This Week In Division III: Jan. 18, 2001

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January 18, 2001

Computers vs. Humans

Have you checked out USCHO’s Division III Pairwise Rankings? Here’s how they compare to our poll:

 Team             Poll    PWR
 RIT                1      1
 Middlebury         2      2
 Wis.-Superior      3      4
 Wis.-River Falls   4      3
 Plattsburgh        5      6
 Wis.-Stevens Point 6      8
 Trinity            7      7
 Salem State        8      5
 Oswego             9      9
 Potsdam           10     11

Pretty close. The poll was taken before Plattsburgh beat Middlebury on Tuesday, while the PWR rating reflects that game — the loss wasn’t enough to knock the Panthers out of the number-two spot.

A significant input to the PWR is the Rating Percentage Index (RPI), which ranks teams based on winning percentage and schedule strength. One team you won’t find in the PWR (since it only lists teams at or over .500) is the Norwich Cadets, who are ranked 15th the RPI. Why so high even though the Cadets are just 5-6-1 against Division III teams? Norwich has played the toughest schedule in D-III. Here are the 10 toughest as of January 18:

 Team           Opponents' Win %
 1.  Norwich        .660
 2.  Middlebury     .655
 3.  Plattsburgh    .635
 4.  Geneseo        .604
 5.  RIT            .596
 6.  Trinity        .595
 7.  Elmira         .588
 8.  Wentworth      .582
 9.  Conn. College  .573
 10. Brockport      .569

Norwich has 11 games left, including six with teams at or below .500, so things should improve for the Cadets, who are just two points out of first place in the ECAC East.

Around the Leagues

ECAC West

RIT (15-0) will be hard-pressed to remain college hockey’s only unbeaten team, as Tyler Euverman, who has started every game in net this season for the Tigers, dislocated his shoulder on Monday. He will certainly miss this weekend’s series with Oswego, and may be out longer.

Filling in will be backup Rob Boope, a sophomore from Palatine, Ill. He’s played just 85 minutes this season, with a GAA of 3.35 and a save percentage of .884. Boope played for the U.S. National Deaf Team, winning a goal medal at the World Deaf Games in 1995, and a silver in 1999.

“It will be a wakeup call for our team,” said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. “I don’t think we played as well as we can last weekend, so maybe this will help us to focus and play disciplined hockey in front of ‘Boop.'”

Euverman is expected to try working out with a brace on Monday, and will be day-to-day after that.

RIT’s archrival Elmira is back in the game, winning eight straight including a convincing 3-1 win over Plattsburgh last Saturday. The Soaring Eagles (11-6), who finished just a point out of 10th place in the most recent USCHO.com poll, will host the Tigers on January 27. That game, as well as the rematch at RIT on February 17, will go a long way in deciding the ECAC West regular-season title.

The tiebreaking system was changed this season, eliminating conference goal differential as a criterion. This is a welcome change, since under the previous system teams were encouraged to run up scores to better their chances. The new system has the following criteria:

1. Head-to-head results (strictly W-L-T, no goal differential)
2. Conference wins
3. Record vs. common opponents
4. Overall winning percentage

Common opponents for RIT and Elmira include all the SUNY schools except Buffalo State and Potsdam, as well as Hamilton College. Keep an eye on those games.

ECAC East

Salem State fell from the ranks of the unbeaten last weekend, but still leads Norwich by two points in the standings. The Cadets have a game in hand, however. Both teams play Middlebury next week, and then square off against each other.

The Vikings (9-1-2) are led by goaltender Caleb Christensen, who is 6-0-2 so far. The sophomore from International Falls, Minn., a transfer from St. Scholastica after last season, has a .926 save percentage and a 2.33 GAA.

Norwich’s large freshman class is stepping up. Rookies have accounted for over half of the Cadet’s goals (37 of 61) to date. The diaper dandies are led by Ed Boudreau, who played four games for Maine last season before coming to Norwich. The forward from Weymouth, Mass., has eight goals and five assists so far, good for second on the team behind All-American Keith Aucoin (23 points).

Division III hockey will be in the spotlight on Tuesday, January 23, when Norwich hosts Middlebury at 7:00 PM EDT. NESN will carry the game live, so get your satellites ready.

NESCAC

Trinity has been the story so far, leading the NESCAC with a 6-0-1 record (9-2-2) overall. The weekend before last, Trinity accomplished what few teams have been able to do in recent memory — sweep Norwich and Middlebury. This puts the Jumbos in the driver’s seat, since they now hold the tiebreaker with the Panthers.

Trinity only has four seniors on the roster, so they may be a force next season as well, when they’ll have nine seniors, including goaltender Geoffrey Faulkner, who was USCHO’s defensive player of the week for his efforts in that weekend sweep (49 saves).

This week’s defensive POTW is another NESCAC goalie: Weslyean’s Jim Panczykowski. The freshman from Buffalo, NY, stopped 61 shots as the Cardinals defeated Southern Maine and previously unbeaten Salem State. Panczykowski will try to recreate his heroics when Wesleyan travels to Bowdoin and Colby this weekend.

ECAC Northeast

Johnson & Wales (9-0) and Tufts (7-0) remain undefeated in conference and will square off on Sunday. The J&W Wildcats have already notched wins over traditional powers Fitchburg State and UMass-Dartmouth, as well as dark horse Lebanon Valley. Tufts has the harder route, still having to play all three in the coming weeks. Last year’s champion, the Wentworth Leopards, also lie in wait for both teams.

The scoring machine that is Jason Boudreau continues to crank out the points. The junior forward from Somerville, Massachusetts scored fourteen points in three games last weekend to up his points-per-game average to 4.0. He’s averaging one and a half goals and two and a half assists per game to lead the nation. The Jumbos are averaging an even seven goals per game.

SUNYAC

The nonconference portion of the schedule continues for all teams, with league games beginning again on January 26. First-place Plattsburgh has been schizophrenic since the holiday break, looking bad in losses to RIT (8-2) and Elmira (3-1) interspersed with quality wins over Norwich (4-3) and Middlebury (3-0). Which team will show up this Saturday against Williams? The Cardinal lineup has been depleted due to injuries and suspensions, but it looks like many key players will be back in the lineup this weekend.

The highest-powered offense in the SUNYAC belongs to Oswego, ranked fourth in the nation at an even six goals per game. The Lakers play RIT twice this weekend, and the Tigers have the highest-rated offense (7.67 goals per game), so expect the goal judges to be busy.

One team that was successful in holding down RIT’s offense is Fredonia State. Thanks to coach Jeff Meredith’s conservative, defensive-minded gameplan and the heroics of netminder Will Hamele, the Blue Devils had limited the Tigers to just two goals over the first 58:54 of their game last Saturday. The Tigers got the game winner with 1:06 to play and then added an empty-netter, but Hamele was stellar in net, making 51 saves.

NCHA

Things are really heating up this weekend as the traditional powers square off in what is turning out to be a wild race to the finish for the league that has had, at one time or another, five of its eight teams ranked in the USCHO.com poll.

Right now, just four point separates the top five teams. Wis.-River Falls sits atop the standings at 5-1 (13-1-1 overall). The Falcons host second-place St. Norbert on Saturday.

“(River Falls) is very balanced from a scoring standpoint,” said St. Norbert head coach Tim Coghlin. “All their lines have similar stats, and they have one of the best defenses in the league.”

The Green Knights are coming off a series split with Wis.-Stevens Point, which trails St. Norbert by two points and River Falls by four with a game in hand. St. Norbert won a big game, 3-1 at Point on Friday, but returned the favor by losing to the Pointers 4-3 back in DePere on Saturday.

“We gave up a late power-play goal,” said Coghlin. “We had a chance to sweep, and now after last weekend we’re basically back to where we started.”

And let’s not forget Wis.-Superior, just 3-3 in conference but 13-3 overall, the YellowJackets are current tied for fourth, four points behind River Falls. They travel to Wis.-Eau Claire and Wis.-Stevens Point this weekend.

MIAC

While most of the focus lately has been on the duel between Concordia and St. Thomas, watch out for Bethel. It’s the Royals who seem to be making a run at the first-place Concordia Cobbers, trailing them by three points in the standings.

Bethel is led by freshman Mike Marshall, who leads the MIAC in scoring with 12 points in eight league games, and 19 points overall. He’s ninth in the nation in goals, averaging one per game (16).

The Royals’ fortunes will most likely hinge on the final two weekends of the season, when they play two-game sets with St. Thomas and Concordia.

MCHA

As was the case last season, the regular season title is clearly Minn.-Crookston’s to lose, as the Golden Eagles lead Marian by eight points in the standings. Crookston (10-3-1) visits Lawrence (1-9-2) this weekend for a pair of games worth four points each in the standings. A sweep will clinch the regular-season title.

Marian (7-7-3) scored a pair of impressive victories over Wis.-Stout last weekend, winning 4-3 on Friday and 3-2 on Saturday. Sabres goalie Terry Dunbar made 43 saves to win both games, and was named co-MCHA Player of the Week. He shares the award with Northland defensemen Darrin Voskuhl, who had six points in a weekend sweep of Lawrence.

Trivia

Finally, congrats to Todd Poling, who emailed me with the information I was seeking in my last column: when was the last time a team swept Norwich and Middlebury? The answer, apparently, was in 1996, when Colby defeated Norwich 4-3 on February 9, and Middlebury 5-3 the next afternoon. And the White Mules did it the hard way — on the road. Todd’s recollection was backed up by Colby coach Jim Tortorella. “Norwich was not as strong that year,” he recalled. “But Middlebury had something like a 25-game home winning streak snapped by us. It was a big win.”

Picks

Well, I correctly picked splits between St. Thomas and Concordia, as well as Stevens Point and St. Norbert, but I picked the winners in the wrong order. That made for a 2-4 week, my worst ever.

Last Week: 2-4
On the Season: 30-15 (.667)

This Week:

No. 1 RIT vs. No. 9 Oswego (1/19 and 1/20) — The Tigers are missing their workhorse goaltender, and Oswego is a tough place to play, so expect RIT’s streak to come to an end. You have the number-one and -four offenses in the nation squaring off, so look for some high-scoring games. RIT 7, Oswego 5, and Oswego 6, RIT 4.

No. 3 Wis.-Superior at No. 6 Wis.-Stevens Point (1/20) — The YellowJackets have won 10 of their last 11, but I’m going with the Pointers at home. UWSP 4, UWS 3.

St. Norbert at No. 4 Wis.-River Falls (1/20)- River Falls is the higher-ranked team and is at home, but this is my upset special. St. Norbert 5, UWRF 3.

Williams at No. 5 Plattsburgh (1/20) — Have the Cardinals righted the skip? I think so. Plattsburgh 6, Williams 3.

No. 10 Potsdam at Elmira (1/20) — The teams were separated by a single point in the latest USCHO.com poll, and I think Elmira is the better team right now. Elmira 6, Potsdam 4.

This Week In The CCHA: Jan. 18, 2001

By Paula C. Weston

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January 18, 2001

Ugly Fans Just Suck

A few years ago, there was just a whole lot of sucking going on.

In every hockey rink throughout the CCHA, everyone sucks. Well, everyone says that someone sucks. The word itself, “sucks,” has become so commonplace that we no longer consider its public utterance especially shocking.

Of course, it’s not especially creative, either.

Oh, I suppose, somewhere back in the latter decades of the last millennium, some inventive fan responded with “…and they still suck!” when an announcer declared, “So-and-so’s at full strength.” Yes, it was probably even funny at first, as it was new and clever.

Now, though, fans are not content with hurling just one pseudo-sexual insult at players, fans, officials, or anyone else whom they dislike. No, in the heat of battle, fans now utter phrases so explicit that in some places, watching a game has gone from PG-13 experience to an I’m-not-bringing my-six-year-old-daughter-anymore embarrassment.

It was last season at Yost (there’s a surprise) when I first heard the word “c**ksucker” uttered in unison by hundreds of people. I learned last season at Bowling Green that opponents who head to the penalty box are, indeed, the b**ches of the student section.

And the random obscenities I heard during my first trip to Lawson Arena this year were enough to make even a grizzled old sportswriter like me blush.

I didn’t blush because I was shocked at the lewdness of what I heard. Like anyone who’s spent time in a press box, I’ve been known to transgress the potty-mouth line more than once.

No, what shocked and saddened me was the complete lack of thought that went into these “new” cheers. Are the students of our finest academic institutions so unoriginal, so lacking in creativity, so…dull?

It doesn’t take a lot of brainpower to steal from popular culture (from hip-hop and rap, actually). And it takes no brainpower whatsoever to scream obscenities.

The “new” profanity-laced chants are unimaginative, boring, and what was a more active endeavor — whipping up a crowd into a frenzy to both energize an arena and rattle an opponent — has become something completely passive and reactive, a primer on middle school behavior.

