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Legendary UNH Coach Charlie Holt Passes Away

Charles E. Holt, an 18-year head coach of the University of New Hampshire men’s ice hockey program, died early Friday morning in his Durham home at the age of 77 following a long bout with cancer.

“Charlie Holt’s achievements as a superb and universally respected hockey coach at UNH are well known,” said UNH President Joan R. Leitzel. “In addition, he left a great legacy on the ways student-athletes, coaches and citizens, in general, should conduct themselves and treat one another. His high ideals for perfection, professionalism, mutual respect, discipline and excellence will always be remembered and he will continue to serve as a role model for us and posterity.”

Described as an innovator and a visionary by innumerable players and peers, Holt was a three-time recipient of the Spencer T. Penrose Award as the nation’s top college hockey coach. He was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997.

“As great a hockey coach as he was, Charlie Holt was an even greater human being,” UNH Senior Associate Athletic Director and former longtime assistant men’s hockey coach David O’Connor said.

In his 18 years at the helm of the Wildcats, Holt compiled a 347-232-18 overall record and guided the team to the 1978-79 ECAC championship and three NCAA Tournament appearances. Prior to his tenure at New Hampshire, Holt recorded 65 victories as the head coach at Colby College.

Former UNH players Andy Brickley, Gordie Clark, Bobby Gould, Dave Lumley, Norman Lacomb, Bruce Crowder, Cap Raeder, Jamie Hislop, Bob Miller, and Rod Langway were some of Holt’s many student-athletes who went on to play in the NHL. Other players, such as UNH’s own head coaches Richard Umile and Bob Kullen, Mike McShane of Providence College, Bill Beaney of Middlebury College and Bob Francis of the Phoenix Coyotes, have followed in Holt’s footsteps behind the bench.

“Most people think of Charlie Holt as the legendary coach from UNH,” Umile said. “I knew him as a coach and mentor, but mostly as a dear friend whom I will deeply miss.”

Holt is survived by his wife, Nancy, and his children, Brad and Brenda.

Services will be announced at a later time. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the Charles Holt Scholarship Fund, University of New Hampshire, Field House, 145 Main St., Durham, N.H. 03824.

Charlie Holt’s year-by-year record at UNH

Year      ECAC Record     Overall Record
1968-69 10- 5-1 .656 22- 6-1 .776
1969-70 9- 6-2 .588 19-10-2 .645
1970-71 11- 9-0 .550 20- 9-0 .690
1971-72 13- 6-0 .684 20-10-0 .667
1972-73 11- 8-0 .579 16-10-3 .603
1973-74 15- 5-0 .750 22- 9-0 .710
1974-75 17- 7-1 .700 21- 9-1 .694
1975-76 22- 6-0 .786 24- 7-0 .774
1976-77 21- 6-0 .778 27-12-0 .692
1977-78 14-11-0 .560 18-12-0 .600
1978-79 17- 5-3 .740 22-10-3 .671
1979-80 9-15-0 .375 12-18-0 .400
1980-81 13-10-1 .563 19-13-1 .591
1981-82 15- 7-0 .682 22-14-0 .611
1982-83 15- 5-1 .738 22-11-2 .657
1983-84 13- 8-0 .619 20-17-1 .539
1984-85 12-21-1 .368 16-26-1 .384
1985-86 5-27-2 .176 5-29-3 .176
Total 242-167-12 .589 347-232-18 .596

First game at UNH: Nov. 30, 1968 (UNH 7, Merrimack 3)
First win at UNH: Nov. 30, 1968 (UNH 7, Merrimack 3)
Last win at UNH: March 1, 1986 (UNH 7, UMass-Lowell 4)
Last game at UNH: March 8, 1986 (Boston U. 4, UNH 3)

Mallen Out As Head Coach Of Minutemen

Umass-Amherst athletic director Bob Marcum announced Friday that the school will not renew the contract of head coach Joe Mallen.

The eighth-place Minutemen, who capped off the season with a first-round loss to Boston University in the Hockey East playoffs, compiled a record of 11-20-5, 5-15-4 in league play.

Mallen finishes his tenure at UMass with a seven-year record of 77-144-18.

“We appreciate Coach Mallen’s contributions in restoring our ice hockey program after 14 years,” said Marcum. “At the same time, based on the facilities and resources we have available, we feel it is necessary to make a change to take the program to the next level.”

Mallen came to UMass in 1993 to head up a hockey program that had been reinstated after a 14-year absence. In his first season, with the team playing as an independent, Mallen led the Minutemen to a 20-9 record. The next year UMass began play in Hockey East. The Minutemen had their best finish ever in 1998-99, tying for sixth place in the league.

“Coach Mallen took on a difficult job, building a program from scratch and competing in one of the toughest leagues in the country,” said Chancellor David K. Scott. “He, his staff and his players have conducted themselves with class and dignity. His players have performed well in the classroom, and I believe the hockey program as a whole has represented the University admirably. The University is grateful for his contributions.”

Mallen’s contract expires on May 17. An interview committee will shortly begin the process of finding a replacement.

Patience Is A Virtue

“I don’t care about shots on goal…”
— Maine coach Shawn Walsh

“It’s never a bad idea to shoot.”

Fans shake their heads in disgust when their favorite team generates a good offensive chance, only to come away without even a shot.

“You can’t score if you don’t shoot.”

The power play is a special irritant. To some eyes, it seems like a succession of repetitive passes back and forth that accomplish nothing. But be it even-strength, shorthanded or on the man advantage, a golden opportunity that ends without a shot is guaranteed to make the blood boil.

“Just shoot it!”

Throwing it on net and seeing what happens is Hockey Common Sense 101. And at times, it’s the only right move.

“Good grief, will you please shoot the @*&#%$ puck!!!”

However, rigid adherence to the many “shoot it” canards often results in games won in the shot column but lost on the scoreboard.

All shots are not created equal. Sometimes the difference between a skilled finisher or gifted playmaker and a grinder who creates chances but few goals is knowing when to fire away and when to be patient.

A close look at Maine’s 4-2 win over Boston University shows three Black Bears’ “patience goals” providing the decisive edge.

In the first period, Martin Kariya broke with Barrett Heisten on a two-on-one. Instead of conventionally shooting or dishing to Heisten, however, Kariya dropped a pass back to a trailing Peter Metcalf. Many players would have never even considered Metcalf, but Kariya’s hockey sense in short order created a four-on-two. Metcalf passed to Chris Heisten, who buried the puck.

In essence, Kariya eschewed the obvious play in front of him, risking a no-shot result, to gain an even better advantage, much like a chess grandmaster ignoring a flawed checkmate attempt and opting instead for a slower, but ultimately more deadly,attack.

“Are you surprised with that last name?” asked a grinning Maine coach Shawn Walsh, who won two national championships with Kariya’s older brothers, Paul and Steve, both All-Americans. “I’d have been surprised if he didn’t see him.”

Patience is a virtue.

In the second period, Tommy Reimann held the puck on a power play until he’d set up Ben Guite for an empty net on the far post.

“[That] was just a big-league play,” said Walsh. “That’s part of our game plan, but you’ve got to have hockey sense to do it…. How often can a guy set up an empty net against a good team? It’s tough to do, but he did it.

“You know the goalies at this level are going to stop the first shot. So if you’re going to focus on the first shot, you’ve got to get back door opportunities.

“I don’t care about shots on goal. Fake the shot like Reimann did and slide it. It’s an easy goal.”

Patience is a virtue.

A third “patience goal” established an unshakable 4-1 lead for the Black Bears when Guite tapped a loose puck in front back to Niko Dimitrakos in the slot. The sophomore turned down the quick shot, but instead waited and waited, moving to create a better angle from which he could rip a shot over goaltender Ricky DiPietro.

“That was talent,” said Walsh.

Patience is a virtue.

However, players who might have the talent and hockey sense to sometimes hold the puck instead of rushing a shot might see that creativity and patience eroded by a coach who goes nuclear any time such decisions result in no-shot, no-goal result.

“There’s a fine line,” said Walsh. “But realistically, against your best goalies, why shoot it unless you’re going to create a rebound goal? You’re better off trying something different.”

The Terriers, on the other hand, lost the game in part because they lacked the offensive patience that Maine displayed.

“We had some great opportunities… but we were jumpy,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “Instead of being quick and not in a hurry, we were in a hurry. And we seemed to be in a hurry all night long. That seemed to be the tale of the tape.”

Tale of the tape, indeed.

Patience is a virtue.

BC’s ‘Mr. March’

Reggie Jackson earned a reputation as “Mr. October” by always delivering in the postseason for the New York Yankees.

When it comes to the Hockey East tournament each March, Blake Bellefeuille has been no less dominant. In his four years at Boston College, he’s totaled 13 goals and 11 assists for 24 points in 15 games. In particular, his performances in the semifinal and championship games at the FleetCenter have stood out. Last year, he earned tourney MVP honors for his two goals and an assist in the semifinal and then another two goals, including the game-winner, and an assist in the title contest.

So when the scoreboard ticked down to less than 10 minutes left with BC trailing UNH, 1-0, and Ty Conklin stopping everything thrown at the UNH net, it should have been no big surprise that “Mr. March” would deliver again.

With 7:34 left in the game, Bellefeuille carried the puck down the left wing, lost his defender with a sharp cut to the middle and beat Conklin five-hole.

“When Blake scored the goal to tie it, the momentum on the bench was incredible,” said BC coach Jerry York. “It was like a wave coming across.”

Three and a half minutes later, Mike Lephart added the game-winner and the Eagles’ quest for a third straight Hockey East championship was alive and well.

As much as his goal turned the tide, however, it would be like pulling teeth to get Bellefeuille to talk about himself. The modest senior praised just about everyone else for the win.

“That line of [Krys] Kolanos, K.C. [Kevin Caulfield] and [Ales] Dolinar did a great job cycling [earlier in the third period],” he said. “They got the momentum back for us.

“I can’t say enough about our captain, Mike Mottau. He really talked us through into the third period. He really got us pumped up there.

“I can’t say enough about the other seniors, too, [Jeff] Farkas, Tony Hutchins and Kevin Caulfield. They did a great job coming together and really bringing us through the third period.”

An attempt to point out to Bellefeuille that he’s been dominant in the postseason just became an opportunity for him to talk about his linemates.

“Fortunately for me, I’ve had some pretty good games,” he said. “When you play with guys like Brian Gionta and Marty Hughes, two skilled guys, you’re going to get your chances every night…. I’ve got to give all the credit to those two. They’ve done a great job.”

Two things are clear. One, “Mr. March” is a lousy self-promoter. Two, when the pressure games come, he’s one heck of a player.

Just Like Starting Over

It’s not your typical Cinderella story. First of all, there’s no glass slipper. Twenty or so pairs of skates, yes, but not a slipper in the bunch.

And make no mistake: there’s no rags-to-riches theme here. And there is no Prince Charming.

Two dozen Princes Charmed, absolutely.

Nebraska-Omaha goaltender Kendall Sidoruk has been a big part of the Mavericks' success story.

Nebraska-Omaha goaltender Kendall Sidoruk has been a big part of the Mavericks’ success story.

In fact, while Nebraska-Omaha’s inaugural CCHA season is certainly remarkable and seems storybook, it is not a tale of up from under, unless you give credence to preseason polls. Nor is it a tale of adversity overcome, unless poverty equals attendance of more than 8,000 at each home game.

The story of the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks does have, however, elements of the underdog, the new kid on the block making good, the warm and fuzziness of a Hoosier-esque team from the Heartland making it to the Big Time.

OK, so there are only three Mavericks from Illinois (that is the Heartland, isn’t it?), five from Minnesota, two from North Dakota, and one from Texas (Texas!)–and a bunch of kids from a place decidedly north of the American Midwest, not to mention a Rhode Islander–and the whole lot of them are coached by a guy with a college hockey pedigree longer than some other CCHA coaches who are not in the first year of their contracts.

But there is something about this team that grips you, an “aw, shucks, they’re from Nebraska after all, and they have to face Michigan in the semifinals” aspect that makes you want to stand up and cheer, or at the very least go out and rent Rudy.

“We entered the league this year really uncertain of how we would compete on a nightly basis,” says UNO head coach Mike Kemp. “Opening up with Michigan State coming in here, giving us some lessons that first weekend on what it was going to be like to compete in the league, what we had to do to play at the level and the pace that it was going to be played at every night–that taught us a lot.”

The Mavs learned enough to take at least a point from every opponent in the league this season, to beat Northern Michigan two out of three games in Marquette in the first round of the CCHA playoffs, and to beat Bowling Green at home, in their beloved Bullpen, to earn a trip to Joe Louis Arena and the CCHA championship tournament.

Even if this weren’t UNO’s first season, the accomplishment would be more than just admirable. The Mavericks were picked 11th in both the media and coaches’ preseason polls.

“When you think about the expectations coming into the season, most of us thought that Omaha would struggle playing a 100 percent Division I schedule, particularly in this league and with the travel,” says Michigan head coach Red Berenson.

“As the season wore on, they just got better. Obviously, there’s a lot of momentum and excitement…and that’s probably as important as the talent on the team.”

But Division I hockey…in Omaha? It’s a story 60 years in the making.

The Detroit Red Wings had a farm club in Omaha from 1939-51. The Omaha Knights were the first professional team for a number of players who went on to become legends of the game–Gordie Howe, Terry Sawchuk, and Johnny Mowers.

Scotty Bowman began his professional coaching career in Omaha in 1963, when the team fed Montreal. In 1971, Fred Shero led the Knights to a championship before joining the Philadelphia Flyers.

Nebraska-Omaha had club hockey teams coached by ex-Knights in the late 1940s. “It goes way back, and it’s been an on-and-off process,” says Gary Anderson of Nebraska-Omaha’s sports information. “There was a club team in the ’40s, and there was a push back then to make it a varsity sport.”

The sport was in and out of favor at the Omaha campus for years, and was considered for varsity status again in the 1970s, but funding wasn’t available. “Ironically,” says Anderson, “Mike Kemp was the coach of that club team.”

Finally in the mid-’90s, the sport was given serious varsity consideration again. Anderson says, “Behind closed doors, it had been considered numerous times, and Del thought it was time to do it.”

“Del” is Del Weber, a chancellor at the university.

“We just weren’t going to get any more state money for sports,” says Anderson, “so we started getting a community committee together to look for backing and funding.”

On May 1, 1996, the program was announced and season tickets went on sale. “We didn’t even know where we were going to play,” says Anderson. “We asked people to give us a $25 nonrefundable deposit, and we didn’t have a place to play. The only facility available at the time was an existing 6,000-seat arena with ice. The Civic Center didn’t have ice.”

In spite of the uncertainty of the venue, Anderson says the Mavericks sold 1,500 season tickets that very first day. “People were plunking down money, and then more money the next day, and the next.”

The next step, says Anderson, was lobbying the Omaha City Council, which had originally voted 4-3 against putting ice in the existing Civic Center. After an intense campaign, on May 14 the Council changed its mind and voted 6-1 to ice the place and give the Mavs a home.

“We closed off [season ticket] sales at 6,389 on May 16. That’s about as many as we thought we could comfortably commit to. We tried to stop it. We felt we had to hold some back for corporate sponsors, for game-day sales, for students…and you need to cultivate new fans.”

The Civic Center holds 8,314. The Mavs have between 7,200 and 7,300 season-ticket holders.

As a Division II school, Nebraska-Omaha doesn’t charge students admission to sporting events. Anderson says that the money for most Maverick sports comes from student activity fees and the university.

Not so for Maverick hockey. UNO’s brand-new program is completely privately funded, from the $6.5 million in donations that made the program possible to ticket sales.

And the beauty of this unusual setup is that hockey isn’t the only beneficiary.

“With the money from hockey,” says Anderson, “we fund women’s swimming and diving, women’s soccer, women’s tennis and women’s golf.”

So, it isn’t exactly a story of pauper turned prince, but it has been an extraordinary ride. “The noise in the play-in game was unbelievable,” says Anderson. “The only thing in athletics I’ve ever seen that even approached that was an NHL playoff game in Minnesota. Game seven, 1971, against Montreal. The winner went to the Stanley Cup [finals].”

The Joe isn’t the Stanley Cup, but it is the gateway to the NCAA tournament, as well as a means to an end in its own right.

“We just wanted to make the playoffs, that was our goal,” says Kemp. “It’s a privilege to be in this tournament.”

For a young program with a seasoned coach, a talented underclass, and a Bullpen packed with season-ticket holders, it won’t take long for the Mavericks to write a few new chapters in the college hockey storybooks.

Top Teams Share Wealth At HEA Awards Banquet

The top four teams in the Hockey East Association dominated the honors at the league’s annual awards banquet, held at the Royal Sonesta Hotel here.

Boston College, Boston University, Maine, and New Hampshire, all ranked in the nation’s top seven in the latest U.S. College Hockey Online poll, will battle for the 16th Hockey East Championship, and they also walked home with the majority of the league honors.

The three major awards were split among the schools, as first-place BU’s Jack Parker was named the Bob Kullen Coach of the Year and Terrier goaltender Ricky DiPietro received the Rookie of the Year Award. Junior goaltender Ty Conklin of UNH and senior defenseman Mike Mottau of BC were named as the KOHO Co-Players of the Year, the first time ever that the award has been shared.

UNH head coach Dick Umile was second behind Parker in Coach of the Year balloting, as Parker received the honor for the third time in his career. Runners-up for Rookie of the Year were Anthony Aquino (F, Merrimack) and Peter Fregoe (F, Providence).

The Len Ceglarski Individual Sportsmanship Award went to senior forward Cory Larose of Maine (runner-up: Tommi Degerman, Sr. F, BU). UNH senior forward John Sadowski was tabbed as the Best Defensive Forward (runner-up: Jim Leger, Sr. F, Maine), while Mottau was chosen as the Old Time Hockey Best Defensive Defenseman (runners-up: Arik Engbrecht, So., Northeastern, and Doug Janik, So., Maine).

In an emotional presentation, Umile accepted the Charlie Holt Team Sportsmanship Award for UNH. Holt, the legendary former UNH head coach, has recently taken ill and was unable to be on hand for the presentation, which was made by his daughter. The award goes to the team penalized the least in league play and has been won two straight years by UNH, which tied with Merrimack in 1999.

Larose was also honored as the league’s scoring leader, while Scott Clemmensen (Jr., BC) received the Heaton Goaltending Leader Award for recording the lowest goals-against average in league play. BU was presented with a trophy for finishing as the Hockey East regular-season champions.

The league also named its all-star teams, dominated by BC with five selections, and BU and UNH with three each. First-team honorees were goaltender Conklin, defensemen Chris Dyment (So., BU) and Mottau, and forwards Jeff Farkas (Sr., BC), Brian Gionta (Jr., BC), and Larose.

Named to the second team were goaltender DiPietro, defensemen Bobby Allen (Jr., BC) and Pat Aufiero (So., BU), and forwards Blake Bellefeuille (Sr., BC), Darren Haydar (So., UNH), and Mike Souza (Sr., UNH).

The Hockey East all-rookie team was composed of goaltender DiPietro, defensemen Ron Hainsey (UMass Lowell) and Freddy Meyer (BU), and forwards Aquino, Brian Collins (BU), Fregoe, and Krys Kolanos (BC).

Honorable-mention all-stars were Scott Clemmensen (Jr. G, BC), Jim Fahey (So. D, Northeastern), Janik, Greg Classen (So. F, Merrimack), Carl Corazzini (Jr. F, BU), Degerman, Barrett Heisten (So. F, Maine), and Chris Heron (Sr. F, BU).

The awards were chosen by coaches’ balloting at the conclusion of the regular season, except for the Ceglarski Sportsmanship Award, which was selected by the league’s sports information directors.

2000 Hobey Baker Award Finalists Announced

The Hobey Baker Award Committee today announced its top ten finalists for this years’ award. Each year, the top college hockey player in the U.S. is presented the Hobey Baker Award.

This group was determined by a ballot of all 60 Division I college hockey coaches and by a fan vote. The award winner will be announced on Friday, April 7, 2000 at 4 p.m. from Providence, R.I. during the NCAA Frozen Four championship tournament. A selection committee of 20 members and fan vote at uscollegehockey.com will determine the winner.

Alphabetically, here are the 2000 Hobey Baker Award Finalists:

Mike Comrie – Univ. of Michigan – Sophomore forward – Edmonton, Alberta

For the second straight season, Comrie has led the Wolverines in scoring and his 53 points tops all other sophomores in the nation. He has ranked among the top five scorers nationally all season. Last years’ CCHA Rookie of the Year is also a First Team All Star this season.

Ty Conklin – Univ. of New Hampshire – Junior goaltender – Anchorage, Alaska

Ranking second nationally and first in Hockey East with 20 wins, Conklin helped the Wildcats to their fourth straight 20 win season. Playing in 33 of 34 games, he posted a 2.53 goals against average and .907 saves percentage. Ty was named Co-Player of the Year in Hockey East.

Jeff Farkas – Boston College – Senior forward – Williamsville, New York

Lead Hockey East in scoring with 53 points. He also led in shots on goal and tallied three hat tricks including a five goal game against Vermont, an NCAA season high. Farkas is a two time Hockey East All Academic Team selection and a draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Brian Gionta – Boston College – Junior forward – Rochester, New York

The only returning finalist from last year, Gionta is a two time Hockey East First Team All Star. He was second in the nation with 29 goals, twice named as Hockey East player of the month and earned the Bob Johnson Award from USA Hockey for his excellence in international competition.

Shawn Horcoff – Michigan State Univ. – Senior forward – Castlegar, British Columbia

Won the CCHA scoring title with 56 points while finishing third in the nation, Horcoff also led the country in assists with 45. He was named CCHA Player of the Year, Best Defensive Forward and was on the All Academic Team with a 3.4 GPA in his Marketing major. He figured in on almost half the Spartans goals.

Joel Laing – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – Senior Goaltender – Maryfield, Sask.

In setting school records with six shut outs in a single season and a career mark of 13, Laing posted the best saves percentage in the nation at .947. His 1.85 goals against average was third best and helped him earn Goaltender of the Year in the ECAC. Joel has a 4.0 GPA in the world renowned Lally School of Management.

Andy McDonald – Colgate Univ. – Senior forward – Strathroy, Ontario

The Colgate captain led the ECAC in scoring with 52 points and was second in the nation in points per game with 1.68. He was named the ECAC Player of the Year while also leading the league in goals and assists. McDonald has 16 multiple point games this season and 41 in his career.

Mike Mottau – Boston College – Senior defense – Avon, Massachusetts

The BC captain is the only defenseman candidate. Mottau has been named Hockey East Defensive Defenseman of the Year and is Co-Player of the Year. He is fourth on the team in scoring with 31 assists and 35 points. BC is the third ranked defense nationally and first in penalty killing with his help.

Jeff Panzer – Univ. of North Dakota – Junior forward – Grand Forks, North Dakota

Won the WCHA scoring title with 44 points in conference play, and finished second in the nation in overall scoring. The First Team All Star was also named one of North Dakota’s greatest athletes of the century by Sports Illustrated. Panzer played in all 39 games, recorded 16 multiple point games and is a marketing major with a 3.1 GPA.

Steve Reinprecht – Univ. of Wisconsin – Senior forward – Edmonton, Alberta

The Badgers two year captain was named WCHA Player of the Year while leading the nation in scoring with 63 points in 34 games, averaging 1.85 points per game. Reinprecht was second in the country in assists per game while centering the highest scoring line in the nation. Wisconsin is ranked number one in the country and won their first WCHA regular season title in ten years.

Following the award winner announcement on April 7th, the Decathlon Hotel and Athletic Club of Bloomington, MN will host a banquet to honor the Hobey Baker Award winner on Friday, April 14. On the program that night, the Legend of Hockey Award will honor former Wisconsin coach Bob Johnson. Current Badger coach Jeff Sauer will present the award to Bob’s wife Martha Johnson and their son Mark, an assistant coach at Wisconsin.

Boston College led the Hobey Baker candidate parade with three entrants, the second time in the 20 year history of the award a team has placed three finalists. By conference, Hockey East has four finalists while the WCHA, ECAC and CCHA each placed two members. Seven forwards, two goalies and one defenseman make up the on-ice mix and includes five Americans and five Canadians.

McDonald, Gustafson Take Home ECAC Hardware

The annual ECAC awards were handed out this morning at the Lake Placid Hilton, and leading the charge were Colgate and St. Lawrence, each taking home two of the major individual awards, voted on by the league’s 12 head coaches.

Colgate's Andy McDonald (center) accepts his award as ECAC Player of the Year.

Colgate’s Andy McDonald (center) accepts his award as ECAC Player of the Year.

Leading the way was the newly-crowned ECAC Player of the Year, Andy McDonald of Colgate.

McDonald led the ECAC in scoring with 16 goals and 20 assists, steering his Red Raider team to a second-place finish in the ECAC standings. McDonald is also one of ten Hobey Baker Finalists this season.

“I have to thank my coaching staff,” said McDonald. “Over the course of four years, head coach Don Vaughan has taught me and inspired me to take my game to different levels.”

The other Red Raider to take home an individual award was head coach Vaughan, who guided his Red Raider team to a personal-best 21 victories and in turn earned the ECAC Coach of the Year honor.

The Red Raiders finished the regular season with a 21-7-2 overall mark, and a 14-4-2 standing in the ECAC this season. At the moment, Colgate is the tenth-ranked team in the USCHO Poll.

For the second year in a row a St. Lawrence Saint earned the Rookie of the Year honor. Goaltender Derek Gustafson posted an 11-1-1 ECAC record after taking over the starting position in January.

After starting the year as part of a three-goaltender rotation, Gustafson quickly rose to the top of the depth charts and helped backstop the Saints to their first-ever ECAC regular-season title.

Gustafson was also chosen as the goaltender on the All-Rookie Team. In front of Gustafson on defense are Trevor Byrne of Dartmouth and Mark McRae from Cornell. McRae’s twin brother, Matt, was selected to a forward position, as were Harvard’s Dominic Moore and Rensselaer’s Marc Cavosie.

