistent offense post-Molly Wasserman continues and Pinard will be looking for a breakout season from at least one of the six freshmen and sophomores who numbered among last season’s top eight scorers.

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Plattsburgh finds itself in a similar predicament as ECAC West rival Elmira. Coach Kevin Houle must rebuild after the graduation of All-Americans in goal (Carolyne Roy), on defense (new assistant coach Erin O’Brien), and up front (Elizabeth Gibson). However, like the Soaring Eagles, the Cardinals still have some veteran cornerstones and some promising newcomers. Niagara transfer Breanne Doyle is the new No. 1 goaltender, All-Rookie sophomore defenseman Julie Devereux anchors the blueline group, while the offense can lean on two-year captain Jenn Clarke (133 career points but questionable for the weekend) and junior leading scorer Jessica Moreau. In between, youth is the operative word as Plattsburgh’s roster includes 14 freshmen, though four of the first-year forwards are averaging better than a point per contest, led by Danielle Blanchard (6-5-11). The question that won’t be answered for several months is whether the new formula is enough to produce a new ending after a series of near-misses, including four straight ECAC West title game losses to Elmira and back-to-back defeats in the Division III national semifinals.

Williams (14-10-2, 10-4-2 NESCAC)

Top Scorers (2004-05): Ashley Wood, Jr., F (10-15-25), Gigi Stender, Sr., (10-9-19), Caralyn Quan, Fr., F (9-9-18)
Top Goaltender: Denise McCulloch, So. (6-6-1, 2.12, .917)
Scoring Offense: 3.27 (16th)
Scoring Defense: 1.96 (10th)
Penalty Minutes: 8.8 (33rd)
Power Play: 16 of 97, 16.5% (13th)
Penalty Kill: 98 of 110, 89.1% (15th)

No. 2 Plattsburgh (6-0-0, 6-0-0 ECAC West)

Top Scorers: Jessica Moreau, Jr., F (6-7-13), Danielle Blanchard, Fr., F (6-5-11), Jenn Clarke, Sr., F (4-7-11)
Top Goaltenders: Breanne Doyle, Sr. (4-0-0, 0.25, .981), Sandra Grant, Fr. (2-0-0, 0.00, 1.000)
Scoring Offense: 6.50 (2nd)
Scoring Defense: 0.17 (1st)
Penalty Minutes: 9.0 (26th)
Power Play: 12 of 41, 29.3% (5th)
Penalty Kill: 24 of 25, 96.0% (2nd)

Series History

All-time: 3-0-0 Plattsburgh

2/1/05: Plattsburgh 6, Williams 1
1/19/04: Plattsburgh 3, Williams 1
12/7/03: Plattsburgh 2, Williams 1

This Week in the CCHA: Nov. 17, 2005

By
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Everybody Hurts

Well, everybody except for Michigan. The Wolverines moved to the top of the USCHO.com/CSTV poll this week with a record of 9-1-1 (5-1-1 CCHA) as nearly everyone else in the top 10 lost at least one contest.

Given the 11 rookies on the Wolverine roster, some folks find Michigan’s quick start surprising. Certainly, much of the credit for Michigan’s success goes to the Wolverine coaching staff, who remain among the most understated men in the CCHA.

“All the teams we’ve played, I can’t say there’s anybody out there a lot better than us, and I can’t say we’re a lot better than the teams we’ve played.” That sounds like it might be right out of head coach Red Berenson’s mouth, but it was associate head coach Mel Pearson, quoted in this week’s Ann Arbor News.

“We’re in the ballpark,” said Pearson. “The start’s a little surprising.”

With their wins over Northern Michigan last weekend, the Wolverines took the top spot in the league standings. Michigan is off this week before hosting Minnesota and Wisconsin in the annual College Hockey Showcase.

It’s the End of the World as We Know It

Last week, the Miami RedHawks split with Lake Superior State in Sault Ste. Marie, which is bad news for Ohio State, the league’s preseason favorite. Until OSU beat Michigan State Tuesday night, the Buckeyes were mired in last place in the standings with just three points.

Why was last week’s Laker win ominous for OSU? Well, the Lakers play the Buckeyes this week, and the RedHawks swept OSU the week before. Okay, so the math is fuzzy — but it is fun. If you follow it all the way back to the beginning of the season, even Robert Morris — Robert Morris! — can beat Ohio State.

Robert Morris beat Western Michigan, which swept Ohio State. Of course, the Penn State club team beat Robert Morris, so there are Big Ten implications in this illogical sequence.

Michigan’s only loss this season was to Alaska-Fairbanks, which also lost to Michigan and Alaska-Anchorage. As Anchorage has only beaten Rensselaer and Fairbanks, it seems the Wolverines are safe from the greater D-I population.

I hate the word parity, as it is overused and often misused. CCHA coaches, especially, have been guilty in the past of pointing to the league’s alleged parity to “prove” its “strength.”

The CCHA does seem to be a league where any team can beat any other team on any given night — blah, blah, blah — and last year the play within the league was exciting even though CCHA teams didn’t advance to the Frozen Four.

This year, however, while some wins and losses are difficult to explain — how does WMU lose to Robert Morris and sweep OSU? — there does appear to be genuine parity among at least five of the league’s top teams, and four of those five have shown some promise against strong nonconference opponents. Michigan, MSU, UAF, and OSU — and the Buckeyes should recover — have each registered impressive nonleague wins, and Miami is as good a team as any in the conference.

Interestingly, while the league does appear in the early going to be stronger than it has in years relative to nonconference opponents, the coaches seem to be quieter this year about league relativity. Perhaps there’s an inverse relationship between crowing amount and nonleague success.

Even more interesting, though, is the relative youth of the league. Turnover goes in cycles, of course, but this year’s CCHA recruits seem to be a good batch.

Perhaps … seem to be … appear in the early going … . Who says that men are the ones who fear commitment?

Stumble

Two teams who meet this week are each riding multi-game losing streaks into their series, although the circumstances of each team differ significantly.

Michigan State and Western Michigan play a home-and-home series this weekend with the Spartans hosting Friday night. These will be the seventh and eighth games for MSU in 16 days, including two consecutive Tuesday-night contests, the first resulting in a tie, the second and most recent, a loss.

The weeknight games are, of course, the league’s way of compensating for the lengthened CCHA playoffs, and when the coaches met for their annual meeting last April, Tuesday nights seemed like a good idea, said MSU head coach Rick Comley after the Spartans dropped a close 3-2 game to the Buckeyes this week.

“This stretch is difficult. This midweek — the Tuesday game sounds great in Florida, but it doesn’t always sound great up here, especially when one team has a weekend off and you don’t.”

That’s not sour grapes coming from Comley, but rather a reality. For the Spartans, Tuesday’s contest was their sixth in a dozen days, and while the MSU press release said that the Spartans were at “full strength,” scratches for the game included Chris Snavely, Brandon Warner, Matt Shouneyia, Tim Kennedy, and David Booth. Kennedy, arguably MSU’s best newcomer, will be out for a while yet.

“We’ve played a lot of games in a short stretch and been beaten up doing it,” said Comley, “but I thought our kids worked hard and I thought Ohio State’s too good a team to lose as much as they’ve lost. They had nine days rest.”

The Buckeyes did take advantage of nine days off — much needed, considering their four-game losing streak — but still used everything they had to beat the Spartans, as well rounded a team as MSU has fielded in many years, even before Comley’s tenure.

“I thought we played well enough to win on the road,” said Comley, and they did play that well. The difference was clearly the schedule.

The Broncos dropped two to Ferris State in home-and-home action last weekend, one week after losing two at home to Lake Superior State. WMU was this close to snapping a three-game losing streak in Saturday’s contest, when three unanswered goals gave the Broncos a 3-0 lead going into the second.

Then came the penalties. “Eight or nine minor penalties for us, one for them, so we basically played the whole second period shorthanded,” said WMU head coach Jim Culhane after the 5-3 loss. “They scored two four-on-threes and a five-on-three.”

Two of those FSU goals were scored within five minutes, the first by Dan Riedel at 7:48, the second by Zac Pearson at 12:47, and the third straight Bulldog power-play goal came at the back-breaking time of 18:57, by Greg Rallo.

Culhane said he was pleased with the way the Broncos came out Saturday, responding to Friday’s 6-0 loss, but the Broncos can’t settle for moral victories and neither WMU nor MSU will want anything but solid wins this weekend.

Finest Worksong

How did Ohio State break its four-game losing streak? Practice, practice, practice.

And homework.

“We didn’t let them off the hook,” said OSU head coach John Markell, whose Buckeyes had nine days to recover from back-to-back series sweeps by league opponents. “We practiced hard on Monday, took Tuesday off and broke down video, practiced hard on Wednesday, lifted [Thursday], broke down video from Wednesday.”

Markell said the Buckeyes worked on “little things, like when you backcheck, what does backcheck mean? What does battle mean? We defined a lot of little things that make you a better hockey club. We lost a battle, we broke that down: from the entrance, to the engagement, to the exit of the battle.”

What baffles Buckeye fans is that nearly the entire OSU squad returned from last season. The only players who saw ice time who were lost to graduation were captain J.B. Bittner and Lee Spector, both defensive forwards.

“We worked extremely hard on power play,” said Markell. “We went back on tape [to successful games] against these guys [MSU], against Michigan. You know what the funny thing is? It’s all the same guys.

“We told them, this is you guys working harder, moving the puck quicker, not skating the puck, and making good decisions, and supporting each other, and look what happens. That was unique about this last week, doing the video. It’s the same guys on tape that we have now. There might be a key guy out on some different things, especially on the penalty kill … but certainly on the power play.

“It’s the same guys back.”

I Feel Fine

The saga of my crosstown move was pleasantly disrupted by a Tuesday night game at Value City Arena. I love the Spartans and always have, and I know the Buckeyes well, so it was a sweet midweek treat.

It was also a very good hockey game between two excellent teams, one fatigued from far too many games within far too short a span, one well rested and trying to bounce back from a skid that should have never, ever happened.

Here’s what doesn’t necessarily make it into any game recap:

• Both MSU goaltender Dominic Vicari and OSU goaltender Dave Caruso are better than their stats. In overall play, each has a save percentage below .900. I hadn’t seen Vicari play yet this season, but I had seen Caruso — and I saw Caruso’s confidence waver unnecessarily during OSU’s 2-2 home tie with Bowling Green. Both Vicari and Caruso were on their respective games Tuesday and, as a fan, that was pure fun.

• I was sorry to see Tim Crowder go off in the third with a five-minute major and game misconduct for checking from behind (although the Buckeyes were not). That was my first look at Crowder, and I thought he was impressive. He didn’t look like a freshman to me.

• The call that sent Crowder off was the weakest major checking-from-behind that I’ve seen this season, in person, on tape, or on television.

• OSU’s first goal was scary-good, like the way the Buckeyes played last season. It was even-strength, on the second cycle in front of Vicari, and at that moment the Bucks looked unstoppable.

• Tyler Howells’ backhanded feed to Jim McKenzie for MSU’s second goal was as good as it gets.

• Kyle Hood’s patience on the power play, deking two MSU defenders into committing before shooting, was the best display of patience I’ve ever seen in college hockey.

• Justin Abdelkader’s name is a pain to type, but I’d better get used to doing so.

• During the national anthem, you could tell the Buckeyes were ready to go because they were swaying like a sine wave on the blue line, rocking back and forth on their skates, while the Spartans looked grim and determined. Funnier still was that injured Buckeye Dan Knapp was swaying in the stands just as his teammates were. He’s mentally ready to go.

The game reminded me of OSU’s midseason contest against Colorado College in the inaugural Ohio Hockey Classic last December, a game between two evenly matched and very talented teams, each playing to the best of its ability on a given night, given the circumstances.

The Spartans are so good. Believe it.

Games of the Week

Who’d have thought that this series would be this intriguing?

No. 14 Alaska-Fairbanks (4-2-2, 2-1-1 CCHA) at Nebraska-Omaha (4-4-0, 2-4-0 CCHA)
Friday, 7:05 p.m. CT, Saturday, 7:35 p.m. CT, Qwest Center, Omaha, Neb.

It was a good weekend for the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks.

“Being the greedy guy that I am, I’m much happier with what we got.”

So opined UNO head coach Mike Kemp after the Mavericks swept the Spartans in East Lansing. Friday’s win was a resounding 7-4 thumping, but Saturday’s game was closer, a 3-2 overtime victory, the game-winner coming with just 28 seconds left in OT.

Freshman Dan Charleston scored the two UNO regulation goals, both in the second period, one shorthanded and one on the power play. “He has been one of our featured penalty killers all season,” said Kemp, “because he plays with such grit and determination. He’s a little guy who is not afraid to get up and make things happen. He made no mistake about it once he got the chance with the shot.”

The wins against a ranked opponent came a week after UNO dropped two to struggling Bowling Green, also on the road. Kemp attributed the turnaround to better defensive play.

This week, UNO hosts UAF, the Mavericks’ permanent CCHA rival — at least for as long as the cluster system lasts. The Nanooks are enjoying a fairly fast start and some unfamiliar national notoriety. Head coach Tavis MacMillan said that UAF’s rankings are “an indication the program is going in the right direction, if you look back at the records we’ve had for two or three years.”

UAF had last weekend off, but two weeks ago took three points from Ferris State in Big Rapids, an arena where they’ve traditionally struggled. “Reflecting on it after the fact,” said MacMillan, “it is good. Sixteen of our 20 players were freshman and sophomores both nights.”

The win against FSU was just the fourth all-time for the Nanooks in Ewigleben.

Here’s a look at this week’s series, by the overall numbers:

• Goals per game: UAF 2.75 (ninth); UNO 3.62 (tie second)
• Goals allowed per game: UAF 2.50 (tie fifth); UNO 3.88 (ninth)
• Power play: UAF 19.6% (third); UNO 12.5% (11th)
• Penalty kill: UAF 76.9% (10th) ; UNO 87.8% (third)
• Top scorer: UAF Ryan McLeod (2-7-9); UNO Scott Parse (3-9-12)
• Top ‘tender: UAF Wylie Rogers (.925 SV%, 2.38 GAA); UNO too close to call

All three Maverick goalies have seen action, and each appears capable — or, rather, none has emerged as the definitive starter.

The Nanooks lead this all-time series 16-5-5, with all five of UNO’s wins in Omaha. In Omaha, UAF is 6-5-1. Last year, the Nanooks went 3-1-0 against the Mavericks, but each team scored 14 goals in the series. UNO’s lone win was a lopsided 7-2 affair.

Picks: This feels like an exercise in futility, but I’m picking a split with UNO winning Friday and UAF taking Saturday’s game. Anything can happen. UNO has experience that can take the Mavs past ranked teams, as they proved last week. UAF has youthful enthusiasm plus some experience, and that can equal wins, as the Nanooks have proven. UNO 4-3, UAF 4-3

This One Goes Out to the One I Love

It’s been a while since any man has written me poetry, and while I won’t name names, I’ve received some hockey-related poetry this season from the father of a CCHA player. Sadly, the poetry always comes from CCHA dads, married CCHA dads, and it’s always about hockey or my column, never about moonlit nights or other such lovely nonsense.

Sadder still, I think their wives know and don’t care.

