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Jason Krog: Hobey Winner

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For Jason Krog, the road to the Hobey Baker Award and an appearance in the NCAA title game was a long one, literally as well as figuratively.

Born in Fernie, British Columbia, the senior co-captain for the New Hampshire Wildcats and this year’s recipient of college hockey’s highest honor, was cut twice from junior teams before he was 18 because of his size — he’s 5 feet, 11 inches, 190 pounds — and tallied just four goals and 16 assists his rookie year in Durham.

At the Hobey presentation, UNH head coach Dick Umile confessed to all assembled that he had doubts about Krog in the early going.

“Brian McCloskey, one of the coaches that I coach with … found Jason Krog. I remember him telling me that he [Krog] is going to be special. Maybe the first three or four weeks, I was kind of questioning that, I’ve got to be honest.”

Krog

Krog

Jason’s father, Lanny — proprietor of Lanny’s Towing and Repair — admits that he and Jason’s mother Bonnie are a bit surprised by the success of their son.

“We were overwhelmed when he got a college scholarship,” says Lanny. “That was unbelievable to start with, and then for him to do so well in college. Schoolwork has never been a problem — he’s always done really well and it’s always come easy to him. But as far as achieving the top level in whatever he goes after, he seems to come by it somewhere.

“I always thought some day that he would do good, but not quite this good. This hasn’t sunk in yet totally, I guess. Really, I don’t know what to say.”

Given Jason’s seeming meander toward success, perhaps it’s understandable that he himself is a little flabbergasted by all of the attention he’s receiving.

“I still can’t believe it, to tell you the truth. I feel like I’m in a dream right now. It’s unbelievable.”

Like many accomplished people, Jason Krog brushes the accolades aside and credits those around him for his own success. Unlike many celebrated people, when Jason says he owes a debt to those around him for his own success, he means it — and you believe him.

“I don’t think it was a goal of mine to win the Hobey Baker,” says Jason. “I don’t think you can set goals like that. These awards come from achieving team goals, and that’s what happened here.”

First in the nation in total points, goals, assists, points per game, goals per game, and assists per game, Jason ran away with the Hockey East scoring title, registering 33 goals and 33 assists. He’s the first player to break the 50-point mark in Hockey East since Paul Kariya.

For his volunteer work and community service, Jason was also nominated for college hockey’s Humanitarian Award, given to the game’s finest citizen. He maintains a 3.34 GPA New Hampshire’s Whittemore School of Business, where he is also a peer-advisor.

But according to Jason Krog, he’s done none of this alone.

In his brief acceptance speech, Jason thanked the Hobey Baker Award Committee, then KOHO, a sponsor of the Hobey Award. Then he congratulated the other nominees, then thanked his teammates, then his linemates Darren Haydar and Mike Souza, then his coaches, then the University of New Hampshire, then the Whittemore School of Business, then the hockey team’s sports information director Steve Jones, then the UNH fans, then his family.

And that’s all he said.

“He’s very humble,” says Haydar. “He doesn’t squawk about himself at all. He doesn’t show off at all. He’s definitely a leader — the perfect leader, as well.”

“Everything he does, he does it in an unassuming way,” says Umile. “He truly respects the game and respects others who play against him. He has led our team by example. He doesn’t do it in a very boisterous way, he just does it on the ice, in the classroom, in the weight room, wherever he is Jason does things first class with a great amount of effort.”

Lanny says that Jason’s always exhibited an understated kind of confidence.

“Even when he was small, he always strived to be better. He’s never a showboat or anything; he just picked something and decided he was going to do it. Whenever he was challenged, he usually ended up on top. He’s never been much of a show-off type person.

“He always has been very quiet. He’s very self-focused. He just seems to do it on his own. Once he best described himself as determined, and when he focuses on something, he just seems to do it. He just raises his level. And I don’t know where it comes from.”

From an early age, Jason has had to be determined, has had to raise the bar, because as a small player, he says, he’s always had to prove himself.

“I guess that I didn’t make some teams because I didn’t really stick out as being one of the fastest guys or one of the biggest guys or the top scorer or something like that.”

After struggling to get noticed playing junior hockey, Jason signed on with the Chilliwack Chiefs of the BCJHL, a move that proved to be a big step on the road to Durham and Hobey.

“One of the big turning points for me was when I went to Chilliwack and I played under Harvey Smyl. He helped bring a part of myself as a player out of me that I never really knew I had. I think he brings it out of all his players. He just pushes you to the limit, brings out the determined person. He expects a lot out of you and makes you expect a lot out of yourself.”

What Smyl brought out of Jason was a 128-point season, the 1994-95 season during which Jason tallied 47 goals and 81 assists in 60 games.

When Jason followed Chilliwack with a 20-point rookie season for UNH, he was determined to make a bigger difference during his second season for the Wildcats.

“My sophomore year I felt great coming in, and I played with some great players like [Mark] Mowers and [Tom] Nolan and [Derek] Bekar, and they really helped me step up my game to another level.”

Jason’s proven that the 20-point season was an anomaly in a stellar collegiate career, but after that first year, he says he questioned his abilities — but just a little.

“I guess there was always a little bit of doubt, just because it was a disappointing season for me that didn’t go as well as I’d planned, but I’m a pretty optimistic person. I have high expectations of myself. I think just worked that much harder that [following] summer to come back and be in top shape and be able to make an impact the next year.”

In addition to crediting his former and current teammates, his Chilliwack coach, and everyone associated with New Hampshire hockey, it’s completely in character for Jason to point to Umile’s coaching as a major component of his own development. “He’s just helped me to progress, worked on all my weaknesses throughout the years and got me to where I am now.”

Umile is quick to return the favor. “For me it’s a very special honor — and I know I speak for my coaching staff — to have the opportunity to have coached Jason Krog and spend four years with him.

“It’s not by accident what Jason Krog has accomplished at his four years at UNH. I believe he truly typifies what the character is of Hobey Baker. He competes at a very, very high level. He’s the first one to never put himself above the team.”

Haydar can’t praise Krog enough, and he’s adamant about wanting everyone to understand that Jason deserves every glowing word.

“Anybody would be happy to play on his line. He sees the ice, he’s got a great shot, and he definitely makes everybody on the team better players. He has that ability, just by the way he sees the ice, reading the plays, his coaching ability to let everybody know where to be, when to be there.

“He brings leadership. That’s the first thing that comes to mind whenever anyone asks about Jason. His work ethic is tremendous. He just makes everybody step up, makes everybody really comfortable. He makes everybody a better person on and off the ice.

“He’s great to have on our team, and I’ll definitely be watching wherever he goes next year.”

With the NCAA title game against Hockey East rival Maine less than 24 hours away, Jason says that he can’t even begin to think about next year.

“This is the biggest opportunity of my life tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it. It would be a dream come true.

“This is very unbelievable. It’s a great honor and a great achievement. It’s very nice to enjoy right now, but I really have to focus on the game later on tonight, just get back and get focused.”

And when Jason Krog finally gets the chance to look forward to that inevitable career in professional hockey, he won’t be thinking about the junior teams that cut him, the people who dismissed him because of his size.

“I’m just grateful that people have given me a chance. I’m not going to dwell on the people that haven’t, but I’m just grateful for the people who have given me a chance along the way.”

UAA Netminder Naumenko Turns Pro

USCHO Staff Report
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Alaska-Anchorage goaltender Gregg Naumenko will renounce his remaining three years of collegiate eligibility to sign a two-year guaranteed contract with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Times and the Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday.

Naumenko, the 1999 WCHA Rookie of the Year, led the conference in both goals-against average and save percentage, setting UAA school records in both categories. He was also named to the all-WCHA first team.

The value of Naumenko’s contract is reportedly between $1.15 and $2 million, including a signing bonus of at least $1 million.

“I almost expect someone to call me and say, ‘Hey, those awards aren’t yours, that contract isn’t yours,”‘ Naumenko told the Daily News. “‘Wake up out of your dream and get real. April Fool’s!’

“You couldn’t ever dream about it, it’s so ridiculous to get this recognition, this contract.”

Fool For The Game

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Ever drive 80 miles an hour on dangerously icy roads because you were worried that you’d miss the first drop of the puck in the Great Lakes Invitational?

Ever risk losing your job to attend an NCAA Regional?

How about attending the Beanpot on the same day as your wife’s grandmother’s funeral?

Did you propose to your wife at a hockey game?

If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions, you know you’re a fool for college hockey, as many people confessed this season on the USCHO Message Board.

The thread was started by Jennifer McClellan, the Buckeye-slash-Spartan fan who risked her life to get to the GLI.

Jennifer also confessed that she’s in Anaheim “even though [my] brother’s wife is due to have [my] first niece/nephew the day between the semifinals and the finals,” and that she’s “blowing off her boyfriend who will be defending his Ph.D.”

Consider that Jennifer’s mom is also in Anaheim, proving that hockey is a bigger draw than the birth of one’s first grandchild.

After Jennifer posted on Feb. 25, scores of hockey fans wrote in likewise to confess the foolish, silly, and sometimes life-threatening things they’ve done to see college hockey. Not surprisingly, when fans risk their lives for the game, they do so on the road.

When nine inches of snow fell the night before Michigan was scheduled to play the inaugural game at Ohio State’s new Schottenstein Center on Jan. 2 — a snowfall at which other hockey cities would laugh, but one which crippled Columbus — Donna, a Buckeye fan, said there was no question about whether or not to attend the game.

“The news media is telling everyone to stay off the roads because of the weather, but there is NO WAY you will miss the opening of the new arena! Or playing your archrival!”

Ron in Vermont said that you know you’re a hockey junkie when “in attempting to rush home from a game at Williams so you can get SOME sleep before having to work in the morning you get caught doing 84 in a 50 — which is grounds for arrest in the state of Vermont.”

Bob Bergman wrote that he knew he was a die-hard when he drove 900 miles from Huntsville, Ala., to central Wisconsin in time for an all-day blizzard at his sister’s log cabin.

“Then you skid your way out to the plowed state highway in order to drive the other 300 miles to Bemidji in time for the ’97 Division II championships. Immediately after the final game you drive 26 hours straight through to get your son back to college in time for Monday classes.”

The kicker? “In a Mercury Tracer,” he said.

In addition to driving great distances at unsafe speeds just to see the puck drop, it seems that lots of people schedule important life experiences — weddings, anniversaries, even childbirth — around hockey.

Kevin, a Buckeye fan in Columbus, was the guy who proposed to his wife at a hockey game. (And if you’ve seen the little OSU rink, you know she had to love him to accept.)

Becki in Boston — the one who’d risk losing her job to attend the regionals — said that she yelled at her brother for scheduling his wedding on the day of the first game of the season. So, she says, she volunteered “to drop off [guests] at the airport so [I’d] have a reason not to be at the post-wedding festivities.” After performing her sisterly duties, she said she “walked into the game with [my] hair done, full-fledged makeup, pearls, and jeans.”

Mike Jochmann in Madison gave hockey sweaters with names and numbers as gifts for the attendants in his wedding, and like many folks, Steve in Boston celebrated his wedding anniversary at a hockey game because his team had “a home game that evening.”

A fan calling himself “Beansprout” said that you know you’re a hockey junkie when “you schedule your 20th wedding anniversary group trip to Paris so you can get back in time for the…SCSU vs. Minnesota games. And, both your wife and the travel agent go along with it because they want to [attend the games] also!”

Not all hockey fans have cause to celebrate while attending games.. J.J. in Columbus said that you knew you’ve got it bad when “you ask your wife for a divorce during the first intermission,” and then during the second intermission “you ask your soon-to-be ex-wife for the season tickets as part of the settlement.”

Similarly, David in Colorado Springs said, “You give the wife everything she wants except the hockey tickets in the divorce proceedings.”

No word on whether these two accounts are from personal experience.

Sarah, also in Colorado Springs, said that you know you’re a hockey junkie if “you dump your boyfriend because after almost a while season’s worth of games, he still can’t seem to get the ‘sieve’ cheer right.”

Rough town.

But one poster, Sean, reminds us that hockey can be a great aphrodisiac. Sean says that he saw his future wife for the first time at a game, and fell in love when “even though it [was] the middle of the third period and Minnesota [led] Tech by eight goals, she stands up and yells in a quiet arena, ‘It was offsides! I saw it, it was offsides!”

First comes love, then comes marriage…and new generations of fans, indoctrinated at very early ages into the cult of college hockey.

Not surprisingly, Steve in Boston — who spent his anniversary at the hockey game — has kids who are very hockey-savvy. He says you know you’re a true fan when “your eight-year-old son can name every player on the home team and knows the stars for all of their opponents,” and when “your nine-year-old daughter knows more about the game than all of the adults sitting round you combined.”

Donna in Columbus also has kids who know a lot about hockey — more than she’d like. “[My] five-year-old daughter can tell you what faceoff, power play, penalty kill and offsides mean.” She adds that her children “know all the hockey cheers — even the ones you’d rather they didn’t know.”

Brian, another Buckeye fan, said that if you were a true fan, you’d “schedule the birth of your son over the break before the Christmas tournaments.” Well, he said he and his wife didn’t plan to have their baby then, “but it sure did work out that way.”

And the child in question “went to his first game before he was two weeks old and [had] been to 10 games before he [was] two months old.” We somehow doubt Brian’s assertion that his wunderkind “knows more about the game than the people who sit” behind him, but remember where he watches his games.

“Duckboy” from Michigan wrote that you know you’re a fan when “you make your almost two-year-old son watch at least one hour of hockey a day.”

Aren’t there laws about this sort of thing?

So, we’d die to get to the rink, we’d skip or reschedule important family occasions for love of the game, we fall in and out of love accompanied by the drone of the Zamboni, and we dutifully teach our children which goaltender is the sieve.

And, as Todd in Brighton, Mass., reminds us, “a perfect season” is the one where you see “all of your team’s home, away, pre-season, and post-season games.”

Final Four Preview

By Dave Hendrickson, Paula C. Weston and Scott Brown
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As usual, interesting stories abound at the NCAA championship.

First off, at the regionals, Hockey East backed up its claim as the nation’s toughest conference this year, placing three teams at the newly-nicknamed Frozen Four. Tourney champion Boston College, regular-season champion New Hampshire and returning power Maine make up the HEA contingent, joined by CCHA regular-season titlist Michigan State.

Of the four, New Hampshire and Michigan State held byes through the first round of the tourney before beating quarterfinal opponents who were game, to say the least. UNH toppled defending champion Michigan 2-1 in overtime, while MSU squeaked by Colorado College with two goals in the waning moments.

Maine and BC, meanwhile, came in the hard way — Maine by solidly defeating Ohio State and Clarkson, and BC with close wins over Northern Michigan and top-ranked North Dakota.

That is to say, all four teams seem sufficiently battle-tested.

While we’re at it, let’s not forget that the Final Four sojourns to southern California this year, taking up residence at Arrowhead Pond, home of the NHL’s Mighty Ducks. How will the nation’s mainstage of college hockey fare in the land of Showtime and palm trees? We will soon see.

Semifinal No. 1
Maine (29-6-4) vs. Boston College (27-11-4)
Thursday, 1 p.m. PT, Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, Calif.

Maine Black Bears

In its first NCAA appearance in the last four years, Maine defeated Ohio State, 4-2, on opening night and then rolled over Clarkson, 7-2, to advance to Anaheim.

“I actually think not getting the bye helped our team,” says coach Shawn Walsh. “We had come off a loss to BC and had lost three out of our last five, but I felt we played very well in the Hockey East playoffs and lost to a very good BC team in a 3-2 game.

“Not having the bye got us going. We may have been a little tight given [the three of five losses] if we had had to wait around and watch a team and then play on Saturday night.

“Ohio State was certainly an excellent game. They’ve got an excellent goaltender [Jeff Maund] and we capitalized on him and then played very well. In the Clarkson game, I just think we got a lot of bounces and played confidently and the puck went our way.”

It went Steve Kariya’s way, that’s for sure. Kariya set a new single-game regional record with six points on three goals and three assists, earning Tournament MVP honors. He was also named Hockey East Player of the Month.

