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Wisconsin’s Doman Suspended One Game for Kneeing

USCHO Staff Report
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Wisconsin senior forward Matt Doman was suspended for one game, a penalty imposed on Friday by the WCHA for kneeing North Dakota’s David Lundbohm on Dec. 7.

Doman, who received a two-minute penalty on the play, will be forced to sit out the Badgers’ opening game at the Bank One Badger Hockey Showdown next week in Milwaukee.

The Badgers are scheduled to play Brown on Dec. 27.

Doman kneed Lundbohm at mid-ice, and the North Dakota forward suffered a bruised thigh.

North Dakota coach Dean Blais questioned that the call was only a minor penalty.

“That one should have been a major penalty by Doman,” Blais said after the game. “He kneed David Lundbohm and the referee saw it, and it should have been a major.”

The NCAA ice hockey rulebook contains language to help referees determine whether a kneeing penalty should be called as a minor or a major.

It reads: “A minor penalty should be assessed in most situations. When the knee is used in a flagrant or violent manner, a major penalty should be assessed. Whenever injury results from fouling an opponent with a knee, a disqualification penalty must be assessed.”

Lundbohm got treatment on the bench for his injury, and he left the ice to go to the locker room after the penalty call was made.

Doman has three goals and five assists in 16 games for the Badgers.

UMass’ Nizwantowski Off Team After Police Incident

USCHO Staff Report
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Nizwantowski

Nizwantowski

UMass-Amherst coach Don Cahoon has decided to remove junior forward Brad Nizwantowski from the hockey program following action taken today by the school. The specific action taken against Nizwantowski is protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

According to a story in today’s Daily Hampshire Gazette, Nizwantowski was arraigned Monday in local district court on charges of “breaking and entering in the night to commit a felony, threatening to commit a crime, assault and battery, and three counts of armed assault in a dwelling.”

“Due to the severity of his personal issues, his time would be better spent with his family,” said Cahoon. “Until his issues are resolved, he will not be a part of the hockey program.”

The Daily Hampshire Gazette cites court records saying Nizwantowski broke into the apartment of his ex-girlfriend late Saturday night. According to the records, he then stole a kitchen knife, threatened his ex-girlfriend’s two roommates, then locked himself and the ex-girlfriend in her bedroom.

Police eventually arrived and convinced him to surrender.

“The University has taken appropriate interim action as it would with any student in a similar situation,” said Paul Vasconcellos, UMass Dean of Students.

Nizwantowski, a native of Peabody, Mass., had played in 12 of the Minutemen’s 16 games this season, scoring one goal and two assists.

2002 Vote For Hobey Begins

USCHO Staff Report
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College hockey’s top individual prize, the Hobey Baker Award, is now accepting nominations in the first phase of naming the Hobey winner. From now until Jan. 6, hockey fans may nominate Division I men’s college hockey players.

The Vote For Hobey process offers college hockey fans the unique opportunity to actually participate in the selection of the game’s top individual honor. The award is now in its 22nd season, and has been won in recent years by NHL regulars such as Bryan Holzinger (1995), Brendan Morrison (1997) and Chris Drury (1998).

The initial phase of Vote For Hobey consists of nominations. Each fan can nominate any amount of players, one time each. This is done by going to the Vote For Hobey (www.voteforhobey.com) or Hobey Baker (www.hobeybaker.com) web site, and following the prompts.

Candidates receiving at least 25 nominating votes will become eligible to receive votes in the second phase: Finalist Selection. Hockey fans can follow the results of the nominating progress by checking back to the web site for updates every Monday.

Once the nominating phase is completed, college hockey fans will have two more phases to cast their votes in helping to determine this year’s Hobey Baker Award recipient. From Jan. 7, 2002 through March 7, 2002, registered voters may cast ballots (one per day) for their first, second and third choices.

Fans will be casting ballots along with the 60 Division I college hockey head coaches to determine the Top Ten Finalists. That list of elite players will be announced on Thursday, March 14.

In the final round of balloting running from March 15, 2002 through March 25, 2002, mregistered voters can (once per day) cast their ballots ranking the top 10 candidates, one through five. The top selection from the fans will join the ballots from the Selection Committee (comprised of college hockey personnel, pro scouts and media) in determining the 2002 Hobey winner.

The award recipient will be announced in a live telecast from the NCAA Frozen Four Tournament in St. Paul, Minn. on Friday, April 5, 2002.

One In Ten Million

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“They told me I would never, ever walk again, that I had no chance. I would never move anything below my chest.”

— Providence goaltender Matt Curran

Last April, Matt Curran fell off a roof and plummeted 30 feet onto a concrete surface below. He shattered his hip, separated his shoulder, and broke his nose, teeth, and three ribs. Those were the least of his injuries. He had also fractured his skull in two places as well as two vertebrae in his back.

“I was knocked out for a little while,” he says, before adding matter-of-factly, “about a week and a half.”

Once his survival was no longer in question, the stark realities began to unfold. One of the fractured vertebrae had damaged his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He transferred from a hospital in Daytona, Florida, where the accident had occurred, to the Shepherd Medical Center, a spinal cord hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. There, he and his family got the chilling prognosis.

“Am I ever going to walk again?” he asked.

“No,” answered his doctor. “The chances are one in 10 million that you’re ever going to move anything below your chest.”

Matt’s father, John Curran, broke down and cried. Matt became severely nauseous.

“It’s a pretty tough thing to put into words what it feels like to hear that,” he says. “Especially when you’re only 21 and you feel like you’ve got so much more to do.”

After the initial shock, he spent several somber days thinking of all the things he had just lost.

From the depths of that depression arose the fighting instincts that had served him so well in his struggle to become a Division I college athlete. Never the superstar who had success just handed to him, he had always had to strive for his goals and overachieve. That had been true at lower levels of hockey where his primary claim to fame was helping Catholic Memorial High School to state and national titles in 1998. It had also been the case at Providence, where in his junior year he had finally seen his first collegiate action, a 39-second stint at the end of a 7-3 win on Dec. 2, 2000.

“I knew my son had a tremendous heart and had been a tremendous fighter,” says John Curran. “He’s always been on the edge of making teams and has been a longshot.”

Matt looked hard at his plight and came to the conclusion that he’d have no chance if he didn’t try. Likening it to training to make a team, he resolved to, in his words, “train for my life.”

Fortunately, it was anything but a solo effort. For starters, he drew on his faith and prayed.

“It was the first time in my life that I’d ever been in something so desperate,” he says. “It was a very, very big help, having someone to look to.”

Matt hastens to add that he doesn’t claim to be the most zealous believer, a point echoed by his father.

“God just kind of scooped him up and took care of him,” says John Curran. “I’m a big believer in God, [but] I’m a back row guy at church. I’m not a holy guy. I’m praying from obstructed view.”

Matt also got constant encouragement from his coaches, teammates and other members of the hockey community.

“I’d get a phone call from one [teammate] and then the phone would go around the room where everyone was hanging out,” he says. “They were all great. All three coaches were unbelievable.

“I owe all of the guys. You get down and out, you’re having a bad day in therapy, and you’re just down there with your family and you’re pretty bummed out and one of these guys calls and tells you what’s going on. It makes you feel pretty good, that you’ve got a lot of support.”

"People who didn’t even know Matt would write letters saying they had seen him play and they were praying for him … Little kids from kindergarten would send funny cartoons."

— John Curran, father of Providence netminder Matt Curran

Encouragement also came from total strangers of all ages.

“People who didn’t even know Matt would write letters saying they had seen him play and they were praying for him,” says John Curran. “Little kids from kindergarten would send funny cartoons.”

Matt would need all of that encouragement. Six weeks after his accident, he still had not felt a thing below his waist.

Six weeks…. One in 10 million….

Having a better chance of winning the lottery, he refused to mentally throw in the towel.

“I don’t think I gave up at all in the six weeks,” he says. “I was scared to give up because I [thought], ‘If I give up now, what if I just got it back two seconds ago? I would never know if I stopped trying.’

“You’ve got to tip your hat to people living in wheelchairs, but I just couldn’t see me doing it.”

Finally, after close to seven weeks without a hint of hope, the miracle happened. With his father massaging his left leg, Matt’s big toe suddenly twitched.

“It was a really spiritual moment,” says John Curran. “He thought I had moved his foot, but I said, ‘What are you talking about?'”

They began to cry. For the first time since the accident, Matt had a chance.

Working extraordinarily hard and “praying even harder,” the Curran family — Matt, his father John and his mother Janet — saw the miracle unfold. Every couple days, Matt would experience a new breakthrough. Days after the first twitch, he moved his knee. Soon after, he was moving his left leg pretty well and the attention turned to his right side.

Progress was slower there, but steady. After a couple weeks, he’d gotten back some of his right leg, leaving his midsection as the biggest concern. Both legs were working, but he still had nothing in the pelvis and hip area, where a metal hip had been inserted. There were no guarantees that the improvement would continue and without the midsection Matt still wouldn’t be able to hold himself upright.

With the same tenacity in his therapy sessions that had gotten him that far, Matt overcame the last hurdle to walking again.

“I’ll tell you, we were in the gym when the gym was closed,” says John Curran. “We’d sneak into the gym at that hospital [to do more therapy work]. By the time the janitors left, [they] said, ‘You guys will get the lights, right?’

“He was teaching himself how to crawl, how to walk all over again. ‘More weight, Dad,’ he’d say. ‘More pushups.’

“It was an incredible, incredible journey. Having that willingness to fight and having a huge heart is what made him walk out of that place.

“I tell you, one day when he stood up for the first time, the entire place started screaming and crying and clapping. It was like Rocky all over again.”

Matt’s progress continued until it became clear that it was time for him to leave the Shepherd Medical Center.

“It’s a long recovery from a spinal cord injury,” he says, “but by that time I was doing well enough to make room for someone else to come in who needed my bed a little more. I was working on doing stairs and other [patients] were looking at me with those eyes. I [thought], ‘I’ve got to get out of here.'”

Less than a month after the breakthrough twitch in his toe, he walked out of the hospital using only a crutch and a leg brace.

“The doctors said there was no reason why this was happening,” says Matt. “But one of them said that you don’t ask why when it’s something good.” Matt smiles and adds, “No one is asking why.”

He now walks without any assistance and dreams of the day when he might return to competitive hockey at some level.

“I’d like to think that I’d be able to,” he says. “I’m the kind of kid that once I get [back the ability to walk], I want more. I’ve tried skating and it’s pretty tough. It’s muscle memory that I’ve got to work on, but I’m working on trying to run and jump and stuff like that. All cool stuff.”

His role with the team has been to help out with the goaltenders.

“Coach [Paul Pooley], like he’s been the whole time, has been unbelievable,” says Matt. “He really left it up to me as to what I wanted to do in terms of the team, whether I wanted to be on it at all or if I never wanted to come down [to the rink]. It was up to me. Obviously, I want to be here as much as I can, because this is what I want to do.

“So I’ve been trying to help out, trying to be another set of eyes on the goalies because you can never have too many people trying to see what’s going on. So I help out like that during the games and during the week I’m down here [at the rink] every day. I do most of my therapy here on my own and then I go to my therapist.

“I’m here a lot, working on trying to get back on the ice.”

Matt’s injury and miraculous comeback have changed him more than just physically.

“It gives you a new perspective on everything,” he says.

His perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds has left an indelible mark on those around him and will no doubt serve him well in the years to come.

“It’s the foundation for life,” says John Curran. “Hockey is a pyramid and everyone falls off eventually. It’s what you take from the game that holds you in good stead in life because life is all about battles.

“He’s been an inspiration to me and our family. This is a tough kid who has just really bounced back. This has been his greatest victory.”

Fairfield Moves 2 Games to AHL Building

USCHO Staff Report
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Fairfield will play its final two home games this season at the newly-built Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn. The arena is the current home of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League.

The games will be played on Friday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, March 2 against Quinnipiac and Holy Cross, respectively. The game on Feb. 22 was originally scheduled to be played at Quinnipiac’s home rink, the Northford Ice Pavilion, forcing the schools to flip-flop home games. Quinnipiac will host Fairfield the following night, Saturday, Feb. 23.

“We’re very excited about this opportunity to further develop our relationship with the Arena at Harbor Yard,” said Fairfield AD Gene Doris. “It’s an important step for our hockey program and will be a good way for us to finish the regular season.”

The Arena at Harbor Yard has a seating capacity of 8,500 for hockey, including 33 Executive Suites, 1300 Club Seats, a private Club Lounge, 13 Loge suites and three party suites, making it the largest venue ever for a MAAC game. The main tenant in the building, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, are averaging 4,140 fans per game through 14 home dates, ranking them 22nd in the 27-team league.

This Week In The WCHA: Dec. 13, 2001

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The Improbable

Down 6-2 to North Dakota in the third period last Friday, Jeff Sauer was going over what he was going to say to the hometown media. The Wisconsin coach would enter the Kohl Center media room a half hour or so later, sit down, watch the tape recorders click on in front of him. He’d have to explain how this happened on home ice.

In the end, no words were necessary. The Badgers did all the talking on the ice.

Bang. Alex Leavitt at 6:39.

Bang. Brad Winchester at 9:17.

Bang. Brian Fahey at 11:54.

Bang. Jake Heisler at 17:25.

Overtime. The Badgers improbably scored four goals in the third to tie the game at 6. Just to seal this game’s place among the best comebacks in Wisconsin history…

Bang. Rene Bourque at 1:59 of overtime. Good night now.

The Badgers’ 7-6, come-from-way-behind victory will enter Sauer’s memory banks in the comebacks file. Some of the others?

  • The day Wisconsin fans still refer to as “Black Sunday,” when Sauer’s Colorado College team rallied from a six-goal deficit after one game of a WCHA total-goals series for an 11-4 victory in Madison to win the series by one goal.
  • A November 1989 evening in Marquette, Mich., when the Badgers, down 5-2 late in the third period, rallied for a 6-5 overtime victory over Northern Michigan. They tied it at 5 with two seconds left in regulation, then Barry Richter’s shot from the right point in overtime found its way past Bill Pye and in. The Badgers skated singly, with arms in air, to the other end of the ice, almost like they were skating right for the exits, knowing they stole one.
  • Then, another one a reporter reminded him of: A late-season game in 1996 against Minnesota in Madison. The Gophers went up 4-0 in the second period, only to have the Badgers climb back in. Joe Bianchi scored the go-ahead goal in the third and Wisconsin won 7-4.

    Friday’s victory was along the same lines, Sauer said, so much so that he vowed after the game to go home and watch the tape-delayed replay on Wisconsin Public Television.

    He was watching it Monday afternoon, as well.

    “I’m watching it from the standpoint of listening to the announcers,” Sauer said. “We go from the worst team in the WCHA ever to the unbelievable comeback.

    Return To Normalcy, Please

    The NCAA is admirably concerned about its coaches, athletes and team representatives traveling too far from home for its tournaments this season.

    Check that. The NCAA is admirably concerned about some of its coaches, athletes and team representatives.

    The NCAA Championships Cabinet made a few changes to its seeding process for fall sports tournaments, with the intent being to keep teams closer to home for as long as possible. After Sept. 11, you can’t be too safe, right?

    So it would stand to follow that the hockey tournaments would be similarly affected this season. Instead of the common practice of sending some Eastern teams out West and vice versa, the West Regional would be a true West Regional. Same with the East.

    As disappointing as that is to those who believe the NCAA tournament should be the place where you see matchups you haven’t seen before — say the weekend before, in the conference tournaments — it’s really OK, knowing that the NCAA is going to apply this new procedure across the board.

    Isn’t it?

    As well-placed as the practice sounds, why shouldn’t it apply to everyone? The football bowl game matchups are out, and how many of them were made with respect to how far the teams are going to have to travel?

    Miami and Lincoln, Neb., are an awful long way from Pasadena, Calif., aren’t they? Michigan’s going to the Florida Citrus Bowl. Tell me that’s an easier trip than, say Minnesota or St. Cloud State or the like going to Worcester, Mass.

    If the NCAA was serious about playing by its own rules, one of two things should happen: It should change all the bowl games so proximity is the biggest concern, or it should leave the hockey tournament the way it’s been for years.

    Some would argue that air travel should be limited in these somewhat uncertain days after Sept. 11. Well, should they make the NCAAs, Denver and Colorado College are going to have to fly somewhere. Why can they fly to Ann Arbor, Mich., and not Worcester, Mass.?

    With a small amount of teams in the NCAA tournament, hockey stands to be one of the big losers in this regionalized-early-rounds system. One of the joys of the national tournament when it comes to hockey is seeing a matchup like Michigan and Mercyhurst, or Minnesota and Maine, or Colorado College and St. Lawrence, in the first round of the tournament.