(Interestingly enough, every member of the rookie team except Gustafson has a brother playing in the ECAC.)

All-Rookie Team

F Dominic Moore     Harvard
F Marc Cavosie Rensselaer
F Matt McRae Cornell
D Mark McRae Cornell
D Trevor Byrne Dartmouth
G Derek Gustafson St. Lawrence

Gustafson’s teammate Justin Harney earned Best Defensive Defenseman honors. Harney, the Saint captain, led the best penalty-killing unit in the ECAC this season at 87.3 percent, and was the backbone of a defense that allowed 86 goals this season, second-best in the ECAC.

Harney also contributed 22 points from the blue line, gathering four goals and 18 assists in those 33 games.

Harney and Gustafson lead the second-team All-ECAC selections, which include three Saints. Along with Harney and Gustafson, forward Erik Anderson made the second team, along with Kirk Lamb of Princeton and Erik Cole of Clarkson at the forward position. On defense, Rensselaer captain Brian Pothier joined Harney.

ECAC Second-Team All-Stars

F  Kirk Lamb          Princeton
F Erik Cole Clarkson
F Erik Anderson St. Lawrence
D Brian Pothier Rensselaer
D Justin Harney St. Lawrence
G Derek Gustafson St. Lawrence
ECAC Commissioner Phil Buttafuoco (left) presents the Defensive Forward of the Year Award to Cornell's Doug Stienstra.

ECAC Commissioner Phil Buttafuoco (left) presents the Defensive Forward of the Year Award to Cornell’s Doug Stienstra.

The Best Defensive Forward honor went to Cornell captain Doug Stienstra. The captain anchored a Cornell defensive front line that held the opposition to 77 goals on the season, an average of 2.66 goals per game.

Stienstra is a +16 on the season and has seven multiple-point games on the season.

Rensselaer goaltender Joel Laing was feted with the Dryden Award for best goaltender in the league. Laing leads the nation in save percentage with a .947 average, is third in the nation in GAA with a 1.85 mark and has a winning percentage of .708.

“To have my name so close to that of Ken Dryden is just amazing,” said Laing. “But this is not just an individual award. As a goaltender you just try to go out there and do your job, and it’s everyone else on the ice that lets you do that.”

Laing is also one of the ten Hobey Baker Finalists, joining McDonald as a representative from the ECAC.

Laing was the goaltender on the ECAC First-Team All-Stars, one of two Engineers selected. Brad Tapper earned a forward position on the first team.

Joining Tapper on the first-team forward list are Brandon Dietrich of St. Lawrence and McDonald. On defense, Kent Huskins of Clarkson and Cory Murphy of Colgate earned the honors.

ECAC First Team All-Stars

F Andy McDonald      Colgate
F Brad Tapper Rensselaer
F Brandon Dietrich St. Lawrence
D Kent Huskins Clarkson
D Cory Murphy Colgate
G Joel Laing Rensselaer

This Week in the Hockey East: March 16, 2000

And The Envelope, Please

The official Hockey East Awards will be announced Thursday evening. Then it’ll be the real experts — the coaches — who will have done the voting. But here’s one writer’s opinion about how the honors should be dispensed.

Some of these choices ignore the statistics. Ask any coach and he’ll tell you of 24-point scorers who are better players than those who top that figure by a good margin. Stats depend a lot on how good someone’s teammates are, not to mention the particular role he is asked to fill. So look at the numbers, but don’t be seduced by them.

Before moving to the official awards, let’s first select an All-Hendu Team comprised of players whose work ethic, perseverance and teamwork deserve special recognition. Then we’ll add an All-Underrated Team as a prelude to the traditional honors.

So without further ado…

All-Hendu Team

Goaltender, Cris Classen (Merrimack): Every kid who is ready to throw in the towel at the first sign of adversity should look at Classen’s career. Relegated by most to the career backup scrap heap, this senior stood Hockey East on its head by winning the number-one spot with some of the best stats — and performances — in the league.

Defenseman, Keith Emery (Boston University): One reason this writer thought the Terriers would go nowhere this year is because Emery was projected to be in the regular defensive rotation. He hadn’t seemed like a typical BU-caliber recruit as a freshman and hadn’t particularly impressed as a sophomore. But Emery became one of the most improved players in the league this year and has proven his doubters wrong.

Defenseman, Arik Engbrecht (Northeastern): This sophomore redshirted all of last year with a back injury, but came back with a strong season. Hey, you thought a 5-10, 179-pound defenseman would just give up?

Forward, Doug Sheppard (Providence College): This ham-and-egger made himself into a team captain and top scorer as a senior after a modest beginning as a Friar. Not flashy, Sheppard plays a strong game in all three zones.

Forward, Willie Levesque (Northeastern): Is there a player in the league with a better work ethic than this sophomore? If there’s a loose puck in the corner, he’s one of the top guys you’d want going after it. And he may be the most proficient practitioner of the stick press around.

Forward, Chris Halecki (Merrimack): You might think that having a six-goal scorer centering one of your top two lines would be a problem, but Halecki contributed to the Warriors more than most casual fans noticed. He may not have been in many headlines, but he played terrific defense and did all the little things that go into winning games.

All-Underrated Team

Goaltender, Cris Classen (Merrimack): As noted above, he hasn’t gotten a great deal of ink, but has been one of the league’s top netminders this year.

Defenseman, Dan Enders (New Hampshire): He doesn’t have the flashy offensive moves that tend to gain notice for a defenseman, but this senior has been rock-solid all year. And a great team leader to boot.

Defenseman, Josh MacNevin (Providence College): Offensive statistics are usually the most eye-catching thing about defensemen, but MacNevin was even overlooked last year when he had 35 points.

Forward, Greg Classen (Merrimack): Perhaps the best-kept secret in Hockey East, Classen is a terrific two-way player whose sole liability this year was one snakebit stretch when he couldn’t bury the puck. Even so, this kid makes things happen.

Forward, Barrett Heisten (Maine): This sophomore is another well-rounded player whose value can’t be encapsulated by his statistics. Terrific in the corners, he’s not far from being an All-Hockey East selection.

Forward, Anthony Aquino (Merrimack): This kid came into the league as a 17-year-old novelty. He’s still 17, but he’s no novelty. He’s got speed, skill and a nice touch around the net.

All-Rookie Team

Forward, Anthony Aquino (Merrimack): As noted above, Aquino is already a terrific player despite his age. Next year, he’ll contend for All-Hockey East.

Forward, Peter Fregoe (Providence): He came into the league with only three years of eligibility remaining, so you’ll often see him listed as a sophomore. Nonetheless, this is his first year so he’s a legit rookie. It took a few games for this 5-9, 185-pound waterbug to adjust to the physical play of collegiate hockey, but since then he’s been very effective.

Forward, Krys Kolanos (Boston College): At the Christmas break, Kolanos wasn’t even on the All-Rookie radar screen. After scoring a goal in his first game, he’d been stuck in neutral through the holidays. Since then, however, he’s been immense, totaling 15 goals in 23 games.

Defense, Garrett Stafford (New Hampshire): Stafford has impressed from the first exhibition game. With major holes to fill on the Wildcat blue line, he’s been solid defensively and a fixture at one point on the power play.

Defense, Freddie Meyer (Boston University): Usually a rookie who arrives in mid-season wouldn’t get consideration for this team, but Meyer has been so good he just can’t be overlooked.

Goaltender, Ricky DiPietro (Boston University): No surprise here. BU’s biggest question mark going into the season turned into an exclamation point with DiPietro’s exceptional play.

Len Ceglarski Sportsmanship Award

Tommi Degerman (Boston University): He is the most deserving of the candidates to take assume the mantle from Maine’s Steve Kariya, who won this award three straight years. Degerman has consistently stayed out of the penalty box and been an exclusively positive force this year for the Terriers.

Old Time Hockey Best Defensive Defenseman

Doug Janik (Maine): He provides some offense, too, but if any one blueliner fits the profile of a hard-hitting, defensive stalwart, Janik is it. He’s been exceptional all season long.

Best Defensive Forward

Chris Halecki (Merrimack): As noted above, Halecki has been as strong a defensive forward as there has been in the league this year.

Bob Kullen Coach of the Year

Jack Parker (Boston University): This one is a no-brainer. If you need an explanation here, you haven’t been paying attention.

Rookie of the Year

Ricky DiPietro (Goaltender, Boston University): Another no-brainer in which the explanation is self-evident.

All-Hockey East Second Team

Goaltender, Ty Conklin (New Hampshire): He was a first-team all-star and a serious Hobey Baker candidate through the first half of the season. The second half hasn’t matched the first, but Conklin has stolen many a game for the Wildcats this year. UNH isn’t the scoring machine of year’s past, but still finished second in Hockey East. Conklin is the biggest reason why.

Defenseman, Doug Janik (Maine): Janik’s offense is highly underrated — he has a booming shot from the point — and he’s an exceptional defender.

Defenseman, Bobby Allen (Boston College): He’s often overshadowed by his teammate Mike Mottau, but Allen is a two-way star in his own right.

Forward, Cory Larose (Maine): Larose is one of Hockey East’s most under-recognized stars. A good case could be made that he deserves first team status since he is, after all, number three in points.

Forward, Mike Souza (New Hampshire): This season wasn’t entirely easy sledding for the senior. He did have a few snakebit nights, which got him pressing, which in turn affected his playmaking. But he did right the ship and remains one of Hockey East’s most dangerous snipers.

Forward, Jeff Turner (UMass-Amherst): This selection is likely to raise a few eyebrows since Turner’s point totals are below those of other, more-publicized forwards like BC’s Blake Bellefeuille and BU’s Degerman, Chris Heron and Carl Corazzini. But compare the UMass-Amherst offensive game plan and personnel with that of the Eagles, Terriers or other top contenders and then decide which player really had the better year.

All-Hockey East First Team

Goaltender, Ricky DiPietro (Boston University): There are other netminders in the league with better statistics, but keep in mind that the Terriers defense consisted of three rookies and two sophomores, both of whom played only half of last year. Goaltending statistics are team statistics, so forget them. DiPietro was the best.

Defenseman, Mike Mottau (Boston College): Another no-brainer. He isn’t already a two-time (to be three-time) All-American for nothing.

Defenseman, Pat Aufiero (Boston University): He can’t finish like his teammate Dyment, but from end line to hash marks Aufiero has few equals. Only Mottau is better.

Forward, Jeff Farkas (Boston College): He led the league in scoring and trails only teammate Brian Gionta in goals. When he on the penalty kill, the threat of his offense is almost enough to make you think "even strength."

Forward, Brian Gionta (Boston College): Ditto. Gionta got off to a relatively slow start, but is a constant threat to either go end-to-end or set an effective screen in front.

Forward, Darren Haydar (New Hampshire): Even though Larose out-pointed Haydar, this UNH sophomore gets the nod with his 21 goals. Only Farkas and Gionta are more dangerous.

(Note: the single most controversial omission is probably that of BU defenseman Chris Dyment. There isn’t another blueliner in the league who matches his 11 goals. Even so, this writer would contend that the four selections are still the best four overall defensemen.)

KOHO Player of the Year

The Hockey East media guide describes this award as going to a player "who has demonstrated superior play and leadership for his team." This still begs the question of whether the award goes to the league’s "best player" or the one who was "most indispensable." As a result, this column will recognize two winners.

Player of the Year (most indispensable) – Ricky DiPietro (Boston University): His fellow Terrier netminder, Jason Tapp, did come on late in the season, but for most of 1999-2000, DiPietro was the difference between first place and another fifth-place finish (or worse).

Player of the Year (best player) – Mike Mottau (Boston College): He may not be a Hobey Baker finalist because defensemen rarely get a fair shake compared to the headline-makers. Besides, he’s got Farkas and Gionta to split the vote. But no player in the league has excelled more consistently than Mottau. Headlines or not, he’s Hockey East’s top player.

Tape Delay? Eeeew, gross!

When it was recently announced that the Fox Sports New England telecast of Friday night’s semifinal and Saturday’s championship games would be on tape delay, Hockey East fans groaned. The supposed crown jewel of the TV package on tape delay?

What about Hockey East being the best conference in the nation? Tape delay in deference to the once-proud, but now stunningly boring Boston Celtics?

What did this say about Hockey East’s stature? That it was the New England sports equivalent of a banana republic?

And since the Celtics’ schedule was known long ago, why wasn’t the tape delay news announced earlier? Was this like hiding a bad report card from your parents for as long as possible?

"It was just the appropriate time for us and Fox," says Hockey East Director of Media Relations Ed Saunders. "We were waiting to see how the whole playoff picture was going to unfold and who would be on [TV] in the quarterfinals. We just wanted to wait and announce it all at once rather than deal with several issues separately.

"In no way has Fox been at all sneaky or tried to slip something by us. We’ve been aware all along. They’ve been working very diligently with us to make sure that they cover all their bases and make good [on our contract]."

As for the tape delay issue itself, it’s obviously unfortunate and a situation that everyone hopes to avoid in the future.

"We were constrained by the contract as it was written," says Saunders. "When it came up, Fox was [saying], ‘Obviously, this situation is uncomfortable for us, too.’

"It’s not like they just came down with a firm hand and said, ‘That’s the way it is. That’s the way it’s going to be.’ They found out at the last minute that they’d be having all of the Celtics games. We sat down with them and worked around that."

The current TV contract with Fox Sports New England expires this year and elimination of tape delay will be discussed as part of a potential renewal of that deal.

But Saunders hopes that fans will look at the big picture if tape delay again rears its ugly head.

"I am sure that this is an issue that will be brought up, but the realities of the contract and our TV situation are such that we’re really the only league that isn’t paying for television coverage," he says. "The ECAC pays for their NESN broadcasts. The partnership between the CCHA and Joe Louis Arena pays for the CCHA’s broadcasts. And the WCHA doesn’t have a league broadcast.

"We’re in a position where not only are we not paying for TV, but we’re also getting great coverage. We’re in three million homes, which we didn’t have with the NESN situation. I think the quality of the production has improved dramatically over the past few years from where we were five or six years ago.

"As a league, you have to weigh all the different variables and decide. Certainly we’d love to have our championship game on live. That’s something we’d aim to do in the future, but at the same time we have to look at what Fox brings to the table for us and weigh that against the other considerations."

Fox Sports New England has actually displayed considerable devotion to the broadcasts simply in its lobbying with its parent to be allowed to displace national programming with the Hockey East games.

"The reality is that Fox Sports National gives them a lot of direction in terms of picking up national programming and what they’re allowed to do with regional programming," says Saunders. "Each Fox market is allowed what they call their local franchises.

"[FSNE] doesn’t have the Bruins. They don’t have the Red Sox. They do have the Celtics, the Revolution, [Fox Sports News] and us. With their national programming, they characterize us as one of their four major franchises. Because of that, we’re allowed to have games at 7:00 whereas normally they wouldn’t because they’d have to pick up the national broadcast, like the boxing on Sunday nights.

"They’ve worked with Fox National to free up time to get us in and make up for the fact that they got caught off guard with the Celtics thing. In the future, that’s an issue that’s going to be addressed and hopefully we’ll come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody. I don’t know what that will possibly be, but we’ll sit down with them and discuss it."

Trivia Contest

Last week’s contest posed the following question, courtesy of Peter Biscardi: what hometown can boast the greatest number of Hobey Baker Award winners?

Paul Gentile gets the tip of the fedora for being the quickest with the right answer: Burlington, Massachusetts. Burlington is the hometown of the Fusco brothers — Scott and Mark — winners in 1983 and 1986, as well as 1996 runner-up Jay Pandolfo.

Paul also notes that Malden, Mass. had the ’86 and ’87 D-II Hobey winners (both years won by Tom Sasso of Babson College).

With this being the last week of Hockey East league action, this column is likely to change formats next week, so the above is the last trivia question of the year.

Thanks to all who participated.

This Week in the ECAC: March 16, 2000

Making Hilary and Rudy Proud If we had only known that the key to ECAC prognostication heaven was geographic in nature, our overall prediction record would have been much improved. After 21 weeks, 147 days or 3,528 hours — however you choose to look at it — the league race is down to only five teams, and all of them are from New York State. Who would have thought?

“Being the only New York State resident (by birth), over time, Lake Placid has proven to be a great venue for any hockey and to see all five New York teams is huge,” said Clarkson head coach Mark Morris. “It instills the pride we have in our hockey in this area. It’s become a real place to identify with our league.”

League symbolism aside, the real benefit may have more to do with the odometer. In the words of St. Lawrence head coach Joe Marsh:

“[Having] all New York teams means everyone can get there.”

Three weeks ago, no one really knew who was going to make the playoffs, let alone earn a free ticket to Lake Placid. Then it all fell into place. A sweep here, an upset there …

After a turbulent, unpredictable regular season, it was rather an ironic ending. In what has become an anomaly in recent ECAC history, all five teams en route to Lake Placid this weekend were the favorites heading into the quarterfinals. Granted, St. Lawrence, Rensselaer, Colgate, Clarkson and Cornell all had their share of scary moments last weekend, but in the end all five teams managed to walk away from their home rink on Saturday night with dreams of an ECAC championship in their heads.

Regardless of how the five teams got here, this is what we have been waiting for all season long. The Olympic Center ice has been prepped and the tickets have been sold. It’s time to write the final chapter of the 1999-2000 ECAC season.

ECAC Preliminary Game #5 Clarkson (17-14-3) vs. #4 Cornell (15-12-2) Thursday, 7:30 ET, 1980 Olympic Arena, Lake Placid, NY Earlier this season: Nov. 20, 1999 @Cornell 10, Clarkson 4; Feb. 11, 2000 Cornell 8, @ Clarkson 3 Last Playoff Meeting: 1997 ECAC Championship Cornell 2, Clarkson 1

Thursday’s game will be an interesting matchup, between two teams that looked like they might not have gotten there as recently as three weeks ago.

After a Sunday loss to Dartmouth headed into the final weekend, Cornell was eighth in the ECAC and wondering about its positioning. Clarkson was also out of home ice after getting swept by Cornell and Colgate and wondering if it would be at home heading into that same weekend.

Last weekend, both teams were at home, and both have now moved on to Lake Placid.

Clarkson defeated Princeton in two games, 3-2 and 2-1. Both nights, the Golden Knights trailed in the middle of the second period. Comebacks sent the Knights to Lake Placid — the only team to ever make an appearance at Lake Placid every year the ECAC championships have been held there. But it sure didn’t seem likely to turn out that way after an 0-4-3 ECAC start.

“We had a real gritty performance against Princeton this weekend and we’re playing some of our best hockey right now,” said Morris. “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to get back to Lake Placid after a pretty dismal start. We’re on equal footing with the field and it’s nice to see all New York teams make the field.”

The dismal start was erased with a 9-4-0 stretch ECAC run. Morris points to one reason above all others for the turnaround.

“It’s called goaltending,” he stated. “For much of the first half of the season we were around 85 percent [save percentage], and now we’re up around 90. It’s tough to play with confidence when we’re not getting good goaltending. You have to marvel at how well the goaltending has been around the league, and any team that is struggling or any team that didn’t make it, you can attribute it to the fact that they were vulnerable there.”

Karl Mattson joined the Knights in January and has since taken over the number-one spot from last year’s ECAC championship goaltender, Shawn Grant. Mattson has gone 10-4-0 with a .905 save percentage and a 2.60 GAA since joining the Knights.

Morris also mentioned some other items.

“Most people realized that we weren’t the team we expected to be and we lost three players that were all gritty players and everyone had to take on new roles with our team,” he said. “It’s a process and for the majority of the first half of the season we had three freshman defensemen.”

Cornell was sitting at 4-7-0 at the start of the ECAC season when things started to gel for the Big Red. The stretch was kind to the Big Red as they went 6-2-1 in the league, wound up at home for the playoffs and took out Harvard by 4-3 scores in a two-game sweep.

“I’m happy to be back at Lake Placid. It’s pretty boring to go up there as a coach and to watch everyone else play,” said head coach Mike Schafer. “We had a great series with Harvard and they played a great series in a hostile environment. We’ve righted the ship and we’re playing well right now. It’s going to be one of the best conference matchups in Lake Placid in a long, long time.”

Two teams that seemed to have things going for them at the right time of the season face a daunting task — winning three games to claim the ECAC title and a chance at the NCAA tournament.

“It’s all new to us,” said Morris about the preliminary-round game. “If I had a preference I would prefer the four teams instead of the five, but I won’t squawk this year. We’ve played everyone tough except Cornell and we’d like the opportunity to show that we are better than we were against them. If your kids can experience what it’s like and they came up short, chances are you’ll be stronger down the stretch.

“We had some disappointments early on but our stretch run has been something that we’ve been trying to grab a hold on, and whether it’s Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, we’ll leave it on the ice.”

“That’s just a fact of life that you go in and play the three games,” said Schafer. “It puts the kids in an unusual position as they haven’t played three games in a row yet, and they have to win those three to win it. I don’t think they should have to play three in order to win it.

“Not a lot differentiated the teams in our league this year and you look at the fourth or fifth seed in an underdog role and you adopt that mentality. You take it one game at a time, and I know it’s the old cliche, and you worry about what happens after that. Fortunately, we’re healthy and we’re going to need that depth.”

In the two previous meetings between the two teams this season, Cornell was the convincing winner in both. The Big Red thrashed the Knights 10-4 and 8-3 this season, and Morris must find a way for his Knight team to avoid the same result this Thursday evening.

“We got out to a real awful start at Cornell, and to their credit they rode the crowd pretty hard — as they always do at Lynah. The momentum was almost unbearable and then we didn’t play well in Cheel either,” he said. “All I know is it’s tough to knock a team out three times in a season, and (Schafer’s) done a great job in building his team; they’re big and strong and we feel that the larger ice surface will help us. We’ll keep our feet moving.”

ECAC Semifinal #3 Rensselaer (21-12-2) vs. #2 Colgate (23-7-2) Friday, 4:00 ET, 1980 Olympic Arena, Lake Placid, NY Earlier this season: Nov. 6, 1999 Colgate 4, @ Rensselaer 2; Feb. 18, 2000 @Colgate 5, Rensselaer 4 Last Playoff Meeting: 1995 ECAC Semifinal Rensselaer 2, Colgate 1

These two combatants have not met for five years in the ECAC playoffs. Back in 1995, Kelly Askew scored the game-winning goal for Rensselaer as the Engineers won their first ECAC title since 1985. Colgate is looking for its first title since 1990, when the Red Raiders beat these selfsame Engineers in the ECAC championship game. Perhaps this year, the winner of this game will take the title, as was the case in the last two final-round meetings between the two.

The Engineers come off of a sweep against Dartmouth this past weekend, winning, 7-2, and then coming back to win 3-2 in overtime after scoring the tying goal with six seconds left to play.

“We’re happy to be back in the field,” said head coach Dan Fridgen. “That was a good Dartmouth team that took us to task this past weekend. It took all we could to tie the game up and then win it in overtime.”

The Engineers got 10 goals from 10 different players last weekend, a good sign for the Engineer offense. They will face off against another solid offensive club in Colgate.

The Red Raiders had to go to overtime on Friday evening to win 5-4 after trailing 3-0 midway through the second period against Yale. Tied at two in the third period on Saturday, the Red Raiders got the game-winning goal and an empty-netter to send them to Lake Placid.

“We’re coming off two very good games at home against Yale,” said head coach Don Vaughan. “They were both very close games and we had to come back on Friday. Our team showed a lot of character in battling back. We were fortunate to have the 2-1 lead after two periods in game two, but Andy McDonald was there as he has been.

“(Yale) came in here three years ago and beat us 1-0 in the preliminary game, and that’s what I was thinking about when it was 3-0. When we got that first goal, we started feeling it and we started to play our game.”

The Red Raiders took the two earlier meetings between the two teams, 4-2, in Troy, and then, 5-4, in Hamilton just a few weeks ago. So, winning two games gives a team and edge and can be the key to this semifinal. Right?

“The first thing we’ve talked about is to wipe the slate clean and not take any stock in what has happened,” said Vaughan about the season sweep. “RPI is playing a lot better now than when we faced off a month ago. On the big ice surface and with an experienced team, I think we’re the underdog in this one.”

“I don’t think there is any one key,” said Fridgen. “I disagree with the fact that Colgate is the underdog. I think that we will have to come out and play better than we did. You’re going to see two teams that are very similar in terms of forward speed and goaltending.”

But there are keys you can look for in this game. One is scoring the first goal, and then holding a lead.

“Any time you fall behind in a hockey game it’s very, very difficult, and what we have to do better is handle that frustration,” said Fridgen. “Instead of playing smart we tend to get frustrated and end up taking needless penalties. We need to handle playing come from behind hockey better because I am sure that no matter whether we’re ahead or behind we have to play 60 full minutes. We learned that against Union (a 3-2 overtime loss after leading 2-1 with under three minutes to play). That come-from-behind win over Dartmouth will give us confidence.”

Secondly, the bigger ice surface will make a difference.

“What we need to do is to make the ice surface as small as possible, be physical and try to slow down some of their better players and try not to get into a wide-open game,” said Vaughan. “Even though we have some guys that can do that, I don’t think it plays into our hands to do that. We have to find a way to slow them down and maybe get into their faces.”

Third could be special teams. Colgate’s power play is working at a 25% clip on the power play, that to go with an 82.6% penalty kill. Rensselaer’s power play is converting at 20%, and its penalty kill is working at a rate of 85.1%.

“That group has been together for two years and that has a lot to do with it,” said Vaughan about his ECAC-best power-play unit. “You can have all the Xs and Os that you want, but if you don’t execute then it doesn’t matter. It’s not about putting guys in a certain spot — it’s about finding players and knowing where they are. When you put a group like we have together, they’re all pretty creative guys and we allow them to be that way.

“When they have all the creativity that they have, defensively it’s a lot of hard work by stopping and starting and getting into shooting lanes and getting into passing lanes,” added Fridgen. “Hopefully the goaltender can come up with the save because he will see some shots.”

