Bright Lights, Big Dance

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March 17, 2001

The first two seasons of Jeff Gould’s career at Mercyhurst could be classified as a nightmare.

Injuries relegated the Lakers’ senior assistant captain to nothing more than a spectator for the majority of each season. In fact, Gould played a combined 21 games in the two campaigns.

Last season, the Sarnia, Ont., product finally emerged at full strength after back-to-back injury-plagued years. As a junior, he played in all 36 games and recorded 24 points for the Lakers during their first year as a Division I program.

With one last chance to make an impact for Mercyhurst, Gould entered his final campaign in western Pennsylvania determined to make his remaining days count. Sure enough, the senior broke through with an outstanding regular season, as he scored 32 points for Mercyhurst.

“When I first came in, I was obviously excited to start playing,” Gould said. “But the second game of my career, I’ll never forget it. I separated my shoulder, and that got the ball rolling the wrong way. [Prior to his sophomore season] I got in great shape, and then I broke my wrist and it started all over again. Then I played six or seven games and I tore up my knee.”

Saturday’s MAAC tournament final represented the most pivotal point in Gould’s career. A win over Quinnipiac would allow the Lakers center to move on to the NCAA tournament. A loss would send the senior out with the bitter memory of coming up just short for a shot to play on the nation’s biggest stage.

Two nights after igniting Mercyhurst into the finals with a two-goal effort against Canisius College, Gould delivered once again in the conference final. With a goal and an assist against the Lakers 6-5 win over the Braves, he earned tournament Most Valuable Player honors.

Finally, after a long four years that was filled with many ups and downs, Gould obtained some sweet redemption both from the team and individual standpoints.

“All year, he’s been our MVP,” Mercyhurst hockey coach Rick Gotkin said. “And by saying that, I don’t want to take anything away from Eric Ellis, Louis Goulet or Peter Aubry. Jeff doesn’t have the flash or dash of some of the other guys, but he’s been Rick Gotkin’s go-to-guy on and off of the ice all year.

“He’s quietly done a tremendous job for us,” added Gotkin. “I’m happy for all of our players, but especially for him because he had some injuries early on. He’s an absolutely tremendous person, and he’s been rewarded rightfully so.”

Said Gould: “I had to battle through, but the last two years I played every game. If I could turn back time and play every game, that would be awesome. But I have no regrets. This feels great right now.”

Everything that transpired over the course of the weekend still seems difficult for Gould and the Lakers to imagine. When he arrived as a freshman, Mercyhurst was a Division II program in jeopardy of dropping down to Division III because of a numbers crunch.

Now, three years later, the Lakers are heading to the pinnacle of college hockey. Sure, they will probably draw a national name in the first round — likely Minnesota or Michigan — and probably will be forced to travel to the West Regional in Grand Rapids, Mich. But right now, the opponent or the location comes second to the fact that the Erie, Penn., school is set to clash with the elite next weekend.

“When we entered at the Division I level, we knew that we were going to have to play big schools,” Gould said. “When we go into these games against established programs, we have to play with a little fear, but we can’t be intimidated at the same time. You have to stick to your game plan and not worry more about what the other team is doing.”

“Whether we face Michigan, Minnesota, St. Cloud or whoever, we can’t get caught up in the awe of the other team,” he added. “We have to respect them because they are a great team, but we have to play Mercyhurst hockey.”

Win or lose next weekend, the Lakers certainly owe their assistant captain a debt of gratitude. After all, Gould spearheaded the potent Mercyhurst offensive attack and displayed the veteran leadership that was to be expected out of the senior.

But in the big picture, Gould’s contribution to the program goes far behind goals and assists. His perseverance and toughness provide the perfect example how hard work and dedication can pay off in the long run. As a pioneer during the Lakers’ jump to the Division I level, Gould will always be able to hang his hat on the fact that he played a major role in that transition.

