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Maine Line

By Adam Wodon
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Every good team has one. That so-called “crash” line that plays hard, gets dirty, does the little things, and drives other teams crazy. It’s a line that doesn’t need to score to help the team win. But when it does start scoring — watch out.

That’s where Maine’s line of Dustin Penner, Jon Jankus and Mike Hamilton is right now. It’s a rag-tag cast of characters that has come together in the postseason to form a force to be reckoned with. It has made an already deep Black Bears team that much deeper.

Hamilton, in particular, has three goals in the playoffs, including a huge one to kickstart the comeback against Harvard in the first round of the NCAA tournament, and an even bigger one the following night when he scored the overtime winner against Wisconsin to send Maine to the Frozen Four.

The Black Bears' crash line has stepped up its production lately.

The Black Bears’ crash line has stepped up its production lately.

But Hamilton knows better than anyone, that when he scores, there’s credit to go around — even when his linemates don’t actually show up in the box score.

Jankus is almost as responsible for the game winner against Wisconsin, and he didn’t even get an assist on the play. Hamilton beat All-USCHO Rookie Team defender Ryan Suter on the right wing, and got it past goalie Bernd Bruckler — but there was much more to it.

“It was a 3-on-3, and Hammy tried to dump it in and have me and Penner go get it,” said Jankus. “But it hit the defender’s shin pad and came out [of the zone], and I had to straddle the line. Next thing I know, he beat him [Suter] and he flicked it to the net. It took a weird bounce.

“I was just crashing the net, and trying to push for the puck, but I hit the defender’s shoulder and pushed his stick into the puck and it rolled in.

“We watched the highlight over and over and were just laughing at how it happened.”

But the play of that line has been no laughing matter. They have a serious connection going on, one they are rolling into the Frozen Four against Boston College.

“Mike has scored a lot of big goals lately, but every time he has, all three of us are involved,” Jankus said. “It’s just a matter of Mike being the hot hand right now, so we’ve been trying to feed him. Right now it’s Mike. Other times, Dustin can be the one, or I can be the one.”

Hamilton and Jankus played together most of the season, until Hamilton got hurt in February and missed five games. That’s when the 6-foot-4 Penner was moved onto the line with Jankus. When Hamilton returned, he initially played with Derek Damon and Greg Moore, but coach Tim Whitehead didn’t like what he saw in the team’s Hockey East quarterfinal series against Merrimack, so he moved Hamilton to Jankus’ line and the three were united for the first time.

“They bring the type of game I like to play,” Jankus said. “We get in there and get open, beat you up down low.”

It’s a group of mutts, with the 5-foot-9 Jankus at center. Jankus left school in 2001-02 after one semester, playing in nine games. After taking a year off, he returned this season with sophomore eligibility.

Penner, in the meantime, comes from Minot State University-Bottineau, a junior college in North Dakota. He had to redshirt a season, and now has junior eligibility. He came out of nowhere to contribute 10 goals, including a big one in the Hockey East championship game against Massachusetts.

That leaves Hamilton, the 6-foot, 200-pound Victoria, B.C., native who had just one goal through Jan. 10, but has obviously come on since then.

Typically, he deflects praise to his linemates.

“He’s been doing that a lot in the corners, and winning the key draws,” said Hamilton about the unsung Jankus. “He does the little things that people don’t see. I know that if it was not for him, I wouldn’t score a lot of the goals I do.

“[Penner] has a lot of size and strength and he’s good at brushing guys off.”

Just as typically, Jankus said he doesn’t care about the glory as long as the team wins.

“We get credit for different criteria each week for the extra things we do, where guys get noticed,” he said. “If you ask anyone on the team, they know who the guys are who does the job effectively.”

Another element that goes unnoticed by casual fans is faceoffs. Jankus was having a good year in that department early on — enough that his mother took notice.

“After the game, I talk to my mom,” Jankus said, “and the first thing she says is, ‘Wow.’ So it’s nice to get noticed for winning faceoffs. Possession is such a big part of the game.”

Lately, Jankus says he has struggled with faceoffs, and as a result, Penner has been taking more of the draws and doing well. It’s just another part of the team effort.

They will need it against Boston College, which goes four lines deep, just as Maine does, though in different ways. Boston College will have the last line change, so Jankus said his line is preparing for anyone it has to face, including the vaunted Eaves line. Though recently, in the two-game sweep by Maine against BC to end the regular season, Whitehead got Jankus’ unit lined up against the smaller Shannon line. If they get the opportunity, it might happen a lot again.

This is what Maine will use to its advantage. And even though Jankus is just 5-9, he plays big, as they say.

“I’ve always been a physical player, so nothing has changed for me,” Jankus said. “The other guys’ height is bigger, but we all play the same style.”

Right now, that style is a winning one.

Canada Wins Eighth Straight World Championship

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The names Cherie Piper and Gillian Apps didn’t show up in the scoring summary of the gold medal game, but the Dartmouth sophomores did everything but score in lifting Canada to a 2-0 win over the U.S. to win their first World Championships in front of a sellout crowd of 10,508 at the Halifax Metro Centre.

Piper set up Canada’s insurance goal in the second minute of the third period by blocking a shot in the defensive zone, rushing up ice, and putting the puck on net. U.S. goaltender and Brown alum Pam Dreyer stopped playing the puck when it was still live, permitting Canada defensemen Delaney Collins to stuff it home.

Minnesota sophomore Natalie Darwitz was the only U.S. college player to put a puck in the net this night, but unfortunately for the U.S., that shot at 15:39 of the third period bounced out of the net and the officials failed to call it goal. With no instant reply, there was no recourse.

Krissy Wendell, the other Minnesota sophomore on the U.S. team, was unable to play due to injuries suffered yesterday. Now it’s the Dartmouth sophomores instead who get to relish their first championship.

“It’s a totally different experience,” said Piper contrasting this win with the 2002 Olympic gold win. “The feeling never gets old. You can’t even describe it. It just feels great-winning it in Canada in front of all your family and friends and all the 10,000 people who were here tonight.”

Piper’s craftiness in stealing the puck was the impetus behind several Canadian scoring chances in the first period, including a couple two-on-ones. She performed one of the day’s most outstanding physical feats in the second period when she dived to control a blueline-to-blueline pass, and still managed to rush the net and draw a penalty.

“That’s what this game was about, everyone being unselfish and doing the little things, and [Piper] was outstanding,” said Harvard alum Jennifer Botterill. “She created things, took the puck to the net, and she was great.”

For her part, Botterill, the all-time top scorer in U.S. collegiate history, was named the tournament’s most outstanding player and finished as its leading point scorer with three goals and nine assists. This is her second straight MOP honor, dating back to the last World Championship played in 2001 in Minneapolis.

Apps, Piper’s linemate with both Canada and Dartmouth, was often the beneficiary of Piper’s efforts.

“[Piper] played unbelievable and created so many chances for our line,” Apps said. “She came to play today, all 60 minutes. When she’s on her game, she’s on her game, and she was definitely on tonight.”

Apps, while not making the scoring summary, did make the penalty summary twice. But it was of no matter because the Canadian penalty kill played far better than it did on Saturday when it allowed two U.S. power play goals.

“I couldn’t catch a break, but I was just so pumped to be playing in this game,” Apps said.

Every Canadian had reason to be pumped this game. The stands were packed with flags, thunder sticks and Halifax spirit. The total attendance for the tournament of 94,001 shattered the previous record of 66,784. Even for a four-time champion like Botterill, this experience was something else.

“This so special, any time you have a world championship in your home country, and let alone in Halifax where you have this many people to support you,” Botterill said. “This team has been so great, really. The girls came together, and it’s been a long time coming after the cancellation last year. So you look around the room and I’m just so proud of everyone.”

The crowd exploded to record decibel-levels when Danielle Goyette dropped a pass back to Hayley Wickenhesier at the left faceoff circle, and she fired the puck into the top right corner. Princeton alum Andrea Kilbourne was just a step late on the backcheck. The goal gave Canada a 1-0 lead as its edge in play finally showed on the scoreboard.

“We just brought passion today and played for 60 minutes, and I don’t think we did that on Friday,” Botterill said. “We brought that great Canadian pride that this team’s all about.”

The U.S. played with passion too, but it came up short for the eighth time.

“Everyone gave everything they had, that’s all we could ask for,” said U.S. captain Cammi Granato.

It was a tournament full of misfortunate for the U.S. down the stretch. The Americans were without both Krissy Wendell and Shelley Looney for the gold medal game. Julie Chu and Cammi Granato were both in and out of the lineup. With all those injuries, the U.S. showcased its depth.

“Other kids have to step up, and we saw a lot of positive things throughout our team’s roll through the tournament,” said U.S. coach Ben Smith.

The worst luck of all came in the third period, when there was no whistle in the third period, and the puck Darwitz put into the net was not reviewed.

“Women’s hockey deserves to have instant reply,” Granato said. “As athletes we deserve better.”

Smith had not seen a replay immediately after the game and did not comment on it, although he did say he had expected the goal to be reviewed because he believed the arena had been wired for instant replay for World Juniors.

In the losing effort, the U.S. still picked up some hardware. Darwitz and Harvard captain Angela Ruggiero were named to the all-tournament team, as were Botterill and Pam Dreyer. Dreyer earned the media’s vote for the all-tournament team, although it was Kim St. Pierre earning the tournament’s most outstanding goalkeeper award for her shutout.

Ruggiero earned the honors for best defensemen. Jayna Hefford, who benefited mightily from linemates Botterill and UMD junior Caroline Ouellette, was the tournament’s leading goal scorer and the most outstanding forward.

Preview: National Semifinal No. 1

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Minnesota-Duluth vs. Denver
Thursday, noon ET, FleetCenter, Boston

Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs

Final USCHO.com ranking: No. 5
Record: 28-12-4
NCAA seed: Midwest No. 2
How they got here: beat Michigan State 5-0, beat Minnesota 3-1

Junior Lessard was at dinner the other day when he was greeted with congratulations.

Evan Schwabe was walking through the halls at school when he was stopped by someone who told him they were rooting for him and his teammates.

Isaac Reichmuth has sensed the buzz around town.

This is Duluth, Minn., a city that has suffered through some lean years with its hockey team but is now enjoying its resurgence.

Junior Lessard of UMD is the USCHO.com Player of the Year.

Junior Lessard of UMD is the USCHO.com Player of the Year.

There aren’t enough tickets around to cover everyone who wants to see Minnesota-Duluth play in the Frozen Four in Boston.

“It’s awesome for us and it’s awesome for the program,” said Reichmuth, the UMD goaltender who allowed only one goal in two games at the Midwest Regional. “The town’s real excited. It’s great to be here.”

And there’s the statement that couldn’t be made four years ago: It’s great to be here.

When Scott Sandelin took over and this year’s senior class members were fresh faces, the UMD program was in need of an overhaul. Sandelin was just off a national championship as an assistant at North Dakota but took over a team that had fallen to two straight losing seasons after consistently being a player in the WCHA race.

Sandelin didn’t have many tangible results to show for his first two seasons, with seven and 13 wins, respectively.

But the rise to the top of the WCHA that started last season took its biggest step this season, when the Bulldogs finished second in the league and are no fluke to be counted as one of the last four teams standing nationally.

Reichmuth, the sophomore goaltender, made his decision to attend UMD after hearing the coaches tell him the Frozen Four was a possibility in the near future.

“I think maybe it came a little bit faster than they thought,” Reichmuth said. “They knew they wanted to get here and they knew it was going to be a hard road. But last year, I don’t think they expected to have as good a year as we did. But after last year, we knew we could have this kind of success this year.”

It hasn’t been a completely smooth ride for the Bulldogs (28-12-4), who will play Denver in the national semifinals on Thursday. After 10 games, they were just 4-5-1, having lost three straight — two to St. Cloud State and one to Bemidji State. They were swept in a five-game season series against North Dakota, including the most crucial WCHA series of the season.

But it was a December series with the Sioux that ended the first half on a bad note.

“Before Christmas, we had lost a couple big games to North Dakota, and Christmas break couldn’t have come at a better time for us,” said Schwabe, a forward who’s second on the team to Lessard with 55 points.

When the Bulldogs came back from break, they started a 14-game unbeaten streak that put them in the upper classes of the national picture. They were 13-0-1 in that stretch, including two sweeps of Colorado College, one of Minnesota and another of Denver.

In that series with the Pioneers, UMD was outshot both nights but got out of town with four points. Reichmuth stopped 32 shots in a 1-0 shutout, then the Bulldogs broke a 3-3 tie with three third-period goals in a 6-3 victory.

“We probably didn’t deserve to win that first game, but Isaac stood on his head and we managed to squeak one by [Denver goalie Adam] Berkhoel,” Schwabe said. “That gives you tons of confidence when you know your goalie is playing like that and you know you can win the close games. Then the bounces started going our way and the run began.”

But like the team, Reichmuth has had some off moments this season. He allowed six goals in a Final Five semifinal game against Minnesota, his first game since allowing five goals against Minnesota State in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.

