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Raygor Wins Humanitarian Award

By Scott Tappa
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Steward Raygor’s eyes welled with tears.

Raygor, with four family members at his side, had just watched his son Erik accept the 1998 Hockey Humanitarian Award, presented to college hockey’s finest citizen, and the emotions hit him like a tidal wave.

“This is, I believe, every father’s goal,” said Raygor, whose son recently finished his University of Wisconsin career. “I’m just so happy; it’s my dream come true that my son could receive this honor.

“I would rather help others than benefit myself, and he’s definitely picked up on that idea.”

“I guess he’s kind of living out my dream.”

And how. Erik Raygor’s roster of volunteer activities is enough to make any college-aged kid blush; when combined with the strenuous task of captaining an NCAA Division I hockey power for two consecutive seasons, the activities of the senior from Superior, Wis., appear much more impressive.

In no particular order, Raygor has volunteered his time to the Special Olympics, community DARE programs, YMCA and emergency response training programs. These activities helped distinguish him from four worthy finalist: runner-up Steve Noble of Notre Dame, Casey Hankinson of Minnesota, Tyler Harlton of Michigan State and Erin Marie Schmalz of Cornell.

“I have always enjoyed being around kids,” said Raygor, a rehabilitation psychology major who earned a 3.8 grade point average last semester. “When I was growing up my mom ran a day-care center, so I have always been around kids.

“I love being around kids. They’re the greatest thing in the world. They don’t look at me as if I’m a hockey player — to them I’m just a big person being like a kid.”

Indeed, Raygor is a big person with a big heart, a trait which runs in the family. Steward and Gloria raised Erik, brother Brian and sister Angela to be active members of their respective communities.

“Right now we’re sort of in awe of everything,” Gloria said. “All of our children have been achievers — that’s something they’ve done.”

Erik began making a name for himself early in Superior, both on and off the ice.

“I spent many years working and living in Duluth, and I used to hear about Erik in high school,” said Western Collegiate Hockey Association commissioner Bruce McLeod.

After a successful career in prep and junior hockey, Raygor moved on to Kent State. The stay was brief, however, as the program folded early in his collegiate career, facilitating a move to his home-state University of Wisconsin.

Raygor immediately made an impact for coach Jeff Sauer, posting double-digit goal marks his first season, a season which ended with an NCAA tournament loss to Michigan State. The two succeeding seasons were frustrating ones for both Wisconsin, which missed the tournament both years, and Raygor, who missed 1996-97 with a knee injury.

“Even though he was injured last year, he was always there for the guys, tried to give as much leadership as he could,” said Sauer, who noted that Raygor is his first-ever graduate student. “This year, he’s the real reason for the turnaround from a year ago.

“The 20 guys in the locker room know what he’s all about, and it carries over to them.”

Yet while Raygor has become a fan favorite for his scrappy, opportunistic play on the ice, fans in Superior, Madison, and points in between have come to appreciate his off-the-ice exploits. These efforts include:

• Emergency response training. “It’s my favorite thing to do,” Raygor said. “We do all kinds of SWAT team training, and I get to run around and be a bad guy. It’s real-life situations — bank robberies, hostage situations — and we’ve got to train these guys to protect our community…Hopefully when I have some time off I can do that again.”

• DARE, or drug abuse reduction education. “That’s a great program, and you see that involved in all the schools around,” he said.

• The YMCA. “I’ve been there the last four years, the whole time I’ve been at Wisconsin,” he said. “I volunteer out there every Monday night, help out in the summer, and I bring a few of the other hockey players out there.”

• Special Olympics. “I go there every summer to pass out awards with three other hockey players, and it’s a nice time,” Raygor said. “They’re as well-appreciated as we appreciate them.”

John Greenhalgh, a trustee of the Hockey Humanitarian Foundation, was shocked to find in person that Raygor’s resume was in no way padded. “I went out to Wisconsin and interviewed him after the St. Cloud game, and it was obvious after reading his bio that he had so much character,” Greenhalgh said. “I went out there doubting that he could do all that they had down, went in there saying, ‘How many times did you do the DARE program?’ thinking it was once for like an hour, and it was five times. Or thinking ‘How many times did you do this?’ and it was 50 times. It just blew me away.”

McLeod said he appreciates the attention garnered by student-athletes such as Raygor just as much as the attention garnered by North Dakota Hobey Baker finalist Curtis Murphy, who was highlighted on video hundreds of yards away before the presentation of college hockey’s most well-known award.

“There’s a lot more notoriety with the Hobey Baker to this point, but when you look back, in the long run Erik will be very, very proud of this,” McLeod said. “The on-ice thing is a little more short-term, an accomplishment in itself, but this is a long-term thing. It goes to the core of a person, not just [his] athletic abilities.”

Raygor’s core can perhaps be best exemplified by two sequences of events which have transpired over the past several years. The first is the story of Andrew Theil of Marshfield, Wis., a young boy with cancer who came to the UW program three years ago after his doctor talked to Sauer.

“At that time, it was six months to a year [to live], but Erik, along with some other players, just picked him up and kept him going,” Sauer said. “They’ve been up to see him in Marshfield, keep in touch with the family.

“It’s a heartwarming story when you have a bunch of kids who have everything and a kid like that who’s struggling to stay alive — it brings back how important other things are.”

“We’re all blessed to have him,” Raygor said. “When things are going bad, we lose two or three games, here comes Andrew into the locker room, and you forget all that.

“I think of him today.”

Raygor also undoubtedly was thinking of his late grandfather and great-grandmother, both of whom passed away in the latter stages of the season. In the midst of an NCAA tournament run, Raygor maintained close contact with his grief-stricken family.

“This has been a couple difficult months for us as a family,” Gloria Raygor said. “My father passed away the night Erik found out he was a finalist, and Erik had driven through the night earlier that week when he had had a heart attack. It was really difficult for him when he was in Colorado to find out my dad had passed away.

“Then, the weekend John came to present the trophy in Madison, my grandma had passed away…”

“We come from a close-knit family,” Steward Raygor said. “His mother’s side of the family is full of very close, caring people.”

Erik successfully brought that close-knit family feeling to Wisconsin this year; Sauer dubbed him the “glue that kept the team together.” Yet more than lockerroom cohesiveness, Raygor hoped to instill the spirit of volunteerism in his UW teammates.

Does it rub off?

“Oh, I know it does,” Raygor said. “When we go out to a school, they ask when they can go back again.”

“It makes us all feel good,” Sauer said.

Also at the presentation, the 1996-97 North Dakota team was honored for its efforts during the spring 1997 flooding in and around Grand Forks, N.D., home of the university.

The Decline Of The Scorer

By Frank Mazzocco
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At the midpoint of this season, space on this web site detailed a statistically significant drop in college hockey scoring over the last dozen years. The decline lessened somewhat in the second half of the season, but not by much — certainly not enough to stop asking the question, “What’s happening and why?”

The decline is nearly two goals per game from when scorers were the most potent. In one conference, the CCHA, the drop is nearly three goals a game — a 32 percent decline.

A discussion of the issue with coaches on hand for the NCAA championships in Boston this week leaves one with this clear impression: there is no single reason for the lower number of goals scored. Opinions range from improved coaching to an increase of unpenalized interference.

The U.S. College Hockey Online analysis covers results of over nine thousand Division I games starting in 1986-87. In that season, an average of 8.34 goals were scored per game. Three seasons later, college teams hit the high-water mark for the period under study — 8.55 goals per game. Heading into championship week, the average for the 1997-98 season hit a low of 6.67 goals per game, 1.88 goals less than the high of 1989-90.

Each of the four major conferences have experienced declines. The CCHA has seen the biggest drop, 2.96 per game, while the Hockey East Association has been affected the least, 1.64. The table below shows average number of goals scored in regular-season conference games. (Exhibitions and games against non-Division I teams are excluded.) Conferences are listed according the to the size of the decline.

               High     Goals      This
Conference    Season   Per Game   Season   Decline
----------   --------  --------   ------   -------
   CCHA      1986-87     9.18      6.22     2.96
   WCHA      1989-90     9.16      6.75     2.14
   ECAC      1990-91     8.22      6.27     1.95
   HEA       1987-88     8.81      7.17     1.64

The results aren’t taking coaches by surprise. Earlier this season, Northern Michigan’s Rick Comley told USCHO, “The scorers aren’t out there.”

And he wasn’t referring only to college hockey. “Wherever we recruit, we aren’t finding scorers like we used to.”

Wisconsin’s Jeff Sauer, who began coaching at Colorado College in 1971, agrees. “At the college level the pure goal scorer may not be available to us like they were a few years ago,” he said. “I don’t see a Tony Granato, I don’t see a Tony Hrkac, I don’t see that level of player in the WCHA.”

Improved coaching and defensive strategies are also seen as significant factors. Notre Dame assistant coach Andy Slaggert didn’t hesitate when asked for a reason.

“Videotape.”

Although his response was not unlike Mr. Robinson’s famous “Plastics” declaration to Dustin Hoffman’s character, Ben Braddock, in The Graduate, Slaggert’s rationale is more substantial.

“A lot of time is spent analyzing other teams’ video. Penalty killing is much better.”

The notion that defensive strategies are in vogue is supported by a number of coaches.

According to Sauer, “The lack of scoring ability has a lot to do with individual skills but also with the defensive systems. More coaches have gone to the defensive strategy of the game, the trap system, trying to limit the number of offensive opportunities of the opposing teams.

“It seems to be an easier way to coach, easier way when you’re not maybe not quite as talented a team, to close down a more talented team by playing a more stringent and strict defensive system.”

Easier, perhaps, but tight defense may also have become an art form.

“In the last ten years teams have been better defensively,” says Western Michigan’s Bill Wilkinson, a member of the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee. “Coaches emphasize defense and goaltending.”

Don Lucia told Colorado College fans at a recent pregame luncheon that part of the answer lies with improved goaltending and goaltending equipment. He guesses an additional 30 percent of the goal is covered by bigger gloves, wider and longer pads and taller goalies.

The most-used defensive strategy is the 1-2-2 checking system, in which a team will send one forward into the offensive zone to bottle up an opponent and force a turnover. Meanwhile, the other two forwards and two defensemen remain back. When the system works, says Wilkinson, “it doesn’t let teams in.”

Wilkinson recalled an old but durable hockey adage: “You coach defense and recruit offense.” And he should know. His Broncos had three 40-goal scorers in the mid-80s (Rob Bryden, 46, 1986-87; Stuart Burnie, 43, and Dan Dorion, 42, both in 1985-86).

The issue is one that has not escaped Boston University’s Jack Parker. His conclusion, perhaps, can be summarized in a familiar hockey phrase — clutch-and-grab.

“From the National Hockey League down to high schools, skill is being taken out of the games,” said Parker, whose 16 NCAA tournament appearances place him second on the all-time list.

It’s a topic he has addressed often for several years. In fact, he has spoken out many times.

There are two major factors, he says. “They’re allowing interference to take place more often and skilled players are being negated very easily.” Part and parcel to that, “we’re developing less skilled players.”

“How good would (Michael) Jordan be if every time he shot, somebody did this?” and he clutched the arm of a reporter and applied downward pressure.

He described the situation as “absurd.”

About whether coaches are talking up the issue with rulemakers and referees in an effort to change it, Parker says, “It’s always a point of emphasis.”

Final Four Preview

By Dave Hendrickson, Paula C. Weston and Scott Brown
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If, a fortnight ago, you had asked a hundred fans which four teams would meet this weekend at the FleetCenter for college hockey’s glittering prize, about two might have gotten the list right — if even that many.

The Eagles of Boston College stormed through the Hockey East playoffs to earn a bye, then collectively decapitated the Colorado College Tigers on their way home for the Final Four. No real surprise there, but BC’s three dance partners were less easy to predict.

colorscans/ncaa1998/michiganbench.jpg

New Hampshire looked unstoppable for two-thirds of the season before going into a funk which culminated in a two-game sweep by Maine in round one of the Hockey East playoffs. But with many writing them off, the Wildcats showed their mettle by upending Wisconsin and then heavily-favored Boston University to reach the semis.

Michigan’s been this road before, so perhaps it wasn’t a surprise at all that the Wolverines are en route to Boston for a fourth consecutive appearance in college hockey’s medal round. Michigan battled past a determined Princeton squad before startling defending NCAA champion North Dakota — with no small thanks due to the throng of screaming maize-n-blue fanatics who packed Yost Arena.

The biggest upset — and probably the story of this college hockey season — is the sudden rise of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Long dormant in the CCHA’s second division, OSU suddenly finds itself among the game’s elite after shutting out Yale and, in an overtime classic, avenging a loss in the CCHA tourney final against top-ranked Michigan State.

Thursday’s pairings — BC versus OSU and Michigan against UNH — leave open the possibility of an all-Hockey East final, or an all-CCHA tilt for the title. And while the Eagles might be the favorite, with the way this season has gone up to now, you’d better not bet the farm on it.

Boston College (27-8-5) vs. Ohio State (27-12-2)
Thursday, 8 p.m. ET, FleetCenter, Boston, Mass.

One of the most intriguing games of the entire season features two teams that have been the sharpest in the land over the last couple of months. Both have little playoff experience — less still at this level — but both have shown their mettle down the stretch.

Boston College has a proud tradition and will almost certainly be the crowd favorite (BU fans in attendance notwithstanding); on the other hand, Ohio State is humming now, well past the opening-round jitters that characterized its early play against Yale.

Boston College

Boston College became the only bye team in the country to advance when it dominated Colorado College, 6-1. In the 10 years following the advent of a 12-team draw in 1988, only eight of the 80 non-bye teams advanced to the Final Four. In 1992, when Eastern teams were all inactive for one week before the regionals, three bye teams fell, but in no other year did more than one of the privileged teams get toppled.

Not so this time.

“It seemed like it was a problem this year for the bye teams, but in Albany it was very, very hot and Colorado College had a strong, physical game the night before against Clarkson,” says coach Jerry York. “Our bye helped us.”

As a result, the Eagles, who haven’t lost since Feb. 2, will face another red-hot team in Ohio State, which went 18-2-1 down the stretch.

Hottest of the Eagles have been Marty Reasoner (31 points in his last 12 games) and linemate Brian Gionta (26 points in his last 13). Reasoner, who is not a Hobey Baker Award finalist, now stands at 29 goals and 37 assists for 66 points.

“The Hobey Baker Award voting was done in the middle of February and that’s just when Marty shifted into a different gear,” explains York. “Over the last month and a half of the season, he’s been such a dominant, dominant player that that’ll be reflected in the All-American voting that comes up at the end of the season.