    You don’t see those teams play each other very often. If this new system goes through, you may not see them at all. That would be a shame.

    Stepping Forward

    Want to know who the real leaders are on a team? Put them in this situation:

    Tied at 3 after two periods of a game that you desperately need to win to keep some momentum rolling, in a game that you led 3-0 early in the second period.

    It’s as if the coaches are saying, “Show me something.”

    Minnesota State-Mankato was in that situation against Alaska-Anchorage last Saturday night, and three of its players showed the coaches something.

    B.J. Abel set up Tim Jackman for the go-ahead goal just 15 seconds into the third period, and Jerry Cunningham added insurance later for a 5-3 victory.

    It was an essential win for the Mavericks because they had lost to the Seawolves the night before. Home losses never sit well, but especially after putting forth the work necessary to sweep North Dakota in Grand Forks the weekend prior.

    “We talked about it in the locker room after the first period when we were up 2-0, we said the next goal’s a big one. We got the goal and it kind of seemed like, well that’s the end of the game,” Mankato assistant coach Eric Means said. “Then we go into the third period and it’s tied at 3-3. We looked around and told our guys big players have to come out and make a big play right away. B.J. Abel made a nice play for Jackman, and fortunately Tim put it away. Then Cunny was in the right spot at the right time to capitalize on a turnover.”

    Abel, Jackman and Cunningham are three of the integral elements of the Mavericks team that has its sights set on hosting a playoff series this year, after missing out on that last season.

    Nate Mauer leads the Mavericks with 17 points, but that trio takes up spots two through four. Cunningham and Abel have 16 points each, and Jackman has 15.

    Cunningham, in particular, has found himself on a hot streak recently. He has already matched his career high for goals (eight).

    “Cunny didn’t have a great week against Anchorage, but the previous seven or eight games he’d been phenomenal for us,” Means said. “He’s one of the leaders on our team and we need him to score.”

    But it’s debatable that Mankato would even be able to stay near the top half of the WCHA without the capable goaltending of Jason Jensen. Jensen was thrown into a tough situation when Eric Pateman and Jon Volp were each lost to injury, but he has acquitted himself quite well.

    He’s been the goaltender of record in the last six games, going 3-2-1. At a time things could have fallen apart for Mankato, Jensen has helped to hold it together. He’ll have another big challenge this weekend when Denver comes to Mankato in the only WCHA series of the weekend.

    “I think he’s gotten better and better, and I think with that is confidence,” Means said. “He had been out essentially for two years and never played a game. When he got in there, he was a little shaky because he was nervous. The more he’s played, the better he’s gotten. Even in practice, he’s just been unbeatable lately. It’s just been a nice surprise for us.”

    Model Citizens

    Chalk one up for good citizenry at the Michigan Tech.

    Five Tech seniors appear on posters around the Houghton, Mich., area, holding infants and warning about the dangers of shaking children and of child abuse.

    Paul Cabana, Jaron Doetzel, Tom Kaiman, Tim Laurila and Brad Patterson participated in the program, which features the slogans, “Don’t shake us, you might break us,” and “Never ever shake a baby.”

    A Winner In Wisconsin

    If the big action last weekend was in Colorado, how did Wisconsin, hundred of miles to the east, end up being the big winner?

    That comeback and simple arithmetic.

    Less than a period away from possibly writing off the whole weekend, the Badgers took command against North Dakota, won Friday night’s game and then took the rematch on Saturday. The four points they earned trumped the two points each from the three teams above them in the standings, allowing the Badgers to gain some ground on the WCHA’s leaders.

    So as mediocre as the first part of their season has been, they’re in fourth place, one point back of Minnesota for third.

    They’re even doing a bit better than last year, a season that ended up with Wisconsin one game away from the Frozen Four. Through 16 games, the Badgers are 8-7-1, up slightly from 8-8 last season. In the league, they’re 6-3-1 (13 points), up from 5-5 (10 points) last year.

    And just remember: The Badgers were ranked No. 1 in the country for a good chunk of the season last year. Things may not be as bad as they appeared just a week ago.

    Upset? Maybe

    Was Dean Blais justified in verbally attacking an official after his North Dakota team’s loss to Wisconsin last Friday night? Probably not.

    Does he have a right to be upset? Let’s say maybe.

    With the Sioux up two goals in the third period, still managing to hold off the oncoming Badgers charge, UND’s Andy Schneider appeared to get his stick up high on Wisconsin’s Alex Leavitt behind the play. Assistant referee Pat McMahon made the call, Wisconsin went on the power play, the Badgers scored and, if you read this far, you know the rest of the story.

    But that’s not the whole story on that call.

    Schneider’s stick did come up high on Leavitt, but the Badgers’ freshman probably had as much to do with that as Schneider. Schneider put his stick about midway up Leavitt’s torso, replays indicate, and Leavitt’s arms brought the stick up toward his face.

    Leavitt fell to the ice, the crowd groaned and McMahon blew his whistle.

    Here’s one of the catches: Referee John Boche wasn’t too far away from being in a position to make the call. The protocol for assistant referees is that they don’t call penalties if the referee has seen the play. Boche appeared to be either a bit ahead of the puck (which was about 15 feet away Schneider-Leavitt incident) or even with it, across the ice.

    “It was the penalty by the AR that turned the game around,” Blais told USCHO’s Jon Linder after the game. “It would have been different if was called by the referee who made a judgment call, but a call by the AR? What the hell are you doing blowing your whistle even? It’s not your decision.

    “He grabbed his stick and it was right in front of him and he fell down. The crowd yells for a penalty and he calls it? No, uh-uh. I don’t complain about refereeing or AR’s — if it is once a year, it is a lot. And it was a lot tonight.”

    Run ‘Em Ragged

    Craig Dahl read a newspaper report this week about the Minnesota Wild being run through a tough practice by coach Jacques Lemaire the day after an embarassing loss to Montreal.

    It reminded him a lot of the Huskies’ Monday practice this week.

    “[I] ran ’em hard,” Dahl said of the team’s first practice after a 5-1 loss to Colorado College last Saturday. “We had a rugged practice on Monday. And rightfully so; they were all in agreement.

    “We’re not taking anything away from Colorado, I think they played very well all weekend, played very hard, like a team that knows they can’t lose very many more or they’re going to be in trouble. Their goaltender played well, but we were a day late and a dollar short all over the ice.”

    The Huskies can’t afford to take things down a notch, as many of their WCHA counterparts are doing as the holidays approach. Only five of the league teams are playing this weekend; the rest have packed things up until after Christmas.

    St. Cloud, meanwhile, has this weekend’s home-and-home series with Bemidji State and next weekend’s WCHA series with Minnesota State-Mankato to worry about before gifts are exchanged. After the Dec. 22 game at home against Mankato, the Huskies have only one weekend off before returning to action on Jan. 4, against UMass-Amherst.

    “We have quite a sled left,” Dahl said. “The point was, you can’t play this game without being very intense. Our guys had to refocus ourselves, get readjusted and get back to work.”

    Slip-Sliding Away

    Here’s a sign of the times for North Dakota:

    Even after the catastrophic collapse last Friday night at Wisconsin, the Sioux still had two good chances to win in regulation.

    A centering pass went off Brandon Bochenski’s skate and into the net. The goal was waved off.

    With time running out in regulation, Aaron Schneekloth ripped a slap shot off the crossbar.

    “They’re going to win some games, there’s no question about that,” Wisconsin coach Sauer said. “But they’re just searching for an identity right now.”

    The search goes on.

    Goaltender Update

    One goaltender is ready to return and another is ready to join.

    St. Cloud State goaltender Jake Moreland, who missed last weekend’s split with Colorado College because of a mild concussion, should be ready to play this weekend against Bemidji State.

    Moreland, who has played the role as the second-game starter for the Huskies this year, was injured late in the first period of a Dec. 1 tie with Minnesota when he collided with a Gophers player.

    “It was a mild concussion, and we always want to err on the side of safety, so that’s what we did,” Dahl said.

    Meanwhile, Minnesota State-Mankato will be adding a goaltender for second semester. Kyle Nixon, who is playing for Penticton of the British Columbia Hockey League, will join the Mavericks after the holiday break.

    A Quiet Weekend

    The Clay “Woodrow” Wilson report is quiet this week. Wilson, a freshman defenseman for Michigan Tech, and his teammates were idle last weekend. They play the grudge match, home-and-home series against Northern Michigan this weekend.

    One Last Thing

    Think North Dakota wouldn’t mind seeing Zach Parise in a Sioux uniform right now? Through 26 games for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, the Sioux recruit has 32 goals and 42 assists for 74 points.

    • UND to Interview 3 for New Women’s Coaching Position

    USCHO Staff Report
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    North Dakota assistant athletic director Kathy McCann announced that the athletic department will interview three candidates for the new women’s hockey coach position on campus between December 18-21.

    “We have three quality candidates coming in to interview for the coaching position. Each of the candidates coming in has extensive experience and background in hockey,” said McCann.

    The three candidates include: Shantel Gammie, currently the associate head
    coach at Maine; Bruce Olson, currently a elementary physical education instructor and varsity head hockey coach at Roseau (Minn.) High School; and Laura Solberg, currently an assistant coach at the University of Saskatchewan, who also served with the Canadian Olympic team as an apprentice coach.

    This Week in the ECAC West: Dec. 13, 2001

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    The first half of the season is over already, hard to believe. The break finds Elmira at the top of the league heap, with RIT a close second.

    Common Opponents

    One of the tiebreaking criteria for the Pool B NCAA bid that the teams of the ECAC West are competing for is record versus common opponents. In a nice bit of scheduling, Elmira and RIT worked as travel partners last weekend to play games at Amherst and Williams.

    It was a weekend of very close hockey, with all but one game decided by two goals or less. RIT emerged from the road trip in better shape. The Tigers swept their games, while Elmira came out with one win and one loss, putting RIT one step ahead of the Soaring Eagles for the NCAA bid.

    If the two teams end up in a tie in the league at the end of the season, they may look back at last weekend as an important deciding factor.

    Gut Check Passed

    RIT entered the Amherst game dressing only half the team, with the other half finishing up their suspensions for the much-talked-about rules violations. Unlike the loss against Wentworth, the players had a full week to prepare for the shorthanded game, and the work paid off in a 5-3 win.

    “They put in a real gutsy performance,” said RIT coach Wayne Wilson. “We played a little bit smarter, and reacted in a positive manner when we got down 2-0.”

    Amherst and scored the first two goals of the contest by midway through the first period, but RIT fought out of the hole with three goals in the first nine minutes of the second period to take the lead. Amherst tied it at three, before RIT rattled off two more goals to seal the win.

    RIT’s special teams were perfect on the night; scoring three goals on three power plays, holding Amherst zero for seven on the penalty killing, and even scoring a shorthanded goal. The Tiger power play has gotten a lot of attention the last two seasons, but this year the penalty killing unit is stellar also.

    Check out these numbers: killed 57 of 62 penalties, second in the nation with a 91.9% kill percentage, scored as many shorthanded goals (five) as its opponents have scored on power plays.

    Wow.

    “I have been really, really excited about our penalty killing, more than I can express,” said Wilson. “Our power play is strong, but even they have trouble scoring against our PK in practices.”

    Goaltender Chris Sherman (.909 SV%, 2.25 GAA) was the other good story to come out of the Amherst game for RIT. Sherman stood up to a barrage of shots in the first period against Amherst, keeping RIT in the contest until it was able to get going in the second period.

    “We have a lot of confidence in Chris,” said Wilson. “It is nice to be in a situation to have someone like Chris behind an all-American goalie. Chris always comes up big just when we need him.”

    With a full roster, RIT defeated Williams on Saturday 6-1 to complete the weekend sweep. “I thought Williams had an excellent team,” said Wilson. “They are a very balanced team forward through goaltender.”

    Freshman Jason Chafe (6-6-12) is turning out to have a knack for tallying game winning goals. In nine games so far, he has tallied four game winning goals, including one against both Amherst and Williams this past weekend.

    “[Chafe’s] biggest attribute is his competitiveness. He works hard all the time,” said Wilson.

    Close Games for Elmira

    Elmira split the weekend road trip in two very close games. The Soaring Eagles opened up at Williams in a tight defensive contest.

    “This was a pretty tight checking game,” said Elmira coach Tim Ceglarski. “There weren’t a lot of offensive chances for either team.”

    Williams scored late in the first period. Elmira kept battling back, and finally tied the game midway through the third period on a goal by Mike Clarke (3-9-12). Unfortunately Williams got a fluke goal 1:32 in to overtime to steal the win.

    Saturday afternoon Elmira took the ice against Amherst in another see-saw contest. Elmira won 5-4, but neither team was ever able to build much of a lead.

    “Momentum kept shifting back and forth all game,” said Ceglarski. “We had it, then they scored a couple of goals and gained the momentum, then we were able to get it back in the third to win the game.”

    Elmira had five different goal scorers in the game against Amherst, highlighting a trait of the Soaring Eagles this year. Elmira is spreading around the scoring. The Soaring Eagles have scored 59 goals as a team this year, but no individual player has accumulated more than seven. Five players have ten points or more on the season.

    “We are thankful that we can rely on a lot of different guys each night, both offensively and defensively,” said Ceglarski. “It makes it hard on other teams because they can’t just try to shut down one or two of our players.”

    Single Games

    Hobart, Manhattanville, and Utica each played just a single game this past week as the schools wind down for the holiday break. And all three teams ended the first half of the season on upbeat notes.

    Hobart squared off against Buffalo State in a see-saw affair. Hobart led 1-0 after the first period, but saw Buffalo State finish off its chances in the second period to take a 2-1 lead. The Statesmen came out with a will in the third period, dominated play at times, and tied the score. Just six seconds in to overtime, Chris Doolan (6-3-9) scored the game winner to give Hobart the victory.

    Utica’s game wasn’t as thrilling, as the Pioneers were able to build a 3-0 before Worcester State was even able to get on the board. Utica’s penalty killing unit has been struggling all season, but they gained some confidence in this game as they shut down Worcester on all seven man-up advantages. The Pioneers carried the strong defensive play on to a 5-1 victory.

    Manhattanville also overcame one of its first half hurdles as it downed Geneseo 6-1. The Valiants have been struggling on the road this year, but poured 50 shots on to the Geneseo net on their way to the win. Garrett McNeil (2-1-3) and John Auxier (7-5-12) both had two goal nights.

    First Half Thoughts

    It has been an interesting first half of the season in the ECAC West. Here are some quick thoughts.

  • RIT got off to a great start as expected, but some lapses off the ice caused the team to stumble against Wentworth. Time will tell if that will hurt the Tigers in the long run or not.
  • Ceglarski summed the first half of the Elmira season up perfectly, “If anyone had said we would knock off the No. 1 and No. 2 team in the nation before the season started, I would have taken that. But the losses we have taken have surprised us and have been disappointing.”
  • Manhattanville continues to build this season, as expected. The Valiants have come close to nudging in to the top ten rankings, but every time they get close they just seem to tank a game that they should win. If Manhattanville can figure out how to consistently win those games, it will finally be a force to be reckoned with.
  • Hobart, 6-6 at the break, not bad. The Statesmen have shown improvement this year, both mentally and talent-wise. The toughest part of their season is coming up, with an eight-game January road trip. If they can at least hold on to that .500 record through the long January road trip, Hobart can build some confidence for the end of season run in league play.
  • Utica is doing pretty well for a newbie with a 4-5-2 record halfway through. Special teams is still a challenge, but coach Gary Heenan is beginning to build a solid program with some respect around the league.
  • Neumann, what to say about Neumann? The Knights have started to rally around their goaltenders, reducing the shot totals they are facing. Neumann has garnered two wins during the first half of the season, and kept a few other games close. The Knights will continue to build for the future as the season progresses.

    Tournament Expansion

    It was generally good news this week when the NCAA announced that the Division III men’s tournament field would be expanded to nine teams. The NCAA’s implementation of the tournament playoff format for the extra team was weak, but giving more teams the opportunity to participate in the national tournament can only be a positive. Too bad that only certain leagues are eligible to benefit.

    “It is good to see another team getting a shot,” said Ceglarski. “But I think the ECAC has to step up and do something for the ECAC West to help us out. From an ECAC West standpoint, it is discouraging that we won’t see any benefit from the expansion.”

    Game of the Week

    Not many games to choose from this week — two, actually — so I guess the game of the week must be the RIT/USNDT matchup.

    Last year these two teams split the series at RIT, with the National Team taking the first contest and RIT bouncing back to win the second. I foresee the same scenario this time around, this time in Ann Arbor, Mich.