I remember a Fredonia State hockey game I attended in the 1980s (that’s SUNYAC, D-III for those of you who don’t know) where a group of students was taunting an opposing goaltender whose academic prowess was allegedly weak. I don’t recall the goalie’s name or his team, but one guy was yelling out, “Give me a __!” and the crowd responded with the called-for letter. At the end, he screamed, “What’s it spell?” and the students answered, in unison, “I don’t know! I play goal for _____!” It was hilarious — and effective, as the poor netminder was truly angry.

Where are the best minds of the younger generations? O, where art thou, leaders of the Class of 2003?

In the early 1980s, before the Carrier Dome was built, Syracuse University basketball was played in a great old arena called Manley Fieldhouse. Some of my high school friends and I went to games often. The Orange were really good, and the SU student fan section — the Zoo — was even better. It was there that I first heard the “ugly girlfriend” chant; hearing it revived in Yost last season brought back memories 20 years old.

I’m not glorifying the good old days. There were some nasty fans at those Syracuse games, fans who threw oranges onto the court, just as some idiot did at one of the Michigan games in the Schottenstein Center last weekend. Any behavior that can result in physical injury is just plain wrong.

But 20 years ago, if a fan shouted the kind of profanity we hear routinely in rinks today, he or she would have been escorted out of the building. That the current spate of obscene chants is tolerated in rinks is surprising. I wouldn’t bring a small child to many CCHA venues.

What surprises me even more, however, is the tolerance current student-fans have for the lowest common denominator. One would hope that current college students would prefer to be remembered as something more than unoriginal, uncreative, base, and boring.

It’s Not So Lonely Near The Top

While Michigan State seems to be running away with the conference, there’s a serious logjam near the top of the standings, with two teams tied for second, and four for third place.

For those of you playing along at home, remember that the top five teams host a first-round, best-of-three CCHA playoff series.

“I think that’s the way the conference is going to be all year,” says Nebraska-Omaha head coach Mike Kemp. “That’s what a conference race should be — teams fighting every night, standings changing game by game. That keeps the fans interested.”

UNO is one of four teams with 17 points, tied with Miami, Ohio State, and Northern Michigan.

The Mavericks have had an uneven season. Now 4-0-0 since Christmas, UNO went 2-6-0 in November, 5-2-1 in December, served No. 1 Michigan State its only loss, yet lost twice to the languishing Lakers and once to Notre Dame.

“We needed to get some consistency,” says Kemp, whose squad in December won every Friday night league game, then either lost or tied the following game. “I’ve been trying to figure it out. You always fall back on the easy and obvious, which is complacency from Friday night to Saturday night. There’s this expectation that the team you played Friday night is going to come and sit down on Saturday. It doesn’t happen that way, even though you’d like it to.”

Led by David Brisson (11-10–21) in scoring, the Mavericks now have the fourth-best scoring offense in the league (3.00 goals per game). In conference scoring, though, the Mavs are being outgunned 52-48, and the team still stands at minus-8.

“Guys are working hard, for the most part,” says Kemp, adding, “Part of the process of how we’re developing is that we’re a better team than we were a year ago.”

Last weekend, Nebraska-Omaha swept rival Bowling Green in Omaha, and home is where the wins are for the Mavs. “One of the things we’re doing right is that we have success at home,” says Kemp. “We have to maintain that, and we have to improve our performance when we get away from Civic Auditorium.”

The Mavs are in the middle of a home stretch that has some irony. Last weekend, UNO played Bowling Green, the team it eliminated in the CCHA play-in game last season. This weekend, Northern Michigan is in town for two; last year, the Mavericks’ Cinderella story picked up speed in Marquette, where UNO eliminated NMU in the first round of the league playoffs.

After Northern Michigan, Nebraska-Omaha hosts Michigan for two. The Mavericks beat the Wolverines in the CCHA semifinals last year.

Irony aside, it’s not an easy way to secure home ice. “It’s going to be a run to the finish. We’re involved in a sprint to the end here.”

Another team rounding that corner for the homestretch is Miami, a team that swept UNO earlier this season.

RedHawk head coach Enrico Blasi is as level-headed as they come. Miami began the season slowly, but picked up steam in November, and the ‘Hawks have been playing well ever since. “I think our plan has never changed from the beginning. We just kept working hard. You win a game, and all of sudden you have some confidence.”

November began with a loss and tie against Notre Dame, then two road wins over Bemidji State.

“We went to Bemidji State and we didn’t play well. It was good to win two, but it still wasn’t good hockey,” says Blasi. “Sweeping Nebraska and then Lake Superior helped solidify things.”

Since November, the RedHawks are 4-4-0, having won and lost against Western Michigan, swept Notre Dame, dropped two in holiday play, and most recently split with Ferris State on the road. Says Blasi, the two wins in South Bend were key. “I don’t know the last time Miami swept a CCHA team on the road.”

Blasi’s holistic approach to coaching is paying off in every area of Miami’s play. The RedHawks now have the third-best scoring offense in the league (3.36 goals per game), and the third-best defense (2.71 goals allowed per game). The Miami power play (.219) is third behind Michigan and Western Michigan.

The Miami offense is certainly benefiting from the return this season of Jason Deskins (12-10–22) and Gregor Krajnc (8-7–15). Pat Leahy (3-13–16) and Ernie Hartlieb (6-7–13), and defenseman Ken Marsch (0-7–7) are also part of the mix, especially on the power play. Two of Leahy’s three goals have been with the man advantage, and Hartlieb, Krajnc, and Deskins are the only three RedHawks with two game-winners each.

On the other end of the spectrum, the goaltending of David Burleigh (.906 SV%, 2.43 GAA) has solidified.

“This is a team game,” says Blasi. “Individuals look good if the plan is in place and the team sticks to the plan.”

Like Kemp, Blasi knows that the Miami is embroiled in a battle for league standings, but Blasi says — not surprisingly — that if the RedHawks look inward, success will follow.

“Right now it’s a mindset. It’s not about practicing anymore. It’s not about Xs and Os. It’s a matter of talking about it, of believing it. If we do everything as a team, we’ll give ourselves the best chance.

“The hay’s in the barn, so to speak, and now it’s time to play.”

For yet another team with 17 points, the key to success is discipline. “The biggest thing is staying out of the box,” says Ohio State head coach John Markell. “We do a better job of that when we’re moving our feet.”

The Buckeyes most recently split a home series with Michigan, with a solid win on Friday and an undisciplined loss Saturday. It’s a familiar pattern for OSU; the Buckeyes are now 1-6-1 on Saturdays following a Friday win.

“Any time you make a run like this, you have to consistent play from your upperclassmen, and your depth has to be effective,” says Markell. “If the third and fourth lines aren’t a factor and the first two are, then you don’t have depth. That factor may be in a checking role or a scoring role.”

With the return of Dave Steckel (9-8–17) and R.J. Umberger (6-10–16), the Buckeyes have their top two centermen and two lines that can definitely score. It’s those third and fourth lines, whose job it is to hold opponents’ better lines in check, where the discipline is most needed.

Markell says that another area in which the Buckeyes can improve is special teams. Ohio State’s power play in conference is effective just 16.5% of the time.

Markell says he’s encouraged with the improved play of the defense, and gives kudos to recruited walk-on Reed Whiting, who in four games has an assist and is plus-2. “He’s playing fine. He stepped into a tough situation, learning under the gun, and he’s doing a good job.”

One more note about Ohio State, lest fans get the wrong impression of the team: Thirteen Buckeyes posted GPAs of 3.0 or better for the fall academic term.

The fourth team tied with 17 points, Northern Michigan, just doesn’t seem to want to win a game. Now 6-5-5 in conference play, the Wildcats set a school record for ties in a single season with their sixth of the year against Alaska-Fairbanks Jan. 12 (4-4 OT).

That tie was only the second point ever that Northern Michigan conceded to Fairbanks. The Wildcats are now 10-0-2 all time against UAF, and the 3-0 win Jan. 11 marked the first shutout in the series.

With more rookies in the lineup than nearly any other team in the league, Northern Michigan’s inability to break out is not surprising. For the first time in years, the Wildcats are not dominating league scoring, averaging just 2.75 goals per game (seventh). Northern Michigan’s special teams are in need of help as well. It’s a good thing the Wildcats don’t take many penalties, as their PK is effective 79.2% of the time, while their power play limps along at 12.2%.

So what’s the predicted finish of these four teams? How’s this: Miami, Ohio State, Nebraska-Omaha, Northern Michigan.

Of course, my crystal ball has been known to cloud over, from time to time.

Miller Time

In case you haven’t heard, Ryan Miller really is all that.

Miller’s 2-0 blanking of Lake State last weekend was the 13th in the Spartan goaltender’s career, breaking Chad Alban’s (1995-98) school record for shutouts — and Miller’s only a sophomore. The 2-0 game was also his 11th shutout of a CCHA opponent, surpassing Alban’s school record of 10.

Miller has played 1,362 minutes this season, and leads the nation in both save percentage (.951) and goals against (1.28).

Stop The Presses!

The league’s top-scoring saint is now a sinner! Western Michigan’s Dave Gove made his first trip this season to the penalty box last weekend in the Broncos’ series with Notre Dame.

Gove wasn’t alone. Bronco Mike Bishai sat out Saturday’s game with a disqualification, and Steve Rymsha will miss this Friday’s game against Michigan.

Obviously, the Western offense can do more than just score.

Ganga Watch

And on that note, our hero, Nick Ganga, is in penalty trouble. Nick’s up to 40 minutes, with 12 games remaining.

We believe, Nick. I believe, anyway.

Games of the Week

If by some twist of fate Michigan State records losses two and three this weekend, one of these teams could jump to a tie for first place. Math is a wonderful thing.

No 7 Western Michigan (16-4-3, 9-3-3 CCHA) vs. No. 9 Michigan (16-6-3, 10-4-1 CCHA)
Friday, 7:35 p.m., Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Saturday, 7:05 p.m., Lawson Arena, Kalamazoo, Mich.

By now nearly everyone knows of Western Michigan’s reversal of fortune. Last season, the Broncos barely made the playoffs; now they’re chasing first place.

Nothing illustrates just how far the Broncos have come like this weekend’s series between Western and Michigan. Last season, it was the Wolverines who eliminated Western in the first round of CCHA tournament play, and now the Broncos are ranked ahead of Michigan in the USCHO.com Poll.

Both teams are coming off weekends they’d like to have over. Michigan split on the road with Ohio State, and Western lent Notre Dame credibility by taking just one point in a two-game series in South Bend.

Culhane

“Obviously we’re disappointed that we didn’t get more points than we did in the Notre Dame series,” says Bronco head coach Jim Culhane. “But they played very well. Give a lot of credit to Dave [Poulin] and his players.”

Culhane says that rather than the Broncos underestimating their opponent, “They really outworked us on Friday night and deserved a victory.” He added that the Joyce was packed in the second game. “It was like playoff hockey on Saturday. It was an intensely emotional game.”

It was apparently emotional all weekend. The two teams earned 66 penalty minutes Friday and 82 Saturday. Before heading to South Bend, Culhane says he warned his team about “not having success down there, about it being a difficult environment to play in.”

Culhane says the three-point Notre Dame weekend says something about the parity in the league. “Regardless of where anyone is in the league standings, anyone can beat anyone.”

He also noted that this weekend marked the first time anyone’s played a completely healthy Notre Dame squad with a full roster. “They’re a good team, much better than their record.”

This weekend, the Broncos and Wolverines exchange home games, and Culhane sees the game in Yost as a “challenge.” He should. Michigan leads this all-time series 44-22-9, 26-9-2 in Ann Arbor. In Lawson, the series is closer, with Michigan’s lead 16-11-7.

Three Broncos have point streaks on the line against Michigan, but one — Steve Rymsha — will have to wait a game to try to continue. Mike Bishai has points in nine straight games, Rymsha has points in eight, and rookie-of-the-year frontrunner Jeff Campbell has a seven-game point streak going.

The high-powered Bronco offense is outscoring opponents 100-67 this season, and 38-19 in the third period. Western Michigan scored 105 goals total last season.

So you know Bishai, Gove, Rymsha, and Campbell, but what about Andy Townsend? The Bronco defender has 10 assists in 23 games this season, and is among the league’s plus-minus leaders (+15).

Wolverine Andy Hilbert has a point streak of his own on the line this weekend (12 games), and Geoff Koch recorded his first three-point game of the season in Michigan’s 6-2 win over Ohio State Saturday.

When OSU’s Miguel Lafleche scored at 1:42 of the second period on Jan. 12, it was the first goal Michigan had allowed in 149:45. Netminder Josh Blackburn owned 141:42 minutes of the stretch.

Both the Broncos and Wolverines have 21 points in league standings, four behind Michigan State. The glut of teams near the top is “wonderful for our league,” says Culhane. “It’s great for college hockey and fans in the CCHA.”

