Three Tigers In Orange

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February 1, 1998

One of the hallmarks of success for any forward line is the moment it acquires a nickname. Princeton University has had a few such units, including the trio dubbed the “Suburban Snipers” (Boston-area products John Messuri, Greg Polaski and Bart Blaeser, from 1985-1988) and the “Money Line” (Terry Morris, Brian Bigelow and Matt Zilinskas, who wore green jerseys in practice and scored timely goals from 1989-1991).

Finishing dead last in nominal creativity, but taking a back seat to no other recent Princeton unit in terms of skill or success, is the Tigers’ current triumvirate of center Jeff Halpern, left wing Scott Bertoli and right wing Casson Masters — otherwise known as the “Orange Line.”

Eighteen games into the season, the three players who wear orange practice jerseys have accounted for 30 goals, almost 45 percent of the Tigers’ total, and twenty of those goals have come in the last 10 games.

The Orange Line is also the driving force behind Princeton’s rejuvenated power play, which is firing at just under a 20-percent success rate. But most importantly, the unit has continued to lift Princeton to new heights as a program. The club is 10-5-4 coming off last season’s school record-tying 18 wins and a second appearance in the ECAC semifinals.

“The continuity to [the Orange Line’s] playmaking is unlike what we see from other teams in the league,” said Princeton head coach Don Cahoon. “They read off each other so well and constantly make themselves available for a play.”

This is a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Not that the parts are too shabby — Halpern is a bona fide All-America candidate, Masters is one of the fastest players in college hockey and Bertoli is among the top power forwards in the conference.

“They are a skilled group and all outstanding players,” said Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet, who watched the Orange Line put up six goals against his Big Green on Jan. 9 in Hanover. “A one-on-two can become a scoring chance with any of those guys, which is a nice thing to have when your team isn’t completely on its game.”

To delineate between the three players, however, is to ignore their similarities. They can all skate and handle the puck well. All three are diligent defensive players. The three forwards also display a symbiotic relationship that often leaves the observer wondering, “How did he know the other guy was there?” Often, the no-look pass is completed as players cycle out of the corner in the offensive zone.

“We cycled well right away,” said Bertoli, who recalls that the unit first came together late in his freshman season. “We seem to do a good job finding where to go on the ice, and someone is always behind the net, waiting as a release. As a team, we work a lot on cycling in practice. For some reason, the three of us just clicked.”

The versatility of the three forwards makes it tough to keep the Orange Line in check. Force them to dump it in, and the three are happy to chase the puck down and start cycling. Mark them tightly to take away time and space and you are going to find yourself running into screen after screen as they move to open ice.

One might think that a line that thinks so well together is comprised of players from similar backgrounds or training. Not the case with this group. Bertoli is a native of Milton, Ont., part of Toronto’s network of sprawling suburbs. Masters is a farm boy from tiny Leduc, Alb.

Halpern is the most removed from the hockey mainstream. He is one of the dedicated few from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., who tenaciously pursued competitive hockey opportunities until he was given the chance to play at the collegiate level.

“I played for the Washington Little Capitals during the winter and the [Hartford] Junior Whalers in the summer as a kid. My dad would drive me up to Hartford for the weekend practices and we would stay with relatives for the tournaments,” said Halpern, who matriculated to St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H., as a sophomore.

“At the end of prep school, there weren’t any Division I teams interested in me,” said Halpern, who was just 5-5 and 140 pounds at the time. “I was faced with choosing between Division III or going to a Division I school that didn’t really want me.

Then I met a coach at the Hockey Night in Boston summer tournament who asked me to play junior hockey at Stratford (Ont.).”

The forward’s rapid improvement and physical maturation soon attracted offers from Harvard, Rensselaer and other schools. Halpern has continued to progress and is now the most likely of the trio to earn postseason honors this season (Bertoli was Second Team All-Ivy as a sophomore and Halpern earned honorable mention).

The Potomac, Md., native has an 11-game point streak going, with 10 goals and 11 assists over that span. He has led the ECAC in overall scoring for most of the year and is ninth in the nation in points per game (15-15-30 in 19 games).

Moreover, he has been used as a defenseman in special teams situations, four-on-fours and the occasional five-on-five shift.

“Coach actually thought about moving me to defense permanently last year, but, fortunately, he changed his mind,” said Halpern. “I played back there fooling around as a kid every once in awhile, but I would much rather play forward.”

Halpern’s ability to go end-to-end and his passing skills from the blue line have helped offset the absence of Dominique Auger, the ECAC All-Rookie team member of a year ago who departed for the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

In addition, Halpern’s once-questionable shot has improved dramatically, enough that he now possesses an accurate wrist shot and an above-average one-time slapshot. Halpern credits his youth league coaches for instilling him with the drive to improve and excel.

“I always had to work real hard to find good competition and learned to take advantage of the opportunities that I had; plus, I’ve always had real intense coaches. The guys think that (Cahoon) is intense, but my squirt and bantam coaches were 10 times more so.”

“Jeff is a little more intense than me and Casson,” admitted Bertoli. “We have both used some of that to increase our own intensity.”

Bertoli may be more laid-back off the ice, but his competitive streak reveals itself once the game begins. The 5-10, 200-pound forward made his mark as a body-checker in his freshman season before moving to the Orange Line. The Tigers, a bit undersized up front in recent years, have relied on timely collisions from Bertoli to keep other teams from taking undue advantage.

“I don’t have to go look for the big hit so much anymore,” Bertoli said. “Trying to do that every shift takes a lot out of you. Still, I would like to bring back some of the physical element that I relied on as a freshman.”

The pressure on the Orange Line to produce offensively has been, at times, enormous. Sophomore Benoit Morin, who joins the trio on the power play, has been an effective scorer, but some of the other players looked to for goals have struggled. Seniors Joey Pelle and Matt Brush have proven that they can score in the past, and several young players, including freshman Chris Corrinet and Shane Campbell, are expected to be productive in the future.

“I think [the line of junior] Jason Given and [seniors] Brush and Robbie Sinclair can help our offense,” Bertoli said. “They have a lot of experience and they have some similarities to us. Given is probably faster than Casson, Sinclair can get around and he plays the body well. Brush is good around the net. They create a lot of chances; sooner or later, they will start to score goals regularly.”

One consequence of the Tigers’ dependence on the Orange Line is that Princeton has struggled to maintain consistency. The other players occasionally seem to sit back and wait for Halpern et al. to weave their magic, rather than stepping up and asserting themselves.

“We have come out flat in a lot of games,” acknowledges Bertoli. “We went into Cornell and Colgate with a chance to be in first place and got swept, had a big game at home against Yale and came out flat. Vermont was a huge game and we just couldn’t get going. It is just a lack of concentration, not realizing what is at stake.”

As the elder statesman on the line, Masters is well aware of the importance of every game. He was an impact player as a freshman, leading his classmates in points with 24, and earning recognition as one of the ECAC’s top rookies. Three years later, he knows that time is running out on a memorable part of his life.

“As a senior, you start to play every game as if it is your last,” Masters said. “The team we have this year is probably the most skilled that I have played on here. This could be the year for us, and I just want to make it the best that I can.”

Masters, like Bertoli, laments the Tigers’ lack of consistency this season.

“Guys have not been giving it the same effort every night. When everyone isn’t there, it makes it tough to win in this league,” he said. “If we all have the mindset that we are ready to play, I think we can beat any team in the country.”

The Tigers proved their mettle with wins over Boston University at home and a shutout win over Merrimack on the road, in addition to hard-earned points against Rensselaer, Harvard and St. Lawrence. A good second semester could put them in the ECAC’s top four, a position that would match the expectations of the league coaches’ preseason poll.

Aside from how far the Orange Line will lead Princeton this season, the biggest question facing the trio is who will fill Masters’ spot on the wing next year. Bertoli feels that it should be someone who can do the things that Casson does best; specifically, pressuring opposing defensemen with his speed.

That theory would give Given or Doyle first crack. Or Cahoon could look for adding some size to the mix, say 6-4, 225-pound freshman Corrinet. But regardless of who gets the plum spot on the Orange Line next year, Halpern and Bertoli’s success is likely to continue.

Let’s just hope that someone can give them a better name.

The End of An Era

By Paula C. Weston

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January 31, 1998

If you ask CCHA Commissioner Bill Beagan what he plans to do once he retires at the end of this season, you may get a straight answer.

And you may not.

“I’m going to lie down a lot,” he says.

No one who knows the CCHA’s top man of 13 years believes for a second that Beagan could lie down, even if he wanted to. The former NHL referee and ten-year commissioner of the IHL has enthusiasm and energy matched only by his wit, his passion for the game and his dedication to college hockey.

Beagan, a native of Parry Sound, Ont., is fervent in his belief that college hockey provides the ideal proving ground for young NHL prospects to mature as players and people.

“I think I’m most proud — I’ve never said this before — of maintaining the status quo of NCAA Division I college hockey vis-a-vis the NHL.

“I just think that the NHL would dearly love us to change our rules with respect to allowing Major A players to come down here to play with impunity. I think that’s wrong, and I think that we’ve proven that we’re developing more players for the National Hockey League through the college systems.

Even in the thirteen years now that I’ve been here, the number of American kids that are developing through the USA programs is just absolutely incredible.”

Beagan says that the college route offers players stability that the major juniors don’t. “Coaches don’t trade NHL-caliber players; they don’t take away their scholarships and send them to other schools. They’re patient with them, they’ll groom them, and when those players are seniors, they’ll have a much better chance of making it in the NHL than they would have had without that developmental period playing college hockey.”

Beagan points to one of the CCHA’s most recent success stories for proof. “Take Mike Johnson, who played at Bowling Green. He’s the number-one right winger playing in Toronto right now. If Mike Johnson had gone the Major A route, you’d have never heard of him.”

Character building is important to Beagan, a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces and the U.S. Air Force. While the commissioner preaches the benefits of college play for pro prospects, he believes just as firmly in the advantages college offers for a young player’s personal growth.

“Playing here gives the kids a chance to grow into manhood. They’re not going to be traded, they’re not going to be loaned, they’re not going to be moved from school. And to me, this is just the ideal situation for a young man who is capable of pursuing his athletic endeavors to hone his skills in a socially acceptable environment.

“In terms of character….I don’t know if they’re better people for going to college. But they know how to assess the world with their character in a more knowledgeable way. They’ve grown socially, they’ve grown in terms of maturity, they’ve traveled, they’ve been philosophically associated with academia, and I just think it’s a wonderful growing experience for a kid.”

Beagan barely pauses to take a breath as he speaks, so caught up is he in making sure his audience understands the importance of the dual nature of college hockey. “I’ve been basically the heavy, if you like, in terms of being the guardian over maintaining the status quo of college hockey.” There is no hesitation, no hint of apology in his voice.

In addition to maintaining that status quo, Beagan has worked hard to bring recognition to the CCHA and college hockey in general. It was Beagan who first paired college hockey and cable television, in the form of the CCHA’s mid-1980s deal with PASS.

Four seasons ago, the PASS package became the Prime national game of the week, and this season, Beagan was the force behind the CCHA’s 20-game agreement with FOX Sports Net.

Between periods of a televised Ohio State-Michigan hockey game, Beagan comments on the impact television has on college hockey. “This game is televised, and we’re going into 55 million homes. This game is being seen now, as we speak, in Minnesota, it’s being seen down in the East on SportsChannel New England, and the manifestation of that exposure on television is that it has brought the CCHA into the living room of just about every kid who’s interested in hockey in North America–via satellite dishes.

“And the kids look at this, and they listen to the band and the chemistry in these buildings, and it adds up to drawing a lot of outstanding players to our league. It doesn’t surprise me that we have three teams in the top ten.

“Kids take the position that if it’s on television, it must be good. I’m going out to Los Angeles in February to hopefully get a two-year extension to this agreement [with FOX television]. I’d like to leave with a good, firm television package for the CCHA.”

Beagan has seen his conference produce five national championship teams during his tenure. He’s been behind the return of Notre Dame and Northern Michigan to the CCHA fold. His philosophy of inclusion helped Alaska-Fairbanks join the league, and he’s proud of the diversity of the conference, which includes schools from the Big Ten, the Great Lakes Athletic Conference and the Mid-American Conference.

He’s also happy with what he’s seen existing CCHA schools do during his 13 years. “Lake State has refurbished their building. Western Michigan has refurbished their building. Bowling Green has refurbished their building. Alaska has a new building…it’s all positives. Everything about the CCHA and college hockey, to me, is very, very positive.”

Leaving all the positives also means leaving some works in progress. He admits, “I’m really sad that I won’t be commissioner when Ohio State moves into their brand-new building.”

As bittersweet as the parting is, the commissioner says that his leaving is the next logical step for both himself and the CCHA.

“I planned it three years ago. I said I’d like to work until I’m 60, and they said, ‘That’s three years from now.’ So they gave me a three-year contract. As I said then, it was the right decision, and it’s the right decision now.

“There’s a time for everything. There’s a time to get off the ice, there’s a time to leave home, there’s a time to leave school, and I just think that it’s the right time for me, personally.”

So, is Beagan really going to spend the next few years lounging around? Don’t bet on it.

“My wife and I are going to go to Australia in the winter of 1999 — we’re going to go for a couple of months. I’m getting into genealogy. I want to find my Irish roots, go back and spend some time in southern Ireland and see if I can find some of the more sane Beagans.”

And this is how Bill Beagan says he’d like to be remembered: “No pun intended, I’d like to be seen as a beacon, a bright light that exposed college hockey for what it was, and that is as a great environment and climate for young men to grow, and with the opportunity now to make it to the National Hockey League.”

Some lights never fade.

This Week in the CCHA: January 30, 1998

By Paula C. Weston

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January 30, 1998

Ha.

