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Harvard’s Ruggiero Named Kazmaier Winner

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Harvard defenseman Angela Ruggiero was named Saturday as the winner of the 2004 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winner, given to the top collegiate women’s hockey player.

Harvard has produced the Kazmaier winner three of the last four years. Ruggiero follows in the footsteps of teammate Jennifer Botterill, who won the award in 2001 and 2003.

Ruggiero

Ruggiero

Ruggiero ranks first in the country in defenseman scoring, earning 61 points on 21 goals and 40 assists. For her career, she stands fourth on the all-time list with 252 points. She leads just about every statistical category for defensemen.

In addition, Ruggiero has twice played for the U.S. National Team, earning a gold medal in 1998 and a silver medal in 2002.

Earlier in the week, Ruggiero was named a First Team All-American for the fourth time in her collegiate career, a distinction she also shares with Botterill.

The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is named for Princeton defender Patty Kazmaier, who was a four-year varsity letter-winner in the early 1980s. Kazmaier died from a rare blood disease in 1990.

“When it started out, nobody knew who [Patty Kazmaier] was,” explains Laura Halldorson, who was a teammate of Kazmaier’s at Princeton, and who is now on the Executive Committee that oversees the Kazmaier Award. “Over time, it has been great that the teams would come, and the people who would come would learn more about her life and what she was about. It’s nice to have a name and a person attached to the award.

The finalists, (l-r): Jenny Potter and her daughter, Madison, Chanda Gunn, and Angela Ruggiero (photos: Russell Jaslow).

The finalists, (l-r): Jenny Potter and her daughter, Madison, Chanda Gunn, and Angela Ruggiero (photos: Russell Jaslow).

“When it started, there was a question of whether we should name the award, or just call the award the Player of the Year,” she continued. “I think it has a lot more meaning with someone’s name and story attached to the award.”

One of the positives about the award, Halldorson said, is that it helps players remember the history and tradition of the sport.

“It’s great that the current student-athletes realize that there were pioneers before them that paved the way for them to have what they have today.”

“Players tend to concentrate on the present, a game, a championship, what’s in front of them,” agreed Digit Murphy, coach of Brown and member of the Host Committee. “It’s nice to remember where they came from.”

All three finalists for the award, including goaltender Chanda Gunn from Northeastern, forward Jenny Potter from Minnesota-Duluth, and Ruggiero, will be reporting to Halifax, Nova Scotia next week for the World Championships.

The three are close friends, as Gunn and Ruggiero played for the same team when growing up in California, and Ruggiero and Potter (then Schmidgall) were roommates in Nagano in 1998.

The award, administered by the USA Hockey Foundation, was established in 1998, and has been awarded seven times.

Each Division I coach is allowed to nominate up to two players from his or her team. Those nominees are sent collectively to the coaches, who voted for the top 10 finalists. The finalists, as well as the winner, are selected by a 13-member selection committee comprised of coaches, media members, and a member of USA Hockey.

Chanda Gunn and Angela Ruggiero sign autographs for young fans.

Chanda Gunn and Angela Ruggiero sign autographs for young fans.

Past Patty Kazmaier Award Winners
1998 Brandy Fisher, F, New Hampshire
1999 A.J. Mleczko, F, Harvard
2000 Ali Brewer, G, Brown
2001 Jennifer Botterill, F, Harvard
2002 Brooke Whitney, F, Northeastern
2003 Jennifer Botterill, F, Harvard

2004 Patty Kazmaier Selection Committee
Jackie Barto, Ohio State coach
Adam Brinker, Findlay coach
Melody Davidson, Cornell coach
Kelly Dyer, USA Hockey
John Gilbert, freelance reporter
Laura Halldorson, Minnesota coach
Mark Johnson, Wisconsin coach
Jeff Kampersal, Princeton coach
Barbara Matson, Boston Globe
Brian McCloskey, New Hampshire coach
Pam Schmid, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Sandy Smith, Concord Monitor
Katey Stone, Harvard coach

Growing Pains

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Expansion.

Lately, it seems like expansion and college hockey’s national tournaments go hand in hand. Last season, Division I men’s NCAAs expanded from 12 teams to 16, and from two regionals to four, with great success.

Two years ago, the men’s Division III field expanded from eight teams to nine, adding a play-in game to the slate played prior to the championship. The D-III women started NCAA postseason play altogether the same year.

The year before that, Division I women’s hockey started, with a four-team field. Three years later, it is still four, despite schools adding programs or moving to Division I status. This year, for instance, Clarkson started Division I play. Rensselaer has announced its intention to move to D-I in 2005.

“The NCAA wants to make sure that if we go to eight teams, those are good games, those are good teams,” said Laura Halldorson, head coach of Minnesota. “But I feel strongly that with the added number of teams and the increased parity across the country that if you went to eight teams you would still have very competitive games and you would give those student-athletes and fans something to look forward to.”

The pool of teams at the top tier, playing at the highest level, is larger than it has ever been. There is feeling among coaches across the country that just about all of the teams in the USCHO.com Division I Women’s Poll could be competitive for the national title.

“Certainly there were six, seven, even eight teams that could be here and competing on a very high level this weekend,” said Katey Stone, head coach of Harvard. “It’s time. There’s no question: It’s time for expansion.”

And yet the tournament remains at four. Almost from the beginning, there were calls to move to an eight-team field. Those calls have now reached a crescendo.

“I can’t wait for that to happen,” said Halldorson. “We as coaches wanted it to happen sooner, because we are impatient and we want things right away. But from an NCAA perspective, you have to walk before you can run.”

Certainly, few involved with the sport is against expansion. But the key is in convincing the NCAA, the organizing body that sets the rules for postseason play, of that fact. Cutting through the red tape means it can take time to put any plan in motion.

The good news is, that project is just about complete.

“All of the NCAA bodies that need to approve this pretty much have,” said Carolyn Campbell-McGovern, chair of the Division I Women’s Ice Hockey Committee with the NCAA. “So it’s gone through the process and has not met with any resistance along the way.

“The final step in expansion of any sort for anything in the NCAA is the final approval of the budget, which happens over the summer.”

Could this weekend’s results affect that decision? If the games are lopsided, or if the crowd is particularly small, could that influence approval?

Campbell-McGovern, who is also the Senior Associate Director if the Ivy Group, says no. “I don’t think that they will,” she said. “The groups that look at the growth of women’s hockey, at media attention, that sort of analysis has already be done.

“This weekend might be seen as icing on the cake, in some sense. But that analysis has already been done and it has been determined that women’s ice hockey deserves the expansion.”

So hopefully next year’s tournament will be an eight-team tournament. Campbell-McGovern said that if expansion happens, it would be to eight teams, not to five, or six, or any other number.

Of course, expansion does increase the complexity and expense of the tournament. There would need to be seven games to decide a champion, rather than three, and while three games can take place on one weekend, the growth of the bracket would require an additional weekend to be added to the season.

However, since the locations and dates of the future women’s Frozen Fours have been announced through 2007, those dates are fixed. So an additional weekend of play would have to come at the expense of the conference tournaments.

For some conferences, like the CHA and the WCHA, the conference tournaments already happen two weeks before the Frozen Four, so an extra game, most likely played at campus sites of the four highest-rated seeds, would not inconvenience anyone.

The WCHA and Hockey East, however, had their conference tournaments the week before the Frozen Four this year, meaning that in future seasons, either postseason play would have to be compressed, or the regular season shortened to accommodate the extra round.

But that’s a problem that women’s hockey fans are willing to deal with.

An additional feature of expansion is that student-athletes from other schools would get a chance to play for a national title.

“Ideally there would be four automatic bids from the conferences, and four at-large bids, which will add so much excitement to the conference championship, which is already exciting,” said Stone. “I think we are ready. I hope the NCAA feels this is a valuable commodity for expanding.”

But for all the talk of parity, there is not much evidence of it on the ice, at least not so far.

In the four years of the NCAA title, there have been sixteen bids awarded. Fourteen have gone to five teams — Dartmouth (3), Harvard (3), Minnesota (3), Minnesota-Duluth (3) and St. Lawrence (2).

All three previous titles have gone to UMD. And while that will change this year, with Harvard and Minnesota in the final, it seems the chances of winning it all have been concentrated among just a few teams.

“There is becoming more parity, or at least in our league there is,” explained Halldorson. “We had a head start, and in our league, Minnesota and Duluth have pretty much been the top two teams.

“But Wisconsin finished second this year. Other programs experience growing pains, where it takes a couple of years to bring in a full complement of scholarships. Teams are catching up to each other.

“I think it will be fun to see eight teams in the tournament, because I don’t think you will end up with the same four teams in the end. It could be a little more wide-open.”

Stone agrees that the thrust of expansion is to provide more opportunities to more schools, and more student-athletes.

“There are so many opportunities to play women’s college hockey in this country now that it’s only fair to provide as many opportunities as possible to compete for a national championship,” Stone said.

In the final analysis, things look rosy for the future of women’s hockey, and in particular, on the likelihood of expansion.

“We are confident right now,” said Campbell-McGovern. “As far as we are concerned, it is approved.

“But the final stamp is not on it.”

Sweet Redemption

By Timothy M. McDonald
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Friday night in his team’s NCAA opener, Maine sophomore goaltender Jimmy Howard turned in his worst performance of the year.

From the goaltender who topped the nation with a goals against average barely above one and a save percentage over .950, came an ugly and abbreviated outing against the Harvard Crimson in which he surrendered four goals — tying a season high — on 33 shots and was pulled by coach Tim Whitehead after two periods.

All of the ugliness came on Howard’s 20th birthday: hell of a present, huh?

Doyle, Howard’s replacement, came in and blanked the Crimson, placing Maine in position to stage the thrilling comeback. In a postgame press conference filled with Black Bear elation at their come-from-behind 5-4 win over Harvard, the question was asked of Whitehead which goaltender would start against Wisconsin.

Howard or Doyle? Whitehead hedged, saying he’d have to consult “the tape.”

Most of the assembled press corps saw that non-answer as a reply of “Doyle.” At least one person did not.

“I had a hunch [I’d start] because I was playing so well down the stretch,” Howard said.

And that, it turned out, was exactly Whitehead’s reasoning.

“We knew either way we had a good [goalie] — either Frank or Jimmy,” he said.

“Our gut feeling was that Jimmy was playing so well down the stretch,” he explained. “We trusted our gut and went with Jimmy, and he bounced back very, very strong.”

When reporters still didn’t have too many questions for Howard, even after he limited the Badgers to one goal on 37 shots, Whitehead added:

“Doesn’t anyone have any questions for Jimmy? He was pretty good, wasn’t he?”

He certainly was, back in the form that made him the nation’s leading netminder, Howard made some especially strong saves in the second period when Wisconsin really took the play to the Black Bears, outshooting them in that period 14-7.

He was playing with self-assurance again, in part because Whitehead and assistant coach Grant Standbrook had decided that he should start in Maine’s most important game of the season.

“When you have your coaching staff and the 24 guys behind you it gives you so much confidence,” Howard said.

But Howard was never really lacking in that quality, even after getting pulled Friday.

“I slept like a baby last night,” he said. “I regrouped last night and calmed myself. I was zeroed in. I knew I had ‘it’ from the moment I got off the bus.”

And with Howard having “it,” Maine is well-prepared heading into the NCAA Frozen Four in Boston and a date against another top goaltender, whether he be Al Montoya or Matti Kaltiainen.

Family Reunion

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When Miami and Denver meet Friday in West Regional action, the competition behind the benches will be as fierce as that on ice. Denver head coach George Gwozdecky coached the Miami RedHawks — then the Redskins — from 1989-94, where a scrappy player named Enrico Blasi captained the squad.

Blasi, the first Miami graduate to return as head coach, would rather see the spotlight shine on the RedHawks and Pioneers. “Right now people are making a big deal George and myself, but this is about the players, both us and Denver. This time of year, you’re going to play a quality opponent, no matter who it is,” he said.

But this story is too good to ignore. Fortunately for those who love a great tale, Gwozdecky was more talkative.

“If this were a match where we could play their staff — our staff vs. their staff — on the golf course, I could tell you we’d have a huge advantage,” said Gwozdecky. “You could probably quote me as saying we’d take them behind the woodshed and give them a pretty good thrashing.”

Coach, consider yourself quoted.

The connections between the Miami and Denver staffs don’t end with Gwozdecky and Blasi. Denver assistant Seth Appert and Miami assistant Jeff Blashill — both goalies in their playing days — were teammates and roommates at Ferris State from 1994-96. Denver assistant Steve Miller was an assistant to Gwozdecky from 1991-94, where he coached Blasi and Miami assistant Chris Bergeron. When Blasi was an assistant under Gwozdecky in Denver, he roomed with Appert.

“The assistants that are there too — we’ve been through a lot together,” said Blasi. “Steve and Seth — I lived with both of them. There’s a lot of history there, a lot of good times, a lot of respect.”

The respect goes both ways. Or all ways. You get the picture. “Rico and his staff have done a terrific job,” said Gwozdecky. “They’re a very, very good team.”

Gwozdecky said he won’t be expecting mirror-image hockey when the teams take the ice, in spite of the time Blasi spent under his tutelage.

“Good coaches, and Rico is one of them, don’t copy one specific team or one specific philosophy. I think Rico is a terrific young coach, and I think he has done a great job of taking a lot of things from a lot of different schools of thought and implementing that into the kind of talent he has on his team.

“They’re very good at protecting the puck, they’re very good on the wall, their position game is strong, they’ve got a great power play, they play tough defensively. When I look at their team, they don’t resemble our team hardly at all.”

Gwozdecky has even more respect for the team Blasi has built because he’s familiar with the limitations of recruiting to Miami. The school is nestled in the southwest corner of Ohio, close to the Indiana state line, and has to compete with Big Ten schools and their Big Ten budgets for the same players.

“It’s the fact that their facility — it’s a nice facility, but it’s not a facility that’s going to attract the top recruits when you’re going against a school like Michigan State or Ohio State or Michigan State … with their new facilities.” Goggin Arena, built in 1976, holds 2,200 people.

“They are building a new facility which is going to be right on campus. It’s a gorgeous facility. They start the new building this spring, and it will be ready two falls from now. I think you’ve got to give Rico all the credit for that.

“He’s the guy that had the idea, he’s the guy that has created the interest, and he’s the guy that has developed the program. The university says, ‘You betcha, we’ve got to have this kind of facility that’s going to allow us to continue to build with the other schools across the country.'”

Blasi learned more than he can say, he said, from Gwozdecky as coach, mentor, friend. “The way he deals with people, the way he approaches his everyday routine — first class. Hopefully we’ve tried to do that here. When people respect you, they’ll play for you.”

When Blasi took the reins at Miami in 1999, Gwozdecky gave him one piece of advice. “To be myself. He was obviously very happy, and he told me — I was worried, scared is probably the better word — he told me to just go out and be myself. He knew how he ran things and that I would do the same.”

Blasi has one word of advice for Gwozdecky before Friday’s match: “Lose.”

“How do you give a mentor advice?” said Blasi. “We talk on a weekly basis, sometimes twice, three times a week. He called me Sunday morning when he got home. I don’t even know if it’s a friendship — it’s probably more a family than anything.”

Denver leads Miami 3-1-0 all-time, with the teams most recently meeting December 27, 2002, at the Denver Cup. The Pioneers came away from that one with a 6-0 win, the only time Gwozdecky and Blasi have met as head coaches. “He did kick our butts pretty bad,” said Blasi.

And, as Gwozdecky boasts, the butt-kicking isn’t limited to hockey. “I can tell you this, knowing factually over the last three years or so, down at the national [coaches] convention, it has always been the Denver staff vs. the Miami staff, and it’s been no contest. There has been a lot of beaking over the years from the Miami side of things, and even though they’ve been humbled pretty much every year, they never stop talking.