“It reminds me of a performance six years ago in [Worcester] by a Kariya,” says Walsh.

(For anyone who might have spent the past decade on Pluto, Steve Kariya’s older brother, Paul, also played at Maine, where he won the Hobey Baker Award as a freshman and is now one of the top scorers in the NHL.)

“[Paul] had two and two [goals and assists] and they were breathtaking plays.

“This guy was three and three. It was an unbelievable performance by an unbelievable hockey player.”

For the team as a whole, the trip to Anaheim also represents a payoff after several years of frustration.

“I’m just very, very gratified for our players,” says Walsh. “They hung with us through thick and thin and are now being rewarded. But I’ve also been to the Final Four enough to know that in 1988 we went there and didn’t know how to handle it right. There’s a way to handle it to play your best and that’s our job now.

“California adds a little spice to it….It’s going to be a fun place. I was reading some of the preliminary stuff about limo rides to the banquet and all that garbage.” Deadpan, he says, “Hey, our kids are from Orono.

“We’re going to keep a lid on it….It’s important that you stay on track…and not appreciate that you’re there. That’s a very important point and is something that we’ll certainly focus on.”

Stylistically, this year’s Maine team is closer to the 1995 edition that lost to BU in the title game while stressing exceptional defense than the spellbinding offensive powerhouse that won it all in 1993. The obvious leader of those blueliners is David Cullen, who also earned a berth on the all-tournament team.

“Clearly, [defense] has carried us,” says Walsh. “If I’m not mistaken, the three best defensive teams other than MAAC schools are here. And BC [the only one not included] is playing as well defensively as anyone in the country right now. They gave up only one goal in each game in the regional.

“That’s the area that we had to shore up. We play with two converted forwards [Anders Lundback and A.J. Begg] and two freshmen [Peter Metcalf and Doug Janik] on D. We’re a team that has really shored up our defense from last year.

“David Cullen, obviously, is leading us. He put on an All-American-like performance in the regional. He is the guy, with Peter Metcalf and Doug Janik, who have just had astounding years and been the backbone of our team’s defense.”

In facing Boston College, the Black Bears will be taking on a team with which they split their four games this year.

“BC is just a tremendous opponent,” says Walsh. “If you don’t bring your A game against them, I don’t think you’re going to beat them. [BC goaltender] Scott Clemmensen has really improved his game. Jim Logue, their assistant coach who handles their goaltenders, deserves an awful lot of credit doing maybe as good of a coaching job as has been done this year in their development of Scott. That has really solidified their team’s confidence down the stretch.”

There certainly is one Black Bear who won’t be happy simply to be in Anaheim, based on his comments after the win over Clarkson clinched the trip.

“David [Cullen] was bugging me on the bench with three minutes to go,” said Kariya. “[He said], ‘Stevie, you can smile.’ [But] I’m still not satisfied. There’s something bigger and better ahead of us next week.

“We certainly had a couple nice wins this weekend, but we know we can do more.”

Boston College Eagles

Boston College advanced to the Frozen Four the hard way. Instead of playing in front of their many fans in Worcester, the Eagles took the Western route. First, they edged Northern Michigan, 2-1, and then they toppled top-rated North Dakota, 3-1.

“We played Northern Michigan in what I thought was a very physical, very hard-fought game,” says coach Jerry York. “We felt pretty good about that win because it was such a tight-checking, close game.

“The next night with North Dakota [there was] much more skating, more open-ice play. I thought our goaltender, Scott Clemmensen, was just terrific in goal and really shut down the North Dakota offense. Our defense, particularly Mike Mottau and Bobby Allen, were outstanding. [They were] the keys to the game.”

Clemmensen’s play, which earned him West Regional Tournament MVP honors, bodes exceptionally well for the Eagles in Anaheim. The BC forwards and defensemen are acknowledged to be great talents, but observers wondered if the man in the Eagle crease was the equal of his counterparts.

Perhaps those questions are now a thing of the past. Clemmensen posted a 7-0-0 record in March, with a 2.67 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage. That earned him Hockey East’s Goalie of the Month Award. None of those performances were more important than holding NMU and North Dakota to just a single goal each.

“During the course of the year, his save percentage hovered around 87 or 88 percent,” says York. “But in the month of March, he has really stepped up his game.

“His confidence is so important to Scott. When he’s on his game and he makes some saves, he feels much better about himself and his play is reflected in that. Hopefully, we’re turning the goaltending position into a real strength.”

At the same time that Clemmensen is stepping up his game, so too is the BC defense. Last year, Mike Mottau earned All-America honors and now he’s been paired with Bobby Allen who has been outstanding in the playoffs. Allen was named to both the Hockey East and West Regional all-tournament teams.

“Both of them together are certainly two of the premier collegiate defensemen this particular year,” says York. “Ever since we matched Mike and Bob together, I think Mike’s play has helped Bobby emerge. Certainly, they move pucks very well and they’re both very strong players.

“Bobby, coming off two all-tournament teams, certainly has been a catalyst for us. They both play on the power play. They both kill penalties.”

Up front, Jeff Farkas, Blake Bellefeuille and Brian Gionta continue to be the Eagles’ top guns. Bellefeuille and Farkas earned all-tournament honors in the Hockey East playoffs while Gionta got the nod in the West Regional.

“[Gionta] is as good a player as I’ve coached and I’ve had a lot of good players over the past number of years,” says York, who can include Hobey Baker Award-winner George McPhee, three-time finalist Nelson Emerson, finalist Rob Blake and Marty Reasoner.

“He’s got a certain toughness to him that just never backs down. Despite his size, his balance on the ice and his strength on ice makes him very difficult to knock down. Like all good players, he’s completely unafraid going into the corners.

“He takes a lot of hits to make plays. He’s got a tremendous skill level. I think when you combine his skill level with his real quickness on the ice, it makes him a top, top player.”

In Anaheim, BC takes on what it avoided in its trek to the West Regional, namely another Hockey East opponent.

“One of the great things was that we did not have to play our league opponents in the regionals,” says York, who cautions against too much braggadocio on the part of Hockey East fans who may find the shoe on the other foot in future years. He then adds, “I think it’s more exciting for our players to play other teams.”

In the Frozen Four, however, there’ll be no lack of excitement in facing Maine for the fifth time this year.

“There’s a great deal of respect between our two teams,” says York. “The games that we’ve played with Maine have been outstanding games. We’re going to have to be concerned with what they bring to the table. [Coach] Shawn [Walsh] has done an outstanding job this year with his club and it’s going to be a whale of a hockey game.”

Given the two types of games BC played this past weekend, what does York expect stylistically against the Black Bears?

“We’ve played Maine four different times, so we have a pretty good understanding of how that game is going to go as far as tempo and everything,” he says. “I think our team has to play both ways. To be successful, you have to play that tight, close-checking game and you’ve also got to be able to play an up-tempo type game.

“We try not to become stagnant and say that we’re just a fast, quick team or just a big, strong physical team. We try to combine those. Games change from period to period. The game might not stay the same all the way. I think we’ve been very adaptive this year.

“This particular game with Maine will be very quick, very fast, but also with their quickness and speed there’s not going to be a lot of room on the ice.”

Picks

Dave Hendrickson: Without Clemmensen’s hot hand, this pick would go the other way. Boston College 4, Maine 3

Paula C. Weston: This one’s from the gut. As good as Maine is, the Black Bears are beatable. When Alfie Michaud commits, he has difficulty recovering — and that can open the door for some scoring. Boston College 4, Maine 3

Semifinal No. 2
New Hampshire (30-6-3) vs. Michigan State (29-5-7)
Thursday, 6 p.m. PT, Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, Calif.

New Hampshire Wildcats

New Hampshire was the lone Hockey East team with a bye, but still put a little more than 60 minutes into its 2-1 win over Michigan. Rookie sensation Darren Haydar scored at 3:16 of overtime to send the many UNH partisans into regional delight for the second straight year.

(And don’t you just know there’s now going to be a Haydar 3:16 sign in Anaheim, not to mention next year at the Whittemore Center.)

“It was one of the great college hockey games that I’ve been involved in,” says coach Dick Umile. “We had a sellout crowd in Worcester. The fans were terrific and the hockey game was a great game going back and forth with good checking, good playmaking. The officiating was fabulous. I think there was just one penalty called on each team.

“We played one of our better games. We pressured the puck all night, stayed up tight and held the blue line. I thought that was important. We never gave them advantage plays.”

The Wildcats dominated Michigan, but still had to go into overtime because of the goaltending heroics of Wolverine Josh Blackburn.

Often, an opposing voice says it best, so here’s Michigan coach Red Berenson commenting on the game.

“They really didn’t give us much in terms of offensive chances,” he said after the loss. “They forechecked us well. They put a lot of pressure on us in our zone. They pinched down on our wingers. It was hard for us to come out of the zone clear. It seemed like when we did get the puck out, they were there and they put it back in.”

If the Wildcats play that well again in Anaheim, they’ll be very tough to beat, indeed.

Berenson also commented on the play of UNH’s top line of Jason Krog, Haydar, and Mike Souza. (The latter two took all-tournament berths and Haydar earned another Hockey East Rookie of the Month honor.)

“Michigan State hasn’t faced a line this good this year,” said the Michigan mentor.

And although he was kept in check until overtime by a shadowing Bobby Hayes, Krog is the one who makes that line tick.

“He’s really taken it to another level this season,” says Umile. “A lot of people can see that he can score goals and he can set a lot of people up by his points this year. He’s scored 81 points. He’s got 32 goals and 49 assists and I think Souza would be the first one to tell you that the first half of the season he didn’t score many goals. If he’d put some of them in, Jason would have had that many more assists.

“He sees the ice very well, he’s very clever with the puck. He takes a lot of pride in the fact that he isn’t the biggest kid in the world, but he can compete. This year, people were trying to play him physically to try to take him out of the game — not viciously, but physically to try to control him — and people were bouncing off of him. He’s spun away and made plays and has really led our team to where we are today.”

While some people perceive UNH as a one-line team, even fourth-liners Ryan Cordeiro and David Busch were a constant force late in the game along with linemate Tim Walsh and even earned that fourth line rarity of rarities, a shift in the brief overtime.

“It depends on how the game goes, to be quite honest,” says Umile of that ice-time decision. “The other night, Walsh’s line with Busch and Cordeiro were having a very, very strong game. It was important for us to put pressure on their defense and we didn’t want to give them an opportunity to see passes. That line is very, very quick along with [Corey-Joe] Ficek’s line and we just tried to play them as much as we could.

“In key situations, obviously, Krog’s line is out there…but we weren’t afraid to play Walsh or Ficek’s line because they did such a good job of forechecking and had a lot of time in the other team’s zone.”

Perhaps playing a game that ended 1-1 in regulation was the perfect preparation for playing the defensively proficient Michigan State Spartans, whose goaltender Joe Blackburn — not to be confused with Michigan’s Josh Blackburn — posted a 1.44 GAA in 32 games.

“I followed Michigan State all season and it was scary and astounding what they’ve done,” says Umile. “It’s probably unheard of what they’ve done against the competition they’ve played.

“But I watched them [on Sunday] and…they can really go at you [offensively, too]. They can transition back on you, so it’s not like they’re a team that just sits back and plays a defensive, ugly game.

“Michigan State and UNH are very similar. Obviously, defensively both teams are strong….I don’t think enough people are giving Blackburn credit for his stats. Blackburn’s save percentage [.931] is unbelievable.

“Their line of [Mike] York, [Bryan] Adams and [Adam] Hall is comparable [to our first line.] Maybe don’t have the exact numbers that Souza, Haydar and Krog have but I think we’re very very similar and it should be a great college hockey game.

“I think we match up well.”

Michigan State Spartans

This is the second trip to California for this Spartan senior class, and three of the four teams playing this weekend did so in the last college hockey games played at Arrowhead, at the 1995 Great Western Freeze-Out.

The first round of the tourney was held at the Great Western Forum, with the consolation and title games held at the Pond. BC lost to Miami 7-1 in the consolation game, while Maine beat Michigan State 4-3 in the title game.

The tourney was the first time that the seven members of MSU’s senior class played college hockey. Jeff Kozakowski tallied his first career goal at the Pond against Maine, while Mike York and Chris Bogas notched their first career goals the day before at the Forum.

The Spartans are 15-9 all-time in NCAA tourney play against Hockey East teams, but 0-2 against New Hampshire.

Another bit of trivia: the semifinal games will be played on the ninth anniversary of Spartan Kip Miller’s Hobey Baker Award. Miller became the only MSU player to receive the award on April 1, 1990.

Picks

Paula C. Weston: This pairing of incredible defense and amazing offense is probably the best game of the weekend. My head tells me New Hampshire will win out all the way, but my heart belongs to the CCHA. Michigan State 3, New Hampshire 2

Dave Hendrickson: The Wildcats have almost as good a defense as Michigan State’s and a significantly better offense. New Hampshire 3, Michigan State 2

National Championship

Maine/Boston College vs. New Hampshire/Michigan State
Saturday, 4:30 p.m. PT, Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, Calif.

Picks

Paula C. Weston: Ignoring my instincts, I have to go with my heart and say Michigan State. New Hampshire should get past the Spartans Thursday, then win it all, but I refuse to believe it. Michigan State 3, Boston College 1

Dave Hendrickson: The Eagles get their first since 1949. Boston College 4, New Hampshire 3

Action, Not Words

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It’s impossible to think of Mike York as someone who would intentionally hurt another person. The Michigan State senior forward — the CCHA’s Player of the Year and Best Defensive Forward, and a Hobey Baker finalist — is really just a soft-spoken guy from Waterford, Mich.

“He’s kind of quiet and shy,” says Bob York, Mike’s father, “kind of like his dad. A lot like his dad.”

Quiet though he may be off the ice, there’s no denying that York can put the hurt on any goalie, any place, any time. In fact, trying to match York’s often startling speed and unexpected movements can be hazardous to your health.

“My favorite Mike York goal was at home,” says Spartan Mike Weaver. “He was coming down the left wing against Ferris State and just stopped in front of the net. He was just standing there, faking the goalie, for at least five seconds.

“He went to his backhand and put it in, and the goalie pulled his hamstring and had to leave the game.”

Everyone who’s watched York play has a favorite Mike York moment, and almost all of them involve a move that defies physics and leads to a Spartan goal.

“My favorite Mike York goal is tough to pick,” says Spartan goalie Mike Gresl. “Recently, I think [of] one of the goals he scored against Miami. He faked a slapshot, scored a shelf goal and the water bottle went flying. He does that sort of thing all the time.”

“My favorite Mike York goal was earlier this year against Northern Michigan,” says freshman center Shawn Mather. “It was a one-on-three almost, and he had guys all over him. He ended up dropping his glove to get away and went in and put it top shelf.”

Top shelf seems to be synonymous with the player who wears number 61, the reverse of Pat LaFontaine’s number 16. Both are from Waterford.

“He’s always been a great member of the community,” says Weaver. “I remember when we were playing for Thornhill [junior hockey] he was always great with kids and helped out in the community. He’s always done the little things and is always looking for that sort of thing.”

York’s nice-guy, squeaky-clean image requires no spin. He owns the respect of opponents and coaches around the CCHA. He does volunteer work with elementary school children in the East Lansing area, including work with the D.A.R.E. program. Linemate Bryan Adams calls him “a great friend.” He finished high school in three years. York missed the preseason CCHA media day because he didn’t want to cut class.

But ask him about himself, and he becomes very quiet and self-deprecating. York says, “If you want to be good at it, you have to work real hard.” That’s the only explanation he offers for his success.

And the success is impressive. This week, York was named to the West All-American first team for the second consecutive season. He has 201 points (79-122) in 158 games played as a Spartan. He was one of two non-seniors named a Hobey Baker finalist for the 1997-98 season. In 1996, he was named to the CCHA’s All-Rookie team.

For his first three seasons in a green and white sweater, York played for the U.S. National Junior Team, becoming one of only 12 Americans named to the team three times. He was co-captain in 1997-98, and was the U.S. Player of the Game three times, the only player to earn the honor more than once.