The Midwest Regional did plenty to quiet the critics. He made 23 saves to blank Michigan State, then stopped 22 to shut down a potent Minnesota playoff attack in the regional final.

“He’s back to where we expect him to be, and that’s one of the top goalies in the nation,” Schwabe said. “He makes things a lot easier on us.”

Schwabe has done a lot to make things easier for the Bulldogs, too. As a sophomore a year ago, he was 16th on the team scoring charts with 10 points. He said being more prepared from the beginning was one of the biggest reasons he has been able to increase his production.

It probably doesn’t hurt being on the same line as Lessard, either. Of course, Lessard has been aided by having Schwabe on his line, too.

The Bulldogs may have the No. 2 offense in the country, but they’re not a fancy team, said Lessard, the national leader with 30 goals and 61 points.

“Don’t get me wrong: We’ve got some pretty good skill on our team,” he said. “But we can’t just show up and expect to win. We’ve got to work hard, and when we do that is when we’re successful. At this time of year you can’t play 20 or 40 minutes and expect to win because the other team’s going to make you pay.”

The depth in scoring has been perhaps the biggest reason for UMD’s success. The team has 10 players with at least 24 points and eight players with at least 10 goals.

And they’re playing the NCAA tournament as healthy as they have been in the last month. Defenseman Tim Hambly and forwards Tyler Brosz and Tim Stapleton each missed some or all of the WCHA playoffs, but all returned for the regionals.

“There was a lot of uncertainty with, ‘Are they going to or are they not?'” Sandelin said. “Certainly getting them back was a huge lift.”

Using their first-choice lineup should give the Bulldogs a great shot at the program’s first national championship in its third Frozen Four appearance.

“Right now when we have everyone healthy, we don’t even have a freshman in the lineup,” Reichmuth said. “We don’t have a lot of NCAA tournament experience, maybe, but we’ve got a lot of games played.”

Denver Pioneers

Final USCHO.com ranking: No. 8
Record: 25-12-5
NCAA seed: West No. 2
How they got here: beat Miami 3-2, beat North Dakota 1-0

To describe his team’s situation at the start of February, when it was four games under .500 in the WCHA after winning just one of its last six games, Denver coach George Gwozdecky pulled a line from the movie “Apollo 13.”

Near the end of the film, when the crippled spacecraft was returning to Earth, two of the principals at Mission Control are discussing everything that could go wrong on re-entry. One says it could be the biggest disaster in NASA history.

Then Ed Harris, portraying flight director Gene Krantz, steps in and says, “With all due respect, sir, I believe this is going to be our finest hour.”

Adam Berkhoel shut down North Dakota in the regional final (photo: Patrick C. Miller).

Adam Berkhoel shut down North Dakota in the regional final (photo: Patrick C. Miller).

So there were the Pioneers the night of Jan. 31, having tied North Dakota 1-1 in Grand Forks but still with a 6-10-4 record in the WCHA and on the wrong side of the league’s race for home ice in the first round of the playoffs.

The turnaround may have been started by the coaches changing up the way the team practiced or a shift in the lineup, but in Gwozdecky’s eyes, it was the team’s senior leaders — like defenseman and captain Ryan Caldwell and goaltender Adam Berkhoel — who realized it was their last shot and turned up the intensity.

“It was sheer will,” Gwozdecky said. “They came together, and their demands and their expectations on their fellow teammates were huge. When many had written us off, these guys, led by the seniors, said this is going to be our finest hour.”

History shows that Apollo 13 safely got back to Earth. Will history show the Pioneers’ turnaround ending with a national championship? If so, it could be one of the best reclamation projects in recent memory.

In a six-game stretch in January, Denver was 1-4-1. There had been other causes for alarm earlier in the season — three WCHA weekends that claimed no more than one point each — but this was the kind of slump that can send a season downward for good.

But things started to go back in the right direction with that 1-1 tie with the Sioux. A night before, Denver had been pounded by North Dakota 6-1, but the Pioneers came back with a solid game that included a goal by Caldwell.

They went 7-0-1 to close out the regular season, which was good enough to finish fourth in the WCHA and keep them in a NCAA tournament spot even though they crashed out of the league playoffs by losing a first-round series to rival Colorado College.

“I think we really pulled together then and went on that unbeaten streak to get home ice in the playoffs,” Caldwell said. “And even though that didn’t work out, I think that was really a turning point to let our team know that we were one of the best teams in the country and we could put together a run like that. And I think that gave us the confidence to take off right now in the NCAA tournament.”

Said Berkhoel: “When our season was on the line, those last four weeks of the season, we needed to play well and we all stepped up our games and played really consistent going into the playoffs.”

It helped that Denver started holding onto its leads. One of the most disheartening moments of an up-and-down first half had to be the 8-7 loss to Minnesota State on Dec. 20. The Pioneers led that game 7-1 eight minutes into the second period.

It almost happened again in Denver two months later, when Minnesota State rallied from a 6-2 deficit after two periods to eventually tie the game at 7. But Gabe Gauthier got a face-saving goal with 1:10 remaining and Caldwell scored into an empty net to seal a 9-7 victory.

“In January, finishing games when we had the lead was a problem that we had,” junior forward Kevin Ulanski said. “I think as you get a couple wins and can hold onto your wins and play better as the game goes on, it just gets your confidence up that you’re going to be doing that in the third period of every game. I think once the game’s on the line, we have a lot more confidence in each other to get the job done.”

That was evident in how the Pioneers got to their first Frozen Four since 1986. In beating North Dakota 1-0 in the West Regional final, they held the nation’s best offense (4.44 goals per game average) off the scoreboard.

Berkhoel stopped all 33 shots he faced — the Pioneers were outshot 33-17 — and it took a Luke Fulghum redirection of a Max Bull shot with 2:29 remaining in regulation to eliminate the Sioux.

“We had all the confidence in the world in Adam, and he had a great weekend,” Caldwell said. “We knew that the way we were playing in our own zone, that goal wasn’t going to happen on a mistake by us. It was going to have to be a pretty great play by them because our whole team was playing great defense. It just happened that we got that chance, and all it took was one shot and we knocked off the best team in the country.”

Now Denver (25-12-5) gets a crack at the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense in Minnesota-Duluth (4.14 GPG), which it will face in Thursday’s national semifinals. That means Caldwell and the Pioneers’ defense will see how it stacks up against the nation’s scoring leader, UMD’s Junior Lessard, on the big stage.

“Whenever you can play against a guy like that, I personally take that as a challenge,” Caldwell said. “With the depth we have on the blue line and how Adam’s playing right now, we can play with any offense in the country.”

The Denver offense, led by Gauthier, a sophomore with 17 goals and 42 points, may get a boost with the possible return of second-leading scorer Connor James, who has missed the entire postseason with a broken leg. Gwozdecky said the senior’s chances of playing are 50-50.

The Pioneers are exacting revenge one by one. North Dakota beat Denver three times this season — “Pretty handily, too,” Caldwell said — and one of those was in the Pioneers’ January slump. But it was Denver that won when it counted the most.

Minnesota-Duluth handed Denver 1-0 and 6-3 home losses to start the slide, and the Bulldogs are next on the Pioneers’ list.

“We outplayed them the first night and [UMD goaltender] Isaac Reichmuth stood on his head and won them the game,” Berkhoel said. “That got them momentum for the Saturday night game and they came out and took it to us. I think it’s a lot like North Dakota, where a lot of people were counting us out because they took care of us during the season. But it’s a whole different season when you come to the playoffs, and we have played really well the last two times.”

2003-04 USCHO.com Award Winners

USCHO Staff Report
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The complete list of USCHO.com Honorees for 2003-04.

Award Name Class Team
Player of the Year Junior Lessard Sr. Minnesota-Duluth
Rookie of the Year T.J. Hensick Fr. Michigan
Coach of the Year Mike Eaves Wisconsin
Defensive Player of the Year Yann Danis Sr. Brown
Defensive Forward of the Year Todd Jackson Sr. Maine
Most Improved Player Evan Schwabe Jr. Minnesota-Duluth
Jon Smyth So. Colgate
Unsung Hero Award Dan Boeser Sr. Wisconsin
Sportsmanship Award Steve Saviano Sr. New Hampshire

All-USCHO First Team

F Junior Lessard     Sr.   Minnesota-Duluth
F Zach Parise        So.   North Dakota
F Brandon Bochenski  Jr.   North Dakota
D Thomas P�ck        Sr.   Massachusetts
D Keith Ballard      Jr.   Minnesota
G Yann Danis         Sr.   Brown

All-USCHO Second Team

F Steve Saviano      Sr.   New Hampshire
F Tony Voce          Sr.   Boston College
F Thomas Vanek       So.   Minnesota
D Ryan Caldwell      Sr.   Denver
D Doug Andress       Sr.   Ohio State
G Jim Howard         So.   Maine

All-USCHO Rookie Team

F T.J. Hensick             Michigan
F Michel L�veill�          Maine
F Brady Murray             North Dakota
D A.J. Thelen              Michigan State
D Ryan Suter               Wisconsin
G David McKee              Cornell

USCHO.com’s 2003-04 Year-End Honors

USCHO Staff Report
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[nl]Minnesota-Duluth forward Junior Lessard, [nl]Michigan forward T.J. Hensick and [nl]Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves top the list of USCHO.com’s 2003-04 Year-End Honors recipients.

Lessard, the nation’s leading scorer with 61 points and a finalist for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, was named the USCHO.com Player of the Year. A native of St. Joseph deBeauce, Que., Lessard is set to play in the Frozen Four this week in Boston. Lessard was also a unanimous selection on the All-USCHO First Team.

Hensick, the national co-leader in freshman scoring this season with 46 points, was named the USCHO.com Rookie of the Year. A native of Howell, Mich., Hensick led the Wolverines in scoring and was also a unanimous pick to the All-USCHO Rookie Team.

Mike Eaves led the Badgers back to the NCAAs in his second year.

Mike Eaves led the Badgers back to the NCAAs in his second year.

Eaves, the USCHO.com Coach of the Year, in his second year at [nl]Wisconsin, took the Badgers back to the NCAAs, where they won a first-round game before losing to [nl]Maine in overtime. [nl]Wisconsin improved to 22-13-8 this season, after going 13-23-4 last year. Eaves also led Team USA to its first-ever gold medal at the 2004 World Junior Championships.

Other awards are as follows:

Lessard’s teammate and linemate, Evan Schwabe, is the co-winner of the Most Improved Player Award, along with [nl]Colgate forward Jon Smyth. Schwabe, a 5-foot-9 native of Moose Jaw, Sask., upped his point total this season from 10 to 55, including 19 goals. Smyth, from Markham, Ont., went from one goal and three points last season, to 21 goals and 42 points this year for the first-place Raiders, and was also named ECAC Defensive Forward of the Year.

Steve Saviano had just two penalty minutes this season, and was honored with USCHO's Sportsmanship Award. (photo: Hockey East)

Steve Saviano had just two penalty minutes this season, and was honored with USCHO’s Sportsmanship Award. (photo: Hockey East)

The Sportsmanship Award went to [nl]New Hampshire’s Steve Saviano. Despite being a main target of opponents this season for his scoring abilities, Saviano, from Reading, Mass., had just one penalty for two minutes. He was also a Hobey Baker finalist and Second Team All-USCHO pick for his 27 goals and 49 points, and co-winner of the Hockey East Player of the Year Award.

The USCHO.com Unsung Hero Award goes to [nl]Wisconsin defenseman Dan Boeser. A Savage, Minn., native, Boeser overcame non-Hodgkins lymphoma to play for the Badgers last season, but neither his skills nor stamina had fully returned. He also struggled to adjust to new coach Eaves. After a meeting of the minds, Boeser, the team’s captain, turned in a superlative season, including the overtime game winner in Wisconsin’s NCAA tournament victory over [nl]Ohio State.

The Defensive Player of the Year is no surprise, going to [nl]Brown goaltender Yann Danis, who is also a Hobey Baker finalist. Danis turned in a 1.81 goals against average this season. He added five shutouts, and his .942 save percentage is tops among players with over 50 percent of their teams’ minutes. Danis appeared in all but one game for the Bears this year.

The Defensive Forward of the Year is [nl]Maine’s Todd Jackson. The Black Bears captain, from [nl]Cortland, N.Y., was part of one of the nation’s stingiest defenses, and anchored the shorthanded unit. His five shorthanded goals tied for second in the nation.

A complete list of Award Winners as well as the All-USCHO First and Second Team, and the All-USCHO Rookie Team, can be found here.

Preview: National Semifinal No. 2

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Boston College vs. Maine
Thursday, 6 p.m. ET, FleetCenter, Boston

Boston College Eagles

Final USCHO.com ranking: No. 4
Record: 29-8-4
NCAA seed: Northeast No. 1
How they got here: beat Niagara 5-2, beat Michigan 3-2

Entering the NCAA tournament, Boston College had its share of doubters. The Eagles had virtually gone wire-to-wire as the number one or two team in the country, holding a 26-3-4 record on Feb. 28 after having clinched the Hockey East regular season title with three games remaining.