“Anything that I’ve done to help the program, that’s great,” he said. “If I’ve helped to raise the bar for the incoming freshmen, then I feel that I’ve done the job. Now, with the MAAC and the autobid, the league has gotten extremely tougher and there’s a lot more parity. That’s increased the level at Mercyhurst, and now the incoming freshmen for next year are going to have to match the class that is going to be leaving.”

Added Gotkin: “I was thinking back to the days when we were in Division III, and then the two Division II championship games, and now to be going [to the NCAA tournament in] Division I. Obviously, it’s pretty neat. It’s going to be tough against a Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State or Boston College, but I wanted to have practice on Monday. We’ve had a great season.”

Changes Affect 2001 NCAA Tournament Selection Process

By Lee Urton

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March 17, 2001

Last year, we at USCHO.com tried using our own Pairwise Rankings and knowledge of the NCAA selection process to determine in advance the teams and seeds for the NCAA Tournament. We were pretty close, getting all 12 teams correct, and getting 10 of the 12 seeds right.

So with confidence in hand, we try again. This year’s regionals are being held in Worcester, Mass., on March 23-24, and in Grand Rapids, Mich., on March 24-25. This year’s Frozen Four is in Albany, N.Y., on April 5 and 7.

There were some momentous changes last off-season, all of which affect the way the tournament field is selected.

First: the addition of an automatic berth given to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

The MAAC has had quite an impact on the college hockey world, despite being just three years old.

The conference features many programs that have recently elevated their games to the Division I level, like American International, Bentley, or Mercyhurst, all of which were at the Division II level just a few years ago. These programs are now classified Division I.

This is not a new concept in college hockey; many successful Division I programs are located at lower division schools, like Colorado College (Division III) or Lake Superior State (Division II), among others. Division II hockey was drying up, and these programs quickly found themselves with nowhere to go.

In addition, the MAAC has many schools that feature Division I hockey, but, until recently, chose to play in a Division III conference and to compete at the Division III level. Primarily, this was an economic move, since trying to compete fully in Division I ice hockey can be an expensive venture. Schools like Connecticut or Holy Cross were wary of sinking scholarship money into a program that didn’t have a lot of popular support, particularly in these days of Title IX legislation.

Hence, the MAAC was born, jointly as a haven for Division II schools with nowhere else to go, and as a cost-containment venture by distaff Division I programs. The Division II schools elevated their programs, and suddenly there was a new conference full of Division I teams.

According to NCAA regulations, if a conference is made of Division I programs and follows a few rules, that conference earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, regardless of how good or bad those schools may be. This is familiar in basketball, as it is commonplace for a school to win its conference tournament and earn a berth in the NCAA tournament, to serve as cannon fodder for the teams that earn the at-large bids.

The difference is that basketball has 64 slots in the postseason tournament, while hockey only has 12. Many hockey fans believe giving a bid to a clearly inferior team is robbing a deserving team of its rightful slot. But the NCAA doesn’t use terms like “robbing” or “rightful” — at the NCAA level, it’s all about providing the maximum number of playoff opportunities to deserving student-athletes.

The MAAC follwed the necessary rules and regulations to show the NCAA that it was making more opportunities available for student-athletes to play varsity hockey, and so was rewarded with an automatic bid to the postseason tournament. That bid goes into effect this year, and so, for the first time, the MAAC postseason champion, Mercyhurst, will be representing the conference on the national scale. The result is that one fewer at-large berth is available.

Second: the elimination of an automatic bid for the regular-season conference champions.

The repeal of the so-called “Colorado College rule” seemed as though it would make no difference on the college hockey world. This rule is nicknamed for the 1994 Colorado College team that earned the top spot in the WCHA regular season, then lost the opening round WCHA playoff series to blisteringly hot goaltender Jamie Ram and his Michigan Tech Huskies.

When the dust cleared, the Tigers found themselves on the outside of the NCAA tournament looking in, as the remainder of the selection criteria favored other teams. College hockey coaches banded together in the off-season to try and rectify this situation, and the result was two automatic bids for each conference, to be awarded to the regular-season champion and the conference tournament champion.