    • This Week in the ECAC Northeast: Dec. 13, 2001

    By Ed Seero
    -

    For the first time ever … again

    It seems that each week the phrase “for the first time ever” is being written in regards to the Northeast, providing further support for the assertion that the league is advancing its national presence at a healthy rate. Once again, we have a week of firsts in the ECACNE.

  • For the first time ever, a Northeast team has dropped out of the top 10 poll. Wentworth’s stumble against Salem State was enough to have them bumped from the poll. It will be interesting to see whether or not they can crack the top 10 again in the second half.
  • For the first time ever, the Northeast has swept the weekly awards in consecutive weeks. For the first time ever, two players from the same Northeast team won the awards. This time the honors went to Lebanon Valley forward Brian Yingling and his teammate, goaltender Kevin Block.

    Yingling, who now averages two points a game, scored an obscene five goals in LVC’s 8-2 victory over Plymouth State. He followed that up with a goal in the 3-0 shutout of Hobart. Over the weekend he had a goal and an assist in LVC’s semi-surprising 7-1 win over Fitchburg. Yingling is on a roll. With a 10-12–22 line Yingling leads the ECAC Northeast in scoring.

    Kevin Block had a shutout against Hobart and only allowed one goal against Fitchburg. The senior is 5-1 on the year and leads the league in goals against with a 1.59 GAA. Block’s .937 save percentage in six games puts him just behind Wentworth goalie Raj Bhangoo, last weeks Defensive POTW, atop the ECACNE save percentage leaders. In his six games played, Block has only allowed nine goals. All of that adds up to a winning formula. Block’s .833 winning percentage is also amongst the Northeast leaders.

    Assumption sophomore forward Josh Tierney will score 46 goals if he continues scoring at the rate he has in the last two games. That would be another first time ever but it is not likely.

    Mathematically possible though. All kidding aside, back to back hat tricks is impressive, so much so that it earned Tierney honorable mention as the runner-up in the Offensive POTW awards and he was named Co-player of the Week by the ECAC Northeast. It is good to see extraordinarily talented Tierney playing up to his potential. As the worn out cliche goes, good things happen when you shoot the puck.

    What’s up, Chief?

    With so many Northeast teams doing so well lately, some teams have been unintentionally overlooked a bit, lost in the proverbial shuffle. One such team is Stonehill.

    The Chieftains are 6-4 overall and they are scoring a ton of goals, they are third in the league in scoring offense. The 6-4 mark is one that a lot of teams would be satisfied with. Scott Harlow is not happy with the record though, although he acknowledges that the early season schedule was arguably the toughest of any ECAC Northeast team.

    “I have mixed emotions. I’m not happy to be 6-4 overall right now. I firmly believe we should be 8-2. [But] I think we’ve had a strong schedule. Every single one of our games was against a real strong team.”

    Certainly the schedule has been difficult. The Chieftains have played the likes of JWU, Wentworth, Tufts, Fitchburg, St. Michael’s, etc. None of their opponents have been pushovers. And Stonehill, according to Harlow, has blown two games.

    “You look at a game like the one with Plymouth State and we outshot them 50-14 and we lose 2-1. We should have come away with a win there,” said the coach.

    One thing that Harlow is concerned with is his team’s overall team defense.

    “We’ve scored a lot of goals in bunches but I really think we are giving up too many soft goals.”

    As an area of concern Harlow pointed to goals being scored on second and third shots, a stat that indicates a lack of clearing in front and a lack of overall intensity in the Chieftains’ own end. For them to succeed in the second half, they will need to change that aspect of their game.

    “We have to play tougher in our end,” said Harlow.

    Let us not focus on the negative, however. Stonehill has been prolific offensively and their goaltending has been above par. Looking solely at the statistics it would appear that Phil Graves (4-2, 4.08 GAA, .861%), with six of 10 games played, has shored up the number one job. As Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend. Harlow has a unique system for his goaltenders which accounts for the misleading stat.

    “Right now, my three goalies are all playing well, they’re even. I tell them that if they win they will play the next game. It’s pretty much in their hands and that makes my job easier.”

    That explains Graves’ six games played to Billy Whitfield’s three and Jared Alimony’s two. If you win, you stay in so Graves’ five game win streak afforded him more playing time. Goaltending is a nice area to have depth and the Chieftains clearly have that.

    One area of Stonehill’s game that is absolutely clicking on all cylinders is the power play. The Stonehill power play is functioning at an astounding 30%. A good deal of that can be attributed to the players, according to Harlow.

    “We have five or six really skilled guys who are playing the power play. Three of them [Rob Pascale (7-12–19), Brendan Flemming (11-7–18) and Jeff Rowe (6-9–15)] are three of the better forwards anywhere in Division II-III. Obviously, when you put those guys together they are going to do good things. It really takes the coaching aspect out of [the equation].”

    Despite Harlow’s attempt to take himself out of the equation, good coaching cannot be overlooked. Harlow’s philosophy on power plays is interesting and it is obviously working.

    “In the past I think we looked at it like, we have the one man advantage so it should be a little easier.” This should not be the thinking, according to Harlow.

    “I’m really trying to get across to them that the power play is important. You have to work harder on the power play. When you get a power play you have to score a goal. It is a time when you can’t go easy, you have to go harder. And that is what I’m trying to get across to those guys.”

    Apparently, the message has been received loud and clear. At 30%, Stonehill has the best power play in the league.

    Harlow is looking forward to the second half of the season and he is telling his troops that they should too.

    “I tell our kids that after the Norwich tournament, there is not a single game that I don’t think we can win.”

    With the team toughening itself up in the early season schedule, Stonehill looks like a team that will be heard from come playoff time.

    Around the Rinks

    With all but four teams having wrapped up their first semester schedule, a look at the league statistical leaders seems in order. Here are a few observations.

    Five of the top 10 scorers in the league are underclassmen, a statistic that points to the improved talent coming into the league in the last few years.

    Amongst those underclassmen, three are Curry freshmen. Sean Pero (7-13–22), Mike O’Sullivan (8-9–17) and Matt Wargo (9-7–16) are second, seventh and eighth in the league in scoring.

    Fitchburg State senior Jeff Brodeur started out fairly slow but he is on fire as of late, earning USCHO Offensive POTW honors last week. The forward is 7-12–19 in 10 games, a line that puts him at third in the league in scoring.

    On the flip side is Assumption’s Bob Reddish. Reddish started out like a house of fire, scoring 13 points in the first five games. Since then, the junior Co-Captain has scored only two points in his last five games. Don’t fret Assumption fans, Reddish will undoubtedly rediscover his scoring touch in the second half.

    Wentworth’s Tim Yakimowsky is doing all that he can to make a case for coach Bowes’ assertion that he should be considered for All-American honors at the end of the season. The senior forward out of Walpole, Mass is tied for the league lead and is tied for second in the nation in goals scored with 11. He also is tied for the league lead in game winning goals (3) and shorthanded goals (2).

    Wow.

    Also supporting Bowes’ claim for All-American consideration is Raj Bhangoo. The sophomore is 5-1 with a 1.66 GAA and a .952 save percentage.

    Wow.

    Stonehill junior forward Brendan Flemming is also tied for the lead in that category. He is 11-7–18 in 10 games.

    A pair of freshmen are tied for the league lead in the assist category. Curry forward Sean Pero and JWU forward Manu Mau’u (who has to be in the top five for the Coolest Name in College Hockey Award, just ahead of Bhangoo) each have 13 helpers on the season. The two are also atop the league in rookie scoring.

    The aforementioned Stonehill power play has two of their players at the top of power play points category. Brendan Flemming is 6-4–10 on the power play and Rob Pascale, whom Harlow identified as, “a real clutch kid with a great touch around the net,” has a 2-8–10 line on the power play. A word to the wise, don’t take penalties against Stonehill.

    Curry senior Jason Boyle, Wentworth junior Dave Zelasko and Wentworth senior Tim Yakimowsky each have two shorthanded goals. LVC’s Ben Kwon is leading all defensemen in scoring with a 3-9–12 line in 11 games. He is a big part of the LVC defensive corps that leads the league in scoring by defensemen. The Dutchmen D averages 1.64 goals per game.

    Want to win games? Play well in special teams situations. The league leaders in special teams practically mirror the league standings. LVC, Fitchburg, JWU and Wentworth round out the top four.

    And finally…

    Things that Keep Me Up at Night

  • The unintentional irony and borderline clairvoyance of the thoughts portion of this column is getting downright scary. Two weeks ago I almost wrote about O.J. and then he gets in trouble the next week. Last week I quoted Nate Newton talking about O.J. and what does he do? He goes out and gets busted with 175 pounds of marijuana. 175!

    And the unbelievable part is he has done this before — the last time was on Nov. 4 when he had 213 pounds. I guess he didn’t take his own advice and learn from his mistakes.

    I don’t even have a punch line here.

    • Commentary: D-III Tournament Expansion Comes with Caveats

    By
    -

    The expansion of the men’s Division III tournament is long overdue. But its implementation far from perfect.

    As reported earlier today at USCHO.com (D-III Tournament Expanded to 9 Teams), the two bottom-ranked teams selected for the tournament from the East will face off in a one-game play-in round on Wednesday, March 6, 2002. The winner of that game would then travel to
    play in the West, if there are three teams selected from that region.

    Under this arrangement, a team could be faced with traveling on Tuesday to play a Wednesday game. Should that visitor win the play-in round, it could then have to fly the next day to play a quarterfinal round on the following Friday and Saturday. That would mean three games in four days, hundreds or thousands of miles of travel, and a week or more of missed classes.

    If this season’s selection criteria had been used last year, Amherst would probably have been chosen for the second Pool “C” at-large berth, as the Lord Jeffs were narrowly beaten out by Wisconsin-River Falls for last year’s lone Pool “C” slot, and would likely have traveled to RIT for the quarterfinals.

    If the lowest two teams from the East were chosen for the play-in round, without some tweaking of the seeds for travel reasons, Lebanon Valley would have visited New England College for a play-in game, a distance of about 400 miles. That would have followed a jaunt to Providence, R.I. the previous Wednesday, where the Dutchmen beat Johnson & Wales, and to Boston that Saturday for the ECAC Northeast championship win over Wentworth.

    Had that hypothetical play-in meeting happened between Lebanon Valley and New England College, and had it resulted in a Dutchmen victory, Lebanon Valley would then have flown to Wis.-River Falls, after 2,000 miles on a bus in a week’s time.

    Had New England College won, it would still have had to fly to River Falls, but would have had the additional penalty of an extra game two nights earlier.

    The other flaw in the expansion’s selection criteria is only a problem for the Pool “B” teams. Before the current six automatic bids, and the creation of Pools “B” and “C”, only three conferences — the SUNYAC, NCHA, and MIAC — had automatic bids, and the other five teams were chosen at-large. In those years, there were times that both a strong RIT and a strong Elmira made the NCAA tournament. Under the recent and current selection criteria, only one team from the ECAC West can make the playoffs because that conference, with six teams, doesn’t meet the criteria for an autobid.

    (The ECAC could rectify that situation with some realignment. With 16 teams in the ECAC Northeast, 10 in the East, and six in the West, it would make sense for Lebanon Valley and Skidmore to move to the West to round that league out to eight teams. Don’t hold your breath.)

    Expansion is a good move, especially when you consider that Division I has 12 berths and would like 16, yet has a smaller number of teams than D-III.

    But this new arrangement penalizes the No. 8 team, always puts an extra burden on the last two seeds from the East, neglects a strong team from Pool “B”, and, by requiring a team to possibly miss a whole week of class time, runs counter to the image of the “student-athlete” that the NCAA, especially at Division III, wishes to maintain.

    D-III Tournament Expanded to 9 Teams

    By
    -

    The NCAA announced today that the Division III men’s hockey tournament will expand to from eight to nine teams beginning this season.

    Dan Harris, athletic director at Milwaukee School of Engineering and chairman of the Division III Men’s Hockey Committee, confirmed that a second Pool “C”, or at-large bid, will be granted beginning with the current 2001-2002 season.

    “It’s been in the works for some time,” said Harris. “The NCAA is looking to expand the size of Pool ‘C’, and hockey was a natural since the ratio of bids to teams is 7.5 to 1 and we are very close to that.”

    There are currently 67 Division III men’s programs, so nine NCAA berths would be a ratio of 7.4 to 1.

    The six Automatic Qualifiers remain (ECAC East, ECAC Northeast, MIAC, NESCAC, NCHA, SUNYAC), plus the single Pool “B” berth available to teams from the ECAC West and MCHA.

    Pool “C” bids are available to teams from the conferences given automatic qualifiers as a second chance or at-large berth. Going to nine teams increases the size of Pool “C” from one to two teams.

    Harris originally said the play-in game between the two lowest Eastern seeds would be on Wednesday, March 6, 2002. On Thursday, he said the committee is considering holding the game on Tuesday, March 5.

    As many as four or as little as two western teams will be extended bids based on a nine-team field.

    In the scenario where there are three western teams, the winner of the play-in game would most likely be shipped west to face the number one western seed. Otherwise, it will be paired against the highest eastern seed.

    This Week in Hockey East: Dec. 6, 2001

    By
    -

    Goin’ Mental

    Who’s the best goaltender in the country right now?

    Hobey Baker Award winner Ryan Miller?

    Nope.

    All-WCHA selection Wade Dubielewicz?

    Keep trying.

    All-American Nolan Schaefer?

    Fugedaboudit.

    At least according to the statistics, there’s a clear-cut best of the best behind which all other netminders must stand. And that’s UMass-Lowell’s Cam McCormick. The senior has won all seven games he’s played in, allowing goals in only two of them. He’s recorded mind-blowing statistics: a 0.60 goals against average and a save percentage of .970.

    McCormick credits much of his success to his efforts during the past offseason. Having finished the 2000-01 year with 16 straight games of never getting off the bench, he worked on both the physical and mental sides of the game.

    “I met with a sports psychologist in Vancouver probably about four or five times over the summer,” he says. “We went over different tapes and different mental preparing strategies that we worked on all summer. I basically just carried that over into this year.”

    The sports psychologist’s friendship with Paul Kariya gave credence to the importance of the game within the game.

    “If you weren’t good, you wouldn’t be here,” says McCormick. “What separates a good player from an excellent player is mental preparation.

    “Paul Kariya will rent about two hours of ice by himself and he’ll just skate around with no pucks and just visualize the whole game in his mind, breaking out and making passes, getting passes and moving to open ice, just playing his whole game in his mind and there’s nobody out there, just him.”

    There’s no question that McCormick’s mental approach this year has him playing some serious mind games on opposing forwards.

    Dominant Again? Perhaps…

    In recent weeks, Hockey East has reestablished itself as a force to be reckoned with. After a slow early-season start, the league posted a 16-3-1 record in nonconference games over the last two weeks. The primary recipient of this abuse has been the ECAC, which accounted for a 12-2-1 portion of the two-week mark. Hockey East’s domination of its Eastern brethren now stands at 19-3-1 for the season.

    The true proof in the pudding, however, will come in the holiday tournaments when league teams face those from the WCHA and CCHA. No chest-thumping is allowed until then.

    Top To Bottom

    Hockey East has been able to argue, rightly so in this writer’s opinion, that its teams that finish sixth through ninth are what makes the league as strong as it is.

    “There’s not a team in our league that can’t carry the play,” says UMass-Amherst coach Don “Toot” Cahoon. “I was at Merrimack last year when I saw Merrimack completely outplay, outhustle and outcompete BC and [BC] won everything across the board. That speaks volumes about the quality of our league when a team that is the last playoff team can beat the national champion. We’re all accustomed to that as coaches.”

    Which means that just carrying the play against a top-ranked opponent doesn’t mean much for Hockey East underdogs.

    “You never take a step forward when you don’t win,” says Cahoon. “I’ve been with too many teams that have come up short and we could pat each other on the back because we made a good effort…. But the bottom line is that you’ve got to find a way to get the job done. The fun is in the winning. It’s not all about the winning, but the fun is in the winning.”

    Not Exactly What He Had In Mind

    I had to chuckle over the following bon mot served up over the college hockey airwaves recently.

    After a goalie robbed a snakebitten forward, one color commentator said, “[He’s] been stoned a bunch of times this season.”

    I guess that would explain things….

    A Late-Breaking Rookie

    Northeastern freshman goaltender Keni Gibson was highly regarded coming into the season, but had to watch from the stands during the early going because of back problems.

    “It was sore in the summer for a bit, but went away,” he says. “A month before I got here, it was fine. Then after our first exhibition game, it started flaring up. I tried to play through it, but that made it worse. It was some kind of nerve damage.”