So is this series.

Pick: Michigan 4-3, Western 4-3

Grudge of the Week

It’s a rivalry that has nothing to do with the whole state of Michigan.

Ohio State (11-10-1, 8-10-1 CCHA) at Notre Dame (5-16-4, 3-10-3 CCHA)
Friday and Saturday, 7:05 p.m., Joyce Arena, South Bend, Ind.

Two schools where football rules. Two young coaches hired the same year. And they’ll meet again for two more games in two weeks.

OK, OK, so it’s not the most compelling rivalry — on the surface. You have to watch these two teams play to know how much they really dislike each other.

Notre Dame leads this all-time series 20-12-3, but Ohio State is 3-2-0 against Notre Dame in the last five, and 7-3-0 in the last ten meetings. Since the Irish returned to the CCHA in 1991-92, Notre Dame holds a 13-8-2 advantage.

Last season, the two teams split a pair of games in Columbus, exchanging a pair of 2-1 wins. In December of 1998, it was Notre Dame that helped Ohio State say goodbye to the old OSU Ice Rink. The Buckeyes beat the Irish in a two-game set to complete a near-perfect year in the old barn; in 1999, Ohio State did not lose a game in the teeny, tiny, bird-infested, low-ceilinged old rink.

Notre Dame took three of four points from the fifth-ranked Western Michigan last weekend, holding an offense that averages more than four goals per game to just four goals on the weekend, including two power-play tallies. Notre Dame’s 4-1 win over Western Michigan on Jan. 12 was the first for the Irish against a ranked team since Dec. 4, 1999 when Tony Zasowski shutout at then-No. 5 Michigan State.

The 4-1 win on Friday night also snapped a 10-game home winless (0-9-1) streak for the Irish.

The Buckeyes were true to form by beating Michigan Friday, then losing 6-2 Saturday. Ohio State is 1-6-1 when scoring two or fewer goals. The Buckeyes are also 1-6-1 on Saturdays following a Friday-night win.

The Bucks have won the opener in seven of eight two-game conference series this season (6-2-0).

Four points separate last-place Notre Dame from Alaska-Fairbanks, the team in sole possession of whatever place comes after the four-way tie of Miami, UNO, OSU, and Northern.

Notre Dame is healthy and confident. Ohio State has Umberger and Steckel back.

Pick: Ohio State 4-2, Notre Dame 5-4

Center Stage

By Michael Kobylanski

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January 18, 2001

Take a look at the six Division I college hockey programs with the most victories since the start of the 1998-99 season, and several familiar faces will turn up in that category.

North Dakota, Boston College, New Hampshire, Maine, Michigan and Michigan State have tasted victory more than any other schools across the nation in the past two and a half seasons. All six of those squads also boast an NCAA Tournament appearance to their credit, and the Fighting Sioux and Black Bears hold claim to the last two national titles.

But stationed at the No. 7 spot is a fresh face in the Division I ranks — Quinnipiac University. Despite the fact that the Braves are still in their infancy at the highest level of college hockey, they have proved to be somewhat of an overnight success. The Connecticut school has won 64 games over that span, even edging out nationally-recognized programs such as Wisconsin and Boston University in that department.

Unfortunately for Quinnipiac, the rest of those schools hold the upper hand where it matters the most — postseason appearances. After winning 27 and 26 games, respectively, in the past two seasons, the Braves are now in search of the first NCAA appearance in the history of the young program.

“It’s nice for the program because those are certainly [six] of the top programs in the country,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “It’s nice to be considered with them, but realistically, we still have a long way to go to equal the success of a North Dakota or a Michigan. We have come a long way in our two and a half years of Division I hockey, but we’re still trying to work to catch up to those programs.”

Building on past experience

This season, the Braves have set the bar even higher than in recent years. Now that the MAAC tournament champion earns the automatic bid to the postseason, Quinnipiac no longer has to worry about sneaking in through the back door with an at-large bid. The days of buzz terms such as the “Big Four,” strength of schedule and PairWise Rankings are basically over if the Blue and Gold can take care of business on the ice.

All that the Nutmeg State school has to do to is reach the MAAC Tournament and then win the title in order to have a crack at the cream of the crop and, of course, a national championship. However, there are 10 other teams who would enjoy nothing more than denying the Braves the conference tournament title once again this March.

"I think of the days — and it was only five years ago — when we were playing in the Hamden Ice Rink. The schedule cards said that the games were at 7:30, but by the time they got everyone off of the ice from public skating and we started the game, it was 8:15. We’ve really come a long way in a very short period of time."

— QU athletic director Jack McDonald

In fact, Quinnipiac has been bounced out of the league tournament in the semifinals in each of the past two years. Canisius turned the trick in the 1998-99 campaign, while Iona eliminated the Braves last season.

Needless to say, the reminder of those dark days in March should provide some extra motivation for QU when the postseason rolls around this year — and even more so with a trip to the NCAA tournament on the line.

“I think that it’s certainly a motivating factor,” Pecknold said. “I don’t know how much the players are using it, but I’m certainly using it as a coach. I think that it will become more of a factor as we get closer to the playoffs. This year, there’s pressure on everyone because of the automatic bid.”

Of course, the Braves have maintained their winning ways this year. Despite dropping its last two league games to Mercyhurst and Cansius, Quinnipiac currently finds itself tied for third place with Connecticut.

And should the Braves continue their trend of rolling through conference play, then it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to find them in the hunt for the MAAC regular-season and tournament titles when March arrives.

Establishing a nationally-recognized program

Nestled at the base of Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden, Conn., sits Quinnipiac, a postsecondary institution of around 6,000 students. The school was known as Quinnipiac College up until July of 2000, yet the Braves’ athletic program made the quantum leap to Division I athletics prior to the start of 1998-99 season.

Among those teams was Pecknold’s squad, which had posted a 19-3-1 record in its final year of Division II play. From there, Quinnipiac signed on as a charter member of the newly formed Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and has dominated the league ever since. Since league play opened, the Blue and Gold have recorded a 53-8-6 mark against the rest of the conference.

“Like with some of our other sports, it really comes down to the leadership of the coaches and the quality of the student-athletes [reason for success],” Quinnipiac athletic director Jack McDonald said. “We were very fortunate to be able to make an upgrade to Division I. The bottom line is that Rand was winning when we were a Division II team, and he is continuing that as a Division I team.”

Over the course of the past two and a half seasons, the Braves have gained a reputation as an offensive juggernaut. Last year, they were the highest-scoring team in all of Division I hockey. Led by a talented unit of forwards including Chris Cerrella, Shawn Mansoff, Chad Poliquin and Jed Holtzman, Quinnipiac has had an easy time of putting up crooked numbers.

But that’s not to say that the Braves have been a pushover defensively, either. The combination of veterans, such as Anthony DiPalma, Mike LaRocca and Ben Blais, and a solid freshman class has spelled success for Pecknold’s squad. Though Quinnipiac did suffer a loss when junior blueliner Dan Ennis went down with a season-ending MCL injury in October, his teammates have helped to pick up the slack in his absence.

Then there’s the goaltending duo of senior J.C. Wells and freshman Justin Eddy. Wells has a record of 56-9-6 in his three-plus years between the pipes, while Eddy has established himself as one of the top young netminders in the nation. His 58-save effort in a 1-1 tie against St. Lawrence back in November set a QU single-game record.

So, with more experience on their side and a talented, veteran club, the Braves are hoping that this is the season that they put it all together and reach the NCAA tournament.

“One of the things that we did in the past two years, was that, for the most part, we showed up to play every game,” Pecknold said. “We didn’t take too many off nights, which we’ve already done a few times this year. You can’t just show up to play and expect to win.

“We have such huge junior and senior classes that this is really our year.”

Gaining some well-earned respect

Out of those 64 victories, one of the biggest came on Dec. 3 in Schenectady, N.Y., against an upstart Union College team. Up to that point, the Braves had posted a 0-6 record against teams from the ECAC and Hockey East, two of the established leagues in the nation.

(Since that game, QU has also played WCHA member Minnesota, losing 11-2. It has never faced a team from the CCHA.)

Yet for the better part of the past three seasons, the Braves have more or less been the Rodney Dangerfields of college hockey, getting little, if any, respect from the critics. Those outside of the Quinnipiac program blamed a soft league schedule for the high win totals, and pointed to the winless record against the “Big Four” members as a reason why it couldn’t be considered an upper-echelon program.

Nevertheless, a 3-2 win over the Dutchmen at Achilles Rink was another step in the right direction. Psychologically, the victory was a breakthrough that allowed the Braves to finally show the naysayers that they could experience success against veteran programs.

More importantly, Quinnipiac proved that it could win the close games, and not just outgun teams like it has been accustomed to doing since moving up to Division I.

“Everyone has criticized this program,” said Cerrella, a senior assistant captain. “They’ve said that our forwards don’t play defense, that our defensemen are more offensive-minded than defensive-minded, and that we don’t have a goalie that could win a big game. Now I think that we’ve proved everyone wrong.”

Added Pecknold: “Every year that I’ve been here, we’ve improved with every month and every game. We’ve been taking baby steps, and this win is another one of them. I’m not saying that it’s a drastic step, but it’s certainly an important piece of the puzzle.”

For the Quinnipiac players, the victory essentially removed the proverbial monkey from their backs. After years of being put under the microscope both as individuals and as team in comparison to their fellow Division I institutions, the Braves had something else to smile about.

“It was good for the program to beat one of the Big Four schools, but we had plenty of chances,” senior captain Shawn Mansoff said. “Now we must play every game hard, no matter who we are playing.”

Said Pecknold: “I think that a win like this certainly helps us in all areas. Our league has taken some heat, and we’ve taken some heat over the past few years. But you look at the MAAC now and our teams are getting wins and ties, and we’re playing the established leagues hard.”

Taking the road to respectability

One of the ways that the Braves have made a name for themselves has been their willingness to take on nonconference opponents, home or away. Last year, when defending national champion Maine called, Quinnipiac boarded the bus to Orono to face the Black Bears. The home team found itself trailing 4-3 after two periods until it rallied for a 7-4 win over the visitors.

Later in the season, ECAC member Clarkson visited the Northford Ice Pavilion and handed Quinnipiac a 4-0 loss, one of only two home losses as a Division I institution [20-2-2].

This season, Pecknold assembled a brutal nonconference slate that was comprised of all road games. Included in the lot was a weekend against Clarkson and St. Lawrence, another couplet against RPI and Union, and excursions to Minnesota and Cornell. Quinnipiac emerged from that sextet with a 1-3-2 mark, but took more away from those games than can be measured in wins and losses.

“Our tough nonconference schedule will definitely help us in the future, and it’s already helping us now,” Pecknold said. “Those games have taught our guys that we need to play better defense and compete at a higher level. Now what we’ve got to do is maintain some consistency throughout the rest of the season.

“Minnesota was a nice experience in terms of a great trip, playing in a great facility such as Mariucci [Arena] and seeing the great support that Minnesota gets from their fans. But the game was not a great experience at all. I was very disappointed in my team’s play. It was a learning experience, and we tried to take something positive from it.”

Said Minnesota hockey coach Don Lucia, “I’ve been on the other side of those games, back in 1981 when I was up in Alaska when they were just getting started. It’s the first time that those kids are playing in a big building, and maybe they were intimidated by it or a bit in awe. But I guarantee you that if we played them again, the score wouldn’t be like that … Our game was a bit of an aberration.”

But since the Braves have shown that they can play with the rest of the nation, the respect is slowly starting to seep in from various hockey circles — with regards to Quinnipiac’s ability as a program, but also regarding the development of the conference.

“When I came here as a freshman, you knew that we were going to Division I,” Cerrella said. “But people would look at the other teams in our league, and they would laugh. These other teams that we have been facing may have more experience, more depth, and more of a history in Division I hockey, but I think that we are proving that our league will take off if we continue to win.”

Completing the rise to power

With the success that the Braves have enjoyed in their first few seasons of Division I hockey, there is good reason to believe that the winning trend will continue down the road. Recruiting jaunts have helped Quinnipiac land players from as far as British Columbia, Alberta and Washington State.

“They’ve done a great job of going out and recruiting older junior hockey players, and that certainly helps,” Lucia said.

Support for the program has been present, both from the fans and the administration. However, there could be some changes for the better that take place in the next few years.

As far as facilities go, the Braves currently play in the Northford Ice Pavilion, a multipurpose facility that is about a 15-minute drive from campus. Quinnipiac shares time on the two rinks with a handful of high school hockey teams and even a few youth programs, but that may soon change with the planning of a new campus facility.

“We are in the process of formalizing plans to build a new on-campus rink that will seat between three and four thousand,” Pecknold said. “That’s the next big step for us, and it will help us get access to even better talent.”