“Unfortunately, it’s not staff vs. staff, and all kidding aside, they’ve got a terrific team and a team that’s seasoned and experienced. If there is any subtle edge that any team might have, it’s their health vs. our familiarity with the World Arena, in addition to us playing in Colorado. I think it’s a great matchup.”

“We’ve been through a lot together, as player and coach, as coach and coach, and now as friends,” said Blasi. “It’ll be fun, but at the same time, somebody’s going to win, somebody’s going to lose, and it will take a while to get over all of that. Obviously I respect the man a tremendous amount.”

At the coaches convention in Florida every April, loser buys lunch. In Colorado Springs, there’s considerably more at stake.

Crimson Cornerstone

By Timothy M. McDonald
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It was a difficult year for Harvard goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris, for as his team struggled with high preseason expectations, he took a healthy share of the blame for the Crimson’s mediocre season.

For the first hour and a half of Friday’s game, though, Grumet-Morris was walking on water, making the tough saves and controlling his rebounds. He was facing off against rock-steady Jimmy Howard, and he wasn’t blinking. It seemed to be his night.

Dov-Grumet Morris stopped a season-high 41 shots Friday (photo: Timothy M. McDonald).

Dov-Grumet Morris stopped a season-high 41 shots Friday (photo: Timothy M. McDonald).

He finished the game against No. 1 Maine with a season-high 41 saves and negated its potent offense for a full two periods. But that was not nearly long enough, for in that final frame the Black Bears mounted a furious comeback, scoring four unanswered goals and sending Harvard down to a 5-4 defeat.

For Grumet-Morris and the Crimson, the result, if not the means by which they got there, was familiar. Despite sporting a 13-1 record in the ECAC playoffs, Friday’s loss marked the third straight year Harvard has bowed out in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

Grumet-Morris has been between the pipes for all of them. He was victimized by Maine’s John Ronan in overtime of 2002, when the Black Bears beat Harvard 4-3. And last season, he was in net for Harvard’s 6-4 loss to BU in the Worcester regional.

Both those games were close, at least at the beginning. Friday started out promisingly for Harvard: Grumet-Morris had 31 saves through two periods and had allowed only one goal despite being on the penalty kill three times. And with that backstopping, Harvard’s offense staked a 4-1 lead after two.

“I think we got pretty fortunate tonight,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “I think we were pretty thoroughly outplayed over two periods.”

But in the third, the Crimson defense started to unravel around Grumet-Morris. Harvard was outshot badly in the third after keeping the play even over the first two periods.

“[In the third period] we didn’t clear the puck and they got second opportunities and you don’t want to give a good team like Maine second opportunities,” Grumet-Morris said.

Especially not when they bury the puck like the Black Bears. In the third period, Maine put home four of its 14 shots, and tied the record for the largest comeback win in an NCAA regional.

“They came at us in the third — they finished the job,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni.

“[Maine] was the most difficult team we had to shut down defensively all year,” seconded his captain, Kenny Smith. “They really had us on our heels in the third.”

And, unfortunately for Smith and Harvard, they were unable to shut down Maine defensively for the full 60 minutes. As the Black Bears got better scoring opportunities, Grumet-Morris was unable to keep them off the scoreboard.

But in the eyes of his coach, Grumet-Morris did enough for Harvard to enable the team to win.

“It wasn’t Dov’s fault we lost; he did a good job for us,” Mazzoleni said.

Shadow Of The Maple

By Elliot Olshansky
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After one day, fans in Providence for the women’s Frozen Four have not been at a loss for what to watch.

Minnesota’s Krissy Wendell led her team to a semifinal victory over Dartmouth with a hat trick and an assist, Nicole Corriero put her Harvard Crimson on the board against St. Lawrence with a backhand shot from her knees with her back to the net, and there was a pink elephant at center ice.

Fine, fine, there was no pink elephant. It was more like a red and white one with a maple leaf on its chest.

The absence of Dartmouth’s Cherie Piper and Gillian Apps and St. Lawrence’s Gina Kingsbury has been the proverbial “pink elephant” for all four teams involved in this year’s NCAA championship: everyone knows it’s there, but one gets the feeling that every coach and player at the Dunkin Donuts Center would rather avoid talking about it.

“I don’t want to get into the issue — that whole thing,” said St. Lawrence head coach Paul Flanagan of Kingsbury’s absence following the Saints’ 2-1 semifinal loss to Harvard. However, with the two teams that lost players to Team Canada set to meet in the consolation game on Sunday at 12:30 p.m., and the two unaffected teams getting ready to play for the national championship on Sunday at 4, it’s tough not to notice the correlation.

“Obviously, we’d all love to have all these kids here,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “I think it’s unfortunate to put athletes in this position, and I feel bad for Dartmouth and St. Lawrence — all the kids that remained just as much as the kids that have gone to Canada.”

“I wish they were here,” Minnesota forward Natalie Darwitz said of Apps, Piper, and Kingsbury.

Dartmouth and St. Lawrence, however, were in no mood to feel sorry for themselves. Rather, both teams spoke of using the absences as a rallying point.

“We all kind of turned on [Piper and Apps] when they left: ‘Screw them! We don’t need them,'” Dartmouth forward Krista Dornfried joked.

“It’s nothing against them. It’s just that people look at your team, and they see two national players, and they’re going to say, ‘That’s their team. Those are their players.’ I think it’s great to have them — I wouldn’t give them up for the world — but it’s great to show the world we can do it without them.”

Similarly, in the St. Lawrence camp, Flanagan spoke of his players using Kingsbury’s absence as extra motivation in preparing to play Harvard.

“Gina made a passionate speech after the [ECAC Championship] game on Sunday,” Flanagan said. “It was very emotional, not only for Gina, but for everyone. It was very inspirational.

“We said, ‘We aren’t going to whine because we don’t have Gina. Let’s make up for it. Let’s make her proud.'”

In that department, the Saints took care of business, losing 2-1 after the Crimson blew the Saints out in the ECAC championship, winning by a 6-1 margin.

“I couldn’t be prouder,” Flanagan said of his team.

In the end, that’s what it will come down to. On Sunday, Dartmouth and St. Lawrence will play for third place, leaving behind thoughts of what might have been. Meanwhile, Minnesota and Harvard, the nation’s top two teams, are filling fans’ hearts with dreams of what could be, as the Golden Gophers and the Crimson prepare to play for the national championship.

Big Finish

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The story of Friday’s first Frozen Four semifinal between Minnesota and Dartmouth?

With the score tied 1-1 entering the third period, Minnesota proceeded to dump 10 shots on net to Dartmouth’s two. Four of those 10 were converted for goals, and the Gophers came up with a 5-1 win.

Minnesota had speed that led to breakaways, and quality scoring chances in close to the net throughout the game, but it was in the third period that things broke open.

So what was the difference between the first 40 minutes of the game, and the last 20? There are a number of theories, from hockey conventional wisdom to head-slapping Canadian policies.

The simplest proposal is just that Minnesota needed to shake off the rust after a two-week break. Minnesota downed archrival Minnesota-Duluth on March 14, nearly two weeks ago, for the WCHA championship. Contrast that with Dartmouth, which played in the ECAC tournament last weekend.

“Two weeks is both positive and negative,” said Minnesota’s Natalie Darwitz, who assisted on the first two Minnesota goals. “You get two weeks off for your body, which is positive. But it’s also a negative because you get out of rhythm.

“With not playing last weekend we were a little out of rhythm at first.”

Kate Lane stood tall in goal for Dartmouth (photo: Lee Urton).

Kate Lane stood tall in goal for Dartmouth (photo: Lee Urton).

That sounds good, but Minnesota outshot the Big Green 25 to 20 in the first two periods. Not an overwhelming advantage, admittedly, but Minnesota had the better chances of the two teams. And the fabled Minnesota team speed was on full display on the numerous breakaways that Dartmouth goaltender Kate Lane, a surprise starter in net, was called upon to make.

Quite famously, Dartmouth was missing two members of Team Canada, Gillian Apps and Cherie Piper, who were forced to choose between playing for their college team in the Frozen Four, and playing for their country at the World Championships. They chose their country, caught in a decision that everyone found unfortunate.

No one knows what would have happened Friday if those two players were in the lineup for Dartmouth. However, a secondary questions is: Did the rest of the team wear themselves out making up for the ice time that Apps and Piper would have filled?

“I don’t know that Gillian Apps or Cherie Piper would have scored out there today,” said Mark Hudak, Dartmouth head coach. “Would their presence have helped with the fatigue? Well sure, it’s got to.”

But the mood in the Dartmouth locker room put the lie to that.

“We knew we could do this on our own,” said Krista Dornfried, who scored the only goal of the game for the Big Green. “People look at our team and see those two great players and think that’s the team. It’s great to show the world we have a lot of heart and can do it without them.”

On her team’s dominance in the third period, Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson suggested a third option.

“I think our offense allowed us to play less defense,” she offered. “And it looked like Dartmouth got a little discouraged after we put a few in there in the third period.

“We got stronger as we scored more goals, and that made it difficult for Dartmouth.”

That’s a notion that resonated with Hudak. “They have a tough first line to contain for three periods, and we just ran out of gas,” he said. “Once the muscles get tired, so does the brain. We made some mental mistakes.

“They took advantages of mistakes we made in the third period, which we expected them to do.”

So which was it? A layoff? Missing a couple of key players? Discouragement after falling behind a couple of goals? Simply running out of energy with the game on the line?

Chances are it was actually some of all of these explanations. The question is if history will repeat itself for Minnesota in Sunday’s championship game.

Regardless of what happens, one clear hurdle has been passed for the Gophers. “It’s good to finally get a win here,” chuckled Halldorson, whose team was 0-3-1 in the Frozen Four since the NCAA took the torch from the AWCHA.

Now 1-3-1. And counting.

Deptula Named Head Coach At Wentworth

USCHO Staff Report
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Jonathan Deptula, who became Wentworth’s interim ice hockey coach on Jan. 30, has been named the Leopards’ head coach.

Deptula became interim coach when Wentworth fired Bill Bowes. He coached the Leopards to the ECAC Northeast tournament championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Wentworth lost to Middlebury in the Division III quarterfinals.

Deptula, 26, becomes Wentworth’s fourth head coach since the team was elevated to varsity standing in 1992. He played hockey at Wentworth for four years, graduating in 2000 with a Bachelor’s degree in Management of Technology.

Deptula then became an assistant coach under Bowes. The Leopards reached the ECAC Northeast finals in 2001 and won the conference championship in 2002 and 2003.

“My love for Wentworth and its hockey program is abundant,” said Deptula. “I am hoping that the team and I can continue to achieve great things on and off the ice.”

Deptula is a native of Anchorage, Alaska. During his 94-game career, he scored 23 goals and had 35 assists for 58 points, tied for 12th all-time. He was twice the recipient of the “Leopard Award,” which goes to the team’s unsung hero.

In addition to his coaching duties, Deptula will serve as the department’s strength and conditioning coach, assisting all of Wentworth’s student-athletes with in- and out-of-season conditioning activities.

UPDATED: Channel Surfing

By Adam Wodon
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More college hockey games are available on television than ever before, but each season, the places viewers can turn to for NCAA regionals change, which can make things confusing.

This week, college hockey fans around the country have been scrambling to keep up with where they can watch the 12 regional games, as cable systems, networks and local cable channels add coverage. It’s a patchwork of special set-aside stations on local cable systems, and television sports networks that may be available across a swath of systems and the satellite dishes.

(See current Regional TV Schedule)

Currently, a few markets with teams in the regionals don’t yet have live television coverage of the tournament. The biggest such gap, though, was resolved Thursday in Minneapolis, when the Comcast, Charter and Time Warner cable systems agreed to carry some or all of Victory Sports’ coverage at the NCAA regionals. Victory will broadcast 10 of the 12 games this weekend, eight of them live.

This is the second year that ESPN has held the rights to the complete NCAA hockey tournament. ESPN has broadcast the Frozen Four for years, but until last season, NCAA Productions produced the regionals and distributed them wherever it could. Last season, ESPN bought the rights, and through its ESPN Syndication arm, sells the games to whatever outlets are willing to pick them up.

“When ESPN entered into the new 11-year contract, they talked about wanting to activate earlier rounds of some of their 21 championships,” said Chris Farrow, Manager of Broadcasting at the NCAA. “The women’s volleyball quarters, wrestling semis, men’s lacrosse quarterfinals and the Division I-AA quarterfinals are other championships with increased exposure. … This year, they’re going to activate all 12 regional hockey games and NCAA Productions won’t have to worry about producing or programming the games.

“The more they can put on the early rounds, the better exposure there is for our championships and student-athletes.”

Last season, ESPN distributed the games to both so-called Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) — such as NESN and all the Fox affiliates, like Fox North and Fox Sports Detroit — and local cable outlets, including in non-traditional college hockey areas, such as Tulsa, Okla., and Portland, Ore. As a result, 10 of the 12 games were available live and in full to owners of DirecTV.

This year, none of the games will be live on any of the Fox affiliates, meaning fewer games will be on the dish systems, and fewer on the far-reaching Fox Regional Sports Networks, which both penetrate most every cable home in their states and then some. Instead, the rights in Detroit were gobbled up by numerous local cable outlets, such as Comcast Flint, Comcast Lansing, Comcast Grand Rapids, and so on. And the rights in Minnesota were bought by Victory Sports, a new network owned by Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad, and which is not yet widely available in the state of Minnesota.

The reason for lack of availability on Fox is not, however, related to ESPN’s being in heavy competition with them, according to ESPN.

“We approached Fox Sports Net and offered to sell them the package of games for distribution and they declined,” said Mike Humes, spokesperson for ESPN. “We sold the rights to Comcast Corporate, and they’re sending to their local systems from there. … In fairness to them, the agreement was done before the brackets were even announced. Part of this agreement includes multiple NCAA events.”

This year, currently seven of the 12 games are available live on RSNs, with two joined in progress and two on tape delay. The only games not available at all on DirecTV will be the first Midwest semifinal between Minnesota and Notre Dame, and the second semfinal in the West between Miami and Denver. Both are on numerous local outlets, plus Victory, which will be picked up this weekend by Dish Network (see below). The entire Northeast Regional is live on RSNs and thus the dish.

As for local cable, currently, residents in the hometowns of Ohio State, Miami, North Dakota and Notre Dame do not have any systems picking up the games.

The Victory Sports issue was the most problematic, given that two-time defending champ Minnesota, plus Minnesota-Duluth, are in the same Midwest Regional. Local cable networks and satellite providers have been reluctant to add Victory to their lineup because they believe Victory is asking for too much money.

As a result, most people in the Twin Cities cannot regularly get Victory, which had jeopardized local TV coverage of the NCAA regionals until this week’s resolution with Comcast, Charter and Time Warner. Dish Network had previously accepted Victory’s offer. DirecTV rejected the offer, as did MediaCom. Smaller cable systems throughout the state are largely already carrying Victory, as is Midcontinent Communications in the Dakotas.

Despite the issues, this is the ninth time in the last 10 years that every NCAA regional game will be televised live somewhere. Only 2000 is excluded. According to Farrow, only men’s and women’s basketball can say the same thing.

All the games will also be available on C-Band to those with large satellite dishes. Coordinates can be found on USCHO’s TV schedule page.

Five Alive

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This year’s CCHA Super Six was not your typical tournament, and the winner of 2003-2004 Mason Cup was not your typical hockey team.

Not only did the Ohio State Buckeyes show so much grit and determination in two come-from-behind, overtime victories en route to their title game with the two-time defending champion Michigan Wolverines that they won over everyone who wasn’t wearing Maize and Blue, including the OHHOWIHATEOHIOSTATE fans of Northern Michigan — Northern freaking Michigan! — this year’s Buckeyes also had some superfreaky mojo going after the 4-2 title win.

This year’s Buckeyes had Rick James on their side.

