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Umile Suffers Heart Attack

March 8, 1997

New Hampshire head men’s hockey coach Richard Umile was taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital at approximately 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning after suffering a heart attack at his home in Portsmouth.

According to Nursing Supervisor Nancy Bruce, Umile was listed in fair condition as of 10 a.m. on Saturday.

“The athletic department was shocked to hear the news about Dick,” said UNH athletic director Dr. Judith Ray. “Coach Umile is a very important part of our athletic department team and we wish him a very quick recovery.”

On Friday night (March 7) Umile led his Wildcats to a 5-1 victory over UMass-Amherst in the quarterfinal round of the Hockey East championships.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with him and we are very concerned about his well-being,” said senior co-captain Tim Murray. “We want to rally behind this and it would be nice to win this one for him. He has done so much for us over the years.”

At this time, only immediate family is permitted to visit Umile. He will be moved on Sunday to the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts.

“I sincerely hope Coach Umile has a quick recovery,” said UMass-Amherst coach Joe Mallen. “Dick is one of the finest gentlemen in the league. I’m proud to be associated with a guy like him.”

This Week in the ECAC: March 7, 1997

By Jayson Moy

March 7, 1997

ECAC Playoffs: Quarterfinals by Jayson Moy

We’re down to eight teams left in the hunt for the Whitelaw Trophy, three of which have never won it — Princeton, Union and Yale. In fact, of the three, only sixth-seeded Princeton has made it as far as the championship game (a 5-1 loss in 1995 to RPI).

Tuesday’s preliminary-round games ended the seasons of two more teams, St. Lawrence and Colgate. Thus, the Bulldogs of Yale head to Clarkson, and the Crimson of Harvard to Cornell.

Here we go …

No. 5 Union (18-11-3, 11-8-3 ECAC) at No. 4 RPI (17-11-4, 12-7-3 ECAC) Friday, 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), 7 p.m., Houston Fieldhouse, Troy, N.Y.

Regular Season Nov. 16: Union 2 RPI 0 at Knickerbocker Arena, Non-League Game Jan. 17: RPI 5 Union 2 at RPI Jan. 25: RPI 3 Union 3 OT at Union

The Capital District rivalry continues this weekend at the RPI Fieldhouse. These will be the fourth, fifth and possibly sixth meetings this year between the two rivals, which are just ten miles apart.

"It’s deja vu," said Union forward Chris Ford.

"That’s fine with me," said RPI coach Dan Fridgen when told of his team’s quarterfinal opponent after Saturday’s win over Princeton. "We’re playing at home, and that’s better than a lot of other scenarios. One of our goals at the beginning of the year was to get home ice for the ECAC playoffs. It’s great to achieve a goal that we set out to do."

The exact same scenario was in place three years ago, when RPI was the third seed. It was the Dutchmen’s very first ECAC playoffs since joining the league in 1991, and the first game of that series also marked the first Union ECAC playoff win.

"I don’t think anyone even realized the ramifications of winning that first game," said Union forward John Sicinski. "We were green, and we didn’t realize how close we were to making it to Lake Placid."

That green team is now an experienced one; the Dutchmen have 13 seniors on their squad, and are in the quarterfinals for the first time since that year.

"We’ve got 13 guys who played in that series three years ago," said Union forward Ryan Donovan. "There’s a lot of experience that could very well help this time around. We’re looking forward to the challenge."

"There’s a lot of experience and a lot of excitement," said Union captain and Co-Defensive Defenseman of the Year in the ECAC Andrew Will. "Guys aren’t going to get caught up in all the hoopla this time around. We’re going to have more level heads about it."

While it is true that Union has 13 seniors, there isn’t much playoff experience on the squad. In addition to the quarterfinal round three years ago, there has been only a prelim-round loss to Princeton two years ago. The Dutchmen did not make the playoffs last season.

RPI doesn’t have much playoff experience, either. Five players do have the benefit of winning an ECAC Championship two years ago, but the team is comprised mostly of freshmen and sophomores, and last year’s team was swept in the quarterfinals by Vermont.

Defense is a high point for the Dutchmen. They finished with an ECAC goals-against of 2.45, tied with Clarkson for the league lead. Goalie Trevor Koenig is the nation’s leader with a GAA of 1.99 nationally, and 2.19 in the ECAC. He has a save percentage of .934 in ECAC games (.931 overall).

"The whole team has been playing great defense all year," said Will. "It takes a lot of help from a lot of guys."

Not to be outdone, RPI’s defense is a silent but effective group.

"I think, overall, our defensemen have played solidly, and have really done the job for us this season," said RPI coach Dan Fridgen. "As a matter of fact, we did something new this year with our defensemen, as far as strategy, and they adjusted to it very well. Each of the six guys brings something different to the table."

In goal for RPI are the freshman duo of Scott Prekaski and Joel Laing. The two have combined for a wonderful season, helping concerns over the loss of Mike Tamburro, the 1995 ECAC Tournament MVP, fall by the wayside. Expect the two to split the series’ first two games.

Offensively, the Engineers have the edge. RPI had 20 more goals during the ECAC season than Union did, anchored by its top line of Eric Healey, Alain St. Hilaire and Matt Garver — the fifth-, 13th- and 11th-leading scorers in the ECAC, respectively.

For Union, John Sicinski leads with 31 points and Brent Ozarowski has 29. Don’t forget Ryan Campbell with 10 goals, Chris Ford’s seven, and Jamie Antoine’s power-play prowess.

These two have met three times already, with a record of 1-1-1. But don’t expect them to use that as a gauge for this series.

"The past is the past," said Fridgen. "You’re only as good as your last game."

"I feel that every team is different every single game," said Union head coach Stan Moore. "The team you played before is certainly different now."

"We’re even on the season series, so its going to be a battle," said RPI defenseman Chris Aldous, whose game-winner Saturday against Princeton gave the Engineers this home-ice advantage.

PICK: Will both teams get caught up in the rivalry? It’s just another series to a lot of the guys on the ice, and what it will come down to is whether RPI can solve Koenig, and whether Union can hold RPI down in the third period.

RPI in three, 2-3, 3-1, 5-2

No. 6 Princeton (16-9-4, 11-8-3 ECAC) at No. 3 Vermont (21-8-3, 13-6-3 ECAC) Friday, 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), 7 p.m., Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.

Regular Season Jan. 10: Vermont 3 Princeton 2 at Princeton Feb. 22: Princeton 2 Vermont 0 at Vermont

Princeton head coach Don Cahoon pretty much summed up the playoffs. "You play well, you go on. You don’t play well, and you’re all done."

Princeton had home-ice advantage within its reach Saturday, after storming back to tie RPI, 2-2, in its own building. It would have been a first for the up-and-coming program. But after five-plus strong games, the Tigers let down in the third, thanks mostly to an RPI goal with one second left in the second period, giving the Engineers the 3-2 win.

Cahoon was frustrated, but remained philosophical about having to go up to Vermont, the nation’s eighth-ranked team in the latest Around the Rinks/USCHO poll.

"If we’re going to go to the next round, we’re going to have to beat a good team, regardless of where we played them or who we played," he said. "Vermont is a good team. If we’re a good enough team to be in Lake Placid, we’ll find a way to get there. We just wanted to make it a little more difficult for ourselves."

Many observers handed Vermont the ECAC regular-season title before the season started, coming off last year’s Final Four appearance. But it didn’t quite work out that way.

"The most important part was getting home ice," said Vermont head coach Mike Gilligan. "We had a chance for second, but things didn’t work out, so we got third, which is pretty pleasing."

The series will take place in the noisy Gutterson Fieldhouse, which gives the Catamounts an advantage. But the last time the two teams met, on Vermont’s Senior Day, Princeton shut out the Cats 2-0.

"It has to give the guys confidence," said Cahoon about the win. "In the back of your mind, you hope it stays there, but essentially you have to start all over again."

"You definitely want to remember that," said Gilligan about his team’s loss. "We can use that to our advantage. That’s still fresh in our memories."

Experience can also play a factor in the playoffs. The Cats return 20 players from last year’s Final Four squad. The Tigers return 10 players from the team that made the ECAC Championship game two years ago.

"Our experience has helped in that regard," said Gilligan of playoff hockey. "These guys are more emotionally prepared this time of the year than all season."

But how will this weekend’s game’s shape up between the two?

"We’re going to have to play solid hockey all around the rink," said Cahoon. "We’ll hope to check [Martin St. Louis (right) and Eric Perrin (left)] down as much as we can.

"[Vermont] has balanced their lines a little more. And in turn, they’ve balanced their offense a little more."

"We had a couple of kids knocked out physically against Harvard (last Saturday)," said Gilligan. "The third and fourth lines got a lot of time. (Stephane) Piche and (J.C.) Ruid had real strong weekends as well. There are some kids who have not helped St. Louis and Perrin in the offensive department this year, and now they are starting to help them.

"[Princeton] comes right after you. They’ve got good speed at the forward position, and we’ve got to knock them off the puck as soon as we can."

Cahoon should have forward Scott Bertoli, the ECAC’s 12th-leading scorer, back in action after sitting most of Saturday’s game versus RPI with a groin injury.

"We decided to rest him on Saturday," said Cahoon on Bertoli. "He dressed on Saturday, but didn’t really see the ice. Maybe I shouldn’t have dressed him, but I sat him because I chose to look at it on a long-term basis."

The goaltending matchup should also be a good one. Expect to see Tim Thomas and Erasmo Saltarelli, two of the top five ECAC goaltenders, in net. After alternating most of the year, Saltarelli has started four straight games for the Tigers.

If there is a second goalie for Princeton, it’s likely to be freshman Craig Bradley, who is 4-0-1 this season, including big wins over Dartmouth and Colgate.

"I don’t know if he’ll have to carry the whole weight," said Cahoon of Saltarelli. "He’s played very well, and he’ll be the main contributor in net.

"It will go as the series goes. If it goes to three games, I won’t be playing one goalie."

Saltarelli has played the lion’s share of the games down the stretch, six of the last seven, and seven of the last nine. He finished the ECAC season with a 2.59 GAA and a .902 save percentage.

Thomas, of course, has played almost every minute since coming to Vermont in 1993-94.

"I don’t think there’s a better goalie than ours," said Gilligan of Thomas.

Thomas admitted that he was thinking about his future early in the season, but during the stretch run, he has done a great job. He finished the season with a 2.57 GAA and .922 save percentage.

PICK: This is a tough series. The ferocious forecheck and speed of Princeton will attempt to keep the Cats at bay. Expect a lot of hitting, and when the offense shakes loose, there will be some beautiful plays. Also expect a low-scoring series, thanks to two outstanding goaltenders. Experience will be a key factor.

Vermont in three games, 3-2, 1-3, 4-2

No. 8 Harvard (11-17-2, 9-10-2 ECAC) at No. 2 Cornell (17-8-4, 14-6-2 ECAC) Friday, 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), 7 p.m., Lynah Rink, Ithaca, N.Y.

Regular Season Nov. 9: Cornell 3 Harvard 2 at Harvard Feb. 14: Cornell 2 Harvard 1 at Cornell

The Crimson of Harvard have a one-game winning streak in the ECAC playoffs after a 4-2 victory over St. Lawrence on Tuesday night.

"We regrouped, and it’s a solid win — after the first period anyways," said head coach Ronn Tomassoni, whose teams are not used to playing a prelim game. "We have to play 60 minutes, absolutely. We can’t go up to Clarkson or Cornell and expect to win a series. I’ll tell you, the fact of the matter is, we can beat either team, but we have to play 60 minutes each time we play.

"At this time of the year, the competition is now going to get tougher. You have to play 60 minutes [of hockey] if you want to win a championship. We kind of dodged a bullet (Tuesday), no question about it."

Now the Crimson face Cornell, the team that beat them for the ECAC Championship last year in Lake Placid.

"We wanted to play Cornell, definitely, over Clarkson," said Harvard forward Rob Millar. "We owe them a lot. Last year they knocked us out 2-1. They’ve beaten us by one goal in the last four games we’ve played them."

The Crimson are the hated rivals at Lynah Rink, for fans, players and the Pep Band. It’s a huge rivalry, and it looms large on the Crimson.

"Now that we’re playing Cornell, we’ll probably have enough crowd for the whole playoffs," said freshman goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo.

"Cornell, it’s a great place to play," said Harvard captain Ashlin Halfnight. "I love going up there. It’s the type of thing where we have some payback to do up there."

Cornell’s recent dominance over Harvard is a far cry from the way it was in the decade before (other than a quarterfinal win in 1990). And Cornell’s crowd is legendary, but it sees Harvard as THE rival. It has gotten nasty recently at Harvard games, but Cornell coach Mike Schafer has helped tone things down slightly this year.

"It’s a great place to play and it’s a great atmosphere," said Tomassoni. "Last year, when we went up there, I thought it went a little above and beyond, they were actually throwing at us. I don’t think anyone should be abused where they got blood and fish guts on their jersey, and a jersey that’s going to stay in their hotel room for another night. I don’t think anyone has to be subjected to that kind of treatment.

"I’m not trying to discourage enthusiasm by any means. Like I said, it’s always been a great place to play, it’s an exciting place to play, and there’s nothing better when you hear nothing up in Ithaca, New York.

"It’s pretty difficult not to get pumped up there. In my opinion, Gutterson rivals it, but I don’t think there’s any better place to play than Lynah."

But let’s not forget about the opposition, the Big Red themselves.

Jason Elliot has a GAA of 2.70 and a save percentage of .912 in league play. Expect to see him in net for the series; after all he was the ECAC Tournament MVP last year in the Big Red’s run.

For the Crimson, Prestifilippo has been the go-to guy in the nets.

"J.R. has been the rock," said Tomassoni. "He has been simply outstanding. He’s only a freshman, but he has not played like a freshman. He’s been consistent — he’s given us the opportunity to win every game, regardless of how we’ve played. He’s also a tremendous competitor, mature beyond his years, and as tough a kid mentally as I’ve coached."

Harvard has picked up the offense lately, scoring 14 goals in three games. This is almost one goal more per game than the Crimson scored in the first 20 ECAC games.

Cornell on offense has such balanced scoring that only one member of the Big Red makes the list of ECAC leading scorers — Kyle Knopp. Knopp has 23 points, 12 of them goals, on a team that has 80 ECAC goals.

"From now on here, you don’t win, you go home," said Tomassoni. "This team, if they get it in their mind, in my opinion they can win a championship, and that’s just not saying it to motivate them, I believe it in my heart."

Besides the fans at Lynah, the rink itself might make a difference according to Millar.

"The ice is hard. That’s good for our speed," he said. "We match up really well against them. We think that we’re due and we’re looking for two wins there this weekend. We expect that. Right now we’re only one of two teams that are 1-0, we have the momentum."

PICK: There have been four straight one-goal games in this series. The two teams have a great rivalry, and it’s further intensified by the crowd at Lynah. Probably low-scoring here, but to whose advantage does that work? The team that has the lead will be tough to beat.

Cornell in three, 2-4, 4-2, 4-1

No. 10 Yale (10-17-3, 6-13-2 ECAC) at No. 1 Clarkson (24-8-0, 17-5-0 ECAC) Friday, 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), 7 p.m., Cheel Arena, Potsdam, N.Y.

Regular Season Nov. 9: Yale 5 Clarkson 2 at Clarkson Feb. 15: Clarkson 2 Yale 0 at Yale

Let’s start off with one ominous fact that bodes in Clarkson’s favor and not in Yale’s: Clarkson has not lost at Cheel Arena in the playoffs — ever.

The Golden Knights are 9-0 since Cheel opened in the 1991 season in the ECAC playoffs. In fact, their first wins were a two-game quarterfinal sweep of Yale.

Meanwhile, after Tuesday’s win, Yale still hasn’t lost in the ECAC playoffs since 1993. Of course, the Bulldogs haven’t participated in the playoffs since then, so the postseason is new to this entire group. Tuesday’s win was the Bulldogs’ first in the postseason since 1991 at Brown.

The last win in the quarterfinal round was back in 1987 against … you guessed it: Clarkson.

"You have to give the kids an awful lot of credit," said head coach Tim Taylor. "We’ve been playing great defense and Alex Westlund was excellent against Colgate."

Freshman Cory Shea’s first-period goal and 46 saves by Westlund propelled the Bulldogs to Potsdam. Yale has now won three of its last five, and lost the other two by just one goal apiece. The Bulldogs are getting on track at the right time of the year.

"We know they’re hot," said Clarkson head coach Mark Morris. "There is no doubt that they’re the underdog. We know to respect them enough that right now, they can knock anyone off. A lot of their success has come from their defense and Alex Westlund.

"He’s been hot, and when we last played them he kept us off the boards until there were five minutes to go in the game. Timmy’s [Taylor] got them playing some solid defense."

"We’ve learned how to do the little things," said Taylor. "We’re getting pretty good at protecting our goaltender. If we can keep the games close, we’ll have a chance.

"We have to play a defensive position," he added. "The stats don’t lie. We’re last in goals scored in our league. This year we have young forwards, and their offense will improve with age."

Clarkson’s defense is not too shabby either. The Golden Knights tied Union for the fewest goals allowed in ECAC competition, and goaltender Dan Murphy is a rock in net. He finished the season with a 2.28 GAA and a .919 save percentage.

The Golden Knights are an experienced playoff team as well, making the NCAA tournament the last two years, and the ECAC Final Four seven straight seasons.

"I like to think that experience makes a difference," said Morris. "But every year is a new experience for everyone. And every time you assume, you fall short, so we have to stay focused."

"I’ve always been skeptical about experience," said Taylor, offering a different perspective. "Our team is young and has not been in the playoffs, but five weeks ago we were well out of the playoffs fighting for our lives. In those five weeks we’ve gotten into the playoff picture, and we got a playoff spot. We’ve been in the playoffs for the last five weeks."

Offense is the story for the Golden Knights. They led the ECAC in goals scored in league play, and have the ECAC’s scoring champ in senior Todd White.

"It will be one key," said Taylor of stopping White. "We have to stay on top of him and try to shut him out. He’s effective at all aspects of the game. Offense, defense, power play or penalty kill, there isn’t one facet of the game that he does not excel at."

"He (White), along with two of the other seniors in J.F. Houle and Matt Pagnutti, have been extremely steady," said Morris. "They have consistently put up the numbers, and night in and night out they’ve made a difference. Our record shows that they have shown up week in and week out. And as our newcomers got into our system, it has helped."

One other factor that might play a part in this series is fatigue. Yale will play its fourth and fifth games in eight days this weekend.

"The travel is a concern," said Taylor. "The kids are just not used to the travel. It’s my job as the coach to make sure that the kids do not get fatigued. We got off the bus on (Wednesday) morning at 4 a.m., and now we’re getting ready to leave for a seven-hour bus ride to Upstate New York (Thursday).

"In the meantime, Clarkson’s been sitting at home for a week, and are just waiting for us."

"I would like to think that it’s our advantage," said Morris. "They had to play Tuesday night, and it has to bear on their energy level."

PICK: Yale is playing with confidence and young legs. Clarkson has the experience, and is playing at home. Clarkson didn’t finish in first place to get knocked out in the quarterfinals.

Clarkson in two, 5-2 and 6-3

It’s off to the Adirondacks and the cozy confines of the 1980 Olympic Ice Arena next weekend, when the ECAC Final Four battle for the right for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and the Scotty Whitelaw Trophy.

All games from Lake Placid can be heard on AudioNet, so if you can’t get to the arena, or to an area that’s carrying the TV feed, tune in via the Internet. Around the Rinks host, and four-year Princeton play-by-play announcer Adam Wodon is on the call, while Harvard color announcer Geoff Howell provides the commentary.

These are original broadcasts, not re-feeds from local radio. This is true, national, Inter-Network coverage.

Contributors to this article: Rebecca A. Blaeser of the Harvard Crimson Eric A. Wong, game reporter for USCHO Ken Schott of The Daily Gazette Bob Weiner of The Daily Gazette

Some pictures provided by: Kyle Rose of Cornell Yale University Athletics

Jayson Moy is the ECAC Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

Return to Feature Articles Return to News and Recaps Return to U.S. College Hockey Online

Mankato Sets Full Division I Schedule for 97-98

USCHO Staff Report

March 7, 1997

Mankato State announced its schedule for the 1997-98 hockey season this week, including 14 games against members of the WCHA, as the school looks to fully upgrade to Division I.

All 34 games on the Mankato State schedule are against Division I opponents. This season, Mankato’s schedule featured 17 games against Division I programs and the Mavericks went 7-9-1 in those games. Mankato State finished the 1996-97 season with a 17-14-3 record.

Mankato State will play two games each with Michigan State and Ferris State of the CCHA, as well as hosting a pair against Union of the ECAC, and eight games against fellow Division I Independents Air Force, Niagara and Nebraska-Omaha.

Eight of the teams on Mankato State’s 1997-98 schedule either are ranked, have been ranked or have received votes to be ranked during this season. Those teams are North Dakota, Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, Colorado College, Denver, St. Cloud State, Michigan State and Union.

This Week in Hockey East: March 7, 1997

By David H. Hendrickson

March 7, 1997

Hockey East Playoffs: Quarterfinals by Dave Hendrickson

The second season begins with New Hampshire and Boston University the heavy favorites, based on their regular-season dominance. Providence, however, could be poised for some serious playoff deja vu and Merrimack is playing as well as anyone in the tournament.

Darkhorses Boston College, UMass-Lowell, UMass-Amherst and Northeastern will be looking to get to the FleetCenter and then roll the dice.

Hockey East Final Standings

Last week’s record in picks: 5-2 Season record in picks: 120-71

No. 1 seed vs. No. 8 seed Northeastern (8-23-3, 3-19-2 HE) at No. 7 Boston University (20-8-6, 16-4-4 HE) Friday, Saturday, Sunday (if necessary) 7 p.m., Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA NESN

Boston University took two games at home to gain a share of the Hockey East crown and grab the top seed. First, the Terriers knocked off a resurgent Merrimack squad, 2-1. Then, in one of the most highly-touted games of the year, they beat UNH 5-1. After that game, coach Jack Parker explained how the Terriers held the third-highest scoring team in the nation to only one goal.

"We used our first two lines against their first two lines all the time," said Parker, who had the last change at home. "I think Chris Drury is one of the best defensive players in college hockey besides being a great offensive player. Shane Johnson is a defenseman playing left wing on that line so he gives it a lot more oomph defensively. [And on our other top line, Shawn] Bates gave us a fabulous game defensively."

Michel Larocque (of Gibraltar) again played a strong game between the pipes. Larocque has emerged from Tom Noble’s shadow to become one of the top goalies in the league in just his sophomore year. His recent strong performances forced Parker to abandon his usual rotation and play Larocque against both Merrimack and UNH. Larocque responded, saving 48 of 50 shots on the weekend, earning him Hockey East Player of the Week honors.

Although the Terriers have consistently played strong defense this year, the offense has experienced peaks and valleys. "A couple guys are snakebitten, " said Parker, pointing in particular to Mike Sylvia and Bates. "I think they’ve all played hard all year, but the puck has jumped in the net for Drury, but for the rest of them it comes and goes sometimes.

