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His Turn At Last

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Sophomore forward Kirk Lamb first made a significant impression on Princeton head coach Don Cahoon following a big home win over Harvard in 1996.

Shortly after the final buzzer, Cahoon headed to the locker room to congratulate his players on a fine effort. A cacophony of celebration greeted Cahoon and assistant coach Len Quesnelle as they turned the corner from the goalie’s lounge into the main room.

There, to Cahoon’s amazement, was 18-year-old recruit Kirk Lamb in the center of the fray, slapping players on the back, congratulating them and beaming as if he had just netted a hat trick in the victory.

“That was the only time in my 25 years of college hockey that I can remember a recruit that came into the locker room after a game and participated in the revelry like that,” Cahoon said. “I remember turning to Len and saying ‘I want that kid in my locker room!'” It was a scene that Cahoon has witnessed time and time again in the Tigers’ past two seasons. Lamb has been the consummate teammate since matriculating to Princeton. His reward comes this Sunday, Dec. 20, when he finally pulls on the orange and black home jersey to join his teammates in pitched battle against the Northeastern Huskies. Lamb is finally eligible to compete for the Tigers after a one-year-plus-nine-game exile imposed by the NCAA.

Kirk Lamb has all the credentials of a top recruit. He was the leading scorer in the Alberta Junior Hockey League in 1996-97 and a first team all-star. He earned MVP honors for the Bonnyville Pontiacs one year after being named the club’s rookie of the year.

The skills that lifted Lamb to those honors were only just beginning to become evident in 1995, when the Calgary Hitmen recruited Lamb to play major junior hockey in the Western Hockey League.

“At the time, U.S. college hockey wasn’t really something heard of in my town,” said Lamb, a native of Cold Lake, Alb., located roughly 180 miles northeast of Edmonton. “I only knew of one kid who had gone to play hockey in the States. The Western Hockey League was where everyone wanted to be. I knew that playing for Calgary would affect my college eligibility, but I thought that I was good enough to play in the WHL.”

The Hitmen watched Lamb struggle through recovery from a leg injury for nine games before deciding that he should return to Tier II hockey at Bonnyville to play himself into shape. They promised to call him up after Christmas. Unfortunately for the Hitmen, Lamb only had coal for their stockings come December.

“The Hitmen did call me, but by that time I had seen college scouts talking to (Pontiacs and Princeton teammate) Darren Yopyk and could see more scouts in the stands,” said Lamb, then too young for in-person contact from coaches under the NCAA rules. ” I decided to wait until the end of the year to see if teams were interested in me.”

Lamb made an immediate impact for the Pontiacs. A player who was an afterthought to most coaches up until his midget season had become a go-to guy. Harvard, Yale, Wisconsin and Princeton took particular notice.

The next season was even more momentous. Lamb came into his own as an offensive force, netting 41 goals and adding 67 assists to pace the circuit. Some schools may have been put off by the fact that he was destined to sit out a year and nine games (one for each outing with the Hitmen), but not his most ardent suitors.

“If anything, the schools that talked to me told me that my (limited) eligibility wasn’t a problem unless I thought it was a problem,” Lamb said. “I think they wanted to be sure that I could deal with it.”

Ultimately, the Tigers won the recruiting war. Lamb made his campus visit during the Brown-Harvard weekend and stayed with then-sophomore Scott Bertoli. Ironically, Cahoon benched Bertoli for the Brown game on Friday night. The host and his recruit sat in the stands and watched as Princeton battled the Bears to a disappointing tie.

Bertoli was back in the lineup the next night. Harvard paid the price as he netted a pair of goals and two assists a 6-2 rout.

“I remember Kirk coming down into the locker room after the Harvard game and telling me ‘Great game, I don’t think you will be sitting out any more,'” Bertoli said. “It was like he was one of the guys. He has been like that ever since. He goes out his way to talk to people between periods and after games. He’s a jokester; everybody on the team really gets along with him.”

Lamb’s quick wit and gregarious nature quickly endeared him to his new teammates in the fall of 1997. While his classmates, including forwards Shane Campbell, Chris Corrinet and Ethan Doyle, set about battling for regular spots in the lineup, however, Lamb had to find other motivation.

“The first couple of months were all right,” said Lamb. “I was busy with schoolwork, working out. I thought everything would be fine. It started to get a little monotonous around November. I hadn’t played a game in eight months, I was away from home for the first time and I knew I had over a year left before I could play.”

Some players are unable to cope with fifth-line status. Lamb, whose teammates say has as good a pair of hands as anyone on the roster, was skating with little-used extra forwards Chris Patrick and Alan Riley. The trio never practiced on the power play and only saw penalty-killing duty when regular penalty-killers were unavailable. Rather than focus on preparing for any given opponent, Lamb worked on the individual aspects of his game.

He logged extra ice time before and after practice, working on his shot and skating. He came down to the rink on weekends when the team was on the road to fire pucks at goaltending hobbyist Matt Conte, a member of the rink crew.

“I felt more left out on the ice than off it,” Lamb said. “I did not go on a lot of road trips because I didn’t think I wanted to get on a bus for five hours and watch two more games. But off the ice, I always felt like I was part of the team.”

Junior forward Benoit Morin is the only Princeton skater who could really empathize with Lamb’s plight. Morin lost a year of collegiate eligibility after playing three major junior exhibition games in 1994 for the Shawinigan Cataracts. Not surprisingly, Morin and Lamb have become good friends.

“It is never easy to be in a situation where you have to sit out,” Morin said. “There were some days where (Kirk) looked a little depressed, but, in general, he did a good job focusing on the things that he needed to do to improve.”

The Tigers finished the 1997-98 season with a flourish and Lamb was there to witness it all. He joined his teammates on the ice after the ECAC tournament championship win over Clarkson to receive his commemorative watch, then joined his buddies for a post-game celebration in downtown Lake Placid. He also flew out to Ann Arbor for the Tigers’ NCAA date with the University of Michigan.

When the team banquet rolled around in April, the good-natured Lamb continued playing the role of loyal teammate. He and assistant coach Mark Dennehy worked until the last minute on a highlight video from the season. Once at the banquet, Lamb and Campbell provided a moment of levity by slipping butter onto the shoe of an unsuspecting Patrick.

Lamb returned to campus this year knowing that the countdown was under 10. Surprisingly, he found it even harder to cope with the reduced wait.

“This has been the toughest three months of them all,” Lamb said. “Last year, I didn’t really mind watching the playoffs and the spring just sort of flew by. This year, practice was different. I didn’t have games to judge myself and I wasn’t really playing well in practice. I was the fourth guy on a line with Brad Meredith, Syl Apps and J.P. Acosta, because I was the only extra forward.”

His teammates, however, have attempted to repay Lamb’s enthusiastic support with their own efforts to pick up his spirits. Players ticked off the games one-by-one, culminating with a round of heartfelt congratulations after the conclusion of game number nine, against Yale.

“It will be nice for (Kirk) to finally get a chance to contribute,” said Apps, one of the team’s co-captains. “We have all been aware that Dec. 20 is when he will be able to play and especially aware of it in the last couple of games. Now he is set to go.”

Apps, the consummate competitor, marvels at the determination evidenced by Lamb in the last year and a half.

“I can only imagine what it was like for him,” the senior said. “You go through all those highs and lows. When you play hockey, you do it for the games. It has to be tough when you can’t even play.”

So what will the Tigers see from their newest forward? At worst, Lamb adds to the Tigers’ enviable depth at forward. The coaches are otherwise cautious, understandably not wanting to put any undue pressure on Lamb to perform.

“We hope that Kirk will step in the lineup and have a positive effect,” Cahoon said. “But there will be an adjustment period for him. It is doubtful that he will turn things upside down for us. Hopefully, he will grow into the player we think he is capable of being.”

Lamb’s skills — soft hands, ample game sense, a scorer’s mentality and strength on the puck — draw comparisons to Bertoli, whose averages better than a point per game. Lamb’s AJHL credentials put him in the same class as Michigan freshman Mike Comrie, Tiger graduate Casson Masters and Providence sniper Fernando Pisani. Lamb probably will not see time on one of the top two lines or on the power play initially, however. He also has to grow accustomed to the pace of games, which is rarely, if ever, replicated in practice.

“I think Kirk will be a real good player for us,” Bertoli said. “With the puck, he is unbelievable. He will score his share of goals and he is a great passer. He is similar to me in the respect that he likes to slow the game down and look for a play.”

Not surprisingly, Lamb is elated to contribute in any way that he can. He spent his first few days of eligibility practicing with senior Jason Given and Campbell. Suddenly hockey was fun again, and Cahoon observed that the Alberta native produced his best effort yet.

“I’d like to add offense to the team, but it doesn’t always work out that way,” said a pragmatic Lamb. “I think I can handle myself in our zone. Whatever coach thinks I should work on, I’ll do it.”

If nothing else, Lamb has learned through observation as the Tigers matched a school record for wins last year and raced out to a 7-1-1 start this season.

“You can never take a night off in this league,” Lamb observed. “You might not win every game, but you can’t have a failure to work hard be the reason. The minute you lose that effort, 7-1-1 turns into 7-10-1 pretty fast. Look at Halpern and Apps — they never take a night or a shift off. The same is true of (Yopyk).”

Lamb finally controls his own destiny. Whether he gets into the lineup is Cahoon’s call, but the 5-10, 190-pound forward knows that his effort in practice has meaning once again. He looks forward to a new perspective on the locker-room scene.

“The guys and coaches were great about it all along,” Lamb said. “They were all so understanding. There were times when I would come to the rink and I’d be moping, depressed. They never got on me for that. It made it a lot easier to get through.

“I can’t wait to win and know that I played a part and lose and know that it was in part my fault. I know it sounds strange to say that you look forward to losing, but that is what makes athletes tick — that feeling of responsibility that comes with being part of a team.”

Win or lose, on the scoresheet or merely an inconspicuous member of the lineup, you know what reaction to anticipate once Lamb steps off the ice at the end of his first few games. There will be plenty of back-slapping and good will flowing in the locker room.

Only this time Kirk Lamb will be on the receiving end.

PC’s Barto Leaves To Coach OSU Women’s Team

USCHO Staff Report
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Jackie Barto has left her post as women’s head coach at Providence to become head coach of the Ohio State program, which begins varsity play in 1999-2000. Barto has already assumed her new position with the Buckeyes.

At Providence, Barto led the Lady Friars to a 55-30-6 record in four years. A 1984 graduate of Providence with a degree in business management, Barto served as an assistant with the Friars for six years, and has been associated with three of Providence College’s six ECAC crowns — as a player (1983-84), assistant coach (1993-94) and head coach (1994-95). Barto also was previously the head coach of Providence’s highly successful field hockey program.

As a player, Barto was one of the most prolific scorers to play at Providence. Her 113 career goals rank third on the school’s all-time list, and she was also a standout field hockey and softball player, captaining all three sports as a senior. She was inducted into the Providence College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.

Currently a club team, the OSU women’s ice hockey team competes in events sanctioned by the Central Collegiate Women’s Hockey Association (CCWHA). In that league, Ohio State is the defending champion, having beaten Western Michigan in the finals last season.

Empire Sports Announces ECAC TV Package

USCHO Staff Report
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Empire Sports has announced an 11-date Game of the Week package of ECAC hockey telecasts for the second half of the 1998-99 season. “Destination Lake Placid” will feature eight regular-season games as well as coverage of the ECAC semifinals and championship.

The package will kick off with defending regular-season champion Yale playing host to Vermont at Ingalls Rink on Jan. 8 in a live broadcast. In the playoffs, Empire will show the first of two semifinal games from Lake Placid live on March 19. The second semifinal game will be shown on tape delay on March 20 at noon. March 20 will also feature a live broadcast of the championship game at 7 p.m.

“We are excited about our ECAC schedule this season. We will showcase some of the league’s top teams and also show some the conference’s most storied rivalries,” Empire director of operations Joe DelBaso said.

Games to be shown, with date of game, teams, date of broadcast (if different from date of game) and time of broadcast, are as follows:

Friday, January 8       Vermont at Yale (Live) 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, January 23    St. Lawrence at Clarkson (Tape delay-1/25) Noon
Friday, January 29      Colgate at Yale (Live*) 7:05 p.m.
Friday, February 5      Harvard at Union (Live**) 7:05 p.m.
Friday, February 12     Cornell at Vermont (Live) 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, February 20   Dartmouth at Rensselaer (Live) 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, February 27   Princeton at Dartmouth (Tape delay-3/5) Noon
Saturday, March 6       Teams to be announced (Live) 7:05 p.m.
Friday, March 19        Semifinal (Live) 4 p.m.
Friday, March 19        Semifinal (Tape delay-3/20) Noon
Saturday, March 20      Championship (Live) 7 p.m.

* will be seen live in non-NBA territory (tape delayed 2/1-12:00 p.m.)
** will be seen live in non-NBA territory (tape delayed 2/8-12:00 p.m.)

Princeton Forward Injured Fleeing From Police

USCHO Staff Report
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Senior Princeton forward Jason Given, 23, was injured early Friday morning after falling from a 10- to 15-foot ledge while fleeing police, the Daily Princetonian reported Friday.

According to the article, Given was fleeing after an altercation at Triumph Brewery, a local bar, during Senior Pub Night. The article states that Given was asked by the manager of the bar to leave after he entered an off-limits area around 11 p.m., and that Given then poured beer over the head of the manager, who called the police.

The manager told the paper that he just wanted the police to escort Given home without further incident. According to witnesses, as soon as Given saw police arriving he fled immediately, eventually falling face-first off a Firestone Library ledge while being pursued by a borough police officer.

As of 3 a.m., Given was still intoxicated and under observation at the Helene Fuld Medical Center in Trenton. He was expected to be released Friday morning.

Four Plattsburgh Skaters Afoul Of Law

USCHO Staff Report
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Tuesday, Plattsburgh players Michael Dauoust and Eric Wiedenbach were sentenced to jail time for a vandalism incident back in September.

Dauoust was given 10 days in jail and Weidenbach 30, according to WPTZ news. However, the sentences will be set aside providing that both receive alcohol evaluations and pay for the damages resulting from the offense.

Additionally, two other Plattsburgh players were arrested Tuesday on felony assault charges. L.A. Ross and Eric Siedel are due in court this week, and are suspended from the team pending the outcome.

Siedel was arrested with Weidenbach and Dauoust back in September, but apparently was not charged in that incident.

There has been no official word on the status of Dauoust and Weidenbach, although it was reported recently that both could be back in the lineup in January.

This Week in the WCHA: December 11, 1998

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With only two conference matchups remaining in the 1998 calendar year, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association still features the two top teams in the latest U.S. College Hockey Online Division I Poll. The Fighting Sioux of North Dakota claimed all 30 first-place votes after sweeping Denver on the road last weekend. Despite only splitting at home with St. Cloud State, Colorado College held on to the No. 2 spot.

But just because all but four teams are done with their WCHA schedules for quite a while doesn’t mean there’s no action to be had. After this weekend’s play, each team in the conference will have played 12 league games, and it will be easier to determine where they rank.

For instance, a glance at the standings shows North Dakota in second place, one point behind Colorado College. However, the Sioux have two games in hand, which will be recovered this weekend against Wisconsin in a rematch of the 1998 WCHA Final Five championship game. The Badgers are one point behind Minnesota in the race for third place, and have a chance to leapfrog the idle Gophers this weekend.

Obviously, there’s a lot of maneuvering to be done.

Alaska-Anchorage still has an opportunity to move into a tie for third in the conference, with two wins over Denver and a North Dakota sweep of Wisconsin this weekend. On the other hand, the Pioneers could be in sole possession of third at the close of December with a road sweep.

This weekend’s action also features four non-conference series: No. 2 Colorado College hosts Minnesota State-Mankato at the World Arena; Michigan Tech travels to Sault Ste. Marie for a pair with Central Collegiate Hockey Association foe Lake Superior State; St. Cloud State makes its first visit ever to Oxford, Oh., to take on the CCHA’s Miami; and Minnesota-Duluth hosts Eastern College Athletic Conference member Colgate.

By the way, in the next WCHA preview, look for the end-of-year conference awards to be dealt out for the most improved team, mid-season MVP, mid-season outstanding goaltender and team to watch in 1999. Send your nominations for these awards soon to [email protected], and they will be considered.

Wisconsin (5-6-2, 5-4-1 WCHA) at No. 1 North Dakota (10-1-1, 8-1-1 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35 CT, Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, N.D.

Look out for North Dakota when it’s on a roll. And right now, the Fighting Sioux are on a roll.

Coach Dean Blais’ team has swept each of its last two series, and both of those came on the road. The Sioux took care of St. Cloud State two weekends ago and downed Denver last Saturday and Sunday.

"Good teams in the league try to split on the road and we were fortunate enough to win all four," Blais said.

But when the Badgers and the Sioux square off, who knows what’s going to happen. The last time the teams met was Mar. 21, when Wisconsin skated off the Bradley Center ice with a 3-2 win over North Dakota and the Broadmoor Trophy emblematic of the WCHA playoff champion.

Take one step back from that, and look at the last weekend of last season. In Grand Forks, coach Jeff Sauer’s team took the second game of the series to clinch second place in the conference. So, you can never really tell what’s going to happen.

"We’ve played very well in Grand Forks," Sauer said. "I don’t think anybody’s intimidated about going to Grand Forks. They have a good hockey team and it’s going to be a tough series, but I think we look forward to games like this."

A key to those two Wisconsin victories was goaltender Graham Melanson. He was the goaltender of record in both UW wins over the Sioux last season, compiling a 3.00 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage in those two games.

Melanson has been the backbone of the Badger team so far this season, leading the conference in goals-against (1.91) and save percentage (.925). Yet he only has a 5-6-2 overall record this season, a record attributable to his team’s lack of scoring punch.

"It would make it a lot easier if we could score five or six goals in a game, take some pressure off," Sauer said. "Against a team like North Dakota, you know statistically they’re going to get chances to score."

The Badgers are averaging 2.4 goals per game in the conference. And here’s the line that’s starting to sound like a broken record for UW: They still haven’t scored more than three goals in any game this season. You have to go all the way down to No. 19 in the WCHA scoring leaders list to find a Badger — Dustin Kuk, with two goals and eight assists.

"We’ve been working on trying to score goals from all angles — behind the net, in front of the net and under it if we can," Sauer said.

On the flip side, North Dakota averages 4.7 goals per game in the conference while allowing 3.1. The Sioux are 9-0-1 this season when holding opponents to four or fewer goals.

The reasons for that are twofold. One, the Sioux have received scoring from all the usual suspects — Jason Blake, Lee Goren, Adam Calder and others. Secondly, however, Blais admitted his defense has held up better than he imagined they would at the start of the season.

"When you have freshmen defensemen out there, they are going to make mistakes, but they’ve been pretty solid in their performance," Blais said. "In fact, for a while there, the returning forwards were not playing up to their capabilities, not the freshmen."

Injuries continue to plague the Badgers. Kevin Granato remains out, and is expected to stay out until after Christmas, with a leg injury. The games he will miss this weekend will be his ninth and 10th in a row. Senior defenseman Craig Anderson, a WCHA first-team member last season, is expected to be out for the remainder of the season after fracturing a vertebra.

UND goaltenders Karl Goehring and Andy Kollar are expected to share the netminding duties for a while. Blais said that situation can only help down the stretch.

"It helps you in not putting all the pressure on one guy," Blais said. "You get more tired in practice so sometimes you can’t concentrate in games as the season goes on."

Picks: Going into Grand Forks with the Sioux on such a tear is quite a challenge for Sauer’s Badgers. This series might make or break his team. If they can come out with a split, they will remain in an acceptable position at the end of the year. If not, they could fall out of the top five. My gut instinct tells me to pick a split, but North Dakota is too good just to split at home. Long live the tie! UND 5-3, tie 3-3

Denver (7-5, 5-5 WCHA) at Alaska-Anchorage (6-8-2, 3-5-2 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35 AT, Sullivan Arena, Anchorage, Alaska

Looking at records in this series may be misleading. After storming out to a great start, Denver’s fire has been cooled recently, especially after a home sweep last weekend at the hands of North Dakota. Anchorage, on the other hand, is 4-1-2 in its last seven games, the best seven-game stretch in the Dean Talafous era.

The Seawolves are also fresh off a sweep of the Air Force Academy last weekend. All of this might lead one to believe UAA would have some momentum rolling into this series, but Seawolf coach Dean Talafous doesn’t see it that way. He said his teams take it one day at a time.

"I don’t think we’ll ever ride a wave," Talafous said. "To be real honest with you, we’re just one day at a time, desperately trying to improve so we can, at some point, compete on a consistent basis with teams in our league."

An encouraging note about the Seawolves is their progress. They finished the 1997-98 season with six wins: already this season, they have equaled that mark.

Last Saturday’s victory included senior Clayton Read’s first goal of the season, the game-winner. UAA’s leading goal scorer last season, Read had gone without a goal since Feb. 27.

But Talafous wasn’t even aware it was Read’s first goal of the season. His team stresses just that — the team. Not goals and assists, just how the Seawolves are doing.

"If everybody’s working hard at both ends of the rink, we’ll get team goals," Talafous said. "Who gets them doesn’t really matter to me. We don’t keep any stats of any kind; we just believe if everybody’s working hard and preparing, the team itself will win.

"I think (the players) love it. They grow up in program where it’s score, score, score, me, me, me. All of a sudden it’s all team and everybody gets along and works together. It’s refreshing."

Coach George Gwozdecky’s Denver team finally gets to pack its bags for a road trip of some distance again. The last time the Pioneers left the state of Colorado was Oct. 30-31, when they faced Michigan Tech in Houghton.

And maybe the trip will do the Pioneers some good to break out of the mini-slump they are in. They are 2-5 in their last seven games, but against some pretty respectable opponents. Six of those seven games have been against North Dakota, Wisconsin and Colorado College.

"I think you can learn from every series you play in," Gwozdecky said. "Obviously North Dakota is No. 1 in the country because they’re a very good team. Unfortunately, they played better than us for the most part of both games."

The Pioneers have had some difficulty making comebacks this season. Denver is 1-4 when its opponent scores first, and 0-4 when trailing after the second period. When the opponent scores more than four goals, DU is 0-4.

The catalyst for the Pioneers has been Paul Comrie, who has scored in three straight games. He has nine goals and 12 assists overall this season, including six points in the last three games.

But Gwozdecky said it appears that when Comrie is on, so is the team. When he’s not, the Pioneers have problems.

"He’s the guy that makes our team go," Gwozdecky said. "When he’s playing well, our team plays well. When he’s not playing well, our team is an average team. I think Paul is realizing that."

Something to watch in this series is Denver’s power play. They lead the conference with a 28.8 percent success rate in league games, including a 31.3 percent rate on the road. That’s great if they can get the chances. Anchorage has only been shorthanded 23 times in the conference this season, and has killed 21 of those to lead the WCHA.

"Our power play was rather ineffective on Sunday night and I know Anchorage doesn’t take a lot of penalties," Gwozdecky said. I don’t know how much special teams will be a factor in this series."

Talafous said, "We just believe the game should be played within the rules, with good sportsmanship. It doesn’t really matter who we play or when we play, that’s just part of our identity. It’s what we are."

Picks: As has been stated previously, this series has definite placement implications in the standings. "This is going to be a very key series for us, and I’m sure a lot of programs in our league will be watching the outcomes of this series with a lot of interest," Gwozdecky said. A sweep either way would make waves in the conference. But I don’t think that’s the way it’ll happen. DU 3-2, UAA 2-0

Minnesota State-Mankato (8-2-2) at No. 2 Colorado College (11-3, 9-3 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35-7:05 MT, Colorado Springs World Arena, Colorado Springs, Colo.

St. Cloud State managed to get out of Colorado Springs with a split last weekend, but Colorado College coach Don Lucia was happy with the way his team responded after losing Friday’s game.

"We certainly wanted to win two last weekend, but our kids responded well, it was the first time we’ve lost a game on Friday night," Lucia said. "We were able to come back and get the win on Saturday. One of the things I’ve stressed all weekend is let’s try to get points every weekend."

The home loss was CC’s first since Jan. 23-24, the first two games in the building. The Tigers’ 13-game unbeaten streak was snapped as SCSU has now won four of its last six games in Colorado Springs.

The Tigers next turn their attention to Minnesota State-Mankato, a team that Lucia said he knows little about.

Besides the established play of forwards Brian Swanson and Darren Clark, the CC lineup has been aided by the presence of a number of freshmen. The class has scored 44 points this season. Left winger Jesse Heerema has three goals and six assists on the season.

"I think we expected it coming in," Lucia said of the freshman output. "We really felt Heerema and (Mark) Cullen would really have a chance to play in our top couple lines, and they’ve done that. Right now, four of our top nine forwards are freshmen."

The power play has also been CC’s ally this season. They were three of six against SCSU last Saturday and have scored at least one power-play goal in each of their last six games.

Although MSU-Mankato has an 8-2-2 record, including wins over Alaska-Anchorage and Nebraska-Omaha, the Mavericks also have wins over Canisius, Alabama-Huntsville and Connecticut. Lucia knows where the Mavericks come from, however, and how tough it can be to put together an independent schedule.

"They haven’t played a real demanding schedule, and that’s not their fault," Lucia said. "I’ve been on that side. It’s difficult to get a 34-game schedule."

Rob White (10-4–14) leads head coach Don Brose’s team in goals. Aaron Fox has seven goals and 10 assists.

Picks: While it should be a good learning experience for the Mavericks, it should be all CC. CC 6-2, 5-2

Michigan Tech (4-10, 4-8 WCHA) at Lake Superior State (2-9-2, 2-7-2 CCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:00 ET, Taffy Abel Arena, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

Put it this way: Michigan Tech simply has not had a lot of success at home this season. In seven games at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena, they are 0-7, a school record for consecutive home losses.

So getting on the road for a while might help. After this weekend’s series with Lake Superior State, the Huskies host Michigan, Michigan State and Northern Michigan in the Great Lakes Invitational in Detroit, Dec. 26-27.

"We had two road weekends before Duluth and we won three of four games," Tech coach Tim Watters said. "We’re just pressing a little bit hard at home. We’re trying so hard to do well, when you do that, things just don’t work out the way you want them to."

The latest home losses came at the hands of Minnesota-Duluth, which collected its first two WCHA wins of the season last weekend.

This upper Michigan rivalry hasn’t been as active recently, but Watters wants to change that.

"We haven’t played them a whole lot in the past and it’s something we want to try to keep going," Watters said.

With only eight points at the end of the calendar year, Watters said the thing he hopes for most would be to see improvement in his team.

"If we continue to work and stress the fundamentals and stick to the game plan, use those small stepping stones, we’ll be all right in the long run," Watters said.

Sophomore forward Matt Ulwelling leads MTU with 12 points on six goals and six assists. Compared with six points in all of last year’s action, that’s improvement.

Ulwelling, junior Brad Mueller and sophomore Adrian Fure are all tied with six goals to lead the Huskies.

Jeff Cheeseman leads the struggling Lakers with nine points on five goals and four assists. Jayme Platt has played the most in goal for coach Scott Borek’s team, and has a 2.11 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage.

For more on the Lakers, turn to Paula C. Weston’s CCHA Preview.

Picks: We all know how difficult it is for a team to go into another’s rink and sweep. However, I will remind you, Michigan Tech has a winning record on the road. Going out on a limb here… MTU 4-3, 3-1

St. Cloud State (6-8, 5-7 WCHA) at Miami (3-11-3, 2-10-3 CCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:00 ET, Goggin Ice Arena, Oxford, Ohio

Much to the delight of coach Craig Dahl and anyone else associated with the St. Cloud State team, the Huskies now have a defined No. 1 goaltender.

Dean Weasler has staked his claim to the top spot after backstopping the Huskies in recent games, including the 5-3 victory over Colorado College last Friday. Weasler stopped 63 Tiger shots in the series.

Although he has a 4-3 record, he also has a 3.88 goals-against average with a .887 save percentage. Still, he’s earned the confidence of the team, and that’s really what matters.

"I think they feel a lot of confidence in him," Dahl said. "When you’re getting a chance, you have to be able to do it because you get confidence from being successful."

It’s been an interesting first half for SCSU. If the Huskies don’t have so many players get injured and have a couple bounces go their way, they could be sitting in the top three right now. But alas, you can’t change the past; you can only look to the future. After playing No. 1 North Dakota and No. 2 Colorado College, Dahl said his team knows what it takes to get to their level.

"We’ve played pretty good the last two weekends against the No. 1 and 2 teams in the country," Dahl said. "They learned what it takes to compete at that level. I really felt we’ve learned a lot in the last two weeks and have come a long way."

Sophomore Brandon Sampair collected three goals against CC, extending his goal-scoring streak to four games. He also tallied two goals in a game for the first time in his career last Friday.

Freshman Nate DiCasmirro got on the scoring sheet with his first collegiate goal — the game-winner in last Friday’s win.

But the power play continues to be a sore spot for the Huskies — so sore that when asked about it, Dahl groaned. After going 1-for-9 last weekend, SCSU is now 4-for-66 with the man advantage this season. Looking at the Huskies’ scoring, however, they are fourth in the conference, meaning that if they could just get the power play working, they’d be nearer the top.

"It’s anemic," Dahl said after groaning about the power play. "The funny thing is it’s pretty good in practice. Now it’s a confidence thing. We scored five out of seven (in practice) on Thursday and then you get into the game and it’s anemic."

Friday’s game against Miami will be the first ever between the teams. Two Miami players are tied for the team lead in scoring — Alex Kim and Mark Shalawylo, each with 14 points. Mark Mazzoleni’s RedHawks are in 10th place in the CCHA.

For more on the RedHawks, dial up Paula C. Weston’s CCHA Preview. And tell her Todd sent you.

Colgate (7-3, 5-1 ECAC) at Minnesota-Duluth (3-9-2, 2-8-2 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 CT, Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, Duluth, Minn.

Minnesota-Duluth not only claimed its first conference win of the season at Michigan Tech last weekend, they added to the Huskies’ woes by sweeping them. That means the Bulldogs, after all the adversity faced in the first part of the season, are the proud owners of a three-game unbeaten streak.

After scoring just 12 goals in their first 10 conference games, the Bulldogs exploded for 11 goals in the two games with MTU.

Maybe things are starting to come together for the Bulldogs. After all, it’s still not too late for them to better their position for the WCHA playoffs.

Junior center Jeff Scissons scored a career-high five points in last Saturday’s 6-1 victory to continue to lead the Bulldogs in scoring (8-6–14). Ryan Homstol picked up six points on the weekend with three goals and three assists.

UMD has some history with the Red Raiders. The Bulldogs downed Colgate in the championship game of the Syracuse Invitational last December. Coach Don Vaughan’s team features junior center Andy McDonald, who leads the team with 16 points on seven goals and nine assists.

For more on the Red Raiders, see Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy’s ECAC Preview.

Picks: Colgate has a strong 7-3 overall record compared to the 3-9-2 mark of the Bulldogs. So, if records decided the games, this series would be easy to call. But, we know records mean squat. UMD 3-2, CU 2-1

Upcoming Games

This weekend’s games conclude the WCHA schedule for the 1998 calendar year. Several conference teams, however, will return to action after Christmas for holiday tournaments. Michigan Tech hosts the Great Lakes Invitational at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena Dec. 26 and 27. The New Dodge Mariucci Classic, hosted by Minnesota, takes place Dec. 27 and 28, as does Wisconsin’s Bank One Badger Hockey Showdown at Milwaukee’s Bradley Center. In addition, the Norwest Denver Cup at McNichols Arena, featuring Denver and Colorado College, faces off on the 27th and 28th.