And speaking of goaltenders, the fourth key could be a sharp Shep Harder (.915 save percentage, 2.46 GAA) and a healthy Joel Laing (.947 save percentage, 1.85 GAA) in the nets for the Engineers. The last time the two teams met, Laing had just gotten over a major illness and was playing his first game in two weeks.

“I think Laing had an off night in our building and I don’t think that will happen again, so when we get our chances we had better make the best of them,” said Vaughan.

ECAC Semifinal #5 Clarkson (17-14-3)/#4 Cornell (15-12-2)vs. #1 St. Lawrence (24-7-2) Friday, 7:00 ET, 1980 Olympic Arena, Lake Placid, NY Earlier this season: Dec. 4, 1999 St. Lawrence 1, @Clarkson 1, ot; Jan. 21, 2000 @St. Lawrence 7, Clarkson 3; Nov. 19, 1999 @Cornell 4, St. Lawrence 0; Feb. 12, 2000 @St. Lawrence 3, Cornell 1 Last Playoff Meeting: 1999 ECAC Championship Clarkson 3, St. Lawrence 2; 1995 ECAC Preliminary Round Cornell 6, St. Lawrence 2

What do you get for capturing the regular-season title and then knocking off your quarterfinal opponent in two games? You get a week of uncertainty.

After squeaking past a pesky Union squad last weekend, St. Lawrence was forced to endure a week of practice without knowing who it would meet in the semifinals. As the number-one seed, the Saints will take on the winner of Thursday night’s contest between No. 4 Clarkson and No. 5 Cornell.

What St. Lawrence knows for sure, however, is that both Clarkson and Cornell will try to play a physical game coming off solid quarterfinal performances. With that in mind, the Saints are content to sit back and allow the two teams to battle it out on Thursday. Marsh & Co. have their sights set on the bigger goal — one which painfully eluded them last season.

“We have to get back to the finals and we have to take it one step at a time,” said Marsh, whose team was forced to stand on the Olympic ice last year and watch Clarkson hoist the championship trophy following a 3-2 victory over the Saints. “The two teams will be a tough test to get to the final game. We’re not thinking the final game — you think of the next period, or next shift. We have to stay on an agenda and not get off, and the guys have bought into that.”

St. Lawrence has been one of the only consistent teams in the league this season. While the rankings flip-flopped week in and week out, the Saints were able to look down from above as they maintained a grasp on the league’s top spot. A late-season rush by Colgate aside, St. Lawrence was able to cruise to a conference-best 16-3-1 record and a .825 winning percentage.

The solid goaltending kept the Saints alive during the earlier stages when the offense was struggling to find a rhythm. By the latter stages of the season, the forward corps had become one of the most dangerous in the nation, averaging 4.54 goals per game in its final 13 ECAC games. In its quarterfinal series with Union, St. Lawrence collected 12 goals in just two games. It was that offensive explosiveness which propelled the Saints past a dangerous Skating Dutchmen team.

“Our series was a great series,” said Marsh. “The first night, that 8-4 score was misleading. The next night [a 4-3 victory] we were under control and they came out and turned the game around. It was one of the most exciting — well maybe for the fans, as I was practically under the bench at one point.”

Marsh has brought his team from the ECAC cellar to championship status in a few short years. Last year’s title loss to bitter rival Clarkson was a painful experience for the Saint players, but it was also invaluable experience for the upperclassmen.

“You can draw on any type of playoff experience that you can get, and I think that’s one of things that hurt us in the span where we didn’t get to Placid, and the guys were thinking they didn’t know what they were missing,” said Marsh. “We now have the playoff position to draw on, and we have some guys in the room who have played a lot of games since they were freshmen. We hope they can draw on that experience.”

Cornell had St. Lawrence’s number earlier this season, however, as the Ithaca boys handed the Saints their first loss of the season, a 4-0 defeat at Lynah Rink. St. Lawrence bounced back last month to even the regular-season series with a 3-1 win, perhaps buoyed by a Cornell food poisoning bout. The Saints have never faced Clarkson in the semifinal round, but the two teams are 2-2 in championship bouts. St. Lawrence recorded a win and tie against Clarkson this season, but the game which is top of the mind for the Saints occurred almost a year ago, when Clarkson walked away with a championship trophy which the Saints felt could have been theirs.

This Week in the CCHA: March 16, 2000

Goin’ To The Joe

This year’s CCHA championship tourney includes two perennials, one old friend, and one newbie.

Congratulations to Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Nebraska-Omaha.

Between them, Michigan and Michigan State have 20 more wins in overall play than do Notre Dame and UNO. Both Michigan and Michigan State are ranked; the Irish and the Mavs finished the regular season with records below .500 in overall play.

I don’t know what this says about the league, but I’m sure every coach would point to this as an indication of how tough the CCHA is as a league from top to bottom. It does seem to prove that any team can beat any other team on any given night, but I’m not sure that says as much about the strengths of the league as it does its weaknesses.

But I digress.

Teams No. 1, No. 2., No. 5, and No. 7 are participating in the semifinals, marking the first year since the 1996-97 season that a squad that wasn’t among the top four made it to The Joe. In that year, No. 5 Bowling Green knocked off No. 4 Lake Superior, in the Soo.

It would be deja vu all over again, if BG hadn’t had to go through Omaha after Sault Ste. Marie on the road to Detroit.

You have to go all the way back to the 1986-87 season to find two seeds lower than No. 4 in the semis. That year, No. 6 Ohio State and No. 5 Western Michigan joined No. 1 Bowling Green and No. 2 Michigan State. Both lower seeds lost their semifinal games.

It was the 1996-97 season that last saw two teams from outside of Michigan make the semis, when No. 5 Bowling Green and No. 2 Miami played along with No. 1 Michigan and No. 3 Michigan State.

Teams representing three different states–Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois–last participated in the semifinals in 1988-99.

This year, however, marks the very first time that a team in its first-ever season of league affiliation of any kind has gone to The Joe. That honor belongs to the Mavericks of Nebraska-Omaha.

To quote Ron Mason, and many good sportsmen like him, "May the best team win."

No. 1 Michigan

"Our team is glad to get the first round out of the way," says head coach Red Berenson. "It was a hard-fought battle with Western Michigan."

The Wolverines outscored the Broncos 10-4 on the weekend — not blowouts, but decisive wins.

"We were expected to get there, and sometimes that puts a little different kind of pressure on your team."

Consecutive wins of 4-2 and 6-2 ought to dispel any doubts about Michigan. This team was supposed to beat Western handily, and it did.

Now the Wolverines meet the Mavericks in the second game of the Semifinals. For those of you keeping track of such things, Michigan beat Omaha 6-2 and 6-1 in December–when the Wolverines were "struggling."

And now it’s time for postseason play. Here are a few tidbits that should speak volumes about this impending semifinal game:

The Wolverines have appeared in the last nine consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

Michigan has been to the Frozen Four six times in the last eight years, including four consecutive appearances from 1995-98.

The Wolverines have won a record nine NCAA Tournament National Championships, and more importantly have taken two of the last four (1995-96, 1997-98).

Michigan has captured four out of the last six CCHA tournament titles.

Berenson led Michigan to nine consecutive Great Lakes Invitational tournament championships.

"Overall, I like the way our team is playing," says Berenson. "Our defense has become more and more solid since the first of the season, and with Josh Blackburn back in goal, he gives us an added dimension. He can make the difference in the game if we do break down, as we did against Western."

Blackburn missed the first half of the season with a foot injury, but since returning to the net full time in the second session, Blackburn has a cumulative .913 save percentage in league play, and a 2.12 GAA.

"We’re getting balanced scoring from our team," says Berenson. "Scott Matzka has played extremely well in recent weeks, along with the players who are expected to score, like Mike Comrie and Andy Hilbert."

Matzka is one of the league’s underrated players. An in-your-face, all-heart kind of guy, Matzka has 14 goals and 15 assists in overall play, is +22 overall, and has six shorthanders on the season. Tenacious doesn’t even begin to describe this kid.

As for the Michigan team defense, it’s at +212 overall, and +166 in league play. The Wolverines outscored league opponents 112-65 on the season.

"I like our team," says Berenson. "I think we’ll put up a good battle."

Mr. Understatement speaks.

No. 2 Michigan State

The Spartans have won all 19 first-round series they’ve played in Munn Arena, and only once since joining the CCHA have they missed a trip to The Joe–and that’s because they lost a first-round series on the road.

Like the Wolverines, the Spartans have an impressive playoff pedigree.

MSU has captured eight CCHA tournament titles, most recently in 1997-98.

MSU is 56-15 all-time in the CCHA tournament, and has the best tournament winning percentage in conference history (.789).

MSU is 22-9 at Joe Louis Arena in the CCHA Tournament (.710 win percentage), another conference best.

MSU is 10-0 in overtime CCHA tourney games.

Ron Mason has 68 CCHA tournament wins, nearly twice as many as the next closest coach (Berenson).

The Spartans beat the RedHawks 6-2 and 5-1 to get to The Joe, and Mason sounds as much relieved as pleased with the statement made with those two games.

"Three months ago I told everybody here that we were kind of in a holding pattern, that we could go in two or three different directions: we could head up, we could head down, or we could stay the same. Our team for one reason or another really seemed to band together and we played our best hockey, and we ended up going up.

"We played well down the stretch, and I think the pucks started to go in for us a little bit more than they were earlier.

"With the Miami series, we were playing a team that had a lot of injuries and things weren’t going that well for them and we got most of the bounces, so the games weren’t really that close for us.

"But most of the games that we’ve been playing here down the stretch have been just like playoff games; they’ve been close games, hard-fought."

Two of those hard-fought battles were against the Irish, a 2-2 tie in South Bend and a 5-2 win in Munn. Earlier in the season, the Spartans split a weekend series with Notre Dame, losing 1-0 and winning 4-1.

"All the games have been tough games, and all the players have respect for their program and where they’ve gone."

Michigan State has been a bit of an enigma this season, starting the campaign on fire, cooling off in the middle, and–as Mason said–climbing toward the end. Mason himself succinctly sums up the Spartans.

"Shawn Horcoff has had an unbelievable year. I think last year he was overshadowed by Mike York and this year he’s had a chance to show his stuff. He’s everything a coach would like. He sets the standard for all the rest of our players.

Horcoff won the league scoring title with eight goals and 36 assists (12-46–58 overall), and finished the regular season at +19 in league play. Horcoff is a playmaker of the highest caliber, the kind of guy who can break a game open.

"Mike Weaver–we finally got him back in the lineup against Miami Saturday. He’s so key to our penalty killing and our defense. Without him we’re not as strong. Adam Hall of course is our leading goal scorer and he’s had a fabulous year."

Weaver (+14) is essential to Michigan State’s defense. In the four games the senior missed because of injury, the Spartans gave up five power-play goals. Michigan State had given up five power-play goals in the 19 games preceding his injury.

Hall has 19 goals in league play. Let me repeat that: 19 goals in league play. He’s a great player, on a great line with Horcoff and Brian Maloney.

"Goaltending-wise, Ryan Miller and Joe Blackburn are very good, and I don’t know who’s going to play on Friday," said Mason.

Miller–with an astounding .941 save percentage in league play–appears to be the go-to guy for the Spartans, in spite of what Mason says. Blackburn’s save percentage of .908 is nothing to sneeze at.

"Our team has been pretty consistent all year. Our power play has been pretty good all year and still is. Our penalty killing has been pretty good all year and still is."

The Spartans have the top power play (.200) and top PK (.911) in the league.

"I like the way we’re playing right now," Mason summed up.

Who wouldn’t?

No. 5 Notre Dame

The Irish return to The Joe for just the second time in program history, and the first time since 1981-82, when current Irish head coach Dave Poulin was co-captain of the Notre Dame squad. The Irish lost 4-1, and current CCHA Commissioner Tom Anastos was a freshman and scored the game-winner for the Spartans in that game.

Poulin, who’s always quick with the one-liners, quips, "Actually, I was covering Tom on that play."

In the past 19 seasons, the Irish have won just three first-round playoff series, either as members of the WCHA or the CCHA, and Notre Dame is 12-28-3 all-time in postseason play.

Last weekend the Irish finally broke the curse of the bridesmaid by winning their series with Ferris State in three games.

"We had a terrific, terrific battle with Ferris State on the weekend. It was emotional," says Poulin.

"We played well on Friday night, came back to win 4-3, then got hammered on Saturday night in the 6-1 game. So you don’t know how your team is going to react coming back. The previous two years we’ve been in similar situations–lost to Michigan two years ago, then lost to Northern at home in the third game–so we’d been there, and I think that helped us in preparing for Sunday night’s game."

The Irish won the third game 4-2.

"It was a terrific hockey game and an empty net goal, and I think that’s how close our league is right now."

The Irish came out of the gate slow again this season, but have improved in key areas as the year progressed.

"I was disappointed with our play early on. We fought through a number of things, and we’ve certainly played our best hockey since January 1. The reason is our that our best players have been our best players.

"Up front, Danny Carlson, a junior out of Edina, Minnesota, has been terrific. Ben Simon is playing his best hockey of the year."

Carlson leads the Irish with 13 goals and 11 assists in league play. He has been spectacular on the Notre Dame power play, garnering eight goals in conference play, nine in overall. He also has three league game-winners, five overall.

Simon has been equally effective on the PP. Simon (8-13–21 conference) has seven league power-play tallies and 10 in overall play.

"The four seniors on defense who have led the way throughout have been good all year long–Nathan Borega, Tyson Fraser, Sean Molina, and Sean Seyferth. And a freshman has really emerged for us on defense, Evan Nielsen."

The numbers don’t reflect how effective this Irish defense can be. The four seniors are collectively minus 18, and only Molina is on the plus side at +1. Nielsen is +3 in conference play. The team, as a whole, is -65 in league contests.

But these four defenders–especially Borega and Fraser–have been the backbone of this Irish squad through tough times, when one or the other–or three, or four–has been injured or ill, when leading scorers have been injured or off in the World Juniors, through the proverbial thick and thin.

And while the Irish are being outscored by conference opponents, they can brag that it ain’t by much: 76-65 in regular-season league play.

"In net, our guy has been Tony Zasowski, who came from the Omaha Lancers last year and really took the reins in early December."

Zasowski went 11-5-6 in conference play, with a .909 SV% and 2.30 GAA.

The Irish are tough contenders, not at all easy to beat.

No. 7 Nebraska-Omaha

"This is certainly a goal that people set up for themselves," says Mike Kemp, "and we feel privileged to be joining everybody there."

Privileged…and tired, no doubt. The Mavericks have played four games in five days to reach the Joe, beating Northern Michigan 4-2, losing to the Wildcats 5-1, and then winning the road series 2-1 before returning to the Bullpen, where the Mavs beat Bowling Green 3-1.

Jeff Hoggan (12-7–19) had the game-winner in all three of UNO’s playoff games. Holy cow.

Junior James Chalmers (1-6–7) had three goals and two assists in the Northern series.

Another junior, Allan Carr (5-16–21), became the first Maverick to reach the 30-point plateau with his assist on Hoggan’s power-play goal in the BG game. Carr has 11 goals and 19 assists overall this season.

"It’s been quite a stretch here for us…over the last week," says Kemp. "The Northern Michigan series was just a great, great hockey series, and we feel very fortunate to have come out of that series knowing the kind of game that Northern Michigan plays, the quality of their program, the history of their program.

"It was a huge challenge for us to go up there…and our kids rose to the occasion," says Kemp. "And I think we had some luck, especially Sunday [when] there were a couple of close calls–pucks that went into the net and the net got dislodged, a waved-off goal. It always gives you the thought that maybe you’re a team of destiny.

"We felt that on Saturday night when we lost 5-1 that we didn’t play badly as a team. We had a short stretch in the second period where things kind of unraveled…when it went from 1-1 to 5-1. After that we seemed to settle down and play consistently until the end of the game, and that gave us something to build upon Sunday."

Apparently, the game at the Civic Center in Omaha was something special, newly-built ice and all.

"Our fans turned out in droves, and the atmosphere in Civic Auditorium is something I don’t recall in my 25 years of college coaching. It was a deafening atmosphere, a carnival-like atmosphere, and certainly the fans did much to get our adrenaline pumping and help us overcome any fatigue we might have been feeling from our 36-hour recovery time from game to game.

"Our kids rallied, played hard. I can’t say enough good things about the way Bowling Green approached the game and how hard they played. Tyler Masters was absolutely outstanding, but we were fortunate. In any game like that, it gets down to late in the third and it’s a 1-1 game, you just know that it’s going to be a bounce, and certainly we were fortunate to get a bounce and the puck just kind of trickled in our way.

"That set the stage for us to go forward."

Team of destiny? Maybe.

The Mavs are plus one in league play, and have been outscored by conference opponents 96-86. They’re fifth in the league in goals per game (2.97), 10th in goals allowed (3.31), eighth on the power play (.160), and 10th on the PK (.799). They average nearly 23 minutes per game in the box.

Kendall Sidoruk has a .889 conference save percentage with a 3.24 GAA. Rodney McLeod’s save percentage is slightly higher (.898).

The Mavericks have taken at least a point from each league opponent they’ve faced this season, with one very important exception–the Wolverines.

This team is flying high, riding adrenaline into The Joe. Kemp had something there about destiny. A little destiny–fate, luck, what have you–wouldn’t hurt Friday night.

What Does Ron Mason Think? Ron Mason Thinks The System Is A Doofus

OK, so I’m paraphrasing.

One thing that concerns just about everyone in the CCHA this postseason is the prospect of placing just two teams in the NCAA tournament, especially after four were invited last year.

Michigan State head coach Ron Mason has been very vocal about the selection process, and worries about his own team’s chances of making it to the Big Dance.

"To be honest with you, I don’t even know if we’re in the tournament. If you look at the Pairwise with Michigan 10th and us 12th, I can’t even figure out…I think we’re just going to concentrate on trying to win the game Friday and take what we get."

Mason has a suggestion for the NCAA: review and revise.

"I think we should go back in the last five and the last ten years and see how leagues have performed in the NCAA tournament, see what the percentage of winning is. Maybe that would give a league a little better credibility in terms of how teams are selected. That would be one of my suggestions.

"The Big Ten in basketball gets six teams. They get six teams because their league is strong and they go on and do well. In hockey, there aren’t as many teams. When you have 300 basketball teams and 50 hockey teams, maybe the numbers don’t crunch out right. What we have to do is look at the league and say, ‘Who has won what in postseason?’ and maybe that will be an indication of how many teams a league should get."

Half of the selected CCHA teams last season bowed out after the first game. On the other hand, half won at least one game, and one was the sole non-Hockey East team in the Frozen Four.

In retrospect, what, exactly, does this say about the league?

Friends New And Old

This week, Notre Dame fans flooded my mailbox with negative email.

Thank God. I was beginning to think that your silence meant that y’all liked me.

And this is a typical message from Maverick fans, who are fast climbing many lists, some not so flattering: "Nice call Paula on the Northern Michigan series. Did you publish your ‘play-in’ game pick with Bowling Green this week? Probably had BG by 3 or 4 goals in that one."

I don’t care that the guy is giving me grief, but he could at least read the column, n’est-ce pas?

And here’s some advice for the lone UNO fan who has been trolling on the BGSU hockey fan listserv: Knock it off. Rubbing salt in the wounds of fans of the team you beat–in a forum where they are the hosts–is rude beyond measure.

Mavs fans, your team has made an incredibly positive statement this season, and your home fans–by all accounts–are gracious.

Save the public gloating for Wolverine fans, who at least have earned the right along with the reputation.

Reinprecht, Wisconsin Lead WCHA Awards

Regular-season champion Wisconsin claimed three of the WCHA’s top individual awards Thursday, leading all member schools.

From the Badgers, the nation’s scoring leader, forward Steve Reinprecht, was named the WCHA Player of the Year, while teammates Dany Heatley and Jeff Dessner took home the Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively.

Reinprecht, a senior from Edmonton, Alb., has 24 goals and 39 assists for 63 points in overall play this season, good for first in Division I. He is the first Badger to be named Player of the Year since netminder Duane Derksen did so in 1992.

Heatley, who shares the WCHA lead in goals with 27 in 35 games, is tied for fourth in overall points with 52. Heatley was recently rated North America’s number-one professional prospect by the National Hockey League’s Central Scouting Bureau.

Dessner, a Badger alternate captain, rated the top plus/minus in the league at +49 while scoring 25 points, good for third among WCHA blueliners.

Apart from their individual awards, Reinprecht, Heatley and Dessner were each named to the all-WCHA first team, along with forward Jeff Panzer of North Dakota and defenseman Mike Pudlick of St. Cloud State, and goaltender Karl Goehring of North Dakota.

Jeff Scissons, senior captain at Minnesota-Duluth, was named the WCHA student-athlete of the year. The native of Saskatoon, Sask., holds a 3.91 grade-point average in finance. Scissons is a three-time member of the WCHA All-Academic team.

The WCHA Coach of the Year was Don Brose of Minnesota State-Mankato. Brose, in his 30th and final year as head coach of the Mavericks, has led his charges to a fourth-place finish and a Final Five berth. For his career, Brose is 536-326-72 overall, 10th all-time in wins among Division I coaches.

The WCHA second team was composed of North Dakota’s Lee Goren; Minnesota’s John Pohl; St. Cloud State’s Tyler Arnason; Minnesota’s Dylan Mills; Minnesota’s Jordan Leopold; and St. Cloud State’s Scott Meyer.

The third team included Erik Westrum of Minnesota; Jason Ulmer of North Dakota; Aaron Fox of MSU-Mankato; Paul Manning of Colorado College; Alex Brooks of Wisconsin; and Graham Melanson of Wisconsin.

The WCHA all-rookie team was Heatley; Colorado College’s Noah Clarke; North Dakota’s Ryan Bayda; North Dakota’s Travis Roche; Wisconsin’s Brian Fahey; and Alaska-Anchorage’s Corey McEachran.

Between the Lines

As you could imagine, we received more mail, and more passionate mail, about the Vermont column from the last BTL than any other topic.

I wanted to take the time to run some of these letters, and respond a bit. Most of what I received, even from those who vehemently disagreed, were very thoughtful and reasoned responses. For that, I am thankful.

Perhaps in the future, we will revisit the situation, or do a whole column on the letters I received. But too many other issues have cropped up recently, and they can’t be ignored. So, I’ll bid farewell to the Vermont issue for now.

Which is not to say it will be forgotten. I think the message of the whole issue should be, more than any other, that we should not forget what happened, or what happens all over.

Before moving on, however, if I can quickly summarize a public response to what I responded privately to many people: I reiterate, I do not condone the behavior of the Vermont hockey players in any way, shape or form. I do, however, believe that we have to ask “why” this behavior exists, rather than simply punishing it without exploring it in all of its complexities. The actions should not be forgiven, but they should be understood in their context.

Good Listening

The NCAA has listened to hockey and amended the current amateurism deregulation proposal to maintain the status quo for U.S. junior-A leagues, Tier II and the prep schools (see the news story).

Otherwise, the notion of opening up college sports to anyone, no matter where they previously played, stands. This includes ex-major junior players.

Of course, men’s basketball is trying to squelch the whole thing, with many of their coaches complaining that it opens too big of a can of worms when it comes to recruiting. How will the NCAA regulate things, they say, such as the number of recruiting visits each team is allowed, when you have start recruiting now from places like the CBA?

Hockey has many of the same concerns. For example, it will make coaches’ lives a lot harder because many teams will start recruiting overlooked players that may be in some of the low minor leagues. Some teams may have the resources to expand their recruiting budget, but some won’t.

I don’t think hockey has been as vociferous on this — at least, not yet — because they were so worried about the junior and prep school implications. But I don’t think they should be worried about it at all.

Part of the deregulation means you can have played anywhere before, but it also means that, if you played outside of college after age 18, you have to sit out a year in residence, and lose a year of eligibility for each year played. Say a kid playing in the ECHL left juniors at 18 and played a year in the minors. Is that kid going to want to go to college, sit out a year, and then be allowed to play just three more years? Maybe some will, but it won’t be many.

And what we have to remember is, the kids that will want to do that will be doing it because they see they made a mistake in going pro or to major juniors, and want to go back to school instead. So often, the NCAA gets in the way and actually investigates kids right out of school, when the goal should be getting as many kids into school as possible — especially the ones who actually want to be there. Instead, here, the NCAA is actually helping the kids to have more choices while recognizing that having played in major juniors or the low minors doesn’t give that kid an unfair competitive advantage.

Some people are excited because of the extra good players that could come into college hockey. But the bottom line is, this is for the kids.

If men’s basketball was behind it, deregulation probably would’ve been passed already. Instead, we’ll have to wait until that group wakes up and smells the coffee.

Fly In the Ointment

What happened to our nice, cut-and-dried process for selecting the NCAA field?

While that process still exists, now we’ve got Quinnipiac and Niagara trying to muck the whole thing up.

Let’s start by saying that we’ve received some very passionate e-mail from fans of both of these programs regarding their support for inclusion in the NCAA tournament. At Quinnipiac, I think even the coach and administrators know they won’t get a bid.

Niagara is a little more tricky, but most of the reasons I’ve heard for their inclusion are completely invalid. I’ve heard about all the good teams they’ve beaten, and all the good teams they’ve had close losses to, and how they’re among the nation’s leaders in goal-scoring and team defense, etc…

Good wins and close losses are, in and of themselves, irrelevant. You could point to almost any team in the nation and find a string of good wins and close losses. The only thing that matters is your season in total, and how the five selection criteria rank compared to the other teams under consideration.

(for a complete understanding of the NCAA’s selection process, see USCHO’s explanation of the process, and the selection criteria FAQ.)

In regards to some of Niagara’s more gaudy statistics, it must be remembered the competition these numbers were compiled against. This is not to take anything away from Niagara’s players, some of whom are top-flight, especially goalie Greg Gardner. But their strength of schedule cannot be summarily dismissed. You might want to argue that their strength of schedule is irrelevant when citing these numbers and backing an argument for inclusion in the NCAA Tournament, but I don’t think you’d find many people who’d agree with you.