"It’s amazing how consistently Sylvia plays and yet his consistency doesn’t show on the scoresheet. Sometimes he gets on fire and gets a few points and then all of a sudden, even though he’s playing just as well and and getting opportunities, the puck just isn’t going in the net for him."

Sylvia had a big breakaway goal, however, to open the UNH game. After tallies by Johnson and Jeff Kealty, Chris Kelleher’s missile from the blue line proved the back-breaker.

"Chris Kelleher is one of the best-kept secrets in Hockey East," said Parker. "Jon Coleman gets a lot of ink and a lot of talk but Chris Kelleher is having a heck of a season for us and he had a heck of a game."

Typically, when BU has struggled, it has been lack of up front depth that has hurt them. They’ve played many games with only nine forwards, and recently resorted to double-shifting Chris Drury. That move, however, transformed one of the top players in the game into a tired mere mortal.

As a result, the play of a newly-formed fourth line consisting of Pete Donatelli, Bobby Hanson, and Greg Quebec gave the Terriers other three lines a big boost. Donatelli, who seems tentative on lines with the bigger stars, played aggressively against UNH.

"That line played great," said Parker. "They kept our legs for us and they gave us some real good opportunities, especially Pete Donatelli. I thought he played a great game.

"If we can stay healthy and not lose anyone else, we can have four lines again. The way the fourth line has played, we’re really happy with that. Billy Pierce has done a great job moving to third line center after the departure of Brendan Walsh.

"I thought Dan LaCouture played great. He really gave that line [with Pierce and Matt Wright] some speed and some quickness. He set up a goal and played extremely well."

With the way that Parker was generously handing out plaudits, the zamboni driver perhaps was wondering, "What am I, chopped liver?" Even so, Parker’s pats on the back are deserved for a team that sustained considerable losses but still won their fourth straight regular season championship, a Hockey East record.

The measuring stick for Terrier teams, however, is the post-season, which they will open against Northeastern. Had BU not beaten UNH, they would instead be playing UMass-Amherst.

"The last time we played them, we beat them 5-4 here in a real battle," said Parker. "They are a bigger rivalry of ours than UMass so it gets us [digging in] our heels a little bit because we don’t want Northeastern to come in and beat us. We’ll have our hands full with them. I’m sure that [Bruce Crowder] will have something up his sleeve to try to change things around."

Noble, supplanted by Larocque last weekend, will open the series in the Terrier crease. Tommi Degerman, who has missed the last few weeks with a knee injury, is not expected to play.

Northeastern gave BC a tough time before losing 7-5 on Friday, and then closed out the season with a 4-2 win over UMass-Lowell. The win had a distinctive freshman flavor for the rebuilding Huskies, with Marc Robitaille recording 39 saves and Todd Barclay tallying two goals. Scott Campbell, a junior, added two goals and three assists on the weekend to seize the team scoring lead. The Huskies are finally scoring goals, averaging five a game in their last three, despite being held to under three over the entire season.

"I thought we played pretty strong on the weekend," said coach Bruce Crowder. "Even in the loss to BC we didn’t quit. We made it a one-goal game before BC got an open-netter. I like the commitment in the kids and their work ethic.

"Then it was nice to finish up the regular season with a win. Hopefully that’s going to help us in the playoffs."

One unexpected scoring source of late has been Eric Goclowski, a walk-on who scored his first goal and added two assists against BC. In his last three games, Goclowski has totaled six of his seven career points.

"He’s one of those kids who was always sitting in the wings and you wondered whether you should give him a shot or not," said Crowder. "We did give him some opportunities throughout the year, but then he had a good weekend against Merrimack two weeks ago and he also played well against BC. He’s making the most of his opportunities. He’s one of those kids who had paid the price and was tired of sitting. Now he’s trying to make the most out of his playing time."

Even though BU swept the series with Northeastern, including an 8-1 debacle early in the season, a strong performance in a 5-4 loss in January gives hope to the Husky cause.

"All in all, I think we match up," said NU coach Bruce Crowder. "If I had to have my pick whether I was going to play UNH or BU, I think BU would be a little better, because we’ve just had some closer games with them. So it becomes more of an encouraging factor for us.

"UNH absolutely took it to us for three games in a row. At least [against] BU, we played them pretty strong the last time in there. At least there’s some of that confidence there that will be with the team in practice this week.

"But it’s really a David and Goliath thing. Obviously they’re the number one seed and we’re the eighth. Except for the Maine situation, we really shouldn’t be in the playoffs. We’ll just get our kids ready to go, get them playing the best that they can and who knows what will happen."

When asked how specifically he might prepare for BU, the ever-quotable Crowder quipped, "Probably through video, and [any] other thing we can find on them. I’ll go to the different synagogues and churches."

PICK:It wouldn’t be a total shock to see this one go three games, despite the mismatch on paper. Northeastern may be the best 3-19-2 team in memory. That said, look for BU, 5-4 and 6-3.

No. 2 seed vs. No. 7 seed UMass-Amherst (12-21-0, 7-17-0 HE) at No. 6 New Hampshire (25-9-0, 18-6-0 HE) Friday, Saturday, Sunday (if necessary) 7 p.m., Whittemore Center, Durham, NH

UNH beat Providence 7-5 on Friday to give itself the chance to take full ownership of its first regular season Hockey East crown. A win or a tie against BU would do the trick. Instead the Wildcats lost 5-1, settling for a half-share of the title and second seed in the playoffs.

If tying a game is kissing your sister, then losing half the league title in a head-to-head 5-1 loss is kissing your Aunt Edna, the one who reeks of bad breath and cheap perfume.

"Obviously we lost the game in the second period," said UNH coach Dick Umile. "There was just a two- or three-minute stretch that they took the game away from us. I thought the game was up for grabs except for that stretch.

"I don’t think they shut us down offensively just because we didn’t score goals. I thought [Larocque] played well and… we just didn’t put it in the net.

"We were disappointed after the game. We talked about it Monday prior to practice. But the bottom line is that we shared the regular season championship. The head-to-head competition only affects where you’re seeded. Now we just hope to move on to the FleetCenter and have the opportunity to win the Hockey East championship."

The Wildcats, who appeared to be revving up for the playoffs with a seven-game win streak, now must look to rebound after losing three of their last four. With the top offense in the league and the second best defensive ranking, UNH can still put together a championship season.

"In the playoffs it’s always important to play good defense and do well in specialty situations," said Umile. "Those are the key components. We also want to control the number of shots and do what we do well." Anyone who has watched the Wildcats this year will know what they do very well: fill the net, early and often.

After a three-game win streak in mid-January, the Minutemen have hit tough times, dropping nine of their last 10 contests. They’ve had the misfortune to face Maine at the worst possible time, drawing one of the nation’s hottest teams three of the last four games. This past weekend, the Black Bears again took no prisoners, beating UMass 10-3.

"The Maine team I saw was as good as any we played in the league all year," said Minuteman coach Joe Mallen. "If they went into the playoffs they could do a lot of damage in our league.

"The top three teams in the league — BU, Maine and UNH — have posted some lopsided scores against us, but I feel that [against the rest] we’ve been very competitive all year long. A couple games against Maine and UNH got away from us, but so be it.

Right now I feel that our team can pull itself together and get ready to play. We played a heck of a game against BC a week ago. You can’t go too high with the highs and too low with the lows…. No matter what, we’ve got a chance to crank it up and try to make it to the FleetCenter. We’re going to go out and give it our best."

Earlier in the season, the Minutemen almost beat the Wildcats in back-to-back games at home, losing 1-0 and 5-4 in overtime. More recently, however, they dropped a 10-0 embarrassment in the UNH barn where this weekend’s games will be played. Mallen hopes to put games like that one and the ones against Maine behind them.

"Like everybody says at this time of year, it’s 0-0 going into the playoffs and the records are all the same," he said. "We’ve certainly rode the highs and lows, but we’ve done some great things this season. It’s two out of three, let’s wind it up and watch it go."

PICK:UNH 7-3 and 6-3.

No. 3 seed vs. No. 6 seed UMass-Lowell (13-20-1, 9-14-1 HE) at Providence (15-18-1, 12-11-1 HE) Friday, Saturday, Sunday (if necessary) 7 p.m., Schneider Arena, Providence, RI

Providence closed out the regular season with a 7-5 loss to UNH. However, the Friars still finished February with a 6-2-0 record.

"We’ve got to execute, play defensively and understand who we are," said PC coach Paul Pooley. "There’s nothing wrong with the New Jersey Devils or the Florida Panthers. We’re not the Edmonton Oilers, we’re not the UNH Wildcats, we’re the Friars and we’ve got to play the way we’re capable of playing. We’ve got to realize that simplicity is best for us and not the really fancy stuff.

"Up ice, we didn’t give up many bad breaks, two-on-one and three-on-two. It was just down low defensively that we broke down a little bit. But give UNH credit. That’s where one-on-one skill comes in and they can do that."

The Friars now face UMass-Lowell, who they have controlled in all three of their recent games, outscoring the River Hawks by a cumulative 19-5 score.

"It doesn’t mean a thing," said PC coach Paul Pooley. "Absolutely nothing…. You throw the regular season out the window. Start all over.

"At playoff time it’s always the people that execute what they want to do that win, no matter what system they use. If your team executes what you want to do, all other things being equal, especially goaltending and specialty teams, then you have an opportunity to win. The team that wins the one-on-one battles and makes the right decisions at the right time wins hockey games. It’s more mental than physical, I believe."

The Friars, often viewed as a one-dimensional, defense-only team, averaged 5.6 goals a game in February and rank third in scoring among tourney teams. Russ Guzior scored another two goals against UNH. The senior, who couldn’t throw the puck in the Atlantic for parts of the year, now leads the team in scoring with 38 points.

In recent weekends, Pooley has gone with every possible combination of Dan Dennis and Mark Kane in the nets, some weekends giving both games to the hot hand, and other times splitting the games. Dan Dennis, a preseason All-Hockey East pick who has had an inconsistent year, appeared to have won the job back until the UNH game.

Although he settled down in the second and third periods, he opened poorly. Giving up seven goals, even to UNH, is not the way for a goaltender to hold onto his job. Pooley will be evaluating the two during practice this week to determine who gets the call.

UMass-Lowell makes for a near-exact counterpoint to Providence. The River Hawks dropped a 4-2 contest to Northeastern, falling to 0-9-1 in their last 10 games. Defenseman Mike Nicholishen finally snapped a Lowell streak of over 478 minutes without a lead when he scored at the 14 minute mark of the first, but Northeastern came back to tie it up and never trailed again.

"Both programs are rebuilding and from that sense we can kind of empathize with each other," said UML coach Tim Whitehead. "Obviously I wanted to win the game, but at least we lost to Bruce’s team. We tried a lot of things over the month of February, and the good news is that February is over."

With the no-lead streak behind them, Lowell will be looking to keep a much more positive streak going. They’ll be looking to make their fifth straight appearance in the Hockey East semifinals. Only BU can match that same consistency in the last four years.

"We’ve got a big challenge ahead of us with the defending champions," said Whitehead. "They’ve got a great, strong, balanced team. At the same time anything can happen. It’s a clean slate for the playoffs…. We know we’re the youngest team in the league, but we’re going to be focused. We’re going to be the underdogs going in. I don’t mind that role."

PICK:Providence 6-2 and 5-2.

No. 4 seed vs. No. 5 seed Boston College (13-18-3, 9-12-3 HE) at Merrimack (15-17-2, 11-11-2 HE) Thursday, Friday, Saturday (if necessary), 7 p.m., Volpe Center, North Andover, MA

Merrimack went into last weekend needing a single point to clinch its first-ever Division I playoff home ice. The Warriors almost got it against BU, losing 2-1 on Friday.

"Both teams went hard all night, but we made a couple mistakes and you can’t afford to do that against a team as talented as they are because they’ll capitalize," said MC coach Ron Anderson. "We had some chances but [Larocque] played very well for them."

Then, with home ice in the balance, Merrimack jumped out to a 4-0 lead only to see BC claw back, first to 4-2, and then, with the goalie lifted, to 4-3. The Warriors pulled out the win, however, to grab home ice.

"BC has a lot of talent," said Anderson. "We were holding on at the end. I thought we played well early, but they really came on and took it to us later in the game."

Even though Merrimack swept the season’s series against BC, 5-2, 11-5, and 4-3, Anderson feels that the two teams were closer than the sweep would indicate.

"The [5-2] game at their place, they outplayed us badly," he said. "We just won on the scoreboard. This weekend the game was pretty even. The only one that got away was the [11-5] second game of the series. So I don’t think we’ve outplayed them badly at all.

"We have to continue to stay on our game defensively because they’re so talented offensively. You can’t let Reasoner, Bellefeuille, Farkas and those guys get away from you. We have to make sure we stay focused and play hard, honest defense and make sure that we don’t need a lot of goals to win."

Boston College beat Northeastern 7-5 to set up the winner-take-all battle for home ice with Merrimack. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the winner was Merrimack.

"Certainly we were excited about beating Northeastern in a close game on Friday night," said BC coach Jerry York. "That meant a series sweep of all three games for us. Despite Northeastern’s record they’ve been a difficult team for us to play against.

"But just the opposite happened the next night. We lost a 4-3 game to lose that series 3-0 to Merrimack. We woke up late in the game, down 4-0, got it to 4-3 with 43 seconds left and actually had a chance to send it into OT."

Although some coaches, most notably BU’s Jack Parker, feel that a sweep can give the psychological advantage to the vanquished, York laughed and said, "I’d rather have won all three and gotten home ice."

York would like to see the Eagles pick up their scoring pace, something they achieved on Friday night against Northeastern. Blake Bellefeuille, who York shifted off Marty Reasoner’s wing to center another line, notched his first hat trick, earning his third Hockey East Rookie of the Week honor for the feat.

"He’s a natural center," said York. "Over the course of the year you have different needs and I thought we needed to have him with Marty. But now he’s become a seasoned veteran late in his freshman year and we feel he can carry a line by himself. So he’s at center, the pivotal position on a line, and he’s ready for that. He’s had a remarkable freshman year. We’re really excited to have him where he is now, going into the playoffs."

Bellefeuille scored two of his three goals while short-handed, crediting a more aggressive penalty kill.

"We’d like to score [more short-handed] goals," said York. "We’ve given up a lot of them and teams are vulnerable, just because of that that ‘we’re on the power play’ feeling. But you still need to execute and Blake did a great job with the two short-handed goals.

"We’ve been very impressed with [Merrimack’s] play. In [Darrel] Scoville and [John] Jakopin, they have two of the top defensemen in our conference. Certainly Legault has played very well against us, too. We’re going into it realizing that we can win the series, but also realizing it’s going to be a difficult task."

PICK: Does the fearless scribe pick BC over Merrimack a fourth time, after a regular-season strikeout? It’s tough to teach an old dog, especially a stubborn one, new tricks, but this one buys into Merrimack Magic. BC 4-3, Merrimack 3-2, and Merrimack 5-4.

Dave Hendrickson is the Hockey East Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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This Week in the CCHA: March 7, 1997

By Paula C. Weston

March 7, 1997

CCHA Playoffs: Quarterfinals CCHA Playoffs: Quarterfinals by Paula C. Weston

You’ve heard the cliches: It’s all even in the playoffs. Everyone’s at zero-zero. Anything can happen. Equality? A level playing field? If you’re a fan of the CCHA, you know these phrases mean nothing — and everything. Two of the four CCHA playoff series are almost-sure bets to go three games. Bowling Green travels to Lake Superior, a team the Falcons swept in regular season play; Western Michigan visits Michigan State for a physical, even matchup between in-state rivals.

The only series that’s almost guaranteed to be a two-game affair is the Nanooks-Wolverines series in Ann Arbor. While Alaska-Fairbanks finished the season playing very good hockey, the games are in Ann Arbor, and this is Michigan. Which teams will advance to the Joe? Is it predetermined that the top four will go? Is the Championship predetermined? As the CCHA playoffs begin, possibility hangs as heavy as the fog in the tiny OSU Ice Rink on a 70-degree day. The suspense is palpable. A crystal ball would be useful. (Note: in what follows, the numerical designator denotes a team’s CCHA playoff seed — e.g., "No. 3 Michigan State.") No. 5 Bowling Green (15-15-5, 10-12-5 CCHA) at No. 4 Lake Superior (19-12-5, 15-8-4 CCHA) Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (if necessary), 7 p.m., Taffy Abel Arena, Sault Ste. Marie, MI At the beginning of the season, the Falcons had hoped to build on last season’s 18-11-1 conference record and fifth-place finish in the CCHA. Bowling Green’s league record was once again good enough for a share of fifth place, but the Falcons have more league losses than wins, and their overall record is an even .500. Toward the end of the season, when it was apparent that Bowling Green would be traveling for the playoffs, head coach Buddy Powers talked about the disappointment of an injury-laden season. Toward the end, Powers said, it was all too clear that the Falcons would finish with a record that could ensure a short post-season if the team didn’t take the CCHA Championship. With that in mind, the Falcons head to the Soo. "I think everything’s at zero," says Powers. "We’re all trying to get to Joe Louis Arena." Although Bowling Green is the road team and the Lakers have the advantage in conference wins, BG may actually have an edge in this series. The Falcons beat the Lakers three times this season, and are 4-2-0 against Lake Superior for the last two seasons. The last home loss the Lakers experienced was at the hands of the Falcons back in October, and Laker head coach Scott Borek says his team remembers. "They don’t have to be 100 percent to beat us," says Borek. "They have our number." Indeed, the Falcons haven’t been a hundred percent since their first loss of the season, to Michigan State, Nov. 1. (During the months of November and December, the Falcons were 2-10-2.) Among the injured have been some of the top BG guns, like Kelly Perrault and Curtis Fry. "Fry sat out Saturday," says Powers, and Adam Edinger "played in regular five-on-five situations" against Michigan State last weekend. "He got a regular workout," says Powers.

Powers expects every able-bodied — or even semi-able-bodied — Falcon to suit up for the Lake series. "Any player who wants to don a sweater will." "They’re a team that’s very dangerous, because they’ve been through a lot this season," says Borek of BGSU. "It probably affects their edge. They’ll have a much better edge going into this series. We can’t afford a slow start against Bowling Green. "The one positive is that when we’re playing them we have a ton of respect for them." It sounds like the respect is mutual. "We’ve got a bit of a mountain to get past with these guys," says Powers of Lake. "If anything, we’ve given them fuel by beating them three times this season. It’s a difficult task, and this is the time of year when you want difficult tasks." Borek says he can see this series going to three games. "It very easily could. It depends on how the team that loses on Friday responds. There’s every potential for this to go to three." All depends on which fire burns brightest in which belly. With solid goaltending from Bob Petrie, Bowling Green has emerged from its early season slumber to claw its way into fifth place. The potential exists for either team — but not both — to receive an invitation from the NCAA. "The bottom line our league," says Borek, "is that Lake has to get to Joe Louis Arena to be considered for the NCAA. We’ll need to get to the final game, at least, to be considered." For Bowling Green, winning the CCHA Championship is the only ticket to the NCAA playoffs. PICK: Bowling Green in three. No. 6 Western Michigan (14-6-5, 10-12-5 CCHA) at No. 3 Michigan State (20-11-4, 16-7-4 CCHA) Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m., Sunday 7 p.m. (if necessary), Munn Ice Arena, East Lansing, MI Michigan State head coach Ron Mason is a master of understatement, and Mason claims that having home ice advantage will matter very little in this series. "Our road and home records have always been good; we play well in both spots," says Mason. "Of course, I’d much rather be playing at home than on the road. "You can come from behind easier at home," he allows. Western Michigan assistant coach Jim Culhane isn’t fooled. "Obviously, it’s going to be a tough place for us to play," he says. "They have such a strong tradition of winning, especially at Munn. It’s going to be a difficult environment for us to play in." Culhane says that "[keeping the] crowd quiet by playing our best early" is one strategy that the Broncos will try to employ. Last season, Western Michigan finished with a share of third place in the CCHA with a 21-6-3 league record. Bowling Green prevented them from going to The Joe, but the Broncos received an at-large bid in the NCAA Eastern Regionals. Clarkson ended their post-season, beating the Broncos 6-1. The sudden loss of goaltender Marc Maglarditi before the start of this season threw the Broncos off until sophomore Matt Barnes found his feet. Barnes is largely responsible for Western’s remarkable record of only four home losses this season. With a save percentage of .882 in his 1,624 minutes in net, Barnes has proven to be one of the more consistent goaltenders in the CCHA. Barnes faces Spartan goaltender Chad Alban, whose save percentage is .899. But the bigger difference between the two is in goals against. Barnes has allowed an average of 3.4 goals against per league game — a figure that has dropped steadily throughout the season — but Alban, with a GAA of 2.65, is one of the few CCHA goaltenders who can claim a figure lower than three. Coaches from both teams expect tough games. "I expect the Broncos to work hard," says Mason. "I expect them to play the way they always play, with a tough defensive style. It’s a good matchup for us. We’d just as soon play them as anyone." "Both teams are going to play very hard," says Culhane. "The big thing is going to be special teams. If we can stay disciplined and not take a lot of penalties, we’ll be in those games." Although Mason says the Spartans aren’t looking beyond this weekend’s games, he says he knows that Michigan State needs to get past this weekend to be considered for the NCAA tournament. "We have to get to Joe Louis to give ourselves a chance for the NCAA," says Mason. "We frittered away some games out East [early, against Boston College and Northeastern] that cost us." Culhane knows the only way the Broncos will advance to NCAA tournament play is with a CCHA title. "There’s no question," he says. "But you don’t look ahead. Your first step is Munn. "Our kids work very hard. They’ve had four losses at home all year. We have to play with that emotion and confidence away from Lawson." There’s no doubt that the Broncos will be playing with emotion and confidence–but so will the Spartans. PICK: Michigan State in three. No. 7 Ohio State (12-23-2, 9-16-2 CCHA) at No. 2 Miami (25-10-1, 19-7-1 CCHA) Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (if necessary), 7 p.m., Goggin Ice Arena, Oxford, OH This series pits two teams whose stories are finishing far differently from what everyone expected at the beginning of the season. Miami took second place in the CCHA, while Ohio State made the playoffs. Each team considers its season a success. Ohio State hasn’t advanced past the first round of the CCHA playoffs since the 1986-87 season. Ohio State has seen accomplishments this season that it hasn’t seen in years — a seven-game unbeaten streak, a player with 20 goals. The Buckeyes ended their season with a loss against Michigan, a game in which they led the Wolverines for two periods. Can all this give the Buckeyes the confidence to think about upsetting Miami? "They’ve beaten us three times, twice very convincingly," says Buckeye head coach John Markell. "Naturally, we’re aware of that. "Nothing less 100 percent will beat Miami." The Buckeyes were definitely less than that in their first two games against Miami this season. In both games, the Buckeyes lost by six goals. In the first game, Miami scored six goals in the first period; in the second, it was five goals for Miami in the first. The Buckeyes lost those two games while seriously outshooting Miami. The third game, in Oxford, was decidedly different. Ohio State led Miami for two periods in that game. "We have tremendous respect for them," says Miami head coach Mark Mazzoleni. "They gave us everything we could handle last time they were here." Still, Miami seems to own this Buckeye team, in large part because of goaltending. Two of those losses were recorded by Buckeye freshman goaltender Ray Aho. Aho says he feels the need to "redeem" himself in Goggin. During the recent Buckeye unbeaten streak, Aho was 4-0-1, with a GAA of 3.0 exactly. He was also twice named CCHA Defensive Player of the Week during the streak. Markell says Aho’s confidence has helped the team play more confidently in front of him. "We feel pretty good about our defense," says Markell. "We’re boxing out a lot better."