    With scary words like those, the Northeastern coaching staff took the cautious route. For two weeks, Gibson did nothing but ride the stationary bike.

    “There was no point in rushing,” he says. “They knew they had two solid goalies. Braun-er — [Jason Braun] — was playing well and it was a long season. There was no reason to hurt myself any more.”

    The conservative approach has paid dividends.

    “I feel better than when I got here,” says Gibson. “I’m working hard with our strength coach to get everything going with my legs. I’m just working hard to get back in there.”

    Which he has done of late, starting three of the Huskies’ past four games. Gibson backstopped recent wins over Clarkson, Princeton and Holy Cross, allowing a total of only four goals to give him a 1.50 GAA and .938 save percentage. As a result, he earned honors this past Monday as the league’s co-Rookie of the Week.

    “It’s a good time to put him in,” said NU coach Bruce Crowder about Gibson’s first official game against Clarkson. “We had an opportunity to watch what Braun and [Mike] Gilhooly can bring to the table so far this year. Keni is the question mark so we have to get him in games and see what he can do.

    “I thought he was pretty steady. He wasn’t spectacular, but sometimes that’s the sign of a good goalie when he’s just steady and gets the job done.”

    Gibson has already found that he’s had to make adjustments to his previous style because of the speed and skill of the forwards he faces night in and night out.

    “I can’t play on my goal line like I did in juniors,” he says. “Guys will just eat me up here. Every one of these guys was a superstar where he came from, not like juniors where they’ve got one superstar per team. So it’s quite a bit step.”

    Familiarity Breeds Respect

    Interim Maine coach Tim Whitehead was in familiar surroundings last weekend on the visitors bench at the Whittemore Center. Last year as head coach of the UMass-Lowell River Hawks, he stood there five times, twice during the regular season and three times in the Hockey East playoffs.

    “I know them pretty well,” he said after the game. “Sometimes I feel that I can change their lines from my bench because I know them so well.”

    A Tough Adjustment

    Boston College goaltender Matti Kaltiainen has found life at Boston College a little more difficult than your typical freshman. Arguably, the Finnish native has had his easiest times on the ice, where the surroundings are, for the most part, familiar.

    “The biggest thing is moving away from home and campus life and living with other young people,” he says in halting English. “It nice, fun, but there are some times that I wish to be home.

    “The first month was very hard. It was hard to understand and hard to speak. It’s still hard to speak, but much easier to understand. It’s [getting] easier to speak also.

    “I think school is going pretty good. I work hard to read and write, but it’s okay. It’s getting better.

    “Biology [is the toughest]. I have to translate almost every word. It’s tough.”

    Boston Bruins General Manager Mike O’Connell visited Kelley Rink recently to check up on his draft choice and had to come away impressed.

    “Hockey is faster and [more] physical [than in Finland],” says Kaltiainen, who is no longer playing every day on Olympic ice surfaces. “Maybe I like it more, the small rink. I think it’s better for me.”

    Meat On Them Bones

    UNH freshman Eddie Caron sent the Whittemore Center crowd into near ecstasy recently when he scored his first collegiate goal. It was an important score, a backbreaker in a 5-2 win over Denver. Caron also looked impressive, putting the shot over goaltender Adam Berkhoel while being hauled down.

    Most importantly, though, it was also a fitting conclusion to a strong weekend for New Hampshire’s native son.

    “I don’t know if he’s out there socializing with the audience,” said UNH coach Dick Umile with a smile. “They went crazy when he scored.”

    Umile added, “He had a very good weekend. He’s playing hard.”

    Indeed he is. The 6-3, 220 pounder — who in this writer’s opinion looks even bigger on the ice — is a physical force out there and will be a big-time contributor before he’s done.

    In that same game, the Wildcats got another first goal out of a freshman, defenseman Tyson Teplitsky.

    “When we get some meat on his bones,” said Umile, “he’s going to be a pretty good player.”

    And what about Caron? Does he need any more meat on his 6-3, 220, bones?

    “No,” said Umile. “He’s got enough meat on his bones.”

    Quip of Note

    In case you missed it, UNH introduced special silver game jerseys for its post-Thanksgiving tournament. Although the Wildcats returned to their traditional whites last weekend, the silver jerseys may return for special occasions. The best commentary on them came from goaltender Michael Ayers.

    Said Ayers, “My pads are all silver so I look like the Tin Man out there.”

    Trivia Contest

    Last week’s question asked what Hockey East line that played together earlier this year was named after a wolf-like animal. Explain why and give the names of the players.

    The answer was Providence’s Coyote line of Jon DiSalvatore, Peter Zingoni and Chris Chaput, so named because all three came to the Friars from the New England Coyotes. For the first time in the history of this trivia contest, I believe, no one answered correctly. We had a winner in the maximum number of players dressed question a few weeks back, but no winner here. Go figure.

    As a result, I’ll offer a cheer for my son Ryan’s high school team.

    “Go Pingree!”

    This week’s question asks another tough one. The phrase “Onnea Peliin” found its way onto a Hockey East team’s chalkboard recently. Take your best guess at the team, the language and, roughly speaking, what the phrase translates to. It’s doubtful anyone will get all three, so send your best attempts to Dave Hendrickson.

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

  • I guess Ron Borges is now the beleaguered one. The personality-challenged columnist for the Boston Globe gained notoriety two years ago when he greased the skids for then-Patriots coach Pete Carroll by cussing the coach out during a press conference. When Carroll reacted lamely, he lived up to his “Pete the Poodle” moniker and was as good as gone.

    Borges apparently was attempting a variation on that same theme two weeks ago when he ripped Pats coach Bill Belichick for announcing that Tom Brady would quarterback the team the rest of the season. Borges opened one article by referring to Belichick as “personality-challenged” and then took another blatant stab in the supposedly factual Patriots Notebook section by referring to Belichick as “beleaguered.”

    Beleaguered? Gimme a break. Red Sox GM Dan Duquette is beleaguered. Jeremy Jacobs is several steps beneath beleaguered.

    But not Belichick . Not then. Not now. At that time, he was leading a rebounding team with a 5-3 record in its last eight games. The majority of Pats fans agreed with his decision. Belichick was beleaguered only in one ego-addled mind.

    Here’s one observer who is happy the cheap shots blew up in Borges’ face.

  • The decision to go with Brady was the correct one, not because he’s played so well since then, but because of how long Drew Bledsoe was out. To start Bledsoe at this point after two months of inactivity would be to sacrifice at least one game while he got his game timing back. And as of two weeks ago, one sacrificed game looked like forfeiting any chance of the playoffs.

    I suspect Bledsoe will be elsewhere next year and wish him the best of luck. He’s been a class act. But to have pulled Brady at this point would be to put one individual ahead of the team.

  • The hue and cry at the NFL draft tends to be predictable when a skill position player is snubbed for a guy in the trenches. The Pats were lampooned for not drafting wide receiver David Terrell, but here’s one observer who loved the Pats draft. They got slaughtered last year in the trenches and for the trenches they made their picks.

    The single toughest position to fill is on the defensive line, not wide receiver. Give me another Richard Seymour next year over another David Terrell.

  • Here’s a get well note to my nephew Kevin, who fractured his collarbone in the Brooks School season opener and will now be out for two months. Keep your head up, Kev, and give your team a big lift when you return.

    • This Week in the MAAC: Dec. 6, 2001

    By
    -

    Home Of The Braves No Longer

    In the world of political correctness, MAAC hockey member Quinnipiac University is following the trends, removing the moniker of Braves and opting for anonymous recognition in the middle of the season.

    According to a press release issued by the University this week, Quinnipiac will no longer refer to themselves as the Braves and will solicit recommendations for a new mascot. The timing of the announcement leaves the University without any type of name association right in the middle of the season.

    Said Lynn Bushnell, vice president for public affairs for Quinnipiac, “Although fond of the tradition we’ve had for 50 years, the university community clearly recognized the difficulties of using a name that has the potential to misrepresent and denigrate an entire group of people. And, despite our clear intention to honor and remember the Native Americans once known as the Quinnipiaks, to do so only through athletics was found to be no longer appropriate.”

    Quinnipiac becomes the second NCAA hockey program to change its name this season. Colgate earlier dropped the word Red from its name “Red Raiders.”

    But still teams continue to use names referring to Native Americans. North Dakota remains the Fighting Sioux, amid controversy in Grand Forks. Merrimack College continues to hold the name “Warriors” with no obvious intention of changing. Same goes for Wayne State who hold the identical name.

    Hell would freeze over before Notre Dame would lose the name Fighting Irish. That name has become symbolic of an athletic program steeped in tradition.

    This whole story line, though, give me the chance to editorialize on political correctness in sports. Now before you start writing my editors and complaining, understand this comes from me. Complaints can be filtered directly to [email protected].

    Rarely in sports has a name been derived to offend anyone. Should the magicians union be offended because a basketball team in Orlando named themselves the Magic? Maybe jazz artists should be rallying in Utah to change the name of their hoops team, because trust me, there is little jazz being played over the loudspeakers at Utah Jazz games.

    Seven years ago, I sat a member of the UMass-Lowell class of 1996 about to enter my third year in college. A great hockey season in 1993-94 had propelled the then-Chiefs to the NCAA tournament. For once, this small state school was beginning to get local and national recognition with a solid branding of the UMass-Lowell Chiefs attached (bear in mind, three years earlier, the state University system demanded that UMass be added to the then-name of the Lowell Chiefs). Then the PC police stepped in.

    The University on the Merrimack River needed to find a new name. “Chiefs”, though intending to refer its athletic members as leaders in their own right, was thought of as offensive to Native Americans. Born, suddenly, were the UMass-Lowell River Hawks.

    Seven years later, the name still doesn’t roll off anyone’s tongue with ease.

    Athletic programs and universities are not, and should not be, immune to following the same code as others. But at some point we have to ask ourselves, “What harm is being done?”

    Personally, I believe little-to-none. I do commend schools who have the courage to drop their identity in the name of conformity, such as Quinnipiac. Generally, and I’m sure this is the case in Connecticut, they believe they are providing a more race-neutral world.

    But simultaneously, I appeal to those who vocalize damage as the result of such names to take a serious look at the harm being caused. In my opinion, our time is better spent addressing other world issues, particularly in the state our country stands.

    Weekly Awards

    ITECH MAAC Hockey League Player of the Week:
    Louis Goulet, Mercyhurst
    Sr., Center, Kapuskasing, Ontario

    Goulet had a five-point weekend in a 3-3 tie at Quinnipiac and a 9-0 shutout of Connecticut. Goulet’s power play goal against the Braves tied the game at 1-1 in the first. He then assisted on Mercyhurst’s second goal of the game. Against the Huskies, he scored the game-winner on a power play in the first, scored shorthanded in the second and assisted on the Lakers seventh goal in the third.

    ITECH MAAC Hockey League Goalie of the Week:
    Peter Aubry, Mercyhurst
    Sr., Goalie, Windsor, Ontario

    Aubry made 49 saves against UConn and kept the Lakers unbeaten in the conference. It was Aubry’s second shutout of the year; the other came at Fairfield October 26. Aubry is now 5-0-1 in the MAAC with a goals-against-average of 1.80.

    ITECH MAAC Hockey League Rookie of the Week:
    Chris Garceau, Army
    Fr., Forward, Guilford, CT

    Garceau had a goal and an assist in both games over the weekend, completing a four-point series against the Bentley Falcons. Garceau was also a plus-5 over the weekend. He put the Black Knights on the board early Friday night with a goal 1:47 into the contest. He later assisted on the sixth goal of the night in the second period.

    Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

    With December finally rolling along, that only means one thing. The holiday season is on its merry way.

    Without sounding like a Hallmark card, it’s that time of year that I wish all of the readers the happiest of holiday seasons, no matter whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, or the many other end- of-the-year holidays.

    And even if we don’t all believe in Santa Claus, it shouldn’t stop you from getting a chuckle from my (sort of) tongue-in-cheek look at the holiday wish list of those involved in the MAAC.

    (Standard disclaimer: This is meant to be comic relief. In no way should anyone take these letter as real. We probably shouldn’t have to say this, but to be safe, we will!)

    To: Santa

    From: Holy Cross coach Paul Pearl

    Dear Santa:

    I know that I’ve been a good boy this year and all of my players have as well. Heck, we’re surprising the heck out of everyone in the MAAC because we’ve won five league games (and even tied two others) before you’ve even come down my chimney.

    With all of that in mind, I have very little that I need to ask for from you. I definitely would like you to bring me a lot of wins in the second half of the season as you have for the last three years. I told my players that if they played well in the first half of the year that you’d help me out after Christmas.

    I’d also like to ask, also, if you’d help me out come playoff time. All we have to do is win one game and we have a good chance at the MAAC championship. Remember, we’re hosting the MAAC championship so, if we make it, we’ll have tons of rowdy fans to play in front of!!!

    Hope that you fly safe on Dec. 24th!

    Paul

    We found this letter from Fairfield’s coach Jim Hunt…

    To: Santa

    From: Jim Hunt

    Dear Mr. Claus:

    Boy, am I glad that Christmas is on the way! I really could use some help down here in Southern Connecticut and I think you’re the right guy.

    First off, I need to ask that whatever happens, we never have to play those guys at American International again. It looks like their coach got his wishes from last year’s St. Patrick’s Day a little late, because their goalie did his best to frustrate the heck out of us every time we played them.

    Now I know that all of you mythical characters hang out together, so if you see the leprechaun, could you send him my way a little BEFORE St. Patty’s Day? I need him around January 27. There are a lot of things in life I don’t want, but I certainly don’t want to lose to my old team, the US Under-18 Team. I know that I’ve been a pretty good boy, so if you can help out in any way, please feel free.

    One more thing… If you don’t mind, could you also bring me an effective penalty-killing unit. Now my guys are good guys and they try to stay out of the penalty box, but when they don’t we’re in trouble.

    Hope you’re keeping warm up North.

    Jim

    Another letter that just reached Santa’s mailbag this week came from Iona College.

    To: Santa

    From: Iona coach Frank Bretti

    Dear Santa:

    Please, Santa, if you have any thoughts on how to score on the power play, can you send them my way? My team is great at scoring goals, but when we get a power play, we just can’t seem to find the net. Any advice?

    And, by the way, thanks for making my defense a little stronger.

    How’s Rudolph doing, by the way?

    Frank

    Thanksgiving is past now, but if you look at this letter from Erie, Penn., you’d think that Mercyhurst’s coach mixed up the two holidays.

    Dear Santa:

    Thank you, thank you, thank you! It’s impossible for me to ask for more than you’ve given me. A great goaltender, a few players who can score goals, a MAAC Championship and plenty of recognition at the NCAA tournament are more than I deserve!

    Though while I’m here, I might as well ask for something. How about some non-league wins? Colgate was nice, but we could use a few more for Mercyhurst and the rest of the league. We do want to get more scholarships, you know!

    Happy holidays!

    Rick Gotkin

    And one more letter, this from Commissioner Ensor himself.

    Dear Mr. Claus:

    I would like an expansion to the NCAA Tournament for Christmas. If we had 16 teams, fewer people would say the MAAC doesn’t deserve to be there.

    You know, as well as I do, that the world of college hockey will be better off with a 16-team tournament. Hockey certainly makes the NCAA a lot of money.

    Also, if you can get that Jim Connelly guy to stop talking about scholarships, it would be helpful. It’s a bridge we can cross over time!

    HO! HO! HO! to you!

    Rich

    Happy Holidays

    As this is the final column before the Holidays, I wish all our readers a joyous and safe holiday season!

    Happy holidays to all.

    This Week in Division III: Dec. 6, 2001

    By
    -

    Paradise Lost

    You’re the number one team in the nation, undefeated, coming off a pair of convincing road wins where you thrashed a pretty good Wisconsin-Eau Claire team by a combined score of 14-2.

    Next up are a pair of home games against some top ECAC Northeast teams, Johnson & Wales and Wentworth. You’ll be heavily favored to win both and go to 9-0.

    It’s all good, right? Too good, perhaps, for RIT. The Tigers shot themselves in the foot during their trip to Wisconsin, violating a team rule that resulted in all 19 players who made the trip being suspended for one game.

    RIT head coach Wayne Wilson, who found out about the infraction after the game last Friday against Johnson & Wales (6-0 RIT win) decided to get the suspensions over as quickly as possible, sitting nine for the game against Wentworth (4-3 RIT loss), and 10 for this Friday’s game against Amherst.

    “It’s not a big deal,” said Wilson. “It wasn’t a major rule, but rules are rules and when you break them, you let the team down.