“Marty is a great young guy. It doesn’t seem to bother him. He said, ‘Coach, it’s a team sport and I’m involved in the team. I’m not going to let my ego get involved here.’

“He has played very, very well and he’s a credit to college hockey. He’s a unique individual.”

Reasoner has been the linchpin to York’s rebuilding of the once-proud BC program, which is now appearing in its 14th Final Four, but first since 1990.

“We used Michigan as a copy,” says York. “We both have had great, great traditions in college hockey and have been playing almost since the turn of the century.

“When Red [Berenson] came, it took him a number of years to get his system in place and recruit his type of players. We used that with our players and told them that it would be a while here, but that we were going to recruit the type of player that we could win with at the national level. We wanted to get back to where BC should be.

“It’s a tough process to go through, but both Red and I knew that the future of both programs would more resemble the past than the recent time that we were there. We’ve got some great, great players that have come in and we feel very confident about the direction that we’re heading.”

BC’s current youth reflects that this is just the fourth year of York’s rebuilding plan, but the three freshmen defensemen, freshman goaltender, and two prominent freshmen forwards haven’t shown any of the playoff tentativeness that often accompanies youth.

“We play in such a tough league and have been in so many tight games all year, that once those guys they hit the mid-point of the season, they really weren’t freshmen anymore,” says Reasoner. “They’ve logged a lot of ice time and played in a lot of key situations.

“I don’t think experience has really mattered that much. We’ve played in a lot of big games and they’ve come up big for us all year.”

Generating a lot of attention will be the battle of the freshmen goaltenders, BC’s Scott Clemmensen and OSU’s Jeff Maund.

“Both goaltenders have had tremendous input into the way the teams have played,” says York. “[Ohio State coach John Markell], as well as myself, feel very confident with the play of our goaltenders.”

A return to the FleetCenter, where the Eagles won the Hockey East championship two weeks ago, is the latest highlight in BC’s first winning season since 1990-91.

“It’s something that’s been a goal of ours since last spring,” says Reasoner. “When we got knocked out last spring, we had to assess where we were going. We knew we were a good team. Everybody has had to work hard and make a definite commitment every day and now it’s paying off for us.

“It’s something we knew was going to happen eventually. I’m just glad I’m a part of it….I don’t know if I’d have said back in October that we’d definitely make the Final Four, but as we’ve done better and the season has gone along, we’ve come together and started to believe in ourselves. Now we believe we can beat any team in the country.”

A major part of that success has been the Eagles’ special teams. Their power play ranks tops in the nation at 27.3 percent in NCAA play and the penalty kill has turned in a strong 84.4 success rate. In their win over Colorado College, the Eagles went 2-for-8 on the power play and held CC 1-for-10 on the man advantage while adding a Jeff Farkas shorthanded goal.

“Starting off the year, we sat down and did our season-long analysis,” says York. “We were talking to our football coach, Tom O’Brien. They have a defensive coordinator and an offensive coordinator.

“So this year, we put Mike Cavanaugh, one of my assistant coaches, in charge of penalty killing. He really got involved in it and has done a tremendous job. [Another assistant coach,] Scott Paluch, is in charge of the power play. The older you get, the more you realize that when you can delegate more responsibilities to your assistants, they can really hone in on that one area.

“We’ve had great special teams this year. We’ve got some terrific players to put on those special teams. You put on the board a lot of Xs and Os, but if you can kill penalties with Blake Bellefeuille and Jeff Farkas, all of a sudden you become a lot more effective. You give Marty Reasoner the puck on the hash mark and he makes things happen.

“It’s no secret that we’ve been really successful recruiting the last couple years. The big thing was could they fit in a team atmosphere and put their egos aside. They’ve done that.

“They look around the locker room and see great players in the stalls next to them. Our players get excited by that. Our goals have always been lofty. BC has had a great hockey tradition and we’d certainly like to add to that this year by winning the championship.”

To carry the football analogy one step further, Boston College hopes to become the 49ers. That is, in 1949, exactly forty-nine years ago, BC won its last NCAA championship.

Potentially helping them achieve that will be the chance to play in its own back yard, in the FleetCenter, where the Eagles already have played four games this year. Even so, York downplays the advantage of knowing all the Fleet’s nooks and crannies.

“We’ve played in the rink in the Beanpot and the Hockey East championships, but New Hampshire has been there a number of times, too,” he says. “The Joe Louis Arena, the site of the CCHA championships, is pretty similar as far as the size and the crowds.

“But certainly it’s an advantage not to travel. We’re three miles from the FleetCenter so we elected to bypass going into the downtown hotels. We’ll just stay on campus and commute into the games.”

It remains to be seen how much the crowd tilts in BC’s favor. Boston University fans, who bought tickets expecting an eighth Terrier appearance in nine years, will still be at the FleetCenter. They traded chants with their BC counterparts at Albany while waving a Colorado College flag. In a game between BC and Iraq, BU partisans might wonder if that Saddam Hussein guy isn’t so bad after all.

In any case, the sold out arena is sure to generate more noise than the 7,000 or 8,000 that partially filled the old Boston Garden in the last Boston-based Final Fours in the early seventies.

“We’re getting more like basketball where it’s going to be almost like a lottery to get a ticket to come to these events,” says York. “It’s come full circle since the 1973-74 season.

“I remember playing in the ’65 tournament at Brown University and we had our Final Four before 2500 people on campus. It’s taken great, great strides. It’s exciting and it’s going to be a tremendous boost for college hockey.”

Ohio State

Do you believe? The Ohio State hockey team believes.

After beating Yale 4-0, rookie goaltender Jeff Maund and senior forward Todd Compeau sat stonefaced in the post-game press conference. There was no celebration, no hand-slapping, no self-congratulations. They didn’t even smile.

These boys believed they still had a job to do. They had to beat Michigan State the following night.

“It was hard not to look by Yale,” said Maund. “But after that loss last weekend [in the CCHA title game], that’s personally what I want back. The first two goals — I’ll take the blame for that. Those were my fault.

“Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to stop those, and we’ll be able to put a couple of lucky goals in for the win.”

Compeau added, “They’re an excellent hockey club. We’re going to have to be patient with them all the way through the game.

“I’m sure it’s going to end up a one-goal game.”

And so it did.

The most amazing thing about the Buckeyes’ 4-3 overtime win over the Spartans wasn’t Jeff Maund. OK, Maund was pretty incredible, and his spike-save on Mike York in overtime touched off the play that won the game.

But no, the most amazing thing about the OSU win over the Spartans may have gone unnoticed by many people. In every game that Ohio State and Michigan State played this season — and every game was a one-goal game or a goal and an empty-netter — the second line of Compeau, Chris Richards and Dan Cousineau was the only line to do real damage to the Spartans. In fact, Compeau scored the game-winner in Columbus in February, and he scored the only two Buckeye goals against the Spartans in the CCHA Championship game.

He also scored the first two goals in the Ohio State win over Yale.

Eric Meloche

Eric Meloche

In the win over Michigan State in the NCAA quarterfinals, the goal-scorers were Andre Signoretti, Eric Meloche and Neal Rech — a defenseman, a winger from the first line, and a winger from the third line.

After the Michigan State game, Maund, Signoretti and head coach John Markell were smiling — just a little. “We just knew that if we kept going and kept picking away,” said Markell, “eventually we’d get a break.”

Said Maund, “Day by day, it’s just getting a lot better. Our team is playing better and better.”

The Buckeyes are finding new ways to win, just as they’re heading into the Frozen Four. And they’re loaded with confidence.

Going into last weekend, Maund’s goals-against average in his previous seven games was 1.35; last weekend, he gave up three goals in two games, posting his fourth shutout of the season against Yale.

In front of Maund, the Ohio State defense has been stellar in the playoffs, led by senior Ryan Root and rookie Andre Signoretti. These two dangerous players provide excellent D — and they can score, as Signoretti proved against the Spartans. Root’s wrist shot is one of the most feared in the league.

And Ryan Skaleski is one of the best defensive defensemen in the CCHA.

Then there’s the Ohio State offense. Not only is le trio Quebecois led by CCHA league scoring title holder Hugo Boisvert, but Meloche is a real sniper, able to fly in on the right wing and score nearly at will.

The second line, the all-Ontario Block O, is accountable for much of the Buckeye scoring in the second half of the season. Richards alone has 52 points (22-30) in overall play.

The third and fourth lines are capable of more than just maintaining — they can score. Sophomore Louie Colsant had the game-winner against Michigan in the CCHA semifinals, and Neal Rech is a threat both at full strength and when the Bucks are down a man.

“I think we’ve set ourselves up by competing well here at the CCHA level,” says Markell, “and hopefully we can do it on the national level.”

In order to do that, Ohio State is going to have to learn to adjust to non-league opponents early in the game. The Bulldogs were the only non-CCHA team that Ohio State has faced in post-season play, and the Buckeyes struggled to find their feet for the first half of the game against a faster Yale team.

“I think we lost a little bit of respect for Yale, and we were kind of looking through them [toward playing Michigan State],” says Markell. “But they put it to us for thirty minutes and gave us a big wake-up call. We were very fortunate to live through those thirty minutes and finally settle into our game.”

Markell says that his team was nervous playing its first NCAA postseason tournament game, and that now that the Buckeyes have been through it, Ohio State should be game-ready against Boston College.

“Everybody was telling us that we were going to win that game against Yale, but we forgot we had to play the game. I don’t think we came out there as a focused group as we had all season.

“I think playing in Boston — playing against Boston College with possibly 16,000 fans cheering against us — will wake us up pretty quickly.

“The crowd at Yost was probably impartial…but Boston College is going to scare us into playing well in the first period, which is good for us.

“It’s a whole new situation to us each and every weekend — making the playoffs at Joe Louis, and then the regionals, and now the Final Four. We have to accept the fact that it’s all new to us and not to get caught up in the hoopla.”

Not getting caught up in their own hoopla has kept this balanced Buckeye team focused for the second half of the season, for their incredible 18-2-1 run since Jan. 9. From the start of the season through the second week in January, Ohio State was 8-10-1.

“Surprise, surprise,” says Markell. “Here we are.”

Michigan (31-11-1) vs. New Hampshire (25-11-1)
Thursday, 2 p.m. ET, FleetCenter, Boston, Mass.

Both of these squads knocked off bye teams to get here — in fact, Michigan and New Hampshire took down last season’s national finalists, North Dakota and Boston University, respectively. Both teams can score, but the Wildcats’ lightning offense has been considerably the better of the two, averaging 4.4 goals per game over the course of the season to the Wolverines’ 3.6.

On defense, though, Michigan features well-tested Marty Turco, who’s been in this situation more than once before. What does happen when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? Stay tuned…

Michigan

Do you believe? The Wolverine faithful believe, and that faith alone may have given Michigan a 4-3 win over defending national champions North Dakota.

“The crowd,” said Michigan head coach Red Berenson after the win, “was awesome.”

So was Matt Herr.

The senior captain had a hand in each of Michigan’s four goals in the game against the Sioux — he scored the shorthanded breakaway goal that opened the Michigan scoring in the second period when the Wolverines were down 2-0, and he provided the crucial feed to Bobby Hayes for the game-winner with less than three minutes to go in regulation play.

Berenson said that maybe it wasn’t fair for the game to have been played at Yost. “It was fair,” answered Herr, smiling the smile of the victor.

“Home ice may have been a factor,” Berenson says days after the game. “We survived it, and we’re lucky to be at the Final Four.”

To get to that game against the Fighting Sioux (in which the Wolverines led for only the last minutes of play) Michigan had to struggle through a hard-fought game against the Princeton Tigers.

“We played a tough, tough Princeton team on Friday night,” says Berenson. “We felt fortunate to win the game. We won the game on a real fluke goal.”

He’s not kidding. Rookie Mark Kosick threw a blind centering pass out from the corner, where he had fought for the puck. The pass hit Jeff Halpern’s skate and bounced into the Princeton net.

“It was a break,” said Berenson after the game, “and maybe we haven’t had a break around the net in some time. It’s the kind [of goal] that’s been happening against us.”

Michigan made its own breaks for most of the season, struggling early on with a young team that needed to adjust to the CCHA, and struggling toward the end of the season, losing three of its last six regular-season games before being taken to three games in a home playoff series against Notre Dame.

“Michigan has had more of a rebuilding year this year,” says Berenson, “having lost nine seniors and coming off maybe the best team we’ve ever had at Michigan.

“Last season, there were a lot of question marks about this year’s team. We found a way to survive. We’re not the offensive team we were last year. We’re not a lot better or a lot worse than any of our opponents, and I think that speaks well for the parity in college hockey, in particularly the CCHA.”

After the Wolverines lost the fabled Michigan Nine — the class that included last year’s Hobey Baker winner, Brendan Morrison — few people expected the Wolverines to be as competitive as they proved to be.

Michigan flirted with the CCHA regular-season title for most of the year before losing out to the Spartans in head-to-head play toward the end of the season.

For the first half of the season, until the young Wolverines found their feet, seniors Marty Turco and Bill Muckalt carried the team while Herr was out with an injury. Turco was often the difference in one-goal games, and there were contests in which Muckalt seemed to be the only Wolverine able to turn up the offensive heat.

But when the rest of the team caught up to Turco and Muckalt, the Wolverines found some balance, and even Berenson was a little surprised by what emerged.

“Our junior class stepped up big-time,” says Berenson, “and I think this is the difference in our team. The players who have really stepped up have been Dale Rominski, Bobby Hayes, Justin Clark, and Bubba Berenzweig. Those guys have really made a difference.

“Bobby Hayes has gone from being a third- or fourth-line center to being our leading center.

“Dale Rominski is one of our blood-and-guts kids. He’s taken over the Jason Botterill role.

“Justin Clark has played much, much better than he did last year. He’s helped us a lot on special teams.

“And Bubba Berenzweig is maybe our best defenseman, and he was a real question mark coming off last season.

“This was an untested class that has really proven itself this season.”

Hayes, who had just 17 points last season, was third on the team in scoring this year, with 21 goals and 22 assists. And Rominski has become one of the better defensive forwards in the league. He “bumps and grinds,” as Berenson puts it, while contributing 10 goals and 13 assists.

The Wolverines also have a trio of standout freshmen, including defenseman Mike Van Ryn (4-14–18) and forwards Mark Kosick (12-32–44) and Josh Langfeld (18-16–34).

Add to the mix Muckalt’s 65 overall points and Turco’s overall GAA of 2.06 and save percentage of .908, and you have a youngish team with great senior leadership, and a team good enough — obviously — to make its fourth consecutive Frozen Four appearance.