After beating Michigan, the Buckeyes did something decidedly atypical. Rather than disappear into the quiet of the night, the dazed and happy Bucks returned to their hotel in Detroit’s Renaissance Center and celebrated — briefly — with family and friends. They made straight for the hotel bar, where players of age sipped their allotted single adult beverage, underage players held soft drinks, parents and families, coaches, fans — OSU and otherwise — and a few unsuspecting hotel guests mingled, the Mason Cup sharing center stage with a team that hadn’t won the tourney title since 1972.

When the bar made to close early — as hotel bars often do — funk singing star James intervened, unwilling to see a victory party come to an untimely end. The bar stayed open, James had his picture taken with the CCHA playoff champs surrounding the Mason Cup, then raised his glass and said, “Ohio State! And I’m Rick James, [expletive]!”

The celebration continued for another hour, and everyone agreed that Mr. James was all right.

In winning the Mason Cup, the usurper Buckeyes became the first team other than Michigan or Michigan State to capture a CCHA postseason championship since Lake Superior State did so in 1995. Ohio State is the first team from outside of the state of Michigan to win the title since the 1987-88 Bowling Green Falcons. In fact, the Buckeyes are only one of three non-Michigan team to make it to the title game since those Falcons, and have done so twice (1998, 2004).

“As much as we were the victim, it’s more realistic for our league,” said Michigan head coach Red Berenson of this year’s Super Six championship. “We [Michigan and Michigan State] are not necessarily the best teams in the league. You saw Ferris step up last year … and had Miami played better, they could easily have won that [semifinal] game.

“I think this has been going on for some time, but I think the experience and confidence that Michigan and Michigan State have had over the years has carried them. You’ve seen Michigan State get upset in the first round the past two years now.

“It’s good for the league, because it’s really a better representation of the league.”

“It’s good for the league — I believe that, anyway,” said OSU head coach John Markell. “It would have been good if it were us or Miami, or Notre Dame — but I’m happier that it’s us, of course.

“This is a thing that Michigan State went through, Michigan went through, trying to build something. It gives hope for other teams that you can do it.”

It seems like the rest of the league was always playing catchup, with an occasional burst of energy from someone unexpected, like last year’s Ferris State Bulldogs. But the Irish and Buckeyes made their third consecutive trip to The Joe this year, and it’s no accident that the top four teams in the league were clustermates; only with strong competition on a regular basis can programs like Michigan and MSU be brought back to mere mortal status.

“I definitely think it’s good,” said Berenson. “I’d rather not be talking about it right after our game, but there you have it. We keep saying there’s parity in our league, so why shouldn’t these teams be able to step up and win the championship?”

Parity indeed. The Wolverines “limped into the playoffs” — Berenson’s words — and the regular-season title came down more to who lost than who won. With Michigan one slim point ahead of Miami in the standings and having just lost to MSU in the last regular-season game, the Wolverines had to wait for the outcome of a Miami-OSU contest, putting Michigan in the decidedly uncomfortable position of having to root for the Scarlet and Gray.

Two points separated Michigan from third-place Michigan State. The fourth-place Buckeyes were four points behind the Spartans, but only two points kept sixth-place Alaska-Fairbanks apart from Ohio State, with Notre Dame sandwiched in between.

“It was good for the league to have a competitive league race,” said MSU head coach Rick Comley. “How that translates into winning the league, I’m not sure.”

The top four teams in the league played each other four times this season, in a cluster that none of them would care to repeat in the near future.

“That was a statement in itself,” said Berenson. “All four of those teams survived that cluster and finished in the top four. These are all good things, and they’re all in the [NCAA] tournament.”

“Obviously it helped our RPI,” said Comley of the “supercluster” that swept the top four league spots. “We have five teams from the league in the [NCAA] tournament. We’ve had the most competitive season we’ve seen in a while.

“The CCHA has never benefited from the RPI. It’s been a two-team race for a while … but this year clearly with those four strong teams playing each other on a regular basis, it helped.”

Like the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, five CCHA teams — Michigan, MSU, Miami, OSU, and Notre Dame — received NCAA tournament invites, a first for the league. Unlike the WCHA, not one of those CCHA teams is a No. 1 seed, which is perhaps the most telling thing about the state of the league and college hockey this season.

Quantity doesn’t necessarily equal quality in this case, and parity doesn’t always mean “equally good.”

“College hockey this year, really, if you looked at it month by month, there was a trend that the WCHA was way ahead of everybody else, and there were times when I thought we wouldn’t get two teams in,” said Ron Mason, Michigan State athletic director and former Spartan head coach.

“You know, in terms of validity, I think it depends a lot more on what we do now that we’re there than it does the fact that we get in. Now the criteria is how far these teams advance.”

Like his CCHA brethren, Mason is a realist. He said that any CCHA team’s chances are “reasonably decent” in the NCAA tournament, but added, “We didn’t have a number-one seed this year, which we probably should have. The number-one seed has by far and away the best chance of making it. I know we’ll do well in the games we’re in.”

The closest thing to a No. 1 CCHA seed in the tourney is Ohio State, which would have made the tournament regardless of the outcome of last week’s Super Six, but which vaulted from a tie for No. 13 in the PairWise Rankings to a tie for No. 6. The Buckeyes are the highest No. 2 from the league, and they face a tough road in Albany, facing No. 3 Wisconsin (tie-10th PWR). Should they survive that game, they’ll play the winner of Harvard-Maine.

In spite of the rough road ahead, Markell is philosophical being sent east rather than remaining closer to home. Michigan State and Notre Dame — the two lowest CCHA seeds in the tourney — will play in their own backyards, in Grand Rapids.

“You know what? They still have to put people in the buildings, and that’s what they did,” said Markell. “Michigan State is the closest school in Michigan to Grand Rapids, Notre Dame’s right down the road. You always want your regionals making money. That’s one of the things you have to look at.”

Berenson, whose Wolverines have to leave their own rink for regional play for the first time in three years, said that the league could have, should have produced two No. 1 seeds for this year’s NCAA tournament. “Miami could have been, we could have been had we not dropped the ball at the end of the year.”

Berenson is equally philosophical about other implications of last Saturday’s to Ohio State. “Not only does a new team win, but it’s good for their program. Their people were all excited, and [OSU athletic director] Andy Geiger was all excited, and you maybe had a team that wasn’t expected to win it.

“And now you look at the NCAA tournament and you see five teams from our league.”

Superfreaky indeed.

2004 NCAA West Regional Preview

By Todd D. Milewski, Jim Connelly, Paula C. Weston and Scott Brown
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In Colorado Springs, Colo., it’s the regional of Three Mild Disappointments and One Big Smile.

North Dakota lost a third-period lead and the Broadmoor Trophy to Minnesota in the WCHA championship game; Denver sat out last weekend after getting swept at home by Colorado College in the WCHA first round; and Miami dropped an overtime decision to Ohio State in the CCHA semifinals two weeks after losing out on the regular-season championship as well.

Then there’s Holy Cross, making its first-ever NCAA appearance after a double championship in Atlantic Hockey. The Crusaders’ reward? A matchup with the top overall seed, the Fighting Sioux, who are not liable to be in a charitable mood Friday.

In just a few days, the West Regional went from one potential plot — could host Colorado College make the NCAAs, and be placed at home for the tournament? (No, it turned out) — to another, when Miami ended up as Denver’s first-round opponent, providing a bench battle of former coach (DU’s George Gwozdecky, once boss of the RedHawks) vs. former player (Enrico Blasi, a Miami standout under Gwozdecky and now the RedHawks’ head man).

The other subtext will be to see how Atlantic Hockey’s regular-season and tournament champion fares against a high-powered opponent of UND’s ilk. Remember, the then-MAAC’s first-ever NCAA representative, Mercyhurst, led Michigan in the third period before falling in the 2002 tournament.

North Dakota vs. Holy Cross
Friday, 5:30 p.m. Mountain, World Arena, Colorado Springs, Colo.

North Dakota Fighting Sioux
Record: 29-7-3, 20-5-3 WCHA (first)
Seed: No. 1 overall, No. 1 West
How in: At-large
2003 NCAA tournament: lost in first round

The third period had been North Dakota’s time all season. Scored 70 goals, allowed 23. Many opponents’ chances at getting back in the game were crushed by a UND offensive surge in the final 20 minutes.

Then last Saturday happened. The Sioux entered the WCHA championship game against Minnesota with a one-goal lead. They left with a one-goal loss and having allowed five goals in the game.

Brandon Bochenski is a Hobey Baker finalist.

Brandon Bochenski is a Hobey Baker finalist.

Sure, Minnesota’s offense does that to teams, especially when the game is as open as Saturday’s was. But was that an opening for Sioux opponents?

Not as far as the North Dakota players and coaches are concerned.

“There’s no reason to panic,” UND coach Dean Blais said. “We’ll just have to pull it together.”

The Sioux enter the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and with a first-round matchup against Holy Cross. It’s on the non-preferred Olympic-sized ice sheet of the World Arena in Colorado Springs, but the Sioux don’t see much reason to start changing things now.

The loss to Minnesota ended a nine-game winning streak.

“I think we’ve been playing our best hockey of the year right now, and if it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” UND forward Zach Parise said. “I don’t think we need to really do anything different. We have to limit our turnovers — we had a couple costly ones, and I think that gave [Minnesota] two goals. If there’s anywhere to look, that’s where you have to start, but we don’t need to start pointing fingers at anyone.

“We’re going on all cylinders right now. It’s just, you can’t win all the games. I think it’s a little wake-up call for us to know that we are beatable if we don’t bring our game. Hopefully we feed off that. We’ve got 25 guys that are really disappointed right now and really upset. We’re going to be on a mission.”

Even if this is an adverse situation for North Dakota, the Sioux have done well before in those positions.

They went to Minnesota-Duluth in the penultimate weekend of the WCHA regular season and swept the Bulldogs, taking the MacNaughton Cup home on the bus with them. They hadn’t quite won it yet — they needed to beat Michigan Tech the next weekend, which they did — but they prevented UMD from winning the regular-season title.

“We can compete when the pressure’s on,” Blais said. “It was one thing to go into Duluth and win two games there and win the MacNaughton Cup, basically. … That was a huge win, a huge statement.”

The Sioux played an up-tempo game against the Gophers on the small rink at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., but they’ll have a harder time doing that on the large sheet at the World Arena. UND is 5-3-1 on 200×100 rinks this season, although the Sioux didn’t play at Colorado College.

It’s clear they prefer a smaller sheet, but that wasn’t their fate.

“At this time of the year, you have to play either,” said forward Brandon Bochenski, who leads the team with 26 goals and 58 points, “and we’ll be ready.”

Said Blais: “The Olympic-sized ice sheet doesn’t bother us. We played very well on the Olympic-sized ice sheet. It’s different than other North Dakota teams that maybe didn’t skate so well, just a few years ago.

“I think we’re going to be fine.”

Holy Cross Crusaders
Record: 22-9-4, 17-5-3 Atlantic Hockey (first)
Seed: No. 16 overall, No. 4 West
How in: Atlantic Hockey tournament champion
2003 NCAA tournament: none

“We’re ecstatic.”

Simple words from Holy Cross head coach Paul Pearl for the culmination of his team’s season.

Indeed, ecstasy is an emotion hard to miss when you watch the NCAA selection show and hear your school’s name called for the first time in program history.

That feeling, though, could quickly turn to “What have we gotten ourselves into?” when you’re expected to face off against the tournament’s number-one overall seed, North Dakota. Still, with a daunting task lying ahead, Pearl and his club don’t seemed fazed.

“It’s a milestone for our program. It’s our second league championship in six years so we’re going in the right direction as a program,” he said.

“It’s still only a hockey game,” Pearl added. “We are ecstatic to get the chance to play a storied program as [North Dakota]. We couldn’t get these guys on our schedule if we tried, so this is just money in the bank for us.”

The fact that Holy Cross is playing in the national tournament is the capper on a near-perfect year. The Crusaders waltzed through the Atlantic Hockey regular season as wire-to-wire champion, then proved skeptics wrong when they suggested that the top seed would struggle in a single-elimination tournament format.

Instead, Holy Cross went out and held its three opponents to just one goal, total.

“These kids have all worked very hard [to win the tournament and advance to the NCAAs], so it’s a great feeling,” said Pearl. “It validates the regular season and the playoff system.”

Now with the best team on paper waiting for Holy Cross in the West Regional semifinal, Pearl makes it clear that his team isn’t willing to rest on its laurels.

“We’re not just satisfied to be there. We’re going out there to compete,” said Pearl. “We’re trying to compile as much information as we can about [North Dakota]. We know they have a good team and we’ll do our best to get ready for them.”

As far as keys to the game, Pearl highlights a need for speed, particularly on an Olympic-sized ice sheet with which Holy Cross isn’t very familiar.

“We’re going to have to skate,” said Pearl. “It’s a big sheet of ice out there, and we know [North Dakota] is going to be quicker than us. So we’ll have to [skate] well and take away as much of the middle of the ice as we can.”

Though some supporters feel otherwise, Pearl was glad to be heading as far away as Colorado Springs to play.

“If we played in [the Northeast Regional] in Manchester [N.H.], there would’ve been hoopla beyond belief,” said Pearl. “We would’ve had a bunch of things that we’re not used to like ticket requests, major media attention and such. We’ll still have a few of those but not many.”

Playing West, though, hasn’t kept the Crusaders — and Pearl — from getting the attention they deserve.

“I didn’t answer the phone for three hours [Monday] and afterwards there were 33 messages,” said Pearl. “I spent my entire day answering emails.”

And that’s just for qualifying for the tournament. Should the Crusaders win, the college may have to buy a communications system to handle the volume.

Denver vs. Miami
Friday, 9 p.m. Mountain, World Arena, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Denver Pioneers
Record: 23-12-5, 13-10-5 WCHA (T-fourth)
Seed: No. 7 overall, No. 2 West
How in: At-large
2003 NCAA tournament: none

George Gwozdecky was listening to an NCAA men’s basketball pundit go on about how the hoops tournament was going to be a guard’s tournament.

There’s an easy comparison, in his mind, to the hockey tourney.

gwozdecky

gwozdecky

“Maybe this sounds obvious, but maybe moreso than ever, I look at the hockey tournament and I think our regional is typical of that — this is a goalie’s tournament,” Gwozdecky said. “The goaltenders who have the experience have a little bit of an edge. The bottom line is it’s going to be the goaltenders who control the fate of their teams in the tournament. Whoever blinks first is going to be struggling.”

The Pioneers had what appeared to be a goaltending crisis in their last series, but Gwozdecky won’t make much out of it. Senior Adam Berkhoel was pulled from his last game, a 6-1 loss to Colorado College in Game 2 of their WCHA first-round playoff series, after allowing three goals on 13 shots in just under one period of action.

But Gwozdecky said he still has full confidence in this goaltender.

“There’s no question he’s back on track,” Gwozdecky said. “Pulling Adam in that second game was not based on how he was playing. It was a signal to the team that we weren’t playing very well in front of him. Adam’s back on track. He’s the old Adam Berkhoel that everybody knows and respects.”

Berkhoel will have to be back to form to get the Pioneers through their first-round game against Miami. But Denver has what could be an advantage — maybe — on its side this weekend.

The Pioneers were placed in the West Regional, which is being played at the World Arena in Colorado Springs. That’s just 68 miles from their Magness Arena home in Denver, and they should have quite a few Pioneers fans in attendance.

Plus, Denver has three players — forwards Luke Fulghum, Jeff Rogers and Scott McConnell — from the Springs on its roster.

But it’s not clear what kind of reaction the Pioneers will get from what figures to be the majority in attendance — Colorado College fans.

“It’s hard to say, but I will say this: There’s no question that there’s going to be CC fans there that know our rivalry and appreciate the intensity and emotion of it,” Gwozdecky said. “But at the same point in time, there was no bigger support group this past week than us for CC. We really wanted to see the Tigers be able to get into the tournament because of a number of reasons.