The principle effect of this rule was to add unnecessary complexity to tournament selection. For the six years following 1994, each regular-season champion would have been selected to the NCAA tournament based on the other selection criteria. In fact, it was never even close. So with the addition of the MAAC autobid, the selection committee agreed to remove the seemingly-useless additional autobid.

So what happened? The rule would have made a difference in 2001, the first year of the repeal. Clarkson entered the ECAC tournament on the bubble for NCAA consideration, and promptly lost two of three games to 10th-seeded Vermont. The two losses all but eliminated the Golden Knights, and it was only a matter of days before events in other conferences made it official. Last year, Clarkson would have received an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament; this year the Golden Knights are playing golf.

Third: byes now awarded irrespective of geographic region.

With 12 teams earning berths to the NCAA tournament, there were necessarily four first-round byes awarded. In past years, the top two teams in the West would get two of the bids, with the other two going to the top two teams in the East.

It was determined that this rule was occasionally forcing early matchups between better teams, and in order to make sure the best four teams made it to the Frozen Four, it was decided that the byes would now be awarded to the best four teams, period, regardless of where the teams might originate. Sure, in any given year, there might be an inequality in the number of teams in, say, the West, but in the long run, it should come out roughly even.

Already, the effect of this rule will be felt in the East. As the Western teams enjoyed a strong year, three of the four byes will be awarded to the West, when it would have been evenly split in years past. So the second-highest rated East team, in this case Maine, would have earned the second Eastern bye, but now will merely claim an at-large berth in the first round.

These three rules changes have altered the landscape of the selection, in both obvious and subtle ways. The obvious ways are outlined above, with Mercyhurst earning a bid and Clarkson being excluded, and Maine not being awarded a first-round bye.

But a more subtle change is also present. With the new method of awarding the byes, the NCAA Ice Hockey Selection Committee has distanced itself from the regionaliztion of college hockey. In years past the teams would have been split up into “Western” and “Eastern” teams, and then awarded byes and berths and otherwise put into brackets.

Now it is possible to rank the teams 1-12, regardless of region, and then be more flexible when trying to acheive other ends, like avoiding first-round conference matchups and maximizing potential box office draw.

When questioned about this, NCAA Director of Championships Tom Jacobs hedged his bets.

“The selection committee is leaving itself some flexibilty in deciding the teams,” he said. “There hasn’t been any decision yet if they will order the teams by region or not. They will have to see how the comparisons turn out before any decision is reached.”

These comparisons are what the selection committee uses to decide on the teams that will be invited to the NCAA tournament. USCHO.com’s Pairwise Rankings mimic the process, and while the PWR numbers are not precisely what the committee uses, they are close enough to have correctly determined the teams for the last five years. (PWR gives a final tally of the number of comparisons won, whereas the committee doesn’t do that — using a slightly different method of making a final determination. See the PWR FAQ and Selection FAQ for more details.)

Everything is falling rather easily into place when determining the teams and the seeds for this year’s NCAA tournament.

The field is pretty much set. Automatic bids have been extended to the winner of the five conference tournaments: Mercyhurst in the MAAC, St. Cloud in the WCHA, Michigan State in the CCHA, Boston College in Hockey East, and St. Lawrence in the ECAC. All but the MAAC and the ECAC winners would have been in by other criteria, so that means the ten top teams in the PWR are included. The top ten, plus the teams that are close enough to also be considered, are:

Rk Team                GP  W- L- T  Win%  Rk     RPI  Rk  PWR
 1 Michigan State      40 32- 4- 4 0.8500  1 | 0.6334  1 | 29
 2 Boston College      40 30- 8- 2 0.7750  3 | 0.6162  2 | 28
 3 St. Cloud           40 31- 8- 1 0.7875  2 | 0.5952  3 | 27
 4 North Dakota        43 27- 7- 9 0.7326  4 | 0.5843  5 | 26
 5 Michigan            42 25-12- 5 0.6548  8 | 0.5752  6 | 25
 6 Colorado College    39 26-12- 1 0.6795  6 | 0.5866  4 | 24
 7 Minnesota           41 27-12- 2 0.6829  5 | 0.5713  7 | 23
 8 Maine               37 19-11- 7 0.6081 14 | 0.5578  8 | 22
 9 Wisconsin           39 21-14- 4 0.5897 16 | 0.5560  9 | 20
10 Providence          39 22-12- 5 0.6282 11 | 0.5532 10 | 20
11 New Hampshire       39 21-12- 6 0.6154 12 | 0.5469 11 | 19
12 Mercyhurst          34 22-10- 2 0.6765  7 | 0.5461 12 | 19