Every other season or so, some very nice father of a CCHA player writes me email on a regular basis. This has become a welcome fringe benefit, as I’ve been able to get to know some players’ families through correspondence and subsequent meetings. As we all know, hockey people tend to be among the nicest.

This year, I am getting rhymed couplets from a sophomore’s father. No, there’s no romance. He just wants to know nearly every Thursday what I’ll be writing about the league; he wants me to know, and apparently rhyming is necessary, and who am I to argue with that?

This correspondence does, however, remind me of an exchange I once had, in person, with a long-departed OSU player. He asked me whether I enjoyed interviewing allegedly good-looking, athletic young men in various states of undress. (This followed an interview with a player in a towel, I believe, an occupational hazard for all involved.)

I said, “Sweetheart, you’re cute as a button but you don’t do a thing for me. Your dad, however, is hot.”

There have been no questions from OSU players regarding my professionalism since.

This season, even the oldest players in the league are young enough to be my sons, had I been a very naughty freshman in high school, and one OSU player delights in calling me “Miss Weston.” While all of this translates into things I’d rather not contemplate about my age, it does give me a certain amount of freedom.

No Blueliners, No Trivia

No nominations for the former, no time for the latter — and no one wrote this week, not even to tell me how awful I am, so I wonder if there’s anything wrong with my inbox.

This Week in West Region DIII – Nov. 17, 2005

By C.J. Spang
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Surprised? Join the Crowd

The first few weeks of hockey in the West can be summed up with two words: what happened?

The MIAC and the NCHA have been battling for supremacy in the West for years, with the NCHA sitting atop the mountain. But the past few years have seen the MIAC climb further up that mountain, ready to displace the NCHA.

St. Thomas reached the pinnacle of the mountain for a few weeks last season after knocking off St. Norbert in the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals and advancing to the NCAA Championship game.

This year, both conferences garnered national respect in the USCHO.com preseason poll, as St. Norbert started out this season ranked second behind defending champ Middlebury, St. Thomas was third, St. John’s was fifth, Wisconsin-Superior seventh, and Wisconsin-River Falls 13th.

But that poll went through a metamorphosis in just three weeks.

Round and Round We Go

It all started with the inter-conference battle between the MIAC and the NCHA.

Friday night had the biggest surprise of the young season as Wisconsin-Stevens Point upset St. Thomas 3-2 in St. Paul. But the newsworthiness of that game lasted a whole 24 hours.

Augsburg was supposed to be another notch in St. Norbert’s proverbial belt. But the Auggies had other ideas and downed the Green Knights 7-4 on Saturday, thanks to two-goal nights from Critter Nagurski, Joe Haehn and David Clements. The game created quite a stir and started a free-for-all in the West.

Across town, another ranked team in the NCHA fell to an unranked MIAC opponent as Bethel upset then seventh-ranked Superior 4-3.

“Certainly the win over Superior was a huge one,” coach Peter Aus said. “They’re not going to lose many hockey games throughout the year, so that was a big win for us.”

That weekend started a game of musical chairs in the November 7 Division III poll as Bethel jumped up to No.12 and River Falls fell out of the rankings. All the other previously ranked teams in the two conferences moved down in the poll as well.

But that was only the beginning.

Last weekend, in the last of interlocking games between the MIAC and NCHA, the upsets continued.

On Friday, the St. Thomas lost yet again, this time to unranked Lake Forest, 3-2. Then on Saturday, the Tommies lost St. Norbert, while St. John’s lost to Wisconsin-Stout, 2-1. Augsburg saw its win streak snapped at three, falling River Falls 7-4.

So after two weekends of play for the MIAC, three for the NCHA, here’s the situation.

Bethel is 4-0 and No. 8 in the country, St. John’s is 1-2-1 and 11th in the nation, while St. Thomas is 1-3-0 and unranked. Augsburg is 3-1-0 and averaging 5.5 goals per game, but is still unranked.

Despite the hiccup against Augsburg, St. Norbert is third at 6-1-0. Superior is 4-1-0 and up to sixth. River Falls is 3-1-2 and climbed back into the rankings at No. 12.

Who’s glad there aren’t pick’em brackets for the first three weeks of Division III hockey?

Early Season Streaks and Slumps

The most disappointing start to this season undoubtedly belongs to St. Thomas. After coming off a loss in the NCAA championship game and beginning the season ranked third in the USCHO preseason poll, the Tommies are 1-3-0 and have fallen out of the rankings.

St. Thomas has dropped two one-goal games, but has outscored their opponents 14-13.

“It’s early and the thing is you don’t push the panic button,” coach Terry Skrypek said. “I think the question right now is our goaltending and [our] goaltending has to be better and keep us in games until our scoring picks up, then we can start winning some games.”

He continued by explaining that the Tommies are getting scoring chances, they just aren’t putting the pucks in the net. Whereas last year, when they had those opportunities, guys would convert, but this year, that’s not the case.

Seemingly, St. Thomas should get plenty of chances against 0-3-1 St. Mary’s. But the Tommies can’t afford to overlook anyone at this point.

“I think the think is right now it doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” Skrypek said. “We have a target on our back because of last year’s performance and over the years-everybody wants to beat St. Thomas.

“We have to be ready to play,” Skrypek said. “We have to perform and stick to our system and start playing better offensively and defensively.”

On the other end of the spectrum, the best start in the West belongs to the Bethel Royals.

Bethel is off to their best start in school history at 4-0 and is ranked eighth in the country-the highest ranked MIAC school in the poll.

“We know that four games don’t make season,” Aus said. “But certainly it’s a great start for us.”

But those four games could have gone either way.

Three of the Bethel’s wins were by a mere one goal, and the game against Eau Claire would have been too if it weren’t for an empty-netter with seven seconds left in the game.

So what is the key to winning close contests?

“That’s a good question,” Aus said. “Two years ago, we managed to lose all those games and last year I think our guys just made up their mind they weren’t going to lose when they had leads and it’s carried over to this year.”

And coach Aus has one key to continue Royals’ winning ways-unselfishness.

“This year I think our key words are to give and not try to get,” Aus said. “Another way of putting is just to be unselfish.”

Bethel has followed those words of wisdom so far. Nine different players have multiple assists in the Royals’ first four games, only 14 players had multiple assists all of last season.

Food for Thought

In just seven games, junior defenseman Andrew Derton has 14 points for St. Norbert. Derton had only 22 points all of last season. Teammate Connor Hughes has four power play goals, just one shy of the five he had last season. Junior goaltender Kyle Jones already has as many losses as he did a year ago-one.

Superior junior goaltender Baron Bradley has as many shutouts as he did in his first two season combined with one. In four games, senior Adam Hanna of St. John’s has two losses, one less than last year’s total of three. St. Thomas junior goaltender Robbie Earl has played in two games this season, the same number of games he played in all of last season.

With its 3-0 lost to St. Norbert, St. John’s was shutout for the first time since January 10, 2004, when they lost to Gustavus Adolphus 3-0.

Gustavus Adolphus is off to its best start since 1998-1999, when the Gusties started 4-1-0.

St. Mary’s 10-1 loss to Stevens Point was the first time the Cardinals had given up 10 or more goals in a game since February 11, 2000. St. Mary’s lost that game to Augsburg, 10-1 as well. The Cardinals have done it twice this season, losing 11-3 to St. Norbert’s last Friday. In four games, St. Mary’s has given up 29 goals; they gave up a total of 25 goals in all nine of their non-conference games a year ago.

Augsburg’s David Clements has five goals in four games, just one short of last season’s total of six. In those four games, the Auggies have equaled last season’s non-conference win total with three.

St. John’s 1-2-1 start is the Johnnies’ worst start since 2001-2002, when they started 1-3-0. That was the last time St. John’s didn’t win the MIAC regular season title.

Concordia’s junior winger Dan Berry has six goals, four assists and three power play goals in just three games this season. It took Berry all 25 games last season to notch seven goals, four assists and three power play goals.

Marian is sitting in the middle of the MCHA with a 2-2-0 conference record, 2-5-0 overall. But at least the Sabres are getting a team effort. In just four games this season, 18 players have notched at least one point, only 16 players scored last season.

Despite underperforming as a team, Minnesota-Crookston’s sophomore Brent Groenke is doing his part. In just four games, Groenke has equaled last season’s goal total of three and has two more assists than last year with two.

Lawrence has team chock full of overachievers. In two games, junior David Olynyk has three points on two goals and an assist. He played in 22 games last season and had one goal and two assists. Sophomore Neil Wallace has two goals and four points in four games, improving upon last year’s 16-game totals of one goal and three points. Junior Evan Thornton and Charlie Ward have both equaled last season’s point totals in just four games, with two and one respectively.

Games to Watch

Stevens Point travels to River Falls for one game against the 12th ranked Falcons on Friday. If the Pointers hope to crack the top 15, they will need a win against River Falls, and Saturday’s opponent, Wisconsin-Stout.

No. 6 Superior has a chance to prove it belongs in the top 15 as it hosts No. 3 St. Norbert on Friday. The Yellowjackets haven’t defeated the Green Knights since December 6, 2003.

This Week in the CHA: Nov. 17, 2005

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Being named the College Hockey America preseason player of the year hasn’t given Bemidji State goalie Matt Climie a big ego. In fact, he’s still doing what he does best: win hockey games for the Beavers.

Last Friday, Climie made 25 saves in a 4-1 win at Wayne State, but sat the next night as Layne Sedevie beat the Warriors.

Climie, a sophomore from Leduc, Alb., noted that he’s happy being one-half of a one-two punch in the Bemidji State net, but obviously, would like to see more time between the pipes.

CLIMIE

CLIMIE

“You just have to be mentally tough to accept that,” said Climie. “But early in the season, each win brings your confidence level higher and that’s where I am right now.”

The fact Climie earned preseason honors is just “something on paper,” said Climie.

“It’s nice to get that respect and it’s nice to be recognized,” Climie said. “But that was all before the season started and now is when it matters.”

“I have never talked to Matt about it,” said Serratore of the preseason player of the year laurels. “I don’t think discussing it with Matt would be the right thing for me as a coach to do. But he’s mature enough to handle it.”

Serratore, when asked who his true No. 1 goalie is, said, “We have two No. 1s. Matt’s 3-1 and Layne is 4-0. I’m comfortable playing either of them in any game against anyone.”

Climie’s one loss came three weeks ago when the Beavers split with Air Force. He thinks that game may have been an early-season preview of what to expect in the CHA this season.

“After we swept Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota State, I think everyone’s emotions were too high and that includes myself,” said Climie. “We just didn’t focus and you saw what happened. That game was seriously a wake-up call for all of us.”

Expect Climie and Sedevie to do the splits again this weekend as No. 16 Bemidji State ventures to Ferris State for a pair.

Air Force Grounded By Army

In an annual battle of the two Division I service academies with hockey programs, Army took both from Air Force last weekend at West Point.

Friday night, Black Knights’ goalie Brad Roberts stopped all 26 shots he saw en route to a 3-0 win.

“The best team won tonight,” Air Force head coach Frank Serratore said. “When they get a lead, they clog up the ice and they are very difficult to play against. You just have to find a way to score blue-collar goals and get it done and we didn’t. Roberts was the best player on the ice.”

Saturday, Army jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Falcons rallied with three in the third period, including a penalty shot by captain Matt Bader. But Chris Migliaro scored in overtime for the Army sweep.

“Army deserved to win the game,” Serratore said. “We had some momentum early, but until the penalty shot it was all Army. We put ourselves in tough position getting down by three, but we almost stole it. We had all the momentum after Bader scored, but they took it to the net and the puck went in. It’s a tough pill to swallow.

“We have had a good run against them, but you can’t win all the time. What a great game it ended up being. We needed to put them away early and we didn’t. They got the first goal in the game and they are a tough team to beat when they have a lead. We went five periods without scoring and that is demoralizing. That would have been a good tie or a great win, but it didn’t happen that way.”

The Falcons now travel across the pond for a series of exhibition games against teams from the German Professional League. The first game of the trip was scheduled for Monday, Nov. 21, against Munich at Ottobrun, Germany, but the game was cancelled. Another game may be scheduled in its place. Air Force will play Bad Tolz on Tuesday, Nov. 22, in Bad Tolz. The Falcons will then play Rosenheim, in Rosenheim, on Wednesday, Nov. 23.

Warriors Still Struggling

Wayne State is off to the worst start in its seven-year history at 0-7-1. But even so, morale seems to be on the upswing.

“It seems like the hockey gods might be against us right now,” said head coach Bill Wilkinson after Saturday’s loss to Bemidji State. “We’ve got a mature team that can handle some adversity and I keep telling them we’re a good team and things will change.”

Sophomore Stavros Paskaris was reportedly supposed to be back last Saturday after being out since Oct. 13, but didn’t dress.

NU Hosts Homecoming Of Sorts

Saturday night, Niagara hosts RIT for a single game, but it’ll be a flashback for NU head coach Dave Burkholder. The former goaltender played for the Tigers in the early 1980s.

The last time the two teams squared off was March 7, 1998, a 5-2 Niagara victory, when Burkholder was an assistant coach with the Purple Eagles. While with the Tigers, Burkholder helped RIT to the NCAA Division II title during the 1982-1983 season and was a first-team NCAA All-American in 1983-84.

Burkholder still holds the school’s record for shutouts in a season with seven (1983-84) and is tied for the career shutout mark with 12 (1980-84).

Colonials Show Character Against RIT

Robert Morris mounted a third-period comeback en route to a 5-5 tie with RIT on Saturday night at home. The Colonials scored three times in 67 seconds and four times overall in the third period.

Sean Berkstresser, Steve Bandurski, Jace Buzek and Chris Margott all tallied in an 11:58 span of the third period to take a 5-4 lead, but Simon Lambert notched an extra-attacker goal with 11 seconds left to gain the tie.

RMU rebounded and beat the Tigers, 4-2, Sunday.

The two games featured the two newest Division I teams. Robert Morris joined the CHA last season and RIT made the jump to D-I this year.

Huntsville Night And Day Vs. Niagara

Alabama-Huntsville eked out a 5-4 win over Niagara last Friday night, but then got blown out in an 8-4 loss the next night.

“We jumped out to a quick lead and I think our guys got a little overconfident,” UAH head coach Doug Ross said to the Huntsville Times on Saturday. “Our power play was not very effective. And their power play was really good.”

Dominik Rozman’s breakaway goal came on the Chargers’ first shot and gave UAH a 1-0 lead only 1:11 into the game. Steve Canter and Bruce Mulherin added goals to chase NU goalie Juliano Pagliero just 14:27 into the game. But then Niagara responded with five straight goals and finished with five power-play goals on the night.

Friday night, it was Niagara that got out to a quick 3-0 lead and led 4-1 at one point before UAH countered with four unanswered goals.

RMU Fires Women’s Coach McGonagle

USCHO Staff Report
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Just eight games into its women’s team’s first season, Robert Morris has fired its head coach.

Kevin McGonagle was dismissed Thursday, effective immediately, will be replaced on an interim basis by assistant Jody Katz for the remainder of the 2005-06 season. Current men’s assistant coach Nate Handrahan will then take over on a permanent basis.

The reasons for McGonagle’s firing were not immediately known. The Wesleyan alumnus previously coached the Bowdoin women on an interim basis in 2003-04, while head coach Michele Amidon was on leave. McGonagle led the Polar Bears to a 20-5-1 mark and a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.

