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ECAC Women’s Conference Adds Two Teams

USCHO Staff Report
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Union and Clarkson have been extended membership into the ECAC Division I Women’s Hockey League. Union will join the league in the 2003-04 season, while Clarkson was voted in effective with the 2004-05 campaign.

“Both schools boast rich hockey traditions and a history of academic success that will make them strong members of the league,” said ECAC Commissioner Phil Buttafuoco. “In addition, the inclusion of the two programs will open new opportunities for the existing members as the women’s league becomes more compatible with the men’s league.”

Current league members include Brown, Colgate, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, St. Lawrence, Vermont, and Yale.

Union is in its fourth season of varsity competition where it has competed as a member of the ECAC Division III East Women’s League. In 2001-02, the Dutchwomen finished in sixth place with a record of 8-9-1 in conference play and 8-16-2 overall. Coach Fred Quistgard has guided the program since its inception.

Clarkson announced its women’s hockey program in September, and will begin competition as an independent in 2003-04 against a mixture of Division I and III teams. Rick Seeley, previously the women’s coach at Manhattanville, was appointed Clarkson’s first women’s coach.

The New Season: A Primer

By Adam Wodon
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A year ago at this time, we were writing articles about how things had changed. Attitudes, fears, perspective, politics, religion … we, as Americans, it seemed, were changed in many ways. College hockey, too, had lost three ex-players in the September 11 terrorist attacks, and coaches were grappling with uncertainty as their players (kids) came back to school. In the aftermath, the NCAA made a change, implementing a policy that forced a reduction in travel for the NCAA tournament.

Unrelated, but equally unsettling in many ways, was the news that Maine coach Shawn Walsh had succombed to cancer, and Merrimack coach Chris Serino was also afflicted with a cancer scare of his own.

In some ways, that all seems like yesterday, and in others, like it happened so long ago.

One year later, while many of the same issues hover like a surreal fog — with still plenty of darkness in the geo-political realm — there is a noticeably more optimistic atmosphere as the 2002-03 college hockey season begins. For one, this summer, coach Serino received a clean bill of health. That was a nice start.

Life always changes, and sports does too.

This year, we again are writing about changes. Thankfully, this year’s changes are all about college
hockey, and they’re for the better.

Regionalization

Ding, dong, regionalization’s dead.

The NCAA’s Management Council, thanks to near-universal agreement on the issue, decided to eliminate the controversial one-year practice that came to be known as “Regionalization.”

This policy required that any team within 300 miles of a regional site, must be placed there, and could not fly. Especially in a sport like hockey, that had, at the time, just two regionals and 12 teams, it made things very inflexible. And because there was such an imbalance of power between East and West last year, the regional brackets were lopsided.

Thankfully, we weren’t the only ones criticizing this policy. When the NCAA asked for opinions from its members, the response was overwhelmingly against the practice.

In fact, only one of the nation’s overall top scorers from a year ago returns, New Hampshire senior Colin Hemingway. Scoring could be at more of a premium than ever.

The fear was that a practice begun because of a noble, though misguided, intent to deal with the travel issues in the aftermath of 9/11, would be maintained solely because of the residual monetary benefits.

For college hockey, the move to four regionals only made the elimination of this policy that much more imperative.

The Tournament

From the day the 12-team tournament was approved in the late ’80s, college hockey people pined for the day the first-round byes could be eliminated and the tournament expanded to 16 teams.

Over the last few offseasons, the momentum built for this, finally reaching the highest levels of the NCAA. This summer, the expansion of the Division I men’s tournament was officially approved.

So here we are. Four regionals, 16 teams.

The positives are obvious. Hopefully we don’t have to hear any more whining from a school’s fans who don’t make the tournament because a MAAC or CHA team did.

The only question was whether there would be four four-team regionals, or two eight-team regionals.

It ultimately came down in favor of the former, because of the beauty of having four distinct regional champions, giving it a March Madness appeal.

But there is a concern that the relatively limited college hockey audience will be spread too thin over four regional locations. Long term, considering the growth of the sport over the years, that will cease to be a concern.

Join the Club

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College Hockey America is a full-fledged member of the college hockey family now, thanks to its automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. It’s hard to foresee what the long-term makeup of college hockey’s “secondary”-level conferences will be, whether there will be more or less, or whatever, but for right now, it’s all looking up for the CHA.

In fact, the conference already has an NCAA win, thanks to Niagara’s victory over New Hampshire in 2000.

Right now, however, the favorite for the first-ever automatic berth is Wayne State, under the leadership of the only coach in the conference who’s been to a Division I tournament, Bill Wilkinson, who last took Western Michigan there in 1996.

Join the Club, Part Deux

The ECAC now allows its teams to play a full complement of 34 regular-season games allowed by the NCAA, which is a big step in the right direction.

Ivy League schools, on the other hand, are still restricted to 29 games. It was a magnanimous move on the Ivies’ part to allow the switch for the good of the league, even if their own schools would be at a further disadvantage.

Of course, no one is crying for a pair of Ivies — Cornell and Harvard — who are expected to be the class of the league this season.

The ECAC has also followed in the CCHA’s footsteps by allowing all 12 of its teams into the ECAC tournament. But after some hue and cry, the league decided against the Final 6 format, and instead is adding another weekend of best-of-three playoffs that will allow just four teams to make the final weekend.

Meanwhile, that final weekend moves to Albany this year, from Lake Placid — which is like moving the Yankees out of The Bronx (although it’s not like that’s never been talked about).

Changing the Rules

There won't be much time for talking between whistles this year. (photo: Cornell Sports Information)

There won’t be much time for talking between whistles this year. (photo: Cornell Sports Information)

There was a usual assortment of rules changes, the most noticable of which will be the 15-second faceoff rule, adopted throughout hockey after its success in the recent Winter Olympics.

Other rule changes were discussed in a June article. They mostly deal with points of emphasis concerning safety, obstruction and sportsmanship. There’s a new penalty called “clipping” which is intended to prevent hits to the knee.

A couple of nice changes concern the awarding of goals. In instances where the net comes off its moorings, but a puck clearly was headed in anyway, a goal may be awarded at the discretion of the referee. Also, video replay now has the ability to disallow goals based on hand passes or high sticks.

And the two-referee system was officially stricken from the record book. It’s not allowed. Good riddance.

Another change, that isn’t a rule, per se, is the allowance of pre-enrollment players to opt-in to the NHL Draft without jeopardizing collegiate eligibility. This change came as a result of the sweeping NCAA amateurism de-regulation package, finally passed in heavily watered down form last August.

Unfortunately, this does not address the plight of 18-year old true freshmen already in college, who still must decide between making themselves eligible for the draft or staying in school.

Nice to Know You

A tremendous amount of talent left college hockey this offseason, which says something for the tremendous amount of talent that’s in college hockey.

The start of this is actually in the coaching ranks, where the NCAA’s all-time winningest coach, Ron Mason, and a two-time national champion, Jeff Sauer, both retired.

Mason went on to become Michigan State’s athletic director, and his first move was to find his replacement. For that, he tagged long-time friend, and a national champion coach, Rick Comley, who had been the only coach Northern Michigan ever knew.

As the coaching wheels spun, Northern Michigan went into its past and named Walt Kyle its new coach. Kyle had been an assistant with the NHL’s New York Rangers, is a NMU alum, and was an assistant for Comley on the Wildcats’ 1991 championship team.

Meanwhile, at Wisconsin, Sauer’s departure left no lack of big-name candidates. The job ultimately went to Mike Eaves, who had been running the U.S. Junior National Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. Unfortunately for Eaves, his two sons are already committed to Boston College.

As for the players, it wasn’t so much the quantity, but the quality that departed the CCHA. The NCAA leader in all-time shutouts, and the 2001 Hobey Baker Award winner, Ryan Miller, left Michigan State one year early. The same for Michigan and huge, stud defenseman Mike Komisarek, and potent forward Mike Cammalleri. All of which gave hope to the rest of the conference’s schools, none of which have won a league title since Lake Superior in 1995-96. In fact, if you take once-dominant Lake Superior out of the equation, the only school in the last 15 years to win a regular season title other than Michigan and Michigan State was Miami in 1992-93.

On the other hand, the WCHA lost both quantity and quality. In addition to some major seniors that graduated — led by Minnesota Hobey winner Jordan Leopold — underclassmen bolted as well, led by Minnesota’s Jeff Taffe, Hobey finalist Mark Hartigan from St. Cloud, and North Dakota’s Ryan Bayda and Tim Skarperud. Only two of the league’s top 10 scorers are back — Colorado College’s Peter Sejna and Denver’s Connor James.

In fact, only one of the nation’s overall top scorers from a year ago returns, New Hampshire senior Colin Hemingway. Scoring could be at more of a premium than ever.

Change … as in, Chunk of Change

In case you haven’t noticed, the days of the free Internet are over. Well, at least for many of the services that used to be free.

Most notably, this means college hockey fans may be without the live Webcasts of games they’ve been accustomed to listening to over the years.

Some colleges have their own on-campus facilities that enable them to continue to serve live feeds of games. Some teams are on stations that serve a feed 24/7.

But, first of all, the number of those stations are dwindling, thanks to royalty rates controversies and other factors too numerous and annoying to get into at the moment.

Most importantly, however, is the demise of Yahoo! Broadcast. After charging increasingly larger fees, and becoming more and more dependent on corporate clients, Yahoo shut down the live radio programming part of its service. None of which should be a surprise given the fast flameout of BroadcastAmerica.com, a former USCHO sponsor that suddenly disappeared one weekend under an avalanche of debt.

This means that, in order for sports teams to get their games on, they must pay a fee to specifically get their games on. It won’t be picked up through the radio stations. Plus, that fee keeps getting higher.

Only New Hampshire is using this now.

It’s the end of a wild, yet ultimately fruitless chapter, in the history of the Internet and sports broadcasting.