New Hampshire is significantly behind Providence. Although the Wildcats are tied with Mercyhurst, Mercyhurst has an automatic berth due to winning the MAAC tournament.

So New Hampshire is out; Providence is in.

If we award the byes to the top four teams, they go to Michigan State (No. 1 West seed), Boston College (No. 1 East seed), St. Cloud (No. 2W) and North Dakota (No. 2E).

If we continue this process, we get to the following split:

1 Michigan State (No. 1W)
2 Boston College (No. 1E)
3 St. Cloud (No. 2W)
4 North Dakota (No. 2E)
5 Michigan (No. 3W)
6 Colorado College (No. 3E)
7 Minnesota (No. 4W)
8 Maine (No. 4E)
9 Providence (No. 5W)
10 Wisconsin (No. 5E)
12 Mercyhurst (No. 6W)
14 St. Lawrence (No. 6E)

Breaking this up by regions, we have:

West
Michigan State
St. Cloud
Michigan
Minnesota
Providence
Mercyhurst

East
Boston College
North Dakota
Colorado College
Maine
Wisconsin
St. Lawrence

The brackets would look like:

Michigan State vs. Minnesota/Providence
St. Cloud vs. Michigan/Mercyhurst
Boston College vs. Maine/Wisconsin
North Dakota vs. Colorado College/St. Lawrence

The first two look pretty reasonable, but the latter two set up some pretty likely second-round matchups between conference foes. The committee has suggested it wants to avoid that, and we can accomplish this by simply flipping two brackets:

Michigan State vs. Minnesota/Providence
St. Cloud vs. Michigan/Mercyhurst
Boston College vs. Colorado College/St. Lawrence
North Dakota vs. Maine/Wisconsin

There is still one potential second-round matchup in the last bracket, but with five WCHA teams, it’s not possible to avoid all possible matchups. This at least minimizes the likelihood, since Maine is a higher seed.

However, this is all based on the supposition that the committee will rank strictly on the comparisons and not by regions. If we follow the more traditional thinking, we get the following, after awarding the byes as outlined above:

West
Michigan State
St. Cloud
Michigan
Colorado College
Minnesota
Wisconsin

East
Boston College
North Dakota
Maine
Providence
Mercyhurst
St. Lawrence

The traditional plan would be to switch the bottom two from each region — No. 5 and No. 6 seed in the east to the west, and vice versa. But that would leave three WCHA and three Hockey East teams in the east, which would make it very difficult to avoid first- and second-round matchups.

Instead, we’ll send the lowest-seeded Hockey East team west, which is Providence. Either Mercyhurst or St. Lawrence will take the place of Providence, and of the two, St. Lawrence has the better draw, not to mention the respectability of an established conference.

So then we have, after switching and reseeding:

West
Michigan State
St. Cloud
Michigan
Colorado College
Providence
Mercyhurst

East
Boston College
North Dakota
Minnesota
Maine
Wisconsin
St. Lawrence

Now, avoiding second-round intraconference matchups leads to the brackets:

Michigan State vs. Colorado College/Providence
St. Cloud vs. Michigan/Mercyhurst
Boston College vs. Minnesota/St. Lawrence
North Dakota vs. Maine/Wisconsin

The only difference between this scenario and the one outlined above is swapping Minnesota and Colorado College. Neither should have an appreciable difference on the draw in either Worcester or Grand Rapids. I would guess Minnesota deserves the harder bracket after finishing so weakly, which would be the one with Michigan State.