The year before he was the tournament’s leading scorer at the World Junior Championship in Switzerland, where his performance drew the attention of Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd.”

Of course, his appearances with the national team meant delaying his Great Lakes Invitational debut until his senior year. Not surprisingly, then, York was on fire in Detroit last December, notching his second collegiate hat trick in Michigan State’s 5-3 win over Northern Michigan in the first round.

York had the opening goal, the game-winner, and the empty-netter. He was characteristically understated about his performance. “It’s hard to be away from your team [during tournaments]. It was nice to be around the guys and my family at Christmas time.”

On the game-winner, after taking a pass from Weaver, York made a move inside the left circle that deked Wildcat goalie Dan Ragusett out of the crease, a move that allowed York to actually go in behind the netminder to put the puck into an essentially empty net–surely someone’s favorite Mike York moment.

So how did York describe this lightning-quick move? “It was just a last-second thing. I got lucky.”

As York wraps up his collegiate career, he is–of course–low-key about his years at Michigan State.

“It’s been beyond unbelievable. There are so many memories, especially with my six other classmates.”

York says he thinks about “the different players I’ve been able to play against and with,” and says he never regrets his decision to attend school rather than play major junior hockey. “It’s great being a college student and being in the college atmosphere. At Michigan State, you know you’re on a campus with 45,000 students.”

York looked at Maine, Western Michigan, and Clarkson before deciding to head to East Lansing. “For me, it was closer to my house, only an hour away from where my parents live. When I came here, I stayed with [former Spartans] Tyler Harlton and Mike Watt. They didn’t say this is the best place to go school; they just said this is a great university and that they liked going to school here.”

York says he doesn’t think about the Hobey Baker nomination, and admits that he’s uncomfortable with the media attention he receives. “I don’t know how to react to it. The main thing I think about is team success.”

While York finished close but not first in CCHA scoring this season, he did top the league in plus/minus with a resounding +36. York is so good on both sides of the puck, so important to the defensive style the Spartans play, that he was on the ice for just three five-on-five opponent goals in the 900-plus shifts he saw this season coming into the Frozen Four.

“Having the coaches in our league vote me the Best Defensive Forward was something I was very proud of, because that is something I had to really work hard for. When I got here as a freshman I honestly didn’t know what defense was. The last couple of years I really focused on the defensive side of my game and tried to improve there, so being recognized for that was something really special.”

Part of the team success that York and his Spartans have enjoyed this season came in the form of a collective shrug, when the NCAA monkey fell off the Spartans’ backs. Until Michigan State beat Colorado College 4-3 in the West Regionals last week, York and his classmates had yet to win an NCAA tourney game.

“It was a very important win, not only for the seniors but the whole program,” says York. “We worked so hard to not have to go through the disappointment we had last year. And for us it was really important to get over the hump and shed the label of an unsuccessful team in the NCAA tournament.”

So, York’s a guy who can score, who appreciates his collegiate experience, who is a conscientious student, who likes working with kids–a team player, a leader, a humble young man. But what’s he really like? What’s the dirt on Mike York?

“I’m a golfer,” he says, confessing, “and I get my money’s worth.”

His mother, Dee, adds this shocking revelation. “He always remembers birthdays…things like that. He’s family-oriented.”

Dee also likes to tell a story about a small moment toward the end of the regular season, an anecdote that truly sums up a player who has redefined the term elite in the CCHA.

“He was in the locker room, and they hand out the [media] guides to the boys, and he was reading what the other players were saying about him. He thought he was alone when he was reading it, and he had tears coming down, and he looked up and there were several other players there.”

She wipes away tears of her own, then laughs, “Of course, they started laughing at him.”

For Mike York’s mother, the past four years have flown by too fast. “I’m happy and excited and sad,” she says, again tearfully. “I’m proud of him that other people think so much of him. He’s had a tremendous career and we’re very sorry it’s over.

“I’m more proud of the individual and the human being he is than the player he is.”

And while people around the CCHA will undoubtedly miss Mike York the human being, fans will miss the moves, the dekes, the sensational Mike York moments.

“It’s great to sit back behind the play and watch,” says classmate Chris Bogas. “You watch him and shake your head, saying, ‘How does he do that?'”

1998-99 All-Americans Announced

USCHO Staff Report
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Fourteen different Division I schools are represented, including all four Frozen Four participants, on the 1999 Titan University Division All-American teams, as announced today by The American Hockey Coaches Association.

Nine All-Americans are playing this weekend: Brian Gionta and Mike Mottau of Boston College; Steve Kariya and David Cullen of Maine; New Hampshire’s Jason Krog and Jayme Filipowicz; and Joe Blackburn, Mike York and Mike Weaver of Michigan State.

Hockey East, which has three teams in the Frozen Four, led all conferences with eight players recognized. The CCHA and WCHA are represented by six players each, while the ECAC has four.

All 10 Hobey Baker finalists were named to the All-American teams. The list includes 14 seniors, five juniors, and five sophomores. There are eight return selections from the 1997-98 squad, including Michigan State’s Mike York, who is the only returning first-team member.

This year’s College Division team, which is comprised of players from Division II and Division III institutions, was released last week. The women’s All-American teams, sponsored by USA Hockey, will be announced next week.

1998-99 TITAN UNIVERSITY DIVISION ALL-AMERICANS

East First Team

G Eric Heffler, St. Lawrence, SR (Williamsville, NY)
D David Cullen, Maine, SR (St. Catherines, ONT)
D Mike Mottau, Boston College (Avon, MA)
F Brian Gionta, Boston College, SO (Rochester, NY)
F Steve Kariya, Maine, SR (North Vancouver, BC)
F Jason Krog, New Hampshire, SR (Fernie, BC)

West First Team

G Joe Blackburn, Michigan State, SO (Livonia, MI)
D Scott Swanson, Colorado College, SR (Cottage Grove, MN)
D Brad Williamson, North Dakota, SR (Thunder Bay, ONT)
F Jason Blake,North Dakota, SR (Moorhead, MN)
F Brian Swanson, Colorado College, SR (Eagle River, AK)
F Mike York, Michigan State, SR (Waterford, MI)

East Second Team

G Michel Larocque, Boston Univ., SR (Dieppe, NB)
D Jayme Filipowicz, N. Hampshire, JR (Arlington Heights, IL)
D Willie Mitchell, Clarkson, SO (Port McNeill, BC)
F Erik Cole, Clarkson, SO (Oswego , NY)
F Jeff Hamilton, Yale, JR (Englewood, OH)
F Rejean Stringer, Merrimack, SR (Gravelbourg, SASK)

West Second Team

G Jeff Maund, Ohio State, SO (Mississaugua, ONT)
D Benoit Cotnoir, Notre Dame, SR (Rouyn-Noranda, QUE)
D Mike Weaver, Michigan State, JR (Bramalea, ONT)
F Hugo Boisvert, Ohio State, JR (St. Eustache, QUE)
F Paul Comrie, Denver, SR (Edmonton, ALB)
F Jay Panzer, North Dakota, SR (Grand Forks, ND)

My Favorite Things

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Not that anyone asked, but here are a few things that put a smile on my face, along with some random ruminations.

• For starters, how about Jill Martin singing the national anthem? The seventh-grader took her knock-’em-dead renditions from Merrimack to the FleetCenter for the Hockey East championships and won over the crowd in a big way.

You could almost sense fans stiffening up before she started, afraid that they’d be witness to the musical equivalent of a plane crash, but by “the twilight’s last gleaming” they adored her. I’ve never cheered from the press box — it’s the signature of bush leaguers — but this time was an exception. The kid is cool as a cucumber and has a great set of pipes.

• And how about the setting outside the Whittemore Center on March 6? If Webster’s Dictionary needed some help with the word pastoral, it would have needed to look no further than Durham, New Hampshire, that evening. With each flake adding to the inches already piled up, you could hear the pleasant crunch of snow under your feet as you walked from the parking lot. Church bells pealed traditional songs, taking you back a few years. (Yes, I know that it wasn’t actually a church that the bells were sounding from, but those were church bells I was hearing and don’t anyone try to tell me otherwise.)

Call me a sappy old fool, but I could have walked out there for hours. Florida has the appeal of winter golf, but New England has some very special charms of its own, too.

• While we’re at it, how about the setting inside the Whittemore Center that first weekend in March? Maine facing UNH for all the marbles. And the Whitt rocking like never before. That, folks, is was college hockey is all about.

• I still get a kick out of the night one coach, not necessarily from the collegiate ranks, lost it regarding the officiating after a close loss. We’ll call the official “John Doe.”

“I want you to quote me here,” said the coach. “The referee stunk! John Doe stinks and should quit hockey. Quote me!….Well, he should, but don’t quote me….You’ve got to use common sense in this game and he doesn’t have it….Don’t write that.”

• And how about the coach who gave as the keys to a weekend that his team get good goaltending, play well on the power play, the penalty kill and even strength? Now that was a complete game plan.

• That exception aside, is there a conference with coaches any more quotable than Hockey East’s? Colorful, insightful and good guys to boot, every one of them. If fans got to know their rivals’ coaches better, there’d be less venom on message boards and email lists. Which to my tastes, would be a good thing.

• Although as light-hearted venom goes, it doesn’t get better than BC and BU fans chanting back and forth at contests between the archrivals. I hope those students are that creative on their term papers.

• Every kid in youth hockey (or high school, for that matter) who thinks that forwards are supposed to score and that defense is for the other guys should take a gander at a tape of the UNH-Providence Hockey East semifinal game. Mike Omicioli may have ended his career on a losing note that night, but his tenacious backcheck in the second period to break up a two-on-one showed what it’s all about. A tip of the fedora to the little guy with the huge heart.

• If there’s a better hockey song than “Bad to the Bone” I haven’t heard it. Of course, when I lace up the skates, it’s an all too appropriate scouting report.

• Northeastern had to be the best last place team I can remember. With that group of freshmen and sophomores, Bruce Crowder is going to have a squad no one wants to play in another year or two.

• And speaking of the future, it sure looks like UMass-Amherst has begun its rise in Hockey East. Don’t be surprised if sometime in the next five years the Minutemen gain home ice for the playoffs.

• UMass-Lowell has the league’s best pizza, hands down. (Not to mention a team that always seems to be among the league’s hardest workers). Perhaps this says more about me than the pizza, but I get salivating just walking into the Tsongas Arena. Which, by the way, doesn’t seem to have a bad seat in the house, either.

• River Hawk sports information director Eric McDowell came to Lowell this year from the Golden State Warriors. I wonder if he misses Latrell Sprewell, who gave “Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision” a whole new meaning.

• My favorite sound effect in Hockey East has got to be Merrimack’s John Savastano and his ear-splitting jet takeoffs. When the Warriors are hosting Air Force, it becomes even better. And if they’re playing poorly and a game is going down the tubes, be prepared for the sound of a flushing toilet.

• Someone spotted the Best Headline of the Year on the Michigan State athletics website: Hockey Dominates Awards at CCHA Banquet.

• If hockey players in general aren’t the nicest group of athletes to interview from high school to college to pro, then Adam Sandler is a Mensa member.

• At the NCAA East Regional this year, the Flower Show was being held next door. Walking from the parking lot toward the Centrum, I was alongside a father with a youngster in an oversized Maine jersey.

A Flower Show usher who was outside the building asked the kid with a smile if he wouldn’t rather see their show. I’d have instantly given the stranger a high-five if he’d come up with the evil line that went through my brain: “Son, are you going to clean up your room, or not?”

• Think anyone is still muttering nonsense about Dick Umile’s teams winning the big games? It takes time to get over that hump, but the Wildcats most certainly are now. Two straight years of overtime wins to get to the Frozen Four spells “clutch,” not “choke.”

• If men and women were meant to fly, we’d all have been born wearing CCMs. That, my friends, is what’s known as a shameless plug for an USCHO sponsor. I can’t be bought, but I can be rented.

• You know an athlete isn’t a math major when he says, “We’ve really turned things around 360 degrees.” Not to be a geometry weenie, but 360 degrees puts you right back where you started.

• A team really has an embarrassment of riches when it can pair two truly exceptional defensemen together. I’m thinking of BC’s Mike Mottau and Bobby Allen, UNH’s Jayme Filipowicz and Steve O’Brien and Maine’s David Cullen and Peter Metcalf. It’s no coincidence that those are the top three teams in Hockey East and three semifinalists for the national title.

• Do you think Fox Sports New England was glad Brian Gionta was around this year? What an array of highlight footage he gave them.

• There’s something special about those members of the media that really love the game. For some it’s just a paycheck or a step down from the pro game, but for others the love shines through.

Sean Grande comes to mind. Posters to USCHO’s message board like to bash him for perceived bias, but can anyone question his dedication to college hockey? One can imagine life being a lot easier for him just sticking with the Minnesota Timberwolves instead of building up those frequent flier miles. Was he great with Bob Norton in the NCAA East Regional or what?

• And how about the Boston Herald’s Jocko Connolly? One wonders if that paper realizes what a jewel it has in him. There aren’t a lot of writers who you’d find in a college hockey press box after earlier covering an afternoon football game. But it happens in the fall, even though he isn’t covering the game. The guy bleeds college hockey and is what aspiring young writers should hope to become when they grow up.

• And how about those college hockey radio voices? They toil for peanuts or nothing at all, simply because they love the game. It’s tough to single any one of them out because they all show tremendous dedication, but you’ve especially got to hand it to Mike Machnik, Merrimack’s color analyst. He’s a personal friend and USCHO contributor (and will want to kill me for this note), but fair is fair. The others that I’ve witnessed first-hand have had at least one stellar regular season to keep the batteries charged for the down times. Machnik hasn’t had that luxury during the Warriors’ building years in Hockey East, but game in and game out does a stellar job.

And I don’t hold against him the time that he introduced me as an intermission guest by asking, “So, Dave, are you prolific or just incredibly verbose?”

• I’d have like to have seen UNH’s John Sadowski, Jason Shipulski and Chad Onufrechuk put together so we could have called them the SOS line. Of course, the naughty part of me would have liked even better to see defenseman Sean Austin moved up front and paired with the S&S duo.

• If Pavlov were conducting his experiments today, he could have just used the Star-Spangled Banner on sports fans.

• I could go on and on, but then again, I’ve been accused of going on and on …

Don’t you just love this sport?

Hobey Baker Finalists Announced

USCHO Staff Report
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At a news conference held today here, award foundation officials announced the 10 finalists for the 1999 Hobey Baker Memorial Award, presented annually to college hockey’s most outstanding player.

The finalists were determined by a vote of head hockey coaches from all Division I NCAA schools, and are listed below in alphabetical order:

Name            Yr  Pos  School
Jason Blake     Sr   F   North Dakota
Hugo Boisvert   Jr   F   Ohio State
Brian Gionta    So   F   Boston College
Jeff Hamilton   Jr   F   Yale
Eric Heffler    Sr   G   St. Lawrence
Steve Kariya    Sr   F   Maine
Jason Krog      Sr   F   New Hampshire
Michel Larocque Sr   G   Boston University
Brian Swanson   Sr   F   Colorado College
Mike York       Sr   F   Michigan State

The names of the finalists will be advanced to the 18-member Hobey Baker selection committee, which will determine the 1999 recipient. The award will be announced at the Anaheim Hilton, Friday, Apr. 2, the off day of the 1999 NCAA championships.

Making Magic Again

By Adam Wodon
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St. Lawrence’s magical run to the NCAAs crumbled in a span of 42 seconds in Madison on Saturday. But when the smoke cleared, Joe Marsh knew he could speak of a year in which a reinvigorated program could look ahead to making its appearance a more regular occurrence. One that relies not upon magic, but upon newfound resources.

When the St. Lawrence dominance of the 80s and early 90s dried up, Marsh could see the handwriting on the wall.

With recruiting budgets and competition for players increasing around the NCAA, the St. Lawrence head coach knew better than anyone that regaining a place in the national spotlight could only be achieved by awarding scholarships, something the school had never done.

When the typically arduous process of convincing school administrators came to an end, it came with a sense of relief, but also with a newfound urgency. Marsh knew the expectations would be higher, both on the ice and in the quality of the individual. The program pledged to make sure the cost of scholarship was spent on a high-character student-athlete.