“For the benefit of our league; I think it would really enhance the attention college hockey would have gotten here in the state of Colorado if Denver and CC were in the tournament. A lot of those things would have been good. It’s rare that we pull for CC, but at the same point in time, through the WCHA Final Five last weekend, we were pulling for them in a big way.”

So how about a little something in return, right?

“I think it’ll be very challenging and difficult for a fan of Colorado College to all of a sudden realign their allegiances to the Pioneers,” Gwozdecky said. “[But] the WCHA is something that perhaps comes first, we’d like to think. Although maybe they’re not going to be standing up and cheering, at least perhaps they can clap when we make a good play or something.”

The Pioneers will continue to play without senior forward Connor James, who is second on the team with 35 points. He’s out with a broken leg, though there has been speculation he might be able to play if the Pioneers advance to the Frozen Four.

And they might play with a little rust after having last weekend off. The series loss to CC gave the Pioneers some unwanted time to themselves last week.

They practiced Wednesday through Friday, then got back on the ice after finding out their tournament fate on Sunday. Gwozdecky was relieved to avoid the issues that some teams have faced this week, in finding flights. The bus ride to the Springs will be just fine.

And Gwozdecky can only hope the rest his team got last week won’t put them too far off their game.

“It was very helpful,” he said. “We had a lot of guys who got some rest that was very much needed.”

Miami RedHawks
Record: 23-13-4, 17-8-3 CCHA (second)
Seed: No. 10 overall, No. 3 West
How in: At-large
2003 NCAA tournament: none

The Miami RedHawks held the top spot in the CCHA standings for nine straight weeks during the season before being ousted by Michigan. The race for the title was so tight that it came down to the very last period of the very last game played during the regular season, between the RedHawks and intrastate rival and clustermate Ohio State.

Midway through the third and after senior forward extraordinaire Mike Kompon (14-31–45) had tied the game, 4-4, with back-to-back goals for Miami, the RedHawks heard the news: Michigan State had beaten Michigan, and two points would give Miami the title outright.

Derek Edwardson catalyzes the RedHawk offense.

Derek Edwardson catalyzes the RedHawk offense.

The Buckeyes, however, had other plans. Lee Spector scored the game winner at 18:49, and Miami finished second, one point behind the Wolverines.

“To come so close and not get it is disappointing, obviously,” said head coach Enrico Blasi at the time, “but … now we’re playing for another [CCHA] championship, and it starts Friday.”

Again, the Buckeyes had other plans. With the first-round bye for the CCHA Super Six, Miami was well-rested for its semifinal game against OSU, which had played an all-out, grinding 70 minutes the night before in a 6-5 win over Notre Dame to advance to the semifinals.

Miami went up 1-0; OSU answered. And again. And again. The Buckeyes had the final say 23 seconds into overtime, when J.B. Bittner kept the RedHawks from the possibility of a postseason title.

“It’s a tough way to lose,” said Kompon, who had faced OSU a total of six times during the 2003-2004 season. “It hurts. You win some, you lose some.”

“You play six times in a year and you go three and three,” said Blasi, “there’s emotions, some familiarity, maybe even some caution. I don’t know that we did, but that may have been due to what OSU was doing, too. They did a nice job on Edwardson’s line.”

The RedHawks won a bunch in the most tightly-contested CCHA season in living memory, in large part due to Kompon and two of his classmates, Hobey Baker finalist Derek Edwardson (17-31–48) and Greg Hogeboom (19-23–42), a trio of players Michigan State head coach Rick Comley dubbed “the best one-two-three punch” in college hockey.

But the RedHawks wouldn’t be where they are if all their efforts were concentrated by one class, or even one line. Kompon, Edwardson, and Hogeboom do not play on a line together — Kompon and Hogeboom do — and Miami has talented underclassmen that contribute to an all-around team game.

Freshman forwards Matt Christie (21-14–35) and Marty Guerin (13-19–32) are fourth and fifth in team scoring, respectively, and junior Todd Grant (15-11–26) came on in the second half of the season, scoring the game-winning, overtime goal in Miami’s first-round CCHA playoff series with Lake Superior State.

Add a consistently tough defense led by sophomore CCHA all-tournament pick Andy Greene (7-19–26) and good goaltending by freshman Brandon Crawford-West (2.48 GAA, .901 SV%), and you have a team that was bound for the NCAA tourney from the start.

And this team can flat-out fly, so the big ice surface of the World Arena may not be an issue for the RedHawks. This is Miami’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1996-97, and the RedHawks’ third overall.

The first game pits Blasi against his former coach and old friend, George Gwozdecky. The RedHawks are 1-3-0 against the Pioneers; Denver beat Miami, 6-0, last year in the Denver Cup.

“We’re excited,” said Blasi. “It’s been one of our goals all year. Now we’re here. Now it’s a matter of leaving it all on the ice.”

2004 Women’s Frozen Four Preview

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UMD coach Shannon Miller was back at the NCAA women’s Frozen Four on Thursday, but in an entirely unfamiliar role. She was sitting in the back of the press room watching questions being answered instead of taking them herself.

UMD has won all three NCAA championships contested but just missed the NCAA cut this time around. That doesn’t mean the participants have no championship winning experience: both Harvard (1999) and Minnesota (2000) each took one of the first three national titles sponsored by USA Hockey under the AWCHA designation. But the prestige of winning an NCAA title is unique to every women’s hockey team outside of Duluth.

The four teams would like to duplicate the excitement and atmosphere of the 2003 Frozen Four, but they’ll be hard-pressed to achieve that given that the Dunkin’ Donuts center is twice the size of the 2003 host Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center. And unlike a year ago when the hosts were the top seeds and defending a third straight title, the nearest team comes from about an hour away.

But even if the stands are not as packed, the competition on the ice should be as intense as ever. All four teams praised their depth, their senior leadership, and their effort and unity. They will look to bring women’s college hockey at its finest — a game of high stakes, strength, skill, speed, teamwork and determination unlike any other.

No. 1 Minnesota (28-4-2) vs. No. 4 Dartmouth (24-6-2), 5 p.m.

Given that seven weeks have passed since Dartmouth and Minnesota split a series at the Gophers’ Ridder Arena, it’s no surprise that the coaches are saying that a lot has changed since then. In this series, it’s true even in the personnel.

In the two most recent meetings, Dartmouth was missing second-liners Katie Weatherston and Meagan Walton to the Canadian Under-22 team. Those two will be back this time, but now first-liners Cherie Piper and Gillian Apps are out with the Canadian national team. On the other side, the Gophers have since welcomed back U.S. Olympian Natalie Darwitz from an elbow injury, but they’ll be without freshman defenseman Danielle Ashley for the season.

The lineup rotations suggest there aren’t a whole lot of conclusions to be drawn from the two regular season meetings, but Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson chooses to draw one — because the two teams split before, it should be a great game on Friday.

This weekend Dartmouth will use a lineup similar to that of its sweep of Harvard and Brown in February (Piper was out that game). One line will feature tri-captain Lydia Wheatley centering tri-captain Sarah Clark and Katie Weatherston. Tri-captain Meagan Walton will center Tiffany Hagge and with Apps out, Danielle Grundy will move up.

While Apps and Piper’s absence obviously hurts the Big Green, the team still features its top scorers in Hagge and Weatherston. And against the tougher opposition this season, players like Clark and Wheatley have come up big.

Wheatley is playing in her second straight weekend since injuring her foot off the ice in late February. Having already battled back from two knee injuries in her junior and red-shirt senior seasons, she said there was never doubt she would be back from this latest malady.

Dartmouth coach Mark Hudak can see the positives in juggling the lines one more time.

“From the coaches’ perspective you wonder how your team’s going to adjust to change, but I think at this time of year it’s good to have some change because you can refocus on what you have to do,” Hudak said.

The most salient area where Dartmouth needs to refocus is the penalty kill, which ranks 11th nationally. St. Lawrence burned the Big Green for three power play goals, and the nation’s top ranked power play from Minnesota won’t be any easier to stop.

The return of Natalie Darwitz has sparked the Minnesota offense

The return of Natalie Darwitz has sparked the Minnesota offense

Another area in need of improvement has been goaltending. Sophomores Steph Cochran and Kate Lane have been splitting time in net lately for the Big Green, with Cochran going first and Lane going second. Lane didn’t get her chance last week. Given that Lane hasn’t lost all season (7-0-1, 1.17 GAA, 0.938 save pct.) she might get the nod in the semifinals.

Lane hasn’t faced an offense of the caliber of the Gophers, who have been on a tear offensively since Darwitz’s return. The bigger question mark for Minnesota will be the defense, which features four sophomores and a freshman and lacks the experience of the Gopher goaltending and forwards. But it’s been so far, so good on the blue line.

“Obviously, we lost a couple players back there,” Halldorson said of the Gopher D. “The younger kids that will be out there this weekend will have to step up, and they’ve done that over the last few weeks.”

In net, Minnesota is expected to go with Jody Horak, who has been playing strong lately. She’s winless in two Frozen Four semifinals, but she has shown greater mental strength as of late. In particular, Horak shut down UMD for nearly the entire WCHA final, despite giving up a goal after inadvertently leaving the net on a Minnesota penalty.

The Gophers are the favorite on paper, but they aren’t taking a win for granted. The last team to enter the Frozen Four as top seed after the jubilation of winning a conference title on their home ice was Dartmouth in 2001. Any women’s college hockey fan of four years knows what happened to that team.

“I don’t think we see ourselves as a top seed,” said Minnesota co-captain La Toya Clarke. “There are four teams here, and anyone could win it. I don’t really see us with a lot of pressure on us. We just need to deal with the game as we have all season.”

No. 2 Harvard (29-3-1) vs. No. 3 St. Lawrence (27-9-1), 8 p.m.

The second semifinal matchup pits two teams that played each other just last Sunday in the ECAC finals, and there’s plenty of reason to dub Harvard the favorite — the Crimson is 6-0-2 against the Saints in their last eight meetings dating back to 2001, Harvard has won by 5-1 and 6-1 margins in the last two meetings, and St. Lawrence just lost its leading scorer Gina Kingsbury to the Canadian national team.

But as usual, nothing’s a given, and Harvard will have to bring its game to move on.

“We are happy to be here, and it doesn’t matter who we are playing at this point,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “We hope to play the way we did last week, even better. It’s up to us.”

St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan noted after Sunday’s game that his team broke down and abandoned the systems that had brought the Saints their prior success.

“Our inability to get anything going was two-fold,” Flanagan said. “Harvard played a fantastic game. They had a tremendous amount of energy and were well prepared. We didn’t have a lot of energy.”

The remedy to that problem? “First and foremost on our minds this weekend is generating that enthusiasm and energy. We’ve got to have some fun, get out there and generate excitement in the locker room. If you don’t have that, it doesn’t matter how good your players are, how many points they’ve scored. You have to go out there and play the game that you love. It’s the Frozen Four.”

Still, St. Lawrence has plenty to improve on.

If Harvard’s shown any weakness over winning 16 of its last 17 entering the tournament, it’s in its early game finishing struggles. For five straight weekends, the Crimson has needed at least 30 minutes of the first game to score two goals. That said, Harvard typically has not allowed goals over the same stretch.

“We do sometimes take a little of a bit of time, but I think that the energy was there,” said Harvard co-captain Angela Ruggiero of the 2-1 double overtime win over Brown in the ECAC semifinal.

The goaltending of Ali Boe could be crucial in Harvard's quest for first NCAA title

The goaltending of Ali Boe could be crucial in Harvard’s quest for first NCAA title

If games are tight down the stretch, Harvard can rely on third line, which has consistently limited opposition’s scoring threats and suddenly emerged as an offensive threat.

All-ECAC goalie Rachel Barrie will look to silence the Harvard attack, but she has gone just 1-7-2 with a 4.03 goals against average and an 0.889 save percentage in her career against the Crimson. She did nearly steal a point against the Crimson back in February when she stopped 43 of 46 shots in a 3-2 overtime defeat.

On the Harvard end, Ali Boe has not given up more than a goal in seven games. Harvard has allowed fewer than two goals in almost 75 percent of its games this season.

More good news for the Harvard defense is that Ashley Banfield, five days removed from a head injury, was practicing again on Thursday.

“She is a lot better than she was,” Stone said of Banfield. “She is recovering much faster than we imagined, and you may see her. We’re not sure yet.”

This national championship is the first Harvard has ever played in [nl]New England. Its three previous appearances have been in Minnesota. The Crimson will look to make the most of the opportunity.

“We have this joke that we don’t compete in national championships that we can drive to, so it’s nice to be here,” Stone said. “It’s going to be hard to duplicate what happened last year, though we’d like the change the outcome of last year.”

Saviano Wins Walter Brown Award

USCHO Staff Report
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New Hampshire senior Steve Saviano has been named the winner of the 2004 Walter Brown Award as announced by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston on Friday. Saviano, a Hobey Baker Award finalist and Hockey East Player of the Year, was picked from among 14 finalists.

Saviano is the fifth UNH player –- and second in as many years –- to win the Walter Brown Award, which is presented annually to the best American-born college hockey player in New England. Senior goaltender Mike Ayers, one of this year’s other 13 finalists, was the 2003 award recipient. Previous Wildcat honorees were Ty Conklin (2001), Ralph Cox (1979) and Bob Miller (1977).

Saviano has recorded 27 goals and 21 assists for 48 points in 40 games in his senior campaign. He leads the Wildcats in points, goals, power-play goals (nine) and plus/minus (+14). On the national leaderboard, Saviano is No. 2 in goals per game (0.68), third in goals, seventh in points, 10th in points per game (1.20) and 11th in power-play goals.

His other 2004 honors include the Len Ceglarski Award (Hockey East’s recognition of superior sportsmanship), Hockey East Player of the Month for January and the UNH Friends of Hockey Fan Favorite Award.

Saviano and his UNH teammates return to action March 27 in a Northeast
Regional semifinal game vs. Michigan. Game time at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester (N.H.) is 3:30 p.m.

2004 NCAA East Regional Preview

By Dave Hendrickson, Paula C. Weston, Juan Martinez and Scott Brown
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Maine and Ohio State got the top seeds in the East Regional the old-fashioned way. They earned them on the ice, where both teams won conference championships with thrilling performances.

The Black Bears needed three overtimes and the netminding wizardry of Jimmy Howard to eventually put down a Massachusetts uprising in the Hockey East final. The Minutemen, playing for their NCAA tournament lives, got just one goal past the Maine defense — which has given opponents fits all year, especially in the last half of the season.

That could bode ill for the ECAC’s surprise champion, Harvard, which enters its third straight national tournament finally playing the kind of hockey that was expected of the Crimson all season.

Meanwhile, in the two-three game, Ohio State will try to ride the momentum of a stunning three-win CCHA Super Six performance, coming from behind twice for overtime wins before unseating Michigan for the title.

The Buckeyes take on Wisconsin, a rebuilt success story which staggered late in the year, after rising as high as the top five in the national polls. The Badgers will try to erase the unpleasant memory of losing in the first round to Alaska-Anchorage — the Seawolves’ first WCHA playoff wins ever.

Maine vs. Harvard
Friday, 5 p.m. Eastern, Pepsi Arena, Albany, N.Y.

Maine Black Bears
Record: 30-7-3, 17-5-2 Hockey East (second)
Seed: No. 3 overall, No. 1 East
How in: Hockey East tournament champion
2003 NCAA tournament: Lost in first round

How do you spell Maine?

D-E-F-E-N-S-E.

The Black Bears rank first in the nation in team defense with a 1.55 goals against per game mark. To provide context for that gaudy number, Boston College ranks second (1.92) and the next NCAA tournament team is Wisconsin (2.22).

Jimmy Howard has been nearly unbeatable late in the season.

Jimmy Howard has been nearly unbeatable late in the season.

Which is why they boast a seven-game winning streak, have won nine of their last 10 and are 13-1-2 dating back to late January.

“It starts with our team defense,” coach Tim Whitehead said recently. “That’s been a big reason for our consistency. We’ve been really trying to focus on limiting the other team’s quality chances. That’s been a big objective of ours. For the most part, we’ve done that.”