Then the roof caved in. Iron man goaltender Matti Kaltiainen injured a groin, missed the last two games before the playoffs and then looked like he had a few layers of rust as the Eagles fell to archrival, but also bottom-seeded, Boston University in the league quarterfinals.

That amounted to a 1-5-0 finish and inspired the doubts. After having swaggered through almost the entire season, the Eagles were limping into the NCAAs.

Not that the loss to BU had been all Kaltiainen’s fault.

Matti Kaltiainen and the Eagles overcame a rough patch at the end of the regular season (photo: Kelly McGinnis).

Matti Kaltiainen and the Eagles overcame a rough patch at the end of the regular season (photo: Kelly McGinnis).

“I don’t think we were playing our best hockey at that time either,” BC coach Jerry York says. “When [Matti] went down with a groin injury, that compounded it but it wasn’t just something that was that one injury.

“We were really on cruise control, playing so very well for December, January, February and into March. But then we just kind of took some things for granted. We started to lose some puck battles and we weren’t as sharp as we should be.

“We finished at New Hampshire, at Maine, at Maine and a quarterfinal series with our archrival so we were playing some very, very good teams and we were not at the top of our game.”

For all intents and purposes, however, that is now ancient history. In the Northeast Regional, BC put away Niagara with a strong third period, 5-2, in the opener. Then the Eagles toppled a tenacious Michigan squad, needing overtime to do it, but also displaying a territorial domination that befitted their 37-12 shot advantage after regulation.

Good riddance to the 1-5-0 Eagles and don’t let the door hit you too hard on the butt on the way out. Welcome back to the 26-3-4 version.

Kaltiainen (1.76 GAA, .908 Sv%), he of the bulls-eye whenever BC loses, was heroic in the Michigan game after surrendering a big goal when he got caught too far out of the crease. His saves to keep BC close after that blunder and then five more in overtime were the difference between advancing and wondering what might have been.

“He feels pretty good about himself,” York says. “He made some saves in OT against Michigan that were just incredible saves. He’s one of the key reasons we’re still alive in this thing.”

Another key reason is the dominating line of Ben Eaves, Patrick Eaves and Tony Voce. The unit, which has played together for only 14 games because of injuries to the Eaves brothers, scored all three goals against Michigan and had another two in the win over Niagara. There probably isn’t a more talented trio in the country. Voce (29-18–47) led the Eagles in scoring, but if the Eaves brothers’ totals were extrapolated to playing a full 41 games, Patrick would have totaled 51 points and Ben 56.

“Our top line has very good balance and puck movement,” York says. “All three are very dangerous players. But I still think we’re going to need scoring from other people on our team if we’re going to advance.”

Those “other people” include First Team All-Hockey East selection Ryan Shannon (14-27–41), a not-too-shabby leader of a second line with Chris Collins and David Spina. Which leaves 24-point producer Stephen Gionta on the third line, a measure of BC’s offensive depth. Not to mention defensemen J.D. Forrest, Andrew Alberts, Peter Harrold, John Adams and Greg Lauze, who all finished with double-digit points themselves.

“That’s really what we’ve tried to stress with our team,” York says. “We need to have more scoring chances come from our four lines and from our defensemen. The way hockey is played now, you really have to distribute that among your team. Shannie’s line is certainly capable of creating a lot more scoring chances than they have recently.

“We’re going to have to depend on other players to step up. At this stage of the season, it’s difficult to score goals five-on-five. Teams that can do that generally can advance in this tournament.”

As for special teams, BC was only a so-so 18.5 percent on the power play, but most of that was due to early-season struggles. In the last 15 games, it has scored 16 goals and also benefits from the presence of Ben Eaves, one of the best playmakers in the game, who is now all the way back from a fractured kneecap suffered in early January.

And on the penalty kill the Eagles have allowed only nine more goals than they have scored while down a man, a stunning statistic. They have killed off 89.4 percent of all infractions, a mark that is tops in the country, supplemented by 12 shorthanded goals, which ties Maine for nation’s top figure.

Ah, yes, the Black Bears. There won’t be any surprises between these two teams. BC dominated an early season game, 4-1, but Maine got its revenge back at home in the final two games of the regular season, 3-0 and 4-3 (OT), albeit with Kaltiainen out of the lineup.

The matchup pits BC’s stronger offense (3.46 goals per game, tops in Hockey East, to 3.31, third in the league) against Maine’s exceptional defense (1.60 goals against per game, tops in the country, to BC’s second-best 1.93). Oh yes, there’s also that Jimmy Howard fellow in the Black Bear crease, the same guy who could break the NCAA record for a season’s save percentage and goals against average with .954 and 1.20 marks, respectively.

Based on the three head-to-head contests, study of other game tape, and a first-hand view of the Maine-Massachusetts Hockey East championship clash, York sees anything but just the one man to beat.

“You really appreciate how hard Maine plays and how strong they are in all three zones,” he says. “Granted, Jimmy Howard is having a spectacular year, but they also play very well in front of him. We’re going to have to win a lot of battles before we get to Jimmy Howard in the net.

“So the [key to] goalscoring may come with a good breakout or read in the neutral zone because there are a lot of obstacles to get through before we get scoring chances.”

If BC can get past Maine, then it will have an experience advantage over either Denver or Minnesota-Duluth, which total only a single NCAA tournament game between the two senior classes (a Denver loss to Michigan in 2001-02). By contrast, almost every BC contributor was part of last year’s squad that came within an overtime goal against Cornell of reaching the Frozen Four and six Eagles were part of the national championship team three years ago.

“It really helps our younger players because they can share some thoughts and talk about what it’s going to be like playing for a national championship,” York says. “Three in particular — Tony Voce, Ben Eaves and J.D. Forrest — were key factors in that game. Our other [seniors] Justin Dziama, Ty Hennes and Brett Peterson were kind of role players at that time. This time, they’re much more involved in our team.

“I think it helps and I’m glad that they have an opportunity to go after a second one.”

That experience advantage, however, disappears against Maine since ten current Black Bears were part of the team that came within 53 seconds and an extra-attacker goal of a national title two years ago.

Maine Black Bears

Final USCHO.com ranking: No. 1
Record: 32-7-3
NCAA seed: East No. 1
How they got here: beat Harvard 5-4, beat Wisconsin 3-2

Speaking of which, how about them Maine Black Bears?

They’ve now won nine straight games, including the Hockey East championship. In the process, however, they might have aged their fans a few years considering that the last seven have all been one-goal games, including the triple-overtime win over Massachusetts in the league title contest not to mention the even more hair-raising comeback win over Harvard, 5-4, in the East Regional opener.

Considering that Boston College and Denver seem to have profited from an early exit in their league playoffs, getting an energy boost from the enforced inactivity, that begs the question as to whether Maine’s playoff success and, in particular, its no-margin-for-error wins could be a double-edged sword.

“Certainly you gain confidence and strength from each conquest, so to speak, but you also have to deal with the reality of running on fumes,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead says. “We’ve got a little bit of both.

“The little bit of extra time here before the [semifinals] helps us, just like it does the other teams, for that exact reason. That will give us a chance to recover a little bit mentally and physically from some pretty draining games. Even the first round in our league [playoffs], both of those were one-goal games. It’s been exciting for our players and, I think, a confidence builder, but at the same time we do need to recharge our batteries here.”

USCHO.com Defensive Forward of the Year Todd Jackson brings his two-way game to the FleetCenter.

USCHO.com Defensive Forward of the Year Todd Jackson brings his two-way game to the FleetCenter.

The one specific aspect to Maine’s play of late that could use an energy boost is the offense. Of the last six games, only the comeback over Harvard included more than three goals. When your scores are 2-1, 3-2, 1-0, 2-1 (3 OT), 5-4, 2-1 (OT), the team defense is to be applauded and with a standing ovation to boot, but the offense’s limited output is flirting with danger.

Things won’t get any easier against BC, second only to the Black Bears nationally in team defense. And considering Maine’s struggles on the power play (16.5 percent, seventh in Hockey East) and BC’s tops-in-the-country penalty kill, there will be a premium on capitalizing on scoring chances.

“It’s obviously going to be very challenging for us,” Whitehead says. “We’re not a team where goals come easy for us, but that’s fine. Certainly as far as the power play, that will be very challenging because BC does a tremendous job on their penalty kill.

“So goals are going to be very tough to come by. I guess the only good news is that we’re comfortable in those type of games. And I’m sure BC is, too. But we’ve been in a lot of those low-scoring one-goal games, so I guess the only consolation is that that’s the type of game we expect again if we can play good team defense as we’ve been doing.

“I really do think that that’s the type of game we’ll see. We’re preparing for a very tight-checking game.”

The top checker for Maine will be defenseman Prestin Ryan, a Second Team All-Hockey East selection who was also runner-up to BC’s Andrew Alberts as the league’s top defensive defenseman. Infamous with some opposing fans for his physical play — he has obliterated team penalty minute records for one season (144, this year) and a career (355) — Ryan has been remarkably well-restrained in the postseason, being whistled for only eight minors in six games. Which bodes well for the inevitably tight games at this point in the season.

As does the recent goalscoring by freshman Mike Hamilton. For most of the year, Colin Shields (18-26–44), Michel Léveillé (6-34–40), Todd Jackson (21-12–33) and Derek Damon (13-18–31) led the offense. Shields and Jackson earned Second Team All-Hockey East berths while Léveillé was the league’s Rookie of the Year. Hamilton, by contrast, has only seven goals and five assists in 27 games.

Three of those goals, however, have come in the last four games and all three have been huge. He scored the third-period goal to give Maine a 1-0 win over Boston University in the Hockey East semifinal. In the NCAA opening round against Harvard, his snapshot from the slot early in the third period sparked a rally from a 4-1 deficit. And his overtime game-winner against Wisconsin one day later put Maine into the Frozen Four.

“[He’s] a freshman and a lot of times it takes a freshman a little bit longer to establish himself and emerge as a top player,” Whitehead says. “Mike has certainly done that down the stretch. He skates well, he’s a big kid that is very strong and he has a great release on his shot and he’s playing very hard right now.

“Mike has elevated his game as a freshman and is playing with a lot of confidence. He’s given us a big boost.”

As has goaltender Jimmy Howard. The First-Team All-Hockey East selection didn’t factor into Hobey Baker Award voting and will probably not even earn All-America honors because his partner in the Black Bear nets, Frank Doyle, has played more games than Howard (due to injury) and done extremely well himself. None of which diminishes the fact that Howard is almost certainly the top netminder in the Frozen Four.

He entered the NCAA tournament having allowed more than two goals in a game only once and that lone exception came back in early November. He had allowed a grand total of two goals in his last five games. Then came Harvard and four goals allowed after two periods before getting the hook.

That aberration was short-lived, however, as Howard again got the nod against Wisconsin. He delivered, stopping 36-of-37 shots.

“Any time you have an elite goalie, it’s pretty easy to go back to him and give him another opportunity,” Whitehead says. “From our standpoint, the difficult part was picking which goalie because we feel that we have two elite guys in Frank Doyle and Jimmy Howard. We’re obviously pretty fortunate that way. It was a tough call. We could have gone with either guy.

“It was just our gut feeling that Jimmy was playing at his very best. He had a bit of a tough night the night before, but he’s such a fierce competitor, we figured that he would bounce back in fine fashion. We’re pleased and proud that he was able to put in such a strong game against Wisconsin and really help win the game.”

No doubt, Howard will once again be called upon to commit highway robbery and it’ll be a surprise if he doesn’t deliver.

Other than the Howard vs. Kaltiainen matchup and the overall number one defense vs. number two, the one other major factor which bears watching is how Maine attempts to contain BC’s top line of Ben Eaves, Patrick Eaves and Tony Voce.

When asked how to hold them down, Whitehead quips, “With your hands and your sticks. Grabbing. Clutching.” Turning serious, he says, “That’s a line that all teams, including ourselves this year, have had a lot of trouble shutting down.

“That’s just a tremendous group of athletes there. We have a lot of respect for them. I don’t think there is a solution there, to be honest. It will be very challenging for us, but they have a lot of other weapons, too.

“One thing you have to be careful of with Boston College is if you focus too much on their top unit, then somebody like Shannon, Gionta, Spina or, who knows, a defenseman [like] Alberts or somebody will end up scoring some key goals against you. We have a lot of things we have to be concerned with in BC, including the top line.”

Just as BC has a lot of things to be concerned with in Maine.

The Year That Was: 1998

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When following college hockey, the personnel on the teams — not counting the coaches, trainers and other staff — all change completely over the course of four years. In effect, this means what happened more than four years ago is like an entirely different generation.

Such was the case the last time the tournament was held on Causeway Street in Beantown, back in 1998.