This week, No. 1 Michigan State hosts two games against No. 5 Miami. With the two points gained from their 4-3 win over Lake Superior, the Spartans now have 28 points, just one behind No. 7 Michigan and two ahead of No. 5 Miami in the CCHA standings. The Spartans also have a game in hand on both teams, making these two games especially interesting.

The RedHawks are red-hot after their two home wins over Michigan, winning 3-1 Friday, and 4-3 Saturday.

Still at the top of the CCHA standings, Michigan has a home-home series against Notre Dame this weekend, traveling to South Bend Friday night. The Wolverines will be looking to do some damage after their back-to-back losses.

Notre Dame needs points to climb the standings. Last weekend the Fighting Irish beat Bowling Green 5-4 in overtime, and dropped a game to Ohio State, 5-3. With 19 points, Notre Dame is seventh in the CCHA standings.

Fourth-place Northern Michigan is just one point behind Miami after beating Bowling Green 8-2, and losing to Ohio State, 2-0. Northern and Ferris State duke it out in Big Rapids this weekend.

With 17 points, Ferris State is holding on to eighth place in the CCHA. The Bulldogs won two games at home against ECAC teams last weekend, beating Rensselaer 3-2 and Cornell 5-3.

Ohio State is surprising everyone by continuing to climb the CCHA rankings. With 22 points, the Buckeyes are in sole possession of fifth place, three points behind Northern Michigan and two ahead of Lake Superior. After shutting out Northern Michigan 2-0 and beating Notre Dame 5-3, Ohio State travels to Western Michigan for two this weekend.

The Broncos, hosting OSU, try to play the spoiler. Last weekend, Western Michigan lost to Cornell 2-0 and Rensselaer 2-1. With nine CCHA points, Western remains in tenth place.

Sixth-place Lake Superior heads to Bowling Green for two this weekend, after losing a close one to No. 1 Michigan State, 4-3. These are points the Lakers need to stay in the hunt for fourth place.

With just six CCHA point, Bowling Green remains mired at the bottom of the league. The Falcons took an 8-2 beating at the hands of the Wildcats last week, while losing 6-5 to Notre Dame in overtime. Like the Broncos, the Falcons will try to spoil someone else’s fun.

Ninth-place Alaska-Fairbanks plays Mt. Royal this week.

This is the first weekend of the CCHA season when every team squares off for two consecutive games against the same team. Finally.

Last week’s record in picks: 9-2 Overall record in picks: 84-60

Don’t try this at home.

No. 5 Miami (17-5-2, 12-5-2 CCHA) at No. 1 Michigan State (21-3-3, 13-3-2 CCHA) Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., Munn Ice Arena, East Lansing, MI

Q: What do you do if you’re a nationally-ranked team and you’ve only earned three points in four games?

A: You beat a higher-ranked team — not once, but twice — a team that few people thought you could even take two points from, let alone four in one weekend. And you don’t let it go to your head.

After the RedHawks snapped out of a lull by beating Michigan at home, 3-1 and 4-3, head coach Mark Mazzoleni says his team is taking it in stride.

"It was a positive experience, but if you are going to be a serious challenger in the league, you have to win those games."

Since critics all over the CCHA have doubted Miami’s ability to play with the alleged big boys, one successful weekend in which the RedHawks handed the Wolverines their first back-to-back losses since November 1995 will probably not be enough to turn the tide of public opinion.

"These games just have huge ramifications," says Mazzoleni. For both teams.

With a 4-3 win over Lake Superior last weekend, the Spartans managed to hang on to second place in the CCHA. But head coach Ron Mason is well aware that that could change this weekend.

"It’s a great test for us because it’s two games. With four points at stake, there’s the possibility of movement in the standings."

No kidding. The Spartans, with a game in hand on the RedHawks, have just two more points than do the ‘Hawks.

Each team brings to the rink a variety of tools with which it can win either game — or both.

The Goalies

Miami’s Trevor Prior stopped 67 of 71 Wolverine shots on goal last weekend, and seventeen of those stopped shots were taken by Bill Muckalt. It’s no surprise that Prior earned CCHA Defensive Player of the Week honors for his efforts.

But Prior’s success in net isn’t limited to last weekend. The senior goaltender’s league save percentage is an astounding 91 percent. Prior and Ian Olsen have been solid for the RedHawks all season long, combining for a team save percentage that is just shy of .900.

Chad Alban is, hands-down, the best all-around goaltender in the CCHA, perhaps in all of college hockey. The Michigan State senior has nearly 1,000 minutes between the pipes in league play, during which he’s managed to save over 90 percent of the shots he faces, while limiting opponents to an average of 1.83 goals per game.

Alban is an added advantage for the Spartans, just for the way in which he plays the puck. As a last line of defense, there are simply none better.

The Playmakers

Miami has the deepest offense in the CCHA. Period.

Adam Copeland leads the team in league scoring (12-10), and his 22 points tie him for seventh in CCHA points with Ohio State’s Chris Richards. Remarkably, the RedHawks have three other players in the top ten in CCHA points — Tim Leahy (4-17–21), Dan Boyle (10-10–20) and the young sophomore Dustin Whitecotton (3-17–20).

Boyle is having yet another superb season, and can easily be called the best offensive defenseman in the league. But something interesting has happened to Boyle recently; with the injury to fellow blueliner Todd Rohloff, Boyle has been forced to play more — dare we say it? — defense. This makes Boyle doubly dangerous. Not only can he score, but his recently-honed defensive skills help him to help his teammates make plays up front.

In addition to those four, Miami has the currently-absent-but-could-play-any-time Alex Kim (and, no, I truly do not know why he’s out — and Mazzoleni is not saying), and Marc Tropper, who knows how to feed a puck.

While all this talk of offensive prowess may get Miami fans pumped up, let’s not overlook the considerable talents of the Spartans, who seem to be flexing their collective offensive muscle at just the right time of the season.

Mike York has 13 goals and 12 assists. Sean Berens has 15 goals and six assists. Since returning from the World Juniors, York has eight goals and three assists. In this calendar year, York has one hat trick, and Berens has two. Two weeks ago the Spartans scored 13 goals in one weekend.

In addition to York and Berens, Bryan Adams is healthy, proving it by scoring the game-winning goal in Michigan State’s come-from-behind win over Lake Superior.

Miami may be deeper, but the Spartans are on fire.

The Defense

Without Todd Rohloff, Miami is simply not as effective defensively as they are with him, Boyle’s improved play notwithstanding.

The Spartans have the toughest defense in the CCHA, led by Tyler Harlton. Do not be deceived by Harlton’s off-ice demeanor; though he is one of five finalists for the Humanitarian Award given to "college hockey’s finest citizen," on the ice, he’s all business.

How to call these games? Is the moon full? Are the planets aligned? Can you stand an egg on its end? Are your crystals polished?

Mazzoleni says, "We have tremendous respect for their program. Their game is predicated on you making mistakes. We have to go in and play very smart and mistake-free games."

Mason says, "The beautiful thing is that they’ve come off such a successful weekend. I don’t think our players would have underestimated them even before the Michigan games."

PICKS: Miami 3-1, Michigan State 3-2

Northern Michigan (13-9-4, 11-7-3 CCHA) at Ferris State (10-12-3, 7-8-3 CCHA) Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., Ewigleben Arena, Big Rapids, MI

While Miami and Michigan State duke it out for the top spot in the CCHA, Northern Michigan and Ferris State fight the battle for fourth place and home-ice playoff advantage.

Last weekend, the Wildcats handed Bowling Green an 8-2 loss, then went on to be shut out 2-0 by Ohio State the following night. Wildcat head coach Rick Comley was unhappy with the scheduling that let an OSU team sit on a Friday, while Northern Michigan contributed to the Falcons’ general unhappiness.

This week, Northern will have an opponent that not only matches its own schedule, but one that matches up with the Wildcats in several significant ways.

While nearly everyone has better special teams than does Northern Michigan, a quick look at other significant stats shows why these games are going to be as exciting as the games in East Lansing.

The weakest link for each team is goaltending. For Northern Michigan, Duane Hoey is the goaltender of choice. Hoey improved his league save percentage to .874 last weekend. Comley has commented that Hoey lets in soft goals, but you couldn’t say that while watching his performance in the 2-0 loss to Ohio State. Hoey’s GAA is 2.93.

Vince Owen is the usual starter for Ferris State (yes, Ferris State, despite what you may have read in this column last week). His league save percentage .873, and his GAA is 3.43.

He’s had a week off, as goaltenders Jeff Blashill and Mike Szkodzinski each picked up a win for Ferris State last weekend.

Each team plays a very defensive game. "We’ve built our game around defense," says Ferris State assistant coach Drew Famulak, "and we take offensive chances as we can."

Those offensive chances are generated by any number of players, from Joel Irwin, who leads the team in league points (8-11–19), to Jim Dube, whose ability to feed the puck has given him two goals and eight assists in CCHA play. Not to be ignored are Rookie of the Year candidate Kevin Swider (7-9–16) and Brent Wishart (7-7–14), who has stepped up his play in recent games.

While eight Bulldogs have points totaling ten or more, no single Ferris State player has ten league goals. The Bulldogs like to spread around not only the scoring, but also the blame: the team has a rating of minus 11 in league play.

Across the ice, Northern Michigan’s first line of Roger Trudeau (10-7–17), J.P. Vigier (6-8–14) and Buddy Smith (2-11–13) is as good as any in the league and better than some. Smith is an amazing player — a finesse player who is still not afraid to dig into the corners. He was back in action against Bowling Green and Ohio State after missing time because of a groin injury, and looked like he didn’t miss a beat.

Like the Bulldogs, the Wildcats like to spread the scoring around. Only Trudeau has ten league goals, but a whole bunch of other ‘Cats can, and do, score. Unlike the Bulldogs, not one single Wildcat is in the minus in league play, and the teams has a collective plus/minus rating of plus 104 in conference games.

It also bears mentioning that the Wildcats are the least penalized team in the CCHA. Opponents don’t commit many penalties against them, either.

But don’t think that these Northern Michigan players are, well, gentlemanly on the ice. This is a rockin’, stompin’, clean-but-tough team, one that finishes checks like nobody’s business.

"When we played them in November, it was a very physical game," says Famulak. That 5-2 decision went to the Bulldogs, in Marquette.

If these games were played in Marquette, at this point in the season, Northern would have an edge. But the games are in Big Rapids, and Famulak says, "It’s going to be high emotion.

"Our crowd is very good, and we had a good rivalry with them when they were in the CCHA before." The schools are big rivals in all other sports in the Great Lakes Athletic Conference.

Both teams need the points. Without these points, Northern may tumble out of that crucial fourth-place spot.

PICKS: Ferris State 3-2, Northern Michigan 3-2

Ohio State (14-10-1, 11-9-0 CCHA) at Western Michigan (5-20-2, 4-14-1 CCHA) Friday, 7:08 p.m., and Saturday, 7 p.m., Lawson Arena, Kalamazoo, MI

In the world of weather, when heat and cold collide, the front can be so powerful that actual violence can occur.

Ohio State has won five in a row. Western Michigan has dropped 16 straight. In terms of hot and cold, this weekend series has all the makings of a real storm.

John Markell, Ohio State head coach and master of understatement says, "I think it’s going to be a heck of a series.

"Why should we be overconfident with Western? They came in here and beat us in our own building."

In early November, the Broncos beat the Buckeyes 3-1 in Ohio State’s little Ice Rink. That was 18 games and 16 losses ago. The law of averages — or at least the superstition of hockey players — says that every streak must come to an end.

"It scares the wits out of you that at some point that does turn," Markell says about Western’s string of luck, which now ties the longest streak for losses in CCHA history. "Look how it did for Bowling Green with Michigan State.

"It’s gone so far for them that it makes us very tense. We could play well and end up with no points. Unfortunately, in the CCHA, there’s no given games."

Bill Wilkinson says that his team is playing well, in spite of the record. The Bronco head coach said he saw tape of Western’s two losses this past weekend, and saw "a lot of positives."

"We played well both nights. But we were zero-for-nine on the power play Friday, and oh-for-four Saturday. Even though we only gave up one out of eight, special teams is where your bread and butter is.

"It’s very frustrating for the kids. They’re playing and working very hard."

One of the positives that Wilkinson points to is the play of backup goaltender Chris Peck, whose save percentage on the weekend was above .900.

But Western Michigan wasn’t the only team whose backup saw time and played well. For Ohio State, Ray Aho gave Rookie of the Year candidate Jeff Maund a breather, and earned his first Division I shutout against Northern Michigan, as well as a 5-3 win over Notre Dame.

Wilkinson’s less worried about Ohio State’s goaltending than he is about the team’s speed. "Ohio State’s a good team, and they play pretty well on the bigger ice surface. They have a couple of kids who like to open it up."

Markell puts it more succinctly: "It’s going to come down to goal-scoring."

That’s been the key difference for both teams this season. Western Michigan has a hard time finding the net. Ohio State has a new-found ability to score goals.

Frank Novock still leads the Broncos with 10 goals and 7 assists in league play. Right behind him is Steve Duke, a playmaker with one goal and 23 assists. Joe Corvo and Brett Mills each have ten points for the Broncos.

Ohio State is a different offensive story altogether. With three players among the top ten CCHA scorers, the Buckeyes have, to paraphrase Jimmy Stewart in Philadelphia Story, unsuspected depth.

With 30 points, Hugo Boisvert (12-18) is tied for first in CCHA play with Lake’s Terry Marchant (13-17). With 14 goals and nine assists, Boisvert’s linemate Eric Meloche is sixth in CCHA scoring; he’s also this week’s CCHA Offensive Player of the Week for his two game-winning goals, one shorthanded. Chris Richards, the junior forward who anchors OSU’s second line, has seven goals and 15 assists and is tied for seventh in points with Miami’s Adam Copeland (12-10).

Take out all the other variables, and on offense alone the Buckeyes have the Broncos beat.