My guess is the seeds will be as follows:

No. 1W Michigan State vs. No. 4W Minnesota/No. 5W Providence
No. 2W St. Cloud vs. No. 3W Michigan/No. 6W Mercyhurst
No. 1E Boston College vs. No. 4E Colorado College/No. 5E St. Lawrence
No. 2E North Dakota vs. No. 3E Maine/No. 6E Wisconsin

These arrangements have several advantages:

Keeps the two Michigan schools in Grand Rapids
Keeps BC, Maine and St. Lawrence in Worcester
No first-round matchups among conference foes
No second-round matchups unless a No. 6 seed defeats a No. 3 seed

The most likely alteration to this arrangement, I think, is a simple swap of CC and Minnesota, although I would think, for the draw, Grand Rapids and Worcester are equal as far as Colorado College is concerned.

We find out for sure when the selection show airs Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN2.

The Best Kept Secret

By David H. Hendrickson

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March 17, 2001

They’re no secret in Hockey East circles any longer, but Providence College forwards Devin Rask and Peter Fregoe may still have a little catching up to do in terms of national recognition. That may happen soon with the duo leading the offense for the NCAA-bound Friars.

The two second-year players have teamed with either Jon DiSalvatore or, more recently, Cody Loughlean to form one of the most formidable trios in the East. With the stakes high on this evening — a loss and the season was over — the two 5-9 fireplugs both scored goals to lead Providence to its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1996.

“They work really, really hard,” says co-captain Matt Libby. “They’re definitely not the biggest line in the league, but they work hard, they’re really smart hockey players and they’ve been doing it all year for us. You’ve got to give them all the credit in the world.

Rask

“Rasko, especially, is one of the best forwards that we have in the league and in the nation.”

Jay Leach, PC’s other co-captain, goes even further with his praise of Rask.

“Rask is the type of player that every coach dreams of,” he says. “I’ve never seen a kid who has that much skill and can score 52 points and go down and dive for shots. He’s just got incredible hunger.

“They’re a great line that works real hard down low. They have a sense of where each other is. It’s real exciting to watch.”

When Fregoe joined the Friars last year, expectations were high. He came from the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers where he was league MVP after scoring 46 goals and assisting on 57 others for 103 points. He finished his inaugural season with a 14-15–29 scoring line and was selected to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team.

Rask came in with less fanfare. He’d been named a second-team all-star in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, but made only modest contributions for the Friars over the first half of last season.

“The big part was that I wasn’t playing a lot,” he says. “I was on the fourth line and the third line. The thing that helped me out is that we had a player quit in December. Coach gave me the opportunity right after that.

“His confidence in me showed in the last two months finishing off the season. I realized I could step up and play with everyone rather than just check.”

The line of Rask, Fregoe and DiSalvatore became a force.

“[Last] February, he, Fregoe and DiSalvatore were the best line in the bloody league,” says PC coach Paul Pooley. “They were unstoppable.

“That confidence gave Devin the desire this year to come in and get off to a great start because he knew what he could do.”

Rask got off to a great start and never looked back. He entered this weekend with a 22-28–50 scoring line, having scored on a remarkable 24.4 percent of his shots. A year after floundering on the lower lines well into December, he earned a berth on the All-Hockey East First Team.

Rask admits that even though he entered the season with a lot of confidence, the results and awards have caught him a bit off guard.

“As far as myself, I’ve surprised myself a little bit this year,” he says with a laugh. “But hopefully I’ll just keep going like this.

“You have to give credit to everyone on your team and your coaches around you. Without them, you’re not going to be there. I want to especially give credit to my linemates: Fregoe has been there all year and Cody Loughlean and Jon DiSalvatore.”

The chemistry has been particularly effective with Fregoe.

“We’ve been roommates the last year and pretty good buds off ice so I think that helps out,” says Rask. “We’ve played together for a long time, [including] the whole year this season. We know where each other is on the ice. We don’t get upset with each other when someone makes a mistake.”

Spotting his “good bud” standing nearby, Rask grins and says, “If Fregoe screws up, he knows it’s okay.”