Aho has had help from fellow walk-on Ryan Skaleski. At 6’3" and 210 pounds, "he gives us a strength factor," says Markell. If the Buckeyes continue to play well, it could almost be like meeting a new team for Miami. "They haven’t seen us play since we’ve been playing as well as we have," says Markell. Markell talks about containing Miami players like Randy Robitaille and Dan Boyle, but he says it’s Ohio State that his players are most concerned with. "We have to put some of our chances in the net. We’ve outshot them before, but you don’t win a game by outshooting opponents. You have to outscore opponents." Miami is riding a season-ending high, having beaten Michigan 4-2 during Miami’s last game of the regular season. Mazzoleni calls last weekend’s wins (including a Friday win over Western Michigan) "very emotional." Mazzoleni says that his team is very relaxed going into the playoffs. "I don’t think there’s pressure at all. Our focus over these last six games of the season has been just to get to Joe Louis. That doesn’t change." Miami will probably get a bid to the NCAA tournament even if Ohio State pulls off an upset. But Miami probably won’t need to worry about that. "Hopefully," says Markell, "they’ll make mistakes we can capitalize on." Hopefully, but unlikely. PICK: Miami in three. No. 8 Alaska-Fairbanks (14-20-1, 8-18-1 CCHA) at No. 1 Michigan (30-3-4, 21-3-3 CCHA) Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (if necessary), 7 p.m., Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, MI For any other team in the CCHA, facing the defending NCAA Champions in the first round of conference playoffs would be seriously depressing. Not so for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks. "We’re playing really well right now," says a cheerful UAF head coach Dave Laurion. "It’s a big step for our program. It’s our first legitimate time in the playoffs. "We just have to play hard and play smart. We can only control our own performance. "I think our guys understand that this is just a good opportunity. There’s no pressure on us to win. Everyone in the stands and everyone across college hockey expects Michigan to win in two. The pressure is on us to play our best, but not to win." The Nanooks have earned that kind of relaxed attitude. After dropping their first seven games of the season and their first 11 home games, the Nanooks have recovered to play respectable hockey. Four straight non-conference wins gave the Nanooks the confidence to take a game from the resurgent Bowling Green Falcons in Bowling Green late in the season. "That was a turning point," says Laurion. "After we beat Bowling Green, our guys knew we could play." In order to make the playoffs, Alaska-Fairbanks needed to take at least five points in their season-ending three-game home series with Ferris State. With a little emotional lift from injured player Erik Drygas, the Nanooks did what they needed to do. Drygas has been rehabilitating in Colorado from a pre-season spinal injury, and his return for the Ferris series allowed him to swap stories about rehab and hockey with his teammates. "I think it helped to relax the players," says Laurion. Once his teammates had the chance to see Drygas in person, after so many months of separation, "there weren’t any unknowns any more." The Nanooks have steadily improved their play all season. One big improvement is the play of freshman goaltender Chris Marvel, who was just named to the CCHA All-Rookie Team. In spite of the improvements, it is highly doubtful that UAF can defeat the mighty Michigan team. It would be a feat nothing short of biblical. "They’re a better team now obviously," says Michigan head coach Red Berenson. "They’ve got a lot of confidence. They’re coming in on a high, making it into the playoffs in the last game of the regular season." Berenson says that although his team is the heavy favorite, the Wolverines will be taking nothing for granted. "We know we’re going to have to be on our toes. They’re the underdog, but we expect close games from them. "We know that we’ve had a better season. We also know this is a new season. We’ll make that clear to our players." Most people in college hockey expect this series to be done in two games. "I’m pretty confident that if we stick to our game plan and there are no surprises," says Berenson, "we’ll win first game." If Michigan wins the first game, the series will be over Saturday night. PICK: Michigan in two.

Paula C. Weston is the CCHA Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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This Week in the WCHA: March 7, 1997

By Todd D. Milewski

March 7, 1997

WCHA Playoffs: First Round by Steve Page

Every coach in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association is in agreement on this: gaining home-ice advantage for the first round of the conference playoffs was their primary goal all season. So this weekend, it’s the have-nots traveling to the haves.

Final WCHA Standings

The victors in the best-of-three series advance to the March 13-15 WCHA Final Five at the St. Paul Civic Center. With all the parity in the league this year, home ice could be the deciding factor in every series.

(Note: in what follows, the numerical designator — e.g., "No. 3 St. Cloud State" — indicate the team’s WCHA playoff seed.)

No. 10 Michigan Tech (8-25-4, 5-23-4 WCHA) at No. 1 North Dakota (24-10-2, 21-10-1 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35 p.m. CT, Sunday 7:05 p.m. CT (if necessary), Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, ND

North Dakota, despite falling twice at Denver last weekend and settling for a tie for the regular-season title with Minnesota, returns home as a heavy favorite over the Huskies. The Fighting Sioux swept all four games — 7-3 and 4-3 in Houghton in October, and 4-2 and 7-2 at home on Feb. 7-8.

North Dakota coach Dean Blais says his team should be ready for the challenge from a team that has nothing to lose.

”They’ve not had a lot of success this year,” Blais said of the Huskies. ”One of the reasons they’ve not had a great year is a recruiting thing — they had a couple kids who didn’t come back. They’ve run through some tough times.

”But they’ve responded real well to (first-year head coach) Tim Watters. And now they’ve got nothing to lose.”

That, says Watters, is just the attitude the Huskies are showing. ”We’ve been waiting for this all year long,” he said. ”We’re excited about the playoffs. We’ve had success in the past in the playoffs. We can correct a lot of things over a lousy season if we do well this weekend.”

Three seasons ago, Michigan Tech gave hopes to underdogs all around the league. After finishing last, the Huskies traveled to league champion Colorado College, and stunned the Tigers in three games, part of the reason why CC didn’t get an invitation to the NCAA tournament.

That upset caused the NCAA to change the way it selects teams, as it now protects the regular-season champion as well as the tournament champion from each league.

”We’ve been talking about it a little bit,” Watters said. ”The team has been playing very, very disciplined hockey lately. We’re not taking needless penalties, which I’m very pleased about.”

Watters wasn’t overly thrilled with last Friday’ 5-3 loss at St. Cloud, in which the hosts rallied for four goals in the final frame. Watters was ejected at game’s end for villifying the officials.

”We played one of our best hockey games for about 50 minutes,” he said. ”We have to play that way for 60 minutes each night against North Dakota.”

The Huskies will play without senior defenseman Travis VanTighem, out with an injury.

They’re a very good hockey club,” Watters said of the Sioux. ”We’re definitely going to have to be at our best to be competitive with them. There’s no question it’s going to be real difficult series.

”In bits and pieces, we’ve played some good hockey of late. If we put it together for 60 minutes, well have some success.”

That, said Blais, is the tack the Sioux are taking.

”We can’t worry about what they’ve done,” he said of the Huskies. ”We’ve just got to go out and play. We played well in the second game at Denver (a 5-0 loss). We outshot them (32-24). We didn’t roll over and die. If we have as good an effort as we did then, we’ll be OK.”

Pick: North Dakota in two games.

No. 9 Alaska Anchorage (9-21-4, 7-21-4 WCHA) at No. 2 Minnesota (24-11-1, 21-10-1 WCHA) Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), 7:05 p.m. CT, Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis, MN

Minnesota, averaging nearly four goals per game, hosts Alaska Anchorage, which has scored one goal in its last four games. Minnesota is hot, having taken three of four points at Colorado College two weeks ago, then sweeping Wisconsin last weekend to gain a share of the regular-season title.

The Golden Gophers lost the regular-season tiebreaker to North Dakota, so are the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. They recorded a 4-1, 6-2 sweep of the Seawolves in their only series this year, Jan. 3-4 in Anchorage.

Minnesota coach Doug Woog says the test is to break through the Seawolves’ tough defense.

”They don’t give you any space to do anything,” Woog said. ”They play you so tight. It’s a difficult circumstance to do anything. They play great team defense. They don’t take penalties. They don’t give anything away.”

First-year Seawolves coach Dean Talafous said that’s the plan.

”We have played good defense,” he said. ”All we can do is do our best. Until they change the rules of the game, you still play with five guys, one shift at time. You’ve still got a chance, if you just play your game.”

Woog says the playoff-tested Gophers will be ready to do just that, even after celebrating tying for the WCHA regular-season championship on the final night of the season.

”The harder you play, the more positive results you get,” he said. ”We don’t have any reason to let down. We had three goals. We’ve gotten one accomplished. Now, we’ll focus on the next one. We’re playing at home, with a chance to go to the Civic Center.

”We have been consistent. We feel confident that we will move on.”

Woog said the Gophers are wary of the consequences of not playing well.

”You saw what can happen at CC three years ago,” he said. ”Michigan Tech came out there and stuffed them. You just never know. We’re all zero and zero. I know it’s an old cliche, but it’s the way it is. You earn home-ice advantage, and that’s all you have.”

Yeah, but for the Gophers, that’s a sizeable advantage. Take last Saturday’s game against Wisconsin, for example. UM had trailed the Badgers 2-1, and led only 3-2 when it was announced North Dakota was losing in Denver.

”Our crowd hadn’t been that loud since we moved into the new building,” he said of Mariucci Arena. ”We scored, and the place erupted.”

Talafous said his players will learn from the Mariucci experience, win or lose.

”I think it’s a real advantage for our program to play in the WCHA and the ranked teams that play in it,” he said. ”It brings out best in you. It forces you to bring your game up a level, to figure out how to win. We need to get to that championship level, but first, we’ve got to experience it. If you play hard, you learn a lot, and you move closer to that goal.”

Pick: Minnesota in two.

No. 8 Northern Michigan (13-22-3, 9-21-2 WCHA) at No. 3 St. Cloud State 21-11-4, 18-10-4 WCHA) Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), 7:00 p.m. CT, National Hockey Center, St. Cloud, MN

The teams met just two times this season, and St. Cloud made the most of its home-ice advantage, posting 8-4, 3-1 victories on Dec. 6-7.

St. Cloud is coming off a 5-3, 8-2 home sweep of Michigan Tech; Northern Michigan gained three points in its home series with Minnesota-Duluth. But Northern may have to play without veteran goaltender Dieter Kochan, who continues to recover from an injury suffered two weeks ago.

St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl says his team is ready to make the most of its No. 3 seed.

”Finishing in the top three is real important,” he said. ”It helps you for seeding for the Final Five. That’s probably the most important thing. Holy buckets! You do anything you can do to avoid that game,” he said of the pigtail game between the two lowest-seeded teams among the Final Five. ”That’s why we wanted to finish third. It’s just a matter of us taking care of business now.”

Dahl expects a tough go with the Wildcats.

”I’m sure they’re excited, after beating and tying Duluth up there,” he said. ”We just came off a loss and tie to Duluth (Feb. 21-22). I guarantee you, we’d better be ready to play, because I know Northern will be ready.”

Northern Michigan coach Rick Comley won’t argue that point.

”We don’t have a lot of experience going in,” Comley said. ”We’ll dress 10 freshmen. But that’s what we’ve been going with. We’ve played pretty well the last month, with two one-goal losses at Minnesota, and the split with North Dakota.”

Comley is hoping he has Kochan back in the nets.

”He’s improving,” Comley said Wednesday. ”He skated today and yesterday. He was able to do more today, but he’s still very limited. We’re going to take him with us, but he’s very questionable. But we still have three days yet.”

Comley expects a rugged test. ”I think St. Cloud has the best top five in the league,” he said. ”I think the players they put out on the power play are the best in the league. The key will be keeping them off the power play. If you give them six or seven chances, they’re going to beat you.

”I think we have a chance. But I think we would have a chance against anybody.”

Pick: St. Cloud in three.

No. 7 Wisconsin (15-19-2, 15-15-2 WCHA) at No. 4 Colorado College (19-13-4, 17-11-4 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35 p.m. MT, Sunday 7:05 p.m. MT (if necessary), Cadet Ice Arena, Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado College gained three of four points against Alaska Anchorage on the final weekend of play to hang onto the fourth seed and home ice, which could be critical.

The Tigers swept the Badgers 7-3, 5-4 at home on Nov. 16-17, then split by 2-5, 6-2 scores in Madison on Feb. 7-8. This is the first playoff trip to Colorado Springs for Wisconsin, which hasn’t won a game since its last victory over the Tigers.

This series could hinge on goaltending. Wisconsin senior Kirk Daubenspeck can be spectacular, as he was in stopping 58 shots in a 4-3 loss at Minnesota last Friday. CC freshman Jason Cugnet is the reigning WCHA Defensive Player of the Week after giving up just one goal in last week’s 2-0 win and 1-1 tie at Anchorage.

But Cugnet sprained his left knee in practice Monday, and may be finished for the season. Since New Year’s Eve, he is 4-0-2 with a 1.91 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage.

In his stead, CC will go with senior Judd Lambert, who has been inconsistent this season. Lambert, 11-10-1 in the WCHA and 13-11-1 overall, has played reasonably well, but has lost six of his last seven games.

”Judd is a proven playoff guy,” CC coach Don Lucia said. ”He has the experience. I had planned to split them anyway. I would say Jason is maybe more doubtful than questionable for this weekend. We’ll start Judd on Friday and see how Jason is on Saturday.”

Lambert began the season as the starter, but Cugnet sparkled in his opportunities, and the two began splitting time. Cugnet started both games last weekend.

Lucia is aware of Daubenspeck’s ability to keep Wisconsin in any game. ”He’s capable of doing that,” Lucia said. ”We’re just going to go out and play. Whatever happens, happens. You just have to play to the best of your abilities from here on out.”

Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer was also impressed with Daubenspeck, but said there were some extenuating circumstances.

”We played in the Target Center, which is a small rink,” Sauer said. ”I knew he was going to get a lot of shots, because Minnesota shoots a lot." The Gophers held a 25-1 advantage in shots on goal in the first period, and outshot Wisconsin 62-23 for the game. Wisconsin was leading Saturday’s game 2-1 after two perids, when the Gophers were informed that North Dakota was losing to Denver. ”They just took it from there,” he said of Minnesota’s 7-3 comeback victory.

Sauer knows the odds are stacked against his team.

”We’re not healthy, but hopefully, we can do some damage,” he said. ”I’m pleased with our attitude. The guys are real positive. We’ll see what we can do. We had to go to North Dakota last year, and we did a pretty good job there.” The Badgers eliminated the Sioux with 6-5, 5-4 overtime victories.

Sauer said the Badgers will give what they have left. ”We have really not ben healthy down the stretch,” he said. ”We could be fairly healthy, but we have four (injured) guys who don’t know if they’re going to make the trip or not.”

Of the Tigers, Sauer said, ”I would think CC has got to be disappointed where they finished. If they do beat us, they’ve got to play an extra game next week.

”Both of us are just trying to get to St. Paul and see what happens. I feel both teams have got to win this weekend to have a chance to get to the NCAAs.”

Lucia said the Tigers should be in good spirits after gaining three points at Anchorage. ”I thought it was a good weekend for us,” he said. ”We only gave up one goal. Most importantly, we went up in fourth and came out in fourth.”

While CC has not been swept all season, the Tigers have not swept an opponent in the season’s second half. ”Now is the time for everybody to be on their game,” Lucia said. ”We can’t have passengers this weekend. In the playoffs, you have to play great defense. the power-play opportunities go down, so playing five-on-five becomes a bigger factor. You have to eliminate mistakes and make teams work for goals.”

Lucia said the faster-starting team would have an advantage.

”You play all year to play at home,” he said. ”The first game is real critical in these best-of-threes. We have to play our best hockey of the season right now.”

Pick: CC in three.

No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth (18-14-4, 15-13-4 WCHA) at No. 5 Denver (21-11-4, 17-11-4 WCHA) Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), 7:05 p.m. MT, DU Arena, Denver, CO

This is another series where home ice has been critical. DU registered a home sweep by 6-3, 5-1 scores on Dec. 13-14; UMD returned the favor in Duluth, winning by 7-4, 3-2 on Feb. 7-8.

This is also the Pioneers’ last series in the arena, which will be razed after this series to make room for a new multi-sport facility. While that is being constructed, the Pioneers will play their games next season at McNichols Arena and the Denver Coliseum.

Denver coach George Gwozdecky is mighty glad the Pioneers are at home.

”This has been a very competitive series,” he said. ”I think that we’re pretty happy to get the home-ice advantage, not just because of this series, but because of the way we’ve played at home all year. We’re unbeaten in our last 13 home games (10-0-3). That tells you what our team is like at home.

And the Bulldogs are not at home.

”They played us extremely physical when we were up in Duluth a month ago,” Gwozdecky said. ”They’ve got people who can really put the puck in the net. Guys like Mike Peluso, Brad Federenko, Adam Roy and Ken Dzikowski are four guys who have been a thorn in our side.

"Rick Mrozik is one of the best defensive players in league. Brant Nicklin is a good goaltender, and they have good special teams. They are a team that when they are really on their game, they’re really, really good.”

Duluth coach Mike Sertich has the same respect for the Pioneers.

”They’re a good hockey team,” he said of the Pioneers. ”They’re disciplined, they’re very well-coached, they’re veteran. They’re an obstacle, no question about that. In our first trip out to Denver, we did not play well. We got bumped off the puck a lot. The last time, we played pretty well, and we snuck out with two wins.”

Both teams may be somewhat short-handed. The Bulldogs have lost defenseman Laird Lidster and forward Colin Anderson to injury. Denver goaltender Jim Mullin is questionable after dislocating a shoulder last Friday, and Pioneer winger Antti Laaksonen won’t play Friday, the result of being ejected for spearing in last Saturday’s game.

”We got beat up pretty good,” Sertich said of last week’s physical series. ”There are some things you can’t avoid, and injuries are one of them. You’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do.”

Sertich expects this series to be a good one.

”I think we match up pretty well with them,” he said. ”I don’t think there’s much disparity between the top seven. Who’s playing the best hockey now is what matters.”

Gwozdecky said he wants Mullin back, but not until he’s ready.

”He feels, as our medical staff does, that he’ll be ready to play Friday,” Gwozdecky said. ”But I do it a little differently. I’m preparing in my own mind people who are ready to play. He’s got experience in important games.

"But I feel very confident in our other two goaltenders (freshmen Steve Wagner, who blanked North Dakota last Saturday, and junior Ben Henrich). If we advance to the Final Five, we’re going to need two healthy goaltenders. Wagner’s playing really well. So I’m really encouraging our medical staff, and Jim, to make sure he’s physically and mentally ready to play — not just ‘I really want to play.’ ”

Of Laaksonen’s absence, Gwozdecky said, ”If you take a quality player such as Antti out of the lineup, it’s going to have an effect. But I don’t think it will be as big as last year. If this was last year, I would be a lot more concerned, because the line of Laaksonen, (Erik) Andersson and (Brent) Cary really carried us.

"That hasn’t been the case this year. We’ve had other guys who have played well. Guys like Paul Comrie and Anders Bjork.”

Pick: Denver in two.

Steve Page is the WCHA Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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This Week in the ECAC: March 4, 1997

By Jayson Moy

March 4, 1997

ECAC Preview: Preliminary Round by Jayson Moy

"Let’s get ready to rummmmmmmbleeeeeeeeeeee…….." — noted ring announcer Michael Buffer

The ECAC regular season is over, and it’s time to hit the playoffs with both feet running (or if you prefer, both blades skating). It all starts on Tuesday night in Hamilton, N.Y., and Cambridge, Mass.

The ECAC playoffs are little peculiar in that ten teams are in. The top six get byes to the quarterfinal round that starts Friday at the top four teams’ rinks.

The teams that finished seventh through tenth play on Tuesday in the preliminary round. This year, those four are Colgate, Harvard, St. Lawrence and Yale.

(A look at the final regular-season ECAC Standings)

The lowest seed to win Tuesday will face top-seeded Clarkson in the best-of-three quarterfinals, starting Friday. The other winner will play Cornell.

But first, there are two intriguing games to deal with (note — in the following, the numerical designator identifies a team’s ECAC playoff seed):

No. 10 Yale (9-17-3, 6-14-2 ECAC) at No. 7 Colgate (16-13-3, 10-9-3 ECAC) Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Starr Rink, Hamilton, N.Y.

Regular Season Nov. 23: Colgate 4 Yale 3 OT at Yale Jan. 31: Colgate 5 Yale 2 at Colgate

The Yale Bulldogs finished the regular season with good news and bad news. The bad news was that they lost to Union in overtime. The good news is a lot more: the Bulldogs made the playoffs for the first time since 1992-93, finishing the season with a 2-2-0 run.

"That’s great, and it feels especially great for the seniors," said freshman forward Jeff Hamilton. "They wear their hearts on their sleeves every night, and it’s great for them to make the playoffs one more time."

"The bottom line is that these kids have been playing pretty darn good hockey," said coach Tim Taylor. "Going back to the Harvard game (Feb. 7), they’ve been playing well. Even in the losses, we’ve played real well. It’s a fitting tribute to them that they made the playoffs."

Taylor left the team for the Olympics in 1994 and the program took a dive in a hurry. But Ingalls Rink is rejuvenated — even by a modest step like getting into the playoffs as the final seed — and Taylor hopes to return to the team’s success of 1992, when it finished fourth.

"There’s no reason why we can’t," Taylor said. "It’s a long, slow rebuilding process, because we really took a big dip (after 1993). This year, we’ve made some progess, (especially) in goals against.

"(Making the playoffs) was always one of our first goals. It was our top focus all year long. In getting the 10th spot, we’ve achieved that. There was a lot of emotion in our building Saturday."

Since the Harvard game (a 3-2 loss), Yale has wins over RPI and Dartmouth, a tie to St. Lawrence, and two overtime losses. That is, Taylor has a hot team. And, earlier this season, Yale beat Clarkson and tied Boston University.

Colgate seems to be a sleeping giant, but goaltending has been the problem. Last year’s second-team All-ECAC pick, Dan Brenzavich, hasn’t been getting it done, so coach Don Vaughn started turning to freshman Shep Harder, and he earned Rookie of the Week honors two weeks ago.

"We just have to go out and play," said Vaughn, in discussing his team’s seventh-place position after two years in the upper echelon.

At least the potentially-explosive offense seems to be reappearing, though Yale can frustrate similar teams. Everyone knows that the Colgate offense is there, led by Mike Harder. Joining the fray will be Dave DeBusschere, Rob Mara and Tim Loftsgard.

"They’ve got some question marks in the pipes," Taylor said. "I don’t know if it’s a confidence problem. The thing about Colgate is they are pretty explosive offensively. They’ll be jacked up to play.