But there are those other variables. "Their power play’s not real hot, so maybe that’s a tradeoff," says Wilkinson.

As special teams go, the Broncos and the Buckeyes are fairly evenly matched. For all their offensive power, the Buckeyes don’t score much on the power play. Right now Ohio State is tenth in the league power play, converting on just 13.8 percent of chances. The Broncos are eighth at 15.5 percent.

Ohio State is fifth in league penalty killing, while Western Michigan is seventh.

The Buckeyes have an edge in net, no matter who plays. Sidelined with a sprained right knee, Maund watched Ray Aho shine last weekend, proving that his seven-game streak without a loss last season was no fluke. CCHA teams should be on the alert: Ohio State has two of the best young goaltenders in the league.

Defensively, maybe Western Michigan — with its once-fabled corps — has an edge, especially with players like Steve Duke and Joe Corvo, who are effective on both sides of the puck. But maybe Ryan Skaleski, Andre Signoretti and Ryan Root have something to say about that, too.

Just one word of advice if you head to Lawson this weekend and you see an upset by Western: ask Bill Wilkinson where he gets his miracle grapefruit.

PICKS: Ohio State 4-2, 4-3

No. 7 Michigan (20-6-1, 14-4-1 CCHA) at Notre Dame (13-11-3, 8-8-3 CCHA) Friday, 7 p.m., Joyce Arena, South Bend, IN Notre Dame at No. 7 Michigan Saturday, 7 p.m., Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, MI

Michigan is stinging from two straight losses to No. 4 Miami, the first back-to-back losses the Wolverines have experienced since November of 1995.

If you’re a team in this league, you know what that means: the potential for a spanking.

Notre Dame head coach Dave Poulin is nonplused. "If they’re not happy, they’re mad; if they’re not mad, they’re happy. With Michigan, you get what you get.

"You’re getting [Matt] Herr back healthy. You’ve got Marty Turco. You’ve got Bill Muckalt."

In the tone of his voice, you can almost hear Poulin’s shoulders shrugging.

But he means no disrespect. Poulin — arguably one of the classiest individuals in college hockey — just means that the Wolverines are tough no matter what their collective mood. As the coach is fond of saying, there are no easy games in this league.

Can the Irish take points from this Michigan team? Yes, and oddly enough they have a better chance of doing so at Yost, given their road record.

They beat St. Cloud State twice on the road. They beat Wisconsin and Michigan State on the road. They beat Ohio State on the road and Alaska-Fairbanks twice on the road.

Just last weekend, they beat Bowling Green 6-5 on the road, but needed overtime to do it.

The Irish are still finding their feet, playing unevenly from game to game or week to week. That is not to say that Notre Dame is playing poorly — quite the contrary. But among the CCHA’s top eight teams, the Irish are playing with the least consistency.

The Irish have depth at several positions, including in the net. In league play, Forrest Karr and Matt Eisler are combining for a team save percentage of .888 and a team GAA of 2.90.

"Forrest continues to play well, and we evaluate [the goaltending situation] on a daily basis. This puts me in a great position to be able to choose between them."

From the net out, the Irish have real talent, and at least a couple of blue-liners who can score. Benoit Cotnoir is truly an impressive and graceful player. The junior defensemen leads the team in league scoring (7-11–18) and plays well on both sides of the puck.

Another offensive defenseman, Mark Eaton — also a legitimate contender for Rookie of the Year — is third in league scoring for the Irish, with two goals and 14 assists. Eaton’s defensive skills match his playmaking abilities; he’s fearless along the boards.

Aniket Dhadphale leads the Irish with 11 goals, and this player has the potential to be a goal-scoring machine. Sophomore Ben Simon (4-12–16) is a player, and Brian Urick (7-7–14) has breakaway ability.

As talented a team as is Notre Dame, how do the Irish stack up against the Wolverines? Well, how does any team stack up against the Wolverines?

Poulin is correct in singling out Herr, Muckalt, and Turco. Herr, who missed half the season with a groin injury, still has 13 points (5-8) in league play. With 28 points, Muckalt is second in scoring in the CCHA.

With every win, Marty Turco sets a new NCAA Division I record for most wins by a goaltender. In over 1,000 league minutes in net, Turco’s GAA is 2.16 and his save percentage is .906.

But this Wolverine team is more than the sum of three players. Bobby Hayes (13-14–27) is having a career season, and has an eight-game point streak on the line. Several rookies are making big contributions to the Wolverine effort as well. The organization is high in Mark Kosick (7-11–18), but Josh Langfeld (9-10–19) is a true player.

Also contributing are rookies Scott Matzka and defenseman Mike Van Ryn, and don’t overlook Dale Rominski (6-4–10) and defenseman Bubba Berenzweig (3-5–8), who has improved steadily all season.

A few notes: Steve Noble, the Notre Dame senior center, is another CCHA finalist for the Humanitarian Award. Joe Dusbabek, the Notre Dame right winger, will miss the rest of the season because he’s academically ineligible to play. Has anyone seen Wolverine Greg Crozier?

The Irish will have their hands full, both home and away.

PICKS: Michigan 5-2, 4-2

Lake Superior (11-10-4, 8-8-4 CCHA) at Bowling Green (4-20-2, 2-14-2 CCHA) Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., BGSU Ice Arena, Bowling Green, OH

The Lakers need four points to keep pace with the rest of the CCHA pack, and to fight for fourth place. Given the way things have been going for the Falcons lately, the Lakers may get those points on the road.

In spite of a seemingly uneven start to the season, the Lakers are playing darned good hockey.

Last weekend Michigan State was lucky to take two points from Lake Superior. The Lakers had three second-period goals from unexpected sources — Ted Laviolette (his fourth), Jeff Attard (his first) and Mike Kucsulain (his third) — to surge ahead of the Spartans 3-2 after two.

Sean Berens scored at :54 of the third to tie the game. Bryan Adams had the game-winner for the Spartans midway through the third period.

The Lakers have good offense, decent defense and decent goaltending, so they have a two advantages over the Falcons.

Two Lakers remain among the league’s top ten scorers. With 30 points (13-17), Terry Marchant is tied with Ohio State’s Hugo Boisvert for the league lead. Jason Sessa’s 24 points (14-10) are good enough for fifth in league scoring.

Defenseman David Lambeth is out with an injury, so the Lakers will be relying more on Laviolette, whose on-ice time has been, well, interrupted several times this season, for reasons known only to Laviolette and Laker coach Scott Borek.

In league goaltending, rookie Rob Galatiuk has respectable numbers — a 2.90 GAA and a save percentage of .897. The Lakers have yet to turn that crucial corner of actually outscoring opponents, however, having scored 63 goals, but given up 71.

The hard-working Bowling Green Falcons must be relieved that someone has finally moved ahead of Dan Price in scoring. Price, who hasn’t played since mid-December because of legal problems, was the leading Falcon scorer still up until last week.

Adam Edinger is the someone who takes over the top spot for the Falcons. While that’s good news, the bad news is that Edinger has just 14 points, and only four of those points are goals.

The Falcon offense is weakish, the defense is weakish — the Falcons have allowed 80 goals this season while scoring just 45 in the CCHA — but Bowling Green’s goaltending is not bad.

Rookie Shawn Timm seems to have taken over in net from Mike Savard (who wasn’t getting much help anyway), and so far has a league save percentage of .886. Unfortunately, his league GAA is 3.82, which says a lot more about Bowling Green’s defense than can be said with mere words.

Bowling Green lost twice last weekend, a nationally-televised 8-2 loss to Northern Michigan, and a 5-4 overtime loss to Notre Dame. They have to win one soon, and they could play the spoiler with Lake Superior.

Could, but probably won’t.

PICKS: Lake Superior 5-2, 4-2

Mt. Royal at Alaska-Fairbanks (7-17-2, 6-16-1 CCHA) Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. AT, Carlson Center, Fairbanks, AK

Who is Mt. Royal, and why do the Nanooks play so many non-Division I opponents?

This is not a rhetorical question. If you have an answer, email me, ’cause I’m stumped.

There is little information available about Mt. Royal — in fact, none — so this preview will focus more on the strengths and weaknesses of Nanook hockey.

Alaska-Fairbanks had last week off after dropping two of three to Notre Dame the week before. The Nanooks play well at home, and have some considerable talent on their team. Unfortunately, this is a team that looks like it hasn’t quite gelled; inconsistency is the key to this Nanook season.

The Nanooks have an explosive offense. Sjon Wynia leads the team in scoring with 25 league points (11-14), and is among the top ten scorers in the CCHA. Jeff Trembecky has improved throughout the season to 18 points (9-9).

Rookie Jim Lawrence (7-10–17) has been a nice addition to the roster, while Kerry Hafele has managed to avoid the sophomore slump with 15 points (2-13).

The Nanooks have scored 70 league goals, which puts them right up there with Michigan, Miami and Northern Michigan in that category. When the Nanooks score all those goals, however, their competition responds by scoring even more. Alaska-Fairbanks has allowed 113 goals this season, far and away the most in the CCHA.

The explanation for this is a combination of defense and goaltending — neither of which is up to par this season. Ian Perkins and Chris Marvel are combining for a team save percentage of just .861, and a combined GAA of 4.86. But the two have combined for a total of 702 saves. Clearly, they’re not getting much help.

Still, since Mt. Royal isn’t a Division I opponent, the Nanooks should be able to handle them — whoever they are.

PICKS: Alaska-Fairbanks 5-4, 5-4

This Week in the WCHA: January 30, 1998

By Todd D. Milewski

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January 30, 1998

Wait, did I say five weeks? Whoops, I meant six.

A quick glance at the top of the conference shows the casual observer that league-leading North Dakota has played 18 games, leaving a mere 10 games on the Sioux schedule. Do a little simple division, and you find Dean Blais’ squad active for five more weeks of conference play.

But peek a little further down the standing, to second-place Wisconsin and cellar-dwellers Minnesota and Denver, and you’ll see that three conference teams have six weeks: 12 games to play.

That pair of "extra" games is insignificant to the underachieving Pioneers, but the Gophers, should they maintain momentum generated by last weekend’s sweep of Minnesota-Duluth, could use the games to continue their quest for first round playoff home ice. More importantly, though, Wisconsin needs three points against Alaska-Anchorage to leapfrog over North Dakota, stuck in a late-season non-conference series against Mankato State.

St. Cloud could also bypass the Sioux with three points against Colorado College, but any ground gained would likely be forfeited during next week’s Husky bye week.

In terms of postseason posturing, North Dakota, St. Cloud and Wisconsin hold big leads on the all-important top three slots. At the Final Five, held this year at Milwaukee’s Bradley Center, the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds square off in a sudden-death quarterfinal Thursday, Mar. 19, followed the next day by two semifinal matches.

So, if CC were to sweep its remaining series with UMD, Denver, St. Cloud, Minnesota and Michigan Tech — a possible if not probable scenario — then:

North Dakota, against opponents with a combined 34-46-4 record,would need to go just 6-4 to secure an afternoon off in Milwaukee. Wisconsin, matched up against teams with a combined 46-53-5 record, would have to finish 7-5 to achieve the same. St. Cloud, playing teams with a combined 37-44-3 conference record, would need a 7-3 closeout to earn a bye.

Remember, that’s IF Colorado wins out, and IF these cheap USCHO calculators don’t bust first.

And surprise, hockey will be played on ice as well as paper this weekend, starting with…

Alaska-Anchorage (6-16-3, 5-11-2 WCHA) at No. 6 Wisconsin (17-6-1, 12-3-1 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 CT, Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI WHA-TV

Wisconsin is the hottest team in America right now, riding an 11-game unbeaten streak. The sixth-ranked Badgers spoiled the opening of Colorado College’s new World Arena last weekend, with a sweep ending a six-game losing skid in Colorado Springs. The Badgers’ 12-3-1 record is the team’s best record after 16 WCHA games under coach Jeff Sauer.

Yet in facing Alaska-Anchorage, a team it defeated on the road twice, the Badgers may be facing a danger greater than talent, coaching, strategy or emotion: complacency.

"The natural assumption by everybody is that this is going to be two easy wins," Sauer said. "That’s the problem we want to overcome there.

"We want to establish ourselves at home; the higher we finish the lower seed we face in the tournament, but really the main goal is to continue playing well."

Center Steve Reinprecht, the reigning WCHA Offensive Player of the Week and conference leading scorer (11-11–22), tallied his first career hat trick in Friday’s 6-5 overtime win, his fourth multi-goal effort in seven contests.

Saturday, freshman goaltender Graham Melanson notched his first career shutout, earning him conference Rookie of the Week honors. Two goals from winger Erik Raygor (9-5–14), whose grandfather had passed away the previous night, led Wisconsin to victory.

On the blue line, junior Craig Anderson (4-18–22) continues to top the conference scoring charts, and is threatening to become the first Wisconsin defenseman to win a conference scoring title. Minnesota’s Lou Nanne is the only blueliner to win the league scoring title outright, with a 9-23–32 in 1962-63 (Gopher Mike Crowley’s 5-37–42 shared honors with CC’s Brian Swanson last season).

Center Joe Bianchi is Wisconsin’s leading career scorer against UAA, with a 7-6–13 in 10 career games. The senior is working on an 11-game scoring streak, the longest on the team this season, longest of his career and longest at UW since Max Williams’ 12-game streak in 1994-95.

Struggling for Sauer is Reinprecht and Raygor’s linemate, winger Dustin Kuk. Since returning from the U.S. Junior team over Christmas, Kuk hasn’t scored, yet remains fifth on the team in scoring (6-8–14).

The victories gave Wisconsin a perfect 4-0 record at Colorado schools CC and Denver, exacting a small measure of revenge for hockey-minded fans of the Green Bay Packers. Yet more importantly, the Badgers improved to 8-0 in conference road games this season, with challenging series at Minnesota and North Dakota looming.