Said McDonald, “With every day that goes by, the planning of the facility and construction gets closer. But it’s going to take a lot of time, effort, planning and money to get it done. It would be great for Quinnipiac, in addition to its league games, to attract some of the major programs in college hockey.”

On the ice, the Braves will also have to contend with a more experienced set of conference opponents down the road. After all, Quinnipiac hasn’t been the only MAAC program that has stepped outside of the league to test its skills. In fact, Sacred Heart marked up the first win by a conference member against one of the “Big Four” when it defeated Cornell back in October.

“The league has gotten so much better in the past year,” Pecknold said. “You can’t just show up anymore because it’s at a point now where anybody can beat anybody. The last-place team can beat the first-place team, and that’s something that wasn’t the case in the first or second year. We’re getting a little bit more parity in the league. The league and our program will continue to grow and improve within the next few years.”

“I hope at one point, it won’t be such a shock to people when they see that we beat a team like Union or tie teams like St. Lawrence and Cornell,” he added. “Hopefully, it will become a fairly commonplace thing.”

And if that is the case, then the Braves may be knocking on the door of college hockey’s established programs sooner rather than later. That’s a pretty impressive feat considering just how far they have come.

“I think of the days — and it was only five years ago — when we were playing in the Hamden Ice Rink,” McDonald said. “The schedule cards said that the games were at 7:30, but by the time they got everyone off of the ice from public skating and we started the game, it was 8:15. We’ve really come a long way in a very short period of time.”

This Week In Hockey East: Jan. 18, 2001

By David H. Hendrickson

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January 18, 2001

The Friars A’int Going Away

Providence will be facing a big test against Boston College this weekend, but the league’s biggest surprise looks to be solidly in the first-place race. BC and New Hampshire were expected to finish near the top, but not so for the Friars. Hockey East coaches picked them in the preseason to finish fifth.

Throughout the year, whenever Providence stumbled, observers wondered if midnight was tolling for the Cinderella team. Instead, the Friars have rebounded each time and now hold a four-game winning streak and are 5-1-0 since the break.

“If there’s any secret,” says coach Paul Pooley, “it’s that we’re getting strong play from the leaders of our hockey club, our seniors and specifically Matt Libby, who’s playing like an all-star.

“Jay Leach is certainly following suit and playing very well for us, as is J.J. Picinic and Adam Lee and Boyd [Ballard]. Boyd had a tough game [a week ago against UMass-Amherst], but has played consistently for us.

“It’s not so much that they’re playing on the ice great all the time, which they are, but it’s off-ice, too. Taking control of the dressing room and leading our young group of players. Any time that you have a successful team, it’s your leadership and specifically the seniors.”

Providence trails only Boston College in team offense with 3.67 goals per game. The Friars’ top line of Devin Rask, John DiSalvatore and Peter Fregoe has been one of Hockey East’s most effective trios. Rask ranks second in league scoring with 31 points while his two wingers are tied for 13th with 20 apiece.

The PC offense, however, extends beyond the first line. When DiSalvatore left to play in the World Junior Tournament, PC’s offense didn’t skip a beat because Drew Omicioli filled in on the line and recorded a seven-point Player-of-the-Week weekend. Last week, he added another four points.

That amounts to a major U-turn for a player who spent time on sidelines due to a coach’s decision just before the break.

“You play the guys who are playing,” says Pooley, who brushes off the “doghouse” label for Omicioli’s time off. “The players make you play them. The coach doesn’t just decide he’s going to play this guy.

“Drew, I think, was putting pressure on himself and trying to do things he shouldn’t have been doing and getting frustrated. He got off his game. We had a talk and the opportunity presented itself when Jon DiSalvatore made the World Junior team… Drew came up big for us.

“The thing that he’s doing is he’s using his assets, his speed and his shot, where before he really wasn’t. He’s sticking to the system and doing the things that he needs to do and he’s having success. He’s learning what he needs to do to be successful as a hockey player.”

The defense has been a major surprise, considering that it has been comprised of either three or four freshmen every night. Libby and Leach have played exceptional hockey. Libby has provided unexpected offense, contributing nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points after totaling only eight points last year. That ranks him as Hockey East’s top-scoring defenseman and ties him for fifth-leading scorer overall.

But what has been most important hasn’t been the offense from the blue line, but the defense. PC trails only Maine and New Hampshire with a meager 2.24 goals allowed per game. As strong as the performances have been by Libby and Leach, they haven’t been able to play 60 minutes each. Freshmen Regan Kelly and Stephen Wood have made major contributions as well as fellow frosh Dominic Torretti. A fourth rookie, Jason Platt, has been limited by injuries and has split a starting position with sophomore Shawn Weiman.

The youngsters have made the occasional mistake, however, and that’s where sophomore goaltender Nolan Schaefer has earned the right to be considered among the top players in the league. Thanks to Schaefer, and a lesser extent Ballard, mistakes are rarely resulting in the red light going off behind the Providence goal. Schaefer leads Hockey East with an unconscious .943 save percentage, 1.69 goals against average and an 8-3-1 record.

“He’s getting hungry because he feels good about himself,” says Pooley. “He’s challenging himself and wants to play.”

Two weekends ago, he earned Hockey East’s Defensive Player of the Week Award by allowing only one goal in over 104 minutes against UMass-Amherst. He shut out the Minutemen on Friday, but was even more impressive one night later. Ballard started, but had an uncharacteristically weak performance and got the hook. Down 4-0, Schaefer led the Friars to a comeback win and sweep of UMass.

“He came in and shut the door for us and gave us a chance to get back into the game,” says Pooley. “He gave our team a big boost. Sometimes goalies don’t think they’re playing so they don’t prepare, but Nolan was ready to go in and he did a good job.

“It’s nice that Boyd and Nolan work together because Boyd has played some good games. He played a great game at Ferris — [a 4-2 win] — for us. It was just one of those things that it wasn’t his night and Nolan came off the bench and picked him up.”

With the entire Providence team picking each other up, the Friars appear to be in the Hockey East race to stay.

Online Auction

You are remembering the online auction of the special “Walsh” jerseys to benefit the Coaches Foundation, aren’t you? Click here to bid on what may become a valuable collectible, or may simply be a goodwill gesture to college hockey coaches in need.

The auction runs from 8 a.m., Jan. 19, to noon, Jan. 25.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Boston College coach Jerry York for his selection as the USA Hockey Coach of the Year. Long known as one of the true gentlemen of the game, he has also been one of the most successful.

Last year was a particularly rewarding one for York. He reached the 600-win plateau, a milestone achieved by only five other coaches, while his team advanced to the Frozen Four for the third straight time.

A tip of the fedora to Jerry York.

Condolences

It was sad news indeed to hear of the passing of Joel Perlmutter. I never met the man, but he certainly was respected far and wide. He’ll be missed.

Tyrone The Terrific

Can there be any doubt that UNH goaltender Ty Conklin is in the zone? In his last four games he has given up a total of two goals. Other than an atypical performance against Dartmouth in the first game after the holiday break, the Hobey Baker candidate has allowed only seven goals in his last 10 games. That amounts to a 0.69 GAA and a .974 save percentage. His record during that stretch has been 7-0-3, with two of the three ties being shutouts!

Jaw-dropping statistics!

Writers sometimes have to ask questions with obvious answers just because they need a quote. That seemed to happen after the Maine – UNH series two weeks ago in which Conklin stopped all but one of 64 shots.

One writer asked Conklin, “What’s your confidence level? How strong do you feel?”

The goaltender with a funny bone answered, “I feel awful actually.”

After the appreciative laughter, he went on to give a serious answer — “I feel good, but it’s a reflection of how the team is playing.”

Suffice it to say that if Conklin has been feeling awful, then almost every goaltender in college hockey can only aspire to feel that poorly.

No Quitters In The Bottom Tier

As it stands now, Hockey East breaks into three tiers: the top tier (Boston College, New Hampshire and Providence); the middle tier (Maine and Boston University); and the bottom tier (UMass-Amherst, Northeastern, Merrimack and UMass-Lowell).

This is no impenetrable caste system. It wouldn’t take much of a winning streak for teams in the bottom tier to move into the middle. But that’s how things shape up at the moment.

In a sense, the race in the bottom tier is every bit as fascinating as the one in the top. With four teams fighting for three playoff berths, no one is running the white flag up the pole as positions change in the standings after almost every game. The four will also be seeing plenty of each other over the next two weeks.

UMass-Amherst (6-14-2, 5-7-0 HEA, 10 points) rebounded from a Friday night loss at Northeastern to gain an important split back at the Mullins Center on Saturday.

The Minutemen face all of the other three members of the bottom tier over the next two weeks, a sequence that will factor mightily in which team is the odd man out.

Northeastern (8-9-3, 3-6-3 HEA, 9 points) appeared to be ready to move into the middle tier with its win over UMass on Friday, but couldn’t score one night later and lost 2-0 (really 1-0 with an empty-netter).

As a result, the Huskies remain vulnerable. After a home-and-home against UNH this weekend, they’ll face Merrimack and UMass-Amherst one week later in key bottom-tier games.

Merrimack (11-12-2, 4-8-1 HEA, 9 points) appeared to be gaining some serious negative momentum when it lost its third straight on Friday to UNH, 4-1, and then trailed 3-1 in the third period on Saturday at the Whittemore Center.

If Merrimack was dead and buried in the Hockey East race, however, someone forgot to tell the Warriors. They came back to tie the game and escape with a point that may ultimately decide who makes the playoffs and who doesn’t. They then took on Boston College in a contest that few thought would even be close and defeated the Eagles, 6-3, to climb all the way out of the cellar.

The next two weekends are potentially make-or-break time for the Warriors. They’ll face UMass-Amherst twice and Northeastern once.

UMass-Lowell (10-9-2, 3-7-2 HEA, 8 points) recently took games from Northeastern and Merrimack to climb out of the cellar temporarily, and rode a four-game win streak into its lone league contest of the weekend, that against Boston College.

The River Hawks were anything but intimidated by the high-flying Eagles, going home with a close-but-no-cigar 2-1 loss. The next two weeks there’ll be one head-to-head matchup against UMass-Amherst, sandwiched by games against BU and Providence.

How will it all turn out?

Who knows? What looks like three tiers may just be a mirage. Only six points separates last place from playoff home ice, with the distance even a little less when a game in hand is factored in. Heck, only nine points separates last place from first, so almost anything can happen.

Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder probably says it best.

“The kids know where they are [in the standings,]” he says. “There are no secrets. We’ve got to make some ground up. … But we’ve got [24] more points available to us in Hockey East games so there’s a lot of hockey to be played.”

The Godfather Line

Ethnic origins usually go right over this writer’s head. However, it was amusing to read Boston Globe old-timer Bob Monahan describe Merrimack’s line of Anthony Aquino, Nick Parillo and Marco Rosa as the “red, white and green line” in his game story of the team’s dramatic upset of Boston College, 6-3.

For those who don’t understand the reference, those are the colors of the Italian flag. All three forwards, not to mention coach Chris Serino, share that ethnic bond. The trio totaled 11 points in the BC upset — Aquino and Rosa each got a goal and three assists while Parillo added two goals and one assist.

If you have a playful mind and a clean conscience when it comes to prejudice, that can lead to some interesting headline possibilities for the trio. We’ll skip the “M” word and offer up the following possibility for Tuesday night’s stellar win:

Merrimack’s Godfather Line Makes Eagles An Offer They Can’t Refuse

(Members of the Political Correctness Police can send all complaints to lighten_up@gimme_a_break.com.)

What’s Up With Gionta?

Most players would love to have 13 goals and 12 assists at this point in the season. For three-time Boston College All-American Brian Gionta, however, it amounts to a slump. The dynamo finished with 33 goals and 23 assists last year, but points aren’t as easy to come by now. He’s been held without a point in the last two games and six of the last eight.

BC coach Jerry York isn’t worried about Gionta, though.

“His work ethic never stops,” says York. “He’s a human pinball out there. But he goes through stretches where nothing goes in the net for him.

“Last year at this time, he had a similar number of goals but he finished with [33]. Once he gets a few, his goalscoring touch seems to come back.”

Trivia Contest

Last week’s question asked: who is Hockey East’s top all-time career scorer? (League games only.) The answer is UMass-Lowell’s Jon Morris, who recorded 74 goals and 103 assists for 177 league points.

As reader Chris Sayles points out, Morris did benefit from playing in 121 Hockey East games, far more than today’s maximum of 96. During Morris’ playing days, Hockey East played an interlocking schedule with the WCHA in which those games counted in league standings and statistics.

None of which, of course, takes away from the fact that Morris was a tremendous player during Hockey East’s earliest years.

The first to answer correctly was Bob Murgia. His cheer is:

“Let’s Go Terriers!”