"We have to stop Mike Harder. We’ve been good at neutralizing other teams’ top guns. But we’re on the road, so matchups are tougher."

Yale would have preferred a matchup with eighth-seeded Harvard. In fact, Taylor was so anxious to play the Crimson, he pulled the goalie in overtime against Union on Saturday, needing a win to move into ninth place. Union scored, and therefore beat out Princeton for the fifth seed, and Taylor is aware he probably isn’t popular in New Jersey.

"I wasn’t thinking of them (Princeton)," Taylor said. "This is a tough trip. We had a chance to finish ninth, going up in standings a bit.

"Harvard, logistically, is a much easier game for us. We have a chance of heading back up (to Clarkson) if we win. It’s gonna be tough.

"We match up better with Harvard. They’re struggling offensively, we’re not high-powered. I think all of our guys would prefer Harvard, because of the rivalry, and (the loss on) Feb. 7 is still fresh in our minds."

But the Bulldogs play Colgate, so they’re hoping for another long trip to Clarkson — since that will mean they have won.

PICK: This has the makings of an offensive show. At one point in time, that would have been offense from one side — Colgate. But lately, Yale has gotten the scoring going, so expect to see some goals in this one. Unfortunately for Yale, the Colgate offense is a notch higher, and the experience will help the Red Raiders. Colgate heads to Ithaca for a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal matchup, when the Red Raiders were spanked in two games. Colgate 6 Yale 4

No. 9 St. Lawrence (10-19-5, 5-12-5 ECAC) at No. 8 Harvard (10-17-2, 9-11-2 ECAC) Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Bright Hockey Center, Cambridge, Mass.

Regular Season Dec. 6 : Harvard 3 St. Lawrence 3 OT at Harvard Feb. 22 : St. Lawrence 6 Harvard 3 at St. Lawrence

St. Lawrence almost wound up going to Hamilton for this game, but instead, the Saints are off to Cambridge after Yale couldn’t hold its lead over Union.

This is the second straight year the two teams will meet in the playoffs. Last year, Harvard, as the sixth seed, traveled to St. Lawrence for the quarterfinals and won the series in three games.

"We’ve played seven times in the last two years," said St. Lawrence assistant coach Paul Flanagan. "I look back at last year’s series, and Harvard was certainly the older club. Their seniors showed the leadership in that series. They had a fresh outlook on the season.

"Maybe we’re looking for the same," he added. "We’ve been telling the guys that it’s a clean slate. And this year, we’re the veteran team. Even though it’s just one game, we can get it done."

These two teams met just ten days ago in Cambridge, and St. Lawrence skated to a 6-3 win.

"It gives us some confidence," said Flanagan about the recent win. "We came off a game where we did not play well (against Brown), and we came out and played a great game.

"It’s two teams which are very similar," he added. "I don’t think any team is a favorite or an underdog, (although) maybe we’re the underdog because we’re on the road.

"And maybe it’s a plus that we’re on the road. Maybe it will take some of the pressure off of us since we’re not at home."

The Crimson knew they were going to play on Tuesday night before last weekend began. The only thing left was whether the Crimson would get to play at Bright. A strong showing against Dartmouth on Friday resulted in a 6-3 win and a home game.

The momentum carried over to Saturday, but the Crimson could not hold on to a lead and lost to Vermont 5-4.

"I thought that we played a great game [against Dartmouth]," said Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni. "[But] I also thought that we played a heck of a lot better [versus Vermont]."

The general feeling from Tomassoni is that it’s a brand new season, and anything can happen.

"Right now we harp on the fact that it is a clean slate, a clean bill," he said. "Everyone is zero-zero and the scoring stats are zero-zero across the board. It’s a breath of fresh air, and it’s the start of a whole new season. We think that we have as good a chance of winning this thing as anyone else."

Much has been made of Harvard’s offensive troubles throughout the season, but this past weekend, the Crimson put some numbers on the board. They totaled 10 goals scored, the most in a Crimson weekend this season.

"We’re scoring some goals now, too," said Tomassoni. "That has got to give us some confidence going into the playoffs.

"We are going to be strengthened on Tuesday by the fact that we get another pretty good player back in the lineup in Trevor Allman. I think that that is going to give us a little impetus. I also look out there and see the performance of a Mark Moore: playing as well as he has played, that definitely bodes well for us."

Don’t forget about J.R. Prestifilippo in goal for the Crimson. The freshman has already set a record for most minutes played as a freshman at Harvard, and his presence makes the Crimson’s future brighter.

PICK: The two teams met just ten days ago, and St. Lawrence won that one. This time, it’s at Harvard. Does that make a difference? Harvard got the offense going on the last weekend of the season — a good sign for the Crimson.

On the other hand, St. Lawrence hung in for two periods against Cornell, and the same against Colgate. St. Lawrence will take an early lead, and it’s up to Harvard to come back. St. Lawrence plays at Cheel this weekend. St. Lawrence 5 Harvard 3

Later this week, look for the ECAC Quarterfinal Preview.

Special thanks to those who contributed to this article: Adam Wodon, host of "Around the Rinks" Rebecca A. Blaeser of the Harvard Crimson

Jayson Moy is the ECAC Correspondent for US College Hockey Online.

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CCHA Rookie Team Announced

USCHO Staff Report

March 3, 1997

Defenseman Daryl Andrews of Western Michigan, who led all CCHA blueliners in points, and freshman scoring leader Hugo Boisvert of Ohio State are among the six members of the 1996-97 Bauer/CCHA All-Rookie Team, selected by CCHA head coaches and announced Monday, March 3, by the league.

The team is to be honored at the CCHA’s awards banquet on March 13, where the league’s Rookie of the Year will be announced. Last year’s winner was goaltender Marc Magliarditi of Western Michigan.

The All-Rookie team includes three forwards, two defensemen and a goaltender chosen from among the CCHA’s member teams.

Andrews (6-20–26), a unanimous selection, led the conference’s rookie defensemen in overall scoring, finishing fourth among WMU players. His +6 plus/minus rating led the Broncos, and his six game-winning assists were third among all CCHA players.

Forward Boisvert (11-27–38) led CCHA rookies in both scoring and assists, as well as topping the Buckeyes in assists. He had 16 power-play points, and tied for second in OSU scoring.

Another unanimous selection was forward Joe Dusbabek (13-12–25) of Notre Dame, second to Boisvert in rookie scoring. Dusbabek led the Irish in plus/minus (+2) and tied for the team lead in overall scoring.

Also named to the All-Rookie Team were:

Forward Adam Edinger (11-14–25) of Bowling Green, whose 11 overall goals and six power-play tallies were fourth and second, respectively, among CCHA freshmen.

Alaska-Fairbanks goalie Chris Marvel (9-11-1, 3.69 GAA, .873 SV%), who played over 1,100 CCHA minutes and is the first Nanook ever to make the team.

Defenseman Josh Mizerek (4-15–19) of Miami, who was second among CCHA rookie blueliners in both overall assists and plus/minus (+9).

Honorable mention went to Ray Aho of Ohio State; Nathan Borega and Tyson Fraser of Notre Dame; Shawn Horcoff and Mike Weaver of Michigan State; Ben Keup of Lake Superior; Brian McCullough and Mike Szkodzinski of Ferris State; and Peter Ratchuk of Bowling Green.

Face Off: Week 7

USCHO Staff Report

February 28, 1997

Welcome to U.S. College Hockey Online’s roundtable discussion. We’ll be debating a college hockey topic each week in this space, where various members of our staff meet to argue. Sometimes serious, sometimes silly — but either way, watch the feathers fly: no punches will be pulled, and no quarter given, when these people face off.

With the Playoffs Fast Approaching, Which Teams Are the Most Dangerous Darkhorses?

Dave Hendrickson, Hockey East Correspondent: Any one of three Hockey East teams could knock off UNH and/or BU for the league crown. While Providence heads the list, Merrimack and Boston College also have legitimate chances.

Providence is playing like … well … Providence down the stretch. In each of coach Paul Pooley’s previous two years, the Friars made it to the championship game, winning it the last time despite middle-of-the-road results during the regular season. Combining their strong play this past month — winning six of their last seven — with the Pooley defensive stranglehold that tends to be so effective at playoff time makes PC a very strong possibility.

Merrimack goes into the final week as the hottest Hockey East team eligible for the playoffs. Only Maine has been hotter in 1997. Coach Ron Anderson has his team playing with more confidence than they ever have since entering Division I play. Perhaps their biggest problem will arise in the event that they make it to the FleetCenter. Having never gone so far, they may be at a disadvantage against other teams no longer in awe of the surroundings.

Boston College, the darkest of the darkhorses, has done little to inspire title hopes down the stretch. But if the Eagles play like they’ve played against BU all year long, they have a chance. In coach Jerry York’s words, “There’s no team in the league we can’t beat, but there’s also no team in the league that we can’t lose to.” The Eagles are the ultimate wild card.

Tim Brule, USCHO Coordinator: The most dangerous darkhorse in the WCHA is Denver. Through last weekend, they have the nation’s fifth-best record in their last 20 games. Further, they are ninth-best against the so-called “Teams Under Consideration” (teams at or above .500, those used in the Pairwise Rankings).

After struggling earlier in the year, Jim Mullin has been playing well between the pipes of late. As added motivation, the Pioneers need a strong performance in the WCHA tournament to stay on the bubble for the Big Dance.

Jayson Moy, ECAC Correspondent: If you want a darkhorse from the ECAC, you have to go deep into the standings. Why? Because I believe the top seven teams in the ECAC all have a legitimate shot at winning the crown at Lake Placid.

Therefore, we go into the lower end of the standings to find a darkhorse. How about four of them?

Harvard has a solid goaltender in J.R. Prestifilippo, and has shown spurts of playing great offense. Remember, this team has the remnants of the group that upset St. Lawrence last year and almost won the ECAC Championship.

St. Lawrence also has a good goaltender in Clint Owen, and a great offensive threat in Paul DiFrancesco. Add Ryan Cassidy to the mix plus big Joel Prpic, and St. Lawrence can make up for a disappointing regular season.

Dartmouth has two fine freshman goaltenders in Jason Wong and Eric Almon, plus senior Scott Baker. Add forwards David Whitworth, Jon Sturgis, Ryan Chaytors and Darren Wercinski, all of whom almost doubled their career totals in points this year, and you have a combination that could upset.

Yale has youth and exuberance, and Tim Taylor does a great job. Dan Choquette and Alex Westlund in goal are a good pair, and Jeff Hamilton, John Chyz, Geoff Kufta and Keith McCullough are great young forwards, and you can’t forget about Ray Giroux on the blueline.

I’ll take all these teams, even though only three of them will be in the playoffs.

Paula C. Weston, CCHA Correspondent: At the risk of sounding partisan, Ohio State is a definite dark horse going into the CCHA playoffs.

A talented mix of enthusiastic rookies and hardened veterans, this Buckeye team is peaking at the end of the season. Going into this final weekend of play, they are riding a six-game unbeaten streak (5-0-1).

It all began with a crucial two-game sweep of Notre Dame in South Bend. Following that win, the Buckeyes trounced Western Michigan, beat Bowling Green in a non-conference game, tied Bowling Green less than one week later, then pummelled Michigan State by a score of 8-3 in spite of being outshot by a margin of almost 2-1.

The Buckeyes actually took their season series with the Spartans for the first time since joining the CCHA (in 1971 — OSU last took the season series from the Spartans in 1963).

The Buckeyes have had firepower all season from freshmen Eric Meloche and Hugo Boisvert; on line with them, senior Chad Power is having a career season. Senior Pierre Dufour and junior Ryan Root are a threatening combination on the power play; Root is tied for the league lead in points on the power play among defenseman.

In their last six games, freshman goaltenders Ray Aho and Tom Connerty have given up three goals in each. And, finally, the Ohio State defense is stepping up.

Most importantly for the Buckeyes is the feeling of winning, something that the veterans — half the team — are not used to. They like that feeling, and they’d like it to continue.

Adam Wodon, host of “Around the Rinks”: If there is such a thing as an “obvious” sleeper, Union would be it. Good defense and goaltending can take you far if things break right.

But preferring to crawl out upon a more fragile limb, two other sleepers come to mind: Colgate and St. Lawrence, two teams that may not even crack the top seven in the conference standings.

Colgate has a lot of talent, but for one reason or another, has trouble putting it together consistently. The players who returned this year may never have fully recovered from the quarterfinal drubbing at the hands of Cornell last year, but of bigger concern was the loss of assistant Stan Moore to Union.

The discontinuance of Moore’s infamous plastic puck-blocking drills may have come as a relief to Colgate captain Mike Harder, but that kind of toughness helped the Red Raiders in recent years.

Still, Colgate will likely finish over .500, even if it doesn’t place in the top half of the league. And any team with 20-goal scorer Harder, Dave Debusschere and Tim Loftsgard on it is going to be dangerous.

The problem has been defense — more specifically, goaltending. Frankly, Dan Brenzavich is overrated, and his second team All-ECAC status last year (and overlooking of Clarkson’s Dan Murphy) can be chalked up to a strange aligning of the stars when league coaches made their selections.

But last weekend, Shep Harder (no relation to Mike) got the start and earned ECAC Rookie of the Week honors in the process, as Colgate picked up three points. If coach Don Vaughn goes with this hot hand, I like the Red Raiders’ chances.

The book is out on Brenzavich (go top shelf). To be fair, he was more than adequate last year, but he may be the prime example of not recovering from last year’s Lynah Rink shellshock.

Now, it’s always hard to overlook a Joe Marsh team, and so St. Lawrence is definitely in the mix. The Saints’ troubles this year remain a mystery, the graduation of leading scorer Burke Murphy notwithstanding.

Between draftees like Troy Creuer, Derek Ladouceur, Derek McLaughlin, Paul DiFrancesco and Joel Prpic, and goalie Clint Owen, the Saints have too much talent to be where they are.

But, there they are, struggling for ninth place. Still, you have to like the Saints’ chances against Harvard (most likely) in a preliminary game (avenging last year’s quarterfinal upset by the Crimson), which would set up a potential quarterfinal series with North Country neighbor Clarkson.

And in that scenario, it’s anyone’s game.

Lee Urton, Media Relations: The term “darkhorse” implies a team that surprises, that comes from nowhere to upset a favorite.

In the WCHA this season, there are no darkhorses. There are three teams that are significantly worse than the others, yes. But the other seven teams — North Dakota, Minnesota, St. Cloud, Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth and Wisconsin — are all so evenly matched, that if they played another ten games against each other, one would expect them to go 5-5-0. Or maybe 4-4-2.

These seven teams will be placed in some order, ranked one through seven, but only because they have to be. If one of them beats another in the postseason, it will be neither “expected” nor an “upset.” What it will be is some good hockey between very even teams.

Don’t expect to see a one-two North Dakota-Minnesota final. It could happen, but is only as likely as any other outcome. To think that a Duluth can’t beat a Denver, or that a St. Cloud won’t beat a Minnesota, or a Colorado College has to lose to a North Dakota is just asking for surprises. Anything can happen.

Scott Brown, Features Editor: Michigan is the commanding favorite to win the CCHA tourney, and with good reason. No one really needs a reminder why, but here goes: a 29-2-4 overall record, including 20-2-3 in-conference. Winning streaks of nine, six and six games. A 2-0 record at the College Hockey Showcase, and yet another Great Lakes Invitational championship. 5-0-1 (pending the outcome of Saturday’s game) against CCHA and national powers Lake Superior and Miami.

The point is this. Every team in the CCHA is playing David to Michigan’s Goliath; if you’re going to challenge for the CCHA tourney title, the road goes directly through the Wolverines. So to have a shot at taking the whole enchilada, you have to be able to beat Michigan.

With this in mind, the number-one contender to Michigan’s title becomes arch-rival Michigan State. Case in point: not only are the Spartans the only team to beat Michigan this year, they did it twice. And as any devotee of this rivalry will attest, the rankings and numbers and seedings go right out the window when UM and MSU hook up.

Now, that doesn’t mean the Spartans will win, or even that they’re likely to. But if anyone’s going to run the Wolverine train off the rails, it’s almost got to be Michigan State.

Deron Treadwell, News Editor: I suspect that Mike Machnik may step up and pick Merrimack as a darkhorse for the Hockey East Tournament, and rightly so. Merrimack has a good chance to finish with home ice for the quarterfinal round, but won’t be expected to challenge Boston University or New Hampshire.

Let’s not forget that Merrimack is the only Hockey East team to beat Maine, which has the best record in Hockey East since Christmas. The Warriors did it twice, once in Orono — where Maine has only lost three times this season (Northeastern and Lowell being the other two).

But the real darkhorse is Providence College. Look at Paul Pooley’s track record: in his first year, 1994-95, he took the sixth-seeded Friars to the title game after mauling number-one seed Maine in the semis. PC just fell short, losing to Boston University, 3-2.

Then last year Providence, the fourth seed, made it to the FleetCenter and jumped top seed seed BU in the semis before finishing on the money end of a 3-2 win over Maine in the title game — their first Hockey East title since 1985 — and an NCAA tourney apperance.

Once again Paul Pooley’s postseason pals are up to their old tricks. A sweep over Lowell last weekend (Friday night, short seven starters due to suspension) gave them home ice for the quarterfinals when it looked weeks before like the Friars were destined for a road trip next week. Now they are a virtual lock for the number-three seed in the tournament, their best since the Pooley era started.

Each year, the experts have bet against Providence, and the Friars have proved them wrong. Clearly, PC cannot be considered a favorite, but recent history says not to bet against those Providence College Friars.

This Week in the ECAC: February 28, 1997

By Jayson Moy

February 28, 1997

ECAC Preview: Feb. 28-Mar. 1, 1997 by Jayson Moy

It’s a two-horse race as the finish line nears for the ECAC title. Clarkson and Cornell have emerged as the only teams left that can take the regular-season title, and the resulting automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Those two teams battle this Friday for the title, the NCAA berth and the number-one seed in the ECAC playoffs, which begin Tuesday.

Just below the leaders is a tight race for the remaining two home quarterfinal spots. It involves five teams — RPI, Vermont, Union, Princeton and Colgate.

RPI was the big loser on the weekend, getting swept. Vermont picked up two points, while Union and Princeton each garnered three points.

Below this pack is Harvard, which is already in the playoffs, but cannot escape a Tuesday night play-down game.

Three teams below Harvard — St. Lawrence, Yale and Dartmouth — are fighting for two playoff positions on Tuesday night. Brown has been eliminated from the playoffs.

Take a closer look at the ECAC Standings

Let’s examine some of the races a little more closely.

If Clarkson beats Cornell on Friday at Lynah Rink, Clarkson takes the regular-season title. It’s that simple.

In order for Cornell to win the ECAC title, two scenarios are available. In both, Cornell must defeat Clarkson. The next evening, Clarkson has to lose or tie for Cornell to be the ECAC regular-season champion. Then Cornell, with a win, or with Vermont and Princeton in the top four and Harvard in the top eight, will win the ECAC regular season.

Home ice in the quarterfinals is one step for RPI and Vermont. Those two teams need a win, plus one point from Princeton; then the quarterfinals are in Troy and Burlington.

Union and Princeton battle on Friday — with the loser of the game most likely on the road for the quarterfinals.

See the ECAC Supplement for a run-through of the playoff possibilities for each team.

On to the last regular-season weekend…

Clarkson (22-8-0, 15-5-0 ECAC, 1st) and St. Lawrence (10-17-5, 5-10-5 ECAC, 9th) at Cornell (16-7-4, 13-5-2 ECAC, 2nd) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-7 p.m., Lynah Rink, Ithaca, N.Y.

St. Lawrence (10-17-5, 5-10-5 ECAC, 9th) and Clarkson (22-8-0, 15-5-0 ECAC, 1st) at Colgate (15-12-3, 9-8-3 ECAC, 7th) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-3 p.m., Starr Rink, Hamilton, N.Y.

"You scratch and claw for every point you can get with your mitts on," said Clarkson head coach Mark Morris about league play. "You just have to concentrate on what you’re going to do out there.

"We’ve got some unfinished business."

That unfinished business is the ECAC regular-season title, and the automatic NCAA bid. The Golden Knights can take that step with a win over Cornell on Friday night, which would clinch the top position.

Morris knows that it will be tough on the road.

"It’s a hostile crowd (at Lynah Rink) and one that gives no breaks," he said. "Cornell is tough in every facet and they use some key defensemen that can handle the puck very well.

"Offensively they’ve got good depth up front, and great goaltending," he added. "It doesn’t look like they have many weaknesses. They’re a great hockey team."

St. Lawrence is within one point of clinching a playoff spot, thanks to a three point weekend and senior center Joel Prpic — the ECAC Player of the Week.

Prpic picked up five points (3-2) on Friday against Brown, including his first career hat trick. He added an assist on Saturday against Harvard.

One point is all the Saints need to make the playoffs and go the following Tuesday in a play-down game.

"It’s not a matter of adjustments," said head coach Joe Marsh. "It’s a mental thing. It’s the mental aspect of the game."

The mental aspect for the Saints is feeling a lot better now after a successful weekend. On the other hand, Colgate is perched in seventh place, definitely not a place the Red Raiders wanted to be.

"That’s the big thing now," said head coach Don Vaughn about getting out of seventh. "We didn’t get a lot of help over the weekend. Right now we have to worry about ourselves, and what happens, happens.

"If we don’t (avoid a Tuesday play-down game), we have to go out and play and do our best to advance."

The Red Raiders helped themselves out a lot this weekend taking three points from Union and RPI. Freshman goaltender and ECAC Rookie of the Week Shep Harder was a surprise starter on Friday against RPI, and went again on Saturday.

"It may have surprised those on the outside," said Vaughn about starting Harder. "If you look at what we’ve done in the last few games defensively — and this is not anything against Danny (Brenzavich, senior goaltender) — we let in a lot of goals. I thought that change might be good for us."

To call Friday’s game between Clarkson and Cornell "big" is an understatement, except to Cornell head coach Mike Schafer.

"This time of the year, all games are big," he said. "It’s just another game."

Clarkson’s offense worries Schafer, but he thinks his team’s offense is right up there. The Big Red have scored only 10 fewer goals in ECAC competition than the Golden Knights.

"I wouldn’t call [us] a real offensive team," he said. "We’ve put up almost the same offensive numbers. We’re also not a team that changes a lot."

Cornell will once again be without Matt Cooney, Vinnie Auger, Keith Peach and Jamie Papp this weekend. The four did not play over the weekend at Union and RPI.

"I’m not worried about fatigue," said Schafer. "We can play with three lines and one defenseman up front. We’ve been cutting back on hard practices.

"(Fatigue) only becomes a factor if you get down by a couple of goals," he added. "If you’re ahead, it’s less of a factor. If you have to force yourselves, the fatigue factor will set in."