Anchorage, on the other hand, sputters into the series on the tail end of a split with Mankato State, mustering just three goals in the brief homestand. The Seawolves enter averaging 1.78 goals per WCHA contest, only slightly more per game than New Hampshire’s Jason Krog.

Coach Dean Talafous, the Most Valuable Player of the 1973 NCAA Tournament for Wisconsin, kept the previous two meetings between the two teams close, falling 4-2 and 3-1 in Wisconsin’s regular season opener. Talafous, who is 0-4-2 lifetime versus Wisconsin and coach Jeff Sauer, will lean on junior goaltender Doug Teskey for support. Teskey, the WCHA’s second-ranked goalie with a 2.23 goals-against average, recorded an 18-save shutout Saturday for his sixth win of the season.

"Anchorage plays a very defensive system, so we have to counteract that offensively," Sauer said.

Anchorage, which fails to place a single skater among the conference’s top 30 scorers, is led in scoring by sophomore center Rob Douglas (6-6–12) and left wing Stacy Prevost (3-9–12), who tallied Saturday’s game-winner.

Picks: Too much momentum for Wisconsin and too little punch for Anchorage have Sauer’s troops smelling a four-point weekend. It should be noted, however, that UAA played tough in Madison last season, tying on a last-second Badger goal and losing in a similar fashion the next night. Still, UW 4-1, 6-2.

Mankato State (11-10-3 vs. D-I) at No. 2 North Dakota (17-4-1, 13-4-1 WCHA) Saturday-Sunday, 2:05 CT, Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, ND

Just as Sauer agonized over a non-conference matchup with Nebraska-Omaha two weekends ago, Blais must be regretting this late-season encounter with these Mavericks. The Sioux may have problems getting motivated for these games, when they consider the lost opportunities of last weekend’s series at St. Cloud.

In falling to the Huskies 6-2 Friday night, UND missed a golden opportunity to distance itself from the host. After falling behind by three goals early in the third period, the Sioux began what might have been a successful late-game comeback. But Jay Panzer’s goal was disallowed due to coincidental minor penalties.

"That was a huge emotional swing when that goal is disallowed," said Blais. "Their fourth goal was big because at the time we’re trying to make it 3-2, and at that point it’s a game. At 4-1 it’s about over unless [St. Cloud goaltender Brian] Leitza has a complete breakdown, which he obviously didn’t do."

Leitza’s counterpart, Aaron Schweitzer, took the loss for North Dakota despite 27 saves.

In the second game, North Dakota took advantage of Adam Calder’s shorthanded goal and Jesse Bull’s goal immediately following a penalty to claim a 6-2 decision. Yet, while the victory vaulted UND back into sole possession of first place, the four-goal margin of victory left the Huskies with a 14-12 season edge in goals.

Thus, if the two teams were to tie for the WCHA regular-season championship, St. Cloud would win the tiebreaker and assume the tournament’s top seed. With this in mind, and perhaps a touch of sportsmanship, Blais opted not to pull goaltender Karl Goehring and push for the season edge.

Yet should North Dakota continue its hot streak and claim the title outright, this weekend’s series with Mankato would be a preview of the two teams’ playoff series. The Mavericks, who will likely join the league within two seasons, have been invited to participate in the WCHA playoffs this season, and will automatically assume the 10th and final seed, regardless of how poorly Denver continues to play.

Mankato sharpened its teeth on WCHA doormat Alaska-Anchorage last weekend, winning Friday 5-2 before running into hot goaltender Doug Teskey in a 1-0 loss Saturday. Center Rob White scored twice and freshman defenseman Ben Christopherson’s first career goal provided insurance in third period to break a 2-2 tie.

Goaltender Des Christopher collected his eighth win of the year by stopping 30 UAA shots. Christopher’s current career goals against average of 3.27 ranks first on MSU’s all-time list amongst goaltenders who have played at least 1,200 minutes.

Mankato coach Don Brose in his 28th season at the Mankato State helm, owns a 493-298-61 career record and is aiming to become the 13th coach to reach the 500-win plateau. Among active coaches, Brose’s 493 career wins ranks seventh.

Two Maverick wins are out of the question: Mankato’s last road sweep came Dec. 30-31 against, ahem, St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn.

Brose and his road warriors will have their hands full with the deepest team in the WCHA. Defenseman Curtis Murphy leads the Sioux in scoring at 4-17–21, and is followed closely by David Hoogsteen (10-9–19), Jason Blake (7-11–18), Calder (5-13–18), Matt Henderson (10-7–17) and Panzer (7-9–16).

Picks: Perhaps Blais will commit to Goehring this weekend, foreshadowing a single-goalie system down the stretch. Perhaps not. Either way, too much talent on the home team’s bench this weekend, although the WCHA-tough Mavs provide a scare. UND 7-0, 4-3.

Colorado College (14-9-2, 9-8-1 WCHA) at Minnesota-Duluth (12-13-1, 7-10-1 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 CT, Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, Duluth, MN KDLH-TV

So what was so wrong with the Air Force’s Cadet Ice Arena? After all, Colorado College went 47-12-4 in its three-plus years there.

After waiting 60 years or so for its spectacular new Colorado Springs World Arena, Colorado College lost twice to one of its own, Sauer. The Tigers take to the road after losing to Wisconsin 6-5, 4-0, looking to find an identity: is it possible to overcome St. Cloud and Wisconsin and move into the league’s No. 3 slot, or should CC concentrate on fending off a healthy Minnesota squad?

Coach Don Lucia, predictably, just wants to concentrate on the games at hand.

"It was great to play in the new arena," said Lucia, whose team has won just twice in its last six games. "Everything went great except for the scores of the games."

The score of the opener seemed encouraging at first, yet Reinprecht’s late goals sent the Tigers to defeat in overtime. Scott Swanson and Calvin Elfring each tallied three points as CC outshot Wisconsin 40-30. Three of Colorado’s five goals came during four-in-four situations, stretching the team’s season total to 12. Saturday’s shutout came despite another shots advantage.

"Duluth and our team are coming off disappointing weekends," said Lucia of his opponent, which lost to Minnesota 7-1, 6-5 last weekend. "We have to get back on the winning track if we want to be a home-ice team for the first round of the playoffs."

In order to do so, CC must overcome goaltender Brant Nicklin, who kept the Bulldogs in the second game last weekend with 37 saves in his 63rd consecutive start. If Nicklin starts in net Friday as expected, he will tie the school record for consecutive starts set by Chad Erickson during 1988-91. Nicklin, who has played all but approximately half an hour in WCHA play the last two years, is 5-0-0 with two shutouts, a 1.60 goals-against average, and a .937 save percentage in his last five appearances at the DECC.

The weekend was an aberration from UMD’s play as of late: the team has lost just four of its last 13 games (8-4-1). Center Jeff Scissons has provided much of the team’s offense during the streak, going 3-8–11 over his last five games. Curtis Doell leads Bulldog blueliners in scoring at 5-15–20 overall, and brings a four-game scoring streak into the series.

CC and Minnesota-Duluth have met 122 times previously, with the Bulldogs clinging to a 60-59-3 advantage. This is the fifth year in a row that the teams will have played just one series during the regular season.

Picks: Colorado College last visited Duluth during the 1995-96 campaign, winning 6-0 and 7-3. Don’t look for a Tiger sweep this time. Though Brian Swanson (7-10–17) has been heating up, Duluth takes at least one of these games, most likely Nicklin’s record-tying effort Friday. UMD 5-2, CC 4-1.

Denver (7-17-0, 4-12-0 WCHA) at No. 9 St. Cloud State (15-7-2, 12-5-1 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 CT, National Hockey Center, St. Cloud, MN Friday-Saturday SC Cable 6, Saturday KMSP-UPN 9

St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl realizes the importance of a fast start, especially against a downtrodden Denver outfit.

"It’s always important to get off to a fast start, especially at home," Dahl said. "It fires your players up, and more importantly it gets the crowd into it and that makes it tough for the opposition."

Especially when the opponent, an underachieving Pioneer squad, is coming off a successful eastern road swing, in which the team downed Vermont 5-3 and Dartmouth 3-2.

Goaltender Stephen Wagner (3-6-0, 3.39 GAA) came up big twice, collecting 27 and 30 saves, respectively. Eight different players scored for DU, including Mike Dairon, Derek Robertson, Jon Newman, Anders Bjork, Kelly Popadynetz, Bryce Wallnutt, Mark Rycroft and Joe Ritson.

St. Cloud comes into the series after a weekend of mixed emotions against North Dakota. Kicking off a rare eight-game homestand, the Huskies won Friday night, reclaiming the league lead lost the weekend before. The Huskies "gold line" of left wing Jason Goulet, center Matt Noga and right wing Mike Rucinski combined for three goals and four assists in Friday’s win.

Saturday, SCSU lost the next night, yet in holding the margin of defeat under six goals, retained the series goal lead with the Sioux, 14-12.

Of more immediate importance than a March goal-counting exhibition is this weekend’s series at the National Hockey Center, where these two teams haven’t played since January 1996. While St. Cloud has owned the stretch in Denver, gaining a 4-2-1 advantage, the Pioneers are 7-4-1 all-time at the NHC.

Picks: Denver played well out East, even if Vermont and Dartmouth are in the midst of down seasons. While balanced scoring is nice, Bjork (5-5–10) and leading scorer Paul Comrie (4-10–14) must contribute more. SCSU goaltender Brian Leitza needs to find his Friday night form from last week, when he held UND to just two goals. SCSU 5-1, Denver 2-1.

Minnesota (10-14-0, 6-10-0 WCHA) at Michigan Tech (11-12-1, 6-11-1 WCHA) Friday 5:05 ET, Saturday 7:05 ET, MacInnes Arena, Houghton, MI

Don’t look now, but what’s that?

Could that be? Ack! Gopher-haters beware: though inconsistent and injury-riddled all season, Doug Woog’s team may be priming for a run at a top-five WCHA finish.

"We’ve suffered mentally and on the scoreboard," said Woog, whose team swept Minnesota-Duluth 7-1, 6-5 last weekend. "Guys have been working hard, and it’s nice to get some results."

The Gophers, who still must play top-three powers North Dakota, Wisconsin and St. Cloud State, took a positive step against UMD. In Friday’s blowout, senior co-captains Casey Hankinson and Ryan Kraft returned from injuries, and Reggie Berg and Dave Spehar provided the offense, scoring two goals apiece.

"Tonight was a big character night for us," said Berg. "Hopefully, we’ve showed…that we can turn the corner." "I think a lot of times this year, we’ve had trouble getting a lead, for one thing, and then holding on to it."

Obviously, the return of Hankinson, who tallied his 100th career point, from hip and thumb injuries, and Kraft played a large role in the skittish Gophers’ success.

"You can’t replace those type of guys [Hankinson and Kraft]," Berg. "Tonight, having them back was a big boost for us. Not just that they’re out there, but having the leadership back."

Berg, Brett Abrahamson — the league’s Defensive Player of the Week — and Spehar stayed hot in the second game, with Abrahamson and Spehar each hitting the back of the net twice.

The four-goal weekend was sweet for Duluth native Spehar, even with his stolen Honda Accord being returned sans wheels.

"It was a playoff game in terms of its importance, in terms of the standings," Woog said. "The way it’s going to line up in the end, somebody’s going to get in that fifth-place spot."

Minnesota’s next test, Michigan Tech, rests just above it in the standings, but is traveling in a distinctly different direction. Having lost three consecutive games, the Huskies go into their Winter Carnival series winless since Jan. 9.

Most recently, Tech lost a pair of lifeless road games to North Dakota.

"I was very disappointed in our lack of discipline throughout the weekend," said coach Tim Watters. "We did see some progress in some of our younger players, which was nice."

More important than young players’ progress for Watters is the return of top man Andre Savage (6-9–15), who missed the previous six games due to injury. In net, junior David Weninger saved a career-high 49 shots two weeks ago against UND, but ranks third-last among WCHA regulars with a 3.66 goals-against average.

Savage’s return couldn’t come at a better time for Watters, whose team plays eight of its next 10 games at home.

"We are in the stretch run and at an extremely important time in our schedule," Watters said. "If we hope to get home ice in the playoffs we need to really take care of our home ice in the next several weeks."

Key statistic: Tech has fallen behind 1-0 in nine of its last 10 games.

Picks: Minnesota seems to be playing well, and, more importantly, is as healthy as its been in quite some time. But since 1960, Tech is 53-18-5 in Winter Carnival games, a 76-percent win rate. And don’t forget, Savage is back. UM 4-3, MTU 7-4.

Scott Tappa is WCHA Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

This Week in Hockey East: January 30, 1998

By David H. Hendrickson

-

January 30, 1998

Had a bad day?

I can top it.

For starters, a tape recorder malfunction destroyed three interviews.

After that came all the trivial little disasters that by themselves don’t amount to a hill of beans, but put together make you afraid to go near sharp objects.

And the piece de resistance to top it all off?

May I have a drum roll, please…

My car, affectionately known as the Slob-mobile, stalled out and died after unexpectedly navigating two feet of water on a back road after the Friday night BU-Maine game.

That’s not the bad news.

Days later, still waiting for it to dry out, a breakthrough occurs.

It starts for 10 seconds, but then dies. Half an hour later, another 10 seconds. Only to die again. Half an hour after that, my blood pressure rising, it starts and I rev that baby so hard that it simply can not stall out on me again.

And it doesn’t.

The only problem is that a minute later the tail pipe and area around it is now on fire.

Which is awfully close to the gas tank.

And it takes so long to pull all the pins on the dang fire extinguisher that I have to measure it in dog years.

Now, a day and a half later, my mechanic tells me the car is now safe to drive.

I am convinced he has secretly taken out a life insurance policy on me.

So if you think the following appears to be written by an alien, you’ll be right. I’ve never claimed to be normal, but right about now I’m off the charts.