This week’s question asks what year (in the nineties) did UMass-Amherst resume varsity hockey? Also, what year had it been dropped? And finally, name the two coaches involved.

If you can at least guess at two of the three, send your answers to Dave Hendrickson.

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

If you are flying United Airlines this month, be sure to grab a copy of their in-flight magazine, Hemispheres. In it there’s the first short story by Harlan Ellison in a couple of years.

Ellison is getting up there in years and has had some physical problems of late, but he’s one of the great writers of our time. (If you’ve never read “Jeffty Is Five” or “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” or any of his other many masterworks, please promise me that you won’t go to your grave without righting that wrong.)

He’s also one reason why I’m a writer today. (My entire audience stands up en masse and chants at Ellison, “It’s all your fault! It’s all your fault!”) After reading one of his stories, I sat down and tried to write a story for the first time in my life. It was a piece of garbage, but I felt like lightning was coming out of my fingertips. I was instantly hooked.

U2’s new album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, is as good a new release as I’ve heard in a long time.

VH1’s list of Top 100 Albums puts “Dark Side of the Moon” at number 51? That, folks, is enough reason to ignore the rest of the list.

California Angels manager Mike Scioscia complained last year that Mo Vaughn’s weight problems caused him to be a liability on the basepaths and in the field. You don’t say! I am shocked and chagrined!

Of course, Mo the Mouth says there’s a reason. That sprained ankle he suffered in April of 1999 was still bothering him 18 months later. Yup, it’s his ankle, not his inability as a professional athlete to care enough to get into even moderate shape.

It’s one thing when folks like us lose the Battle of the Bulge. It’s inexcusable, though, for a professional athlete.

If you ask me, Toronto got the better of the David Wells deal.

The Oakland Raiders have been anathema to me ever since they combined with referee Ben Dreith to sink the Patriots in the AFC title game a couple decades ago. But I’d have been delighted if one of the Raiders had knocked the ball out of the grandstanding hands of Shannon Sharpe on Sunday. Showboat in the end zone all you want, but not until then.

I’m already craving the jumbo shrimp that will be at the Super Bowl party. Maybe I should lighten up on Mo Vaughn? Nah!

Click here for information about Dave Hendrickson’s latest short story, “Yeah, But Can She Cook?” It has both s*x and humor. Dave is good at one of them.

This Week In The ECAC: Jan. 18, 2001

By Becky Blaeser & Jayson Moy

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January 18, 2001

The end of January always means light ECAC action, and indeed, there are only three sets of games this weekend. Travel partners Colgate and Cornell square off, and the North Country duo of Clarkson and St. Lawrence host Vermont and Dartmouth. Why are these important games? They are games in hand, and those teams are trying to catch league-leading Harvard. Here are their chances.

North Country Catchup

Vermont has four games in hand. Dartmouth has five. Clarkson and St. Lawrence have six. It’s time to play catchup to league leader Harvard, and it starts in the North Country this weekend when the four teams hook up. If the Crimson are looking anywhere this weekend besides the books, it’s at the North Country scores.

Vermont was hot coming into 2001. The Cats were 5-0-0 in the ECAC and looking like they could be the dominant team. Two weekends later, the Cats are 5-3-1 in the ECAC and are looking to put the streak to bed.

The Cats dropped two overtime games this weekend, 3-2, to Cornell and Colgate, leaving coach Mike Gilligan with one thought.

“I’m not happy,” he told the Burlington Free Press. “If I was happy, I should be locked up.”

The Cats are hoping to make Gilligan happy this weekend.

On the other side of the 2001 docket are the Big Green of Dartmouth, now 3-0-1 in 2001 after a weekend sweep of Colgate and Cornell. With the seven points, the Big Green can make a huge jump in the standings.

“Our kids really wanted it. They wanted it bad. They deserved it,” said coach Bob Gaudet after Saturday’s win over Cornell. “They worked unbelievably hard, and I thought we played a very smart hockey game.”

The Big Green are now 6-2-1 in their last nine games and perhaps have turned the corner, ready to take the next step in the process.

Clarkson is another team that swept the recent ECAC weekend. Wins over Rensselaer and Union were much-needed by the Golden Knights as they moved above the .500 mark with the win on Friday. Coach Mark Morris was pleased with his team’s effort, but still cautious.

“It’s been kind of a dismal start for us so far, and we realize that we’re awfully young,” he said. “We’ve got lots to learn and there’s a lot of weight on the shoulders of our upperclassmen right now with all the departures that we have had. We just have to use the talent we’ve got and teach the young guys how to play at this pace.”

And the sweep has a lot of people whispering that the Knights are starting what seems to be their annual second half run.

“I think there’s a mystique that follows us around, and if it’s still there we’ll take it,” said Morris. “We’re a work in progress, we’re no world-beaters; that’s for sure. We’re going to try to win as many games as we can to put us in a good position.”

St. Lawrence split the weekend with a win at Union and a loss at Rensselaer. The Saints are still under .500, but coach Joe Marsh knows that the best could be yet to come.

“We’ve just got to keep plugging but we also have to recognize some of the things we have done to help us improve,” he said. “I think we are improving, we had some setbacks tonight, but we have improved over the last month and we have to be cognizant that there are huge momentum swings in a hockey game. Normally in hockey it’s a lot of little things that tend to add up and we have to be conscious of doing those little things.

“Our team is still in the developmental stage now. There’s a long way to go yet, and the effort is there. It’s important to recognize what we need to work on, but certainly what we’ve done right, and why that’s helped us.”

The Central New York Battle

Both teams were the victims of Dartmouth this past weekend, but also put down Vermont in overtime. When the two meet in Ithaca on Thursday and in Hamilton on Saturday, it should be quite interesting.

The Red Raiders dropped to Dartmouth, 3-2, on Friday night and remained winless on the road.

“We’re at a point now where we can’t over-think things,” coach Don Vaughan said after the game. “We just have to start playing loose and try to keep it fun somehow. We need to play desperate. We’re in a situation where we have to string some wins together. We want to claw our way back into it.”

The Red Raiders started the clawing with a 3-2 overtime win over Vermont the next evening, their first road win of the season. They will try to make it two on Thursday against a Cornell team that won 3-2 in overtime, but dropped a 4-1 game to Dartmouth on Saturday evening, its first ECAC loss since its opener on November 10 at Union.

“Dartmouth deserved to win,” said coach Mike Schafer. “I thought they worked hard. I thought they had good pressure on us. But I can’t be too unsatisfied with a split on the road.”

Back On Track

One team looking to extend its recent winning streak this weekend is Yale. After being destroyed in a two-game series against Michigan State the week before, the Elis returned to ECAC action and enjoyed a weekend sweep of Brown and Harvard. The nine goals scored on the weekend was a welcome sign to head coach Tim Taylor, who was forced to watch from afar — from the World Junior Championships in Moscow — while his team was shut out by the Spartans.

“The point I was making to them was that we have been giving up over four goals a game and to win we are going to have to score five goals a game. That’s not going to happen against good teams,” said Taylor, whose team posted a season-high six goals en route to a 6-1 win over Brown on Friday night. “Of course after we won 6-1, I looked a little bit of a liar, but against [Harvard], that was more the kind of the way you have to play to win.”

The major difference for the team was the play of its special teams. Five of the Spartans’ nine goals against Yale came on the power play. Taylor responded in practice the next week by keeping drills short and focused. The result was a 100-percent success rate (8-for-8) for the penalty-kill unit against Harvard and Brown.

“This was a great Yale weekend because we really played well defensively,” said Taylor. “Danny Lombard is a real strong goaltender, but his numbers this year are much different then his numbers last year. It’s not that he has changed, we changed mentally in front of him. We had an awful lot of trouble in penalty killing. We went to Michigan State last weekend and 5-on-5 the game was pretty even, but penalty killing just wasn’t there. I think that we gave up five power-play goals that weekend. We addressed it this past week.”

This week, the team will take a brief break from ECAC play to compete in a nonconference game against Holy Cross. Although the repercussions are minimal for Yale, Taylor understands that his band of players runs on momentum.

“From a coaching standpoint, when you address certain things and they respond it’s really rewarding,” said Taylor. “From their perspective, I think that they now believe in themselves a little more. Sometimes when things start to go bad, things turn off. Now I think that they believe that we are preaching the right gospel.”

To See An Old Friend

The Rensselaer Engineers are headed to Bowling Green to take on former head coach Buddy Powers’ Falcon squad as the ECAC team highest in the USCHO.com poll, at No. 13. However, the Engineers might be shorthanded come this weekend as Nolan Graham and Carson Butterwick may still be out of the lineup.

The Engineers split this past weekend, losing to Clarkson but defeating St. Lawrence, and will get a break in the ECAC schedule with this pair of games.

“We’re banged up a little bit and we needed guys to step up and raise their level of play and intensity, and that’s what I thought they did,” said coach Dan Fridgen after Saturday’s win. “It was a solid team effort.”

“The win is extremely important to us knowing that we were undermanned and we had an extremely frustrating loss last night,” said Marc Cavosie, who had four goals on the weekend. “We came out and played a real solid game and got the win.”

Off To Minnesota

One team enjoying its longest winning streak of the year is Brown. Following another dismal performance on Friday night — this time in the form of a 6-1 loss against Yale — the Bears rebounded with a solid and surprising 5-3 win over Princeton at Hobey Baker Rink.

More importantly, however, Roger Grillo’s team posted a second consecutive win this past Tuesday against Umass-Lowell. Although a two-game unbeaten streak is modest at best, it’s a great sign for a team that had yet to string any type of winning streak together this season. Heading into the Yale-Princeton series, Brown’s only wins had come against Providence and Union. But despite the streak, Grillo reflected back to Tuesday’s game and is cautious.

“We played terrible for the last 10 minutes of the second period,” he said. “There were other times we were just hanging on too. We can’t have big chunks of time like that in Minnesota or we’ll be in trouble.”

The team will now face its final nonconference weekend as it takes on St. Cloud and Minnesota on the road.

The Idle Ones

Harvard and Princeton could not have asked for a better time to take a long sojourn. Unlike the rest of their league partners, these two Ivy League teams will have the next two weeks off from hockey in order to prepare for their bout of winter session final exams. This mid-January break marks the final gap in play for the league. Come February, all ECAC teams will embark on the final half of their league schedule.

The Tigers, who have been mentally dismantled over the past few weeks by heartbreaking losses, will look to refill their emotional gas tanks and gear up for their final 10 league games. Princeton began the season with a string of ECAC wins to take over second place in the league standings. Nonconference losses against teams such as New Hampshire, Bowling Green, Wisconsin and North Dakota have cut short any Tiger momentum and sent the team into a tailspin.

Since the win against Union which boosted it into second place, Princeton has gone 0-8 and currently sits in sixth place. Two of those losses came this past weekend as the team was swept by Harvard and Brown. Against the Crimson, the Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but once again could not pull out the victory.

“We need a ‘W’ in the biggest way,” coach Len Quensnelle said. “We have three weeks off for exams now. It’ll be a good time to get things together and get back on the right track.”

Although the Crimson are enjoying a successful run through the first half of the ECAC schedule and currently hold a four-point lead in the league, the coaching staff and players are thankful to have a few weeks off for some rest and relaxation. With depth never being its strong suit, Harvard will use this time to let players recuperate after a long first half of the season which saw many of the team’s top players struggle through injuries.

In their final game before the exam break against Yale, the Crimson played without their top two freshmen — Tim Pettit and Tyler Kolarik. Pettit was injured in practice right before the team left for the road trip, while Kolarik suffered a knee injury on Friday night against Princeton. Many of the Crimson players on the ice last weekend were battling through nagging injuries of their own, which makes this break even more fortuitous.

“To be honest, the timing of the break couldn’t be better for us right now,” said Harvard head coach Mark Mazzoleni. “We have some people who probably need two to three weeks away from real heavy contact or else they’re just going to keep aggravating these things. As must as this is going to challenge them mentally, physically we need it right now.”

The Crimson will return to action on January 27 when they face New Brunswick in an exhibition contest at Bright Hockey Center.

If It’s So Easy, You Try It

Amazingly enough, the Iron Columnists are still undefeated. Will we fall this week?

The contest thus far:

Becky and Jayson d. Vic Brzozowski – (10-2-2) – (8-5-1)
Becky and Jayson d. Tayt Brooks – (7-7-1) – (5-9-1)
Becky and Jayson d. Michele Kelley – (5-4-3) – (2-7-3)
Becky and Jayson d. C.J. Poux – (9-4-2) – (6-7-2)
Becky and Jayson d. Shawn Natole – (5-8-0) – (3-10-0)

If memory serves us right, there is only one ECAC team in New Hampshire. That team has an alum at the head of the bench, looking to restore the glory of his past years with the newest edition of the Big Green. Julian Saltman, show us what the Dartmouth fans bring into USCHO Stadium to try and defeat the Iron Columnists. Whose picks will reign supreme?