“We should be accountable,” Marsh said following Saturday’s 5-2 first-round NCAA loss to Colorado College. “The school wants to protect its assets. We’re trying to bring in the best kids, and we had a great group of kids this year.

“Our track record, in my 16 years here, I’ve tried to do that. There’s good-quality kids in the program and everyone’s appreciative of that. It’s a healthy environment. St. Lawrence is a terrific place.”

In 1985, Joe Marsh took over a program with just two 20-win seasons in its history and just one NCAA appearance in 24 years. After getting his feet wet with a 16-15 season, Marsh led St. Lawrence to three straight 20-win seasons and five in six years. Included were two straight 29-win seasons and four NCAA appearances, highlighted by an appearance in the title game in Lake Placid in 1988, where the Saints lost to Lake Superior in overtime.

But after the last of three ECAC championships in 1992, St. Lawrence fell on hard times, winning an average of 13.5 games over the next six seasons. It was ironic, as well, that St. Lawrence would make no trips to the ECAC Final Four since the tournament moved to Lake Placid, the site of the biggest win in school history.

In its first year with full scholarships, St. Lawrence bottomed out with nine wins, but with the confidence that better times were ahead.

That turned out to be right. Led by a remarkable season from Hobey Baker finalist goalie Eric Heffler, ECAC Rookie of the Year Brandon Dietrich and a solid defensive corps, St. Lawrence rose to the top of the ECAC standings again.

Staying there is the next goal.

“We have some things still to do to get there,” Marsh said. “Just because we’re here [in the NCAAs] doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll go back. It takes every ounce to get here. But I’m proud of what we did this year. We had a good group who worked really hard and had a great attitude.”

St. Lawrence loses Heffler and high-scoring forwards Bob Prier, Matt Oikawa and Steve Poapst. But they return Dietrich, junior-to-be Erik Anderson and his 40 points, and the entire defense.

But more importantly than the specifics, the overriding philosophy and resources and now in place for the program.

“We’re healthy, and we’ve gotten plenty of things to improve ourselves,” Marsh said. “We have better equipment. We’ve gotten improvements in the rink. Everything’s better. But it won’t be those things that does it for us, it will be the people.”

The people include those he recruits and those in the administration, including new athletic director Margie Strait. Marsh has stayed at St. Lawrence for so long because of those reasons.

“The area has been good to me and my family,” Marsh said. “The [administration has] always been good to me. Every AD since I’ve been here has been real honest. I have a ton of respect for everyone I’ve worked for. They realize what the program means, and we’ve never had a win-at-all-costs mentality. The philosophy is strong.”

Like it or not, the measuring stick for St. Lawrence is North Country neighbor Clarkson. The resources in the past may have been different, but with the schools being 10 miles apart, travel partners, and of similar size and academic philosophy, the comparisons are inevitable.

Of course, if you compare the long-term success of the programs, there’s no question Clarkson, with its perpetual run to the top of the ECAC, comes out on top. But St. Lawrence can now say its program has closed the gap, and nearly erased it. Marsh says the key is now to take the new resources they have and make them work for the program.

“They [Clarkson] have a newer rink, yeah, but we have what we need,” Marsh said. “It’s incumbent upon us to not sit around and talk about what we don’t have. We have enough in place, and we have that type of athlete we need. Now’s the time to take those steps.”

Balancing Their Way To Anaheim

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If you asked coaches what it takes to win a championship, many would tell you good goaltending, great special teams, and plenty of experience.

For the University of Maine Black Bears, goaltending and special teams are part of their year-in and year-out plan. But this year’s club possesses only one player with NCAA tournament experience — Brendan Walsh, who played in two NCAA tournaments with Boston University in 1995 and 1996 before transferring to Maine last season.

So Maine coach Shawn Walsh must look elsewhere to compensate for the lack of experience.

And in this year’s East Regional, what Walsh received from his players can be summed up in one word: balance.

“It was the key this weekend,” said Walsh. “It’s been our key all year.”

Hobey Baker finalist Steve Kariya echoed Walsh’s sentiments.

“It was a big key this weekend and a key all year,” Kariya said. “There’s been a lot of times this year that teams have shut my line down and other guys contribute. That’s why we’ve been so consistent all year long, because we get scoring from all of our lines. [Teams] can’t key on any one line, because our other guys are going to hurt you.”

Saturday night it was the highly-touted first line of Cory Larose, Marcus Gustafsson, and Kariya, as well as senior defenseman David Cullen, that stepped up and drove Maine to its berth in next week’s Frozen Four in Anaheim. Those four players combined for six of the seven goals scored by the Black Bears Saturday, and a total of 13 points.

Their performance came 24 hours after Ohio State held that quartet to only four points in a 4-2 Maine win.

Against Ohio State, Maine depended on players like Bobby Stewart, who entered the tournament with only 12 points this season, but notched a goal against the Buckeyes.

On the same note, Walsh credits his fourth line with the defensive success the Black Bears enjoyed this weekend.

“I felt our fourth line of [Jason] Vitorino, [Jim] Leger, and [Matthias] Trattnig played great. [Clarkson] just couldn’t get out against them.” Walsh noted.

A lot can be said about the defense of the Black Bears. Just three weeks after giving up 11 goals to the University of New Hampshire in the final week of the season, the Black Bears held Ohio State and Clarkson to two goals apiece here in the regionals.

With Cullen getting much of the credit on the Maine defense, players like A.J. Begg, who has only played in 24 games for the Black Bears, can be overlooked. But Walsh didn’t miss his performance this weekend, especially in tonight’s game.

“A.J Begg stepped up and played a great game physically for us defensively,” Walsh said. “He was just a horse and [those are] the kind of things you have to get.”

Walsh was also quick to note that the team’s balance goes beyond the players on the ice.

“My three assistant [coaches] prepared the game plan for Clarkson, specifically the high breakout to get us out of the zone. Gene Reilly and Nate Leaman convinced me to go with that and then after one period convinced us to shadow Erik Cole.

Walsh believes strongly in the experience of assistant coach Grant Standbrook. Now in his 12th year at Maine, his success though his coaching career will be a large part of preparing the team for Anaheim next week.

“Grant Standbrook has five national championship rings on his finger and I’ve got one. We’ve been through enough Final Fours between the two of us to help keep this team on track.”

For only the second time since the NCAA tournament expanded to 12 teams, Maine did not receive a bye into the quarterfinals. But Walsh believes that the longer road will pay off.

“I think [playing twice this weekend] helps this team. I think we need to put the last three weeks behind us. I think we did it this weekend with an explanation point. We’re on a roll now.”

And Walsh and his Black Bears hope to keep on rolling as they head west to the Frozen Four.

Battle Of The Brothers

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One is older, more experienced; the other could be called the young pup. One plays the role of leader for his team; the other is brand-new to college hockey.

But the brothers Comrie — Paul, the senior captain of the University of Denver, and Mike, the rookie sensation for the University of Michigan, have plenty in common. For starters, they both posses the title of leading scorer for their respective teams.

Friday night in Worcester, Mass., in the first round of the NCAA East Regional, the two met on opposite sides for the first time in their college careers.

But instead of the knowledge and experience of the older Comrie breaking through, Friday it was Mike Comrie’s night to shine. Mike posted the only point between the two brothers, but a very important one. With the Wolverines leading 4-3 with less than seven minutes to play, Mike Comrie picked up a perfect pass at the red line and soared in on Denver goaltender Steven Wagner, scoring the important insurance goal.

The goal was the last in a five-goal outburst that capped a come-from-behind Michigan victory, giving the Wolverines continued life to their season.

“Mike and I come from a very competitive family,” said Paul Comrie. “We both want to win and once the puck was dropped tonight we both forgot we were brothers and it didn’t mean anything.”

Over his four years with the Pioneers, Paul Comrie he has consistently improved his performances, notching 40 or more points in three season. He finishes his career ranked 12th on the DU all-time scoring list with 161 career points.

This season Paul was an All-American candidate and was selected to the all-WCHA first team, the first such award to a Denver player since Dave Shields in 1990: Comrie notched 49 points (18 goals, 31 assists) in 39 games this season. He was a ninth-round selection of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who in 1997 traded his rights to the Edmonton Oilers, where he is compared to center Doug Weight.

Over his career, Paul has been a leader in postseason play, having scored 11 points in 15 playoff games, including three in his two NCAA tournament games in 1997.

For the younger of the brothers, Mike, the night’s comeback was bittersweet.

“It’s a little disappointing to see (Paul) lose, but its hockey and one of us had to lose tonight,” Mike said after the victory. “It’s unfortunate, but we’re still going to be brothers.”

The younger Comrie has dazzled the crowds in his first season in Michigan. He arrived in Ann Arbor to join the defending national champions, and though young in age, has performed like a veteran.

In his first year, Mike is leading the team in scoring with 43 points (18 goals, 25 assists). His plus-18 rating is the second-best on the club behind defenseman Jeff Jillson, and his play earned him CCHA Rookie of the Year honors as well as placement on the Bauer/CCHA all-rookie team.

Mike credits a lot of his early success, as well as the win, to mentor and coach Red Berenson.

“Coach Berenson is a great coach. Tonight’s win should [prove] it,” Mike said, “When he called that timeout, he told us to stick to our game plan and focus on what we’re supposed to do.”

The timeout he refers to was called by Berenson after Denver jumped out to a 3-0 lead midway through the game. After that, Michigan outshot Denver 20-1 en route to the 5-3 win.

Mike echoed his brother’s comments.

“Like brothers [are], we’re both competitive. I thought he played well tonight and I thought their team played well. It’s not a big deal playing him. It’s two teams playing hockey.”

So Friday night represented a bit of a beginning, and an end. For Denver’s Paul, it marked the end of a fantastic college career. And for Michigan’s Mike, it is the beginning of a run towards defending the team’s national title.

RIT Head Coach Hoffberg Resigns

USCHO Staff Report
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Eric Hoffberg, the winningest coach in RIT history, resigned today to pursue a position at the Division I or professional level.

Hoffberg was 188-82-22 in his ten-year career at RIT, including 47-7-7 the last two seasons. The Tigers made the Division III NCAA Tournament five times during his tenure, including a fourth-place finish this season.

Hoffberg was diplomatic about the reasons for his departure, but it was clear that he was frustrated with the RIT administration’s lack of interest in elevating the program to the Division I level.

“Many people don’t realize how many Division I players are at RIT,” he said. “I feel there’s a Division I level of play here, and that makes me want to coach Division I. If that could have happened at RIT, then I would have been here.

“If I want to be a Division I head coach, I need to make a move now to fill in some gaps that may exist in my resume,” Hoffberg indicated. He also said that he would entertain a position in the professional ranks if one became available.

Hoffberg said that he wants to be remembered as a “player’s coach” and that he hopes that his players have “taken a little bit of Hoff with them.”

RIT athletic director Lou Spiotti said that RIT will initiate a national search for a new head coach.

“I believe we will attract a really fine candidate,” he said. “We’ve been able to fill this position with good people in the past and we expect to do the same thing again.”

Former RIT coaches who moved into Division I include Brian Mason, who went on to coach at Dartmouth, former Union head coach Bruce Delventhal, and current Bowling Green coach Buddy Powers.

NCAA West Regional Preview

By Paula C. Weston, Todd D. Milewski, Becky Blaeser, Jayson Moy, Dave Hendrickson and Scott Brown
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If this year’s East Regional is the place for streaking teams — Clarkson, Denver, Michigan et al. — the West Regional might be deemed the home of the recently-disappointed. The top two seeds, North Dakota and Michigan State, won their conference regular seasons but lost playoff tournaments.

Michigan State bowed out in the CCHA semifinals, while North Dakota took Denver to the wire before falling in the WCHA title game. For both schools, the question is now whether those losses will serve as motivation or discouragement.

Before either can take the ice, however, two Saturday first-round games will determine their opponents. Transplanted Hockey East tourney titlist Boston College takes on squeaker pick Northern Michigan — which probably only secured its berth with its semifinal win over the Spartans — and injury-depleted Colorado College meets St. Lawrence in a battle of CC’s efficient offense versus SLU’s ECAC-best defense (though it should be noted that the Saints can score too, having finished third in the ECAC in goals per game).

The CC-SLU winner takes on Michigan State in the early game Sunday, while UND versus either Northern Michigan or Boston College rounds out this season’s regional play in the late game. The winners advance to Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim for the 1999 NCAA championship, Apr. 1-3.

(Numbers preceding team names are West Regional seeds.)

First Round
No. 3 Colorado College (28-11-1) vs. St. Lawrence (23-12-3)
Saturday, 1 pm CT, Dane County Coliseum, Madison, Wis.

Colorado College Tigers

This is the time of the year a team wonders if it’s going to be good enough. While there would be little question about Colorado College if they were at full strength, some key injuries may be the only thing standing in their way this season.

Darren Clark and Toby Petersen are out for the season. Jon Austin and Dan Peters aren’t exactly at 100 percent. The depth is running a little thin for coach Don Lucia’s team, and don’t think he doesn’t realize what that could mean.

“You wonder where it’s finally going to catch up,” the sixth-year coach of the Tigers said. “The better teams you play, the more it catches up to you. All we can do is go with the players we have. I know they’re going to compete and play hard and play to the best of their ability, but I don’t think there’s any question that we’d be a lot better team if Toby Petersen and Darren Clark were in our lineup.”

CC absorbed a 3-2 overtime loss to Denver in the semifinals of the Final Five last weekend before handing Minnesota a 7-4 defeat in the consolation game. But the weekend wasn’t all lost, despite CC’s fourth consecutive third-place game appearance.

“The positive for me was we really only gave up, in regulation, three five-on-five goals in the two games,” Lucia said. “I was really happy about that. I think it was good that Jeff (Sanger) got a day off on Saturday and I’m hoping that he’s going to be real fresh because goaltending is huge this time of year.”

The Tigers, who are in the NCAA field for the fifth consecutive season (equaling a school best), have won seven of their last eight games and 13 of their last 16, so there is little question the Tigers will be able to compete.

But one of the question surrounds the team’s depth. With Brian Swanson and Justin Morrison on the same line because of the injuries, the Tigers suffered from a lack of scoring depth. Because of that, Morrison will probably move back to the line with Mark Cullen, and put Austin on the top right side.

But that says nothing about Morrison’s abilities. In being named to the WCHA Final Five all-tournament team last weekend, he scored four goals — a shorthanded goal Friday and a hat trick Saturday — and added an assist.

“Justin’s had a great year,” Lucia said. “From four or five goals as a freshman to 21 right now as a sophomore. He’s somebody that really has had to pick up the scoring in light of our key guys going down with injuries. There’s a lot of expectation on some of our freshmen up front.”

One of the motivations for Morrison and fellow Tiger and Los Angeles native Berk Nelson is to go home. To Anaheim.

“Out of any season we’ve played in our lives, it would be the biggest thing to us to actually play in front of friends and family that, the majority have never seen us play hockey before,” Morrison said at the Final Five.

Along with Morrison, Swanson and Austin, Lucia will be looking for Cullen and Jesse Heerema to have big weekends if the Tigers are going to succeed.

Lucia made no secret about his wish to stay in the West Regional, for a couple of reasons.

“I think for us, it’s easier to get to, for one,” he said. “I think our kids wanted to play on Olympic ice — we’re used to it, there’s a little more room. We play in Madison on a regular basis so we’re a little more familiar with it.”

The Tigers drew St. Lawrence in the first round, and Lucia is having a little trouble getting the feel for the Saints, not having seen them play in person this season. What he can discern, however, is that they are much like his team in that they like to move up and down the rink.

“We know we’re going to have to play awfully well — everybody does this time of year,” Lucia said.

St. Lawrence Saints

With their chins solemnly resting on the butt of their sticks, the St. Lawrence players were forced to watch their crosstown rivals — the Golden Knights of Clarkson — hoist the Scotty Whitelaw Trophy high in the air last Saturday night in Lake Placid, N.Y.

The 3-2 loss in the final game was devastating enough, especially considering that the Skating Saints had held a precious 2-1 lead midway through the second period, but the sight of Clarkson celebrating was almost too much.