Prior to that, McGonagle was head coach of the men’s programs at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts from 2001-03, and at Massachusetts-Boston from 1996-2000.

“It’s unfortunate that we had to make a coaching change in the middle of our inaugural season,” said RMU director of athletics Dr. Craig Coleman. “However, we are fortunate to have a coach of Nate Handrahan’s quality already here in the RMU family. He is excited about the challenge of taking a program in its infancy and making it nationally prominent.”

“I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to be a head coach at this stage of my career,” said Handrahan. “I am also very happy to be in Pittsburgh and at RMU as my family and I have come to enjoy this area a great deal. I want to thank Dr. Coleman for the chance and belief in my abilities.”

Handrahan is in his second season as an assistant coach with the Colonials men’s team, his fifth season of coaching overall.

He began his coaching career at his alma mater, Niagara, during which time the Purple Eagles earned a bid to the NCAA tournament in 2004 by winning the CHA tournament championship. As a player, Handrahan helped the 1999-2000 Purple Eagles to a memorable 30-win season which culminated in a berth in the NCAAs and a stunning first-round victory over New Hampshire.

“My experiences starting programs will definitely be something that I rely on,” said Handrahan. “I have seen how hard you have to work in order to have a successful result and I plan on helping the girls understand that. Starting a program is a special thing that you cannot duplicate and I am very excited to be doing it again.”

The former defenseman was a two-time All-ECAC West selection. He played in all 129 games over his four-year career and holds Niagara records for career games and consecutive games played. Handrahan earned the team’s “PAW” award in 1997-98 and the “Unsung Hero Award” in 1999-2000. He finished with 13 goals and 66 assists for 79 career points.

“I am excited about the challenges ahead as the interim head coach and I am honored that the administration has the confidence in my abilities to lead this program through its first year in history,” said Katz, who commended Handrahan’s selection. “I am fortunate to have 16 very special individuals to work with and guide. Their persistence, patience, desire to succeed and commitment to the program should be commended through all of this.”

Robert Morris, a CHA member, is 1-7-0 overall this season.

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Nov. 17, 2005

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1,000 And Counting

It may have taken what seemed like an eternity, but Army finally reached the 1,000-win plateau last Friday night. And the Black Knights did so in the greatest way imaginable.

Army, which entered the season with 999 wins and entered the weekend winless this season, beat archrival Air Force at home on, of all days, Veteran’s Day to finally hit the millennium mark.

In addition, the victory came at a time when the program is remembering the ultimate Army hockey veteran, Derek Hines, who was killed in the line of duty this past September in Afghanistan.

Needless to say, Friday was one special night in West Point.

“It was a great weekend here,” said head coach Brian Riley. “Even though the games were played earlier [in the season] than usual, the building was packed both nights. It was fitting to have the two teams playing on Veteran’s Day.

“We had talked a lot about Derek Hines all week. Those games [against military academies] are always important, but for us it had a little more of a special feeling.”

Riley’s team followed up Friday’s victory by finishing a weekend sweep on Saturday, winning 4-3 in overtime. It gave his senior class a 5-3-0 record lifetime versus Air Force, making them the first class of cadets to finish their careers at Army with a winning record against the Falcons.

“During the week we talked about the seniors and that they’d have to lead the way,” said Riley. “We wanted them to go out on top over Air Force.”

That’s exactly what happened.

Goaltender Brad Roberts posted a shutout on Friday and then followed up with 19 saves on Saturday to earn his fourth and fifth career wins versus Air Force. Seth Beamer posted three goals and an assist on the weekend. And Chris Migliaro scored the OT game-winner on Saturday.

“Our seniors definitely led the way,” Riley said. “It’s nice to see them go out with a winning record against Air Force.”

As important as win number 1,000 and picking up a victory over Air Force were, just getting a couple of wins for a team that was without any was hyper-critical for the Black Knights.

“To be quite honest, we’d been playing pretty well to this point but had nothing to show for it,” said Riley. “It was important that the cadets were able to taste some success.”

Saturday win, in particular, was important because Army had to overcome adversity and momentum. The Black Knights led, 3-0, midway through the third, only to see Air Force come roaring back to force overtime.

“I hope this is something to give them the confidence in close games,” Riley said. “Instead of playing not to lose, they’ll begin to play to win because of the experience they had with Air Force in here.

“Maybe last year at this stage and maybe the year before, I don’t know if we’d have won that game. Winning is a process and we put ourselves in a tough spot on Saturday night.

“A lot had to do with Air Force and how hard they started to play. They just kept coming and coming, even being down three goals. To lose a three-goal lead late and come back to win certainly is a confidence-builder. To be quite honest, that would’ve been devastating to lose or even to tie that game.”

Playing Air Force is very special, obviously, for both teams. And the thought that Navy could become the third military academy to join the ranks of Division I hockey went through Riley’s mind, with very positive thoughts, throughout the weekend.

“Any time you can add a Division I program is great for the sport,” said Riley. “But certainly the respect I have for all of the service academies, if Navy were to come into the mix, it’s something where you want to beat each other when you play one another, but after the game you realize you’re on the same team.

“To see the players line up shoulder to shoulder during the playing of the alma maters, it’s special.

“Maybe we don’t have the most talent, but I think that both teams play in a way that those who watch us feel good that these are the type of men fighting for our country.”

It’s things like that, the camaraderie, the sportsmanship, and most importantly the pride involved that made getting number 1,000 versus Air Force all the more special.

“I think it’s obviously something that all the players who played in the game will be able to say they were a part of the game,” said Riley of the milestone. “But it’s a lot more than just this team. There are a lot of players and coaches who have contributed to those 1,000 wins.

“From my standpoint, it was very special to have seen so many players grow up when I was a kid. It certainly was a special night but the fact it came against another service academy makes it more special.”

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week

Tyler McGregor, Holy Cross: If you thought that Tyler McGregor was impressive on Friday night when he scored a hat trick in Holy Cross’ 10-3 win over Mercyhurst, add the fact that he potted two more goals on Saturday and you have a slam dunk for player of the week. McGregor is tied for third in the league in scoring with 12 points.

Rookie of the Week

Bear Trapp, Sacred Heart: As if it’s not enough to have the best hockey name in the country, Sacred Heart’s Bear Trapp also happens to be a heck of a player and proved that last weekend with four points in a weekend sweep of AIC. His two goals on the weekend also happened to be game winners. Not too shabby.

Goaltender of the Week

Brad Roberts, Army: I said before the season that as Brad Roberts goes for Army, so too will his team go. So the fact that Roberts was stellar in two games versus Air Force rightfully translated into a weekend sweep. Roberts’ fourth and fifth career wins versus the Falcons improved his all-time record against service academies to 8-2-0. Talk about getting up for the big game!

“As Big A Win As We’ve Had”

Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin has always been the master of coach-speak. That’s not a knock on the veteran head man at Mercyhurst. He’s great to talk to as a writer, but when you’re on the record with him, what comes out of his mouth is pretty much along standard platform lines for a coach.

“The biggest game is our next one.”

“We don’t think about the playoffs until March.”

“We have all the respect in the world for (insert team name here).”

Those are the expressions you can expect to hear from Gotkin. That is, unless you catch him after an emotionally-charged victory.

Such was the case last Saturday night after the Lakers beat Holy Cross on the road, 4-3.

“That was as big a win as we’ve had,” said Gotkin, completely out of character.

Now, let’s put this in perspective.

One night earlier, Holy Cross hasn’t just beaten the Lakers, the Crusaders annihilated them. A 10-3 victory handed Mercyhurst its worst league loss since becoming a Division I program.

“They beat us. They beat us bad,” said Gotkin, left waving the white flag, particularly as his team was down 7-1 after the first period Friday.

Saturday’s rematch, though, was more the type of game you’d expect from these two clubs — which, by the way, were picked as co-champs in the preseason coaches’ poll. An early goal gave Mercyhurst the lead. Holy Cross countered with two of its own in the second only to see the Lakers even things up before the frame ended, sending a tie game into the third period.

But when Tyler McGregor scored his second goal of the game and fifth of the weekend with only 10:26 remaining, it appeared the trip to Worcester for this series was about to become a lost weekend for Mercyhurst.

But then things changed. And the change came from one of Mercyhurst’s biggest producers in forward Scott Champagne. Champagne, who is riding a 27-game scoring streak dating back to last season, gave Mercyhurst a bounceback goal just 23 seconds after the Crusaders had taken the lead. He then set up Kyle Gourgon for the winning goal exactly four minutes later.

That lost weekend suddenly was about as good as it gets, with Mercyhurst earning two points despite the blowout Friday.

“Our guys responded well,” said Gotkin. “[Friday] was as low as our guys have been.

“But they battled and gutted it out. It shows a lot about the character of the team after a real tough loss.

“They came back and they did it themselves. We didn’t talk much, we didn’t change much, we didn’t do anything different. They just came out and they played.”

What may have come out of the weekend is rookie goaltender Tyler Small emerging from a triumvirate with Mike Ella and Jordan Wakefield. After Ella and Wakefield had posted less-than-stellar performances on Friday, Small responded with a grade-A effort on Saturday

“He gave us a chance to win,” said Gotkin. “We knew he was going to be a good goaltender and he still has a lot of prove, but he’s done a lot for us so far.”

Now Mercyhurst will need to ride its momentum against a team equally as hot this weekend in Sacred Heart. The Pioneers are riding a two-game sweep against American International and are nipping at Mercyhurst’s heels, just a point behind the first-place Lakers in the Atlantic Hockey standings.

This Week in the WCHA: Nov. 17, 2005

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First things first:

• Emotions ran high after Wisconsin’s Adam Burish hit Colorado College’s Scott Thauwald at the horn at the end of last Saturday’s game. It’s too bad, too, because that incident overshadowed a series of skill and tenacity.

• On paper, it seems like a different Minnesota State team out there the last two weeks. In reality, however, it’s the same team with the confidence of having a goaltender stopping shots behind it.

• Think Minnesota had some aggression to let out last Friday? The 9-0 victory over Alaska-Anchorage made it seem that way. Now the Gophers square off against their first ranked opponent of the season when they play Denver this weekend.

• Speaking of that Gophers-Pioneers series, both teams have won half of their games so far — not exactly the position we thought we’d be seeing from these teams by this point.

Hot-Button Hit

WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod expressed his disappointment in Burish in a letter he drafted to the Wisconsin captain to detail his punishment for the hit on Thauwald.

Late in Saturday’s game, which the Badgers won 3-0, Thauwald was nearing Wisconsin’s Robbie Earl by the boards. Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves said Burish was trying to protect his linemate from a potential check from Thauwald, although the CC junior appeared to slow up just before Burish crashed into him, sending him into the boards.

Thauwald needed help getting off the ice while some scuffles broke out during the postgame handshakes. The Gazette of Colorado Springs reported this week that Thauwald, who had returned only a week earlier from a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered last season, had the same injury and is out for the rest of the season.

Burish was handed a five-minute penalty for excessive roughness and a game disqualification, meaning he’s out for Saturday’s home game against Minnesota State. McLeod and WCHA supervisor of officials Greg Shepherd reviewed the incident this week but decided against adding any games to the penalty.

“I told him I was very disappointed in his uncalled-for actions, that the young man was hurt pretty bad and probably out for the season,” McLeod said. “I did tell him that in the letter, but as far as any further disqualifications, we decided against it.”

Burish must write a letter of apology to Thauwald and one to the CC team as well as discuss with Eaves the progressive punishments he is subject to for future DQs. He also was put on notice that last Saturday’s incident will be weighed if a disciplinary hearing is needed in the future.

One of the reasons there was no additional on-ice penalty, McLeod said, was the precedent already set in that area. The most recent example of league punishment was a one-game suspension given to Denver’s Geoff Paukovich for his check from behind on North Dakota’s Robbie Bina at last season’s Final Five. The Pioneers doubled that penalty on their own.

A league suspension to Denver’s Max Bull in November 2002 also came up. Bull received a warning from the league after a knee-on-knee hit caused an injury, then received a two-game suspension the next week after taking checking-from-behind and checking-the-goaltender penalties. That suspension later was halved by the WCHA’s executive committee.

“It’s never an apples-and-apples deal,” McLeod said. “You’re always comparing apples and oranges a bit. Greg and I did review some of the past actions we took and thought that it didn’t rise to that level of what amounts to a two-game suspension.”

McLeod said he didn’t think the hit was a violent action on Burish’s part. “But the end result was pretty devastating,” he said.

Brett Sterling, Thauwald’s CC teammate, made no mistake of his thoughts on the hit after Saturday’s game.

“It was a total cheap shot,” Sterling said. “Everybody saw what happened. The puck’s not there and it was a bad hit. They need to take a look at it and review it. But I’m not going to say anything more than that because I’m not going to stir the pot.”

A day before he was told to by the league, Burish said he would apologize to Thauwald and wish him a speedy recovery.

“I know people may look at it as a dirty hit,” Burish said. “People that may not know me might think, ‘Look at that one incident.’ Maybe it was their first time at a Wisconsin game and they see me do something like that and obviously a normal person would think, ‘Wow what a dirty player he is,’ or something like that. But I think the guys that know me, the people who know me know that when I did that I wasn’t trying to hurt the kid.”

By the way, the Tigers host the Badgers on Jan. 13 and 14.

Trivial Matters

Since the start of last season, Wisconsin has held Colorado College’s Marty Sertich without a point in two series. How many other teams have kept the Hobey Baker Award winner off the scoresheet for an entire series since the start of the 2004-05 season? Answer below.

The Contest Winner

After the first six games of the season, Minnesota State was sitting with a save percentage of .842.

“You aren’t going to beat anybody with 84 percent,” Mavericks coach Troy Jutting said, and he was right. His team was 0-6. “I had to try something.”

That something, he told his three goaltenders then, was charting every shot during the week of practice leading up to a series at Alaska-Anchorage two weeks ago. Junior Chris Clark and freshmen Dan Tormey and Mike Zacharias, who each played in two of the first six games, were on the spot, and the one who stopped the most shots would get the start.

An interesting concept, yes, but as Jutting said, he had to try something. The Mavericks had been burned for seven goals in a game twice in the first six contests, not allowing much defensive confidence to be built.

And the interesting concept has produced interesting results. Tormey won the contest and has gone four games without a loss since. The most recent success was a shutout victory over Denver last Saturday to complete a three-point weekend against the Pioneers.

“It was a case where early on I thought we played very well against Minnesota, just gave up goals we can’t give up,” Jutting said. “But now our goaltending — and it’s only been four games — but it’s been much better and as a result our record is a lot different in the last four games than it was in the first six.”

The Mavericks are 2-0-2 in their last four games going into a series Saturday and Sunday at Wisconsin. In that unbeaten run, Tormey’s save percentage is .942, and his job has been made easier by a decrease in the number of shots allowed.

Whereas opponents were averaging nearly 34 shots per game over the first six games, they averaged 26 in the last four. The Pioneers got just one shot on goal in the first period last Saturday.

The series against Denver showed the Mavericks they can compete in the WCHA.

“There’s no question it’s helped out our confidence, but our team didn’t lose confidence in themselves,” Jutting said. “Even after six games and we hadn’t won, it wasn’t like kids were hanging their heads. I think they knew that if things got going, they had a chance to be a decent hockey team.