First Semifinal — Michigan 4, New Hampshire 0

It was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Wolverines in 1997-98. The offseason had seen the Ann Arbor boys graduate quite possibly the finest single class in Michigan history, led by Hobey Baker winner Brendan Morrison (88 pts.), and including future NHLers John Madden (64), Jason Botterill (61), Warren Luhning (45) and Blake Sloan (17) and significant contributors Mike Legg (55) and Harold Schock (34).

The “Michigan Nine” as that senior class was known (the seven listed along with Chris Frescoln and Peter Bourke) had proven unable to repeat as national champions, winning the whole thing in 1996 in Cincinnati over Colorado College, but quite famously losing in the national semifinals in Milwaukee in 1997 against a Chris Drury-led Boston University.

After losing six of their top eight scorers from that year, it was commonly believed that Michigan would have a good, but not spectacular, team. Bill Muckalt, future NHL regular, returned, as did senior netminder Marty Turco. Freshmen Mark Kosick and Josh Langfeld both made an immediate impact with the team.

“Michigan has had more of a rebuilding year [in 1998],” said Michigan coach Red Berenson at the time, “having lost nine seniors and coming off maybe the best team we’ve ever had at Michigan.

“Last season [in 1997], there were a lot of question marks about this year’s team. We found a way to survive. We’re not the offensive team we were last year. We’re not a lot better or a lot worse than any of our opponents.”

The Wolverines finished the regular season with a respectable 27-9-1 record, ending the CCHA conference season at 22-7-1 and in second place, just a point behind Michigan State. But in the last six regular season games, Michigan went just 3-3, including getting swept by Chad Alban and the rival Spartans. Michigan advanced to the CCHA semifinals, but were eliminated by upstart Ohio State, 4-2, and had to settle for a No. 3 seed in the NCAA West Regional.

However, the Wolverines pulled off one of the upsets that they have become so famous for, as Michigan hosted that regional at Yost Arena, and after downing ECAC Tournament winner Princeton, rode the energy of the home crowd to a 4-3 upset win over No. 2 seed North Dakota.

But the Frozen Four was in Boston, a long way from those friendly Yost Arena fans.

Michigan’s opponent in the opening game was New Hampshire, a team that was riding a pretty big high after a thrilling regional win. The Wildcats were trying to establish themselves as a national power, in the middle of a three-year cycle that would transform the Wildcats from happy-to-be-here, one-and-out competitors against Colorado College in 1997, to Frozen Four team in 1998, to a team in an overtime game in the national finals in 1999 in Anaheim.

“We want to get to the next level,” said UNH coach Dick Umile, at the time. “We couldn’t get out of the regionals before, but this is the year we finally got to the [Frozen] Four. It’s the next step. Our program wants to compete at the national level, but it’s not easy.”

In 1998, New Hampshire finally made the Frozen Four, but met its match in the upstart Wolverines.

In 1998, New Hampshire finally made the Frozen Four, but met its match in the upstart Wolverines.

The team, which finished third in the conference with a 15-8-1 record was led offensively by junior Jason Krog, a future Hobey Baker Award winner (1999) and NHL regular with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Derek Bekar and Mark Mowers, which finished second and fourth in scoring on that team, also saw time in the NHL. Krog and Mowers became the first ever finalists for the Hobey Baker Award from New Hampshire in 1998.

The heads of the New Hampshire players were still spinning after a thrilling, come-from-behind overtime victory over conference rival and No. 1 NCAA seed Boston University in Albany in the quarterfinals. The winning goal came off the stick of Mowers, who scored shorthanded to send the team to the Frozen Four for the first time since 1982.

When Michigan scored first in the semifinal, no doubt New Hampshire felt in familiar territory. After all, the Wildcats rebounded from a 3-1 deficit to Wisconsin in their first game of the NCAA tournament to post a 7-4 final. The quarterfinal victory over BU was also of the come-from-behind category. A Bubba Berenzweig shorthanded goal and a 1-0 deficit was no cause for panic.

When Berenzweig scored again, this time on the power play, followed less than a minute later by a Geoff Koch marker, the time was ripe for concern. Even more disturbing than the 3-0 hole, however, was New Hampshire’s talented offense being outshot 25-9 after two periods.

The Wildcats made a third period run, but a Matt Herr goal and the goaltending of Michigan’s Marty Turco proved to be too much, and New Hampshire never got on the board. Turco ended with a 19-save shutout.

“When we played North Dakota, there was no question that they had the best offensive team in the country,” said Berenson after the game. “Playing that game prepared us for playing New Hampshire, who I compare to North Dakota, a team that can bury you in five minutes. We knew we couldn’t have two bad shifts in a row.

“I never felt safe until we scored the fourth goal, not because I didn’t trust our team, but because I didn’t trust New Hampshire.”

Second Semifinal — Boston College 5, Ohio State 2

It’s hard to imagine this now, in 2004, with Boston College a perennial Frozen Four contender and a national powerhouse. But back in 1998, it was a shock to see the Eagles actually make the NCAA tournament, let alone end up in Boston on the final weekend of the collegiate hockey season.

Before 1998, the last time BC had made it to the NCAA Tournament was back in 1991. And the last time the team had won an NCAA postseason game was in 1990. A string of struggles in the 1990s, which included the retirement of legendary coach Len Ceglarski (419 wins with the Eagles) in 1992, combined with the two lost years under coach Steve Cedorchuk (24-40-10 in two years at The Heights) and the resignation of Mike Milbury before he ever coached a game, had left the once proud Boston College program in a shambles.

Enter Jerry York. A BC alum, York came to Chestnut Hill after successful stints at Clarkson and Bowling Green that saw him win a national title and earn 467 victories. York attracted new talent to BC, including, first, Marty Reasoner and later on future NHLers Brian Gionta, Mike Mottau, Blake Bellefeuille, Jeff Farkas and Scott Clemmensen, all of which appeared on this 1998 team.

But entering the season, no one really knew what was in store. After all, the year before, with Reasoner, Farkas, Bellefeuille and Mottau, the team had finished under .500. While it was obvious the Eagles were on the upswing, few would have predicted a Frozen Four appearance at the start of the season. In the preseason USCHO.com poll that year, Boston College didn’t even crack the top 10, and was the fourth “Other Receiving Votes” team with just 6 points.

“It’s something we knew was going to happen eventually,” Reasoner said about BC’s return to the Frozen Four, prior to the Thursday semifinal. “I’m just glad I’m a part of it. … I don’t know if I’d have said back in October that we’d definitely make the [Frozen] Four, but as we’ve done better and the season has gone along, we’ve come together and started to believe in ourselves.

“Now we believe we can beat any team in the country.”

After finishing second in Hockey East with a 15-5-4 record, Boston College was given a No. 2 seed in the NCAA East Regional, which included a bye. After steamrolling over Colorado College by a 6-1 score, the Eagles found themselves playing in front of a large hometown crowd at the FleetCenter.

Facing the Eagles was Ohio State, a team riding some pretty big momentum to get to Boston. The Buckeyes finished third in the CCHA regular season, and after dispatching Michigan in the semis, made it to the tournament finals, facing top seed and nationally-ranked No. 1 Michigan State. Ohio State fell to the Chad Alban-led Spartans 3-2 in double overtime, but was still invited to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 4 seed.

And when the brackets were announced, the Buckeyes didn’t have to become familiar with their quarterfinal foe — the same Michigan State team that had just defeated them in the CCHA finals. After a 4-0 win over Yale to produce the conference rematch, Ohio State made the most of the opportunity, playing a classic overtime game, this time being decided by a 4-3 score in Ohio State’s favor, and propelling the Buckeyes to Boston.

“It’s a whole new situation to us each and every weekend — making the playoffs at Joe Louis, and then the regionals, and now the Final Four,” said OSU coach John Markell. “We have to accept the fact that it’s all new to us and not to get caught up in the hoopla.”

Ohio State was one of the hottest teams in the nation in the second half of the season. After starting the year 8-10-1, from Jan. 9 to the Frozen Four the Buckeyes were 18-2-1. In net for Ohio State was freshman standout Jeff Maund, who entered the tournament with a sterling .921 save percentage. His job was to outduel BC’s own freshman goaltender, a young Scott Clemmensen, whose .887 save percentage paled by comparison.

Freshman Brian Gionta staked the Eagles to an early lead, on a shorthanded breakaway attempt that caught Maund out of position. Jeff Farkas made it a 2-0 game on a wraparound, and the Eagles appeared to be in control, outshooting the Buckeyes by a 28-7 margin midway through the second period.

Ohio State wasn’t about to go easily, however, and evened the score with a pair of Dan Cousineau goals about three minutes apart during a flurry at the end of the second frame.

The third began tied at 2, but Eagle star Reasoner scored a pair of goals, sandwiched by an Andy Powers tally, to seal the game for BC.

Whether it was the hoopla getting to the Ohio State, or being in front of a hostile standing room only crowd at the FleetCenter, or simply the fact that Boston College was a better team, the Buckeyes had to settle for the 5-2 loss.

Since then, Ohio State has appeared in three of six NCAA Tournaments, but has yet to win another game.

And back in 1998, the Eagles had a date with Michigan for the NCAA Championship.

Hobey Baker Memorial Award

On Friday, the off day between Thursday’s semifinals and Saturday’s championship game, was the presentation of the Hobey Baker Award. The award went to Boston University’s Chris Drury, and the announcement drew some controversy.

Boston University was the No. 1 seed in the East, and Drury was the top scorer on the team. However, Drury’s scoring total for the year, 57 points on 28 goals and 29 assists, was down from the previous year (62 pts.) which, in turn, was down from his sophomore season (67).

The decline in his point production was linked, it was said, to his greater defensive role on the Terriers, which included a number of younger players. Despite the lower output from Drury (which still led his team in his senior season), BU finished in first place in Hockey East with a comfortable four-point lead over second-place Boston College.

When the award was presented to Drury, BU coach Jack Parker said:

“I’ve coached a lot of great players at BU — this is my 25th season. There were a lot of people that made it to the NHL, a lot of people who didn’t make it to the NHL but who were great players. I don’t remember coaching anybody that combined the talent, the determination and competitive spirit that Chris Drury has shown from first day of practice to his last day at Boston University.”

The other primary candidate for the award was Chad Alban, goaltender for Michigan State. Alban had put up some unreal numbers for the season. Against teams that were in the NCAA tournament, for instance, Alban sported a 1.41 goals against average and a .941 save percentage. He allowed two goals or less in 32 of his 40 games that year.

Alban won USCHO.com’s popular “Vote For Hobey” feature, but the knock on him came from the outstanding defense in front of him. It was never clear to what extent Alban’s incredible numbers came from the goaltender, and how much from the defense.

History, perhaps, has borne out the choice. Both Drury and Alban graduated that year, and while Drury went on to immediately play in the National Hockey League and was named the league’s Rookie of the Year, Alban never made it beyond the AHL.

The Hobey Baker award, of course, is not about predicting future success in the NHL. There have been many players who have received the award and who have not gone on to play in the NHL. But one can look at the what the loss of the players may have meant to the programs.

In Drury’s senior season, BU finished with a 28-8-2 record, ended up in first in Hockey East, and received a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in the East. The next year, the Terriers were 14-20-3, fifth in Hockey East, and didn’t receive an NCAA bid.

Michigan State finished first in league play in Alban’s final year, had a 31-6-5 record, and received a No. 1 bid to the NCAA Tournament in the West. In 1999, the Spartans had a 29-6-7 record, finished first in the CCHA again, and advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four. And sophomore goalie Joe Blackburn posted a season goals against average of 1.44.

Not all of this can be linked to any one player, of course. Both teams had other players departing and returning, and other factors influenced the development of the programs. But it certainly seems as though Alban was replaced handily by Blackburn, while Drury’s immediate success at the next level branded him as an elite player.

Michigan State would only need to wait a few more years for Hobey redemption, however, as a Spartan netminder by the name of Ryan Miller would go on to win the award in 2002. But that’s another story.

Championship Game — Michigan 3, Boston College 2, OT

Josh Langfeld had a monster postseason, leading an inexperienced group of freshmen to give Michigan another title.

Josh Langfeld had a monster postseason, leading an inexperienced group of freshmen to give Michigan another title.

When the NCAA bids in 1998 were first announced, the No. 1 seeds in the West and East were Michigan State and Boston University, respectively. Both were flirting with the top of the USCHO.com poll, and a meeting between the two teams for the national title was not out of the question.

How distressing for fans of the two teams then, when events unfolded so that the arch-rivals of the two squads, Michigan and Boston College, ended up living the dream? And in each case, both the Spartans and the Terriers were eliminated from the NCAA Quarterfinals in overtime by a conference foe.

Now the No. 2 seed Boston College — home team in fact as well as in spirit, with a packed FleetCenter crowd firmly behind the Eagles — were facing off against the No. 3 seed Michigan Wolverines.

In many ways, the two teams came at the game from different directions.

Michigan was an established, storied program. The Wolverines had appeared in four of the last five Frozen Fours, winning it all in 1996. They had appeared in each NCAA tournament, and advanced at least one round, in each year since 1991 — the last time BC made the NCAA postseason cut.