“The guys were pretty down after the loss to Clarkson,” said St. Lawrence head coach Joe Marsh, “It was a great hockey game and while we are obviously disappointed not to have won it, the entire experience at Lake Placid is something that is going to elevate our game. I don’t think you could ask for a better tournament championship in terms of the intensity and the crowd support, and I think both teams played outstanding hockey.”

The fact that the Saints were even on the Olympic Center ice during the ECAC awards presentation would have been mind-boggling to many prognosticators back in October — they were picked to finish ninth in the league. In many ways, Marsh’s players were overachievers this season, but one look down his lineup at Lake Placid showed a team that had effectively and efficiently used every single one of its strengths to form a legitimate top-10 team.

Their success no doubt begins with senior leadership from captains Bob Prier and John Poapst. In the championship contest, Prier battled with Clarkson’s Willie Mitchell all night long, while the day before Prior combined with Poapst and linemate Eric Anderson for four points in a 6-3 semifinal victory over RPI. In addition, the Saints boast one of the nation’s best netminders in Hobey Baker finalist Eric Heffler. And, of course, who could forget Brandon Dietrich, the 1998-99 ECAC Rookie of the Year, who finished with four assists in the biggest weekend of his young career.

Never flashy on either end of the ice, the Saints have enjoyed success this season by relying on a system which is dependent upon its aforementioned big guns as well as a gritty, tireless effort from each of four lines. The Saints pride themselves on keeping the defensive miscues to a minimum and that factor will be of ultra importance this weekend against offensively-potent Colorado College. Another factor for the Saints will be their reaction following the very emotional loss to Clarkson in the ECAC finals. Any championship defeat is difficult to swallow, but when it involves St. Lawrence’s North Country rival, it hurts that much more.

“This is a team which has shown a lot of resilience this season, and I don’t think we’ll have to get them pumped up about playing in the NCAA tournament,” Marsh said. “I was very proud of the way we played in the ECACs and it was a fantastic experience for us. As they have all season, everyone gave 110 percent in the finals, and now we have a little extra reward in that we get to keep playing.”

Saturday’s contest marks the first NCAA appearance for St. Lawrence, the tournament’s sixth seed, since 1992. The winner of the game between the Saints and Colorado College, will take on second seed Michigan State (28-5-7) for the right to advance to Anaheim, CA and the NCAA semifinals.

“Regardless of how things go in the NCAA tournament — and you know every game is going to be battle against very tough opponents — landing one of the 12 spots in the tournament says something about what you have accomplished in a season,” Marsh said. “It will be a great experience for everyone associated with the team, and it is something that will be important to the program in terms of its growth in future seasons.”

Picks

Becky Blaeser/Jayson Moy: Youth and inexperience are too much of a factor for the Saints against a seasoned Colorado College club. Even without some players, that will carry the Tigers through to beating an ECAC team for the third straight year in the tournament. Colorado College 4, St. Lawrence 3

Todd D. Milewski: Colorado College over St. Lawrence, 4-2

Scott Brown: The Saints are one of this season’s great stories, but the Tigers, a solid club to begin with, persistently overachieve in the NCAA tourney. Colorado College, 3-2

Dave Hendrickson: A little role reversal for CC coach Don Lucia. He considered Eastern brackets the easier route to the Final Four the last two years. This time, everyone wants into CC’s bracket. St. Lawrence, 3-0.

Paula C. Weston: I grew up spending summers on the St. Lawrence River. For sentimental reasons — and because CC is so beaten up — I’m going with St. Lawrence, 3-2

First Round
No. 4 Boston College (25-11-4) vs. No. 5 Northern Michigan (22-14-5)
Saturday, 4:30 pm CT, Dane County Coliseum, Madison, Wis.

Boston College Eagles

Boston College enters the NCAA tournament on a high note. After posting a so-so record of 15-11-4 from November through February — playing possum, perhaps? — the Eagles have now won six in a row, the last four of which gave them their second straight Hockey East title.

They accomplished the feat by first edging nationally fourth-ranked Maine, 3-2, and then knocking off second-ranked New Hampshire in overtime, 5-4.

“We’re tremendously excited about the accomplishment we just had, winning the Hockey East championship,” says coach Jerry York. “Especially because of the teams we had to play. Lowell was excellent as an opponent and did a lot of good things against us. Then we played the number-two seed, Maine, and the number-one, New Hampshire, so we had a difficult stretch of teams.

“We responded and played our best hockey of the year. We were solid in goal. Our special teams were excellent and we really played smart. We skated well and moved pucks. I felt very good about that.

“The momentum we have is tremendous.”

Most people were surprised at the selection committee’s decision to place the Eagles in the West Regional after they won the Hockey East tournament. BC would be a prime draw in nearby Worcester, where Friday’s slate of games doesn’t include gate-friendly New Hampshire and Clarkson.

Instead, the committee chose to emphasize avoiding second-round matchups between teams from the same conference. Since New Hampshire and Maine had earned the right to stay East with a considerably better regular season, BC became the odd team out.

“We were surprised by the decision,” says York. “We thought we’d stay in Worcester, but as we look at it this gives us the opportunity to get three Hockey East teams to the Final Four.

“That’s certainly a good thing. We’re going to find out which league is the best league in the country.”

While BC “Superfans” are already familiar with their team’s game-breakers, Western fans seeing the Eagles for the first time might be interested in the following introduction.

Up front, feisty Brian Gionta (25-32–57) is a human highlight film. He plays on a line with red-hot Blake Bellefeuille (24-22–46), the Hockey East tournament MVP, and the perfect complement, Andy Powers (13-12–25).

Jeff Farkas (31-24–55) is also on a roll. A third line of Chris Master (15-22-37), Kevin Caulfield and Tony Hutchins totals about 640 pounds and will cycle and grind in the corners, wearing opponents down for the top two lines’ knockout punches.

Defensively, BC is led by one of the best tandems in college hockey, All-American Mike Mottau (3-37–40) and Bobby Allen (9-23–32). In goal, Scott Clemmensen (2.97 GAA, .882 Sv%) was a frequent fan scapegoat during the inconsistent regular season, sometimes deservedly so and other times not. But he has come up big during the postseason, earning a berth on the all-tournament team.

BC’s first game comes against Northern Michigan, a team expected to bring a sizable contingent to Madison.

“We played Northern Michigan [last season] in Milwaukee [losing 3-2], and they’re very quick and very fast,” says York. “They’re an explosive team.”

If the Eagles weather NMU, they’ll face yet another major postseason challenge. Perhaps the most unfortunate thing for Boston College isn’t that it was sent West, but that it was placed in North Dakota’s bracket so that the Fighting Sioux’s WCHA rival, Colorado College, could be placed in the other Western pairing.

“We’ve had a chance to watch them on film all year long and they’re a very explosive team,” says York. “Clearly, they’ve been the top team in the country just about the entire season.

“We’re going to have to match their speed. We feel that with good goaltending and solid play, we can give them a good battle.”

Since fifth-ranked Boston College has already toppled UNH and Maine this postseason, facing national number-one North Dakota isn’t going to give the Eagles a case of the shakes.

“We’re looking up at them from number five and feel that there really isn’t a lot of difference,” says York. “If you’re one of the top 10 teams, you really can’t consider it a major upset for the [lower-ranked] team to win.”

Northern Michigan Wildcats

After beating Michigan State, 5-3, in the CCHA semifinals, the Wildcats lost 5-1 to Michigan.

And that is the way it is with Northern Michigan. As goes Dan Ragusett, so go the Wildcats. Ragusett is 16-10-5, with a 2.44 overall GAA and a .911 save percentage. In the postseason so far, the sophomore is 3-2-0, with a 2.81 GAA and a .908 save percentage. He’s given up 14 goals in five postseason games.

In the 5-1 loss to Michigan, Ragusett was fine in the first period, but shaky after allowing Dave Huntzicker’s bouncy goal from near the red line. As head coach Rick Comley said after the game, this was Ragusett’s first real tournament experience (Duane Hoey was the goalie of record for Northern in the CCHA tourney last year), and this was this Wildcat squad’s first-ever title game.

Said Comley, “I believe in Danny Ragusett. I think he’s come a million miles. This was his first championship game, and I thought he struggled. But I believe in him.”

When Ragusett struggles, the ‘Cats struggle in front of him. Northern’s defense is shallow — not for talent, but for bodies. The Wildcats have four healthy defenders, and two of their best are either out or wounded. Sean Owens has been gone for half a season, and Sean Connolly (4-18–22, +17) dislocated his shoulder Friday, and left Saturday’s game early.

Last week Comley quipped that the Wildcats were down to 20 players, but that “you only suit 20.” Nineteen may be too few.

As uneven as Northern’s defense has been, those who are playing are more than competent. Doug and Kevin Schmidt (not related) and Mike Sandbeck — a forward playing D — are all on the plus side of things.

In overall play, the team is +139, after all.

Fronting the Wildcat attack is the amazing line of Buddy Smith (9-35–44), J.P. Vigier (21-18–39), and Roger Trudeau (19-14–33). Smith is the setup man, and Vigier has a nice touch with the puck. Ten of Vigier’s goals have come on the power play.

Other Wildcats who can score include rookie Chad Theuer (8-20–28), Fred Mattersdorfer (9-16–25), Bryan Phillips (13-9–22), Tyson Holly (14-7–21), and Brad Frattaroli (9-11–20). These may not seem like household names, but this is a team that grinds it out from top to bottom. Both Holly and Frattaroli can really step it up in big games.

The Wildcats have allowed almost as many opponent power-play goals as they’ve scored themselves, and the Northern man-advantage is average at best, converting 15.5 percent of the time.

To sum, this is a team with a great first line, a team that works hard but sometimes falls short of consistency.

What the banged-up NMU squad may lack in some areas, however, is made up for with enthusiasm to spare. No team in the country checks harder than the Northern Michigan Wildcats, and while the whole of college hockey may think Northern has no chance against Boston College, the Wildcats think much differently. After all, this was a team that was supposed to lose twice to Notre Dame in South Bend, and then supposed to give the Spartans an easy time of it in the CCHA tournament.

“We’re all very excited about returning to the NCAA Tournament after winning an exciting first-round CCHA playoff series at Notre Dame and then getting a very big win over Michigan State in the CCHA semifinals to advance to the CCHA Championship game,” says Comley.

Says Smith, “This is probably the most focused team that I’ve ever been a part of. We’re really determined to make a good showing against Boston College. Playing in the CCHA night in and night out will prepare us well for the tournament, and we feel we’re going on in a roll after we beat Michigan State, even though we lost to Michigan in the finals.”

And senior Rich Metro adds, “Getting to the NCAA tournament is something we’ve looked forward to since the start of the season. We just missed getting in last season, so it’s exciting to be part of the field this year. We’ve come a long way since our freshman year and it’ll be nice to represent the school and the CCHA in the national tournament, and a great way to cap off our senior season.”

Picks

Paula C. Weston: The Wildcats have worked way too hard to get where they are just to fold in the first round. All-CCHA Frozen Four!

…and then she woke up.

Northern Michigan is one hurting team, literally. Freshman defender Sean Connolly — he who tied the game for the Wildcats against the Spartans in the CCHA semis — left the title game with Michigan because of a shoulder he separated the night before. If he doesn’t play, the ‘Cats are down to 19 guys. Now, they are 19 of the hardest-working hockey players you’ll ever meet, but they haven’t seen speed like Boston College in the CCHA.

The Wildcats will check like no one’s business and work BC to the bone, but Boston College’s speed will probably do in Northern Michigan. If Dan Ragusett has a good game in net for Northern, this may be a close game. Otherwise, BC will roll. Boston College, 5-2

Dave Hendrickson: Eagles rule this one, 4-2

Scott Brown: Boston College has recovered handily from what could have been a very disappointing season. The Wildcats are tough, no question, but the Eagles are loaded with talent and on a roll. Boston College, 5-1

Todd D. Milewski: Boston College over Northern Michigan, 5-3

Becky Blaeser/Jayson Moy: Getting up for the playoffs is what it is all about. The Eagles have done that, and they aren’t about to come down yet. BC 5, NMU 1

Quarterfinal
No. 2 Michigan State (28-5-7) vs. Colorado College/St. Lawrence
Sunday, 2 pm CT, Dane County Coliseum, Madison, Wis.

Michigan State Spartans

The Spartans reached the NCAA tournament by way of their regular-season championship, decided as long ago as Feb. 20. Last weekend in CCHA tournament action, Michigan State lost its semifinal game 5-3 to Northern Michigan, after which Mike York said he felt the “same way last year when we lost against Ohio State.”

That 4-3 overtime loss — which knocked Michigan State out of last year’s NCAA tournament — remains fresh in the minds of Spartan players entering this year’s tournament, as though it were just days ago.

Says senior defenseman Chris Bogas, “Last year is always in our minds. It was a tough way to lose, especially when the expectations were so high. This year we are in a similar situation, but there is not as much pressure on us.”

Head coach Ron Mason echoes Bogas’ sentiments about the lack of pressure. “It’s not pressure, but we do want to get to Anaheim. That’s the goal that we had at the start of the season. For the last four weeks now, we really haven’t had a real major goal. Now we can refocus and we can challenge ourselves to get prepared to win that game that’s going to take us to the Final Four.”

Winning an NCAA game is a big deal to this team that was expected to go all the way last year. “Our class hasn’t won an NCAA game yet, and that’s important to us,” says Bogas. “It’s a tough thing to explain. At this time of year, every team is good and we have to bring our ‘A’ game.”

The Spartan “A” game includes a rock-solid defense that likes to protect an early lead. That’s the secret to Michigan State’s success — a patient game that makes offense happen from opponent mistakes.

This produces less-than-breathtaking results, of course, but it does produce wins. Michigan State’s nation-leading defense has kept opponents to one or no goals in a whopping 27 games this season (24-0-3). Northern Michigan’s five goals against the Spartans at Joe Louis Arena marked the first time in over a year that MSU gave up five goals to an opponent — since Mar. 7, 1998, a 5-1 loss to none other than Northern Michigan.

From the net out, the Spartan defense is solid, if a little banged up. In overall play this season, sophomore Joe Blackburn leads the CCHA with a 1.39 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage. He’s also made fewer saves than any other CCHA goalie with significant time in net, just 610 in 31 games played.

The reason for that is the Spartan defense, which blocks anything it can. Mike Weaver is +23 in overall play and his partner Jeff Kozakowski is +25. Good defensive play is not, however limited to blueliners. Mike York (+35), Bryan Adams (+30), and Adam Hall (+22) dislike being on the ice when opponents score. York, in fact, has been on the ice just twice this season for five-on-five opponent goals.

There are only a couple of Spartans on the minus side of things, and the whole team is +203 in league play.

Now, you’re not going to see any flashy offense from this team, but you may see something pretty from York (22-29–51), who can make plays happen from nothing. Linemates Adams (21-13–34) and Hall (13-7–20) are often on the receiving end of the something that York creates.

Other Spartans to look for include Shawn Horcoff (12-23–38), Rustyn Dolyny (17-14–31), and defensemen Kozakowski (5-12–17), Weaver (1-6–7), and Brad Hodgins (3-14–17) on the power play.

The Spartans have scored 35 power-play goals while allowing just 13 this season. Michigan State has as many shorthanded goals as it’s allowed on while a man down. The Spartan PK, successful 92.7 percent of the time, is the best in the nation.

The Spartans haven’t lost back-to-back games since the 1996-97 season, and Horcoff thinks the loss to Northern Michigan may be just what Michigan State needed.

“I think it maybe could have helped us. It brings us down to earth and makes our team [to] realize what we are going to have to do to win this national championship. It’s not that big of a deal. Sure, it’s a playoff title, but our goal was to make it to the NCAA tournament and get a No.1 or No.2 seed. With our great season we were able to accomplish that, and I think our loss Friday night is really in the back of our minds now. We are just looking towards Sunday.”

Says Mason, “We’re excited to be in the tournament and to be playing right now. We don’t know a whole lot about either team. St. Lawrence is my alma mater….Don Lucia of Colorado College is a great coach and they’ve had a great season. Whoever comes out of that game will be a challenge for us.”