Let’s head into the wayback machine, all the way to that ancient time of 1996 (if anything is longer than a dog year, it’s an Internet year).

Mark Cuban — long before he was sentenced to a life of funding NBA commissioner David Stern’s Christmas parties — was living in Texas and wanted to hear live broadcasts of his beloved Indiana basketball. Instead of calling “Teamline” he founded AudioNet, a company devoted to the redistrubtion of radio feeds via the Internet. The goal was to become the Internet broadcast network.

The idea took off like wildfire. In the first year, four college hockey teams broadcast regularly through AudioNet. By the next year, it was 10. AudioNet was gobbling up college affiliations, and not worrying about anyone paying for the service. They were building a name, they were building providers, and building a clientele. Then they changed their name to Broadcast.com, went public, and their shares were going for over $200 a pop when they finally sold to Yahoo for $6 billion.

Mark Cuban was rich, and smart. He bought the Dallas Mavericks, and Yahoo hung on by a thread as the market collapsed, and the idea of a ubiquitous Internet radio network fell apart as fast as it rose.

The dynamics of all of this is, again, enough for an entire other article. And it’s a shame it had to happen. But the bottom line is, right now, more and more colleges are switching to services that charge a fee to listen.

Hey, at least you’ve got USCHO.

USCHO

One thing that hasn’t changed is USCHO’s devotion to providing the best coverage of college hockey possible. But we have changed our look.

Hopefully, you enjoy the aesthetics and some of the other bells and whistles. Behind the scenes, even more is going on, things that allow easy access to USCHO information through devices like PDAs and cell phones. So, now, you can pull up stats, or whip up a roster or preview while at the games.

Maybe with the money you save on game programs, you can buy that Webcast subscription.

Providence Tops First Hockey East Women’s Coaches Poll

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Providence finished first in the inaugural preseason coaches’ poll for the new Women’s Hockey East, garnering four first place votes.

The Friars return ten of their top 12 scorers, including five players with ten or more goals, to a squad that won the 2002 ECAC Eastern League Tournament. Six teams from last year’s ECAC Eastern now make up the WHEA.

Northeastern, which finished second in the ECAC East regular season last year, was picked to finish second by the coaches this season. Third-year coach Joy Woog will look to replace outgoing senior and 2002 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winner Brooke Whitney, but still has plenty of offensive weapons left.

“We may need two or three players to score the points of [Whitney], but I think the incoming players are capable of that,” said Woog.

New Hampshire ranked third and received one first place vote. The Wildcats are looking to adjust to new head coach Brian McCloskey and make an impact in the WHEA.

“I’m really excited to play some games this year and see where we stand,” said McCloskey, who inherits a team that finished 19-13-5 last year.

Heather Linstad’s Connecticut Huskies were fourth in pre-season balloting. “This year, you’ll really start to see the result of our recruiting over the last two years,” said Linstad.

UConn has a remarkable 19 players that are first or second year players on this season’s roster.

Maine had 11 points and ranked fifth in voting, just behind UConn. Head coach Rick Filighera looks to make a move upward in the league standings with the return of a pair of 25 goal scorers in Meagan Aarts and Karen Droog, combined with the homecoming of absent Olympian Raffi Wolf, who played for Team Germany in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

Boston College came in last in the pre-season poll, but the Eagles may very well be the best last place team of any women’s league in the country.

“Winning is all about attitude,” said fourth year coach Tom Babson. “This year we’re not going to be content to be within a goal or two of the top teams. We want to win those games.”

Preseason Pressure Doesn’t Faze North Dakota’s Parise

By Patrick C Miller
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The sound of the puck hitting the boards echoes through the Ralph Engelstad Arena. North Dakota coach Dean Blais instinctively turns toward the ice.

“Can you see who it is?” he asks his visitors. “Is it Zach?”

Parise

Parise

It is. Sioux freshman center Zach Parise is alone on the ice in his street clothes, cap and sneakers with his gloves and stick, shooting pucks at an empty goal.

One week after hockey practice started, Blais already knew that his star recruit wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to get some ice time.

“It’s my normal routine,” Parise says. “It’s what I like to do. I come here between class periods to shoot some pucks. It’s the way I grew up.”

One might think that Parise, son of former NHL star J.P. Parise and one of the most heavily recruited players in the country, might be nervous about the situation in which he finds himself.

After all, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound, 18-year-old center from Faribault, Minn., is expected to help one of the most successful programs in the country rebound from a disappointing losing season.

“There’s only one reason I’m here and it’s to help out this team,” Parise says matter of factly.

Picked by nine of 10 coaches as the WCHA’s preseason rookie of the year, a player of Parise’s caliber creates high expectations among coaches, teammates, fans and the media. But that doesn’t faze him.

“I have higher expectations for myself than probably anyone,” he says.

There’s also the pressure of playing on a new team at a higher level of competition in front of 12,000 fans at the $100 million Engelstad Arena.

“I don’t feel any pressure,” he says. “Coming in here, it’s a new level and it’s obviously going to take some adjustment and it’s going to take a while for me to get used to things. But I think it’s gone pretty well so far.”

Blais isn’t shy about comparing Parise to the likes of Neal Broten and Tony Hrkac, two of college hockey’s all-time greats. Parise takes it in stride.

“It’s an honor to be compared to people that have had that much success,” he says.

In making the comparison, Blais says Parise is faster, stronger, quicker and has a better shot.

“He’ll come in and check you, too,” Blais adds.

Blais also says of Parise, “The guys who play with him will get rich.”

So far, those guys have been sophomore forwards Quinn Fylling and Brandon Bochenski, last season’s WCHA rookie of the year. Blais predicts that Bochenski will score 20 to 30 goals with Parise centering the line.

Parise truly seems unaffected by all the hype. He handles the media, the high expectations and the pressure like a seasoned pro. That all could change after Oct. 11 when the Fighting Sioux begin their season against Canisius at the Xerox College Hockey Showcase in Buffalo, N.Y.

But for now, Parise is focused on getting ready to play hockey, and his coaches and teammates have no doubts about his ability to do that.

ECAC West Sticking With Current Format

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A major proposal to have teams play each other three times per season starting in 2003-2004 was struck down by ECAC West athletic directors. Currently teams play each other twice per season in a home-and-home format. The proposed third game each year would have alternated home sites between the teams.

Athletic directors from the ECAC West schools were meeting last week in their annual conference. Only four of the six schools had representatives attend.

Some of the teams that were counting on the proposal being adopted, must now scramble to fill in those five games with non-league contests.

“I think it is time that the ECAC stepped in and took a little bit more interest in our league,” said RIT coach Wayne Wilson. “Just because our league dropped to four teams a few years back doesn’t mean we were dead. They abandoned us, in my opinion, so we’re trying to put the onus back on them.”

2002-03 Boston College Season Preview

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After four straight Frozen Four appearances and a 2001 national championship, the Eagles took an expected nosedive last year. With almost three-quarters of the roster made up of freshmen and sophomores, BC dropped to a .500 record. With that rebuilding year under their belts, however, the Eagles should once again be a power in the league and on the national scene.

The strength begins up front where Tony Voce (26-22–48) and Ben Eaves (13-25–38 in 23 games) form one of Hockey East’s best one-two punches. Add to that a strong sophomore class led by Dave Spina and Ryan Shannon and impact freshmen Patrick Eaves (Ben’s brother) and Chris Collins.

“I feel that we’re the deepest at this position,” says coach Jerry York. “In Tony Voce and Ben Eaves we’ve got two of the most dynamic players that we’ve had here for a while. The other group of players are really going to add depth and make us a dangerous offensive unit because you can’t just ride two people.

“The two seniors, Anthony D’Arpino and A.J. Walker, both have been role players for us and are ready to assume a larger role for us in their fourth years… Our sophomore class — particularly Spina, [Ned] Havern, [Ryan] Murphy and Shannon — are really going to be strong players for us this year. They had a great baptism by fire last year.”

eaves

eaves

Although Patrick Eaves is already penciled in on his brother’s left side, BC fans may need to rein in expectations for a second familiar name. Freshman Steve Gionta won’t be expected to reprise brother Brian’s heroics; he’ll be filling more of a hard-nosed, checking role.

The entire defensive corps is back, led by J.D. Forrest, who feels he’s close to 100 percent after surgery to repair the five wrist tendons cut in the regular season finale. As with the forwards, the sophomore class — made up of Andrew Alberts and John Adams — holds the key to the blueliners’ collective success.

“It’s an area where we certainly feel that we’re going to be better,” says York. “We expect our senior, Billy Cass, to have his best year of his four. Brett Peterson, a junior, has played a lot for us in his two years and we think that will show in his play this year.

“The two sophomores, John Adams and Andrew Alberts, got so much better as the year progressed last year. We think their size and competitiveness are really going to help give us a solid core of defensemen. [They] are going to be very, very strong for us.

“Then we have what we think is one of the premier defensemen of all college hockey in J.D. Forrest. We’re very excited that the offseason surgery on his wrist has come along very well. He’ll log a lot of minutes.”

Eagle goaltenders Tim Kelleher and Matti Kaltiainen both had their moments last year, but could use the same step forward that Scott Clemmensen took two years ago when he became dramatically more consistent.

“We’re certainly stronger because of the experience they both had last year,” says York. “It’ll be interesting to play it out and see how it all evolves, but my initial observation is that I feel more confident about our goaltending position. They’re both going to compete. I think we’ve made some steady improvement in that position.”

The pieces seem to be in place for a BC return to playoff home ice, at the very least, and a likely return to the national stage.

“I think we’re right back in the mix of teams that will compete for a Hockey East title,” says York. “And it’s been proven if you’re in that mix, you’re in the national mix. So I feel very good about the season in front of us, based on the maturation of our players from last year, the addition of some key freshmen for us and [the hope that we’ll] stay healthy through the lineup.