“I think with Dan’s play, everybody else gets more confident, too, because you’re not looking and saying ‘We can’t allow them to get any shots on us.’ We’re able to play a lot freer in terms of being confident that if we do give up some shots, our goaltender will be there to help us out.”

Bouncing Back

Losing 9-0 to Minnesota last Friday — the largest shutout defeat in program history — had to be an embarrassing experience for Alaska-Anchorage. But there’s something laudable in the fact that the Seawolves came right back the next night and played with some perseverance.

They led the Gophers 3-1 after two periods last Saturday before being steamrolled in the third period to lose 4-3. Minnesota outshot UAA 14-2 in the three-goal third.

“Every team has to find itself, dig down, learn how to win,” Seawolves forward Charlie Kronschnabel told the Anchorage Daily News. “It’s a learning process, and we’re in it. We don’t have the answers to anything right now, and we’ve got to start finding them, one by one.”

Forward Shea Hamilton told the paper: “We knew there was only one way to go after [Friday] night — up. There’s no way we could play any worse. We played great [Saturday] and it just falls apart right in front of us.”

Some Good, Some Bad

Before a 7-0 loss to St. Cloud State last Saturday, Michigan Tech had played three straight games that were at one point tied 2-2. Tech lost the first two at Denver before pulling one out last Friday, a 3-2 overtime victory.

“At Denver, I felt — sign of a young team — we didn’t make very good decisions with the puck,” Huskies coach Jamie Russell said. “We weren’t real patient, particularly playing on the road. Denver capitalized and we weren’t able to turn the corner. Friday night against St. Cloud we were very thorough, we were patient, we were smart with the puck, we took our chances as they came and Taggart Desmet and Chris Conner made a great play in overtime to get us a big win, an emotional win, a much-needed win.”

In that 7-0 loss a night later, Tech killed four of its own power plays by taking penalties and it allowed four power-play goals. That was a breakthrough of sorts for St. Cloud State, which had scored only five power-play goals all season to that point.

And it magnified how much Michigan Tech misses defenseman John Scott, who this weekend will serve the final two games of a team-issued, 14-game suspension for his offseason arrest.

“The guy’s got a wingspan from here to Mackinac Bridge,” Russell said of the 6-foot-7 Scott. “He’s just got such a reach and covers a lot of area. He’s a great penalty killer and we sorely miss that right now.”

The Huskies are last the WCHA in penalty killing at 73.6 percent.

In Other Words

• League players of the week were Minnesota’s Ryan Potulny on offense, Wisconsin goaltender Brian Elliott on defense and Gophers forward Phil Kessel and Minnesota State goaltender Dan Tormey as the top rookies.

• Wisconsin has tied a school record by allowing two goals or fewer in 10 straight games. Badgers junior goaltender Brian Elliott has gone 14 starts without allowing more than two goals.

• Denver’s forward depth took some more hits last weekend. Gabe Gauthier (knee), J.D. Corbin (foot) and Julian Marcuzzi (hip) missed last Saturday’s game against Minnesota State. Their status for this weekend’s series against Minnesota is unknown.

• Minnesota forward Danny Irmen, who hasn’t played since breaking a finger in the season opener, is likely to play one of the two games against Denver this weekend, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

• Plans are in the works for a Feb. 10, 2007, doubleheader at the Metrodome in Minneapolis — Minnesota playing Minnesota-Duluth in men’s hockey and the Gophers playing Bemidji State in women’s hockey — the Duluth News Tribune reported.

• North Dakota’s Drew Stafford scored his first career hat trick last Friday against Minnesota-Duluth.

• Minnesota goaltender Kellen Briggs picked up his ninth career shutout last Friday, breaking a tie with Adam Hauser atop the Gophers’ career shutout list.

• Colorado College is 0-for-11 on the power play over its last three games.

• Minnesota-Duluth’s Tim Stapleton has a six-game point-scoring streak, two short of his career best.

• Denver sophomore Ryan Dingle has scored at least one goal in seven of his team’s 10 games this season.

• Trivia answer: None.

Final Word

The sellout crowd of 15,237 last Saturday at the Kohl Center was Wisconsin’s 12th since moving to the building in 1998. But the impressive part about it was that it came on the same day as a Badgers football game down the road, when typically UW sports fans’ minds are elsewhere. That’s a pretty good statement for the program.

The Week in Division III – November 17, 2005

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Finally

The ECAC East and NESCAC kick off their seasons this weekend with a full slate of games, and it can’t come early enough for fans, players and coaches.

“We’re ready,’ said Norwich coach Mike McShane. “The guys are sick of playing each other. It’s hard to tell what kind of team we’ll be until we play somebody. I think we’ll be solid.”

While the Cadets lost their top line of Kurtis McLean, Vadim Beliaev and Mario Chinelli, as well as goaltender Kevin Schieve, McShane says that his team has great depth. He’s also been impressed with his rookies.

“We’ll be playing four or five freshman,” he said. “Again, we won’t know for sure until we start to play, but they’ve looked good so far.”

They’ll need to be to keep Norwich at the top of the ECAC East, a perch they’ve enjoyed every season since the split with the NESCAC in 1999. A resurgent Babson squad, along with New England College, St, Anselm and Southern Maine all enjoyed good seasons in 2004-2005 and look to continue to improve.

“The whole league has gotten stronger,” said McShane. “Babson had a couple of tough years but they’re doing very well again. They have some great kids. And look at New England College, at what they did last season.”

While the NESCAC may have been the far stronger of the two sister leagues at one time, that’s not true anymore, according to McShane.

“That perception is screwed up,” he said. “An ECAC East team, Norwich, has finished with the best overall record the past two seasons. We’re proud of that.

“I’d put our top four teams against anyone’s. Our fourth place team beat Babson, us, Manhattanville and gave Middlebury all they could handle.”

The Cadets get to test that theory just after Thanksgiving in the Primelink Tournament which once again features Norwich, Middlebury, Plattsburgh and Potsdam. The Cadets square off with archrival Middlebury in the semifinals of the tourney, this year hosted by Potsdam.

Due to the late start, Middlebury and Norwich will have played just two games each at that point, while Potsdam and Plattsburgh will have played eight and six times, respectively.

“That’s the way it is,” said McShane. “Our schedule dictates when we start and doesn’t allow for (the Primelink) later in the season like the Beanpot. We’re looking forward to it. It should be a good indicator.”

Show(case) Time

While Eastern D-III fans have plenty of Thanksgiving tournaments to check out, it’s been several years since there’s been tourney action in the West. Since the demise of the venerable MIAC Thanksgiving Tournament several years ago, there’s been a dearth of holiday hockey.

That’s changing this season with the advent of the Division III College Hockey Showcase, to be held at Fogerty Arena in Blaine, MN on November 25 and 26.

The tournament, which features eight teams from the three Western leagues was the brainchild of former Marian and Hamline coach Chris Brown, who is currently an assistant at Augsburg.

“We haven’t been able to get the national tournament out here in several years and we think that’s hurting our game,” said Brown. “We wanted to ability to showcase what great hockey we have. It’s a great opportunity. High school (hockey) hasn’t started yet and the Gophers are out of town that weekend.”

Brown got the idea for something to replace the old MIAC tournament while at Hamline. “I brought it up during the Western NCAA meetings,” said Brown. “We got a great response from the coaches.”

The format is really two separate four-team tournaments, with semifinals and a consolation and championship game in each. The games will run almost simultaneously on twin rinks at Fogerty Arena.

Wisconsin-Stout, Bethel, Hamline, and Finlandia will compete in one bracket, while Concordia, Wisconsin-Superior, Augsburg and St. Scholastica will battle in the other.

“It’s the largest in-season tournament in college hockey,” said Brown. “A third of the teams in the West will be there.”

Whether this becomes an annual event will depend on how this one goes, Brown says.

“This year, we’re just happy to get it off the ground. We hope there’s interest enough to keep it going. There are so many great tournaments in the East, it would be great to have one out here.”

For more information call Chris Brown at 612-330-1301, or go to the Tournament Website at www.augsburg.edu/athletics/mhockey/2005CHS.

The Usual Early Season Poll Nonsense

We have two regular season polls under our belts at USCHO, and as is usual for this time of year, both have suffered from the “no news is good news” phenomenon.

Six of the fifteen teams in the poll have yet to play a game, and since it’s the usual case that teams move down in the poll after a loss, the six untested teams continue to move up without having taken the ice yet.

Thank goodness the gang is finally all here. Look for the poll to begin to accurately reflect what’s happening by Christmas.

This Week in the ECAC WEST

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A Different Team

Since joining the ECAC West four seasons ago, it is no secret that Neumann has struggled. Over that time span, the Knights have a combined total of 10 wins and haven’t been competitive in many of the other games.

However, with an infusion of new blood, this year might represent the tipping point for Neumann becoming competitive.

In the first four games, the Knights have a respectable 2-2 record. Last season, it wasn’t until a January 25th upset of Hobart that Neumann earned its second victory of the season.

“We’re doing okay and working hard,” said Neumann coach Dennis Williams. “At 2-2, it is a good start with us. It took us to after Christmas to get our first win last year, so the guys are in high spirits.”

The two losses on the record books, each by only a single goal, came in a season-opening two game set at Geneseo, games that easily could have gone the other way for the Knights.

“The Geneseo games were good games that could have gone either way,” said Williams. “They are a good team, and are playing well. We outshot them both games but couldn’t find the net.”

The most telling statistic indicating the turnaround of the Neumann program is shots on goal. Last season, the Knights were outshot 1037-627 and that is the best ratio they had ever managed.

But this season, the tide appears to be turning. Neumann has outshot its opponents in all four games so far, enjoying a comfortable 131-76 margin currently and have a 14-10 advantage in goals.

“We just can’t put it in the back of the net,” said Williams. “It is nice to get some shots on net. You never know what is going to end up going in. Geneseo buried their opportunities and we didn’t on ours. We need to figure out how to finish more.”

One player who has started off his freshman season on a roll is Jesse Cole. He has tallied four goals and an assist in the first four games of the season.

“Jesse is doing very good things right now,” said Williams. “My expectations were that he would put the puck in the net. He has the opportunity to play on the power play and is capitalizing. He is playing with a lot of confidence right now. Anytime you can have a freshman averaging a goal a game, he is doing something right for us.”

Coach Williams has also been sharing the duties in net between his three goaltenders. Mike Collichio, Brett Leonhardt and Liam Johnson all have played complete games during this opening stretch of the season. However, don’t let the rotating goaltenders fool you into thinking that Collichio isn’t the go-to guy.

“I planned on [rotating goaltenders] at the beginning of the season to make it fair for everybody,” said Williams. “Mike Collichio has proven last year, and even this year, he is the guy that we are going to ride. He knows that and our expectations of him are high.”

No Quit

Even though the results in the record books aren’t much different from last season, this year’s Elmira team definitely has a different character about it.

In the Soaring Eagles 7-5 loss at Hobart on Saturday, the Statesmen took advantage of opportunities to build a 6-2 lead by the end of the second period. Last season’s Elmira team would have packed its bags at that point and just gone through the motions during the third period.

Not this year’s team, though. The players rallied during the intermission, came out with a real jump in the third period, and tallied a power play goal just fifty one seconds in to start a comeback.

However, a defensive lapse allowed Hobart to tally a goal at 8:51 to put a chill on Elmira’s rally.

“These guys come to the rink and want to work hard every day,” said Ceglarski. “That is a big difference in our team this year. We had the power play to begin the [third] period and we thought that if we threw the puck at the net that good things would happen. But we gave up a soft goal that took the wind out of our sails a little bit”

The Soaring Eagles have improved the speed of the defensive corps, and certainly have an improved attitude by the players. While starting out 0-3 in league play isn’t what the Soaring Eagles were hoping for, you certainly can’t count them out yet.

“Obviously, 0-3 in the league, and we don’t play another league game until after the first of the year, is not where we wanted to be,” said Ceglarski. “It is a long fifteen game season. We still have 80% of the season to go. It is disappointing, and it will come down that every game is important for us.”

Happiness House

Happiness House, located in Geneva, N.Y. with a satellite campus in Canandaigua, N.Y., provides programs and services to children and adults with disabilities. The Hobart hockey team, led by head coach Mark Taylor who is a member of the Happiness House Board of Directors, has reached out to support this charity in many ways.

Last season, the team played floor hockey with the children at the main facility in Geneva. Also in past years, the players have participated in the annual “Hike for Happiness,” an indoor community walk-a-thon that benefits the “Happiness is Helping” capital campaign.

The sixth annual walk-a-thon was held this past Saturday afternoon on the Hobart campus, but occurred immediately before the Statesmen’s game against Elmira. Coach Taylor still wanted to help out, though, and came up with the idea to add the gate receipts from the game to the walk-a-thon.

“Since our game was at four, we couldn’t be involved with [the walk-a-thon],” said Taylor. “So, I talked to our Athletic Director and we felt that it was the right thing to do. We like to try to do things with them as much as we can.”

Neumann Faces a Challenge

Even with Neumann’s quick start this season, the Knights might get a little bit of a wake up call this weekend when they host Utica and Manhattanville to open their league schedule.

“We have to be ready to go for two highly skilled and tough opponents this weekend,” said Williams. “We are playing the two best opponents in the league right now.”

Friday’s game against Utica holds a little extra meaning for coach Williams. Not only did he serve as an assistant under Utica head coach Gary Heenan two years ago, Williams and Heenan are also good friends who spend considerable time together during the summer in hockey camps and on the golf course.

“Utica is physical,” said Williams. “They play a tough game and have been disciplined. Gary [Heenan] has them playing very well. Being part of the Utica program two years ago, it stems a bit of a relationship between us. You want nothing more than to beat one of your mentors.”

Neumann isn’t looking past Utica, but a quick turn around to play a Saturday afternoon game against Manhattanville might mean a double whammy for the Knights.

“Saturday doesn’t get any easier with Manhattanville as an afternoon game,” said Williams. “They are strong and skilled, and it should be a good test to see what we really are. We are trying to prepare our guys with video. It is going to be a whole different game than they are used to. We are trying to teach them the importance of league games. It isn’t like junior hockey with 48 league games. We have fifteen.”

With two games against teams currently tied for the lead in the league this weekend, the young Knights will get a good indication of exactly where they stand and what league play is really like at the Division III level.

Century Cat

By Joe Haggerty
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Brady Leisenring had a pretty good idea just how fulfilling his senior season at Vermont was going to be — until it went horribly awry, that is.

The Catamounts forward and Stowe, Vt., native grew up in the shadow of the Burlington campus and as a youngster watched the likes of Martin St. Louis and John LeClair skate in Gutterson Fieldhouse — watching them perform on the ice and then getting to meet his heroes in hockey camps sponsored by the school.

In fact, Leisenring’s fondest UVM memory was a trip to Pennsylvania with his family where his parents, Dr. Dennis and Pam Leisenring, surprised their hockey-crazed son with a trip to an AHL game featuring his favorite former Catamounts star.

“I remember my family telling me that we were going to the dog races, and I was like ‘Yeah … okay. Real exciting,” recalled Leisenring of parents that have proudly owned UVM hockey season tickets for the last 25 years. “But it turned out that my parents took me to see the Hershey Bears play the Rochester Americans.