    “The players were aware of the consequences.”

    Wilson is right about that. Two seasons ago he sat eight players for the first round of the Times-Argus New Year’s Tournament in Norwich. They had been late to practice. The short-handed Tigers still managed to beat Trinity 3-2 in overtime and, with a full complement of players, went on to defeated the host Cadets the next day in the title game.

    This time, the depleted Tigers were shocked by Wentworth, which extended its record to a perfect 8-0.

    Wilson could have spread the suspensions over more games to reduce risk of being shorthanded, but he wanted to send a message as quickly as possible.

    ‘We can’t forfeit games. That’s not fair to the other teams. But I wanted to take care of this as quickly as possible.

    “I fully expected to win the game (against Wentworth)”, Wilson said. “I fully expect to win the game against Amherst.

    “Teams in the minor leagues often go with two or three lines and four defensemen, as do many college teams late in a game when they shorten their bench”, added Wilson.

    “We just didn’t get the job done. Wentworth played an outstanding game.”

    For the record, the players who sat against Wentworth were: Jerry Galway, Josh Faulkner, Matt Moore, Jason Chafe, Brian Arms, Roberto Orofiamma, Mike Bournazakis, and Chris Sherman.

    Suspended for the Amherst game are: Jared Conlon, Ryan Franke, Sam Hill, Mike Tarantino, Ryan Fairbarn, Mike Tucciarone, Errol MacDonald, David Bagley, Rob Vessio and Tyler Euverman.

    All will be eligible to play on Saturday afternoon against Williams. The Tigers round out the first half of their season with a trip to Ann Arbor Michigan to play the U.S. National Under 18 Development Team on December 14 and 15.

    Not Losing Sight

    RIT’s off-ice troubles shouldn’t take anything away from the on-ice heroics of Wentworth. The Leopards played a great game, backstopped by the stellar netminder Bhangoo, a sophomore from Caladon East, Ont. Bhangoo is sporting a 1.60 GAA and a .955 save percentage.

    Senior Tim Yakimowsky lead the way in scoring with two goals, both power play tallies on one-timers from the right face-off circle. His second, to get Wentworth back to a one-goal deficit after being down 3-1, was crucial,
    according to RIT head coach Wayne Wilson.

    “I thought Yakimowsky’s second goal was more deflating than anything else,” he said. “They played better in all facets. We got beat by a better team tonight.”

    Wentworth head coach Bill Bowes was diplomatic, telling USCHO, “Clearly playing RIT with only half of their team helped us.”

    But give credit where credit is due.

    A Big Week

    It was a week of firsts for the ECAC Northeast:

  • Wentworth became the first ECAC Northeast team to defeat a number one ranked team. The Leopards tied Middlebury last season when the Panthers were number one, and this season took the next step by upsetting RIT.
  • Wentworth became the first ECAC Northeast team ranked in the USCHO.com poll. The Leopards had gotten votes in the past, including several times this season, but this is the first time that they’ve cracked the top 10.
  • Both the offensive and defensive USCHO.com Division III players of the week were from ECAC Northeast teams, the first time that’s happened. On offense, Fitchburg State co-captain Jeff Brodeur tallied a whopping nine points in three games for the Falcons last week, including a school-record five assists in an 8-1 win over Framingham. Raj Bhangoo, who’s exploits were previously detailed, was defensive player of the week.

    Keep Rolling Along

    Besides Wentworth, there are three other teams still unbeaten. Norwich claimed the top spot in the USCHO.com poll with a pair of convincing wins over Amherst (6-1) and Hamilton (6-2). They’ve since improved their record to 7-0 with a 12-0 thrashing of travel partner St. Michael’s..

    Travel partners and long-time rivals Colby (6-0) and Bowdoin (4-0-1) are also unbeaten, but Bowdoin has a blemish, a 2-2 tie with MCLA. The two teams square off this Saturday.

    Breathing Room

    St. Norbert opened a two point lead in the NCHA standings with a 5-2 win over Wisconsin-River Falls. Five different players scored for the Green Knights, who rebounded from an 0-2 Thanksgiving trip to Elmira with two conference wins. Wisconsin-Superior and Wisconsin-Eau Claire are three points off the pace.

    Wisconsin-Stevens Point had an interesting weekend. The Pointers smoked St. Scholastica 10-0 on Friday, but lost 7-0 to Wisconsin-Superior on Saturday.

    All eight NCHA teams play a pair of non-conference games this weekend.

    Nothing Settled

    St. Thomas and Concordia split last weekend, so St. Thomas maintains its two point lead in the standings. That loss at Concordia knocked the Tommies out of the top ten, but they’ll have a chance to redeem themselves with some big non-conference games coming up against Wisconsin-Superior (ranked seventh), Wisconsin-River Falls (fourth) and Elmira (eighth).

    At the turn (MIAC teams don’t resume conference play until January) Bethel and St. John’s, the two teams that played in the MICA finals last season, are a combined 2-8 in conference, tied for last place.

    Does This Make Sense to You?

    On December 1, New York State enacted a law outlawing cell phone while driving unless one is employing a “hands-free” device like a headset or integrated system. Heck, I got the darned wireless to make efficient use of the time I’m in the car (I’m a hockey parent, so I spend a lot of time behind the wheel). I do my banking, voicemail, order pizza, etc. get scoring updates, etc., while on the road.

    So last week, I went out and got a headset. I’m a law-abidin’ guy.

    Now, when I need to make a call while in the car, or even worse if the phone rings while I’m driving, instead of merely grabbing the phone and pushing a button, I have to get the phone and the headset, plug them together, clip the mike to my lapel, and put the speaker in my ear.

    While all this is going on, I’m being passed by vehicles driven by people eating, switching CDs, putting on makeup, etc.

    I feel much safer now.

    • This Week in the ECAC West: Dec. 6, 2001

    By
    -

    It has been an unsettled week in the ECAC West. Elmira squashed Utica in the only league action, taking sole possession of first place with an unblemished 3-0 league record. At the other extreme, RIT found itself racked with self-imposed player suspensions, losing both a game to Wentworth and its No. 1 ranking in the process.

    Suspensions Galore

    RIT opened last weekend downing Johnson & Wales 6-0, in which Tyler Euverman earned his seventh career shutout. But it was a lackluster performance by the Tiger skaters. Coach Wayne Wilson was disappointed with the effort put out by his players during the entire game.

    When asked how he would change things for the Saturday game, he quiped “I’m probably going to overreact, but I’m going to do it anyway.”

    Well, the other shoe dropped later that night. After the J&W game, Wilson found out about some extracurricular activities that had occurred during the trip to Wisconsin-Eau Claire a week ago. All of the sudden the problem for the coaching staff changed from trying to instill some emotion in to a team to trying to instill some personal discipline in to them.

    The infraction – Violating team rules.

    The punishment – a one game suspension for the entire team.

    For Saturday’s contest against Wentworth, Wilson only dressed thirteen skaters. Seated in the stands dressed in suits and ties for violating team rules were seven players, including co-captains Jerry Galway (7-14-21) and Josh Faulker (2-2-4), and Mike Bournazakis (7-15-22) who is leading the nation in points per game with 2.75

    The other half of the team will sit out the upcoming game against Amherst on Friday. Most notable amongst this group of offenders serving their time is All-American goaltender Tyler Euverman (.927 save, 1.57 GAA).

    Taking Advantage

    Wentworth was able to take advantage of the shortened RIT bench when the two teams met last Saturday. RIT built a 3-1 lead by the end of the second period, but ran out of gas in the third period. Wentworth was able to score three goals in the third period to earn the win, and put the first blemish on RIT’s record this season.

    “Given a full RIT bench, I don’t think we could have done what we did tonight,” said Wentworth coach Bill Bowes after the win. “But I give credit to coach Wilson for doing what he did. He is a class guy, and runs a class team, and to give up a game like this shows that.”

    Elmira Takes Over Lead

    The Soaring Eagles only had one game this week, but winning it moved them in to sole possession of first place in the league. Elmira downed newcomer Utica 7-0 on Saturday. With the team mostly healthy again after a bout with the flu, Elmira was able to score early in the contest and roll on from there.

    Elmira only outshot Utica 39-32, but the Soaring Eagles took advantage of a weak Pioneer penalty killing unit to score four powerplay goals, including three in the third period alone. That was the difference in the game, and enough to move Elmira in to first place.

    Jason Silverthorn (6-7-13) and Adam Godfrey (2-10-12) each had a three point night against Utica, tallying a goal and two assists each.

    Where’s the Air?

    Manhattanville took its first plane trip this past weekend, out to Colorado for the Radisson Inn Classic hosted by Division 1 Air Force, and met the cadets in the opening round. Even though the Valiants flew out the day before, it wasn’t enough time to adjust to the 7,500 feet altitude, and they struggled physically during the game.

    “We really needed to play all four lines out there because of the altitude,” said Manhattanville coach Keith Levinthal. “If we had another day or two to acclimate, it probably would have been better.”

    Even with the thin air, the game against Air Force was close in to the third period. The Valiants entered the third period trailing 4-3, and found themselves on the powerplay midway through the period with a chance to tie the game. But the Valiant bench watched a big blast from the point ding off the post. And just seconds after the powerplay ended, Air Force carried the puck down the length of the ice and scored to seal the game. Manhattanville lost 6-3, after Air Force chipped in an empty netter in the closing seconds.

    The loss meant Manhattanville met Minnesota-Crookston from the MCHA in the consolation game. The extra day of acclimation, and a weaker opponent, saw Manhattanville have its way with Crookston defeating them 7-1.

    “We just turned things up in the second period and got things rolling,” said Levinthal.

    The Valiants scored four goals in the second period on the way to their victory. Freshman Brad Olson (9-7-16) notched two goals and three assists in this game.

    “Brad is a real good player, and has been consistent for us from the start,” said Levinthal.

    A Win and A Debacle

    Neumann had an up and down weekend, defeating Nichols but losing badly to Curry.

    “We knew Nichols was a team that we could be competitive with,” said Neumann coach Nick Russo. “We were looking to get off the snide, if you know what I mean, and we did that.”

    Nichols scored early in the first period, and enjoyed the lead until late in the second when Travis Dwyer (1-1-2) scored for Neumann to tie the contest. The third period was filled with penalties, but John Nicoletti (1-3-4) was able to tally an unassisted even strength goal with two minutes left to lift the Knights to a 2-1 lead.

    Netminder Matt Saur (.877 save, 6.57 GAA) saved the day as he stopped all seventeen shots that Nichols poured on net in the third period, and 35 of 36 shots for the game.

    “Matt gave us a great effort and played a good game,” said Russo. “He kept us in the game at the end when we had some penalty trouble.”

    I always have to chuckle in this business when certain things happen during an interview. When I talked to coach Russo this week, I started to lead the conversation from discussing the Nichols game to Neumann’s 9-2 loss to Curry on Saturday. I began to say “Now tell me about your game…” when coach Russo interrupted me with “The Curry Debacle?”

    Well, I wouldn’t have phrased it that way, but it does describe the game pretty accurately.

    Curry outshot Neumann 50-23 and scored five powerplay goals on nine opportunities in what was just an ugly game from almost any perspective.

    “We never seem to play well [in] back to back [games],” said Russo. “Mentally, we don’t have that kind of maturity yet.” The second half of the season is riddled with back to back weekend games for coach Russo and his players, so they will get lots of practice at this.

    Patriotic Kudos

    Hats off this week to the RIT Corner Crew for exemplifying the patriotic feelings that have been sweeping the country during the recent trying times. In both home games this weekend, the Corner Crew unfurled a gigantic American flag during the National Anthem that covered the entire section of fans standing in the corner from aisle to glass. It was truly an inspiring sight to see.

    Game of the Week

    Well, it is actually “Travel Partners of the Week” this week. Elmira and RIT head out to take on Amherst and Williams this weekend. Two top teams in the ECAC West against two good NESCAC teams. This series is important to RIT and Elmira for two reasons. First, it will allow each to get some insight about how they might stack up against the other. Two, common opponents is an important criteria when it comes time for ranking teams in the NCAA tournament.

    This Week in the ECAC Northeast: Dec. 6, 2001

    By Ed Seero
    -

    Wentworth Makes History … Again

    The official ECAC Northeast press release termed it “perhaps the biggest game of the year thus far in Division III.” That is not an overstatement by any means. Saturday’s game between Wentworth and RIT featured two of the only undefeated teams remaining in the nation.

    I’m not above tooting my own horn so I’ll come right out and say it – you heard it here first, folks.

    In last week’s predictions I wrote that one of the two ECAC Northeast programs playing RIT over the weekend, Johnson & Wales and Wentworth, would come home with the biggest win in the program’s history. And it happened for Wentworth. The Leopards, after posting a 2-1 victory over Utica the night before, beat the number one team in the country in a huge comeback victory.

    Wentworth is in the midst of a history-making season. Not only are the Leopards off to the best start in school history with an 8-0 record, but with the win over RIT, Wentworth became the first ECAC Northeast team to ever be ranked in the USCHO Division III top 10 poll.

    The naysayers (and RIT fans) will say that the final outcome was a bit misleading. RIT played with a short bench as a result of suspensions. Two of their top scorers, Mike Bournazakis and Jerry Galway, were amongst those suspended for the game. This factor was not lost on Wentworth coach Bill Bowes.

    “Clearly playing RIT with only half of their team helped us,” said Bowes.

    As Bowes said, the suspensions were a factor. Plus, RIT outshot Wentworth by a wide margin, 53-25. However, a come from behind win over an RIT team that dressed three lines, two sets of defensemen and standout goalie in the person of Tyler Euverman is still a stellar achievement. Minus a few guys they are hardly a team of slouches. The poll voters obviously agree with that sentiment.

    Keep in mind that Wentworth does not have to play RIT either. That is a choice they made and credit has to be given to coach Bowes for having the intestinal fortitude to schedule a team as tough as the Tigers, at Ritter Arena no less. You have to play the best to become the best.

    Bowes knows that playing a team like RIT will help his team, not only in the short term, but it can be used as something to build on for the rest of the season.

    It is one thing to say that you can get down against a good team and still have a shot to win. It is a whole other thing to be able to say that you have done it before and you can do it again. New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick made this point in his post-game comments after the Patriots big win over the Jets last weekend. He said that the win is especially important because it shows a tangible example that the team can point to so they can say to themselves, we can come back and beat a good team because we have done it. The psychological edge for the Leopards is similar. Now they know they can beat a good team even when they are down late in the game because they have done it.

    “Beating the best team in the nation definitely helps you,” concluded Bowes. “Hopefully it can help us get the attitude to play well against all teams.”

    The win was a showcase of the usual suspects for the Leopards. Tim Yakimowsky and Raj Bhangoo, two players who Bowes pointed to as being potential All-American candidates at the end of the year, made their cases to support that assertion. What better place to showcase your talents than in a game with the number one team in the country?

    Yakimowsky had two goals and Bhangoo made an incredible 50 saves in the afternoon contest. Bhangoo earned USCHO Defensive Player of the Week honors for his weekend efforts.

    Get out the broom

    Another first-time-ever happened this week. The ECAC Northeast made a clean sweep of the USCHO weekly Player of the Week awards.

    Wentworth sophomore goaltender Raj Bhangoo is now 5-0 with a 1.60 GAA and a double take worthy .955 save percentage. His 50 save effort against RIT included a 21 save second and a 16 save third which included a ferocious RIT flurry of shots in the waning seconds of the game. He was named ECAC Northeast Goalie of the Week and USCHO DIII Defensive Player of the Week.

    Fitchburg senior forward Jeff Brodeur had a nine point weekend including a school record tying five assists against Framingham State. For the effort he was named both ECAC Northeast Player of the Week and USCHO DIII Offensive Player of the Week. He followed that up with two goals and two assists in Fitchburg’s 8-3 drubbing of Worcester State.

    The Fitchburg State Falcons are unbeaten in their last six contests and Brodeur has been the catalyst, as expected. His 9-14-21 line leads the team in points. The kid is on fire and he is supremely talented so the rest of the league better take notice. As if they needed a heads up.

    One player who may be flying under the radar as a result of being overshadowed by Brodeur is junior forward Greg Horan. He is averaging 2.6 points per game in each of the last five non-losses for Fitchburg. He is 6-8-14 on the year. Horan should not be overlooked.

    Around the League

    With the winter break approaching, this week’s look around the league will be more brief than usual. At some point in the coming weeks, look for an individual, in-depth breakdown of each team. For now, we will just briefly touch on some noteworthy points for some of the teams.