So, dismissing the above arguments, we are still left with the fact that Niagara is currently eighth in USCHO’s Pairwise Rankings, and that’s based completely on criteria, right?

Here’s the problem: In basketball, the RPI (ratings percentage index, which is used only as a guide in choosing the basketball field) is determined by weighting your winning percentage 25%, your opponent’s winning percentage 50% and your opponent’s opponents winning percentage 25%. This, combined with the fact that there are a lot more men’s basketball teams, helps weed out the teams from weaker conferences that have great records.

But hockey’s RPI breakdown is 35-50-15, meaning your own winning percentage has much more to do with your RPI.

Furthermore, the men’s ice hockey committee uses a strict set of criteria when determining who should be in the tournament. The process can be confusing, but it is precise, and leaves nothing up to chance. The committee takes a team’s set of five criteria, and matches them with the criteria for another team (commonly known as a “comparison”), and in that way, determines what team is “better” among the two (again, see the explanation of comparisons).

But because the criteria includes things like the aforementioned RPI, record in your last 16 games, and record against other Teams Under Consideration (other .500-or-better teams), your criteria can be tainted in your favor by playing a weaker conference schedule than other schools.

The other two criteria — record against common opponents, and head-to-head record — are much more indicative of your strength relative to another team, but they are only two of the five.

As such, the NCAA ice hockey committee realized their system would not do a good job of handling teams like Quinnipiac, which has a tremendous overall record and would otherwise make the tournament under the criteria outlined above. So the committee imparted their sole subjective criterion into the mix: they voted to reserve the right to exclude a team based on their “conference RPI,” i.e., relative strength of the conference.

Despite the arbitrary nature of that definition, there’s no question from a common-sense standpoint that Quinnipiac doesn’t deserve an NCAA bid. Sorry, guys, I love ya, and you and the MAAC as a whole are great for college hockey, but your time isn’t here yet.

But, all that being said, I support Niagara’s inclusion in the NCAA tournament.

Niagara, as I mentioned, is currently eighth in USCHO’s Pairwise Rankings, the system we use to help mimic the NCAA’s selection process. In this system, Niagara has enough “comparison” wins against enough other teams to otherwise justify their selection.

However, their conference, the CHA, is, by all rights, no better than the MAAC.

So, the essential question comes down to, on what basis should the committee decide whether to exclude Niagara because of the conference RPI? I don’t know what the committee’s answer will be, but I know what my answer would be.

To me, the question is not “how many goals have they scored?” or “How many close losses do they have?” or what kind of wild statistics I can point to.

To me, the only question should be, do their head-to-head comparison wins warrant being considered? And are those comparison wins legitimate? You can make the argument that they are. And once you believe that, you have to let them in based on those comparison wins.

Whatever team Niagara knocks off the bubble is going to be pretty sour about the whole thing, I’m sure. They will make the argument that the CHA’s conference RPI is lousy, and that therefore Niagara shouldn’t be included. They will say that we can’t just forget the fact that Niagara has all those wins against the CHA.

Well, this is true, but even throwing all of those wins out, we then have to look to their non-conference wins to see if those are justification for inclusion. Do they have enough of them to justify using the PWR as a valid indicator? Remember, the committee doesn’t have to consider Niagara’s conference RPI, it only reserves the right to. I look at Niagara as akin to an independent.

To go into it a little more closely, and with an analytical eye, you have to consider Niagara’s individual comparisons against other teams under consideration. Are those comparison wins tainted by things like record in the Last 16 games (a criterion where Niagara clearly has an unfair advantage due to weaker competition), or do they come because of categories like record vs. common opponents. If it’s the latter, than the comparison wins are justifiable.

So, looking at it closely, their comparison wins against BU, BC, Clarkson, CC, Cornell, Lake Superior, Michigan State, Northern Michigan, Providence and Rensselaer are all just as valid as anyone else’s. (Ironically, they lose the head-to-head comparison with Quinnipiac.)

Niagara does have five of what you might call “tainted” comparison wins. Against Colgate and North Dakota, Niagara ties in comparison points, but wins the tiebreaker based on their relative RPI. Against Minnesota, St. Cloud and Ferris State, the RPI and record in the last 16 are clearly determining factors.

I’d call those tainted because they benefit Niagara as a consequence of the Purple Eagles’ weak conference schedule. But take away those five comparison wins, and what are you left with? You’re left with Niagara still ranked 13th in the PWR, or 12th if you exclude Quinnipiac.

What this tells me is, the committee should not flat-out dismiss Niagara based on conference strength. And once they determine not to do that, they have to let Niagara in based on the comparisons.

If Niagara hadn’t lost its game with Canisius, things would be a little clearer. But that’s a huge rivalry game against a nearby opponent, and, remember, the whole idea here is to not look at things in microcosm.

But I think what this all says is, if the committee wants to continue to use a completely objective system, based solely on criteria, it must change its criteria. The criteria used, and the system of comparisons, is not meant to handle large irregularities in schedule strength. It can handle some differences, but not when there are teams with overwhelmingly weak schedules relative to the other conferences.

Thing is, if we get what we want, which is more teams playing Division I ice hockey, then this situation is only going to get worse. The criteria system works because the relative strength of the four major conferences is pretty close. But what if we get closer to basketball, where there are a number of power conference, a number of mid-major conferences and, finally, the weak conferences like the Patriot League?

What happens this weekend could make some of this invalid by the time you read it. But, in essence, I say put Niagara in.

Tough Call

Recently, the media and coaches were asked to select an ECAC All-Decade team. Ever willing to get into heated debates, I jumped in the fray.

Let me tell you, this was tough.

First off, I made a philosophical decision to eliminate players who played at least half their time before the ’90s. Undoubtedly, there were people who picked Joe Juneau, but he played mostly in the ’80s. Additionally, I really hope everyone knew better than to pick someone like John LeClair. Not only did he play from 1987-91, but his college career was not anything near what his NHL career became.

A lot of this was like splitting hairs, and there’s certainly plenty of justification for other guys, so, if I left off your favorite player, try not to kill me:

Goalie: 1) Tim Thomas, Vermont 2) Neil Little, RPI (Honorable Mention: Dan Murphy, Eric Heffler, Todd Sullivan, Joel Laing, Les Kuntar, Jason Elliot, Allain Roy)

Defense: 1) Brian Mueller, Clarkson 2) Daniel Laperriere, St. Lawrence 3) Ray Giroux, Yale 4) Sean McCann, Harvard (Honorable Mention: Dave Tretowicz, Sean O’Brien, Mike Brewer, Dan Ratushny)

Forwards: 1) Martin St. Louis, Vermont 2) Craig Conroy, Clarkson 3) Mike Lappin, St. Lawrence 4) Eric Perrin, Vermont 5) Mike Harder, Colgate 6) Todd White, Clarkson

(Honorable Mention: Ted Drury, Ted Donato, Peter Ciavaglia, Joe Juneau, Paul DiFrancesco, Eric Healey, Hugo Belanger, Burke Murphy, Jeff Halpern)

I know, I know, I have four forwards from the Class of ’97 in there, but I couldn’t help it.

When I started covering college hockey, in the late ’80s, the ECAC was filled with players who would go on to have great pro careers, many in the NHL. In fact, college hockey as a whole had increased its production of NHL players steadily throughout the 80s. But around 1993 or so, things seemed to taper off, especially in the ECAC. And it’s worth noting that, around this time, the ECAC stopped regularly sending teams to the NCAA Final (now Frozen) Four.

But by 1996, without my realizing it, things were changing back. It’s only now that I realize how special the year 1997 was. Even looking back at the famous Michigan-BU NCAA semifinal in Milwaukee, I marvel at how many future NHL players participated in that game.

Consider the Hobey finalists from that year: Jason Blake, Randy Robitaille, St. Louis, Harder, White, Brendan Morrison, Chris Drury, John Madden, Brian Swanson and Mike Crowley — all except Harder and Swanson have tasted the NHL, some very prominently.

Fight the Good Fight

Here we go again.

Every year about this time, the NCAA makes its annual declaration that on-line media sites will not be credentialed to cover the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Says NCAA media director Jim Marchiony, “There’s just a finite amount of seats and space, and there’s no legitimate way to distinguish between legitimate and non-legitimate Web sites.”

Since our sport of college hockey is not widely covered by traditional media on a national scale, operations like U.S. College Hockey Online are recognized by the NCAA as a viable media outlet. They have no problem letting us cover the hockey championships. So maybe I should keep my mouth shut. Well, I can’t, on principle. We in the online media, and those of you who have come to respect it, must stick together.

As the famous (shortened) quote goes, “They first came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. … Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left to speak up.” (– Pastor Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984)

So, I’ve written this open letter to Mr. Marchiony:

Dear Mr. Marchiony, I’ve read today’s AP article (copied below) with a lot of dismay. Though it saddens me, I can’t say it shocked me to hear, yet again, that the NCAA will flatly deny credentials to online media sources. Your comments, about not being able to distinguish who the “legitimate” web sites are, are the same ones made three years ago. At that time, I wrote a commentary to the NCAA News, which they published, expressing why I believed online media are legitimate, and how everyone should get used to it. At the same time, I understood the need to weed out certain web sites, and therefore laid out what I still believe are solid criteria for determining which web sites are “legitimate” and which ones aren’t.

(Here is the link to my original commentary on the NCAA News web site, dated May 15, 1997: www.ncaa.org/news/970519/comment.html#2.)

I asked then, and I ask now (since nothing seems to have changed in three years): what makes a tiny printed publication better than an online publication? Distinguishing between two media organizations solely based upon the medium in which they publish their message is unfairly arbitrary and shortsighted, not to mention the legal implications (which I don’t know enough about to comment on, and wouldn’t have enough money to fight for anyway).

Since I deal with college hockey, a much less-covered sport, my group doesn’t have these problems. But I fight for the principle. I have a very good relationship with many people in the NCAA, and am far from an NCAA-basher. But I don’t understand this continued line of thinking.

I truly hope you will re-examine your credentialing guidelines in the summer, as you say you will. However, I heard the same thing three years ago.

I am sympathetic to your space limitations, but a method for distinguishing between legitimate media organizations and fly-by-night groups exists, whether they be online media or not.

AOL just bought Time Warner … If this doesn’t signal to the NCAA that something a little revolutionary is going on here, something “legitimate,” then I don’t know what will.

Regards, Adam Wodon

I actually received a response to this already …

Mr. Wodon: Appreciate your thoughts. We’ve conducted discussions with selected on-line entities and will continue to do so in an effort to develop a policy. For now the basketball committee has elected to keep the current policy.

Jim Marchiony Director of the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, Media

Between the …

It was recently announced that Worcester was awarded the bids to host the Eastern Regionals in 2002 and 2003. This is in addition to 2001, which they were already set to host.

Some may read into it and say that the NCAA did this in anticipation of the ice hockey tournament going to 16 teams next year (something which still needs approval of the Management Council), knowing they would need another site when a four-regional setup was created.

That’s certainly what I read into it.

But, actually, that’s not the case. Even though the NCAA sidestepped around an answer, apparently, they received no other bids. Or, at least nothing resembling a legitimate bid. Albany, which has hosted in recent alternating years with Worcester, including this year, will not have the Pepsi Center available in 2002 and 2003 because of other NCAA events they won bids on, such as the wrestling championships and the men’s basketball East Regionals.

Miraculous Impact

The anniversary of the U.S. hockey win over the Soviet Union was a couple of weeks ago, and it was widely covered nationally — as it should be.

I don’t write this now because I’m unique, but because I know there’s so many others like me, and I wanted to share my story.

I wasn’t quite 10 years old when those Olympics started. But for some reason, I was always aware, and somewhat interested, in current events and politics, even as a kid. So, I think I had a decent sense about how the game was about much more than just hockey.

The hostage situation, still 11 months away from being over, was something I followed. When their release was imminent, I brought a tiny transistor radio to school so I could update my fifth-grade teacher of the news.

Personally, it was the first Olympics I could remember. Well, I vaguely remembered the 1976 summer games in Montreal, but not really. And when you’re 10, four years seems like an eternity. That’s why I was so upset we weren’t going to be in the Summer Olympics, and so fired up for the Winter Olympics. I wrote school papers about it and everything.

From a hockey standpoint, I was the first fan of the sport in my family. My dad used to let me fall asleep with the TV on, and there was always a Rangers or Islanders game on broadcast TV at the time.

With all of these things put together, from a personal standpoint, defeating the Soviet Union and then winning the gold medal was an incredible moment, even for a 10-year old.

Never again will we see the confluence of events that led to the atmosphere that surrounded those Winter Olympics. President Carter had already announced a boycott of the summer games, inflation was skyrocketing, unemployment was at a peak, the hostages, the Soviets in Afghanistan.

The implications on a world scale were enormous, if for nothing else than it made us feel good about ourselves for a little while. Does the fact that this came as a result of sporting event make that feeling invalid? I don’t think so.

I’ve been to Lake Placid many times since then, mostly covering the ECAC tournament. A lot of people hate going, because getting there is a royal pain. It’s far away and tucked in the middle of nowhere, with twisting, snowy, two-lane roads your only access into town.

But I love it. I love it because it’s a classic upstate New York small town, it’s beautiful, and because the place just breathes hockey whenever the tournament is there. It’s like the largest-ever meeting of the Moose Lodge convention, with all these people representing all these different teams coming together to celebrate their sport and take over the town.

But more than that, I just can’t help feeling a sense of wonder from being there. As a hockey fan, and more importantly, as a U.S. hockey fan, I get the same feeling there that people must get when they visit their holy land. You ride into town on a two-lane road, and there’s this enormous ski jump to your left, and you can’t believe how big it is. Then you make your way to Main Street, and you ask yourself, how in the world did they host a Winter Olympics here? The street is so tiny. The Olympic speed skating oval is on the front lawn of the local high school, for cryin’ out loud. Then you step into that arena, and envision what happened there.

People often ask, where would you go if there was one place in time you could visit. I always say, Main Street in Lake Placid, after the U.S. beat the Soviets in 1980.

Of course, the implications purely from the standpoint of the interest in hockey in the United States is enormous, and still being felt. Clearly, hockey still lags behind other sports in the U.S., but in terms of growth, it is way beyond the others.

Would the 1996 World Cup win have ever happened if not for 1980? Is it a coincidence that most of the players from the 1996 teams were kids, like me, in 1980?

In 1980, the players on the U.S. Olympic team came from four states, led by Minnesota. Today, that would never happen. There are numerous areas of this country producing players now that may never even knew hockey existed before 1980. The kids currently enrolled in college were born right about that time, and the numbers cited here — counting all D-I players — reflect that.

One hotbed waiting to happen is my native Long Island. When I was growing up, there was one rink within a 25-mile radius of my house. We all played street hockey endlessly, but none of us knew how to skate. Remember, this was the time when the Islanders were dominating the NHL, and hockey was huge.

Today, there are at least a dozen rinks in that same radius, and the number of Long Islanders in Division I hockey is now 23, including two from my old neighborhood, and two sons of ex-Islanders — Michigan’s Andrew Merrick and Notre Dame’s Brett Henning. This number will only get bigger.

A similar tale can be told in Pennsylvania, which can be broken into Eastern Pa. (Philly) and Western Pa. (Pittsburgh). New rinks pop up in these areas like 7-11s, and the minute they do, they are booked for months in advance. The increasing accessibility to rinks has helped produce 10 D-I players from Eastern Pa., and 14 from the West.

Illinois has just exploded in recent years. The Chicago area was always a bit farther ahead than New York and Philadelphia, but it has taken off and now claims 46 D-I players from its ranks.

But then there’s some of the more obscure states, like Iowa (3), Maryland/Virginia (6), Missouri (9), Florida (1), Arizona (3), California (9), Utah (1), Nebraska (3), Texas (1), Washington (8), Georgia (1), Montana (1) and Ohio (4).

Some hockey people aren’t sure this is a trend pointing to something huge. They say players still have to go away from home to attend junior programs or prep schools, and that’s who is developing the players.

It’s true that until that changes, things won’t really explode in those areas. But there’s no doubt that some pockets have already seen the explosion, and I think hockey’s growth ability is still humongous. There was a time when you wouldn’t see a player from those areas at all, never mind where they got their hockey education.

New Jersey, which has done a great job of producing players, still has room for growth. The Long Island and Pennsylvania areas are on the cusp of exploding. And I fully expect to see a lot more players from Iowa and Nebraska, which, from a fan-base perspective, have been hockey havens for minor league and junior teams. And let’s not forget Texas and California, with huge populations, tons of minor league and NHL hockey, and plenty of room to grow.

The parents in these minor league hotbeds are falling in love with the local teams, and their kids are begging them to play hockey. Rinks are popping up all over, and participation has skyrocketed. One of these days, this has to come to fruition in the form of more quality D-I hockey players from all over the country.

I’m also excited about programs like “Hockey in Harlem,” which the New York Rangers have participated in for years. Inner city youths are held back by the high cost of hockey equipment and ice time, something that wasn’t so easy for us suburbanites either.

“Hockey is exploding everywhere,” says Ferris State head coach Bob Daniels, who coaches Kevin Caudill, a California native. “It’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s old hotbeds for recruiting, but the mold is starting to break. Players are players as long as they have access to ice. You’re going to see players from all 50 states. It’s a positive. It’s definitely something that’s been brewing for a while.”

By the way, the Melting Pot Award goes to Sacred Heart, which has players from Long Island (4, including one from Brooklyn), Massachusetts (3), California (1), New Jersey (2), Rhode Island (2), Michigan (1), France (1), Alaska (1), Washington (1), Saskatoon (1), Quebec (2), Ontario (3), Pennsylvania (1), Connecticut (1) and Montana (1).

On the Flip Side

On the other hand, we have Minnesota, which has recruited solely from one state, its own, for over a decade.

But the times, they are a changin’ in Minneapolis, and first-year head coach Don Lucia recently received a verbal commitment from — gasp — a North Dakota native. His name is Grant Potulny and he’s from Grand Forks.

Is this a sign Minnesota is getting with the times, or is it the beginning of the fall of Western Civilization, as some Gophers would have us believe?

The best summation of the history behind the Gophers’ all-Minnesota recruiting policy came from a reader named Doug Peterson. He writes:

“The focus on in-state recruiting started with the John Mariucci period, about 1952 through 1966. You have to keep in mind his purpose which was to promote hockey in the state of Minnesota. He felt if there wasn’t a place for hockey players at the lower, or younger, levels to go then hockey wouldn’t develop and grow in the state. One way he did that was through providing them opportunities to play at the University of Minnesota.

“Mariucci wasn’t a purist though. He wanted a good program, that was part of the promotion as well. He did recruit from Canada. It may not have been a lot, but he did. However, promotion wasn’t just recruiting, it was active development of hockey programs in the state. He went around the state ‘lobbying’ and speaking. While he was a coach, 160+ hockey rinks were built in the state. He also was active in promoting the development of the University of Minnesota-Duluth hockey program. Later on he actively encouraged Herb Brooks to take the job at St. Cloud and bring it up to Division I.

“I think you can argue about whether the purpose still exists. I think it does to a degree, but that the role of the University of Minnesota doesn’t have to be the same. There are now five Division I schools there [in the state of Minnesota].

“An interesting side discussion has also been the cost savings of the recruiting policy. Did it really save money to recruit in-state? It depends on whether you can tell the wooden nickels from the real ones. At a hockey department level it might matter to the department on the cost of scholarships, but that depends on how the budgets are done and how the wooden nickels are moved around. …

“The problem I see is that it seemed like [ex-coach Doug] Woog was a purist without a purpose. It seemed he was more interested in promoting the all-Minnesota policy than promoting the development of hockey in Minnesota. He may have hurt more than he helped.”

U-N-O

Since we like to bring everything full circle in this column, how about Nebraska-Omaha? That area has successfully supported junior hockey, and is absolutely bonkers over the UNO Mavericks. Reading the Omaha World-Herald story about their win over Bowling Green this week to get to Joe Louis Arena for the CCHA semifinals, and the reaction of the crowd, gave me chills.

Compare their success to that of UMass. In just three short years, Nebraska-Omaha, starting from scratch, has built something the whole state can be proud of. Not everyone can expect to be UNO, but you expect to see progress, especially when you have the Mullins Center and UMass’ resources. And UNO has more to look forward to, as kids from their area grow into legit D-I players, and look to stay home to play.

Finally …

And to bring things full circle once and for all …

There’s some talk that Niagara head coach Blaise McDonald could be in line for a Hockey East coaching job, if an opening comes about. But while he certainly deserves one, I would hate to see it. He has done an amazing job at Niagara. He has the respect of a lot of people, and was therefore able to build a tough non-league schedule, and he has used that to recruit some top-notch players. The hockey world needs more solid programs — not just someone building a new solid program, then leaving to go back to an established program.

But, of course, it’s his decision. I’m hoping he won’t leave Niagara, but it’s his prerogative to do so, and it’s no one else’s right to be mad at him if he does.

This Week in the WCHA: March 16, 2000

No ballot, no vote? No way

Obviously due to some bureaucratic oversight, U.S. College Hockey Online did not receive a ballot for the all-Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams this season.

But that won’t stop me from picking the team that I would put on the ice if the WCHA was squaring off against a similar team from Hockey East or another league.

Winners will be (or were, depending on when you read this) announced on Thursday, before the first game of this year’s Final Five in Minneapolis. The team builds from the goaltender out, and this may have been the most difficult position to pick, given the choices.

Do you go with Graham Melanson, who has led top-ranked Wisconsin to its best season in a decade?

Do you go with Karl Goehring, he of the WCHA-record seven shutouts this season?

Fine choices, and I would certainly take either for my starting goaltender for this mythical team. But my first choice would be St. Cloud State’s Scott Meyer. One could make the case that Meyer is the reason the Huskies are sitting in the No. 3 spot in the Final Five this weekend and not sitting at home watching TV.

It’s always tough to pick the defensive members of a team like this because you want to select a defenseman based on his defense. Unfortunately, it’s easier just to look at who leads the defensemen in scoring and take those players.

It’s tough to do this — how can you not select players from what is, statistically, the league’s best defense — but neither of the two defensemen is from North Dakota.

But I pick Wisconsin’s Jeff Dessner and St. Cloud’s Mike Pudlick for their strong efforts on defense. Sure, they have some pretty good offensive numbers, but the key here is their contributions to the overall team defense.

Besides, North Dakota, for better or for worse, is known for offense. That’s why two of my three forwards are from the Fighting Sioux — Jeff Panzer and Lee Goren.

Panzer is second in the league with 57 overall points this season, 39 of that coming from assists. Goren is tied for the league lead with 27 goals this season, and has proven his ability to come through in the clutch.

But the third member of the forward line is also my choice for the league’s MVP. What else can you say about Steve Reinprecht? With help from linemates Dany Heatley and David Hukalo, he has amassed 24 goals and 39 assists.

If Reinprecht isn’t the Hobey Baker winner, something’s not right in college hockey this season.

Just one man’s opinion.

The real deal

For a college hockey fan, it’s like paradise.

In the span of roughly 51 hours, the Target Center in Minneapolis will host five games, all with the intensity that is the WCHA playoffs.

For three of the five teams, a championship may be necessary to keep the season alive. Wisconsin has the automatic bid given to the regular-season champion and North Dakota is ranked high enough that it could lose two games this weekend and still merit consideration for a No. 2 seed in the West.

But for St. Cloud State, Minnesota State and Minnesota, this may be it. Each may have different criteria for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but the Broadmoor Trophy for any of the three would take care of any nerves going into selection Sunday.

Here’s a look at the last five WCHA teams standing:

Watching and waiting

Wisconsin

Seed: First. Record: 30-7-1. At the Final Five: Will play the winner of Thursday’s Minnesota-Minnesota State game at 7:05 p.m. Friday.

Top-ranked Wisconsin, as is customary for top seeds at the Final Five, is the only of the five teams that doesn’t know who it will play first in Minneapolis.

But Badgers coach Jeff Sauer isn’t all too concerned about that. At this time of the year, everyone knows everyone else, so not being able to do much advance scouting isn’t going to hurt.

"From a college coach’s perspective, I like this time of the year because we sit and watch so much tape all year long," Sauer said. "Now, finally, you get to go to a tournament like this and you get to watch other teams play in person. We’ve seen a lot of tape on Minnesota, we played them four times this year. Mankato, we only played them twice but we’ve watched them play on tape. It’s not like I’m going to sit Thursday night and scout in relation to what they’re doing system-wise. You get a feel for the quickness and those types of things that you don’t get on tape."

INJURY BUG: The Badgers have stayed remarkably injury-free this season, with the exception of the Achilles injury to Matt Doman, but the team got a bit of bad news this week. Sophomore center Kent Davyduke will be out this weekend after falling injured last Saturday against Michigan Tech.

Sauer is hopeful Davyduke can return for the NCAA tournament next weekend, and he may even get an extra day to rest.

NO. 1 LOCKED? The reason Davyduke can take it easy is that it appears likely no one will be able to knock the Badgers out of the No. 1 spot in the West Regional.

North Dakota is the closest team out West in the Pairwise Rankings, at No. 3, but then you have to go all the way down to No. 10 to find the next closest Western team, Michigan.

Even if North Dakota knocks the Badgers out of the top spot, it looks like there will still be a WCHA duo earning the byes out West, in some order — unless regular-season champion Michigan wins the CCHA tournament, which would get them an automatic bye.

But Sauer’s case to be No. 1 is pretty strong.

"The way I look at it, forget all the numbers and all of that type of thing, even after this weekend, we’re the only team in the country that’s going to have 30 wins," Sauer said. "That’s a pretty heavy statement right there."

MAGIC FROM MELANSON: Sure, Graham Melanson’s four shutouts this season pale in comparison to the WCHA record total of seven set by Karl Goehring, but Melanson may have a step up on Goehring in recency.

All of Melanson’s shutouts have come in the Badgers’ last 11 games. Sure, two of them came against Michigan Tech, but looking past that, it’s a pretty good accomplishment, and shows Melanson is ready to turn it on down the stretch.

With goaltending the top thing to watch in this year’s playoffs, being hot in the playoffs is paramount.