“I like our talent level, our speed, our comrade-ship. I like a lot about this club.”

2002-03 Hockey East Season Preview

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Logjams, Lurkers and Longshots

“Any one of the top four teams in Hockey East could win the national championship.”

— UMass-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald

Who’ll win Hockey East this year?

New Hampshire. It’s got to be the Wildcats. Goaltending, scoring, defense. They’ve got it all. It’s gotta be them.

Martin Kariya and Maine are back after reaching the NCAA title game last season (photo: Pedro Cancel).

Martin Kariya and Maine are back after reaching the NCAA title game last season (photo: Pedro Cancel).

No. Make that Maine. Hey, the Black Bears came within a minute of the national championship. Look at all that talent coming back!

How about Boston College? The Eagles only lost two players. Two! How can you go against Eaves, Voce and Forrest?

Yeah, but what about Boston University? If the Terriers went three straight years without a title, matter and anti-matter could collide and — poof! — there goes the universe.

Then again, you can’t dismiss Providence. Yeah, yeah, last year, blah, blah, blah. Fuggedaboudit! Jupiter must have been misaligned with Joe Bertagna. It was a fluke! DiSalvatore. Rask. Fregoe. Schaefer. Friar Fever, baby!

Hey, don’t forget about…

Aw, geez, just put the names in a hat and pick ’em out like last year. You’ll look like a dolt either way…

Look, at the end of the season, Hockey East’s eventual winner will almost certainly look perfectly predictable in 20-20 hindsight. Right now, though, all that’s visible is a logjam of candidates. Just ask Boston University coach Jack Parker, whose Terriers were picked to finish first in the coaches’ preseason poll.

“It means nothing,” he says. “You can ask Providence. They were picked number one last year and they had injuries and some problems and wound up seventh in our league. What baffles me is that Providence was the number one pick last year, they’ve got everybody back from last year’s team and they’re picked fifth this year. I think that just indicates that it doesn’t really matter.

"We have five and maybe six teams that absolutely could win the regular season championship and nobody would be surprised."

— Boston University coach Jack Parker

“What it really does is point out the balance in the league, especially for the top spot. I think this is the best year we’ve ever had as far as who would possibly win this league. It’s the closest we’ve ever had. We have five and maybe six teams that absolutely could win the regular season championship and nobody would be surprised.

“If Maine won this championship, people would say, ‘They were picked fourth? They were the NCAA finalist and they’ve got almost everybody back. How could you not pick them to be the number one team in the league?’

“If BU won it, if BC won it, if Providence won it, if UNH won it, nobody would be surprised. I think that’s what makes the league so great, its competitiveness from top to bottom. This year, more than any other year, the competitiveness for the number one spot is going to be great. It could be that one team shows up and is so much better than everybody else by December that they pull away, but the probabilities are that we’re all going to be fighting for that one spot for a long time.”

Enough equivocation? How about some picks?

With all the above protestations and disclaimers duly noted, let’s take our best shot and say that the league breaks down three ways: logjams, lurkers and longshots. (One final caveat: Providence defies categorization, straddling logjam and lurker status.)

At the top, there’s a logjam of the usual suspects: New Hampshire, Maine, Boston College and Boston University. All four can harbor serious hopes of challenging for a national championship as well as a league title. They have the fewest question marks and the most exclamation points.

Providence, Northeastern and UMass-Lowell lurk just a bit behind the four perennial favorites. Only PC seems to have much of a shot at joining the logjam and winning the Hockey East title, at least on paper, but any of the three could take home ice without an eyebrow being raised in surprise. For every hole in their depth chart, there’s a game-breaking player to give hope of a FleetCenter surprise or a berth in the 16-team NCAA tournament.

Northeastern's Keni Gibson looks for a stronger finish in 2002-03 (photo: Scott Weighart).

Northeastern’s Keni Gibson looks for a stronger finish in 2002-03 (photo: Scott Weighart).

Merrimack and Massachusetts, both with rosters loaded with youth as they build for the future, appear almost certain to duke it out for the final playoff spot. They’ll compete night in and night out and extract hard-earned points on many weekends, but remain longshots to climb in the standings.

At least that’s the way it looks on paper. No doubt, there’ll be surprises, both good and bad, in the standings at season’s end. That’s the way this game works. It’s part of its charm and mystery.

It also gives enraged fans the opportunity to email yours truly and use opening salutations like, “Hey, moron!”

Here’s a brief look at the nine schools, in order of predicted finish, with links provided for more detailed analysis of each team.

1. New Hampshire

Last year’s top offensive and defensive team in league play has all the makings of a juggernaut again. Yes, it hurts to lose top defenseman Garrett Stafford (academically ineligible) for the first semester and some guy named Darren Haydar must be replaced, but the Wildcats return the top goaltender and entire blue line from a squad that ran away with top defensive honors in Hockey East games. And of the league’s seven returning 40-plus point producers, three wear UNH uniforms.

2. Maine

There are holes to fill, most notably between the pipes and to a lesser extent on the blue line. There isn’t a single game of collegiate experience under the goaltenders’ belts and it’s unclear who will assume Peter Metcalf’s quarterbacking role, but make no mistake. This is a very talented Black Bear squad, especially up front. Barring problems in the nets, Maine should be a top 10 team all year that once again makes a run at the national title.

3. Boston College

york

york

After sustaining far and away the league’s biggest offseason losses one year earlier, the Eagles swung to the other end of the spectrum, this time suffering the least damage from attrition. If Ben Eaves (only 23 games last year) and J.D. Forrest (surgery to repair five torn wrist tendons) are healthy, BC should be in the mix for a Hockey East title once again. Continued maturation of a still young squad and more consistent goaltending are the keys.

4. Boston University

Depth and defense will be the Terrier calling cards. BU should again have one of the best blue lines and will third- and fourth-line you to death. Barring a major emergence, there isn’t an All-Hockey East forward looming on the roster, but nine return with double-digits in points. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a BU Hockey East title for the seventh time in nine years.

5. Providence

The Friars were picked to win Hockey East in last year’s coaches’ poll (albeit without a single first-place vote), but finished a disappointing seventh. Their fans may be humming The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” but this is still a very talented team. There aren’t many lines better than Devin Rask, Peter Fregoe and Jon DiSalvatore. If the defense improves and goaltender Nolan Schaefer regains the form that earned him All-America honors as a sophomore, then Providence could make a serious run at first place.

6. Northeastern

There’s a hole about the size of the Grand Canyon on the Husky blue line left behind by Jim Fahey. That said, a considerable amount of skill returns. Mike Ryan ranks as one of the top snipers in the league and linemate Jason Guerriero is one of the best playmakers. Although he faltered down the stretch, goaltender Keni Gibson excelled for much of the season, earning a unanimous berth on the All-Rookie team as well as runner-up status to UNH’s Sean Collins for Rookie of the Year. Home ice is not at all out of the question.

7. UMass-Lowell

No longer one of the oldest teams in the league, the River Hawks will have to make up with increased speed and skill what they’ve lost in strength and maturity. The biggest question, however, lies in goal, where last year’s incumbents have left behind a void. If there’s a solution between the pipes, Ed McGrane and a mobile corps of defensemen will lead a run at home ice.

8. Merrimack

Finishing eighth in Hockey East last year? Disappointing.

Losing four significant players with eligibility remaining? Frustrating.

Seeing Coach Chris Serino battle back from throat cancer to a clean bill of health? Priceless.

Forget last year’s won-loss record. It was a winning season for the Warriors because Chris Serino is healthy again. This will be a rebuilding year with a very young team, but Warrior fans should count their blessings every time they see their good-guy coach behind the bench.

As for what does transpire on the ice, there are three established scorers and three returning defensemen. Depth at all positions is a major concern. Other than Joe Exter in goal, the lineup will likely be in a state of flux into the holidays.

9. UMass-Amherst

It looks like a season of taking baby steps toward the destination of becoming a winning team. Once again, the Minutemen will be very young: 14 freshmen, 12 sophomores, three juniors and two seniors. With nine freshman forwards, the offense is likely to struggle again despite the talents of Greg Mauldin and Tim Turner. Goaltending is another major question. It’ll likely be another year or two before UMass fans begin to see the building efforts pay off.

2002-03 Mass.-Lowell Season Preview

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Last year’s woulda-coulda-shoulda season (if only the three French players hadn’t left for the Olympics… if only the NCAA selection criteria had eliminated the “last 16 games” category one year earlier… if only there had been a 16-team tournament) gives way to a new season. In this one, however, the 11 River Hawks who’d been in their final year of eligibility have been replaced by a league-high 14 freshmen. (Only sister school UMass-Amherst matches that number of recruits.)

Without question, the most important new faces are between the pipes. Chris Davidson returns from a year in juniors for his sophomore season and is joined by freshmen Paul Mammola and Dominic Smart. However talented the trio may (or may not) be, they still have the sum total of zero minutes in college hockey game experience.

“If you talk to any coach with three virtually new goaltenders, that’s a significant unknown and a concern,” says coach Blaise MacDonald. “But what I like is that with all three of them you don’t have to worry about their work ethic, their preparation, their focus and determination. So we’ll just have to see how it runs its course in terms of ability to stop the puck when it counts. But Chris Davidson is clearly the number one goalie right now.”

On the blue line, the River Hawks must replace Chris Gustafson and Josh Allison, but still return a lot of depth and have added four freshmen.

“We have five guys back from last year so that’s pretty good in terms of experience,” says MacDonald. “Baptiste Amar is in very good condition along with Jerramie Domish. I expect both of them to really be able to make an impact. Darryl Green has put on weight and dropped body fat, which is a good thing. He’s gotten stronger. He looks great. Josh Reed is very steady and he’s probably going to have his best season this year. Peter Tormey was in and out a little bit, but he’s going to be in there battling as well.

mcgrane

mcgrane

“Of the freshmen, Matt Collar may be slightly ahead of the rest, but it’s very, very close. They all look good. We have nine defensemen that can all play.”