A big part of the reason has been the goaltending tandem of Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle. The two alternated all the way to the Hockey East semifinals, but Howard played both games at the FleetCenter.

“Frankie [Doyle] is such a great goalie, but it was an easy decision for us,” Whitehead said after the triple-overtime title game. “If you saw the [semifinal] game you know why we started him. He was just very sharp and at the top of his game right now.”

After that semifinal game, a shutout over Boston University, Howard’s play, as well as the overall Maine team defense, prompted the following observation from BU coach Jack Parker. “He’s a real technically sound goalie. He plays with poise; he doesn’t make flashy saves or flash the glove; the puck just seems to hit him.

“In front of him, Maine does a great job. [The Black Bears’] goals against average is a credit to two things: how hard they work defensively as well as how good the goaltending is.”

Howard, named the Hockey East tournament MVP, is poised to rewrite the record books, not to mention potentially backstop the Black Bears to their third national championship. His save percentage is .958 and his goals against average is 1.05, numbers that put him on pace to break the marks set by Cornell’s Dave LeNeveu last year.

Making matters all the worse for potential goalscorers, Howard is the hottest he’s been all year. He’s allowed only two goals in his last five games — and that includes the triple-overtime championship game against Massachusetts as a singleton — and has five shutouts in his last nine games. He also hasn’t allowed an even-strength goal since Dec. 5, a streak that includes over 600 minutes. Oh, and by the way, he’s allowed more than two goals in a game only once all year and that was back in early November.

The possibility does remain that Whitehead, who keeps his goalie decisions close to the vest, will start Doyle against Harvard to keep Howard fresh for the potential second game at Albany against either Wisconsin or Ohio State. This seems unlikely, however, based on how dominating Howard has been and how few goals the Black Bear offense has been scoring. Perhaps if Maine had drawn either Holy Cross or Niagara, but not Harvard.

As for that Black Bear offense, it’s led by Colin Shields (17-25–42), Michel Léveillé (5-33–38, second in assists nationally), Todd Jackson (20-12–32) and Derek Damon (13-17–30). Prestin Ryan leads a solid defense. Jackson and Ryan were recently named Hockey East’s top defensive forward and defenseman, respectively.

Don’t be surprised to see Maine riding that team defense and spectacular goaltending to the Frozen Four.

Harvard Crimson
Record: 18-14-3, 10-10-2 ECAC (sixth)
Seed: No. 14 overall, No. 4 East
How in: ECAC tournament champion
2003 NCAA tournament: Lost in first round

So this is what the ECAC’s preseason No. 1 pick was supposed to look like.

For the second time in three seasons, the Harvard Crimson rode a late-season surge to capture the league’s tournament championship. And just like in 2002, the Maine Black Bears await as Harvard’s NCAA first-round opponent.

Tyler Kolarik and company had plenty to celebrate after the ECAC championship (photo: Tim McDonald).

Tyler Kolarik and company had plenty to celebrate after the ECAC championship (photo: Tim McDonald).

“Their ranking as the number-one team in the nation,” said Crimson head coach Mark Mazzoleni about the Black Bears, “their Hockey East championship and their second-place finish in the league are a real reflection of what they are about.

“Maine is the best team we will have faced all year and we’ll have to play our best hockey.”

Two years ago, Harvard lost to Maine, 4-3, in overtime. Expect another close game on Friday, but this time from a vastly different Crimson sextet.

Players and coaches have been preaching for weeks that this year’s Harvard squad is very different from that of 2002. Despite similar regular-season struggles, they all insist the only similarity is that each won the Whitelaw Trophy.

“It’s been a constant push for us over the last six weeks,” Mazzoleni explained. “Because this wasn’t our best season, down the stretch every game was a single-game mentality. If at any time we failed, we were done.”

Two seasons ago, the Crimson skated 17 freshmen and sophomores; this year nine seniors lead the way and the experience has been evident. This is a veteran team entering the NCAAs as a playoff-tested bunch, much better prepared for what lies ahead in its quest to still be playing in April — back in Boston, no less.

“We’ve gone through this three times now,” said netminder Dov Grumet-Morris about his team’s playoff escapades. “That’s helped to an extent, but each year is unique. We’re loaded with veterans as opposed to being a bunch of young guys. We’re a completely different team.”

Among those skating in their final season for Harvard are five notable, dangerous players.

Tim Pettit (10-23-33) has arisen from being MIA most of this year to register 14 points in the last 14 games, including an assist on the goal that began Harvard’s championship comeback Saturday in Albany. While it is hard to believe he has yet to connect on the power play this season (he had seven PPGs last year), Pettit still owns the best shot on the team and his one-timers are deadly.

Tyler Kolarik (12-18-30) is as clutch as they come. He’s posted eight goals and 12 points in his last 14 games and is, in every sense, Harvard’s heart and soul. His overtime winner in the 2002 ECAC title game while playing with a cast on his wrist was the moment the Crimson program officially turned the corner. His line with rookies Kevin Du and Steve Mandes (a Kolarik clone) can change the momentum of a game with one shift — just ask Brown.

Dennis Packard (10-11-21) travels somewhat under the media radar, but is one of the ECAC’s best two-way forwards. His empty-netter against Clarkson last Saturday set career-best marks for him in goals and points. And at 6-5, 215 pounds, he’s adept at neutralizing opponents.

On the blueline, Kenny Smith and Dave McCulloch are significant factors each night. Smith’s game-winner last Saturday aside, he’s known more for going up against the league’s best forwards and as captain of a club that pulled itself from the abyss as late as mid-February. McCulloch, meanwhile, is a mean, physical presence in the Crimson end whose return from injury in early 2004 was the first step in the club’s turnaround.

A pair of juniors should not be overlooked. Leading scorer Tom Cavanagh (16-20-36) has already set career highs in goals, assists and points this season and was the catalyst in defeating Clarkson for the ECAC championship with two goals under five minutes apart to start the second period. He is Harvard’s most dangerous player and a target of opponents, yet he still found a way to register 10 multi-point games this year — including three in the last five contests.

In goal, Grumet-Morris (16-3-3, 2.27, .916) goes about his business of making key saves when needed. Not as flashy as some of his NCAA brethren, he is no less consistent. Grumet-Morris has allowed more than two goals in a game just once this postseason and has only one ECAC playoff loss in his entire Crimson career. But this is the NCAA tournament, where he’s 0-2-0 with 10 goals against.

With the exception of Cornell’s run last season, this is tough time of year for ECAC teams, and especially for the Crimson, which lost a heartbreaker to Boston University last season in Worcester. Friday night, Harvard, as the lone ECAC representative will once again have the opportunity to exorcise its demons in nonconference play. Since the 2001-02 campaign, the Crimson are an ugly 4-15-2 against non-ECAC teams.

“Our performance over the last two [NCAA] tournaments,” said Mazzoleni, “shows that we’ve played better. If you compare the two games, we played a much better game against Boston University than two years ago.”

Everyone keeps preaching that this is a different Harvard team. Different enough to win its first NCAA tourney game since 1994? We’ll find out soon enough.

Ohio State vs. Wisconsin
Friday, 8:30 p.m. Eastern, Pepsi Arena, Albany, N.Y.

Ohio State Buckeyes
Record: 26-15-0, 16-12-0 CCHA (fourth)
Seed: No. 6 overall, No. 2 East
How in: CCHA tournament champion
2003 NCAA tournament: lost in first round

Surprising Ohio State is the highest seed from the CCHA going into the NCAA tournament. To attain that standing, the Buckeyes played two come-from-behind, overtime Super Six win before toppling two-time defending Mason Cup champ Michigan in the title game.

Ohio State topped Michigan to win the CCHA championship (photo: Christopher Brian Dudek).

Ohio State topped Michigan to win the CCHA championship (photo: Christopher Brian Dudek).

“We’re really concentrating on ourselves,” said OSU head coach John Markell. “Can we keep matching our effort and our consistency and our tenacity and desire and character? That’s all we’re worried about.

“When we shut the door, and it’s 28 people in that room — 24 players and four coaches — that’s all we’re worried about right now. They’re playing for the crest on their sweaters. They’re playing with a passion for the game … and if they do, they can be that good.”

OSU finished the regular season fourth in CCHA standings, behind clustermates Michigan, Miami, and Michigan State, in that order. In the CCHA, teams in a cluster play each other four times, and everyone else in the league twice. The top three teams in the league were separated by two points.

“Playing those teams, that level of competition — there’s not a weak sister in the bunch,” said Markell.

The Buckeyes spent a few weeks at the top of the CCHA standings early in the season but gave way to Miami in early December. It was fitting, then, that OSU kept Miami from a regular-season title with a 5-4 win the last game of the regular year, and prevented Miami from advancing in the Super Six with a 4-3 overtime win.

“If you think back, December 5 and 6, we were in first place and they swept us in a home-and-home series, and that put us out of contention for a league championship,” said junior captain J.B. Bittner, “so no doubt that was in the back of everyone’s mind when we were playing them the last few games.”

Ohio State’s offensive balance was what got it through the season and the Super Six. In the 6-5 overtime quarterfinal win against Notre Dame, the Buckeyes came from behind three times — twice erasing a two-goal deficit — and relied heavily on underclassmen like Matt Beaudoin (7-7–14), who had two goals in the contest.

In their game against Miami, the Buckeyes answered every RedHawk goal with one of their own, with the junior Bittner (12-8–20) getting the game winner at 0:23 in OT.

It was two seniors and a sophomore — Doug Andress (5-27–32), Paul Caponigri (17-22–29), and Dan Knapp (13-17–30) — who scored in the 4-2 win over Michigan.

And an unknown sophomore goaltender, Dave Caruso (2.09 GAA, .920 SV%) stepped in after Notre Dame scored five goals on senior Mike Betz and carried the Buckeyes to a title.

“We feel like we’re a family, and everyone’s on the same page, and we don’t have anyone straying away from the team,” said Bittner. “I think that’s what’s making us really strong right now.”

OSU’s Achilles’ heel is its defense, which is hard-pressed without injured sophomore Nate Guenin.

Markell said that his team — which looked like no one anyone in the CCHA had seen last weekend — is focused heading into this weekend, OSU’s second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament and fourth overall, all under Markell’s guidance. OSU is 2-3-0 all-time in the NCAAs.

“We beat three tournament teams,” said Markell, referring to last weekend’s wins. He said the Buckeyes “know we’re not a flashy hockey club. They know that every one of them has to bring it.”

Wisconsin Badgers
Record: 21-12-8, 14-7-7 WCHA (third)
Seed: No. 11 overall, No. 3 East
How in: At-large
2003 NCAA tournament: none

Only four of this year’s Wisconsin players were alive for the school’s first “Black Sunday.” In 1981, the Badgers made the best of that situation, and now, these players are looking to do the same.

On March 8, 1981, the Badgers entered the second game of their WCHA playoffs total-goals series with Colorado College ahead by a comfortable six-goal margin. It turned out to be not so cushy after all when CC beat up on Wisconsin 11-4 in the second game to win the series 13-12.

Then-Wisconsin coach Bob Johnson got on the phone and lobbied to get the Badgers in the eight-team NCAA tournament, and it worked. A few weeks later, a team dubbed the “Backdoor Badgers” beat Minnesota for the national championship.

Flash forward 23 years and there are some similarities. Wisconsin was knocked out of the WCHA playoffs in three games — the final one on a Sunday — by Alaska-Anchorage two weeks ago, but still got into the NCAA tournament. Coach Mike Eaves didn’t have to make any phone calls on his team’s behalf because the selection process has changed dramatically since 1981.

But he now has a different task: getting his team to come out ready to play Ohio State after a layoff.

“I always hope that we’re a better team after every weekend, after every experience that we have,” Eaves said. “So I hope that’s part of who we are now. The good thing is that we are fresh, we’ve healed. The down side of that coin is we haven’t played in two weeks.

“The first period’s going to be a key period for us in terms of us being able to keep it simple and effective. If we try to get too fancy, we’ll probably stub our toe. But if we can get through that first period and as the period goes on we get our legs, we get up to game speed, that’ll be a big period for us.”

The Badgers also have to deal with the experience factor, or the lack of it. Ohio State was in the tournament last season, so most of its players know about the NCAA experience. Only two current Wisconsin players — defenseman Dan Boeser and forward Rene Bourque — played the last time the Badgers were in the tournament, in 2001.

But Eaves is confident the high-level experience some of his players have will be beneficial to the Badgers not stumbling at the start Friday night.

“We have guys that have played in world championships and other kinds of championships,” Eaves said. “We hope they bring those experiences to the table. It depends on how we respond, and we won’t know until we get there.”

The Badgers have plenty of motivation: the bad taste in their mouths left after they became the first team to lose a WCHA playoff game and a playoff series to Alaska-Anchorage.

“That’s something we do not want to run into,” freshman forward Robbie Earl said. “We know how it feels, and that’s more motivation. People can say we’re going to come out rusty or whatever, but we’re not. We’re really pumped. I can feel it with the guys.”

Wisconsin has done well this season considering the team is being driven by freshmen and sophomores. For that reason, the Badgers have played as underdogs for most of the season, even when they were on a 15-game unbeaten streak. The NCAA situation may not be familiar, but the underdog feeling will be, anyway.

“I think it’s better when we’re underdogs,” defenseman Tom Gilbert said. “It’s kind of like the beginning of the year, when we went on our big streak. We played a lot of good teams.”

2004 Northeast Regional Preview

By Dave Hendrickson, Paula C. Weston, Mike Volonnino and Scott Brown
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There’s a little bit of everything at this year’s Northeast Regional, starting with the No. 1 seed, Boston College.

The Eagles, viewed at midseason as co-favorites to win it all along with North Dakota, cruised to the Hockey East regular-season title, then saw the well go dry in a shocking first-round upset at the hands of Boston University. With a week off to study film, BC comes in as a prohibitive favorite against its first-round opponent, Niagara, which sneaked up on Bemidji State to win the CHA autobid.

But the Purple Eagles know a thing or two about upsets, having engineered one of the most memorable NCAA tournament wins of all time, back in 2000 against none other than New Hampshire, the Northeast Regional’s host. The Wildcats lost to Niagara earlier this season as well, lending a hint of anything-can-happen to Manchester, N.H., this weekend.

And that brings up Michigan, which enters the national tournament stinging from a loss to Ohio State in the CCHA championship game, a performance head coach Red Berenson called “an embarrassment.” The Wolverines take on the Wildcats in the regional’s second game on Saturday afternoon.

Boston College vs. Niagara
Saturday, noon Eastern, Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, N.H.

Boston College Eagles
Record: 27-8-4, 17-4-3 Hockey East (first)
Seed: No. 2 overall, No. 1 Northeast
How in: At-large
2003 NCAA tournament: quarterfinals

For Boston College, A Not So Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Hockey East Playoffs. A win on Feb. 27 gave the Eagles the regular-season title and a 26-3-4 record with only a single loss dating all the way back to October. Ben Eaves, who many consider the premier player in college hockey when healthy, was poised to rejoin the juggernaut after a lengthy absence due to a fractured kneecap. Can you say “Frozen Four in the FleetCenter?”

Then came the banana peel and, oh, what a header BC took. Three straight road losses, albeit to New Hampshire and Maine, closed out the regular season. Next came an upset at the hands of archrival Boston University in the Hockey East quarterfinals and 26-3-4 had been transmogrified into 1-5-0.

Tony Voce of BC is a Hobey Baker finalist this season.

Tony Voce of BC is a Hobey Baker finalist this season.

Goaltender Matti Kaltiainen, a second-team All-Hockey East selection, looked off his game against BU after missing two games with a groin injury. Eaves had suffered a setback with his knee and was playing only on the power play.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how’d you like the play?

“Even during the year when we were winning a lot, there still was a very small margin between winning and losing,” coach Jerry York says. “It’s a very difficult league. If you couple that with finishing with our last three league games being at UNH, at Maine and at Maine, that was the most difficult part of our schedule.