The Picks

Thursday, January 18

Colgate at Cornell
Julian’s Pick – The Big Red rebounds in style. Cornell 4, Colgate 2
Becky and Jayson – Cornell 3, Colgate 1

Friday, January 19

Dartmouth at Clarkson
Julian’s Pick – I have to pick my Big Green. Dartmouth 4, Clarkson 3
Becky and Jayson – Dartmouth 6, Clarkson 5

Vermont at St. Lawrence
Julian’s Pick – UVM should turn it around in style. Vermont 4, St. Lawrence 1
Becky and Jayson – St. Lawrence 5, Vermont 3

Brown at St. Cloud
Julian’s Pick – No chance for the Bears. St. Cloud 6, Brown 1
Becky and Jayson – St. Cloud 4, Brown 3

Rensselaer at Bowling Green
Julian’s Pick – Rensselaer 3, Bowling Green 1
Becky and Jayson – Rensselaer 4, Bowling Green 2

Saturday, January 20

Dartmouth at St. Lawrence
Julian’s Pick – Green train keeps a-rollin’. Dartmouth 4, St. Lawrence 2
Becky and Jayson – Dartmouth 5, St. Lawrence 3

Vermont at Clarkson
Julian’s Pick – Golden Knights pull it out. Clarkson 3, Vermont 2, ot
Becky and Jayson – Clarkson 4, Vermont 2

Cornell at Colgate
Julian’s Pick – Close, but no cigar for Colgate. Cornell 4, Colgate 3
Becky and Jayson – Colgate 5, Cornell 2

Holy Cross at Yale
Julian’s Pick – Yale 4, Holy Cross 2
Becky and Jayson – Yale 7, Holy Cross 2

Brown at St. Cloud
Julian’s Pick – Please. St. Cloud 7, Brown 1
Becky and Jayson – St. Cloud 5, Brown 2

Rensselaer at Bowling Green
Julian’s Pick – Rensselaer 3, Bowling Green 0
Becky and Jayson – Rensselaer 5, Bowling Green 4

Connecticut at Union
Julian’s Pick – A needed win for Union. Union 5, Connecticut 2
Becky and Jayson – Union 4, Connecticut 2

Tuesday, January 23

Brown at Minnesota Julian’s Pick – The Bears are gluttons for punishment. Minnesota 5, Brown 2 Becky and Jayson – Minnesota 6, Brown 2

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 when Julian bites the dust.

Thanks to Sean Peden and David Sherzer for their contributions this week.

This Week In The WCHA: Jan. 18, 2001

By Todd D. Milewski

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January 18, 2001

Sertie’s Side

Mike Sertich is one of the lucky ones.

“There aren’t many guys in this job who get a second chance,” Sertich said, “and I got one.”

Sertich, who was named the full-time coach at Michigan Tech on Wednesday, a little over two months after becoming the school’s interim coach, was ecstatic about, first, getting the opportunity to get back into coaching, and second, earning the trust of the Michigan Tech brass.

“It’s not that it relieved any pressure because there wasn’t any. I came here with no guarantees and no assurances,” Sertich said. “I didn’t realize how much I missed it. I didn’t realize how many things I was doing wrong before.”

Now, Sertich said, he plans on righting those wrongs.

Near the end of his term as Minnesota-Duluth coach last season, Sertich started to pull back.

“When things aren’t going well, you have a tendency to pull back emotionally, kind of coach to save your job,” said Sertich, who spent 18 years as the Bulldogs’ head coach, winning three WCHA titles and the league’s coach of the year honor four times.

“You become a little bit introverted. You don’t want to get zinged any more and you’re tired of the talk shows and tired of the media. You just don’t want to see people. I looked at it and I was denying it.”

Then, he got his second chance.

“And then this came up and I just didn’t realize how much I missed it, No. 1,” he said, “and No. 2, I really said that I have to improve in those areas and I intend to.”

He’s helped the Huskies improve, as well. As interim coach, he was 4-9 — not an impressive won-loss record, but progress nonetheless at Tech. He’s using the same system as he did in Duluth and seems to have earned the confidence of the players.

“They’re very animated with me, No. 1,” Sertich said, “and No. 2, they really listen. They’re eager to learn.”

The Find

Michigan Tech’s search for a permanent replacement for Tim Watters could have become a months-long struggle with names and interviews and stress.

But then Sertich came along.

It took approximately two months for Tech athletics director Rick Yeo to be convinced Sertich was the perfect man to lead his hockey program’s rebuilding efforts.

And the clincher may not have been what you think.

When the Huskies came out of nowhere to blow out Michigan and take Michigan State to overtime in the Great Lakes Invitational Tournament in late December, it was the first real good sign Sertich had started to turn things around in Houghton, Mich.

But that wasn’t it, Yeo said. Rather, it was the next weekend, when Tech went to rival Northern Michigan and got a win.

Sertich said, despite not fully being immersed in the Tech-Northern rivalry, he could appreciate the significance.

“It was no different than Duluth going into Minneapolis,” Sertich said, taking a page from the rivalry he, as UMD coach, held with Minnesota for years. “Everything was the same. The intensity was the same, it’s bragging rights.”

Above all, Yeo saw how the players worked with Sertich, and that may have sealed the deal.

“I guess what the advisory committee was looking for was a teacher, primarily, and a communicator,” said Yeo, who appointed the committee to conduct the brief national search that led to some national interest.

“We had a real good Great Lakes Invitational Tournament, and even prior to that I was impressed with the way the team had responded to him. The more we got into the actual search, the more it became apparent that the guy we have right here is probably as good as anybody we’re looking at.”

And Sertich, 54, may be at his best when he gets the chance to be a teacher.

“I’ve told a number of people that I’m seeing the best Mike Sertich right here,” Yeo said. “I think he’s really excited about the job and he’s committed to keeping this enthusiasm. And I think it’s rubbed off on the team, the team’s having a lot of fun. He’s lighthearted so they have a good time together.

“He’s a player’s coach.”

When Ralph Talks…

The Associated Press reported this week that North Dakota super-booster Ralph Engelstad, the namesake of the current Fighting Sioux hockey arena, considered pulling his funding from the new arena under construction if the school changed its nickname.

Engelstad, who is funding a large portion of the $85 million building, said in a letter to university president Charles Kupchella that it was not a threat. But his words could be construed that way.

“It is only notification to you of exactly what I am going to do if you change this logo,” read the letter, dated Dec. 20, a day before the North Dakota Board of Higher Education voted 8-0 to keep the Fighting Sioux nickname with a new Indian-head logo.

Engelstad’s letter said he would stop construction of the arena, set to open in time for next season, eat around $35 million in expenses and let the building deteriorate as is.

A former UND goaltender, Engelstad is the owner and general manager of the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino.

As the old saying goes, when Ralph talks, people in North Dakota listen.

On Top Of The World … For Now

Having successfully made their way to the top of the WCHA standings, the members of the St. Cloud State Huskies should stop and look around.

Take in what it’s like to be the top team in the league, to have everyone gunning for you.

They won’t be there for long, after all.

That’s not saying the Huskies won’t get back to the top of the WCHA this season — they have as good a shot at that as anyone. But after taking over the top spot with a sweep of Michigan Tech and North Dakota’s split with Minnesota, St. Cloud will likely relinquish that role after a pair of nonconference games this weekend.

So instead of topping the conference being a distraction, Huskies coach Craig Dahl is looking at it as an opportunity.

“That, to me, would be motivating,” Dahl said. “You’d rather come to the rink when you’re in first place than when you’re in 10th place. It seems like it would be more fun.

“You have a sense of accomplishment so far, but we realize there’s 12 games left in the league so there’s a lot of work to be done.”

Indeed, Dahl’s team has one of the toughest roads to the MacNaughton Cup as anyone. Compared with North Dakota, which plays only two more road series, it’s downright brutal.

After this weekend’s series with Brown, the Huskies go to North Dakota, host Colorado College, go to Alaska-Anchorage, go to Wisconsin (note the tough turnaround there), host Mankato and have a home-and-home series with Minnesota.

Whew.

“We have our work cut out for us,” Dahl said.

And how. There’s a tendency to look to the end of the season and wonder where you’ll be.

But Dahl is preaching to his players to take things as they come.

“It’s all got to be done step by step. You can’t get to March until you get through February; you can’t get to February until you get through the rest of January. You just have to focus on the upcoming games and not worry about what’s going to happen down the road.

“North Dakota only has to take two road trips … so they’ve got a very advantageous schedule. Obviously for us to win the league, it’s going to have to be a Herculean effort.”

Don’t Believe The Hype

Is it possible, Don Lucia was asked, to put aside the ramifications of the Border Battle and just concentrate on a series of WCHA play?

The answer the Minnesota coach gave was pretty close to a “yes.”

“I don’t care if we’re playing Wisconsin or Duluth or whoever, the points are what’s important now,” said Lucia, about to take part in his fourth weekend series between Wisconsin and Minnesota.

“We’re five points ahead of Wisconsin, so if we can go in and split, that should keep Wisconsin behind us the rest of the season in the standings. To me, that’s what you’re playing for.”

With his team as healthy as it has been since the last time it played Wisconsin (a sweep of the Badgers in Minneapolis on Nov. 3 and 4), Lucia has his eyes on a successful completion to a critical stretch in his team’s season.

A three-week stretch saw the Gophers go to Anchorage, host North Dakota and, this weekend, go to Wisconsin. They’re 3-1 right now, and a split this weekend would get them to where Lucia had hoped.

“To be honest, going in, I figured if we could go 4-2 in this six-game stretch, we’d be happy,” Lucia said.

On the Wisconsin side, the Badgers have to find a way to break out of a home slump. A loss and a tie to Denver last weekend made the Badgers 1-6-1 in their last eight games at the Kohl Center.

Their season could take a turn for the worse in the next five series, considering the opponents. After hosting Minnesota, the Badgers take a week off before going to Anchorage and North Dakota, hosting St. Cloud State and going to Colorado College.

Already needing wins to climb back into the top five of the league, they’ll need wins over the league’s elite to do it.

Missed One

If not for a 2-1 loss to Minnesota-Duluth last Friday, in which it outshot the Bulldogs 41-19, Colorado College could be with St. Cloud State in first place in the WCHA.

Last weekend, we all wondered how Denver was going to respond to a pair of losses to CC. The Pioneers did pretty well. This weekend, we’ll see how the Tigers will come back after missing on such a big opportunity.

They play a single game against rival Denver, and there probably couldn’t be a better place to get back on track than DU’s Magness Arena. They’re 3-0 there against the Pioneers (4-1 overall, including two games in last season’s Denver Cup).

The Great Divide

At long last, we finally have the trademark divide in the WCHA standings.

Only it’s not where you may expect.

The greatest division in the league standings comes between seventh and eighth place — Minnesota State-Mankato (seventh) has 14 points and Alaska-Anchorage (eighth) has seven.

The Mavericks’ sweep of the Seawolves last weekend helped this split happen. What has happened, in effect, is that the race for home ice for the first round of the playoffs has become a seven-team affair.

As it stands right now, St. Cloud State, North Dakota, Colorado College, Minnesota and Denver would host first-round series. With 20 points, Denver marks the cutoff between the two halves.

Wisconsin, with two games in hand on the Pioneers, is three points back at 17. And Mankato, with two games in hand on Wisconsin and four on Denver, is another three points back of Wisconsin at 14.

That means, conceivably, Mankato could get eight points in the four games it has in hand on Denver and pass the Pioneers by two points.

“We’re not looking at it that way,” Mankato coach Troy Jutting said. “With the start we had, it sounds like a cliche, but we’re trying to go out every game and play hard. If we get back into that part of the standings, that would be great. Obviously that’s a goal of ours.

“We have half a season left so do I think it’s a possibility? Sure. But I also know every one of them above us is a very good hockey team.”

The top of the conference isn’t where all the fun happens, after all.

He Said It

“It doesn’t make any difference anyway, because by the time we get to the end of the season, everybody will have played the same amount of games in the league.”

Dahl, on falling behind in conference games played this weekend.

News And Views

Alaska-Anchorage coach Dean Talafous contended last week that his team was one goal away in most of its games. Looking at last Saturday’s loss to Mankato, that seems like a fine fit. The Seawolves lost 4-3 when Peter Holoien broke a tie with 8:58 left, extending UAA’s losing streak to 11 games. But Friday’s game was a hammering in favor of the Mavericks, who won 7-3. The seven goals were the most allowed by the Seawolves this year.

On another note, Anchorage tries to break that losing streak with a series against Michigan Tech this weekend. Remember when a series with Tech was the perfect way to get back on track?