"I think Graham is an underrated goaltender," Sauer said. "I think a lot of people are looking at statistics of the goaltenders in the league, but Graham has gone head to head with St. Cloud and with North Dakota, and he’s come out on top in most of the scenarios, with the exception of the one game against North Dakota (and St. Cloud’s win in St. Cloud). Secondly, he’s one of the reasons we’ve won 30 games."

BUT DON’T FORGET: Yes, goaltending is the most important thing, but getting goals doesn’t hurt either. That’s why one can never look away from the Badgers’ first line of Reinprecht, Heatley and Hukalo.

How the team will respond to the small ice sheet at the Target Center, however is to be seen. The Badgers haven’t seen a 200-by-85 sheet since early February in Michigan Tech.

That sounds familiar

North Dakota

Seed: Second. Record: 26-8-5. At the Final Five: Will play St. Cloud State at 2:05 p.m. Friday.

For the second time in as many years, North Dakota lost a first-round playoff game at home. While it’s not a surprise the Fighting Sioux were pushed to three games by Denver, a scrappy team that won’t give up, it may raise a few eyebrows as to the vulnerability of the team.

Just how beatable is this team? Can the Sioux avoid a finish similar to last season, when they lost their last two games — one in the WCHA championship and one in the NCAA tournament?

MAKING AMENDS: If Jason Ulmer has anything to say about it, the Sioux offense will be lighting up the scoreboard from now on.

And he had a good reason to score three goals and add three assists in the 9-4 win on Sunday to send UND to the Final Five.

In the opening seconds of Saturday’s loss to the Pioneers, Ulmer was sent off for checking from behind.

"He felt bad that he wasn’t in the lineup, especially on the power play and penalty kill; he’s one of our key players," UND coach Dean Blais said. "You play all year and if you miss a player off your power play especially, it’s not going to work."

POOR PENALTIES: Ulmer’s fortune on Sunday doesn’t take away the fact that some poor penalties may have done in the Sioux on Saturday. Blais called them undisciplined, and said that Ulmer’s penalty on Saturday "rattled" the team.

"We took eight penalties in the first two periods," Blais said, "and didn’t get a very good flow of the game."

WHAT MORE CAN HE DO? What else can Blais ask of Goehring?

"Not a whole lot," Blais said. "He’s pretty much done it all."

Goehring extended his WCHA record for shutouts in a season last Friday with a 4-0 win over Denver. He now has seven for the season.

But there are still things that have escaped Goehring’s reach. Tops on the list would be the top prize in the country — a national championship.

OH YEAH, THAT SERIES: Remember when St. Cloud State held North Dakota to one goal in two games, and that goal came in the last 15 seconds of the second game to force a tie?

The Sioux finally found a way to crack Huskies goaltender Meyer, and if they didn’t, it would provide for quite a storyline on Friday. But everyone knows why St. Cloud was so successful that weekend.

"(Meyer) was the reason they got three of the four points down there," Blais said.

Blais also said there may be a bit more energy from his team this weekend, at least compared to the last time these teams met, Feb. 4 and 5.

"I think we’re playing a little bit better now," Blais said. "When we were playing St. Cloud, we were coming off three series — we had Colorado College at home, at Wisconsin where we lost two emotional overtime games, played Minnesota back here and then we had to go to St. Cloud. … The tank was kind of dry."

Blais forgets a series at Michigan Tech between the Minnesota series and the St. Cloud series, but can you blame him?

COMMODORE IN: Big defenseman Mike Commodore fell to the plague of checking-from-behind penalties last Sunday, and took a game misconduct for it. Notice that that is game misconduct, not game disqualification.

A misconduct, as opposed to a DQ, does not take the player out of the next game. So yes, Commodore can play on Friday.

TAKE A BYE: Blais said he thinks winning Friday would nearly ensure his team a bye in the NCAA tournament next weekend.

"Michigan, I think, would have to win the CCHA too, to get ahead of us," Blais said. "Right now, I think if we beat St. Cloud and should happen to lose in the finals, I think we’d still get a bye."

Here’s to the third seed

St. Cloud State

Seed: Third. Record: 22-12-3. At the Final Five: Will play North Dakota at 2:05 p.m. Friday.

This is why St. Cloud State worked so hard in the last month of the season.

To avoid that play-in game on Thursday.

By virtue of finishing third in the WCHA, the Huskies are guaranteed two games this weekend, and neither is on Thursday.

It’s all music to coach Craig Dahl’s ears.

"It’s a huge difference," Dahl said of No. 3 vs. No. 4. "There’s been times in these past five years where we’ve won the play-in game and had to play three games in three days, and we lost that third-place game because it was our third game in three days. It’s real hard on the kids.

"It was real important the way we finished the season, to hang on and finish in third because of that reason. I was really pleased with the way we did that."

TRIVIALITY: Who holds the longest streak of appearances in the Final Five? If the answer was North Dakota, would I put it in the St. Cloud preview?

The Huskies have now appeared in five straight tournaments and six of the last seven. That indicates some stability within the team.

"I’d say it’s proof that we’ve been a fairly consistent team and fairly competitive," Dahl said. "The only problem is we need to get the job done and win that sucker one of these years. It has been a mark of consistency with our team. I’m real proud of it."

The Huskies lost in the play-in game last year and in 1996, and the third-place game in ’97 and ’98.

PICK FOUR: Tyler Arnason’s weekend was one to remember. The sophomore forward scored a goal in each of the three games last weekend and added three assists on Sunday.

But add Nate DiCasmirro, Mark Hartigan and Brandon Sampair, and you have a formidable offensive attack.

DiCasmirro extended his point streak to six games with four goals and an assist over the weekend. Hartigan had two goals and an assist on Sunday. Sampair has contributed all season long.

"Those four forwards have really played well for us our last couple of weekends," Dahl said. "Interestingly enough, Sampair is a junior and the other three are sophomores. They’ve done a real good job of scoring big goals when we’ve needed big goals. We always tell them that’s what quote-unquote big dogs have to do. When the game’s on the line, they have to step up and get it done for you."

NCAA HOPES: Dahl wants to believe one win this weekend will get his team into the 12-team NCAA field. Two wins, of course, will take care of that by the automatic bid.

The Huskies are one of the teams squarely on the bubble, on the high side. They are 13th in the Pairwise Rankings, but with Niagara and Quinnipiac eighth and 11th, respectively, SCSU has a valid claim that it is in the top 12 in the country.

"You don’t know what they’re going to do with those two teams," Dahl said. "I would like to think that if we’d get one win, we’d assure ourselves, as long as there’s no strange upsets in the other conferences."

CONFIDENCE HIGH: The way the Huskies played against North Dakota in early February should give them confidence that they can do the same against the Sioux this time around.

And it does.

"I don’t think there’s any question our players think they can (beat UND)," Dahl said.

But he cautioned his team about being patient.

"The thing about North Dakota is they really work hard and they come at you with as much speed as possible," Dahl said. "You have to be ready for that and be aware of that. They’ve got good goaltending with Goehring. You have to play a patient game emotionally, you can’t get too up and you can’t get too down. You just have to ride a level emotional playing field against them."

Earning respect every day

Minnesota State

Seed: Fourth. Record: 21-13-4. At the Final Five: Will play Minnesota at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.

Minnesota State coach Don Brose is adamant that no one expected his team to do this well this season. But now, no one will be surprised by anything that happens.

That’s what happens when you’ve already surprised everyone. You can’t surprise them anymore.

"I don’t think many people in the hockey environment expected us to finish above Colorado College and above Minnesota in the standings," Brose said. "I don’t think many people expected us to survive the first round of the conference tournament and be a higher seed than Minnesota. We’ve accomplished some things."

THE ROAD IS TOUGH: Brose agrees with those who say his team at least needs to get to the Final Five championship game to get an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament.

At 14th in the Pairwise Rankings, the Mavericks would be No. 12 if the selection committee tosses out Niagara and Quinnipiac and would have to hope there are no upsets in the conference tournaments. A lot of ifs that can be avoided by winning three this weekend.

Given what this team has accomplished this season, don’t rule out a thing.

"We set these kind of goals, but a lot of goals become unreachable, and you’re not satisfied," Brose said. "We’re reaching a lot of our goals. To make it to the national tournament would be outstanding. Our kids have been focused, they seem like they’re on a mission, and we feel good about ourselves."

AT HOME ON THE ROAD: Because it is the higher seed, Mankato will wear its home jerseys and get the last change against Minnesota on Thursday. But the house is known as Minnesota’s, since the Gophers have used it as home ice in the past while the Mavericks have not.

Despite that, the Mavericks have enough confidence to go in with a good attitude, Brose said.

"We tied (Minnesota at Mariucci Arena) twice last year and we won one game in overtime this year, and I felt we should have won the other game," he said. "We feel good about ourselves.

"I would feel a little bit better playing on the Olympic sheet of ice than on the regulation sheet. I think they have a little bit more size than we do. We’ve played some good games on normal sheets. The last two years in the playoffs against North Dakota, we played on regulation-size sheets and did well."

OFFENSIVE SURGE: The Mavericks offense is finally all together, and it has started to produce.

Brose is happy that he is getting contributions from a number of players, and even happier that everyone is now back.

"I did not think that we’d be scoring this well. I didn’t think that we’d have the firepower coming around," Brose said. "Things are falling into place."

Against Anchorage last weekend, the Mavs got everyone back for the first time since Christmas. Jerry Cunningham missed three weeks in that span and Josh Kern has been in the lineup sporadically with an injury.

"He’s only played two series since Christmas and he’s scored in both of them," Brose said. "And that makes us a better team."

SPEAKING OF CONTRIBUTIONS: The biggest contribution for this team may be from goaltender Eric Pateman. He has led the Mavericks to an 8-1-2 record in the last 11 games and has, according to Brose, turned it on in the last half of the season.

"It all starts with the goaltender. You build confidence from there. When you know your goalie’s on, that just makes you play better," Brose said. "And Eric Pateman has been extremely good for us in the second half of the season."

But don’t think Pateman’s the sole reason for that.

"I think that we’re playing better defense in front of him," Brose said. "He’s seeing the puck better. When he’s seeing the shots, is not screened, he does a really good job."

ROCKY RIDE: Things have been up and down this season for Jesse Rooney, but it may be starting to come around.

Rooney, a junior, scored the game-winner in overtime last Friday against Alaska-Anchorage, and he did it in a familiar way.

He took a backhand feed from Aaron Fox and snapped it into the top shelf.

"He’s a pure sniper," Brose said. "He shoots a great snap shot; it’s rare that he shoots a slapshot. He’s very accurate and very strong with his wrist shot. You put him in the slot in front of the net, and he’s going to bury the biscuit."

But Rooney has endured two long scoreless stretches — one six games and the other five — since the start of the year. But he broke them in good fashion.

He scored two goals in a 6-5 overtime win over Minnesota on Jan. 29. Then, he had two goals in a 3-3 tie with North Dakota on Feb. 25 and MSU’s goal in a 1-1 tie with the Sioux on Feb. 26.

"He was scoring early and often, then went into a dry spell and now is coming back," Brose said. "For a while, his only goals were power-play goals and now he’s scoring full strength for us."

Back from the dead, or just back from mono?

Minnesota

Seed: Sixth, fifth in Final Five. Record: UM 19-17-2. At the Final Five: Will play Minnesota State at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.

Is Adam Hauser the whole Minnesota team? No. But sometimes it just looks that way.

Take last weekend. Hauser, the Minnesota goaltender returns after missing two weeks with mononucleosis, looks just as good as he did before he left and so did the Gophers.

They shook off the four-game losing streak that accompanied Hauser’s absence and sent Colorado College to the longest offseason the Tigers have seen in a long time.

Minnesota coach Don Lucia makes no effort to claim Hauser wasn’t the difference between last weekend and the two that preceded it. In fact, he said it was the biggest difference.

"I think it’s a confidence factor and that he’s played so well for us all season long," Lucia said. "He makes the big save, and you can’t win at this time of the year without that. That’s the difference between losing by a goal and winning by a goal."

NCAAs? DON’T ASK: Lucia claims he’s not sure of his team’s chances to get into the NCAA tournament. But he knows an awful lot about the rest of the field.

"All I know is if we don’t win Thursday, we can pack our bags. After that, who knows?" Lucia said. "You don’t know what’s going to happen with Niagara, you don’t know about upsets.

"I think right now there’s 10 teams in. Four from Hockey East, Colgate, St. Lawrence, Michigan, Michigan State, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Now you’ve got teams fighting for the last two spots. What you hope for is that there’s no upsets. If you look at St. Cloud, Mankato, ourselves and RPI, I would think those are the ones that are probably in the best position right now to try to do something. And it depends on what the committee’s going to do with Niagara.

"I do know that we played 27 games against teams under consideration (teams over .500, and therefore eligible for consideration for an NCAA at-large bid). Nobody’s even close."

NO STREAKING: Much was made Saturday night about Minnesota’s streak of 43 games without a win when trailing after two periods. Thanks to Erik Westrum’s game-tying goal with 8.8 seconds left and Stuart Senden’s game-winner, that’s history.

"That showed some resilience, which I hadn’t seen yet," Lucia said. "I think that was a good mental hurdle to get over. You have to be lucky too. Anytime you score a goal in the last minute with your goalie pulled, there’s some luck involved. After what happened to us, maybe it was our turn to be lucky."

REPLAY, PLEASE: Minnesota is bound to get a break in questionable goal calls sooner or later.

Two weeks ago, the Gophers didn’t get a goal even though, on replay, the puck appeared to cross the goal line. Last weekend, CC was credited with a goal when the puck, on replay again, looked to have squarely hit the post.

By the way, replay will be available this weekend at the Target Center.

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE: Lucia emphasized last week his team’s need to be patient and safe with the puck.

Considering the Gophers are playing this weekend, Lucia was happy with how that turned out.

"If you’re going to do well this time of the year, you can’t give teams goals," Lucia said. "We didn’t give up those odd-man rushes."

ON TARGET: Most of the Gophers players will be familiar with the Target Center, seeing as how they played there last year in the Final Five and in previous years played Wisconsin there for one game.

Lucia called that "a positive," but also noted that may not mean much.

"We’re playing a team that’s better than us," Lucia said. "Mankato, we were 1-1 this year with them, and they finished fourth in the league and we finished sixth. So, we’re going in the underdog. It’s probably tough for Mankato to feel that way, but that’s a reality.

"We’re the lowest-seeded team remaining. No matter who we play, and if we win on Thursday, we’re going to be the big underdog. If we can just play like we did last weekend, play good, safe, patient hockey, hopefully we’ll be there and have a chance to win sometime in the third period."

Mansoff Leads MAAC Postseason Awards

The MAAC presented its postseason awards on Wednesday night at a banquet signifying the start of the league championships here.

Headlining the winners was forward Shawn Mansoff from regular-season champion Quinnipiac College, who was selected as the Chase Manhattan Bank Offensive Player of the Year.

Joining him in receiving major awards were Sean Weaver of Canisius College, who was named the league’s Goalie of the Year, and defensemen Paul Colontino of Mercyhurst College and Steve Tobio of Bentley College, the MAAC Co-Defensive Players of the Year.

Sacred Heart head coach Shaun Hannah was honored as Coach of the Year for guiding his team to a fourth-place finish in the conference. The Pioneers finished seventh of eight teams last year, and were predicted to finish eighth of ten this season by league coaches. Instead, the Pioneers were the most-improved team in the MAAC, posting a 16-15-3 record.

Sacred Heart forward Martin Paquet was selected the MAAC Offensive Rookie of the Year, while Iona defenseman Nathan Lutz rounded out the major awards as the Defensive Rookie of the Year.

A complete listing of the two All-MAAC teams, as well as the All-Rookie team, is as follows:

First Team MAAC All-Stars          Second Team MAAC All-Stars
Shawn Mansoff, Quinnipiac F Eric Ellis, Mercyhurst
Ryan Carter, Iona F Louis Goulet, Mercyhurst
Ryan Soderquist, Bentley F Martin Paquet, Sacred Heart
Chris Cerrella, Quinnipiac F
Paul Colontino, Mercyhurst D Nathan Lutz, Iona
Steve Tobio, Bentley D Jim Whelan, Holy Cross
Anthony DiPalma, Quinnipiac D
Sean Weaver, Canisius G Alexis Jutras-Binet, Sacred Heart
MAAC All-Rookie Team
Rae Metz, Fairfield F
Martin Paquet, Sacred Heart F
Brian Herbert, Quinnipiac F
Nathan Lutz, Iona D
Matt Erhart, Quinnipiac D
Les Hrapchak, Sacred Heart D
Mike Fraser, Iona G

NCAA Addresses Hockey’s Amateurism Concerns

Proponents of the United States junior and prep school systems can breathe easier thanks to amendments recently made to the NCAA’s Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet’s amateurism deregulation proposal.

The original proposal from the sub-committee on Amateurism and Agents, completed last year after a lengthy study, would not only have opened the door for major junior players to enter U.S. colleges — seen by many as a positive, but something currently prohibited — but also hurt U.S. junior-A and prep school leagues by forcing their players to lose one year of NCAA eligibility for each year after the age of 18 played outside of college.

But under the new amendments, agreed upon at the sub-committee’s meeting in Tampa Bay last month, athletes who participate in U.S. junior leagues would have a two-year exception, and prep school athletes would get a one-year exception, effectively continuing the status quo in those areas.

“We have taken care of [hockey’s] concerns; they were legitimate concerns,” said Lisa Dehon, chair of the sub-committee.

“If you look at the purpose of deregulation, one was competitive equity. In most sports, our kids come in out of high school, but because of increasing opportunities, some kids take advantage of things before college.

“Well, in men’s ice hockey, the vast majority come from USA Hockey leagues with one or two years experience after high school. In hockey, that’s the norm. They don’t have a competitive advantage against one another. Therefore, our wanting to maintain competitive equity wasn’t going to be done if [the] proposal were applied to hockey. So we’re keeping them at the status quo.”

Major junior leagues do not get the exception, but the door will be more open for major junior players to join collegiate teams, under terms retained from the original proposal (see below).

The prep school exception will cover all sports.

“That’s closely tied to academics, and we don’t want to negatively impact that,” Dehon said.

“This keeps status quo for majority of U.S. kids, but it also opens up opportunities for U.S. and Canadian kids who perhaps made a mistake [by entering major juniors]. They now have college as an alternative.”

If the new timeline holds up (see sidebar), the current deregulation proposal is scheduled for final approval from the NCAA Management Council and Board of Directors in April, 2001, to take effect for those enrolling in college after August, 2001.

After a two-year study, the sub-committee on Amateurism and Agents forwarded legislation last September that, if passed, completely changes the landscape of NCAA eligibility standards for all sports. Whereas playing in a pro league, taking money and signing endorsement deals were once taboo, the new rules would eliminate all of those issues.

Instead, you would be allowed, after high school graduation, to play anywhere you want, take any money (except to pay for educational expenses), sign any contract, and still have four years’ eligibility remaining, with the stipulation that, for each year you played in a competitive league, you would lose one year of NCAA eligibility.

“It doesn’t matter where you did it or what it’s called, it only matters what you did,” said Dehon.

The effect on hockey would have been enormous. For one, it would open the door to Canadian major junior players to leave and enroll at U.S. colleges, something many have longed for (though there are many detractors among coaches).

The problem for hockey, however, was that “competitive league” meant anything after age 18 that wasn’t college, including U.S. junior-A leagues like the USHL, prep school leagues, and Canadian Tier II, where players routinely compete until they are 19 or 20 before entering college. Those players would have lost a year or two of collegiate eligibility and have to sit out a year.

The hockey community was thrown into a state of confusion over what to do about the situation. Some didn’t want the new deregulation rules at all, some liked them if not for the loss of eligibility for prep school and junior players, and still others didn’t mind any of it.

But the NCAA left the door open for changes to the initial plan, assuming the hockey community could come to a consensus. So, after weeks of discussions between the hockey commissioners, school athletic directors and member coaches, a consensus was reached and the hockey commissioners, led by Tom Anastos (CCHA) and Bruce McLeod (WCHA), presented a formal proposal to the NCAA subcommittee outlining how hockey is different from other sports.

“All the exceptions are fair,” said Dehon. “They all stand up when you consider the core values that the committee has been involved in. Hockey is unique in where they get student-athletes. If we want to be honest about competitive equity, we have to say there may not be an imbalance.

“It shows we’re not just giving lip service to being open. What it does show is you can’t just come and say ‘It’s bad.’ You have to show us data how it affects you sport, how significant the impact is and how it flies in face of what we’re trying to do. If you do, we’ll help you put together a proposal.”

Hockey was the first sport to come to the committee with major concerns. Other sports have had their issues addressed simply through clarification from the committee.

One concern among hockey people is whether the U.S. will lose more players to major juniors than before, because those kids can test the waters and still know they can return to college if things don’t work out. But Dehon doesn’t think that should be a major worry.

“Kids make a decision because they think they can be a pro, not because they don’t want to go to college,” Dehon said. “The thinking process stays the same whether there’s deregulation or not. What I’m sure does happen is, you have many kids who are incorrectly advised and have unrealistic notions of their abilities. Those are the ones we help.”

One sport, however, that may hold things up is men’s basketball.

Many men’s basketball coaches have expressed concern over the can of worms that will be created. Will they have to recruit in the CBA or even the NBA, and how much harder will it be to keep an eye on improper recruiting in that case?

“It opens up Pandora’s box,” said Bill Wilkinson, head hockey coach at Wayne State. “It becomes a free-for-all between majors and pros and college. Will it help kids at 16 making a decision? Probably. It allows them to make that decision more easily. But we won’t know until three years down the road what the real impact is.”

The final proposal will go to the full cabinet in June, so the committee wants basketball to decide on a course of action by then, or it will risk another delay in the timetable.

This Week in the Hockey East: March 9, 2000

The Second Season

If not for the home-ice dominance discussed last week, this weekend’s quarterfinal playoff series would appear rife with upset possibilities. The question, then, will be whether or not that factor will cool some hot road underdogs and put all the home teams into the FleetCenter.

Here’s a look at the matchups.

#1 Boston University hosts #8 UMass-Amherst

Dec. 3 Boston University 2 UMass-Amherst 1 Dec. 4 Boston University 4 UMass-Amherst 3 (OT) Feb. 4 Boston University 3 UMass-Amherst 2

After clinching first place, Boston University misstepped last weekend, tying Merrimack, 3-3, and then taking it on the chin from Boston College, 6-2.

"We seem to have wrapped up the league and then all of a sudden taken a couple games off," says coach Jack Parker. "You want to be going [into the playoffs] playing your best hockey, but there’s a reason why [we haven’t].

"Wisconsin wrapped it up and then they lost the next [weekend], too. There’s a rationale for it, but you hope that you can overcome the human nature of a natural letdown.

"The regular season is over now and everybody’s record is 0-0. We worked hard to get the home ice advantage. Now we have to see if we can take advantage of it."

Parker has no worries, however, that the letdown that hit his team this week will carry into the upcoming series.

"We have not had anything but a hard time with UMass the three times we played them," he says. "At their place, we scored with a minute to go in the game off a faceoff to win it. We scored with 20 seconds to go in overtime in our building to win it. And we had to come from behind in the third period and get two goals up there the last time we played.

"So we have not walked through them whatsoever. It will be a tough series and we know it. And they’re playing real sharp right now.

"There won’t be any letdown because we’re looking by UMass. We might not be ready to play because we’re not healthy or we’re not focused for other reasons. But it won’t be because we’re looking by UMass, that’s for sure."

Health is a concern, although all the signs point to a return for several players. John Cronin is a lock to return this week, barring a reinjury in practice. Pat Aufiero sat out the season finale against BC after aggravating a groin, but has returned to practice and is expected to play. Jack Baker, who bruised his ribs against BC, is also slated to be in the lineup.

In the nets, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Jason Tapp play the second game if BU wins on Friday. Tapp has played well recently, prompting Parker to say after the netminder surrendered six goals against BC, "He was one of the few guys who showed up to play."

But Rick DiPietro will open the series and if UMass-Amherst takes the first game, it would be hard to see Parker not going with the guy who got the Terriers into first place.

"Ricky will open up the playoffs and we’ll see how it goes from there," says Parker.

UMass-Amherst had to split with Boston College two weeks ago and then get a point in two games against UNH last weekend just to qualify for the playoffs. Anything less would have resulted in the Minutemen sitting at home while UMass-Lowell advanced.

"If I had a dollar for every person who thought we wouldn’t make the playoffs looking at our last six games, then I’d be a rich man today," says coach Joe Mallen with a smile. "All we wanted was the opportunity to get to the FleetCenter.

"Everybody says the same things about records being 0-0 and you start all over again and everything, but you win two games and you’re in the FleetCenter. That’s a huge motivational factor for every team in Hockey East."

After clinching the playoff berth with the tie at UNH on Friday, however, the Minutemen didn’t finish the regular season on a high note, losing at home to the Wildcats, 5-1.

"We didn’t play well," says Mallen. "I hope that’s actually going to be a little positive momentum, [showing us] that when things don’t go our way, how hard we need to work to be successful.

"Against BU right now, we have to play very steady and have good positional play. We’ve got to work for our breaks, play a strong road game and keep the fans out of it."

Keeping the fans out of it may be a little easier given that BU is on spring break. Nonetheless, Mallen knows that it’ll be tough to beat the Terriers, especially at Walter Brown Arena.

"I’ve felt since November that BU could be the top team in the league with Freddie Meyer coming in to bolster a real good set of defensemen," he says. "I’ve got a great deal of respect for their team. They can come at you with a lot of depth.

"Obviously, against BU you have to stay away from penalties at all times. We don’t want to put ourselves in a lot of special teams situations. We have to continue to play our system. When we play our system, we get good goaltending and we can counterattack. Then we can be in a position to beat anybody.

"If we can stick to our system and not get into a shootout, then we can put ourselves in a position of making it a three-game series. That’s got to be one of our goals.