Up front, the clear leader is Ed McGrane (22-15–37), who finally earned the recognition he deserves last year, earning a berth on the All-Hockey East second team. He tied BC’s Tony Voce with a league-leading five shorthanded goals.

MacDonald has to hope that he can replace the losses of Yorick Treille and Laurent Meunier more smoothly than when the two left last year with Amar for the Olympics. The River Hawks struggled in their absence; the maturation of returning players and eight newcomers will need to fill the void the two left behind.

“I think we’ll see everybody make a five-to-ten percent increase in their production,” says MacDonald. “Guys like Steve Slonina will really put up some good numbers. I think Anders Strome will build on what he did last year (14-9–23). I look for Niklas Storm to put up some good numbers.

“The obvious is Eddie McGrane. He’s clearly the go-to guy.

“[As for the freshmen], Andrew Martin and Ben Walter clearly can play. They’ll be very good players this year and in the future.”

The River Hawks will be hard-pressed to reprise last year’s performance, but will be an interesting squad to watch. MacDonald’s teams at Niagara emphasized speed and skill and, in his first full recruiting class, he appears to have emphasized those factors over size, which has been a Lowell trait in recent years.

“Obviously, we’re not as strong because we have 14 freshmen,” he says. “But in terms of our conditioning, we’re really in peak shape. We’re a much quicker team than we were last year and I think our skill level is better. There’s much more competition. Right now we have five lines and eight or nine defensemen who can absolutely play.

“We want to utilize our assets and decoy our liabilities, so we’re going to employ and implement systems that allow us to pressure pucks and use our speed and quickness and really try to get after it. We’ll take some calculated risks along the way, knowing that it will make us a better team come January, February and March.”

2002-03 Providence Season Preview

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If not for the early departure of defenseman Regan Kelly, the Friars would rival Boston College for the least attrition in the league. With a talented, senior-dominated lineup, there’s the potential for a big move upward in the standings.

“You win with your upperclassmen and they certainly are going to lead the way for us,” says coach Paul Pooley.

That begins up front with Jon DiSalvatore (16-25–41), Peter Fregoe (15-23–38) and Devin Rask (16-19–35), who match up well with almost any other trio in the league. The challenge will be for the rest of the forwards to increase their production so that collectively PC finishes higher than seventh in the league in total offense, as it did last year.

“[Everyone] obviously looks at Rask, Fregoe and DiSalvatore to have big years, but the guys who scored three and four goals last year need to pick it up and score seven, eight, nine or ten,” says Pooley. “But I like our mix up front. We have a lot more depth than we ever had before. We’ve got five lines right now and a lot of people are interchangeable.

“I’m going to keep Rask, Fregoe and DiSalvatore together and then move people around to see where everybody fits. But I think we’ve got nice balance and we’ll be more physical up front. Our kids have really worked hard in the offseason and are tremendously filled out and a lot stronger. We’ll surprise some people with what we have up front.”

With the big three up front, it’s inconceivable that the Friars will repeat with Hockey East’s worst power play (12.9 percent). It defies explanation as to why the group had such difficulty scoring last year on the man advantage; they should at least return to the middle-of-the-pack production of the previous season.

disalvatore

disalvatore

“Our specialty teams are going to be better,” says Pooley. “Our power play has to be better in order for us to be successful.”

The team defense will need to rebound from last year’s performance, when PC goaltenders had to make more saves per game than every team’s but Merrimack. (Merrimack, 33.4; Providence, 31.2; UMass, 27.5; all others, below 26). If that happens again this year, kiss thoughts of Friar playoff home ice goodbye.

“We have one senior, two juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen so we’re pretty balanced instead of the two seniors and four sophomores type of imbalance that we’ve always had at the position,” says Pooley. “Now we’re really balanced. For us to be successful, we certainly have to have our returning guys pick up the pace, be steady and improve.

“I look at Shawn Weiman, Steven Wood and Jason Platt — our three real upperclassmen — and Eric Lundberg and Jeff Mason, our two people who gained a lot of experience last year. They really need to accelerate their game and be very, very steady for us. Our three freshmen are solid and they bring different attributes to the table. One [Matt Mannina] is offensive-minded and the other two [James Pemberton and Luke Irwin] are a combination of good defense and can play on the offensive side with the puck, too.

“There’s no question that we will be more physical on the blue line. That’s one of the things we’ve wanted to recruit.”

Assuming improved team defense, the onus will be on goaltender Nolan Schaefer to return to the form that earned him All-America honors as a sophomore. Going from a 2.47 goals against average and a .915 save percentage in 2000-01 to last year’s numbers of 3.29 and .904, respectively, wasn’t just a product of the team defense. Schaefer wasn’t as sharp as he needed to be.

If sophomore David Cacciola doesn’t provide enough of a push, then highly regarded freshman Bobby Goepfert (USHL Player of the Year and Top Goaltender) likely will.

“Nolan is a lot more confident in what he is doing,” says Pooley. “He had a great summer and he looks very, very good in practice. He looks very, very sharp. He’s really focussed. I just think he’s ready for a great year. He’s very hungry, very committed, very dedicated.

“Then we have the two other kids who are certainly going to challenge to play… I think our goaltending is going to be very strong. We’re building our team around our goaltending. That’s our number one priority. You win with your team defense and that starts with your goaltenders.”

Are there missing pieces to the puzzle? Perhaps. But it’s also easy to envision this team not only elbowing aside some contender for playoff home ice but also earning a spot in the NCAA tournament.

“We’re very hungry as a program,” says Pooley. “I look on the ice and I sense a common bond in terms of what we want to accomplish as a team and what our priorities are as a team. I sense that we will play as a team this year and we will be a team and will work as a team and hopefully have a lot of success as a team. That will be our main focus.”

2002-03 Ferris State Preview

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The Ferris State Bulldogs had a surprising 2001-02 season. The last-minute departure of stalwart goaltender Phil Osaer appeared to leave FSU in a tight spot, but two rookie goaltenders, Mike Brown and John DeCaro, picked up the slack nicely.

Then there were Rob Collins and Chris Kunitz. Collins led the league in scoring, and Kunitz led the league in goals.

Of course, the surprise there is that the Ferris State offense was only the sixth most productive in the league. Ditto for their power play.

“I think we, over the last four or five years, have made a move to be more of an offensive type of team, more of a skating type of team, and we’re getting close to where we hope to be,” said Bob Daniels.

When you have both the top point scorer and goal scorer in the league, you’re doing something right. But maybe the lesson that needs to be learned in Big Rapids is that hockey is a team sport.

Sharing Is Caring

The Bulldogs were sixth in the CCHA in offense, defense, power play, and penalty kill last season. Now, sixth may not be bad — just average, really — and the top six teams host a first-round playoff series at the end of the year.

Ferris forward Chris Kunitz is an All-America candidate. (photo courtesy FSU Sports Information)

Ferris forward Chris Kunitz is an All-America candidate. (photo courtesy FSU Sports Information)

The problem for FSU with being sixth in every important category last season, however, was that six really meant nine, as in a ninth-place league finish.

What to do? More of the same, apparently.

“We’re going to have a team led by our forwards, led by our offense,” said Daniels, “and the highlight in that group is Chris Kunitz, who arguably is the best player in the CCHA in terms of forwards, maybe in the country. Other players up front include Phil Lewandowski and Jeff Legue.”

That’s all fine and good, but for the Bulldogs to be a more competitive hockey team, they’ll need to get offensive production from more than three players.

The Fundamentals Still Apply

One strength of this Ferris State team is its steady goaltending. Neither Brown nor DeCaro was spectacular last season, but when you have good, dependable goaltending — even with an inconsistent defense — and you’re scoring goals, you’re going to win more than a few games.

“A year ago we lost Phil Osaer right before the start of the season and we had two freshmen unknowns [in goal], Mike Brown and John DeCaro both stepped in and did a great job,” said Daniels. “Mike Brown by the second half of the year had won the starting role. He got injured late in the season but returned for the playoffs and played very well. He’s still a little bit of a question mark, but we have an awful lot of confidence in both Mike Brown and John DeCaro.”

The blue line in front of that tandem improved last season from the year before, and the Bulldogs finished on the plus side of things (+11) as a team in conference play. To move up the standings, though, FSU is going to need better team defense as well as better play in its own end — and that could be an issue this season.

“On defense, we return three very good defensemen, Troy Milam, Matt York, and Simon Mangos,” said Daniels. “We’re also going to have to rely on probably three freshmen to step in and play. If there’s an Achilles heel for our team or an unknown, it could be on our defense where we need some freshmen to step in and log some minutes and do a good job for us.”

Play Nice, And If You Can’t Play Nice, Play Smart

The Bulldogs had the second-highest penalty minute total in the CCHA last season, which surprises absolutely no one — not the players, not their fans, and certainly not the opposition.

Chippy is judgment call. Let’s just say that FSU plays hard.

To improve, however, the Bulldogs need to learn how to play hard and smart. Stupid penalties will cripple any team, but a squad with a so-so penalty kill should be more careful about elbows, hips, and sticks.

Daily Affirmation

There are many affirmations and meditations that could benefit the Bulldogs. They already know that speed kills, and if they play faster and smarter, they’ll be competitive every night.

The Bulldogs already know that the best offense is sometimes a good defense. They’re working on that.

What the Ferris State players really need to learn — and learn but good — is that stupid penalties will kill any chance the Bulldogs have of earning home ice in the first round of the CCHA playoffs.

So, to that end, Bulldogs, ask yourself this question, daily: “A good elbow is a careful elbow.”

2002-03 Michigan Preview

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In all seriousness, Michigan’s loss is the CCHA’s loss. When a player the caliber of Mike Cammalleri leaves a program early, the entire league feels the absence.