Berenson says that his team is ready for Boston because “it’s kind of been playoff hockey for us all year.”

Sixteen of the Wolverines’ 32 wins were one-goal games. “When we’re in a close game, it’s not like we haven’t been there before.”

Berenson sounds as much relieved as he does happy that his team got through two one-goal games last weekend. “That’s what we’ve faced all season long. The close games have been good preparation for playoff hockey.”

The Wolverines — and the Wolverine faithful — couldn’t be more prepared heading into Boston.

New Hampshire

New Hampshire took the initial step toward advancing to its first Final Four in 16 years with a come-from-behind 7-4 win over Wisconsin. When UNH rallied from a 3-1 second period deficit, It marked the first time since the inception of regional sites in 1992 that a team in the East overcame anything more than a one-goal margin. The Wildcats’ 4-3 overtime thriller against Boston University then propelled them into their fourth championship round in history and resulted in a euphoric UNH locker room where, as one Wildcat put it, “we were like a bunch of 12-year-old girls screaming.”

Although their previous appearances in 1977, 1979 and 1982 all resulted in losses, the two wins in Albany may have amounted to a watershed weekend for the Wildcats.

UNH pessimists point to disappointments as the number-three seed in 1992 (a 4-2 loss to Wisconsin), 1994 (a 7-1 loss to Harvard following a first round win over RPI) and 1995 (a 9-2 humiliation at the hands of Denver), as well as last year’s 3-2 loss to Colorado College. However, those may have been part of the growing pains of a program breaking onto the national scene.

Take, for example, Maine in the late eighties and early nineties. From 1987 through 1992, as the top Eastern seed four times and the third seed twice, the Black Bears failed to advance in a single series outside of the four held in the comfortable confines of Alfond Arena in Orono.

But in 1993, they won the national championship.

Or take this week’s opponent, Michigan. From 1991 through 1995, the Wolverines were the number-one Western seed three times and the number-two and three seeds once each. In that time, they lost in the first round twice and the other three years won once in the West Regional and then dropped games in the semifinals. During much of that time, Lake Superior bedeviled Michigan much as Boston University did in past years to New Hampshire.

But in 1996, the Wolverines won the national championship.

Now, in 1998, it could be UNH’s turn.

“We want to get to the next level,” says coach Dick Umile. “We couldn’t get out of the regionals before, but this is the year we finally got to the Final Four. It’s the next step. Our program wants to compete at the national level, but it’s not easy.”

Mark Mowers played a major role in ending the Wildcat NCAA hex, both on the ice and in the locker room as the team captain, Even though, in Mowers’s words, “I don’t think there were too many people who thought we were going to win the game,” the talk among the players in the intermission before the overtime against BU was all positive. “Who’s going to be the hero?” were the words on the players’ lips. As it turned out, Mowers was the hero in OT, with his second shorthanded goal of the night.

“It couldn’t happen to a better kid,” says Umile. “He typifies our program. He works hard off the ice. He’s our leader. He’s a special person. He’s comparable to Chris Drury as far as I’m concerned.

“He’s paid the price. He and the seniors, especially Tommy Nolan, have gone through a lot of disappointments. I’m just so happy for them that they finally are going to the Final Four.”

Tommy Nolan

Tommy Nolan

Mowers (25-31–56) and Nolan (18-41–59) are half of the UNH Fearsome Foursome, which also includes Jason Krog (33-33–66) and Derek Bekar (32-27–59). However, Bekar, who some consider the best of the lot, is a question mark for the game. He injured a hip flexor late in the second period against BU when he got tangled up in front of the net and missed the third period and overtime. Although he expressed confidence after the game that he would play on Thursday, the hip flexor is critical to skating and remains a major concern. He is considered day-to-day.

In Bekar’s absence, Umile considered reuniting the Krog, Mowers and Nolan trio that had dominated as a single line before he split them into two still-dominant units. Instead, he moved Mike Souza (13-12–25) into Bekar’s spot and the sophomore set up Mowers for the game winner.

“Souza has played there before,” says Umile. “He’s been a goal scorer all his life. I thought he might pop one with his shot, but he made a great pass.”

If Bekar can’t go, count on Souza to stay on that line.

Another major contributor was goaltender Sean Matile, who made the stop of his life on a Mike Sylvia breakaway in the final seconds of regulation against BU.

“For a kid who is 6-3, he’s very quick,” says Umile. “He takes away a lot of the net. He’s had a real good season and is one of the main reasons why our team defense has been so solid.”

In facing Michigan in the semifinal game, UNH will be taking on the only team remaining with players who have any Final Four experience at all. In fact, Wolverine seniors have been there the past three years.

On the other hand, UNH’s upperclassmen have played numerous games at the FleetCenter and now have regional success under their belts.

“The experience we got this weekend was huge for us,” says Umile. “That step that we had to take to get out of the regional to get to the Final Four is going to be a big factor.

“And one of the major goals the guys achieved as a team was their defensive play. I think that’s going to help us out. We proved this weekend that we can play solid programs defensively as well as put the puck in the net.”

Michigan coach Red Berenson, whose offensive powerhouse last year had some parallels to this year’s UNH squad, also downplayed the advantage of Final Four-specific experience.

“I don’t think there’s much difference between the Final Four and playing in your own league playoff tournaments,” he says. “Leagues are playing their tournaments now in big arenas with more media attention. It’s very comparable to the Final Four, so I don’t think it makes that much difference.”

Michigan led the CCHA in allowing only one shorthanded goal in league competition all year and three overall. As such, the Wolverine power play (18.4 percent in league play, 20.2 percent overall) will provide a key matchup against UNH’s Hockey East-leading shorthanded unit. The Wildcat penalty-killers not only posted an 88.7 percent kill rate, allowing just 19 power-play goals in 168 chances, but also scored 15 while shorthanded, including two in the win over BU.

“It’s hard to coach your power play not to give up shorthanded goals,” says Berenson. “We’re trying to score goals, not [worry about] giving up goals. That just happens in a game.

“Even when you’re penalty-killing, you don’t really coach to score goals. Some players just have that innate ability to read and react to opportunities and they take advantage of them.

“We were one of those teams last year. Johnny Madden alone had 10 shorthanded goals himself, so I can appreciate how that can help a team and certainly it was a factor in the game for New Hampshire against BU. But we can’t worry about that on our power play.”

UNH won’t have to adjust from the Olympic sheet at its Whittemore Center to the NHL-regulation ice surface at the FleetCenter. Having just come off games and practices at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, the Wildcats are off on Monday, will bus to nearby Rochester on Tuesday because the Whitt is already committed, and then travel down to the FleetCenter on Wednesday.

NCAA Division I Championship

Boston College/Ohio State vs. Michigan/New Hampshire
Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, FleetCenter, Boston, Mass.

The final game of the year will propel one of four teams into posterity. Which one? We’ll all find out Saturday night.

The Picks

USCHO Staff Report
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For the edification and (equally likely) amusement of college hockey fans everywhere, the USCHO staff predicts the outcome of this year’s championship.

Mike Machnik, Staff Analyst

The Wolverines and Wildcats are on emotional highs after big wins last week, and both clubs have good special teams. The edge goes to UNH with four of the nation’s best forwards at both ends of the ice, but they’ll need to beat Turco, Muckalt and an experienced NCAA squad to win. New Hampshire 5, Michigan 3.

Jeff Maund and the Fabulous Frenchmen have led the Buckeyes to a season to remember, but the Eagles are playing the best hockey of anyone around. Reasoner and Gionta are always threats, but the Eagles’ second line could be the difference with shorthanded maven Jeff Farkas. Three rookies on defense would normally spell doom for anyone, but BC’s trio have quickly provided skill and solid play far beyond their years. Speed kills, and the Eagles have plenty of it. Boston College 5, Ohio State 2.

An All-Hockey East final is just what the Beantown organizers are looking for, and they’ll get it as tickets are scalped for $200 and up. BC is still smarting from a 9-3 wakeup call against UNH in the teams’ final meeting, but since that game, the Eagles have gone 12-1-2. Both clubs can score goals at will, but defense wins championships, and Reasoner fills the space where his Hobey would have gone with an NCAA trophy. Boston College 5, New Hampshire 3.

Tim Brule, Project Coordinator

UNH-UM: The key to this game is who can control the tempo, and Michigan’s defense and goaltending prevail. UM 3, UNH 2.

BC-OSU: The upstart Buckeyes don’t have enough to hold off the hometown Eagles, who perch atop this tree. BC 5, OSU 3.

UM-BC: Before a packed house, the Eagles come out flying and soar to the national championship. BC 4, UM 1

Adam Wodon, Special Correspondent

Coming into the tournament, almost anyone had a chance, but almost everyone had a flaw. For Boston College, it’s inexperience, but the Eagles had the most talent in the field even before the top seeds fell out. And perhaps the experience many of their players have gotten in World Junior tournaments is paying off.

There will a lot of hitting, and BC will tough out a 4-3 win over Ohio State. Also, Michigan has the experience to contain New Hampshire, but it won’t be easy — a 3-2 overtime win for the Wolverines.

In the final, it’s another 4-3 score for the Eagles, who become the sixth different team to win the championship in the last six years. Marty Reasoner will again be a non-factor, and then he’ll go pro.

Dave Hendrickson, Hockey East Correspondent

BC-OSU: Boston College over Ohio State, 4-3 in overtime.

UNH-Michigan: At the continued request of UNH fans, I’ll be giving the Wildcats good luck by (wink, wink) picking against them. Officially, it’s (wink, wink) Michigan, 4-2. (Honesty forces me to note that a week ago in an office pool, I went with a no-wink BC-UNH championship game. I like my chances.)

BC-Michigan: BC 5-3. 49 years after ’49, the Eagles are champs again.

Scott Brown, Chief Editor

If you put Ohio State and Boston College in an empty building and let ’em play for pride, I’d give it even money either way. But this semifinal will be at the FleetCenter for a lot more than that, and you can count on Eagle-backers to come out in droves. BC 4, OSU 3. In the other semi, Michigan’s got the experienced playoff goalie, and that’s all it takes to turn the game. Michigan 5, New Hampshire 3.

That means the championship comes down to the hot hand of BC versus the old hand of Michigan. BC hasn’t been to the top in a while, but with Gionta and Reasoner clicking, that ends Saturday. BC 4, Michigan 3.

Paula C. Weston, CCHA Correspondent

They’re still the Rodney Dangerfield of college hockey: no respect. There’s a lot of buzz about the Wolverines and New Hampshire, and about the only top seed — Boston College — to make it in. Even on the USCHO message board, every poster claims the title for some team other than Ohio State. One said, “Every Cinderella story must end.” The way I remember my fairy tales, Cinderella’s story ended with, “And they lived happily ever after.” Ohio State 4, Boston College 2.

The Wolverines played the game of their lives against North Dakota. Matt Herr was on fire. Marty Turco pulled out all the stops. And the crowd didn’t hurt, either. New Hampshire has more firepower than Michigan. As much as I’d love an OSU-Michigan title game, I think New Hampshire will prevail. New Hampshire 4, Michigan 3.

Then, while New Hampshire will have the crowd on its side, Ohio State thrives on being the underdog. The Buckeyes have won in hostile environments all season — they positively feed off of it. And New Hampshire has a sterling offense, but Ohio State’s defense doesn’t give up much these days. Said Ron Mason after losing to Ohio State, “They’ve got as good a chance as anybody. They’ve got a goalie with a hot hand. If he can continue to play the way he’s playing, they can beat anybody.” Who am I to argue with Ron Mason? Ohio State 4, New Hampshire 3.

Lee Urton, Media Relations

The Buckeye put on a great performance against a Michigan State team they were very familiar with, but Boston College has too many weapons. BC 4, OSU 2. And New Hampshire makes it two from the nation’s strongest conference this season, thrashing Michigan in the other semifinal. UNH 6, Michigan 2.

Then, in the title game, it’s BC 4, UNH 3. Just a feeling.

Jayson Moy, ECAC Correspondent

UNH-Michigan: UNH’s explosive offense has to go through Michigan, with all of its championship experience. While this one will be close, there is Marty Turco standing in the way. Michigan 4, UNH 3 (OT).

BC-OSU: Two teams with great talent and intensity. OSU has only lost to one team lately, and earned its redemption last Saturday. Meanwhile, BC is full of fire and determination. It’ll be a tough one, but I like the way BC is playing. BC 4, OSU 3 (OT).

BC-Michigan: E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles, Eagles, Eagles. BC 5, Michigan 4 — in three OTs.

No Place Like Home

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The Wolverines are in Boston this year, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, given that Michigan has made a college hockey Final Four appearance seven of the last eight seasons.

But this year, Michigan has advanced without The Michigan Nine, the phenomenal class led by 1997 Hobey Baker winner, Brendan Morrison.

Gone are Morrison, Botterill, Madden, Luhning and Sloan. With so many rookies wearing the Maize and Blue, no one expected this Wolverine squad to see this success, and to see it so soon.

But everyone seems to forget that Michigan’s number-one asset stayed as last year’s senior class left. Red Berenson never went anywhere, and he’s the biggest reason why Michigan hockey has become what it is today–a genuine dynasty in collegiate athletics.

The native of Regina, Saskatchewan, is the fourth former Wolverine captain to return to coach the team. But Berenson never thought coaching was in his cards, and when he returned to Ann Arbor to take the reins in 1984, he found the transition from player to coach challenging on many levels.

“The first thing I said when I got the job was, ‘We have to change the image of Michigan hockey.’ I didn’t even want to be associated with what the image was.”

The Wolverines had fallen on tough times, posting five-hundred records just seven seasons from 1970-1984.

“I’m not trying to be critical, but people didn’t respect the team, they didn’t respect the program. They didn’t think it was a positive part of the environment here, and there wasn’t any support. You could sit anywhere you wanted [at Yost Arena]. I was embarrassed to coach here the first couple of years.”

Berenson thought a school with the athletic tradition of the University of Michigan should have a team that evoked as much school spirit on the ice as did its gridiron counterpart.

“I wanted to be in Michigan, and I knew what Michigan should be like. And the way it is now is the way I envisioned it. That’s the way it would be someday. I didn’t know it would take as long. It took four or five years before we were even a five-hundred team–it took a number of years.”

In fact, it took just three seasons under Berenson’s guidance for the Wolverines to return to winning seasons. Michigan hasn’t had a season under five-hundred since 1986-87. In the ’90s, the Wolverines have posted 10 or fewer losses every year.

“I wanted to build a program that someday be looked at as somewhat of a dynasty. I thought Michigan should be one of the top programs in the country, year in and year out.”