This Week in the CCHA: December 11, 1998

By
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With just a couple of shopping weeks left until Christmas, perhaps the smart CCHA shopper should be considering what to give to his or her favorite team. After consulting statistics, game performances, and Santa’s little helpers, the CCHA Gift-Giving Committee has come up with these helpful suggestions.

The No. 4 Michigan Wolverines sit atop the CCHA standings with 19 points–and just 33 goals scored in league play, the fewest among the top six teams with the exception of Michigan State. To make a Wolverine happy, give him permission to find the net.

The No. 9 Ferris State Bulldogs have to be happy with their 18 league points, good enough for a share of second place. But few people in the CCHA and around college hockey seem to take this talented team seriously. During this season of giving, give the Bulldogs the gift of some credit– they’ve earned it.

Tied with Ferris State, the Ohio State Buckeyes have given themselves several gifts lately, in the form of league wins and goals by many different players; however, there is a certain on-ice combination that is not scoring, in spite of a gazillion even-strength and shorthanded breakaways. So contribute to the Chris Richards-Neal Rech Magic Touch Fund, and get these guys some hands.

No. 10 Notre Dame has lost four in a row, but there’s no doubt the Irish will come back strong in the second half of the season. With 15 points Notre Dame is in sole possession of fourth–not a bad place to be. What the Irish need, ironically, is a little luck and a little faith in themselves, two factors that will put them right back into the thick of it after Jan. 1.

With 14 points, the Northern Michigan Wildcats are tied for fifth and are in good league shape approaching the second half of the season. A good gift for the Wildcats would be an injury-free week–or one with a full roster of players.

Sharing fifth is No. 7 Michigan State, a team already gifted with an incredible defense, great goaltending, and Mike York, who has finally figured out a way to put it in the net himself. What the Spartans need is goaltending of Joe Blackburn’s caliber while Blackburn himself is gone away with the U.S. National Junior Team from mid-December through Jan. 5. Not only will Blackburn miss the Great Lakes Invitational, but also three important league games in Fairbanks.

With 11 points, Bowling Green sits alone in seventh place in the league. This season, the Falcons have explosive offense, but could frankly use a little help defensively and in net. If you’re inclined to give to the Falcons this year, a bit of tweaking on the defensive side of things would be a welcome gift.

Neither eighth-place team made the playoffs last year, so both the Nanooks and Broncos have improved over last season. Alaska-Fairbanks is a much better team, with the ability to score goals (what are they feeding Pat Hallet, who scored four goals in one game against the Lakers to become this week’s CCHA Offensive Player of the Week?) and some solid goaltending. Given the distance the Nanooks have to travel for every away game, however, perhaps astral projection is the best thing any UAF fan can give to Fairbanks this season.

While both UAF and Western Michigan have eight points, the Broncos have just one little CCHA win–and six ties. It’s clear what Western Michigan needs this season–a decisive win. Or a loss. (This girl reporter would take a loss–the ties are tough on the pick record.) Be generous when giving to the Broncos this year, and give them permission to take two points in one night.

Miami is another team that doesn’t need another tie for Christmas. With seven points, the RedHawks are in tenth place in the league. Playing well in spurts, this young Miami team needs time to mature. The gift of time–with which comes consistency–may be all this team can use.

The Lakers gave themselves a gift last week–their second win of the season. With six points, Lake Superior anchors the basement, but that can easily change in a league so evenly matched. Coach Scott Borek has remarked that this is a team without a breakout player, so this season, give your favorite Laker permission to step up his game.

Heading into the holiday break, there are only a few league games on the schedule for this weekend, but they’re games with real playoff implications.

Northern Michigan heads to Yost and Munn for what has to be the toughest road trip of anyone’s season, while the Broncos head to Bowling Green for one game.

Ferris State heads East to way upstate New York, for games against St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Michigan Tech visits Lake Superior for two, and St. Cloud State visits Miami for two.

Everyone else in the league is idle.

Last week’s record in picks: 5-5 Overall record in picks: 49-37

Apparently, Ohio State is yet another team that hasn’t received the memo about Notre Dame winning every game for the remainder of the season.

Northern Michigan (11-6-0, 7-6-0 CCHA) at No. 4 Michigan (11-2-2, 9-1-1 CCHA) Friday, 7 p.m., Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, MI Northern Michigan (11-6-0, 7-6-0 CCHA) at No. 7 Michigan State (10-3-2, 6-2-2 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., Munn Arena, East Lansing, MI

After starting the season 7-1-0, the Wildcats have gone 4-5-0 in their last nine games, all against league opponents. Plagued by nagging injuries, the ‘Cats have fallen into the same win-loss pattern they did last season, when they opened the year with an unbeaten streak, slumped in the middle, then had home ice in the CCHA playoffs.

In their only game last weekend, the Wildcats came from behind to beat Alaska-Fairbanks 5-3 at home. Northern Michigan outshot Fairbanks 13-1 in the first, only to escape the period with a 1-1 tie.

After the Nanooks scored on their first two shots of the second period, the Wildcats notched three goals in three minutes to make it 4-3.

Five different Wildcats scored in the game, including J.P. Vigier, who tallied Northern’s fifth goal of the game midway into the third period.

With 14 goals, Vigier leads the league in goal-scoring, and is tied for the league lead in points with 20. Another Wildcat, Buddy Smith, also has 20 points (2-18). With Roger Trudeau (7-4–11), Fred Mattersdorfer (4-4–8), and a few other ‘Cats who can score–and 46 league goals this season–Northern Michigan has one of the most productive offenses in the CCHA.

The Wildcats have, however, been allowing nearly as many goals as they’ve been scoring (39). Dan Ragusett (2.83 GAA, .893 SV%) and Duane Hoey (3.01 GAA, .877 SV%) have been splitting time in the Northern Michigan net, and each has respectable numbers. However, in a league like the CCHA–where the top five goaltenders have save percentages higher than .910– respectable is not always enough.

Northern Michigan is a better road team than home team this season, with a 6-3-0 record when traveling–just one win shy of the Wildcats’ road win total from last season.

Northern Michigan vs. Michigan

The Wolverines own a 10-9-0 advantage in the all-time series, having won six of the last eight games. However, on Halloween, Northern Michigan handed the Wolverines their first and only league loss of the season, a 6-1 drubbing in Yost. Six different Wildcats scored, two on the power play. Josh Langfeld scored the only Michigan goal.

The game was one of Josh Blackburn’s worst in net; the rookie made only six saves and allowed four goals.

Of course, that was then, and this is now–and now Blackburn leads the league in both goals-against (1.44) and save percentage (.934).

"He’s been able to make a difference in almost every game we’ve played," says Michigan head coach Red Berenson. "Josh has kept us in some very close games and given us a chance to win those games, and that’s all you can ask."

Last weekend, the Wolverines beat Miami 1-0 on Sean Ritchlin’s very late third-period goal before breaking open a 2-2 tie against Bowling Green to beat the Falcons 5-2. Berenson says that Blackburn was a factor in each game, allowing the Wolverines that chance until they could find some offense.

It is offense, in fact, that worries the coach the most. "We’re not scoring."

The Wolverines have scored 33 goals while allowing just 18, and Berenson says that sooner or later Michigan will have to pick up this pace to make a run at the league title.

"It used to be that we’d have three or four or five players at the top of the CCHA in scoring. This season, that just isn’t the case."

With four goals and nine assists, rookie Mike Comrie leads the Wolverines in league scoring–and he’s a virtual fifth in the league’s scoring depth chart. Sophomore Josh Langfeld (6-3–9) is one of five players with nine points, all tied for 25th in scoring (a virtual tenth in scoring).

Berenson is quick to point out, however, that his isn’t the only team struggling for goals–and he’s right. "The talent has evened out in the league, and there’s parity. There’s no dominant team running away with everything.

"It goes right through the league. There [are] a lot of teams that really struggle for goals."

And although the Wolverines lead the league in points, Berenson says that this Michigan team isn’t as dominant as those of years past.

"We haven’t established ourselves. Our power play is not a power play to be feared anymore. We’re not putting chances away.

"We could’ve had four or five games go the other way for us. We’re not much better and we’re not much worse than any other team in this league."

Northern Michigan at Michigan State

Michigan State leads this all-time series 10-9-1, and after a 3-1 Oct. 30 win in Munn, the Spartans lead the season series 1-0-0. MSU also has the edge, 5-4-1, in Munn, where the Spartans are now undefeated in 21 consecutive games.

Last weekend, the Spartans swept Nebraska-Omaha in two games at home, 2-0 and 3-1. Junior goaltender Mike Gresl got the shutout in his second career start as the Spartans held UNO to nine shots on goal Friday, the fewest shots Michigan State has ever allowed in a game.

Joe Blackburn (1.48 GAA, .915 SV%) got the win the second night.

"I thought Nebraska was a really good team," said Spartan head coach Ron Mason. "They were good defensively, and seemed like a good match for our league."

With three wins in their last four nonconference games, Mason jokes, "We keep winning and dropping in the standings."

While good play from a backup goaltender is good news for the Spartans, even better news was the play of Mike York, who scored three of Michigan State’s five goals on the weekend. Prior to the games against UNO, York had three goals on the season.

Of course, York is no slouch in the scoring department. A playmaker, York leads the Spartans with two goals and 14 assists in conference play. And through over 300 shifts this season, York has yet to be on ice for a single even-strength goal against.

Mason isn’t concerned with York’s seeming lack of goal production. "He’s on track like he was last year, when he scored most of his goals in the second half [of the season]. And offense is hard to come by this year for everyone."

Like their counterparts and arch-rivals down the road, the Michigan State offense is low-key, scoring just 32 league goals this season while allowing a stingy 15. After York, Shawn Horcoff (4-6–10) and Bryan Adams (7-3–10) are the point leaders for the Spartans.

This game pairs the league’s best overall offense (NMU, 3.88 goals scored per game) with the league’s best overall defense (MSU, 1.33 goals allowed per game). Mason is well aware of the potentially-explosive Northern Michigan offense.

"While they’ve been injured, their good players are still there. They’ve got their top line, they’ve got their good defense, and they’ve got their goalies.

"When we played them earlier in the year, I thought they were the best team we played."

Picks

"We’re faced with a great challenge this weekend playing against two of the top teams in the country on back-to-back nights," says Northern Michigan head coach Rick Comley.

"I think our quality of play has started to improve a little lately and is getting back to where it was early in the season. We’ll be looking to end the first half on a positive note and use it as a springboard for the GLI and the second half of the season."

As good as the Northern offense can be, the Wildcats will have a tough time this weekend against the league’s two most consistent and stingiest goaltenders, and against the league’s toughest defenses.

Both Michigan and Michigan State have made a season of stingy defenses, and as loath as fans of each team probably are to hear it, the two teams are very similar. The Blackburn in Ann Arbor seems to be a bit hotter than the one in East Lansing right now, but Michigan State’s defense is the best in the league, bar none.

This weekend would be a good preview for the GLI, if every player in these two games were playing in The Joe at the end of the month.

Michigan State may put a full team on the ice for the first time this season. The ‘Cats will be without junior left winger Tyson Holly (knee) until the GLI, and senior defenseman Mike Johnson (shoulder) is questionable.

As hard as it is to pick against Northern for two consecutive games, it’s harder still to pick against either Michigan State or Michigan at home right now.

Michigan State over Northern 3-1; Michigan over Northern 3-1

Western Michigan (1-7-6, 1-7-6 CCHA) at Bowling Green (6-7-1, 5-6-1 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., BGSU Ice Arena, Bowling Green, OH

This series pits two of the CCHA’s more interesting stories this season. The Broncos are just one tie away from tying the league record for ties (say that three times, really fast). And the Falcons are scoring goals left and right–40 in league play, as they have three of the CCHA’s top 11 scorers–but are also having trouble keeping the puck from their own net.

Last weekend, Bowling Green dropped a single home game to Michigan, 5-2, a game that was tied going into the third.

"We played good for two periods," says head coach Buddy Powers. "One sloppy shift in the third period is all it took for Michigan to take the game.

"We had some power-play chances and we didn’t respond. They took some penalties in the third after they had the lead, and we couldn’t capitalize on them."

With five goals and 12 assists, Dan Price leads the Falcons in scoring, followed by linemate Adam Edinger (8-7–15) and defenseman Mike Jones (4-9–13). Powers says that in addition to scoring depth, the Falcons are looking to even out from game to game.

"I see the young guys playing more consistently–that’s what we need to do to be good, consistency from top to bottom. We want to be better at the end of each month through the season, and we were certainly better at the end of November than we were at the end of October."

One area of inconsistency for Bowling Green has been defense, from the blue line in. The team is in the minus overall, and goaltending has been an issue. Senior Mike Savard has emerged as the starter, with a 3.69 league GAA and a .872 save percentage.

Until last Friday night, goaltending was not the issue for Western Michigan, whose senior netminder Matt Barnes has been solid (3.03 league GAA, .890 SV%). The Broncos got shelled by Lake Superior 6-0 Friday before bouncing back to a 2-2 overtime tie against Ferris State the next night.

In the loss, Barnes made 31 saves on 37 shots; rookie goalie Jeff Reynaert made 42 stops in the tie.

The Broncos are being outscored 28-54 in league play this season. Leading Western Michigan in scoring are David Gove (4-6–10), Jason Redenius (6-2–8), Frank Novock (2-6–8), Matt Addesa (4-3–7), and Chuck Mindell (3-4–7). None of the Broncos’ leading scorers is on the plus side of things.

Pick

This is the first meeting between these two teams this season. Last season, the Broncos took three of four from the Falcons. Bowling Green leads this all-time series 59-35-3.

The Broncos are winless in their last ten games (0-5-5), dating back to their one victory of the season, over Notre Dame on Oct. 24, and are winless on the road this season. This is the slowest Bronco start in school history.

"Western’s had a tough first half," says Powers, "but they’re not giving up many goals. We’ve got to make sure we take care of business at home before we break for the holidays."

The Broncos have lost Brett Mills for the season with shoulder problems. Also questionable this week for Western Michigan are Caley Jones (wrist), Chad Kline (wrist), and Jeff Lukasak (ribs).

Bowling Green’s faster offense and better forecheck should carry the Falcons through this game.

Bowling Green 4-2

No. 9 Ferris State (9-3-3, 8-3-2 CCHA) at St. Lawrence (8-4-0, 4-1-0 ECAC) Friday, 7:30 p.m., Appleton Arena, Canton, NY No. 9 Ferris State (9-3-3, 8-3-2 CCHA) at Clarkson (5-6-0, 3-2-0 ECAC) Saturday, 7 p.m., Cheel Arena, Potsdam, NY

At 7-3-1 for their last 11 games, the Bulldogs are making more than just a little statement in the CCHA, and the exclamation point for emphasis is sophomore goaltender Vince Owen.

Owen, the hottest goaltender in the CCHA, has an astounding .934 save percentage in league play, owing in part to his .976 save percentage in a four-game stretch that included wins over Northern Michigan, Notre Dame, and Lake Superior.

In overall play, Owen looks even better, with a 1.85 GAA and a .935 save percentage.

Bulldog assistant coach Drew Famulak is quick to point out, however, that it isn’t all Owen.

"I think we’re playing better team defense this year as well. There’s no question he’s making big saves."

Ferris State has allowed just 25 goals this season in league play, the third-lowest total after Michigan State and Michigan.

Famulak says it comes down to confidence, and "outstanding leadership from that senior class." He also points to the defensive efforts of senior defenseman J.P. Tessier and sophomore defender Jim Dube.

As stingy as the Bulldogs have been on the blue side of things, Ferris State scores goals, and seems to do so by committee. Joel Irwin (5-9–14) leads the team in overall scoring, followed by Kevin Swider (8-5–13), Brian McCullough (4-7–11), Geoff Bennetts (8-1–9), and Brent Wishart (4-5–9).

No one player’s numbers are spectacular, but as a team, the Bulldogs get the job done.

Most recently, Ferris State tied Western Michigan 2-2 in overtime. Dube and Swider each had a goal, and Owen made 25 stops in the effort.

Picks

Famulak says his team is well aware of the level of competition it faces as Ferris State heads east this week. "Especially with Clarkson–they’re so good defensively. Even though they’ve got two freshman goalies, you still have to get to them.

For more on St. Lawrence and Clarkson, check out this week’s ECAC preview, written by correspondents Becky "The Saint" Blaeser and Jayson "Asian Invasion" Moy.

The Bulldogs head east with something to prove–that they have the goods, that they’re not fluky, that the CCHA is as strong as its rankings indicate. Ferris State is not the biggest team in the league, but the Bulldog speed should be a good match for the speedy ECAC teams.

Ferris State 3-1 over St. Lawrence; Clarkson 3-2 over Ferris State

Michigan Tech (4-10-0, 4-8-0 WCHA) at Lake Superior (2-7-2, 2-9-2 CCHA) Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., Taffy Abel Arena, Sault Ste. Marie, MI

This series is sort of like watching the Eagles and Giants duke it out in the NFC East. Minus the conference rivalry.

Neither the Huskies nor the Lakers have seen a lot of success this season, but the neighbors of the Upper Peninsula should put together two good games this weekend.

Lake Superior exploded for 10 goals last weekend, nearly one-half of the total Laker offensive league production this season.

Fred Slukynsky had the hat trick and Jeff Cheeseman had two goals in the 6-0 beating of Western Michigan Friday. On Saturday, the Lakers jumped to a four-goal lead in the first period before running into Alaska-Fairbanks’ Pat Hallet, who scored four all by himself in the Nanooks’ 5-4 come-from-behind win.

Assistant Laker coach Mike Collins says that the win at home–the second league win of the year for Lake State–was "well needed."

"We capitalized on some great opportunities. We played very well defensively Friday night, as we have all season. One thing that made a difference was that our power play finally woke up, and [Western Michigan goaltender Matt] Barnes had an off night, which definitely makes a difference.

"We still think we weren’t outplayed in the second and third periods against Fairbanks. They just found a way to score."

Collins says, "We don’t have any superstars; we don’t have any guys that own the team. Our whole team just continues to work hard."

While no one "owns" the Lakers, sophomore goaltender Jayme Platt has certainly staked a claim.

Although Platt is 2-5-0 in league play, his numbers are excellent, with a 1.88 GAA and a .930 league save percentage–certainly numbers good enough to give the Lakers a chance to be in any game when he’s minding the net.

Platt’s been splitting time with fellow sophomore Rob Galatiuk, who is giving up on average nearly five goals per game, with a save percentage that hovers around .860. "Rob had the tough night Saturday," says Collins.

The Lakers have yet to find any offensive consistency. Jeff Cheeseman leads the team in overall scoring (5-4–9).

Pick

Sault Ste. Marie is a tough place to play for visiting teams, but the Huskies have been better on the road than at home this season.

With Platt in net, the Lakers have a chance to beat anyone–providing they can find a way to score themselves.

For more on Michigan Tech, read WCHA Correspondent Todd Milewski’s weekly preview.

Lake Superior 4-3 Friday; Michigan Tech 3-1 Saturday

St. Cloud State (6-8-0, 5-7-0 WCHA) at Miami (3-11-3, 2-10-3 CCHA) Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., Goggin Arena, Oxford, OH

The young and struggling RedHawks played No. 4 Michigan tough at home last week, losing 1-0 on Sean Ritchlin’s goal at 19:36 of the third period. Ian Olsen made 25 saves for the ‘Hawks in the loss.

If you ask Miami head coach Mark Mazzoleni what to expect from the fledgling RedHawks, his response–standard from week to week–is, "I have no idea."

A good sign is that Mazzoleni laughs when he says it.

After playing the surging Buckeyes tough two weeks ago, Miami turned in a very uneven performance the day after Thanksgiving in a 5-1 loss to Bowling Green before tying Western Michigan 1-1 the following night. In their last five games, the ‘Hawks are 1-3-1.

Which is the reason why Mazzoleni says, "I don’t really worry about our opponents right now. That’s to take nothing away from St. Cloud. We just have enough to worry about with our team."

In addition to having a young team, the RedHawks have been bedeviled by injuries this season. Down for the count is junior forward Dustin Whitecotton, the team’s top returning scorer from last season. Whitecotton broke his left humerus during at Nov. 6 game against Alaska-Fairbanks.

Mark Shalawylo, the team’s leading scorer this season, missed the game against Michigan with a groin injury. He may play this week.

After Shalawylo (5-9–14), the RedHawks get their offense from Alex Kim (6-8–14), Jason Deskins (6-6–12), and Ernie Hartlieb (4-4–8). Of the top four Miami scorers, only Shalawylo is on the plus side of things.

Ian Olsen has been the man in net for the ‘Hawks this season. In overall play, Olsen’s GAA is 3.16, and he has a .895 save percentage.

Picks

Miami and St. Cloud have met twice before, a two-game series in Goggin during the 1987-88 season. Miami won both of those games.

Don’t expect a repeat performance. While this young club is talented, the RedHawks have had difficulty putting together three good periods of hockey, let alone six. Meaning no disrespect at all to the ‘Hawks, a little consistency would be a good thing.

For more on St. Cloud, read Todd "Skippy" Milewski’s WCHA preview.

St. Cloud 4-3, 3-2

This Week in the ECAC: December 11, 1998

By Becky Blaeser & Jayson Moy
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With the recent weather in the Northeast, one would think that March, the playoffs and Lake Placid were just around the corner. They’re not — there are still a few months to go, and with the first part of the hectic schedule in the books, we can report on highs and lows.

The young season’s highs include the Tigers of Princeton. Led by ECAC Defensive Forward of the Year favorite Syl Apps and Hobey Baker Award candidate Jeff Halpern, the Tigers have overcome two blowouts in the first two games of the season to post a 5-0-1 start in ECAC league play, and a 7-0-1 run overall.

Let’s not forget St. Lawrence. The Saints are an impressive 8-4-0, 4-1-0 in ECAC play, whereas last year they didn’t get their first league win until Nov. 21. Kudos to head coach Joe Marsh and the young men from Canton.

Colgate was in first place in the ECAC until last weekend, and now sits in second. The Red Raiders have used a combination of all facets of the game to get where they are.

The Big Red of Cornell are also off to a hot start. A 4-1-1 record has them in third place in the standings, despite a rash of injuries that has forced them to play just three or four defensemen for the last few games.

Vermont is off to a 7-4-0 start, and Rensselaer is off to a 6-4-1 start, and both look to be in it as the league schedule heats up again in 1999.

Clarkson has begun its annual second-half run a little early, with four straight victories and its offense and defense starting to click. Don’t forget freshmen goaltender Shawn Grant, who looks like he has won the starting job.

Brown and Yale sit in eighth place in the standings. The Bears have not won in their last seven, while the Bulldogs have dropped four in a row.

Union and Dartmouth try to rebound from a disappointing start to the season, and Harvard is still searching for its first victory in the ECAC after nine league games.

Here are the ECAC Standings after the first, furious part of the ECAC Schedule. They’ll stay this way until the evening of Jan. 2, 1999, when the conference’s next league game takes place.

Last weekend the standings shifted a bit when Princeton took games from Yale, and when Colgate split a weekend pair against Rensselaer and Union, the Tigers moved into first place.

As mentioned above, Clarkson earned four points with a fantastic weekend in New England, as did St. Lawrence. Both defeated Brown and Harvard.

Cornell and Rensselaer picked up three points each on the weekend. The Big Red defeated Union, the Engineers topped Colgate, and then the two tied each other to pick up the aforementioned points. The Engineers also defeated Harvard during the week to earn two more.

Brown, Harvard and Union all dropped two games this past weekend, and the Crimson lost that third to Rensselaer, as just mentioned above.

Add in a Vermont exhibition victory over New Brunswick, and the ECAC honored several players this week.

ECAC Player of the Week – Alain St. Hilaire, F, Rensselaer ECAC Rookie of the Week – Shawn Grant, G, Clarkson ECAC Goaltender of the Week – Eric Heffler, St. Lawrence

It’s time to relax, study hard and enjoy the holidays. The number of games reflects that this week, as the two of us will relax along with the rest of you.

Last Week: 8-3 Season To Date: 44-35, .557

Colgate (7-3-0, 5-1-0 ECAC, 2nd) at Minnesota – Duluth (3-9-3, 2-8-2 WCHA, 9th) Friday – Saturday, 8:00 pm, DECC, Duluth, Minn.

The Colgate Red Raiders went into last weekend with a perfect 4-0-0 mark in the ECAC, but lost in overtime, 4-3, to Rensselaer after coming back to tie the game in the third period, and then whitewashed Union to gain two points on the weekend.

"It’s frustrating because the team worked very hard," said head coach Don Vaughan. "I thought the guys did a real good job rallying.

"I was disappointed at the way we lost it. It was an offensive-zone breakout, and we’re better than that."

But the Red Raiders came back with Shep Harder’s first career shutout in blanking Union 3-0.

"We aren’t satisfied with this weekend," Vaughan said. "We know we squandered at least a tie [Friday], but we came out ready to go and showed we can come back from difficult losses."

Even with the shutout, Vaughan is still going to go with his goaltending platoon this coming weekend. Harder will continue to rotate with Jason LeFevre.

"If one of them establishes [himself] as a number-one, then we’ll go with him," he said. "But that hasn’t happened yet."

The duo will get to split a pair of games in Duluth this weekend when they take on Minnesota-Duluth. [For more on the Bulldogs, click over to "Tinsel" Todd Milewski’s WCHA Preview.] After that, the Red Raiders play Maine at the ECAC-Hockey East Holiday Doubleheader, participate in the Syracuse Invitational, then travel to the North Country, get a weekend off, and host Ohio State.

"It’s a tough stretch coming up," Vaughan said. "We will be playing other conferences, which puts both you and your conference on the line. We will just have to take it one game at a time."

Picks: The Red Raiders bring their strong goaltending with them and hope to use their speed to go against the more physical Bulldogs. They get it done as they sweep the series. Colgate, 4-2 and 5-3

Providence (7-7-0, 4-4-0 Hockey East, T-4th) at Dartmouth (3-4-0, 1-3-0 ECAC, T-10th) Friday, 7:30 pm, Thompson Arena, Hanover, NH

Dartmouth has had a week off since it last hit the ice. The Big Green split a pair of games at the Omaha Civic Auditorium to the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks, winning the first game 2-1 before dropping the back end, 7-4.

The Big Green have gotten some good production out of Curtis Wilgosh and Michael Byrne. The two lead the team in goals scored with four each, and Wilgosh’s seven points lead the team overall.

The freshmen class for the Big Green have also contributed thus far. Three of the first year players are tied for fourth on the team in scoring with five points each. Jamie Herrington (3-2–5), Frank Nardella (3-2–5) and Mike Maturo (2-3–5) have shown that the class can be an impressive one.

Add Chris Baldwin (0-4–4) and Chris Taliercio (3-1–4) to that class and the Big Green hope to develop experience along the way.

This second-year edition of head coach Bob Gaudet’s team is reminiscent of his second team at Brown, in 1989-90. A little eerie isn’t it?

[For information on Providence refer to Dave "Deck the Halls" Hendrickson’s Hockey East Preview.]

Pick: Dartmouth will be rested and have home ice. If the Big Green can use their speed, they will win. The Big Green give the advantage back to the ECAC in the ECAC-Hockey East battle. Dartmouth 5, Providence 3

Niagara (5-4-1, 5-4-1 vs. aligned Division I) at Clarkson (5-6-0, 3-2-0 ECAC, T- 6th) Friday, 7:30 pm, Cheel Arena, Potsdam, NY Ferris State (9-3-3, 8-3-2 CCHA, T-2nd) at St. Lawrence (8-4-0, 4-1-0 ECAC, 4th) and Clarkson (5-6-0, 3-2-0 ECAC, T-6th) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Appleton Arena, Canton, NY and Cheel Arena, Potsdam, NY

It was hardly a display of overwhelming firepower, but the Clarkson Golden Knights did continue to inch their way out of the sub-.500 category with victories over Harvard and Brown.

Certainly, there aren’t many weekends when scoring three goals will get you a sweep, but thanks to stingy goaltending by Shawn Grant, Clarkson was able to escape New England with its winning streak — which started two weeks ago after back-to-back disposals of Boston University and Boston College — intact.

On Friday night against the Crimson, the freshman netminder knocked away 19 shots and saved the struggling Golden Knights’ offensive unit that managed only two goals against a Harvard team that, on average, allows five goals per game. But on that night, Grant displayed some of the best hockey of his young collegiate career and second-period tallies by Philippe Roy and Matt Saper proved enough to pull out the crucial league victory.

"I think we have continued to improve as a hockey team, and we are inching our way back towards respectability," said Clarkson head coach Mark Morris. "This past weekend we were only able to muster three goals, but we had some solid performances. I am pleased with the development of Shawn Grant. His defense is starting to pick up and we have had some timely scoring." The following night against the Bears, it was an unlikely 1-0 decision in favor of Clarkson capping off the sweep. Once again, Grant was on his game, posting 20 saves to earn not only his first shutout of the year, but also his first-ever ECAC Rookie of the Week honor. Scott Stirling kept Brown close throughout, finishing with 43 saves, but Yan Turgeon lit the lamp midway through the first period and that was all Grant would need for his fifth win of the season.

Now, the Golden Knights must switch their attention away from ECAC play to concentrate on two non-league foes in youthful, yet unpredictable Niagara and surprising CCHA power Ferris State.

[For more information on Niagara, refer to their Season Preview. For more on the Bulldogs of Ferris State, check out Paula C. "Egg-Nog(gin)" Weston’s CCHA Preview.]

"We have faced some very tough teams this season and this weekend is no different," Morris said. "Niagara has steadily become a force as an up-and-coming program. They have knocked off some very respectable teams, and we are very aware of their accomplishments. Ferris State is another team that is playing very good hockey."

No question about it, this weekend it will be Eric Heffler vs. Vince Owen. Two leagues and the best goaltending each has to offer will face off at Appleton Arena as St. Lawrence hosts Ferris on Friday evening.

Owen, the CCHA’s best netminder enters this weekend with an astounding 9-3-2 record, 1.84 goals against average, and a .935 save percentage. Heffler counters with an ECAC best, 2.12 goals against average and a .936 save percentage. Shot for shot, save for save, this will be some goaltending battle — perhaps the best in college hockey thus far.

Heffler and his Saints have to be brimming with confidence after this past weekend as the team sauntered back to the North Country with two wins after scoring 10 goals in two games. Heffler had an average series by his standards, recording 62 saves and picking up yet another ECAC Goaltender of the Week award. But it was the St. Lawrence offense which really turned some heads.

After relying heavily on its defensive prowess throughout the early part of the season, the Saints exploded at the other end of the ice.The first line of John Poapst, Bob Prier, and Erik Anderson, who have combined for 41 points this year, finished the weekend with seven points, while Dale Clark (two goals, one assist), Brandon Dietrich (two goals), and Mike Gellard (three assists) were surprising contributors.

"It was an excellent road trip for us in a number of ways, with the two wins being the most obvious," said St. Lawrence head coach Joe Marsh. "We had our moments on Friday despite some complications to start off with, and I was very pleased with the effort at Harvard on Saturday. We were generating chances over the last six games prior to the weekend, but not finishing off as well as we are capable. This weekend we finished the plays and it paid off in some big goals."