Yes, some folks may be happy about the departures of Cammalleri, Mike Komisarek and Michigan State’s Ryan Miller, thinking that this somehow levels the playing field for the rest of the league, but when those players were on the ice — especially Cammalleri — every other player on the ice had to play up to a certain level just to compete.

Put simply, when Mike Cammalleri was on the ice for Michigan, everyone — including opponents — played better hockey. That is something fans will miss this season.

That having been said, if you think that the Wolverines will be hobbled by early departures, you’re just plain nuts. This is one talented squad.

We Are Good Enough, We Are Smart Enough …

The biggest question for Michigan, of course, is goaltending. Josh Blackburn was the netminder of record for most of his four years as a Wolverine, and naturally fans will wonder how a rookie goalie will perform.

Even though Al Montoya is only 17 years old, Red Berenson calls him “someone to watch.”

Montoya comes to Michigan by way of the U.S. NTDP Under-17 Team, where he posted a .912 save percentage in 2000-01, and led the team to a gold medal at the World Under-17 Challenge.

He’s also a bright young man. Having sped through high school, he’s enrolled in the University of Michigan’s Division of Kinesiology.

Do you even know what that is? Do you?

… So — Doggone It! — Why Don’t People Like Us?

Dwight Helminen is one of the standout group of sophomores expected to lead Michigan this season. (photo by Bill Callihan)

Dwight Helminen is one of the standout group of sophomores expected to lead Michigan this season. (photo by Bill Callihan)

CCHA fans love to hate the Wolverines. In the past, perhaps this was justified, when certain players whined, dived, and played chippy hockey.

But have you seen this Michigan team? These Wolverines are an intoxicating combination of blue-collar work ethic and serious finesse. And there’s none of that prima donna mentality of teams past.

Okay, so you’re not going to embrace the Wolverines if you’re not already a fan, but can you at least admit that you could admire them … if they didn’t wear the big “M” and play in Ann Arbor?

Just look at this sophomore class. Milan Gajic, Dwight Helminen, David Moss, Eric Nystrom, Jason Ryznar — if these guys aren’t household names already, they will be soon.

And they play with an enthusiasm for the game that is downright contagious.

The beauty of this Michigan team is that it is more than the sum of its sophomore class. “Up front, we need our captains to be our leaders again,” said Berenson. “Jed Ortmeyer and Johnny Shouneyia will be key players for us, and they look for a player like Jeff Tambellini to be an impact freshman.”

Komisarek’s gone, so who’s left on the blue line?

“We think junior Andy Burnes will pick up the slack,” said Berenson, “and we have a young kid named Danny Richmond coming in. He should be an exciting offensive-type defenseman.”

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

Perhaps one of the best things to happen to Michigan last season was losing to Minnesota in the Frozen Four.

Remember what happened in Boston in 1998? Two freshmen combined for an overtime goal that gave the Wolverines the national championship, and that same freshmen class went on to underachieve for the next three years.

(And they were a whiney lot, too, with the notable exception of Bobby Matzka.)

So a trip to the Frozen Four is nice right off the bat, but leaving that tournament hungry is probably better in the long run.

Daily Affirmation

It would be nice if the fans at Yost (and at Lawson, in all fairness) would remember that there are children in attendance at every game, but I’m giving up on that.

The Michigan players, though, should repeat this daily and think about it often:

“Humility is a virtue.”

If the Wolverines keep it down to earth and play with a love of the game, they’ll be nearly impossible to stop.

2002-03 Nebraska-Omaha Preview

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No one is looking forward to the start of the 2002-03 season more than Mike Kemp. When the season begins, after all, the offseason is officially over.

“It’s been an interesting summer for us in Omaha,” said Kemp. “We started out the summer with seven surgeries — four knees, three shoulders — added two new assistant coaches, rebuilt our staff. Had two late-summer medical diagnoses that took a couple of depth players out of our roster, at least for the foreseeable future, and two days before school, had one of our returning defensemen come in and say that he’s going to go to NHL camp and forego his final three years of eligibility.”

Sounds like somebody needs a hug.

That Which Doesn’t Kill Us …

The Mavs begin the season recovering from surgery and two men down. Gus Groslie is still feeling the aftereffects of a concussion suffered last season, and Jeremiah Johnson fainted during the summer — literally while walking — and the docs still don’t know what caused it.

Add to that a rookie-heavy roster, and what do you get?

Dan Ellis, of course. Talk about an easy equation.

Ellis is arguably the best returning goaltender in the CCHA, and one of the best in the country. His talent and confidence have been a major factor in the Mavs’ success during the past two seasons, and there’s no reason to think anything different for this year.

Goalie Dan Ellis will be relied upon heavily this season by the Mavericks.

Goalie Dan Ellis will be relied upon heavily this season by the Mavericks.

“Our team will go as our strength, our goaltending,” said Kemp. “Dan Ellis, coming back for his junior year, a second-round draft pick for Dallas, has been the cornerstone of our team. As Dan Ellis goes, so go the Mavericks. We look to him to have another outstanding season.”

In fact, perhaps the Mavericks will be praying for him to have another outstanding season.

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

“It will be the youngest team we fielded at UNO since our inaugural season of 1997-98,” said Kemp. “We’ll have 10 freshmen and newcomers around the roster at the start of the season.

“It will be a test for us early to see who fits in where, who’s going to pick up the slack.

Joel Andresen, a defenseman out of St. Albert, was voted the top defenseman in the Alberta Junior League last year. He should make an impact along with Mike Lefley, the MVP of Alberta Junior League, out of Grand Prairie, we picked up very, very late this summer.

“Another player, Micah Sanford, who came to us from Chilliwack of the British Columbia Junior League, was the leading goal-scorer in the BCJL last year and really has only been playing hockey on ice for five years. Prior to that time, he’d been a roller hockey player in Las Vegas, and we think he’s got some tremendous skill, and he’s shown an ability to score on every level and he can come in and make an impact for us right away.”

Roller hockey. Honest.

It’s Not Polite To Point … Except On The Power Play

So, the Mavericks are recovering from surgery, down a couple of guys, loaded with newcomers, but still possessing some veteran talent. Let’s not forget Greg Zanon, David Brisson, and Andrew Wong.

There are two areas in which UNO seriously needs to improve in order to achieve some measure of success this season. For the past couple of years, the Maverick power play has been more than merely anemic — pathetic would be a good term for a man-advantage on a club with guys like Zanon, Brisson, and Wong.

“I think for our team to really have the kind of season we hope to have, we need to improve our offensive production,” said Kemp. “Last year we struggled at times to score goals, and certainly that’s an area we’re really going to emphasize, along with our power play, which was woefully inadequate over the last couple of seasons.”

And as fine a netminder as is Ellis, these Mavs have been making him work really, really hard.

Said Kemp, “We need to tighten up our team defense a bit. It’s interesting [that] Dan Ellis gets a great deal of attention [because] … he led the nation in saves last year, and I have to say that while we’re proud of Dan, that’s not a statistic we’re proud of as a team. Obviously, we’d like to be a little stingier with opportunities around our own end, and that’s going to be something we’re going to really have to look at.”

Daily Affirmation

Every UNO fan should meditate daily on the general health of this team. I am not kidding.

And for you Mav players, try this one: “See the puck. Feel the puck. Be the puck.”

2002-03 Merrimack Season Preview

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With more or less typical losses to graduation, this was going to be the season for Merrimack to take a step forward in the standings. No more battling it out to the end for the final playoff spot.

That is, until early departures ripped extra holes in the depth chart. Count ’em: Anthony Aquino, a former All-Hockey East selection. Matt Foy, last year’s marquee recruit. Top defensemen Greg Lauze and Jeff State, not to mention Darren Clarke, another blueliner who left midway through last season to return home.

“Obviously, we’d be a lot stronger if we kept Foy and Aquino on the right side,” says coach Chris Serino. “Those are a couple big-time scorers. Losing Foy for three years and State and Lauze for two more are big hits we took, but, hey, there’s no sense dwelling on what we don’t have. I’m more concerned with making better what we do have.

“We’ve got practically a new team here. Our freshmen usually sing the national anthem for the intrasquad game so they were all over there singing. [That left] only three guys on one blue line and three guys on the other blue line. We’re in a little bit of trouble. But the good thing is that if we forget the games and have a karaoke contest, I think we’ll be in the top two.”

That Serino is back to quipping with the best of them — even if it involves some whistling past the too-many-freshmen graveyard — is great news following the scare of throat cancer last year.

"Our freshmen usually sing the national anthem for the intrasquad game … [That left] only three guys on one blue line and three guys on the other blue line. We’re in a little bit of trouble. But the good thing is that if we forget the games and have a karaoke contest, I think we’ll be in the top two."

— Chris Serino, on Merrimack’s youth becoming apparent early.

“I’m doing excellent,” he says. “I feel fabulous and I’m ready to go.”

He’s even assumed interim athletic director responsibilities, potentially until next July, confident in his health and ability to maintain focus on the hockey team.

“My number one priority is to coach the hockey team,” says Serino. “My number two priority is to help with the athletic program. I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.

“The President and the entire school have been very, very good to me. They treated me and my family great when I was out sick last year. This is something that I feel I’m paying back to the school.”

Serino will have his hands full with all the new faces, but the known quantities begin in goal, where Joe Exter returns for his senior year. Last season, he often played well until worn down by too many shots. Warrior goaltenders led the league in saves per game by a good margin (33.4 compared to 31.2 for Providence, 27.5 for UMass and all others below 26). With all the new faces on the blue line, that statistic is likely to be repeated, so Exter will have to weather the storm for 60 minutes and steal a few games for his teammates.

“Our goaltending should be a strength,” says Serino. “We should have pretty good goaltending with Joe Exter. We’re looking for him to have a big year. We also think Casey Guenther is ready to assume the backup role, but only time will tell on that.”

How well the defense plays will go a long, long way in dictating the team’s position in the standings.