Berenson’s road to coaching prominence began in a casual way, and it was into professional–not college–coaching that Berenson moved after his playing days with the St. Louis Blues were over.

“When it was getting near the end of my career as a player, one of my teammates became the head coach. He wanted me to help him as an assistant coach, so I did. I thought it would be good to keep my family in St. Louis, so I was an assistant coach.

“Then he got sick, and I became the head coach. So I got into coaching that way.”

Returning to his alma mater to coach college hockey was the furthest thing from Berenson’s mind when he was offered the job.

“The college thing–I wasn’t even looking. I didn’t need a job. I had another year on my contract in Buffalo.

“My son was interested in coming to Michigan, and when I brought him over here to look at Michigan, [former Michigan coach] Al Renfrew asked me to consider coming back to Michigan. I started thinking about it, and I thought, ‘Gee, I’ve been in pro hockey for twenty-five years. This will be a good challenge.’

“So I decided to do it. I had no idea of what I was getting back into. I didn’t understand the recruiting, networking, and so on. I had a lot of pro hockey contacts, but I didn’t have the contacts that Ron Mason or Jerry York or any of the established coaches had in terms of recruiting at this level.

“I inherited a pretty tough situation, but I inherited a real good person in Mark Miller as my assistant coach, and he really helped me a lot in the early years trying to get this thing going again.

“I asked my son when we left Ann Arbor, ‘What do you think of Michigan?’ He said, ‘It would be great if I could come here.’ And I said, ‘What would you think if I came here with you?’ And that’s exactly what happened.”

Berenson is quick to share the credit for Michigan’s success, especially this season, when the Wolverines were not expected to make a run for Boston.

“You knew that going into the season this was going to be something that would be a long shot, whereas last year it was just about a sure bet–it should have been a sure bet that Michigan would get to the Final Four.

“But this season, no way. It was a whole different situation. Not that I’m amazed; I’m pleased, and I’m not totally surprised.

“When you look at some of the players on our team–Rominski and Hayes, and Billy Muckalt and Turco and Fox and Berenzweig–these guys have been there. It’s not like none of them know any different. They’ve been to a Final Four every year they’ve been here.

“I think there’s something special attached to this because all these players have had even a bigger role this year. Turco’s role has been completely different than it was last year, even though he was our starting goalie. He had to be more of a factor in every game than he was last year.

“Same thing with Muckalt, and Herr, and Hayes. All of their roles have changed this year and that’s been the challenge.”

Berenson is as quick to praise his assistants, Mel Pearson and Billy Powers, as he is his players.

“It’s a fact that I have two of the best assistant coaches in the country, for a number of reasons. Billy played for me, and he knows the Michigan way, and Mel has been with me for I think his ninth or tenth year now, and they literally run the team.

“They run practice. I’m on the ice, and I know what we’re doing every day, but they’re running it, they’re doing it. And now, whichever one is behind the bench runs the defense, and I run the forwards during the games. It’s a total team effort.

“I’m responsible for the program, but I’ve got so much input from them. They’re like head coaches, both of them, Mel in particular. He could coach anywhere and is going to be a successful coach.

“So I’m really proud of what they’re doing. They’re the guys that are running this team and helping me. Actually, it’s like I’m helping them, it’s not like they’re helping me.”

Many college hockey fans don’t realize how much Berenson loves his players–and he does. You can hear the pride and genuine affection in the coach’s voice when he talks about what his job really means to him.

“The thing that I brag about our kids is not so much their talent, but I like the kind of kids they are. I think that they’re good kids, and they’re good people, and for the most part they’re good students, and I’m proud to have them as part of our program.

“They’re not just hockey players–and I admire good hockey players. But I think some hockey players come very close to being hockey bums, too, and I don’t want any hockey bums playing for me.”

The most rewarding thing about Berenson’s job, he says, is that he gets “to see the whole picture, to see what this program has become to a lot of people.

“To see the kids, and the fans, and the band, the environment, the excitement–that’s all been great–but the bottom line is to see good kids go through this, and then grow up and be good people after they’re done.

“The wins and losses are a big part of today’s excitement, but it’s nice to hear from former players, to see former players doing well as non-players when hockey’s over. To have a had a small part in their development, in their education, just their background, and then for them to come back, it really makes you feel good to think that they’re still part of our family.”

As Gordon “Red” Berenson prepares his team for yet another Final Four appearance, he tries to find a way to summarize his career. “It’s been a good challenge for me. I never really wanted to be a coach. I had no aspirations to coach anywhere. I never thought I’d be a college coach.”

And for how much longer will Berenson coach the Wolverines? “I’m not going anywhere. I didn’t take this job with the intention of leaving it.

“But I’m not a guy who’s going to coach until I’m too old to coach. I’m year to year. I’m 58, and I don’t see myself coaching forever. It’s not like they’re going to have wheel me out of here; I’ll walk out of here before they’ll have to wheel me out of here.”

At A Glance: Final Four

USCHO Staff Report
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What: The 1998 NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey semifinals and championship.

Where: The FleetCenter, in Boston, Mass.

Who: Four teams — Boston College, Michigan, New Hampshire and Ohio State — qualified through the two NCAA regionals. Of the four, only Boston College had the benefit of a first-round bye, while New Hampshire is the lowest seed (fifth in the East) to reach the semifinals.

When: The two semifinals will be played at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. (Eastern time) Thursday, Apr. 2, and the championship at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Apr. 4. Thursday, Michigan takes on New Hampshire in the early game, and Boston College faces off with Ohio State in the late semi. All three games will be televised nationally, with the semifinals on ESPN2 and the championship on ESPN.

How (can I get there): The FleetCenter has been sold out for months, but a small number of tickets will be available through the competing schools, or from disgruntled fans of other squads.

Reasoner

Reasoner

Boston College

Nickname: Eagles Head coach: Jerry York Conference: Hockey East Record: 27-8-5 How qualified for NCAAs: Hockey East tournament champion How the Eagles got here: #2 East seed earned first-round bye, beat Colorado College 6-1

Leading scorers (D-I games): Jr. F Marty Reasoner (29-37–66), Fr. F Brian Gionta (28-26–54), So. D Mike Mottau (12-34–46), So. F Blake Bellefeuille (19-18–37)

Top goaltender (D-I games): Fr. Scott Clemmensen (23-8-4, 2.67 GAA, .887 SV%)

Muckalt

Muckalt

University of Michigan

Nickname: Wolverines Head coach: Red Berenson Conference: CCHA Record: 31-11-1 How qualified for NCAAs: At-large bid How the Wolverines got here: #3 West seed beat Princeton 2-1, North Dakota 4-3

Leading scorers (D-I games): Sr. F Bill Muckalt (29-31–60), Jr. F Bobby Hayes (20-22–42), Fr. F Mark Kosick (12-29–41), Sr. D Chris Fox (6-15–21)

Top goaltender (D-I games): Sr. Marty Turco (29-10-1, 2.25 GAA, .903 SV%)

Ohio State University

Nickname: Buckeyes Head coach: John Markell Conference: CCHA Record: 27-12-2 How qualified for NCAAs: At-large bid How the Buckeyes got here: #4 West seed beat Yale 4-0, Michigan State 4-3 (OT)

Leading scorers (D-I games): So. F Hugo Boisvert (23-33–56), Jr. F Chris Richards (22-30–52), So. F Eric Meloche (25-22–47), Fr. D Andre Signoretti (5-19–24)

Top goaltender: Fr. Jeff Maund (21-7-0, 2.28 GAA, .921 SV%)

Mowers

Mowers

University of New Hampshire

Nickname: Wildcats Head coach: Richard Umile Conference: Hockey East Record: 25-11-1 How qualified for NCAAs: At-large bid How the Wildcats got here: #5 East seed beat Wisconsin 7-4, Boston U. 4-3 (OT)

Leading scorers: Jr. F Jason Krog (33-33–66), Jr. F Derek Bekar (32-27–59), Sr, F Tom Nolan (18-41–59), Sr. F Mark Mowers (25-31–56), So. D Jayme Filipowicz (3-27–30)

Top goaltender: Jr. Sean Matile (25-11-1, 2.19 GAA, .918 SV%)

Regional MVPs, All-Tourney Teams Named

USCHO Staff Report
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New Hampshire forward Mark Mowers, whose two shorthanded goals Sunday included the overtime game-winner against Boston University, was named Most Valuable Player of the NCAA East Regional. Overall, Mowers was 3-2-5 for two games in regional play.

Meanwhile, in the West, Ohio State goaltender Jeff Maund made 46 saves while allowing just three goals in two games en route to the regional MVP, as the Buckeyes advanced to the Final Four in their first-ever NCAA tourney appearance.

All-tournament teams for the two regionals:

East Regional                  West Regional
Sean Matile, UNH         G     Jeff Maund, OSU (MVP)
Jayme Filipowicz, UNH    D     Andre Signoretti, OSU
Mike Mottau, BC          D     Mike Van Ryn, Mich.
Chris Drury, BU          F     Matt Herr, Mich.
Marty Reasoner, BC       F     Todd Compeau, OSU
Mark Mowers, UNH (MVP)   F     Mark Kosick, Mich.

Nebraska-Omaha Considering CCHA Affiliation

USCHO Staff Report
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The Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald reported recently that the University of Nebraska at Omaha, whose hockey team just completed its first season in Division I, is discussing possible affiliation with the CCHA.

On Mar. 20, Nebraska-Omaha representatives met with CCHA officials to examine such an arrangement, at which time the school was invited to make a full presentation at the CCHA’s spring meeting in Florida.

Nebraska-Omaha has also been considering the WCHA for possible league affiliation, but with Mankato State currently holding an inside track on WCHA membership, it appears unlikely that UNO could join that conference any earlier than 2000.

A Long Night’s Journey Into Day

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It’s Monday, two days after Andre Signoretti’s overtime goal sent Ohio State to college hockey’s Frozen Four, and the Buckeyes are back in Columbus, where it’s 85 degrees. It’s the first day of Spring Quarter classes.

After Buckeye hockey practice, the players linger a little. There are a couple of reporters, a couple fans. Everyone is very relaxed, and few of the guys seem to realize what they’ve done.

“I still can’t believe it,” says sophomore forward Louie Colsant, who scored the game-winner against Michigan in the CCHA tournament. “I can’t. I can’t believe we’re there.”

Senior Todd Compeau — a player who has found scoring success on Ohio State’s second line — says the impending trip to Boston hasn’t yet sunk in.

“I don’t think so, no. It’s hard to believe what we’re really doing right now. I guess when we get there and we step on the ice, we’ll realize it. It’s hard to believe, though, it really is.”

“I think it has sunk in, but I expected to go,” says Compeau’s linemate, fourth-year junior and assistant captain Dan Cousineau. “[During the playoffs] it was our goal to go. Right after the [Michigan State] game I still didn’t believe it. But it’s sunk in, and we’re on to bigger things now.”

Sophomore center and CCHA league scoring leader Hugo Boisvert says that it’s a reality for him, but adds, “It feels weird, though.

“Nobody expected us to go this far, and nobody expected us to beat [Michigan] State. When I woke up the next day, I was like, ‘This is for real.’ Overall, it’s a big surprise.”

“Most of us predicted fifth or sixth place,” says sophomore forward Jason Selleke. “We had no clue we were going to be up there in third place. And just to make it here is probably one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had playing hockey in my whole, entire career.”

Says senior forward Tyler McMillan, “It’s great. I’m trying not to let things get carried away. I know I’ll have lots of time to think about it after.”

Ray Aho, the sophomore goaltender who carried Ohio State into the playoffs last season, says, “I don’t really think it’s sunk in yet. We just go into each weekend thinking, ‘Play.’ We don’t even think about losing. I always think we’ll have practice next week.

“But now, this is the last weekend of the year.”

He laughs and adds, “You can tell we’re definitely new at this.”

Everyone in Columbus is new at this.

Just two years ago, when Ohio State went 10-19-5, the Buckeyes would regularly draw just a couple hundred people to games in the teeny, tiny OSU Ice Rink.

The team had no radio coverage. The Columbus daily paper, the Dispatch, didn’t even carry game write-ups. The Ohio State student paper, the Lantern, ignored the team altogether. Local television never reported the scores.

At most games, one lonely reporter comprised the entire Buckeye bandwagon.

These days, Ohio State hockey is the lead story on local television sports. Reporters regularly show up at practices, as well as games. Well, at least since the playoffs have begun, anyway.

But it’s not quite the media circus that surrounds hockey programs at other schools, schools where football fans don’t wear T-shirts that read “F*$# Michigan.”

Assistant captain Ryan Root thinks that’s just fine.

“I think living in Columbus is great, because no one talks about it, nobody knows about it. If it was Final Four basketball or something, I probably wouldn’t be able to deal with it.

“It’s been nice because things have been kind of calm so far. I’m sure once we get to Boston, it’ll start sinking in a little bit.”

Every game Ohio State has played beyond the CCHA finals is new territory. This team — making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament — won just 12 games last year, 10 the year before, and seven the year before that, when this year’s seniors were rookies.

When Root joined the squad.

“When we came in as freshman,” says Root, “they told us, ‘We’re bringing you guys in to rebuild this program,’ and I think each class after that was told the same thing: ‘Hey, you guys are supposed to turn this thing around.’

“When we came in, the press interviewed the freshmen early on and asked, ‘What are your goals?’ And I said, ‘Well, I want a championship ring. I want an NCAA championship ring.’

“The next day, all the older guys were just giving me hell for it. Now the attitude around here has changed immensely.”

Root says that he always thought things would get better. “But I didn’t think it would be this quick.”

That’s what seems to amaze even the players themselves, that the Buckeyes have turned around a program within a year — within a single season.

Cousineau says, “For a lot of years, I just wanted to be competitive. We definitely are now, and I think we have a legitimate shot. But it’s not something I even thought of at Christmastime.”

Like other players who have been along for the changing of the guard at Ohio State, Cousineau has had to adapt or ride the bench. He sat out his sophomore season with an illness, and the year became a redshirt. Last year, he played defense. This season, he’s an integral part of a line that has almost as much success as the fabled trio Quebecois.

His linemate, Todd Compeau, didn’t even know if he had a place on the team at the start of the year. Midway through last season, head coach John Markell told Compeau to clean out his locker; the then-junior was told that if he could prove he was disciplined, he could return to the team.

Ryan Root sat a good portion of two years under Markell, and finally got to play when the coach was satisfied that the offensive defenseman could play the more defensive style of hockey that the new head coach demanded.

Tyler McMillan, who anchors the tough, defensive Buckeye fourth line, saw a lot of time in the bleachers until Markell thought the forward could accept the role the coach saw for him.