Picks: Niagara at Clarkson – Clarkson didn’t dazzle this past weekend, but they played well enough to get the job done on the road. Niagara has been a spoiler this season with huge wins over Michigan and Ohio State, but don’t expect the same to occur in Cheel on Friday night. Clarkson 4, Niagara 2 Ferris State at St. Lawrence – Let the pitchers’ duel begin. With the home-ice advantage, Heffler will be tough, most likely tough enough to stymie a Ferris State team that will be recovering from a long road trip. St. Lawrence 2, Ferris State 1. Ferris State at Clarkson – Clarkson is good enough to beat up on the Purple Eagles, but not good enough to knock off a CCHA team with a 9-3 record. Ferris State 3, Clarkson 1.

Next Week in the ECAC: Friday, Dec. 18 Dartmouth at Maine Harvard at Nebraska-Omaha

Saturday, Dec. 19 Harvard at Nebraska-Omaha

Sunday, Dec. 20 Northeastern at Princeton

Monday, Dec. 21 ECAC-Hockey East Holiday Doubleheader (Hartford, CT) Colgate vs. Maine Rensselaer vs. New Hampshire

Thanks to Steve Marsi for his contributions to this preview.

All photographs used by permission of the appropriate Sports Information Departments. Any reproduction without authorization is prohibited.

Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy are ECAC Correspondents for U.S. College Hockey Online.

Copyright 1998 Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy. All rights reserved.

This Week in Hockey East: December 11, 1998

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So you want to go to the New Hampshire vs. UMass-Amherst games this weekend? Good idea, since the Wildcats are one of the top teams in the country and the Minutemen have been a very pleasant surprise to date.

When are the games? Well, you go to the USCHO schedules first, of course, but until the last couple days they listed one date with the added note that it might be another.

What’s up with that?

So you consult the official print sources. Whoops! Bad idea.

The UNH media guide says Friday at Amherst and Saturday at Durham. The UMass one says Saturday at Durham and Sunday at Amherst. The Hockey East media guide offers a third alternative, a brilliant compromise of Friday and Sunday, both at Amherst.

And just when you thought there might not be another permutation to this confusion, the league’s press release on Sunday lists the UNH version only to correct itself one day later with the UMass one.

Hey, I thought only married couples communicate that poorly.

In any case, the game is definitely, positively, unquestionably scheduled for Saturday at UNH and Sunday at UMass-Amherst. Be there or be square.

Onward to the awards.

This week’s Hendrickson Forget-the-Box-Scores Player of the Week is Merrimack’s Chris Halecki. Halecki did pick up a beaut of an assist against Providence last Thursday, but we’re not going to hold it against him.

He played a terrific game, offensively and defensively. Not only could he have had easily had another nice assist, he contributed excellent defense. It was no surprise to see Warrior coach Chris Serino add him to the top Warrior line to protect a one-goal lead in the final minute.

And although I only saw the last two periods of Merrimack’s 2-1 loss to BC on Tuesday — there’s this four-letter word called work that may pay the bills but does occasionally interfere with hockey — Halecki continued his blue-collar, pedal-to-the-metal approach that every team needs.

Hey, it’d be nice if everyone could get their time in the limelight, but the grit and hustle of the role players often makes or breaks a team’s fortunes. So a tip of the fedora to Halecki this week.

As for the official league awards…

KOHO Player of the Week: John Campbell (F, UMass-Lowell) recorded a 2-2–4 line in the River Hawk sweep of Northeastern.

Heaton Defensive Player of the Week: Tom Welby (G, Merrimack College) stopped 67 shots over two games against Providence. He backstopped a 3-2 win on Thursday and then gave his team a chance on Saturday, despite being outshot 43-30.

KOHO Rookie of the Week: Ty Conklin (G, New Hampshire) took his record to 5-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .948 save percentage, both tops in the country.

Hockey East Standings

Record in picks last week: 7-2 Season’s record in picks: 57-28, .671

No. 3 Maine (9-1-1, 4-1-1 HEA, 3rd) hosts

Northeastern (4-9-0, 1-6-0 HEA, 9th)

Saturday, 7 p.m., Sunday, 4 p.m., Alfond Arena, Orono, ME

Maine was off last week after winning the Governor’s Cup with a 4-3 win over New Hampshire and a 2-0 shutout of Vermont.

Often, an opposing coach’s viewpoint can speak volumes and Vermont coach Mike Gilligan certainly came away impressed with the nation’s number three team.

"They didn’t give us many opportunities at all," said Gilligan after the loss. "I can’t remember three good scoring chances….We were a step behind them all night long.

"I don’t know if we ever did play with them.

"They know how to spend time with the puck. Their forwards go to open ice and they support the puck. They play hockey the way it’s supposed to be played.

"They do a tremendous job on the man down. It’s the first time we’ve been really attacked when we were [on the power play.] It’s the most aggressive penalty kill we’ve seen and the most successful we’ve seen."

Short of becoming a member of the Friends of Maine Hockey, it’s tough to imagine a more comprehensive endorsement of a team’s play.

As for Maine coach Shawn Walsh, he was particularly pleased with the way his team clamped down defensively in the third period against UNH and throughout the title game.

"Last year was a crazy year for us," he said. "We weren’t in the top 20 in the nation in penalty killing or team defense for the first time in a long time. We’ve asked each guy on the team to make a commitment to that because we were fifth in the country in scoring last year, but it didn’t do us any good. We were left out of the party at the end of the year and we don’t want to be left out this year."

Freshman defenseman Eddie Wood saw his first action after being sidelined since the preseason and now, with Robert Ek returning from an injury, creates a logjam on the blue line for the weekend.

"The emergence of Eddie Wood this weekend was really helpful to our team, stepping in for Ek," said Walsh. "And [freshman] Eric Turgeon has played well for us, too. We have eight solid defensemen who can play.

"We feel that Doug Janik will make the World Junior team so that will take care of itself after the weekend, but we’ll have to see what happens."

The situation is a marked contrast to last year, when Walsh had to convert forwards A.J. Begg and Anders Lundback to defense to fill holes. Although one solution to the logjam would be to move one of the two back up front, it’s a change Walsh is hesitant to make.

"They’re both playing so well on defense that I don’t know if I want to," he says. "They both give us a different ingredient. Anders gives us the mobility and A. J. gives us the physical presence.

"They both seem comfortable back there. People forget, those are two guys that played defense last year in the run to the Hockey East championship game. They’re unsung guys who made the move from forward to D and since they made that move, our team has turned around."

Unlike an earlier layoff this year, Maine has been practicing through this lull in the schedule.

Even though Northeastern has been struggling in the win-loss column of late, Walsh still expects a tough series.

"Everybody that has played them talks about how hard they work," he said. "Bruce Crowder is going to have a well-coached team. They showed what they are capable of when they came back from being down 3-0 and beat BC.

"I respect Bruce, having worked with him. He’s a great hockey man and it’ll be a typical Hockey East series."

Northeastern continued its tough times last weekend, dropping two to UMass-Lowell, 2-1 and 4-1. The Huskies have now lost 8 of their last 10 games.

"I thought our effort was pretty good both nights, but I don’t think we were playing smart," says coach Bruce Crowder. "We’ve got a long way to go.

"We’ve got to start executing a lot of the little things a lot better. We’re looking to go right to number 10 right off the bat, but you’ve got to count from one to nine first before you get to number 10. We’ve got a lot of areas we need to improve on and we’re just going to keep working on them.

"Finishing is a big one. People say that finishing is the biggest one, but we also have to do the little things like how we come out of the zone and how we have ice balance. There are a lot of little things that are missing right now that are very important to creating offense."

There are also some missing bodies that aren’t helping things either, but that isn’t expected to change this week. Billy Newson, out with a shoulder injury, isn’t expected back and neither is Arik Engbrecht, who has missed the entire season with a back problem.

Of course, traveling to Orono for a series doesn’t make it any easier to right the ship.

"Hey, I’m not the schedule-maker," says Crowder. "We put ourselves in this position. so we’re just going to have to continue to try to improve ourselves. Sometimes when you play teams like Maine, it brings out the best in you. Hopefully, that’s going to be the case this weekend."

Crowder won’t be pointing to the Huskies’ Nov. 13 upset of then second-ranked and undefeated Boston College as a comparable situation to this week’s trip to the Alfond Arena lions’ den.

"That’s ancient history now," says Crowder. "And I think one of the things that’s developed with us is looking too much at history.

"We’ve got to look ahead and what we have is what we have. We have to work within our means. As a coaching staff, we have to make ourselves better to the point where we win hockey games."

PICKS: The Black Bears put two lumps of coal in the Husky stockings, 4-1 and 3-1.

No. 5 New Hampshire (9-3-1, 5-2-1 HEA, 1st) vs.

UMass-Amherst (4-8-1, 2-4-1 HEA, 8th)

Saturday, 7 p.m., Whittemore Center, Durham, NH

Sunday, 7 p.m., Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

New Hampshire split with Boston College, posting the Jekyll-and-Hyde scores of a 6-1 win and a 6-3 loss.

In the opener, the Wildcats had to weather the BC storm for most of the first period before counterpunching in the final minute with two goals just nine seconds apart. They then dominated the rest of the game, including a second period in which they held BC to only one shot.

"Obviously, we’re pleased with the win," said coach Dick Umile after the game. "We played a tremendous second period, but [we weren’t] great in the first half of the first period.

"They didn’t really come after us and we weren’t handling the puck very well when they were sitting back on their forecheck. They were transitioning off that and Ty [Conklin] had to make some good saves. But after the first ten minutes, we got going."

The single shot allowed to BC in the second period came one week after holding UMass-Lowell without a shot in the first period of the Governor’s Cup consolation game.

"Our team defense has been great," said Umile. "It’s been the key to our team this year. We’ve been doing that all year, but against a great team like Boston College with players like [Jeff] Farkas and [Brian] Gionta, that says a lot for our team defense."

Added senior captain Steve O’Brien, "[The defensemen] got up in their faces and didn’t let them get any scoring chances. We gave our forwards a chance to take the puck up ice with nice, crisp passes."

UNH got almost perfectly distributed scoring with rookie phenom Darren Haydar getting two while singletons went to Mike Souza, Matt Swain, Eric Lind and Jason Krog.

"That’s what we want," said Umile. "We want the scoring to be spread out. The little guy [5-9, 160-pound Haydar] — got a couple goals again so that was good and Jason dished the puck pretty well.

"Whatever it takes to win. As long as we get more than the opposition."

BC salvaged the split, however, back at home with a 6-3 win, a score that belied just how close of a game it was.

"Maybe we just weren’t gritty enough in putting the puck in the net," said Umile after the game. "We didn’t get outplayed, that’s for sure. It was the difference between them putting the puck in the net and us not.

"I don’t think it was from a lack of effort, but we didn’t win. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get it done down here."

Swain, a sophomore who got into only 12 games last year, has graduated to the second line and scored twice on the weekend to now total five goals.

"And some of the other guys, [Corey-Joe] Ficek are playing great for us, too," said Umile. "[Johnny] Rodgers stepped in [on Saturday] and also did a good job."

The Wildcats now rank second in Hockey East in team defense, 2.37 goals-against overall and 2.47 within the league.

Following the series, BC sniper Jeff Farkas commented on the UNH defense.

"They play tough down low and move the puck out of the zone real well," he said. "They shut people down. There are a lot of great players on [Boston College] and we only got 23 shots [in the win]. That says a lot about the defense. That’s one of the best defensive teams we’ve played."

On the injury front, Matt Dzieduszycki will play this weekend despite straining his rotator cuff last Friday night. Mike Souza, however, is questionable after sustaining a knee injury at the first-period buzzer on Saturday. He hasn’t skated since the injury and will undergo an MRI on Thursday to see if there is any cartilage damage.

UMass-Amherst is coming off a weekend of heartbreakers, two 3-2 losses to BU.

"It really was a bitter pill to swallow," says coach Joe Mallen. "We felt that we outplayed them both nights and didn’t come away with a point.

"The first night at BU was a very, very evenly-played game. All the statistics were even, the shots on net, the quality chances, the faceoffs and the rest. On the final goal, no BU player even touched the puck."

From the UMass perspective, defenseman Tony Soderholm was hit from behind with no call on what became the game-winner. As he fell down, he made contact with the puck, it caromed off Dean Stork’s skate and trickled between goaltender Markus Helanen’s legs.

A fluke goal to top all flukes and the game-winner to boot.

"The second night we had plenty of chances," says Mallen. "We had two breakaways. The difference was Michel Larocque. He played very, very well the second night.

"And I’ve got to give Albie O’Connell a lot of credit. He made a real nice move with under two minutes to go in the game. He came down, cut across and shot through a screen and scored a nice goal. But we had plenty of chances to win the game before that and Larocque came up big in a lot of those chances."

O’Connell and Larocque, two of BU’s four impact seniors, represent a stark difference from their Minutemen counterparts. Make that counterpart. Forward Bryan Fitzgerald, who entered the season with four career points, is the lone UMass senior who dresses on a regular basis.

That experience could have been the deciding factor considering that the Minutemen led after two periods at BU and were tied after two periods at home, yet came away with not a single point.

"The two heroes for them on the weekend were Michel Larocque and Albie O’Connell, guys who are seniors," says Mallen. "They are certainly getting good play out of their young guys and we’re getting good play out of our young guys. But those are two seniors who stepped up and provided the leadership they had talked about needing."

Despite the sweep, Mallen remains optimistic.

"We know we’re playing tough hockey," he says. "My attitude with this team is that we have a great group of kids that are just working as hard as they possibly can. We feel that we gave a very, very strong effort, we outplayed BU, but it didn’t go our way. We just need to keep moving forward and playing this way and the goals will come."

The Minutemen now take on New Hampshire, which will pit the second and third ranked defensive clubs in the league (UNH at 2.37 goals-against overall vs. UMass at 2.58). The home-and-home will conclude the season’s series between the two clubs. The Minutemen dropped a 4-1 decision to the Wildcats on Nov. 1.

"It could wind up like it did last time," says Mallen. "You’ve got two good goaltenders, two good sets of defensemen and two good groups of forwards. But they’ve got [Jason] Krog and we don’t. We’ve got to find a way to keep him off the board. He was the difference last time, [scoring two goals].

"It seems that they’re playing very well right now and they’re always good at home. But we’re looking forward to it. Another four points are on the line and we’ll just have to see if we’re going to get a couple."

PICKS: UNH wins the battle of the defenses, 4-2 at home and 3-2 at the Mullins Center.

Providence College (7-7-0, 4-4-0 HEA, 5th) at Dartmouth (1-3-0, 3-4-0 ECAC)

Friday, 7 p.m., Thompson Arena, Hanover, N.H.

Providence split its series with Merrimack, continuing a win-one, lose-one trend that has followed form all but two weekends of the season.

"The thing that disappoints me," said coach Paul Pooley after a 3-2 loss to open the series, "is that we had a 2-0 lead and we had a great chance to score a goal [but didn’t]. Then they came down and scored and got a faceoff goal and all of a sudden it’s 2-2."

The previous weekend, the Friars gave up nine goals, seven of which were the scorer’s first of the season and another was a player’s second. That same flaw appeared again in the Merrimack loss.

"I thought the top two lines evened each other out," said Pooley. "[But] their third line got a goal and their fourth line got [the game-winner]. We’ve gotten beaten by that lately."

The Friars salvaged the split, however, with a 3-2 overtime win back at Providence. They dominated the game, but had trouble putting the Warriors away because of the goaltending acrobatics of Tom Welby, who earned league honors for his performance in the series.

"It was a good game," said Pooley. "We had a lot of chances to score. Welby played very, very well. It was a nice victory for us, something we thought we needed. Our team responded nicely."

PC’s goaltender, Mark Kane, proved that he’s not exactly chopped liver himself, with solid performances both nights.

"He played well and held us in there [in the loss]," said Pooley. "He made some big saves to give us the 2-0 lead and made some big saves in the third period, too, because we were pressing to score.

"He played well [in the win, too], making a big save on Kris Porter on a breakaway late in the third period."

The Friars now travel to Dartmouth for their final contest of the calendar year.

"We’ve got 20 games left and we’re 7-7," said Pooley. "We certainly want to make sure that we finish this first half above .500 and continue to get better as a hockey club.

"Dartmouth is a hard-working team and seems to outshoot their opponents quite a bit. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re ready to play up there and play a solid 60 minutes of hockey."

PICK: It’s holiday cheer for the Friars, 4-2.

UMass-Lowell (6-7-0, 4-5-0 HEA, 6th) vs.

Boston University (5-8-1, 3-4-1 HEA, 7th)

Friday, 7 p.m., Paul E. Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA

Saturday, 7 p.m., Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA

UMass-Lowell is coming off a sweep of Northeastern, 2-1 and 4-1, that put the River Hawks within one game of .500 both overall and within Hockey East.

"Any time you can sweep in our league, it’s a big weekend," says coach Tim Whitehead. "The competition is so tough and you play home and away so it’s a tough situation to sweep."

Senior captain Mike Mulligan contributed two assists against Northeastern in addition to his typically physical, two-way play. He’s now not far off a pace that would allow him to match in his final season his prior three-year point total.

"One of the things we were looking for this year was to see more contributions from our senior class," says Whitehead. "We got that from all three positions against Northeastern. All the seniors had a good weekend. We’re going to need that to be successful this year. It was good to see them leading the way."

The River Hawks now will face BU in a home-and-home series, their last games of 1998.

"We’re going to focus more on us," says Whitehead. "That’s what we did [against Northeastern], we focused on our effort. We’re going to do that again this weekend.

"We obviously have a lot of respect for BU and how they play. They’re a talented young team."

In past years, Boston University has been the measuring stick for the rest of the league, finishing first for five years running. Games against the Terriers were always easy to get jacked up for. Once again, the BU jerseys will get the competitive juices going even though this season the Terriers have spent time in last place and are currently below Lowell in the standings.

"Our guys are always excited about playing BU," says Whitehead with a knowing laugh. "BU is not going to finish last in this league and our guys know that. They’ve got three wins in a row so our guys know that we’ll have our hands full."

Like Lowell, Boston University also swept last weekend, taking two 3-2 contests against UMass-Amherst.

"I thought we played better as the weekend progressed," says coach Jack Parker. "On Friday night, we played pretty well in the third period. We got a couple fluky goals in the third to win the game, but despite those we played pretty well.

"And I thought we played a real solid game [on Saturday] at UMass. It was one of the best games we’ve played as far as being technically sound and playing with a little bit of poise on the road. [Michel] Larocque played very well.

"We continued to take a lot of penalties, but they weren’t really stupid penalties. We were just caught in bad situations. Our defense is young and is taking guys down because they’re getting beat.

"I was impressed with UMass. Both nights they played hard and they have a lot quicker team than they have had in the past. They’re going to give a lot of people trouble. We were lucky to get out with all four points."

Prior to the weekend, Parker had called on his upperclassmen to step forward and provide leadership. Although Tommi Degerman was injured in the first game and had to sit out, Parker’s other seniors — Larocque, Albie O’Connell and Dan Ronan — came through. Larocque stopped 61 of 65 shots and O’Connell got Saturday’s game-winner in the final two minutes.

"Albie O’Connell didn’t play on Friday night because of injury, but he played real well on Saturday," says Parker. "Not just that he got the goal, but he had a helluva night as far as overall effort is concerned and really did a nice job for us.

"Larocque has been playing great. And Danny Ronan played really well for the weekend."

The freshmen and the sophomores also played well, scoring five of the six goals against the Minutemen.

On the darker side, however, injuries are becoming a problem. Degerman may miss the Lowell series with the sciatic nerve problem that sidelined him last week.

And even more seriously, Chris Dyment suffered a knee injury in the first period last Friday and won’t be back until after Christmas. In what may be the medical equivalent of piling on in football, Dyment may also have pneumonia. With fellow freshman blueliner Pat Aufiero still out with a broken wrist, the paper-thin Terrier defense will be struggling to keep its head above water.

"Obviously, we can’t afford to lose those guys for long periods of time," says Parker. "At least the injuries came at a good time. We’ve just got these two games left and then we go on a pretty good break. When we come back, we don’t play any league games until [Jan. 5,] after we go to Minnesota."

In the meantime, though, other players will have to pick up the slack left by their sidelined teammates.

"I thought [defenseman Dave] LoPresti filled in very nicely against UMass-Amherst in a big rink," says Parker. "He might have a little easier time at Lowell with its smaller rink. And we’ve been playing all year without Aufiero anyways.

"We’ll miss Dyment on the power play and obviously Degerman up front, if he doesn’t play. But if the big guys step up, maybe we can get through this.

"Obviously, Lowell had a great weekend, too. We’ll have all we can do to handle them. They’re a team that we’re looking up at in the standings trying to catch, so it’ll be a big series for both of us."

PICKS: BU’s depth problems on defense could turn this into a Lowell sweep, but instead look for both teams to hold serve on their home ice. The River Hawks win, 4-2, before the Terriers get the split, 3-2.

Thanks to Scott Weighart for his contributions to this preview.

Quinnipiac Commits To New Arena, More Financial Support, Women’s Team

USCHO Staff Report
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On Friday, Quinnipiac president John L. Lahey and athletic director Jack McDonald announced extensive plans to upgrade the Braves’ hockey program.

Quinnipiac’s commitment comes in the form of a new hockey arena, implementation of women’s ice hockey at the varsity level, promotion of part-time men’s coach Rand Pecknold to full-time status, the addition of U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey head coach Ben Smith as a consultant, and increased financial support for scholarships and recruiting.

“The college is very pleased with the tremendous progress all student-athletes and coaches have made during our Division I transition,” Lahey said. “In this region, college hockey is extremely popular and it is our hope to compete with the country’s best men and women’s teams.”

The proposed facility, to be located on newly-acquired property near the Quinnipiac campus, will have separate sections for ice hockey and basketball that will each seat 3,000. In the meantime, Quinnipiac will move to the Northford Ice Pavilion, which opened in September.

Lahey also announced that Quinnipiac will add women’s hockey as an exhibition sport in 1999, moving to varsity status in 2000-2001. Quinnipiac will immediately apply for membership in the ECAC women’s league, and a search for a new coach will begin immediately.

Also coming is the full-time appointment of current Braves’ head coach Pecknold, who has spent the past five years as a part-time coach. Last season, Pecknold guided the Braves to the best winning percentage in school history, a 19-3-1 record in Quinnipiac’s final season in Division II. Meanwhile, Smith, who led the U.S. to the 1998 Olympic gold medal and has been head men’s ice hockey coach at Northeastern and Dartmouth, will serve as a consultant on development for the men’s and women’s teams.

This Week in the WCHA: December 4, 1998

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As the Western Collegiate Hockey Association schedule enters December, teams start to look at their positioning in the conference — and what they can do about it before the end of the year.

With only a couple weeks of play before teams break the conference schedule for the holidays, the WCHA standings are shaking out exactly as some would have forecasted at the start of the year: Colorado College and North Dakota are battling for the top spot. The Tigers have a three-point lead on the Sioux, but North Dakota has two league games in hand.

Maybe it’s still a little early to say this, but this looks like a race that’s going to come down to the finish. Can’t get enough of these teams? Mark Jan. 15 and 16 on your calendar. That’s when North Dakota invades Colorado Springs for round two of the season series.

But let’s not forget about the rest of the league. Minnesota and Wisconsin occupy the third and fourth spots, but look out for fifth-place Denver. The Pioneers are only two games out of third, having played four fewer games than the Gophers and two fewer than UW. The Pioneers pick up two games on those teams this weekend as the Big Ten rivals take the week off and DU hosts the Sioux.

Michigan Tech, Alaska-Anchorage and St. Cloud State are in a logjam for sixth, each with eight points through 10 league games. These teams have to get it in gear soon if they hope to move into the top half by the time the playoffs begin.

And then there’s Minnesota-Duluth, who is still looking for its first conference victory of the season. They have to find some scoring before they can look to move up at all.

Before teams look ahead, however, seven of them have to look at this week, which includes a matchup between No. 1 North Dakota and No. 10 Denver.

No. 1 North Dakota (8-1-1, 6-1-1 WCHA) at No. 10 Denver (7-3, 5-3 WCHA) Saturday-Sunday, 7:05-7:35 MT, McNichols Arena, Denver

North Dakota grabbed its first road sweep of the season against St. Cloud State last weekend; the Sioux’s road swing continues this weekend with a trip to Denver to face the Pioneers.

But the Sioux once again enter a weekend series with a big target squarely on their collective chest. After all, when you’re the No. 1 team in the country, there are going to be people shooting for you.

"We bring out the best, it seems, in everyone, so we have to counter that with being ready for it," UND coach Dean Blais said. "We’ve scored a lot of goals in the third period just because the other teams eventually wear down from clutching, grabbing and interfering. Finally, we break loose and score some goals."

The goaltending situation in Grand Forks has become a little more interesting in the last few weeks, as Andy Kollar has received his share of the time in nets, even replacing No. 1 goalie Karl Goehring in last Saturday’s victory. Blais said it’s long been the plan to get Kollar some time.

"We wanted to split Karl and Andy all year," Blais said. "(Andy) got hurt when Clarkson was in here and so we had to play Karl both games and Andy didn’t get a chance to play that game. He’s been pretty patient, he sat out all of last year and the year before he was in Fargo with Karl and they split the duties."

Blais also noted that Goehring seems to understand the process and what he needs to do.

"We’ve had seniors sit out because of inconsistent play and goaltending is really no different," Blais said. "He understands that. He’s still our No. 1 goalie and we’re going to keep going to him."

One of the brightest spots this season for North Dakota has been the play of Lee Goren. After sitting out most of last season with illness and injuries, Goren recorded his first career hat trick last Saturday. Playing alongside Jason Blake has been an asset.

"Jason will find a way to get him the puck and Lee’s been burying it," Blais said. "He had two goals where he had great shots to score goals. He’s found a way to score, whether it’s shooting, rebounds, tip-ins, whatever."

Denver comes off an idle week spent taking exams. Fun. Whether the week off is beneficial or takes its toll remains to be seen, but the Pioneers are trying to get the bad taste of three straight splits out of their mouth.

"I don’t think any of us were very happy with what happened," DU coach George Gwozdecky said. "I think that’s characteristic of teams that are learning how to win and developing that winning attitude. In a very short while, we’ve gone from an underdog to one of the teams to be beaten. There are times we have not shown up to play the way we need to play in order to be successful and teams have taken advantage of that."

Back at the start of the season, Gwozdecky said he felt his team was going to be much more competitive than last year’s squad. The attitudes of some of the players had changed to focus on doing what it takes to win.

The senior leadership hasn’t hurt, either.

"I think sometimes people overlook the effect that an experienced senior class has on a team," Gwozdecky said. "Three seasons ago, we had a big senior class and we were an overtime post away from advancing to the Final Four. Last year, we basically have one player in our senior class and it’s a struggle for us. You look at this team this year and we have nine seniors in our senior class, and quite a number of them play on a regular basis."

This year’s group of seniors has seen its share of the peaks and valleys — 1996-97 being a peak and 1997-98 being a valley.

"That’s what experience is all about. You’ve seen the good times and the bad times and you want to make sure that especially during your last year, you try to make sure everybody’s going to go through the good times," Gwozdecky said. "I think through the early part of the season, we’re experiencing more good than we did in the past."

Blais said one game in particular made him stand up and take notice of Denver this season.

"The thing that made us aware of how good they are and how much improved they are is they beat CC 6-0 after losing 6-4, which is even not too bad of a loss in Colorado Springs," he said.

But Gwozdecky is quick to point out that there’s more to his team than a win over Colorado College.

"We’ve done more than beat CC 6-0," Gwozdecky said. "I think this team has seen what they’re capable of doing, whether it’s against CC or Wisconsin or whoever. Right now, the only team we’re most concerned about is ourselves. I don’t mean to say that we don’t respect North Dakota or whoever. We do, but the biggest thing any successful team needs to do is look at themselves and make sure they are showing up playing the way they play."

Picks: North Dakota has firepower, but so does Denver. The matchup between Jason Blake and Lee Goren on one side and Paul Comrie and James Patterson on the other should be interesting to watch. As capable as the Sioux are of sweeping, Denver will not be swept at home. UND 4-2, DU 6-3

St. Cloud State (5-7, 4-8 WCHA) at No. 2 Colorado College (10-2, 8-2 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35-7:05 MT, Colorado Springs World Arena, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Coach Craig Dahl’s team’s whirlwind tour of the top teams in the nation takes another round this weekend as SCSU follows a series against No. 1 North Dakota with a trip to face No. 2 Colorado College.

Dahl hopes the Huskies can stand to gain from these series.

"You have to treat it like a learning situation," Dahl said. "You need your team to understand what it takes to compete at that level. If you treat it as such and then take the tapes and try to learn from it, it can be beneficial."

The Huskies dropped two to the Sioux last weekend, 4-3 and 7-4. Despite the scores, Dahl said he thought his team played better on Saturday.

"Circumstances sometimes in a hockey game dictate the final score, sometimes it’s not really indicative of the game itself," Dahl said. "We got outshot Friday night, we didn’t play very well in our defensive zone. Saturday, we outshot them 35-31 and it was 4-3 in the third. They get a five-minute power play on a questionable call, make it 5-3 and then they got two cheapies. I felt really good about the game, both of them were good learning experiences for us."

One positive note for SCSU is the improvement in the goaltending situation. Dean Weasler has stepped to the forefront recently, playing well against Minnesota-Duluth two weeks ago and standing his ground against UND.

"I feel better now than I did three weeks ago," Dahl said. "Hopefully, he’s rounding into shape. Obviously, consistency is always the key. I think if we had this goaltending earlier, we probably wouldn’t have eight losses."

Colorado College coach Don Lucia has said all along that his team couldn’t count only on the play of Brian Swanson to carry his team. But Swanson certainly has done his part to prove his preseason Hobey Baker hype favorite correct, scoring eight points last weekend on four goals and four assists. He moved into seventh place on CC’s all-time scoring list with 192 career points.

"He has played by far the best hockey he’s played since he’s been here, at both ends of the rink," Lucia said. "That’s what’s impressive, that Brian’s a very good defensive player. He takes pride in that. A lot of times, we get a lead like at North Dakota, he had three assists in the first period, he’s in a defensive mode at that point. He’s not as concerned about trying to generate offense as making sure we win the game. That’s the type of player he is."

And here’s something that should scare most goaltenders in the WCHA: the CC coaches have encouraged Swanson to shoot more.

"I think if you’d ask Brian, he’d say he was a better playmaker than goal-scorer," Lucia said. "One of the things we talked to Brian about was shooting the puck more because he has a tremendous shot. There’s no reason he shouldn’t score 25, 30 goals."

But as sure as the Tigers offense and defense are right now, Lucia is still trying to determine who his No. 1 goaltender is going to be.

"We have not even made our mind up what we’re going to do this weekend," Lucia said. "There’s a chance one of them might play both games. I think we’re getting closer to figuring out who we think our No. 1 goaltender is. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t change as we go along."

Lucia also expressed a concern a number of college hockey coaches have this time of year. The list of invitees to the junior national teams was released this week, and for Lucia, sophomore right wing Justin Morrison is on that list.