“Matti getting hurt at UNH kept him out of the Maine series and that was a factor. We also had been reaching and reaching for the regular-season championship and no matter how hard we tried, our mindset might have been a little different — not to take anything away from UNH and Maine for those wins — after we clinched.

“Against BU, Matti still wasn’t the same. A small, athletic goalie can miss practices and games and jump back better than a bigger kid like Matti, who is 215-220 pounds. Against BU, he really wasn’t 100 percent. His groin was better, but he had missed all those daily practices that big kids need. Then throw in a vintage Sean Fields performance and it all put us out of the playoffs.”

Not that BC didn’t have some company. Of the regular-season title winners in the six conferences, only Holy Cross also won its conference tournament. Minnesota and Ohio State both finished fourth before winning the WCHA and CCHA tourneys, respectively, and Harvard finished sixth in the ECAC.

“When Maine won the national championship [in 1999], they didn’t win either the Hockey East regular-season championship or the tournament,” York recalls. “Even though they won neither, they still achieved a national championship. Nobody says that you have to win one before you can win the other.”

York responded to the disappointing series loss to BU by canceling practices for six days.

“You can analyze and analyze, but the bottom line is that we lost, but during the last week we got refocused and reenergized,” he says. “Given that there was so much time that we’d have off, we thought on Sunday [after the loss to BU] that we’d just have a meeting on Monday, review the reasons why we didn’t get to the FleetCenter, get that out in the open and rehash it and then we’d get away from the rink until Friday.

“That gave us eight days to prepare. So then on Friday we went over our game plan and said, ‘Let’s take advantage of this second opportunity.’ We feel we’re back on track.”

Presumably, not only the injuries have mended but also the team’s confidence.

“It’s always nice to come off a good stretch of wins when you’re going into the NCAA tournament, but we’ve addressed that,” York says. “We’ve shown clips of what we were doing when we were [winning all those games], Matti making big saves, us moving the puck around so well on the power play. We’ve stressed, ‘Hey, it’s one-and-done, guys.’

“Ben has had [several] practices and feels really good. He’s finally back at as close to 100 percent as he can be at this point. He’ll take a regular shift. Boy, it’s been a long time without him in the lineup.

“Matti feels really good. We’ve been having extra goalie sessions beyond just the practices to get him thinking ‘fluid and athletic’ and get him back in the groove.”

BC would appear to be the prohibitive favorite in its first-round matchup with Niagara, but York is taking nothing for granted.

“Niagara has our attention for a lot of reasons,” he says. “They beat New Hampshire early this season and we also were waiting to take the ice [in the 2000 Regional at Minneapolis] and saw them celebrating after they had upset UNH. So we see this as a very good bracket.”

And if the Eagles take care of business against Niagara, it’ll then either be UNH in front of a hostile crowd or the Michigan Wolverines.

“Those are two of the brand-name teams in college hockey,” York says. “[Last weekend] I saw Wisconsin lose to Pittsburgh in the basketball tournament in front of 18,000 Badger fans and New Hampshire will certainly have what Wisconsin had at the Bradley [Center].

“But I don’t think Michigan was upset at having to play in Manchester. If they play better than the Wildcats, then they’ll advance.”

The same holds true for Boston College.

Niagara Purple Eagles
Record: 21-14-3, 14-6-0 CHA (second)
Seed: No. 15 overall, No. 4 Northeast
How in: CHA tournament champion
2003 NCAA tournament: none

Usually when a team brings the fourth-leading scorer in the nation to the first round of the NCAA tournament, people don’t write off their chances of scoring an upset.

But then again, usually when a player is the fourth-leading scorer in the nation, like Niagara’s Barrett Ehgoetz is with 25 goals and 26 assists, he’s also a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. Yet, that’s exactly the predicament the Purple Eagles and their brilliant junior captain find themselves in, staring at a first-round match against Boston College in the Northeast Regional Saturday afternoon.

Last year's CHA Player of the Year, Joe Tallari, needs to make a statement in the postseason.

Last year’s CHA Player of the Year, Joe Tallari, needs to make a statement in the postseason.

“On paper, we are playing the most skilled team in the country,” said Niagara coach Dave Burkholder. “We are going to score goals against them, however. It’s just going to be a matter of keeping their skilled forwards off the board.”

The Purple Eagles are soaring into the NCAA championship with the CHA’s autobid. They finished in second place in the regular season, faltering down the stretch with a chance to overtake Bemidji State. However, second was good enough to earn a bye into the tournament semifinals.

Niagara edged Wayne State, 2-0, in the semifinals and then played a classic contest against the Beavers in the finals, giving up the lead late in the third period before Joe Tallari, on an assist from Ehgoetz, scored in sudden death to hand the Purple Eagles the crown.

Since earning the Bruce McLeod Trophy, Niagara has had a full two weeks to rest on its laurels, and now faces a more notable species of Eagle from Boston College.

“The weekend at Kearney was a pretty big win,” Ehgoetz said. “It’s been pretty long the last two weeks. We just want to get out and start playing again.”

If the Purple Eagles are to keep playing Saturday, Ehgoetz will have to lead the way. He is the co-CHA Player of the Year. Alongside him is last year’s CHA Player of the Year, Tallari. After scoring 26 goals and adding 29 assists a year ago, Tallari struggled out of the gates and cooled off to a more modest 32 points in this, his final year of college hockey.

But the overtime winner showed that he and Ehgoetz can still click.

“We started playing together again in the middle of January,” Ehgoetz said. “Joe’s started to get back the confidence that he had last year. As a line we’ve been drawing a lot of attention. We know that we have to step it up.”

While Niagara has received nice contributions from its other lines, especially senior Chris Welch and freshman Sean Bentivoglio, the Purple Eagles revolve around their top line of Ehgoetz, Tallari, and sophomore Justin Cross.

“I like our team speed,” Burkholder said. “I know that we are one of the faster teams in the country. Joe, Barrett, and Justin got it done down the stretch. We are going to need more out of them.”

In the two weeks that Niagara has had to prepare (a total surprisingly matched by BC after it got bounced in the first round of the Hockey East tournament), the team has focused on limiting the Eagles’ offense, especially superstar forward Tony Voce, who, unlike Ehgoetz, is a Hobey Baker finalist.

“It doesn’t matter who BC plays, they are going to get their 40 shots a night,” Burkholder said. “We are going to have to play extremely well defensively and limit our turnovers, be patient, and take care of the puck when we do get it.”

This will place plenty of pressure on sophomore goaltender Jeff VanNynatten, who earned the starting job during the season and showed his mettle in the CHA championship game, making 31 saves, including six in overtime.

“We have to be patient,” Burkholder emphasized. “Jeff knows it. He’s only a sophomore, but he’s junior tested and he’s a very confident kid.”

A huge variable for any underdog is how well its opponent plays. At first glance, Niagara might welcome playing a Boston College team that, despite being ranked third in the nation, has lost five out of its last six games. Burkholder disagrees.

“Everything I’ve read out of Boston has the Eagles just happy for a second chance,” Burkholder said. “If they had cruised through the Hockey East playoffs, they might’ve been looking past us to Michigan or UNH. Now they will take every game at maximum seriousness.”

Still, confidence abounds for the CHA champions, who enter with regular-season preparation. During the year, Niagara played New Hampshire, Boston University, Denver, Massachusetts-Lowell, Yale, and Colgate.

It defeated Lowell and the Bulldogs, and tied the Raiders, not to mention the Wildcats when they were the number-one team in the nation. Even though UNH was depleted at the time, that has made the milieu of Manchester very inviting. The Purple Eagles remained on the East Coast, playing in the Granite State, against whose hockey team the program earned its most significant win — a first-round upset in the 2000 NCAA tournament.

The Purple Eagles, still a young program, can’t ask for much more karma than that.

“Our best preparation has been playing the hardest nonconference schedule that we’ve ever played at Niagara,” Burkholder said. “We are 3-3 all time against New Hampshire and Michigan. This is the first time we’ve ever played Boston College. It means so much to have our little school in the same bracket with so much college hockey history.”

Niagara faces long odds of executing another first-round stunner, but in the NCAA tournament, anything can happen.

“Pretty much everyone expects BC to beat us and beat us pretty well,” Ehgoetz said. “There’s a quiet confidence on this team … As long as we continue to play well, continue to get unbelievable goaltending, anything can happen.”

Michigan vs. New Hampshire
Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Eastern, Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, N.H.

Michigan Wolverines
Record: 26-13-2, 18-8-2 CCHA (first)
Seed: No. 8 overall, No. 2 Northeast
How in: At-large
2003 NCAA tournament: Frozen Four

By their own admission, the Michigan Wolverines limped into the CCHA Super Six tournament, won an uneventful semifinal against Northern Michigan, and then failed to show up for the first 40 minutes of the title game against Ohio State.

Midway through the third period, when Michigan finally awoke to a nightmare partially of its own making, it was too little, too late; the Buckeyes held on for a 4-2 win, denying the Wolverines their third straight Mason Cup.

“I can’t say I know the reason why,” said Wolverine forward Brandon Kaleniecki, an all-tournament pick. “If we came in thinking that [this game would be easy], we deserve to get beat. Even though they played two tough games, they’re in the finals. If they’re in the finals, they deserve to be there.

“Something wasn’t right in the locker room before the game. Maybe we just thought that we handled them pretty well the last time we played them. Maybe we thought we were going to do that again. Obviously, that didn’t happen.”

“It’s embarrassing for our team,” said Michigan head coach Red Berenson, whose Wolverines trailed 3-0 going into the third. “I can’t tell you that we’re a better team than Ohio State — I don’t think we are — but it’s still embarrassing for your team to come out in a championship game and lay an egg like that, particularly in the first period.”

Time and again this season, Berenson has said that the Wolverines haven’t been playing desperate enough hockey, impassioned hockey that can carry a team. Michigan ended the season with an 0-3-1 record in its last four contests before the playoffs. While the Wolverines finished one point ahead of Miami for the regular-season title, having lost their last game of the season to Michigan State, the Wolverines had to hope Ohio State prevailed in its last regular-season contest — and the Buckeyes did, beating Miami and helping an archrival in the process.

Then the Wolverines needed three games to beat last-place Nebraska-Omaha to get to the Super Six, at home, where Michigan was previously undefeated on the season by a CCHA foe.

This is a Michigan squad that has gone to the Frozen Four the past three consecutive years. So what gives?

“There’s nothing in particular,” said Berenson. “Our one line that was so hot just quit scoring. They didn’t have a point between them in seven games. That includes the power play, too. That line dried up, the power play dried up.

“We weren’t getting the offense. We were being victimized by some weird goals, which happens when you’re not winning.”

Freshman T.J. Hensick (12-33–45) leads the Wolverine offensive attack, such as it’s been lately. With two goals against OSU, Kaleniecki now leads the Wolverine in that department (18), with Dwight Helminen (17-12–29) knocking on his door. Milan Gajic (13-18–31) has been streaky this year, and Jeff Tambellini (15-12–27) is stunning when he’s on a roll.

But for any one of the Wolverines — including goaltender Al Montoya (2.25 GAA, .915 SV%) — to take the step that snowballs into a necessary postseason roll may be difficult.

“When Ohio State was in first place [in the standings], we swept them,” said Berenson. “When Miami was in first place we swept them. I think subconsciously, our team thought that we had first place wrapped up.

“Sure enough we lose two games in Notre Dame, then the Michigan State weekend we were lucky to get a point. That was a big point, as it turned out. It knocked Michigan State out of the running for first place and guaranteed us first or second.

“You end up backing into the league title. Again, in the playoffs, you’re the first-place team playing the last-place team. I can’t tell you we played poorly against Omaha, [but] we gave Omaha some confidence and they came back and played an inspired game.

“Now we’re going into the tournament. I don’t know that we’re far off the mark, but we’re not there.”

New Hampshire Wildcats
Record:20-14-6, 10-8-6 Hockey East (fourth)
Seed: No. 9 overall, No. 3 Northeast
How in: At-large
2003 NCAA tournament: Runner-up

The past two seasons, New Hampshire entered the NCAA tournament on the heels of Hockey East regular-season and tournament titles and then rode that momentum all the way to the Frozen Four. Not so this time, at least not in terms of titles and momentum.

The Wildcats finished fourth in Hockey East, needed a rubber game to eliminate Providence in the quarterfinals and then fell to Massachusetts in a semifinal game. Perhaps even more frustrating to UNH fans is the way the team fell, taking a 2-0 lead before surrendering five unanswered goals, including four in the closing 13 minutes.

Steve Saviano earned the Walter [nl]Brown Award for his 2003-04 performance.

Steve Saviano earned the Walter [nl]Brown Award for his 2003-04 performance.

Then again, the playoffs might be considered UNH’s regular season in a microcosm. Nothing has been easy for the Wildcats. Following a four-game, mid-January winning streak, UNH has gone 5-7-3 without back-to-back wins.

“We won the regular season and tournament the past two years,” coach Dick Umile says. “That put us in a great position.

“Wins and losses have been difficult for us this year. It has been more — not rebuilding — but there have been a lot of ups and downs. We’ve had some struggles, but we’ve battled and now we’ve earned the opportunity to win the national championship. If we can put 60 minutes together, we can be a difficult team to beat.”

UNH once again features a strong offense, having gone neck-and-neck with Boston College all year as the first- and second-ranked scoring teams in Hockey East. Nationally, the Wildcats come in at ninth with a 3.42 goals per game average. A big part of that is the league’s top power play with a 22.0 percent conversion rate.

Leading the way offensively is Hockey East Player of the Year Steve Saviano (27-21–48) along with Sean Collins (16-25–41), Justin Aikins (10-31–41) and Preston Callander (21-14–35). The big gun from the blue line is Brian Yandle (11-17–28).

Team defense, however, has been an uncharacteristic problem. After a string of years in which UNH has been among the top Hockey East teams in its own end, this year it has fallen to an almost inconceivable next-to-last 3.17 goals against per game with the worst penalty kill, 79.2 percent. Goaltender Mike Ayers became a mere mortal this year, going from Hockey East Player of the Year to failing to even be an honorable mention on the league all-star team. Still, the talent is clearly there between the pipes.

“Any time you have a goaltender the caliber of Michael Ayers, he’s going to give you a chance to win no matter who you play,” Umile says. “Based on how we played this year against Boston College [a win and a tie], Maine [a win] and even UMass [a win and a tie], we know that we can play against anybody and beat anybody.”

And there certainly will be home-ice advantage for UNH in Manchester.

“No question,” Umile says. “We knew that if we qualified for the NCAA tournament, it would be something special to host in the [Verizon Wireless Arena]. We played there earlier this year [tying Boston College, 2-2, and defeating Dartmouth, 5-0] and it was a great environment in front of a sellout crowd.

“So we’ll be ready for that this weekend. We obviously expect it to be a home crowd.”

First up on the docket for UNH will be Michigan, in a shoe-is-on-the-other-foot situation after having enjoyed playing in front of Ann Arbor crowds in recent years.

“They’ve been a storied program in so many of the NCAA tournaments in recent years along with us,” Umile says. “There’s a mutual respect there between the two programs. We’re familiar with the way they play and like the way they play. Playing Michigan is like playing BC or BU. They play a great brand of hockey.”

And if the Wildcats knock off Michigan, it’ll almost certainly be a rematch with Boston College, over whom they’ve had by far the better of it in recent years.

“If we were fortunate enough to beat Michigan, we’d be hoping that [BC] would win [over Niagara],” Umile says. “It wouldn’t get any better than that. Playing Michigan and BC on the same weekend is a great opportunity. Those are the things you look forward to.”

2004 Midwest Regional Preview

By Paula C. Weston, Todd D. Milewski and Scott Brown
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Q: What do an NCAA first-timer on the rise, a traditional powerhouse returning after an off year, the biggest surprise of the season in the WCHA, and the two-time defending national champion have in common?