“We were picked fourth to eighth,” says Markell, “and that, I thought, was a good range depending on the transition of a young hockey club.

“It’s our senior leadership that came through in the end, and showed us the way to do it. They became great leaders.”

Says Compeau, “Everyone seems to have come into his own this year, from the freshmen right up to the seniors. Everyone has a very important role on the team.”

Compeau says that everyone on the team has responded to the recent support shown by the university. The Buckeyes are set to begin play in the brand-new Schottenstein Center in the 1998-1999 season.

“It’s like night and day, compared to the first couple of years,” says Compeau. “We were brutal my first couple of years. The whole program, everything surrounding the program, our performance on the ice.

“Things have been run well here the last few years, and it shows on the ice now too. There’s a change in attitude from the administration right down to each player. It’s been excellent.”

Perhaps the happiest guy on the team is Root, who’s been sporting a wide, sincere smile ever since Ohio State hosted the first round of the CCHA playoffs.

“It’s been great. I’m enjoying every game. I think I’ve been able to play relaxed. I’ve settled into my role, and I’m pretty comfortable when I’m on the ice.

“That’s why I’m always laughing, talking to the refs. I’m still intense and focused, but the pressure’s been off us since the beginning, so it’s kind of nice to play like this.”

Root says that his teammates have had the advantage of being the underdog all through this season and postseason, and since the Buckeyes have nothing to lose, the team is loose.

“It’s amazing. It’s great that we do have a shot at it. I think if we show up, we can play some good hockey.”

Finalists Announced for D-I National Coach of the Year

USCHO Staff Report
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Ten head coaches have been announced as finalists for the Spencer Penrose Award, given annually by the American Hockey Coaches Association to the top Division I coach in the nation.

Heading the list are the four winners of conference Coach of the Year honors. They are John Markell (Ohio State, CCHA), Tim Taylor (Yale, ECAC), Bruce Crowder (Northeastern, Hockey East) and Craig Dahl (St. Cloud State, WCHA).

In addition to Crowder, who won the award while at UMass-Lowell in 1996, three other past winners are repeat candidates. They include Ron Mason (Michigan State), who won in 1992; Jack Parker (Boston U.), the winner in both 1975 and 1978; and Jerry York (Boston College), who won in 1977 while at Clarkson.

Joining them are Dean Talafous (Alaska-Anchorage), the recipient of the Eddie Jeremiah Award as Division II-III Coach of the Year in 1996 while at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls; first-year head coach Roger Grillo (Brown); and nonconference independent finalist Don Brose (Mankato State).

The nation’s head coaches will cast their votes following the Division I hockey championship, and the winner will be announced in mid-April. The award — named after the Colorado Springs benefactor who built the site of the first 10 NCAA championships — will be presented during the annual AHCA convention on May 3 in Naples, Fla.

What, Me Worry?

By
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He lives alone with his cat, and he’s afraid to cut his hair.

And at just 166 pounds, he’s one of the toughest competitors on ice.

Michigan State goaltender and Hobey Baker candidate Chad Alban answers the question that’s on everyone’s lips:

“Just what is up with that hair?”

“I just grew it out in the summer, because I’ve had short hair for so long now,” Alban says. “I used to have long hair in high school, and I’ve had short hair for four years now. When I grew it out I started liking it. I like the look of it coming out of the helmet.”

So, do the ladies like it?

Alban laughs at the thought. “It’s too long now. As bad as I want to get it cut, I’m not getting it cut yet. The worst is the back. It’s so hard to control in the back. I like it long on top, so I’ll probably keep it long for a while on top.”

Alban says the haircut will come soon enough. “Two more weeks.”

Not at all debunking the myth that goaltenders are, well, different, Alban claims he has just one superstition, and that’s his hair.

“I try not to have too many superstitious things to deal with. I’d be a mess. I don’t like to change anything from the regular season. I don’t like to shave a couple of days before a game, just because I don’t want that uncomfortable new growth on my face.”

So while other teams are growing their game-faces, Alban and the rest of the Spartans are clean-shaven.

“I’ll tell you right now that I couldn’t play with a beard. It would be itchy. If I had anything, it would be a goatee, which I can’t grow anyway. It doesn’t connect, so it doesn’t look good.”

Besides, says Alban, Ron Mason would never let his players look so scruffy. “Ohio State didn’t look good. It’s just not classy-looking.”

Ohio State may not have been as clean-cut as the boys in green and white, but the two teams nevertheless clashed for one of the more memorable CCHA title games in league history. And if the Buckeyes get through Yale in NCAA play, the Spartans may again be facing the team that took them to double overtime.

Alban says it doesn’t matter who the Spartans face in the NCAA quarterfinals.

“We don’t let things get to us. If we stick with our game and the way we can play, we can beat just about anybody.

“I think we know we’re a good hockey team, yet we know we have play our solid game if we want our best chances of winning. No matter who we’re playing, we worry about ourselves rather than the other team.”

The soft-spoken senior from Kalamazoo, Mich., is mix of seeming paradoxes. At once, he is both confident and humble. He’s a little guy who makes enormous plays. And he’s among the front-runners for an award that’s been given to a goaltender only once.

“I try not to really think about it,” Alban says of the Hobey Baker. “As far as my performance goes, I have nothing to do with it now that it’s all done. It’s nice to know that it’s all done and over with. I try not to worry about it, but it’s in the back of your mind.

“I didn’t let it affect me on the ice, but I’m glad it’s over with.”

Alban chuckles about how his teammates teased him with a “Hobey Baker” chant throughout the season, but he’s perfectly serious when he talks about how being nominated reflects as much on the Spartan team as on him as an individual.

“I heard it enough. They gave it to me enough. But it’s a part of them, too, just like the league’s Most Valuable Player award. Without those guys in front of me, I wouldn’t be the goaltender I am. This means something about our team. It really does.”

There’s a mixture of pride and affection in Alban’s voice when he talks about his fellow Spartans. “The chemistry of the team is so good. Everyone looks out for each other rather than their own stats. This is the closest team I’ve ever been on.”

Alban says that in the four years that he’s played Spartan hockey, he and his teammates have experienced the kinds of ups and downs that turn individuals into parts of a whole.

“I think maybe our senior and junior classes, guys who have been here a couple of years, have been through a lot of tough times as far as winning. We’ve been on the downside of things. That brings you together as a team, makes you close when you go through the hard times.”

This year, finally, this Michigan State hockey squad has come into its own.

“Once we won that first tournament, I think our team realized that we’re a great hockey team and that we can go real far if we just work hard and play the way we can.

“We’ve stepped up every chance we can. We were down a few guys in the GLI, and guys stepped it up.”

Incredibly, the Spartans have won every tournament they’ve entered this season: the Team Cheerios Ice Breaker, the Great Lakes Invitational, the CCHA tournament championship. Spartan head coach Ron Mason says that Alban is a big reason for this team’s success.

“He so good that we’ve built a defense around him. In Chad’s case, he’s able to pass the puck rather than just clear it along the boards. When we’re playing well, we have systems in place that use that ability of his. He can pass to other players and initiate an offensive play.”

All this from a guy who’s been playing competitive hockey for just over a decade. “I was big in other sports until I first started at 11. Once I got into hockey, I fell in love with hockey. That was my sport from there on out.

“That’s why I started playing goalie, because I wasn’t that good on skates in the beginning. I found out later that you need to skate pretty good to play goalie. I stuck with it one year, and then I just kept improving. Before I knew it I was doing well.”

Alban says that good goalies — and that fabled goalie mentality — are made, not born.

“I think you turn into more of a different person when you’re a goalie because you have to be more relaxed. One of the troubles I had when I was younger was that when I’d get scored on, I’d lose my temper. I’m a competitive person and I hate to lose.

“You’re playing a different game out there as a goalie. You can’t really be worried about the score. You’ve got to try to stop every puck you can. There are some games you play your best game, and you lose. Sometimes you play an okay game and you still win.

“The bottom line is winning, but if you let a bad goal in, you have to forget about it right there.

I’ve changed as a person since I started playing goalie. I’ve learned to be more calm. I have a better goaltending mentality. You can’t expect to have the mental aspect of being a goalie right off the bat.”

When it came to choosing colleges, Alban says that he was faced with having to decide between Michigan State and Michigan, two of the schools he grew up watching as a kid in Kalamazoo.

“I just felt really comfortable here at Michigan State, with the tradition and the past and all the great goaltenders who have played here. Because a lot of guys who played here went on to play with the NHL, that helped me make my decision.

“State was always the team when I was growing up, the big team to beat. So it was the kind of a team that I always thought I wanted to play for.”

Alban likes being close to home, and for two years he shared an apartment with his older brother, who just recently transferred to Western Michigan University. Now that his brother is gone, he’s left alone with Puck, his black cat.

“I got her my sophomore year. We always had animals at home, and we could have cats in my apartment complex. So I got a black cat and named her Puck.

“She’s a really skinny cat, really small and hyper. She keeps me up at night and sleeps all day. She needs the attention. She keeps me company.”

With all of the media attention Chad Alban has received, you’d think he would be frazzled, or at least less than gracious.

Neither could be further from the truth.

“I guess it comes with playing well. It hasn’t gotten to me yet. I’ll wait until the end of the year to try to think about it all.”

Hockey locks and all.

Preview: NCAA West Regional

By Scott Tappa, Paula C. Weston, Jayson Moy, Dave Hendrickson and Scott Brown
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The only real dust kicked up by this year’s selections lay in East Lansing and Columbus, where some fans are grousing about the committee’s decision to leave the Ohio State Buckeyes West as the fourth seed, setting up a potential second-round collision with top-seeded (and top-ranked) Michigan State.

That contest would be a repeat of last week’s CCHA tournament final, in which the Spartans needed two overtimes to finally defeat the Buckeyes, 3-2. However, to think too hard about that possibility is to overlook the Yale Bulldogs, Ohio State’s guaranteed first-round opponent. Yale won its first-ever ECAC regular-season title with a spectacular run, but a late-season skid sent the ‘Dogs West for their first NCAA visit in almost half a century.

Less controversial, but hardly less intriguing, is the other half of the West draw, in which surprising Princeton secured a tournament berth by winning five of six games in eight days en route to the ECAC postseason championship. The Tigers’ reward? A game with host Michigan in front of the Yost faithful.

The winner of that contest gets defending NCAA champion North Dakota in the second round. UND may have lost the WCHA tournament title to Wisconsin last week, but the Sioux are no less formidable as a result. If anything, that defeat — in which most agreed the Sioux played below their ability — will almost certainly harden head coach Dean Blais’ resolve to get his squad back to the Final Four.

Onward to Ann Arbor!

No. 4 Ohio State (25-12-2) vs. No. Yale (23-8-3)
Friday, 5:00 p.m. ET, Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Mich.

The first game of the 1998 NCAA tournament features possibly the hottest team in the country in Ohio State, and possibly the coldest in Yale. While OSU streaked through the second half of the season before finally falling to Michigan State, Yale sputtered, winning only four of its last 11 games.

Key for Yale is the loss of leading scorer Jeff Hamilton, whose 47 points and power-play skills will be sorely missed. The unknown in this one may be the Yost crowd, which will probably favor the Eastern visitors over newfound Michigan rival OSU.

Ohio State

What do you do with a team that took the odds-on favorite for the national title to double overtime in its conference championship game?

Well, if that team is Ohio State and you’re ESPN2, you do your best not to acknowledge its accomplishments.

And if you’re the NCAA selection committee, you pair the Buckeyes with the only team that has beaten them since Jan. 3.

While ESPN2 did a very nice feature on the surprising Yale Bulldogs — Ohio State’s opponent in the first NCAA regional matchup in Ann Arbor — the Buckeyes received barely a mention. Yale, it was pointed out, is making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1952, and only its second ever.

And, oh, by the way, Ohio State is going to the dance for the first time.

And, oh, by the way, the Ohio State is one of two teams responsible for the only two losses Michigan State has had since Jan. 2.

For the Buckeyes — a team in a city where the daily newspaper is just now picking up their story — the apparent lack of consideration is something to take in stride.

“Some guys might be a little upset that we’re not well-known, or that we don’t pick up the media,” says junior forward Chris Richards, “but I really don’t believe the media has any effect on the team. The game is played on the ice, and not off the ice. The guys are pretty much focused. We’re a confident bunch of guys.”

Head coach John Markell has been dealing with that lack of press all season — for three seasons, in fact. He says that while other teams may take the Buckeyes seriously, the CCHA fans in Detroit last weekend were a bit surprised.

“People kept asking, ‘Are they for real? Are they for real?'” says Markell. “All of a sudden, we’re for real.”

Contrary to the wishes and hopes of CCHA fans who fear another successful Big Ten hockey program, Ohio State is without a doubt, completely, totally, you-can-bank-on-it for real.

Michigan found that out the hard way in a 4-2 loss to Ohio State in the semifinals at The Joe. Had the Wolverines taken the Buckeyes more seriously, that game would have had a different flavor.

But the Buckeyes still would have won.

Since getting schooled in the college of hard hockey knocks in a 6-0 shutout loss at Yost Jan. 3, Ohio State has set out to prove to the CCHA that this is a team to reckon with. And with a 16-2-1 record since then, the Buckeyes really have little to prove.

Much has been said and written about Ohio State’s trio Quebecois, the three players from Quebec who have led the team in scoring all season. But for the second half of the season — and certainly for the two games last weekend at The Joe — it’s been the second Ohio State line that has made the difference.

The all-Ontario line of Chris Richards, Todd Compeau and Dan Cousineau — the Block O line — has become the OSU line to watch.

The three excellent defensive forwards are often paired with their opponents’ first lines in an effort to open up the scoring for le trio. What’s been happening lately, however, is that the Block O has taken advantage of every scoring opportunity available.

It was no accident that Compeau danced around Marty Turco for one of the prettiest goals in the CCHA tournament, or that Richards was in the right place at the right time to capitalize on another Turco mistake for an Ohio State goal.

And the two goals scored by the Buckeyes against Michigan State belonged to Compeau — one full-strength, and one power-play.

And it’s been that way all season for Ohio State against Michigan State. Compeau seems to have the Spartans’ number; he scored two goals in the Buckeye win over the Spartans in Columbus, including the game-winner.

“He can have anyone’s number,” says Richards. “He’s a good goal-scorer.”

Ask Compeau why he’s so successful against a team that stones so many other players, and he shakes his head. “I don’t know. We get pumped up to play Michigan State, one of the top teams in the country. We probably all grew up watching them.”

In overall play this season, the Block O is responsible for 43 of the Bucks’ 139 goals. Compeau has 13 of those, and he’s been playing with the line for just half the season. Richards alone has 50 points on the season.