"I don’t know what we’re going to do yet to be honest," Lucia said. "All of a sudden, two-thirds of our second line is gone at Christmas time. What’s disappointing for us is that we have some pretty big games at that time. We have Boston College in the first round of the Denver Cup and then we have Maine and New Hampshire after that. It certainly has an impact; those are power-ranking games that come into play at the end of the year."

This weekend’s series may appear to be lopsided, but St. Cloud State has experience playing the top teams now, which can be invaluable. Dahl said a couple power play goals wouldn’t hurt, either.

"I think we’ve got to crank our power play. That certainly would help us if we could count on one goal a game from our power play," Dahl said. "If you can average four (goals per game), you’re probably going to win. If you only average three, you’re probably going to lose."

Picks: Don’t count SCSU out right off the bat. But CC’s power will come through, with Swanson again leading the way. CC 6-3, 5-4

Minnesota-Duluth (1-9-2, 0-8-2 WCHA) at Michigan Tech (4-8, 4-6 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35-7:05 ET, MacInnes Student Ice Arena, Houghton, Mich.

What effect will having two weeks off play on the Michigan Tech players? Who knows. Whether the team will have lost an edge in that time or will be fired up to get back remains to be seen, but coach Tim Watters said it was the right time to get some time off.

"We had two weekends in a row off and the guys are very anxious to get back at it," he said. "I think the break came at a good time. We had finals week after the weekend with St. Cloud."

Watters’ team, which has a 4-8 record overall, has been getting better since a series in Alaska.

"Since we played in Alaska, we’ve gotten back to the basics and we’ve taken small steps and we’ve slowly improved our game a little bit," Watters said. "It’s also improved our confidence. I think it’s been a real growing experience for our young guys through the first third of the season. I said from Day One that our team is going to benefit from the experience of the season."

Minnesota-Duluth, despite having not won a WCHA game yet this season, still puts some fear into Watters. He said they could bust loose at any time.

"They’re struggling maybe a little bit, but they certainly scare me," Watters said. "I think they’re a team very similar to ours, they’re a young team. I’m just scared they’re all of a sudden going to come out of it for this weekend. I think they have the potential to do that."

The Bulldogs, though, have scored just 12 goals in eight conference games this season. Jeff Scissons is the team’s leading scorer with eight points (four goals, four assists).

Although the Bulldogs are dead last in the WCHA in scoring, they are in the middle of the pack in defense, with Brant Nicklin still doing what he can to hold the fort. If the Bulldogs pull out of their scoring funk, wins shouldn’t be as much of a problem as they have been.

Watters gave an outlook for his team that could be easily transferred to either team.

"I think the important thing is we want to play well," Watters said. "If we play well and execute in the things we’ve been stressing, you have to be pleased with that as a coach."

Picks: Tech is on the rise, while Duluth is still in a funk. Getting a sweep here may propel the Huskies to better things in the new year. MTU 2-1, 3-2

Air Force (6-5) at Alaska-Anchorage (4-8-2, 3-5-2 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35 AT, Sullivan Arena, Anchorage, Alaska

Coming off gaining three road points against Duluth last weekend, coach Dean Talafous’ Seawolf squad takes a break from the conference schedule to face Air Force.

In their last five games, UAA has lost only once. They are 2-1-2 in that time. Part of the reason for that is the play of the freshman class, including goaltender Gregg Naumenko. He made 58 saves against Duluth last weekend. Naumenko has a 3-3-2 record with a 2.41 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage. He was selected the WCHA Rookie of the Week last week.

The Seawolf freshman class has accounted for 31 of Anchorage’s 81 points and 13 of 32 goals. Three of the team’s top five scorers are freshmen: Mike Scott, Steve Cygan and Jeff Carlson.

The power play remains a struggle for the Seawolves. They are 0 for 31 in the WCHA this season and 1 for 56 overall, not having scored in their last 46 chances.

Here’s a bit of history: The last time these teams met, Anchorage not only swept the Falcons, they didn’t allow them a goal. UAA won 3-0 on Feb. 26, 1993 and completed the sweep with a 4-0 win a day later.

Air Force lost to Colorado College and UMass-Amherst last weekend. Senior Justin Kieffer, a third-team All-American last season, leads the Falcons with 13 assists this year. Freshman forward Tony Lawrence leads the team with 18 points (nine goals, nine assists).

Picks: Will this be a repeat of that ’93 series? Probably not, even with the stellar play of Naumenko in goal. UAA 4-2, 3-2

Next Week’s Schedule

Friday, Dec. 11 Denver at Alaska-Anchorage Wisconsin at North Dakota Mankato State at Colorado College Michigan Tech at Lake Superior State Colgate at Minnesota-Duluth St. Cloud State at Miami

Saturday, Dec. 12 Denver at Alaska-Anchorage Wisconsin at North Dakota Mankato State at Colorado College Michigan Tech at Lake Superior State Colgate at Minnesota-Duluth St. Cloud State at Miami

This Week in Hockey East: December 4, 1998

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After watching the Governor’s Cup this past weekend, I’ve decided to institute the Hendrickson Forget-The-Box-Scores Player of the Week Award to be given to the player whose contributions other than goals and assists I found particularly impressive.

Unfortunately, not everyone will have an equal chance at this award. After seeing all the teams at least once, I do try to see the more important games as they relate to the league standings. As a result, I’ll see teams near the top of the standings more than those at the bottom. And trips to Orono, Amherst and Providence happen less often than games in my back yard.

That said, this is a chance to recognize the role players and especially the defensive defensemen who rarely get their time in the spotlight.

May I have a drum roll and the first envelope, please.

Although I was mightily impressed with several candidates this weekend — toughest to omit were Maine’s freshmen defensemen — the first winner of the Forget-The-Box-Scores award is New Hampshire defenseman Jayme Filipowicz. Forget the goal he scored. He was immense in UNH’s loss to Maine. Quietly, he has become one of the top defensemen in the league.

Corporations with deep pockets that wish to sponsor this award can reach me 24 hours a day at 1-900-IMBROKE.

Onward…

After a so-so performance outside the conference (7-6), Hockey East returns to exclusively league competition this week. The slate of matchups is led by No. 5 Boston College against No. 7 New Hampshire.

But first, here’s a look at the bevy of league award winners.

Hockey East Player of the Month: Rejean Stringer (F, Merrimack) scored six goals with nine assists in the month and now is tied for first in overall league scoring. Not coincidentally, Merrimack posted a 5-2 record in November.

Hockey East Rookie of the Month: Darren Haydar (F, New Hampshire), winner of the weekly award on Nov. 16 and 23, totaled eight goals and two assists in November. He has points in his last six games and goals in five of the six.

Heaton/Hockey East Goalie of the Month: Markus Helanen (UMass-Amherst) posted a 3-4-1 record with a 2.23 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage. His 87-save weekend against Maine led the Minutemen to a 2-1 win and a 1-1 tie, the only blemishes on the Black Bears’ record.

KOHO Player of the Week: Steve Kariya (F, Maine) took Governor’s Cup honors with two goals in a 4-3 win over UNH and an assist in the title game, a 2-0 victory over Vermont.

Heaton Defensive Player of the Week: Michel Larocque (G, Boston University) stopped 45 of 46 shots to lead the Terriers to a 2-1 win at St. Lawrence.

KOHO Rookie of the Week: Willie Levesque (F, Northeastern) recorded a hat trick in the Huskies’ 5-1 win at Army.

Finally, in addition to the schools noted last week, Providence College has also announced the recruits that it reached agreements with during the early signing period: Jonathan DiSalvatore (New England Coyotes, F), Michael Lucci (Omaha Lancers, F) and Devin Rask (Yorkton Terriers, F).

Hockey East Standings

Record in picks last week: 11-4 Season’s record in picks: 50-26, .658

No. 5 Boston College (7-3-1, 4-2-0 HEA, 3rd) vs. No. 7 New Hampshire (8-2-1, 4-1-1 HEA, T-1st)

Friday, 7 p.m., Whittemore Center, Durham, NH NH Public TV

Saturday, 7 p.m., Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Boston College had to settle for a split in its trip to the North Country, parlaying a third-period surge into a 6-2 win over St. Lawrence before falling to Clarkson, 4-2.

"That’s quite a college hockey weekend at Clarkson and at St.Lawrence," says coach Jerry York. "Historically, it’s been difficult for BC to get a sweep there — 1983-84 is the last time we swept. It proved to be just as difficult this weekend."

On Friday, the Eagles trailed the Saints, 2-1, heading into the third before exploding with five goals.

"We really got some hot sticks in the third and capitalized," says York. "But it was a lot closer game than the score indicated. I was very impressed with the way they played, especially their goaltender, [Eric Heffler], early in the game."

The roles were reversed on Saturday night against Clarkson. BC led going into the third period, 1-0, but saw the Golden Knights scored twice to take a 2-1 win.

"They capitalized on a four-on-three with about eight and a half minutes left in the game," says York. "It was just a hard, hard defensive battle. There wasn’t much room on the ice for either team."

The Eagles have now had to settle for splits in each of the last three weekends, falling from a No. 2 ranking to No. 5. Five of the six games have been against teams with losing records, prompting groans from some of the Chestnut Hill faithful who were expecting sweeps.

"There are a lot of good teams in college hockey," says York. "We’re going into buildings now and playing games that seem to be very important to other teams. In the past, that hasn’t been the case.

"So we’re coming in with a reputation, almost like it’s is a bowl game. That happens to all good teams. Michigan, of course, and BU over the last decade have both faced that. We’re playing some very focused teams and there’s not much difference in clubs in college hockey now.

"But those good, hard battles are good for us. So we’re just going to keep on swinging. Our defense has played pretty well the last couple games. We feel pretty well about holding teams down. Now we just have to capitalize some more on our chances."

They’ll have to do so against one of the top defenses in the collegiate game, as they embark on a home-and-home series with UNH.

"We’re back in our league and that focuses us a little bit more on the Hockey East race," says York. "Maine and New Hampshire have certainly broken very, very fast. New Hampshire is a great rival of ours and this will certainly have a big bearing on the top few spots in our league."

New Hampshire suffered a frustrating 4-3 loss to Maine in the Governor’s Cup opener, but dominated UMass-Lowell in the consolation game, 5-1.

Wildcat fans, not mention coach Dick Umile, were incensed at penalties in the final minute that took away the team’s chance to get an extra-skater goal.

"It was a battle," said Umile after the loss, refusing to comment on the officiating. "It was a good hockey game. The third period was a battle. They played a very defensive period. We had our chances to win the game, but we didn’t get it done."

In the consolation game, New Hampshire shut down Lowell in the first period, holding the River Hawks without a single shot.

"When you have a period like that, it shows that the team is playing really well," said goaltender Ty Conklin, who maintained his mental edge by skating around during every stoppage and playing the puck whenever he had a chance. "As long as the team is playing really well, then I’m happy."

Although the River Hawks performed better in the final two periods, UNH still emerged with a clear-cut win.

"I give the guys a lot of credit," said Umile. "It’s difficult to come out and play that afternoon game. It’s a tough game to play, a consolation game.

"[Lowell] obviously came out flat and we came out real strong. It was a combination of the two."

The clamor among many UNH backers to play Conklin more became a little louder after Maine’s Alfie Michaud outdueled senior Sean Matile in the first round. Like most big goalies, Matile can be susceptible to low shots and when he gives up a soft one, it looks worse than for a smaller, more active netminder. And that certainly happened against Maine.

A statistical comparison between the two shows a vast difference — Conklin: 4-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .945 Sv% and Matile: 4-2-1, 2.83 GAA, .856 Sv% — but the stats are almost certainly misleading at this point.

Umile isn’t about to throw Matile overboard, not after the senior has played virtually every important UNH game for the last two years. He did make a few critical saves on the way to the Final Four last year.

That said, it wouldn’t be a shock to see a split in playing time between the two netminders this weekend and perhaps next as well.

As noted in this preview’s introduction, defenseman Jayme Filipowicz played a splendid game against Maine, earning the inaugural Forget-The-Box-Scores Player of the Week Award.

PICKS: UNH wins 3-2 at the Whittemore Center, but BC splits again with a 4-3 victory back at Conte Forum.

Merrimack (6-5-0, 3-2-0 HEA, 4th) vs.

Providence College (6-6-0, 3-3-0 HEA, 5th) and No. 5 Boston College (7-3-1, 4-2-0 HEA, 3rd)

Thursday (PC) and Tuesday (BC), 7 p.m., Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA

Friday, 7 p.m., Schneider Arena, Providence, RI

Merrimack defeated Yale, 6-3, but lost at Princeton, 4-1.

"We played the same way the two games," says coach Chris Serino. "We basically played very well in the first and third periods and awful in the second period. The difference was that at Princeton they scored some goals in the second period when we were down. At Yale, we were playing well in the first period and we put the puck in the net.

"We played sound defensively in the third period, holding both teams to [six or seven] shots. We just had big lead in the Yale game, but had given Princeton too big a lead in the second."

Defenseman Stephen Moon — 6-5, 240 pounds — made his eagerly anticipated debut on the weekend and didn’t disappoint. He assisted on three Warrior goals against Yale and reportedly was a major force.

"I’ve said that you’re not going to see how good he is or what he can do until the middle of January or the beginning of February," says Serino. "He’s making some mistakes right now that hurt us. He knows our systems and what we’re doing, but it’s a lot different in a game when the pace is a lot faster. He made some mistakes, but he made up for them, too.

"People look at him and they just see this crusher at 6-5, 240. But he’s a very skilled kid. And he can pass the puck. He makes plays with the puck. He can shoot it. In the long run, he’s going to help us an awful lot.

"When he hits his stride, he’ll be as good a defenseman as there is in the league. He has it all. He’s big and strong. He’s got all the physical attributes. Plus, he’s got fabulous hands."

Unfortunately, just as Moon rounds into playing shape in these upcoming three games, the team will go on break. Even so, Merrimack could be a surprising dark horse in the race for home ice over the second half with Moon in the lineup.

Rejean Stringer earned Player of the Month honors after being a runner-up for the weekly award four times.

"He’s just a great player," says Serino, who’ll have much more to say about his star in an upcoming USCHO feature. "Not only is he a good player, he’s like having another coach on the ice. He’s very smart. Mark Mowers was like that at UNH.

"I don’t know if he’ll win the Hobey Baker Award because of where we are and the amount of publicity we get, but I’ll be shocked if he isn’t a finalist."

The Warriors will be facing their sternest test in terms of league competition in the next three games as they take on Providence College and Boston College.

"Obviously, Providence has won some big games this year," says Serino. "They beat UNH. They beat BU a couple times. So that’s going to be a great test for us. We’re really looking forward to seeing how far we’ve come and where we’re at.

"And obviously we’re playing one of the top teams in the country in BC. We’re looking forward to it."

Providence acted as Merrimack’s travel partner last week and had similar results, losing to Princeton, 6-5, but defeating Yale, 5-3.

"Friday night [against Princeton] in the first period, we weren’t very good at all," says coach Paul Pooley. "Four bad turnovers really cost us.

"But Saturday night at Yale we played a solid game. It’s always nice to get a win on the road."

After getting off to a good start, goaltender Boyd Ballard is struggling, much as he did during parts of last year. He’s lost his last three games, allowing five goals on 24 shots against Minnesota-Duluth, fours goals on 15 shots in half a game against Maine and, last week, four goals on nine Princeton shots in just one period.

"Mark Kane is the guy right now," says Pooley. "Boyd hasn’t played that well. Quite honestly, goaltending has hurt us over the last few games.

"Mark played well at Maine and did well when he went in on Friday night [against Princeton]. He played a real good game at Yale. We took some penalties and he made some great saves for us.

"So right now he’s the guy we’re going to look for leadership from while we look to get Boyd back on track."

The Friars will be hoping the Yale win got them back on track as a team after losing the previous four games. They had opened the season with wins in their first three league games.

If they aren’t on track, though, the surprising Warriors aren’t going to make it easy getting back on.

"They work real hard," says Pooley. "They’ve played well. They’re probably a little hungry.

"Stringer is obviously playing very, very well. We know they can score and their goaltending is apparently solid. They’re just a good hard-working hockey club that comes to play every night.

"We’ve got to match their intensity, play good defense and wait for our opportunities to score."

So will PC pay extra attention to Stringer, perhaps siccing a checking line on his?

"It depends on how the game goes," says Pooley. "If the match-ups aren’t going well, then we’ll switch them.

"But the funny thing is that the top lines on the other teams haven’t hurt us. It’s been the third and fourth lines that have hurt us. Like against Princeton, Jeff Halpern had a goal, but they had six different guys score and three or four of them had first goals.

"Our third and fourth lines have to do a better job of shutting [the other team] down. It’s been the guys that haven’t been the focus guys that have hurt us. That’s what has been frustrating. You shut the big guys down and the other guys nip you in the butt."

PICKS: Providence and Merrimack both win at home, 4-3. BC takes the midweek contest, 4-2, over the Warriors.

UMass-Amherst (4-6-1, 2-2-1 HEA, 6th) vs.

Boston University (3-8-1, 1-4-1 HEA, 8th)

Friday, 7 p.m., Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA WABU-TV68

Saturday, 7 p.m., Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

UMass-Amherst split on its weekend trip to Colorado, losing to No. 2 Colorado College, 4-2, before rebounding with a 6-2 win over Air Force.

Against CC, the Minutemen scored late to bring themselves within one goal, but Hobey Baker hopeful Brian Swanson answered that with 27 seconds remaining.

"We’ve played against some pretty good teams [Michigan State, New Hampshire and Maine], but Colorado College was the best team we’ve played so far," says coach Joe Mallen. "They move the puck better than any team I’ve seen in a long number of years."

According to Mallen, the relatively close score belied the team’s actual performance.

"We didn’t play that well at all," he says. "On a scale of one to 10, we were maybe a four or five, at best. I felt that the altitude affected us a little bit…and some of our young guys were a bit in awe of Colorado College, for whatever reason.

"But in the first period, Markus Helanen kept us in it. When we scored the two goals late in the game, it was 3-2 with 42 seconds to go against the number two team in the country. I thought we had a chance to tie, but we made a freshman mistake on a dump-in and, next thing you know, there’s an All-American going the other way, scoring one of the nicest goals of the year to make it 4-2 and it was all over."

Helanen, who stopped 33 shots in the game, earned the league’s Goaltender of the Month Award.

"He’s just an extremely nice kid," says Mallen. "He’s very quiet, but he’s also well-spoken. He’s a good athlete. He’s a competitor. He has really risen to the occasion so we’re really proud of what he’s done."

At 5:00 the next evening, the Minutemen took on a rested Air Force squad and after being tied, 2-2, after one period, scored four unanswered goals to win going away.

"Brian Fitzgerald got a goal and two assists in that game and Ray Geever got two goals on the weekend, [one in each game,]" says Mallen. "Those are guys who haven’t scored much for us at all.

"If as a result of their scoring, those guys can get a little bit more confidence and some of our [top] guys score, then we’re going to have a chance to win a lot of games."

Geever, who didn’t get a point in seven contests as a freshman last year, now totals five in 11 games.

"Ray really needed to develop last year, but he worked extremely hard and he’s earned his spot on the team," says Mallen. "He’s been playing with Jeff Turner, who I feel is a pretty good player, and he’s been getting his chances.

"He had some great chances against some of the better teams we played against, but couldn’t score. Once he broke the ice against Colorado College, I told him, ‘Now the ice is broken, let’s see you keep going,’ and he got one the second night, so that was great for the team."

The Minutemen now face BU from a different perspective — a higher position in the Hockey East standings — than past years.

"Their record may be a little deceiving," says Mallen. "The teams they’ve beaten include Princeton, who could wind up at the top of the ECAC, and BC, who certainly is going to be near the top of Hockey East, and St. Lawrence, who has been having a great year. So they’re capable of beating anybody.

"I would certainly say that on paper, though, it’s the first time that we’re going to go into that rink with an equal chance of winning that game as opposed to the last four or five years. Our kids are optimistic and upbeat. They’re just looking forward to the weekend."

Boston University gained the same North Country split that its travel partner, Boston College, achieved, losing to Clarkson, 4-2, and defeating St. Lawrence, 2-1.

"It was more of the same for us," says coach Jack Parker. "We played fairly well against St. Lawrence and competed hard, but we did not do that against Clarkson until the third period. Probably our best period [of the weekend] was the third period against Clarkson, but it was too late.

"We don’t seem to be able to put together 60 minutes of a hockey game. We have some guys show up one night, but not the next."

After the loss to Clarkson, Parker was even more pointed in his comments.

"We have guys who look more at the scoreboard and give less effort," he said.

"There’s not a lot of leadership with the upperclassmen. There [are] a lot who don’t compete….The freshmen can’t do much without the seniors."

Goaltending provided the two biggest positives on the trip. Freshman Jason Tapp, Michel Larocque’s heir apparent, played in his first full game and second overall. He stopped 30 of 33 shots.

"We’re real happy with his overall performance and very, very happy with his poise and the way he handled the puck," says Parker. "He seemed very sharp."

In the 2-1 win over the Saints, Larocque stopped 45 of 46 shots, earning him league Defensive Player of the Week honors.

"It was similar to the BC game [a week earlier]," says Parker. "We had to kill off a lot of penalties. They went 1-for-11 on the power play and had a couple five-on-threes, so they got a lot of shots in those situations. He rose to the occasion, obviously, and we did a good job of killing penalties in front of him.

"When it was five-on-five, we kind of held the advantage, but we were in the penalty box too much."

In past years, the Terriers have feasted on UMass-Amherst. Except for a 10-2 UMass win during the 1919-20 season, BU has won all the other 18 contests. Since the Minutemen joined Hockey East in 1994-95, they haven’t managed even a single one-goal loss and the average margin of defeat has been 4.3 goals.

But as a non-hockey player from Hibbing, Minn., once wrote, "The Times, They Are A-Changin’."

The Minutemen haven’t allowed more than four goals-against all season and are above the Terriers in the Hockey East standings.

"I don’t think there’s any question that we’ve had their number over a long period of time," says Parker. "But they’ve played much better of late. They gave Maine all they could handle two weeks ago and I guess they’re getting great goaltending."

PICKS: BU wins at home, 4-2, but UMass-Amherst gets a satisfying split, 2-1, back at the Mullins Center.

UMass-Lowell (4-7-0, 2-5-0 HEA, 7th) vs.

Northeastern (4-7-0, 1-4-0 HEA, 9th)

Friday, 7 p.m., Matthews Arena, Boston, MA

Saturday, 7 p.m., Paul E. Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA

UMass-Lowell dropped the opener and the consolation game of the Governor’s Cup, both of which hurt, but for different reasons.

The River Hawks did everything but win against Vermont in the opener, but waterbug Donnie Richardson gave UVM a 4-3 win at 2:47 of overtime.

"Tough loss," said coach Tim Whitehead after the game. "Any time you lose in overtime, it’s a tough loss. Sometimes you’re going to win them and sometimes you aren’t. Obviously, we’re hosting the tournament and wanted to be in the championship very badly. That’s disappointing."

Making it even more disappointing, though, was the way they controlled key parts of the game, outshooting the Catamounts, 30-17, but couldn’t bury their glittering opportunities in crunch time.

"That happens a lot," said Whitehead. "That’s part of the game. We wanted to hold down their quality chances and their shots on net. I thought we did that with a couple exceptions.

"But we turned it over a couple times and they made us pay for it. We have to play squeaky clean to win those type of games."

Hurting for a different reason was a 5-1 loss to UNH in the consolation.

Lowell set a new team record for futility in the opening period, going the entire 20 minutes without getting a single shot on goal. The dubious achievement broke the previous mark of one shot, first set on Dec. 1, 1976 in the first period of a 6-1 loss to Bowdoin and then equaled on Nov. 5, 1986 in the third period against Boston College, a 4-3 loss.

"What first period? We missed it," said Whitehead, who simply handed his team copies of the shot chart during the intermission.

"We obviously just didn’t show. A lot of times [in consolation games], one or both teams won’t show, but that doesn’t excuse it. It’s just not an exciting event, but that doesn’t excuse it. UNH showed."

Lowell did pick up its play in the second period, but the damage had been done.

"We started playing better, but you can’t spot a team like that a couple goals in a game that already doesn’t have a lot of motivation and then expect to light the world on fire," said Whitehead. "We dug ourselves a hole and couldn’t get out."

As an aside, although the Governor’s Cup will be no more, UML will host another tournament at the Tsongas Arena at the same time next year. Yale, Air Force and an unconfirmed Western team will be the competition.

Northeastern only played one game last weekend, but earned a 5-1 win out of its trip to Army.

"It was something we needed," says coach Bruce Crowder. "Two out of our last three losses, we had played pretty well, but we didn’t get anything out of it. So to go in and get a W was what we needed. We got a confidence boost and I also thought we played well down there."

Willie Levesque netted his first hat trick, earning him league Rookie of the Week honors.

"He played extremely well," says Crowder. "He might have had six goals. He had a lot of opportunities.

"He got [leveled] right at about 10 minutes into the first period and then he went and scored three goals. So I’m going to try," quipped Crowder, "to get that set up before the next game."

The Huskies’ list of walking wounded continues to include some pivotal names. Billy Newson, the offense’s sparkplug, remains doubtful for the weekend with a shoulder injury.

And even more seriously, Arik Engbrecht, one of the team’s top defenders as a freshman last year, may have to shut down for the season. Some bulging disks in his back have not responded since the injury occurred while lifting in the spring. Since half a year has already passed without his return to the lineup, the stark reality might be that he’ll have to redshirt this year and try again next fall.

Coupled with last season’s career-ending injury to fellow defensemen Aaron Toews, the Huskies have simply had no good luck at all in terms of the health of their blueliners.

In any case, they will now try to leverage their win over Army into a successful weekend against UMass-Lowell.

"It’s going to be an interesting series," says Crowder. "They’re the team that knocked us out of the playoffs last year. We’re going to have to be at the top of our game, but at the same time, we’re excited about getting back to playing some Hockey East games."

PICKS: In case you haven’t spotted the trend in these picks, this looks like a fourth split, with the home team taking 3-2 wins both nights.

Thanks to Scott Weighart, Juan Martinez and Rich Tibbetts for their contributions to this preview.

This Week in the CCHA: December 4, 1998

By
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CCHA fans, you have spoken–and I have heard.

Ever since taking a puck to the head, my predictions have been terrible. I admit it. Now, I’m not saying there is any kind of cause-and-effect going on here, but the timing is interesting, n’est-ce pas?

So, I’ve decided to seek professional help. I’ve consulted a Web oracle.

For each match this weekend, I asked the oracle, "Will X beat Y?" and "Will Y beat X?" I also meditated–as instructed–on each pairing.

With every pick, I’ll share what the oracle revealed. In some cases, I felt the need to pick against the advice of the oracle, especially in the Notre Dame-Ohio State series. Notre Dame gets my pick for the rest of the season, no matter what the spiritual world advises.

In order to test the accuracy of this oracle, I decided to ask it a few basic questions. Here’s what the oracle chose to reveal to me.

Q: Will the sun rise tomorrow? A: Yes, but don’t worry so much.

I’ll buy that.

Q: Where are my car keys? A: To seek permission is to seek denial.

That too.

Q: Will the CCHA be a hard-contested conference? A: Some storms must be weathered first.

Wow!

Q: Are these really, really the last two games in the teeny, tiny, OSU Ice Rink? A: It will take some effort.

Freaky.

Q: What about that cute guy I have this crush on? A: You will pass the test.

Genius–pure genius.

Q: And my picks this week? A: Be true to your convictions, even in the face of adversity.

Obviously, this is a higher power, and I am humbled.

No. 9 Ferris State is all alone at the top of the CCHA heap with 17 points. The Bulldogs beat the Lakers 1-0 in overtime Saturday, after topping Notre Dame 4-2 last Tuesday. Ferris State hosts Western Michigan for one game this Saturday.

Tied for second in the league with 15 points each are No. 4 Michigan and No. 6 Notre Dame. The Wolverines beat Minnesota 3-2 and tied Wisconsin 1-1 in the College Hockey Showcase. This week Michigan travels to Oxford and Bowling Green.

The Irish were idle for the Thanksgiving weekend proper (but were winners, nonetheless). Notre Dame travels to Columbus for the allegedly-final two games in the OSU Ice Rink.

With 14 points each, No. 8 Michigan State and Ohio State are tied for fourth in the league. The Spartans beat Wisconsin 3-1 and lost to Minnesota 2-1 in the College Hockey Showcase. This week, Michigan State hosts the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks for the Mavs’ first-ever games against a CCHA opponent.

Ohio State swept Alaska-Fairbanks 3-2 (OT) and 3-1 on the road. The Buckeyes return home to put their beloved War Memorial to bed against Notre Dame for two games this weekend.

The much-injured Northern Michigan Wildcats split a weekend road series, beating Western Michigan 6-3 and losing to Bowling Green 5-3. Northern Michigan hosts Alaska-Fairbanks for one game this weekend. The Wildcats are in sixth place, with 12 points.

Bowling Green is in sole possession of seventh place with 11 points. The Falcons took four of those at home last weekend, beating Miami 5-1 and Northern Michigan 5-3. Bowling Green hosts Michigan for one game Saturday night.

A pair of teams with a lot of ties between them holds on to eighth place in the league this week. Western Michigan–with five ties–and Miami (with just three) are tied with seven points each. Western lost to Northern Michigan and–you guessed it–tied Miami last weekend. This week, the Broncos travel to Lake Superior and Ferris State.

Miami lost to Bowling Green before the 1-1 tie with the Broncos. Miami hosts Michigan Friday night.

The Nanooks are in tenth place with six points after dropping two games at home to Ohio State. UAF plays Northern and Lake on the road this week.

The Lakers are in last place in the CCHA with four points after dropping a tough 1-0 OT game to Ferris State. Lake Superior looks for its second win of the season against Western Michigan and Alaska-Fairbanks this weekend.

Last week’s record in picks: 5-6 Overall record in picks: 44-32

Yes, ties are tallied as incorrect picks. Thank you so much, Broncos.

No. 6 Notre Dame (9-3-2, 7-3-1 CCHA) at Ohio State (6-7-2, 6-4-2 CCHA) Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., OSU Ice Rink a.k.a. The War Memorial, Columbus, OH

Here’s a bit of trivia that most CCHA fans probably don’t realize: in 1998, Ohio State is perfect in the teeny, tiny, minuscule, under-heated, bird-infested, sub-standard little War Memorial officially known as simply as the OSU Ice Rink.

In fact, you have to go back to the Nov. 23, 1997, 3-2 loss against Michigan to find OSU losing points in the much-hated little barn.

This weekend marks the end of play in the rink, as the Buckeyes move into the Schottenstein Center on Jan. 2.

Wouldn’t it be just Ohio State’s luck to draw Notre Dame for the last two games in the old barn?

The Irish were idle last weekend after losing to Ferris State 4-2 on Tuesday. Notre Dame lost its only game of the previous weekend, a 1-0 decision in Yost against Michigan.

After starting the season with a blazing power play and a six-game win streak, the Irish have been forced to join the rest of the CCHA mortals because of injury. Senior sniper Aniket Dhadphale has missed four games, while junior winger Joe Dusbabek and sophomore defender Ryan Clark have each missed two games–all because of arm injuries.

All three players are expected to return this week.

The loss of Dhadphale (6-6–12, in seven league games) has hit Notre Dame hard, particularly in the power play. With the senior in the lineup, the Notre Dame man-advantage was converting at a .321 rate. Without him, the Irish are just two-for-17 on the power play (.118).