Onward…

This week’s Hockey East KOHO Player of the Week is Chris Drury, who scored a goal and added three assists in two games against Maine. The goal made Drury the all-time leading goal scorer at BU.

The Rookie of the Week is Scott Clemmensen, who also broke a record. Clemmensen set a new NCAA regular-season mark of 254:23 without a goal.

This week’s top action revolves around the Beanpot, especially the opening-round BU-Northeastern match-up, and UNH’s games against Northeastern and Maine.

Last week’s record in picks: 5-4 (we won’t discuss the Super Bowl)

Season’s record in picks: 93-49

The Beanpot No. 3 Boston University (16-4-2, 9-3-2 HEA) vs.

Northeastern (15-7-2, 9-5-2 HEA)

No. 8 Boston College (15-7-3, 9-5-2 HEA) vs. Harvard (6-9-2, 6-5-1 ECAC)

Friday, 6 p.m. (BU-NU), 9 p.m. (BC-HU), FleetCenter, Boston, MA WABU-TV68

Boston University won its first two games in a row since Dec. 7 with a pair of one-goal victories over Maine, 4-3 and 3-2. Discounting empty-net goals and its contest against Division I Independent Niagara, all nine games since the last back-to-back wins have been tied or decided by one goal.

"That might be who we are," said coach Jack Parker, who underwent a heart procedure earlier this week. "I don’t know. We’re getting opportunities. I do believe that we’ve got enough talent that we’ll start putting some pucks in the net.

"I don’t mind winning [one-goal games], but it’s hard on the players. It’s an emotional game that way and you don’t have time to relax because there’s a lot of pressure all the time. You get more tired than if it was a free-wheeling 6-3 game. It’s a hard way to play.

"The two games with Northeastern and these two [against Maine] were mentally tough, intense games. I think winning three out of those four is great points-wise, but is also great psyche-wise. It makes us feel comfortable about ourselves that we can play in those types of games and win. We might be battling down the stretch and be able to win a lot of games that way."

In the Friday night game, Chris Drury, this week’s Hockey East Player of the Week, scored his 99th career goal to claim ownership of BU’s all-time record.

"He’s a great player even when he doesn’t score," said Parker. "He’s great defensively, he’s such an agitator, and he’s such an example. No one works harder in all three zones."

As an additional example of Drury’s complete game, BU statisticians showed him winning 26 of 32 faceoffs in one of the Maine contests.

On Saturday night, freshman Russ Bartlett set up Mike Sylvia’s game-winner on the power play with a feed from along the goal line.

"That was a fabulous pass by Russ Bartlett," said Parker. "He’s a real clever freshman. That’s where he’s really effective, making passes down low."

Although the lion’s share of the credit for that score went to Bartlett and Albie O’Connell for teeing it up, Sylvia continues to be a money player who scores big goals. Last year, he had five game-winners. This year, despite being separated from long-time linemate Drury in order to provide better offensive balance, he already has four.

While the game-winning goal statistic may often be meaningless, Sylvia’s tallies have typically been just the opposite. On Dec. 9, his strike with just a minute left salvaged a tie against Boston College. His third period goal on Jan. 17 against Northeastern broke a 2-2 deadlock and allowed the Terriers to split their home-and-home series with the Huskies.

"He’s a competitor," said Parker. "He’s been snakebitten at times scoring-wise, but he’s always gotten big goals. He doesn’t often get the seventh goal in a 7-2 win, but he’s always involved in the tight games getting big goals.

"He’s almost like Mike Prendergast a few years ago. They’ll get you 15 or 18 [a year], but they’ll get you six big ones."

Northeastern also took two wins and four points in the league standings to stay abreast of BU and BC in a three-way tie for first. The Huskies took a couple close ones over Merrimack, 4-2 and 3-2.

"In this league, it’s tough to sweep," said coach Bruce Crowder. "When you can do that, it’s just a big boost obviously in the standings, but also for the kids’ morale because it’s definitely a mental thing a lot of times.

"The kids could have come in on Sunday and just been happy with a split, but the kids played well, they played hard and they came home with a ‘W’ in a very hard-fought game.

"The thing that I was really impressed with was our team defense. Merrimack is a very explosive team. They have those four guys who are having tremendous years and we were able to hold them to two goals each game."

Marc Robitaille continues to be one of the top netminders in the league and the single biggest contributor to the Huskies’ surprising turnaround.

"I don’t know if there’s a player in the league that has helped his team individually as much as Robitaille has helped us," said Crowder. "He’s been focused and he’s been equal to the task. It’s good to see because he’s a hard-working kid and he deserves it."

Freshman Bobby Haglund scored his second and third goals of the season 18 seconds apart on Friday to help secure the win.

"That was a great game for him," said Crowder. "He’s a kid that we need to get going. He got banged up and missed a month and it’s taken him a while to get back on track.

"It’s interesting that it’s somebody different every night. You look at the scores from Friday to Sunday and it was scrambled around all three lines again. Even the fourth line got a big one for us from Matt Keating. It’s a unique thing that any kid that dresses, figures he has a chance to be a big plus for this team."

The Huskies are certainly acquiring experience in playoff-style, low-scoring close contests. Of their 25 games, 20 have been decided by by two goals or less. Each of their last 12, and 18 of the last 19 have fit this profile.

"As a coach, you’d like to sit back and maybe get a breather now and then, but if that’s the way they want to play them and we continue to be successful, then so be it," said Crowder. "The kids get comfortable. They don’t get panicky. It’s definitely a huge plus."

Life doesn’t get any easier now for Northeastern’s Cardiac Kids. They are paired against third-ranked BU in the Beanpot opener, a non-league game. Their eight remaining Hockey East contests include three against UNH, three against Maine and one each against BU and BC.

"These are games you want to play," said Crowder. "They’re easy for us as coaches because if kids can’t get up for these games, they shouldn’t be playing. For us, every game down the stretch is going to be huge. We’re going to keep plugging away and take them one at a time."

Boston College had been undefeated in 1998, posting a 4-0-1 record since the New Year, including a 6-3 win over UMass-Amherst on Saturday. The away part of that home-and-home series on Friday was postponed because of the snowstorm. BC, however, took one on the chin on Tuesday, losing 9-3 to UNH.

Scott Clemmensen had no sooner broken the NCAA regular-season shutout record (which admittedly falls far short of Blaine Lacher’s combined mark for regular season and postseason play), than he allowed three in the remainder of the UMass-Amherst game and then eight against UNH before getting the hook.

Goaltending looked like the Eagles’ Achilles’ heel coming into the season, and proved to be exactly that at times during the first half. Clemmensen would be very good at times, but also throw in a stinker or two.

The latest streak, however, seemed to assuage worries that BC was headed back to superpower status, but was missing a goaltender that could compete on an equal footing with Michel Larocque, Marc Robitaille and Sean Matile.

The answer to that question remains unclear.

Of course, the UNH debacle was hardly just Clemmensen’s fault. The entire team played poorly.

It’s also possible to make too much of one game, especially since UNH has the wherewithal to embarrass many a goalie and many a team. But Tuesday’s contest was one of the most eagerly anticipated ones of the year and the Eagles’ failure to rise to the occasion must concern BC followers.

The Eagles now have a Beanpot tuneup against UMass-Lowell on Friday before taking on what is on paper, at least, the bottom team on the Beanpot totem pole.

Harvard comes in as the Beanpot’s weakest sister. While the other three Boston teams are tied for first place in Hockey East, Harvard sits in fourth place in the ECAC, and even that ranking is deceiving. The Crimson have played more games than the other six top teams and have also posted a dismal 0-4-1 record outside the league.

Except for their early November win over Colgate, they have beaten only teams on the bottom five rungs on the ECAC ladder.

(For more on Harvard, see this week’s ECAC Preview.)

PICKS: Northeastern upsets BU 3-2. BC flattens Harvard 6-2.

No. 4 New Hampshire (17-4-1, 9-3-1 HEA) at

Northeastern (15-7-2, 9-5-2 HEA)

Maine (9-11-3, 6-9-2 HEA) at No. 4 New Hampshire (17-4-1, 9-3-1 HEA)

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

Sunday, 2 p.m., Whittemore Center, Durham, NH, WMUR-TV9

New Hampshire’s only game of the weekend, a home tilt against Brown, was postponed because of power outages. This makes a bizarre total of three lost games for the Wildcats in the last three weekends. Their canceled trip to Clarkson and St. Lawrence of two weeks ago has only a remote chance of being made up — there are no open weekends and the ten-hour trip all but eliminates the possibility of rescheduling for the midweek.

A Brown makeup date could be arranged given the more manageable transit times, but it, too, will have to be a midweek contest or a Sunday game after already playing on Friday and Saturday. An announcement is expected soon.

The Wildcats made up for lost time, however, not to mention lost statistics, on Tuesday with a 9-3 drubbing of the heretofore red-hot BC Eagles.

"We’re real happy with the outcome of the game, obviously," said coach Dick Umile. "We weren’t happy with the way that we played in the first period. I give credit to them and the fact that we hadn’t played in a while. But once we got our legs going in the second period, I thought we got control of the game."

Sean Matile (2.46 GAA, .912 SV%) shut the Eagles out in the first period to give UNH a 1-0 lead despite being outshot 11-6.

"He played well in the first period when he had to," said Umile.

Umile’s juggling of the lines provided results that speak for themselves. Umile added Rob Gagnon to the Mark Mowers and Tom Nolan line, and Gagnon scored a big second-period goal.

Umile also moved Chad Onufrechuk onto a line with Jason Krog and Derek Bekar. The junior responded with two goals.

After planning to give Matt Swain his fifth start of the season against Brown, Umile carried that over to the BC game and was rewarded with two goals and an assist from his freshman.

"He’s a big strong kid who can score goals," said Umile. "He was in the right places, he’s a strong kid and made the most of his opportunities to score. Between him and Chad Onufrechuk, we got four goals out of guys that haven’t done a lot of scoring for us."

The Wildcats are now one point out of the three-way tie for first between BU, BC and Northeastern. UNH, however, holds one game in hand over BU and three over the other two frontrunners. With all three first-place teams only playing one game this weekend, the Wildcats’ games against Northeastern and Maine give them the opportunity to leapfrog into first place.

"We knew this was an important week starting with Boston College and now against Northeastern and Maine," said Umile. "Northeastern is on top regardless of the games in hand. They’ve done a good job, they have solid goaltending and they compete real hard. We respect them and expect that game to be another barnburner.

"Then we’re off a day and go at it with Maine. With everything so close, you can move pretty far in the standings with one win or loss, so this is a big weekend for us."

Northeastern, fully profiled above for the Beanpot, will be hoping that the defense which stood in such good stead last weekend against Merrimack’s big guns (Martin Laroche, Kris Porter, and Rejean Stringer — the number two, three and four scorers in the nation) also pays off against New Hampshire’s heavy artillery.

"They’re going to be a challenge," said coach Bruce Crowder. "They have those two lines that may be the best in the nation. We’ve got to make sure that we play them smart and don’t give them any opportunities that we shouldn’t.

"We’ll play it pretty close to the vest, stay in their faces and not give them a lot of time to do things. They can hurt you."

Maine dropped 4-3 and 3-2 games this week to BU and now has just Sunday’s game against UNH remaining from a five-game gauntlet consisting solely of the Wildcats and Terriers. Although the Black Bears don’t have any points to show for their efforts, they’ve played very well.

"We’re not a great team this year, but we’re not terrible either," said coach Shawn Walsh. "I’m really encouraged with how we’re playing. Obviously, I’m not happy with our record, but we’re playing hard. We’re not going to be a team too many teams will want to face in the first round of the playoffs."

Two weekends ago, Maine hosted UNH and fell 2-1 and 5-0.

"They’re a great team," said Walsh. "It’s a challenge to play great teams. We’re playing awfully well right now. We’re very close to any team in the country, as is evidenced by our performance in the last four games.

"We’re just going to give it our best shot. If we can play as well as we did [two Saturdays ago against UNH], even though we lost 5-0, I’ll be very happy."

Coming off a weekend against BU’s Michel Larocque and Tom Noble, the Black Bears will now be facing a goaltender in Matile that has had their number this year.

"He’s played awfully well against us," said Walsh. "He’s given us one goal in three games. Not many guys have done better than that."

Walsh dismissed the idea that UNH’s spate of canceled games might work to Maine’s advantage.

"Postponements don’t mean anything," said Walsh. "The only advantage we might get is if Jason Krog winds up in the hospital. I think he’s clearly the Hobey Baker frontrunner, the way he’s played. He’s the best player we’ve seen.

"They’ve got a great team. And it’s not just Krog. It’s Bekar. It’s Matile. It’s Nolan. It’s Mowers. It’s a quality, quality team."

PICK: UNH takes two, 4-3 and 4-3, to take over first place.

No. 3 Boston University (16-4-2, 9-3-2 HEA) at Merrimack (9-14-1, 4-10-0 HEA)

Friday, 7 p.m., Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA

Boston University is profiled above.

Merrimack dropped two close ones to Northeastern last weekend, 4-2 and 3-2.

"I thought we actually played pretty good hockey," said coach Ron Anderson. "But we didn’t capitalize on some of our chances. Their goaltender made some great saves and really was the difference."

The Warriors continued their effectiveness on the power play, scoring twice in seven chances on the weekend. Even more importantly, they stopped the hemorrhaging of their penalty-killing unit, which had been by far the worst in the league (71.4 percent overall and 64.9 percent in Hockey East). The Warriors allowed only a single power-play goal by the Huskies in seven chances.

Jayson Philbin is finally making his mark in a Warrior uniform. Now patrolling right wing on a line with Casey Kesselring and Sandy Cohen, Philbin appears to be playing the best hockey of his collegiate career and assisted on one of Cohen’s two goals last weekend.

Merrimack is still in striking distance of seventh-place Providence and also has the chance to effectively clinch a playoff spot with a win over UMass-Amherst.