A: They’ll all be on the ice this Friday and Saturday in Grand Rapids, Mich., at the Midwest Regional.

Top-seeded Minnesota storms into the national tournament in a now-familiar fashion. The Gophers, who just three weeks ago were in danger of going on the road for the WCHA first round, have won six straight games, including a scintillating victory over North Dakota for the WCHA tournament championship.

The Gophers, looking every bit the reigning national champion, face Notre Dame, which fulfilled a measure of its promise as a program this year with the school’s first-ever NCAA bid. The Fighting Irish had to sweat it out, though, after an early departure from the CCHA Super Six left them scoreboard-watching the rest of the weekend. Only after Maine beat Massachusetts for the Hockey East championship was Notre Dame’s spot secure.

Second-seeded in the Midwest is Minnesota-Duluth, which reached the national limelight in WCHA Coach of the Year Scott Sandelin’s fourth season. The Bulldogs, should they beat Michigan State in the first round, will be hoping to rematch Minnesota in the regional final. The Gophers stole the No. 1 seed from the Bulldogs with a victory in the WCHA semifinals last weekend.

And speaking of the Spartans, they return to the NCAAs after a one-year hiatus, coach Rick Comley’s first behind the MSU bench. Michigan State will be looking to its big guns to return to form after a disappointing, if familiar, loss to Northern Michigan in the CCHA tournament.

Minnesota vs. Notre Dame
Saturday, noon Eastern, Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Minnesota Golden Gophers
Record: 26-13-3, 15-12-1 WCHA (T-fourth)
Seed: No. 4 overall, No. 1 Midwest
How in: WCHA tournament champion
2003 NCAA tournament: national champion

It’s like clockwork. The calendar reads March and Minnesota clicks into gear.

The Gophers, the two-time defending national champions, didn’t look like they had much of a chance at a third straight title in November, when they were 2-7-1.

But now it’s March, which in the last two years and the last two weeks has meant it’s Minnesota’s time.

The Gophers are unbeaten in their last 20 games in March and April, a stretch that goes back to a loss to Denver in the 2002 WCHA championship game.

Grant Potulny holds the Broadmoor Trophy after the Gophers' title win (photos: Jason Waldowski).

Grant Potulny holds the Broadmoor Trophy after the Gophers’ title win (photos: Jason Waldowski).

“It’s tough to win at this time of year,” Gophers coach Don Lucia said, “and that’s a tremendous accomplishment for this group of players.”

It’s like clockwork. The calendar reads March and Grant Potulny is at his best.

The Minnesota senior captain had the overtime goal in the national championship game in 2002, scored 14 points in 11 games in March and April last season after overcoming a broken leg and has two national championship rings to show for it.

He made his first big mark of the 2004 postseason in the WCHA championship game last weekend, scoring the winning goal late in the third period to beat North Dakota.

“We get prepared so well by our coaching staff that I think they instill in our minds that this is the most important time of the season,” Potulny said. “That we don’t peak too early, I think, is the most important thing about our team. But we’re a team that once we get going, once we get on a roll I think we play so much better. … I think if we can continue to jump on teams and play with that emotion, once we get going we can be pretty scary.”

Lucia asked his big players to play big in the playoffs, and they have done so. Troy Riddle had nine points in the first-round sweep of St. Cloud State and had two goals in last weekend’s Final Five. Thomas Vanek has at least one point in each playoff game this season, running his streak to 11 games.

It helps that most of the team is healthy. The only absence is winger Garrett Smaagaard, who is out for the rest of the season after knee surgery. But at about the same time they lost Smaagaard, the Gophers got back Ryan Potulny from an early-season injury that was thought to be season-ending.

Ryan Potulny, Grant’s brother, scored at least one goal in each of his first four games back before being held scoreless last Saturday. He was something of an inspiration for his older brother.

“It was almost like a little jumpstart for me,” Grant Potulny said. “Watching him out there is so fun. He’s just such a fantastic player. He does so many good things. For me, personally, that was the big thing this year, that I got to play with Ryan. We’d been looking forward to it for two years, ever since he signed. It’s just been such a dream to get out there with him.”

The road is a little tougher for Minnesota this season, because there’s no home ice to look forward to. In 2002, the Frozen Four was in St. Paul, just a short drive from their campus. Last season, they hosted the West Regional at Mariucci Arena.

But just when they thought they weren’t going to get any breaks, Alaska-Anchorage, coached by former Minnesota assistant John Hill, came through for them. Because UAA knocked off third-seed Wisconsin in the first round and Colorado College — coached by another former Lucia assistant, Scott Owens — beat fourth-seeded Denver, fifth-seeded Minnesota didn’t have to play in the Thursday night play-in game last weekend.

No team has ever won the Final Five after playing in that Thursday game.

Now, after a run to erase the memories of that awful start, the Gophers are back in position.

“We’re happy to be in there, especially when we started 2-7-1,” Lucia said. “That seems like a long time ago.”

Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Record: 20-14-4, 14-11-3 CCHA (fourth)
Seed: No. 13 overall, No. 4 Midwest
How in: At-large 2003
NCAA tournament: none

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are making their first-ever NCAA appearance, something that head coach Dave Poulin considers an accomplishment in itself.

“I’d be crazy to say it isn’t. At the same time, having achieved goals along the way, I can say it’s just one more step.”

Poulin began taking those steps nine years ago when he returned to his alma mater to attempt to bring the Notre Dame hockey program to prominence, Poulin said he had many goals to meet, and has always been a proponent of the “small step” theory.

When the Irish the Irish made their first trip to The Joe in 1998-1999, that was a small step; when Notre Dame made its third consecutive trip to the CCHA Super Six this past weekend, that was another small step.

“The hard part is that there’s no script to it,” said Poulin. “You might look at other schools and how they’ve done it, but every school is unique in its own way. You kind of have to find your own way a little bit. Even from a coaching standpoint, finding what works is a learning process. Everybody wants to accelerate it, but it doesn’t work that way.”

Last week the Irish lost a spirited quarterfinal game to this year’s CCHA titleholders, the Ohio State Buckeyes, in a 6-5 overtime heartbreaker. Notre Dame went up by two goals in the first, OSU answered, and then senior captain Aaron Gill stepped it up and scored the go-ahead goal to make it 3-2 — after just the first period. The Buckeyes got the equalizer in the second, and Gill again put the Irish ahead, with Mike Walsh making it a 5-3 game with 10 to go in the second.

Then Matt Beaudoin scored two to pull the Buckeyes within one late in the second and tie the game late in the third, and OSU won on Tyson Strachan’s goal at 9:39 in OT, stopping Notre Dame’s Super Six run before it started.

With that loss came doubts, too, about Notre Dame’s NCAA chances. “From our guys’ standpoint, it’s kind of strange how the silver lining comes out of it. We had a great skate on Saturday when we didn’t even know we were in the tournament. There’s no greater appreciation for something than when you thought you’d lost it in the first place.”

Notre Dame, a bubble team, was helped by nonconference wins against several high-profile teams. In October, an unknown rookie goaltender named David Brown (2.32 GAA, .925 SV%) shut out Boston College, 1-0, in Boston. In December, in his first game back since his second go-round with knee surgery, Morgan Cey (2.29 GAA, .925 SV%) blanked Maine, 1-0, in the Everblades College Hockey Classic.

In mid-January, the Irish visited the then-very-hot Wisconsin Badgers and came away with a win and a tie.

“Our nonconference schedule was really staggered, which helped,” said Poulin. “And some of those games were situational games — Morgan’s first game back was against Maine and he was phenomenal.”

It’s not just two goaltenders who exhibit flashes of the greatness that has carried the Irish through the season; Notre Dame is led — in every sense of the word — by its senior class. Gill (16-20–36) had a hat trick and a helper in that losing effort against Ohio State, and is second on the team in scoring. Rob Globke (19-20–39) leads the Irish offense, and big bad Neil Komadoski (5-1-5–20) is one of the most fearsome defensemen in the league.

This trip to Grand Rapids is “the next step,” said Poulin. “It really is. We’ve had some good battles at Joe Louis, and it took four or five times getting there to get here.

“I know this was a goal of the senior class. To get there and do this is significant.”

Minnesota-Duluth vs. Michigan State
Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Eastern, Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs
Record: 26-12-4, 19-7-2 WCHA (second)
Seed: No. 5 overall, No. 2 Midwest
How in: At-large 2003
NCAA tournament: none

Minnesota-Duluth went to the WCHA Final Five last season hoping to play its way into a spot in the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs had finished fifth in the conference, but didn’t have a strong nonconference record to stand on.

Even though they played well in St. Paul, Minn., going 2-1, the Bulldogs left with a pretty good idea they wouldn’t get the chance to play again.

What a difference a season makes.

The Bulldogs left the Final Five this year knowing they’d hear their names called on Selection Sunday.

The play of Isaac Reichmuth will be critical to UMD's chances.

The play of Isaac Reichmuth will be critical to UMD’s chances.

“It’s another step for this program,” said Scott Sandelin, who is in his fourth year coaching the Bulldogs. “Last year we were so close, and I think we left here last year with some glimmer of hope, even though I think realistically most of us knew it probably wasn’t going to happen.

“And this year I think we’ve known, even coming into the tournament, that it is going to be a reality.

“So it’s a goal they set for themselves, it’s a goal they’ve achieved and now, again, they’re four games away from winning a championship. I think they know that and they know it’s going to be a real tough road, but I’m very proud of that group of guys — certainly the guys that were a part of being so close last year.”

The Bulldogs’ progression under Sandelin has been upward. His team won seven games his first year, then 13, then 22 last season before this season’s breakthrough to the NCAAs. UMD is 26-12-4 and finished second in the WCHA, good enough for Sandelin to be named the league’s Coach of the Year.

But a few stumbles down the stretch cost the Bulldogs the WCHA regular-season title and then a No. 1 seed in the national tournament.

The Bulldogs entered a home series with North Dakota in the penultimate weekend of the regular season two points ahead of the Sioux for first place. But North Dakota swept the series, sticking the Bulldogs with second.

Last weekend, UMD played Minnesota in the WCHA semifinals. The only way the Gophers could get past the Bulldogs for a No. 1 seed was to beat them, and they did, 7-4.

“We’ve had some breakdowns, but we know what we have in the locker room,” senior forward Jesse Unklesbay said. “Things are going to happen, but our ultimate goal is still there.”

The Bulldogs have been a balanced team, but their unquestioned leader on offense is senior Junior Lessard, a Hobey Baker Award finalist. He registered goal No. 28 and point No. 59 last Saturday in the third-place game of the Final Five, but soon after limped off the ice with a twisted left knee.

Sandelin said seeing that gave him a sour feeling in his stomach, but he said he was confident Lessard would be ready to play when the Bulldogs open the tournament against Michigan State on Saturday.

Lessard joined the Bulldogs’ list of walking wounded. Defenseman Tim Hambly and forwards Tim Stapleton and Tyler Brosz missed some or all of the Final Five. All three were out for the third-place game, meaning 101 points were on the sidelines.

Still, the Bulldogs got a victory over Alaska-Anchorage to help them forget about the loss to the Gophers.

“We just had to rebound and get our game back on track for going into the tournament,” forward Marco Peluso said.

Michigan State Spartans
Record: 24-15-2, 17-9-2 CCHA (third)
Seed: No. 12 overall, No. 3 Midwest
How in: At-large
2003 NCAA tournament: none

The Michigan State Spartans are returning to the NCAA tournament after a one-year absence — their 10th appearance in 11 years — but Super Six action ended for MSU exactly as it did a year ago, with an upset to Northern Michigan in the semifinal round.

Michigan State captain Jim Slater is a Hobey Baker finalist.

Michigan State captain Jim Slater is a Hobey Baker finalist.

The Spartans lost 2-1, an effort for which head coach Rick Comley had few words. “We had some people that needed to play that didn’t.”

Absent from the scoring chart was the line of Hobey Baker finalist Jim Slater (19-29–48), Mike Lalonde (22-18–40), and Tommy Goebel (15-17–32).

“All year long when Jim Slater’s line has gotten shut down, we’ve had trouble,” said Comley. The trio is responsible for well more than a third of MSU’s 136 goals.

The Spartans seemed to be peaking at the right time after a wobbly, inconsistent season. Unable to put together solid back-to-back nights since early November, MSU looked unstoppable in a road sweep of Ohio State in late January, but turned around and lost two at home to Miami the following weekend.

Both the Buckeyes and the RedHawks were part of the CCHA “supercluster” that also included MSU and Michigan. Teams in the same cluster play each other four times per season, but play non-cluster opponents just twice. The teams in that cluster finished in the top four spots in the league, and all are in the NCAA tournament.

After the back-to-back weekends against Ohio opponents, MSU went 6-1-1 to end the regular season, with a win and a tie against Michigan during the last weekend of play.

Three of those wins, though, were against bottom-half CCHA teams, and the Spartans allowed five goals by Lake Superior State — an offensively-challenged team — in one 8-5 contest.

“When we fall behind, we struggle,” said Comley. “Our last 10 losses have been one goal.”

Part of the problem, said Comley, is that the team thinks too much about what they are or are not doing on the ice.

“I think they worry so much about what they haven’t accomplished this season that it affects how they’re playing,” he said.

Sometimes brilliant in net, sometimes less so, Dominic Vicari (2.20 GAA, .920 SV%) has been the Spartan goaltender of record for most of the season. “He kind of peaked against Michigan and has been struggling,” said Comley. “It’s not that he’s been playing badly, not badly enough to get pulled, but he’s been struggling.”

Comley said that the competition in Grand Rapids will be tough, in spite of having to what amounts to a home-ice advantage.

“It’s another opportunity. Sometimes second chances were more fun than first chances. I can only hope we play up to our capabilities, which we certainly didn’t do in Detroit.”

Mauldin Follows Suit, Leaves UMass

USCHO Staff Report
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Add Greg Mauldin to the ranks of early departures, and to the suddenly exploding list of Massachusetts players in the NHL.

Mauldin was second on UMass with 15 goals this season, despite missing eight games. (photo: James Schaffer)

Mauldin was second on UMass with 15 goals this season, despite missing eight games. (photo: James Schaffer)

Before today, the only UMass player ever in the NHL was Brad Norton, who saw action for three teams. Next thing you know, three different UMass players all signed with NHL teams on the same day.

First, senior defensemen Thomas Pock and Nick Kuiper signed with the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks, respectively. Next was Mauldin, who is giving up his final year of eligibility to sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets, the team that drafted him in the seventh round in 2002.

Mauldin was second on the team in scoring to Pock with 15-14–29. He scored the team’s only goal in last Saturday’s 2-1 loss in triple overtime to Maine in the Hockey East championship game.

The Minutemen were hoping to reunite their dynamic WAM Line of Mauldin, Stephen Werner and Mike Anderson, the center who sat out with this season with a medical redshirt for a shoulder injury. Alas, the emerging success of the Minutemen program turns out to be a double-edged sword for coach Don Cahoon, who has built UMass up from perennial also-rans into a borderline NCAA team in four seasons.

Mauldin, a 5-foot-11, 188-pound junior from Holliston, Mass., features a hard-nosed work ethic and a blistering shot. He had 21 goals last season for the Minutemen, and wound up with 48 goals and 94 points in three seasons. He was injured earlier this year and missed eight games after being hit into the boards in a game against Massachusetts-Lowell.

It is possible Mauldin could make his NHL debut for the Blue Jackets as early as Friday.

Pöck Signs With Rangers, Scores in NHL Debut

USCHO Staff Report
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Hobey Baker Award finalist defenseman Thomas Pöck has signed a free agent contract with the New York Rangers. Pöck was in the lineup tonight for his NHL debut at Madison Square Garden, and scored a goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

colorscans/20032004/uma_t_pock.jpg

Pöck’s four-year playing career at Massachusetts recently ended with the Minutemen’s 2-1 triple overtime loss to Maine in last Saturday’s Hockey East championship game. He led UMass in goals, assists and points this season with 16-25–41, tops in the nation for defensemen. His seven power-play goals in league games was tied for first in Hockey East with fellow Hobey finalist Tony Voce of Boston College, and fellow defenseman Brian Yandle of New Hampshire.