“I’ll never forget that.”

“[Former UVM standout] Ian Boyce was a player/coach for the Americans, and he ended up getting a game winning goal in overtime and passed the stick over the glass to me in the stands,” said Leisenring of the vivid snapshot from his childhood. “I got to go into the locker room after the game, and it was such a great memory.”

While the early hockey memory made an impression on the athletic aspirations of then-10-year-old Leisenring and led to the crafty UVM skater donning Boyce’s number 11 for Cats, he didn’t have a lot of sports choices growing up in the Green Mountain State.

“We didn’t have a football team in my town, so it was either hockey or downhill skiing,” said the 23-year-old. “That was a pretty easy choice.”

Fast-forward 12 years to last season, with Leisenring riding high after a junior campaign that saw him snare First-Team All-ECACHL honors, First Team All-New England, co-MVP honors on his Catamounts team, as well as a tie for the ECACHL scoring title.

The former U.S. Under-17 National Team member had amassed 35 goals and 47 assists in his three seasons at UVM, and looked to be a cinch to become the 39th Catamounts skater to eclipse 100 points in his career — a milestone he actually met in Friday night’s 6-2 win over Providence.

That is, until the second year co-captain felt a sharp pain in his groin during a November 13, 2004, game against Clarkson — an injury he immediately knew to be serious and possibly season-threatening.

Leisenring’s instincts were spot-on, and the Vermont native was relegated to fulfilling a role as an ersatz cheerleader and assistant coach during his all-important senior season. Despite the obvious adversity, Leisenring amazed the coaching staff and his teammates with his disdain for the self-pity and temporary depression that can overcome many athletes coping with a major injury.

“Getting Brady back has really helped soften the blow of losing Scott Mifsud, who had a real career year for us last season as a senior. He’s going to put up some of the points that might otherwise have been missing. He had to make a tough decision to rest for four months.

“He probably could have tried to come back [last season], but it might have been one of those situations where he plays one or two games and blows it out again,” said UVM coach Kevin Sneddon. “It was tough for him to sit out, but he showed up at the rink every day with a smile on his face.

“Facing a difficult situation, he responded to a ‘T’ and we were really excited to have him back this season,” added Sneddon.

“He was always helping guys out and doing whatever he could to lift the team’s spirits — something that very encouraging for the rest of us,” said UVM senior defenseman Jaime Sifers. “It might have been difficult for him watching the team playing so well and not being able to be part of it, but he was such a great leader in spite of that.”

Leisenring admits that it was a difficult year for him, as evidenced by the fact that when the strong-skating, quick-shooting star saw his parents and sister Gretchen — who likewise played hockey for the Catamounts — the oft-discussed subjects of frozen sheets of ice and pucks never came up.

“It’s just something I didn’t want to talk about or think too much about last season,” said Leisenring.

Luckily for Leisenring and the Catamounts, the senior only made it through six games before injury struck and he qualified for a fifth year of eligibility with the NCAA, given that had hadn’t played in 20 percent of the team’s games. One more game played would have eliminated Leisenring from a medical waiver request, but instead the 5-11, 195-pounder was cleared to return to Burlington for UVM’s first foray into Hockey East.

“When we first found out, I immediately became jealous of the junior class,” said Leisenring of the move to the new conference. “But things happened this year and I’m thankful I just have a chance to play hockey in a competitive league. They don’t have the back-to-back matchups in the ECAC that they do in Hockey East.

“I’m the kind of person who thinks that things happen for a reason, and I’m very fortunate to be playing with a very talented team this season,” added the soft-spoken Leisenring.

The results have been nothing short of spectacular for the formerly-felled scorer and the UVM squad he leads onto the ice.

The eighth-ranked Catamounts jumped out to an impressive 7-0 start, snatched their first Hockey East win in a solid victory over Northeastern at Matthews Arena, and the top line of Leisenring, Torrey Mitchell (three goals, 13 assists) and Jeff Corey (six goals, seven assists) has been lethal.

The right winger is tied for third in the nation in scoring with seven goals and 11 assists through 10 games, and has acted as a sniping threat on a well-oiled power play that fires up the lamp at an impressive .254 clip.

For the fifth-year senior, the scoring excursions and leadership he’s been able to impart to talented freshmen like Peter Lenes and Dean Strong have been great, but just being one of the guys in the Catamounts locker room has taken on new meaning — as has the 100-percent-healed groin muscle that has allowed Leisenring to leap right back into his storybook Vermont career.

“For me, the biggest part was the first day of practice and getting back into the locker room, suiting up and joining the other guys on the ice,” said Leisenring, who is the first redshirt hockey player in UVM history. “I was still on the road with the team last year and in the locker room, but I wasn’t lacing up the skates and that was the hardest part. As much as I wanted to be a cheerleader for the guys, there’s only so much you can do.

“There’s a huge level of both respect and trust on both the coaching and players’ end, and there’s something special going on up here under Coach Sneddon,” added Leisenring. “I was proud of the way they competed last year [without me] and I just keep thinking about how much better the team is going to be this year.”

One year after Leisenring suffered a season-ending injury that nearly tossed away his senior season, the newest member of the UVM 100-point club is no longer on the outside looking in.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback: West

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Throughout the season, USCHO.com staffers Scott Brown and Jim Connelly will offer their views on the previous weeks’ action, alternating writing duties (and occasional potshots at each other) every Tuesday. Brown will focus on the West and Connelly on the East, in a regular column exclusive to USCHO Extra.

Uniform Application

When North Dakota had its appeal on the issue of its Native American nickname and imagery turned down by the NCAA on Sept. 28, the response was carefully structured to avoid denying the Sioux the right to host the NCAA West Regional next March. In particular, the Sioux Indian-head logos which dot Ralph Engelstad Arena were not required to be removed (likely impossible, logistically) or obscured.

That was probably a wise move by the NCAA, since an attempt to force North Dakota to alter the arena might have provided legal grounds for a breach-of-contract lawsuit. That would be because the NCAA’s policy on “hostile and abusive” Native American imagery was not in place at the time the university signed to host the regional.

Said NCAA Senior Vice-President for Governance and Membership Bernard Franklin, in part of the NCAA’s statement at the time:

However, the university will be allowed to host the Men’s Division I Ice Hockey Championship, West Regional, on March 24-25, 2006 at Ralph Engelstad Arena without altering its current contract. This decision was made because it is not reasonable to cover up or remove all of the Native American imagery in the arena, and the restriction was adopted by the Executive Committee after the contract was awarded to the university. The University of North Dakota will be restricted from hosting future championships in that arena.

But an issue that got lost in the hubbub was the fact that the Sioux could be required to remove their logos from team uniforms to participate in NCAA championship events. That issue has been rendered moot until Feb. 1, 2006, which is the date that the uniform policy will go into effect.

“The NCAA told us we didn’t have to stop,” Phil Harmeson, senior associate to UND president Charles Kupchella, told USCHO.com’s Patrick C. Miller. “We have a letter from the NCAA Championships Committee saying that we do not have to modify our uniforms.”

That freed up the Sioux to wear their uniforms for recent NCAA playoffs in football and women’s soccer.

But Feb. 1 is still before the West Regional takes place. For those not familiar with NCAA hockey rules on the subject, a school hosting a regional must play at that site if it makes the NCAA tournament, a likely outcome given UND’s performance so far this season.

And note that Franklin’s statement doesn’t say that the Sioux’s uniforms will be allowed to bear their Indian-head logos at the West Regional — only that it’s okay for the arena to do so.

Further action is in the offing. UND has already filed a second appeal with the NCAA.

A Night On The Town

In case you’ve been in Tibet, or in a cave, or in a cave in Tibet, for the past couple of weeks, several Gopher players under the legal drinking age were recently filmed by a local television station drinking at a Minneapolis bar.

I first heard the allegations, by Fox affiliate KMSP, during a Minnesota Vikings game on a Sunday afternoon, when Fox’s local commercial block aired its teaser for that night’s newscast. The tone and embellishment were the kind you’d expect to hear in an ad for a monster-truck rally at the Metrodome:

“Gopher hockey players … Violating team rules! … Breaking the lawwwwwww!” was the voiceover encouraging everyone to tune in that night at 9 p.m.

Now, I don’t want to make this seem like something it’s not — either more or less. College hockey, like other sports, has had its share of scandals, including those involving alcohol. This one hardly rates up there with Vermont’s “Elephant Walk” bombshell of a few years back, or other hazing-type violations. And no one is alleging that team or school officials were providing underage players with alcohol, which has happened at some places in the past.

No one is saying the players got out of hand, unlike the recent allegations against two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders, one of whom was underage and apparently in possession of a teammate’s ID. Since USCHO.com is known for its restraint and family-friendliness, I won’t repeat the salacious details involving those two — you can find them in about a million locations online or in print by now, if you’re so inclined and haven’t already.

Still, on first seeing the commercial, I had a pretty good guess — as most probably did — what the allegations were going to be.

I hardly think it’s news that college students drink. You can’t swing a cat these days without hitting a newspaper stand that has a story investigating the burgeoning booze business among underage students across the country. USA Today had one not long ago.

So these guys done wrong, and they got caught. I’ve covered Gopher hockey for USCHO.com for the entirety of head coach Don Lucia’s tenure, and I’m confident he’ll take the appropriate action. I’m sure the families aren’t exactly thrilled, either.

However, it’s the brazenness of this episode — or episodes, since KMSP filmed the Gophers on several occasions over a two-month period before broadcasting its allegations — that is a bit striking. And I don’t just mean the players.

The guys in question were apparently able to get into the bar with a handshake for the bouncers and no ID in sight, and to purchase alcohol with the same lack of verification.

Though I have lived in Minneapolis for 12 years, I’ve never been to Blarney Pub and Grill. That’s the Minneapolis bar a couple of blocks off-campus from which the KMSP report originated, and the place didn’t exist when I first got here.

But it took an organized failure on the part of the bar’s employees to let this happen. That’s one of the interesting things about it — maybe the most interesting thing.

When hockey players shake hands with bouncers and walk on by without showing ID, as KMSP reported, the security folks obviously know who they are. And just as obviously, the bouncers (and the bartenders who served the underage players) had to know those guys weren’t of the legal drinking age — particularly when some of the guys in question were high-profile freshmen.

So did management at Blarney purposely turn a blind eye to the legal ramifications in order to gain a reputation as a hangout for athletes? Or was this a matter of a few employees ignoring the rules, nothing more? Nobody knows quite yet.

Still, KMSP’s breathless, salivating style of “investigation” rubbed many the wrong way around the Twin Cities. Both the major local dailies, the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, have expressed a reasonable level of concern about underage drinking while simultaneously rolling their eyes in disdain at the level to which the “scandal” was hyped by KMSP.

That’s not even to mention the entertainingly poorly-written and -edited article KMSP ran on its website. In terms of literary quality, it was the sort of thing you’d get if you asked a fourth-grader to write a one-page essay on the topic of “My Hidden-Camera Investigation.”

The contempt isn’t limited to the media, either. Backlash against the TV station is under way by Gophers fans: there’s even a t-shirt available with the inscription “I Hate Fox9 — The Snitch Station” emblazoned across the front.

Michigan Reclaims Top Ranking In USCHO.com/CSTV Poll

USCHO Staff Report
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A tie and a loss against Wisconsin knocked Colorado College out of the top spot in Monday’s USCHO.com/CSTV Networks Division I men’s poll, as the Tigers bequeathed the No. 1 ranking to Michigan. The Wolverines returned to the apex of the poll with 29 of 40 first-place votes after sweeping Northern Michigan last weekend.

The Badgers and the Tigers held down the Nos. 2 and 3 spots, respectively, followed by Maine, which beat Massachusetts-Lowell before dropping a decision to New Hampshire Saturday. Fifth was Cornell, which split its weekend, beating Harvard but losing to Dartmouth.

Boston College was sixth, beating New Hampshire last Tuesday and then Vermont Sunday, followed by North Dakota, which swept Minnesota-Duluth. No. 8 was Vermont; the Catamounts topped Providence before their loss to BC.

No. 9 New Hampshire leaped up four spots after two tough Hockey East wins over Boston University and Maine, and Minnesota rounded out the top 10 in the wake of a sweep of Alaska-Anchorage.

Denver fell to 11th after a one-point weekend against Minnesota State, followed by No. 12 Miami and then Michigan State, which experienced the poll’s biggest drop after losing twice to Nebraska-Omaha. Alaska-Fairbanks was next, and then St. Lawrence in 15th.

Bemidji State was No. 16, trailed by Colgate, BU, Harvard and Northern Michigan. Dropping out of the top 20 was Quinnipiac.

On The Flip Side: Feigned Outrage

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Allegedly, members of the Minnesota hockey team were caught drinking at a campus bar over the period of a couple of months.

You know what’s surprising about it? They were caught. Think about all of the places any college athlete has to drink beer — a frat house, the dorm, the living room of their sexy teaching assistant — and the fact that a group of Gophers risked being filmed in public throwing down a few cold ones is stunning. They could not have believed that the metropolis of Dinkytown, home to Blarney Bar & Grill, where the alleged stein-hoisting occurred, would afford them much anonymity.

Assuming the accusations are true, and the evidence that KMSP television presented seems convincing, have those players violated the law? Yes. Did they violate team policy? Yes. Did what they do hurt their team? Absolutely.

To borrow a line from Jim Bouton, “Pounding the old Budweiser” adversely affects their on-ice play. I’ll go one step further and say that those student-athletes set a bad example for all of the high school players who aspire to play for Minnesota some day. The athletes have to be punished in some fashion.

But please, after a months-long investigation by KMSP, they reached the following conclusion: College Students Drink. Pass out the Pulitzers now. I’m not even sure The Onion would write a fake headline that lame. Remember the old inspector from Casablanca, “I’m shocked to find there’s gambling going on here,” as he collects his winnings?

If any news outlet secretly followed any group of college students for a two-month period, they would encounter the underage consumption of alcohol. It does not make it right, but we ought to tone down the histrionics when confronting an issue that everyone knows occurs and that many accept as a fact of life. To expect a group of hockey players to act any differently from the rest of the U.S. violates common sense.

Feigning moral outrage is a cottage industry in this country. We go out of our way to expose other people’s flaws, while neatly ignoring the beam in our proverbial eye. Too much time is wasted playing the baiting game, all so we can have our jollies by forcing people like Minnesota coach Don Lucia to defend the honor of their institution by issuing public statements like this:

“I am disappointed and concerned with the choices that some of our student-athletes made in connection with recent reports of underage drinking. This is an issue we take seriously and one that we will deal with internally, just as we would with any other situation that arises within our program. This is an opportunity for myself, the University community and players’ parents to continue to educate these student-athletes on the issues surrounding underage drinking.”

You can bet that once the legal matter is resolved, we’ll force the players to issue a suitably remorseful public apology too.

Let me be clear that I’m not excusing the players’ actions, especially given the rise of binge drinking, but one has to question the type of zeal that leads to a news outlet staking out a bar for two months on this issue. Too often, the result is nothing but hypocrisy.

The author of the Book of Virtues has a gambling addiction. The leading crusader for moral rectitude on talk radio is addicted to OxyContin. Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” merits a massive fine and public flogging.