They both laugh, but Fregoe declines to retaliate when asked what happens when Rask screws up.

“It doesn’t happen a lot with Devin,” says Fregoe. “He’s a great player. When he has the puck, I just try to get open and create some space for him, because it’s hard for any defender to guard him, he spins so quick. He’s just a great player who is great to play with. He makes me better just playing with him.”

Fregoe was named an All-Hockey East Honorable Mention for his 15 goals, 20 assists and 35 points. He got off to a slower start than Rask this season, but has been a force down the stretch, as has the entire unit.

“What I’ve noticed in Peter Fregoe the last couple weeks is that he gets that look in his eye and he’s not going to be denied,” says Pooley. “[Tonight] when we started coming, he wanted to be out there and he was ready to play if he had to play 40 minutes for the last two periods.”

Rask and Fregoe are highly skilled, but perhaps their greatest talent is their work ethic.

“We work hard,” says Fregoe. “That’s what we key on in this team. We just outwork every team and by the third period wear them down.

“We work it low. That’s our main thing, cycling the puck and getting shots and rebounds.”

The tenacity in their game on the ice is echoed by Rask’s words off the ice.

“I want to win,” he says. “I’ve played a lot of hockey in my career and I have yet to wear a ring on my finger for a championship. I’ve been to a few finals, [but I haven’t won there].

“That’s all I want. Now we have a chance for it [against BC]. I’ll do anything to get that ring.”

The Bums and the Barber

By David H. Hendrickson

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March 16, 2001

After UMass-Lowell’s game against Northeastern on Mar. 3, the razors went away. Not because of frustration. This wasn’t a case of staying away from sharp objects in the wake of a disappointing loss. The River Hawks had won, 6-2.

The razors disappeared because the win signaled the end of the regular season and, more importantly, the start of the second season. Come playoff time, some teams opt for the unshaven look. It looks and feels like playoff hockey. Tough. Gritty. Desperate.

Desperate men in desperate times.

The River Hawks were in just such straits, opening their postseason at New Hampshire’s Whittemore Center where they had gone winless in the last eight games. As a team they opted to forgo shaving for as long as their second season lasted.

The result on the ice was great. The River Hawks upended New Hampshire in three games to advance to the Fleet Center.

The result in the mirror wasn’t so pretty.

“They look like a bunch of bums,” said Sports Information Director Chris O’Donnell with a laugh.

“We’ve got some guys with a patch here and patch there,” said one River Hawk at Thursday’s Hockey East banquet.

“My girlfriend hates it,” said another.

Although with some players, you could hardly tell the difference. Which perhaps was even worse.

“[Ron] Hainsey still looks like he just shaved,” said the first River Hawk. He laughed and added, “I think [Stephen] Slonina only has two or three whiskers.”

The bums — meant here as a term of endearment much like the old Brooklyn baseball team was affectionately known as the “Bums” without that team’s ineptitude — entered their semifinal contest against Boston College with scruffy faces, but well-earned respect.

“A team that can go to New Hampshire and win two games [is rare],” said BC coach Jerry York. “There aren’t many teams that can do that.”

Lowell even jumped out on top in the first period against second-ranked Boston College. Could the “bunch of bums” become the Hockey East championship game bums?

The Eagles responded less than two minutes later.

Kobasew

More specifically, Chuck Kobasew responded. Capitalizing on a turnover in the slot, he ripped a shot into the top of the net past goaltender Jimi St. John.

The Barber, Chuck Kobasew, had applied the shaving cream. The sniper’s goal had arrested Lowell’s momentum at just the right time.

One night earlier Kobasew had been honored as the Hockey East Rookie of the Year and a second-team all-star selection.

“He was honored for a reason,” said Brian Gionta. “He plays hard. He pays the price in front of the net. That’s what you need to do at this level to score goals.

“You’ve got to get in that red zone and win the battles. [His] goals tonight reflected that. Getting to the zone and getting quick shots off. He’s a real special player.”