Anyone else surprised by the scores of the North Dakota series last weekend? A split wasn’t that far-fetched, but 4-1 for North Dakota and 5-1 for Minnesota? An overnight swing like that indicates Minnesota knew Saturday’s was a must-win game after falling on Friday.

St. Cloud State junior Tyler Arnason was named the WCHA’s offensive player of the week, Minnesota senior Jordan Leopold got the league’s defensive honor and Denver’s Connor James was the rookie of the week.

A shorthanded, empty-net goal by Aaron Miskovich last Saturday put the Minnesota senior into a tie with Paul Broten for the school lead in career shorthanded goals (10).

Yes, there is a Minnesota-Duluth player atop the WCHA statistics. Junior Andy Reierson has six goals to tie for the lead among league defensemen.

Denver goaltender Wade Dubielewicz stopped 68 of 71 shots from Wisconsin in helping the Pioneers to three points last weekend in Madison, Wis.

Lucia said Gophers forward John Pohl will see limited action in this weekend’s series at Wisconsin, much as he did last Saturday against North Dakota. Pohl has a bruised ankle.

On The Docket

It’ll be another raucous crowd in Grand Forks, N.D., next weekend, when St. Cloud State comes to town to play the Fighting Sioux, another in a long line of tough tests for the Huskies.

Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota State-Mankato play an unorthodox Thursday-Friday series in Mankato, Minn. But that’s not quite as strange as next week’s events for Minnesota, which hosts Brown on Tuesday and Bemidji State on Saturday.

Cullen, St. Cloud Blossoming Together

By Tom Nelson

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January 18, 2001

The success of St. Cloud State, which currently finds itself in first place in the WCHA headed into the weekend, can be attributed to numerous contributions from each part of the roster. Great goaltending, solid blue line play and offensive firepower have launched SCSU into one of its best seasons on record.

Along those lines, a big reason for the Huskies’ rise to No. 4 in the latest USCHO.com poll, is the inspired play of sophomore center Jon Cullen, a 5-foot-10-inch, 170-pounder out of nearby Alexandria, Minn., and the cousin of former Husky and current NHL forward Matt Cullen.

Jon Cullen, like cousin Matt before him, has become a force for St. Cloud.

“Jon is one of our smartest players,” said St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl. “He works extremely hard in practice and during the games. He sees the ice well and has great hockey skills.”

Cullen has returned from an injury-filled freshman season at SCSU in 1999-00, and has established himself as one of the Huskies’ top offensive guns. The owner of a 10-game scoring streak, which ended on Jan. 12, Cullen has eight goals and 10 assists this winter. He also has a team-leading three game-winning goals. “Jon is a bit more confident this season and that has really helped his game,” St. Cloud assistant coach Doc DelCastillo said. “He’s the type of player who will just keep getting better and better as long as he stays healthy.”

Cullen echoed his coach’s words in explaining why he has been able to become a larger offensive force this season.

“I’m more comfortable with the speed of play at the college level. The experience has really helped me this season,” Cullen said.

Cullen didn’t score at the same pace last year, but he still produced impressive first-year numbers with the Huskies (5-11-16) before an injury forced him to miss the final games of the season. Cullen tries not to worry about the past injuries and has instead focused on the task at hand this season.

“We have a very solid team with great coaches,” Cullen said. “The nice thing about this team is that we get along so well … there is a great atmosphere in the locker room. We are really starting to jell as a team and I think we have the ability to play with any team in the nation.”

On the subject of atmosphere and confidence, Cullen and his fellow linemates –senior Keith Anderson and junior Nate DiCasmirro — are certainly comfortable on the ice. The trio, and defender Brian Gaffaney (a fellow Alexandria resident), were all members of the same junior team at North Iowa in addition to their work together last winter at SCSU.

Cullen

“The chemistry on our lines is very important,” Cullen said. “Knowing those guys when I got here last year really helped me.”

A standout junior player, Cullen was a playoff MVP for North Iowa. Prior to his stint in Iowa, Cullen scored over 150 points as a prep player at Alexandria’s Jefferson High School. A three-time letterwinner in hockey and a four-time letterwinner in golf, Cullen helped guide Alexandria to the MSHSL tournament in 1996.

As a resident of Central Minnesota, Cullen was more than familiar with the success of SCSU’s program. His family ties to the program through Matt Cullen furthered the connection.

“I live about 60 miles from St. Cloud, so I was able to watch and follow the Huskies as a kid,” said Cullen. “I was very comfortable with the school and the NHC is an awesome place to play hockey. It is the best atmosphere in the WCHA.”

DelCastillo said, “Jon is just a great kid, who shows up to play everyday. You never have to worry about getting him ready to play in a game or in practice. The guys just love him.”

The Huskies still have plenty more to prove, with the top of the WCHA standings so tight and a lot of hockey left to play. But with the improvement of players like Cullen, they are in as strong a position as ever.

ECAC West Newsletter: Jan. 17, 2001

By Scott Biggar

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January 17, 2001

Elmira Notches Big Win Against Plattsburgh

Elmira continued on its winning romp, defeating both Geneseo and Plattsburgh this week and extending its undefeated streak to eight games. RIT remained undefeated by knocking off Cortland and Fredonia. Hobart got back on the winning ways against Brockport, while Manhattanville stumbled through the week.

Team-By-Team Report

RIT (ranked No. 1): RIT rolled along against Cortland to open play last weekend. The Tiger power play went 5-for-8 on the night on the way to a 9-3 final score. RIT scored early and often in the first period, eventually building a 5-0 lead, and then coasted for the rest of the game. Mike Bournazakis led the way offensively, scoring two goals and three assists for a five point night. Derek Hahn and Sam Hill each chipped in four-point nights with a goal and three assists apiece.

RIT ran into a disciplined Fredonia defense on Saturday, and the Blue Devils gave RIT everything it could handle before the Tigers pulled out the win. Fredonia scored first midway through the opening period, but Mike Bournazakis struck back quickly to tie the score 1-1. Again in the second, Fredonia scored to take the lead, and again it was Mike Bournazakis who tied the game at the 14:57 mark. After that, the Tigers threw everything, including proverbial the kitchen sink, at the Fredonia net, outshooting the Blue Devils 43-8 over the last two periods. There was only 1:06 remaining in the game when Mike Bournazakis netted the game-winner, completing his hat trick to keep RIT undefeated. Hahn slid in an empty-netter as time ran out to make the final score 4-2.

RIT renews its old rivalry with Oswego this weekend. The home-and-home series opens up at RIT on Friday, and then moves to Oswego for Saturday’s contest.

ELMIRA: The Soaring Eagles began the week in a wild affair at Geneseo. After quick goals in the first period by Clark McPherson and Jay Zanleoni, it looked like the Elmira offense of old was back.

“Everybody’s chipping in and getting goals, not just one or two guys,” said coach Glenn Thomaris. “That is the kind of offense we have been looking for all season.”

Geneseo scored a goal late in the period, but Ryan Baker answered for Elmira less than a minute later to restore the two-goal margin. Geneseo narrowed the margin again early in the second period, but a goal at 19:00 by Mike Clarke put Elmira up 4-2 at the second intermission.

The third period was a wild affair.

“They came out in the third period on the power play and bang, bang, bang, bang, they got four quick goals on us,” said Thomaris. “But we righted the ship and played a little better the second half of the third period.”

Elmira went from leading 4-2 to trailing 6-4 in just the first six minutes of the third period, but an extended timeout while an injured referee was tended to helped Thomaris to make some adjustments and Elmira battled back. Adam Godfrey got the Soaring Eagles going with a goal at the 11:44 mark, and Mike Hulbig got the tying goal at 13:29, and the winning goal at 16:34 to save it for Elmira. Eddie Cassie chipped in an empty-netter late to make the final 8-6 score; the wild third period saw four straight Geneseo goals to start the period, and four straight Elmira goals to end it.

Elmira then played Plattsburgh on Saturday in a much-anticipated rematch, and the first period was scoreless in this duel.

“Plattsburgh came out and played well,” said Thomaris, “and we were fired up also. Sundberg made some nice saves, but Rob Ligas played real solid for us as well.”

Jason Silverthorn got Elmira rolling 3:09 into the second period, and Kenny Keil staked Elmira to a 2-0 lead with just 58 seconds left in the period, putting momentum solidly on the Soaring Eagles’ side of the ice.

“The goals in the second gave us a little bit of a cushion, and got both us and the crowd pretty excited,” said Thomaris.

Elmira came out flying in the third. Eddie Cassie chipped in a goal just 2:42 into the period, and Dean Jackson made it at the 6:19 mark. Plattsburgh got a little life from a mid-period goal, but it was too little, too late for the Cardinals as Elmira skated away with the 4-1 win.

Elmira’s schedule gets no easier this week: first an improving Fredonia team on the road on Friday, then a return to the Domes on Saturday to face nationally-ranked Potsdam.

MANHANTTANVILLE: The Valiants have stumbled since the holiday break, going 0-3-1, including playing in two overtimes. That’s not the way that coach Keith Levinthal wanted to start out the new year, and he thinks he knows why.

“We are a pretty selfish hockey team on the ice right now, and that is not the kind of players I want,” said Levinthal.

Manhattanville opened the week hosting Lebanon Valley and took a 1-0 lead early in the second period on a goal by Tommy Prate, but Lebanon Valley tied the score just seven seconds into the third period.

“We played pretty tight defensively, but we just couldn’t score,” said Levinthal.

Manhattanville outshot Lebanon Valley 38-28 during the contest. The Valiants retook the lead 13:50 into the third period when Dave Schmalenberg scored, but Manhattanville just couldn’t hold on to the lead to the end. Lebanon Valley scored with only 14 seconds remaining to knot the score 2-2, and after a scoreless overtime, the game ended as a tie.

Friday, Manhattanville took its first trip to Romney Fieldhouse in Oswego, and got crushed by the Lakers.

“We were terrible,” said Levinthal. “We were up 2-1 at the end of the first period, but it could have easily been 8-1 the other way.”

The two goals in the first period were both scored off slapshots, one from Tommy Prate and the other from Chris Seifert. The Oswego offense got rolling after that, and outscored the Valiants 4-1 in both the second and third periods for a 9-4 final score.

Things were looking better for Manhattanville on Saturday at Cortland. The Valiants got up 2-0 in the first period on goals from Matthew Naylor and Prate.

“We had good control of the game in the first period,” said Levinthal, “but spent the second killing off penalties. The tone of the game changed and it was downhill from there.”

Cortland scored a power-play goal late in the second period, and an even-strength goal early in the third to tie the game 2-2. Prate notched his second goal of the game at the 7:02 mark to retake the lead for the Valiants, but the joy was short-lived, as Cortland once again tied the game just 38 seconds later.

Cortland won the faceoff to begin overtime and carried play into the Valiant zone, where the Red Dragons crashed the net and scored off a rebound just :19 into the extra stanza to give Manhattanville another notch in the loss column.

Levinthal will be looking to refocus his team this week. The Valiants’ only contest is a home game against Brockport on Saturday. League games start back up the following week, so Manhattanville needs to right the ship pretty quickly.

HOBART: The Statesmen got back into the ‘W’ column this week by defeating a reeling Brockport team 3-1. Greg Reynholds and Dan Bush each chipped in first-period goals to get Hobart a 2-0 lead. Brockport netted the only goal of the second period to climb back into the contest, but Hobart kept up the offensive pressure, outshooting Brockport 37-14 over the course of the game. Hobart’s leading goal-scorer, Jerry Toomey, tallied midway through the third period to seal the victory. Chris Connolly made 13 of 14 saves in net.

After a relatively quiet week, Hobart hits the road for two contests. The Statesmen travel to Neumann on Tuesday and then Fredonia on Saturday. Hobart tied Fredonia 1-1 earlier in the season, and the Statesmen will be looking to complete the unfinished business of that contest.

Game Of The Week

Elmira hosting No. 10 Potsdam should be another great game at the Domes, but it only earns an Honorable Mention this week, as the home-and-home series between No. 1 RIT and No. 9 Oswego gets the nod for this week’s Game of the Week.

These two teams have met 54 times previously, with RIT holding a narrow 28-23-3 edge. There is no love lost between these teams, and the series should be a great pair of games.

This Week In Women’s Hockey: Jan. 17, 2001

By Zevi Gutfreund

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January 17, 2001

Huskies Breeze Past Badgers

No. 7 Wisconsin dropped its first two games to unranked opponents this season. But the Badgers (14-5-2) didn’t lose to just any unranked team — they fell to St. Cloud State, which may have the most young potential in the WCHA, a conference of up-and-coming teams.

The Huskies (11-10-1) shocked the Badgers at St. Cloud, taking Friday’s game 9-4 before shutting out Wisconsin, 3-0, on Saturday. Although Wisconsin outshot St. Cloud both nights, the Beavers relied on the sturdy goaltending of sophomore Laura Gieselman, who has a 3.43 GAA, performed well above her average on the weekend, stopping 70 shots and holding Wisconsin to four goals in two games. But Gieselman got plenty of help from her rookie scorers on the forward line, who poured in a total of 15 points on the weekend.