All of this petty squabbling distracts us from confronting the genuine moral calamities that befall our society. It took a hurricane to expose the deep poverty in New Orleans. The Washington Post reported this week that the CIA has several black-ops sites across the world where they allegedly torture prisoners. Let’s spend our investigative energies debating these issues.

Once upon a time, New York Times reporter R.W. Apple called his editor to inform him that President John Kennedy was having an affair. His editor told him that it wasn’t news.

After all, there was a Cold War going on.

My sincere hope is that the remainder of this underage drinking case is handled away from the public eye. Let the players involved quietly suffer whatever sanction Lucia imposes and hopefully they learn a lesson. And that the next time a news station or anybody discovers that a group of college students have gained illegal entry to a bar, they report it to the right people — local law enforcement.

Sparking a genuine conversation about underage drinking would be news. Discovering that college students drink? There’s a reason the movie was entitled Old School.

Other stories on the KMSP evening broadcast:

• Some people at a bar drink too much, then sing loud and off-key — Our hidden microphones captured it all!

• College dining hall food is not as good as Mom’s — In a blind taste test, we compared the meat loaf and the spaghetti and found that even with the soft serve fro-yo, the dining hall doesn’t measure up.

• Michigan State fans dislike Michigan — We’ve secretly videotaped thousands of Spartan fans and found that they used profanity when referring to the Wolverines.

• Without Will Ferrell, Saturday Night Live is not as funny — Contrary to what Lorne Michaels said, we’ve watched hours of SNL and did not laugh as much.

• Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father — Our hard-hitting news team has the CGI evidence to prove it!

North Dakota Files Second NCAA Appeal

By Patrick C. Miller
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In a deviation from its original policy, the NCAA will allow University of North Dakota athletes to wear uniforms adorned with the Fighting Sioux name and logo during NCAA-sponsored playoff events — at least until Feb. 1 next year.

Last Friday, UND filed a second appeal for review by the NCAA Executive Committee, the same body that on Aug. 5 implemented a policy against “hostile and abusive” American Indian nicknames, mascots and imagery. The policy penalized UND and 17 other schools and included an immediate ban on uniforms with Indian-related names or imagery during NCAA-sponsored post-season events.

“The NCAA told us we didn’t have to stop,” said Phil Harmeson, senior associate to UND president Charles Kupchella. “We have a letter from the NCAA Championships Committee saying that we do not have to modify our uniforms.”

This means that during the coming weekend, UND’s Division II men’s football and women’s soccer teams can compete in NCAA playoff games without being in violation of the policy while wearing their standard uniforms.

Since the NCAA issued the policy, three schools have been exempted from it, two have agreed to change their names and three — including UND — have had their initial appeals denied. UND filed its first appeal on Aug. 30 and was turned down on Sept. 28 by an NCAA staff review committee.

In UND’s second appeal, Kupchella said even though the policy enacted by the committee was “undoubtedly well-intentioned,” it was wrong, deeply flawed and should be withdrawn because it’s “inconsistent with the NCAA’s Constitution, rules, and regulations and based on vague and arbitrary standards.”

The appeal claims that UND has the approval of the Spirit Lake Nation to use the Sioux name, which was granted in a resolution passed by the tribal council in December 2000. That support has not been withdrawn, Harmeson said.

In granting appeals to Florida State University (Seminoles), the University of Utah (Utes) and Central Michigan University (Chippewa), the NCAA cited the permission of a “namesake sovereign tribe” to use such nicknames as a key factor in granting those schools exemptions from the policy.

However, in denying UND’s appeal, the NCAA said the university didn’t have approval from any of the three Sioux tribes in North Dakota. Kupchella argues that not only does UND have tribal approval, but also that the NCAA applied a different standard to UND than it did to FSU, Utah and CMU.

“The NCAA made multiple attempts to contact the Spirit Lake Nation,” Harmeson said. “All of them went unheeded. Those contacts went toward getting the answer the NCAA wanted rather than what the answer really was.

“The Spirit Lake Nation’s resolution meant nothing in relation to what the NCAA ultimately did,” he said. “One can only wonder what signal was sent to the tribe, that their resolution was irrelevant.”

Other points made in UND’s second appeal are that:

• UND has the “legal and moral right to use the nickname” — so long as it’s done respectfully.

• The NCAA has “dramatically overstepped” its constitutional authority by moving beyond the “basic athletic issues” it was created to address and into social and political issues best dealt with at the local level.

• By misusing its “monopoly power,” the NCAA has created “a serious breach of the public trust.”

• The university’s relationship with tribes in North Dakota is far more substantive than the “special relationships” the NCAA cited in granting exemptions to FSU, Utah and CMU.

• The NCAA has failed to define a legal standard for “hostile and abusive,” making it difficult to form the basis for an appeal.

• The NCAA has inappropriately granted its authority to a third party to change UND’s nickname, authority that lies with North Dakota’s State Board of Higher Education.

Kupchella invited members of the NCAA Executive Committee to UND for a site visit so that they could see for themselves what’s happening at the university. Harmeson said there’s been no response to the invitation. Regular dialogue on the nickname and other issues is continuing with tribal leaders in North Dakota, he said.

If the Executive Committee denies UND’s second appeal, the third and final step of the process would be an appeal to the NCAA Division II Presidents Council.

UND’s latest appeal mentions the possibility of legal action if the NCAA refuses to exempt the university from its policy. Recent news accounts quoted noted sports law experts at Duke and Marquette universities as saying that UND stood little chance of winning a court case against the NCAA.

Harmeson, who holds a law degree and serves as UND’s faculty athletic representative to the NCAA, said the university will not rule out that option.

“We would not consider heading down that trail if we did not feel that we had a reasonable chance of prevailing,” he said. “We’ve had many offers of assistance, not only from very good attorneys, but also offers to begin a legal fund to take care of whatever it might cost to litigate the matter.”

One legal avenue UND might pursue is suing the NCAA for breach of contract, Harmeson said.

“When we entered into the agreement to become a member of the NCAA, we knew what the requirements were at the time we contracted,” he said. “Clearly, there’s an attempt to change that without mutual consent.”

Tom Buning, UND athletic director, said the uniform ban could become a problem again in the spring if the university’s hockey or basketball teams make it into the NCAA post-season playoffs. Given that UND is still in the appeals process and that it takes at least six months to receive new uniforms, he said it would be nearly impossible to get them in time for spring playoff games.

The Week in Division III – November 11, 2005

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Balance of Power

Last weekend, the MIAC kicked off its season with a series of interlocking games with the NCHA. While most of the MIAC schools had the advantage of home ice, NCHA teams had a couple of games under their belts and have been the dominant league in the West for over a decade.

On Friday, the conferences split their games, going 3-3-2. But on Saturday, the MIAC went 6-2 against the NCHA, including a 7-4 win by Augsburg over second-ranked St. Norbert, a 4-3 Bethel over No. 9 Wisconsin-Superior and a 4-3 victory for Gustavus Adolphus at Wisconsin-River Falls.

“It was a great weekend for the MIAC,” said Bethel head coach Peter Aus. His Royals were 2-0, also defeating St. Scholastica 5-4 on Friday. “I think we’re closing the gap a bit. Not that the NCHA isn’t as good as they have always been-Superior isn’t going to lose many games this season-but I think the MIAC teams are getting better every year.”

Augsburg coach Mike Schwartz agreed. The Auggies were also 2-0 win wins over St. Norbert and Lake Forest.

“We don’t get as much attention as some other leagues, but this is a strong, competitive league,” he said. “The seventh place team can knock off the first and second place team. We’re very balanced.”

Against St. Norbert, the Auggies got off to a 6-0 lead and never looked back.

“I’m tempering the enthusiasm,” said Schwartz. “We played well, but we caught some breaks too. On one side I feel kind of lucky because we did get those breaks, but there have been plenty of other games where they went the other way.

“We certainly don’t have a false sense of how good we are, but I am very happy with the way we played. I haven’t seen that level of effort by an Augsburg club in quite some time.”

It was the first meeting between the two teams since 2001, and that may have been an advantage for Augsburg.

“We haven’t played them in four years, so none of our players had seen them before,” said Schwartz. “They didn’t even know what their uniforms looked like. They had no pre-conceived notions of what kind of team they were. We knew they were very good, obviously.”

Schwartz said the win over St. Norbert was a team effort, but also mentioned two players who he thought had especially strong games – junior forwards Aaron Johnson and Critter Nagurski. Johnson, who transferred in from Michigan Tech after his freshman year, had a goal and an assist against the Green Knights, and Nagurski had a pair of goals.

When I commented to Schwartz about how “Critter Nagurski” is an awesome hockey name, Schwartz told me, “His real name is ‘Christopher’, but when he was a baby his siblings couldn’t pronounce it, so it came out as ‘Critter”. And yes, his grandfather is “the” Bronko Nagurski.

At Bethel, Aus is also not getting too excited over a weekend sweep.

“It’s nice to start 2-0, but we can’t start thinking we’re better than we are,” he said. We have a long season ahead to prove ourselves.”

Aus says that while starting the season against strong opponents who have already played some games is a challenge, it beats the alternative of jumping into league play right off the bat.

“(Playing non-conference games first) makes more sense,” he said. “I’ve always thought that playing leagues games at the start of the season is the dumbest thing you can do. All games are important, but lets face it, the best way to make the NCAA tournament is to win the league.”

Based on their start, the MIAC might indeed get more than its champion into the NCAA tournament.

Game of the Week

There aren’t many better rivalries in Division III than Oswego and Plattsburgh. They’ve been the two dominant teams in the league since its inception 30 years ago and every meeting between the teams is a war.

As usual, the teams will play twice in the regular season, with the first meeting coming this Friday in Plattsburgh. Both squads are coming off weekend sweeps and are at the top of the SUNYAC standings.

When asked an assessment of the Cardinals at this point in the season, Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said, “The jury’s still out. We’re opportunistic. Last season we worked hard and generated chances but we weren’t able to finish them. This season we’re finishing more.”

Finishing so far have been senior Dave Friel and junior Ryan Busby, with four goals each so far. Friel also has five assists, good for nine points in just four games. Senior Craig Neilson has seen the majority of time in net, accumulating a GAA of 2.37 so far.

For the Lakers, it’s already been an up-and-down season. They started 1-2 but have won three in a row, including a sweep of Buffalo State and Fredonia last weekend, outscoring the opposition 16-3.

Leading the way was freshman Brendan McLaughlin, who scored a whopping five goals against Buffalo State and already has nine on the season. Another freshman, Peter Magagna, has six goals. Sophomore Ryan Scott has seen all the action for the Lakers so far in net this season, sporting a 2.68 GAA and a .919 save percentage.

“There’s a revenge factor,” said Emery. “They won in our barn last year, and we beat them at their place in the playoffs. That’s extra motivation – not that either team should need any.”

Never Forget

The college hockey community was saddened by the loss of former Army player Derek Hines, who was killed in Afghanistan on September 1. Unfortunately, Hines wasn’t the only former college player to die in the line of duty this year. Bryan Opskar, who played for two seasons at Concordia, was killed on July 23 in Iraq.

Opskar played defense for the Cobbers his freshman and sophomore seasons before leaving school to enlist in the Marines. “We knew that he was going to be a Marine, because he talked about it a lot,” Concordia coach Steve Baumgartner told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “He was a disciplined, hard-working young man who was well liked by his teammates.”

This column is scheduled for publication on Veteran’s Day. All veterans and active service men and women are in my thoughts and prayers.

NESCAC Preview

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Sawsadee!

Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand.

Seriously, this week’s column originates from Southeast Asia–not necessarily the hotbed of D-III hockey! They do have one ice arena here in Thailand and the No. 128 ranked team in the world so maybe someday we might see a player come out of this part of the world and play hockey in the U.S. Somehow I don’t see the recruiting trail passing this way but you never know as coaches look for talent anywhere and everywhere…

In what many coaches and fans believe to be the most competitive conference in the country, as recently evidenced in our own USCHO question of the week, NESCAC once again opens the new season with the defending national champions and lots of contenders for the league title ready to give chase and challenge Middlebury. Two conference teams represented the East in the Frozen Four last Spring and the talent and experience can be found among a number of teams in the conference that would like their shot at the top and to compete for league and national glory this year.

While some people consider parity a dirty word, consider this. Last year in NESCAC play only and excluding the crossover scheduling with the ECAC East which counts in the league standings, Middlebury finished with a 4-4-1 record in the conference and utilized their timely best play of the season and overall conference record to gain a number two seed in the league playoffs before winning the league tournament title and NCAA title. Coach Terry Meagher of Bowdoin prefers to refer to the overall excellence of the league as balance and the substance of the differing styles of play each of the teams brings to the rink each night. ” I think parity in some cases implies mediocrity and this league truly has teams performing at an outstanding level throughout the season. It’s why some terrific student athletes choose NESCAC schools to play hockey when they may have other choices. There is a mutual respect amongst the players to bring their best games every night and with the variety of coaching styles and strategies played here you see different things all of the time–this is not a trap league; it is very exciting hockey each and every night.”

Well the pucks drop in a bout a week for real so let’s take a look at what the NESCAC conference may have in store for us this season. Here are the pre-season picks in what is sure to be a last weekend of the season jockeying for playoff position.

1. Middlebury Panthers
2004-2005 Overall Record: 23-4-3
2004-2005 League Record: 13-4-2
2004-2005 League Finish: Second
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction: First

Team Overview: At the end of the day there are just some things that you can’t go against. Yes, the Panthers lost some key leadership in the departed All-American Brian Phinney and Levi Doria but last year’s team excelled oin the basis of the maturing of some young players including goaltender Ross Cherry, forward Mickey Gilchrist and defenseman Tom Maldonado. Coach Beaney’s teams win with defense and goaltending and this team is experienced enough to avoid last year’s mid-season swoon and build off last year’s success in February and March. To beat the champ, you have to beat the champ–not many have accomplished that against the Panthers recently.

2. Bowdoin Polar Bears
2004-2005 Overall Record: 17-6-3
2004-2005 League Record: 11-5-3
2004-2005 League Finish: Third (tied)
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction: Second

Team Overview: The Polar Bears are this year what Colby was last year – a very experienced team with a solid senior class who understands what it takes to compete at the highest level each weekend. Backed by George Papachristopoulos and led offensively by last year’s leading scorer, Adam Dann, Bowdoin is strong in all facets of the game and should challenge Middlebury for the top spot in the conference. “There is a lot to really like about this team, commented head coach Terry Meagher. We have a very experienced group that understands what it takes to compete which will take a lot of pressure off our younger guys.” Bowdoin sees rival Babson on the opening weekend and has a home and home with Colby in early December that should speak volumes about this team’s competitiveness.

3. Trinity Bantams
2004-2005 Overall Record: 21-4-2
2004-2005 League Record: 15-2-2
2004-2005 League Finish: First
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction: Third

Team Overview: Last season’s regular conference champions and Frozen Four participant have some big shoes to fill with the departures of All-Americans Doug Kiselius and Joseph Ori. Up front the Bantams have enough firepower to compete each and every night led by sniper Cameron Finch. Brendan Timmins leads a solid defensive core in support of either Henry Breslin or Drew Barber who will assume the goaltending chores this season. If the goaltending proves to be anywhere near the great stats put up by Kiselius the past three seasons, don’t be surprised if Trinity can compete for a repeat spot at the top of the league standings.