“We’ve got three coming back: Nick Cammarata, Tony Johnson and Eric Pedersen,” says Serino. “Cam DeYoung, who played for us early last year, but had to leave school for financial reasons, is back. So that gives us a little more experience.

“And we have three freshmen vying for the other two spots: Bryan Schmidt, Rob Lalonde, and Brian Boulay. I really like Schmidt. He reminds me of Jayme Filipowicz [an all-star Serino coached at UNH]. I think he’s going to be a real good one.”

Last year’s big surprise, Ryan Cordeiro (20-16–36), leads the returning scorers along with Alex Sikatchev (14-12–26) and Marco Rosa (5-21–26). All three can play and Rosa ranks as one of the most underrated all-around players in the league. He was this writer’s selection as New England’s top collegiate defensive forward.

After those three, however, the scoring plummets to single-digit point producers. Clearly, several forwards will have to elevate their games for Merrimack to be successful.

“We could have as many as five freshmen in our top 12 forwards,” says Serino. “We have some freshmen who have really stepped up to the plate in Brent Gough and Matt Johnson. We’re hoping guys like Tim Reidy and Steve Crusco, who showed flashes of being pretty good players, can put some numbers up for us.”

In the short term, Warrior fans may need to show some patience with the youth on this squad.

sikatchev

sikatchev

“It’s going to be a funny kind of team,” says Serino. “We could have seven or eight freshmen in the lineup every night. But it’s a good group. They’re working their tails off.

“I think that we’re going to play better as a team. I like the chemistry and leadership of our team. It’s going to be a team that is much better in the second half than it is in the first half. Depending on how quickly they jell, it’s a very unselfish team that will play good team defense.

“We’ve all agreed that the goal is to get better each game. The winning and losing will take care of itself. If we continue to get better and continue to work at getting better, I don’t think a slow or fast start will matter to us. If we can just show steady progress, things will work okay.”

As for the long term, Serino dismisses the idea that the Warriors took a step backward in recruiting last year because of the absence of a marquee name of the Aquino-Rosa-Foy stature.

“I think we got some real good players,” says Serino. “I’m excited about our recruiting class. I’m really impressed not only by their hockey ability, but their character. Sometimes you only get the marquee guy, but the people you surround him with aren’t as good. But it takes more than a marquee guy to make things happen. I think of the 10 guys we brought in, we’ve got four or five who are going to be immediate help to us.”

2002-03 Boston University Season Preview

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If you’re a glass-empty BU fan, you bemoan the graduation of Mike Pandolfo and Jack Baker, the only two players who scored more than 26 points last year, and also point to the losses of offensively-gifted defensemen Chris Dyment and Pat Aufiero. Where is the offense going to come from? The matchups with Hemingway-Collins-Gare (UNH), Rask-Fregoe-DiSalvatore (PC), Shields-Kariya-Liscak (Maine), Eaves-Voce (BC) and Ryan-Guerriero (NU) do not look favorable.

But if you’re glass-full fan, you’ll instead look at the depth up front and figure that the seven freshmen and sophomores who scored double-digit points — led by Brian McConnell (11-15–26) and Frantisek Skladany (13-13–26), respectively — will continue to progress. Then factor in freshmen Brad Zancanaro and John Laliberte, who are both expected to contribute right away, and you can see the depth that should counteract the lack of all-stars.

“It’s going to be difficult figuring out who the first line is going to be on our team,” says coach Jack Parker. “We’re going to have a lot of guys [do] what we had expected for last year: for the most part, offense by committee. We do believe that there are any number of guys who could step up and get 15 or 20 goals for us, but our only two goalscorers in that range last year have graduated in Baker and Pandolfo.

“There’s no question in my mind that we have more than enough talent to put the puck in the net. It may just be with the top four lines instead of two.”

Contributing to the offense and also playing some of the best defense in the league is a talented group of blueliners, led by senior captain Freddie Meyer and sophomores Ryan Whitney and Bryan Miller. Seniors Mike Bussoli and John Cronin aren’t flashy, but are solid. With newcomers Jekabs Redlihs and Dan Spang added to the mix, this group should again be one of Hockey East’s best.

whitney

whitney

“Losing Aufiero and Dyment [cost us] the quality, size and character that are important to any team, but we had to get by without Aufiero the last third of the year anyway because he missed [it with injury],” says Parker. “So we’ve got a lot of experience coming back in three senior defensemen and two sophomore defensemen.

“We’ve also added some pretty talented freshman defensemen as well so we think that we’re going to be in pretty good shape there. Even though we lost two real good guys, our other guys have gotten more experience and we think we’ll be as good, if not better, as we were at the end of last year.”

Goaltender Sean Fields made important strides forward last year and will be joined by freshman Stephen Siwiec. If Fields can move from the league’s middle-of-the-pack netminders into the elite group, the Terriers could make a run at their first Frozen Four since 1997.

“We have an experienced, talented guy in Fields and inexperience after that,” says Parker. “Stephen Siwiec is the incoming freshman who we think has a lot of talent, but obviously hasn’t played a college game yet and Andrew Warren is a senior goaltender who has only played one game in his career.

“So we don’t have a lot of experience behind Sean, but he played most of the games last year and we think that he’ll probably get the nod most of them this year.”

Adding up the potential strengths and weaknesses leaves a dramatic range of possible outcomes. The Terriers could be making travel arrangements for Buffalo next spring or could also be travelling to an opponent’s arena for the Hockey East playoffs.

“I think we’re going to be a better team on paper than we were last year, but it remains to be seen if we can win as many games because the league is going to be tougher,” says Parker. “Chemistry and attitude have an awful lot to do with how you’re doing and not just talent. But I do believe that we’re going to be a strong team in all three areas of the game and in all three zones.

“We’d better be because this league is going to be so tough. There are five or maybe even six teams who could win this league outright. There’s no clear cut team to beat with everyone else playing for second place. Everybody is playing for the top four spots.”

2002-03 New Hampshire Season Preview

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If you’re a college hockey coach and your only significant question mark is your backup goaltender, then life is good. For UNH coach Dick Umile, life is indeed very good. In this writer’s eyes, New Hampshire enters the season as the number one team in the country.

Depth and skill abound on the roster. It’ll be a shocker if the Wildcats aren’t one of the league’s top offensive and defensive teams.

The only position without established depth is between the pipes. Michael Ayers earned second-team All-Hockey East honors last year, setting a Hockey East record with a .938 save percentage in league games. Other than a poor outing to begin and another to end the season — the latter, regrettably for UNH, in the Frozen Four — Ayers was astonishingly consistent, going 12-1-1 and posting shutouts or allowing only one goal in nine of the contests.

The only question is how much freshman Jeff Pietrasiak will contribute as Ayers’ backup following Matt Carney’s graduation.

“We’re thrilled to have Michael Ayers back,” says Umile. “He proved he’s a top goaltender in Division I college hockey. I expect Michael to play the majority of the games. We expect Jeff Pietrasiak to get a start here and there. We’ll try to do that early on and see how he does. That will determine how many games he’ll play.”

ayers

ayers

If not for the loss of Garrett Stafford for the first semester due to academic ineligibility, UNH would return its entire blue line, not to mention add a couple freshmen for a little more depth and competition. Stafford will certainly be missed, but the defense will survive in his absence, barring a rash of injuries.

“We feel that we’re going to be as solid back there on defense as anyone even with the semester loss of Stafford,” says Umile. “That was disappointing and he brings a lot to our defense, especially offensively, but we do have six defensemen who we can put out there who got a lot of experience last season.”

Stafford’s quarterbacking role on the power play could be assumed by either another blueliner or a forward. Umile’s man-advantage units have often employed forwards at the point.

As for the scoring, Darren Haydar, David Busch and Ed Caron must be replaced up front, but the Wildcats still would have finished third in league scoring last year even without that trio. Colin Hemingway (33-33–66) leads a strong group of senior forwards along with last year’s Hockey East Rookie of the Year, Sean Collins (20-25–45).

“We’re excited about the returning forwards,” says Umile. “We have to replace Darren Haydar, obviously, and I don’t think people realize everything he did. He not only put up points, but he made great plays at great times. He was a terrific player.

“What we have is a couple sophomores who were freshmen last year who I feel can pick up those numbers. It may take two of them, but who knows? Maybe one of them can come close to putting up the numbers that Darren put up when he was a sophomore. I think Justin Aikins and Preston Callander are two players who weren’t in the lineup regularly who can do that.

“I think we can put up the numbers but it may take a couple of guys. But I’m very confident that we’ve got a couple of guys that can do that.”

Putting it all together, you have a team that, at least on paper, looks like one of the best in the country.

“I believe us to be a top three team in Hockey East, wherever we fall [there],” says Umile. “If you can be a top tier team in our league, you’re going to be a solid team in the country.”

2002-03 Massachusetts Season Preview

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Patience will be the watchword for Massachusetts fans this year. With 26 of the 31 rostered players being freshmen or sophomores, instant gratification will be in short supply. The key will be long-term improvement and maintaining a positive outlook.

“We’re still a work in progress,” says coach Don Cahoon. “We’ve got two years under our belt here and we think we’ve made some great gains in terms of personnel and we’ve established a culture that we’re starting to become a little more comfortable with. It’s more accepted than it’s ever been before. All of that, hopefully, will take hold in the not too distant future and will reflect in the way that we play.”

No team succeeds without strong goaltending and that holds especially true for young, building programs. All of which makes the UMass crease a position to watch. In limited action last year, Tim Warner (5.16 GAA, .856 Sv%) showed raw talent, but had his struggles, too, especially in terms of rebound control. He was a highly regarded recruit and will need to take a big step forward this season.

“There’s going to be real good competition amongst three very young goaltenders,” says Cahoon. “We’ve got Gabe Winer, who is considered a top prep school prospect, as Timmy Warner was the previous year. And we have Mike Waidlich, who is a capable kid himself. The three of them are really battling.