PICKS:

Clarkson at Cornell: Can the Big Red play with just three lines against a team as deep as the Golden Knights? The crowd will pump them up, but the depth of four lines against three is too much, especially with the talent on Clarkson’s top two lines. Clarkson wins the ECAC regular season. Clarkson 4 Cornell 2

St. Lawrence at Colgate: A huge boost for Colgate this weekend with three points. The Red Raiders want to do all they can to get out of seventh place, while the Saints just want to make the playoffs. SLU will have to look towards New Haven and Hanover for help. Colgate 5 St. Lawrence 2

St. Lawrence at Cornell: The Big Red will sting from the previous night’s loss, but clinch second place tonight. Cornell 6 St. Lawrence 4

Clarkson at Colgate: Clarkson has wrapped it up, the Red Raiders want to get out of seventh place. On Silver Puck Weekend, Colgate makes its move. Colgate 5 Clarkson 3

RPI (16-10-4, 11-6-3 ECAC, T-3rd) and Union (17-10-3, 10-7-3 ECAC, T-5th) at Yale (8-16-3, 5-13-2 ECAC, T-10th) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-7 p.m., Ingalls Rink, New Haven, Conn.

Union (17-10-3, 10-7-3 ECAC, T-5th) and RPI (16-10-4, 11-6-3 ECAC, T-3rd) at Princeton (15-8-4, 10-7-3 ECAC, T-5th) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-7 p.m., Baker Rink, Princeton, N.J.

The youngest team in the league showed its inexperience in stretch drives this past weekend, getting swept by Colgate and Cornell at home.

Despite the two losses, RPI is still in the driver’s seat for home ice in the quarterfinal playoff round.

"It’s a time when you’ve got to really focus, more so than at the beginning of the season," said head coach Dan Fridgen. "Everybody is in game shape, everyone is improved. They’re all on an upward climb.

"You have different situations in different games that you may not have seen before," added Fridgen. "I think what we’re learning is there’s very little room for error as you progress toward the playoffs."

RPI controls its own destiny for playoff positioning, and it’s the Engineers that Fridgen says his club should be concerned with.

"The standings take care of the standings on how we do on a game-to-game basis," said Fridgen. "We haven’t helped our cause this weekend. Now it’s what happens around the league to help our cause. I don’t like doing that. We like to be in control of our own destiny.

"We’ve got to regroup. There’s two games left. We can regroup, or we can roll over and play dead."

The Dutchmen of Union have shot up the standings and into the thick of the race for a home quarterfinal spot. The Dutchmen are 5-1-2 in their last eight ECAC contests, the lone loss coming to league-leading Clarkson.

Union took three points from Colgate and Cornell this past weekend, using the Dutchman formula — a tough forecheck and taking opportunities when it can.

"We played the same dull, boring pattern, which we’re thankful for," Union coach Stan Moore said. "We were focused and stayed consistent in our own end.

"I think they were opportunistic goals," said Moore of his team’s seven goal outburst against Cornell Friday night. "We had some bounces here and there. We had the hustle and effort behind it. We may have had a few breaks earlier, but at least we were consistent in our own end and managed to stay on top."

All of a sudden Yale is a hot team. The Bulldogs took two points on the road this weekend. They almost had three, but an overtime goal by Vermont prevented that.

Yale is fighting for the playoffs and faces two tough teams in RPI and Union this weekend. The last time the teams met, Yale was swept by both.

Look for the Bulldogs to continue their goaltending rotation of Dan Choquette and Alex Westlund this weekend. Choquette kept Vermont at bay for over two periods before he was beaten in overtime, and Westlund made 36 saves in the 4-1 win over Dartmouth.

Princeton finally got the frustrations out with three points over the weekend. Two of those points were a 2-0 shutout of Vermont at the Gutterson Fieldhouse. Evan more amazing, the Tigers limited the vaunted Catamount offense to just 15 shots on goal.

Erasmo Saltarelli did the job in net, and head coach Don Cahoon likes what he sees.

"Coming off what was maybe a sub-par performance (Friday), he really responded and just put a terrific effort together," Cahoon said of his goalie after Saturday’s shutout. "That’s what the junior and experienced player will do for you."

PICKS:

RPI at Yale: Two of the youngest teams in the ECAC on the final weekend. You better believe that Eric Healey, Matt Garver and Alain St. Hilaire won’t be shut out of a weekend again, as the Engineers clinch home ice for the quarterfinals. RPI 7 Yale 2

Union at Princeton: You would think that two defensive-minded teams like these would play a low-scoring game, but the last time out it was 3-3 after one period, and ended up in a 6-4 Union victory. These two are essentially playing for home ice in the quarterfinals, and the loser is, in all likelihood, on the road. Princeton 3 Union 2

Union at Yale: Can Yale get the push it needs for the playoffs? Unfortunately for them, the Bulldogs will have to look elsewhere for help. Union 3 Yale 1

RPI at Princeton: Princeton has only lost once to RPI on home ice since 1991. In fact the Tigers have only lost three times to RPI since 1991, one being the ECAC championship game in 1995. The Tigers seem to own RPI in recent years. It will happen again. Princeton 4 RPI 2

Vermont (19-8-3, 11-6-3 ECAC, T-3rd) and Dartmouth (10-15-2, 5-13-2 ECAC, T-10th) at Brown (6-18-3, 3-15-2 ECAC, 12th) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-5 p.m., Meehan Auditorium, Providence, R.I.

Dartmouth (10-15-2, 5-13-2 ECAC, T-10th) and Vermont (19-8-3, 11-6-3 ECAC, T-3rd) at Harvard (9-16-2, 8-10-2 ECAC, 8th) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-7 p.m., Bright Hockey Center, Cambridge, Mass.

Dartmouth finds itself tied for tenth place in the ECAC all of sudden. After getting one point from two games this weekend, the Big Green are fighting for their playoff lives.

This weekend, they will be looking towards New Haven to see what the team tied with them is doing. But the Big Green must look at their games first. They are 2-7-1 in their last 10 ECAC games, and the slump has not helped them in the standings.

"I was concerned about goals for — now I’m concerned about goals against," said Vermont head coach Mike Gilligan after the ECAC weekend which saw the Cats host Colgate and Cornell.

Gilligan should be concerned with goals for once again. If not for the last four minutes of the game two weeks ago versus RPI, the Cats would have one goal to show for the weekend.

This past weekend, they only scored three goals, all against Yale on Friday. That’s just six goals in four games for the Catamounts, and only 40 shots on goal in two games last weekend.

Brown must look forward to next season. After Saturday’s home game against Dartmouth, the Bears are finished for the season. Pride is the word in Providence this weekend, because that’s all the Bears are playing for.

Harvard, of course, is fighting for one thing — a home game on Tuesday in the play-down round. The Crimson cannot finish higher than seventh in the conference.

J.R. Prestifilippo continued his bid for the ECAC Rookie of the Year award with 80 saves in two games versus Clarkson and St. Lawrence — personal highs for the year.

"J.R. has been the rock," said head coach Ronn Tomassoni. "He has been simply outstanding. He’s only a freshman, but he has not played like a freshman. He’s been consistent — he’s given us the opportunity to win every game, regardless of how we’ve played. He’s also a tremendous competitor, mature beyond his years, and as tough a kid mentally as I’ve coached."

PICKS:

Vermont at Brown: Vermont has had trouble scoring lately, but against Brown, the offense should improve. The Bears have allowed the most goals in the ECAC, but again, pride has a lot to do with keeping the score down. Vermont 4 Brown 2

Dartmouth at Harvard: Dartmouth needs a win to get in the playoffs, can the Big Green do it? Prestifilippo makes his bid for the Rookie of the Year, and Harvard wants a home playoff game. Dartmouth 4 Harvard 3

Dartmouth at Brown: Dartmouth will be thankful that it got the win the night before. Brown 4 Dartmouth 2

Vermont at Harvard: Vermont clinches the number-three seed. Vermont 6 Harvard 3

The regular season is over, so it’s time to fight for the Whitelaw Trophy. On Monday, look for a special ECAC preview on the two play-down games. On Thursday, the ECAC quarterfinal previews arrive.

Jayson Moy is the ECAC Correspondent for US College Hockey Online.

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This Week in the CCHA: February 28, 1997

By Paula C. Weston

February 28, 1997

CCHA PREVIEW: Feb. 28-Mar. 2, 1997 CCHA Preview: Feb. 28-Mar. 2, 1997 by Paula C. Weston

For weeks, the top four teams in the CCHA have known that they’ll be hosting the first round of playoffs. Last week decided which teams among the bottom four would advance to post-season play. All that remains to be seen is the final order of the standings — determining who plays where.

It was no surprise that No. 1 Michigan clinched the regular-season CCHA title last week. With just two losses all season, the Wolverines have proven to one and all that they are contenders for back-to-back national titles. For emphasis, Michigan drubbed Lake Superior 8-0 in Ann Arbor last week.

To the Lakers’ credit, they tied Michigan the next night, taking some of the charm away from Michigan’s seniors’ night. Michigan swings through Ohio this week, stopping in Oxford and Columbus.

With 34 points, Lake Superior will remain in sole possession of third place only if Michigan State earns no points this weekend. Last week’s tie against Michigan in Yost was the Lakers’ last game of the regular season. Not a bad way to end the year.

Michigan State gained two points last weekend, and not the way most CCHA fans could have predicted. The Spartans beat Miami in Oxford, 7-3 on Saturday. On Sunday, their hosts in Columbus were less hospitable: Michigan State lost to Ohio State, 8-3. The two points the Spartans gained give them 33, and put them in a good position to catch second-place Miami.

Miami needs three points to lock second place in the CCHA. If the Spartans take four points and Miami takes two, Michigan State and Miami will tie for second place, with Michigan State owning the tie-breaker. With 35 points, Miami has done better than anyone has expected — anyone, that is, except for Miami. Miami hosts Western Michigan and finishes the season with a home game against Michigan.

Western Michigan and Bowling Green are tied for fifth. Each team has 24 points, but Western has a game in hand on Bowling Green. Western split a home-and-home series with Notre Dame last week, and travels to Ohio to finish the season. The Broncos play Miami on Friday, and Ohio State on Saturday.

Bowling Green lost to Miami and tied with Ohio State last week. The Falcons will host the Spartans Saturday for their final game of the regular season.

Ohio State is the hottest team in the CCHA right now. With a six-game unbeaten streak (5-0-1), the Buckeyes have moved from obscurity to seventh place. The Bucks tied the Falcons last week in the tiny OSU Ice Rink, and won the rubber match of their series with Michigan State at the Expo Center. The Buckeyes finish their season with home games against Western Michigan and Michigan.

Alaska-Fairbanks has a lot to brag about. After starting the season 0-7-0, practically no one thought the Nanooks would make the CCHA playoffs. By taking five points last weekend in a three-game home series against Ferris State, the Nanooks eliminated the Bulldogs from the playoffs, and vaulted themselves into eighth place. The next time Alaska-Fairbanks plays will be in Yost Ice Arena, in the first round of the playoffs.

Notre Dame has one game remaining in its schedule. Michigan State will play in South Bend on Friday night.

Ferris State has finished its season.

Last week’s (dismal) record in picks: 6-5 Overall record in picks: 93-67

It’s better than flipping a coin!

Western Michigan (14-15-4, 10-11-4 CCHA) at No. 6 Miami (23-10-1, 17-7-1 CCHA) Friday, 7 p.m., Goggin Arena, Oxford, OH

When these two teams met in Big Rapids in December, Miami beat Western 5-2, and Western took the second game, 7-6 in overtime. This game against Miami is the first of two rubber games Western plays this final weekend of the season.

Western wants to finish up strong to have some momentum going into the playoffs on the road. Miami needs three points to clinch second place in the conference.

Western head coach Bill Wilkinson knows that this won’t be an easy game. "Miami is vying for the second-place slot. They have Michigan on Saturday, so they’re probably looking at us for two points Friday. They’re going to play with intensity, and we’ll have to match that intensity."

Western split with Notre Dame last weekend, losing 5-4 in OT in South Bend, and returning home in a big way with a 6-1 win. In that 6-1 win, six different Broncos — Justin Cardwell, Steve Duke, Mike Melas, Corey Waring and Joel Irving — scored a goal apiece.

Tim Leahy was the most consistent player for Miami last weekend. Leahy had a goal and an assist each night. Randy Robitaille also had a goal in each game.

The goaltending for each team is solid, if a little inconsistent. Trevor Prior, who looked nearly unbeatable in the beginning of the season, has played well for Miami, and has settled into a very nice .884 save percentage. Prior is allowing just 2.89 goals per game.

Matt Barnes has stepped up for his Broncos just when they needed him most. He’s raised his save percentage to .881, and his GAA is 3.36.

Desire will decide this game. Each team has something to earn. Miami can finish second in the CCHA, behind the number-one team in the country. Western wants to end on an up note and erase the doubts of the beginning of the season.

PICK: Miami 4-3

No. 8 Michigan State (14-15-4, 15-7-3 CCHA) at Notre Dame (9-24-1, 6-19-1 CCHA) Friday, 7 p.m., Joyce ACC, South Bend, IN

This game means one thing in terms of the CCHA standings: points for Michigan State.

The Spartans are two points behind Miami, and can only catch Miami if Miami takes only two points this weekend. Notre Dame is finished after this game — quite literally. With 13 points, the Irish will have to wait until next year for a chance to play in the postseason.

It should be noted that 11 of the 24 Irish losses were by just one goal. It seemed throughout the season that Notre Dame was the bridesmaid of the CCHA. Goaltender Matt Eisler has had a very good season. While his GAA in league play is 3.88, Eisler’s save percentage in league play is .883. Don’t expect to see the Irish back down because they won’t be playing next week.

Michigan State had an odd time of it last weekend. After taking their season series with Miami by beating them 7-3 Saturday, the Spartans allowed the Buckeyes to score at will in an 8-3 loss on Sunday. The Spartans outshot the Buckeyes 45-28, and kept the Buckeyes from scoring on the power play; but goaltending was the problem for the Spartans in this game. The usually-excellent Chad Alban had an off day.

The Spartans are an experienced team that learns from its mistakes. One off day from Alban, a week of practice, and the desire to take advantage of any Miami slip-up will motivate the Spartans in South Bend.

PICK: Michigan State 3-2

No. 1 Michigan (29-2-4, 20-2-3 CCHA) at No. 6 Miami (23-10-1, 17-7-1 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., Goggin Ice Arena, Oxford, OH

Each team would like to undo a little of the psychological damage done last weekend. Miami beat Bowling Green at home, but lost what was through two periods a close game to Michigan State by the score of 7 to 3. Granted, the "damage" to Michigan was just a tie with Lake Superior, but it was home ice, and it was the seniors’ last home game, and just remember what the Wolverines did to poor Alaska-Fairbanks after tying Cornell in a non-conference game.

If the Lakers can skate into Yost and spoil seniors’ night for the Wolverines, you can be pretty darned sure that the Wolverines can skate into Goggin with intention of doing the same.

Even if Miami beats Western Michigan on Friday and the Spartans lose Friday, this game will be hard-fought. With a point in Friday’s game, Miami would lock second place in the CCHA. Michigan’s been in first place half the season, and it’s been clear they’d stay there until the end. If Miami takes that point Friday, there is absolutely nothing at stake in terms of standings in this game. There is, however, some serious pride on the line.

When these two teams met in January in Yost, Miami led the Wolverines through two periods in the first game. This was such a big deal — even though Michigan came back to win 5-2 — that the press led the post-game questions with, "So, how did it feel to trail at home?" Clearly, even the threat of being beaten in Yost was enough to shock the local press and move Michigan head coach Red Berenson to comment, "We didn’t anticipate being behind by two goals in the game. I think it was a good sign for our team to go through that."

It was a good learning experience for Miami as well, who played Michigan tough the second night, losing 3-0.

This should be a great game to end Miami’s regular season. While Michigan clearly has more firepower than Miami (or any other team, for that matter), both teams are threats on the power play, and both have outstanding goaltending. On the power play, Brendan Morrison leads all forwards in the CCHA with 27 points; with 24 points, Miami’s Dan Boyle is tied with two others for overall power-play points among defensemen.

In net for Michigan, Marty Turco has looked like a pro. His save percentage is .892, and his GAA is a remarkable 2.37 — and all this from a guy who’s spent over 1300 minutes in net. For Miami, Trevor Prior has had a career season. With a save percentage of .894 and a GAA of 2.89, Prior is a big part of the reason for Miami’s storybook season.

This game shouldn’t be missed.

PICK: A 3-3 tie

Western Michigan (14-15-4, 10-11-4 CCHA) at Ohio State (12-22-1, 9-15-1 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., OSU Ice Rink, Columbus, OH

Ohio State surprised Western Michigan two weeks ago, beating them 6-2 at the Ohio Expo Center. That game — played just after Ohio State’s weekend sweep of Notre Dame — may have been the game that ignited this Buckeye team. Since the Western game, Ohio State has been 2-0-1.

The Buckeyes take a six-game unbeaten streak into the tiny little OSU Ice Rink, a place Buckeye players affectionately call "The War Memorial." Any game played in the little rink is going to be more physical than usual; because of the rink’s size, it’s hard for players to avoid contact, even when skating on the open ice.

"It’s going to be another dogfight Saturday night," says Bill Wilkinson. "It’s in the smaller building, so it’s going to be a little bit more in the trenches. It’ll be a little bit more physical, with less room for skating."

Wilkinson knows the Buckeyes are hot right now, and playing with a lot of confidence. "If you’re faint of heart," he quips, "you’d better call in sick for this one."

Western split with Notre Dame last week, losing 5-4 in overtime in South Bend, but rebounding strong the following night at home, beating the Irish 6-1.

"I think you want to finish as high as you can going into the playoffs," says Wilkinson. If we can win two on the road, that takes us into the playoffs in a good frame of mind. If not, then you’re scrambling again."

The Buckeyes tied with Bowling Green in the little rink last Saturday, and stunned Michigan State 8-3 at the Expo Center Sunday. They are riding the best streak this Buckeye senior class has ever seen.

A huge part of the Buckeye success is goaltending. The combined efforts of freshmen Ray Aho and Tom Connerty have kept opponents to just three goals per game in each of the last six games. Aho, the starter, is 3-0-1 during this stretch. Connerty is 2-0-0. One win was a non-conference game against Bowling Green, and the other was last Sunday’s win over Michigan State, a game in which Connerty turned aside 42 shots on goal.

This game is going to be physical, and quite possibly nasty. The Buckeye fans fill the little rink, giving the place real college hockey atmosphere.

It’s hard to bet against the Buckeyes right now.

PICK: Ohio State 5-3

No. 8 Michigan State (14-15-4, 15-7-3 CCHA) at Bowling Green (15-15-4, 10-12-4 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., BGSU Ice Arena, Bowling Green, OH

This game means so much more to Bowling Green than it does to Michigan State, even though it’s unlikely that BG will move up in the standings this weekend. It’s a matter of finishing this injury-laden season with some self-respect, and gaining some momentum going into the playoffs on the road.

This is a Falcon team that expected to finish among the top four in the CCHA. "We started 6-0 and we had our full lineup," says Falcon head coach Buddy Powers. "Ever since that first loss, we’ve had injury after injury."

The tone of Powers’ voice borders on disappointment. He’s certainly not disappointed with his talented team, but in the past few weeks, the realization that the only way the Falcons will get an NCAA invitation is to take the CCHA tourney has tempered his view.

"We just have to try to do the best we can," he says. "The situation we put ourselves in, we just have to try to win the playoffs. Whether we going to play Michigan State, Lake or Miami, it’s going to be a huge battle."

Powers says the hope of postseason play has kept his players and coaching staff going during the more trying times of the season. "You’ve got to look to the playoffs to get excited."

Powers thinks the outcome of this game will depend a lot on whether Miami wins Friday. If Miami takes [the game], Michigan State can’t catch them. Power says he’s not sure how hard Michigan State is going to play Saturday.

He’s also not sure how hard his own team will be able to play. Three Falcon forwards and a defenseman are injured, and Powers says he won’t make the decision about playing them until Friday night. "We’ll just have to see what state of repair [Adam] Edinger, [Dave] Faulkner, [Kelly] Perrault and [Curtis] Fry are in. If they’re not 100 percent, we won’t play them.

"The key thing is the playoffs. We have to be strong enough mentally and physically for the playoffs.

"We’re trying to get through a game without any more guys hurt."

PICK: Michigan State 5-3

No. 1 Michigan (29-2-4, 20-2-3 CCHA) at Ohio State (12-22-1, 9-15-1 CCHA) Sunday, 1 p.m., Ohio Expo Center, Columbus, OH

The very last game of regular season CCHA play pits Big Ten rivals Michigan and Ohio State. Last season, the Buckeyes were able to tie the Wolverines twice — one of those at Yost. This season, the Buckeyes have experienced two trouncings at the capable hands of the Wolverines. The Wolverines beat the Buckeyes 7-2 at their home opener; more recently, Michigan beat Ohio State 6-1 in a game that made the Buckeyes look like Pee Wees.

This is the last home game for three Ohio State seniors — three-time captain Steve Brent, co-captain Chad Power and Pierre Dufour — who have never beaten the Wolverines. In fact, Ohio State hasn’t beaten the Wolverines in the last 29 meetings of these two teams — since Nov. 19, 1989.

The Wolverines are going to be looking to keep that streak alive. In spite of the Buckeyes’ recent success, their seniors’ last game will probably be par for the Michigan course.

The Buckeyes are getting much better goaltending from Ray Aho and Tom Connerty, who’ve given up no more than three goals in each of Ohio State’s last six outings. The Buckeyes also want to take some respect with them when they travel to either Oxford or East Lansing next week for the first round of the playoffs.

PICK: Michigan 4-3

Paula C. Weston is the CCHA Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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This Week in the WCHA: February 28, 1997

By Todd D. Milewski

February 28, 1997

WCHA Preview: Feb. 28-Mar. 1, 1997 by Steve Page

North Dakota has come all the way back. A weekend sweep of visiting Alaska-Anchorage gave the Fighting Sioux a share of the WCHA regular-season title, their first since 1987. UND also gained the number-one seed for the WCHA playoffs by virtue of the tiebreaker it holds over second-place Minnesota.

The Gophers, though relegated to no better than a two seed, clinched home-ice advantage with their three-point weekend in Colorado Springs. Minnesota could still gain half of the MacNaughton Cup — with a sweep of Wisconsin and two UND losses this weekend.

CC, of course, remains in the hunt for home ice, as do Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud and Wisconsin. Only four points separate those teams in the standings, even at this late date in the season.

Meanwhile, Alaska-Anchorage, Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech continue to jockey for position; those teams are already consigned to road series in the first round.

WCHA Standings

Michigan Tech (8-23-4, 5-21-4 WCHA) at St. Cloud (19-11-4, 16-10-4 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05-8:05 p.m. CT, National Hockey Center, St. Cloud, MN

St. Cloud State has the inside track to third place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The toughest part for the Huskies will be to avoid getting derailed by Michigan Tech.

St. Cloud, third in the WCHA with 36 points on a 16-10-4 record, hosts Tech Friday and Saturday. Tech is 10th with 14 points on a 5-21-4 mark.

”We don’t have to rely on anybody else to lose in order to finish third,” said St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl. ”We just have to win our games.

”This is a better position than hoping somebody ahead of you loses.”