Picks

Scott Brown: Between hockey and basketball, the Spartans make it two sports playing in their respective Final Fours. Michigan State, 4-1

Paula C. Weston: The Spartans have a bye for a reason, and this squad has never won an NCAA game. These boys are on a mission. Michigan State, 3-1

Becky Blaeser/Jayson Moy: Against SLU, the missing Tigers were missed, but the Tigers will have gotten by the pesky Saints. Against the Spartans, it may be a tougher task without those guns. MSU 4, CC 2

Dave Hendrickson: Michigan State, 2-1

Todd D. Milewski: Michigan State over Colorado College, 3-1

Quarterfinal
No. 1 North Dakota (32-5-2) vs. Boston College/Northern Michigan
Sunday, 5:30 pm CT, Dane County Coliseum, Madison, Wis.

North Dakota Fighting Sioux

The top-ranked team in the nation once again has the opportunity to show its ability to rebound from a setback this weekend. Of course, that’s not by choice.

Coach Dean Blais and the North Dakota Fighting Sioux fell short of goal No. 2 in their season-long quest last weekend, falling to Denver, 4-3, in the championship game of the WCHA Final Five. Disappointing as that may have been, Blais said his team is showing no ill effects this week in practice.

“I think we’re fine,” Blais said. “We certainly wanted to win that game on Saturday, but I didn’t think we deserved it. We got up 3-1 and couldn’t get the fourth one. The worst lead, sometimes, is that two-goal lead.”

Goal No. 1 this season for the Fighting Sioux was to win their third straight MacNaughton Cup as the WCHA regular-season champion. That they did with seeming ease, clinching the championship with a few weeks remaining in the season. But, in a model that has parallels in last season’s demise, they slipped a bit in the last few weeks, falling at Wisconsin and in the first of a best-of-three first round series against Minnesota State-Mankato.

Then, also like last season, the Sioux were on the short end of a one-goal decision in the championship game of the Final Five. Plus, last year, the team lost starting goaltender Karl Goehring to a groin injury in the week between the Final Five and the NCAA regional, and then lost to Michigan one game before the Frozen Four.

The good sign this season for the Sioux is that — knock on wood — there are no injuries to speak of. In fact, UND will have Lee Goren back after sitting out the Final Five with a leg laceration suffered against Mankato.

“This is about the first week we’ve been healthy in two months,” said Blais. “You can’t do without a guy like Lee, who’s scored 25 goals this year.”

But what contributed to North Dakota’s loss to Denver last weekend? Blais said it was a lack of intensity, something he noticed at the team meal some five hours before the game. He also said it may have had something to do with Michigan State’s loss to Northern Michigan, which assured them of the top spot in the West Regional.

“We’ve been chasing Michigan State all year to remain No. 1,” Blais said. “We kind of watch what they do and when Michigan State lost on Friday, our kids — they didn’t say anything to me — but I could get the feeling, ‘Hey, we have No. 1 no matter what now.’ We still wanted to win that doggone game on Saturday, but not enough.”

Apparently, though, the intensity is back in Grand Forks. Blais said after Wednesday’s practice that he felt it from the team’s eight seniors.

“I could feel the intensity in practice today that I haven’t felt in about a month,” Blais said. “So they know what it’s all about and it just filters right on down to the younger kids.”

Those younger kids may be an issue, however. Blais admitted that some of them were a little wide-eyed last weekend in their first tournament experience.

“They were a little bit nervous, some of the defensemen especially,” Blais said. “We have three freshmen defensemen playing regularly, who were a little bit caught off-guard, I would think. Not that we haven’t played in big games before, but, when you’re playing something as important as a championship, some players play up, some players play down.”

Will his players play up this weekend? “We’d better,” Blais said.

UND plays the winner of the Boston College-Northern Michigan matchup. “When Northern Michigan was in the (WCHA), you could always count on a real physical, well-disciplined game by Rick Comley’s team,” Blais said. “Boston College is probably the opposite with the talented, speed game, players that can get it down the ice pretty good. Northern Michigan is probably a little more defensive.”

Picks

Dave Hendrickson: Boston College makes it three Hockey East teams in Anaheim, 6-5. (If NMU beats BC, then North Dakota, 5-3.)

Scott Brown: Speed kills, and both teams have it in abundance. Who lives and who dies? Let’s see. North Dakota, 5-4 (OT)

Todd D. Milewski: North Dakota over Boston College, 6-3

Becky Blaeser/Jayson Moy: This could easily have been the matchup in last year’s finals at the FleetCenter. This time, BC goes home while the too-many-weaponed Sioux move on to sunny California. ND 6, BC 3

Paula C. Weston: This may be the best pairing in the tournament. Both teams are fast, but North Dakota is bigger, and has an edge defensively. North Dakota, 4-3

Hockey And Hoopla

By
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Did you know that when the Spartans beat the Wildcats last weekend, they made a little bit of NCAA history?

Wait a minute, you say — wasn’t it the Wildcats who beat the Spartans 5-3 in the CCHA semifinals?

Yes, but there were two sets of Spartans and Wildcats playing that weekend: one on ice, the other on wood. And Michigan State beat the Kentucky Wildcats to advance to the men’s basketball Final Four, giving two Big Ten schools teams playing in both the men’s ice hockey tourney and the men’s basketball tourney.

While there are technically no Big Ten ice hockey teams playing in the hockey tournament, there are three CCHA teams that compete in the Big Ten in all other sports, and both Michigan State and Ohio State have roundball and puck teams playing this weekend.

In fact, it’s the first time in NCAA history that teams from two schools have competed simultaneously in both tournaments. Prior to this season, Michigan was the only school to send teams to both NCAA tournaments, something the Wolverines accomplished in 1964, 1992, and 1993.

It’s a ready-made story, but you won’t hear much about it in either East Lansing or Columbus. The local media in each city has eyes for the net only — the net 10 feet above the field of play.

But that’s all right with Spartan head coach Ron Mason. “The nice thing about being at a school where basketball is having worldwide exposure is the positives you get, sort of riding on their press coattails.”

Mason says the exposure for Spartan and Buckeye basketball “can only be good for their respective hockey teams, and for college hockey in general.”

Senior Michigan State defenseman Chris Bogas agrees that it’s a good time to be wearing the green and white. “Everyone is proud to be a Spartan right now. We’ve been to a few games, and it’s fun to watch them play. A lot of people are Michigan State fans, not just fans of a particular sport. It’s a pretty good time to be a Michigan State fan. It’s a fun time to be a Spartan.”

“We see those guys a lot in the summer in the weight room. They’re great guys, and I love to see them doing well,” adds Spartan Mike York. “There’s an electricity on campus — you can feel it just walking around.”

“We might be overshadowed some,” says Mason, “but college hockey in general is overshadowed by basketball this time of year. All the hockey schools, whether you’ve got somebody in the basketball tournament or not, take a back seat this time of year.”

But, Mason says, that changes next week, when the only NCAA tourney to watch will be college hockey, thanks to a scheduling change that no longer forces the puck and roundball finals face off on the same weekend.

“Next weekend, all eyes will be on Anaheim,” says Mason.

OSU head coach John Markell agrees. “I think it’s wonderful that the basketball team is doing what they’re doing. [Head coach] Jim O’Brien and those guys are great guys. They’re going to the Final Four, and we’ll have our turn in the spotlight if we get to the final four.

“As teams, the players are real friendly, the basketball players with our players, the proximity down here [at the Schottenstein Center]. I think we’re all pulling for each other. We don’t really care who gets the media attention.

“Let’s get the job done and try to get some championships. It’s all for the good of the school and our programs. Our guys are really happy for them, and they’re happy for us. It’s part of being at a Big Ten program where you have teams that are capable of playing for those championships.”

It’s probably no coincidence that three of the four CCHA schools playing this weekend are Big Ten teams who finished one, two, and three in league standings. After all, the bigger schools in the league have bigger recruiting budgets. Two of the schools, Michigan State and Michigan, have longstanding hockey traditions, and the other Big Ten school — Ohio State — has a brand-new facility to help with recruiting.

But coaches like Ron Mason and Red Berenson would say that the presence of Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State — and Northern Michigan — has less to do with the money three of these teams can throw around than the toughness of the league from top to bottom.

At one time or another this season, each of the top six teams in the league held a top-ten spot in the RPI, the PairWise, and the USCHO poll.

“When you say we’ve got such a great league, it sounds like you’re just blowing smoke about your own neighborhood, but the fact is that our league did have more than a few good teams,” says Wolverine head coach Red Berenson. “Certainly this was the toughest and closest I can remember our league competition among the most teams. It’s good [the NCAA selection committee] gave our league that respect.”

Senior Michigan defender Bubba Berenzweig says that the Wolverines are pulling for the other CCHA teams in the tourney. “I think our league deserves it. I think we’ve got a very strong league. It just shows winning the CCHA title means a lot. I think it’s great for the CCHA, and I’m happy for the other teams.”

Bogas echoes his archrival’s sentiments. “We will keep an eye on how the other CCHA teams are doing, and you always want them to do well. It brings respect to the league and gives you a little bit of bragging rights.”

And Rick Comley — the coach of the Wildcats, the Northern Michigan Wildcats, the ‘Cats who won last week — is as happy as the other three coaches to see four teams from his league in the tourney. “It’s…great to see that the CCHA was rewarded with four teams in the field after all of us battled each other so hard throughout the season.”

NCAA East Regional Preview

By Dave Hendrickson, Paula C. Weston, Jayson Moy, Becky Blaeser, Todd D. Milewski and Scott Brown
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The NCAA championship tournament opens up in Worcester, Mass., this year. The Centrum Centre hosts the East Regional, which features several intriguing matchups — as well as the intriguing nonappearance of one Eastern power. Boston College fans made their discontentment known on the Internet and elsewhere last weekend, as the Eagles were shipped West despite a late-season run which climaxed with the Hockey East tourney title.

Still in the East, however, are HEA juggernauts New Hampshire, which lies in wait with a bye and the number-one seed, and Maine, which takes on Ohio State, one of four CCHA teams in this year’s championship.

The other first-round game matches Western tourney champions, as CCHA titlist Michigan opposes WCHA champ Denver. Will Massachusetts fans turn out to see two teams from faraway lands (in college hockey parlance, at least) battle it out? The tournament selection committee apparently wasn’t concerned, even though that means only one Eastern team will take the ice Friday in Worcester.

In the quarterfinals, UNH will take on the Denver-Michigan winner, while ECAC regular-season and tournament champion Clarkson — arguably the sharpest team in the nation over the second half of the season — pairs off with either Maine or OSU for the right to advance to the newly-nicknamed Frozen Four, which, incongruously, takes place in sunny Anaheim, Calif., this year.

(Numbers preceding team names are East Regional seeds.)

First Round
No. 3 Maine (27-6-4) vs. No. 6 Ohio State (21-15-4)
Friday, 5 pm ET, Centrum Centre, Worcester, Mass.

Maine Black Bears

Maine saw its hopes for a 10th trip to the Hockey East title game in the last 13 years go down the drain when the Black Bears fell to Boston College in the semifinals, 3-2.

“That was a bitterly disappointing loss,” says coach Shawn Walsh, whose team lost two of three video replay rulings. “It was a typical game of hockey — that’s a game of inches, and the inches didn’t go our way.”

While swallowing the bitter pill of the loss, Walsh also congratulates the league on its new attendance records for one night (14,278) and two (28,038).

“What a great tribute to the development of the league!” he says. “It was an electric atmosphere both nights and Hockey East took another step forward. Our commissioner [Joe Bertagna] deserves high marks. In general, it was a great weekend for our league.”

As for what his team can take out of the weekend, Walsh says, “What you have to do is take a step back emotionally from it when you’re coaching and say, ‘What can we do better next week?'”

For starters, Walsh will be hoping to cure the team’s power-play blues. Over the last six games, the Black Bears have scored only two goals in 36 manpower advantages. That proved decisive against BC when Maine went 1-for-7 while the Eagles went 2-for-4.

Nervous Maine-iacs are also concerned about the bigger picture, of only four wins in the last eight games. While this may be the Black Bears’ low-water mark for momentum, they still won nine straight games prior to those eight. And all but the oldest of the four losses came at the hands of either #2 UNH or #5 BC.

Not great signs, but not reasons to skip the trek down Route 95 either. Especially since Ohio State has only three wins (all over Ferris State) in its last eight games. One suspects that Maine’s four losses will seem like ancient history if Maine knocks off the Buckeyes in the first round and heads into a second-round clash against Clarkson with some momentum.

First things first, however. The Buckeyes are a talented team that features the CCHA’s top goaltender, Jeff Maund (2.29 GAA, .922 SV%) and one of its top forwards, Hugo Boisvert (24-27–51).

“They clearly are a team that supports their goaltender and plays off him, and has good, quick offensive talent,” says Walsh. “In their last 17 games, they’ve only given up more than three goals once. That, in itself, tells you it’s going to be a dogfight.

“I think they’ve improved their speed from a year ago and they have Final Four experience.”

Speaking of experience, there isn’t a single player on the Maine squad with any NCAA tournament experience.

“I don’t think that’ll be a big factor,” says Walsh. “Our coaches have been through enough. [Assistant coach] Grant [Standbrook] has five national championship rings as an assistant. I have one as a head coach. We can handle that. I’m not worried about that.”

If the Black Bears can advance, they’ll face a rested Clarkson team that won the ECAC regular season and tournament and is 18-1 since completing its nonconference schedule in early January.

“They got better as the season went along,” says Walsh. “They seem to have bought into their system. You’ve got to give [coach] Mark [Morris] a lot of credit for how he’s turned it around.”

For Western fans, here’s a snapshot of the Black Bears. Their top line includes Hobey Baker finalist Steve Kariya (23-34–57), Cory Larose (20-26–46) and freshman Barrett Heisten (12-13–25). Their offensive depth is impressive with Dan Kerluke (22-16–38) the top gun on the second line and Marcus Gustafsson (10-16–26) on the checking unit.

David Cullen (10-28–38) is an All-America candidate on the blue line and Maine has been one of the better defensive teams in Hockey East (2.33 goals against per game) while featuring three freshman on defense: Peter Metcalf, Doug Janik and Ed Wood.

Alfie Michaud (2.41 GAA, .904 SV%) has put the inconsistency of his freshman and sophomore seasons behind him this year and become, in this writer’s opinion, one of the league’s top four goaltenders.

“We’ve been looking for this week all year,” says Walsh. “We’re looking forward to taking part in the tournament and are hopeful that some of the breaks we didn’t get last weekend might go our way this weekend.”

Ohio State Buckeyes

When the NCAA Selection Show aired Sunday, Mar. 21, the Buckeyes just shook their heads at the amount of attention paid them. Other than the mention of the bracket and pairing with Maine, not one word was said about Ohio State.

“Typical,” said captain Dan Cousineau.

It is the kind of thing the Buckeyes have come to expect. When OSU made it to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history last year, ESPN featured Yale, which was making its second appearance. During the tournament banquet in Boston last year, the MC quipped that Ohio State “is a good football school.”

The perceived lack of respect is something that motivates this Ohio State hockey team.

“The selection show is going to help our team,” says sophomore goaltender Jeff Maund. “It may seem kind of silly, but when people talk about Ohio State being the last team in…a lot of guys realize we’re still not getting a lot of respect.”

“I really like our draw,” says Cousineau. “If they want to give us the six seed, we’ll take it. I don’t think it bothers any of us. You’ve got the 12 best teams in the country, and as far as seeding goes, it doesn’t really matter.”

In fairness to the perception at large, the Buckeyes did limp into the playoffs, losing four of their final six regular-season games. After sweeping Ferris State at home, Ohio State lost to Michigan 3-2 in a tough CCHA semifinal game.

The Bucks are led by Hobey Baker candidate Hugo Boisvert (24-27–51), who is flanked by fellow Quebecois Eric Meloche (11-15–26) and Jean-Francois Dufour (9-15–24). This line is good, and the Boisvert-Meloche combo is deadly when it clicks. Boisvert has great hands and tremendous hockey sense; Meloche, who has played injured all season, is the team’s top sparkplug, fearless and with a great shot from the right wing.