“Each day you see them, you notice something different. You notice one of them making some gains or one of them going into some type of a struggle. So that’s going to be what will represent the first month or couple of months in that competition. It really is an unknown. These guys need game experience and they need maybe a little success and in some instances some luck to get off to a good start so they’ll have a foundation to build off of.

“I think what will affect their play more than anything else is how well we play in front of them defensively. We’re young in every area so it’s going to be a task to get these guys to play consistently well and be reliable and dependable. Any team that has had success in this league has always had creditable defensive play. And that comes from the goaltender and the team defense unified.”

The veterans on the blue line are Nick Kuiper and Kelly Sickavish, who’ll be leading a group otherwise comprised of freshmen and sophomores.

“Kuiper has a year and a half under his belt, but really made substantial gains last year,” says Cahoon. “He physically got much stronger and became more confident and logged many more minutes than in the 13 games he played as a freshman. Kelly is a big, strong kid. If he keeps it simple and plays within himself, he’ll play a significant role for us.

“We had three freshmen last year — [Jeff Lang, Dusty Demianiuk and Sean Regan] — who got enough ice time so they have a good understanding of what it takes to be successful at this level. It remains to be seen how much they’ve improved over the summer going into their sophomore year. They’ve got a year under their belt, so we expect them to be a little steadier and more poised as a result of that. But they still have a way to go to become significant players in this league and they know that.

“Then we have two freshman defensemen that we recruited. Marvin Degon, who has a great skill level. He should be able to contribute from the get-go, but he’s still a freshman. And there’s Matty Fetzer, who is an offensive type who has a great head for the game. Both are going to be good power-play guys into the future. They both have good puck skills and athleticism. We’re looking to develop them in that regard as well.”

turner

turner

Up front, senior Tim Turner (11-9–20) has been a mainstay since his arrival and sophomore Greg Mauldin (12-12–24) impressed in a big way during his inaugural season. But the scoring from the other forward positions needs to improve significantly.

“We broke our own record for poor offensive production,” says Cahoon, whose Minutemen averaged only 1.88 goals per league game. “The year before we broke the league record and last year we re-broke it. So it’s clear to say that we’ve got to generate more offense.

“Although we’re very young, I think our skill level is going to be improved. We’re going to be a quicker team, a faster team, with some of the kids we’ve brought in. So we’re hoping we can generate some offense just off our ability to get through the middle of the ice and be able to put other teams on their heels more than we have in the past. That remains to be seen, but that’s the expectation.

“Along with Mauldin and Turner, we need Tommy Pock [to produce]. At times, he has been a very good player for us, but he suffered through a very difficult year last year, having an injury that took him out during the [middle of the season] and then he left for the Olympic games, where he played for the Austrians. Tommy has a real good skill level. He needs to bring his game to another level in order for us to have that kind of leadership from our forwards.

“I think Timmy will consistently be competitive as he always has been and get his points. We’re looking for Mauldin to keep growing as a player. We think that his potential is terrific. Those will be the three older, mature players. Then we have a host of sophomores and a host of freshmen to choose from to complement that group.”

Of the host of freshmen, at least two appear ready to contribute immediately: Stephen Werner, who played on the U.S. national team last year, and Chris Capraro, who Cahoon likens to former BU star and fellow Medford native David Sacco.

As part of his overhaul of the program, Cahoon brings some definite expectations to the table that transcend wins and losses.

“Our primary concern is to keep a positive frame of mind in place all the time so that it’s a good learning environment so that we, for the first time since I’ve been here, show that we’re getting better as the season goes along,” he says. “In the previous two years, we’ve gotten off to decent starts, but just fizzled once the New Year came.

“A lot of that was belief systems not being in place, doubting yourself, maybe having some guys who’d had a lot of bad experiences so when we started to struggle and [encountered] adversity, it spiraled downward rather than guys being able to deal with adversity and work their way through it to make it a productive situation.

“Turn a negative into a positive. We weren’t able to do that. We didn’t have the makeup to do that. Although we’re young, we have a new opportunity with all these players to instill that behavior and we’re working real hard to do just that.”

2002-03 Northeastern Season Preview

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The Huskies appeared poised to take home ice last year until dropping four of the last five games in the regular season, falling to fifth. Even with significant graduation losses, Northeastern remains within striking range of achieving that goal this time.

Unlike the past few years, the goaltending looks solid and could even be among the league’s best. Keni Gibson carried the Huskies for long stretches until he either wore down or suffered a crisis of confidence following Northeastern’s tough loss to BU in the Beanpot title game. (Prior to that marquee contest, he’d posted a 13-4-1 record, allowing as many as four goals only twice; from that point on, however, he surrendered four or five goals in all but one of the final seven games, all but one of them losses.)

Coach Bruce Crowder dismisses the possibility of anything but fatigue. “Kenny ran out of steam. Looking back, as a coaching staff we should have given him some nights off here and there. But you get into the heart of the season and every game becomes so important and you’re trying to get home ice. I think the coaches learned as much about it as the player did. He came in in great shape this year and we expect him to be the guy for us again.”

Mike Gilhooly, who played in 25 or more games his first two seasons on Huntington Avenue, returns for his senior year as one backup, along with Tim Heneroty.

“Depth-wise and strength-wise this is probably the strongest we’ve been in goal since I’ve been at Northeastern,” says Crowder.

Last season, All-America selection Jim Fahey helped bring along five freshman defensemen: Tim Judy, Jon Awe, Brian Nathe, Donny Grover and Jack Celata. With Fahey and Arik Engbrecht gone, that sophomore class will make or break the Husky blue line.

“You don’t replace a Jimmy Fahey,” says Crowder. “You’ve got to try to find ways to [take] what he did and maybe spread it [around]. It’s an area where we’re young. Extremely young. We don’t have a senior defenseman.

“We have Brian Sullivan coming off a medical redshirt year. He’s going to be a big question mark for us. We’re hoping that he can add quite a bit to this defensive corps. Other than that, the rest are sophomores and one freshman in Chuckie Tomes. It’s definitely an area where coaching-wise we’ll have to spend a lot of time, continually working with them and [teaching them] what we want them to do with our system.”

ryan

ryan

Up front, the Ryan-Guerriero connection will anchor an offense that will need the continued development of returning players as well as some freshmen making immediate contributions to offset the losses to graduation.

“We lost Chris Lynch, who was a 20 goals, 20 assists guy for us, and Willie Levesque,” says Crowder. “But I like our forwards. A guy like Mikey Morris coming in will probably find himself with Mike Ryan and Guerriero. I think that’s going to be a pretty good line for us. I think we’re going to see a better year out of a guy like Scottie Selig.

“Some of the role players we had last year have stepped it up. I thought [Jaron] Herriman came on at the end of last year. We expect him to continue moving in that direction. Eric Ortlip and Trevor Reschny are a couple guys who are going to bring leadership. I really like our forward position. I think we’re going to be able to get some goals out of those guys.”

While there are questions to be answered, there’s reason for optimism on Huntington Avenue.

“I think we’re a team that can be knocking on the door for home ice,” says Crowder. “I really do. But we’re a team that has to be hitting on all cylinders and guys have to be playing up to their level each and every time they step on the ice. That can make it happen.

“We fell short by three points last year to a veteran team in Lowell and then had to play them in the playoffs. Hopefully, all those experiences are going to help out a team that was loaded with freshmen last year. We’re going to be young again. We only have three seniors. We’ve got 18 or 19 freshmen and sophomores in the locker room. [Our success will depend a lot] on how these freshmen that we’ve recruited come in and how quickly they step up and play like they’re sophomores and juniors.”

2002-03 Western Michigan Preview

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The Western Michigan Broncos continue to be a league enigma. During the 2001-02 season, Lawson Arena was one of the fiercest places to play in the CCHA, and the Broncos defeated six nationally ranked teams at home last year.

But early in January, WMU was swept by Ohio State at home — and then the Broncos drew the Buckeyes in the first round of the CCHA playoffs, in Kalamazoo.

Every Western fan knows what happened next.

If Western Michigan is to improve on its sixth-place performance of last season, the Broncos are going to have to learn to play consistent defense. There’s more to this game than scoring goals.

What Is The Sound Of One Hand Clapping?

In Kalamazoo, that is an imponderable question. Lawson arena is a loud, tough place, and the Broncos themselves rarely limit themselves to single-hand contact with opponents.

While significantly reducing their penalty minutes last season, the Broncos remained one of the most physically punishing teams in the CCHA. That kind of aggressive forecheck led to many Bronco offensive opportunities — but also allowed for mistakes and turnovers in their own end that led directly to opponent goals.

"We’ll continue to play an up-tempo game with an emphasis on forechecking."

— WMU coach Jim Culhane

Western Michigan allowed as many goals as it scored (3.29), hardly a formula for success.

Jim Culhane said he will rely heavily on senior Dave Cousineau at the blue line, but Cousineau — who led all defensemen in the CCHA in scoring last season — finished -13 in conference play, -12 overall. The Broncos, as a whole, finished -38 in league play (-40 overall).

“We’ll continue to play an up-tempo game with an emphasis on forechecking,” said Culhane in preseason. Perhaps the strategy is to create opportunity to score just one more goal than each Bronco opponent registers.

He Who Completely Masters One Thing, Understands Everything

Of course, there are many things worse than winning every game by just one goal. The Broncos may be onto something, and the crash-the-net style they play makes for exciting watching.

Jeff Campbell and last season’s Rookie of the Year, Pat Dwyer, will augment Cousineau’s offensive punch.

Other than creating offensive opportunities from opponent mistakes, making the most of the forecheck, cultivating an effective power play, and crashing the net, there’s little else to say about Western’s offense.

There is one thing the Broncos would like to do this season that the Buckeyes denied them last year: make it to the Super Six.