There are several teams hoping St. Cloud is the team to fall. Colorado College trails the Huskies by one point. Denver is just two back. Sixth-place Minnesota-Duluth is three behind SCSU. Wisconsin is four back, but even if the Badgers catch the Huskies, they would lose the tiebreaker between the two teams.

Dahl said he has passed the importance of this series on to his players. ”It has implications for seeding purposes, for final-five seeding,” Dahl said of the WCHA playoffs. ”Our players are very aware of that. We made them very aware. Now, it’s kinda up to them.”

This is one of those series where one team has everything to lose and the other, well, can have a lot of fun without fear of much happening. Tech coach Tim Watters is hoping that’s just what happens.

”We’ve got nothing to save it for,” Watters quipped.

Watters also said his Huskies should be motivated after losing both ends of last week’s home-and-home series with Northern Michigan, falling 4-3 in Marquette and 5-3 at home.

”That was a real tough series to lose the way we did,” Watters said. ”Friday night, Northern scored the winning goal with 56 seconds left. Then we were up 2-0 going into third period Saturday. To lose a series like that is devastating.”

But Watters said the devastation would be temporary. ”We’ll regroup this week during practice,” he said. ”We’ll go in with good game plan against St. Cloud and prepare for the playoffs.”

According to the coach, it will be an uphill battle at best, even though St. Cloud managed just one point at Minnesota-Duluth last weekend. Tech will play without two injured regulars — defenseman Travis VanTighem and team captain Jason Prokopetz.

”St. Cloud is a very solid hockey club,” Watters said. ”We played them well earlier in the season (a 3-3 tie and a 5-1 loss). ”We have to play them well this weekend and find a way to win.”

The Huskies can do this, Watters insisted. ”We have good, quality people here,” he said. ”We’ll have to rebound. There’s no other alternative. They know we have to do that, and that’s what they’ll do.

”No one feels sorry for you. And we don’t expect them to.”

St. Cloud doesn’t figure to, after its tough series at Duluth, in which it lost 5-2 before leaving town with a 3-3 tie.

”We had the win on Saturday, but they tied it with 10 seconds left,” Dahl said. ”We struggled with their small sheet (of ice) on Friday. Duluth played really well. They were very, very physical. They did a good job.”

Tech also lost winger Matt Noga to cracked vertebrae during the Duluth series. Dahl said his team needs to beware the visiting Huskies. ”They’ve struggled, but in this league, seems like anybody can beat anybody,” Dahl said. ”It’s so tight, you can drop several spots in the standings in one weekend.”

History can provide a necessary lesson, according to Dahl. ”It wasn’t that long ago (four seasons) that Tech was seeded 10th and CC first (in the first round of the playoffs) and Tech upset CC,” Dahl said. ”I’m sure they (Tech’s Huskies) are going to come at us real hard. We have so much to play for. It’s so important. I’m glad we’re home.”

Wisconsin (15-17-2, 15-13-2 WCHA) at No. 5 Minnesota (22-11-1, 19-10-1 WCHA) Friday, 7:05 p.m. CT, Target Center, Minneapolis, MN Saturday, 7:35 p.m. CT, Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis, MN

This is Jeff Sauer’s 26th year as a coach in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, which qualifies him as the league’s resident historian.

In all those seasons, Sauer has never seen one like this. With one weekend to play in the regular season, four points separate third place from seventh in the 10-team conference. The top five finishers get home ice for the first round of the league playoffs.

”It’s never been this tight, with seven teams that have all beat up on each other pretty much all the season,” said Sauer, currently in his 15th season at the Wisconsin helm. ”It’s kinda filtering out now. The people who are healthy, and are strong through the stretch, are going to survive.”

Sauer doesn’t know if his team will survive its series at Minnesota this weekend. The teams play at the Target Center on Friday, and at Mariucci Arena at 7:35 Saturday. Both games are sellouts.

Minnesota has a firm grip on second — and home ice — with 39 points on a 19-10-1 record; Wisconsin is seventh with 32 points on a 15-13-2 mark.

”We haven’t survived the injury part,” Sauer said. ”On Monday, we had 11 guys out of practice.” The latest on the list is junior center Joe Bianchi, who fell to an injury in last weekend’s 5-3, 4-3 home losses to Denver. Bianchi is the Badgers’ No. 2 scorer with 29 points on 14 goals and 15 assists.

”It’s been a real demanding schedule this year,” Sauer said. ”That’s great for the league, because it has been so competitive.”

Unfortunately for Wisconsin, Denver proved more competitive last weekend. ”We’re disappointed, to be honest,” Sauer said. ”We thought we could get at least one, and maybe two. Denver played very well.”

However, Sauer said the injuries have taken a toll. ”The will is there, but the bodies aren’t,” he said. ”I haven’t had as many injuries in any year since I was at Colorado College (1971-82), with the lack of depth and stuff.”

And now, the Badgers have Minnesota looming on the western horizon.

”I don’t know if it’s realistic that we can get home ice after last weekend,” he said. ”The Minnesota series is always good. Hopefully, can get the job done. We’ll be ready.”

Gopher coach Doug Woog says his team still harbors hopes of tying North Dakota for the regular-season title.

”We have our opportunities,” he said. ”This is the last time. You had other opportunities during the year. This is the last opportunity to do anything. ”We’ve got to win two games and hope we get a lot of help (from Denver, which hosts first-place North Dakota).”

The Gophers positioned themselves by taking three of four points at Colorado College with a 3-3 tie and a 3-0 win. ”We secured a lot of things last week — home ice, a top-three finish,” Woog said. ”Our power rankings didn’t get hurt. We put ourselves in position to get a tie for the championship if we get some help.”

But first things first.

”They (the Badgers) have a lot at stake, too,” Woog said. ”They’ll be here with their working shoes on. That we know. They have nothing to lose. They’re going to come out with a lot of energy. I’m sure they will. That’s the way it is when we play them.”

The Gophers figure to be as healthy as they have been recently. Junior defenseman Mike Crowley is back after missing part of last Saturday’s game with a puncture wound.

”These are big games. That’s all I can tell you,” Woog said. ”We still have a chance to win the title; we’ll look at the scoreboard later. If we don’t win, it doesn’t matter anyway. If we win, we still have a chance.”

No. 2 North Dakota (24-8-2, 21-8-1 WCHA) at Denver (19-11-4, 15-11-4 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 p.m. MT, DU Arena, Denver, CO

Back on Oct. 18, Jason Blake helped North Dakota get off to a great start in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association season by scoring the tying goal with one second remaining in regulation. North Dakota went on to beat Denver 3-2 in overtime, then posted a sweep with a 6-2 win the next night.

Now, four months later, the second-ranked Fighting Sioux will be looking to win the title outright in their series this weekend at Denver. Any combination of a win or tie by the Sioux, or a tie or loss by Minnesota in its home series with Wisconsin, will give North Dakota its first outright regular-season championship in a decade.

The Sioux, with 43 points on a 21-8-1 WCHA record, meet the Pioneers at Friday and Saturday. Denver is fifth with 34 points on a 15-11-4 record. If Denver doesn’t finish in the top five, this will be the last series played in DU Arena, which is to be razed at the conclusion of the season to make way for a new multi-sport venue.

Both UND coach Dean Blais and Denver coach George Gwozdecky say that initial series between the two clubs has pretty much dictated the paths of their respective seasons.

”We thought if we were competitive, we [might] be in somewhere in the middle of the pack,” Blais said of his team’s preseason hopes. ”That first series was important, because Denver has a good, veteran team. We thought if we could do well against them, we could adjust and aim our goals a little higher.

”That series gave us a lot of confidence going into the rest of the year…. That opening weekend, for a lot of teams — it seems like it can make or break your season.”

Gwozdecky says the Pioneers have been in a chasing mode ever since. ”That first game against North Dakota was important,” Gwozdecky said. ”There’s six seconds to go. We win the draw, but we throw the puck away. Their defenseman wrists it toward the net. It hits Jim Mullin right in between the pads. It falls at the goal line. He can’t see it. At the last second, Jason Blake spies it lying there, and taps it in.

”That’s one point we lost and two that North Dakota gained. You look back and say the whole complection of the league race may have changed with that one game. It’s speculation, obviously, but it’s fun nonetheless.”

Both teams have had their share of fun lately. North Dakota swept Alaska-Anchorage 2-0, 4-0 last weekend to clinch at least a tie for the title and gain the No. 1 seed for the WCHA playoffs. Minnesota could catch the Sioux in points, but North Dakota still has the tie-breaking edge.

Denver, meanwhile, jumped into the home-ice race with a 5-3, 4-3 sweep at Wisconsin.

”It’s pretty exciting, even to get a share of the championship,” said Blais. ”We were picked fifth by the league coaches after we lost some real talent off last year’s team.”

Blais said his players appear ready to take the title outright. ”The guys celebrated last Saturday,” he said. ”I thought there’d be a little bit of a letdown in practice this week. But there hasn’t been.

”We’ve worked hard all year. This is a good bunch of kids who work hard and who bought into my system. They’re good students. I’m real proud of what they have accomplished.

”To get this far, you need a little luck We’ve gotten a few breaks, and we’ve been healthy all year.”

Blais expects a pitched battle from the Pioneers. ”We’re looking forward to a team that’s playing well lately and is a skating team like we are,” he said. ”I’m sure they want home ice in the playoffs.

”They’re 8-0-3 in their last 11 games. With some breaks early on, they could’ve made a run at the championship.”

Gwozdecky says that’s all in the past.

”The most important part of the season is fast approaching,” he said. ”There are five or six weekends left in the college hockey year. Some teams’ seasons could go up in smoke. Teams like ourselves could make a lot of people forget how we started, and make them remember how we finished.”

The Wisconsin people won’t soon forget Denver. That sweep of the Badgers has positioned the Pioneers for a home-ice run and energized their effort.

”We finally put ourselves back in position to gain home ice,” Gwozdecky said. ”Having the number-one team in the league here for our final series is probably what you want them to have. It’s a great challenge; a great opportunity."

"We’re still battling for home ice. Who knows? The way this goofy league has gone, we could finish anywhere from third to seventh. It’ll be a strange, but exciting, finish to the league.”

Minnesota-Duluth (18-13-3, 15-12-3 WCHA) at Northern Michigan (12-22-2, 8-21-1 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 p.m. ET, Lakeview Arena, Marquette, MI

Mike Sertich says the real scramble in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association race will come Sunday, the day after the regular season concludes.

”The phones will be pretty busy Sunday morning with people making travel and hotel arrangements,” Sertich said. ”This is the first time I can remember it’s been this close all the way down to seventh. This year, you just don’t know.”

Sertich would like to wake up Sunday morning with the knowledge that he won’t have to be making travel plans. The Bulldogs carry sixth place into this weekend’s series at Northern Michigan; UMD has 33 points on a 15-12-3 WCHA record. That’s just one behind fifth-place Denver, two behind fourth-place Colorado College and four back of third-place St. Cloud State. The Bulldogs are also just one point ahead of seventh-place Wisconsin.

Northern Michigan, eighth with 17 points on an 8-21-4 conference mark, hosts UMD Friday and Saturday. Sertich said his club will be as ready as possible.

”Actually, we’ve played pretty well since Christmas,” he said. ”Now, it all depends on what you do this weekend. There’ll be some interesting series around the league this weekend.”

The Bulldogs go into this series without junior defenseman Laird Lidster, who suffered a second-degree shoulder separation and two broken ribs in what Sertich believes was a check from behind.

”We’ve got some bad injuries. That’s all part of it, too,” he said. ”The biggest is the one to Laird Lidster. We’ve got six defensemen. That’s it. We’re down to bare bones.”

And now, the Bulldogs have to travel to play the Wildcats.

”They’re playing pretty well, from what I gather,” Sertich said. ”They were pretty young when we played them before.

”They must have played well to beat Tech like that,” he said of the Wildcats’ 4-3, 5-3 sweep in their home-and-home series with Michigan Tech. Sertich said his players need to take care of their own business if they hope to climb up at least one spot and gain home ice for the playoffs.

”You don’t worry about what’s going on around you,” he said. ”You worry about what’s going on right at you.”

Northern Michigan coach Rick Comley said his team will also be strapped this weekend. The Wildcats will play without senior goaltender Dieter Kochan, who injured a knee two weeks ago in a 2-1 win over North Dakota.

"[Kochan] is still hurt. We doubt very much whether he’ll play this week,” Comley said. ”If we’re going to do anything in the playoffs, we’re going to have to have him back.”

Comley said the Wildcats are hosting a hot Duluth club. ”I think they’re as talented as anybody in the league,” he said of the Bulldogs. ”Duluth is still competing for home ice, so this is very big for them. With us, it’s a question of where we’re going in the playoffs. It’s a bigger opportunity for them.”

Still, Comley isn’t discounting his youthful team. ”We’ve been trying to get better all year,” he said. ”We’ve played a better second half as our freshmen have gotten more experience and more maturity with the whole thing.

”I think we’re a much better team than we were early…. For us to do anything at this point of the season, a lot of things have to go right. I feel we’re very close to becoming a good team again.

”We’d just like to keep it going on a positive note. We’ve worked hard. That’s the one thing about this sport — the workload never changes. The kids are feeling better; they’re happier. We have a chance, if we play well, to keep it going in a positive way.”

Colorado College (18-13-3, 16-11-3 WCHA) at Alaska-Anchorage (9-20-3, 7-20-3 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 p.m. AT, Sullivan Arena, Anchorage, AK

Who scheduled this weekend’s series?

Colorado College plays at Alaska Anchorage on Friday and Saturday, and the games begin at 7:05 Alaska Time. That’s 9:05 in Colorado Springs, 10:05 in the Central Time Zone and 11:05 for the teams from Michigan.

”I don’t think anybody making the schedule out anticipated the race being so close at the top,” said Anchorage coach Dean Talafous.

His club isn’t terribly concerned with that. The Seawolves, with 17 points on a 7-20-3 WCHA mark, share eighth with Northern Michigan. But CC is in the thick of the race for one of the league’s top three spots, as well as home ice. The Tigers are fourth with 35 points on a 16-11-3 mark. They’re one point behind third-place Minnesota, one ahead of fifth-place Denver, two up on sixth-place Minnesota-Duluth and three better than seventh-place Wisconsin.

CC could finish anywhere from third to seventh. So just about everybody else in the league will be watching and waiting — and waiting and waiting.

”At least we’ll know what everybody else has done before we play,” said CC coach Don Lucia. ”If we win two, we know we keep fourth place.” ”We can finish anywhere from third to seventh, with two games to go. That’s the WCHA this year. There’s just a lot of parity.”

Lucia said there’s already an awful lot of parity between the Tigers and Seawolves.

”It’s not an easy trip,” he said. ”We’re 3-2-1 up there the three years they’ve been in WCHA. Even with the great teams we’ve had, we’ve been unable to win two up there.” That’s because the Seawolves have a history of playing quality defense. This year, they’ve also cut down on penalties, averaging an amazing 6.03 penalty minutes per game.

Though the Seawolves were swept 2-0, 4-0 at first-place North Dakota last weekend, they played the second game without a penalty. That’s a school first. In fact, both teams went the entire game without putting anyone in the box; the last WCHA game in which that happened, according to USCHO’s Mike Machnik, was back in 1982.

”We don’t take many (penalties) to begin with,” Talafous said. ”Over the last month, we’re averaging only one or two. That’s our style. It will be every year and every game. It’s not that difficult to play within the rules — it’s an attitude, a mindset.”

One with which CC will have to deal.

”You almost have to go with a mindset that you have to win with two or three goals against Anchorage,” Lucia said.

He said the Tigers are still kicking themselves for blowing a late lead last Friday against Minnesota. That game ended in a 3-3 overtime tie, and the Gophers cruised to a 3-0 win last Saturday.

”If we would have held on and won that first Minnesota game, we would have come away with two points and felt pretty good,” Lucia said. ”Obviously, that was a big point. If we had that, we’d be tied for third, and have a couple-point cushion on Minnesota-Duluth and Denver.

”Since the start of the season, our goal has been home ice for the playoffs. That’s still our goal this weekend. This isn’t the same (CC) team as the last three years. This is a different team, a young team. We’ve fought the battles of a young team that’s been up and down. The only way you gain that maturity is by playing these games.”

So the Tigers will show up Friday.

”We want to hold on to the fourth spot,” Lucia said. ”It would be nice to move up. All we can do is go up and do our best. That’s what I’m most concerned with — putting two good games back to back.”

That’s also the philosophy of Talafous, the Seawolves’ first-year coach. Of his team’s record, Talafous said, ”It’s just one of those things — a new coach, a new team. We’ve played 10 overtime games, but we haven’t won a one (the Seawolves are actually 0-4-3 in overtime).

”We’re not overly talented. We appear to be getting better each week, but it’s a tough league. We’ve played so many close games. We’re ready to make something happen. I just hope we don’t run out of time before something happens."

As far as playing the Tigers is concerned, Talafous said, ”CC, Minnesota — we don’t get too caught up in who we’re playing. We just concentrate on how we’re playing. If we execute our game plan as well as possible, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’re going to have some success.

”We have a lot of pride. We’ve battled everybody real tough. We’re going to get there. It just takes a lot of hard work. It doesn’t matter what your record is, as long as you’re there at the end. So we feel we’re in the same position as everybody else.”

It’s just the Seawolves’ position on the map — and the clock — that will keep everybody waiting.

And waiting.

Next Week in the WCHA: Conference playoffs, first round. Games and times to be annouced.

Steve Page is the WCHA Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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This Week in Hockey East: February 28, 1997

By David H. Hendrickson

February 28, 1997

Hockey East Preview: Feb. 28-Mar. 2, 1997 by Dave Hendrickson

Maine’s five-day, three-game sweep of UNH and BU (twice) proved that postseason or no postseason, they are now back among the Hockey East and national elite. Providence College also ended the weekend smiling, its sweep of UMass-Lowell clinching a home-ice berth in the playoffs.

Since early January, everyone has been looking ahead to this Saturday’s BU-UNH contest with great anticipation. Having the first- and second-place teams slugging it out for the regular season crown on the final weekend must certainly warm the cockles of NESN executives’ hearts. Many of the games telecast this year have been one-sided; this game could make up for that and then some.

The Merrimack-Boston College match that evening could also prove pivotal, deciding which of the two teams gets playoff home ice against each other.

Hockey East Standings

Last week’s record in picks: 4-3 Season record in picks: 115-69

No. 3 New Hampshire (24-8-0, 17-5-0 HE) at No. 7 Boston University (18-8-6, 14-4-4 HE) Saturday, 7 p.m., Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA NESN

Depending on how these two teams fare on Friday night, this game will likely determine the Hockey East regular-season champion. Ironically, both teams are coming off resounding losses to Maine. After a short-handed New Hampshire squad traveled to Orono in mid-week and lost 5-1, BU had a mile-wide opening to grab the regular season title. The Black Bears, however, had other ideas. They swept BU convincingly, 3-0 and 7-2.

"We had our heads handed to us," said BU coach Jack Parker. "They played extremely well. We were back on our heels most of the time. In general, Maine played well and we didn’t."

The Terriers missed three significant players. Jon Coleman reaggravated a previous shoulder injury and is day-to-day for this weekend. Tommi Degerman, out with knee ligament problems, missed the games and will definitely not play this weekend.

And Brendan Walsh is gone. Parker booted the enigmatic forward off the team. It wasn’t Walsh’s first offense. Earlier in the season he’d been left home from a road trip and then later incurred a one-game suspension for violating team rules. This time, however, he won’t be back. According to Parker, Walsh is "gone for good."

Turning to the upcoming games, Parker said, "We’ve got to regroup and get ready for the stretch run. Hopefully we can get ourselves ready to sweep this weekend instead of getting swept and be Hockey East champions.

"The key to both games will be goaltending and special teams. Team defense and goaltending are always important in big games. I think that will wind up true against both Merrimack and UNH."

Since BU swept UNH early in January, the Terriers could presumably establish a significant psychological advantage if they can make it three straight. Parker, however, brushed such talk aside.

"That’s very overrated," he said. "Next time you could instead say that your number is up. And sometimes the team that lost the last game gets more up the next time. [So it could actually work against you.] But in order to be the regular season co-champion, we have to beat UNH in the last game so we won’t worry about how that will feel down the road. We’re more worried about what it gets us right now."

UNH lost seven players for their 5-1 loss at Maine because of suspensions following a postgame brawl against Providence. Although the Wildcats will miss Eric Boguniecki and Jayme Filipowicz for Friday’s rematch against the Friars, they expect a full lineup on Saturday against BU.

"The whole weekend is going to be good matchups," said UNH coach Dick Umile. "The BU-Merrimack game and Providence-UNH, those are four good teams — along with what Maine’s been doing lately — that are playing well.

"The last time we went down there we didn’t play very well, [losing 9-4 before returning home to lose 3-2]. But it’s just like years past or other previous games at this point. They don’t mean much of anything. Whatever happens Saturday night won’t be because of those last two games."

PICK: At other points in the season it might have come down to BU’s considerable home-ice advantage. Not now. When BU’s paper-thin depth is exposed, they become very vulnerable. UNH 6-4.

Providence (15-17-1, 12-10-1 HE) at No. 3 New Hampshire (24-8-0, 17-5-0 HE) Friday, 7 p.m., Whittemore Center, Durham, NH WMUR-TV9

Providence swept UMass-Lowell 6-1 and 5-2 to run their February record to 6-1-0 and clinch home ice for the playoffs. In all probability, they’ll be hosting in the playoffs the same River Hawks that they beat three times this year by a cumulative 19-5 score.

"Defensively we played pretty well," said PC coach Paul Pooley. "We lost our man a little bit but when you have [Lowell’s Shannon] Basaraba, [Greg] Koehler, and [Neil] Donovan, those guys are good offensive hockey players who can make you miss. We got away from our game early [on Saturday but eventually] we played pretty well, shutting them down."

Netminders Dan Dennis and Mark Kane split time on the weekend. In contrast to the inconsistency of the Friar goaltending earlier in the season, Dennis and Kane now give Pooley two options.

"Mark [Kane] played [on Saturday] because he deserved to play," said Pooley. "He got us started a few weeks ago and won a big game for us and then played well against BC and Merrimack. Danny played well against UNH and [Friday night] against Lowell. It’s nice to have both of them going and feel confident in both of them. Danny will start against UNH and we’ll see what happens after that."

Pooley is also getting contributions from unexpected sources. Fourth-liner Nick Sinerate was named Hockey East Player of the Week two weeks ago and has continued to play well since. Sinerate’s sometime-linemate Doug Sheppard earned this week’s Rookie of the Week honor.

"Nick understands his role," said Pooley. "He bangs. He has the ability to score because he’s got a good shot. He’s big and he goes to the net. He’s playing with Sheehan and Sheppard… and they’re all playing pretty well on what is supposedly our fourth line. Nick has played really well for us and given us a spark."

Another sparkplug has been Mike Omicioli. Pooley benched him earlier in the season, but the 5-5 sophomore now centers PC’s top line.

"Last year before the FleetCenter I sat out because I was injured," said Omicioli. "I was bored so I was really pumped up when I came back. Right now I don’t want to be out of the lineup anymore so I’m just going to play hard every minute."