"If you can get to a third game, I think the odds might swing to the underdog’s side. Then it comes down to a bounce here and a bounce there, conditioning and who’s injured and who’s healthy."

#2 New Hampshire hosts #7 Merrimack

Jan. 14 New Hampshire 4 Merrimack 2 Jan. 15 New Hampshire 6 Merrimack 3 Feb. 4 New Hampshire 2 Merrimack 2 (OT)

New Hampshire took three of four points last weekend, but still enters the playoffs with only a 2-3-1 mark in the last six games. Additionally, the Wildcats have been hit hard recently with injuries.

In Friday’s game, they lost Corey-Joe Ficek and David Busch for the season. Ficek suffered a second-degree sprain of the medial collateral ligament; Busch broke his ankle, requiring surgery.

Lanny Gare, who sprained an ankle during practice the previous week, is a slim possibility, but more likely will have to wait another week. Which leaves UNH with only 12 available forwards, all of whom should dress.

Combining all that with Merrimack’s strong play of late makes this a matchup that bears watching.

"Any of these series are difficult and Merrimack has had a good season," says coach Dick Umile. "Our last game was a tie and it’s on everyone’s mind. I expect it to be a very competitive, difficult weekend."

Umile also recognizes that Merrimack is probably a lot more dangerous than your average #7 seed.

"[Merrimack coach] Chris [Serino] has his team playing well," says Umile. "But we came off this weekend playing well against UMass. So it should be a good weekend.

"But all the matchups are going to be tough in our league. If anything was proven this year, it was that the parity of the league is evident."

Merrimack continued its trend of playing everyone tough, gaining a 3-3 tie with BU on Friday. That added an exclamation point to a stretch dating back to Jan. 22 during which the Warriors have posted a 3-3-5 record, including ties or wins against BU, UNH and Northeastern.

"I would think that we’re probably the favorites," says Serino, his tongue firmly embedded in his cheek. "I would think that they’d be scared [witless] to play us."

All kidding aside, Merrimack has completed a surprisingly successful regular season after seemingly everyone picked the Warriors for the cellar.

"I think we’ve probably far exceeded anybody’s expectations but our own," says Serino. "Face the facts, I don’t think that anybody thought we’d finish anything but last. But we felt as a team that we could finish in the top five. I thought that because of our balance and I thought we’d be a better defensive team than we were last year. And we came pretty close to doing it.

"Going [into the playoffs], we feel pretty confident with the way we’re playing. Obviously, we’re going to need some breaks, but we feel that [goaltender Cris] Classen is playing pretty well and as a team we’ve been giving up shots in the twenties, which is pretty good with some of the firepower that’s in Hockey East.

"We feel pretty good about the way we’re playing. Since the end of January or beginning of February, we haven’t won a ton of games, but we haven’t lost many either. That’s a good thing for us, especially with them almost all Hockey East games. It wasn’t like we played nothing down the stretch. We’re getting better every game. That’s what’s encouraging to me."

Goaltending and special teams are always keys in the playoffs. Serino, though, doesn’t see special teams as the biggest key, but rather the absence of special teams.

"When you get into power plays and even four-on-fours, it really favors the more skilled team," he says. "The key for us is to keep playing them five-on-five. If we can do that, then we have a chance. But if we get into any kind of a shootout, even five-on-five, it’s over for us.

"We’re not like a UMass that sits back and waits. That’s not our style. But we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got people high to control the odd-man rushes because [UNH] will execute those if they get them."

Serino has also made it clear in the past that he considers the Whittemore Center to be one of the toughest places for a visiting team to play.

"It’s very difficult to take their fans out of the game," he says. "What you have to do is stop them from putting flurries on you when they keep the puck in your end for a minute or two minutes and they’re going at you. That works the fans up as much as a goal or two. So we’ve got to play well defensively."

Quips aside, Serino thinks his team has a shot and they’re going to go for it.

"I want my players to know that we’re going in to win, not just to hang on," he says.

#3 Boston College hosts #6 Northeastern

Nov. 12 Northeastern 6 Boston College 5 Nov. 30 Boston College 4 Northeastern 2 Feb. 7 Boston College 6 Northeastern 0 (Beanpot) Mar. 2 Boston College 7 Northeastern 2

Boston College finished the regular season with a bang, trouncing Northeastern, 7-2, and BU, 6-2.

"[Momentum] certainly helps," says coach Jerry York. "You want to be playing your best hockey…. We’ve had some ups and downs over the last month and a half, but for the most part, it’s been our best hockey. Certainly, [Sunday against BU] was a convincing display by us."

While third place wasn’t the original objective, York realizes that the most important hockey has yet to be played.

"If you’ve got a good team, you’re looking at a lot of different scenarios," he says. "We [wanted] to win a [regular-season] championship, but we also want to get a chance to go to the White House."

The Eagles almost set a Hockey East record this year for least goals allowed, but two in the third period of the final game put them at 50, one over New Hampshire’s total last year. BC did, however, set a new mark for best penalty-kill percentage (92.0) in league games.

"Those are two critical areas for us," says York. "All season long, the play of our team defense, highlighted by the goaltenders, kept the goals-against down. And the PK adds to that."

York sidestepped the question of whether it was better to face Northeastern in the quarterfinals or Providence. Instead, he quips, "I don’t think UMass-Dartmouth will come play us, will they?"

After noting that Northeastern defeated New Hampshire, Maine and the Eagles, as well as tying BU, York adds, "This year, the four teams that finished out of home ice all have a chance to go to the FleetCenter. I don’t know if that’s been the case the last few years. There’s not a lot of difference between the four that stay home and the four that travel.

"We’re concerned that we’ve got to play well to advance. They don’t [just] send you to the FleetCenter; you’ve got to earn it."

Although in January, it looked like Tim Kelleher was the goaltender to get BC to the Promised Land, Scott Clemmensen’s reemergence has put the junior back on top. He had to leave the game against Northeastern on Thursday because of a minor injury, but returned to play all 60 minutes against BU.

"I just thought Clemmer has been the sharpest of the two," says York of his decision to come back with Clemmensen. "They’re both running 1-2 in the league. But the last month or so, [he’s been sharp] and he didn’t get a chance to play against BU last time."

Northeastern limped into the playoffs with seven straight losses, a stark contrast to the club that went undefeated in January. At the beginning of the losing streak, the Huskies could at least take pride in the way they were playing and just hope that they’d start burying the puck. But last weekend, both Boston College and UMass-Lowell thumped them, 7-2 and 6-2 respectively. "It couldn’t be better," says coach Bruce Crowder with a rueful laugh when asked to assess his team. "Right now it’s a matter of us putting everything else behind us. There’s nothing left to play for in regards to the regular season. Now there’s everything to play for in the playoffs. That’s where we have to change our focus and come at the weekend with that attitude."

Northeastern’s disastrous stretch run frittered away home ice first, and then fifth place. As the sixth seed, the Huskies are now matched against BC, the team that no one really wants to face. They have their work cut out for them, but Crowder sees two keys to pulling off an upset.

"We’ve got to take care of things that we can control," he says. "One, we can’t be taking penalties or getting outside of our system. If we do that, it’s going to hurt us a little bit. Obviously, they’re very explosive.

"The other thing on the offensive side is that we’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities we do get. The last time we played them, they really took it to us the first period. It was 22-1 in shots in the first period and we came back in the second period and outshot them, 18-3. We got one out of the 18 and they got three out of three.

"It’s a series that our guys are going to be up for and excited about. We haven’t been in the playoffs for a couple of years. This is a good opportunity to right the ship."

#4 Maine hosts #5 Providence

Nov. 7 Maine 5 Providence 2 Mar. 3 Maine 6 Providence 6 (OT) Mar. 4 Maine 3 Providence 2

Maine took three of four points at Providence College last weekend to extend a month-long undefeated streak. Doubters might point to that stretch as including no opponents among the other home ice teams and also focus on the Black Bears’ difficulties against Hockey East’s other elite teams prior to that.

Coach Shawn Walsh, however, isn’t having any of it.

"We’re thrilled to be heading into the playoffs with an eight-game unbeaten streak," he says. "We’re very pleased to have gotten a tie and a win at Providence. Very few teams have been able to beat them down there. So for us to go down and get three out of four points is really a feather in our guys’ cap. I also like the fact that we’ve been behind in each of the last three games and have won two of them and tied the third."

Goaltender Matt Yeats surrendered six goals on 27 shots Friday night, but may have been more the victim of poor team defense. And on Saturday he was lifted after the first period, after which Mike Morrison tossed a shutout.

"I told the team that I was going to play Morrison at some point," says Walsh. "That was prearranged so he could get some action and Yeats could get some rest and watch PC, since we might play them this week.

"Yeats is our guy."

Walsh likes the look of his lineup, despite losing Robert Liscak for the next two weeks. "We’ve got good balance," he says. "Losing Liscak will hurt us for the Hockey East playoffs. He may be back by the NCAAs, but it does disrupt us slightly. But I like the way our lines are working."

Even so, Walsh considers Providence a scary team, based on its play last weekend against the Black Bears.

"I was very impressed with the Friars," he says. "They’ve changed over their team into more of a speed type of team. They’ll be a very dangerous opponent for us in the playoffs. Familiarity alone will create close, close games."

Providence may well be the sleeper among the road teams this week. The Friars have compiled a 6-3-1 record in their last 10 games, of which six were against Top 10 opponents. As such, they almost certainly have been unfairly overlooked as a serious contender.

"I think everybody overlooks us anyways, no matter if we’re playing well or not," says coach Paul Pooley. "It doesn’t matter if we’re 6-3-1 in our last 10 or whatever. It’s just par for the course."

Most of the Friars’ recent success, however, has been at home where they’ve compiled an 11-5-1 record that is a mirror image of their 5-11-1 mark on the road. In particular, they haven’t beaten Maine at Alfond Arena since Mar. 24, 1989.

"We’ve got our work cut out for us," says Pooley. "There’s no question. We haven’t won in Maine for a long time. I haven’t won in Maine yet.

"But obviously the way BC played [on Sunday against BU], it’s probably good that we’re going to Maine [instead of BC]. They looked real good.

"Maine is tough at home and I’m concerned about a few things that we’ve got to work on, but going into the playoffs it’s do or die."

The Friars may benefit from having just played Maine this past weekend.

"I think it’s good," says Pooley. "We certainly learned their strengths and what we can do on them. Obviously, they play better at home, but when you play at home you’re more jacked up and you make more mistakes.

"We’ve got to play good defensively and weather the storm at times. We’ve been close up there a few times and had leads. The thing is we just have to get better, make some changes and go up there and give it everything we can."

Notes From The Whittemore Center

If you’re looking for stock tips or sure things at the race track, you might want to consult UNH Sports Information Director Steve Jones. Prior to Friday night’s game against UMass-Amherst, his game notes said that "the crystal ball says [Darren] Haydar will score" after two games without a point. Sure enough, the sophomore not only scored once, but twice.

It makes you wonder why people say that Jonesie has no talent…

Wildcat supporters who missed the exceptional Diamond Anniversary Classic game program back in November can still order a copy. It includes a 16-page history of the UNH hockey program, complete with photos and a lot of fascinating material. Compiled by Greg Ambrose and Andy Leahy, this is an item that no Wildcat fan should be without. In fact, anyone with an interest in the sport’s history would be well served ordering a copy.

Send six dollars, which includes postage and handling, to:

Friends of UNH Hockey c/o Athletic Dept University of New Hampshire 145 Main St. Durham, NH 03824

When Merrimack played at UNH earlier this season, the family of one Warrior player traveled down from Quebec and went home winners of the 50-50 raffle. Ty 2K may have been UNH’s slogan, but this family wound up with $2K Canadian.

Trivia Contest

Last week’s contest posed the following question: who is the all-time leading NCAA scorer among defensemen? Hint: he played for a school that was in the ECAC at the time, but is now in Hockey East.

The tip of the fedora goes to Chuck Murray, who correctly gave the answer of Providence College’s Ron Wilson. Wilson totaled an astounding 250 points from the blue line.

(It should be noted that Chuck, who is either "a legend" or "infamous" for his contributions to the USCHO message board, became the first winner to request an acceptance speech.)

Providence Sports Information Director Arthur Parks provides the following additional facts regarding Wilson.

Ron is PC’s all-time leading scorer (78-172-250). His brother Brad is 10th (63-96-159) and his other brother Randy is 12th (67-87-154). All three Wilson brothers went to East Providence High School.

Ron Wilson was actually born in Canada. His father came to Providence to coach the Rhode Island Reds.

In his senior season at PC, Wilson was a co-captain with current Vancouver GM Brian Burke. His head coach was Devils’ President and GM Lou Lamoriello.

Wilson’s daughter Kristen graduated from Providence College last spring. During parent’s weekend, the Friars played UMass-Amherst. Bobby Orr was at the game, as was Wilson. The highest scoring defenseman in NHL history and the highest scoring defenseman in NCAA history were sitting within 20 feet of each other and probably did not even know it — nor did anyone else in the building!

This week’s question asks: what hometown can boast the greatest number of Hobey Baker Award winners? Mail your responses to Dave Hendrickson.

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

It was 4:05 last Saturday. I was standing on my feet clapping. There was a good chance that Ray Bourque was playing his final seconds as a Boston Bruin.

Then the buzzer sounded and I watched the referee skate over to the puck, pick it up and hand it to Bourque.

It was over.

I felt a thud in the pit of my stomach. Bourque, the symbol of everything that was right about the Bruins for the past 21 years, was as good as gone.

The sad thing is that he played for an organization whose primary goal is not to win the Stanley Cup, but rather to sell the most hot dogs, beer and four-dollar sodas. So Bourque has to leave to have one or two more shots at pro hockey’s Holy Grail.

Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, a modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge if there ever was one, does have several league championships to his credit. Unfortunately for Bourque and fans of the team, those titles are in a different category than Stanley Cups.

According to Forbes Magazine, the Bruins make more money than any other hockey team. I don’t begrudge owners a profit. But enough is enough. When it comes to making money, Jacobs has been a dynasty to rival the old New York Yankees and Boston Celtics.

One can imagine him circling his mansion each year with a dollar bill held aloft while the refrain of "We Are The Champions" blares.

Word has it that Jacobs will be behind the B’s bench next year. That way, he won’t have to pay anyone to do it, plus he’s convinced that he knows more about penalty killing than three-time Coach of the Year Pat Burns.

I like the idea. I just want a seat within earshot…

Thanks to Scott Weighart and Andy Dursin for their assistance.

This Week in the WCHA: March 9, 2000

Getting there is half the fun (?)

In the last month of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season, it’s been about positioning for the playoffs.

Starting now, it’s all about survival.

It’s about the opportunity to advance. It’s about the dream of winning a WCHA championship, or even further, a national championship. For some, it’s about extending their college hockey career for at least another week.

But overall, it’s about getting to the top.

The Road to Providence begins for real this weekend, when conferences around the nation sort out the teams that will play for titles next weekend. We’ll bid farewell to five WCHA teams this weekend, and after that, it’s a mad scramble to the finish.

Considering the real news this weekend is what will happen on the ice, this week’s column is more of a first-round notebook. Here are previews of the five first-round series taking place this weekend:

Yes, they have to play it out

Wisconsin vs. Michigan Tech

Seeds: UW is first; MTU is 10th. Records: UW 28-7-1, 23-5 WCHA; MTU 4-32, 2-26. When: Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), all at 7:05 p.m. CT. Where: Kohl Center, Madison, Wis.

For the first time in three years, the top team in the WCHA faces the bottom team in the league in the first round of the playoffs. In each of the last two seasons, Minnesota State — not yet a full league member — has been placed in the No. 10 spot by fiat, even though they may have deserved a better fate than to go up against North Dakota.

But this season, with the Mavericks deciding their fate and taking the fourth spot in the playoffs, Michigan Tech will play at Wisconsin. And before you completely write off the Huskies (yes, it is an easy thing to do) take this bit of history: The last time MTU finished 10th in the league, they defeated Colorado College in Colorado Springs to shock the league and make it to the Final Five.

But that was a different year, a different team and a different story. As most of us know by now, this Huskies team could set the NCAA record for most losses in a season with two more. Also, there is no Jamie Ram in goal. Ram was the driving force behind that 1993-94 team that also defeated Northern Michigan in the Thursday night play-in game at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? There’s not much else for Michigan Tech to do but forget. Forget about the season, the impending NCAA record and all the other negatives, and think about what could be this weekend.

"Certainly we’re looking forward to the new season to begin," Huskies coach Tim Watters said. "It was somewhat of a disappointment, this past season, for our hockey program. We’re looking forward to the playoffs with enthusiasm and optimism."

The Huskies’ most recent series with Wisconsin gives them something to play off. The Badgers won both games at Winter Carnival in Houghton, Mich., 5-3 and 3-0, but the Huskies gave the top-ranked team a run for its money.

"The last time we played Wisconsin, we played them pretty tough," Watters said. "We thought they were fairly close games, we look for more of the same in the playoffs."

WHAT EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW: Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer had a bit of bad news for the rest of the league: Dany Heatley will be back this weekend.

Heatley bruised his knee in a knee-to-knee collision with a Colorado College player last Friday and was held out of Saturday’s game for precautionary reasons.

"He’s got a bit of a bruise on his leg, but other than that he’ll be fine," Sauer said. "He’ll be in the lineup. I’m sure nobody else likes to hear that, but Dany will be in the lineup Friday night."

In other Wisconsin injury news, Matt Doman returned to the lineup last Saturday after recovering from a severed Achilles tendon suffered earlier this season. Sauer said the plan is to bring him back slowly, saying that Doman will probably not play this Friday.

"He probably will play one game this weekend against Michigan Tech, and if we can (win) the Tech series, he’ll probably play one of the two games up in Minneapolis," Sauer said. "Hopefully by the NCAA tournament, he’ll be ready to go at full boar."

OF CONCERN: Sauer had a couple of concerns about this weekend’s series. One was about the opposition and the other was about overlooking the opposition.

"The concern is the fact that it’s their new season," Sauer said. "They can put everything behind them and come in here relaxed and ready to play.

"I don’t want my guys to be thinking ahead. We haven’t done that all season long; I don’t expect us to do that, but there’s always that concern when you get into a playoff situation. You want to make sure that you take care of business at hand and that’s my biggest concern for this weekend."

THE NET EFFECT: The WCHA coaches held a teleconference with the league’s media this week in advance of the playoffs, and to no one’s surprise, the topic of the day was goaltending. And more goaltending. In each series this weekend, goaltending is sure to play a role.

In this tilt, Tech will have to hope for a Herculean performance from likely starter Brian Rogers to be able to stay in the game.

"We kind of threw him to the wolves a little bit during his first game, it was against North Dakota," Watters said of Rogers, who missed a good chunk of the season with abdominal strain that required surgery. "He’s coming into form now, and we’re fairly pleased with his progress."

Not much question in the Badgers’ net. Graham Melanson has consistently been among the top three goaltenders in the league all season long.

This one was a lot better last year

North Dakota vs. Denver

Seeds: UND is second; DU is ninth. Records: UND 24-7-5, 17-6-5 WCHA; DU 15-21-2, 9-18-1. When: Friday and Saturday at 7:35 p.m. CT; Sunday (if necessary) at 7:05 p.m. CT.

Where: Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, N.D.

Last season, North Dakota met Denver for the WCHA Final Five championship and the Broadmoor Trophy. This season, the teams meet in a No. 2-vs.-No. 9 series in the first round.

My, how things can change.

It’s been a crazy year for the Pioneers, who looked to be poised to make a turnaround at any point but just never did. North Dakota didn’t win a fourth straight MacNaughton Cup, but did pretty well for a team that lost so much from last year’s team.

THE ONE THAT STICKS OUT: These teams met only two times this season, and both of those were in Grand Forks, N.D., in December. With the Fighting Sioux ranked No. 1 in the country at the time, the Pioneers pulled the shocker — taking the second game of the series 7-2.

That’s enough to at least raise some eyebrows going into this series.

"Denver’s a good hockey team," UND coach Dean Blais said. "They beat us in here and, just like last year, they came on at the end of the year. I know they’re playing with a lot of confidence right now and winning four games in a row has certainly built a little momentum for them."

Denver coach George Gwozdecky remembers that weekend, but said the nights may have been flopped.

"Interestingly enough, I thought we played better in the Friday night game that we lost (7-3) and didn’t play as well the Saturday night game that we won," he said.

RELOADING, NOT REBUILDING: The WCHA coaches obviously held the Fighting Sioux in high regard at the start of this season. They picked UND to win the WCHA regular-season title despite the loss of eight seniors from last year’s team.

"The game has changed a little for them, but they’re still a very good transition team," Gwozdecky said.

Said Blais: "It’s tough enough to lose eight seniors, but when four of them were first or second team, it says a lot about the quality of the seniors. Seven out of the eight are playing pro hockey right now."

But this season has a bit of a different feeling for the Sioux, Blais said. By this time last year, UND had the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament from winning the regular-season title.

"This year’s team has had to work hard for everything," Blais said. "The attitude the last three weeks, ever since we kind of conceded that Wisconsin was going to win the MacNaughton Cup, (the players) have worked hard and we’re playing with a lot of emotion. The guys are focused, they’re ready to get on with Denver — that’s going to be tough enough in itself — and have success from there on after. It’s definitely a different feeling than the last two years."

TOO BAD HE’S GONE: Gwozdecky would love to see Matt Pettinger come back. Too bad he’s been gone for a few months.

"One of the guys that played very well for us up in North Dakota back in that series in December was Matt Pettinger," he said. "Try as we might, we tried to get him back here for this series, but we can’t."

Pettinger left for the professional ranks earlier this year.

The two names that came up, though, this week were captain Mark Rycroft and forward Kelly Popadynetz.

"Mark really struggled out of the chute this year," Gwozdecky said. "In fact, I think he only had three points in the early part of December. From that point on, he got a couple of good opportunities to put the puck in the net and he’s really started to relax. I think a lot of the responsibility and pressure of the C was really weighing him down. He’s really come on since then and has contributed offensively.

"Kelly Popadynetz, who is probably the quietest offensive player we have, is a very smooth and fluid player with the puck and creates offense better than probably anybody on our team. Both are playing very well right now, so we’re looking forward to their contribution this weekend."

THE NET EFFECT: Both Blais and Gwozdecky could make cases that each’s goaltender is his team’s MVP this season. UND’s Karl Goehring is, statistically, the league’s best goaltender while DU’s Stephen Wagner has been a key in the games Denver has won.

"Steve Wagner played extremely well for us (in the win) on Saturday night up there and really was the difference in the game," Gwozdecky said. "He’s playing very well right now. He’s got his edge back. He is going to have to be a factor in this series for us, a very positive factor if we’re going to have success."

Goehring received praise from all over, including other coaches.

"He’s a big factor in their success," St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl said. "They’ve had some guys like Jason Blake that can score some goals, but it all starts in the net."

Said Blais: "You look at the top teams, and their goaltenders have got them there. Not single-handedly, because they’re with some pretty good teams."

An interesting twist

St. Cloud State vs. Minnesota-Duluth

Seeds: SCSU is third; UMD is eighth. Records: SCSU 20-11-3, 16-9-3 WCHA; UMD 14-20, 10-18. When: Friday at 7:35 p.m. CT; Saturday and Sunday (if necessary) at 7:05 p.m. CT. Where: National Hockey Center, St. Cloud, Minn.

It’s not uncommon for teams in the 3-8 matchup to have split the season series. But like this?

Minnesota-Duluth defeated St. Cloud State 3-2 (OT) and 4-3 in November to earn its first series sweep at the National Hockey Center. SCSU responded with a sweep at the DECC in January (8-0 and 4-1). This weekend’s series is in St. Cloud.

But then again, the Bulldogs have never won three road games in one season against the same WCHA team. This is one of those weekends when numbers go out the window.

IN THE BOX: Dahl couldn’t overemphasize the importance of his team’s special teams play in this weekend. Or, more directly, he couldn’t overemphasize the importance of not getting put into special teams situations.

"We gave Minnesota 11 chances on the power play over the weekend and I was very disappointed with that," Dahl said. "I would prefer not to kill penalties at all if we can help it.

"We need to stay out of the box and not have to worry about that penalty kill. One of the main reasons your penalty kill is good is your goaltender stops the first shot, and Scott Meyer is having an outstanding year doing that. That’s probably the biggest factor in our being able to kill penalties so well, that Scotty hasn’t let in any soft goals on the penalty kill."

ON THE ROAD: Mike Sertich has to get his one-liners in while he can, so the WCHA teleconference this weekend was the perfect opportunity. Sertich announced recently he would resign after the season.

A reporter asked him why his team has a better record on the road this season than at home.

"The coach likes being out of town," he said.

Like him or not, he does pull some good jokes every now and again.

But it’s true that the Bulldogs are better on the road. And that’s where they’ll be from now on.

AS FAR AWAY FROM GRAND FORKS AS POSSIBLE: There was no need to tell Sertich his team needed to win last weekend to avoid going to Grand Forks to play North Dakota in the first round.

He and his team knew quite well.

"We knew full well that our destiny was in our own hands," Sertich said. "I think the impetus of the weekend, the possibility of going to Grand Forks was a little bit fresh in everybody’s mind. We got thrashed over there pretty badly (10-0, to be exact) and we were not looking forward to the possibility of going over there again.

"Not to say that going to St. Cloud is any easier, because after watching them on Friday night against Minnesota, they dismantled a pretty good Minnesota team pretty well. We know what we’re up against, I guess. We have a very auspicious beginning to the playoffs."

TO GET IN: In a roundabout way, Dahl said his team may have to win the Final Five championship to get into the NCAA tournament. With his team sitting at 13th in the Pairwise Rankings, it appears they’ll at least need to get into the championship game to make an impact on the selection committee.

But that is including Quinnipiac and Niagara, eighth and ninth, respectively, in the PWR. Who knows if one or both will get tossed out by the committee?

"We’ve got to win games," Dahl said. Simple enough.

"Two years ago, we got left out when Princeton upset Clarkson in the (ECAC) championship game. We were 12th in the ratings and we got bumped out. Winning takes care of it, and that’s what I told our players to worry about."