The Wolverines were a rebuilding team, but were led by an experienced, senior goaltender in Marty Turco. Turco’s numbers, in particular a save percentage of .903, was not the most impressive, but he did have an NCAA record number of shutouts at the time (since eclipsed by Miller). While some skeptics felt Turco’s numbers were enhanced by the defense in front of him as MSU’s Alban did, Turco would go on to be, and still is, a regular netminder for the Dallas Stars of the NHL.

Boston College, on the other hand, was building the program nearly from the ground up. After recruiting snafus and an embarrassing play-in game loss to cellar-dweller Massachusetts in 1995, the Eagles were left searching for an identity. Then came Marty Reasoner, and the rest of the stream of blue chippers that eventually returned Boston College to an annual juggernaut.

But this was the first NCAA experience for any player on the squad, and that was especially true in between the pipes. The BC netminder Scott Clemmensen was a freshman, and while he had an impressive 24-win debut season, his .887 save percentage made Turco’s 93 percent look fantastic.

Clemmensen, of course, would go on to win a national title himself in 2001, after four straight appearances in the Frozen Four. He would also appear in the NHL following college.

Both goaltenders looked sharp in the title game, Turco making 28 saves while allowing just two goals, and Clemmensen allowing three goals on 32 shots.

Kevin Caulfield opened scoring for BC in the first on a slapshot into the far corner of the net.

In the second the teams traded goals as rookie Mark Kosick, second on the Michigan team in scoring, potted one and Eagle Mike Lephart roofed the rebound of a Jeff Farkas redirection.

Michigan won its second national title in two years.

Michigan won its second national title in two years.

“Going into the third, we were down 2-1,” said Muckalt, who was a sophomore on Michigan’s championship team from two years prior. “So I said, ‘Remember back in ’96. We were behind 2-1 going into the third period and you guys know what happened.’ I think it gave the guys a little confidence.”

Kosick scored arguably the biggest goal of his career in the third period, knotting the game at two and sending it to overtime, where Josh Langfeld scored to give Michigan it’s ninth NCAA title.

“I just shot it low,” said Langfeld. “I wasn’t shooting for a corner. I just put it on net, it went in the net and we’re national champions!”

Appropriately for the rebuilding Wolverines, freshmen accounted for all three goals in the game.

The next time these two teams met in NCAA action was in the Frozen Four semifinal in Albany in 2001, where BC avenged this game with a 4-2 win. Then the Eagles went on to win their first NCAA Championship in 52 years with their own 3-2 overtime win, this time over North Dakota.

“If you’re going to coach a long time, you’ve got to have a short memory,” Jerry York said recently, about the ’98 overtime loss. “Like if you miss a putt on 17 you’ve got to get it out of your mind before 18.”

Or before the 2001 Frozen Four, apparently.

Thanks to Dave Hendrickson and Paula C. Weston for contributions to this article.

St. Louis First Collegian to Win NHL Scoring Title

USCHO Staff Report
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Over the last 30 years, the impact of college hockey players in the NHL has gradually grown bigger and bigger every year. Great stars like Brian Leetch, Chris Chelios, Brett Hull, Mike Richter and Joe Nieuwendyk have won Stanley Cups, and others like Keith Tkachuk, John LeClair and Tony Amonte have joined them to win World Cups and Olympic medals.

Martin St. Louis was a three-time Hobey Baker Award finalist at UVM.

Martin St. Louis was a three-time Hobey Baker Award finalist at UVM.

But never before had a former U.S. college player led the NHL in scoring.

Until now.

Former Vermont star Martin St. Louis has become the first ex-college hockey player to win an Art Ross Trophy as regular-season NHL scoring champion, finishing with 38 goals and 94 points. The Tampa Bay Lightning are the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, with the NHL’s playoffs set to begin Wednesday.

The 5-foot-8 St. Louis is also in contention for the league’s MVP honor, the Hart Trophy.

St. Louis burst onto the NHL scene last season last season, his sixth in the NHL, when he scored 33 goals and 70 points and led Tampa Bay to its first-ever NHL playoff series win.

St. Louis, a native of Laval, Que., scored 93 goals and 267 points in four seasons at Vermont, where he, along with fellow All-Americans Eric Perrin and goaltender Tim Thomas led the Catamounts to their only Frozen Four in 1996. St. Louis was the ECAC Player of the Year in 1994-95 with 71 points, while Perrin won the award the next season as both he and St. Louis broke the school’s single-season point record with 85.

An undrafted free agent, no NHL teams took a flyer on St. Louis coming out of college. Instead, both he and Perrin went to play for Cleveland in the IHL. After scoring 56 points in 50 games, the Calgary Flames signed him and sent him to Saint John of the AHL for the rest of the 1997-98 season.

The next season, St. Louis was an AHL All-Star and was leading the league in scoring at the time of his recall to Calgary. In 1999-2000, St. Louis played 56 games in Calgary, but had fourth-line minutes and registered just 18 points. He signed with Tampa Bay as a free agent in 2000-01, and began to blossom. He had 43 points his first year with the Lightning, then had 35 points in 53 games in 2001-02 before an injury cut short his season.

St. Louis’ feat came the same week that former North Dakota star goalie Ed Belfour and former Princeton star Jeff Halpern won the NHL’s defensive and offensive player of the week awards, respectively. Belfour currently plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Halpern with his hometown Washington Capitals.

Playing Both Sides

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He likes to be known simply as a “steady, accountable” defenseman, in his own words. But Boston College sophomore Peter Harrold’s game has begun to morph.

Despite the fact that Harrold thinks that simply being in the right position is all he needs to worry about, his head coach Jerry York understands that right now he has a young man on his hands whose talent won’t allow him to be only a defensive defenseman.

Eagle blueliner Peter Harrold did his damage on offense and defense at the regionals (photos: Kelly McGinnis).

Eagle blueliner Peter Harrold did his damage on offense and defense at the regionals (photos: Kelly McGinnis).

“He’s always been a good stay-at-home player who can make that pass from his own zone,” said York. “But he’s creating a whole new dimension to his game where can be an offensive threat and be a power play guy.”

No more was that more apparent than the Northeast Regional that saw BC beat Niagara and Michigan to set up a date with Maine in this Thursday’s second semifinal at the Frozen Four, being played just minutes from the Boston College campus at the FleetCenter.

In the two-game regional, Harrold scored the game-winning goal against Niagara, making a nifty toe-drag move around two defenders before stuffing the puck in the net as he fell to the ice, and then set up the third-period game-tying goal and the overtime game-winner against Michigan the next day.

Still, despite the recent offensive prowess, Harrold, who has scored two goals and 14 points on the season, starts with the defensive side.

“[Positioning] is extremely important,” said Harrold, who credits BC assistant Ron Rolston with improving every aspect of his game. “If you’re not in the right position, you can’t make the right plays. I look at players like Brian Leetch and his whole game is based on positioning.”

Still, as Harrold emphasizes the defensive side of the puck, he admits offensive play is just as critical to the Eagles’ success.

“[The coaching staff] tries to tell us to be a threat [offensively] and always get the puck down to the net,” said Harrold of his two assists against Michigan, both coming on rebounds of his shots. “The last two times [in the regional] guys kind of went down in front of me and I was just patient so I could kind of slip by them.

“In that respect maybe I was lucky [that we scored]. Our object is to just get the puck down to the net.”

Modesty will get Harrold nowhere, but the ability to play within York’s system could propel Harrold to an NCAA championship or, maybe too, an NHL contract.

The BC system for years has been based on transition. The ability for defensemen not just to handle the puck, but feed the forwards through a well-honed passing game has created an offense that ranks seventh in the country and falls behind only Minnesota-Duluth among the remaining four teams.

“You have to make tape-to-tape passes,” said Harrold. “That first pass coming out of the zone is the most important thing for defensemen. If you can’t get out of your zone you’re going to be stuck in there. It’s either making solid tape-to-tape passes or just flipping it out when you have to.

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“Our transition [game] is huge because of the skills of our forwards. Our forwards are fast and they’re extremely talented. If we can get that puck and get it out of our zone, it’s going to cause a lot of problems for the other teams. It definitely makes us work less in our zone.”

Another key to Harrold’s game is consistency — particularly that which accompanies his linemate John Adams. The junior Adams has been paired with Harrold for a season and a half, and the two are comfortable with one another, limiting chances for the opposition to a minimum.

“I think it’s trust,” said Harrold about his on-ice relationship with Adams. “Knowing where your [defensive] partner is and what his tendencies are is important.”

Adams is just one player whose experience players like Harrold can rely upon heading into the most important hockey weekend of their lives. The senior class, too, is a good crutch, particularly in sharing their experiences from their freshman year — 2001 — when they captured the national championship.

“It started before the [regional final] with the seniors telling us about the Frozen Four and how much fun it is,” said Harrold. “They told us about what the banquet is like and stuff like that just gave us an incentive.

“Now that we’re here we’re just focused on winning the first game against Maine then winning the whole thing. They’ve told us to expect some tight games, and to be accountable.”

Accountable — there’s that word again. It’s an expression that Harrold likes. It’s the center of his game. It’s the crux of what makes him a good player.

Now his accountability lies in playing the best hockey that he and his team can for two games. And if BC lives up to its ability and brings its top game, the Eagles may celebrate the school’s third national title, this time in front of their home fans.

That is incentive enough to be accountable.

U.S.-Canada Title Matchup Set For Tuesday

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The U.S. has had nothing but positive results on the ice so far. The only catch is the team is starting to run out of bodies at the forward position as it approaches Tuesday night’s gold-medal game with Canada.

Captain Cammi Granato returned from her injury to take a few shifts in the 9-2 U.S. win over Sweden Monday night, but Minnesota sophomore Krissy Wendell took a scary spill into the boards in the second period and did not return. She’s questionable for the gold-medal game. Harvard sophomore Julie Chu took the night off but is expected to return Tuesday. Shelley Looney remains sidelined.

Despite the disruptions, the U.S. is still loaded with talent at forward. Minnesota sophomore Natalie Darwitz had another hat trick against Sweden to match Canada’s Jayna Hefford for the tournament lead with seven goals. Darwitz, once thought to be lost all season with ligament damage, has been scoring as much as ever as of late.

“I don’t think I played that well tonight,” Darwitz said. “I think I’m just getting a few bounces here and there.”

Potter earned Player of the Game honors for the U.S., and Erika Holst earned the same honors for Sweden, making it a mini-UMD reunion at center ice after the game. It was a big day for UMD players and alums as Nora Tallus scored the game-winner in Finland’s 2-1 win over Russia that clinched her team’s date with Sweden in the bronze-medal game.

Now all attention has turned to the matchup with Canada. One of the toughest tasks for the U.S. will be finding a way to shut down the Canadian top line of Hefford, Harvard alum Jennifer Botterill, and UMD’s Caroline Ouellette, the most prolific scorers of the tournament. The three have found instant chemistry despite not having a long history together.

“I think all of us are a little different in our styles of play and we complement each other well,” Botterill said. “Jayna has incredible speed and ability to break into the open ice. Caroline is strong, physical, and quick and she has great hands and can bury that puck. So I think we’re all really enjoying it, leading each other well, and creating openings and opportunities through our different styles of play.”

Saturday, the U.S. did keep Canada off the scoreboard except for a Botterill power-play goal, but Tuesday will be a greater challenge.

“We’ve just got to keep forechecking them and not give them enough time to make a play,” Potter said. “They have a lot of good players on their team, and so do we, so it’s going to be a battle.”

While Pam Dreyer has stymied Canada so far in international play, allowing two goals in three appearances, Botterill is one player who has found a way to beat her at every level. While at Brown, Dreyer never beat a Harvard team with Botterill on it, and in her final career start against Harvard, she lost 10-3 with Botterill scoring a hat trick against her in the first period. She was pulled at the second intermission.

On Saturday, Botterill was at it again, beating her with a pretty top-shelf shot on the power play. Of course, not everyone on Team Canada can shoot with Botterill’s accuracy, so the Canadians will have to generate shots and get traffic in front of Dreyer to get through.

The biggest question many are asking of the Canadians, aside from beating Dreyer, is whether they can start strong. They trailed after the first period against both the U.S. and Sweden. Botterill thinks the team has learned its lesson. The key, she says, is simply doing the little things right — playing together as a team, supporting each other, moving the puck well, and winning the one-on-one battles.

“If we needed two wake-up calls, we got them,” Botterill said. “I feel pretty confident our team is going to come out ready and realize that we need to play a full 60 minutes of hockey. We’re going to be ready when the puck drops on Tuesday.”

Canada has come out on top in each of the previous seven world championships, and an eighth could be most special of all because a 10,000-strong home crowd is expected for Tuesday’s game.

“The crowds have been phenomenal,” Botterill said. “This is the biggest venue that [Canada] has held it in. It’s been really special to be in a city that really embraces the tournament and our game. We’ve had lots of great tournaments in the past that have been fantastic for different reasons, but this one’s been pretty neat because we have home soil and the number of people supporting it.”