    Lebanon Valley remains undefeated in league play. They have been destroying the competition and they are averaging over seven goals a game in their wins.

    Five players are in double figures in points so it has been a total team effort thus far for coach MacCormack’s crew.

    They will close out the season with a road trip. The Flying Dutchmen will travel to Plymouth on Friday and close out the first half of the season with what should be a nip and tuck game against Fitchburg on Saturday.

    Stonehill has won five in a row and they are obviously rounding into shape as a team. This is the Stonehill team that was expected before the season. You don’t want to come to play against the Chieftains? Try an 8-1 and 12-2 pounding on for size. Just ask Nichols and WNEC.

    Ditto for Curry. If you don’t show up against them they will make you pay. You cannot say enough about Curry’s 7-2 start. It is just remarkable that a team that had been a perennial bottom feeder is now throwing up seven goals here, nine goals there and 14(!) against Framingham? Holy goal scoring ability Batman. Yep, I really wrote that.

    Is Suffolk turning it around? Good question. 1-1-2 in their last four games which is not bad. A tie against Worcester and a win over an underrated Westfield State squad look like steps in the right direction.

    After a strong start, JWU had dropped their last five before Tuesday night’s win over Salve. Don’t fret Wildcat fans, the losses have come against some of the best teams in the country. Cortland, Utica, Bowdoin, Colby and RIT are not chopped liver. And, just like Wentworth, you have to play the best if you want to become the best. Coach Izzi has said that he schedules those types of games more to toughen up for league competition than anything else. We’ll see if that strategy bears itself out in the second half.

    UMass-Dartmouth has been playing excellent hockey. They couldn’t quite pull it out against non-conference foe Conn. College but that is almost irrelevant. League play is what really matters and the Corsairs are 3-1 in that department.

    SNHU’s 3-2 overall start is surprising, not so much because they are posting wins but because they are having no trouble scoring after losing 70% of their offense to graduation. The Penman (One of the coolest or dumbest nicknames in all of college hockey depending on where you’re at. I don’t see a middle ground there. I’m in the coolest camp.) are averaging seven goals in their wins.

    Assumption has been hit by the injury bug a bit. Sophomore forwards Mike Cataldo and Sean Jackson are out. Also troubling AC is the presence of bad penalties at inopportune times.

    “If we play five on five we can play with anyone,” said head coach Keith Hughes. “We get deflated giving up power-play goals and we can’t have that. The mindset has to be tougher.” Coach Hughes thinks he has the talent to do good things should the Hounds can the stupid penalty routine. “If we show up to play we can beat anybody.”

    Tuesday night’s 7-4 win was a good one for the Ice Dogs. Was it a Josh Tierney breakout party? Perhaps. The gifted sophomore from Newburyport, Mass scored a hat trick upping his line to 4-5-9 on the season. Expect more good things from him as the season wears on. Senior goaltender L.J. Goldblatt earned his first victory of the season in the effort.

    Assumption hosts non-conference opponent Wesleyan on Saturday in the last game action before the break.

    And finally …

    Things That Keep Me Up At Night

  • If it is true that Jason Giambi has signed with the Yankees on the very day that Bud Selig is telling congress that MLB loses 250 million dollars a year, further proving that they care nothing for the 29 other teams in the league, I want to personally thank Giambi and the Yankees for continuing the ruination of baseball. And yes, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek. Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the school yard bully.
  • An incredibly strange coincidence happened over the last week. I was really close to writing something up about OJ in last week’s thoughts. I mean, I omitted it in the very last second because the thoughts portion would have been too long. Then this whole ecstasy ring/money laundering thing happens and it suddenly seems appropriate. Here it is.

    I saw the O.J. Simpson SportsCentury piece the other night. A strange mixture of feelings came over me.

    At one point I found myself marveling at the man’s athletic ability, his highlight reel is spectacular. It is almost as cool as Walter Payton and it made me realize why they called him “the Juice.” The man was an exciting football player. And 2000 yards? In one season? In a fourteen game season, no less? Unbelievable.

    Sitting there, I allowed myself to get right up to the point where I realized how special the guy was but, right when I normally get swept up in that whole proclamation of him as “the greatest to blah, yadda, etc.” moment I always have watching these SportsCentury things, I stopped.

    I reminded myself that this guy is, by all reasonable supposition, a murderer. A murderer. Think about that. Seven years later and it still feels weird to think that the guy who ran through the airport in Hertz commercials murdered his wife with a knife.

    And then this stuff comes out and it really hits home that, no matter how well we think we know athletes in the public eye, we have no clue.

    I think Nate Newton said it best when he said, “I thought O.J. would have learned something. He ain’t learned $#!+.” Gotta love Nate.

    • This Week in the SUNYAC: Dec. 6, 2001

    By
    -

    Semester Break

    The SUNYAC is now halfway through the league schedule, and, beyond the top two, the standings are just a bit different than we are used to.

    Perennial powers Potsdam and Fredonia are battling for the league’s last two playoff positions, while recent doormats Cortland and Buffalo State both find themselves above .500, and within a win or two of effectively clinching a post-season berth.

    This week, we’ll look at the top four teams in the standings at the semester break.

    On Top Once Again

    Plattsburgh finishes the first half of the season with a perfect 7-0 league record, though the Cardinals just slipped past their last two opponents, taking overtime to top Potsdam, 3-2, on Tuesday, and downing Geneseo, 3-1, last Saturday.

    “We’re playing pretty well. We’re just not scoring goals,” said coach Bob Emery.

    But it’s not for a lack of shots. Goalies have brought their “A” games against the Cardinals, including a 50-save performance by Elmira’s Rob Ligas, two by Ryan Venturelli of Potsdam in which the Bears were outshot by Plattsburgh, and a 41-save effort by Geneseo netminder Brett Walker.

    Emery said that the Cardinals have dominated play in every game, except for a 3-2 overtime loss in the Primelink Great Northern Shootout’s first round. “Norwich is the only team that’s played with us pretty even. Everyone else, we really took it to.

    “It’s not that we’ve been playing bad,” said Emery. “Our defense and our goaltending have been great. With a few more bounces, we could be undefeated.” The Cardinals have lost all three non-league games.

    Not surprisingly, Emery is very happy to be undefeated in conference halfway through the schedule.

    “We’re sitting great where we are. We have the toughest games at home in the second semester.” Those contests include the two teams after Plattsburgh’s top spot, Oswego and Cortland.

    In SUNYAC play, the defending national champs lead the conference in goals per game, at 5.29, and are second in with 1.86 goals allowed per game. Plattsburgh has outscored league opponents 37 to 13.

    Plattsburgh’s power play is tops in conference play at 25 percent. The Cardinals are fourth on the penalty kill in conference, allowing five goals on 34 attempts. But Plattsburgh, who last season scored as many shorthanded goals as it alllowed, has two shorthanded in league play.

    Three Cardinals have at least 10 points in conference play. Seniors Brian Toussaint and Mark Coletta each have 11, and junior Jason Kilcan has 10.

    Center Adam Richards is tied for second in the conference in freshman scoring with six points and Offensive-minded defenseman Peter Ollari is fifth among blue-liners in scoring with 3 goals and 2 assists.

    Toussaint and Coletta are tied for first in conference in power play goals with three apiece.

    Goaltender Niklas Sundberg (5-0-0) is second in the league in goals against, with an average of 1.92 per game, better numbers than this point last year.

    Young Lakers Nip at Cards’ Heels

    Second-place Oswego reaches the midway mark of the SUNYAC schedule with some momentum, having won six in a row in conference after dropping the season and league opener to Plattsburgh, 6-4.

    “We’re happy with our performance so far. We’re certainly where we thought we’d be at this stage,” said coach George Roll.

    Oswego was 5-2 in the SUNYAC at the same point last season.

    The Lakers are second in conference scoring, averaging an even five goals per game, and lead the league in defense, with 1.71 goals allowed per game.

    “I think that’s one of the things we try to pride ourselves on, our defensive game. I preach to [the team] that that’s the way you win championships, by playing solid defense,” said Roll. “We really feel strongly about our six defensemen. They’ve played very well in every game this year.”

    Goalie Joe Lofberg (4-0-0) has two shutouts in conference, against Geneseo and Fredonia. He leads the SUNYAC among goalies who have played at least a third of his team’s minutes, with a .970 save percentage and a 0.75 GAA in six league games.

    Lofberg has emerged has the team’s number one goalie. “I think each game, especially in these last four, he’s gotten better and better each game,” said Roll of the junior netminder. “His strongest game of the year was against Cortland the other night. He just looked in control.”

    Sophomore Tyson Gajda also earned a shutout in his SUNYAC start, a 6-0 win at Brockport.

    Oswego ranks third in conference on the power play, scoring on just over 17 percent of its chances, and also ranks third in penalty killing, at .857.

    The Lakers have distributed their scoring. In conference play, senior Jonathan Hoose leads Oswego with nine points. The team’s overall leading scorer, sophomore Mike Lukajic, has eight, as does senior Nate Elliott, who is the SUNYAC’s top-scoring defenseman.

    Freshman Andy Rozak leads SUNYAC rookies in conference scoring with two goals and five assists. Two rookie defensemen, John Nadalin and Mark Strzoda, both have been standouts for Oswego.

    Roll has had two very good recruiting classes in a row, including Lukajic, last year’s SUNYAC rookie of the year.

    “Our freshman class, from top to bottom, we’re very happy with. had no choice this year. We lost a lot of seniors last year,” noted Roll. “But every one of them has responded to this level. We have a lot of confidence in this freshman class.”

    After five home games in the first half of the SUNYAC schedule, the Lakers will be on the road a lot in the remainder of the season, with home games against only Brockport and Geneseo.

    “The one good thing is that before that stretch we’ve got a few games on the road,” said Roll, as the Lakers participate in Brockport’s Jimmy Mac Invitational and the Plattsburgh Cardinal Classic, and visit Johnson & Wales, Wentworth, and Hamilton.

    “We’re going to get used to playing on the road in those games. I think the guys will be road-tested before we get back into SUNYAC play,” said Roll.

    Shows What You Guys Know

    In the pre-season coaches poll, Tom Cranfield’s colleagues didn’t even pick Cortland to make the playoffs. In third place, with a 5-2 record at the semester break, the Red Dragons have won more conference games than last season, and may have already won enough games to make the playoffs for a second straight year.

    Cortland was just 2-5 at the halfway point last season.

    “At the beginning of the year we talked about being a top four team,” said Cranfield. “Now, we’re talking about breaking into the top two, and having the first round bye, and maybe home ice advantage.”

    While Cortland has surpassed other SUNYAC coaches’ expectations, the same can’t be said for their rookie coach: “I didn’t know what to expect.”

    The first half of the season has given him a good idea what to expect from his squad here on out.

    “We’re right where we should be right now,” said Cranfield. “We’ve won the games we should have won, and the games that we haven’t won, being a young team, we have to learn how to win those games.”

    Cortland has the best record in the conference in combined special teams and leads the conference in penalty kill, at better than 94 percent.

    “I think the reason for that is that we lead the conference in penalty minutes, so we’ve had practice at it,” joked Cranfield. The aggressive Red Dragons are tops in the league with an average of more than 36 penalty minutes per game.

    “We’ve got an extremely young team, and we’re trying to go out and play uptempo with a lot of intensity all the time,” said Cranfield. “Some of those kids haven’t learned to play uptempo without getting a lot of penalties.”

    Cortland is second in the league on the power play at 23.8 percent.

    Cortland has outscored its conference opponents 24-16, but nine of the goals against came in the team’s only two conference losses, to Plattsburgh and Oswego.

    Two forwards, senior Jeff Olsen and sophomore Matt Donskov, are tied for sixth in the league with 10 points each, while senior Trevor Bauer, tied with Donskov for the team’s overall scoring lead at 17, had nine points in conference.

    Two Cortland rookies, forwards Nate Gagnon and Kevin Watters, are tied for second in scoring among freshmen, with two goals and four assists each.

    “They’re both great players. Watters came out of the Rochester [N. Y. Americans] Junior B program and he’s been just a huge surprise for us.” Gagnon, a transfer from the University of Maine, “just seems have a knack around the net,” said Cranfield.

    Junior goaltender John Larnerd has the league’s second best save percentage, .935, and is third in the conference with a 2.36 GAA. Backup Mark Paine has a .963 save percentage in two-and-a-half league tilts, with a 1.34 GAA.

    Cortland has two road trips in the second half, to Buffalo State and Fredonia, and to the north country against Potsdam and Plattsburgh. Brockport, Geneseo, and travel partner Oswego visit the southern tier.

    Definitely In The Picture

    Last season, Buffalo State finished just out of the playoff picture. At the midpoint of this campaign, the fourth-place Bengals have already won as many conference games as all of last year.

    “We’re pretty happy to have gone 4-and-3 in the SUNYAC,” said coach Jim Fowler. “Our goal was to make the top six. We control our own destiny and we’ve got to keep working.”

    At the same juncture in the 2000-2001 campaign, Buffalo State was 2-5.

    Senior Todd Nowicki leads the SUNYAC with 13 points in conference and 20 points overall. Junior Joe Urbanik has the most goals in league play, with seven, and is tied for second in scoring with 11 points. The third member of the Bengals first line, senior Jason Comardo, has nine points in conference.

    Ricardo Hernandez is tied for second in scoring among defensemen, with all seven of the junior’s points coming on assists.

    The Bengals have been outscored 30-26 in SUNYAC play, and 17-4 in their three losses. They are third in scoring offense, but only seventh in scoring defense.

    “It’s definitely something we want to work on,” said Fowler. “I had a talk with my goaltenders. I told them straight out that I don’t think anybody’s stepped up as number one, and when we need the big saves, nobody’s making them.”

    Fowler said he “put a challenge out there,” and goalie Nick Berti stepped up to it in the team’s last SUNYAC game, a 5-2 win at Fredonia.

    Berti, a junior, has seen most of the action in goal, with a 3-2 record, an .881 save percentage, and a 4.20 GAA. Freshman Adam Horvath has a .870 save percentage and a 4.80 GAA. Junior Steve Thering was to have gotten the start against Potsdam, but is out with a broken hand.

    Five of the Bengals’ seven league games in the second half of the season are on home ice. “It’s nice to have the guys sleeping in their own beds,” said Fowler, who is not looking past his first two visitors of the second semester.

    “Geneseo’s playing some good hockey right now. We were lucky to get out of there with two points. Brockport is a team that’s going to battle for 60 minutes. There’s no guarantee in those first two games.”

    With a finish in the top six almost in hand, is Fowler ready to raise the bar?

    “We made our goals as a team the first day. We’re worried about just the top six right now. We’re not going to revise that to home ice or anything like that, as of yet,” said Fowler.

    “That’s our long-term goal. Our short-term goal is staying the same, and that’s to compete every day.”

    Next Time

    USCHO is giving its columnists the next two weeks off for the holidays. In our December 28th edition, we’ll catch up on the rest of the league: resurgent Geneseo, struggling Fredonia, and the youthful squads at Potsdam and Brockport.

    Not The Only Game In Town

    Last week, we told you about Plattsburgh’s WIRY. But Plattsburgh fans have more than one source for Cardinal hockey on the radio.

    In addition to Ducky Drake’s broadcasts, student station WQKE (93.9 FM) also carries all of Plattsburgh’s home games. The station will broadcast a pair of road games this season, including Friday’s game at Middlebury and the season-ender at Potsdam.

    Sports Director and play-by-play man Alex Newman and commentator Ken Sherwood broadcast the games and also cover the Cardinals on WQKE’s weekly sports show, Real Sports Talk Live.

    “While WIRY provides Ducky and a perspective meant to serve the local community, WQKE strives to create a program which interests the college community,” explained Newman via e-mail.

    While “The Quake” doesn’t yet stream audio on the net, you can visit the station’s web site at www.wqke.net.

    Brockport’s WBSU, Geneseo’s WGSU, and Oswego’s WNYO also carry most of their teams’ schedules.

    College sportscasters at the D-III level often have to put up with poor facilities and the occasionally condescending sports information director. Many times, college stations are the only media at a game, and they deserve the same courtesy and respect any other print or broadcast professional would receive.

    Newman, and other student broadcasters and stations, get a big thumbs up from me for their dedication and effort.

    SUNYAC Trivia

    Last Week’s Question

    How many current SUNYAC coaches have been named SUNYAC coach of the year at least once?

    Five. Brian Dickinson, Bob Emery, Jeff Meredith, George Roll, and Ed Seney have all been SUNYAC coaches of the year. (Don’t be surprised if the number grows by one this season.)

    This Week’s Question

    Who is the only SUNYAC coach ever to win coach of the year in two consecutive seasons?