Of course, Dhadphale isn’t the only Notre Dame weapon, which is what makes this team so dangerous this season. Junior Ben Simon is the best player on the Irish squad, and one of the league’s most underrated players, period. Not only can Simon flat-out fly and create plays, the center is third in league scoring with six goals and 12 assists.

Dan Carlson (3-9–12), David Inman (5-4–9), Dusbabek (2-4–6), and Chad Chipchase (5-1– 6) are a few of the other weapons in the Irish arsenal.

In addition to offensive depth, the Irish have a solid core of defenders who can apparently survive when one of their own is down. From the middle of last season through the beginning of this one, the Irish defense played down a man–and not always the same man–and played well.

Another underrated player, Benoit Cotnoir, leads the Irish defense, with solid help from Clark, Nathan Borega, Sean Molina, and Tyson Fraser.

Forrest Karr (2.17 GAA, .902 SV%) is the starting netminder for the Irish.

After a very slow start to the season, the Buckeyes are 5-1-1 in their last seven games–all conference play.

Last weekend, Ohio State swept Alaska-Fairbanks in Fairbanks, 3-2 (OT) and 3-1. As they did the week before against Miami, the Buckeyes rallied very late in the third period of the first game, scoring two goals in the last three minutes to tie the game and rob Ian Perkins of a shutout. J.F. Dufour had the game-winner–assisted by new linemates Chris Richards and Neal Rech–at 1:51 in overtime.

In the second game, three different Buckeyes scored, including Eric Meloche, who finally tallied his first goal of the season; Vinnie Grant; and rookie Jason Crain, who was named CCHA Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in Fairbanks.

"I thought we played pretty well under the circumstances," says OSU head coach John Markell, the circumstances being a long trip and the absence of team captain Dan Cousineau, who missed play for the second weekend with a concussion.

"Obviously Jeff [Maund] played well. I want to give praise to a lot of guys. I thought the attitude of our team was perfect. I thought the so-called fourth line was uplifting."

The Buckeyes saw production from Nick Ganga, Benji Wolke and Yan Des Gagne the first night; Grant replaced Des Gagne the second night, and the line scored again.

Markell says the Buckeyes have been searching for the right attitude this season, but the weekend in Fairbanks was a step in the right direction. "There was not one negative person on that ice, which was very important. We’re finding the way to win the close games, which is nice."

While struggling offensively, the Buckeyes have are learning ways to win. Hugo Boisvert (5-6–11) leads OSU in scoring, and adding to the offensive effort are Chris Richards (2-8–10), and Grant (2-4–6).

With last week’s wins, the Buckeyes drew even with opponents in goals scored and allowed (29-29).

Crain is part of a very young Ohio State defense, led by juniors Ryan Skaleski–one of the most underrated defensive defensemen in the league–and Ryan Jestadt, along with sophomores Jaisen Freeman and Andre Signoretti, and freshman Scott Titus. Rookie Jeff Marshall played his first game in the 3-1 win over UAF.

In net for Ohio State, Jeff Maund has been more than just solid this season. Maund’s league GAA is 2.19 (down from well over 3.00 at the beginning of the season), and his .927 save percentage is second only to red-hot Ferris State netminder Vince Owen.

"I expect a great series," says Dave Poulin, the understated Irish head coach. "I think it’s going to be a terrific."

Poulin says he’s not particularly concerned with the Irish being cold after a week away from play. "We’ve responded well to that. We had a strange little season early on. We had the week off after Ohio state, then went up to BC and played really well, so I have a reference for how we may do this weekend."

Poulin says that he doesn’t think the little rink–a venue the Irish haven’t seen in two years–is going to be a factor. "One of the encouraging things about our team is that we’ve played well in different buildings this year. I don’t think we’re a team that isn’t built for a small ice surface."

"We’re looking to finish this building up the right way," says Markell. "[The players] enjoy playing here. They enjoy the people who come to games here. The people who come to games in this rink are real hockey fans, true bluers. They come here to watch this hockey club, and the players want to perform in front of them."

Markell adds that there will be an added level of emotion in this weekend’s games. "I think last year we knew we were going to have to play in here a little bit, even though everybody was talking about the playoffs [against Lake Superior] like they were the last two games."

So are these really the last two games in the War Memorial?

"Definitely," says Markell. "Andy Geiger [OSU’s Athletic Director] will not allow us to play here any more."

And that, hockey fans, is a mixed blessing, at best.

Pick

In spite of the spanking the Irish delivered to the Buckeyes the last time these two teams met, Poulin says that his team will not be overconfident in Columbus.

"When a team experiences success–the key aspect being that we’ve had to earn the success–you really learn to respect every opponent when you earn success. We can’t afford to take anyone for granted."

Markell says that the 3-0 shutout was "the best I’ve ever seen a Notre Dame team play."

"Do we think we can match up with them in here? Yes. I’m sure they’re coming here knowing what’s at stake, and they have an excellent team. If we can get some points out of this weekend, I’ll be very happy."

The Buckeyes come into this series hot, and hot for revenge. While Ohio State has won four of their last six meetings between the Irish, Notre Dame shut them down in South Bend on Oct. 23, not only shutting them out 3-0 but limiting the Buckeyes to just two shots on goal in the third period of that game.

Notre Dame holds a 19-9-3 advantage in the all-time series, and is 8-4-3 against OSU in Columbus. Each team beat the other once at the Fairgrounds last season.

When Notre Dame last beat Ohio State, the Buckeyes were ranked. Now, they’re just rankled.

But never mind the revenge. Never mind that the last three Irish shutouts have come at the expense of the Buckeyes (the 10/23 game, and two Matt Eisler shutouts on 11/11/95 and 10/25/96).

Never mind that Eric Meloche has finally scored a goal.

Never mind that J.F. Dufour seems to have found a home on the second line with two playmaking seniors.

Never mind that visiting goaltenders sometimes find the little rink a bit fast.

Never mind that these are the last two games–ever–in the War Memorial that fans and players will remember fondly for Ohio State’s incredible late-season run last year.

Never mind that the Buckeyes have not given up a single point in the OSU Ice Rink since 1997.

When asked if Ohio State will beat Notre Dame this weekend, the oracle said, "There is hope."

When asked if Notre Dame will beat Ohio State this weekend, the oracle said, "Nope."

When I meditated about the Notre Dame-Ohio State series, the oracle advised this: "Breathe deeply. The air around you is changing."

To hell with what the oracle says!

I’m a convert. Notre Dame wins every game for the rest of the year.

(Never mind that Michigan and Ferris State hadn’t yet received that memo last week.)

Notre Dame 3-2, 3-1

No. 4 Michigan (9-2-2, 7-1-1 CCHA) at Miami (3-10-3, 2-9-3 CCHA) Friday, 7 p.m., Goggin Arena, Oxford, OH No. 4 Michigan (9-2-2, 7-1-1 CCHA) at Bowling Green (6-6-1, 5-5-1 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., BGSU Ice Arena, Bowling Green, OH

Michigan got the best of the College Hockey Showcase last weekend with three points, beating Minnesota 3-2 and tying Wisconsin 1-1.

Defenseman Bubba Berenzweig (3-4–7 CCHA) had two goals on the weekend, including the only goal in the tie.

The Wolverines are 4-0-2 in their last six games, the longest unbeaten streak so far this season for Michigan. Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Mike Comrie leads the Wolverines in scoring (3-7– 10), while a quartet of players–Dave Huntzicker (1-6–7), Josh Langfeld (5-2–7), Berenzweig, and Mike Van Ryn (3-4–7)–are tied for second among Michigan scorers.

In net for Michigan, rookie Josh Blackburn’s league GAA is 1.55, while his save percentage in CCHA games is .929. Blackburn and the Michigan defense have allowed more than two goals just three times this season.

Michigan vs. Miami

The Wolverines hold a 45-12-2 advantage over Miami in the all-time series, including two losses in Oxford and one win in Yost last season. This is the first pairing of the two teams this season.

Miami played inconsistently last weekend, losing 5-1 to Bowling Green and tying Western Michigan 1-1–both on the road.

"We didn’t play at all Friday night," says Miami head coach Mark Mazzoleni. "We had no interest in being there. We got what we deserved."

Not only did the Falcons seem to score at will against the RedHawks, but they tallied all five goals even-strength. Miami allowed two first-period goals, one second-period goal, and two third-period goals.

Ian Olsen stopped 24 of 29 shots for the RedHawks.

After losing in overtime to Ohio State and beating the Buckeyes the week before, Mazzoleni was worried that his team might come out flat against the Falcons. "We played very hard the previous weekend, and it was a test for us to see if we could come in ready to play."

The RedHawks bounced back on Saturday to tie Western Michigan on the road.

Alex Kim (5-7–12) leads the RedHawks in scoring; Kim assisted Evan Cheverie on the goal in the Western game. Kim is also tied for second in league power play goals with four.

While Kim leads the team in scoring, it is Mark Shalawylo who is the obvious playmaker for Miami. Shalawylo can flat-out fly, thread defenders, and crash the net. He also has the best puck-handling skills on the team. With five goals and six assists, he’s second in team league scoring.

Gregor Krajnc returned to the lineup for Miami last weekend, while Dustin Whitecotton is expected to miss the rest of the season with a broken arm.

Ian Olsen has been the man in net for the RedHawks for most of this season, with a 3.37 GAA and a respectable .890 league save percentage.

Mazzoleni says he hopes his young team will be ready for the Wolverines, but he admits, "I don’t know what to expect.

"Unless you’ve gone through this before, you don’t know how agonizing this can be. When you have a young team, they’re unpredictable. You don’t know what night they’re going to show up, what night they’re going to have the necessary emotion."

Michigan vs. Bowling Green

Have you been paying attention to Bowling Green, CCHA fan? You should–this team is hot.

While the top Northern Michigan line and a bunch of players from Notre Dame get all the press about league scoring, there are several Falcons jockeying for position right up there with the Buddy Smiths and Ben Simons.

Dan Price (4-11–15) and Adam Edinger (8-7–15) are the Falcon scoring leaders, and they’re tied for fifth in league scoring. Both played amazingly well last weekend, and Price was simply superb: six assists and a goal, a personal weekend best for the senior captain.

Price tallied game-winning assists in both the 5-1 win over Miami and the 5-3 win over Northern. In fact, the Falcons win when Price touches the puck; he’s scored three of the six game-winning goals for BG this season, and he registered assists on two of the other three.

Edinger–this week’s CCHA Offensive Player of the Week–had his first collegiate hat trick in the win over Northern Michigan. He’s also tied for second in league power-play goals (4). The Bowling Green power play is currently second in the league.

Joining in the Falcon scoring fun is defenseman Mike Jones (3-9–12). Jones had the game-winner against Miami, and was instrumental in killing all 13 Falcon penalties. He was plus-six on the weekend, and was named the CCHA Defensive Player of the Week.

So why isn’t BG at the top of the standings? Learning curve–and the Falcons have allowed more goals than they’ve scored this season (38-45).

Mike Savard seems to have won the starting position between the pipes for Bowling Green, although head coach Buddy Powers steadfastly refuses to publicly commit to one goalie or the other.

In nearly 450 minutes of play, Savard’s league save percentage is .874, and his conference GAA is 3.51.

Bowling Green trails this all-time series 27-49-2, and is 1-7-2 in its last 10 games against the Wolverines. Michigan won the first game of this season’s series 5-2 in Yost on October 10.

The Falcons are 1-19-2 in their last 22 games against Michigan, dating back to 1992. Six of those losses have been by just a goal, and four by two goals.

Picks

"We need impeccable defense, great goaltending, and great special teams–that’s just to compete, not to win," says Mazzoleni.

The faster, stronger, more experienced Wolverines may not have an easy time in Goggin, but the lack of fan appreciation sure works in their favor. Crickets, man–you can hear ’em chirping, even with a thousand fans.

When asked if Michigan will beat Miami, the oracle said, "Think carefully–you already know the answer."

When asked if Miami will beat Michigan, the oracle said, "No problem."

When I meditated on the Michigan-Miami game, the oracle offered this: "You have trouble keeping up, so your self-image is suffering. Work hard at what you desire–you will accomplish it!"

When asked if Michigan will beat Bowling Green, the oracle said, "Don’t count too much on it."

When asked if Bowling Green will beat Michigan, the oracle said, "Never!"

When I meditated on the Michigan-Bowling Green game, the oracle helpfully suggested, "Beginning is half done."

Obviously, the oracle was high this time around.

(Don’t be too surprised if Bowling Green wins this one.)

Michigan 4-1 over Miami; Michigan 3-2 over Bowling Green

Alaska-Fairbanks (4-8-0, 3-7-0 CCHA) at Northern Michigan (10-6-0, 6-6-0 CCHA) Friday, 7 p.m., Lakeview Arena, Marquette, MI

The Nanooks lost two at home last weekend to Ohio State, 3-2 in overtime Friday, and 3-1 Saturday.

It’s more than fair to say that Fairbanks was in these games until the very end. In fact, the overtime loss was heartbreaking; the Nanooks led 2-0 with just three minutes to go. As they had done the week before, Ohio State scored quickly at the end to tie it up, and J.F. Dufour’s goal at 1:51 handed the Nanooks a loss they were probably certain would be a win.

Ian Perkins (4.25 GAA, .876 SV%) made 31 saves for the Nanooks in the loss.

In the 3-1 game, Ohio State led 2-0 until senior Jamie Coady scored at 11:17 of the third to make it a one-goal game; however, Jason Crain had the insurance goal for OSU at the 26-minute mark of the third.

In the second game, Chris Marvel had to step in for Perkins when the starting goalie took a puck to the knee in pregame warmups. Marvel stopped 27 of 30 shots as the Nanooks outshot the Buckeyes 35-30.

The Wildcats split last weekend, defeating Western Michigan 6-3 Friday before dropping a 5-3 decision to Bowling Green Saturday. Because of injuries, the Wildcats dressed only 16 players in the game against Bowling Green.

Among the wounded are junior left winger Tyson Holly, sophomore forward Mike Sandbeck, senior defenseman Mike Johnson, and rookie center Chad Theuer.

Holly (sprained knee) has missed three games and may return in time for the Great Lakes invitational.

Sandbeck (sprained ankle) may return this week. Johnson (shoulder) and Theuer (ankle) will be evaluated this week.

With all of the injuries the Wildcats have experienced lately, Northern Michigan fans can must be relieved that Buddy Smith and J.P. Vigier are among the living. Smith (2-17–19) and Vigier (13-6–19) are tied for the lead in league scoring. And linemate Roger Trudeau (7-4–11) is no slug either–and he’s healthy.

Knock some wood already, would you please?

Trudeau had one goal, assisted by Smith and Vigier, in the win over Western. He had two of the three goals against Bowling Green (Vigier had the other one).

Duane Hoey (3.01 GAA, .884 SV%) had 28 saves in the win, while Dan Ragusett (2.83 GAA, .893 SV%) stopped 29 shots in the loss.

"We gave a really good effort Saturday at Bowling Green and even though we lost we played better than we did Friday at Western Michigan," says Northern head coach Rick Comley.

Pick

These teams have met five times, and Northern Michigan has come out ahead each time. The Wildcats swept the Nanooks last year, 5-4 (OT) and 7-3 in a two-game November series, then won 3-1 in February, all games at Lakeview Arena.

Comley says, "We’ll have to bring that same type of approach [that we used against Bowling Green] into this week’s game against Alaska-Fairbanks as we try to regain the level of play we were at earlier in the season."

Interestingly, this game pairs the only two CCHA teams left this season without a tie. In fact, the Wildcats have yet to see an overtime game this year.

Both of these teams play better on the road than they do at home. Still, Lakeview is a hostile arena for visiting teams, and the Nanooks are coming off a tough weekend.

When asked if the Nanooks will beat the Wildcats, the oracle said, "This is not as important as it seems. Put your mind elsewhere."

When asked if the Wildcats will beat the Nanooks, the oracle said, "Kiss and make up."

Hmmm.

When I meditated on this game between Alaska-Fairbanks and Northern Michigan, the oracle offered this: "Slay the dragon–do not let fear hold you back."

Herbal tea, anyone?

Northern Michigan 4-2

Western Michigan (1-6-5, 1-6-5 CCHA) at Lake Superior (1-8-2, 1-6-2 CCHA) Friday, 7 p.m., Taffy Abel Arena, Sault Ste. Marie, MI Alaska-Fairbanks (4-8-0, 3-7-0 CCHA) at Lake Superior (1-8-2, 1-6-2 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., Taffy Abel Arena, Sault Ste. Marie, MI

Lake Superior State can’t catch a break.

After defeating and tying Ferris State in Big Rapids, the Lakers took the red-hot Bulldogs into overtime at home, where they lost 1-0.

"It was disappointing because I thought we played well," says Laker head coach Scott Borek. "We got good goaltending, they got good goaltending. In the end it came down to goaltending–it was a well-played hockey game all around."

The Lakers outshot the Bulldogs 29-24. Sophomore Jayme Platt made 23 saves in the loss.

In spite of their record, says Borek, the Lakers remain optimistic, and the team comes ready to play every game.

"We have a great group of people in our locker room. They work their tails off. They’re young–so they have an ability to endure. They have to be happy with the level they’re playing at."

Borek says that it helps that fans are cutting this young team a little slack. Laker fans, notorious for making noise when their team is not performing up to fan expectations, are beginning to make noise of another kind.

The fans in the Soo are warming up to this team. This is the kind of team they like–a team that survives by work ethic. They gave us a standing ovation Saturday."

With three goals and three assists, Jeff Cheeseman remains the offensive leader for the Lakers. A leader in net, however, has yet to emerge for Lake Superior.

"Michael Brusseau," says Borek, "has single-handedly made our goaltending situation uncomfortable."

In this case, uncomfortable is a good thing.

Sophomore Rob Galatiuk looked to be the starter at the beginning of the season, but he faltered and sophomore Jayme Platt saw time between the pipes. He faltered, too.

Enter Brusseau. In two games, Brusseau has a 1.45 GAA and a .939 save percentage. According to Borek, the team plays better in front of Brusseau than either Galatiuk or Platt, who, as good friends, weren’t pushing each other enough to be competitive.

Now Brusseau is out indefinitely with a deep thigh bruise, and Borek says that Platt and Galatiuk are playing and practicing more competitively. Each will see ice time this weekend.

Western Michigan vs. Lake Superior

The Lakers lead this all-time series 53-29-10. On November 6, Lake Superior’s Tobin Praznik scored with six seconds to go forced the first game of the season series into overtime, and each team got a point in the 2-2 tie.

Last week the Broncos lost 6-3 to Northern Michigan before tying Miami 1-1. Rookie goaltender Jeff Reynaert made his first collegiate start against the Wildcats, making 24 saves in the game.

It was Frank Novock’s third-period power-play goal that tied the game for Western against Miami.

"We did a lot of good things and faltered in other areas last week," says Bronco head coach Bill Wilkinson. "We shot the puck better and created more opportunities, but at the same time had too many turnovers in our own end."

David Gove (4-5–9), Novock (2-6–8), Matt Addesa (4-3–7), and Chuck Mindel (3-4–7) lead the Western Michigan offense. Matt Barnes (2.73 league GAA, .897 SV%) is the usual starting goaltender for the Broncos.

Alaska-Fairbanks vs. Lake Superior

The Lakers lead this all-time series 2-12-0, and took last year’s season series 2-1-0. The Nanooks and the Lakers split a two-game November series at the Soo, with UAF winning 6-2, and LSSU winning 8-2. Lake Superior won the February rubber match 2-1 in Sault Ste. Marie.

Alaska-Fairbanks travels south after losing two games to Ohio State in Fairbanks.

Jim Lawrence (6-2–8), Chris Kirwan (5-2–7), Ryan Reinheller (2-5–7), and Mike Jaros (1- 5–6) have been providing the offense for the Nanooks this season.

Picks

Western brings an eight-game winless streak (0-4-4) into Friday’s game, and are off to their slowest start in school history with just one win in 12 games.

The Nanooks–a good team that hasn’t found a rhythm yet–bring some very good goaltending, speed, and forechecking to the Soo for this game.

"The trouble with playing these two teams back to back is that they are totally different," says Borek. "Western and we match up extremely well. We both play the zone.

"The Nanooks use the whole rink as well as anyone. They’re very difficult to prepare for. This year I think they know they’re good, and they’re giving themselves every chance to win."

An interesting note is the number of penalty minutes each team averages. The Broncos and Nanooks–in the past notorious for penalties–each average about 19 minutes per game, which is in the middle of the CCHA penalty stats.

The Lakers are averaging about 22 minutes per game, and the penalties have cost them. In games where the Lakers commit ten or fewer penalties, they’re 1-3-2; when they commit 11 or more penalties, they’re 0-5-0.

When asked if Western Michigan would beat Lake Superior, the oracle said, "This is not as important as it seems. Put your mind elsewhere."

When asked if Lake Superior would beat Western Michigan, the oracle said, "A friend will give you the answer next week.

But a real friend would give me the answer now.

When I meditated on the Western Michigan-Lake Superior game, the oracle gave me this: "Stay on target–the arrow will fly true."

When asked if UAF will beat Lake Superior, the oracle said, "Don’t count too much on it."

When asked if Lake Superior will beat Alaska-Fairbanks, the oracle said, "Visualize it."

When I meditated on the Nanook-Laker game, the oracle offered, "The sunset may be a sight, but the sunrise will be more than that."

Ah! Yes. Of course. Who am I to argue–this time–with the oracle?

Fairbanks has better goaltending than Lake State, but perhaps the Lakers catch a break.

Western over Lake 3-2; Lake over Fairbanks 3-2.

Western Michigan (1-6-5, 1-6-5 CCHA) at No. 9 Ferris State (9-3-2, 8-3-1 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., Ewigleben Arena, Big Rapids, MI

Since losing 3-1 to Lake Superior on Nov. 14, the Bulldogs are 4-0-0, having swept Northern Michigan in two games in Marquette, beaten Notre Dame 4-2 in a Tuesday night game, and most recently defeated the Lakers 1-0 in OT last weekend at the Soo.

The Bulldogs are, in part, riding the wave of sophomore goaltender Vince Owen.

Owen stopped 61 shots in his last two game, the 1-0 win over Lake and the 4-2 win over Notre Dame. For those two games, his GAA was 0.96, and his save percentage was .967.

Against Northern Michigan, he allowed just two goals for a 1.00 GAA and a .971 save percentage. Owen is this week’s U.S. College Hockey Online Defensive Player of the Week.

Joel Irwin leads the Bulldogs in scoring (4-6–10), followed by Brian McCullough (4-5–9), Geoff Bennetts (8-1–9), and Kevin Swider (4-4–8).

Ferris State seems to have come into its own, finally, with a talented senior class and a balanced team that shares scoring and defensive duties. The Bulldogs are also fifth in league power play, and third in league penalty killing.

The team unlucky enough to draw the hottest squad in the league this week is Western Michigan. The Broncos are 0-4-4 in their last eight outings.

Pick

Western leads the all-time series 50-25-5, but dropped its season opener to Ferris State on October 9 by the score of 3-1.

"Ferris State is coming off two wins, including a big one over Notre Dame," says Western Michigan head coach Bill Wilkinson. "Our focus against…is to come out with some jump in our legs and continue to apply pressure in the offensive zone."

When asked if Western Michigan will beat Ferris State, the oracle said, "Yes, but don’t worry so much."

When asked if the Bulldogs will beat the Broncos, the oracle said, "No problem!"

When I meditated on the Western Michigan-Ferris State game, "Your relatives do not know everything."

That’s a relief.

Ferris State 3-1

Nebraska-Omaha (2-10-0) at No. 8 Michigan State (8-3-2, 6-2-2 CCHA) Friday and Saturday, Munn Arena, East Lansing, MI

In this historic series, the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks play their first-ever CCHA opponents in a sort of preview of the 1999-2000 season, when the Mavs officially join the league.

While Nebraska-Omaha looks this weekend to learn a little about the way things are done in the CCHA, head coach Mike Kemp says that "every weekend is a learning experience."

"These are only the forty-sixth and forty-seventh games in the history of our program. We’re learning on the run, playing as we go."

With only 45 games under their belts and no experience whatsoever in the CCHA, the Mavericks will be taking all kinds of notes this weekend.

"For us it becomes a great opportunity to understand or to see what’s expected of us when we join the league," says Kemp. "Far from being a measuring stick this should be a reality check for our players to see what it takes to play in this league."

Michigan State head coach Ron Mason says he’s pleased the Spartans are the first to welcome the Mavericks to the league.

"I’m really happy we’re playing them," says Mason. "When we originally scheduled them they weren’t in the league. Now that they’re accepted this will give fans at Munn and in the league a chance to see them.

"Our fans here have seen a lot of new teams over the years. When I was [coaching] at Lake and BG, we fought as hard as we could to play established teams and I had tremendous respect for the established teams that would play us. Since then I’ve said that if I were ever in the position to do the same thing for developing programs, I’d return the favor."

As "western" as Nebraska may seem to fans in the CCHA, Kemp says that he thinks the Central Collegiate Hockey Association will be the perfect home for the Mavericks. Joining the CCHA "became an opportunity to get into a league in 1999-2000," says Kemp.

The WCHA wasn’t willing to let Nebraska-Omaha into the league until the 2000-2001 season. That, said Kemp, was unfair to his current players, who are working hard to build a hockey tradition in Omaha. "I want to see as many kids in our program get the chance to play for something, not just to play.

"Also, joining the CCHA helps expand our recruiting base. It opens doors in Ontario and in the U.S. under-18 program.

"And there were unfavorable financial ramifications for joining the WCHA, requirements we weren’t happy with."

So, welcome to the league, Mavs.

UNO’s first league opponents won and lost last weekend in the College Hockey Showcase. The Spartans beat Wisconsin 3-1 and lost to Minnesota 2-1 in Madison and Minneapolis, respectively.

The win proved costly for Michigan State, as junior center Shawn Horcoff and rookie left winger Joe Goodenow were injured Friday night. Goodenow (pulled groin) is questionable for this week, but Horcoff (right knee) will be out at least one to two weeks; he may be able to return for Michigan State’s Dec. 12 game against Northern Michigan.

Mason says that he’s pleased with the way the Spartans competed out west. "We played well Sunday in spite of the injuries." Sophomore John Nail scored the only Michigan State goal against Minnesota after being moved up to the first line to fill in for Horcoff.

With two goals and 12 assists in 11 conference games, Mike York leads the Spartans in scoring. On his heels are Bryan Adams (7-3–10) and the injured Horcoff (4-6–10).

In net for Michigan State is the league-leading Joe Blackburn. The sophomore has a 1.48 GAA and .915 save percentage in CCHA play.

Last weekend, the Mavericks split a home series against Dartmouth, losing 2-1 Friday and winning 7-4 Saturday.

Sophomores Billy Pugliese (3-6–9) and James Chalmers (0-8–9) lead UNO in scoring. Junior Kendall Sidoruk (3.33 GAA, .895 SV%) and senior Jason Mitchell (5.52 GAA, .837 SV%) share the netminding duties.

Picks

The Spartans are returning home for the first time in a month–a distinct advantage, since Michigan State is unbeaten in its last 19 games in Munn, which is just one short of the school record of 20 games, set from Jan. 4 to Nov. 1, 1986.

Mason says of these games, "We’re going to look at this as a league series but not a league series."

With only two wins on the season, the Mavericks are having the same kinds of troubles, it seems, that many CCHA teams are experiencing.

"We have an inability to score," says Kemp. "When you’re a team as young as we are, with not a lot of experience, injuries hurt a lot.

"And we’ve been experiencing this inability to finish."

Inability to score and finish? Sounds like you’re joining the right league, Mike.

When asked, "Will Michigan State sweep UNO?" the oracle responded, "Not at all."

When asked, "Will UNO sweep MSU?" the oracle said, "The answer will come next week."

When I meditated on the series, I was given this message: "Those who sow in sadness will reap in joy."

Whatever.

Michigan State 3-1, 3-1

This Week in the ECAC: December 4, 1998

By Becky Blaeser & Jayson Moy
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This is it — the final set of ECAC league games until the new year is upon us. There are eight games on tap for this coming weekend, and all may shake the standings heading into exams and the holidays.

Last weekend there were only two ECAC matchups on the slate. Harvard got its first points of the ECAC season with a tie at Brown, and then defeated Rensselaer on Tuesday evening for its first ECAC win.

In non-league action, the ECAC saw ten games against Hockey East opponents. The big winners were Clarkson and Princeton, as both those teams took a pair of games. Clarkson topped Boston University and Boston College, and Princeton went over Providence and Merrimack.

Those same Hockey East schools would deal two other ECAC teams two losses on the weekend. Yale lost to both Providence and Merrimack, and St. Lawrence lost to Boston College and Boston University.

Finally, Vermont defeated Mass-Lowell in the Governor’s Cup, but dropped the championship game to Maine, leading the ECAC and Hockey East to a 5-5 split on the weekend.

In other non-conference action, Niagara tied Union and defeated Rensselaer, while Colgate defeated Cornell at the Nassau Coliseum in a non-conference tilt and Dartmouth split a pair of games at Nebraska-Omaha. This week’s ECAC honorees:

ECAC Player of the Week — Steve Moore, Harvard ECAC Rookie of the Week — Don Richardson, Vermont ECAC Goaltender of the Week — Shawn Grant, Clarkson

Take a close look at the ECAC Standings right now, because they might look a little different on Sunday.

Last Week: 9-8 Season to Date: 37-32, .536

Clarkson (3-6-0, 1-2-0 ECAC, T-9th) and St. Lawrence (6-4-0, 2-1-0 ECAC, T-5th) at Harvard (2-6-1, 0-6-1 ECAC, 12th) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Bright Hockey Center, Boston, MA St. Lawrence (6-4-0, 2-1-0 ECAC, T-5th) and Clarkson (3-6-0, 1-2-0 ECAC, T-9th) at Brown (1-3-2, 1-3-2 ECAC, T-5th) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Meehan Auditorium, Providence, RI

The reason Clarkson, which sports an aesthetically displeasing 2-7 overall record, is receiving votes in the USCHO poll was clearly evident this past weekend in Cheel Arena.

After slowly fighting through an early-season bout of growing pains, the Golden Knights seemed to blossom into the team everyone thought they would be this past weekend by delivering two convincing back-to-back victories over Boston University and Boston College.

For once, Clarkson coach Mark Morris had nice words for his youthful netminder, Shawn Grant, who held the Hockey East powers to three goals while amassing 51 saves in two games. In addition, the weekend also lay witness to the re-emergence of sophomores Erik Cole and Willie Mitchell, who found the offensive touch for the first time this season.

Against the Terriers, a rebound off a Mitchell shot landed right on the stick of Matt Reid for the game-winner at the 14:09 mark of the second period, while Cole added a goal in the final stanza to cap off the victory.

The following night Cole combined for Clarkson’s first tally against the Eagles, then assisted Philippe Roy on the power play for the deciding goal.

"We, the coaching staff, are proud of our guys," Morris said following his team’s 2-1 victory over the Eagles. "They worked hard to get things to go our way….Tonight was a good test."

Eric Heffler has just about monopolized the ECAC’s Goaltender of the Week awards this year, but for the first time this season, the St. Lawrence netminder couldn’t lead his team to a win as the Saints were swept by visiting Boston College and Boston University.