Canada will have plenty of pride to play for, but don’t expect the U.S. to be intimidated by the passionate Canadian fans with their maple leafs and thunder sticks.

“I’m always up for a challenge whether it’s 10,000 people rooting for me or against me,” Potter said. “I just love playing.”

Trouble Bruin? Not Really

By Adam Wodon
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Forgive the NCAA, Frozen Four officials and the four teams if they were rooting for the New Jersey Devils last Sunday.

No, it’s not because of their affinity for Devils general manager, and former Providence coach, Lou Lamoriello. Nor is it because of the presence of Brian Gionta, David Hale and Paul Martin. It’s because a Devils win could have avoided a tricky situation.

Thanks to Boston’s win over New Jersey on Sunday in the regular-season NHL finale, the Bruins wrapped up first place in their division and home ice in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And that means home games on Wednesday and Friday this week. And that could mean chaos at the Frozen Four, which takes place Thursday and Saturday.

But the NCAA’s Mark Bedics is looking on the bright side.

“From the standpoint of accessibility to the locker rooms, it would’ve been nice [without the Bruins],” Bedics said. “But it will bring even more hockey atmosphere to the city, and it will be good to get swept up in that.”

And it’s not like the NCAA was caught off guard. It has prepared for this moment since awarding the bid to Boston years ago. There will be a lot of coordination with a lot of people to make sure it all goes smoothly, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a pain in the neck.

The biggest issue comes Wednesday, when the Bruins have a morning skate, followed by the practices of the four NCAA participants, followed by the Bruins’ game that night against the Montreal Canadiens. The four teams won’t be able to use the two NHL locker rooms, and won’t be able to hang their gear in the usual locations. Other arrangements have been made.

When Thursday comes, the Bruins will practice at their usual off-day practice facility in Wilmington, Mass. The NCAA teams will move all their gear in and play the two games. Things will get easier after that, with just two NCAA teams remaining.

Rink workers will be scrambling more than usual, thanks to the NCAA’s policies on arena signage. It wants its own sponsors in the arena, but moreso, it wants an NCAA “feel” to the building. As a result, dasher board ads will be replaced with NCAA logos, and the numerous Celtics and Bruins banners that hang from the rafters will be moved out of the way in place of NCAA championship banners, then switched, and switched again.

“Normally, I’m done with arena signage [issues] on Tuesday,” Bedics said. “But we won’t be doing it until Thursday.”

Changing out dasher board ads is a relatively simple of removing and adding large stickers. Changing in-ice advertisements is another matter entirely. Not only is it harder and more time consuming, but it has the added problem of jeopardizing the ice conditions during the game.

As a result, the two parties compromised. The Bruins will keep their spoked “B” logo at center ice, but have already removed the in-ice advertising for the entire week, avoiding the need to go back and forth.

So get ready for four straight days of hockey. And, if that isn’t enough, you can always check out the Red Sox home opener at Fenway on Friday afternoon. Good luck getting tickets.

Report: Whitney Set to Leave BU

USCHO Staff Report
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Boston University defenseman Ryan Whitney appears on the verge of foregoing his senior season and signing with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. Whitney, the fifth overall pick by the Penguins in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, has agreed in principle with the team on a three-year contract, according to a report in today’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, citing sources.

Whitney still has time to join the team’s Wilkes-Barre/[nl]Scranton AHL affiliate in time for its playoffs, which start this week. The newspaper says the deal is for the rookie salary cap of $1.185 million annually, plus a performance-related bonus package.

Whitney, 21, blossomed this season at BU, despite the team’s struggles. He led the Terriers in scoring with 25 points in 38 games, and was named All-Hockey East Honorable Mention.

The 6-foot-4, 202-pound defenseman from Scituate, Mass., was on the HEA All-Rookie team in 2001-02, totaling four goals and 21 points in 35 games. His production suffered last season, as he battled an ankle injury all season, though he played through it.

“I’m high on him and the reason is because he’s 6-4 and I’m just shocked at the mobility he has for a big guy,” said former NHL forward Phil Bourque to the Tribune-Review. Bourque, who currently works as the Penguins’ radio color commentator, said he saw Whitney play at this year’s Beanpot.

“He has offensive instincts. He gets the puck and just wants to go north. He’s rough around the edges, so he needs a coach to harness all that offensive aggression. But I was shocked at how smooth he is. I’m careful to use the comparison, but he reminds me of [Hall of Famer] Larry Robinson — a big guy you couldn’t help but notice on the ice.”

Beaney is National D-III COTY

USCHO Staff Report
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Middlebury’s Bill Beaney has been named the winner of the 2004 Edward Jeremiah Award, given annually to the Divison III Men’s Ice Hockey Coach of the Year. It is a record-tying third Jeremiah Award for Beaney, who also received the honor in 1990 and 1995.

Beaney

Beaney

Beaney took a one-year sabbatical in 2002-03 to spend time watching his son Trevor play his senior season at Princeton. After returning to Middlebury, despite losing three of his top six scorers from the season before, Beaney put together a national championship season, capped by an 18-1 run in the school’s last 19 games. It was the team’s sixth national title since Beaney took over the program in 1986, including five straight from 1995-99.

Beaney’ 1996 National Championship team set school records for most wins in a season (26), highest winning percentage (.929), and longest unbeaten streak (29 games). He has also led the team to six ECAC Tournament appearances, with a championship in the 1990-91 season.

The Lake Placid, N.Y., native played four years at New Hampshire, and captained the 1973 team. He began his coaching career in 1974 at Bellows Free Academy (Vermont), leading his teams to three straight championships. He then moved to the college ranks, taking over the reigns at New England College in 1979. He promptly led his teams to four consecutive ECAC Tournaments and one NCAA berth. He was named the New England Coach of the Year in 1981-82 and 1983-84 at New England College.

Beaney has also been heavily involved with USA Hockey. He recently served as the head coach of the U.S. Women’s Junior National team in 1996 and 1997. From 1985-97, Beaney coached USA Hockey’s Junior Olympic team, while serving as an assistant coach for the 1994 U.S. Junior National team. In the summer of 1993, Beaney served as head coach of the gold medal East Team at the Olympic Festival in San Antonio. In addition to his duties with USA Hockey, Beaney was a member of the NCAA Hockey selection committee for six years.

In his recent years, Beaney has often been rumored at Division I coaching positions at Cornell, Harvard and Vermont, but has always taken himself out of the process before it ended.

Twice In A Lifetime

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Denver was expected to be in the Frozen Four. Two seasons ago.

This season’s Pioneers, a group that has some of the same faces as the best Denver team in many years but one that takes on a different form, has done what that 2002 team didn’t do: break the team’s Frozen Four drought. Their victory over top seed North Dakota just down the road in Colorado Springs gave them the West Regional championship and put Denver in the Frozen Four for the first time in 18 years.

Some of them drew on the experience of the 32-win-and-one-painful-memory season of 2002 to fuel this NCAA tournament run. Is Denver a better team because of what happened in Ann Arbor, Mich., that year? It’s hard to say, but this year’s somewhat surprising run to college hockey’s main event has some ties to the Pioneers’ past.

The great rise of the 2002 Pioneers should have created some good memories, but their sudden fall turned them all sour.

“We had a great season and it’ll be a great memory for me when I’m done playing college hockey,” senior captain Ryan Caldwell said. “But at the time, it was tough.”

The Pioneers are doing their part to right that now.

Denver was the consensus No. 1 team in the country going into the 2002 tournament. The Pioneers won the WCHA regular-season title and had just claimed the league’s playoff crown with a victory over Minnesota in front of a large pro-Gophers crowd in St. Paul.

Their 32-7-1 record earned the Pioneers a first-round bye in the last season of the 12-team national tournament. They had 20-goal scorers Kevin Doell and Chris Paradise, but more importantly had a red-hot goaltender in Wade Dubielewicz.

But they were placed into a bracket that saw them matched up with Michigan at Yost Ice Arena — also known as the place top seeds go to die — in the regional final.

The details are still a little irritating to those who took part for the Pioneers. They led 3-2 after two periods, a nice position because they were 28-1 going into the game when leading after 40 minutes. But the rest is one bad memory after another.

Dubielewicz allowed two goals on 12 shots in the third period, Denver couldn’t regain the momentum and Michigan got an empty-netter for a 5-3 victory to cut the Pioneers’ Frozen Four dreams painfully short.

“It was a team that was destined to go to the Frozen Four, a team that probably was expected to win it all,” Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky said, “and yet, I think we ran out of gas. It was a tough grind to win the WCHA regular-season and playoff championship. And we ran into a very difficult region. We ran into a team that was highly energized by their home crowd, and all of a sudden we’re on the outside looking in at the Frozen Four.

“It was devastating. It was absolutely devastating. I still remember it very, very well.”

How could they forget? The Denver players that are now juniors and seniors sure haven’t.

But this is a different brand of team. In 2002, the Pioneers were a strong, well-built group of players that would take you into the corner and make sure you didn’t come out with the puck. Defenseman Bryan Vines, a strong player with a 6-foot-2 frame, was the face that went with that image.

“There was no messing around on that team,” Gwozdecky said. “Because if Bryan got a hold of you when you were messing around, you were in big trouble.”

Vines, the captain, had a imposing defensive supporting cast in the physical Erik Adams and Jesse Cook. Paradise had 22 goals in his senior season.

“For some reason, I feel like we had a bunch of grown men on that team, our seniors and stuff,” said forward Kevin Ulanski, who was a freshman in 2002. “They were pretty big guys. This year, playing together as a team and almost being underdogs coming in just gives us more confidence and brings our intensity level up a whole notch.”

Today, the Pioneers still have a strong defense — see their 1-0 victory over top-seed North Dakota in the regional finals — but in a different way. Denver’s quick defensemen are also quick to jump into the offense, as evidenced by Caldwell’s 14 goals and 26 points from the blue line.

“We’re a lot different team this year than we were two years ago,” said senior goaltender Adam Berkhoel, who in 2002 was the playoff backup to Dubielewicz after splitting time during the regular season. “We had the big, bruising defensemen and we didn’t have as much speed. Now we have a ton of speed out of our forwards and our defensemen are really active in the play and contributing a lot to our success.”

This year’s Denver team hasn’t had nearly as good a season as its counterpart of two years ago, but if success is measured by the end of the season, these Pioneers have the advantage as the underdogs.

And that’s a title they’re OK with. Not only do they have the lowest overall seed of the teams at the Frozen Four, they had to scramble to get a spot in the top half of the WCHA and missed the league’s Final Five.

Some may have written the Pioneers off when they were struggling at midseason, or when they lost a series to Colorado College in the first round of the league playoffs, or when they were drawn in the same regional as North Dakota.

“We’ve been underdogs all year,” Caldwell said. “We’re not supposed to be here right now. We were supposed to be in this position two years ago, but it didn’t work out. That’s just the way hockey is. Being the underdog is fine with us. We’ve dealt with that throughout this whole season and that doesn’t bother us at all.”

The way the 2002 season ended still does bother some of them. It’s too late for Vines or Cook or Paradise to make up for it, but Caldwell, Ulanski and Berkhoel can do their part for the healing of the program in Boston.

“I think my class and the junior class, we really learned from that,” Caldwell said, “and those experiences from that year are really helping us this year to deal with the pressure, and having to play people who are ranked higher than us and are supposed to be better than us.”

Experience This: U.S. Defense Proves Itself Against Canada

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Judging by the Canadian press leading up to Saturday’s World Championship, the U.S. wasn’t in prime position to beat the Canadians by a 3-1 margin and end their run of 37 consecutive World Championship victories. The Americans were green in net and on the blue line, where only one of six defensemen had World Championship experience.

That inexperience was not a factor, mainly for two reasons — the goaltender and five defensemen were well-developed from their U.S. college hockey careers, and the experienced defensemen was Angela Ruggiero.

“In our defense you can see we have five new faces, and quite obviously having that No. 4 is a cornerstone,” said Ben Smith, referring to Ruggiero. “Having that No. 4 is a benefit to the other five and a benefit to one and all.”

“I’m not trading her,” he added facetiously.

At Harvard this season, Ruggiero was the cornerstone of a team that set a school record for shutouts and had the lowest goals against in the nation, despite having inexperienced goaltending and mostly inexperienced defensemen aside from her — the same conditions that exist with the U.S. team relative to international competition.

Smith refers to the college and university programs as the lifeline for the women’s side of USA Hockey, noting that the top men’s players are in the NHL, and the women don’t have an NHL. Of the six U.S. defensemen, four played U.S. college hockey this season — Ruggiero, UMD’s Julianne Vasichek, Providence’s Kelli Halcisak and Wisconsin’s Molly Engstrom. The other two, Brown’s Kim Insalaco and Wisconsin’s Kerry Weiland, are only a year removed.

College even provided USA Hockey with a ready-made defensive pairing in Weiland and Engstrom, who were Wisconsin teammates. Ruggiero notes that Smith has paired up a lot of different athletes who played together at some point.