The second line of seniors Chris Richards (9-27–36), flanked by Dan Cousineau (6-4–10) and Neal Rech (6-3–9). The role of this line is primarily defensive, but Richards and Boisvert play well together on the power play, and Richards and Rech kills penalties very effectively. Look for Richards and Rech to break away at least once during the game — maybe even shorthanded — but don’t hold your breath waiting for the lamp to light.

The OSU defense is better than most people realize, but it allows a lot of shots on goal, and it’s playing very banged up. Ryan Jestadt (9-3–12) and Andre Signoretti (3-21–24) are both offensive threats, and each is a very good defender. Ryan Skaleski (2-0–2, +3) may not have numbers that set the world on fire, but he’s a great stay-at-home defenseman.

Given the number of shots on goal he’s faced–he’s made over 1,000 saves–Jeff Maund’s numbers in net are even more impressive. With a 2.29 overall GAA and a .922 save percentage, Maund calls playoff hockey “better than Christmas.” In three postseason games, Maund has posted a 2.02 GAA and a .930 SV%.

When the Buckeye power play clicks, it’s fast, successful 17.6 percent of the time. For a while during midseason, the Ohio State PK was phenomenal, but now it kills off penalties at the more earthly rate of about 87 percent.

“I really like the bracket we’re in, and hopefully I can say that after Friday night,” says head coach John Markell. “It’s a great chance to play against a team that I think is going to play a lot like Michigan — maybe not have the size of Michigan, but the quickness. We’ll most definitely have to shut down Kariya, but they’ll have to shut down Boisvert.

“We have a lot of guys playing at the top of their game right now. We can’t play any better than we did against Michigan. We just got thwarted by a two-inch piece of steel.”

Boisvert says that he can’t comment on the Hobey Baker candidate matchup between himself and Steve Kariya because “I don’t know that much about him.” He adds, “I see it more as my team against his team. I’m probably not even going to play against him, line-wise.”

Cousineau has said repeatedly this season that this Buckeye team does not feel as though it accomplished anything real last season, having made tournament appearances but come home with no hardware. That’s the kind of thing that motivates the team, he says — that, and proving that last year was the rule, not the exception.

“We want to repeat our success and improve on it,” says Cousineau. “It certainly goes a ways to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke. You have to win a lot of games to make it to the tournament.”

And the consensus among Buckeye players is that last year’s experience can only help in Worcester. “We know it’s going to take a disciplined game,” says Maund, “and I think it’s good for the guys that we were there last year.

Boisvert adds, “We won’t be as nervous, that’s for sure. We know to be calm.”

Picks

Paula C. Weston: No one should count out the Buckeyes. They may have limped into the playoffs, but Jeff Maund is on this time of year, and this one will be close. All-CCHA Frozen Four!

…and then she woke up.

All right. Ohio State has trouble with Hockey East. After losing to BC in Boston last year, the Buckeyes lost again to Boston College in the Ice Breaker, then to Boston University at the Mariucci Classic. Perhaps it won’t matter that the Black Bears are from Maine, but the fact remains that the Buckeyes have trouble with that kind of speedy, aggressively offensive game. If OSU plays its game and dictates the pace of the game, the Buckeyes will win. More than likely, however, Maine will control this one. But it will be close. Maine, 4-3.

Scott Brown: Motivation might be in the Buckeyes’ favor, but most everything else plays toward the Black Bears, including the venue. Maine, 5-3

Dave Hendrickson: Maine wins, 3-2.

Becky Blaeser/Jayson Moy: In the battle of Hobey Baker finalists, it will not be Kariya and Boisvert who make the difference. The second and third lines do the trick, taking the Bears to Saturday night. Maine 4, OSU 3

Todd D. Milewski: Maine over Ohio State, 5-1.

First Round
No. 4 Denver (26-12-2) vs. No. 5 Michigan (24-12-6)
Friday, 8:30 pm ET, Centrum Centre, Worcester, Mass.

Denver Pioneers

If you had told George Gwozdecky at Christmas that his Denver Pioneers would end up as a fourth seed in the NCAA tournament, what would he have said?

“I would have said it was going to be a stretch,” said Gwozdecky, whose team entered the break with a 7-7 record. “I think we have the kind of team that could do it, but at that point [it] would have been not really very realistic considering where we were at. But I always believed that we had a good team but we just had not been able to put it together. Since that point, we’ve gelled and played a lot better and, as a result, find ourselves in this position.”

Since Christmas, the Pioneers are 19-5-2 overall and enter the NCAA tournament as the nation’s hottest team, having won their last nine games. That’s quite a turnaround from last season: a 14-game turnaround from last season’s 11-25-2 finish, to be exact.

And while DU didn’t even get close to the Final Five last season, the Pioneers won it this year, defeating No. 1 North Dakota to do so. Some might say it’s about time the Pioneers beat the Sioux, considering the fight they had put up in the four previous games, only to lose each.

“I thought we did some things much better defensively than we have in the previous games we played against them,” Gwozdecky said. “We’ve been doing that pretty well over our last eight, nine, 10 games.”

Here are some possible causes for the change in fortunes for Denver:

  • Goaltender Stephen Wagner. Despite allowing two goals early against Colorado College on Friday in the semifinal, he shook it off and held off UND to be named the tournament’s most valuable player. A hot goaltender can take you places in the postseason.

    • “I would like to think Steve is going to continue where he left off last weekend,” Gwozdecky said. “He didn’t start off real strong in that first period against CC, but his following five periods were real good. As usually happens, the team that has the best goaltending is going to win in these types of one-game tournaments.”

  • A rejuvenated power play. After leading the nation with the man advantage at one point late in the season, DU cooled, scoring only one goal in the six games before the championship tilt. But the Pioneers went 2-for-2 against UND and held the Sioux scoreless on the power play.

    • Gwozdecky couldn’t help but be pleased with the draw his team received.

    “I would have taken either one, but there’s no question I’m pleased with our bracket,” said Gwozdecky, whose team is the fourth seed in the East Regional, and will take on Michigan on Friday.

    “I’m pleased with the idea that we get to start the weekend on a Friday as opposed to a Saturday. With the ice surface as it is, we are much more comfortable with this ice surface (dimensions 200×85) than on an ice surface the size of Dane County Coliseum (200×97).”

    Many are looking at the DU-Michigan matchup because it should prove to be a tight game. But some others will be watching for another reason.

    It’s the long-awaited faceoff of the Comrie brothers — DU sniper Paul, the older of the two, and Michigan’s Mike, the CCHA Rookie of the Year.

    “I think a lot of people are speculating on the matchup between the Comrie brothers, their top line vs. our top line,” Gwozdecky said. “It’s been quite a bit of interest, whether they’re going to get matched up together or not. I think both would like to play against each other, and we’ll see what happens.”

    Gwozdecky, of course, has the last line change, so he’ll be the one that will decide what happens. He related Michigan to other teams he has already seen.

    “They remind me a lot of North Dakota or CC,” Gwozdecky said. “They’re a great skating team and a great transition team. They might not have the experienced scorers or the number of snipers that North Dakota has, but they have a lot that reminds me of that team.”

    Michigan Wolverines

    After getting past Ohio State 3-2 in the CCHA Semifinals — a win that head coach Red Berenson said the Wolverines were “lucky” to have — Michigan blew by Northern Michigan 5-1 in the CCHA title game.

    “Had it not been for the third period on Friday, we don’t know if we would be playing,” says Berenson. “That period could have been a pivotal period in our season. We’re glad we are in the NCAAs. We are not worried about where we’re playing or whom we’re playing.”

    The third period in question was a doozy, one in which the Buckeyes outshot the Wolverines 16-6 and managed to hit at least four posts. As Mark Kosick said afterwards, the game had the intensity of an NCAA championship game — so the Wolverines, no stranger to such things, are ready.

    Michigan has been a bit of an enigma this season, coming on strong toward the middle of the season, then slumping through an eight-game winless streak in late January and early February. Gone are Marty Turco, Bill Muckalt, Matt Herr — and the fabled Michigan Nine, a class that included Hobey Baker winner Brendan Morrison.

    But this Michigan team has an asset that has often gone overlooked: its senior class. In the long and illustrious history of Michigan hockey, the Wolverines have won the CCHA Championship just four times — three times with this senior class. And this senior class has two national titles under its collective belt.

    In looking to repeat this season, the Wolverines hope to match the feat of the 1953 Wolverines, another senior class that left Ann Arbor with three national title rings.

    Bobby Hayes, Dale Rominski, Sean Ritchlin, Greg Crozier, Justin Clark, and Bubba Berenzweig provide the heart and soul of this Wolverine team. Berenson lauds Hayes (6-14–20) as the consummate role player, someone who does anything asked of him. Rominski (14-8–22) is a smart player with great hockey sense and good hands.

    Ritchlin (11-5–16) and Crozier (6-6–12) looked stunning on line together with sophomore Mark Kosick (12-21–33) during the CCHA playoffs. This hard-working combo produced results even-strength and on the power play.

    Justin Clark (4-2–6) is another grinder, a mainstay of Michigan’s fourth line.

    Bubba Berenzweig (7-24–31), always an offensive threat, has turned into a fine defender as well.

    The temperament of this Michigan team is both similar and dissimilar to last year’s championship squad. Without Muckalt, there really is no breakout player; these Wolverines are hard-working, hard-hitting, fast-skating, blue-collar hockey players.

    Rookie goalie Josh Blackburn (2.27 GAA, .905 SV%) is more than capable of making the big play. For a tall guy, he has surprising quickness, and on the nights when he’s on, the puck is as big as a beach ball.

    CCHA Rookie of the Year Mike Comrie (18-25–43) led the team in scoring, followed by underrated sophomore Josh Langfeld (21-14–35), Kosick, Berenzweig, and defenseman Mike Van Ryn (10-13–23).

    Their numbers may not necessarily show this, but the Wolverines can score from anywhere. The quick Michigan power play converts at about 18 percent, but the Michigan penalty kill is vulnerable, successful only about 85 percent of the time.

    This Michigan squad has 16 members with NCAA tournament experience, and this is Michigan’s ninth consecutive tournament appearance.

    Senior Bobby Hayes says that the Wolverines are “excited about going out east and taking on Denver. However, we are kind of reserved. We really don’t want to show our emotions because we know there are some bigger prizes down the road.

    “[Denver is] one of the best teams in college hockey right now. It’s just going to be a challenge for us. We’ll go out and play a hard game and see what happens in the end.”

    Says Comrie, “I think we know what to expect. They [Denver] have a pretty good team, but I think if we play well, it will work for us.”

    Comrie will play against his brother, Paul, for the first time ever when the Wolverines meet the Pioneers Friday. The Denver Comrie captains the Pioneers, and led Denver in scoring this season (18-31–49). “It’s definitely going to be interesting,” says Mike. “He’s an offensive threat, fast and a good player.”

    Picks

    Todd D. Milewski: Denver over Michigan, 5-3

    Paula C. Weston: While the Wolverines no longer have Marty Turco and Bill Muckalt in their corner, they do have a senior class that has won three of Michigan’s four CCHA championships, and two national titles. If Josh Blackburn is on his game and this Michigan team is focused, New Hampshire will have to get through Anaheim by way of Ann Arbor. Michigan, 4-2

    Dave Hendrickson: Michigan, 4-3

    Becky Blaeser/Jayson Moy: Always go with the hot team, that’s what they say. Hey, which one of these teams is hotter? Hard to say, but the gut is to go with the Pioneers, who made a strong showing in Worcester two years ago, but fell to BU. Denver 4, Michigan 2

    Scott Brown: The Wolverines had a rough stretch at the tail end of the regular season, but they seem to have recovered. Tournament experience tells the tale. Michigan, 4-3

    Quarterfinal
    No. 2 Clarkson (25-10-1) vs. Maine/Ohio State
    Saturday, 5 p.m. ET, Centrum Centre, Worcester, Mass.

    Clarkson Golden Knights

    Clarkson is no stranger to the NCAA tournament. The Golden Knights have been there three straight years, but have been unable to advance to the semifinals in each of those years.

    This year the Golden Knights reached the NCAA tournament once again, and received a bye due to their double — winning both the ECAC regular-season championship and the tournament title. The Knights were the only team able to accomplish that feat this season in Division I.

    The Knights didn’t have it easy, though, as they won one-goal games both nights on the ice in Lake Placid.

    Friday night, the Golden Knights held a 4-0 lead after one period of play against Princeton and survived a tremendous comeback by the Tigers when Willie Mitchell scored with just 2.6 seconds remaining in the game on a 70-foot shot from the neutral zone.

    “It was bizarre,” said Clarkson head coach Mark Morris. “You can’t even imagine the emotions that we went through. We went from the first period playing real solid hockey to mediocrity in the second period when we really lost our focus. We sputtered on in from there.

    “Thank god for Willie’s goal.”

    Mitchell’s goal put the Knights in the championship game against North Country rival and fellow NCAA tournament participant St. Lawrence. The Knights led 1-0, but then fell behind 2-1 before Erik Cole tied things up in the second and captain Ben Maidment put the winning goal in the net in the third period to give the Knights their fourth ECAC championship and first since 1993, 3-2.

    “It’s nice to finally get over the hump,” said Morris. “We’ve been in that position before where we watched the other team celebrate. It was nice to win it for the seniors and the fans.”

    With the win, the bye was in hand. The Knights will play Saturday in Worcester as the two seed in the East.

    “We’re going to soak it all in for the next two days because we have a lot of work to do,” said Cole.

    The Knights will draw the winner of the Maine-Ohio State game on Saturday in Worcester, a change of opponents from the last two seasons. In each of those, the Knights were eliminated by the Colorado College Tigers in the regionals.

    “We have such a great conference, but we have to show that we can do it on a national level,” said Morris. “We played a tough schedule in the beginning of the year with the hope that we could get another crack at the NCAAs.”

    The Knights did play a tough schedule at the beginning of the season, taking on North Dakota and Northern Michigan, both NCAA participants, twice each. The Knights have also played St. Lawrence three times and New Hampshire once.

    Picks

    Becky Blaeser/Jayson Moy: Clarkson has played close games and tough competition. The Knights are ready to make the move to Anaheim. Clarkson 4, Maine 3, or Clarkson 5, Ohio State 2

    Todd D. Milewski: Maine over Clarkson, 2-1

    Paula C. Weston: Clarkson plays a patient, defensive game — just like the Buckeyes. If Maine gets past OSU, don’t expect the Black Bears to stop until they get to Disneyland. Maine, 4-2

    Dave Hendrickson: Maine sends Clarkson packing, 4-2. (If Ohio State beat Maine, then Clarkson, 4-2.)

    Scott Brown: Maine has been near the top of the polls all year. There’s a good reason why, though Clarkson makes it an epic battle. Maine, 3-2 (OT)

    QuarterfinalNo. 1 New Hampshire (29-6-3) vs. Denver/Michigan
    Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET, Centrum Centre, Worcester, Mass.

    New Hampshire Wildcats

    New Hampshire came up one overtime short of taking its first-ever Hockey East tournament, which would have given the Wildcats a sweep of the league regular season and playoffs. They defeated Providence, 6-2, in the semifinal game, but lost to Boston College in the title game, 5-4 in overtime, after rallying from a 4-1 deficit.

    “Obviously, we’re disappointed that we didn’t play well,” says coach Dick Umile. “But it wasn’t from lack of character. [We] came back, tied it up, and it was a great college hockey game and a great atmosphere.

    “I told the team that now we play in the NCAA tournament and then we go after the big trophy.”

    Most projections had UNH potentially facing Boston College in a Worcester rematch of the Hockey East title game, but instead the Wildcats will be facing one of two Western teams.

    “It’s a very difficult position that the selection committee is in every year,” says Umile. “It was tough to see BC go out West, and I’m sure that some of the Western teams [feel the same way] about coming out East.

    “But you do try to keep conferences not playing each other. That is a priority. But sometimes it’s difficult to do that and you’ve got to move people around to try to avoid that.