The freshman threesome of forwards Ricki-Lee Doyle (17g, 21a) and Roxanne Stang (12g, 5a) and defenseman Kobi Kawamoto (13g, 15a) makes up half of the WCHA’s top six rookie scorers. Against Wisconsin, Stang recorded two multiple-goal performances, including a hat trick on Friday, Doyle scored three goals in two games and Kawamoto added a goal and three assists from the blue line over two games.

But St. Cloud’s young scorers have had plenty of help from experienced juniors Fiona McLeod (5g, 26) and Rachel Denner (11g, 13a), both of whom are among the conference’s top 15 scorers. McLeod, who switched to defense this year to make room for scorers like Doyle and Stang on the forward line, provided her young teammates with four assists against the Badgers.

The Huskies will look to avenge an earlier loss to Bemidji State when they take on the Beavers this weekend while Wisconsin will try to get back on its skates when it hosts Ohio State in Madison.

Around the ECAC

Travel partners Harvard and Brown both turned in impressive performances last weekend before taking a two-week hiatus from conference play. The No. 5 Crimson (11-6-0) and No. 6 Bears (9-3-3) both swept No. 8 Northeastern and No. 10 Providence, although the Ivy rivals completed the sweeps in very different manners.

Brown got things done at the defensive end, shutting out the Huskies, 2-0, and blanking the Friars, 3-0. Sophomore netminder Pam Dreyer turned in a solid performance while her teammates only allowed 35 shots in two games to keep Northeastern and Providence off the scoreboard.

Harvard, meanwhile, turned in its most impressive offensive weekend of the season. The Crimson put the hurt on two quality goaltenders, shaking Northeastern’s Erika Silva for six goals on Saturday and then welcoming Providence freshman Amy Quinlan to the Bright Center with seven goals on Sunday. Center Jennifer Botterill, the ECAC’s leading scorer, netted two goals in each game.

Harvard and Brown resume ECAC play February 2 and 3 against No. 9 New Hampshire and Maine.

SUNYAC Newsletter: Jan. 17, 2001

By Russell Jaslow

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January 17, 2001

Fredonia So Close, Yet So Far; Buffalo State Continues To Win

Not all losses are created equal.

Fredonia, in losing a thriller to top-ranked and undefeated RIT in the last minute of the contest, may have gained more than it did from a lot of wins this season. Exceptional defense and goaltending is something they need to bring out of that game for the rest of the season. Earlier in the week, they defeated Humber College in overtime.

Meanwhile, Buffalo State just continues to win, beating the Milwaukee School of Engineering twice. Oswego also won twice convincingly, while Plattsburgh split its two games. Geneseo and Brockport lost their only contests.

Team-By-Team Report

PLATTSBURGH (Ranked No. 5) — Just when it looks like Plattsburgh State has pulled out of its funk, the Cardinals play a bad game. Just when it looks like the Cardinals have fallen into a hole, they come back with a great effort — all of which translates to .500 hockey the last few weeks. This past week, the bad game came first, losing to Elmira, 4-1. It was scoreless after the first period, but after the second, it was 2-0, Elmira. In fact, it was 4-0 before Plattsburgh even got on the scoreboard on a goal by Guy Come. Next, Plattsburgh had its great effort, in a 3-0 win over Middlebury. Niklas Sundberg got the shutout with 32 saves as Plattsburgh was outshot, 32-21. Mark Coletta and Ryan Wilson scored first-period goals while Rob Retter added one in the second. The key to the victory was Plattsburgh keeping Middlebury scoreless on eight power-play opportunities. The Cardinals look to break out of this inconsistent play before conference games resume with contests against Williams and Colby.

OSWEGO (Ranked No. 9) — The Great Lakers ate up their competition and spit them out this past week. The first victim was Manhattanville, which Oswego State beat 9-4 and outshot 46-22. Oswego scored four power-play goals, but was actually behind after the first period, 2-1. After taking a 4-2 lead, Oswego saw it cut by one; however, the Lakers scored the next four goals to put the game away. Chris DiCarlo got a hat trick, Mike Lukajic scored a pair of goals, and single tallies were registered by Joe Pecoraro, Nate Elliott, John Hirliman, and John Sullivan. Joe Lofberg got the win. Next was Hamilton College, and this time the score was 8-3 and the shots were 39-23. Oswego took a 5-0 lead before Hamilton got on the board as Sullivan and Steve Cavallaro each got a pair of goals. DiCarlo, Brian St. John, Matt Vashaw, and Pecoraro also scored, and Tyson Gajda got the win with 20 saves. Oswego has an exciting week coming up with a home-and-home series against RIT.

POTSDAM (Ranked No. 10) — The Bears took a week off. They return to action Saturday at Elmira.

FREDONIA — The Blue Devils nearly did what no other team in the nation has been able to do — knock off top-ranked RIT. Fredonia State did not allow RIT to take the lead until 1:06 left in the game, which ultimately led to a 4-2 loss. Wasted was a superb effort by the defense, which was the first team to hold RIT’s power play scoreless, and goaltender Will Hamele, who stopped 51 of the 54 shots he faced as he was able to see virtually everything through screens and traffic. Dave Mugavero put Fredonia ahead. As he was coming out of the penalty box, he picked up the loose puck with nobody between him and the RIT netminder and put some nifty moves on before sending the puck home. RIT would tie it up before the first period ended, but Dan Showalter put Fredonia back in the lead with a second-period goal. RIT would again tie it up before the period ended. The latter half of the third period saw intense pressure by RIT, but the Fredonia defense and Hamele were equal to the task until the 18:54 mark, when Hamele left a rebound in front, and RIT knocked it in. An empty-net goal at the buzzer finished it up. Earlier in the week, Fredonia beat Humber College, 4-3, in overtime. Showalter tied it up with his second for the night with less than three minutes to play. Humber completely lost its cool late in the game, resulting in numerous major and 10-minute penalties, unsportsmanlike conducts, and game misconducts, allowing Fredonia to play two men up in overtime, during which Mugavero’s second goal won the game. Fredonia hosts Elmira and Hobart this week.

GENESEO — The Ice Knights started the week off losing a barnburner to Elmira, 8-6. Elmira took a 3-1 lead after one with the single Geneseo goal scored by Tony Scorsone. Matt Lester led off the second with a power-play goal, cutting the lead to 3-2. Elmira would move back in front by two on a goal with a minute left in the second. Then came the wild, wild third period which saw momentum swing higher then Poe’s pendulum. Geneseo ripped off four straight goals in the first six minutes as Aaron Coleman and Lester scored, before David Bagley netted two within 20 seconds. Then the pendulum came swinging back the other way, and Elmira scored four of its own unanswered goals, the final an empty-netter, to win the game. Geneseo hits the road with games at Lebanon Valley and Neumann.

BUFFALO STATE — The Bengals just keep on rolling as they swept the Milwaukee School of Engineering in a pair of games, 2-1 and 5-2. This gave Buffalo State six straight wins and eight of their last 10. And before someone says, “But their competition wasn’t that strong,” well, perhaps. However, wins over Manhattanville and Fredonia are included in that stretch, and the Buffalo State of last year would not have been able to maintain this type of consistency over the long haul, no matter what the competition. In the first game, a first-period goal by Joe Urbanik and a second-period goal by Mark Yoder sandwiched around the opposition’s only goal was enough for the win. Nick Berti made 36 saves, including 19 in the third period, for the win. Game two saw the Bengals jump out to 3-0 and 4-1 leads on goals by Sean Mask, Todd Nowicki and two by Yoder. Jason Carmardo finished up the scoring, and Berti made 31 saves. Buffalo State takes its streak to Hobart on Tuesday in its only game this week.

CORTLAND — The Red Dragons would rather talk about their second game than their first over the weekend. That’s because they started out with a 9-3 loss at RIT. Cortland State’s downfall was giving the best power play in the country eight opportunities; RIT took advantage of five of them. It was 5-0 going into the second before Greg Menchen scored, and 8-1 before Matt Donskov and Shaun Spaniol tallied. Cortland bounced back strong the next night, defeating Manhanttanville, 4-3, in overtime. After falling behind 2-0, Trevor Bauer and Brendan Hyde tied it up. Cortland again found themselves trailing in the third period, but it only took 38 seconds to tie it back up, thanks to Mike Schall. Tim Kneer won it 19 seconds into the extra period. John Larnerd made 26 saves for the win. The Red Dragons have a pair of games this week, traveling to the Massachusetts School of Liberal Arts and then coming back home to host Elmira.

BROCKPORT — The Golden Eagles had just one game this past week, but their losing ways continued in a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Hobart. The Statesmen took a 2-0 lead after one period. Drew Morley tied it late in the second period. Brockport State couldn’t mount much of a challenge in the third period, getting just four shot at the Hobart net, and Hobart’s third goal midway through the third period clinched the game. Steve Tippett made 34 saves as Brockport was outshot, 37-14. Brockport travels to Manhattanville and then returns home for RIT.

Upcoming Game Of The Week

This one’s easy. It’s a series, not a game — the home-and-home between Oswego and RIT. Oswego always seems to play RIT tough, and this year the Great Lakers are having a fine season. And when you play 120 minutes (and maybe more) of hockey in two rinks that epitomize the college hockey spirit, with Oswego given two chances to knock off the top team and playoff implications for RIT, you’re guaranteed to have some fireworks.

Sertich Removes ‘Interim’ from Coaching Title

USCHO Staff Report

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January 17, 2001

Mike Sertich, the former Minnesota-Duluth coach who took over the Michigan Tech program on an interim basis in November, has been named the permanant replacement. He was formally introduced at press conference today.

“I can’t express in words how happy I am,” said Sertich. “I’ve had such great respect for the Michigan Tech hockey program all my life and to think now that I am the head coach here is quite humbling indeed.”

According to a report in Duluth News-Tribune, the deal is for four years, with a salary expected to be over $100,000 annually.

Mike Sertich (left) and Michigan Tech athletic director Rick Yeo at a press conference to announce Sertich’s permanent hiring as head coach of the Huskies.

“We’re extremely excited to have Mike Sertich guiding our program into the foreseeable future,” said MTU athletic director Rick Yeo. “Mike is a tremendous teacher and motivator and has the support of our players, community, and alumni. There is no doubt in my mind Mike Sertich is the right person for this job.”

Michigan Tech is currently 5-16-1, but has been improved so far under Sertich, particularly with an impressive performance at the Great Lakes Invitational, where the Huskies defeated Michigan, then took Michigan State to overtime before losing.

“Mike Sertich is well respected as a coach nationally and certainly within the WCHA,” said Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer about the move. “The best part about Mike is that he is a good guy and great to compete against. I have no doubt that he’ll do an outstanding job at Michigan Tech.”

Sertich has acknowledged the difficulty in coming to a team mid-streak, but has tried to get by with his trademark wit.

“Coach Sertich has put the fun back in hockey,” said Huskies junior Paul Cabana. “He’s a great college coach and I’m glad he’s going to remain as our coach.”

Sertich, 54, coached at Minnesota-Duluth for 18 years before leaving at the end of last season. His teams won three WCHA championships (1984, ’85 and ’93) and had a 335-306-44 record. Along with legendary Michigan Tech coach John MacInnes, Sertich is the only four-time WCHA Coach of the Year. But the Bulldogs had tailed off in the ’90s.

Michigan Tech’s decline has been longer. The Huskies were once dominant on the national scene, including three national championships, the last coming in 1975. Things began to fade after that, and Michigan Tech hasn’t finished higher than seventh in the WCHA since 1992-93.

Sertich replaced Tim Watters earlier this season. Watters, a Michigan Tech alumnus, was in his fifth year as head coach before being replaced after a 1-7 start to this season. Sertich’s first game was in Duluth, where his new team beat his old team.

“We had reached the point where we felt we had to make a change,” said Yeo to the News-Tribune. “People were asking if we had any talent, and I thought we did.”

A past president of the American Hockey Coaches Association and chair of the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee, Sertich has been active in an array of coaching endeavors with USA Hockey over the last two dozen years. In the summer of 1999, he was the head coach for Team White at the U.S. Women’s Ice Hockey Festival in Lake Placid, N.Y. In August of 1998, he served as an associate coach with the WCHA All-Star team which competed in the three-game Kolin Cup in Zug, Switzerland.

“I look forward to the challenge ahead,” said Sertich. “My wife and children are excited to be Huskies as well. I’m thankful to Rick Yeo and President Tompkins for giving me this chance. It’s kind of a new lease on life for me and I intend to make the most of it.”

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Computers vs. Humans

Around the Leagues

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Elmira Notches Big Win Against Plattsburgh

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