When the young defensemen faltered, Pam Dreyer was there to shut the door, making 26 of 27 saves for the day. Dreyer, like Insalaco, is a year removed from Brown.

Canada’s Cherie Piper, for one, was not surprised by the strong performance of the U.S. defense. She would know, having played at Dartmouth for the past two years, though some of her teammates didn’t get the message.

“I think that’s completely irrelevant to the game today,” Piper said of the U.S. defensive inexperience.

While the lack of international experience has been looked upon as a negative by the Canadian press, it can be a positive given the Americans’ dismal international history against Canada, aside from the 1998 Olympics.

“All of the young defensemen and our new goalies bring a sense of youth,” Ruggiero said. “They’re fearless. They haven’t lost to Canada in any Olympics or any Worlds. They’re just out there having a good time.”

That’s not to say there aren’t some adjustments that need to be made. One aspect is playing in front of a large crowd, such as the 8,505 people who watched Saturday’s game. This U.S. team prepared for the crowd by practicing with loud techno music that simulated conditions where players couldn’t hear each other.

The U.S. also helped itself by silencing the Canadian crowd for almost the entire game, except for a Jennifer Botterill goal midway through the first period.

“Whether they could play in front of the crowd was the biggest question, but obviously they proved it tonight,” Ruggiero said. “We were psyched to get them the one game in front of a huge crowd so it won’t be a surprise on Tuesday [in the gold medal game].”

Smith felt the biggest adjustment was the speed of the game, which he says is hard to simulate in practice.

“For those five players tonight, it was like Grand Central Station,” Smith said

“But again, we had No. 4 … .We called that number.”

Dynasty Denied

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For Gopher fans, it had started to seem like a foregone conclusion.

After an unthinkable 2-7-1 start, Minnesota recovered midseason, finishing in a tie for fourth in the WCHA before hitting its stride in the postseason.

The Gophers wrapped up home ice for the first round of the WCHA playoffs with a sweep of St. Cloud State, then beat the Huskies twice more — both in impressive fashion — to reach the Final Five, where they dispatched Minnesota-Duluth and then North Dakota to claim the Broadmoor Trophy.

And that, it seemed, was just about that.

When the brackets for the NCAA tournament were announced, Minnesota drew the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional, and a semifinal contest against Notre Dame, a team making its first-ever national appearance.

Gopher fans may have seen the last of Austrian phenom Thomas Vanek (photo: Christopher Brian Dudek).

Gopher fans may have seen the last of Austrian phenom Thomas Vanek (photo: Christopher Brian Dudek).

There, an early scare in the form of two quick scores for the Irish merely strengthened the Gophers’ aura. The two-time defending champions scored five unanswered goals to take a 5-2 win and roll into the regional final against the Bulldogs, whom the Gophers had just beaten a week earlier.

Ay, there’s the rub. Although that Final Five win over UMD secured the top seed for the Gophers — to the consternation of those still not familiar with the selection process — the Bulldogs had won all four regular-season meetings between the teams, including a decisive sweep, 6-1 and 4-1, on Feb. 13 and 14 in Duluth.

So perhaps the Gophers just went to the well once too often.

In the regional showdown, Minnesota-Duluth got sterling play from netminder Isaac Reichmuth, who was in top form in outdueling Gopher freshman Kellen Briggs.

Minnesota’s star forwards — including 2003 playoff hero Thomas Vanek and red-hot Troy Riddle — were shut down by the Duluth defense, although postseason stalwart Grant Potulny did score the Gophers’ lone goal.

That proved lethal to the Gophers’ three-peat hopes, which had seemed very real during their late-season charge. Head coach Don Lucia, though, was in no mood to mope.

“We won 27 games, we won our playoff title and made it to the NCAA quarterfinal,” Lucia told the Minnesota Daily. “I think we had a great year.”

Two weeks earlier, Lucia had bristled — as much as the even-keeled bench boss can — at the suggestion that the Gophers’ season was one of underperformance.

“You’ve got to allow a team to grow,” said Lucia after the Gophers’ sweep of SCSU. “We’ve won, what, 24 games [at the time] and we’re fifth in the PairWise, and you get criticized because it’s not enough.”

In fact, the Gophers put together a 25-6-2 run between the near-disastrous start — which came while contending with the defection and injury of two top blueliners, and the loss of their championship goalie — and the season-ending loss, but still finished three wins short of their goal.

So the college hockey world will have to wait a few more years to see Michigan’s 1951-53 streak of championships equaled. And for Minnesota, the loss begins an offseason of uncertainty.

Apart from the graduation of seniors Potulny, Riddle and playmaking center Matt Koalska, Vanek — the fifth overall pick, by Buffalo, in the 2003 NHL draft — is a candidate to depart the program for the pros. And Hobey Baker finalist Keith Ballard — whose NHL rights were acquired last month by Phoenix — may leave as well.

Should those things come to pass, Minnesota would enter 2004-05 without its top four scorers from a year ago, and with junior-to-be Gino Guyer (11-21–32) as its most productive returning forward.

Of course, both Vanek and Ballard’s departures would be semi-expected, unlike that of netminder Travis Weber, who left the team a month before the start of this season for personal reasons. That left backup Justin Johnson and Briggs, a rookie not expected to carry the load, as the goaltenders for a team that needed a veteran presence between the pipes.

Briggs, the number-one goaltender down the stretch, will have that year of experience to start next season. Also on board will be Guyer, steady blueliner Chris Harrington, high-upside Barry Tallackson, rapidly-developing Danny Irmen and another Potulny — Ryan, who showed great promise after returning from injury, giving up a medical redshirt to play with big brother Grant.

Those players, and the rest of the Gophers, will be expected to take up the chase for the NCAA title anew, no matter how much talent has been lost.

This is the State of Hockey, after all, where championships are expected, even after a 23-year hiatus between legendary coach Herb Brooks’ 1979 title-winners (Brooks’ third, all with Minnesota) and Lucia’s 2002 team.

(The state, of course, may still get its championship courtesy of the Bulldogs, who play Denver in the first national semifinal Thursday.)

So what derailed this year’s chances? Minnesota was picked — inappropriately, perhaps — as the No. 1 team in the nation in the preseason USCHO.com poll, before falling almost out of the national picture by mid-November. But by the end of the season, no one wanted to play the Gophers.

No one, that is, except for the Bulldogs, who were itching for redemption after their Final Five loss. And history will likely record that Minnesota was simply beaten by a better team.

But for the Gophers, it’s hardly a time to hang their heads.

“These seniors have been a part getting two playoff titles, two national titles — you see how difficult it is to get to a Frozen Four once, to be able to win back-to-back national titles is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Lucia after the loss.

“They’ve had the weight of that on their shoulders all year. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys and what they’ve accomplished.”

Paula C. Weston contributed to this report.

U.S. Collegians Highlight World Championship Rosters

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After her Gophers’ 6-2 NCAA final win over Harvard, Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson said that she hadn’t found a team yet that could stop her top line of Krissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz and Kelly Stephens.

This Saturday, she might find one — the Canadian national team. Though the triumphant trio is now wearing red, white, and blue instead of maroon and gold, they have already accounted for five goals through two preliminary games of the tournament — a 9-1 U.S. win over Switzerland and an 8-0 win over Russia.

Now on Saturday comes the challenge of Team Canada, undefeated in every World Championship contested (although each nation has won a single Olympic tournament). Assuming both Canada and U.S. beat Sweden in the three-team round robin later in the week, Saturday’s game will only be an exhibition for Gold Medal game, which will match up the top two teams in the round-robin.

One thing that the U.S., Canada, and Sweden all have in common? U.S. college experience, though it varies from team to team. U.S. collegiate alumni include all 20 American players, eight Canadians (counting goaltender Sami Jo Small, who played for the Stanford men’s club team), and two Swedes.

A U.S. college alum holds or shares the team lead for scoring for all three teams after the preliminary round: Jennifer Botterill (Harvard, Canada), Angela Ruggiero (Harvard, U.S.) and Maria Rooth (Minnesota-Duluth, Sweden). All three played in the 2003 NCAA final, an epic 4-3 double-overtime UMD win over Harvard.

The U.S. alums have accounted for eight of 24 Canadian goals, and all 17 U.S. goals so far. U.S. graduates from the past four years alone have accounted for 13 of the 17 U.S. goals.

That said, the goals that matter most are still to come.

Final-Round Players with U.S. Collegiate Experience
(alumni by class year)

Team USA
Brown (4) – Pam Dreyer ’03, Kim Insalaco ’03, Kathleen Kauth ’01, Katie King ’97
Minnesota (3) – Natalie Darwitz, Krissy Wendell, Kelly Stephens
Harvard (2) – Julie Chu, Angela Ruggiero
Minnesota-Duluth (2) – Jenny Potter, Julianne Vasichek
Northeastern (2) – Chanda Gunn, Shelley Looney ’94
Providence (2) – Kelli Halcisak, Cammi Granato ’93
Wisconsin (2) – Molly Engstrom, Kerry Weiland ’03
Dartmouth – Katie King ’02
New Hampshire – Tricia Dunn ’96
Princeton – Andrea Kilbourne ’03

Team Canada
Dartmouth (2) – Gillian Apps, Cherie Piper
Harvard – Jennifer Botterill ’03
Brown – Becky Kellar ’97
Cornell – Dana Antal ’97
Minnesota-Duluth – Caroline Ouellette
Northeastern – Vicky Sunohara ’89
Stanford – Sami Jo Small ’97
St. Lawrence – Gina Kingsbury

Team Sweden
Minnesota-Duluth – Erika Holst .03, Maria Rooth .03

Former teammates facing off:
Harvard – Botterill (Canada) vs. Ruggiero, Chu (U.S.)
Minnesota-Duluth – Ouellette (Canada) vs. Potter (U.S.) vs. Holst, Rooth
(Sweden)
Brown – Kellar (Canada) vs. King (U.S.)

Broadcast Information

All final round games will be broadcast over the web via www.whrb.org, and the gold medal game will be broadcast over the Web and over the air at 95.3 FM in the Boston area.

All U.S. final round games will be broadcast over the web via www.usahockey.com

All Canadian final round games will be televised on TSN.

Wrapup: Division III

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Thoughts on the Championship

For an unprecedented second year in a row, Norwich hosted the Division III championship, and again did an outstanding job. The hockey was some of the best I’ve seen in quite a while — the three games were decided by a total of four goals, with two ending in overtime. Check out our coverage on the Division III frontpage.

The semifinal battle between Middlebury and Norwich was as good a game as I’ve seen in years. Clocking in at over 87 minutes, it reminded me of the classic Maine-Michigan semifinal battle in Providence in 1995.

St. Norbert gets a step closer each year to the elusive NCAA title, and I get a feeling that next year could belong to the Green Knights, especially if they can secure home ice for the finals. With 10 teams in the tournament next season, the odds favor that. St. Norbert played as well as it could have last weekend, and the title game could have gone either way.

I was especially impressed at the way all the players, winners and losers, conducted themselves in the press conferences after each game. Their schools are fortunate to have such well-spoken student-athletes.

Thanks to Norwich’s SID/Assistant Director of Public Affairs Dave Caspole and Athletic Director Tony Mariano, and to all the folks who stopped by to chat with the USCHO team.

Tough Choices

At this time every year, I offer my take on the 2003-2004 Division III All-Americans, floating some alternative choices that perhaps didn’t get the recognition they deserved.

This year, more than any in recent memory, the choices were difficult, with a few obvious standouts but many other qualified players in the running.

“Things were pretty wide-open this year,” said one coach. “A lot of guys were calling me, asking, ‘Who did you pick? And I’d say, ‘I’m not sure yet. Who did you pick?'”

While every player listed is deserving of the award, the selections for goalies in the East are somewhat puzzling. Raj Bhangoo has had an outstanding four years at Wentworth. I have seen him play twice in person, and he turned in two of the best performances I have ever seen, including a 50-save performance in a 4-3 win at RIT in December, 2001 and 52-save effort in a 2-2 against the Tigers at Matthews arena back in October of 2002. I’ve also seen Hobart’s Adam Lavelle quite a number of times, and he was the main reason that the Statesman captured their first ever league title and trip to the NCAA tournament.

However, this season Bhangoo was only 18th in the nation in save percentage, and Lavelle was not in the top 20. Neither was in the top 20 nationally in GAA. In the NCAA quarterfinals, Lavelle gave up nine goals, while Bhangoo gave up six goals in two periods.

Some obvious candidates that were not selected were Middlebury’s Marc Scheuer, who led the nation in GAA (1.42). While the votes were cast before his stellar performance in the NCAA tournament, and Scheuer didn’t rise to prominence until January, he played 20 games and was the hottest goalie in Division III down the stretch.

Another eastern goalie worthy of consideration is Wesleyan’s Jim Panczykowski, who had a .919 save percentage on a whopping 798 shots faced. Out west, Lake Forest’s Joe Cameron led the nation in save percentage (.944), stopping 472 of 500 shots.