Earlier this month, the Friars split a home-and-home with UNH, first dropping a 9-5 road game after taking a 4-2 lead into the third period. Back at Schneider Arena they grabbed a 3-2 win that was marred by a postgame brawl, resulting in suspensions to seven players from each team.

"We won’t repeat that," said Pooley. "There’s no way. That’s over and done with in our minds.

"Obviously it’s going to be a very loud, hotly contested battle. They’re going to want to blow us out. We’ve just got to keep our heads. We let the crowd affect us last time. Hopefully, we’ve matured since then and we’ll come out ready to play good defensive hockey.

"Our whole team is predicated on defense and our forecheck, our D-zone coverage, and being able to transition [well]. We’ve got to be solid there. I also don’t think we’re shooting the puck as much as we should. I think we’re passing up opportunities and sometimes that’s cost us. And we’ve got to keep working on our specialty teams."

Could UNH be looking past this game to their Saturday night marquee matchup against BU?

"I don’t think we’ll be looking past Providence at all," said Umile. "We’ve played each other twice now and they’ve won one and we’ve won one. Providence is playing extremely well right now, and not just defensively. They’re scoring goals too. In the last month and a half they’ve been one of the highest scoring teams. So it should be a really good matchup."

The Wildcats will miss Eric Boguniecki and Jayme Filipowicz, both of whom will serve their second game suspension resulting from the previous UNH-PC game’s brawl.

"We’ll decide who’s going to center in Boguniecki’s spot but the next night [against BU] we’ll just go back to him so we won’t try to do anything drastic," said Umile.

PICK: UNH 4-2.

Merrimack (14-16-2, 10-10-2 HE) at No. 7 Boston University (18-8-6, 14-4-4 HE) Friday, 7 p.m., Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA

Merrimack’s "magic number" for a first-ever home ice playoff berth stands at one. Their dramatic turnaround, captured

statistically by radio color broadcaster Mike Machnik, appeared to be stalled last weekend. They opened with a 1-1 tie at Northeastern — a lost point that in retrospect would have clinched home ice.

"It was wide-open hockey," said MC coach Ron Anderson. "We both had about 35-40 shots. Both goaltenders played very well. Their guy stopped us on five breakaways so we had to tip our hat to him."

MC’s Martin Legault continued his excellent play which recently netted him the school’s all-time career saves record which now stands at 3,054.

"The one area that’s been the most stable for us the last four years has been our goaltending," said Anderson. "He played very well as a freshman and has continued to get better, save for a couple of periods when he had a couple injuries. He’s been very, very consistent for us all four years and I couldn’t be happier for him.

"There is a good side and a bad side to making a lot of saves. Obviously your team is giving up a lot of shots, but on the other hand he’s played very well for us and done a tremendous job."

Following the 1-1 tie, the Warriors then faced a potential major disaster, trailing the Huskies at home 6-3 in the third period. Previous Merrimack teams might never have come back, but this year’s team scored four goals in four minutes to pull out the "W".

"We’re a team that’s learned how to win," said Anderson. "That’s a big part of it. With pretty much an upperclassmen team, it’s supposed to be that way. When you have that level of experience, you need to find ways to pull out games. I was really pleased with our response to that situation, getting the job done and getting the win, whether it was dramatic or not."

One freshman who is also getting the job done is Drew Hale, winner of Hockey East’s Rookie of the Week award two weeks ago. The distinction, rare among defensemen in general comes as an even greater surprise to a defensive blueliner.

"Sometimes defensemen who score a lot of points get a lot of recognition but a lot of times defensive defensemen don’t," Anderson said. "Drew has come in and been very solid for us. He was one of those guys who was unheralded but so was Steve McKenna when he came here four years ago and he turned out to be pretty good. He’s a little different type of player but Drew plays mostly the same kind of game, staying at home and playing good defense. He’s a character-type kid, a very honest, sincere player both in his attitude and his efforts. He’s going to be a very solid player for us."

Merrimack will need solid play against a BU team slapped awake by Maine’s sweep. "No matter who you play at this time of year it’s all playoff hockey," said Anderson. "Everybody is trying to gear up, getting on top of their game as they head down the stretch run into the playoffs.

"Everybody knows BU hockey and for them to lose a couple last week, you know they’re going to be working hard to get their ship righted. I expect a real tough game.

"We said at the beginning of the year that we wanted to be in the thick of things in the last two weeks of the season and we wanted to be playing our best hockey. What we expected, and what we wanted is what we’ve got. So now we have to enjoy that situation and say, ‘Hey, we got ourselves where we wanted to be, so now let’s make sure that we apply ourselves, play our best, and be on top of our game and see what happens.’"

Behind the other bench, stands Parker. Over the past three years, the Warriors have entered the third period against BU either leading or tied seven out of eight times. Although BU has gone on to post a 5-2-1 record in those games, it hasn’t been easy for the Terriers.

"Over the last three or four years they’ve really played us tough," said Parker. "They’re playing the best hockey they’ve ever played in this league right now. We’ll have our hands full. The biggest problem there is that both of their goalies have played extremely well against us. We have to make sure we get to the net and put some pressure on. At the same time, we’ve got to make sure that we move the puck out of our zone because they’re a real good forechecking team."

PICK: BU 4-3.

UMass-Amherst (12-20-0, 7-16-0 HE) at No. 10 Maine (23-10-1, 15-7-1 HE) Saturday, 7 p.m., Alfond Arena, Orono, ME

Talk about going out with a bang! Maine completed a stunning week in which it took apart UNH 5-1, and BU 3-0 and 7-2.

"We played very, very well," said coach Shawn Walsh. "It’s encouraging for the future because we’re relying on so many young players. A guy that deserves a lot of credit is Grant Standbrook. He’s gone out and recruited one of the best recruiting classes in the country. With all the negatives being thrown about verbally, it didn’t affect his recruiting. He went in different directions and found other players.

"We’ve also been very lucky with injuries in the second half. This week we caught these two teams who are in a battle for the championship but at the same time they were beaten up. We weren’t and we really took advantage of it."

A key component to the second-half Black Bears success has been the power play. Over the last seven games they have converted 20 of their 42 chances, lifting them head and shoulders above everyone else in Hockey East (31.1 percent in Hockey East games and 29.1 percent overall).

"We’ve kept it simple," said Walsh. "Stevie Kariya is a key because he gets the puck and wheels with it so well and he’s so good in tight situations. Our point men — [David] Cullen, [Jeff] Libby, [Jason] Mansoff, and [Corey] Larose — have all been very effective." Cullen, a sophomore, earned Hockey East Player of the Week honors for the second time in five weeks.

The fans apparently are back in full force at Alfond Arena, both in numbers where they set a new attendance record of 5,543 on Saturday, and in volume.

"They were very supportive," said Walsh. "It was like the old times. The biggest thing that has occurred is that our second half has brought the excitement back. I think our fans have been spoiled [by the team’s success in previous years] and entered into a relaxed mode almost. What I see now is a renewed exuberance and an appreciation of our players."

The team’s number ten ranking is their first top ten appearance since the start of the year. In all probability, they would rank higher if not for the NCAA sanctions keeping them off some voters’ ballots.

"I don’t know where we should be rated but I think our record is certainly right up there among the top five teams in the country," said Walsh. "You’d have to say that the only team that has surpassed us in the second half is Michigan. So if you base it on how we’ve played in the second half, then we’d have to be one of the top teams in the nation. If you base it on the whole year, we’ve got to be somewhere in the picture.

"It’s a shame that we’re not in [the Hockey East playoffs] because that wasn’t an NCAA ruling, it was a league ruling. It’s just too bad because you play your playoffs for revenue. We’re going to lose a lot of revenue in our league. And also I think the New England fans would enjoy seeing us.

"But that’s okay. It’ll pass. We’re already looking forward to next year.

"We only lose four seniors, [Dan Shermerhorn, Jason Mansoff, Reg Cardinal and Trevor Roenick]. The four we lose are very, very good…. So looking towards this weekend, this is the one game for us to honor those four who stayed loyal to the program.

"We want to dedicate the game to those four seniors who made the decision to come back. Believe me, they’re happy they did that now. They’ve meant a lot to the rebuilding of the program. We owe it to them to go out and play as well as we can."

Last week UMass-Amherst lost 3-2 to Boston College.

"It was a great late-season game," said UMass coach Joe Mallen. "We came out of the blocks early and probably had nine shots in the first five or six minutes. The bottom line of the game was [BC goalie] Greg Taylor. He had four or five just great saves.

"We also had — I believe in the second period — a disputed goal. We thought it went up underneath the crossbar and in and bounced out but the goal judge couldn’t see it and the referee didn’t see it. Play actually stopped… then they discussed it and ruled no goal. You can’t change those things. We had plenty of chances and it was a very well-played game in both ends of the ice. To me, it looked more like a playoff game which I thought was good. We just couldn’t beat Taylor.

"The interesting thing about the game is that I recruited both goalies," said Mallen, an assistant coach at BC before taking the head position at UMass-Amherst. "I guess I should have done a lousier job recruiting Taylor."

His own goaltender, Brian Regan, passed 2,000 career saves recently, one of only five such juniors nationally.

"I think Brian Regan is a very underrated goalie in this league," said Mallen. "He’s had to play on a brand new team for three years and he’s a tremendous goalie. He’s got great angles, great reflexes, and great movement. We’re hoping that the best is yet to come for him."

Mallen has seen first-hand the Maine second-half juggernaut, losing to them twice at home two weeks ago, 6-4 and 8-1.

"I thought the Maine team I saw the second night when they beat us 8-1 was the best team we had played against all year long," he said. "I thought offensively they looked good, defensively they looked good, they looked good on their special teams and their goaltender made the saves they needed. I was pretty disappointed obviously to lose at home by that score, but when I saw them beat BU 7-2 one week later, it just reinforced what I thought about their team. They were just doing everything right.

"Win, lose, or draw we’re going to wind up playing one of the hottest, and one of the top three teams, in Hockey East for the last game. [Then in the playoffs] we’re going to play one of the top two teams for the next two out of three, so we’ve got to prepare a game plan right now that will keep us in those games.

"The one thing [we might be able to use] is that Maine probably enjoyed a little more success in the big rink here, whereas at their [regulation-sized] rink maybe there’s a way we can bottle them up a little more.

PICK: Maine 6-2.

Northeastern (7-22-3, 2-18-2 HE) at Boston College (12-17-3, 8-11-3 HE) Friday, 7 p.m., Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Boston College bounced back from recent disappointments to beat UMass-Amherst 3-2.

"I thought we played well," said coach Jerry York. "Even though we only scored three, I thought we had some good chances offensively. It was good to see our goals against stay at two. I thought we played very strong defensively. We’re technically solid in many aspects of the game which is very refreshing and very positive for us as we enter the last two games of the season."

After being swept the previous week by Merrimack, including an 11-5 stinker in the second game, York put his enigmatic squad into Training Camp Phase II. Although many good teams have lost to Merrimack down the stretch, the Eagles poor play in the 11-5 loss proved difficult to fathom for anyone who had earlier seen their impressive games against arch-rival BU.

"I think [the training camp] was a good theme for us," said York. "We got back to hard work and discipline. There’s no team in the league we can’t beat but there’s also no team in the league that we can’t lose to."

The Eagles maintain a real chance to still earn playoff home ice, needing to beat Northeastern and Merrimack and have Boston University beat Merrimack on Friday.

"I think Northeastern’s played well [despite their record]," said York. "They have one of the top freshmen goaltenders in the country in Robitaille. He’s had three shutouts this year. They were capable of playing Merrimack 1-1 and 7-6, so we’ll fully concentrate on Northeastern, trying to get ourselves to Saturday night when we could get home ice. We still feel we have a shot at it, but Merrimack could beat BU on Friday and it would be all over."

Northeastern followed a 1-1 tie last Friday night against Merrimack with a 6-3 third-period lead before surrendering four goals in four minutes to lose 7-6.

"I thought we were playing some pretty good team defense up until Saturday night and then everything seemed to cave in," said NU coach Bruce Crowder. "I’ve got to give Merrimack a lot of credit. They stuck with it. They could have folded the tent, but they came back and deserved to win the hockey game…. Once it started to go, we couldn’t stop the bleeding."

Despite their poor won-loss record, 18 of the Huskies 32 games have been ties or decided by a single goal.

"So we’re in the games," said Crowder. "There’s been very few times that we’ve gotten blown out. Our biggest thing is just to keep ourselves going and maybe we’ll get a heck of a break when it counts and do something. We went eight games with only scoring 12 goals and then we got six in one game, so for me that’s a positive. Our goals against have been pretty good until everything caved in on Saturday night in the third period."

Their Friday night match against BC represents a rematch of their opening round Beanpot game against BC in which they held to a 1-1 tie going into the third before losing 4-1.

"For us it’s an opportunity to maybe show ourselves better than we did in the Beanpot," said Crowder. "It’s one of those games that we hope the kids will come to play. I think they will."

PICK: BC 4-3.

Boston College (12-17-3, 8-11-3 HE) at Merrimack (14-16-2, 10-10-2 HE) Saturday, 7 p.m., Volpe Center, North Andover, MA

"On some nights this year we’ve been excellent," said BC coach Jerry York. Their four games against Boston University have all been a pleasure to watch and have shown the Eagles at their best. Two weeks ago, however, coming off a riveting Beanpot final, BC got swept by Merrimack. The Warriors now rank as the league’s second hottest team, bested only by Maine.

"We’re fully aware of that," said York. "We saw them at the top of their game a week ago."

Merrimack’s resurgence has finally gotten some attention around the league. Players and coaches have seen first-hand that this is "not your father’s Merrimack team" but casual fans have only recently taken notice.

"I think our win at Maine was the one that really got us believing in ourselves," said Merrimack coach Ron Anderson. "We were working to get ourselves in position to make a run in the second half and we had chipped away and won a couple of games and got back into the pack, but I think going up there and winning up there — that’s the one that got us over the hump as far as our confidence was concerned."

Anderson sees five advantages to grabbing home ice, which could be decided in this game. "1) You don’t have to travel, 2) there’s less demand on you getting there and getting out of some place, 3) obviously you know the rink, 4) it has an impact on the other team, and 5) that means you finished ahead of whoever you’re playing, and that’s a psychological edge as well."

PICK: BC 4-3.

UMass-Lowell (13-19-1, 9-13-1 HE) at Northeastern (7-22-3, 2-18-2 HE) Sunday, 2 p.m., Matthews Center, Boston, MA

The UMass-Lowell ship has been taking on water in recent weeks, going 0-8-1 in their last nine games. With few exceptions, the losses have also not been particularly close. Last weekend Providence swept the River Hawks 6-1 and 5-2.

Lowell has now played their last 464 minutes without a lead. Ending that streak would be a plus as an end unto itself, but would probably also get Lowell playing looser as well.

"It’s been tough because we played so well the previous Friday in the first period [against BU], outshot them 16-10, and a puck bounced over our guy’s stick and they scored shorthanded and came out ahead 1-0," said coach Tim Whitehead. "The same thing happened [Saturday night]. But stuff happens and hopefully the next bounce will go our way.

"We just need that goal in the first period to break through. We’ve had some great first periods against some great teams but it hasn’t fallen in. I have faith in our players that we’ll bounce back down the stretch. We have a lot of character and leadership in that locker room. I’m very confident that they’ll come back."

The primary problem has been a scoring drought. Aside from the 5-5 tie to BU and a 6-4 loss to UMass-Amherst, the River Hawks have scored only seven goals in the last six games and have been shut out in 29 power-play opportunities.

"During our opening run [when we were third in the league], we were at the top of the league [on the power play]," said Whitehead. "That’s important, no question. There’s no surprises this time of year. Teams have us scouted very well. We just have to turn that around."

Whitehead also considers it imperative to reduce the number of penalties to help make scoring easier.

"I was upset with some individuals that took some penalties that hurt us," he said after the latest loss. "We had a couple opportunities to come back but a couple guys lost their composure and took penalties that hurt us. Granted, we killed them off, but you can’t score when you’re killing penalties. I want the guys to understand that for us to be successful in the playoffs we can’t be taking penalties like that."

Looking ahead to the game against Northeastern, Whitehead said, "We always look forward to a game against Bruce [Crowder]. They’ve played a lot of close games this year. Sunday should be no exception."

Crowder sees similarities between the two clubs.

"The two teams are kind of a mirror image of each other right now," he said. "They’re struggling and they’ve been through the school of hard knocks the last three or four weeks so it could be a very interesting game. Who knows, it could be 6-5 even though both teams haven’t been scoring goals.

"For us it’s going to be Senior Night and we’re going to try to make it special for those kids. Hopefully that will enhance things a little bit."

PICK: Northeastern 5-4.

Dave Hendrickson is the Hockey East Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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Bertagna named Commissioner of Hockey East

By Adam Wodon

February 26, 1997

Joe Bertagna was named the fourth commissioner of Hockey East on Tuesday in an announcement made by the conference’s Board of Directors.

The Arlington, Mass. native leaves the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC), where he was employed for 15 years, including the last three as the conference’s first Hockey Commissioner.

Bertagna will stay with the ECAC until his current contract expires on June 1. He is expected to take a month off before assuming his post with Hockey East on July 1.

“I am sincerely excited about the opportunity to work for the schools of Hockey East,” said Bertagna, 45. “My 15 years with the ECAC have been terrific and this decision did not come without some difficulty. But I look forward to new relationships and new challenges in one of the nation’s premier athletic conferences.”

Bertagna is a respected ambassador of the game who has worn many hats for the ECAC since his hiring in 1982-83 as tournament director. Bertagna has served as the Executive Director of the American Hockey Coaches Association since 1984.

“I am very excited and I know all of the Hockey East athletic directors are as well to have Joe moving into the job this summer,” said Gary Strickler, Chairman of the Hockey East Executive Committee and Director of Athletics at Boston University, “Joe brings a national hockey reputation and I know he will make our strong conference even stronger.

“We know what a good job Joe has done for ECAC hockey, and look forward to him doing the same for Hockey East.”

Bertagna started working primarily as the public relations coordinator for the ECAC following a stint as the sports information director at Harvard, his alma mater. He is credited for creating the ECAC’s tournament television package, regular season television package and corporate sponsorships with Bauer and Karhu. He was a driving force behind the Hockeyfest Tournament at the Boston Garden in 1991 and 1992 and played an instrumental role in moving the ECAC Championships to Lake Placid, N.Y., the tournament’s home since 1993.

“The entire ECAC ice hockey community of over 90 programs is heavily indebted to Joe for the tremendous job he’s done for us all,” said Clayton Chapman, Commissioner of the ECAC. “He has given us strong and inspired leadership, taking our ECAC Division I Men’s League to national prominence year in and year out, was a pivotal force in the creation of our successful ECAC Women’s League and Alliance, and in the establishment of the only women’s conference championships in the country.

“Joe Bertagna’s name will always be remembered as synonymous with ECAC Hockey, and we all join in wishing him well as he moves on to new challenges with Hockey East.”

Bertagna, a 1973 graduate of Harvard University, enjoyed a fruitful playing and coaching career as a goaltender. He starred at Harvard under Bill Cleary and at Arlington High School under Eddie Burns. Bertagna played professionally for the Milwaukee Admirals and in Cortina, Italy. He authored “Goaltending,” a textbook on the fundamentals of the position, and “Crimson in Triumph,” a book dedicated to Harvard athletic history.

Bertagna began his coaching career in 1985 with the Boston Bruins, staying with the Bruins as the goaltenders coach until 1991 and rejoining the team for the 1994-95 season. He also has coached with the Milwaukee Admirals (1994-96). Bertagna has operated his own goalie camps in the summer since 1973.

“I am excited with Joe’s decision to become our commissioner,” said Robert M. DeGregorio, Jr., the director of Athletics at Merrimack College and former Hockey East Commissioner. “I have known Joe for many years. I have worked with him both as a commissioner and as an athletic director and I feel his expertise will help move Hockey East into the next century.

“He is well-known and well-respected throughout the hockey community and his expertise will only further enhance the greatness of the Hockey East Association.”

Abbott and Costello Visit Hockey East

By David H. Hendrickson

February 25, 1997

Over 50 years ago, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello created arguably the most famous comedy routine in history, “Who’s on First.” It is with great pleasure that we welcome them to the Hockey East stage.

LOU: Heeyyy, Abbott! You’ll never guess what happened. I saw my first college hockey game and, boy, was it terrific! I didn’t really understand what was going on, but I loved it when they crashed into each other. Smash! Bam! Pow! Now I can’t get enough of it.

BUD: I’ve been a fan myself for years.

LOU: Just do me one favor.

BUD: You name it.

LOU: Don’t confuse me like you did with “Who’s on First.” Just speak English.

BUD: I couldn’t do that.

LOU: Couldn’t do what?

BUD: Speak English.

LOU: Why not?

BUD: He redshirted. English, I mean. Brad English. UNH.

LOU: Abbott, I don’t care if the shirts he wears are red, or green, or brown or white!

BUD: That would give you your penalty-killers.

LOU: What would?

BUD: Green or Brown or White. Don’t you know what you’re saying?

LOU: Of course I don’t know what I’m saying!

BUD: David Green is a senior at Providence. Craig Brown is a UMass-Lowell freshman. They both play forward. Tony and Brian White are defensemen for Merrimack and Maine. The four of them would make a great penalty-killing unit.

LOU: Penalty-killing? You’re killing me!

BUD: Weren’t you watching the players while they were crashing and smashing and bashing? Knowing the players is half the fun. Lou, you really need to buy a program.

LOU: All I’m asking is that you just speak English!

BUD: I told you he redshirted.

LOU: Abboooott!!

BUD: Let me explain.

LOU: How noble!

BUD: Isn’t he a great goaltender?

LOU: Who?

BUD: Who’s on first. You were talking about Noble.

LOU: Noble, who?

BUD: Noble is in the nets. Who is on first. Please stick to hockey, Lou.

LOU: You’re doing it again! You’re trying to drive me crazy! Am I right?

BUD: Matt and Dennis. BU and UMass-Amherst.

LOU: There you go again!

BUD: Say, did you know that when Matt Wright enrolled at BU, he didn’t even expect to make the team? And he won a national championship! What a story. Gotta love the success of a walk-on.

LOU: Now what are you talking about? I thought we were talking about hockey.

BUD: We are, except when you bring up Who, the guy on first base.

LOU: So what’s this about a walk-on? I may be stupid, but I know that you skate in hockey. You don’t walk.

BUD: You don’t understand.

LOU: Nooo kidding!

BUD: Let me explain.

LOU: I don’t want to hear it! All I know is that Noble is in the nets. I don’t know if he’s acting noble there, but that’s where he is. And he isn’t speaking English because English is redshirting. Not greenshirting, or brownshirting, or whiteshirting. Because those are David, Craig, Tony, and Brian. Whatever that means! And maybe I’m wrong but I’m certainly not right because right is a walk-on named Matt even though he’s supposed to be skating.

BUD: Lou, you’re brilliant. That’s perfect.

LOU: I don’t even know what I said!