    “I’d just as soon play someone that we haven’t played, to be quite honest. I like the fact that we’re going to play a Western team. Let’s play someone that we don’t normally see.”

    This represents New Hampshire’s sixth invitation to the NCAA tournament since it expanded in 1988 to 12 teams, but is the Wildcats’ first time as a bye team. Even though only one bye team advanced last season, 17 of 20 teams with the advantage continued to the Final Four the previous five years.

    “I’ve got to believe it’s a factor,” says Umile. “I said it before when we didn’t have it, so I’m not going to turn around now and say that it isn’t. When you don’t have the bye, you have to win two games to get there. If somebody got hurt the night before, you don’t have that person the next night. For us, this is a one game, one shot deal to get to the Final Four.”

    One candidate for the Saturday night second-round contest is Denver, fresh off a WCHA tournament championship and a nine-game winning streak.

    “We played them in January — [Denver won, 4-2] — and I know [coach] George Gwozdecky,” says Umile. “His teams are always well-coached. His teams play well. Right now, they’re one of the top teams in the country as far as playing with confidence.”

    Alternatively, UNH could be facing the defending national champion Michigan Wolverines, a team loaded with playoff experience.

    “I think that’s why they turned around and won the CCHA tournament,” says Umile. “Michigan has a lot of tradition. They’ve been there. They’re the defending national champions.

    “And Denver just beat out North Dakota, the number-one team.

    “Everybody is good in this tournament. You’ve got to play well and do the little things well and play good defense and special teams. We need to play a 60-minute game this weekend.

    “We know enough about both of those teams at this point that we can concentrate on what we’re doing and still know what to expect from both teams.”

    New Hampshire will not only have the advantage of the bye, it should also benefit from a strong contingent of its well-traveled fans. Michigan and Denver posted 6-4-1 and 7-7-1 road records, respectively, so a crowd friendly to the Wildcats could go a long way to returning them to the Final Four.

    “There’s no question that UNH has become synonymous with great fan support,” says Umile. “At the Fleet Center, it was fabulous. Hockey East did a great job of promoting and marketing the tournament from the beginning and when we made it to the FleetCenter, a lot of our fans came to support us.

    “We’re not going to be close after this weekend. If we win this weekend, we’re going [to Anaheim] so hopefully the fans will come down and support us in this one game that could get us to the Final Four. They’ll be an important part.”

    And for Western fans looking for the skinny on the Wildcats, here’s a primer. For starters, they led Hockey East in offense (4.22 goals per game) and defense (2.19 goals per game).

    Jason Krog (32-47–79) leads the country in virtually all offensive categories and his linemates Mike Souza (19-39–58) and freshman Darren Haydar (29-26–55) are none too shabby either.

    For most of the season, UNH’s offense relied almost to a fault on the top line. Of late, however, Jason Shipulski (14-14–28) and John Sadowski (7-9–16) have stepped up their play.

    Jayme Filipowicz and Steve O’Brien are a great defensive pairing in front of top goaltender Ty Conklin (1.78 GAA, .923 SV%).

    Picks

    Becky Blaeser/Jayson Moy: Let’s see, the Pioneers have knocked off North Dakota, Michigan and UNH this year. Maybe they should be renamed the Giant Killers. Then again, the Pioneers are giants themselves. Against Krog and company, they will need everything going on all cylinders, but the name fits. Denver 5, UNH 4

    Dave Hendrickson: No contest. UNH, 5-2

    Scott Brown: The Wildcats’ offense looks to be the stronger of the two, and that’s where this one is decided. New Hampshire, 4-2

    Paula C. Weston: It can happen. Michigan 4, New Hampshire 3

    Todd D. Milewski: UNH over Denver, 3-2

    Unsung

    By
    -

    Teams that reach the NCAA tournament almost always have their game-breaking stars: the top scorers, the all-league selections, perhaps even All-Americans.

    But sometimes in the march to a national title, the game-breakers get stymied and the unsung players get their chances to be heroes.

    While Maine’s stars were hardly stymied in its 4-2 win over Ohio State, the Black Bears still received key contributions from players who aren’t atop the limelight totem pole.

    Bobby Stewart

    Bobby Stewart could have stayed at Alaska-Anchorage and been a go-to player. Instead, convinced that he was on a team that at the time was going nowhere, he transferred to Maine, where as a senior he skates not on the first line but on the checking unit.

    That didn’t stop him from scoring the first goal of the game against Ohio State, however, while also shutting out OSU’s top line.

    “Our line was matched up almost all night with the Hugo [Boisvert] line,” he said. “I think we did a pretty good job against a really good player. I hadn’t played against him before tonight, but now I know why he’s a Hobey Baker candidate. He controls a lot of the pace of the game.

    “But we…didn’t let him make the neutral-zone transition that would give them two-on-ones or three-on-twos.”

    Adding a goal of his own was icing on the cake.

    “The thing is that when you’re a defensive player and you play games like this and you play against the top lines, you also get chances to score because they might not be as good defensively as you are so you can get offensive opportunities,” he said. “Luckily, I scored.”

    Doug Janik

    In this writer’s eyes, Doug Janik is one of the best defensive defensemen to come into Hockey East in some time. He played with Team USA in the World Junior Tournament during the holiday season, and his absence on the Black Bear blue line at the time was felt. He’s also shown a surprisingly deft offensive touch, scoring three goals and adding 13 assists.

    His omission from the league’s all-rookie team was surprising, but only until one remembers that defense rarely equates to postseason recognition.

    Against Ohio State, Janik supplied both the consistent defense and a nice offensive play on a two-on-one, albeit one in which he shot wide.

    “Janik played great defense,” said coach Shawn Walsh at the first mention of unsung heroes. “He had poise [on the two-on-one] and just snapped it wide. How many freshman D can play like that?”

    Marcus Gustafsson

    For most of the season, Marcus Gustafsson has played on Maine’s third line, providing 10 goals and 15 assists. On this night, however, Walsh moved Gustafsson to the Black Bears’ top unit with Steve Kariya and Cory Larose.

    “We played together for almost a month during Christmas,” he said. “We have great chemistry. I think we kind of click together.”

    They clicked with two third-period goals against Ohio State, Gustafsson scoring one of the biggest ones of the game to stretch Maine’s lead to 3-1.

    As a new first-liner and former third-liner, Gustafsson made sure to point out the contributions of his teammates.

    “We don’t just rely on the top line,” he said, noting that the second and third units scored Maine’s first two goals. “That’s what makes us so good because we have four lines that can do damage. Tonight everybody contributed.

    “That’s what you need. That’s what wins championships.”

    Alfie Michaud

    Alfie Michaud could be the prime “I don’t get no respect” player on the Black Bears. He posted a 2.41 GAA and a .904 save percentage, but inexplicably didn’t rate as even an honorable mention when All-Hockey East honors were announced.

    Perhaps that raised the stakes just a trifle more for him as Maine took on Ohio State’s All-CCHA netminder, Jeff Maund.

    “I was really looking forward to it and I’m sure that he was too,” said Michaud. “You get up to play great goaltenders. You just have to go out there and do what you have to do to get a W.”

    While Maund had by far the tougher chances, Michaud faced the age-old problem of staying sharp while the quality chances came few and far between.

    “I just tell myself to be focused and wait for the next shot,” he said. “I play hockey games second by second. I don’t worry about minutes. I don’t worry about periods. I just know that there are 3600 seconds in a hockey game and that’s how I approach it, second by second. You have to be focused every single second of the whole game.”

    While Michaud might have felt that he could have even turned in a shutout, he still made the big saves that the team needed. In particular, he stoned one of OSU’s top offensive stars, Eric Meloche, in the first minute of the second period with the score still 2-1. It was one of those key plays that games hinge on.

    “He was solid,” said Walsh. “He makes saves look easy. He’s really on his angles and he made a couple big ones.”

    Wisconsin Athletics Handed Two Years’ Probation

    USCHO Staff Report
    -

    The NCAA Wednesday placed the University of Wisconsin’s athletic programs on two years’ probation, mostly for violations in the use of booster club money by various staff members.

    According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 77 UW staffers received reimbursements from booster club accounts without proper authorization from the chancellor’s office. The payments themselves were for legitimate uses, so the penalties stem entirely from the lack of proper prior approval.

    Head football coach Barry Alvarez and athletic director Pat Richter were specifically named in the report, both for making commercial endorsements without approval. In apparently the lone hockey connection, an unnamed member of the sports information department was cited for accepting $1,600 from the Blue Line Club for editing hockey game programs.

    The penalties, which were described as “light,” do not involve reductions in scholarships or other restrictions on the Wisconsin athletic department’s ability to recruit and compete.

    Field Set For Second Women’s Championship

    USCHO Staff Report
    -

    The four qualifiers for the second-ever American Women’s College Hockey Alliance national championship have been announced, as defending champion New Hampshire, ECAC champion and top-ranked Harvard, host Minnesota and Brown will battle Friday and Saturday at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis.

    Harvard (31-1-0), the top seed, faces No. 4-seeded Brown (20-5-4) at 5 p.m. CT Friday in the first semifinal, while New Hampshire (22-6-5), in the second position, takes on third-slotted Minnesota (27-3-3) at 8 p.m.

    The semifinal losers will play for third place Saturday at 4 p.m., and the championship game is scheduled to face off at 7 p.m.

    Tickets for the event are $10 for both games either day or $15 for the tournament, and can be purchased through the Minnesota ticket office by calling (612) 624-8080 or 1-800-U-GOPHER.

    The Boys On The Bubble

    By
    -

    This weekend, three CCHA teams lived life on the bubble–and one was hoping that its hadn’t burst.

    The only team heading into the CCHA semifinals with a guaranteed NCAA berth was the Michigan State University Spartans, winner of the regular-season CCHA championship.

    Michigan, Ohio State, and Northern Michigan were the undecided cusp teams. Northern Michigan improved its chances dramatically with a 5-3 semifinal win over the Spartans, and Michigan likewise with its 3-2 win over OSU. The winner of the tournament gets a bid outright, but the Buckeyes were still holding out hope Friday night.

    And, according to Spartan head coach Ron Mason, they should, as should Michigan, Northern Michigan–and Notre Dame.

    “Why not five?” asked Mason after the Spartans lost to Northern Michigan. “When it comes right down to it, why doesn’t Notre Dame go as well?

    “This is a very difficult conference. I’ve said that all along. It’s a very physical conference, and it’s very tough on guys like Mike York who have no room. That’s what makes our league so good. I just feel that you can take five teams from our conference, and that would be fine.”

    Mason has been the most vocal proponent of sending all four CCHA finalists to the NCAA tournament. During the CCHA teleconference preceding the tourney weekend, Mason was adamant about the inclusion of at least four CCHA teams–and the exclusion of MAAC teams like Quinnipiac.

    “Our third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-place teams in the league–their RPIs are never very good, because we’re beating up on each other,” said Mason.

    “It would be just a travesty if they [Michigan, Ohio State and Northern] didn’t go. If one team doesn’t get in, I think we have to reevaluate the system because all four of these teams deserve to get in.

    “There has to be some sort of designation within the league, because maybe there is a stronger league, and if they are they shouldn’t be punished for being stronger.”

    After his team’s win over the top-seeded Spartans, Northern Michigan head coach Rick Comley said that the Wildcats were definitely thinking about the outcome of the semifinal game against Michigan State in NCAA terms.

    “Last year we were close, but not as close as this year. You don’t even know if this win can make it that way. It really depends on what happens in the three other leagues. As long as a one or two seed wins in the other leagues, we’ve really improved our chances to get in.”

    After losing to the Wolverines, Buckeye head coach John Markell remained hesitantly optimistic about his team’s chances to make the tournament.

    “Well, there were no upsets. Obviously, Northern and Michigan will probably jump ahead of us. I think we’ll be in 13th or so in the RPI, and nobody will jump ahead of us there. I think it’ll probably be the committee’s choice to pick Quinnipiac or us, based on strength of schedule.”

    Markell himself asked if it would be “fair” for Quinnipiac to get a bid. “I don’t think so, but that’s my feeling as the coach of Ohio State hockey. I think strength of schedule should justify who makes it.”

    Markell added that the Buckeye schedule, which was dictated by the mid-season opening of the new Schottenstein Center, also contributed to where Ohio State is now. “We played seven games on the road, nonconference, due to the fact that our new building wasn’t completed.” Ohio State was 1-5-1 in nonconference play.

    The only bubble coach unwilling to speculate about his team’s NCAA chances on Friday night was Michigan’s Red Berenson, who said he didn’t know what winning meant to the Wolverines, other than getting to the CCHA title game.

    “We have an opportunity to win the CCHA championship tomorrow night, and that’s the most important thing on our minds. I’ll leave the NCAA to someone else. I feel a lot better about our chances than I would have had we lost.

    While their coach may have seemed nonchalant about the Wolverines’ NCAA prospects, the Michigan players were certainly concerned about what a loss to Ohio State would do beyond this weekend.

    “We knew that if we lost this game tonight, we’d have less than a one percent chance of moving on this year,” said Mark Kosick.

    “It was a tough third period. It really felt like a national championship game or a final four game just because it had the same consequences if we lost. We’d be going home now, going back to Ann Arbor, and putting our gear away for the season.”

    As far as Wolverine Sean Ritchlin is concerned, the team that Michigan beat to get to the title game is deserving enough to play next week.

    “I think they showed tonight that they’re a really good team. Our league has been so competitive this year, up and down and throughout, and for them to come in third place is great. I think they should be in the tournament.”

    Nothing would make John Markell happier. “And if we play like we did tonight, I’ll be a happy man, because we’ll win more games than we lose.”

    USCHO Div. II-III Player of the Year Nominees Announced

    USCHO Staff Report
    -

    U.S. College Hockey Online is pleased to announce the finalists for the first annual USCHO Division II/III Player of the Year.

    Nominations were solicited from coaches and media, and ten finalists selected. A panel of coaches and media will select this year’s winner and a runner-up, to be announced at the conclusion of the NCAA D-III season.

    Here are the 1998-99 nominees:

    Steve Aronson, St. Thomas – The junior forward from Minnetonka, MN was recently named MIAC player of the year. Aronson, a 1997-98 first-team All- American, had 53 points overall and led the MIAC in scoring with 35 points.

    Keith Aucoin, Norwich – The Sophomore from Chelmsford, MA, has scored a whopping 66 points this season, and won the ECAC East scoring title with 39 points in 17 league games.

    Tracey Belanger, Plattsburgh – The SUNYAC Player of the Year led the league in scoring (33 points) and assists (22). The senior from Merrimack, NH had a total of 65 points (21 goals, 44 assists) on the season.

    Marc Bellemare, Norwich – The 1998-99 ECAC East Player of the Year has amassed 66 points on the season, and is third in the nation in goals and total points per game. The junior from Cornwall, Ont. Was named to the All-ECAC East team last year as well.

    Matt Garver, RIT – The transfer from RPI leads the Tigers in goal scoring with 27 to date. The senior from Rochester, NY, has seven goals in the post-season to date and was named MVP of the ECAC West Tournament.

    Ben Gorewich, Wis.-Stevens Point – The NCHA Player of the Year led the league in goals (16) and assists (22). The senior from Thornhill, Ont. had 63 points overall (24 goals, 39 assists).

    Rob Smillie, St. Norbert – The senior from Richmond, BC was named to the All-NCHA team for the second straight season. Smillie, was a first-team All-American last season, had a total of 51 points (22 goals, 29 assists).

    Pat Staerker, RIT – The ECAC West Player of the Year has 51 points to date (20 goals, 31 assists) and is a +50 for the season. The junior from Tonawonda, NY was a second-team All-American last season.

    Mike Szkodzinski, St. Norbert – A transfer from Ferris State, the Brighton, MI native led his league in GAA (1.88) and save percentage (.933) and was named to the All-NCHA team.

    Niklas Sundberg, Plattsburgh – The freshman from Stockholm, Sweden led the nation in GAA (1.28) and save percentage (.950). Sundberg was 10-2-1 in 16 appearances in his rookie campaign.

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