In the second period, however, Lowell proved that they had some real special players, too, taking it to Boston College. BC goaltender Scott Clemmensen had to make a Hockey East championship round record of 23 saves. At one point, the River Hawks were outshooting the Eagles 23-4 for the period.

“Lowell played very, very well and dominated us,” said York. “That hasn’t happened very often over the last few years that a team could do that to us.”

Considering the opponent, it might have been UMass-Lowell’s best period of the year. And yet, thanks to Clemmensen and Kobasew, BC outscored the River Hawks, 1-0. The Barber scored on a four-on-three man advantage.

The Barber had sharpened the razor.

“That goal was very important for them obviously,” said UML coach Tim Whitehead. “When you’re getting a lot of opportunities and you don’t score, and then the other team gets one, mentally that gives them a boost.”

Nonetheless, Lowell still had all the territorial momentum.

“You get a ton of shots and you don’t score and all of a sudden the Zamboni comes out,” said Whitehead. “I wish the Zamboni had been busted or something and we had to keep going.”

Instead, the Zamboni came out and the opening of the third period was a much different game. Boston College scored 29 seconds into the third period. At 3:17, The Barber added another to complete his hat trick and all but seal the game. Gionta added an insurance goal at 5:01.

By the end of the period, Clemmensen, who had set a record for most saves in the second period, tied a record for least saves with two. The Eagles took 13 shots before Lowell mustered its first.

“In the third period, they struck immediately and then they struck again before our guys could get on their feet,” said Whitehead. “Our guys competed hard. We our opportunities, but we didn’t capitalize.”

And so UMass-Lowell’s season was over. The loveable bums had been given a figurative shave by The Barber. For the season, Kobasew had scored six goals and added four assists against the River Hawks.

“It’s been a rollercoaster ride, starting the season down 1-6 and then coming back and playing great through January and February and into March here,” said St. John.

Having been figuratively shaved, how long would it take the River Hawks to get out the literal razors?

“It’ll be about two hours and they’ll be off,” said St. John with a rueful laugh. “That’s when we get back to Lowell.”

Report: Jeff Jackson Turns Down Return to Lakers

USCHO Staff Report

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March 16, 2001

Former Lake Superior coach Jeff Jackson, a two-time national champion, recently turned down an offer to return to the Lakers, according to a report in the Kitchener-Waterloo (Ont.) Record.

Jackson, who left Lake Superior in 1996 to help start the U.S. National Developmental Program in Ann Arbor, Mich., before being fired from the program last year, has been coaching in the major junior Ontario League (OHL) for the Guelph Storm. He said he was enjoying his time in junior hockey, and didn’t think it was right to take the Lake State job back.

“I’ve made a commitment to be here, for how long I’m not sure,” Jackson said to the Record. “I feel we have some positive things going for the future, and I’ve learned to appreciate the OHL. I’m also not sure that looking for a new coach before firing the old one is the right thing to do.”

Lake Superior athletic director Bill Crawford denied having spoken to Jackson, but he did hint that a change was in the works, and acknowledged that others, knowing that, could’ve contacted the ex-coach.

“We’re not pursuing Jeff Jackson as a coach,” Crawford told the Record. “But I do think that if we’re going to make a change, some people here have maybe explored that a little bit. People here might ask him if he’s interested but I don’t think he is.”

The Lakers, ravaged by injuries all season, finished 13-23-0 under Borek in his fifth year as head coach, failing to make the CCHA playoffs. Last season, the Lakers finished a surprising third, but were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by Bowling Green.

Reports have indicated a sometimes contentious relationship between Crawford and Borek. Borek pursued the Princeton coaching opening last summer, despite having just signed a contract extension.

If Lake Superior were to make a move, a possible replacement for Borek could be another former head coach, Frank Anzalone. Anzalone, who was in charge of the Lakers before Jackson, was fired earlier this season as head coach of the Pee Dee Pride of the ECHL after a near-two-year stint there. Anzalone has held a number of pro coaching jobs since leaving the Soo, where he also won a national championship in 1988.