"We’re just looking to build on our play of late and have the strong second half that we feel we’re capable of," said Anderson. "We’re playing good hockey."

PICK: It’s always a war when Merrimack hosts BU. Why should this be an exception? BU, 4-3, in overtime.

UMass-Lowell (9-10-3, 6-5-3 HEA) at No. 8 Boston College (15-7-3, 9-5-2 HEA)

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

UMass-Lowell took three of four points from Providence, settling for a 2-2 tie in the Tully Forum farewell game before taking a 5-1 return match.

The River Hawks then celebrated their gala opening of the Tsongas Arena, but left with a bad taste in their mouths after a 2-1 overtime loss to Dartmouth. A critical penalty in the last minute of regulation led to the Big Green’s decisive power-play goal.

"It was a pretty dead-even game," said coach Tim Whitehead. "There were a couple wide-open plays, a couple goals that were called back and a couple hit posts by both teams. So there was some exciting play. It was a pretty good 1-1 game [in regulation], not your typical snoozer of a 1-1 game.

"But in a 1-1 game like that, our guys have to realize that one mistake can mean the difference in the game. It developed as one of those games where it was going to come down to one play, one way or another. We certainly had our opportunities to make that one play ourselves, but we didn’t do it.

"We have to play smarter in that type of game. It’s different if tons of goals are going in both ways. But in a low-scoring, 1-1, even game like that, it’s going to come down to a turnover or a penalty that you shouldn’t have taken or that type of thing. Obviously, we’re going to have to learn from it."

On the positive side, the new on-campus arena marks a major step forward for the team, a step that will become even more important when the new student center is built nearby.

"It’s a huge boost for our program because it shows a great commitment from the university to the hockey program, and just towards improving the quality of life on campus," said Whitehead. "In the long run, I’m sure the arena will have character just like the guy it’s named after. It’ll just take us some time to build that character."

The River Hawks, who only practiced on the Tsongas Arena ice one time before the opener, won’t get a chance this weekend to christen it with a win. Their only game is at Boston College.

Coincidentally, last weekend’s Lowell games were against a Providence team that had just absorbed a pummeling at the hands of BC. The River Hawks did a good job of keeping the Friars down, taking three of four points.

Once again, they are faced with an opponent that is licking its wounds. UNH humbled BC 9-3 in front of a SportsChannel audience.

"It might help us, or it might hurt us," said Whitehead. "I won’t know until I’ve seen the tapes of the game. But it definitely presents a different situation."

Boston College is profiled above.

PICK: BC rights the ship 5-3.

Providence College (12-9-2, 6-7-1 HEA) at UMass-Amherst (3-16-2, 0-11-1 HEA)

UMass-Amherst (3-16-2, 0-11-1 HEA) at Merrimack (9-14-1, 4-10-0 HEA)

Friday, 7 p.m., Mullins Center, Amherst, MA Saturday, 7 p.m., Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA AudioNet

After an impressive start this season, Providence has hit a rocky stretch, gaining only a tie in the last five games. That tie came at Lowell last Friday after a snowstorm turned a commute of an hour and change into more than four hours.

"Friday night was a good point for us," said coach Paul Pooley. "It was almost like a victory, because we had to deal with some adversity. Mark Kane played well in net for us.

"We came back on Saturday and played decent early on, but couldn’t score. We had some great chances, but then they came down and scored. We didn’t play well at all one-on-one. They beat us three times one-on-one to cause goals.

"It’s almost like we weren’t playing with a tremendous amount of confidence. We didn’t score and we got back on our heels a little bit. But that’s something we’ve got to work through. We’ve just got to keep fighting."

Rookie Boyd Ballard, for whom Hockey East had been smooth sailing until two weeks ago — when Boston College dumped the Friars 6-0 and 8-0 — now appears to be having a crisis of confidence. Like many a young goaltender before him, the pucks that once seemed as big as beach balls are looking mighty small.

"He’s never been in that situation before, and I think he’s fighting it a little bit," said Pooley. "It’s almost like he had too much, too soon. The first half was easy for him.

"We were scoring goals, which makes it a little different too. Now we’re not scoring as many goals, so every one that goes in is a factor. There are a lot of things of things that work on the psyche of a goalie."

And while the goaltending has become suddenly suspect, so, too, has the goal scoring. The team’s leading scorers, Mike Omicioli and Fernando Pisani, are struggling. Omicioli hasn’t scored a goal in the last nine games, and both players have been held without a point in seven of the last nine.

With Providence relying heavily on those two for the offense, it’s small wonder, then, that the Friars had been shut out three straight games before the weekend and only scored three times in the Lowell series.

As often happens when a scoring drought hits, players redouble their efforts, but sink deeper in the quagmire as they do so as individuals.

"Omicioli is doing that right now and it’s killing us," said Pooley. "Fernie [Pisani] has had a couple great chances, but just couldn’t bury them."

A major component of the problem is also the power play, which has now scored only one goal in its last 34 chances.

"It’s anemic," said Pooley. "We’re forcing it. In one clip of the tape that I just watched, we lost three faceoffs and had three chances to get the puck in and didn’t because we tried to be too cute.

"We’ve got to get back to basics. We’re not making the easy play. We’re trying to make the difficult play. We’ve got to make better decisions with the puck. We’ve got to keep it simple."

Pooley hopes to get defenseman Richard Miller and forward Jerry Keefe, one of the most skilled players on the team, back from injuries.

"We’re relying on too few guys right now," said Pooley. "At the beginning of the year, we didn’t have to. We’re not that far away from playing well again."

Pooley is also using a firm hand in trying to get his team playing the way he desires. In the Saturday loss, he sat Omicioli for the third period.

"We have to become more regimented," said Pooley. "Winning masked a lot of things earlier in the year. When we were playing well, we could let things go a little bit, but now my philosophy is that we have to get tight. We have to get more demanding, hold people accountable and make sure we’re doing all the little things right, because right now we’re not.

"I just have to assume the leadership role on the team. Here’s what we’re going to do, and you’re going to do it. Not to be egotistical, but that’s what we need to have happen right now. I have to step up, assume that and guide them. I think they’re looking for it."

On paper, this is the weekend to get back on track. The Friars face UMass-Amherst, a team still winless within the league, and 4-12-1 Brown.

Even so, Pooley is taking nothing for granted.

"They outshot us the last time that we played them," he said of the Minutemen. "We beat them 5-3, 5-3, and that was with Ballard playing well. Ballard made the team look good, so it gave the team confidence and when they had a chance to score, they scored.

"Now when we have a chance to score, we know how important it is to score so we’re a little up tight. So we’re snakebit, so we don’t score.

"They come down, beat a guy, shoot and it’s a goal. It’s demoralizing. But that’s when your true character comes out, so that’s what we have to have happen."

UMass-Amherst had one of its two-game set with Boston College postponed because of the snowstorm on Friday and lost the other 6-3. Although Eagle goaltender Scott Clemmensen did set a new NCAA regular-season shutout record against the Minutemen, coach Joe Mallen still saw good coming out of the loss to one of the league’s hottest teams.

"I want to congratulate Scott Clemmensen for his record," he said. "It’s a great milestone. But, hey, we scored three goals against them and it was a 4-3 game with 11 minutes left. I thought it was a pretty evenly played game. The action was up and down, not just in one end."

On the positive side, Tim Lovell appears to be mostly over injuries that have hampered his play.

"This is as close to 100 percent, skating-wise, as he’s been in about six weeks," said Mallen.

If the Minutemen are going to make a move for the eighth and final playoff spot, it needs to begin this weekend. After this, they finish with UNH (three times), Maine (three times), BU (twice), BC (once) and UMass-Lowell (once).

As a result, this week’s contests against seventh-place Providence and eighth-place Merrimack take on added importance. In particular, the head-to-head battle with Merrimack could either give the Minutemen a shot at the playoffs or seal their fate.

Even so, Mallen isn’t focusing on the Warriors.

"I look at all the Hockey East teams the same way," he said. "I can’t emphasize one game over the other. I would be foolish for us to focus on the Merrimack game when we play Providence first.

"Obviously, Merrimack didn’t get any points last weekend so they’re catchable. Anyone is catchable if we can get a series of wins. We’re just hoping to get four points this weekend."

Merrimack is profiled above.

PICK: No rest for the weary. The Minutemen lose to Providence, 3-2, and Merrimack, 5-3.

Mayor’s Cup Brown (4-12-1, 4-7-1 ECAC) at

Providence College (12-9-2, 6-7-1 HEA)

Saturday, 8 p.m., Schneider Arena, Providence, RI

"It’s not like URI-PC basketball," said Providence coach Paul Pooley about the Mayor’s Cup rivalry. "But we’re going to have a great crowd for it. It’s not like it’s a huge, huge game in terms of emotion. The buildup isn’t big, but once you get on the ice, the buildup starts."

Brown had its only game of the weekend canceled at UNH due to power outages. As a result, the Bears will be playing their first game in 11 days this weekend.

Although they did beat nationally-ranked Yale in mid-November, the Bears have only three other wins on the season. All three came against the bottom three teams in the ECAC.

They have lost all five nonconference games and overall have been outscored 75-49.

(For more on Brown, see this week’s ECAC Preview.)

PICK: Although rivalries tend to minimize talent disparities, this one should be no contest. Providence 4-1.

This Week in the ECAC: January 30, 1998

By Becky Blaeser & Jayson Moy

-

January 30, 1998

"Games in hand."

It’s a phrase you hear all the time when it comes to standings the race for a title. It’s something that you have heard since November about the ECAC.

"So and so has the lead in the ECAC, but right behind them is a team with ‘X’ number of games in hand."

You won’t hear it after this weekend.

That’s because after this weekend all 12 ECAC teams will have played 12 ECAC games. A dozen played for everyone, a ten-spot left for everyone. And in order for us to get there, we get games that involve travel partners and an Empire State showdown between four of the six New York teams.

The standings are tight, and this weekend in Central New York could tell a lot.

ECAC Standings

Last week’s predictions: 7-3 Year to date: 74-58, .561, 3rd

Clarkson (11-5-2, 7-2-1 ECAC, 2nd) and St. Lawrence (4-13-1, 3-6-1 ECAC, T-10th) at Cornell (9-6-2, 5-4-1 ECAC, T-6th) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7 pm, Lynah Rink, Ithaca, N.Y. St. Lawrence (4-13-1, 3-6-1 ECAC, T-10th) and Clarkson (11-5-2, 7-2-1 ECAC, 2nd) at Colgate (13-6-1, 7-3-0 ECAC, 3rd) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7 pm, Starr Rink, Hamilton, N.Y.

St. Lawrence is 1-8 in its last nine games, but of those eight losses, five were decided by a single goal and three went into the third period in a scoreless deadlock. Saturday evening was another of those, as the Saints lost 1-0 to Clarkson on a goal with two minutes left in the game.

"The most frustrating part of the whole thing is that we have played well enough to have won a number of those one-goal games," said Saint head coach Joe Marsh. "Saturday night was no exception. The guys worked hard from the opening faceoff and had chances to make some things happen, but couldn’t get one past the goaltender.

"It is disappointing and maddening to come so close, yet come up empty, but I am in no way disappointed with the effort we’re putting in," he added. "We just need to catch a bounce or two and we can get something going. If we keep working the way we are working, we can make a run. There is a lot of hockey left to be played."

As mentioned above, Clarkson defeated the Saints on a last-minute goal by Erik Cole, who earned Rookie of the Week honors for the second consecutive week.

Cole is second in the league in freshman scoring, with four goals and six assists. His 12 total points (4-8) put him in sixth place among rookies in overall scoring.

Chris Clark and Matt Reid have seven goals each within the league. Clark has 13 points in league play (7-6) and Reid 10 (7-3).

On another front, there was a big to-do in Potsdam recently about the goaltending situation of the Knights. But after Saturday’s game, All-American Dan Murphy’s GAA is 1.98 in league play, his save percentage .920 and his record 4-2-1.

Cornell traveled to Michigan to take on Western Michigan and Ferris State. After shutting out the Broncos, the Big Red dropped a 5-3 decision to the Bulldogs.

Special-teams play is an area where the Big Red would like to improve. The Cornell power play is ranked eleventh in the ECAC with a 12.3 conversion percentage, scoring nine times in 59 attempts. Meanwhile, the penalty kill is at 82.1 percent, somewhat better at seventh in the league.

Goaltending is no mystery in Ithaca, where Jason Elliott is the stalwart — he maintains a 2.30 GAA in the league, and a save percentage of .925. Overall, Elliott is at .931 and 2.36.

Colgate had a week off after dropping an overtime game to Cornell the previous Monday evening. Not only did the Red Raiders lose to Cornell, they also lost goaltender Dan Brenzavich with a game disqualification.

Brenzavich, the all-time victory leader at Colgate, continued to add to that mark with a win over Cornell two weeks ago. Brenzavich is leading the league in overall winning percentage (.767, 11-3-1), second in league games (.750, 6-2-0).

He is also fifth in GAA (2.49) and fourth in save percentage (.920).

The Red Raiders have done it with offense as well, leading the league with an average of 4.50 goals per game. Part of that is thanks to the power play, where Colgate is clicking at 16.9 percent.

That success is helped by Jed Whitchurch, who leads the league in assists with 18. Surprisingly, he hasn’t managed a goal in league play yet, though he stands third in ECAC in scoring.

PICKS: Clarkson at Cornell: The hotter of the two teams prevails. Clarkson, 4-2 St. Lawrence at Colgate: An upset. St. Lawrence, 3-2 St. Lawrence at Cornell: Not two nights in a row for either team. Cornell, 3-1 Clarkson at Colgate: Two points for each team this weekend. Colgate, 4-3

Princeton (10-4-4, 4-4-3 ECAC, T-6th) at Yale (14-4-0, 9-2-0 ECAC, 1st) Saturday, 3 pm, Ingalls Rink, New Haven, Conn.