After a tightly-contested 40 minutes of hockey on Friday night, the Eagles exploded for five goals in the final stanza, allowing the visitors to exit the North Country with a win. In the losing effort, Heffler knocked away 27 shots before giving way to backup Sean Coakley, who made seven saves and allowed one goal in just under eight minutes of play.

"We played well for 40 minutes, but they turned it up a notch in the third period and we couldn’t go with them," said St. Lawrence head coach Joe Marsh, whose team lost to BC earlier in the season at the Icebreaker Cup. "They have a lot of game experience and we have a young team which made some mistakes early in the third. BC is a team you don’t want to get into a special-teams shootout with because of its offensive talent, and we took a couple of penalties which hurt us."

The following night against the Terriers, Heffler once again finished with 27 saves, but it was not enough for the Saints, who fell to Jack Parker’s team, 2-1. It was the first sign of a letdown for Marsh’s team, who had roared out of the starting gates as a legitimate force in the ECAC.

Now, the team has a golden opportunity to return to its winning ways as it heads south to face Harvard and Brown, two teams struggling to find their way through league play.

"Saturday night’s game was a frustrating one in that we played with good intensity, generated a lot of chances, but couldn’t finish things off when it came to scoring, "Marsh said. "We had a ton of power play opportunities, and should have done a lot better in that area…but the weekend was a learning experience for us, and if we can continue that kind of effort, the rest will take care of itself."

To say that the road ahead for Harvard looks bleak is quite an understatement for a team that currently holds a 0-6-1 record in league play with two of its toughest opponents on deck this weekend.

The injury-plagued Crimson appeared to have turned an important corner last weekend, defeating Boston University for the first time since 1983, then following up that performance four days later with a come-from-behind 4-4 tie against Brown at Meehan Auditorium.

That positive streak quickly came to an end in Houston Fieldhouse, where RPI crushed Harvard, 7-4, continuing what has become a familiar trend in ECAC play.

Scoring goals against Harvard has indeed been a textbook maneuver for opposing teams and the Crimson, still without injured Ben Storey (mono) and Chris Bala (broken wrist), don’t seem to be heading in the right direction.

"We have really struggled defensively," said Harvard head coach Ronn Tomassoni. "We are making mistakes and blunders that are killing us. Right now we are really missing Storey."

The loss of Bala, who was injured in the second period against the Terriers, is perhaps the greatest loss for the team. Without him flanking linemate Steve Moore on the first line, the responsibility of pulling the offensive load has fallen directly on the shoulders of Moore. On Friday night, the Crimson’s attack will be even more anemic without captain Craig Adams, who will be serving the game disqualification he received on Tuesday night after a brawl against the Engineers.

"We really need to work hard to get ourselves back into this season," Tomassoni said. "Our kids need to play hard every time they step on the ice, because they are judged by each shift."

The Brown Bears are coming off a week during which they collected a crucial league point. The problem was that it came against Harvard, in a game where the Bears entered the final period with a seemingly secure 3-0 lead.

Harvard deposited three unanswered goals in the third period, and only a six-on-five desperation tally by James Duval at the 18:56 mark forced the contest into overtime.

The one thing that might have made head coach Roger Grillo happy was his team’s penalty-killing unit — the bane of his existence up to this point — which held the Crimson down in five of six power-play opportunities.

Heading into a weekend when Brown hosts St. Lawrence and Clarkson, the play of Scott Stirling will come to the forefront. After beginning the season on a tear, the netminder has shown some signs of vulnerability. Despite collecting 35 saves against Harvard, Stirling was shaky in the third period, when he let up four goals in nine minutes.

Picks: Clarkson at Harvard — The most dangerous sentiment overwhelming the Harvard players right now is a lack of confidence, and the surging Golden Knights will do little to raise the Crimson’s morale. Against RPI, Harvard’s best offensive unit on the ice was the fourth line. When that happens, wins rarely follow. Clarkson 6, Harvard 2 St. Lawrence at Brown — Brown is a dangerous team whose record isn’t entirely indicative of how it has played. The Bears were a formidable challenge to both Cornell and Colgate when they visited Meehan, and the same will be true on Friday night when the Saints make their way to Providence. Look for Heffler to outduel Stirling for the victory. St. Lawrence 3, Brown 2 St. Lawrence at Harvard — The Saints will no doubt go marching right past the Crimson at Bright Hockey Center. Unlike Clarkson, St. Lawrence doesn’t have the firepower to produce a rout, but it will be in control of the contest throughout. St. Lawrence 4, Harvard 1 Clarkson at Brown — Clarkson has found its way through the toughest part of its season, and it appears that they have returned to a form similar to the one which led to Lake Placid last season. Brown will battle valiantly in its own rink, but in the end will become a mere bump in the road for the Golden Knights. Clarkson 4, Brown 1

Union (2-6-1, 1-2-0 ECAC, T-9th) and Rensselaer (5-4-0, 2-2-0 ECAC, T-5th) at Cornell (5-2-0, 3-1-0 ECAC, T-3rd) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Lynah Rink, Ithaca, NY Rensselaer (5-4-0, 2-2-0 ECAC, T-5th) and Union (2-6-1, 1-2-0 ECAC, T-9th) at Colgate (6-2-0, 4-0-0 ECAC, 1st) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Starr Rink, Hamilton, NY

Union tied Niagara on Saturday evening 3-3. After the Purple Eagles jumped out to a quick lead, the Dutchmen came back strong in the third period to tie the game with two goals. Freshman Brandon Snee got his second straight start and his first at Achilles Rink.

"We made a couple of errors on defense and [Snee] saved us," head coach Kevin Sneddon said after the game. "It was a gutsy effort. In the first we played real hard and we were making simple plays and going to the net. In the second period we got out of that."

The Dutchmen allowed two goals in that second period, but scored twice in the third to come back — something they also did earlier in the season. The Dutchmen came back with a flurry of goals to beat Niagara in the first game of the season and tied up Rensselaer two weeks later in the third period.

After losing to Niagara 3-2, the Rensselaer Engineers came back on Tuesday evening to defeat Harvard 7-4. The line of the evening was Danny Riva (2-3–5) centering Matt Murley (1-3–4) and Brad Tapper (2-1–3). Unfortunately for the Engineers, Riva was given a game disqualification following a fight with Harvard’s Craig Adams towards the end of the game.

Riva, the second leading scorer for the Engineers with 16 points (7- 9–16), will now be ineligible for Friday’s game against Colgate. With third line center Steve Caley questionable because of an undisclosed injury, what will head coach Dan Fridgen do on Friday?

"I’ve got a couple of days to think about it," he said.

Despite the victory, Fridgen was not in a good mood following the game, mainly due to the melee.

"If I seem disappointed, it’s because of the penalties," he said. "We’re in a situation where we can’t afford to lose anybody but now it’s an opportunity for other guys to step up and provide leadership."

Cornell played travel partners Colgate at the Nassau Coliseum last weekend, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Red Raiders. The difference for the Big Red was special teams.

"Give them credit on the special teams, they beat us tonight," head coach Mike Schafer said. "They had two power-play goals, and we didn’t have any."

The special teams was just one of the areas affected by the injury bug which has plagued Schafer’s team over the last two seasons, especially on defense — the Big Red used only four defensemen for most of the game. Among the wounded for the Big Red are Larry Pierce (broken hand) and Rick Sacchetti (leg injury).

Sacchetti’s loss necessitated the shift of Cornell’s iron man, Kyle Knopp, back to defense for some portions of the game.

Nonetheless, head coach Mike Schafer would not use that as an excuse, and pointed towards his forwards for more production and a bigger impact on the game.

"I don’t think that we competed very hard…and I was pretty disappointed with the play of a lot of our forwards," he said. "We only had four defensemen play the game and those guys were pretty tired towards the end of the game. I don’t think that our forwards paid the price tonight to give us a chance to win the game."

"We are definitely disappointed with our effort, we play only 30 games a year and to not come out and play for one of them — you have no answers for it," defenseman Jeff Burgoyne said. "The only positive that can be taken from this is that when we started to play well, we handled them and took it to them down low. It makes us realize that when we come to play and when we work hard, we can beat a team like [Colgate]."

The winning team from that contest, Colgate, is now riding a five-game winning streak. The Red Raiders are also leading the ECAC, but as with any evening in the ECAC, everyone knows that can change as quickly as it happened.

The Red Raiders have gotten to first because of a combination of from goaltending to offense. In the nets, Shep Harder and Jason LeFevre have both played two league games, with almost identical records. Both goaltenders have a GAA of 2.00, and Harder has a .909 save percentage while LeFevre has a .923 save percentage.

Factor in Andy McDonald leading the league in scoring with nine points (4-5–9), an offense that has averaged 5.50 goals per game, a power-play unit that has succeeded 23.1 percent of the time and that leads to victory — something that the Red Raiders have done for the first four ECAC games.

Picks: Union at Cornell — The Dutchmen have fared very well against Cornell in the past. Last season the Dutchmen swept the series, own a three-game winning streak and are undefeated against the Big Red in the last four meetings. The streak ends. Cornell 3, Union 1 Rensselaer at Colgate — With a banged-up center and another sitting out a DQ, the Engineers will find it tough to win faceoffs on Friday. Because of that, the Red Raiders have a decided edge, and go to 5-0-0 in the ECAC. Colgate 6, Rensselaer 2 Rensselaer at Cornell — The name of this game will be defense. It will be tough with the forwards getting into the act to support their young defensemen. Look for a low-scoring game as it could be either team. Cornell 3, Rensselaer 2 Union at Colgate — The Red Raiders have not let in many goals. The Dutchmen have a hard time scoring goals. You figure it out. Colgate 5, Union 2

Yale (2-4-0, 2-2-0 ECAC, T-5th) vs. Princeton (5-1-1, 3-0-1 ECAC, 2nd) Friday, 7:30 pm, Ingalls Rink, New Haven, CT Saturday, 7:00 pm, Hobey Baker Rink, Princeton, NJ

It’s always a good sign when a coach can afford to be disappointed after his team knocked off a strong Hockey East squad on the road.

Well, that was exactly the state of Princeton coach Don "Toot" Cahoon following his team’s 6-5 defeat of the Providence Friars. The victory, which was the Tigers’ fourth of the year, was not the first thing on the coach’s mind — he was more disturbed by the fact that his team had surrendered three power-play goals.

"Everyone is having success against us," said Cahoon of his penalty-killing unit. "It’s not like we didn’t have enough practice out there. You know, right now it’s hard to think about individuals when the team just played as badly as it did tonight."

That problem was remedied in the next contest against Merrimack, where Jeff Halpern and Scott Bertoli figured into three of the Tigers four goals en route to a 4-1 win over Merrimack at Hobey Baker Rink.

After the Friars loss, Cahoon said he had trouble talking about individuals because team had played so badly. Such was not the case on Sunday night.

"You can’t put your finger on what it is that Jeff really represents out there because he does so many things," Cahoon said. "He distributes the puck. He puts good shots on the net. At some points, he quarterbacks the power play. You can use him in man- down situations. He has become very dependable defensively in his own end. He will lay the body on someone. He just does so many different things."

With each game, the team appears to be getting stronger — most notably the Tigers’ first line of Halpern, Bertoli, and Benoit Moran. In addition, the Acosta brothers, J.P. and Michael, have found the scoring touch, combining for two goals in two games.

After a stellar second weekend of ECAC play in which Yale swept Brown and Harvard, the Elis were dealt a setback, swept by Hockey East foes Merrimack and Providence, 6-3 and 5-3.

Both Trevor Hangar, making his first start of the season, and Alex Westlund came up losers. Merrimack raced out to a 3-0 lead and never looked back, and Providence scored four unanswered goals after Yale got on the board first to start the game.

The Bulldog offense is once again led by Jeff Hamilton, who leads the league in goals scored with five. Hamilton sat out the game against Providence, but is expected back in the lineup against the Tigers this weekend.

Jay Quenville made the Honor Roll this past weekend for his two-goal effort against Merrimack.

Picks: Princeton will be challenged by Hamilton and the Bulldogs, but with the home-ice advantage, the Tigers should be able to take the second game of the home-and-away series to the bank after Yale keeps its end of the series. Yale 3-2, Princeton 5-2

New Brunswick (7-5-1, 1st McAdam Division, AUAA) at Vermont (7-4-0, 3-1-0 ECAC, T-3rd) Saturday, 2:00 pm, Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, VT

Vermont ran into a tough Maine team in the championship game of the Governor’s Cup last weekend after defeating Mass-Lowell in overtime. The Cats dropped a 2-0 decision to the Black Bears after their OT win.

"[Maine] didn’t give us many opportunities at all," said head coach Mike Gilligan. "I can’t remember three good scoring chances. A lot of the shots were misleading. We were a step behind them all night long, most obviously in the first period. I don’t know if we ever did play with them tonight."

One bright spot for the Cats was freshman Don Richardson, who scored twice on Friday, including the overtime winner, and earned ECAC Rookie of the Week honors.

"I watched [Steve] Kariya in the early game. I’m praying that Donnie ends up playing like him," said Gilligan. "Hopefully he [Richardson] was watching the same thing; I think he could emulate a lot of the stuff he does out there."

New Brunswick comes into the Gut on Saturday afternoon for its third matchup with an ECAC team. The Varsity Reds defeated Princeton earlier in the season 11-4 as the Reds took advantage of numerous Tiger follies, and then lost to Brown 10-0 after suffering injuries the night before against the Tigers which led the Varsity Reds to play with just 16 skaters and their backup goaltender.

Pick: The Varsity Reds, the defending Canadian university champions, are tough, and they just moved into first place in their division with a win and a tie over Prince Edward Island on the road this past weekend — but it’s still not enough. Vermont 6, New Brunswick 2

With the holidays upon us quicker than you can say "Pops" Hendrickson, the schedule also gets shorter.

Next week in the ECAC: Friday, December 11 Providence at Dartmouth Niagara at Clarkson Ferris State at St. Lawrence Colgate at Minnesota-Duluth

Saturday, December 12 Ferris State at Clarkson Colgate at Minnesota-Duluth

Thanks to the Dave Hendrickson, Rich Tibbetts, Jason Frank and Jason Patton for their contributions to this preview.

All photographs used by permission of the appropriate Sports Information Departments. Any reproduction without authorization is prohibited.

Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy are ECAC Correspondents for U.S. College Hockey Online.

Copyright 1998 Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy. All rights reserved.

This Week in the MAAC: December 4, 1998

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The email came first in a trickle, then in waves.

“What do you have against UConn?” demanded angry Huskies fans. “Why do you keep picking them to lose?” Several pointed out that I had picked UConn to be swept three weekends in a row.

And for the record, the stretch in which I predicted UConn to go 0-6 actually saw the Huskies take a win and a tie from AIC; a split with Quinnipiac (sending the Braves to their only loss of the season); and a split with Holy Cross.

Why did I predict gloom and doom for the Huskies? The AIC thing was just a hunch. With Quinnipiac and the Cross, UConn looked to be just a bit less talented on paper than their league counterparts.

But no matter the talent level, you just can’t replace heart, and UConn might be the hardest-working team in the MAAC. While Bruce Marshall’s club may not have any true snipers, they’re willing to skate a stride quicker and hit a bit harder than their foes. And they have one of the MAAC’s best netminders in senior Marc Senerchia (2.20 GAA).

As a result UConn is right where it should be, three points behind first-place Quinnipiac. And if the Huskies keep playing they way they have been, they will be playing in the Hart Center at Holy Cross March 19-20 with as good a chance as any of taking the MAAC crown. With that out of the way, its on to this weekend’s matchups, the last full weekend of MAAC play before the semester break. The marquee matchup, both of the weekend and on the season to date, is the home-and-home series between first-place Quinnipiac and second-place Holy Cross, as just one point separates the Braves from the Crusaders in the standings.

The weekend’s most intruiging series, however, just may be that between AIC and Iona, two teams currently tied for third, neither supposed to be there. Then there’s Canisius and Sacred Heart, a series the Ice Griffs must have if they are to salvage their season, and what looks to be a mismatch with UConn and Fairfield.

Iona (7-4-0; 6-3-0 MAAC) at American International (5-1-2; 5-1-2 MAAC) Friday-Saturday, 7 pm, Olympia Ice Center, W. Springfield, MA

This matchup is a simple one to figure, a storyline that’s as old as the game of hockey itself — a hot team on offense taking on the hottest defense in the conference. In a league characterized by teams with good goalies but shaky defenders in front of them, AIC seems to be one of the few with both assets, as evidenced by their league-leading 1.75 goalsper game allowed.

That’s largely due to sophomore goalie Chance Thede, who boasts a league-leading goals-against of 1.72 and save percentage of .941.

Iona, meanwhile, just keeps rolling on offense. Last we saw of the Gaels, two weeks ago, they drubbed Fairfield to the tune of 17-4 over two games.

So it’s safe to say there’s one simple key to these games — which force is stronger? How tight is AIC’s defense? Is it enough to withstand the force the league-leading Rob Kellogg-Ryan Cater-Erik Nates line? Can AIC muster some offense of their own?

Picks: The scary thing is, these Iona gunslingers are mostly freshmen. If they stick together the full four years, its not too tough to envision a MAAC crown in three years. Iona rolls, 6-3 and 8-2.

Canisius (2-8-2; 0-6-2 MAAC) at Sacred Heart (0-9-0; 0-8-0 MAAC) Friday, 7:30 pm, Milford Ice Arena, Milford, Conn. Saturday, 3 pm, Milford Ice Arena, Milford, Conn.

Make no mistake about it: Canisius’s season is on the verge of becoming an unmitigated disaster. The preseason pick to finish second in the MAAC, the Griffs are now 0-8-2 in their last ten games. If they lose or tie Friday, Canisius will set a new school record for a winless streak.

Every week it seems it seems the Griffs are on the verge of getting over the hump; every week they come up just short. Their last eight games have seen two ties, three one-goal losses and two two-goal losses. Part of the problem is slow starts — the Griffs had to come back from two-goal third-period deficits to earn both of those ties.

Sacred Heart, meanwhile was expected to have trouble adjusting this year, but it’s been worse than expected. The Pioneers have dropped their first nine games and 13 of their last 15 dating to the end of the 1997-98 season.

Keys to the game:

Sacred Heart needs bigtime help on defense. Don’t let Alexis Jutras-Binet’s 6.12 goals-against average fool you; he’s one of the best young goalies in the league. But he’s been getting subpar efforts in front of him. Tuesday, he saved 40 shots to keep the Pioneers’ 6-3 loss to Army respectable.

Canisius needs someone to step up in the clutch, like Rob Othmann or Aaron Kemp, who are tied for seventh in the MAAC in scoring with seven points each. The Griffs are getting to the point where the close losses are piling up, and need someone to come through and stem the pyhschological effect.

Picks: Sacred Heart prolongs the Griffs’ agony with a 4-3 overtime win Friday, but Canisius finally breaks loose Saturday with a 7-2 win.

Quinnipiac (8-1-0; 7-1-0 MAAC) at Holy Cross (6-3-2; 6-1-1 MAAC) Friday, 7 pm, Hart Center, Worcester, MA Holy Cross at Quinnipiac Saturday, 7 pm, East Haven Rink, E. Haven, Conn.

Coaches will mumble cliches that it doesn’t matter who’s in first in December, it’s who’s in first come March. And there’s a degree of truth to that, but don’t let anyone fool you — both of these teams badly want to go into the break atop the MAAC.

The Braves look to be the stronger of the two at this point. Although they dropped their first decision of the season to UConn, a one-goal road loss two weeks ago, they responded with an 8-3 thumping the next night and appear to be in high gear.

Holy Cross, meanwhile, has stumbled a bit, going 1-2 over their last three to drop out of the top spot, including a one-sided 6-1 loss at Army last Friday.

Keys to the games:

For Holy Cross, it’s a simple matter of slowing down the high-powered Brave offense. Quinnipiac leads the league in goals per game (5.20, edging Iona’s 5.16), and the Crusaders will need to slow down preseason player of the year Chris Cerella and freshman sensation Neil Breen.

Not that the Crusaders can’t score themselves. The Braves need to keep a lid on Chris Fattey (2-6-8) and Joe Cavanugh (6-1-7) in order to win this weekend.

Picks: Holy Cross dictates the pace in their own building and takes a 3-2 decision. Saturday, the Braves bounce back and play their style in their house, where they are 7-0 on the season, taking the win 8-4. Fairfield (0-9-0; 0-7-0 MAAC) at UConn (6-4-1; 5-2-1 MAAC) Friday, 7:30 pm, UConn Ice Arena, Storrs, Conn. UConn at Fairfield Saturday, 7:30 pm, Wonderland of Ice, Bridgeport, Conn.

Quite frankly, the less said about this one, the better. Although Fairfield and Sacred Heart are both winless at the bottom of the MAAC, the question of which team is the league’s worst seems pretty clear-cut. Sacred Heart at least seems to put in a solid effort every night; Fairfield has simply been getting hammered every time out, and haven’t been comptetitive since a 3-2 loss to AIC on Oct. 30.

And it’s not really the fault of coach Mike Doneghy, a coach known for sound fundamentals, either; rumblings out of the Gold Coast are that the administration just doesn’t have their heart into supporting Division I hockey.

Take a program in disarray and match them with a disciplined, veteran UConn crew (a team coming off a tough set with MSU-Mankato at that), and you have the makings of another long weekend for the Stags.

Picks: Resisting the urge to pick UConn to get swept anyways, look for the Huskies to take 5-2 and 3-1 decisions. Other games: After this weekend, AIC and Fairfield are both involved in nonconference games before hanging up the skates for a couple weeks. AIC takes on a pair of Division III foes, hosting Williams on Dec. 8, then taking on defending NCAA Division III champion Middlebury in a game on Dec. 12 that could serve as a statement on the MAAC’s legitimacy in Division I at this point. Also on Dec. 8, Fairfield travels to Army, a team that’s 2-1 against MAAC teams, having beaten Holy Cross and Sacred Heart and lost to UConn.

In Search Of Sasquatch

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With just under nine minutes left in Boston University’s spirited 4-2 victory over hated arch-rival Boston College, the superfan known as Sasquatch is getting restless. The whistle blows, and he jumps up, gesturing to the BU band across Walter Brown Arena. They miss the cue and break into “Louie, Louie”; Sasquatch whips off his hat with an agitated gesture befitting his nocturnal namesake.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance,” says a fellow season-ticket holder behind him.

Indeed, The Chance comes within the minute. The band breaks into the heavy-metal horns of his theme song, “Iron Man,” and Sasquatch leaps to his feet, shedding his hat and t-shirt in one motion, revealing a hefty build and a torso so much like a pelt that he could be the President of the Body Hair Club for Men.

Sasquatch runs down the steps toward the ice, waving his shirt over his head with an index finger in the air. He points at BC netminder Scott Clemmensen, then begins a chant of “1949! 1949!” in a sarcastic reference to the Eagles’ last national championship. By the time he returns to his seat, the BU faithful have begun their usual variation on the “Goalie! Sieve!” chant, shouting “Sasquatch! Sieve!” as they alternate between pointing at the rabid superfan and the opposing goalie.

Think of it this way: Detroit Red Wing fans throw an octopus on the ice after their team scores their first goal of a game. At UNH, a large fish serves the same purpose. Cornell fans shout the word “Red!” during the national anthem. And Sasquatch strips to the waist with eight to 12 minutes left in most BU games, revving up the crowd while a percentage of women in attendance avert their eyes at the sight.

But who is the man behind the dubious nickname? As he is reluctant to give out his last name due to the potential wrath of BC fans, let’s just call him Brian. What compels him to perform this hair-raising spectacle dozens of times over the last six seasons?

“I have a great affection and love for this university, and I’m very involved in the alumni community,” Brian says. “One of the things that I try to build in the current student population is spirit, and through Sasquatch I think I build school spirit.”

A 1994 alumnus of BU, Brian double-majored in chemistry and Middle Eastern Studies, perhaps giving him an educated perspective on both spirit and the warring fan factions pulling for Commonwealth Ave. neighbors BU and BC.

“It started actually at BC,” Brian says. “We were there in the ’92-’93 season and there were some, shall we say, obnoxious BC fans. They were ahead like 2-1 maybe and they were dancing in front of me and pelvic-hipping, you know, thrusting. We scored a tying goal, then a goal to go ahead, and I just took off my shirt. I was with four of my friends and they thought it was fun and it kind of took off from there.”

A huge fan of rock band Van Halen, he sometimes has played air guitar to his theme song. He has worn a Miss Beanpot sash over his fuzzy belly and sported an oversize Cat-in-the-Hat red and white hat. However, he downplays the props these days, suggesting that we are now seeing a more restrained and mature Sasquatch.

Over five years since starting the routine, Sasquatch is a college-hockey fixture. Which is all well and good at the rink, but imagine the dilemmas of your everyday life, trying to convince people who cross your path that you are not, well, a wild, hairy party animal.

“I’ll be trying to meet some women at a bar, and I’ll have to say ‘I’m really not that person who goes wild at the hockey games,'” Brian says. “I’m not like that all the time. I’m a person who’s trying to build a professional career; I would like to settle down.”

In real life, Sasquatch actually roams the halls of an undisclosed financial services company, working in the call center. So perhaps that person who has been giving you sensible advice on your mutual funds could be the same guy who can whip off his shirt faster than you can say “Sell!”

“With work, they found out about it after the first round of the Beanpot in 1998,” Brian says. My picture was almost a full page in the Herald, and I was late that morning, you know, after a 9:00 p.m. BU hockey game and, they were right there at my desk saying ‘Did you see yourself in the paper?'”

Sasquatch has enjoyed some memorable moments over the years. Before baring his chest at a BU-Maine game, he asked Maine fans if they wanted to see a real black bear. He once wore a Miss Maine sash across his naked torso. The real Miss Maine happened to be in attendance.

“We had some words after my performance,” Brian says, wistfully.

One of the stranger moments this season was during BU’s 9-1 rout of Princeton, when three prepubescent boys whipped off their shirts in a hairless tribute to the superfan. “It’s been fun with the kids,” Brian says, noting that BU president Jon Westling’s sons “enjoy the ritual.”

Perhaps a bit touchy over the Terriers’ 1-5-1 record going into last weekend’s BC series, Sasquatch had a regrettable run-in with a BC fan at the Conte Forum on Friday night. After being spotted by a BC fan who had lambasted him during last year’s Frozen Four, “I did lunge after him with my hand to grab his shirt. I want to apologize to him for doing that if he’s gonna be reading this out there….I think any spirit for any school is great, but let’s try and keep it friendly.”

Sasquatch has no need to apologize to the BU players and coaches, however. To them, he is a crowd catalyst.

“We definitely respect him,” BU forward Chris Heron says. “He’s a huge part of BU hockey, a character. It’s a big tradition. I think it also distracts the other team initially: ‘Who the hell is this guy up in the stands?'”

“He’s into the games, I’ll tell you that much,” BU captain Albie O’Connell says. “He gets the fans going, and I think it’s good for us. Some people may call him nuts, but I think it’s kind of comical.”

Speaking of nuts, Sasquatch sits in aptly-named Section Eight, where the Walter Brown Arena fans are at their craziest. This rowdy student-and-alumni section definitely gives the Terriers a home-ice advantage, and Sasquatch is perhaps more ringleader than animal.

“I know he gets the crowd all jacked up,” BU coach Jack Parker says. “He’s a big part of Walter Brown Arena lore, that’s for sure. Our success is based on emotion, and he gets the crowd going, which gets our team going. It’s like having a huge cheerleader out there.”

Sure, Coach. Though if Sasquatch is your idea of the ultimate cheerleader, one can only imagine your vision of a homecoming queen.

Double Trouble

By John L. Maddock
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The object of the two games is the same — to score goals. One is played on a sheet of ice, the other on a pitch. Canisius College junior Ryan Puntiri excels at both.

On the soccer field, the midfielder is one of the leading playmakers in the nation. Puntiri was named second-team All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference after registering 14 points this season. He ranked 12th in the nation in assists with 10 and is tied for third at Canisius in all-time assists with 17.

The junior is also a forward on the Canisius hockey team. Though he’s not the most fluent skater or graceful stick-handler, Puntiri is constantly doing the dirty work, delivering solid hits and digging pucks out from along the boards. He tallied seven goals and nine assists last season.

He brings a hard-nosed attitude and leadership to both Griffin squads, which teammates admire and try to imitate. Puntiri has been elected captain of the soccer team and won the Tom Chapman Memorial Award, given to the Ice Griffs’ unsung hero, last season.

“My work ethic is how I find success in both sports, and other players feed off that,” said Puntiri.

“Ryan is an extremely competitive and hard-working player, who takes pride in his performance in games in addition to his performance in training,” added head soccer coach Dave Kreger. “He does not allow an opponent to outwork him.”

The two-sport athlete was recruited by former soccer mentor Dr. Greg Reeds to play for the Golden Griffins, but he also wanted to play hockey at the college level. His father, Victor, played for the Minnesota North Stars of the National Hockey League.

Reeds spoke to hockey coach Brian Cavanaugh, and it was decided he could play both, though the seasons of the two sports overlap by a month.

The transformation from one sport to the other is tricky, both physically and psychologically.

“The training for soccer helps build endurance but you use different muscles in hockey, so it takes a while to get your hockey legs back,” admits Puntiri.

The product of Plymouth South High School has made the changeover look easy. In just his fifth game on the ice this season, he scored two goals in the last eight minutes to lead the Ice Griffs to a 5-5 comeback tie against American International.

“Ryan is a gifted two-sport athlete who makes an immediate contribution when he steps off the soccer field and onto the ice,” said Cavanaugh.

Time management is a skill that must be mastered in order for any student-athlete to be successful in the classroom, especially for one that competes in two sports.

“I’m used to it because that1s the way it’s always been,” said Puntiri. “There really isn’t much of an adjustment.”

The upperclassman’s experience has also helped another two-sport athlete, freshman Brad Kenny. The Burlington, Ont., native tied Puntiri for the team lead in soccer scoring with 14 points and has tallied two goals in his first three hockey games. Kenny sought advice from the veteran on making the shift between the two sports.

“Coach Cavanaugh has always told me not to worry about hockey until after the soccer season, which helps ease the situation.” said Puntiri. “I just relayed that to Brad.”

With his work ethic and leadership skills, Puntiri shows no signs of slowing down.

“Anybody who’s ever played with Ryan knows that he’s one of the fiercest competitors to ever put on a Canisius jersey — in hockey or soccer,” said Cavanaugh.

“I expect him to improve on his junior year and be one of the top playmakers in the MAAC again next season,” offered Kreger.

And if he has a favorite between soccer and hockey, Puntiri’s not telling.

“We’ve had a little more success in hockey, which helps make it more enjoyable,” admits Puntiri, “but once I get involved, I love playing both.”

John L. Maddock is assistant director of athletics for Canisius College.

This Week in the ECAC: November 27, 1998

By Becky Blaeser & Jayson Moy
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It’s that holiday time of the season once again. Colgate will enter it with the lead in the ECAC as the only undefeated and untied team in the league at 4-0-0. Princeton is also undefeated, but its record is 3-0-1. It’s way too early to judge the standings, so let’s just wait until sometime in February to do that.

It was a big weekend for Colgate and Yale, with both teams sweeping two ECAC games. That was followed closely by Princeton’s win and a tie. Garnering one win on the weekend were St. Lawrence and Union, while Cornell and Vermont each took one win and one loss in league play, and Brown got one point with a tie and a loss.