Richards has a theory about the Block O’s success against the Spartans. “I just think we come prepared a little more than we would another team, because they’re the number-one team in the nation. You don’t like to think that or say that, but it is a fact.

“When you play a team like Michigan State, you come out with your best game. If you don’t, you know it’s going to be a long night.”

The Buckeyes brought one of their better games to The Joe last Saturday, and it was still a long night. The double-overtime title game was the longest in CCHA history, and a good part of the credit for the excitement of the game belonged to the Ohio State defense, which matched up toe-to-toe with the Spartans; only the game-winner was an even-strength Spartan goal.

Last weekend, Ohio State’s defense transcended itself, with especially excellent play from senior Ryan Root and rookie Andre Signoretti. In net, Jeff Maund was stunning. In his last seven games, Maund has posted a 1.35 GAA; he’s allowed more than three goals in a game just once in his last 14 starts. His 20 wins tied for third-highest single-season total in Ohio State history; two more wins would give Maund a share of first, with former NHL goalie Mike Blake.

Maund says that this Ohio State team has yet to peak, and that the emotional loss against the Spartans won’t be enough to derail the Buckeye train.

“The guys were a little heartbroken that we didn’t get that win, but that just serves as motivation for the following week. We know Yale is a good team, but we think that if we can play our game and everyone sticks to our systems, we think we can get by Yale.

“Then we can use the loss against Michigan State as a little revenge factor. We’ll have to play a little bit better to beat them. The loss is still fresh in everyone’s mind.”

For the most part, the Buckeye players are enjoying this Cinderella season. Anyone who ran into the players in Detroit can tell you how much fun the young team seems to have had, and the grins are hard to miss.

There’s an unmistakable gleam in sophomore Hugo Boisvert’s eyes when he talks about his team simply going to the NCAA tournament. “This is awesome. It’s great. It should be fun, just to play somebody that we don’t know. It’s interesting to see other league’s teams, to see how we match up against their teams.”

So, for all of you out there paying attention, the Buckeyes are having fun. Anything past the first round of the CCHA playoffs is just gravy for them, since no one expected anything from this talented team.

If the Buckeye season ends against Yale, these players will still have had the greatest season in Ohio State hockey.

But it won’t end against Yale. And it may not end against Michigan State.

Yale

The Yale Bulldogs, for the first time in 46 years, are in the NCAA tournament. The last time the Bulldogs were invited to appear, the tourney was a four-team affair, and Yale lost to Colorado College 4-3 in the semis, but rebounded with a 4-1 win over St. Lawrence in the consolation game.

This year, the Bulldogs are back, and with some bite as the regular-season ECAC champions moved on to Lake Placid and their first semifinal game since 1987. But after a three-game series win over St. Lawrence, the Bulldogs wound up losing two games in Lake Placid: first to Princeton in the semifinal, and then to Harvard in the consolation.

“I’m disappointed in the way we played up here in Lake Placid,” said Yale coach Tim Taylor, whose team became the first number-one seed to lose two games at Placid. “We did not deserve a better fate than we got. We’ve had a great year, but whatever happens, we’ve set our own table, and we’ve got a chance to redeem ourselves [this] weekend.

“But I’m proud of my kids. They didn’t quit, and they are fighting through a lot of injuries. We couldn’t get the job done,” added Taylor. “We have to put this behind us as soon as possible.”

That chance for redemption will come in the West Regional in the form of a matchup against Ohio State. After losing two tourney games, the Bulldogs lost any possible shot at staying in the East Regional, and were shipped out to play in Ann Arbor.

Worse yet, the ‘Dogs lost first-team all-ECAC forward Jeff Hamilton to a separated shoulder in the semifinal against Princeton.

“Jeff Hamilton is such an element in our offense,” lamented Taylor. “It’s a pretty common hockey injury, but it’s pretty poor timing.

Ray Giroux

Ray Giroux

“We’re devastated by the loss of Jeff Hamilton,” he added. “He’s our leading scorer, he’s a lot of the juice in our power play, and he’s a very important player. But we can’t dwell on that; we have to shore up to play.”

“Just look at the numbers,” said Yale’s captain, ECAC Player of the Year Ray Giroux. “He leads us in scoring, and he is going to be sorely missed.”

Hamilton had 27 goals and 20 assists on the season, but the sophomore — one of the most dynamic forwards in the ECAC — is out for the rest of the season, however long it may last.

All, however, is not lost. While Hamilton is a strong offensive cog, the Bulldogs have been relying on their defense all season. Giroux leads a packed defense which can and does stifle opposition chances, backed up by the ECAC Goaltender of the Year, Alex Westlund.

Westlund holds the nets, and his 20-7-3 record, 2.29 GAA and .918 save percentage are something to take notice of.

“He’s been strong all year and that’s how we’re going to win games,” said Taylor. “We don’t have many statistical leaders, and without Jeff Hamilton a huge chunk of our offense is gone — we have to win games on defense.”

Another key for the Bulldogs will be getting an early lead, and letting the defense take control of the game. More to the point, Yale then must hold that lead.

“One of the things that we struggled with all season long is that when we come out and crank it up to begin the game…the other team gets off the mat and they put us back on our heels,” said Taylor.

Win or lose, this has been one spectacular season for the Bulldogs, but you can be assured that it would be even greater if the Bulldogs head to Boston next weekend.

PICKS:

Paula C. Weston: Yale vs. Ohio State: There’s a reason that OSU is playing like one of the best teams in the country — they are one of the best teams in the country. And this is a team that positively feeds off of the lack of respect they’ve been shown this season. The less attention they get — and the more accolades their opponents receive — the better the Buckeyes play. Ohio State 4, Yale 1

Dave Hendrickson: OSU 5-1. Without Jeff Hamilton, it ain’t pretty.

Scott Brown: The loss of Hamilton, combined with Yale’s late-season swoon, makes this pretty one-sided. OSU 4, Yale 1

Jayson Moy: Without Hamilton, the Bulldogs have to find a way to score. With only two goals in the two games without Hamilton, the Bulldogs are going uphill. One and out for Yale. OSU 4-1

Scott Tappa: Buckeyes rebound from tough loss. Ohio State over Yale.

No. 3 Michigan (29-11-1) vs. No. 6 Princeton (18-10-7)
Friday, 8:30 p.m. ET, Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Mich.

This at-first-glance lopsided matchup may turn on Princeton’s ability to overcome the “happy to be here” mentality which afflicts so many Cinderellas, or on Michigan’s capacity to put behind it a CCHA semifinal loss to Ohio State last weekend.

On paper, there’s no doubt the Wolverines have the better team, and we won’t even go into the advantage Yost gives Michigan. Still …

Michigan

After losing to Ohio State 4-2 last Friday, the Wolverines need to do a little regrouping.

“Actually, I thought we played pretty well,” says Michigan head coach Red Berenson. “I’ve watched the game a few times, and I thought we dominated the first period.”

The shots on goal in the first period were even, but it was in the first that Todd Compeau deked Turco for the tying goal.

“In the second period,” says Berenson, “Turco made two great saves on two breakaways. That was kind of a fluky goal that Boisvert had. Boisvert came in on the changeup and he walked in on Turco.”

It’s true that OSU was in mid-line change when Boisvert scored with 10 seconds left in the period. But without that goal — fluky or not — the Bucks might have been sunk. Since 1995, Turco is 84-0-0 when he leads after two periods.

Not bad for a guy whose head didn’t seem to be in the game Friday.

“It came down to a game of mistakes,” says Berenson. “It wasn’t our younger players, it was a our experienced players who made the mistakes.”

And how. Two goals were Turco, one was Hayes.

“Are they [OSU] a better team than Michigan? Probably not,” says Berenson. “But are they a hotter team? Yes.”

There are two things the Wolverines have to do to succeed in this tournament: let go of the loss against Ohio State, and respect their opponents as they obviously did not do with OSU.

One.

“We’ve got to get our bounce back this weekend,” says Berenson. “The good thing is that we have another chance, that the game against Ohio State wasn’t our last game.”

So far, so good.

Two.

“Princeton is a good team, and they play a lot like a CCHA team,” says Berenson. “They’re feisty, they’re physical.”

Even better.

Michigan began the season slowly, then peaked and played like a team on fire, then dropped off a bit at the end. Berenson says it’s offense.

Bill Muckalt

Bill Muckalt

“I don’t like the fact that our last ten games were five and five. That should’ve happened in the first ten games.

“The big difference in our team has been our offense. In the last five games, we’ve scored 11 goals.”

Offensively, senior and Hobey Baker candidate Bill Muckalt leads the Wolverines with an impressive 64 points overall. Six other Wolverines — Hayes, Langfeld, Kosick, Herr, Rominski, and Crozier — have 20 or more points in overall play.

This is a team that should be scoring goals left and right, but that’s just not the case. One goal in each game of the late-season three-game losing streak. They scored five goals in each of the two games after that, but without the 4-1 win over Notre Dame, the Wolverines would be averaging fewer than two goals per game in their last five outings.

Usually, it’s enough to have Marty Turco in net, as it was in the 1-0 playoff win over Notre Dame. In 29 overall games, Turco’s GAA is 2.06, and his save percentage is .908.

Earlier in the season, after a rough weekend in Oxford, Oh., Michigan was able to bounce back and spank the Irish 7-2. Turco was a big factor in that game.

“He’s bounced back before,” says Berenson. “He’ll do it again. He has to. This is single-elimination hockey.”

The youngsters played well last weekend, as they have done all season. Mike Van Ryn is solid defensively, and Mark Kosick (11-29–40) and Josh Langfeld (18-16–34) are third and fourth, respectively, on the team in overall scoring.

And don’t forget the experience on this team. Marty Turco, Matt Herr, Bobby Hayes, Dale Rominski — and a host of other Wolverines — were national champions just two years ago.

“I think our team has done well this season,” says Berenson. “They’re have been some breakdowns, and they’ve cost us of late.”

What doesn’t cost them is the home crowd. There are few places in the college hockey world that can boast the rowdy support of the Yost crowd.

Michigan has a lot to prove against Princeton. And if they get by the Tigers, they’ll take it to the Sioux.

Princeton

On Saturday evening, two phrases were uttered for the very first time ever.

One: The Princeton Tigers are the ECAC champions.

Two: The Princeton Tigers are going to the NCAA tournament.

Both came after the Tigers scored 48 seconds into the second overtime to capture the ECAC tournament championship with a 5-4 win over Clarkson.

“I thought that the first few shifts of the game told the whole story, that we came ready to play,” said head coach Don “Toot” Cahoon. “There was very little coaching from our part, the motivation was from within, the determination was from within, and all concept of winning the championship was within the kids. They had a challenge and they knew it was a challenge.

“Everyone told them it was insurmountable, but they never believed it for a second, and they played like they never believed it or thought like that,” he added. “It was 20 guys digging in as deep as they possibly could to get it done. It was a great team effort.”

Few thought that the Tigers would be a factor; after all, they were the seventh seed in the ECAC tournament and had to travel to play Brown, one of the hottest teams in the ECAC, in the quarterfinals. Then they would play Cornell in the preliminary game on Thursday evening, and then face the number-one seed in regular-season champion Yale the next night.

The Tigers won 6-2 over Cornell, and then hung on to defeat Yale 2-1 to move into the championship.

It’s been a long road for Tiger hockey, and the renaissance started in the 1991 when Cahoon was hired to replace Jim Higgins. The Tigers had never won an ECAC playoff game and had only two winning seasons since 1956: 1967-68 with a 13-10-1 record, and 1959-60 with a 12-11-0 record.

Things started to turn around when Cahoon was hired. In his first season, the Tigers defeated Colgate in an ECAC preliminary game with a 5-4 double-overtime decision. The Tigers fell in the quarterfinal game, 6-3 to St. Lawrence, but a first had been achieved.

The next year, they defeated Vermont in the prelims before losing to Harvard in the quarterfinals. The year after, the Tigers lost to Cornell in the preliminary game. But the next year was a different story.

In Cahoon’s fourth season, the Tigers finished 18-13-4, their first winning record since the aforementioned 1967-68 season, came into the tournament as the sixth seed, and advanced to the championship before falling. History was being made.

The next year the Tigers went out in the preliminary Game, but last year the Tigers advanced to Lake Placid once again, and lost in the semifinals. Then came this year’s breakthrough.

“It’s what we’ve been working for,” said tournament MVP Jeff Halpern on this season’s title. “It started four years ago when we first got [to Lake Placid], and it shows that we’re headed in the right direction.”

“This solidifies the Princeton hockey program as a solid program at the Division I level,” added Cahoon.

The story this season for the Tigers has been the up and down year, racked with injuries, and weekends of splits, sweeps and one-pointers. But it all came together.

“We kept saying that if we could make an honest effort week in and week out, and if we knew that we could get everybody healthy, that we could be a real good team before this year was over,” said Cahoon. “People were writing us off when we were picking up one point per weekend and splitting, playing one good game and one game that we were struggling. If we could get get some of those bodies back we could make a pretty good playoff run.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I dream that we would play ourselves into such a low [ECAC] seed and have to come up with six great performances,” he added.

Now the Tigers, effectively the last team into the NCAAs, have to come up with four more great performances in order to win a tournament that they are in for the first time — ever.

Welcome to the ball, Cinderella.

PICKS:

Paula C. Weston: The Wolverines were so dispirited after their loss to Ohio State that the players didn’t even talk to the press (which, by the way, doesn’t sit well with us). Michigan will be playing angry, and they’ll be playing at home. God save the Tigers at the hands of an angry mob (bonus points to anyone who can email me the literary work to which that — in a convoluted way — alludes). Michigan 3, Princeton 1

Dave Hendrickson: Michigan 4-2. Midnight for Cinderella.

Scott Brown: Home ice, better talent, more to prove — Michigan 5, Princeton 2

Jayson Moy: Princeton is playing in the NCAAs for the first time. The downside? An opponent hosting the regional. It’ll be closer than a lot of people think, but Princeton will go down to the Wolverines, 4-3.

Scott Tappa: Yost crowd gives boost to lethargic Wolverines. Michigan over Princeton

No. 1 Michigan State (31-5-5) vs. Ohio State/Yale
Saturday, 6:00 p.m. ET, Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Michigan State reclaimed the top spot in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll this week after becoming the only regular-season champion to also take home the conference tourney hardware. With their CCHA finals win over Ohio State, the Spartans also earned the number-one seed in the West regional, but face the prospect of a tough return match with the Buckeyes if OSU gets by Yale Friday.