4. Hamilton Continentals
2004-2005 Overall Record: 9-12-4
2004-2005 League Record: 8-8-3
2004-2005 League Finish: Seventh
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction: Fourth

Team Overview: “Like a good baseball team, you want to be strong up the middle, noted head coach Phil Grady. We have maybe one of the best forwards in the country who makes other players around him better, solid defense and a strong goaltender who will be the go-to guy this year with the departure of Robbie MacNeil.” There is a lot to like about any team that sees Gus Katsuras and his 100-plus points supplying the offense on specialty teams as well as even-strength. John Gordon provides the leadership on the blue line and Gabe Tash assumes the starting role recovering from wrist surgery. Fighting for a home-ice spot will be a goal for the Continentals this season.

5. Williams Ephs
2004-2005 Overall Record: 11-12-2
2004-2005 League Record: 11-7-1
2004-2005 League Finish: Sixth
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction: Fifth

Team Overview: The Ephs return a solid nucleus of players including last season’s surprise star in goal, Brad Shirley. Forwards Kevin Child, Brandon Jackmuff and Devon O’Rourke headline a group of experienced and speedy offensive players that can challenge any team in the league with their speed and ability move the puck up ice quickly. Shirley will need to be solid if the Ephs are to compete for home–ice in the league playoffs next spring.

6. Colby White Mules
2004-2005 Overall Record: 15-8-2
2004-2005 League Record: 12-6-1
2004-2005 League Finish: Third (tied)
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction: Sixth

Team Overview: The White Mules enter this season having graduated a big senior class with a lot of talent and leadership characteristics. That being said, coach Jim Tortorella believes that the team this year may have the best leadership he has seen in quite some time at Colby. “This team really has come together under the leadership we have and our efforts this year are really going to be focused on the specialty teams in a way to be a difference maker in games beyond the 5-on-5 play.” Look for leadership from senior Jake Bayley and maturation from sophomore Arthur Fritsch who will anchor a strong defensive corps for the Mules.

7. Amherst Lord Jeffs
2004-2005 Overall Record: 13-10-2
2004-2005 League Record: 11-6-2
2004-2005 League Finish: Fifth
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction: Seventh

Team Overview: Amherst enters the season minus the offensive talent and leadership of Beau Kretzman and looks to its young nucleus to carry the team forward this year. “We have a strong recruiting class this year, stated head coach Jack Arena. While it is heavily populated with defensemen, that is our major need and we will focus on where the goals will come from as we improve through the season.” Both Kyle Schoppel and AJ Greco will be expected to provide some offensive firepower for the young Lord Jeffs who will surely improve as the season progresses. They will need to continually improve as the end of the season brings some very tough road games at a crucial time of the year.

8. Tufts Jumbos
2004-2005 Overall Record: 12-12-1
2004-2005 League Record: 8-10-1
2004-2005 League Finish: Eighth
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction: Eighth

Team Overview: Beyond qualifying for the playoffs last season, the Jumbos had some impressive wins last season including Amherst, Hamilton and Colby within the league. Goalie James Kalec had a standout freshman campaign and will need to follow-up his first season with similar stats for the Jumbos to improve on last season’s .500 record. A strong nucleus is ready to move to the next level for coach Brian Murphy and a strong recruiting class may have much to do with overall improvement in the league standings for Tufts.

9. Connecticut College Camels
2004-2005 Overall Record: 7-16-1
2004-2005 League Record: 5-13-1
2004-2005 League Finish: Ninth
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction: Ninth

Team Overview: The Camels will be led by senior forward Julian Madden in coach Jim Ward’s re-vamped line-up. Goaltending will be tested with the departure of Steve Oven who played virtually every game last season for Conn College. Four of the team’s top five scorers return for the upcoming campaign with a focus on improving the overall offensive production while continuing coach Ward’s emphasis on strong defense and limited mistakes in the defensive zone. This team will need significant contributions form the incoming freshmen in order to compete for a playoff spot this season.

10. Wesleyan Cardinals
2004-2005 Overall Record: 4-18-2
2004-2005 League Record: 4-13-2
2004-2005 League Finish: Tenth
2005-2006 USCHO Prediction Tenth

Team Overview: For head coach Chris Potter, the Wesleyan hockey team this year will be focused on regaining the position they attained two seasons ago in reaching the playoffs for the first time in several years. Goaltending, scoring and avoiding key injuries will be of great impact to the Wesleyan team as they look to regain the form and capability of any new activity.

USCHO Women’s Game of the Week:
St. Lawrence at Dartmouth

By Brian Schulz
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So far, St. Lawrence has lived up to the hype of its preseason No. 1 national ranking, reeling off seven straight nonconference wins to open the campaign. This weekend, the Saints’ quest to fulfill expectations of an ECACHL championship begins on the road against Dartmouth and Harvard, the two teams that have combined to win the last four conference titles. First up is a Big Green squad that has undergone major renovations but still has some established cogs and is eager to measure its new formula against the league’s best.

Game Time: Sat. 2 p.m. ET (Broadcast Links)

No. 1 St. Lawrence (7-0-0 overall, 0-0-0 ECACHL)

Top Scorers: Sabrina Harbec, So., F (4-7-11), Alison Domenico, Fr., F (2-7-9), Carson Duggan, Fr., F (6-2-8)
Top Goaltenders: Jess Moffat, Sr. (5-0-0, 1.20, .950), Meaghan Guckian, So., (2-0-0, 0.50, .977)
Scoring Offense: 3.71 (8th)
Scoring Defense: 1.00 (1st)
Penalty Minutes: 17.6 (5th)
Power Play: 6 of 28, 21.4% (6th)
Penalty Kill: 45 of 49, 91.8% (6th)

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Life is almost all good these days for Coach Paul Flanagan. His goaltending tandem has been restored with sophomore Meaghan Guckian now back from injury to complement senior Jess Moffat, who has picked up where she left off from last year’s playoffs. The veteran defense has been every bit as suffocating as advertised yielding just seven goals in seven games. The offense has featured a healthy mix of the old (Sabrina Harbec, Emilie Berlinguette, Crystal Connors) and the new (Alison Domenico, Carson Duggan, Lisa Batchelor). Flanagan has also had a chance to see his team win with relative ease and gut out close victories against three of last year’s conference champions (No. 4 Minnesota, No. 7 Mercyhurst, and Providence).

Life would likely be all good if not for two things. First, the contributions of the Saint freshmen forwards will take on greater importance given the unwelcome news that former ECAC Rookie of the Year Chelsea Grills will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery to heal a nagging injury this past week. Second, the Saint penalty kill has been stellar at 92% so far but perhaps that’s in part because the units are getting so much work. In just seven games, St. Lawrence has managed to log a whopping 23 penalties and 57 minutes more than its opponents. Only once (2003-04) during Flanagan’s tenure have the Saints have received more infractions than their opposition and even then, by just one penalty.

No. 8 Dartmouth (3-1-0 overall, 1-1-0 ECACHL)

Top Scorers: Shannon Bowman, Fr., F (2-4-6), Danielle Grundy, Sr., F (2-4-6), Tiffany Hagge, Sr., F (4-1-5)
Top Goaltender: Kate Lane, Sr. (3-1-0, 2.50, .892)
Scoring Offense: 3.25 (11th)
Scoring Defense: 2.50 (18th)
Penalty Minutes: 17.5 (5th)
Power Play: 3 of 27, 11.1% (25th)
Penalty Kill: 21 of 27, 77.8% (T-25th)

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Tiffany Hagge says, “It’s back to basics.” Indeed. With eight freshmen and 10 players overall who were not with last year’s team, there is a different learning curve for Coach Mark Hudak’s Big Green in 2005-06 compared to the veteran squad that went to its third straight Frozen Four a year ago. However, having the multi-talented Hagge as a cornerstone is a big first step toward building another winning team. The Minnesota native has already notched the gamewinning tally in all three Dartmouth victories this season, and in speaking about his captain, Hudak remarked, “No matter what happens out there…this team will follow [her]”. Junior assistant captain Caroline Ethier quietly bagged 11 goals last season, and Hudak also regains the services of seniors Danielle Grundy and Alex Zagaria to add a little more seasoning to the forward units. Add in Emily Nerland and Meredith Batcheller on defense, and senior Kate Lane in goal, and there seems to be at least some experience at every position.

However, youth must be served if Dartmouth is to contend for another Frozen Four berth. Sara Parsons never made it to Hanover this fall because of her inclusion on the U.S. National Team, but early returns still seem encouraging with first-year Shannon Bowman tied for the team lead in scoring and rookies at all three center positions. However, the progression of the three newcomers on defense may prove most critical. Last weekend’s viewing of No. 5 Harvard provided strong evidence that an abundance of freshmen defensemen can yield erratic early-season results on breakouts and defensive zone coverage. But then, the Crimson gutted out the win that day. Dartmouth already has two one-goal victories to its credit, and the winning experience for both teams no doubt trumps any aesthetic shortcomings.

This Week in the WCHA: Nov. 10, 2005

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First things first:

• So which is worse, the bad press from Minnesota’s subpar start to the season or the bad press from the shocking — shocking! — reports of underage Gophers players being at a bar and some of them drinking alcohol? I’m guessing that being 3-3-2 doesn’t rank at the top of the list of concerns right now.

• That bit of news this week is overshadowing the leadup to what should be one of the best series of the early part of the schedule. No. 5 Wisconsin hosts No. 1 Colorado College, and we’ll get a good perspective on both teams this weekend.

• It also overshadows Minnesota assistant coach John Hill’s first series against Alaska-Anchorage since resigning as the Seawolves’ head coach in the offseason. He probably has a pretty good scouting report ready, even though he won’t even be in the building for the games.

Allegations Shake Gophers

If you didn’t contribute one of the 32,000-plus views of the USCHO.com Fan Forum thread or see the footage or hear about it some other way, here’s the news of the week:

A Minneapolis TV station this week aired reports, including hidden-camera footage, showing underage Minnesota hockey players in a campus-area bar. Some of them were drinking, and there also were claims that Gophers players were allowed to enter the bar without ID checks or paying the cover charge.

The first report was aired by Twin Cities station KMSP on Sunday. On Wednesday, Gophers personnel made their first comments on the issue, with coach Don Lucia saying he was “disappointed and concerned with the choices that some of our student-athletes made in connection with recent reports of underage drinking.”

His statement went on to say the situation would be handled internally and made no mention of possible punishments.

The station’s report, detailed on its Web site, said over the course of a two-month investigation, eight underage players were filmed inside Blarney Pub and Grill. Those inside the bar were identified as R.J. Anderson, Justin Bostrom, Kris Chucko, Phil Kessel, Jeff Frazee, Alex Goligoski, Evan Kaufmann and Derek Peltier. Chucko, Frazee, Goligoski and Kaufmann were identified in the report as either drinking alcohol or holding a container of alcohol.

Further reports by the station, again as detailed on its Web site, showed underage players entering the bar without paying the $3 cover charge.

None of the pictures is especially flattering to Minnesota’s hockey program and athletic department, but the waiver of the cover charge might end up being troublesome in terms of NCAA rules, which prohibit players from accepting unadvertised discounts or cash equivalents.

Gophers players were made off-limits to the media this week, but before that order, captain Gino Guyer told the St. Paul Pioneer Press: “If anything, it’s going to make us stronger. “We’re in each other’s corners all the way.”

Trivial Matters

North Dakota has allowed 15 goals in its last three games, the most it has allowed since 2001, when it gave up 19 goals in a span that covered a game against Wisconsin and two against which WCHA team? Answer below.

Well Done, Schedule-Makers

There often are complaints about the WCHA’s scheduling, so here’s a compliment: Kudos to the league for scheduling four straight weekends with five league series early in the season.

This is week three of that stretch, and it makes a difference in that no team will be way behind another in terms of games played by Thanksgiving.

Last season, it took until Dec. 3-4 to get a weekend where all 10 league teams were in action against league opponents, and there were only three of those weekends for the entire season.

After Thanksgiving this season, there are five more weekends with five WCHA series, and after Jan. 7, there is only one non-conference game on the schedule for any league team — Wisconsin’s game against Ohio State at Lambeau Field on Feb. 11. With every game down the stretch counting for points, that should make things that much more exciting.

A Shot of Confidence

Minnesota-Duluth forward Andrew Carroll went six games without even a point at the start of this, his freshman season. That’s not uncommon for rookies, but considering he led the USHL with 32 goals last season, he was feeling frustrated.

He found a great time to break through. Carroll scored once in the Bulldogs’ tie with Minnesota last Friday and twice in their victory a night later.

“He wasn’t down, he just thought he could chip in,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said. “But the kid works. He’s the last guy off the ice all the time, last guy out of the weight room. It was nice to see the puck go in. They weren’t the prettiest goals but you take that any time you as a player expect to score and you’re not. And obviously they were big goals.

“Those are the things: They get one and they feel a little bit better about themselves and maybe they’re not pressing as much. I think a lot of guys were, maybe our older guys trying to take the burden, which is understandable.”

Since starting the season 0-4 with 18 goals allowed in that span, the Bulldogs are 2-0-2 with 10 goals allowed in their last four games. Sandelin noted that better play out of goaltender Isaac Reichmuth gave everybody on the team a shot of confidence they now carry into a home series against North Dakota.

“I thought this weekend some of our young guys showed a lot of poise,” Sandelin said. “We got scrambling in the third period when Minnesota was coming pretty good. But that’s where Isaac came through. He’s probably one of the biggest differences, with his play.”

Those youngsters — 10 freshman played for UMD in last Saturday’s game — have make some improvements recently, too. There’s still a ways to go, however, and Sandelin is being patient.

“I said hey, let’s look at this thing at Christmastime because there’s going to be so many ups and downs,” Sandelin said. “I like the fact that the last two weekends we’ve played four or five pretty good periods and we’ve done a lot of good things. You look at performance, obviously. The win at Tech [two weeks ago] obviously helps when you go 0-4, to boost the attitude and the confidence.”

Speaking of freshmen, between Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota this weekend, the teams could put a combined 20 rookies on the ice, based on their lineups from their last games.

Senior Special

Wisconsin’s road sweep of North Dakota last weekend was special for the team’s seniors considering they were embarrassed at Engelstad Arena in their freshman season — also coach Mike Eaves’ first season — but Eaves doesn’t expect any kind of hangover from that in this week’s series against Colorado College.

“Last weekend, having the opportunity to win up there was just satisfying for the seniors,” Eaves said. “I mean, they were there the first year when we got spanked and the fact that they went in there, it wasn’t like a bunch of giddy kids. It was like, ‘We deserve this, we’ve paid dues to get this. This is our fourth year and we hadn’t won up there, and they’ve come through the whole process of working to get to that point to be able to win up there. And so I think being satisfied is more of the way that they’re looking at it and looking forward to the next step.”

Reality Check From Behind

Here’s some evidence for anyone who thinks the new mandate that all checking-from-behind penalties must be a major with at least a game misconduct is too harsh:

Last Friday, there were seven checking-from-behind calls, with at least one in each league game except the St. Cloud State-Colorado College contest.