Dartmouth and Harvard were swept in league play, and Clarkson and Rensselaer lost single games.

The Thanksgiving weekend gives rise to one ECAC game as Harvard and Brown get to meet again, with Brown hoping to sweep the series from the Crimson. It also features a Tuesday night matchup between Harvard and Rensselaer.

Everything else is a non-conference affair. Five ECAC teams will battle with Hockey East foes in ten games this coming weekend. Clarkson and St. Lawrence will battle Boston University and Boston College, Vermont is in the Governor’s Cup wth Mass- Lowell, Maine and New Hampshire, and Princeton and Yale take on Providence and Merrimack.

The ECAC, with its three wins on Tuesday night, has pulled even once again at 8-8-0 with Hockey East in the annual battle for bragging rights.

Rensselaer and Union play host to Niagara this weekend, Dartmouth travels to Nebraska-Omaha for two games, and Colgate and Cornell battle each other in a non- conference affair.

Last Week: 7-7 Season to Date: 28-23, .549

We hope that everyone has a Healthy and Happy Thanksgiving and that everyone gets their big helping of the ECAC pie!

Harvard (2-5-0, 0-5-0 ECAC, 12th) at Brown (1-3-1, 1-3-1 ECAC, 7th) Saturday, 7:00 pm, Meehan Auditorium, Providence, RI Harvard (2-5-0, 0-5-0 ECAC, 12th) at Rensselaer (4-3-0, 1-2-0 ECAC, T-8th) Tuesday, 7:30 pm, Houston Fieldhouse, Troy, NY

On Tuesday night, Harvard saved itself from continuing on a path that was the worst in program history. A 5-3 victory over crosstown rival Boston University snapped a four-game losing streak and gave the Crimson a crucial second win of the season. Prior to the game, you had to go back almost 60 years to the 1940-41 Harvard squad that started out 1-7 before earning its second win of the season.

It has been a tumultuous beginning to the season for Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni in his ninth year at the helm. Heading into the B.U. game, none of the Crimson losses this season have been pretty, while both victories have come in non-league action.

The team has surrendered 27 goals in five league games, while scoring only nine. Seven of those tallies have come on the power play and currently the team sports a – 79 plus/minus mark. Even the 1996-97 ECAC Rookie of the Year, J.R. Prestifilippo, has seen better times as he has allowed 5.58 goals per game against ECAC foes. He was pulled after one period against Cornell, and watched from the bench as backup Oliver Jonas picked up his first start and victory of the season against the Terriers.

"We have got to regroup," said sophomore Steve Moore, who is the team’s leading scorer with six points. "It has been one loss after another. We need to come together as a team and play for pride."

If you look deep into the Harvard statistics, then you’ll see a bright spot in that the Crimson power play is at a respectable 23-percent clip in ECAC action.

Aside from its special-teams play, the Crimson offense is struggling to find any sort of rhythm on the ice as even the potent duo of last season, Moore and classmate Chris Bala, have been unable to find the back of the net with any consistency.

"We’ve been struggling offensively all year long from the standpoint of five on five," Tomassoni said. "I think we’re going to get more cohesive offensively and we had some pretty good opportunities that we just haven’t finished off and overall as a team we haven’t been as thorough as we need to be. Hopefully with each week that passes we’ll get there."

The real problem for Harvard has been the defensive lapses. Against Cornell it let up three goals in 3:17 only to allow three in 2:31 the next night against Colgate. Much of the same was seen at Ingalls Rink as the Bulldogs pounded the Crimson for four goals in 4:25. The first reprieve for Harvard came against B.U. when Harvard played role reversal by netting three goals in six minutes to jump out to a commanding 3-0 lead after one period. The team has yet to show that spark in ECAC action, however.

It also didn’t help matters when the team’s most veteran blueliner — senior Ben Storey – – was diagnosed with mononucleosis days before the Cornell/Colgate series. Then freshman Peter Capouch, who had been the Crimson’s unexpected offensive spark plug with two goals, suffered a bruised shoulder on Friday night against Princeton and missed the game against Yale. You can also add in the fact that another veteran blueliner — Matt Scorsune — injured his knee and is indefinite at the moment.

"Anytime you lose two quality players it hurts you. On the other hand it’s not an excuse either," said Tomassoni, who reinserted Capouch into the lineup against B.U, but kept Scorsune out against the Terriers. "It’s an opportunity for others and we have to make the most of it because Ben is going to be out for awhile. We just have to play, we can’t worry about who is sitting in the stands."

Harvard will look for its first league win of the year against Brown in Meehan Auditorium on Saturday night. The team has been bolstered offensively by the return of freshman Jeff Stonehouse, who missed the early part of the season with injuries. In addition, after two years of being a role player, junior Brett Chodorow has finally showing a newfound confidence in the offensive zone as he stands second on the team in scoring with five points, including a one-goal, two-assist performance against the Terriers.

Roger Grillo shouldn’t have been too disappointed when his Brown team rebounded from a tough 5-3 loss to Yale with a 3-3 overtime tie against a surging Princeton team.

Unfortunately, the sting of the late-game woes must still haunt the second-year coach. On Friday night, the Bears held a 3-2 lead heading into the final period of play, but two Bulldog goals in a span of 1:10 midway through the stanza was all she would write for the Bears.

"Yale capitalized in the third and we didn’t," Grillo told the Brown Daily Herald after Friday’s game. "We had our chances and we should have been up two or three goals, but [Alex] Westlund came up big, then they got a couple and that was the game. I thought we played a very good game. I told the guys I was proud of the effort and the way they skated and played. In this league there’s a fine edge between winning and losing, and I think we deserved to win, but we can’t dwell on that, we just have to go out [Saturday] night and get the job done."

The following night, Brown gave the undefeated Tigers all they could handle. A third- period tally with seven minutes left by Jon Zielinski set the game into overtime, but it was all Princeton after that. The Tigers pelted five shots at the Brown net in the extra period, but Scott Stirling capped off his 33-save performance by staving off the Tigers and preserving the tie and much-needed point in the ECAC race.

"The positive was that we didn’t play extremely well, and we battled back to tie them," said Grillo following the Princeton game. "We had a couple chances to win it, but most importantly Scotty [Stirling] settled down and played well in the third period and overtime. We’re a young team and we need him to stand up big right now."

Penalty killing was once again a source of concern for the Bears, as they allowed two power-play tallies against Princeton and one versus Yale. Mike Bent, who was moved to the point on the power play, came through with his team-leading third goal with the extra-man advantage. John Petricig had his biggest game to date, notching two goals on the weekend, while Adrian Smith added a quiet two assists.

Rensselaer comes off of an overtime loss to Union at home last Friday evening. It wasn’t exactly what the Engineers had in mind against the Dutchmen. The Engineers fell behind 3-1 after one period of play, but even though the Engineers caught up, they fell in overtime.

"We got outworked in the first period, we didn’t play disciplined," said head coach Dan Fridgen. "We did a good job of battling back in the second and the third. We showed some character, making it even but the first period we got outplayed.

"Right away we dug ourselves a hole. We dug ourselves out of it, that was a positive, but we shouldn’t have been in that predicament and we have no one to blame but ourselves."

One of the things that continues to plague the Engineers are penalties. The Engineers have taken 90 penalties for 212 minutes compared to their opponents’ 65 penalties for 130 minutes. At the same time the Engineers have allowed 11 power play goals on 52 chances, a 21.2 percentage.

"I think that’s probably the most frustrating thing from the coaching staff’s perspective," said Fridgen about the penalties. "You tell these guys what to do and to go out and execute and there’s no excuse. Disciplined play five on five is how you need to play in order to win hockey games; unless you have fantastic penalty killers, and obviously we don’t."

Picks: Harvard at Brown – Harvard tends to fare well in Providence, and the victory over B.U. may have just been the jumpstart the Crimson needed. Look for Harvard to slowly drag itself out of the early-season hole it created. Harvard 4, Brown 2. Harvard at Rensselaer – Both teams haven’t exactly played their best hockey thus far, but the Engineers are no doubt a step ahead of the Crimson — at least at this point of the season. Rensselaer 5, Harvard 3.

Colgate (5-2-0, 4-0-0 ECAC, 1st) vs. Cornell (5-1-0, 3-1-0 ECAC, T-3rd) Saturday, 7:00 pm, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY

The Red Raiders of Colgate have started the ECAC season with four straight victories, leaving them in first place in the league at this early stage. They defeated Vermont and Dartmouth this past weekend 7-2 and 6-1 respectively.

Despite the influx of goals scored by the Red Raiders, head coach Don Vaughan is still pessimistic about his offense.

"I don’t think they’ll come easy for us," he said. "I’m still not certain that we can get them in bunches. These are the kinds of goals we need to get, going to the net, special teams, rebounds, but it will still be tough for us."

One of the formulas thus far for the Red Raiders has been their goaltending. Shep Harder and Jason LeFevre continue to do the job. Harder has a 2.25 GAA and a .909 save percentage and LeFevre stands at a 2.33 GAA and a .908 save percentage, among the best in the ECAC this season.

Cornell was the last of the nation’s unbeatens after a 3-1 victory over Dartmouth on Friday evening. But the Big Red fell from the distinction on Saturday with a 5-3 loss to Vermont. The Big Red rebounded nicely with a 4-2 win over Northeastern on Tuesday evening.

"Give Vermont credit," said Cornell head coach Mike Schafer. "They came out flying (Saturday). We just didn’t do a great job of neutralizing their speed.

"We worked hard, but we didn’t play very smart."

The weekend also saw the first appearance in goal by freshman Matt Underhill. While Ian Burt has been going good guns, Underhill came in to replace Burt with a little over 15 minutes left in the third period against Vermont. Underhill got the start against Northeastern on Tuesday and got his first career victory.

"He did the job," said Schafer of the rookie. "Matt is a very capable goaltender. He did a good job in a tough situation for your first league action. He’s a pretty mature kid and we’ve got a lot of confidence in him.

"It was just a tough night for Ian [Burt] in the sense that defensively we didn’t give him a lot of support. He was giving up rebounds but our defense wasn’t doing a very good job of tying sticks up around the front of the net."

"We know we didn’t work hard tonight, and we know we didn’t play well enough to win the game, so we deserved to lose," said Burt. "We just have to go out and play like we did in the first four games of the season. We’re going to lose games this year, no doubt."

Pick – This is one of those travel partner games where you just don’t know who to pick, but you have to pick someone because your editor says that you have to. The decision here is which fans dislike us the most. Cornell 4, Colgate 2

Boston College (6-2-1, 4-2-0 Hockey East, 3rd) and Boston University(2-7-1, 1- 4-1 Hockey East, 8th) at St. Lawrence (6-2-0, 2-1-0 ECAC, T-5th) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Appleton Arena, Canton, NY Boston University (2-7-1, 1-4-1 Hockey East, 8th) and Boston College (6-2-1, 4-2-0 Hockey East, 3rd) at Clarkson (1-6-0, 1-2-0 ECAC, T-8th) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Cheel Arena, Potsdam, NY

St. Lawrence moves back into the number ten position in the U.S. College Hockey Online Division I Poll this week after defeating arch-rival Clarkson this past weekend 3-1. The huge rivalry always means a lot and this weekend it was no different.

"From a confidence standpoint that has to mean a lot," said Saint head coach Joe Marsh. "No matter what the records of the two teams are, it is always a huge game and lately Clarkson has had the better of it. We don’t want to get too carried away, but it is one we can sit back and savor a little bit."

Converted defenseman John Poapst scored two of the goals this weekend in the win. While Poapst is playing on a forward line, he still plays the quarterback on the Saint power play.

"(Poapst) has always been a big-game player and (Saturday) was no different, he really had a lot of adrenaline going and made some big plays," said Marsh. "Plus, Heff was brilliant again, even after getting shaken up in the third period. He can make an enormous difference for us in a lot of games and he has done it pretty consistently over the last two seasons. He made some big saves at key junctures and didn’t give them a lot of second chances and he got a lot of help from his teammates.

"While we gave up 40 shots, it was a pretty good defensive effort and a lot of those shots came from the perimeter. Whenever your defense and forwards go out and block as many shots as we did Saturday, you know you are getting the right kind of effort."

Heffler was named the ECAC Goaltender of the Week for the fourth time this season, establishing him as an early favorite for the Dryden Award.

"Heff is one of the reasons we have been so successful on the kill so far," said Marsh. "But the guys in front of him did a great job in the third period."

Clarkson fell to 1-6-0 with the loss, and it was another frustrating evening for head coach Mark Morris.

"We didn’t play smart," he said. "Our big players need to come to the forefront. We are not getting the type of production we have to have to beat anyone."

The lone goal came off the stick of Carl Drakensjo, but by that time is was too little, too late. The goal was his fourth of the season and Morris points out the Drakensjo is one of the Knights who is off to a nice start.

"I really like (Drakensjo’s) play so far," he said. "He’s worked really hard and he has improved quite a bit. But others have to step it up in order for us to be successful."

One of last year’s ECAC Co-Rookie’s of the year, Erik Cole, leads the team in scoring with five points (1-4-5), and Ben Maidment (1-3-4), Matt Reid (2-2-4) and Mikko Ollila (2-2-4) follow behind Cole in the offensive category for the Knights.

The Knights have scored 17 goals on the season but allowed 21 goals. 10 different Clarkson players have scored and 18 Knights have points on the season. The Golden Knights are close to breaking out.

Boston University and Boston College faced off in arch-rival weekend last week, with the teams splitting their pair of games. Like the Saints and Golden Knights, when these two teams get together, it’s a rumble and last weekend was no different.

For more on how the two teams fared and what they think of the upcoming North Country trip, refer to "Pilgrim" Dave Hendrickson’s Hockey East Preview.

Picks: Boston College at St. Lawrence – This is a nice early battle, and one that has already happened. The Eagles defeated the Saints to win the Icebreaker Cup in Minnesota earlier this season. Even though this time St. Lawrence has home ice advantage, the Eagles have so many offensive weapons. Boston College 4, St. Lawrence 2 Boston University at Clarkson – Two teams struggling and both teams are trying to right the ship. The Knights take that first step towards their annual second half run. Clarkson 5, Boston University 3 Boston University at St. Lawrence – The Saints come back and earn the split defeating the Terriers. St. Lawrence 3, Boston University 1 Boston College at Clarkson – Jerry York goes back to Clarkson and the Knights’ run is delayed a little bit. Boston College 5, Clarkson 4

Princeton (3-1-1, 3-0-1 ECAC, 3rd) at Providence (5-5-0, 3-3-0 Hockey East, T- 4th) Friday, 7:00 pm, Schneider Arena, Providence, RI Merrimack (5-4-0, 3-2-0 Hockey East, T-4th) at Princeton (3-1-1, 3-0-1 ECAC, 3rd) Sunday, 5:00 pm, Hobey Baker Rink, Princeton, NJ

You can’t but help like the way Princeton is playing right now. After sweeping through the North Country with two impressive victories, the Tigers returned home to Hobey Baker last weekend to collect three more points on this young season.

Don "Toot" Cahoon’s squad had its moments during its first homestand — some better than others, but in each contest there was no doubt which team is playing like a legitimate candidate for the league title come March.

Granted, that sentiment may be a bit overstated just three weeks in the ECAC schedule, but it’s hard to overlook the Tigers potential when Hobey Baker hopeful Jeff Halpern is overshadowed all weekend long by second-line center Syl Apps, who was named to the ECAC Honor Roll. The well-established defensive forward has chosen his final collegiate season to start piling on the scores, netting three goals and one assist in the two games to bring his season total to a team-leading seven points.

"There is a real integrity to his game and he plays as hard as any player I have ever coached," said Cahoon of his senior co-captain. "I think toward the middle of last year he started to assert himself more offensively and have more confidence with the puck. Obviously it gives people another person to be concerned with and someone who can hurt you with another shift. And Jeff will be the first to admit that the team goes much deeper than Jeff Halpern."

Offensively, the Tigers scored six goals on the weekend, but could have netted quite a few more had it been more efficient. Against Brown, the Tigers had their chances — both in regulation and even more so in overtime — to solidify its fourth ECAC win of the year, but instead left an eyesore in the statistical column. The Tigers outshot the Bears by a 2-1 margin, including a 5-0 differential in the overtime period. It was the same story against Harvard as the home team blasted 10 more shots on net than the Crimson skaters.

"I don’t think we’re playing poorly, but at the same time we aren’t where we need to be once we get into the heart of the season and into a playoff situation," Cahoon said. "I don’t want to think too far ahead, because we have a lot of room for improvement, but I am happy with the play of some people and I think the team is working diligently."

Despite the hefty expectations placed on the shoulders of the defensive corps and yet another Tiger Hobey hopeful, Steve Shirreffs, the Princeton blueliners have more than pulled their own weight. Through four league games, opponents have scored seven goals, six of them coming on the power play. And in the team’s 3-2 victory over Harvard, it was Jackson Hegland who snuck in from the left point to deposit the game winner.

And whatever happened to those questions surrounding the Princeton goaltending? It appears that Nick Rankin, with a little help from freshman Dave Stathos, have quieted most concerns, allowing a combined average of 1.94 goals per game in the four league contests.

Still, Princeton is far from invincible as was evident at times during this past weekend’s play. Killing off penalties continues to be a source of concern for Cahoon and Co., and consistency remains the inevitable question mark whenever one talks about Princeton. Case in point, what should have been a four-point weekend for the Tigers translated into only three, dropping them out of the top spot in the league race.

"We struggle with a man down and it hasn’t been that we have been bad from start to finish, we are just having mental breakdowns during each kill and teams are taking advantage of that and converting," Cahoon said. "We have gone through two weekends of league play and in anybody’s case you have to take care of league business. I think this weekend [with two non-league games] we need to settle down and examine the areas we need to improve upon. We just want to play well and improve and the wins and losses will take care of themselves. We are looking for some growth right now."

For more on Providence and Merrimack refer to the "Turkey" Dave Hendrickson and his Hockey East Preview.

Picks: Princeton at Providence – "Toot" Cahoon talked about using his team’s upcoming non-league games for some growth. Even on the road, the Tigers are mature enough to cruise by the Friars, allowing one power-play goal along the way. Princeton 4, Providence 1. Merrimack at Princeton – The Tigers will have what it takes to contain the offensive minded Warriors. Princeton 5, Merrimack 1.

Yale (2-2-0, 2-2-0 ECAC, T-5th) at Merrimack (5-4-0, 3-2-0 Hockey East, T- 4th) Friday, 7:00 pm, Volpe Center, North Andover, Mass. Providence (5-5-0, 3-3-0 Hockey East, T-4th) at Yale (2-2-0, 2-2-0 ECACT-5th) Saturday, 7:00 pm, Ingalls Rink, New Haven, Conn.

It was probably one of the more satisfying sweeps for Yale head coach Tim Taylor.

Following a two-loss weekend against Clarkson and St. Lawrence, the veteran coach was still undecided about the strength of his team. Oddly enough, after one of the toughest road trips on the schedule, the defensive unit (which came into the season as a menacing question mark) was strong, but it was the offense that wasn’t producing. This is an offense that features Hobey Baker hopeful Jeff Hamilton and a stacked crew of eight of the team’s top 10 producers from last year.

In its first homestand this season against Brown and Harvard, Hamilton proved that he is the most dominating forward in all the ECAC. The speedy sniper collected a hat trick and dished out two assists against Harvard and also added a goal and an assist against Brown for a seven-point weekend to earn ECAC Player of the Week honors.

"He’s got a scoring knack, there’s no doubt about it," Taylor said. "That kid can score. He gives me a little heart failure sometimes with some of his defensive shenanigans, but he can put it in the net."

Obviously, so can many other Bulldogs. Jay Quenville delivered the game winner against Brown and then dished out three assists in the rout over Harvard the following night. Keith McCullough also found his scoring touch, netting two goals and an assist on the weekend. In total, Yale had seven different goal scorers.

"We knew we had some ability to score some goals and create some things," Taylor said. "We were a little worried about our greenness on defense and after last weekend we played okay defensively and we just couldn’t score any goals. To get 12 goals on the weekend is really something. We scored goals in different ways. We got it off the forecheck, we got it on the power play, we got it on the rush. That bodes well for our team."

Defensively, the team allowed only four goals on the weekend with Alex Westlund picking up two victories after corralling 48 saves on the weekend. More importantly, however, was the fact that after falling behind, 2-3, against Brown, the Bulldogs held the Bears scoreless throughout the final 27 minutes of the contest to set the stage for the come-from-behind win.

"We worked on things this week in practice, and we worked on things that had crept into our team game," Taylor said. "I’m so proud of the guys. We knew that a sweep would be hard with two pretty good teams and right now we’re back in the thick of things. We’re back to .500 and we’ll see if we can get some positive points."

For more on Providence and Merrimack refer to the "Turkey" Dave Hendrickson and his Hockey East Preview.

Picks: Yale at Merrimack – Yale’s speed, headed by Hamilton and continued straight through the roster, can throw off a lot of teams. Merrimack will have a hard time keeping up. Yale 6, Merrimack 2. Providence at Yale – The Friars will face two of the hottest teams in the ECAC this weekend. It will be a tough weekend for Hockey East on this night once again. Yale 4, Providence 1.

Niagara (4-4-0, 4-4-0 vs. Division I) at Rensselaer (4-3-0, 1-2-0 ECAC, T-8th) and Union (2-6-0, 1-2-0 ECAC, T-8th) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Houston Fieldhouse, Troy, NY and Achilles Rink, Schenectady, NY

We took a look at Rensselaer above, now it’s time to take a look at the team that beat them in overtime last weekend, Union.

The Dutchmen captured their first ever ECAC victory over Rensselaer during the regular season at the Houston Fieldhouse, and one of the main reasons was goaltender Leeor Shtrom. Shtrom made 35 saves in the win, 17 of them coming in the third period, and two in the overtime.

"Some of those saves, they were ESPN highlights," said head coach Kevin Sneddon of Shtrom’s performance. "There have been a lot of one goal games for us and it was good to see one go his way."

The other thing that the Dutchmen did on Friday evening was put some goals on the board. Drew Taylor was named ECAC Rookie of the Week for his efforts, and the Dutchmen scored more than two goals for the first time since the opening game of the season against Niagara.

In that first game, the Dutchmen broke away in the third period with some key goals, one of them by Mark Szucs, the leading scorer for the Dutchmen. His linemates, Bryan Yackel, who scored the overtime winner versus Rensselaer, and Taylor, now have 12 points, seven goals and five assists. That accounts for almost one third of Union’s 38 points on the season.

Unfortunately the emotional win was followed by a 4-2 loss to Mass-Amherst the next evening. Freshmen Brandon Snee got his first start and made 30 saves, but fell short of the win.

Niagara has knocked off some of the heavyweights in the NCAA, but has still to get a win over an ECAC team. Losses to Union, Dartmouth and Cornell leave the Purple Eagles at 0-3 against the ECAC, but 2-1 over the CCHA and 2-0 against independents.

The Purple Eagles are definitely on their way, and they will look for their first win over an ECAC team this coming weekend. For more on Niagara, check out their Season Preview.

Picks: Niagara at Rensselaer – The Purple Eagles took it to Rensselaer last year, but did not come away with a win in a close fought 4-2 loss. This season, the Purple Eagles have more momentum, but you have to think that the Engineers will be hungry after an overtime loss the week before. Rensselaer 3, Niagara 2 Niagara at Union – The two teams have met once already this season with the Dutchmen winning in the J.C. Penney Classic, 5-3. With the home ice and some hard core hockey, the Dutchmen make it two wins over the Purple Eagles this season. Union 4, Niagara 3

Dartmouth (2-3-0, 1-3-0 ECAC, T-8th) at Nebraska-Omaha (1-9-0, 1-9-0 vs. Division I) Friday – Saturday, 8:00 pm, Omaha Civic Auditorium, Omaha, Neb.

Dartmouth was swept on the road this past weekend by Colgate and Cornell, dropping the Big Green to 1-3-0 in league play. But that is not a reason to be discourgaged.

"This team will win, I have no doubt about it," Dartmouth’s head coach Bob Gaudet said. "We have as good a freshman class as you can get in this league, we just need experience. We are playing eight freshmen regularly, and that will lead to a lot of ups and downs."

Some of the ups and downs will be in goal for the Big Green. Last weekend Eric Almon and Robert Delwo both saw a start. Almon gave up three goals in the loss to Cornell and Delwo gave up six goals in the loss to Dartmouth.

The Big Green will travel to take on the Mavericks of Nebraska-Omaha this weekend. The Mavericks have won only one game this season, and are coming off of a sweep at the hands of Niagara.

For more on the Mavericks, head over to their Season Preview.

Picks – This is going to be a tough series for Dartmouth as they will travel and they are a little banged up. But a split will emerge from this series. Dartmouth 4-2, and then UNO 6-4.

Governor’s Cup Vermont (6-3-0, 3-1-0 ECAC, T-3rd) at Mass-Lowell (4-5-0, 2-5-0 Hockey East, 7th) Friday, 8:00 pm, Tsongas Arena, Lowell, Mass. Consolation/Championship Vermont (6-3-0, 3-1-0 ECAC, T-3rd) vs. Maine (7-1-1, 4-1-1 Hockey East, T- 1st)/New Hampshire(7-1-1, 4-1-1 Hockey East, T-1st) Saturday, 5:00 pm/8:00 pm, Tsongas Arena, Lowell, Mass.

Vermont heads into this coming weekend’s Governor’s Cup action with a little bit of momentum. The Cats have won five of their last seven, and a lot of that was credited to goaltender Marty Phillips. Phillips shut out Rensselaer the weekend before and this weekend he held Cornell to one goal in the win.

"He was tremendous," Vermont head coach Mike Gilligan said of Phillips. "He’s somebody who has come up big this year."

Along with Andrew Allen, Phillips makes thing feel comfortable in the nets for the Cats.

Gilligan mentioned others players that have had a chance to stand out in the short season.

"Matt Sanders and B.J. Kilbourne have impressed me thus far," said Gilligan. "And freshman defenseman Mark Gouett has also impressed. Those guys are doing it up for us."

The Cats have the ECAC’s leading goal scorer with Phillipe Choiniere. Choiniere has six goals on the season. Also adding the offensive touch has been Eric Lundin. Lundin scored twice on Saturday against Cornell.

For information on Mass-Lowell, Maine and New Hampshire, head on over to Dave "Gobble, Gobble" Hendrickson’s Hockey East Preview.

Picks: Vermont at Mass-Lowell – The Catamount speed comes into play and it propels them into the Championship Game. Vermont 5, Mass-Lowell 3 Vermont vs. Maine/New Hampshire – Vermont will fall here, either to Maine or New Hampshire. Maine, 5-2 or UNH, 4-2

Next week in the ECAC: (ECAC Games in bold)

Friday, December 4 Princeton at Yale Clarkson at Harvard St. Lawrence at Brown Rensselaer at Colgate Union at Cornell

Saturday, Deceber 5 Yale at Princeton Clarkson at Brown St. Lawrence at Harvard Rensselaer at Cornell Union at Colgate New Brunswick at Vermont

Thanks to Juan Martinez, Michael Sharp and Steve Marsi for their contributions to this preview. All photographs used by permission of the appropriate Sports Information Departments. Any reproduction without authorization is prohibited.

Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy are ECAC Correspondents for U.S. College Hockey Online.

Copyright 1998 Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy. All rights reserved.

This Week in the WCHA: November 27, 1998

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The good name of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association is on the line this weekend as Minnesota and Wisconsin square off with Big Ten rivals Michigan and Michigan State in the College Hockey Showcase.

Make a note of this, ladies and gentlemen: For once, Minnesota and Wisconsin and Michigan and Michigan State will not be at each other’s throats, but at those of teams of the other conference. As soon as the weekend concludes, the cheesehead jokes can resume as can the witty banter between those in Ann Arbor who say it’s a crime Wisconsin is going to the Rose Bowl and the ones in East Lansing Badger fans can thank.

You see, in football — that other sport that’s going on now — the Spartans knocked off Ohio State, meaning Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio State all had one conference loss. By process of elimination, the Badgers are going to Pasadena.

Sorry about that. I guess the fighting for airline tickets to California has gone to my head.

Back to hockey, anyway. Most of us are fairly familiar with how the Showcase, now in its sixth season, takes place. Departing from the early years, when the tournament was all held at one building — which led to collosal disasters like the time it was at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee and there were enough people there for a small picnic — the games now take place on the campuses of the host conference. This season, it’s the WCHA. Michigan travels to Minneapolis on Friday before doubling back to Madison on Sunday. Vice versa for the Spartans.

Add to the non-conference slate two home games for newly-crowned No. 2 Colorado College, fresh off a split with No. 1 North Dakota in Grand Forks. The Tigers, still minus Toby Petersen and K.J. Voorhees, face Air Force on Friday and UMass-Amherst on Saturday at the World Arena.

Michigan Tech and Denver take the week off before returning to action next week.

But first, let’s delve into the two conference matchups this weekend, starting with the top-ranked team in the latest U.S. College Hockey Online Division I Poll…

No. 1 North Dakota (6-1-1, 4-1-1 WCHA) at St. Cloud State (5-5, 4-4 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35 CT, National Hockey Center, St. Cloud, Minn.

Talk about your streak stoppers. Last weekend’s home series with Colorado College saw a number of North Dakota streaks come to an end, other than their unbeaten streak to start the season:

– Friday night’s loss was the Fighting Sioux’s first home loss to CC since 1995.

– UND had a four-game home winning string going into the series.

– For the first time this season, the Sioux didn’t score a power-play goal in Friday’s loss.

– Jason Blake’s five-game goal-scoring streak was snapped as he was held scoreless on Saturday.

Oh well, start some more. North Dakota’s never been known to sit around coming off a split. That may be unfortunate for St. Cloud State, the Sioux’s opponent this week.

But the Huskies are riding high after a home-and-home sweep of Minnesota-Duluth. And what’s this? Coach Craig Dahl’s team had a goaltender play a whole weekend and get two wins. Sounds like something to build off.

Dean Weasler stopped 55 shots for both wins on the weekend. He improved his record to 3-0 this season.

"Well, let’s just say this is a weekend that we needed to get our game where we wanted it," Weasler said after Saturday’s victory.

But the offense may have been a bigger story, especially the line of Jason Goulet, Matt Noga and George Awada. Against the Bulldogs, they accounted for 14 points. Noga had a goal and three assists on Friday.

Further, defensemen Kyle McLaughlin, Geno Parrish and Mike Pudlick teamed for three goals and an assist. The Huskies may just be on track.

But look out for North Dakota. Check that. Look out for Lee Goren.

The left winger has six goals in six games, including the game-winner in overtime last Saturday against Colorado College. If he continues his pace and the rest of the team follows suit, it’s going to look like the Sioux took Friday’s loss to heart.

Goaltender Karl Goehring didn’t exactly have the most stellar weekend of his career against the Tigers. He was pulled in the second period of Friday’s game in favor of freshman Andy Kollar after Goehring gave up five goals. On Saturday, he allowed four goals.

But even Superman gets a dose of Kryptonite every now and then.

Picks: While it wouldn’t come as a complete shock if the Huskies get a split on home ice, North Dakota has the better team. Goehring returns to form and the Sioux stay No. 1. UND 4-1, 4-1

Alaska-Anchorage (3-8-1, 2-5-1 WCHA) at Minnesota-Duluth (1-8-1, 0-7-1 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 CT, Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, Duluth, Minn.