Some other players who may have been overlooked were:

  • Jaakko Kolari (New England) — Had 39 points in just 22 games as a freshman.
  • Jimmy Sokol (Utica) — Leading the Pioneers to their best season ever, Sokol had the highest points per game average (1.77) of any player not selected as an All-American.
  • Mike Lukajic (Oswego) and Ryan Langenbrunner (St. John’s), a couple of players who might not have had the points totals they had last season, but are still among the best out there.
  • Ryan Fairbarn (RIT) — I may be a bit biased, but having seen most of the 111 games he played, but I’d be hard-pressed to find a defenseman who played as well in all three zones. He scored 120 career points and was one of the best special-teams players I saw the past four seasons.
  • Mike Tucciarone (RIT) — Had 34 points in only 14 games before suffering a season-ending injury. He was leading the nation in points per game when he went down. Not enough games played to be considered.

    In the Offseason

    Here are some things to keep a watch on while waiting for next season to begin:

  • Coaching Moves: Nick Russo is out at Neumann, so look for a new coach to be named soon. On a better note, both Chris Potter at Wesleyan and Jon Deptula at Wentworth have recently had the “interim” tag removed from their titles and are now officially head coaches. Potter, who took the job just weeks before the season began, guided Wesleyan to one of its best seasons, while Deptula took over in January and led the Leopards into the NCAA tournament.
  • Anticipating 10 bids: Next season will bring about two changes to the NCAA tournament process, both for the good. The field expands to 10 teams next season, and Pool B teams will now be eligible for Pool C bids. The ECAC West will expand to seven teams with the addition of Lebanon Valley, but will remain in Pool B for at least one more season. There’s a year-long waiting period for conferences that apply for an NCAA automatic qualifier, which the ECAC West can do now that a seventh team has been added.
  • Neutral Sites: Another thing to look for in the offseason is news from the NCAA on which sites have been selected to host the 2006, 2007 and 2008 Division III championships. Look for an announcement in July. While the NCAA cannot release the list of sites that have put in bids to host, USCHO has learned some of the details. Sources say that a total of eight bids were submitted, with an additional bid in process for the 2007 or 2008 championships. Of the original eight, only two were from the West: Wisconsin-Superior’s Wessman Arena and MSOE’s new rink, which should be completed by 2006.

    We’ve had less luck tracking down the Eastern sites so far, but we know that Elmira has put in a bid using the First Arena. Oswego is working on a bid to host in its new facility, which won’t be ready until 2007.

    Sincere Thanks

    Looking back on the 2003-2004, I’m struck by the number of off-ice stories that emerged, but that in no way takes away from what was one of the most wide-open, unpredictable seasons in many years.

    Thanks to all the coaches, players, athletic directors and SIDs who helped me this season, and also to the numerous parents and fans who got in touch with me to share your ideas and opinions.

    While there was less Division III coverage at USCHO this season, I hope that what we did bring you helped you follow and enjoy this sport that we all care about so much. Look for several changes next season that will re-assert USCHO’s mission to be the “Definitive College Hockey Resource” — for Division I as well as Division III.

    • USCHO Town Meeting Returns in 2004

    USCHO Staff Report
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    For the fourth consecutive year, USCHO.com is sponsoring a Town Meeting to entertain and inform college hockey fans during the festivities at the NCAA Frozen Four. This year’s USCHO.com Town Meeting topic is “The State of College Hockey from the Coaches’ Perspective,” and the panel will include prominent members of the college hockey community.

    Members of last year's panel included (l. to r.) Ian McCaw, Ron Grahame, Wayne Dean and Tom Jacobs. (photos: Ed Trefzger)

    Members of last year’s panel included (l. to r.) Ian McCaw, Ron Grahame, Wayne Dean and Tom Jacobs. (photos: Ed Trefzger)

    The Town Meeting takes place this year at 1 p.m. (ET) on Friday, April 9, 2004 at Boston’s famed Faneuil Hall, just prior to the presentation of the Hockey Humanitarian Award and the Hobey Baker Award.

    As in years past, USCHO.com’s Jayson Moy will preside over a question and answer session where fans will be able to interact directly with the panel: Joe Bertagna, commissioner of Hockey East and president of the American Hockey Coaches Association; Tom Anastos, commissioner of the CCHA; and a select group of coaches which include Blaise MacDonald of Mass.-Lowell and Jim Tortorella of Colby.

    “Each year, our goal is to give fans a behind the scenes look at college hockey,” said Moy. “These town meetings have helped people ask direct questions to insiders, something they may not be able to do in any other setting.”

    The third annual USCHO.com Town Meeting was held last year, at the Frozen Four in Buffalo, New York. The event was attended by hundreds of fans, and featured the members of the NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Committee.

    Faneuil Hall is located right in downtown Boston, bordering the Government Center and Haymarket. More information on directions and parking can be found here: http://www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com/VisitorInfo/Directions/

    Steve Turner of Brooklyn, N.Y., asks a question during last year's forum.

    Steve Turner of Brooklyn, N.Y., asks a question during last year’s forum.

    Fans will be admitted with tickets only. Unlike recent years, this year’s festivities are in a much smaller venue, and seating is highly limited. Fans can pick up tickets to this, plus the Humanitarian and Hobey Baker Award presentations starting at 10:00am that day at Boston’s City Hall Plaza at the NCAA Beyond The Game exhibit. Tickets are free, but are limited. No one will be admitted inside Faneuil Hall without a ticket.

    USCHO is concluding its eighth full year of operation. It is the No. 1 source for college hockey news, game reports, statistics, columns and analysis. Since its inception, USCHO’s readership has swelled to the tune of approximately 10 million page views per month, the highest figures for any web site in its category.

    USCHO extensively covers Division I and III, men’s and women’s hockey. It has won multiple honors for its coverage, including the Scarlet Quill Award, given annually by Boston University to the publication that best covers its sports teams.

    USCHO is also well-known for its famed PairWise Rankings, a tool that mimics the process used to select the field for the NCAA tournament. It has accurately predicted the NCAA tournament field since its inception. In addition, the Division I USCHO.com weekly Poll is the largest of its kind, with 40 contributors, and is the only college hockey poll recognized by the Associated Press.

    Far From Finished

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    Fini.

    That’s what Junior Lessard thought his season was. Fini. Over.

    And how cruel would it have been? Lessard fell to the ice with a twisted knee on March 20 in the third-place game of the WCHA Final Five. He didn’t get off the ice in good shape.

    The thoughts started going through his mind. Is this injury bad enough to end the season? In the third-place game, a game that was for nothing but pride? Would it keep him from playing in the NCAA tournament, a goal he had held for four years?

    It sure seemed bad enough to bring the Minnesota-Duluth senior’s season, a possible Hobey Baker season, a possible NCAA championship season, to an abrupt close. At least that’s what was in his head.

    Junior Lessard is the nation's leading scorer, and is on verge of a Hobey Baker Award as his team enters the Frozen Four.

    Junior Lessard is the nation’s leading scorer, and is on verge of a Hobey Baker Award as his team enters the Frozen Four.

    “The thing I was most disappointed about is I thought my season was maybe going to be over,” said Lessard, a St. Joseph de Beauce, Quebec, native who doesn’t try to hide a hint of a French accent. “It took me four years to get to the NCAA tournament, and I was just like, ‘Are you kidding me? How can that happen?'”

    As it turned out, Lessard’s season was far from fini.

    Lessard didn’t practice until the day before the Midwest Regional semifinal against Michigan State, but the right winger got a pair of good signs that day: He was able to skate well enough on the tender left knee to conclude he was going to be able to play; and he won the showdown, the team’s penalty shot competition at the end of the week’s practices.

    Then, another breakthrough. He scored two goals on four shots in a 5-0 rout of Michigan State and had more of a supporting role as the Bulldogs dispatched two-time defending national champion Minnesota.

    That leaves Lessard — USCHO’s Player of the Year for 2003-04 — in what has to be one of the high points of his career. On Thursday, he’ll take the national scoring lead into the Bulldogs’ national semifinal game against WCHA rival Denver in Boston. A day later, he’ll be in the front row as one of the three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award.

    If things go well for his team on Thursday, he’ll play for a national championship on Saturday.

    The stakes are part of the reason Lessard was able to heal so quickly from what appeared at first to be a serious injury. He fell behind one of the goals at the Xcel Energy Center in the WCHA third-place game and immediately tried to get up. But the knee wouldn’t allow it.

    After a few minutes, he left the ice with some help and a lot of nervous teammates and coaches. He returned to the bench for the third period but was relegated to supporting the team from the sidelines.

    "There’s lots of guys that might be able to shoot as hard and as quick as him, but he has the ability to know where to go on the ice, find open areas and scoring areas."

    — Lessard’s linemate Evan Schwabe

    As the Midwest Regional approached, the talk shifted from a likelihood that Lessard would at least try to play to a strong doubt that the senior assistant captain would pull on the sweater. Every time he pushed off on the left leg in that pregame skating session, Lessard could feel the pain in his knee.

    It didn’t matter.

    “You know what you’re playing for and you know what the reward’s going to be, so you can suck it up a little more and deal with it,” Lessard said. “That was tough, but I just thought playing was a pretty big boost for my teammates as well.”

    It sure seemed like it was.

    “For any player, when you have an injury, there’s always uncertainty mentally,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said. “I think that gave him some confidence, which also gave us confidence that, hey, maybe he can play.”

    Judging from the season Lessard has had, he sure can play.

    The red-haired 23-year-old leads the nation with 30 goals and 61 points this season and is bidding to become UMD’s fourth Hobey winner and the first since Chris Marinucci won 10 years ago with a 61-point season.

    [Note: Tom Kurvers (1984) and Bill Watson (1985) are the other two Bulldogs’ Hobey winners. In a piece three years ago, Kurvers discussed being named Hobey winner the day before the national title game, and the distractions that brought, plus his remembrances of the entire 1983-84 season, the last time UMD made the national title game. — ed.]

    Lessard, 6-foot and 195 pounds, is plus-22 for the season and has 16 points in his last eight games, a windup that serves notice that he scores in the critical times of the season.

    But all of it — the scoring lead, the Hobey status, the Frozen Four spot — is a bonus when you consider how fortunate Lessard is to be around to talk about his harrowing experience in Lake Superior this summer.

    Lessard, teammate Evan Schwabe and their girlfriends were swimming in the lake in August when they found trouble.

    “It all happened so fast,” Schwabe said, “it’s hard to describe.”

    The waves were big that day — a good thing, they figured initially. They were out in chest-high water when, almost instantly, they found they couldn’t touch the bottom. Waves were crashing down on top of them.

    Schwabe tried to yell for help, but it was so windy no one heard him.

    Lessard and his girlfriend were about 10 feet farther from shore than Schwabe, who buried his head and swam in. He got back safe, but the three others were still in the water, struggling to keep their heads above the waves.

    David Israel, who was enjoying the day at the beach with his family, grabbed his boogie board and first rescued the players’ girlfriends. That left Lessard out in the water alone.

    Finally, Israel got back to shore with Lessard, too, ending that nightmare but not its consequences.

    Lessard said he wasn’t able to return to offseason workouts for three weeks, and even when he did thereafter, he felt a pain in his lungs. He recovered just in time for hockey season.

    “It’s behind us. We learned from it and we were fortunate enough to get out of it and be able to play again this year,” Lessard said. “I think this made us realize how fragile life can be. From my point of view, now instead of complaining about hockey and the little things, I just try to enjoy it instead and be thankful to be able to play still.”

    Knowing Lessard’s offseason background makes the success he has enjoyed in the last six months all the more impressive.

    In the race for the Hobey, he’s up against North Dakota forward Zach Parise and Brown goaltender Yann Danis. Lessard has what might be an advantage in that he is the only player from that trio still playing collegiately. Both Danis’ and Parise’s seasons were over before the Hobey voters made their final decisions.

    Some of Lessard’s biggest supporters in that cause happen to be people he works with every day.

    “He has probably one of the best releases and hardest shots in college hockey,” said Schwabe, who centers Lessard’s line. “There’s lots of guys that might be able to shoot as hard and as quick as him, but he has the ability to know where to go on the ice, find open areas and scoring areas.

    “He always gets in good position and he always gets his shots off. You rarely see him get shots blocked. And he hits the net with most of his shots, too. And the work he does along the boards and in the corners, he’s so big and strong that usually it takes a couple guys to knock him off the puck. That just opens up room for his linemates.”

    Said Sandelin: “From the beginning until now, he’s been very good for us. To me, it’s only fitting that he’s there. And like every coach, I would be disappointed if he didn’t win, but if he doesn’t, it’s still a great honor for him to be recognized as one of the top players in the country. I’m real happy that he is one of the three because that’s the kind of year he has had. And I think that’s what he has meant to our team.”

    For Lessard, however, there’s a different kind of trophy he’d rather take back to Duluth at the end of his collegiate career.

    “I don’t really want to think about [the Hobey] too much,” he said. “I would rather win the team hardware before I take individual stuff, but it’s a great feeling to be up for it.”

    That would be an ending worth remembering.

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