THE NET EFFECT: The reason you have to respect UMD’s Brant Nicklin is that he’s stuck through it all. A lot of hardships, some especially trying times this season, when he had to miss games when he was about to become a father.

But he’s still there, and, according to Sertich, he’s ready.

"I don’t think he was at the top of his game," Sertich said. "He had a personal issue to deal with here the last couple months and I think that took its toll on him. Now that that’s behind him, I think he’s ready to go."

SCSU’s Meyer has been a pleasant surprise for a team that really needed a shot in the arm as far as goaltending is concerned. And he’ll need to be strong in the playoffs, something of which Dahl is very aware.

"That goaltender’s just huge when it comes to winning a big game," he said, in a general sense.

QUOTABLE: Sertich, on his players this season: "Kids are so damn resilient. I envy them. They’re like flubber balls. They’ll get punched and poked and thrown and kicked, but they always come back. This is a special group of kids. Although we didn’t have the success that we had anticipated, it’s a pretty good bunch of kids. I think they’re feeling pretty good about themselves and they’ve handled things very well."

Either way, a good story

Minnesota State vs. Alaska-Anchorage

Seeds: MSU is fourth; UAA is seventh. Records: MSU 19-13-4, 15-10-3 WCHA; UAA 15-16-3, 11-14-3. When: Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), all at 7:05 p.m. CT. Where: Midwest Wireless Civic Center, Mankato, Minn.

The great thing about the series between host Minnesota State and Alaska-Anchorage is that, no matter who wins, we’ll have a new participant in the Final Five. New blood in the tournament is never bad.

And either would be a great story. If Mankato gets in, it’s a tremendous continuation of coach Don Brose’s career with the Mavericks. He’s said he will retire when the season ends, and his players surely want to make sure that doesn’t happen for a little while, at least.

If it’s Anchorage winning on the road, it will prove a lot of people wrong. The Seawolves, with no experience in goal at the start of the season, weren’t expected to do much. But they were in contention for a home-ice spot in the last month of the season and are in a good position to make a run this weekend.

SEAWOLF DOMINANCE? Although the Mavericks are the higher seed this weekend, the Seawolves took the season series between the two teams, 2-1-1. Brose knows all about that, and his team’s struggles with UAA.

"Our record against the Seawolves is not very good — 1-2-1 this year and, over the years we’ve played them, we’re 4-11," Brose said. "Even though we’re the higher seed, we’re not treating this as a game we’re favored in by any means. I think they outshot us this year in three of the four games."

Talafous certainly isn’t going to let that go to its team’s head.

"We’ve had some success against them but … this is playoff time and things change," he said. "There’s a lot of emotions and a lot of other things come into play. All I can say is our team is playing (its) very best hockey. We have made steady improvement all year. I don’t think people gave us much of a chance and yet we’ve had a very good season. We’ve won our series against a lot of different teams, we won the Governor’s Cup (against Alaska-Fairbanks) last weekend and the kids are very confident, and that’s a good way to go into the playoffs."

PLAY THE UAA WAY: When teams play Anchorage, things usually go the Seawolves’ way. Not necessarily on the scoreboard, but on the ice.

UAA, the least-penalized team in the league, won’t give up many power plays, so trying to get them off their game and into a chippy game won’t work.

Teams have tried, trust me.

"We gave up four power-play goals against UMD in the Saturday game which we lost, so I think we’d be crazy to look into playing chippy and clutch and grab and that sort of stuff," Brose said. "When you play Anchorage, you’re not going to get many power plays at all. And the way our power play is working, that isn’t bad."

TOUGH SCHEDULE HELPS: Did Anchorage’s late-season games against No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 2 North Dakota help the Seawolves as they enter the playoffs?

Duh.

"We played Wisconsin and North Dakota back-to-back, and we tried so many different things because one day we’d like to be able to beat those teams," Talafous said. ‘When we came out of it, we settled into a game plan that we felt, with our talent, gave us the best chance to win in (the) playoffs.

"We played extremely well in Duluth … it was a good weekend, and then we came back and played a tough Fairbanks team that just came off some wins against Nebraska-Omaha. I think we finally settled in to who we are and what gives us the best chance to win. Those two tough series against Wisconsin and North Dakota helped us in that process."

WIN TO GET IN: As opposed to St. Cloud State, which could still hold hope of a NCAA berth if it didn’t win the Final Five, Minnesota State knows it must win the championship to make the NCAA field.

"If our kids and the coaching staff want any chance to move on, we feel we’ve got to win the WCHA Final Five tournament," Brose said. "Even though we’re the fourth seed in the league, Minnesota and CC are both ahead of us in the power ratings."

Brose is right on one of those claims. CC is ranked 14th in the PWR while Mankato is 15th. But Minnesota is currently 19th.

NO WORRIES: If Mankato blows out the Seawolves on Friday, some in Anchorage may be worried. But Talafous won’t be.

"They quite possibly could blow us out one night, but we’re not going to let it bother us," he said. "They’ve got more scoring; we don’t have a lot of scorers. In probably 70 percent of our games, we’ve outshot the opposition, but we don’t have a lot of gifted scorers. If we win, the score’s probably going to be relatively low. If they win, it could be a different score, but that’s just kind of our game. It’s not that we don’t play aggressive and we don’t forecheck and we don’t work hard, it’s just we don’t have a lot of natural goal-scorers.

"There’s so many hurdles that we’ve been going over this year that people thought we couldn’t accomplish. We’re going to win in the playoffs. It may be this year, it may be next, but the program continues to move upwards. It’s just a matter of time. We hope it’s this weekend."

THE NET EFFECT: There is no question in Brose’s mind why his team has played so well lately.

"In our last nine games, we’ve only lost once, and I think it basically is because our goalie, Eric Pateman, has been playing extremely well over that period of time," Brose said. "We’re getting better goal production from various people on the team. We have to have outstanding goaltending and we have to have over 100 percent effort from every one of our kids just to have a chance to win any game."

In Anchorage, Corey Strachan and Cory McEachran have been the dueling goaltenders. But it’s tough to tell who’s going to play on any given night. Talafous, though, says he has a plan.

"From the beginning, I said you’re both young and inexperienced," Talafous said. "We’re just going to keep putting both of you in there and if one seems to get hot or play well, we’ll stay with him as long as we can. If the door opens again, the other guy will jump in there. If he can get hot, we’ll stay with him.

"They kind of like that because they’ve supported each other and they realize that they’re going to stay in there for a while as long as they’re playing well and yet, the other one has an opportunity to get back in there at some time. Right now, Strachan has played well the past four games, so he’ll get the first start and if he plays well, we’ll stay with him."

QUOTABLE: Brose, on his retirement: "I think Sertie and I should retire every weekend, our (teams) play better. I don’t know if it’s because they want to win for us or because they want to see us go."

The return of the Don, Part II

Colorado College vs. Minnesota

Seeds: CC is fifth; UM is sixth. Records: CC 18-16-3, 14-11-3 WCHA; UM 17-17-2, 13-13-2. When: Friday at 7:35 p.m. MT; Saturday and Sunday (if necessary) at 7:05 p.m. MT. Where: Colorado Springs World Arena, Colorado Springs, Colo.

When Minnesota and Colorado College met earlier this season in Colorado College, the centerpiece of the weekend was Minnesota coach Don Lucia’s return to face the team he once coached.

Thank goodness there’s a little more on the line this weekend. Oh, I’m sure the Don Lucia faces will back, but at least that’s not the biggest thing that will come out of this weekend.

And it’s probably good Lucia already made his return earlier this season, or who knows what would go down this weekend.

A DIFFERENT LOOK: Lucia’s Gophers made drastic changes after an embarrassing 5-0 loss to St. Cloud State last Friday, and expect more of the same this weekend.

Minnesota needs to find the combination that’s going to pull it out of a four-game losing streak, the Gophers’ longest slide this season.

"I know that we’re going to have a young team coming out there," Lucia said. "We’ll have probably one or two seniors in our lineup this weekend. We all know that unless kids work hard, you’re not going to have success. There’s no secret that we played a very poor game on Friday and I was very disappointed. We left some guys home and took some guys that we thought would give us a good effort."

Senior Dave Spehar was one of those left home last Saturday, but is expected — after a few days of sweating it out in practice — to be in uniform when the Gophers are in Colorado.

QUALITY BREEDS QUALITY: Playing two of the tougher teams in the league in the last two weeks would have helped Colorado College by itself. But that the Tigers won two of four games against St. Cloud and Wisconsin and tied another is an even better sign of improvement.

"It’s been, at times, a frustrating season for us this year, but we feel playing quality teams down the stretch is helping prepare us for the playoffs," Tigers coach Scott Owens said. "At the beginning of the year, you look at the schedule and you go, ‘Oh, St. Cloud and at Wisconsin to finish up.’ As it turned out, we tried to turn it into a positive, and we feel we played some of our best hockey, not probably our best hockey, but some of our best hockey, the last four games.

"I think we’ve got a little bit of a second wind here. After that devastating Mankato weekend loss, we’ve picked ourselves up pretty well and feel we’re playing decent hockey right now."

UGLY CAN BE BEAUTIFUL: Lucia stressed the importance of being smart with the puck this weekend.

"(The Tigers) showed it at Wisconsin last weekend, they have great team speed and they can really pin a team’s ears back when they get it cranked up," Lucia said. "We have to make sure we’re careful with the puck.

"They get that puck moving in a hurry, and we have to make sure that we don’t turn it over in a dangerous area and they make that one pass and away they go on a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-2. We have to play a patient game. We’re on the road and we’ve been in some difficult environments this year. The good thing about being on the road is you can play ugly and you don’t have to worry about style points. That’s probably the way we’re going to have to play this weekend."

THE NET EFFECT: Each of these teams has a question in goal this weekend, but Minnesota takes the award for the larger concern.

Starting goaltender Adam Hauser is still recovering from mononucleosis, leaving Pete Samargia to face the Tigers Friday, at least.

"It looks like right now Pete Samargia will play and he’s going to have to play well," Lucia said. "If Pete Samargia doesn’t outplay CC’s goaltenders, we won’t be able to win. That becomes so critical at this point in the season."

The Gophers haven’t won in the four games since Hauser’s illness. But Owens said he won’t let that become a factor in his team’s planning.

"We have to be careful we don’t get wrapped up in the goaltending thing," Owens said. "This goaltender, I remember from the USHL, is a good goaltender and he got some confidence under his belt Saturday night. I think sometimes a team will rally around that a little bit."

Lucia makes no excuses, but couldn’t help but think Hauser’s absence had something to do with his team’s poor close to the regular season.

"It was up to us at the end of the year, and losing Adam certainly had a big impact on us the last four games," Lucia said. "But we played two very good teams in Wisconsin and St. Cloud. Based on what happened the last two weeks, we deserve to go on the road this weekend."

QUOTABLE: Lucia, who left CC to coach Minnesota before this season: "I’m used to playing the first round of the playoffs in Colorado Springs, I just forgot that I didn’t want to do that this year."

Final note

Worried it may be too late to buy tickets for the Final Five? Uh, not quite.

There’s room for you, your co-workers, the people on your block, everyone in your church, your entire high school graduating class and probably then some.

WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod said roughly 4,000 ticket packages have been sold for the tournament, which begins next Thursday at the Target Center in Minneapolis. That doesn’t include tickets allocated to the schools or freebies.

"That’s pretty normal for us," McLeod said.

Tickets can be ordered by calling (651) 989-5151.

This Week in the MAAC: March 9, 2000

Playoff Preview

With the second season in MAAC history in the books, it’s time to reflect a little on the season that was.

And what a season it was!

When you look at the standings, and see six of ten teams above .500, immediately you think of one word — parity. Now maybe that’s not all that true in the MAAC, as for the second straight year Quinnipiac ran away with the regular-season title, this year more impressively than last: losing only once and finishing the season with a 22-game league unbeaten streak. But once you look past the top team, to pick the next five seeds, you may as well have held a lottery.

First-year Mercyhurst surprised many by finishing in second place, holding on to first for half of the season before losing back-to-back games to Quinnipiac in January. From there, the fact that Quinnipiac never faltered cemented the Lakers’ second seed.

The final weekend of the season provided excitement for the teams in third through sixth place, as all four had a chance at the final two home-ice spots. UConn and Canisius held on in the end, which makes their playoff games against Sacred Heart and Iona, respectively, tough challenges.

Non-league play provided some excitement throughout the year as well, staring right from the beginning when Fairfield, coming off a dismal 1-31-0 season, opened their campaign with a 2-2 tie against future MAAC member Army. Though the Stags would go on to another last-place finish in the MAAC, the team greatly improved over the course of the season and will surely be a force in years to come.

Before that, Quinnipiac had played two barnburners with Niagara and RPI, losing 5-4 in overtime and 6-4, respectively. And in mid-December, the MAAC front-runners put the scare of a lifetime into defending national champion Maine. With less than 10 minutes remaining in the third period, Quinnipiac held a 4-3 lead, only to watch the nationally-ranked Black Bears storm back for four tallies en route to a 7-4 win.

And let us not forget the MAAC’s version of the Miracle on Ice — when 20 years to the day after the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team upset the Soviets, the Canisius College Ice Griffs shocked national contender Niagara, 2-1, behind the 58-save performance of Sean Weaver. The performance earned Weaver the USCHO Defensive Player of the Week Award.

So as we enter the tournament, once again a single-elimination affair, eight teams remain. AIC and Fairfield bid adieu after their playoff runs fell short. This week, my column takes a look at each series, with insight from all of the coaches, and my predictions for who will remain when the dust clears — the select four to take the trip to Storrs, Conn., and compete for the MAAC Championship. I’ll also peer into my crystal ball and take a crack at handing out the MAAC’s postseason awards.

Strap your seatbelts on, fans, the MAAC playoff express is about to take off. Those who don’t hold on tight may fall off and have to wait until next year!

#8 Bentley College (7-22-2, 7-18-2 MAAC) at #1 Quinnipiac College (26-5-3, 23-1-3 MAAC) Friday, March 11, 2000, 7:00 ET Northford Ice Pavilion, Northford, Conn.

For the second consecutive year, the Quinnipiac Braves ride into the MAAC playoffs on top, having captured the regular season title three weeks ago. Last season, the Braves hammered an inferior Fairfield club, 13-2, in the first round, only to be upset by Canisius the following weekend in the semifinals, 5-2.

If last weekend is any indication, at least the results of the first round will be quite similar. Facing first-round opponent Bentley in the last week of the regular season, the Quinnipiac offense came to life, scoring 18 goals to the Falcons’ two.

But Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold, though confident in his team’s ability, doesn’t foresee similar results this weekend.

"Honestly, I thought the two games [against Bentley] early in the year were real close," said Pecknold. "The first game was 5-2 with an empty-netter and second game [a 5-4 overtime win] went to overtime before we won it.

"This past weekend, I don’t know exactly what happened. We just came out firing. We scored 18 goals in two games and missed a lot of opportunities, too."

Pecknold, though believes that this weekend will be much tougher.

"Bentley will be more prepared for us," he said. "I don’t expect to see a game like [the two] last weekend."

When asked if his team could feel too comfortable, given the blowouts last weekend, Pecknold gave a resounding, "No."

"I think if we fall apart in the playoffs, it wouldn’t have anything to do with last weekend," Pecknold said. "I don’t think our guys are complacent.

"The thing that worries me the most, is, if we can make it to the semis, we haven’t played a close game in a while. We had enough [close] games early in the year, though, that should help us."

One area that Pecknold will focus on this weekend is discipline. Bentley is the most-penalized team in the league, but also has one of the top power plays. So if the Braves are heading to the penalty box, Pecknold wants to make sure the Falcons keep them company.

"They do have a good power play and we are focused on trying to limit their power play chances," Pecknold said. "Last weekend there were a lot of four-on-four situations, which benefits us. When the score got out of hand, things got chippy, which doesn’t reflect well on us or the game. We want to try to stay out of that."

For Bentley, coach Jim McAdam is using a simple formula which he hangs on his bulletin board for the players to read: "Work Hard!"

"[AIC coach] Gary Wright said that the most important thing is that the kids don’t quit on you and they keep working hard," said McAdam. "And he’s absolutely right. The one thing we having going is that our kids have never quit on us."

Even though the opponent is Quinnipiac, McAdam feels his team can have playoff success. After losing the two games by lopsided scores last weekend, McAdam joked, "We’ve got them right where we want them!"

The key for Bentley to survive against the Braves will be staying disciplined and staying out of the penalty box.

"Five-on-five we can hang in there, but when they go up one, they move the puck so well," McAdam said. "They’re a good team and can compete with Hockey East teams. We couldn’t even sniff with [Hockey East teams]. That’s the difference."

McAdam’s closing comment? "We haven’t given up, and there’s still a lot of fight left in our guys."

That’s a message that must be resounding around the Bentley locker room to keep the playoff hopes alive.

Pick: You won’t see the scores of last weekend, but you will see the Braves on top. Quinnipiac wins, 5-3, to advance.

#7 College of the Holy Cross (8-23-3, 8-16-3 MAAC) at #2 Mercyhurst College (21-9-4, 19-6-2 MAAC) Saturday, March 11, 2000, 7:30 ET Mercyhurst Ice Center, Erie, Penn.

The second of two rematches from the final week of the regular season, the Holy Cross-Mercyhurst game is easily the more viable for a major upset. Last weekend, the Crusaders previewed that upset, shutting down the Laker offense in the first game, 1-0, behind a solid performance by rookie goaltender Dan Bennett.

In Saturday’s rematch, Mercyhurst used the power of the penalty kill, scoring four shorthanded goals in a 6-1 victory.

"I don’t know who looked more shocked, us or Holy Cross," said Mercyhurst head coach Rick Gotkin. "We’re very aggressive shorthanded. We like to go at people and force them to make big plays."

Big plays that Holy Cross coach Paul Pearl admits his team just couldn’t make.

"Saturday was just a joke on our power play," said Pearl. "They’re a good team and I think we are too, but they’re very aggressive on the penalty kill."

Regarding Friday’s loss, Gotkin realized something had to be done.

"I think the old adage is that you can’t take anybody lightly," Gotkin said. "So we maybe learned something that we already knew — any of these teams are good enough to beat you.

"I think on Friday our guys were sitting back. We addressed that, telling them that momentum was a big thing.

"I’ve got a great deal of respect for Holy Cross. I thought when we played them in October they played well. Friday and Saturday they played well, but Saturday we got some goals and some momentum."

Regardless of momentum, Gotkin, though playing in his first MAAC tournament, knows well that to get to the final four, his Lakers will have to unseat the defending champion.

"I think experience has to help them," Gotkin said. "They’re the defending MAAC champs and they know what it takes….We’ve played some great playoff games in the past [in the ECAC West], though, and that should help us."

For Pearl, the story continues to change. For the first time in weeks, he will put a healthy team of skaters onto the ice. Senior captain Chris Fattey, who played in only 24 games this season, and has battled the last few weeks with a wrist injury, is back to 100 percent, something that gives Pearl optimism.

"I’ve been saying it all year, we’re a good team," said Pearl. "We’re excited about the playoffs no matter where we ended in the standings."

When asked if his team learned anything from this past weekend’s matchup, Pearl said, half-jokingly, "Yeah, don’t give up shorthanded goals. They do a good job on their penalty kill and we’re going to have to be a little more careful with the puck.

"I think [Mercyhurst has] a good team and a good coach. I don’t think we’re going to sneak up on these guys, especially after last weekend."

Pearl, who last year as the second seed, was extremely vocal in opposition of a single-game quarterfinal, hasn’t changed his position even though his team may benefit.

"[The playoffs] are too haphazard," Pearl said. "Getting hot for 60 minutes is something that could happen for anybody."

Pearl also addressed the likely appearance of the MAAC in next year’s NCAA championships, as the league is expecting an automatic bid.

"Next year, when we’re sending our first representative to the NCAA tournament, we need to push for our best team to be there. What we’ll want to do as a league is to send a team that shows its best and show it is the best. This year, the first round doesn’t do that.

"Hey, we’re reaping the rewards. I’m seeing the other side of it, and I think we’re pretty good and probably better than a seventh-place team. But it’s tough on the higher seed."

Pearl will have seven players in his lineup from last year’s inaugural MAAC championship, and hopes that experience can help.

"[Benefiting from our experience] would be nice, but it still comes down to the fact that last season has nothing to do with these sixty minutes," Pearl said. "We played 27 league games to have to come up only with a 60-minute game here. We’ve get a great shot here to atone for our sins. Bentley got blown out last weekend but they can play one game and move on. Same thing for us."

Pick: This is the hardest game to pick, by far. But Mercyhurst has played very well on home ice this season, so you have to go with that advantage. Lakers advance, as the defending champs fall, 3-1.

#6 Iona College (15-16-3, 13-12-2 MAAC) at #3 Canisius College (21-9-4, 16-8-3 MAAC) Saturday, March 11, 2000, 2:00 ET Buffalo State Sports Arena, Buffalo, N.Y.

Staying at home in the playoffs is always nice. But for Canisius College, it’s a luxury. The Ice Griffs, for the second consecutive season, battled tooth and nail until the final weekend of the season to gain home ice and avoid a minimum 10-hour bus ride in the first round of the playoffs.

Unfortunately for Canisius, that bus ride is about the only thing that will make the game feel like a home game. As many schools experience this time of year, Canisius’ students are on spring break, making it difficult to gather much of a crowd on Saturday afternoon.

"You work all year to be here, and you have a chance to play the sport you love — that’s the positive," said Canisius head coach Brian Cavanaugh. "But it’s a shame that the students don’t get a chance to come out and support us."

All of that aside, Cavanaugh is upbeat about his playoff matchup with the Iona Gaels. This is the only matchup in which the favorite did not win the season series, as the Gaels won two of the three games this season. But that is where home ice comes into play.

"Due to the MAAC schedule, we played all three games at the Ice Hutch," said Cavanaugh. "We won the first one 3-2, lost the second, 3-1, and then lost the last game, 3-2. All of the games were very close and that’s what I expect again."

One of the tough decisions that Cavanaugh will face this weekend is which of his two goaltenders to play. Though it’s a luxury to have two, that doesn’t make the decision any easier. Sean Weaver, a favorite for the MAAC Goaltender of the Year award, posted an 11-6-4 record in 21 starts with a 2.30 goals-against average. Stephen Fabiilli’s numbers, though impressive, are slightly below Weaver’s. Fabiilli has a 10-3-0 record with a 3.09 goals-against average.

"It’s a difficult decision to decide who to play," said Cavanaugh. "Weaver won 11 games and Fabiilli won 10 games. It was a difficult decision to decide which player, but right now I’m leaning towards Sean."

The Iona Gaels are hoping that New York state can continue to be kind to the athletic program. On Monday, the Gael basketball team captured the MAAC championship with a win over Siena, giving the Gaels a bid to the NCAA basketball tournament. Gaels coach Frank Bretti, who was present in Albany for the hoop victory on Monday, hopes that Buffalo can be the same.

"I’m hoping that we can have the success like our basketball team," Bretti said. "I think we have a very good chance of winning based on the fact that we proved that we can compete with the upper echelon of the league.

"Considering where our program was and where we’re trying to go, I feel real good about our chance of winning."

Similar to the Griffs, Bretti has two goaltenders who have proven they can play night in and night out. Junior Ben Brady has made 11 starts, posting a 3-5-3 record, while his counterpart, rookie Mike Fraser, has posted a 12-11-0 record in his 24 starts.

"Mike Fraser is the expected starter," said Bretti. "He and Ben Brady have improved in that position all year. Last year when we entered the playoffs, we knew that [goaltending] would be a questionable area. This year, even though we could be going against the best goaltending in the league, I don’t expect that to be a weakness for us."

One area of concern for Bretti is special teams. The Gael power play ranks last among playoff teams, scoring only 22 times in 124 opportunities (17.7 percent) throughout the MAAC season. The Iona penalty kill is a little bit better, ranking fifth in the league at 80.3 percent, just behind Canisius at 80.9 percent.

"Our power play hasn’t lived up to where we’d want it to be," said Bretti. "Our penalty kill has played well. With the power play, it’s not a matter of not generating time in the offensive zone. It’s just we need to take better shots and score goals."

Regardless, Bretti is excited about his team’s chances. He knows that as a number-six seed, the Gaels finished only three and a half games behind third-place Canisius.

"We’re not going into this as a strong underdog," said Bretti, "I take nothing away from the other programs, but we consider ourselves as good as a third- or fourth-place team.

"I think if you look back at our own accomplishments as a program, we did well this season. We won the Quinnipiac Cup early in the year, we took three of four [points] out at Air Force, and we beat Army for the first time ever.

Bretti hopes that at the end of the weekend he can add an appearance in the league’s final four to that resume.

Pick: Home ice has been good to the Griffs all year long, so you can’t bet against them in the playoffs. Canisius wins, 4-3.

#5 Sacred Heart University (16-14-3, 14-10-3 MAAC) at #4 University of Connecticut (16-16-1, 15-11-1 MAAC) Saturday, March 11, 2000, 7:30 ET UConn Ice Arena, Storrs, Conn.

In the 1999-2000 season, their home state of Connecticut has been anything but generous to the Sacred Heart Pioneers. Against in the Connecticut schools of Quinnipiac, Fairfield, and UConn, Sacred Heart compiled a 3-5-2 record, and a dismal 0-3-2 record against those clubs on the road. So drawing UConn on the road in the first round of the MAAC playoffs may not be exactly what head coach Shaun Hannah was looking for. But don’t tell him that.

"We’re pretty pumped about going to UConn," said the youthful Hannah. "I think the style of play that each team plays creates a fast paced, physical-style hockey game. We’re gearing up for a real battle."

And a battle it should be. These two clubs combined for three exciting, action-packed games around the New Year. All three contests were won by UConn, with two of them come-from-behind efforts to secure the victory. Sacred Heart won the only other matchup, a 2-1 overtime decision in early November.