    Game of the Week

    This one is also arguably the Division III game of the week — Plattsburgh at Middlebury on Friday night, Dec. 7. I expected these two teams to meet for the Primelink championship, but the Cardinals’ overtime loss to Norwich prevented that from happening.

    Last season, the two squads split regular-season games, with the home team winning each by a 3-0 score. Plattsburgh took both quarterfinal games against the Panthers in the NCAA tournament, despite being outshot, as Niklas Sundberg was absolutely huge in net.

    “It’s going to come down to goaltending,” said Plattsburgh’s Emery. “Nik [Sundberg]’s got to play well, and obviously they hope that [Middlebury goalie Christian] Carlsson plays well.”

    One concern for Emery is the big sheet at the Chip Kenyon Arena. The Cardinals play on a 185′ ice surface at home. “It’s tougher to go from a small sheet to an Olympic-sized sheet,” he noted.

    Emery has a request for Santa: “Hopefully we can get some goals for Christmas.”

    It should be a great battle between two teams who may once again this season compete in the NCAAs.

    This Week in the ECAC: Dec. 6, 2001

    By Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy
    -

    Travel Partner Fun

    Harvard will have a chance to avenge its season-opening loss to Brown this weekend as the travel partners face off at Meehan Auditorium on Saturday night. Earlier in the season, the Bears stunned the then nationally-ranked Crimson in Cambridge with a 4-2 victory. What was more surprising that night: the fact that highly-touted Harvard lost or Brown won a game so early? As time has passed, the truth of that night has come out. Harvard is trying to grow into its shoes, while the Bears are a much-improved team this season.

    Saturday night will be especially interesting following the weekend both teams had. The Crimson should have the word “cardiac” attached to the front of its name after pulling out a win and tie in the waning seconds of both contests.

    “Our kids showed tremendous resiliency,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni. “It was an even played game. What I was proud of we continued to attack. When adversity hit with penalties, we responded with a big kill. We got the big play from our big players.”

    And be prepared to see Dom Moore and Tim Pettit return to the power-play unit this Saturday. After being yanked from special teams for poor effort, Moore and Pettit responded with solid performances this past weekend. In fact, Moore found himself on the ice during Harvard’s final power-play opportunities on Saturday night against Clarkson. Obviously, Mazzoleni felt that he had learned his lesson.

    One sticking point for Harvard, however, is the fact that its offense is coming from one line: Moore, Kolarik and Rob Fried. That one line accounted for all the team’s goals this past weekend.

    “If we are going to continue to make strides, we have to play more of a four-line rotation,” said Mazzoleni. “It’s tough when you play back-to-back games on the collegiate level to play three lines. Especially when your real key, go-to guys kill penalties, play the power play – they tire out.”

    Catching Up Or Going Ahead

    Yale and Princeton have a chance to get a leg up on the competition. After this weekend is over, both teams will have played 10 ECAC games — one game short of half the league schedule.

    This is where both teams will try to get points this weekend as they travel to Union and Rensselaer.

    This past weekend, the Princeton Tigers picked up their third win of the season with a 3-2 win over Colgate before falling 4-0 to Cornell.

    “We moved the puck well, especially in the second period,” said Princeton coach Len Quesnelle on Friday evening. “We had some point blank opportunities and rebounds that maybe if our sticks were on the ice, they go in the net. When we move our feet, we are able to be effective. I saw our guys really try and work a forecheck in the second period.”

    The next night, the Tigers just could not match up with the Big Red.

    “Cornell is a good team and we need to measure ourselves against them,” said Quesnelle. “They owned the territorial play, the shots, the grade A chances. Our best simply isn’t good enough against a team like Cornell.”

    The Tigers were bolstered by the return of Brad Parsons to the lineup this past weekend and are almost at full strength in terms of injuries. A Tiger team at full strength could make some noise before the Christmas holiday.

    In New Haven, the Bulldogs took three points this past weekend with a 1-1 tie with Cornell and a 5-0 whitewashing of Colgate. There was a major reason why the Eli came away with three points.

    “We got tremendous goaltending from Dan Lombard,” Yale head coach Tim Taylor said. “That’s the best game he’s had all year. He is in a zone-like state right now. He carried the team on his back tonight.”

    Allowing only one goal on the weekend, Lombard is making waves and right now, it is amazingly tough to score on the Elis and Lombard. He has only allowed four goals in the last four games.

    The Eli will be taking on Rensselaer on Friday night, as the Engineers look to take the games in hand that they have and turn them into playing catch-up in the ECAC standings. The Engineers got one point in a 1-1 tie with Union this past weekend. Head coach Dan Fridgen was pleased with the performance, but wishes for more offense.

    “I’d like to see our execution a little better, but other than that I thought we competed real hard,” he said. “It’s just a matter of executing right now. We’re creating a lot of opportunities and there were a lot of opportunities that we missed. As long as the competitiveness and work ethic is there, the execution will come.”

    The combination of Lombard not allowing many goals and the Engineers not executing well could be a good combination for the Bulldogs and a bad one for the Engineers.

    Union put together their strongest performance of the year in the 1-1 tie according to head coach Kevin Sneddon. After a 3-0 loss to UMass-Lowell on Wednesday evening, the Dutchmen came back to gain their first points of the ECAC season.

    “We had young players in the lineup and we got better as the game went on and that’s a great sign for a younger team. In a high intense game to build as the game goes along,” he said. “There’s no excuses right now, if we want to be a team in contention until the end we have to have that kind of commitment every night we play.

    “There were games where we’ve had a tremendous offensive effort and gave up a few easy goals. I don’t think we made many mistakes defensively. And we haven’t had many breakdowns, so that was definitely our best game of the year.”

    A Big Test In The North Country

    Two teams that probably won’t mind the break from league play are St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Following a weekend series at Harvard and Brown one week ago, the North Country squads return home to their respective barns for non-conference contests. The non-league weekend will give both teams a chance to recover physically and emotionally.

    “We keep beating ourselves this year which is really too bad because we have a really good group of guys,” said Clarkson coach Mark Morris following a two-point weekend in which his team scored ties against both Harvard and Brown. “To play this hard on the road and not come up with a win is a tough pill to swallow.”

    Clarkson – plagued by spotty scoring and a high number of penalties per game throughout most of this season – saw much of the same against Brown on Friday night. Despite pelting Yann Danis with 33 shots, the Golden Knights managed just one goal – a power-play tally – in 65 minutes of play.

    “We’re not playing well right now,” said Morris immediately following the game. “Taking penalties has been killing us. Our guys just aren’t learning.”

    Morris is talking about the 16 penalty minutes assessed to his team during that contest, resulting in five power-play opportunities for the Bears. The one goal Brown scored was (no surprise) scored with an extra man on the ice with time running out in the first period. That was all the scoring Brown could muster on the night, but it proved to be enough for one point in the league standings.

    The following night, Clarkson appeared poised to score a victory against the Crimson as the visitors held a 2-1 lead heading into the final 10 seconds of regulation. Then Harvard’s Dom Moore scored the game-tying tally with three ticks left on the clock to crush the spirit of the Golden Knights. Although the scoresheet shows both teams with three shots in the overtime period, the momentum was surely on the side of Harvard as Clarkson dodged more than one bullet during that 5-minute extra period and was fortunate to escape with the tie.

    “For the majority of 60 minutes we played pretty thoroughly,” said Morris. “Harvard is an opportunistic team and they lit us up on a one-on-one that allowed them in the game. There were a lot of goal posts hit on both sides so it was a pretty even game back and forth.”

    When asked about the fact that his team is averaging just over one goal per game in the last six contests, Morris just shakes his head.

    “If you look on the scoresheet in what seems like the last month, just to get any goal at all is a major feat for us,” said Morris. “Some of our guys have been real dormant for us in the goal-scoring department. If we don’t play tight defensively and come up with good goaltending, we’re a very average team.”

    Another team that met a frustrating fate last weekend was St. Lawrence. The coaching staff knew that it would go through some growing pains this year, but an 0-for weekend against Brown and Harvard was not exactly in the plans. However, compared to the clear frustration of Morris, Saints’ coach Joe Marsh is surprisingly positive.

    “There are a lot worse places we could be than here,” said Marsh. “I think we have good character as a team and this will be a test of it now.”

    Character and work ethic are two traits that Marsh feels good about this season, and they are two words that you will hear streaming out of Canton quite a bit this year. Despite posting only three wins this year and being in the midst of a four-game losing streak, Marsh is seeing gradual improvement in his troops.
    Both losses last weekend were one-goal games and very winnable.

    If it wasn’t for Harvard’s last second heroics on Friday night, the Saints probably would have emerged from Cambridge with two points, one at the very least. Instead, Tyler Kolarik netted the game winner with 17 seconds remaining to send the Saints packing.

    “That was a great college game,” said Marsh following the Harvard game. “I was really proud of our effort. I thought that we worked extremely hard. It would have been nice to bury that when we had a chance at the end, but that’s the way it goes … I’m just really, really happy with our effort. I think that was the best game that we played all year.”

    Make no mistake about it, this is far from coaching rhetoric. Marsh sees his team as a work in progress with a great deal of potential. He understands that it’s going to take the majority of the year for his team to come together, but the coaching staff believes that they can make some waves in the latter stages of the season. And speaking of character, the next few weeks will be a tremendous test for this team as they face some national powerhouses – New Hampshire and UMass-Lowell this week and then a series against North Dakota the next.

    “When you look at our record people might underestimate what we’ve been able to accomplish so far at 3-7,” said Marsh. “We’re not too concerned about that right now. We want the guys to be honest to the process and realize how hard we need to work.”

    Back At Home

    The Cornell Big Red come back home after three straight weekends on the road and are now the No. 9 team in the country, and trail Harvard by one point in the ECAC standings with one game in hand.

    This past weekend, three points were taken as the Big Red tied Yale and then downed Princeton.

    In the process of moving up in the rankings and standings, the Big Red find themselves with a luxury — two outstanding goaltenders.

    “Dave [LeNeveu] is very solid. He makes a lot of saves look easy,” head coach Mike Schafer told the Cornell Daily Sun. “Both he and Matt [Underhill] are playing fantastic.

    “I bet there’s a lot of college coaches that wish they had the problem we have right now — two guys that are playing very well. They both deserve to play right now.

    Both LeNeveu and Underhill will probably get a call this weekend as the Big Red host Niagara and then the US Under-18 Team.

    Notes

    Andrew Trivero, a student manager for the Vermont Catamounts, made the United States National Amputee Hockey Team recently, and is traveling to Colorado Springs to play in three scrimmage games with the US Team against Canada in front of members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The hope is that the two teams will impress the IOC members enough to make Amputee Hockey a Demonstration Sport at the next Winter Olympic Games. Trivero’s left leg was amputated below the knee after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at age 15. Congratulations to Andrew and we’re all proud of him.

    Harvard head coach Mark Mazzoleni’s father, Palmiro “Paul” Mazzoleni, is one of the top ten finalists for the Green Bay Packer FAN Hall of Fame. Voting continues until December 12, with the winner being announced on December 14. The winner gets four club seats to a Packers home game, where he or she will be recognized on the Jumbotron at Lambeau Field, a gift certificate to the Pro Shop and paid road trips to two Packers games.

    If It’s So Easy, You Try It

    Chairman Brule is happy once again. His Iron Columnists have rid themselves of Ben Flickinger, who had defeated the Iron Columnists by one measly game the week before.

    The competition thus far:
    Vic Brzozowksi t. The Iron Columnists – 7-2-1
    The Iron Columnists d. Vic Brzozowksi – 8-3-1 to 7-4-1
    Ben Flickinger d. The Iron Columnists – 11-4-2 to 10-5-2
    The Iron Columnists d. Ben Flickinger – 5-1-4 to 4-2-4

    It’s the holiday season and even the Iron Columnists need a break, so until January, the Iron Columnists have been sent to hone their skills. See you in January.

    And remember that if you are interested in putting your money where your mouth is, drop us an email to be eligible to be chosen.

    Todd Milewski, Mike Volonnino and Ron Vaccaro contributed to this column this week.

    This Week in the CCHA: Dec. 6, 2001

    By
    -

    Signs of Peace in Our Time

    So December is upon us, a time when three of the world’s major religions celebrate holy days, a time when so many of us throughout the U.S. and Canada travel to see loved ones and attempt to be civil to each other for Mom’s sake.

    In the spirit of the season, there will be no Grudge of the Week from now until the new year.

    And lest you think that good will is a vanishing commodity in these troubled times, consider Rob Collins, the senior from Ferris State who leads the league in scoring. Through 15 games, Collins has incurred just three penalties, for six minutes.

    UNO’s Andrew Wong, second in CCHA overall scoring, has four penalties for eight minutes through 16 games. NMU’s Chad Theuer (sixth overall) is has three penalties for six minutes through a dozen games.

    That’s three of the league’s top 10 scorers, each with penalties and minutes in the single digits nearing the half-way point of the season.

    Consider also that both Ferris State and Northern Michigan are two of the most penalized teams in the league, each averaging more than 20 minutes per game.

    Top Bulldog and Wildcat scorers with close to no time in the box. Shawn Horcoff and Mike Comrie now the best of friends.

    Can world peace be far behind?

    Santa, We’ve Been Very Good, and We Work Hard

    If you’re going to break a bad streak, there’s nothing like doing so against a top-10 team.

    “You know, we haven’t been playing poorly,” says Alaska-Fairbanks head coach Guy Gadowsky. “We just haven’t been winning.”

    The 7-7-0 Nanooks snapped a five-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over then-No. 3 Michigan State last weekend, and followed it up with a 5-1 loss the following night. Cory Rask’s power- play goal in the win was the Nanooks’ first in 29 attempts.

    The streak of bad luck, says Gadowsky, began when senior defenseman Aaron Grosul twisted an ankle in UAF’s 3-2 win in Sault Ste. Marie Oct. 26. “When we beat Michigan State, that was the first time we’d won since he injured himself,” says Gadowsky. “We might get lucky and get him back this weekend.”

    Another reason for wanting Grosul back is he plays Nebraska-Omaha, UAF’s opponent this week. Grosul (1-5–6) and fellow seniors Daniel Carriere (2-6–8) and Bobby Andrews (4-4–8) are lead the Nanooks in scoring against the Mavericks. Andrews is also, according to Gadowsky, one of the league’s best two-way forwards.

    The Nanooks are fairly strong in net this season, with Preston McKay (.907 SV%, 2.72 GAA) and Lance Mayes (.896 SV%, 3.04 GAA) splitting time. The situation is not, however, ideal. “We’ve got two very good goaltenders, and I think we’re just waiting for one to step up and play awesome,” says Gadowsky. “We’ve been splitting, not by design but because we’re just waiting for one of them to take his play to the next level.”

    The Nanooks and Mavericks are two teams that match up well. Paired as clustermates because of their remote locations (Alaska, Nebraska – hey, at least they rhyme!), UAF and UNO met four times last season, and the whole thing was a wash. Each won a game, each lost a game, and they tied twice. The Nanook loss came in Omaha; they won at home.

    As Gadowsky himself will tell you, wins are hard to come by on the road in this league. This year, UAF is 2-4-0 when not in the friendly confines of the Carlson Center.

    Games of the Week

    Trailing the Spartans by four points and with two games in hand, now would be a good time for the Wildcats to make a move.

    No. 5 Michigan State (10-3-2, 8-3-1 CCHA) at No. 8 Northern Michigan (8-3-1, 6-3-1 CCHA)
    Friday and Saturday, 7:05 p.m., Berry Events Center, Marquette, Mich.

    There’s an easy explanation for Michigan State’s split with Alaska-Fairbanks last weekend. “I thought Friday night they played great,” says MSU head coach Ron Mason, “and we played really well on Saturday.”

    The Wildcats are catching the Spartans at just the right time and in the right place. Back less than a week from the long trip to Fairbanks, Michigan State has to turn right around and fly to Marquette. This is unusual in terms of CCHA scheduling; when a team returns from Fairbanks, it normally gets the following week off.

    Complicating matters for Michigan State, Northern Michigan didn’t play last weekend. Mason says this all has an air of deja vu.

    “Northern’s catching us just like Alaska did. They [the Nanooks] didn’t play the week before we went there, either,” says Mason.

    The coach adds that the back-to-back long travel weekends are “not what the league requires,” and says that “there were some changes that could have been made [regarding MSU’s schedule], but it would have made a great big mess.”

    Mason, by no means over-confident going into Marquette, knows that the Wildcats will be up and ready for Friday’s contest, just as the Nanooks were when the Spartans arrived in Fairbanks. Mason is also well aware that Northern’s stats nearly mirror Michigan State’s.