“He’s got an absolute bomb,” said UMass coach Don Cahoon in a recent USCHO article. “There are guys that shoot the puck hard and then there are guys that shoot the puck real hard. He’s one of those guys that shoots it real hard. Any of the goaltenders and any of the defenders out there that have had the misfortune of trying to block his shots will tell you that. He’s got an absolute rocket.”

Meanwhile, fellow senior UMass defenseman Nick Kuiper signed an NHL contract with the Chicago Blackhawks today as well.

“It was an exciting day and a new experience here at UMass having agents, scouts and general managers trying to negotiate deals today,” said Cahoon. “Nick had about four teams really interested in him and Thomas had about a dozen teams really trying to get an edge.

“They are at a unique advantage is that they are both 22-years old, where as most college free agents are 24. It is a big advantage for them in terms of the learning curve and the teams signed them with every intention of them playing in the NHL. We had a team meeting today and the players were excited for them to see the opportunities that can present themselves.”

Pöck’s college career blossomed after he was converted to defense from forward. He scored 17 goals and 37 points in 37 games last season and was named Second Team all-Hockey East. The 6-foot-1 inch native of Austria finished his career with 44 goals and 102 points.

This season, Pöck was the first-ever First Team all-Hockey East player in UMass history, and was named to the Hockey East all-Tournament team for the second straight season.

“He’s such a difference-maker,” said Massachusetts-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald. “It’s hard to cast a definition of how do you cover this guy. He’s a rover. He has such incredible instincts. You get perplexed because you really can become unbalanced defensively by [focusing on] covering him. It can expose some weaknesses.”

The 6-2, 211-pound Kuiper finished his UMass career playing in 118 of 122 games. His senior season was his best statistically, finishing with 10 points (5-5–10).

“Ever since I began skating, I wanted to play in the NHL. You play hockey for a chance to play in the NHL,” said Kuiper. “It hasn’t really hit me yet, but this speaks a lot of what UMass has become. To have two players sign contracts on the same day says a lot about our program here. This never would have happened if the program wasn’t successful, and it just shows that all the hard work the players and coaching staff puts has paid off.

“UMass has really prepared me to play at the next level and I am excited to have signed a deal. The Blackhawks have a lot of young players with character and I hope that I can fill the role of what they are looking for.”

Pöck’s appearance in tonight’s game makes him the second UMass player to ever appear in an NHL game. Brad Norton (1994-98) has played with three teams, most recently, the Washington Capitals.

Between the Lines: Selection Edition

By Adam Wodon
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Could it be that we actually have nothing to complain about in the NCAA tournament selection and seeding process?

With the way the PairWise numbers broke, it made it very simple for the committee to place the teams in mechanical fashion without much controversy. They were very fortunate in this regard, for a change. It seems the criticisms we have this year amount to nothing more than minor quibbles, which won’t stop us from making them.

On the other hand, there remains aspects of the selection criteria in need of change. According to the system in place, the committee did everything right. But the system is still in need of a tune-up.

Mainly, what we see in the second year of the 16-team tournament is the committee’s adherence to a very strict and literal interpretation of the Pairwise Rankings. In other words, it went by the list and seeded the teams 1-16, according to the numbers. It then matched them, 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14, 4. vs. 13, etc… down the line. With potential second-round matchups featuring 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, etc… As a result, for example, 1-16-8-9 would be in one bracket … 2-15-7-10 in the next … 3-14-6-11 in the next … and 4-13-5-12 in another.

The committee tried this last year, but it was much more tricky in the first round. As it broke down, there was a lot of need to switch things up to satisfy the two sacred rules: avoid first-round intra-conference matchups, and the host schools must be in that region. But the committee did adhere to the 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 format for the second round.

Since it was the first year of the 16-team tournament, no one knew the committee would try so hard to do that. This year, we were more prepared. And it’s exactly what we got, excepting one: Switching the 8-9 pairing with the 7-10 pairing. That is it. Everything else went by the book. And the only reason those pairings were changed is because UNH (9) had to be in Manchester. (See complete bracket.)

The committee just replaced UNH/9 with the next No. 3 seed — Miami/10. But just doing that would’ve created an all-CCHA matchup in the West Region of Michigan/8 vs. Miami/10. So, this gave the committee a perfectly valid excuse, beyond the attendance considerations, of also switching Denver/7 with Michigan/8. This had the added benefit of not only putting Denver in Colorado Springs to help attendance, but also keeping the 7 vs. 10, 8 vs. 9 integrity intact. The only deviation could come in the second round, if it goes 1 vs. 7 and 2 vs. 8, but that’s pretty minor as these things go, and when we start quibbling over something like that, we know we’ve reach the depths of Pairwise esoterica.

Some other thoughts:

• For all the conspiracy theorists out there, if they ever needed proof that conspiracies don’t exist, it was blatantly evident this year. When the bonus point system was introduced, many fans claimed this was a fudge factor that the committee would use to get the teams they really wanted into the tournament, or keep other teams out. Since the committee didn’t make the bonus values public, it certainly opened themselves up to this kind of thinking. But this year, they had a blatant opportunity to take advantage of such a fudge, and didn’t use it. They went strictly by the numbers — even if not all the numbers are public. Without the bonus, Colorado College’s RPI was better than Notre Dame’s, and CC would’ve gotten in. Colorado College is the host school in the West. If ever there was a moment when the committee would really, really want a bubble team in the tournament, it was now. But, no. The committee applied its bonus criteria, and, as a result, Notre Dame surpassed CC in the RPI. Notre Dame was in the tournament. … We still don’t know the exact number, but we do have further evidence that the committee doesn’t scheme wildly to favor one team or another. Not that we needed that evidence.

• I still don’t like the bonus points, and for all the same reasons I didn’t like them last year. The numbers are arbitrary, the cutoff point for being a quality opponent (Top 15 of RPI) is arbitrary, and all you’re doing is slapping on a number with no basis in any mathematical principle onto another number (RPI) also with no basis in any mathematical principle. Further, why should a team get rewarded for defeating tough opponents, while not getting penalized for losing to really bad ones? Of course, if you reward and penalize, then you’re right back where you started and you didn’t need any bonus/penalty system. Fine by us. … But if Notre Dame had all these great wins, then don’t they also have a number of bad losses? I mean, if they had great wins and no bad losses, then they’d be a lot higher on the PWR and the whole thing would be moot. Why is it better to defeat Boston College and lose to Lake Superior than the other way around? … Further, it’s been said the bonus is good because it encourages teams to play tough opponents. The problem is, this idea is at odds with the committee’s other aims, which is to strengthen college hockey as a whole. Automatic bids are there in order to help smaller conferences. The committee’s desire is to encourage more balance in the brackets across conferences. But if teams all start trying to schedule the strongest opponents, who will the Atlantic Hockey teams play? Another reason the bonus is not helpful.

• There was a thought Michigan could have been sent to Albany to help attendance reasons. But the pull of keeping the 8-9 matchup and the 6-11 matchup (Ohio State-Wisconsin) together was apparently too strong for the committee. And, since Maine and Wisconsin are in Albany anyway, it seems as if the attendance should be helped enough with those two teams. But this, and, even moreso, the fact that the committee didn’t keep Michigan in Grand Rapids, shows yet again that bracket integrity is fast becoming the most important issue. Which is good, in general. Though we’d still like to see the committee afford itself the opportunity to be flexible. The PWR is not precise enough to rely on it too religiously, particularly in seeding.

• The committee could have tried to avoid the Minnesota vs. Minnesota-Duluth potential second-round matchup. This would be the 4 vs. 5 game. Last year, the committee had a similar situation, with BU and New Hampshire slated for the second round, even though the teams just played in the Hockey East tournament finals. But last year, the committee began to show that it believed preserving these pristine matchups was more important, even though they had easy ways to switch it around. This year, avoiding Gophers vs. Bulldogs in the second round would have been a bit more tricky, so it is probably just as well to leave it that way. But the philosophy seems to be, at this point, that the committee just doesn’t care about avoiding such second-round matchups. In the past, coaches wanted them to because they didn’t think it was right for their teams to have to try to defeat a team again that it just defeated in its conference playoffs.

• There are some serendipitous matchups in the first round. Though the intriguing storylines are nothing more than a fortunate happenstance for the committee, we’ll take it. There’s actually a lot to be said for purposefully creating these kinds of things. Perhaps the committee should consider it. They certainly do it in the basketball tournament, that’s for sure. The sense of intrigue and newsmaking on the basketball committee is finely tuned. Not so much in hockey. Nevertheless, we did get this: Miami, coached by Enrico Blasi, vs. Denver, coached by George Gwozdecky. Blasi played for Gwozdecky at Miami, and then coached with him at Denver until getting the job back at Miami when Mark Mazzoleni left. … Notre Dame, coached by Dave Poulin, vs. Minnesota, coached by Don Lucia. Poulin and Lucia were teammates at Notre Dame. … Harvard vs. Maine. This one has made the Murphy family both happy and torn at the same time. Harvard sophomore Dan Murphy will be pitted against older brother Ben Murphy, the Maine junior forward who scored the game-winning goal in triple overtime against UMass at the Hockey East Championship. Their parents will now be able to see both kids play at the same time, but who to root for, that’s the hard part.

• I’d still like to see some sort of “down the stretch” criteria. In the past, this was “record in last 20 games.” Then it was 16 games. Then it was eliminated altogether because of strength of schedule issues. The question is, does the committee not want a “down the stretch” criteria on philosophical reasons — i.e. it doesn’t think games at the end of the season should count more than games at the beginning — or does it not want it because of the strength of schedule inequity? If it’s the latter, then that can be solved through advanced methods of correcting for strength of schedule, though it would be trickier to convince the committee of adopting that. If it’s because of philosophical reasons, then that’s fine, but I’d still like to see something in there that accounts for play in the conference tournament. Maybe not for selection purposes, but at least for seeding. For example, Boston College could’ve slipped below Maine and Minnesota in the seedings based on its 1-5-0 finish this year.

• New Hampshire is a quasi-home team this weekend, but it’s different than it often is for, say, Michigan playing in Ann Arbor. The arena in Manchester is NHL-sized, not the Olympic-sized arena that the Wildcats are used to playing in at home in Durham. That, plus the proximity of so many other D-I schools nearby, whose fans will come to the games, doesn’t make the advantage quite as dramatic as it does in other cases.

• Harvard just played, and won a championship, in Albany, now gets to return to face Maine. Does this matter? It can’t hurt.

On Another Note

Getting to work with ESPN’s John Buccigross this weekend was fun — especially because it’s always good to work with a fellow crusader for increasing the size of the nets — 4×6 inches, two square feet, introduced gradually over a period of years. He’ll continue to advocate on ESPN.com to 10 million people, and I’ll talk to 10,000 here, and maybe together, we’ll make a dent.

In response to my last column on this topic, a reader sent his thoughts in return: “I always thought only a complete MORON! would say the nets should be bigger. Since I know you’re not a complete moron, I can’t understand it. Increasing the size of the nets is too drastic a change.”

I think there was some faint praise in there somewhere, but the thing is, NOT increasing the size of the nets is the drastic change. Yes, that’s right. Say you have a 4×6-foot net. Standing in front of it is a 3×5-foot pylon. The object of this game is to shoot a vulcanized rubber disc into the 4×6-foot net. Now, one day, someone decides to stick a 3 1/2-foot by 5 1/2 foot pylon in front of the net. Don’t you think whomever made this decision just drastically changed the nature of the game? Don’t you think it will be a lot harder to shoot this rubber disc past this bigger pylon? What if you were told this bigger pylon is now also a more athletic human being that moves around?

Fact is, the goalie is bigger, and there is no offsetting factor. If the defense gets bigger, the offensive players can get bigger. In basketball, if the average human gets taller, the average defender and offender will both be taller. Scoring isn’t changed because of this. Could you imagine increasing the size of the ball while the hoop stays the same? In hockey, the goalie gets bigger, then obviously the nature of the game has changed dramatically. There is no offsetting factor. The net is the same size, the puck is the same size.

Increasing the size of the net is the only way to keep things THE SAME.

Now, this gentleman went on to say that scoring is not the problem, it’s scoring chances. On this score, I basically agree. There are plenty of other things that need fixing in order to increase the scoring opportunities. Even though goalies were getting bigger and better over the last 20 years, scoring chances were still pretty good, and games were still pretty exciting. It’s only over the last five years or so that even chances have been dramatically reduced. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the size of the net as a factor. With an increased size of the net, perhaps you’ll see more shots taken from more places, shots which are futile nowadays.

Common Good

By
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The feeling of winning the inaugural Women’s Hockey East championship for the Providence Friars was hard for the players and coaches to articulate a year ago.

So, too, then was the feeling of having a 7-11-2 record at the end of January with the heart of the league schedule ahead and an offense that simply wasn’t scoring.

At that point, head coach Bob Deraney did something few in the college game could do. He put his ego aside and listened to the players.

“I met with all the players individually and asked them one question that had three parts: how did we get here, where are we and how are we going to get to where we want to go?” said Deraney. “I just listened and then after that I came up with a different type of system.”

The result was a major change to the Friars’ offense. Having won a championship with a two-three set popular in women’s hockey in which the left wing acts more as a defenseman than a forward, the Friars continued that through the struggle of the early season.

The problem in that was that some of the team’s top players this year were at forward, and asking them to commit to defense was problematic to the Friars’ offense.

“We were playing a system where we were getting a tremendous number of shots and I was enamored by the number of shots we were getting figuring things eventually would come our way,” said Deraney. “When I looked back at the shot charts, our skilled players weren’t the ones getting the shots. My job is to try to put more talent on the ice. So we changed the system and tried to put players in positions to be more successful.”

The end product was a two-one-two forecheck conventional to the men’s game that allowed more offensive pressure from Deraney’s skilled forwards.

That change produced a 14-2 record from February on, the most important of which was Sunday’s 3-0 victory over top-seeded New Hampshire to capture back-to-back Women’s Hockey East championships for the Friars.

And before you call Deraney a genius to be able to change on the fly, he’s quick to deflect attention away from himself.

“The kids always chose to look forward and not look back,” said Deraney. “It’s the coach doing a better job of coaching, simple as that. I didn’t do a good job in the beginning, but they always had faith in me.

“We’re a team in this from the coaches to the players and from the players back down [to the coaches. I’d be stupid not to get their input.”

Captain Sarah Youlen agrees wholeheartedly.

“We worked together as a unit — the captains, the seniors, the coaches — and [changed the system],” said Youlen, a senior who was part of Deraney’s first recruiting class at Providence five years ago. “It’s a plus that we can go in and talk to [Deraney]. That helps a lot.”

Having the luxury of a solid player-coach relationship is something that Youlen admits that she’ll miss.

“It’s sad. I’m really sad that I’m done playing here,” said Youlen. “I had such a great time playing here and wouldn’t change anything for the world.”

The fact that the Friars’ season is complete might even be a little tougher to swallow. The current NCAA system that invites only four teams to the women’s tournament doesn’t allow for automatic bids to the conference tournament winner that are customary on the men’s side.

According to Deraney and his players, though, they understand and accept that fact.

“We’re used to it,” said Youlen, who has been part of three consecutive championship Friar teams (two Hockey East, one ECAC) that have not been invited to the tournament. “Last year we missed it by a spot and this year we’re not [even considered]. It stinks but you kind of get used to it.”

“With four teams [in the NCAA tournament] this is almost like college football,” said Deraney. “You almost have to have the perfect year.

“Our early trouble was my fault. If the coach could’ve figured out the system earlier, maybe we could have the bid.”

Still, bid or not, Deraney’s club has plenty to be proud of, and more importantly, they once again have back that feeling: the feeling of being a champion.

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