Princeton is back from a three-week exam break, and the team is itching to go. The last time out the Tigers lost at Vermont after defeating Dartmouth.

One of the differences in the Tigers’ play had been the margin between their scoring offense and scoring defense. The Tigers currently put an average of 3.18 goals on the board per ECAC game while giving up an average of 3.45 goals per ECAC game.

One group doing some contributing is the "Orange Line" consisting of Jeff Halpern, Scott Bertoli and Casson Masters. Halpern has put up points in 10 straight games, with an average of one goal and one assist per.

Yale is still on top of the ECAC after a three-week hiatus from league play, but the Bulldogs’ lead has shrunk. Yale defeated Army this past weekend to tune up for the rest of the ECAC season.

Jeff Hamilton and Ray Giroux continue to lead the Bulldog attack. Hamilton is third in the league in scoring with 18 points (9-9), while Giroux is thirteenth at 1-11–12. Giroux leads all defensemen in the ECAC in scoring, and also leads the league in overall power play points (1-13–14).

Alex Westlund still has a GAA under 2.00 — he currently sits a 1.90, tied with Eric Heffler of St. Lawrence for the ECAC lead. He is also saving shots at a .934 clip.

PICK: The Tigers make it tighter at the top of the pack. Princeton, 3-2

Dartmouth (7-8-3, 3-7-1 ECAC, T-11th) at Vermont (6-13-2, 3-6-2 ECAC, 9th) Saturday, 3 pm, Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.

Both Dartmouth and Vermont lost to Denver this past weekend, 3-2 and 5-3, respectively. Dartmouth defeated UMass-Lowell in overtime on Tuesday in the grand opening of the Tsongas Arena in Lowell.

Vermont was tied with Denver 3-3 early in the third period with goals by Justin Martin, Phillippe Choiniere and Stephane Piche. Dartmouth was tied at two with Denver after two periods of play on goals by Scott Peach and Ryan Chaytors.

For the season, both the Big Green and the Catamounts are on the wrong side of the scoring summary by the same per-game figure — one goal. The Big Green are allowing a nice, even four goals per ECAC game while scoring three. The Cats give 3.45 goals per ECAC game while scoring 2.45.

PICK: Small offense, small defense — which one prevails? Dartmouth, 5-4

Big Red Freakout! Union (4-15-2, 2-8-1 ECAC, 12th) at Rensselaer (11-8-2, 5-4-2 ECAC, 5th) Saturday, 7 pm, Houston Fieldhouse, Troy, N.Y.

After a week off, the Capital District Rivalry between Union and Rensselaer is back on. Two weeks ago, the Engineers humbled the Dutchmen, 7-2, in a game in which the Engineers scored five power-play goals, and got two goals apiece from Doug Shepherd and Matt Garver.

Garver has been hot for the Engineers. The junior has scored 27 points this season (13-14) and is second in the league with nine goals in league play.

On his line is All-American Eric Healey, on a six-game point scoring streak with three goals and 10 assists in those six games. Healey has claimed the league lead in scoring with 22 league points (7-15) and 32 overall (12-20). He also leads the ECAC in power-play points (4-7–11), and is second in assists with 15 and sixth in goals with seven.

The Dutchmen are on the other end of the boat when it comes to offense in the ECAC: last in offense with 19 goals in 11 ECAC games — an average of just 1.73.

There are more offensive woes for Union as well on the power play — in those 11 league games, the Dutchmen have scored four power-play goals on 64 chances — a 6.2 percent conversion rate. Special teams as a whole are a sore subject for the Dutchmen, who are at minus-10 overall in specialty play.

PICK: Twice in three weeks for the Engineers. Rensselaer, 5-3

Mayor’s Cup Brown (4-12-1, 4-7-1 ECAC, 8th) at Providence (12-9-2, 6-7-1 Hockey East, 7th) Saturday, 8 pm, Schneider Arena, Providence, R.I.

Brown is finishing its non-conference schedule with the annual Mayor’s Cup matchup with Providence. Thus far, the Bears have yet to win a non-conference game — 0-5-0 out of the ECAC.

Last weekend’s game against New Hampshire, postponed because of a power outage, will not be made up.

In the Mayor’s Cup game, the Bears have won the last two, by scores of 3-2 in 1995 and 8-5 in 1996. This will be edition number 12 in the series; before the last two years, the Friars had gone 7-1-1.

Damian Prescott has come alive as of late for the Bears with ten points in his last six games, scoring five and adding five helpers. He is positioned in fifth place in league scoring with 16 points (10-6), and has 19 points overall.

PICK: The Friars take the Cup back. Providence, 5-2

46th Beanpot Harvard (6-9-2, 6-5-1 ECAC, 4th) vs. Boston College (15-7-3, 9-5-2 Hockey East, T-1st) Monday, 6 pm, Fleet Center, Boston, Mass.

These two teams meet for the third time this season, somewhat of an anomaly when you consider that they’re not in the same conference. Harvard and Boston College have already gone at it in the regular season (an 4-3 OT win for the Eagles) and in the consolation game of the Banc One Badger Showdown (a 6-6 tie).

In seven Beanpots, head coach Ronn Tomassoni is 4-10-0, winning one title in 1993. Besides those two wins, the Crimson’s only others under Tomassoni came in 1992, a first-round win over Boston College, 6-4, and in 1994, a first-round win over Boston University, 4-2.

In seven tournaments, Tomassoni’s Crimson squads have finished first once, second twice and fourth four times.

Right now, the Crimson are looking to break a string of three consecutive fourth-place finishes, something that has only happened once before in Crimson history (1982-84).

Harvard comes into the Beanpot after taking three weeks off for exams hoping for a non-conference win, where the Crimson are 0-4-1 this season, including losses to each of the other three Beanpot participants already.

(For information on Boston College, please see the Hockey East preview.)

PICK: BC remains undefeated against Harvard this season. Boston College, 5-2

There are five weeks left in the ECAC season, and the Road to Lake Placid is in full swing.

Friday, February 6: Vermont at Clarkson Dartmouth at St. Lawrence Colgate at Princeton Cornell at Yale Union at Harvard Rensselaer at Brown

Saturday, February 7: Vermont at St. Lawrence Dartmouth at Clarkson Colgate at Yale Cornell at Princeton Union at Brown Rensselaer at Harvard

Monday, February 9: Harvard vs. Boston University/Northeastern (Beanpot)

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Tully Forum

By David H. Hendrickson

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January 28, 1998

A live turkey tied to a goalpost … the famous “zip code” speech and the infamous money on the table … a geyser in the visitors’ locker room during a national championship game …

If you look at the nondescript exterior of UMass-Lowell’s Tully Forum, you’d never guess the oft-bizarre history that lurks within.

On the outside, it reminds you of NYPD Blue‘s Andy Sipowicz — gritty, blue-collar and a tad on the ugly side when you get right down to it. But penetrate that exterior and start sifting through the legends and you instead get the crazy-as-a-bedbug Jim Carrey — one saah-mokin’, allll-riiiighty-then madcap zoo of a barn.

On Jan. 23, the River Hawks played their last game in the building, a 2-2 tie with Providence. On the 27th, they opened its replacement, the justly-hyped, 6,496-seat Paul E. Tsongas Arena.

For recent converts to River Hawk hockey — those who have never met the Jim Carrey side — the switch simply represents a chance to move into a wonderful arena that offers that time-honored real estate adage: location, location, location. Tully Forum is located six miles from the school; the Tsongas Arena is in the heart of the campus.

But old-timers who have met the face behind Tully Forum’s mask know that the Tsongas Arena may never match its predecessor’s vivid history.

The Turkey with the Trots

Allll riiiighty then.

If someone is crazier than a bedbug, does is make sense to examine his ancestors?

Of course. Especially if the ancestors are even more gonzo than the progeny.

Onward, then, to a Feb. 4, 1978, game held at Skate 3 in Tyngsboro, Lowell’s home rink prior to the move to Tully Forum for the 1980-81 season.

For some time, the University of Lowell (as it was then called before merging with other schools and becoming UMass-Lowell) had cast envious stares down Route 495 toward its more successful Division II neighbor, Merrimack College. Merrimack had just won its third ECAC Division II championship and would, later that season, crush its opposition in the first NCAA Division II championships, defeating Mankato State 6-1 in the semifinal game and Lake Forest 12-2 in the final.

“They were what we wanted to become,” says Bill Riley, Lowell’s colorful coach during those years. “We could never seem to catch them.”

Merrimack had dominated the series, winning 11 out of 12 games. Obsessed with the Warriors, Riley had personally scouted their last three games in search of weaknesses.

“Every game I went to, one of their defensemen got hurt,” says Riley. “So I was licking my chops figuring that this was our year. I think they played us with three healthy defensemen.”

On the verge of a breakthrough, Riley pulled out all the stops.

“At the time, we had a fan support group called The Wild Men,” he remembers. “The manager of my team was also the president of The Wild Men. They used to like to get things rocking and rolling.

“It was around Thanksgiving and the manager kept sending Thanksgiving pictures to the Merrimack goalie in his dormitory. The pictures were of turkeys and feathers with the goalie’s face superimposed on top.

“So I gave him twenty bucks and told him to go up into New Hampshire and get me a live turkey and we’d tie it to the net when Merrimack came onto the ice. The goalie would get the message.

“They tied the turkey to the goalpost, but the minute it touched the ice, it passed out or something. That wasn’t the show I wanted to see. It wasn’t running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

“Meanwhile, all it did was keep going the bathroom all over the ice. There was [excrement] everywhere in the crease. So now the Merrimack players had to go over there and scrape the stuff off.

“This girl, an animal rights advocate, ran onto the ice and untied the turkey and started holding onto him and clutching him to her chest. Meanwhile the turkey is still going to the bathroom all over her.”

The outrageous prank, however, backfired.

“We outshot them something like three to one because they were so weak on defense,” says Riley, “but wouldn’t you know, they still tied us, 3-3. It was all our own fault because the goalie was damned if he was going to let the puck in the net.”

A postscript to the story occurred at a practice the next week when two men showed up and flashed a badge at Riley.

“You the coach here?” they asked. “You Bill Riley?”

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Well, we’ve got a live turkey down at the dog pound,” they said. “You’ve got to get it out of there.”

“Oh, that’s not my turkey,” replied Riley. “That’s [Merrimack coach] Tom Lawlor’s turkey.”

The two men shook their heads and walked away.

The Broken Fist

On Dec. 2, 1978, still playing out of Skate 3, Lowell hosted Colby College. The Chiefs led in the game, but kept taking penalties and eventually lost because of Colby power-play goals.

“We were playing like a bunch of punks,” says Riley. “I was so mad, I hit the locker room door as hard as I could to prove a point. Sometimes, you role play as a coach. I could even put tears in my eyes to emphasize a point. But this time I didn’t have to role play. I was really mad.

“As soon as I hit it, I knew I’d broken something.

“The next day, I walked in and had it in a cast. I was hiding it inside my sports jacket. For three-quarters of the pre-game meal, I looked like Napoleon.”

Of course, there was no real hiding it.

“It was pretty embarrassing,” says Riley. “I’d go to the bank teller and she’d say, ‘What happened to your arm?’

“‘Oh, you don’t want to know.’

“‘No, tell me, what happened to your arm?’

“‘Well, I punched a locker room door.’

“And she’d give me that look, like, ‘Oh, how childish, how juvenile, how immature.'”

But Riley had made his point. After opening with three wins and four losses prior to the broken fist, the Chiefs posted a 24-2-0 record the rest of the way and won a Division II national championship, their first of three in four years.

“Those were the things I’d do to try to get the point across,” he says with a laugh. “Half of it was smoke and mirrors, but you can do that when you’re younger.”

Get Your Red Hot Lobsters

The school bought the Forum, originally constructed in 1964, with money appropriated by the state legislature, primarily at the behest of State Senator Joe Tully. The rink, however, was “a pig pen” and no money had been provided for its renovation.

There was no heat, no hot water for showers, a 40-foot hole in the roof covered by a tarpaulin, and a chain-link fence for glass in the end zone. Players’ longjohns would freeze in the locker rooms.

Although a couple years later, State Senator Phil Shea was able to push through renovations appropriations of $500,000 for two years straight, Lowell supporters initially were on their own. Friends of the athletes, tradespeople and others in the community spent their weekends in a labor of love.

Riley and his assistant coaches, Gary Bishop and Mike Geragosian, built the boards themselves as part of a federal jobs-training program in which the carpenter doing the training had no one else to teach.

“We didn’t get paid for it, but we had this guy to take us along,” remembers Riley. “There was nobody in the program, so we did all the work ourselves.”

Although the boards surrounding the 185-by-85 foot ice surface — renowned for its tiny neutral zone — turned out quite nicely, the three coaches weren’t always so successful.

“There’d be a time after we painted the bleachers when people would come up and say they had paint on their pants or on their blouse,” says Riley. “We’d just plead the fifth. We were painting the things in November and it was still humid and cool. The damn paint never took.”

The building slowly began to take form. What it initially lacked in aesthetics, it made up for in other ways. When hosting the Division II NCAA championship one year, for example, Riley’s people used the hot dog bin to boil lobsters in the afternoon for the NCAA committee members. The following year, Riley was promptly asked if he was ready to host the NCAAs again.

The Geyser in the Locker Room

With renovations incomplete, all the piping was exposed under stands — where one could also buy beer and wine — and in the locker rooms. This fact had a bizarre and comic impact on the Mar. 14, 1981, D-II national championship game against Plattsburgh State.

“They had a big kid named Poulin, who was a real force,” says Riley. “He was a nice guy, but I knew he was a hothead. So we sent a defenseman after him every period to hit him, hit him, hit him, and get his mind off the game and into the physical part of it.