“What we’re looking to try to accomplish this season is obviously to improve upon our sixth-place finish from last year,” said Culhane. “Hosting a home-ice playoff series against a terrific Ohio State club in Kalamazoo was something.”

In this case, “something” means “motivating.”

“We’d like to improve upon that,” said Culhane, “and hopefully win a playoff series and get the Broncos again down to Joe Louis Arena.”

The way in which WMU ended its 2001-02 season will sit with the Broncos for some time to come.

Daily Affirmation

There are several things upon which the Broncos can meditate to improve their season. I’d suggest asking their fans to behave like civil human beings, but that might detract from the “atmosphere” at Lawson Arena.

Here’s a Zen saying that may help Western Michigan see its way to the Joe.

“Knowledge is more powerful than any force. The mind is the ultimate weapon.”

How about a modification just for the boys in Kalamazoo?

“Play smart hockey, Broncos, but carry a big stick.”

2002-03 Maine Season Preview

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The Black Bears could face a different set of emotional hurdles compared to last year when many of them felt that the spirit of “old SW” gave them a seventh player on the ice. Shawn Walsh’s death struck the team down early last year, but provided a unifying theme that it could rally around on the way to the national championship game. One year later, coach Tim Whitehead may need to be just as masterful, but in a different way, in handling his team’s psyche.

That said, on paper this is a very talented team. For every question mark, there is at least one exclamation point.

The biggest unknown is in goal, where last year’s seniors, Mike Morrison and Matt Yeats, played every second of every game. That leaves Frank Doyle, who practiced with the team, and newcomer Jimmy Howard.

“Goaltending is like pitching in baseball or quarterbacking in football; you’ve got to have it,” says Whitehead. “Our intentions are to give both Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle the opportunity to help the team and just let things develop from there. It would not surprise me if we’re alternating them throughout the season, but at the same time, if one guy elevates above the other as the year goes on, we’ll probably go with that guy. But I’m confident that both of them will contribute and help our team quite a bit.

“Frank practiced with us all last year and he’s a couple years older so I think his adjustment will be a little quicker. Jimmy is a true freshman, which normally is not a good formula for a goalie, but at the same time I think the experience he’s had over the last two years with the U.S. Development program is going to speed up his adjustment.

“We’re very excited about both of our guys. They just don’t have any game experience in college hockey.”

After losing Peter Metcalf to graduation, the blue line took another hit during the offseason when Michael Schutte turned pro, forgoing his final year of eligibility. Schutte had moved up front midway through his sophomore year to add a sniper to Martin Kariya’s line, but returned to the blue line for the stretch drive last season. Replacing the two offensively-gifted defensemen will be a challenge.

“That’s our other big issue,” says Whitehead. “Michael really solidified our defense near the end of last year and was really the heir apparent to Metcalf in that quarterback role. So we don’t have the answer to that yet, but we’ll find it.

reimann

reimann

“Francis Nault, Prestin Ryan, Troy Barnes and Cliff Loya will be our most experienced players coming back, [and we’re looking to them to] elevate their game and take a leadership role defensively. Peter Metcalf had his best season, elevating his play in his senior year, and we’re hoping that some of the juniors and seniors can take on more of a leadership role that way.

“Certainly that’s going to be an area where it’s going to take some time. It’s going to be a process. And if we have to move a forward back again [like last year] then so be it.”

Without question, the strength of the team is up front where seniors Martin Kariya, Robert Liscak, Tommy Reimann and Lucas Lawson all return with 30-point seasons under their belts along with super sniper Colin Shields, who buried the puck 29 times last year.

“I really like our forwards,” says Whitehead. “Niko Dimitrakos was one of those unique forwards who could break a game open at any moment. He’ll be tough to replace, particularly on the power play. But I think we have a real good core of forwards. If we have a couple guys who elevate and continue to improve like they did last year, then I think we’re going to be in great shape up front.

“We’re definitely going to put the onus on our forwards to help our young goalies and defense. We’re going to put a lot of pressure on our forwards to play strong defensively. We’re not just looking for offense out of them. We need them to be very defensive-minded to help us develop that way.”

Hockey East: One Year Later

By Mike Machnik
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One year ago, the deaths of Maine coach Shawn Walsh to cancer and former Boston University player Mark Bavis in the September 11th tragedy, along with the announcement that Merrimack coach Chris Serino had been diagnosed with cancer, cast a pall over Hockey East’s annual Media Day luncheon at Boston’s FleetCenter.

This year, the mood was decidedly different, enabling BU coach Jack Parker to joke as he reflected on the difference a year makes.

“Everybody was pretty solemn and concerned about where the country was going, re-evaluating how they lived their lives, and I think people are still doing that,” Parker said.

“But, I don’t see quite as many American flags being flown around in cars, and I don’t see people being quite as polite as they were last September and October to each other,” he added with a grin.

“But I’m certain that was something we’ll never forget and hope it never happens again. As far as the tenor of this season, this country has a different tenor, so this hockey season has a different tenor too.”

For Parker and his Terriers, it’s a season that will begin with a huge bullseye planted firmly on their chests, as the league coaches tabbed BU the preseason favorite to capture the 19th Hockey East Championship.

But that honor may be a dubious one, according to the dean of Hockey East coaches.

“I think it’s nice that people think that we’ve got a good hockey team,” Parker deadpanned. “We’re ranked number two in the nation in the national poll, and I also know that means nothing. Ask Providence, they were picked number one last year and had some injuries and other problems and wound up seventh.”

BU received six of a possible eight first place votes. In a change from last season, coaches were asked to only rank the other eight teams in the league, leaving out their own.

The Terriers were the top choice despite the graduation of defensemen Pat Aufiero and All-American Chris Dyment and top two scorers Mike Pandolfo and Jack Baker. But the presence of 13 NHL draft picks, including Ryan Whitney (4-17–21), the first college player selected in 2002, was enough to sway the rest of the league.

Only five points separated the second through fourth teams in the poll.

"If Maine wins this championship, people will say, wow, they were picked fourth. And they were an NCAA finalist last year and they have almost everybody back. How could you not pick them to be the number one team in the league?"

— BU coach Jack Parker

Defending regular season and tournament champion New Hampshire, which also finished third in the NCAA tournament, came in second in the balloting and garnered two votes for first. The Wildcats return All-American Colin Hemingway (33-33–66), Rookie of the Year Sean Collins (20-25–45) and All Hockey East goaltender Michael Ayers (14-3-1, 2.44, .915), but lost All-American Darren Haydar and were recently stung by the news that senior defenseman Garrett Stafford (5-22–27) is ineligible for the first semester.

A reloading Boston College was ranked third, led by All-American Ben Eaves (13-26–39), who missed 15 games due to injury, All-Hockey East choice Tony Voce (26-22–48), and defenseman J.D. Forrest (8-19–27).

NCAA runner-up Maine finished fourth with the other first-place vote after the departures of goaltenders Matt Yeats and All Hockey East selection Mike Morrison, defensemen Michael Schutte and All-American Peter Metcalf, and All-American forward and leading scorer Niko Dimitrakos. The Black Bears do return their next eight leading scoring forwards, including Colin Shields (29-17–46) and Martin Kariya (16-28–44).

As far as Parker is concerned, Maine is not only the top sleeper team this season, they’re the team to beat.

“I couldn’t believe they wound up fourth. I was the one who voted Maine number one,” he said. “If Maine wins this championship, people will say, wow, they were picked fourth. And they were an NCAA finalist last year and they have almost everybody back. How could you not pick them to be the number one team in the league?

“What it really does is it points out the balance in the league. I think this is the best year we’ve ever had as far as who could win this league, it’s the closest we’ve ever had. We’ve got five, maybe six teams that absolutely could win this regular season championship and nobody would be surprised.”

Maine coach Tim Whitehead, who received the Spencer T. Penrose Memorial Award as National Coach of the Year after his team’s surprise run to within a goal of the NCAA Championship, took the fourth place selection in stride.

“We lost a lot of difference makers in key positions, both our goalies, our top two defensemen, and our leading scorer at forward, so that’s a pretty big hit,” said Whitehead, who was named interim coach last September after the passing of Walsh and in April was given the job for good. “So we don’t feel slighted at all. Plus, the league is so competitive, and I don’t think it’s a cliche.

“We think we can surprise some people at the end,” Whitehead added with a smile.

Providence and Northeastern came in fifth and sixth,prompting Mass.-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald to name them as his teams to watch.

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Providence or Northeastern finish in the top four,” said MacDonald. “Providence was picked number one last year and they have virtually everybody back from last year’s team. Northeastern had four tremendous freshman defensemen, and Keni Gibson could be the best goalie in the league.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if whoever finishes fourth in Hockey East in the regular season won the national championship. That’s how good I think the top four or five teams are.”

MacDonald’s River Hawks finished seventh in the poll.

“That’s probably where we should be,” he said. “We lost 11 players from a pretty good team last year, and this year we have 14 new faces. But more telling than that is that two of them are goaltenders. In this league, if you don’t have consistent, dependable goaltending, it doesn’t matter how good you are in the front five. That’s an unknown for us.”

Massachusetts and Merrimack rounded out the poll, with the Warriors a unanimous choice to finish last.

Yet the upbeat mood at Merrimack reflects that of the rest of the league. That’s because Serino, who was absent from the luncheon last year as he began his cancer treatments which would force him to step away from the team two weeks into the season, recently received a clean bill of health from his doctors and is back at the helm this year.

“I remember last year we were driving home and he wasn’t even at this, we called him just to let him know how it went here,” senior captain Joe Exter said. “And that was just the beginning of it. No one knew how bad it really was or what was going to happen to him.

“So a year later for him to be standing here, it’s just great to see him here.”

“I’m really looking forward to the season,” Serino said. “Last year helped me put things in perspective, not just about hockey but about life.”

A sentiment that’s echoed around the rest of Hockey East as well.

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