The Spartans and Buckeyes know one another well by now, and though MSU holds a 3-1-0 edge this season, it’s safe to say that most Spartan fans will be rooting for Yale in the first round.

Michigan State

Ron Mason also doesn’t think that the Buckeye season will end against the Bulldogs. He’s preparing for a rematch on Saturday night.

“I’m anticipating that. I’d be surprised if it isn’t. I think it’s a good match for both teams. In our case, we know what we can expect from Ohio State.”

While perhaps only the Spartans know what to expect from the Bucks, nearly everyone in the nation now knows what to expect from Michigan State.

Excellence. Period.

The Spartans have defeated every potential NCAA opponent they’ve faced this season, and lost to none save Ohio State.

The Spartans own a 10-1-0 record against the rest of the field in 1997-98. Michigan State is 4-0-0 against Michigan, 2-0-0 against Wisconsin, 1-0-0 against Boston University (although a win against both the Badgers and the Terriers came in exhibition play in the Team Cheerios Icebreaker Cup), and 3-1-0 against the Buckeyes. Alban was the goalie of record in each of those games.

Alban is, simply put, the best goaltender in college hockey this season. His GAA against teams in the NCAA tournament is 1.41; his save percentage against those teams is .941.

Those are impressive numbers against the top 12 teams in the country.

Alban has an 11-game winning streak and a 12-game unbeaten streak on the line in Michigan State’s second-round game. He’s allowed two or fewer goals in 32 of his 39 games this season, including the phenomenal performance against the Buckeyes last weekend at The Joe.

Senior Sean Berens says of Alban, “When you’ve got a goaltender like Chad Alban in the net, it makes your job that much easier. The way it works is we let Chad do his job, and we take care of our opportunities when we get the chance.

“We concentrate on defense first and let the offense take care of itself.”

And what a defense it is. Alban is an excellent defender as well as a goaltender, and he has a great core in front of him. Tyler Harlton, Mike Weaver, Brad Hodgins, Jeff Kozakowski, Chris Bogas…this defense is probably the best in the country.

This week’s Spartan press release says that it can be argued that Michigan State has the best defense among teams in all leagues in North America, because the Spartan GAA of 1.67 is better than that of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils (1.95) and Dallas Stars (2.02).

More to the point here, the Michigan State GAA is better than that of any other Division I team. The next closest D-I stat is Boston University’s 2.22.

This isn’t fiction, folks.

Often overlooked on this tough defensive squad are Hodgins and Kozakowski, good defensemen and the pointmen on the excellent Spartan power-play unit.

Hodgins had an outstanding weekend at The Joe, playing great defense against Northern Michigan, and picking up assists for each of Mike York’s power-play goals. With a goal and 17 assists in overall play, Hodgins is hard to miss.

Okay, okay, he’s at minus three. Nobody’s perfect.

As Berens said, when the defense is taken care of, the offense just seems to happen for the Spartans, and it seems to happen most with York’s and Berens’ involvement.

That one-two punch is responsible for 41.2 percent of the team’s goals, and 28.6 percent of its points. With 58 and 54 points, respectively, York and Berens increase the Spartans’ chances of scoring simply by being on the ice.

They’re also integral to the Michigan State power play. Berens and York are first and second in the nation, respectively, for power-play goal totals (Berens 14, York 13). Rookie Rustyn Dolyny has 10 power-play goals.

It was the power play, in fact, that won the title for the Spartans last weekend, with help from Hobey-Baker finalists Mike York and Chad Alban.

This is a team that has won every tournament it’s entered this season. Team Cheerios, the GLI, the CCHA — all of which came after a six-year drought in which the Spartans didn’t win a single tournament.

Do you think these guys are ready?

“We’ve been setting goals this whole season, and thus far we have done a good job of attaining them,” says Berens. “That’s the way this team goes about things — we take things one step at a time. I think we have a tough bracket, but hopefully we can attain our goals and make it to the Final Four.”

The players don’t care who they’re playing, even if Mason thinks it will be Ohio State. Says Harlton, “If it’s going to be Ohio State it will be a lot of the same as last [week]. That was a hard-fought game for 80 minutes. I haven’t seen Yale play yet this year, but a team has to be good to win the regular-season title. We know how tough that is.”

“Whoever we play is going to be a tough team,” says Berens. “We know Ohio State is very good, and I am sure that Yale is an outstanding team.

“When you get down to 12 teams in the nation, any team you play is going to be great competition.”

Says Alban, “Every team is good at this point and deserves to be here. It’s a one-game shot, so anything can happen. We know that we will have to play our best to win.”

Evidence of players well-coached both on and off the ice.

Michigan State will benefit from having a night off before playing the winner of Friday’s early game, but Mason says that fatigue probably won’t be a factor for Michigan State’s opponents. “At this point in the season, teams are pretty well-conditioned. Ohio State certainly is.

“The team that plays the Friday game usually comes out and plays pretty well early in the Saturday game because they’re used to it, and you have to be careful because you’ve been off.

“If we have our wits about us, it will be an advantage as the game goes along. These players are used to playing two games in a row, though, so it’s not as big an advantage as you might think.”

For the record, Michigan State is 1-1-0 in second-round games when it’s had the bye in the first game.

Whatever the outcome of Friday’s game, no matter who Michigan State faces, getting to Boston via the boys of East Lansing is the toughest road in the tournament.

PICKS:

Paula C. Weston: Neither the Buckeyes nor the Spartans played their best game at The Joe last weekend. Folks who haven’t seen much of these teams may be surprised to hear it, but neither has peaked yet. Ohio State may surprise a few more people come Saturday night. Yes, I’m picking against the odds, but I don’t care. If OSU stays out of the penalty box, the Spartans may have a tough time scoring on Maund, who played uber-hockey last weekend. It’s just a shame that both of these teams can’t go to Boston. The “loser” of this match — no matter which team — may be the only one who can eliminate the other from the tournament. Ohio State 3, Michigan State 2

Dave Hendrickson: OSU 3-2. It’s a CCHA championship-game replay, but this time the Yost crowd gets OSU over the hump against the Spartans. Rumors that this pick was made solely to tick off my editor, a Michigan State alum, may be true. Editor’s note: &$#*@$!! I’ll get that $*!#ing Hendrickson yet…

Scott Brown: Possibly the showcase game of the regional. MSU 3, OSU 2 (OT)

Jayson Moy: MSU will win the rematch with OSU, 3-1; if it’s Yale, MSU wins 6-1.

Scott Tappa: Three-overtime thriller even better than CCHA finale. Michigan State over Ohio State.

No. 2 North Dakota (30-7-1) vs. Michigan/Princeton
Saturday, 9:00 p.m. ET, Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Mich.

A loss in the WCHA championship game might just haven been the tonic needed to get the Sioux going. The 1997 NCAA champs put it in cruise control after securing their second straight WCHA regular-season title, going 4-3-0 and looking vulnerable against Mankato State, St. Cloud and finally Wisconsin in the postseason.

If that’s the case, feel for UND’s opponent, because no team in the country wants to face the defending champs when they’re angry.

North Dakota

Star forward Jason Blake has a reputation of being somewhat of an agitator. With foes and fans alike, Blake never shies away from brief exchanges of pleasantries.

Jason Blake

Jason Blake

“I love when that happens,” said Blake, who was UND’s best player during the Sioux’s second-place run in last weekend’s WCHA Final Five. “Things seem to go better for me and my linemates.”

So it should come as no surprise that at Milwaukee’s Bradley Center, where the second-ranked Sioux won the national title a year ago, Blake was the object of much derision from the ungracious hosts from the University of Wisconsin.

“They’re mean,” Blake said.

If Blake thought Milwaukee’s fans were ill-tempered, wait until he gets a whiff of the fans at Yost Arena. As the second seed in the West Regional, North Dakota will, barring a Princeton upset, meet Michigan for the right to advance to Boston.

Sioux coaches and players have been anticipating the likely matchup, and discussed the challenges of road play during the postseason.

“You just try to come out and get a quick goal, maybe quiet them up a bit,” said Hobey Baker finalist Curtis Murphy, the WCHA’s lone representative for college hockey’s most prestigious award. “But if they get going, it’s kind of like a sixth skater out there. For us it’s a little motivation to try to come in and win one in front of their fans.”

Yet, crowds will have little to do with North Dakota’s title defense if the team doesn’t get its house in order first. While its championship-game loss to Wisconsin and semifinal win over St. Cloud State were by no means lackluster, the Sioux failed to dominate clearly less-talented opponents.

In the St. Cloud game, North Dakota lacked killer instinct, allowing the Huskies to rally from a three-goal deficit to within one with 1:32 to play. Then, Wisconsin outshot North Dakota 36-31, holding the Sioux scoreless in the third period, ordinarily their most productive.

A major concern for North Dakota is the health of freshman phenom Karl Goehring. Goehring (23-3-1, .913 SV%, 2.27 GAA) reportedly hurt his groin in practice this week, and is questionable for this weekend.

However, North Dakota has the uncommon luxury of bringing in Aaron Schweitzer, who started last year’s championship game against BU. While Schweitzer has been less than spectacular this season (7-4-0, 4.23 GAA, .859 SV%), he has big-game experience under his belt.

Offensively, coach Dean Blais got production from all four lines last weekend, most prominently the Blake (24-26–50)-Lee Goren (3-12–15)-Brad DeFauw (9-11–20) third line, and the Wes Dorey (11-11–22)-Jesse Bull (12-16–28)-Peter Armbrust (4-5–9) line.

Perhaps troubling is that Blais’ Panzer Division (brothers Jay (18-21–39) and Jeff (14-23–37)), along with David Hoogsteen (19-22–41), which entered the Final Five on an absolute tear, was held to two assists, both accrued on a power play against St. Cloud.

Nevertheless, North Dakota was solid in its own end, as well as the neutral zone, a testament to the corps of blueliners led by Murphy and gritty captain Mitch Vig, as well as a responsible group of forwards.

“We at times take a lot of chances forechecking, because we have a lot of creative forwards,” Blais said. “We like to gamble at times.”

Gambling may land defenseman Tim O’Connell on the bench more often in the tournament. Against Wisconsin, O’Connell took the third-period penalty which led to Joe Bianchi’s game-winning power-play goal.

But don’t expect these Sioux to beat themselves. They’ve been there, done that, and are looking to do it again.

“Last year, we hadn’t been there before; it was a new experience for us,” Murphy said. “When we got there, the emotions were so high. This year, it’s the same thing, but we’ve been there, we know what it’s like.

“We’ve just got to get a win and get to Boston.”

“We’ll be ready,” said Blais.

PICKS:

Paula C. Weston: This may be the toughest game to call. NoDak may have an injured goalie; they are, however, the defending national champs, and a tough team to beat, and their “backup” won a national title last year. Michigan may have a faltering offense; they are, however, playing at home. I’m just going with the defenders here. North Dakota 3, Michigan 2

Dave Hendrickson: The Alan Alda Matchup — both teams are oh-so vulnerable. North Dakota picks the wrong place and time to try to squeak past another opponent. Michigan 5-4.

Scott Brown: The defending NCAA titlists show why. UND 4, Michigan 3

Jayson Moy: No matter who comes through, the Sioux will advance to Boston because they are consistent and deadly. UND 6-4 over Michigan, or 7-2 over Princeton.

Scott Tappa: Sioux goaltender lit up in testament to home-ice importance. Michigan over North Dakota.

New Publication Picks Women’s All-Americans

USCHO Staff Report
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The University Division and College Division women’s All-America teams, as published in the inaugural issue of Women’s Hockey News:

University Division

First Team                     Pos    Second Team
Brandy Fisher, New Hampshire    F     Ali Coughlin, Princeton
Sarah Hood, Dartmouth           F     Nadine Muzzerall, Minnesota
Meaghan Sittler, Colby          F     Hilary Witt, Northeastern
Courtney Kennedy, Colby         D     Brittny Ralph, Minnesota
Nicki Luongo, New Hampshire     D     Jaime Totten, Northeastern
Laurie Belliveau, Yale          G     Ali Brewer, Brown
 
Coach of the Year: Digit Murphy, Brown

College Division

First Team                     Pos    Second Team
Michelle Labbe, Middlebury      F     Cindy Acropolis, Rensselaer
Alison Lorenz, Maine            F     Jess Frisch, Amherst
Noelle Skalko, G. Adolphus      F     Sarah Hannah, Sacred Heart
Bridget LaNoir, Rensselaer      D     Sarah Carpenter, Middlebury
Catherine Pullins, Middlebury   D     Kristine Pierce, RIT
Emma DeSimone, Wesleyan         G     Melissa Norris, RIT
 
Co-Coaches of the Year: Scott Moe, Gustavus Adolphus,
and Donna Mattson Wright, Wesleyan

No Limits

By Rick Kampersal
-

Like any athlete worth his competitive salt, Harvard sophomore goalie Mike Ginal was excited when his coach told him to go into his first varsity game. With three talented netminders on the team, Ginal had found playing time somewhat sparse since arriving in Cambridge. So when he was summoned that night, his adrenaline took over.

As Ginal leaped off the bench and skated towards the Crimson net, though, there was a problem. He had forgotten his stick and mask.

“J.R. [Prestifilippo] grabbed me by the sweater and told me to slow down,” laughs Ginal. “I was really pumped up.”

And well he should have been. He was about to make history.

By manning the Crimson net for the final 3:10 of that Feb. 20 game against Colgate, Ginal (pronounced jin-NELL) became the first college hockey player to appear in a Division I game wearing a prosthesis — an artificial limb. And despite his harried entrance that night, he was a model of control once he got between the pipes.

Ginal has been in control for most of his 20 years. For the first four, though, his life was an intimidating swirl of operating rooms, doctors and rehab. Born with a rare condition that spawned bone tumors in his left leg, resulting in its amputation from below the knee down, Ginal had undergone a dozen surgeries by the time he was 3 1/2 years old.

When none of the procedures alleviated the pain, his parents began to think of amputation as the only solution. “It just got to a point where watching him suffer became unbearable,” says his mom, Heidi. “We kept hoping that he’d get better after each surgery, but nothing worked. We had to do something for him.”

Growing up in Depew, New York, a small town around 10 miles from Buffalo, it was natural for Ginal to root for the Sabres. “My favorites were Danny Gare and Bob Sauve,” says Ginal. “And right now, there’s nobody better than Dominik Hasek.” Depew’s close proximity to Buffalo also made it logical that the Ginals would seek medical advice there.