“And the kid went for it. Oh man, did he go for it.”

After several penalties and a misconduct, Plattsburgh State coach Herb Hammond sent Poulin to the locker room before the second period was even over. Whether Hammond was going to summon him for the third period is unclear, but the combustible Poulin entered the locker room in a rage.

“The kid was so mad, he starting pulling the pipes off the wall,” says Riley. “Eventually, he pulled off the water pipes. The rink manager came over to me while the second period was still going and said, ‘Listen, Billy, that big forward Poulin from Plattsburgh pulled the pipes right out of the wall. There’s water spraying all over their locker room. What do you want me to do?’

“I said, ‘You know what I want you to do. Don’t do a thing until the third period. Then turn the water off.’

“Sure enough, the Plattsburgh team was going into the third period for the national championship and they had water spraying all over their locker room during intermission. They probably went in the showers to stay dry.”

Lowell won, 5-4, for its second national championship. No one remembers how soggy the Plattsburgh State uniforms were in the third period.

The Forum’s Greatest Game

Two years later, on Mar. 5, 1983, Lowell hosted the D-II ECAC championships and sold 4,250 tickets for its title game against Babson, despite the building’s 3,200-seat capacity.

“People just wanted to get in for the game,” says Riley. “We had, literally, people eight-deep at the glass.”

When a few complained and asked for their money back, the ticket-taker consulted Riley on what to do. The coach’s response fit perfectly the tenor of the times.

“For crying out loud,” Riley told the ticket-taker, “we’re a carnival here. Whoever wants to leave, give them their money back. The tent’s always open. Let ’em in and let ’em out.”

The few who left soon regretted it, however, because the two teams battled into triple overtime. With the championship on the line in the third OT, Lowell goaltender Dana Demole stopped Fran Murray on two breakaways 30 seconds apart. Jim O’Brien, a freshman like Demole, then carried it down the other end and scored to give the Chiefs the 3-2 win.

The “Zip Code” Speech

With their Division II national championships under their belts, the ULowell Chiefs had at least reached parity with their neighbor, Merrimack. This fueled the rivalry, as did the Teapot Tournament — a D-II variation on the Beanpot that involved Lowell, Merrimack, Salem State and either Bowdoin or Holy Cross playing at the Boston Garden.

No matter what other teams were on the schedule, a chance to beat Merrimack was something to be savored. For no one was this more true than for Riley, who was more than ready to make sure that his kids were focused.

A master of the locker room speech, he had once been asked by the on-ice officials, who could clearly hear him in their adjoining room through holes in the walls that the pipes went through, if they could tape-record his comments for use at their year-end banquet.

This one time against Merrimack, though, he outdid even himself.

“I was ranting and raving,” he says. “I got to the end of of my vociferous dialogue and said, ‘I hate Merrimack. I hate their school. I hate the color of their uniforms. I hate the Indian chief on their shirts…

“‘I even hate their #$%@& zip code.'”

One didn’t even have to know that the two schools’ zip codes differed by only one digit to appreciate that one.

“I had just run out of things to hate,” he says laughing.

“What you have to understand,” he adds with a straight face, “is that we had always looked up to Merrimack, so what I said, I said affectionately.”

A Player Introduction for the Ages

In 1983-84, the Chiefs moved up to Division I play, a choice that was not universally supported within the administration. Some of the over-my-dead-body types that Riley defeated in the process would later exact their revenge, but at the time, the team fared reasonably well. When one year later, Hockey East commenced its first season of play, Lowell finished fifth in the seven-team league. In two more years, it would finish second.

With the move to Division I came new potential rivals. One of them was Boston College, a powerhouse that would finish first in Hockey East in all but one of the first seven seasons.

After a bad loss to BC one evening, Riley looked for revenge back at the Forum. He typed up a different format for player introductions than the one Hockey East used at the time, handed it to BC coach Len Ceglarski and told him that it was the standard Tully Forum protocol.

Much like the format used today, the entire team would stay by the nets, the starting six would skate to the blue line when introduced, followed then by the rest of the team, which would stand on the blue line for the national anthem.

Meanwhile, Riley instructed his starting six to each race out at 100 miles an hour and stop on a dime. The first one would stop at the blue line. The second, five feet beyond the blue line. The third, at the red line and the fourth five feet past the red line. The fifth and sixth players would race out at 100 miles an hour and stop right in the BC players’ faces on the opposing blue line.

“It was a show,” laughs Riley. “What a show! There weren’t any fights, but everyone was bumping chests, that macho, in-your-face kind of thing. Poor Lenny, he didn’t know what was happening, but I could see [assistant coach Steve] Cedorchuk on the boards and was he mad!”

Cedorchuk had even more reason to be angry by game’s end. A Riley prank had once again paid off with a win.

Money on the Table, Trouble on the Way

Another new rival, Boston University, factored into yet another Riley stunt, one which would eventually lead to him stepping down. He had played on the same line at BU with Terrier coach Jack Parker, so Parker always made sure his troops were jacked up to face Lowell. As a result, the Chiefs, who had enjoyed plenty of success against the first-place BC Eagles, couldn’t seem to beat BU.

On one fateful night, however, the Chiefs led by a goal going into the third period and seemed to have the Terriers on the ropes.

“Unlike a lot of schools, the university never fed the guys after the game,” says Riley of a practice that has since been corrected. “They were just supposed to go out on their own even though they hadn’t had anything to eat since before four o’clock in the afternoon.

“So I gave a pep talk between the second and third period. I threw down a couple hundred dollars and said, ‘Listen, if we win this game, the party’s on me.’

“I looked at it as a chance for them to go out as a group and sit down and savor the victory.”

Eventually, however, the incident was used to force Riley out as part of an NCAA investigation.

“They wanted to say that I was paying the kids, but it was just that the pizza was on me,” says Riley. “Sometimes, the pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs. The president that we have here now, and was there at the time, never wanted us to go Division I. I got a lot of things here in spite of his wishes. Even when you beat your boss, you still lose down the road.”

Breaking Through Against BU

Riley’s successor in 1991, Bruce Crowder, possessed one of the game’s sharpest wits, but was not especially predisposed to continuing Riley’s lineage of madcap antics. A sense of humor was one thing. Tying a live turkey to a goalpost was quite another.

Despite the change in decorum, though, some things stayed the same.

Namely, Boston University.

If BU had been a thorn in the side of Riley’s teams of the eighties, the thorn became even longer and sharper in the nineties. The Terriers, arguably the team of the decade, continued to dominate the series.

One of a few minor breakthroughs occurred, however, on Nov. 5, 1994. Lowell, which had begun using the nickname River Hawks that season to replace the politically incorrect Chiefs, took BU into overtime tied 7-7.

That year, Hockey East had adopted the shootout as a crowd-pleasing end to games still tied after the five-minute overtime. The shootout did not carry the weight of a full win — a conventional win earned five points in the standings, while shootout wins and losses garnered three and two points, respectively, and the NCAA ignored all shootout results.

The crowd-pleasing addition did, however, give Lowell’s Greg Bullock the opportunity to score what might be the second-most amazing goal ever — a tip of the fedora to Michigan’s Mike Legg and his lacrosse-style tally as being all alone at number one.

Eye-catching goals had held a place in Lowell lore ever since one Skate 3 game on Jan. 15, 1976, against Bridgewater State. With both benches at that rink located on the same side of the ice, a goaltender being pulled for an extra attacker during a second-period delayed penalty actually had to cross over the red line into the offensive zone to get to the bench.

On this night, the puck came to the Bridgewater State goalie as he neared the red line. He not only fired it on net, he put it past Mason Leggee for one of the most stunning achievements in the sport.

In subsequent years, stars like Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Brian Leetch, Tony Amonte and Paul Kariya — not to mention the greatest of them all, number four Bobby Orr, in an old-timers game — had chances to show their creativity on the Forum ice.

But none matched Bullock on this night. When it came Bullock’s turn in the shootout, he skated in on Derek Herlofsky, performed a 360-degree pirouette and put the puck past the befuddled Terrier goaltender.

“Even the BU players stood up and cheered,” remembers Chaz Scoggins, long-time beat writer for The Lowell Sun.

The final breakthrough against the Terriers, however, took place at the Forum on Jan. 27, 1996. The River Hawks were hosting Boston University one night after upsetting the Terriers 8-6 at Walter Brown Arena. The defending national champion Terriers had entered the weekend ranked #1 in the country with an 18-1-3 record. Even more importantly, by that time they held a 34-2-3 stranglehold in the 12-year history of the series.

Almost no one had thought the River Hawks could go down to Walter Brown Arena and topple BU in its own barn, but they had. Could they actually complete the sweep over such a dominating opponent? The fans flocked to the Forum to find out for themselves.

Although the attendance was officially listed as 3,215 in deference to the fire marshal, somewhere in the vicinity of 4,000 fans entered the building. As Crowder puts it, “The crowd was hanging from the rafters. It was just a tremendous atmosphere.”

That atmosphere reached a fever pitch as the final seconds ticked off and the crowd’s roar became deafening. With a 5-4 triumph, the River Hawks had accomplished the unthinkable. Later that season, they would advance to within one game of the NCAA Final Four for the second time in three years.

The River Hawk Loses His Head

For all its good points, however, the Tully Forum remained the right building in the wrong place.

“I’ve always said that if they could just helicopter it up and land it on campus, that would just be fantastic for the school,” says Crowder.

Instead, it sat six miles from the campus. Students, who might naturally migrate to an on-campus rink as if drawn by gravity, got to the Forum games in disappointing numbers.

To make up for this, the school reached out to the community, and to youngsters in particular. For a pittance, “Youngstars” gained free admittance to all home games, River Hawk merchandise and special camps or tournaments. These fans of the future brought their parents while also lining up at the concession stand for french fries, pizza and nachos.

At one such Youngstars camp, the Forum experienced perhaps its final comic moment. Several Lowell players skated on the ice with the kids, with some even opting to don the costume of the blue River Hawk mascot.

“Marty Fillion was dressed up as the River Hawk,” remembers Tim Whitehead, who succeeded Crowder when he left for Northeastern. “Marty went down and did a breakdance, but then his Hawk head flew off.

“Marty was so embarrassed he had to leave the ice. He couldn’t even come back out. Somebody else had to go use the costume.

“We had some real little kids there, so I acted really outraged and said, ‘There must be an imposter! Where’s the real River Hawk? Wait till the real Hawk finds out about this!'”

Onward to the Future

Over the course of 18 seasons — and many a Jim Carrey moment — at the Tully Forum, Lowell teams posted a 168-111-20 record. Its chapter in UMass-Lowell’s book has ended. The politicians, Lord help us, are now involved deciding the Forum’s fate. It will either be demolished or, according to the latest proposal, leased to the town of Chelmsford for use in youth and schoolboy hockey.

Meanwhile, the Tsongas Arena moves front and center with its on-campus location, exceptional design and, for the Jan. 27 opener at least, sold out 6,496 seats.

In addition to attracting more fans in general, and students in particular, the Tsongas Arena could also have a significant impact on recruiting. For years, the inconvenience of driving to practice every day has been used against Lowell in recruiting.

“When you ask our student-athletes, it’s not that big a deal,” says Whitehead. “It’s no different than in juniors or the pros. You drive to the rink in pro hockey. Two roommates jump in the car and go to the rink. But people have made a lot out of it, in terms of negative recruiting, and sometimes it did affect us.

“We’ll have to wait and see how important the facilities are to the students. I doubt it will be the reason people come here. But I am confident that it will contribute positively to the decision that student-athletes are making.

“And the one thing I can guarantee is that once they’re here, the facilities will, without question, contribute to the quality of the students’ lives. That’s a guarantee.”

And so, for Lowell fans, it’s a fond adieu to the Tully Forum and a welcome embrace of the Tsongas Arena.

Let the good times roll.

Many thanks to coaches Bill Riley, Bruce Crowder and Tim Whitehead, Tully Forum rink manager Don Lampron, Lowell Sun beat writer Chaz Scoggins, WLLH play-by-play announcer Bob Ellis, Sports Information Director Jim Seavey, skate-sharpener Bill Wheeler and the many fans I’ve talked to. This article could not have been completed without all of you.

Villanova Drops Out of Q Cup on Eve of Tourney

USCHO Staff Report

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January 27, 1998

Severely undermanned Villanova announced Tuesday evening that it would not participate in the second annual Quinnipiac Cup, dropping out of the tournament the night before the Wildcats’ scheduled game with host Quinnipiac.

The tournament, held at the New Haven Coliseum, will feature Fairfield and Holy Cross in the opener at 4:00 p.m. ET Wednesday, Jan. 28. The host Braves will face Iona — which agreed to fill the opening created by Villanova’s withdrawal — at 7:00 p.m. in the second game of the opening day. Next, games Feb. 4 will feature the consolation at 3:00 p.m. with the championship scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

“We are very disappointed at the timeliness of Villanova’s announcement, particularly in light of the considerations we gave Villanova in rescheduling the tournament from December to January,” said Quinnipiac director of athletics and recreation Jack McDonald, who also thanked Iona for its willingness to participate on extremely short notice.

Villanova’s faxed announcement read, “At this time, due to a substantial number of injuries and illnesses, we are unable to field a squad with the minimum number of participants needed to compete safely.”

Villanova head coach Nick Russo had apparently confirmed his team’s involvement as recently as Monday night, but instead the squad will forfeit its scheduled game. The team will be dropped from varsity status following this season.

The Turkey with the Trots

The Broken Fist

Get Your Red Hot Lobsters

The Geyser in the Locker Room

The Forum’s Greatest Game

The “Zip Code” Speech

A Player Introduction for the Ages

Money on the Table, Trouble on the Way

Breaking Through Against BU

The River Hawk Loses His Head

Onward to the Future

Casey Hankinson

Tyler Harlton

Steve Noble

Erik Raygor

Erin Marie Schmalz

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