Hannah’s club is fortunate to posses a lot of what it takes to win in the playoffs. Excellent goaltending in Alexis Jutras-Binet, coupled with some strong special-teams work, will help the Pioneers. Regardless, the Pioneers do not posses strong playoff experience like their UConn counterparts.

"As far experience at the college level, there’s a hole," said Hannah. "But these guys have played for successful playoff teams at the junior level, so I don’t think our experience will be much of a factor."

For the second straight year, Sacred Heart’s first-round opponent is also the school that will host the league championships the following weekend. Last season, Sacred Heart fell, 3-1, to the eventual champions from Holy Cross. Hannah knows that UConn has that added incentive to want to win the first round.

"We know that the tournament is at their place, so they’re going to be fired up to stay at home," Hannah said. "That will be a factor on how they come out. But we’re ready for that. We’re going to have to want to be in the [final four] more than Connecticut does. It’s that simple."

For the Pioneers, Hannah says, "tight defense is a big key." He added that "the power play has been hot of late, so discipline and composure are [critical] areas if we’re going to be successful in the playoffs."

UConn coach Bruce Marshall, whose club split its final series of the season with Iona to gain home ice, knows that Sacred Heart is one difficult task.

"I think it’s probably going to one of the tighter games in the first round," Marshall said. "[Sacred Heart has] some solid goaltending. We’re going to have to play mistake free because they tend to be a little explosive offensively."

Going back to last weekend’s series, Marshall felt his team played very much like a playoff team to clinch home ice on Saturday night.

"I thought we were playing pretty well on Friday night," said Marshall, "but it was a game that got away from us. The kids were pretty frustrated about that and showed a lot of character to come back and win Saturday. I’d have rather seen us win on Friday, but Saturday’s win helped tremendouly.

Pick: It’s hard to pick against Sacred Heart, but home ice will probably be the difference in this one. UConn wins, 4-3, in overtime.

Postseason Awards

The MAAC will present postseason awards at its annual banquet, to be held on the UConn Campus on Wednesday, March 15, one night before the MAAC final four kicks off. In preparation, here are my selections for those awards. Of course, the common disclaimer that my vote means nothing applies.

MAAC Offensive Player of the Year: Shawn Mansoff, Quinnipiac College.

When Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold signed a transfer student two seasons ago, not many people may have known the impact. The player was Shawn Mansoff, from the University of Maine, and he decided to part ways with the Black Bears knowing that he would have to sit out the 1998-99 season by NCAA rules. His return to hockey, though, came with a monumental explosion.

In his first season with the Braves, Mansoff registered 52 points (27 goals, 25 assists) to capture the league scoring title. Going into the final weekend of the season, Mansoff was deadlocked with Bentley’s Ryan Soderquist, with a head-to-head series with the Falcons to decide the title. Responding as a player of his caliber would, Mansoff notched eight points (three goals, five assists), to win going away.

"I think Shawn is the best player in our league," said Pecknold. "The greatest thing about him is he’s the best defensive forward in our league. He does it all, and on the flip side he led the league in scoring.

"His work ethic is just phenomenal. He might not have the most pure talent in the league, but he’s the best all-around player."

MAAC Offensive Rookie of the Year: Martin Paquet, Sacred Heart University

One of the most impressive freshmen to watch this season had to be Sacred Heart’s Martin Paquet. In his first season, Paquet posted a team-best 39 points (18 goals, 21 assists), and crucial to the Sacred Heart success this season is the fact that Paquet’s best games have come against the top teams in the league.

He has posted 10 multiple point games this season, with one against Quinnpiac, one against Canisius and two against each of Mercyhurst and Connecticut. His best performance was a four-point (two goals, two assists) game early in the season against Canisius.

"Marty is the type of kid that rises to the occasion when there’s a challenge ahead of him," said Hannah. "As the year has progressed, he’s really started to do a lot on the ice. It’s something that we need him to do this weekend and from what I’ve seen, he’s prepared."

MAAC Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive Rookie of the Year: Matt Erhart, Quinnipiac College

After posting a very impressive rookie campaign on defense, Quinnipiac’s Matt Erhart earns my vote for both MAAC Defensive Player and Defensive Rookie of the Year. Erhart quietly scored 31 points (three goals, 28 assists) for the Braves this season, including a career-best five-assist game last weekend against Bentley.

But more important than his offensive contributions was the solid defense for which Erhart could be relied upon. Of the many high-scoring candidates for this award, Erhart was easily the hardest-working defensive player. Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold agrees.

"Matt is a full-package — he’s great offensively, but he’s the best defensive defenseman I have," Pecknold said. "He has the ability to break the puck out of the zone, whether is be by a solid pass or simply skating the puck himself. He’s a great all-around hockey player who could play anywhere in the country. We’re extremely fortunate to have him at Quinnipiac."

MAAC Goaltender of the Year: Sean Weaver, Canisius College

No player surprised MAAC fans, coaches and players as much as Canisius College goaltender Sean Weaver. After seeing limited action his freshman year, Weaver split time with Stephen Fabiilli in the Canisius net this season, creating one of the best one-two goaltending punches in college hockey.

This season, Weaver made 21 starts and posted an 11-6-4 record, with a 2.30 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage. Weaver had two record-setting performances in net for the Ice Griffs, making a school-record 58 saves in both starts. The first time was a 3-1 loss to league champion Quinnipiac in which Weaver stopped 58 of 60 shots. The second, just three weeks ago, was a 2-1 upset victory over crosstown rival Niagara. In that game, the Griffs were outshot 59-19, but thanks to Weaver’s efforts held on for a 2-1 victory.

"Sean is both talented on the ice and in the classroom," said Canisius coach Brian Cavanaugh. "He’s a 3.8 student. He carries that knowledge onto the ice as he has a keen insight into the game. He’s very much a leader on and off the ice."

MAAC Coach of the Year: Shaun Hannah, Sacred Heart University

One of the easiest awards to pick this season has to be the MAAC Coach of the Year. Sacred Heart University has and that is done a 180 with its hockey program in less than a year, thanks in no small part to head coach Shaun Hannah.

Now in his fourth year, Hannah has transformed the program from a second-to-last finish one year ago to a tie for fourth place this season. Thanks to solid recruiting efforts during his tenure, Hannah has built one of the strongest walls on defense, led by goaltender Alexis Jutras-Binet. In one season, Hannah improved his club’s record from 7-23-1 to this year’s overall record of 16-14-3.

All-MAAC Selections

First-Team MAAC All-Stars

Forwards: Shawn Mansoff, Quinnipiac Ryan Soderquist, Bentley Chris Cerrella, Quinnipiac

Defensemen: Matt Erhart, Quinnipiac Jim Whelan, Holy Cross

Goaltender: Sean Weaver, Canisius

Second-Team MAAC All-Stars

Forwards: Martin Paquet, Sacred Heart Louis Goulet, Mercyhurst Ryan Carter, Iona

Defensemen: Jody Robinson, Mercyhurst Anthony DiPalma, Quinnipiac

Goaltender: Ashley Stevens, Mercyhurst

MAAC All-Rookie Team

Forwards: Rae Metz, Fairfield Martin Paquet, Sacred Heart Brian Herbert, Quinnipiac

Defensemen: Matt Erhart, Quinnipiac Les Hrapchak, Sacred Heart

Goaltender: Mike Fraser, Iona

This Week in the CCHA: March 9, 2000

Win, Maybe Place, But Probably No Show

Congratulations to the Wolverines, regular-season champions of the CCHA.

That’s one team going to the NCAA tournament. Where does that leave the rest of the conference?

At number 12 in the Pairwise, Michigan State is on the proverbial bubble to make the NCAA tourney. Next after the Spartans are the Bulldogs at 17th. The Lakers are 20th, while Northern Michigan is 25th.

In case you’re wondering, Michigan is 10th, right behind Niagara and Quinnipiac.

For the first time since 1991–and only the second time since the NCAA tournament increased to 12 teams in 1988–the CCHA will most likely be represented by just two teams in the NCAA postseason tourney.

To quote an anonymous source close to the league, "What is up with that?"

What’s up is that the league has increased to 12 teams, and has set up a three-cluster system to accommodate the increase.

When a winning team plays a team whose record is below .500, the winning team’s RPI and Pairwise take a hit based on strength of opponent. Let’s say that the winning team–Michigan, for the sake of argument–plays below-.500 teams even one more time per season, then Michigan’s strength of schedule is hurt even more.

The Wolverines played both the Buckeyes and the RedHawks four games each, or eight total against teams whose records were below .500.

Heaven help the team who meets such below-.500 teams and loses, as did Michigan State to Miami, twice.

Then factor in the number of games against stronger opponents dropped from the schedule to make room for clustermates, and you can see how a given team’s RPI and Pairwise may be sabotaged from the start.

The clusters will change from year to year within the CCHA (that’s the plan, at least), but for the time being, unless Ferris, Lake, or Northern (with the third-, fourth-, and fifth-best PWR among CCHA teams, respectively) wins the league championship tournament outright, the Bulldogs, Lakers, and Wildcats are staying home.

Of course, the same can be said for any other team CCHA team entering postseason play.

The selection system–based in part on strength of opponent–currently hurts teams in every conference, to some extent. Teams trying to establish themselves have difficulty scheduling marquee opponents because there’s the established team has little to gain from playing a program that is trying to get on its feet.

That would be the reason why teams like Niagara and Quinnipiac have had such difficulty scheduling established opponents.

Well, they had that problem. Take a look at their Pairwise. They may be snubbed for reasons altogether different, now.

All’s Fair In Love And Playoffs

Well, love may have very little to do with it, except in the sense that hockey fans love this time of year.

Unless they root for the Nanooks or Buckeyes. And there are exceptions even among the diehard fans of each team.

All series are best-of-three, played Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (if necessary) at 7:05 p.m., with the exception of Friday’s Western Michigan-Michigan game, which begins at 7:35.

The Lock

For the first time since 1997, the Western Michigan Broncos have made the CCHA playoffs, an impressive turnaround for this program.

Their reward? A trip to Yost, where they’ll lose in two.

Western Michigan (12-19-3, 10-15-3 CCHA) at Michigan (24-8-4, 19-6-3 CCHA) Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, MI

In a two-game series one month ago in Yost Arena, the Broncos scored five goals against Josh Blackburn (.913 SV%, 2.12 GAA).

Unfortunately for Western Michigan, the Wolverines scored 16 times on Jeff Reynaert (.888 SV%, 3.76 GAA).

For the math challenged (and I include myself in that category), that’s two games in two nights, with Michigan winning 7-2 and 9-3.

And there’s the story of each team’s season, in a nutshell. While Blackburn is vulnerable, Michigan’s offense compensates by being unreal. While the Broncos are capable of scoring goals, Reynaert’s save percentage is the third-lowest in the league.

Michigan scores on average four goals per game–first in the league–while Western Michigan allows 3.89 per game–worst in the league.

Even those of us for whom math is hard can grasp those numbers.

Says Western Michigan head coach Jim Culhane, "We’re the underdogs this weekend and have nothing to lose. This series is going to come down to goaltending and executing on special teams."

OK, let’s get back to that goaltending thing. Without Blackburn, Michigan went through a "rough" spell in November and December, by Wolverine standards, anyway. During that two-month span, the Wolverines went 8-5-0.

Since Blackburn’s return, the Wolverines have just two losses, including a 6-3 loss in Yost to Bowling Green last weekend (and don’t think Michigan fans aren’t thrilled to wave to the Falcon bus as it wends its way north to Sault Ste. Marie).

Blackburn has also been responsible for four ties since his return–two against Northern Michigan in clutch play in Marquette, one against arch-rival Michigan State, and one against an Ohio State team that usually scores more than one goal on him.

Blackburn faces just over 22 shots per game, while the beleaguered Reynaert sees nearly 30.

Unless Reynaert pulls off the play of his life, Michigan has the edge all over the net.

So, onto Culhane’s Plan B, special teams.

In a league where so little five-on-five hockey is played, special teams are very important. The Wolverines, as we all know, spend a lot of time in the penalty box. That’s bad news for Michigan, as the Broncos have the second-best power play in the league, converting at 19.3%.

You’d think a team that spends so much time killing penalties would have the best PK in the league, but Michigan’s is .856, third in conference play.

Three Western players were dissed by the league in post-season honors, all three of whom figure big in Western’s power play, a unit that has improved some 24% over last year’s Bronco PP.

Dave Gove was third in league scoring (17-23–40), had seven power-play tallies, two shorthanders, and four game-winners–and was named to the league’s second team.

Gove was one of three players to hit the 40-point plateau this season, and he did so by spending fewer than 20 minutes in the box in conference play this season. He took five penalties in 28 conference games. Second team.

Mike Bishai (15-18–33)–whom I correctly pegged last week as the Chris Richards Memorial Award winner–had an impressive 11 goals on the power play, and three game-winners. Bishai tied for fourth in league scoring, and was not even an "honorable mention" selection.

Dave Cousineau (6-15–21), second among rookie defenders in scoring and with four power-play goals himself, was not named to the All-Rookie team, in spite of being the brightest spark on the Bronco blue line.

All five of the goals the Broncos scored on Michigan this season were on the power play. Gove scored three of them.

(Of course, it’s difficult to earn respect when your team is at -120 collectively in league play.)

Michigan’s power play is fourth in the league (.184), while Western’s PK is last (.781).

Western Michigan was the only team to have two of the league’s top five scorers. Michigan, however, is loaded with talent up front, with six players–Mike Comrie (15-28–43), Andy Hilbert (14-12–26), Mark Kosick (12-12–24), Jeff Jillson (6-17–23), Josh Langfeld (8-14–22), Scott Matzka (11-9–20)–netting 20 or more points this season, every one of them firmly on the plus side of things.

Remember all of those blowhards who pointed out that the millennium doesn’t begin until next year? That’s an important point for this series, as only one Miracle on Ice is allowed per century.

Picks: Michigan 5-2, 6-3

The Next Sure Thing

Miami limps into the playoffs, and earns a chance to face the Spartans in the first round. You can almost hear what they were saying when all was said and done in Oxford last weekend. "Oh, goody."

Miami (13-18-3, 10-15-3 CCHA) at Michigan State (23-10-4, 18-8-2 CCHA) Munn Arena, East Lansing, MI

In November, the Spartans dropped a pair of games to the RedHawks, 3-2 and 3-0, in Goggin Arena.

That was then. This is now.

Michigan State is 6-2-2 in its last ten games, while Miami is 3-7-0 in the same span.

"I’m happy with the way that our team worked these last few weeks of season. If a few more bounces had gone our way this season we could finished in first again.

"We seen Miami in a long time, so it should be an interesting matchup for us. They will have our full attention after they beat us twice down there."

Full attention? Read, "We will bury them."

While the Wolverines have the kind of high-flying offense that can deliver a spanking, the Spartans are certainly a team capable of punishing anyone. They’re sneaky; you think you’re in the game, but when the buzzer sounds the scoreboard delivers sobering news, especially in Munn.

Michigan State leads this all-time series 48-14-5, and 24-8-3 in East Lansing. Miami has never beaten MSU in the post-season.

And here’s a kicker: Michigan State has won all 17 of its first-round playoff series in Munn. The only time the Spartans lost the first round was their sole road series, in 1990-91.

Michigan State has taken the CCHA tournament championship eight times in 18 seasons in the conference. For those of you who are math-challenged–as am I–that means that the Spartans have been in the playoffs each season they’ve been members of the CCHA.

Michigan State is 54-15 all-time in the league tourney, and has the best win percentage in conference history (.783).

Ron Mason has 66 CCHA tournament wins, twice as many as the next closest coach, Michigan’s Red Berenson.

This is Miami head coach Enrico Blasi’s first trip to the CCHA playoffs since he wore a Redskin uniform. Welcome back to the league, Rico!

This is Miami’s 11th first-round appearance, and their first time back since the 1997-98 postseason. The RedHawks are 12-16-0 in CCHA tourney play, and it’s just the second time that Miami and MSU have met in the first round.

The RedHawks did advance past the first round on the road once, back in 1992, when Miami, as the #5 seed, beat Western Michigan, the #4 seed. Back in that day, Blasi played for the Red(skins)Hawks, while Miami assistant coach Joe Bonnett was a Bronco.

While Michigan State has turned around what looked to be a mediocre season, the RedHawks, repeatedly bitten by the injury bug, have struggled since early December. In fact, you can pinpoint the RedHawk tailspin to the Dec. 5 loss to Ohio State. Prior to that game, Miami was 8-4-2, including a resounding 5-0 whoopin’ of the Buckeyes two days before.

Since then, the ‘Hawks are 5-13-1. The looks on their faces after their third consecutive loss to the Buckeyes–2-1 to end their regular season in Goggin last Saturday–said all you need to know about Miami’s second half.

Miami does have a formidable first line in Dustin Whitecotton (10-22–32), Pat Leahy (14-17–31), and Nick Jardine (10-8–18). In Miami wins, the trio has combined for 21 goals, but if you shut that line down–and Michigan State can–RedHawk production falls off drastically. In losses, the three have combined for 10 goals.

In net, David Burleigh, Andy Marsch and Ian Olsen (who has seen limited play this season) have combined for a dismal .876 team save percentage.

And Miami faces the league’s leading scorer Shawn Horcoff (8-36–44), as well as his linemates Adam Hall (19-10–29) and Brian Maloney (8-10–18), and a host of other Spartans who can score. MSU outscored league opponents by an 84-46 margin in regular-season play.

And don’t forget who’s minding the Spartan net.

Both teams are hurt by injuries. Michigan State’s Mike Weaver is out this weekend for certain, but Miami is positively plagued. In addition to forwards Evan Cheverie, Gregor Krajnc, and Jason Deskins–all of whom have been missing from action for a bit–defenseman Jeremy Bautch and forward Danny Stewart are sidelined with ankle injuries sustained during the Ohio State series.

Bautch and Stewart won’t be the only RedHawks in pain, figuratively speaking, after this weekend.

Picks: Michigan State 3-1, 3-1

[Insert Name Here] Vs. Jayme Platt

You could almost hear the lower-tier teams salivating at the thought of playing Lake Superior State. After all, who wanted to visit Ann Arbor, Marquette, or East Lansing?

But there’s a lot more riding on this series than meets the eye. Pride, a postseason invitation, perhaps a man’s job–the Lakers have a lot to play for.

Bowling Green (15-18-1, 12-15-1 CCHA) at Lake Superior State (18-14-2, 17-9-2 CCHA) Taffy Abel Arena, Sault Ste. Marie, MI

The Lakers ended their regular season on a high note, sweeping Northern Michigan and securing third place, their highest finish since they took the conference in 1996.

"Obviously, we are pleased with the results of our hard work," said Laker head coach Scott Borek of the Northern sweep. "I think NMU helped raise our game to a level where we should be confident about our ability to succeed."

And why not? The Lakers finish the season with a three-game win streak, splitting a weekend with Western Michigan before beating Northern twice. And the Lakers are getting production from all lines, something that can be said of few CCHA teams.

In the two-game NMU series, seven different Lakers–Mike Vigilante (3-11–14), Ryan Vince (5-13–18), Jeremy Bachusz (8-9–17), Blaine McCauley (2-10–12), Ben Keup (13-3–16), Jason Nightingale (7-9–16), and Aaron Phillips (1-1–2)–were responsible for the seven goals scored.

In addition to this evenly distributed scoring, the Lakers have Not-So-Secret-Weapon-Number-One, Jayme Platt. Platt’s .934 save percentage is phenomenal, and his 2.16 GAA isn’t bad either. This guy is a really good one-timer goalie, almost always getting that first shot. And he’s got a decent defense in front of him to clear when he needs them.

Goaltending will be what separates the two teams that take the ice in Abel Arena. Bowling Green’s reputation for inconsistency in net is well earned. Rookie Tyler Masters (.896 SV%, 3.00 GAA) is, according to head coach Buddy Powers, the go-to guy, but Shawn Timm (.918 SV%, 2.43 GAA) has had a strong showing since re-emerging from the depths of the bench.

Neither goalie is as consistent as Platt, period.

As always, Bowling Green knows how to score. The Falcons are averaging 3.21 goals per game, a healthy stat that makes them the third-most-productive offense in the league. They are, however, giving up nearly as many as they score (3.14).

Both teams are pretty good at killing penalties, and neither is especially effective on the power play, but when the BG PP gets going, it’s pretty to watch.

Bowling Green leads the all-time series with Lake 58-50-4, and the Falcons are 3-2-0 against the Lakers in the past two regular seasons, including this year’s split.

The Falcons also hold the 7-3-0 edge over the Lakers in the Soo. In 1997, the Falcons won the first round of the CCHA playoffs in Abel Arena, 5-3 and 8-4.

That, however, was B.P.–Before Platt.

Picks: Lake Superior 4-3, Bowling Green 4-2, Lake Superior 4-3

The Wildcard

The Mavericks have done especially well in their first season as members of the CCHA, and beating Northern in Marquette would be the fairy-tale ending to a delightful first season.

You can’t always get what you want.

Nebraska-Omaha (12-17-7, 10-12-6 CCHA) at Northern Michigan (21-11-4, 16-8-4 CCHA) Berry Events Center, Marquette, MI

Friday’s game is just the third meeting between the two teams, and Northern has the series edge 1-0-1. Northern beat Omaha 2-0 on Oct. 29, but the Mavericks earned their first-ever point against a league opponent when the two teams tied 4-4 the following night.

"Northern has a very balanced team that can explode offensively. They will be a very different team from when we went up there earlier in the year. We will experience ‘playoff atmosphere’ for the first time, and we look forward to the challenge."

Kemp is correct when he says that the Northern offense is potentially explosive. The Wildcats have scored six or more goals in six contests this season, and are second in the league in goals-per-game average (3.32).

That comes from an extremely balanced and productive offense. Four Wildcats–Roger Trudeau (17-8–25), J.P. Vigier (9-11–20), Chris Gobert (15-9–24), and Brian Phillips (6-14–20)–have totaled at least 20 points each this season, and Chad Theuer (8-11–19) is not far behind.

And this is a team that plays tremendous team defense. The’ Cats–the fourth place team–ended the season with an astounding +175 plus/minus ratio. There isn’t a guy on the team who’s in the red.

Conversely, the UNO offense is not doesn’t have nearly the same oomph. The Mavs are averaging nearly three goals per game, but their offense isn’t nearly as deep as Northern’s, nor as experienced.

Freshmen David Brisson (12-10–22) and Greg Zanon (2-20–22) lead UNO in scoring, and other than Brisson, the only other Maverick with goals in the double digits is Jeff Hoggan (10-6–16). The Mavericks have been outscored this season in league play 95-83.

They’re 1-9-1 when they don’t score on the power play. And, in this day of limited five-on-five hockey, that’s a serious disadvantage. The Mavs were 0-for-13 on the power play against Niagara last week, and look where that got them.

And Nebraska-Omaha is facing the second stingiest defense in the league. Northern gives up just 2.29 goals per game, in part because of Dan Ragusett’s excellent play in net. Often overlooked in a league stocked with great goaltenders, Ragusett’s .913 save percentage ties him for third in the league. And he’s got a wicked glove hand.

Northern Is 7-3-4 at home, and UNO is 3-9-4 on the road this season. The Wildcats have the serious advantage of experience as well.

For the Wildcats, this is the 10th season of CCHA playoff action; NMU is one of only two active teams to make the playoffs for every year they’ve been in the league. They’re 7-1-4 at home in the CCHA tourney, and got to The Joe on the road last year, at home the year before.

Says head coach Rick Comley, "We’re obviously disappointed with our results last weekend, but we’ve still had a pretty good year, and now it’s time to put that behind us and get ready for the CCHA Tournament.

"It doesn’t matter who you are, the playoffs are a challenge for everybody. I don’t think there’s a single team that has a guarantee to get to Joe Louis, and it’s the teams that play the best this time of year that advance."

Don’t know if they play the best, but Northern definitely plays harder than most teams.

Picks: Northern Michigan 5-2, 4-2

The Bridesmaids and the Defenders of the Realm

If the Irish want to be taken seriously, the must win this home series.

Ferris State (20-14-4, 13-13-2 CCHA) at Notre Dame (14-16-8, 11-10-7 CCHA) Joyce Center, South Bend, IN

Take a look at the records of these two teams. The reason for the difference in the overall record is offense. Ferris State has it, and Notre Dame struggles with it.

The Bulldogs averaged 3.04 goals per conference game this season, outscoring league opponents 85-79. The Irish, on the other hand, couldn’t find the net for half a season, and scored just 65 league goals to opponents’ 76.

The difference between the two squads’ special teams is negligible, and the difference in net is nil; both Tony Zasowski and Phil Osaer own .909 save percentages. Osaer faces about 20 shots per game, while Zasowski sees about 22.

The Bulldogs have a more productive and balanced offense, led by Brian McCullough (15-18–33), Kevin Swider (14-13–27), Rob Collins (8-14–22), and Chris Kunitz (12-5–17).

The Irish are led up front by Dan Carlson (13-11–24), Ben Simon (8-13–21), Joe Dusbabek (6-15–21), and David Inman (10-4–14), who is out with mono. Also missing from the Irish line-up are Chad Chipchase and Andy Jurkowski.

The loss of Inman is significant for this Irish team. Bodies are important; Ferris State’s depth includes impressive speed up front.

The Irish are 10-27-3 in post-season play, and lost at home in three games last season to Northern Michigan. In first-round play at Yost at the end of the 1997-98 series, Notre Dame took the Wolverines to three games, but lost.

This is a chance for the Irish to show what they’re made of, and if they’re not careful, they’ll learn why Ferris State has 20 wins on the season.

Picks: Notre Dame 3-2, Ferris State 4-3, Ferris State 4-2

One More Time

The winners of the fourth and fifth series play Tuesday night, and I’ll make my prediction right now: Northern Michigan over Ferris State, 4-2

Of Course, Now It’s Crystal

A Michigan student fan wrote last week to tell me, "We swear because we care."

Well, damn.

Darkness, Gloom, And Despair

Thurman Thomas wearing a Miami Dolphins’ jersey.

Ray Bourque wearing any jersey other than Boston’s.

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