When things aren’t going your way, they just aren’t going your way.

No further explanation is needed for members of the Minnesota-Duluth team, who have endured their first eight conference games of the season without a win.

"I don’t know what we can do," UMD wing Shawn Pogreba said after the most recent loss, a 4-1 decision to St. Cloud State last Saturday. "It seems no matter what we do, we can not get it to click. We have the chances, but the puck isn’t falling our way."

A team in turmoil? Maybe. The Bulldogs, mired in last place in the WCHA standings, have scored just 10 goals through those eight league games while their defense has allowed 26.

And just when it looks like you’re going to pull one out, bad things happen. On two occasions last Friday night against the Huskies, UMD had a lead, only to see SCSU skate away with a 4-3 victory.

That kind of loss leads to bad decisions, which led to yet another loss.

"We made some bad decisions," Duluth coach Mike Sertich said after Saturday’s game. "Look at St. Cloud’s third goal and their fourth goal. We had the puck on our sticks and turned it over. Our effort tonight was better than Friday night, but we still got beat again in the third period. We have to have more confidence with the puck."

But numbers, for once, may be on UMD’s side this weekend. The Bulldogs are an imposing 25-4-3 all-time against Alaska-Anchorage, this weekend’s opponent. They’ve only lost once to the Seawolves at the DECC.

But that doesn’t mean Anchorage is coming into Duluth without hope. After all, a split with second-place Minnesota last weekend included three goals from center Rob Douglas (7-1–8), who now holds the team lead in points.

Freshman goaltender Gregg Naumenko was stellar last Friday against Minnesota, making 30 saves in a 5-3 victory. But he fell off a bit on Saturday, allowing three first period goals before giving way to Doug Teskey.

Here’s something that may end up being more than just numbers on paper: Anchorage is 0-27 with the power play in WCHA games. Duluth has killed 79.5 percent of opponent power play chances. Duluth is sixth in the league with a goal on 12 percent of their power plays while Anchorage leads the league in penalty killing at 89.5 percent.

Duluth goaltender Brant Nicklin has only allowed 14 even-strength goals this season. If the Seawolves can’t cash in on their chances, the Bulldogs may have an advantage.

Picks: Despite the power play ratios, Duluth is still looking for a way to win. Anchorage may be revived after a big win last weekend. UAA 5-3, tie 2-2

Air Force (6-3-1) at No. 2 Colorado College (8-2, 8-2 WCHA) Friday, 7:35 MT, Colorado Springs World Arena, Colorado Springs, Colo. UMass-Amherst (3-4-1, 2-2-1 Hockey East) at No. 2 Colorado College Saturday, 7:05 MT, Colorado Springs World Arena, Colorado Springs, Colo.

A week ago, Colorado College coach Don Lucia said his team’s goal was to get out of Grand Forks with some points against North Dakota. They came within 68 seconds of claiming three out of the four points, but had to settle for two.

"It was a great weekend of hockey," Lucia said. "Both teams played hard and I think played well. We went toe-to-toe really for 124 minutes. It was great for our players to be in that type of environment. I was very pleased with how our kids played. We played really hard and we competed."

Lucia used Jeff Sanger both nights in goal, partially to get his confidence back after pulling him from the 6-0 drubbing to Denver a week prior.

"When we took him out of the Denver game, it wasn’t his fault, the team played horrible in front of him," Lucia said. "We wanted to throw him right back in, and we felt he played so well on Friday that we were going to go back with him on Saturday."

Sanger made 33 saves Friday and 27 on Saturday. That confidence may be back.

"He felt really good about how he played," Lucia said. "There were some deflections, a couple weird goals on him, but I think he only got beat clean on the first shot once all weekend. That was nice to see."

The Tigers now get a bit of a break from the road grind. They play six straight games at the World Arena, a building they’re beginning to grow accustomed to.

"I think the guys are looking forward to coming back and playing at home this weekend," Lucia said. "We’ve played pretty well here at home and the guys are comfortable now."

As far as this weekend’s competition goes, don’t ask Lucia. He hasn’t seen either team play this season, and is going on what he has heard. But he looks at that as a plus.

When his team enters the NCAAs, they may not know much about their opponent. They’ll just have to go out there and play.

"UMass-Amherst (Saturday’s opponent), they’ll have an advantage," Lucia said. "We play Friday night, they’ll sit in the stands and watch. That’s fine, that could happen at the end of the road for us in March. That’s one of the reasons I like the idea of doing that, trying to be able to adapt."

The Tigers coach sees Air Force as a team to be careful with.

"The last five years I’ve been here, the Air Force games have always been close," Lucia said. "They always compete and play very, very hard. It’s one of those games where, for them, it’s the game of the year and for our kids, it’s a non-league game and they probably don’t get up as much as maybe they should. We want to try to get through it."

And UMass-Amherst?

"From what I’ve heard of UMass, their goaltending has been outstanding, I think the kid’s got close to a 94 save percentage," Lucia said. "When they won and tied against Maine, that told me all I needed to know about them. They obviously have a good hockey team and they seem to be playing very defensive. They don’t give up a lot of goals and they don’t score a lot of goals. I expect a very low scoring game on Saturday."

For more on UMass-Amherst, dial up Dave Hendrickson’s Hockey East preview.

Picks: Brian Swanson. Darren Clark. Enough said. CC beats Air Force 5-3, Amherst 4-1

No. 8 Michigan State (7-2-2, 6-2-2 CCHA) at Wisconsin (5-5-1, 5-4-1 WCHA) Friday, 7:35 CT, Kohl Center, Madison, Wis. No. 4 Michigan (8-2-1, 7-1-1 CCHA) at Wisconsin Sunday, 12:05 CT, Kohl Center, Madison, Wis.

The College Hockey Showcase has not exactly been kind to Wisconsin. In fact, they’ve won only one game in the five previous years. They are 0-5 against Michigan State and 1-4 against Michigan.

But it also has never been in Madison. Sure, it was in Milwaukee, but that was more like a bingo crowd that a hockey crowd. You could yell across the arena to get a vendor’s attention.

Wisconsin got a needed win over a ranked opponent last weekend, as Graham Melanson earned his first shutout of the season in a 3-0 win Friday against Denver. Some said it’s about time Melanson got the credit he’s deserved. Of the 29 games he’s started in his year-plus in Madison, Melanson has given up two or less goals in 17 of them. He leads the conference in goaltending with a 1.99 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.

"It was one of those types of things where he was in a zone," Badgers coach Jeff Sauer said of Melanson’s performance. "Fundamentally, they just weren’t going to score. They had very few chances five-on-five. The only chances they had on Friday night were power play situations. Graham was called upon to make five what I would call goal-saving type of saves and he came up big on all of them."

But Saturday proved to be a bit different, as UW’s scoring difficulties came out again in a 5-3 loss.

"We were up 2-1 and we had a five-on-three power play for a minute," Sauer said. "We had about seven good chances to score and we didn’t score. If we score any one of those times, I really felt we would have got the momentum and gone. Right at the beginning of the second period, we fell asleep for about three minutes, they scored two goals and went ahead of us and then we never got the momentum back again."

So it goes for the Badgers this season. But in this weekend’s series, Sauer knows there’s more on the line.

"This weekend has a lot of connotations other than that it’s just Michigan and Michigan State," he said. "This is a way we can push ourselves from a national ranking standpoint. Denver was ranked in the polls, we split with them on the road. You have Michigan and Michigan State coming in, we haven’t had them in Madison for a while. These are two games we’d like to win."

Here’s the coach’s take on each of the teams:

On Michigan State: "Michigan State, especially at home, is very conservative, very defensive-oriented, to the extent of playing a strict defensive system. I don’t know if they’ll play that way in our building because it’s a bigger ice surface and it’s not quite as easy to do that."

On Michigan: "Michigan is more like we are, more like the WCHA, more of a skating type of team. They’re more like a WCHA team in terms of the run-and-gun, score goals-type of team. But they’ve been having trouble scoring goals. They’ve had kind of the same scenario that we’ve had — they lost some pretty good players from last year."

Picks: Wisconsin hasn’t had the best success with the CCHA. But if Badgers captain Steve Reinprecht gets on the board, Wisconsin wins. It’s a fact. I don’t know why, that’s just the way it’s been. UW defeats MSU 3-1 but falls to UM 4-3

For more on Michigan and Michigan State, see Paula C. Weston’s CCHA preview.

No. 4 Michigan (8-2-1, 7-1-1 CCHA) at Minnesota (6-6-2, 5-5-2 WCHA) Friday, 7:05 CT, Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis No. 8 Michigan State (7-2-2, 6-2-2 CCHA) at Minnesota Sunday, 2:05 CT, Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis

The big news out of Minneapolis this week was backup goaltender Willy Marvin’s decision to leave the team.

"I just felt it was time to move on with my life and concentrate on things other than hockey," Marvin told the Minnesota Daily. "I wasn’t playing as much as I would have liked, and I wish I could have contributed to this team more on the ice."

But when you’re in a state where seemingly everyone has some hockey experience, it’s not too difficult to find someone else. Coach Doug Woog said freshman Rob LaRue, who also plays on the Gophers football and baseball teams, will join Erik Westrum as backups. LaRue was an honorable mention all-state goaltender in Minnetonka in high school, so he’s no novice to the position.

"Adam Hauser will be our goaltender and hopefully this kid will come along and give us some depth in backup, and I think he will," Woog said of LaRue. "I think it’s going to be fine."

Marvin’s decision to leave wasn’t exactly expected but wasn’t exactly surprising either. He played in just four games over three seasons.

"Going into the season, it was a scenario that was possible, if he wasn’t playing up to his satisfaction he would move on and do something else," Woog said. "It’s his choice and he’s obviously got his own reasons. Basically, he would have liked to play more."

Minnesota split a series with Alaska-Anchorage on the road last weekend, but Woog said both games were similar.

"We had about the same number of opportunities the first night as the second night, but the puck went in the second night," Woog said. "It wasn’t that we gave up a whole lot of opportunities. We made a couple errors the first night and that was it. The defenseman fell down a couple times, but they skated hard. We bounced back and got one game, that’s all you can do."

Michigan, Michigan State and Minnesota have a long tradition. The Gophers lead over UM, 113-107-16 and MSU 96-39-6. But Woog remembers a time when the teams played in the Big Ten.

"I don’t know if we think of it as CCHA as we do Big Ten," he said. "That may be my orientation, having played against these schools in the WCHA when I was playing, they were in the WCHA."

Here’s Woog’s take on the teams:

On Michigan: "Michigan, it looks to me like they have a tremendous defense, big guys. They’re going to be a good skating team with big defense."

On Michigan State: "You look at Michigan State and they don’t give up any goals. I imagine they have good size on the outsides and the goaltending must be pretty good because they only give up two goals. They play a real tight checking game."

Picks: For the honor of the WCHA … each conference will get two wins. I don’t like picking splits, but when teams like these get together, it’s too close to call. U of M takes Michigan 3-2 in OT, but loses to State, 3-1

For more on Michigan and Michigan State, see Paula C. Weston’s CCHA preview.

Schedule for Dec. 4-6, 1998

Friday, Dec. 4 St. Cloud State at Colorado College Minnesota-Duluth at Michigan Tech North Dakota at Denver Air Force at Alaska-Anchorage

Saturday, Dec. 5 St. Cloud State at Colorado College Minnesota-Duluth at Michigan Tech Air Force at Alaska-Anchorage

Sunday, Dec. 6 North Dakota at Denver

Special thanks to USCHO game reporter Ryan Kern for his help with this week’s preview.

This Week in Hockey East: November 27, 1998

By
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In late-breaking news, Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna has outlawed midweek nonconference games after the league went 0-for-3 against the ECAC on Tuesday.

And not that anybody really cares, but should it be the Governor’s Cup or Governors’ Cup?

Singular or plural?

It is, after all, a competition between four state universities. There are, therefore, four governors rolling up their proverbial sleeves, getting ready to duke it out for the cherished cup. Hence the plural form.

On the other hand, one could argue that since only one of the governors actually wins the cup, then the singular is the appropriate choice.

Who is that snoring in the back of the class?

My goodness. I really do need to get a life….

The early recruit signing period is now over. Many of the Hockey East schools haven’t yet released their results, but here’s an incomplete look at the official signings.

Boston College: Jeremy Wilson (Cushing Academy), Forward.

UMass-Amherst: Jimmy Callahan (Omaha), Forward.

Merrimack College: Nick Cammarata (St. Sebastian’s), Defense; Luke Smith (Thayer Academy), Forward; Anthony Aquino (Bramalee).

Northeastern: Michael Ryan (BC High), Forward.

Onward, then, to the league honors for last week….

KOHO Player of the Week: Brendan Walsh (F, Maine) scored four goals, including a natural hat trick, in the Black Bear’s sweep of Providence.

Heaton Defensive Player of the Week: Michel Larocque (G, Boston University) made 32 saves on Saturday night to gain a split for the Terriers with Boston College.

KOHO Rookie of the Week: Darren Haydar (F, New Hampshire) scored two goals and assisted on another for the second straight week, this time in the Wildcats’ lone game, a 4-2 win over Northeastern.

Hockey East Standings

Record in picks last week: 8-3 Season’s record in picks: 39-22, .639

Governor’s Cup No. 6 Maine (7-1-1, 4-1-1 HEA, T-1st) vs. No. 7 New Hampshire (7-1-1, 4-1-1 HEA, T-1st)

UMass-Lowell (4-5-0, 2-5-0 HEA, 7th) vs. Vermont (5-3-0, 3-1-0 ECAC)

Friday, 4/7 p.m. (Maine-UNH/UML-UVM)

Saturday, 4/7 p.m., (Consolation/Championship)

All games at Paul E. Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA

Maine rebounded from a disappointing weekend at UMass-Amherst one week earlier with a sweep of Providence College, 6-1 and 3-2. The Black Bears now share the Hockey East lead with New Hampshire.

"It was very important to get two wins," says coach Shawn Walsh. "On Saturday, we grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat. They had us down, 2-0, and had just killed off a five-on-three. [Doug] Janik’s goal just turned everything right around."

Janik, a freshman defenseman whose strength is primarily in his own end, got the tide-turner at 8:46 of the second period. Within four minutes, Maine held a 3-2 lead.

"He was immense," says Walsh. "We had him out against their top line all weekend long. Almost every shift he played five-on-five was against [Mike] Omicioli’s line.

"He’s developed into a Scott Stevens kind of player."

Brendan Walsh earned Hockey East Player of the Week honors for his hat trick on Friday and the game-tying goal on Saturday. The junior sat out last year after transferring from Boston University, but now centers one of Maine’s top two lines.

"I feel good for Brendan," says Shawn Walsh, "because he sat out a year, he made some sacrifices to return to college hockey and he’s a changed person.

"I think a lot of fans have erroneously made judgements on Brendan. He’s not the first guy who has transferred and done well. I think a guy named Jason Blake is doing pretty darn well up in North Dakota."

Goaltender Alfie Michaud could have also garnered league honors. He stopped 24-of-25 Providence shots on Friday night to get the weekend off on the right foot. One night later, he entered the game at the start of the second period with Maine trailing, 2-0. He then proceeded to shut down the Friars, stopping all 18 shots.

PC coach Paul Pooley says, "He was the difference this weekend."

Going into the season, a lot of people may have conceded the All-Hockey East goaltending berths to BU’s Michel Larocque and UNH’s Sean Matile. At this point, however, no one has been Michaud’s equal.

This week, No. 6 Maine and No. 7 New Hampshire open the Governor’s Cup in what looks to be the best match-up of the weekend.

"It’s two teams that are playing so very well defensively," says Walsh. "I really give Dick Umile and his coaching staff a lot of credit. They lost three tremendous players — [Mark Mowers, Derek Bekar and Tom Nolan] — but they brought their whole defense back. They’ve molded this team around that.

"Every report we’re getting is just how quick they are and how tenacious they are defensively. We’re very similar. So I think it will be a wonderful match-up.

"In a way, it’s unique that it doesn’t have a bearing on the Hockey East standings, but it’s a precursor to what’s going to happen later in the year when we meet again."

The two teams met in the championship game of last year’s Governor’s Cup, a contest that UNH took handily, 7-0. In the Hockey East playoffs, however, Maine upset the Wildcats, 3-2 and 5-3, so both sides will have something to hang their motivational hats on.

"I think every one of our players remembers losing 7-0 to them last year," says Walsh. "We’re going to have a maximum focus by both teams this week."

New Hampshire beat Northeastern, 4-2, in its lone game of the week.

"It was one of our better games," says coach Dick Umile. "We were quick and we played very, very well in all facets of the game. I liked the way the team played."

Darren Haydar scored two goals and added an assist.

No, that’s not a leftover note from last week. The freshman did it again, this time in one game rather than two, thereby repeating as the league Rookie of the Week. With a 6-2–8 scoring line, he trails only linemates Jason Krog (6-8–14) and Mike Souza (2-11–13).

"He’s playing well," says Umile. "He’s feeling good about himself. He’s playing with a couple of good hockey players. He had a good weekend and he could have had a couple more goals. We’re very happy with the way that he’s playing along with our other freshmen."

Although both sides from the upcoming clash with Maine could claim motivational edges tracing back to last season, Umile discounts those.

"You can forget about last year," he says. "It’s UNH and Maine hockey. There will be a good tournament atmosphere and it should be a good hockey game."

UMass-Lowell split with Merrimack last week, winning at home, 4-3 in overtime, before losing the back end of the home-and-home, 6-3.

"I thought we played better on Saturday, but we rose to the occasion on Friday with a good third period and overtime," says coach Tim Whitehead. "We played much better on Saturday, but it didn’t translate into a win."

In the overtime win, the River Hawks had to rebound from a Rejean Stringer extra-skater goal with 13 seconds remaining that tied it, 3-3. Sophomore Jeffrey Boulanger got the game-winner at 3:17 of OT.

"Any time a team scores with 12 seconds left and you lose a lead and go into overtime, it’s going to be a deflating situation," says Whitehead. "To bounce back from that was obviously a very good sign."

After playing league foes in six of their last seven games, the River Hawks will play Vermont in the Governor’s Cup first round before facing the more familiar Maine or New Hampshire squads on Saturday.

"We just want to focus on us," says Whitehead. "We have some things we want to work on, especially limiting quality scoring chances. It’s probably good timing for us to play a game now where we don’t worry much about the opposing team.

"We just don’t know much about them, so the focus will be on our effort and our execution."

(For a detailed look at Vermont, see this week’s ECAC Preview by Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy.)

PICKS: Maine – UNH should be a barnburner, with Alfie Michaud being the difference. Black Bears win, 3-2.

Vermont – Lowell will see another tight one, with Vermont pulling out a 3-2 win.

Maine and UNH will both win on Saturday by 4-2 margins.

No. 3 Boston College (6-2-1, 4-2-0 HEA, 3rd) and

Boston University (2-7-1, 1-4-1 HEA, 8th) at

No. 10 St. Lawrence (6-2-0, 2-1-0 ECAC) and Clarkson (1-6-0, 1-2-0 ECAC)

Friday (BC) – Saturday (BU), 7:30 pm – 7 pm, Appleton Arena, Canton, NY

Friday (BU) – Saturday (BC), 7:30 pm – 7 pm, Cheel Arena, Potsdam, NY

Boston College beat BU convincingly on Friday night, 6-2, but had to settle for a split when Michel Larocque stoned them back at Walter Brown Arena. The Eagles outshot BU, 34-17, in the rematch, but still came out on the short end, 4-2.

A combined crowd of 11,442 saw the series, 7,636 at BC and 3,806 at BU.

Brian Gionta earned USCHO/CCM Offensive Player of the Week honors for his three goals and three assists on the weekend. In particular, he was immense on Friday. Not only did he notch his second hat trick of the year, he also created a two-on-none that resulted in an assist as well as creating a power play when a defenseman had to haul him down to avoid a breakaway. BC scored on the resulting man advantage.

"He’s just a remarkable player," said coach Jerry York after the game. "And what you see is not the whole story. In the locker room, he has tremendous vitality and leadership. He really lifts our whole club, whether it’s a Monday practice or prior to a game. He’s just an outstanding person."

Although the third line of Chris Master, Tony Hutchins and Kevin Caulfield lead BC’s physical play, York expects his entire lineup to play hard-nosed hockey.

"They set the tone, but we like Blake [Bellefeuille] to be physical and Jeff [Farkas] to be physical right through our lineup," he says. "You don’t have to be big-big. You just have to stick your nose in and play through people.

"We’re a pretty solid lineup. And when we play physical, our skill seems to get better. We can’t just be a skill team. When we get too fancy, it hurts us."

Although the Eagles couldn’t manage a sweep, York still applauded his team’s play in the road loss.

"We competed hard," he said after the game. "We got a lot of shots on goal. It was a good Eagle hockey team we brought over tonight. I give full credit to BU. Larocque played extremely well in goal and they killed penalties very well.

"It was an excellent college hockey game with lots of emotion and excitement. Our kids are certainly disappointed. We wanted to win the game tonight, but to a man they all felt we competed hard and played well.

"We just didn’t score goals. You’ll run into hot goaltenders during the course of the year, but if you play well and compete hard, you move on to the next game.

"I have no regrets about how we played tonight."

Boston University’s chances of gaining a split didn’t look particularly strong after Friday night’s 6-2 loss.

"Territorially, I thought we played pretty well, but our young defense got blitzed a little bit and that hurt," said coach Jack Parker.

"Their team defense didn’t make any critical mistakes. Our team defense did. They have the ability to jump on and turn those critical mistakes into goals.

"I don’t think there’s any question that we’re capable of playing better. It’s a long season. We’re obviously not going to be odds-on [favorites] to win the national championship this year, but we’re going to be a much better team at the end of the year. I think we’ve got an easier time to make improvements than some other teams. And I’m looking forward to that improvement.

"There may be some improvement tomorrow night. It may be as soon as that or it may take a while. But the fact of the matter is that we’re a young team. And in February, we won’t be as young."

That improvement did, in fact, come one night later in the 4-2 win.

"We killed a few penalties tonight and played with some emotion," said Parker after the win. "More than anything else, we were jacked up and played hard. That’s what we haven’t been doing.

"We’ve been so concerned about what the outcome was that we weren’t playing hard. I was absolutely flabbergasted last night that we played as semi-lackluster as we did because I was sure that BC would bring out the best in us.

"I challenged the boys tonight to step up and be counted and they all did, every one of them."

Larocque earned Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week honors for his heroics in the win. But forward Tommi Degerman also had a terrific game even though he only showed up in the box score with a single goal.

"I thought Tommi Degerman played as good a hockey game as he’s ever played here," said Parker. "He was absolutely fabulous in every phase of the game."

Parker ironically quoted former BC coaching legend, the late Snooks Kelley, in assessing his team’s turnaround.

"As Snooks Kelley used to say, ‘One snowflake doesn’t make a blizzard.’"

That proved ominously prophetic a few nights later when the Terriers snowflake melted against Harvard, 5-3.

In past years, BU teams have had such a talent advantage that they could get away with an emotional letdown after a big win over an arch-rival like BC. This year’s edition, however, can’t afford that luxury.

"That was a horrible display by my team," said Parker after the game. "I don’t think we have enough guys in that dressing room that are willing to compete. We took a step in that direction on Saturday and to fall as far as we fell off of that today is mind-boggling.

"We stood around and watched in every phase of the game."

(For a detailed look at St. Lawrence and Clarkson, see this week’s ECAC Preview by Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy.)

PICKS: BC sweeps, 4-3 and 4-2. Clarkson and St. Lawrence, however, get splits on the weekend by achieving the same scores against BU.

Merrimack (5-4-0, 3-2-0 HEA, 4th) and

Providence College (5-5-0, 3-3-0 HEA, 5th) vs.

Yale (2-2-0, 2-2-0 ECAC) and Princeton (3-1-1, 3-0-1 ECAC)

Friday (Yale), 7 p.m., Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA

Friday (Princeton), 7 p.m., Schneider Arena, Providence, RI

Saturday (PC), 7 p.m., Ingalls Rink, New Haven, Conn.

Sunday (MC), 5 p.m., Hobey Baker Memorial Rink, Princeton, New Jersey

Merrimack split with UMass-Lowell, losing in overtime, 4-3, on Friday, but rebounding with a 6-3 win back at home.

"Actually, I thought we played better on the first night [in the loss] than we did the second night," says coach Chris Serino. "On Friday, I thought their goaltender played real well. I was pretty proud of how we came back late in the game and tied it up and I thought we kind of controlled the overtime. But a bounce of the puck here or there and that’s how it goes.

"On Saturday night, we played well early, but then Lowell controlled the game for the end of the first period and they really took it to us in the second. We were lucky to get out of there with a 3-3 tie. And then in the third period [when we scored three times], I thought we played very steady."

Rejean Stringer posted another terrific weekend, scoring the two third-period goals to force overtime on Friday. With a 7-12–19 scoring line, he is tied with Brian Gionta for the overall league scoring lead.

"He’s a great player," says Serino. "I don’t think people in this league know how good he is. He can do everything. I have clips of the Lowell game where he was backchecking guys to the net and scoring at the other end. He just makes the players around him look better."

The surprising Warriors, who have won five of their last six games, now take on Yale and Princeton.

"They’re both good teams," says Serino. "It’s a battle for us every night. We’re just looking to get better each night. If we do that, then we’ll be okay."

Providence traveled to Orono and, after losing on Friday night, 6-1, almost pulled one out on Saturday. The Friars led, 2-0, but fell, 3-2.

"We played some solid hockey, but obviously not good enough," says coach Paul Pooley. "We had some stretches where we played well. The shots were pretty even. It just came down to not making the plays when we needed to.

"Both nights, they scored three goals in four- or five-minute spans. We need to be a little more composed at times.

"[Maine goaltender Alfie] Michaud played really well this weekend, especially Saturday night. He faced a lot of good chances and breakaways and made some nice saves. He was the difference this weekend."

Despite the losses, Pooley can point to several strong performances.

"Michael Omicioli worked very, very hard," he says. "He was paid special attention by them. He’s got to be able to control his emotions a little bit more, but it was very tough.

"He had the heart of a champion out there. He just worked as hard as he could.

"I also thought Troy Lake had a good weekend and Jayson Ialongo played very well for us."

The Friars now take on Princeton and Yale, before returning to league play.

"We need to be a little more balanced," says Pooley. "We had some guys play really well this weekend, but we had some guys just play very, very average.

"Getting a team consistency back is big so I can know I’ll get something out of everybody that’s on the ice. That’s the big thing I’m looking for."

(For a detailed look at Princeton and Yale, see this week’s ECAC Preview by Becky Blaeser and Jayson Moy.)

PICKS: Princeton and Yale both sweep and by 3-2 scores each night.

UMass-Amherst (3-5-1, 2-2-1 HEA, 6th) at No. 2 Colorado College (8-2-0, 8-2-0 WCHA) and Air Force (6-3-1)

Saturday, 7 p.m., Colorado Springs World Arena, Colorado Springs, CO

Sunday, 5 p.m., Cadet Ice Arena, United States Air Force Academy, CO

UMass-Amherst split two nonconference games this past week, defeating Union, 4-2, before just coming up short at Vermont, 2-1.

"I have to give Union credit," says coach Joe Mallen. "They played very well. Their win at RPI one night earlier showed that they’re a good team."

For the first time this year, the Minutemen enjoyed a significant advantage in shots, 34-19, and capitalized on that edge. "Obviously, the good news for us is that we scored four goals and kept up our good team defense," says Mallen.

Junior Nathan Sell scored twice in the win, including a back-breaking shorthanded goal.

"He’s a very underrated player," says Mallen. "We usually rely on him to kill penalties, take key faceoffs and shadow the other team’s top forwards. But he’s got a great shot and release and if he keeps putting the puck on net he could get 15 or 20 goals for us."

Although the game at Vermont just went into the standings as a loss, Mallen still saw positive signs.

"It was a very tough loss, but it was also an uplifting loss," he says. "The way we competed from the drop of the puck to the last whistle at a very tough place to play was very encouraging. I was really pleased with how hard we worked.

"It was still 0-0 after two periods and even after they led, 2-1, we had our chances. Jeff Blanchard had a penalty shot and put it through [UVM goaltender] Andrew Allen’s legs, but it just caught the back of Allen’s toe padding behind him and deflected wide. And we had a great chance with 38 seconds left and the goaltender pulled, but we just couldn’t score."

Having just played a Tuesday night game, the Minutemen have a full slate ahead of them. Their bus broke down on the way back from Vermont so they didn’t get back on campus until four in the morning. They’ll then travel to Colorado Springs, where they’ll face No. 2 Colorado College and then Air Force.

"We’ll have the advantage on Saturday against Colorado College because they’ll have played Air Force the night before," says Mallen. "But on Sunday, we’ll be facing an Air Force team that has had an extra day of rest. And Air Force played us tough last year."

UMass-Amherst has been a pleasant surprise to date. In five of its first 10 games (including the upcoming clash with CC), the Minutemen will have faced teams ranked in the top seven nationally. Picked to finish last in the coaches’ preseason poll, they have instead posted a more-than-respectable 3-5-1 record.

(For a detailed look at Colorado College see this week’s WCHA Preview by Todd D. Milewski.)

(And for Air Force, check out Jayson Moy’s Season Preview .)

PICKS: Colorado College will be just too tough, winning 4-1. A rested Air Force squad could just pull an upset, but will fall short, 2-1.

Northeastern (3-7-0, 1-4-0 HEA, 9th) at Army (4-5-0)

Saturday, 7 p.m., Tate Rink, West Point, NY

Since shutting out Colgate five weeks ago, Northeastern has fallen on tough times, losing six of the last seven contests. Last Saturday, the Huskies fell to UNH, 4-2, a result that was unfortunately duplicated three nights later against Cornell.

Coach Bruce Crowder was not happy with his team’s performance in the UNH game.

"We did not play well," he says. "The result was a combination of us not playing well and UNH being a very good team. Actually, the 4-2 score looks a little bit better than the game was."

Ironically, NU’s lone win during the past few weeks came against No. 3 Boston College, its toughest opponent, at least on paper. And the Huskies played very well in a 4-3 loss to No. 5 Notre Dame.

"Except for the UNH contest, we’ve played extremely well against the teams that maybe we weren’t favored to beat," says Crowder. "We’ve got to get things down to basics a little bit better and just play one shift at a time, one period at a time and not worry about what’s going to happen two periods or two days down the road."

This week, a visit to Army is all that’s on tap for the Huskies. Sometimes teams fall into the trap of viewing games against Division I Independents like the Cadets as automatic wins.

"Well, we did last year," says Crowder with a rueful laugh, recalling a 6-5 loss. "We did that last year so I don’t think it’s going to be the situation this time.

"[The Cadets] play extremely well. Lowell had to luck out a win against them with a shorthanded goal with less than a minute left. And they played Merrimack very tough. Obviously, we haven’t beaten Merrimack this year so for us it’s a game that we’re not going to be looking at as an automatic W."

(For a detailed look at Army, see Jayson Moy’s Season Preview .)

PICKS: Army could be catching Northeastern at just the right time, but here’s a vote for the Huskies starting to rebound, 4-3.

Thanks to Scott Weighart for his contributions to this preview.

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