    The Spartans are first in the CCHA overall in goals per game (3.53) while the Wildcats are second (3.50). MSU leads in overall goals allowed per game (1.67), while NMU is second (2.08). Northern’s power play is first (.255) while Michigan State’s is second (.247). The Spartan PK is first (.893) to NMU’s fifth (.855); the Spartans are the least-penalized team (11.93 minutes per game) while the Wildcats are the third-most penalized team (22.83).

    Michigan State leads this all-time series 17-11-2 and are 10-3-2 against Northern since the Wildcats returned to the CCHA in 1997-98, but are 4-5-1 all-time against the Wildcats in Marquette.

    The Wildcats are 5-1-1 at home this season, and have compiled their 8-3-1 record against opponents with a combined 32-45-12 (.427) record. The only teams with winning records whom Northern Michigan has faced prior to this weekend’s series against Michigan State are Michigan and Ohio State. Northern swept Michigan in Yost, and was swept by OSU in Columbus.

    On paper, certainly Michigan State has an edge. Offensively, it’s a toss-up but if Ryan Miller is on his game, he’s nearly unbeatable. Even though Miller lost last Friday night to the UAF Nanooks, he gave up just two goals in the game.

    Picks: It’s hard to argue with the odds. MSU 3-1, 3-2

    Worth a Mention

  • Notre Dame’s newly formed line of David Inman, Rob Globke, and Michael Chin combined for two goals and five assists in the Irish 7-0 shutout of the Lakers Dec. 1. The trio notched five goals and six assists for 11 points in the two-game series, and finished the weekend with a combined +13.
  • It’s a good thing for the Miami RedHawks that the OSU Buckeyes play their games in a multi-use building with a game clock set up for basketball. Were it not for that, Mike Glumac’s goal in overtime would have been after the buzzer, rather than .1 seconds before the end of the game.
  • Michigan State’s redshirt freshman Steve Swistak will carry the Olympic torch as it makes its way through Lansing in early January.
  • And, people, let’s never become immune to excellence. Remember Ron Mason when talking about Coach of the Year, and remember, too, that Ryan Miller sets a new NCAA record with every shutout.

    Separated at Birth?

    By a few years and a couple of days, anyway. Happy belated birthday to my colleague and dear friend Todd Milewski and happy birthday to my colleague and dear friend Jayson Moy.

    • This Week In The WCHA: Dec. 6, 2001

    By
    -

    A Peek Into The Future?

    Do I see semifinal pairings in the makings this weekend?

    The WCHA world was abuzz last weekend with the No. 1-vs.-No. 2 series between Minnesota and St. Cloud State, a pairing that could easily be the one fans will see in the championship game of the WCHA Final Five in March.

    This weekend’s featured series could just as easily be the semifinal matchups.

    The state of Colorado is the place to be for two top-of-the-league battles this weekend: Minnesota at Denver and St. Cloud State at Colorado College.

    It’s enough to make the WCHA Commissioner, Bruce McLeod, who keeps his office in Denver, wish he could be in two places at the same time.

    At Denver, the Pioneers will face their biggest WCHA test to date. They’ve rolled to an 8-0 record, but six of those wins have come against the teams in eighth, ninth and 10th place in the league — Alaska-Anchorage, Michigan Tech and Minnesota-Duluth, respectively. The other two wins came against Colorado College, a team that was playing some of its worst hockey of the season at the time.

    That isn’t meant to downplay the significance of Denver’s start or to claim the Pioneers haven’t had to work for their eight WCHA wins. They’ve taken care of business; the business, however, gets significantly tougher this weekend against Minnesota.

    The Gophers don’t have a whole lot of work to do to regroup, in the eyes of coach Don Lucia, after last week’s loss and tie against St. Cloud.

    “I thought we played pretty well last weekend,” Lucia said. “I don’t have any complaints at all on how we played. We should have won Friday and probably St. Cloud should have won Saturday.”

    This weekend, St. Cloud State, your new No. 1 team in the nation, finishes its season series with the only team it has lost to this year. That’s right, the Huskies are done with Colorado College on Dec. 8.

    So on the off chance that the Tigers climb back into the thick of things in the WCHA race, there won’t be any head-to-head meetings between these teams to seperate them down the stretch.

    The Tigers getting back into the race doesn’t seem like as much of a stretch now as it did four weeks ago. They’ve gone unbeaten in their last seven games — the longest such stretch in coach Scott Owens’ tenure at CC. Think there’s any connection between that stretch and the fact Mark Cullen has at least a point in each of those games?

    But they already have five losses and a tie in the WCHA portion of their schedule, so this weekend’s series might not be as much about a race for first place as a race for a good spot in the league and a favorable Pairwise Rankings placement.

    The Tip Of The Iceberg

    The first 10 members of the WCHA’s all-time top 50 team just scratch the surface of the talent that’s graced the ice of WCHA rinks in the league’s 50 years, but that’s all McLeod will offer as to the rest of the names on the list.

    “You just read those bios on the first 10 and say that’s a pretty damn impressive group. Well, Doug [Spencer, the WCHA’s public relations director] and I are just running through the next 10, and, I’ll tell you, it’s just as impressive,” McLeod said. “It’s a good reminder for us. Hopefully a lot of people realize the caliber of hockey that’s been played in the WCHA, and continues to be played.”

    The first 10, announced last week, were: Lou Angotti, Michigan Tech; Scott Beattie, Northern Michigan; Greg Johnson, North Dakota; Keith Magnuson, Denver; John Matchefts, Michigan; Craig Norwich, Wisconsin; Bill Nyrop, Notre Dame; Doug Palazzari, Colorado College; Mark Pavelich, Minnesota-Duluth; and Robb Stauber, Minnesota.

    McLeod, as is his custom, has been on the road plenty this season to see the teams and the individuals that make up the league he’s in charge of. This year, though, is just a little different.

    With the league celebrating its 50th anniversary, there’s a greater sense of history.

    “A lot of the fun parts have been not only traveling around to the rinks and seeing the signage … but some of the things behind the scenes that have been going on,” McLeod said.

    The league’s radio show, hosted by Jim Rich and broadcast in the intermission of some league teams’ games, has featured interviews with some of the top players in the league’s 50 years.

    That, and the planning of a video presentation for the Final Five, has the commissioner excited.

    “It definitely will culminate for us at the Final Five,” McLeod said. “We’re going to do some special things at the Final Five and hope to have a real strong contingent of [alumni] there.”

    Not Another One

    Maybe Lucia already has enough rivalries to worry about to get too interested in another one with Denver.

    In other words, you won’t hear too much from the Minnesota side this week about what the Denver Post called a “nasty rivalry” between the teams.

    “Our guys are used to seeing that everywhere they go,” Lucia said.

    The Pioneers may have a different take on things. It seems they are still upset about the Erik Westrum kicking incident of a few years back.

    Two years ago in Minneapolis, Westrum, then a junior, kicked Denver defenseman Erik Adams in the chest. Westrum served a two-game suspension, but, according, to the Post, never apologized.

    “With the WCHA being so tight with the top three teams, and the little bit of controversy we’ve had with Minnesota over the last two years, with the Westrum thing and all,” Denver forward Chris Paradise told the Post, “I think they’re going to come in fired up, especially because we beat them here last year.”

    Lucia scoffed at the notion that the Westrum incident was keeping tempers flared between the two teams.

    “That’s like saying something that happened in 1960 affects what goes on now,” Lucia said. “I mean, Erik Westrum isn’t even on our team anymore. He had the kicking incident and he was rightfully suspended, and that’s the end of it. We’ve only played the team twice a year, so I don’t see it.”

    Denver coach George Gwozdecky, on the other hand, scoffed at the notion that there wasn’t a rivalry between the two teams. He pointed to the origins of the series between the two teams. Not only is it as old as college hockey itself, but there was a time way back when Minnesota wouldn’t schedule Denver because of recruiting issues.

    “From our players’ minds, I think there’s a big rivalry,” Gwozdecky said, “because of not only the games that have been played — the competitive games in both buildings — but other things that have gone on, on the ice. It’s good to have a rivalry like that. I don’t think there’s really a lot of bad blood, but there’s some.”

    Keep The Faith

    You may remember something written last week in this space:

    “If you’re an Anchorage fan and put a lot of faith in statistics, things are looking better.”

    That was in reference to the Seawolves’ spike in goal and shot totals. Then, last Friday night, they outshot Wisconsin 41-12 in a 4-1 victory.

    Cause, meet effect. Effect, cause. Hope you guys get along well.

    “When you’re a hockey player and you’re creating scoring opportunities, even when you’re not scoring you know you’re doing something right,” UAA coach John Hill said. “I think it’s only going to build your confidence. I think our style of play right now lends itself to that.”

    Hill is quick to mention his team’s aggressive forechecking style and ability to force turnovers as a reason for the improvement in shots on goal.

    “The guys are seeing the benefits of doing the things we’re working on,” Hill said, “because they’re creating scoring opportunities.”

    Change In Plans

    For the first time this season, St. Cloud State’s goaltending rotation is expected to take on a new form.

    Jake Moreland suffered a concussion in last Saturday’s tie with Minnesota, and is being held from travel to Colorado College this weekend, the St. Cloud Times reported.

    Moreland, who usually plays the second game of a series after Dean Weasler plays the first, will be replaced in the travel party with Jason Montgomery. Weasler should start both games this weekend.

    Playing For The USA

    Minnesota freshman Keith Ballard was named this week to the U.S. National Junior Team, and will compete in the World Junior Championship from Dec. 25 to Jan. 4 in the Czech Republic.

    Ballard, a 5-foot-11, 200-pound, 19-year-old from Baudette, Minn., is the only WCHA representative on the U.S. team. He has four goals and eight assists this season.

    Hitting The Skids

    With its losses last weekend, Minnesota-Duluth ran its winless streak to 10 games (0-9-1 in that stretch).

    That’s the longest the Bulldogs have gone without a win since the 1967-68 season. That year they finished last in the eight-team WCHA, 4-20 in the league and 5-23 overall.

    To put in perspective just how long ago that was, it was the second year UMD played in the then-Duluth Arena. It’s the same building the team still occupies.

    A Familiar Foe

    Dallas Steward, he of one goal and an eight-game goal drought before last weekend, broke out against a familiar opponent.

    Steward, an Alaska-Anchorage sophomore forward, helped the Seawolves beat and tie his home-state team. Steward’s a Chippewa Falls, Wis., native.

    He scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal last Friday, one-timing a pass from Gregg Zaporzan. The next night, he scored on his first shift, just 34 seconds into the game.

    “I’m sure playing Wisconsin gives him extra motivation, but he works hard every time he steps onto the ice,” Hill said. “I know he’s been a little frustrated in not finding the back of the net. I was very happy for him, and I know that he was elated to do that, and even more so with it being against the Badgers.”

    The Last Line

    North Dakota coach Dean Blais has had some interesting things to say about his goaltending in recent days, and why not? A six-goal showing in both games last weekend against Minnesota State-Mankato — at home, even — should prompt that.

    After Friday’s game, a 6-4 loss: “When you score four goals in your own building, you should win the game, but we didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t a good effort.”

    Then, after Saturday’s 6-0 shutout (more on that later): “Goaltending’s the most important part of hockey. I don’t usually like to blame goaltenders for losses, but tonight was a case when Mankato’s was good and ours wasn’t. At the start of a game, you need a save, and we didn’t get it.”

    Blais was speaking about Andy Kollar, the senior whose reputation has taken a dramatic turn for the worse this season.

    Kollar, while never getting the majority of the ice time, was a very capable goaltender when Karl Goehring was the focal point. When Goehring was hurt in March 2000, Kollar backstopped the Sioux to a WCHA Final Five championship.

    This year, however, has been a different story. On his own, Kollar hasn’t come close to being stellar at any time this season. He may, in fact, be developing a reputation for allowing what Don Cherry likes to call “Hardy Astrom Specials,” a goal scored from well outside the range of a normal shot on goal.

    Minnesota’s Jordan Leopold scored from his own end in the first game of the season. Then, last Saturday, Kollar, who had already allowed a Mankato goal on the Mavericks’ first shot, saw a 115-foot, dump-in pass from Mankato’s Matt Paluczak bounce over his stick and into the net.

    “I got a real bad feeling as soon as it got shot up in the air,” Blais told the Grand Forks Herald, “that it was going to come down with some damage like a grenade. And it did.”

    The damage done to the psyche of the defending MacNaughton Cup champions is undetermined. They’re on the road until Jan. 11.

    At Wisconsin this weekend, it’s almost like sink or swim. Play well and stay in the race for a high spot in the league. Play poorly, and a March weekend might open up for another event at the new Ralph.

    Truer Than You Think

    This from the “It’s funny because it’s true” file:

    The portion of the WCHA weekly media notes dedicated to Minnesota mentions last week’s series as being played against “St. Clout State.”

    One-upmanship

    What could there be to bring the Alaska-Anchorage players back to earth after taking three points from Wisconsin last weekend?

    The knowledge that their next opponent did them at least one better.

    “I told our guys on Monday that as good a weekend as we had,” Hill said,
    “Mankato had a better one.”

    Minnesota State-Mankato hosts the Seawolves this weekend in a series that is suddenly between two teams on the rise. There’s a feeling, Hill said, that the points on the line this weekend will come in handy for both teams.

    “Mankato’s three points up on us, so I think right there we have enough motivation,” Hill said. “What they did last weekend got our guys’ attention.”

    Write It Down

    Denver coach Gwozdecky learned a valuable lesson in last Saturday’s game against Minnesota-Duluth: Always keep track of who’s on your bench and who’s on the lineup you submit to the officials.

    When those two are not the same, you have problems.

    The Pioneers were assessed a two-minute penalty late in the second period of a 3-1 victory for using an unrostered player, the official scoresheet will tell you.

    Gwozdecky had two line charts made up after Friday’s game — one with Jesse Bull, one without him. Bull was injured in Friday’s game, and it was going to be a late decision as to his fitness to play on Saturday.

    As it turns out, Bull did play, but the officials were mistakenly given the lineup without his name on it. Bull was sent off the ice, and the Pioneers were forced to serve two minutes.

    “When it came time to circle the starters, as I’m asked to do every game, I failed to check the depth chart that I circled the starters on, which is something that I never do,” Gwozdecky said. “So it passed by me, the mistake, and with 30 seconds left in the second period, they caught the mistake.”

    So it’s something he’ll check on from now on?

    “You’ve got that right,” Gwozdecky said.

    It’s All Ahead

    If Wisconsin has aspirations of securing a home-ice spot and contending for another in the NCAA tournament, the Badgers have their opportunity right in front of them.

    The Badgers’ next 10 league games are against the teams they are below or tied with in the WCHA points race. It starts with North Dakota this weekend before post-Christmas series against Denver, Minnesota, Minnesota State-Mankato and St. Cloud State.

    Quite A Weekend

    Talk about your defining series.

    Minnesota State-Mankato may have done just that last weekend: define its season. Its first sweep of North Dakota — in Grand Forks, no less — came at a great time.

    It put them back above the .500 mark overall (7-6-1) and put them at the same nine-point level as three other teams who are tied for fourth place.

    There were other eye-popping results from last weekend’s series in Grand Forks. The 6-0 victory on Saturday was Mankato’s largest against a WCHA team, topping the 8-3 victory over Denver in the 1999-2000 season.

    But the clincher was this: Jason Jensen’s 30-save shutout was the first time an opposing goaltender had held the Sioux scoreless in Grand Forks since 1982.

    (That was a 9-0 loss to Wisconsin in the first game of the total-goals WCHA championship series. The Badgers won the series, but UND got its revenge in the NCAA final, winning 5-2.)

    A Few Changes

    Michigan Tech introduced new jerseys in last weekend’s series against Colorado College and introduced permanent captains for the first time this year.

    The jerseys are reportedly similar to the team’s familiar gold threads, but with a tie-up collar, akin to those worn in college hockey’s early days.

    The captains, as named by coach Mike Sertich, are Brad Patterson and Jaron Doetzel. Before last week, the Huskies had rotated captains every month.

    Add One More

    Michigan Tech freshman defenseman Clay “Woodrow” Wilson assisted on the Huskies’ only goal last Saturday against Colorado College, bringing his season total to two goals and three assists in 14 games.

    This week’s bit of trivia from the Michigan Tech game notes: “Woody” lived in North Pole, Alaska, for 13 years.

    He Said It

    “I wouldn’t mind playing them every weekend.”

    — St. Cloud State forward Matt Hendricks, on last weekend’s series against rival Minnesota.

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