The intent of the rule change makes sense: Most would agree that hits from behind near the boards are dangerous and need to be eliminated from the game. But there are those who think the mandatory major penalty leads to too much special-teams play.

As an aside, there was an eighth major penalty called last Friday, to Denver’s Andrew Thomas. The sophomore defenseman was called for a rare head-butting penalty, which also drew a game disqualification.

In Other Words

• League players of the week were Denver’s Ryan Dingle on offense, goaltenders Brian Elliott of Wisconsin and Reichmuth of Minnesota-Duluth as the co-defensive winners and Minnesota State goaltender Dan Tormey as the top rookie.

• Colorado College’s Brett Sterling was named the national player of the month for October by CSTV and the Hockey Commissioners’ Association.

• Former Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer is leading the U.S. national select team in the TUI Nations Cup in Germany this week.

• Denver’s Dingle scored twice in each game against Michigan Tech last weekend, including the game-winning goal both nights.

• CC winger Scott Thauwald returned last Saturday from a knee injury suffered in January and scored a goal in his first game back.

• Alaska-Anchorage has played from behind in all eight of its games this season. The Seawolves have allowed the opening goal of the game each time.

• David Backes and Ryan Carter each had a four-point night against Alaska-Anchorage last Friday. Backes had two goals; Carter had one.

• Tony Lucia, the Minnesota coach’s son, has verbally committed to play for the Gophers starting in 2007, according to Twin Cities media reports.

• Guyer’s next point for Minnesota will be the 100th of his career.

• Trivia answer: Minnesota State.

Final Word

Underage drinking — and its potentially lethal consequences — is something that needs to be addressed on campuses everywhere, so here’s hoping everyone can make some good out of Minnesota’s current situation. And not just about not getting caught.

UVM’s Atkinson Leaves School After Drunk-Driving Arrest

USCHO Staff Report
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Mike Atkinson, a freshman at Vermont, has withdrawn from school after his arrest on charges of driving while intoxicated, as well as careless driving, after a car crash on the Vermont campus on Oct. 2. He had already been suspended by the team.

Atkinson, 20, a native of Kinderhook, N.Y., was taken to a local hospital by police after crashing a car into a building at 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 2. Atkinson’s blood alcohol content at the time of the accident was 0.212, over twice the legal limit in Vermont for drivers of drinking age.

He was suspended indefinitely at that time for a violation of the student-athlete code of conduct.

Atkinson, who is expected to be arraigned this week, decided recently to leave school in the wake of the incident, according to Vermont school officials. He was a three-year captain and team most valuable player at Salisbury School, scoring 23 goals and 47 points last year.

He had not appeared in a game this season.

This Week in Hockey East: Nov. 10, 2005

By
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A Hero Among Us

Sacrifice is a word invoked often in team sports. Without question, the collective willingness to subjugate the individual for the greater whole is often the difference between success and failure.

Here, however, it’s time to look at sacrifice in an even more significant context, one particularly appropriate in light of the observance of Veteran’s Day.

I speak to you of Derek Hines. You may have watched him skate for the Army hockey team and admired his speed and tenacity. Or perhaps you never saw him play.

Either way, Hines made the supreme sacrifice for his country on Sept. 1. An Army Ranger and First Lieutenant, he was killed in a firefight with insurgents in Afghanistan.

He was 25.

It’s a tragedy whenever a young person dies. A friend of my family survived his tour of duty in Iraq only to be killed recently in a motorcycle accident. In a horrific irony, his death came on the night on which he, along with many of his comrades, was to be honored for his service.

All such deaths are tragic.

But Hines was one of us, a member of the college hockey community.

“At 5-6 and 165 pounds, ‘Hinesy’ was certainly not the biggest player when he stepped on the ice,” wrote Army coach Brian Riley in his letter to the college hockey community. “But when the game started, he played as big as anybody out there. As a result of his hard-working attitude, he was a fan favorite here at Tate Rink. I know all college hockey fans would have loved to have Derek play for their team. You could not have asked for a better teammate than Derek.

“His biggest concern when he played was always for his fellow teammates. Derek never put himself before the team, and as a result, was respected and held in the highest regard by everybody with which he played. I know that every college hockey player would have considered it an honor to be a teammate of Derek’s.

“As a coach, Hines was exactly the type of person that you want all of your players to be when they are in your program. More importantly, he was exactly the type of person you hope all of your players become when they leave your program.”

If not for the likes of Derek Hines in past generations, we would not have the freedoms that we enjoy today. It’s an obvious fact, but one commonly overlooked.

Servicemen and servicewomen of this generation have, like Derek Hines, willingly chosen to put themselves in harm’s way because of principles that they believe in and are willing to sacrifice for.

Here’s a thank you to them all.

Standing At The Precipice

Massachusetts-Lowell went into its Nov. 2 game against Merrimack seemingly on the precipice of a second-straight disastrous start to a season. Last year, the River Hawks didn’t win their first league game until January 7. On that date, they were 9-0 in nonconference games, but that did them no good in the Hockey East standings.

This year, they entered the Merrimack game with three losses in their four league contests. Another loss would be all too familiar.

In fact, it might have been worse. While Lowell’s schedule in 2004-05 included the likes of Boston College, Maine, Boston University (twice) and New Hampshire — namely a gauntlet of Hockey East’s perennial powerhouses — this season’s early losses had included a sweep at the hands of Providence. The Friars were impressing a lot of people, but in the preseason Lowell had been picked to finish third and Providence eighth.

So if ever a Nov. 2 game fit into the must-win category, this matchup with Merrimack was it. The Warriors were also making a positive impression, but they’d been picked to finish last. If Lowell were to lose this game, it would be a steep uphill climb the rest of the season.

After two periods, the River Hawks trailed, 1-0, despite outshooting Merrimack, 35-15.

Gulp.

Oh, and by the way, the next three league games on the schedule were against Maine and New Hampshire. Followed by one against undefeated and sixth-ranked Vermont. And then another three against Maine and New Hampshire.

Not to belabor the point, but that added up to a seven-game stretch of league games involving three against second-ranked Maine, one against number-six Vermont, and three against 12th-ranked UNH.

Can you hand me the pain-killers, please?

And if the potential for deja vu wasn’t enough, guess when that murderers’ row of games ended? Yeah, the exact same Jan. 7 date that marked Lowell’s final breakthrough last year.

Entering that stretch with a 1-4 record within Hockey East would be a recipe for disaster.

And if players thought like fans, they’d grip their sticks so hard that their knuckles would be white and the flow of blood to the fingers would be cut off.

After the River Hawks scored three unanswered third-period goals to grab the comeback win, coach Blaise MacDonald explained.

“[The win was] enormous, but our M.O. was not about that,” he said. “It was about [giving our] best effort. We needed to play harder.

“I had no reservations whatsoever. If we lost that game, 1-0, and played like [we did], that was going to be a massive accomplishment for us. Getting the W obviously quantifies it.”

The way they got the win, by means of a tough comeback, made it even better.

“Going into this game, if you were to script the type of game that would unfold and we would end up getting a W, it couldn’t have been better,” MacDonald said. “We’ve had a problem fighting ourselves mentally.

“We played great [tonight] over 40 minutes, but didn’t have a lot to show for it. [But] there was no give-up; if anything there was more inspiration. This game should go a long way in our development.”

With consecutive league wins against BU and Merrimack under the River Hawks’ belts, MacDonald was then asked whether that built momentum that would make future games a bit easier.

“It should,” he quipped. “We’ve got a couple cupcakes coming up in Maine and UNH.”

Making A Difference At Both Ends

BU’s Brad Zancanaro earned kudos from coach Jack Parker after Friday’s win over Vermont for his play while down five-on-three and six-on-three.

“[He’s got] heart,” Parker said. “He’s a terrific competitor. He’s in great shape; he can play a lot. But even when he gets tired, he doesn’t stop. Some guys say ‘That’s it; I can’t go any more,’ and they stand there until the whistle blows, but he just keeps going.

“He’s such a great competitor; he’s smart, and he’s a very strong kid for his size. All of those things make him very valuable defensively.”

On Sunday, the 5-5 sparkplug flipped the coin to the other side, scoring the game-winner at Maine.

“In general Zancanaro has been playing like that the whole year,” Parker said. “I am glad to see he got rewarded for it.”

Quotes Of Note

Parker on BU’s win over Vermont: “At times we were absolutely terrific, and we’d be a 10 or 11 [on a scale of 1 to 10]. But there were a few times when I thought, ‘What are they thinking out there?’ We went brain-dead a few times, and we got away with it tonight.”

Parker on Peter MacArthur’s goal in that game: “It’s almost like the goalie’s saying ‘Hey, I didn’t know you were going to shoot it: Tell me when you’re going to shoot it next time, will you?’ He’s amazingly quick at getting his shot off, and he seems to disguise it. We’ve seen him get a number of goals from 40 feet because the goalie wasn’t quite ready for it.”

UVM assistant coach Damian Digulian after Vermont’s loss to BU: “We got away from the things that have made us successful so far this year — blocking shots, backchecking hard, playing hard along the boards, etcetera. I think we just got away from Catamount hockey for the evening, and they took advantage of it.”

Parker after BU’s win over Maine: “This was the best team we played all year.”

Maine coach Tim Whitehead after that loss: “They aren’t all going to happen just for us.”

MacDonald on Brian Bova scoring the game-winner at Merrimack, just 10 minutes from where he grew up: “That’s why you coach, to see guys like that get what they deserve in their hometown.”

Crank Up The Tivo

Get-A-Lifers, it’s time to put your Tivo into action. Starting on Friday, Nov. 11, there will be eight Hockey East games telecast in nine days, with eight of them being league contests. Five different television stations combine to provide this bonanza.

It doesn’t stop after the nine days. As noted in previous columns, this is a 70-telecast season for the league. But this amounts to a special nine-day stretch.

Upcoming Hockey East Television Schedule
Fri., Nov. 11: 7:00, NESN — New Hampshire at Boston University
Sat., Nov. 12: 7:00, NHPTV — Maine at New Hampshire
Sat., Nov. 12: 7:00, CN8 — Boston University at Massachusetts
Sun., Nov. 13: 3:00, ESPNU — Boston College at Vermont
Thu , Nov. 15: 7:30, CN8 — Harvard at Boston College
Fri., Nov. 18: 7:00, NHPTV — UMass Lowell at New Hampshire
Fri., Nov. 18: 7:00, CoxSports — Boston University at Providence
Sat., Nov. 19: 7:00, CN8 — Northeastern at Boston College

Congrats

Congratulations to Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon and his wife on the birth of their baby girl.

And that also goes to BU coach Jack Parker for becoming the first coach to win 300 Hockey East games. That milestone came in the Terriers’ win over Vermont on Friday.

Trivia Contest

In last week’s trivia contest, Scott Weighart was after a little alliteration. Earlier in his column, Scott referred to Terrier recruit Brett Bennett. His challenge for last week: For as many letters of the alphabet as possible, try to come up with one current or former Hockey East player who has the same first and last initial.

Scott received quite a variety of replies for this one. He ended up thinking that he should have had a mile-long list of fine print for the rules on this one — something like those worrisome “User Agreements” that one has to accept before being allowed to download software from the Internet.

Some people submitted all the names that they could think of that fit the alliterative pattern instead of trying to maximize the number of letters of the alphabet. Some pointed out that Scott did not specifically say that he wanted the names of Hockey East men and therefore submitted the likes of Gretchen Gottwald (Providence) and Vanessa Vani (Maine).

Sorry, folks. All I can say is that I’m glad that Scott asked to receive the entries instead of me, because I’m too senile to figure out who should have been declared the winner.

This question proved to be a great one for the Get-A-Life crowd, as it turns out that the one guy who has a first and last initial of ‘F’ played all of one game for UMass! Wow, that was challenging! A few other entries ran into problems because they named players who played at Hockey East schools before there was a Hockey East!

In the end, BU superfan Sean Pickett came up with players representing 14 letters of the alphabet — claiming top honors although he didn’t submit until 1:42 a.m. on Sunday morning. Here is his winning entry, with at least some of the other possible options following parenthetically:

Adrian Aucoin, BU (Anthony Aquino, Andrew Alberts); Brian Bova, Mass.-Lowell (Ben Bishop, Brock Bradford, Blake Bellefeuille); Carl Corazzini, BU (Chris Collins, Chris Chaput, Chris Classen); Dave Dahlberg, BU (Derek Damon, Dan Dennis, David Dartsch, Dan Donato); Fernando Fernandez, UMass; Glenn Grayton, Mass.-Lowell; Jacques Joubert, BU (Jon Jenkins, John Jakopin, Jon Jankus); Kevin Kielt, BU (Krys Kolanos, Kyle Kidney); Lucas Lawson (Maine); Mark Mullen, BU (Mick Mounsey, Mark Mowers, Mike Mottau, etc.); Pat Percella, BU; Rob Regan, BU (Rico Rossi, Rob Ricci); Sean Sullivan, BU (Steve Santini, Steve Slonina, Stephan Siwiec); Terry Taillefer, BU (Tyson Teplitsky, Tim Turner).

A few people came up with 13 but were stumped on matching Sean: not because of the immortal Fernando Fernandez but because of Glenn Grayton, who played quite a few games for Lowell in 1984-85. Thanks especially to Jonathan Fox for providing a lengthy and neatly alphabetized list!

Sean Pickett requested two cheers, which was granted in light of the difficulty of this question. His winning cheers are:

“Go BU!”

and

“Go, Cats, Go!”

The latter is not for New Hampshire, but rather Vermont, his second favorite team.

This week’s question is: Which UNH hockey player has a brother playing hockey at the University of Maine? There’s more to this one than meets the eye. Email my trivia account with your answer. The winner will be notified by Tuesday; if you haven’t heard by then you either had the wrong answer or someone else beat you to it.

Note: Submit suggested trivia questions to the same email address and if your question is used, you’ll get a cheer as well as long as you were first to submit it. Don’t forget to include the answers, since yours truly isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

And Finally, Not That It Has Anything To Do With Anything, But…

• I’m sorry, but losing Theo Epstein was the unpardonable sin for Larry Lucchino and Red Sox ownership. Take Bill Buckner, Grady Little and every other Sox screw-up and put them all together and it doesn’t match the blunder quotient of this one. Folks, losing Theo, and especially in this way, was on par with the New York Yankees’ all-time chokeroo last year. There can be no excuse for this one. Make no mistake; this greatly affects the team’s chances this year and for many years into the future. And it forever taints this fan’s view of Lucchino.

• Unless rumors of Theo’s possible return become reality. “We Want Theo! We Want Theo! We Want Theo!”

• And what a duplicitous scumbag Dan Shaughnessy showed himself to be, as if we needed any further evidence. He wrote like Lucchino’s lapdog in his infamous Sunday hatchet job and then reacted with a “Who me?” attitude when Theo bolted.

• As for the Patriots, their current failings in the defensive secondary would be easily understood and considered even intuitively obvious if not for the group’s success last season. This is exactly what I thought would happen when Ty Law and Tyrone Poole went down a year ago. Instead, the Pats took street free agents and players who didn’t start in college and rode them to another Super Bowl. Yes, Rodney Harrison acted as the glue in the secondary and he’s sidelined now. But the unit was struggling this year even before he went down. I just don’t get it.

Thanks to Scott Weighart and Matthew Conyers.

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