After examining Mike, the doctors in Buffalo recommended that his leg be amputated from the hip down. The tumors weren’t going away, they explained, and they wanted to avoid further spreading. Though Heidi and Ronald Ginal wanted to save Mike’s knee because it would allow for a more active lifestyle, they accepted the doctors’ prognosis and scheduled their three-year-old son for surgery. Then fate intervened. The day before his surgery, Mike’s grandmother came across a magazine story about a Philadelphia doctor who was conducting experimental orthopedic surgeries. The family called the doctor, explained Mike’s situation and headed to Philadelphia the next day with a glimmer of hope of saving his knee. Once there, however, the doctor couldn’t help. He did, however, refer the family to a friend who was coming in from England for a prolonged stay.

That friend, Dr. Hugh Watts — who would amputate the lower portion of Mike’s leg in the first surgery of its kind in the U.S. — would become an inspirational figure in Mike’s life.

The surgery went well, but when they took the cast off his leg, Mike was unprepared for what he saw — or didn’t see. “The doctors tried to explain to me what was going on before the surgery,” remembers Mike, “but I didn’t absorb it. When they took the cast off, I looked down and didn’t see a foot. I just started screaming.”

Heidi Ginal felt helpless. “We tried to explain what was going to happen, but he couldn’t comprehend the words,” she says. “When he started screaming, I began to wonder whether we had done the right thing.”

Eventually, Mike was fit for a prosthesis. He doesn’t recall much about the rehabilitation process, other than being spread out on a floor at Philadelphia’s Children’s Hospital with Dr. Watts, playing with all kinds of toys. “Once I got past the initial shock, I never looked back,” says Mike.

Less than a year after his surgery, Mike was learning how to skate and play hockey. The family had spent lots of time in ice rinks. Mike’s sister, Theresa, now 23, was a competitive figure skater and by sheer osmosis, Mike became infatuated with hockey.

The skates, the sticks, the ice. He couldn’t get enough. He loved it so much, in fact, that when a family friend offered to give Mike skating lessons each morning at 5 a.m., the boy didn’t hesitate.

Like a skier just getting started, Mike spent a fair amount of time sprawled on the ice during those crack-of-dawn sessions. But in time, he got the hang of it. “I couldn’t watch at first,” laughs Heidi, “because I thought he’d get hurt. I stayed away from the rink for about six months. When I went back, he had improved so much.”

When he was eight, Mike played for the Little Falls Roaring Lions. Back then, all the kids wanted to be goal-scorers and not goal-stoppers. “I remember the pale blue jerseys,” he says, “And that everyone alternated at playing goal. Nobody wanted to do it full-time.” At some point, though, Mike volunteered and registered a shutout. He was on his way.

While Mike progressed through Depew’s hockey hierarchy, his parents were content to simply watch him grow up. He did everything a normal little boy would do, even though his mom cringed a little when he took his first bike ride around the neighborhood. Technically, he was different than his friends. But aside from his shying away from wearing shorts or favoring higher socks, you would have had to look hard to notice.

“I never once thought of my leg as a restriction,” he says. “Sure, I was self-conscious. Every kid’s self-conscious about something. But I never used my leg as an excuse. Not once.”

On the contrary, he considered his leg a blessing. A second life. He had to learn how to do things differently and, more often than not, found himself working twice as hard — in the classroom and on the ice.

“I can remember thinking that a coach could easily pick a goalie with two legs to make the team instead of me,” he says. “It made me strive to be twice as good as the next guy.” That diligence would serve him well all the way to the distinguished hallways of Harvard.

After a starry career at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute in Buffalo — where he became the first freshman ever to make the varsity squad — Ginal was recruited heavily by a number of Division III schools. “I talked to a few Division I coaches,” he says, “but I didn’t detect much interest. I made the decision that I’d rather go to a great academic institution and have an outside shot at playing hockey than go to a Division III program just to play hockey.”

His application packet to Harvard landed in appropriate hands. In 1989, Chuckie Hughes was in net when the Crimson beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers, 4-3 in overtime in one of the most scintillating national championship games ever. Today, Hughes works double duty on the Harvard campus, reviewing applications by day and working with the Crimson goalies by night.

“I remember looking over his application,” says Hughes, “and as I kept reading, I could tell he was a really special individual. When I first met him, I certainly wasn’t disappointed. At first, he’s very polite and soft-spoken, but he can also be pretty gregarious. He’s got this great balance between humility and a rigid work ethic.”

Once he committed to Harvard, it was time to see what could be done about playing hockey. Through a mutual friend, Crimson coach Ronn Tomassoni heard about Mike and suggested that he try out for the junior varsity team. After playing a year for the JV team, Ginal was called up to the varsity in December 1996.

But he had some stiff competition in front of him. Fellow sophomore J.R. Prestifilippo was entrenched as the starting goalie, while German-born freshman Oliver Jonas occupied the number-two slot. After performing at such a high level in high school, Ginal found it frustrating to sit on the bench.

Then came that magical night last February. “You should have seen both the admiration and adulation on that bench when he went into the game,” says Hughes. “It was a testament to how hard he’s worked, but also showed how much of an inspiration he is to his teammates.”

Ginal, who hopes to follow in Dr. Watts’ footsteps by becoming a pediatric surgeon, is an inspiration off the ice as well. He enjoys talking to kids in similar situations, but in typical fashion, downplays his influence. So we’ll let his mom do the talking.

“There was a boy from Texas,” says Heidi, “who never thought he would be able to play hockey. He was despondent. But the family heard about Michael’s story, gained optimism, and finally got their son on skates. The mother wrote to us to express her gratitude.”

Though his stay in Boston so far hasn’t resulted in a change of allegiance from the Sabres to the Bruins, Ginal is trying to make a difference. He’s currently working on a project at Boston’s Children’s Hospital that would give him a chance to speak to kids that have been diagnosed with chronic diseases or ailments. He hopes to help them cope with their problems.

“One thing my parents drummed into me at an early age was that you can achieve anything you want,” he says. “Don’t let anyone stop you from achieving it.”

As he smiles, contemplating what he has just said, you can tell he’s thinking about what he has to do to start a game. But then he’ll want a shutout. And then …

Rick Kampersal is a freelance writer based in Boston.

Quinnipiac AD McDonald Named to Division I Committee

USCHO Staff Report
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Quinnipiac director of athletics and recreation Jack McDonald has been named by the NCAA Championship Cabinet to the Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee for a four-year term beginning Sept. 1, 1998. He replaces outgoing committee member Bob DeGregorio, the athletic director at Merrimack.

McDonald, who spearheaded the formation of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s ice hockey league, founded both the Denver and Quinnipiac Cup holiday tournaments, and was a member of the NCAA Western Region ranking committee from 1992-94. He has also guided Quinnipiac through its transition to Division I status.

“I am very excited to be named to this prestigious committee. The nomination is great for Quinnipiac College and the MAAC hockey league as we begin our first year of Division I competition,” said McDonald.

1997-98 WCHA Postseason Awards

USCHO Staff Report
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Rosters for the WCHA all-conference and all-rookie teams are as follows:

All-WCHA First Team

F Brian Swanson     Colorado College Jr
F Jason Blake       North Dakota     Jr
F Andre Savage      Michigan Tech    Sr
D Curtis Murphy     North Dakota     Sr
D Craig Anderson    Wisconsin        Jr
G Karl Goehring     North Dakota     Fr

All-WCHA Second Team

F Steve Reinprecht  Wisconsin        So
F Reggie Berg       Minnesota        Jr
F David Hoogsteen   North Dakota     Jr
D Andy Sutton       Michigan Tech    Sr
D Calvin Elfring    Colorado College Sr
G Brian Leitza      St. Cloud State  Sr

All-WCHA Third Team

F Wyatt Smith       Minnesota        Jr
F Mike Peluso       Minnesota-Duluth Sr
F Paul Comrie       Denver           Jr
D Scott Swanson     Colorado College Jr
D Josh DeWolf       St. Cloud State  So
G Doug Teskey       Alaska-Anchorage Jr

All-Rookie Team

F Jeff Panzer       North Dakota
F Mark Rycroft      Denver
F Kevin Granato     Wisconsin
D Paul Manning      Colorado College
D Ryan Coole        Minnesota-Duluth
D Trevor Hamner     North Dakota
G Karl Goehring     North Dakota

New Hampshire’s Fisher Wins Kazmaier Award

USCHO Staff Report
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New Hampshire forward Brandy Fisher has been named the recipient of the inaugural Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, given to women’s hockey’s top player.

Fisher, the 1997-98 ECAC Player of the Year, set ECAC single-season records for goals (41) and points (81) as New Hampshire claimed the first American Women’s College Hockey Alliance championship. She beat out fellow finalists Laurie Belliveau of Yale and Sarah Hood of Dartmouth for the honor.

Michigan State, Boston University Lead NCAA Field

USCHO Staff Report
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A balanced draw of six West and six East teams, led by top seeds Michigan State and Boston University, makes up the 1998 NCAA tournament field as announced today by the selection committee. For the first time ever, the field includes three teams from each of the four major Division I conferences.

MSU and BU, as well as the second seeds, defending champion North Dakota and Boston College, received first-round byes in the 12-team tourney. The remaining eight squads — #3 Michigan, #4 Ohio State, #5 Yale and #6 Princeton in the West, and #3 Clarkson, #4 Wisconsin, #5 New Hampshire and #6 Colorado College in the East — will battle it out in the first round for the right to advance.

The complete schedule:

East Regional — Pepsi Arena (Clarkson University), Albany, N.Y.

Saturday, March 28, Noon ET:
Clarkson (23-8-3) vs. Colorado College (25-12-3)
Saturday, March 28, 3 p.m. ET:
Wisconsin (26-13-1) vs. New Hampshire (23-11-1)
Sunday, March 29, 2 p.m. ET:
Winner of Ckn/CC vs. Boston College (25-8-5)
Sunday, March 29, 5:30 p.m. ET:
Winner of Wis/UNH vs. Boston University (28-7-2)

West Regional — Yost Arena (University of Michigan), Ann Arbor, Mich.

Friday, March 27, 5 p.m. ET:
Ohio State (24-12-2) vs. Yale (23-8-3)
Friday, March 27, 8:30 p.m. ET:
Michigan (28-11-1) vs. Princeton (18-10-7)
Saturday, March 28, 6 p.m. ET:
Winner of OSU/YU vs. Michigan State (31-5-4)
Saturday, March 28, 9 p.m. ET:
Winner of Mich/Prin vs. North Dakota (30-7-1)

National semifinals/finals: April 2 and 4, FleetCenter, Boston, Mass.

In addition to broadcast and cable coverage, for the first time all regional games will be shown live via pay-per-view. The national semifinals will be telecast by ESPN2, while ESPN will carry the championship game.

At the arenas, the hockey championship is coming off record attendance in 1997, with an average of 12,104 fans. This year’s event at the FleetCenter is sold out.

Yale is among the tournament field for only the second time, and the first since 1952. The 45-year hiatus breaks the previous record of 29 years between appearances, set by Dartmouth. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s record streak of 13 consecutive tournament appearances has ended, meaning Boston University’s current streak of nine takes over the top active position. Those two schools now share the lead for most NCAA berths at 24.

First-time bids to Ohio State and Princeton make them the 35th and 36th different schools to compete for the NCAA championship. The most recent tourney debut was by Miami in 1993.

Last year, North Dakota’s Dean Blais became the sixth coach to win an NCAA title in his first tournament coaching appearance, and the first since Minnesota’s Herb Brooks in 1974. This year, coaches making their first tournament appearances are Ohio State’s John Markell, Princeton’s Don Cahoon and Yale’s Tim Taylor.

Also, BC’s Jerry York, making his seventh coaching appearance, becomes the eighth coach to carry two different teams into the tournament. Jack Parker coaches Boston University into the tournament again, looking to add to his NCAA record of 23 victories, and Michigan State makes its fifth straight appearance as Spartan coach Ron Mason returns for an 18th time to lead all coaches. This is Mason’s 15th appearance with Michigan State.

Finalists Dominate All-Tourney Teams

USCHO Staff Report
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Players from finalist squads dominated the four all-tournament teams selected after yesterday’s championships, as 23 of the 25 all-tourney slots went to members of teams which played in the title games.

All four tournament Most Valuable Players came from championship teams. Hockey East honored Boston College’s Marty Reasoner, who totaled 2-3–5 in two games and assisted on both game-winning goals. In the WCHA, Wisconsin’s Joe Bianchi got the nod after scoring three goals, including both game-winners. Mike York of Michigan State, with two goals in the title game and five points overall, was the pick for the CCHA. And in the ECAC, which names its tourney MVP separately from the six all-tournament selections, Princeton’s Jeff Halpern scored four goals on the weekend to claim the award.

On the CCHA team, runner-up Ohio State actually outdistanced champion Michigan State, four selections to two. Meanwhile, the ECAC team consisted solely of Princeton and Clarkson players. The lone exceptions to the finalists-only rule were Darrel Scoville of Merrimack and Stewart Bodtker of Colorado College, both of whose teams lost semifinal contests.

Hockey East All-Tournament:      WCHA All-Tournament:
G Alfie Michaud, Maine           G Graham Melanson, Wis.
D Mike Mottau, BC                D Curtis Murphy, UND
D Darrel Scoville, Merrimack     D Matt Peterson, Wis.
F Marty Reasoner, BC (MVP)       F Jason Blake, UND
F Steve Kariya, Maine            F Joe Bianchi, Wis. (MVP)
F Jeff Farkas, BC                F Stewart Bodtker, CC
 
ECAC All-Tournament:             CCHA All-Tournament:
G Erasmo Saltarelli, Princeton   G Jeff Maund, OSU
D Steve Shirreffs, Princeton     D Tyler Harlton, MSU
D Willie Mitchell, Clarkson      D Ryan Root, OSU
F Matt Reid, Clarkson            F Todd Compeau, OSU
F Syl Apps, Princeton            F Mike York, MSU (MVP)
F Casson Masters, Princeton      F Chris Richards, OSU
MVP: Jeff Halpern, Princeton

Middlebury Takes Record Fourth Straight Division III Title

USCHO Staff Report
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Middlebury claimed its fourth consecutive NCAA Division III championship Saturday, beating Wisconsin-Stevens Point 2-1. The four straight titles are an NCAA record for any level of hockey.

logos/midd.gif

Filip Jirousek scored in the first period, and Nickolai Bobrov on the power play in the second to give Middlebury a 2-0 lead, before UWSP’s David Boehm narrowed the gap to one with a late second-period tally.

Stevens Point could muster no more offense, however, as Franc Bourbeau made 21 saves in the Middlebury net. UWSP netminder Bobby Gorman had 43 stops in the losing effort.

In the third-place game, host Plattsburgh State downed Augsburg, 9-5.

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