BUD: You said that…

LOU: Stop! I don’t want to hear another word! I’m one word away from going over the edge, Abbott, and it’s all because of you. There’s a punishment for guys like you. If I hear one more word out of you, I’m gonna cane you.

BUD: Goaltender. Providence. Mark Kane.

LOU: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Note: UNH’s Brad English has not yet been officially designated a redshirt. He has, however, not played this year primarily due to knee problems and would seem an obvious redshirt candidate. Our mythical Abbott and Costello felt that technicalities should not get in the way of a good routine.

This Week in Hockey East: February 21, 1997

By David H. Hendrickson

February 21, 1997

Hockey East Preview: Feb. 21-22, 1997 by Dave Hendrickson

Boston University and New Hampshire made Hockey East a two-team race for the regular-season crown so long ago that fans might easily ignore two other teams that are playing very well down the stretch. In fact, since the Christmas break, Maine and Merrimack have supplanted the two powerhouses as the league’s hottest teams.

Maine 11-2-0 .846 Merrimack 7-3-0 .700 BU 6-2-3 .682 UNH 7-5-0 .583

Although the above doesn’t account for scheduling differences, there’s no dismissing the Lazarus act done by Maine and Merrimack, both of which looked dead in the water at the Christmas break.

Maine must consider this week’s three games against Boston University and UNH — the latter won by a 5-1 score — as its "playoffs." With the the denial of the Black Bears’ NCAA appeal, they have only those games and a finale against UMass-Amherst to close out their season.

Merrimack, on the other hand, now stands poised to earn its first playoff home ice since moving up to Division I. Coach Ron Anderson and his squad deserve admiration for not rolling over after a 3-11-1 start. They have rebounded with a vengeance, winning six out of their last seven. Considering the struggles that program has endured, fans of the underdog will have an obvious favorite come playoff time.

Hockey East Standings

Last week’s record in picks: 4-6 (ugh!) Season record in picks: 111-66

No. 4 Boston University (18-6-6, 14-2-4 HE) at Maine (21-10-1, 13-7-1 HE) Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., Alfond Arena, Orono, ME

After hearing that its NCAA appeal had been denied, Maine showed no letdown, beating UMass-Amherst 6-4 and 8-1. The games prompted UMass coach Joe Mallen to say, "From what I saw on Saturday night, they played as well as BU or UNH have played during the course of the year."

Cory Larose earned Rookie of the Week honors with two goals and four assists on the weekend. He has recorded 10 goals and 24 assists in 31 games this season, tops among Hockey East rookies.

"He’s been terrific," said Maine coach Shawn Walsh. "He’s really made a case to be Rookie of the Year. [Not only did] he get six points, he did it when the game was on the line early in both games. He really was a dominant guy."

Another freshman, goaltender Alfie Michaud, has dramatically turned around his season. He has played in four straight games after previously sharing duties with Javier Gorriti, allowing only a single goal in the last two.

"We made a decision last week that we were going to go with Alfie," said Walsh. "Maybe not every game, but he’s certainly our number one guy. He showed this weekend that he’s ready for it. He wasn’t, earlier in the year, but he proved himself in January when he was Rookie of the Month. His confidence is up and he’s playing better."

The youngsters are playing well even though Walsh chose not to adopt a rebuilding philosophy in the absence of a post-season.

"I owe it to our players to try to win each game," he said. "Forget about the future. The future is going to happen by itself. Our players are developing fine. We’ve only had four seniors in the lineup in this stretch of being 13-3 since December 20th.

"I think what’s speeded up the development of our young players was [Jeff] Tory, [Brett] Clark, [Blair] Allison and [Tim] Lovell leaving. All of these young guys have gotten their ice time, guys like David Cullen. I think he’s coming into his own.

"These guys deserve to have fun and feel good about themselves. We certainly do right now. My number one priority is to see how we stack up against two truly great teams [UNH on Tuesday and BU on the weekend].

"It’s a great schedule, because we can actually consider this a national tournament week because the calibre of the opposing teams will be Final-Four calibre. You can’t ask for anything better. We’re just doing it three weeks ahead of time."

Maine opened its "national tournament week" with a 5-1 win over a UNH squad depleted by seven players suspended after a brawl with Providence. That win all but ensures that the Black Bears will finish third in Hockey East. They now look to continue that success against a BU team they beat 3-1 last month.

"BU has a style of play that is very predictable," said Walsh. "That’s because they’re well-coached. Jack does a good job of having them play his way and it’s a fairly obvious way. We’ve had success with them over the years, over an eight- or nine-year span, so we just have to play our game.

"I’m fully cognizant that they will probably play better than they played against us in January because they want revenge. So we’ll have to raise our level. I think it’ll come down to execution on both team’s parts.

"Anyone who loves college hockey will love this series."

BU coach Jack Parker poured cold water on Walsh’s "national tournament week" concept, hardly surprising given the strained relations between the two.

"Shawn says a lot of things," said Parker. "This is not the national championship, this is not a playoff game, it’s a regular-season game for both teams. It counts for one, it doesn’t count for the other. That’s all it is. It counts for us, so we’ll definitely be up. Whenever we play Maine we’re up for it."

This past weekend Parker watched his club open with a clear-cut 6-1 win over UMass-Lowell. Michel Larocque kept the Terriers in the game during a wide-open first period before BU seized control in the second and the third.

"Both goalies are playing great," said Parker after the win. "Noble played great in the Beanpot the other night. It’s almost like it’s one-upsmanship. One guy puts on a show and spins a three-hitter and the next guy tries to pitch a two-hitter. That position has been our most consistent all year long."

The fourth line of Bill Pierce, Brendan Walsh and Matt Wright continued its recent offensive contributions. The line scored the tying and winning goals in the Beanpot championship and then figured in three of the six goals on Friday night.

"They’re playing real well," said Parker. "They’re playing real smart. I’m very, very happy for those guys, all three of them. They’ve worked really hard all year. Billy Pierce has really been snakebitten. Brendan has had a great year. Matty has been up-and-down but has been playing great of late. To see them chip in with some goals and some nice plays is great. It’s very, very important to have that line going."

Parker then watched in dismay as the River Hawks came back to tie BU 5-5 on Saturday. In a telling moment, Parker referred to the tie as a loss, a Freudian slip if there ever was one.

"I thought we were a completely different team in a 24-hour span," Parker said. "We didn’t play nearly as focused or as hard. Lowell played much harder than us. I was very disappointed in our overall effort. Frankly, that hasn’t happened too many times this year. Maybe twice we haven’t shown up this year and that was one of them.

"[Tom Noble] wasn’t the reason we lost; I don’t think he played real sharp but he didn’t play horribly either. He wasn’t the problem. The problem was all six defensemen played horribly, unfocused and lackadaisical. We had about half of our forwards playing well and the other half out to lunch."

The Terriers now trail New Hampshire by two points in the standings, but hold two games in hand. With UNH inactive this weekend, this series gives BU the opportunity to cash in the extra games and move into first place.

"These games are two points in the league so they’re important to us," said Parker. "We’re playing a team that’s not going to be in our playoffs, so it’s not that important to them but they’re really important to us. We’re trying to stay abreast of, and [within] striking distance of UNH. Anyway you look at it, it’ll probably come down to the last weekend of the year."

PICK: BU 5-4 on Friday. Maine 4-2 on Saturday.

UMass-Lowell (13-17-1, 9-11-1 HE) vs. Providence (13-17-1, 10-10-1 HE) Friday, 7 p.m., Schneider Arena, Providence, RI Saturday, 7 p.m., Tully Forum, Lowell, MA NESN

Providence appeared on the verge of a major upset on Friday, leading third-ranked New Hampshire 4-2 going into the final period. But the Wildcats showed why they’ve earned the nickname

"The Detonators" by scoring seven, count ’em, seven goals to blow the game open.

"We just made a lot of mental mistakes," said PC coach Paul Pooley. "Three faceoff goals and two back-door goals on their power play. We made poor reads off two center-ice faceoffs and off an end-zone faceoff just didn’t pick our guy up. It was unfortunate. I thought we were playing very, very well up to that point."

Saturday night back at Schneider Arena, they took the lead and held it for a 3-2 win. "It was a game of inches," said Pooley. "We played very well. We got our sticks on a lot of passes and blocked a lot of shots that didn’t get to the net. Our [penalty-kill] was good…. Specialty teams were very big. We scored two power-play goals and killed off some key penalties down the stretch."

Dan Dennis returned after being supplanted by sophomore Mark Kane for the last four and a half games. "Danny really answered the bell," said Pooley. "Danny really played solid in his net and looked like he had that spark back again. That was good to see.

"It’s Senior Night here on Friday and you always want to start your senior [so he’ll play]. But I feel we have two goaltenders right now, Mark Kane and Dan Dennis, who both have the capabilities to play."

Overshadowing the game, however, was a postgame brawl that resulted in the suspensions of seven players from each team. The suspended Friars include Leigh Dean, Travis Dillabough, Josh MacNevin, Mike Mader, Mike Omicioli, Tom Sheehan and Nick Sinerate.

"It’s unfortunate that emotions ran over," said Pooley before the suspensions were announced. "A lot of animosity built up between the teams quickly. At the end of the game some things happened that maybe shouldn’t have happened. When you look back in hindsight, emotions got the best of everybody.

Some reports indicated that coach Umile and Pooley were none too happy with each other. "No, I don’t think that," said Pooley. "That gets blown out of proportion for the most part. We were out there trying to get our players back and away from everybody. We were obviously talking back and forth but it wasn’t anything personal. It was, ‘Hey, you take care of your players and I’ll take care of mine.’ That type of thing. Then it just erupted.

"It’s a negative thing and you don’t want to dwell on it. It’s not part of the game and its unfortunate that it happened. It’s going to hurt both of our teams. I gave [the league] a tape of what happened because I don’t want to hide anything. I want to come forward and just deal with this thing as up front as I can because it’s not going to go away."

The short-handed Friars will face Lowell on Friday at home. They will then welcome their suspended seven back for the final regular-season game to be played at Lowell’s Tully Forum. In taking on the River Hawks, they face a team that seemed headed south before grabbing a 5-5 tie with BU.

"They’re very resilient," Pooley said. "I think [the tie] was a real emotional boost for them. It’s a big weekend for us that’s going to [go a long way in deciding playoff positions.] It’s unfortunate that this thing last Saturday night could decide the outcome of the game.

"We feel we’re playing really well right now. Both goaltenders are playing well and our specialty teams are coming around and our lines are balanced. We’re playing hard and we’re excited no matter how many guys we’ll have. We’re not going to use that as an excuse.

"We feel we’re coming together. People have accepted their roles. We seem to be responding to the situations we’re put in, whether we’re checking or on the power play or on the PK. You have certain people you know you want to put out onto the ice in certain situations and that’s really comfortable. Early in the year I didn’t know that. People had not emerged. It’s good to know that we have certain people that can do certain things really well at this stage."

Lowell struggled in a 6-1 Friday night loss to BU at Tully Forum.

"Our guys are working hard and trying to generate more shots on net, which we’ve definitely done the last three games," said UML coach Tim Whitehead after the loss. "But that’s a tough team to spot a goal against and that’s what happened.

"We definitely wanted to come out and get a couple in the first and we had our chances — quality chances — but they didn’t fall for us. We just can’t let ourselves get frustrated because we’re getting the chances."

Lowell took advantage of those chances the following night, coming back with a surprising 5-5 tie at Walter Brown Arena. "Coming back" was the operative phrase, as the River Hawks overcame 2-0, 3-1, 4-2, and 5-4 deficits, continuing their 340-minute stretch without a lead.

"The guys showed a lot of composure and did a nice job going into BU’s rink," said Whitehead. "BU was obviously a team that was playing really well. We were playing well too, but weren’t getting any results for it. After losing the night before 6-1, coming out with a comeback tie like that was a big step for us [even though ties aren’t] exactly where we want to be at."

Senior tri-captain Neil Donovan was selected to play for Team USA in the World University All-Star Game against a Canadian university all-star squad. The game will be played April 4 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

"He’s been a great leader on and off the ice," said Whitehead. "He leads by example on the ice. He’s a very hard worker. He’s always the first guy here at practice. He’s working on his game before we even get on the ice as a team. He sets a great example as a guy who plays well in the big games and gets some really big goals for us. Whenever we need a big play, he’s the guy who does it for us."

The River Hawks now go head-to-head with Providence. A sweep by either team would seem to give the victor home ice and the loser a seat on the bus to someone else’s rink.

"They’re a strong team and they’re playing really well," said Whitehead. "They’re a good defensive team so it’ll be a great challenge for our guys. We’re excited about it."

The back end of the series will mark the final regular season game played in the Tully Forum. The River Hawks will move to a new, on-campus facility next year. They will be honoring their 30-Year Anniversary Team as part of the final-game ceremonies.

PICK: PC’s seven absentees tilt the scales toward Lowell 5-3 in the opener. PC comes back to gain the split 4-3 in Lowell’s barn.

Merrimack (13-16-1, 9-10-1 HE) vs. Northeastern (7-21-2, 2-17-1 HE) Friday, 7 p.m., Matthews Arena, Boston, MA Saturday, 7 p.m., Volpe Center, North Andover, MA

Merrimack fans, as long-suffering a lot as there is in the league, have begun pinching themselves to make sure they’re not dreaming. With their red-hot team making a charge for home ice, they must wonder if they are like the person married and divorced nine times who is convinced that this time it really is true love. Will Cupid pull out his bow-and-arrow and shoot them in the butt one more time?

The arrows stayed in the quiver last week, when the Warriors swept Boston College in a pivotal series, 5-2 and a jaw-dropping 11-5. In the opener, the Warriors caught BC goalie Greg Taylor on a severe off-night and won despite being outshot 38-19. Taylor’s counterpart in the Warrior nets, Martin Legault, received his coach’s plaudits but won the netminding battle essentially by default.

"Our guy played very well on Friday night," said Merrimack coach Ron Anderson. "We came to play but BC played very well. I think our goaltender stole us a game."

Not in his wildest dreams could Anderson have expected the offensive explosion his team set off to win 11-5 the following night. Defenseman Darrel Scoville led the way with a first-period hat trick.

"It was a pleasant surprise for us, a team that doesn’t score a lot of goals," said Anderson. "They had a bad night, the kind of night we had on Friday, except that we survived Friday."

Anderson deflected talk about his team being one of the hottest in Hockey East. "I can’t say whether we’re the hottest team in the league or not because I’m not looking at anyone else. I’m looking at us, making sure that we’re playing our best hockey every night."

"A year ago, we turned this team over to [what is now our] senior and junior classes. We had some discussions at the end of last year and early this year about how this was their team. Now they’re really carrying the team."

Two-year captain Rob Beck stands front and center among the senior leaders. Last week Hockey East named him the Player of the Week after he scored three goals and added three assists over the weekend. The red-hot Beck now has six goals and 10 assists in his last six games.

Legault broke former All-American Jim Hrivnak’s school record for career saves on Saturday, and now totals 3,005. After splitting time early in the year with Eric Thibeault, he is shouldering most of the netminding duties these days.

The biggest surprise during the team’s resurgence has been Merrimack’s goal-scoring prowess. The Warriors averaged less than three goals per game over the first half, but have scored at a 5.86 clip in their last seven.

A key contributor has been the power play. Far and away the worst in the league prior to Christmas (around 10 percent), Merrimack’s man-advantage has climbed near a 25 percent success rate during 1997. Casey Kesselring has also grabbed the league’s longest scoring streak, picking up points in his last 13 games.

The Warriors now take on last-place Northeastern, which received a shot in the arm when Maine’s postseason appeal fell through. The odd man out if Maine had qualified, Northeastern will now have playoff life.

"We’ve been right where Northeastern is right now a lot of times," said Anderson. "[When you’re in that position] all of a sudden you focus on a three- or four-game season. So what’s happened to them over the course of the year… we’re not going to get decoyed by that.

"Our objective is to make sure we stay on top of our own game and play as well as we can play, and not look at anything behind us. After we discuss the past weekend and any problems we had, when we hit Tuesday we’re just looking at what’s coming up on Friday. We’re all right now as long as we don’t do something stupid mentally."

Northeastern hit rock bottom in a free-fall season, losing 2-1 to Army last weekend.

"Our inability to score goals really hurt us," said coach Bruce Crowder. "We put 41 shots on net and their kid stopped 40. Some of them were of the spectacular type and some were ‘let’s hit the "A" or "R" on the guy’s chest.’ It just wasn’t meant to be. I thought we got great goaltending from Robitaille to keep it close, but the guys just have a real inability to finish."

Northeastern’s new-found life in the Hockey East playoffs will likely prove short since it will be staring into either the BU or UNH howitzer.

"We’ve been given a little bit of life per se with the playoffs," said Crowder. "Anything can happen. It’s just that our scenario is that we’re going to have to play some pretty good games when we get into the playoffs to get past the first round.

"Obviously we haven’t fared very well against UNH this year. Even though the results against BU have been the same in terms of wins and losses, I think we played them a little tighter than we did against UNH, so I guess that means ‘Go Terriers!’ We’ll see what happens."

Of course, the playoffs are still a couple of weeks away, and the Huskies have the immediate misfortune to catch Merrimack at the worst possible time.

"Ronnie [Anderson] has got them going," said Crowder. "When we went to play them last time, Ronnie mentioned that they were having trouble scoring goals but that they were playing well. Obviously since then, they haven’t any trouble scoring goals against us or Providence or BC. Considering what he’s done, maybe I should go over and watch one of his practices.

"They’ve got good goaltending and are getting some timely goals. This is one of those weekends in the schedule where we’ve got to put some pucks away. We’ve scored only [seven goals in our last five games] and I don’t care who you play, you’re not going to win a lot of hockey games with that."

PICK: Merrimack rolls on, 5-2 and 6-2.

Boston College (11-17-3, 7-11-3 HE) vs. UMass-Amherst (12-19-0, 7-15-0 HE) Saturday, 7 p.m., Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

In the last month, BC has posted a 2-6-2 record, beating only UMass-Amherst and Northeastern, the bottom two teams in the league, and playing impressively against BU and gaining two ties, a loss and a lot of respect.

Nonetheless, the Eagles have played oft-undistinguished hockey in their other five losses. The enigmatic squad fell to new depths last weekend, getting swept 5-2 and 11-5 by Merrimack.

The Eagles exhibit the greatest dynamic range of any team in the league. Their peaks against BU show a highly-skilled team that isn’t far away from being a contender. Their valleys, however, against almost everyone else are baffling. Since the Merrimack series held the key to playoff home ice, BC’s double-dip causes much head scratching.

"I thought Friday night we played exceptionally well, limiting Merrimack to 19 shots on goal while we had 38 shots on them," said BC coach Jerry York. "I thought we controlled the tempo of the play and played very, very well. The score didn’t indicate how well we played. We missed some tremendous scoring opportunities and gave up some soft goals.

"I’m not blaming it all on Greg [Taylor]. Some of the soft goals were the result of miscues on defense. They just had very few chances. As a matter of fact, when we were trying to get back into it, it was 3-2 going into the third period and we had one save in the third period. We had two goals against and one save. We had the puck that whole period but Legault was exceptional. We created chances but couldn’t get any red lights.

"But Saturday night was all Merrimack. We played poorly in all facets of our game. They were extremely strong, so it was a complete role reversal for both teams. Generally you get a split in that type of weekend but that wasn’t the case. Now we have to look forward to three games left in our season.

"We started what we called our brand new training camp here on Monday. We started all over from scratch. Despite the fact that last Monday we played probably our best game of the year against BU [in the Beanpot final] and followed that Friday night with a tremendous effort against Merrimack, Saturday night’s loss just stays in our system because of how poorly we played.

"So we went back to Training Camp Phase II and really worked very hard this week in preparation for the final three games of the season. Hopefully, that will produce some solid results and some victories going into the playoffs."

The Eagles now take on a team in even worse straits. UMass-Amherst has lost seven of its last eight and seems a near certainty to finish next-to-last and face either BU or UNH in the playoffs.

"These are two struggling teams that are looking for something positive heading into playoffs," said York. "We’ll travel down the Pike this Saturday afternoon and look for a typical, hard-fought Hockey East game."

Last weekend UMass-Amherst hung with Maine only to lose 6-4 on Friday and then got whipped 8-1. Is Maine that good, or are the Minutemen playing that poorly?

"I think we ran into a real fired-up Maine team," said UMass-Amherst coach Joe Mallen. "They had the previous weekend off, they’d lost to Merrimack in overtime in their last game, and they had the announcement that they weren’t going to be allowed in the playoffs.

"They really deserve a lot of credit. They were down to their last few games and they played real well. Their special teams executed real well and from what I saw on Saturday night, they played as well as BU or UNH have played during the course of the year."

Mallen, like York, sees similarities in the two teams matched up on Saturday.

"At this point you’re looking at two teams that have lost some games in a row and are trying to get back on the winning side," he said. "The one thing that our team knows is that we’re playing in the playoffs no matter what.

"We’ve got two more games before we get there, so it’s up to us to make the improvement that can put us in a position to do something special in the playoffs. That’s what we’re pointing to now. That’s good team play, good systems play and good discipline on the ice."

PICK: Boston College wins 6-3.

Dave Hendrickson is the Hockey East Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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This Week in the ECAC: February 21, 1997

By Jayson Moy

February 21, 1997

ECAC Preview: Feb. 21-22, 1997 by Jayson Moy

Twelve little Indians. One by one they fall. until now two are left.

When the ECAC weekend started, four teams were tied for first place. After all was said and done, only two remained — Clarkson and Cornell. The Big Red and the Golden Knights swept their weekend series, Princeton and Yale for Clarkson, and Harvard and Brown for Cornell.

RPI looked destined to keep pace with the two teams, but a late comeback by Vermont forced a tie, and now RPI sits one point behind the leaders while Vermont is three points back. This week’s battle between the leaders is Cornell at RPI on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a fight is brewing just three points behind the lead pack, with four teams separated by just two points. Princeton and Union have 20 points, Harvard and Colgate 18. There are some key matchups within this group, highlighted by Union-Colgate on Saturday night.

And yet another battle is underway among the four teams at the bottom of the league, with five points separating St. Lawrence in ninth and Brown in last. Dartmouth and Yale are 10th and 11th, respectively.

ECAC Standings

Pivotal games in this group this weekend include St. Lawrence playing Brown, and Yale against Dartmouth.

The jockeying continues this weekend, with nothing close to being settled.

Colgate (14-12-2, 8-8-2 ECAC, T-7th) and No. 10 Cornell (15-6-4, 12-4-2 ECAC, T-1st) at RPI (16-8-4, 11-4-3 ECAC, 3rd) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-7 p.m., RPI Fieldhouse, Troy, N.Y.

No. 10 Cornell (15-6-4, 12-4-2 ECAC, T-1st) and Colgate (14-12-2, 8-8-2 ECAC, T-7th) at Union (16-10-2, 9-7-2 ECAC, T-5th) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-7 p.m., Achilles Rink, Schenectady, N.Y.

Cornell remains in first place with a sweep of Harvard and Brown, 2-1 and 7-2, respectively. The Big Red have done it with both offense and defense.

They are the third-highest scoring team in the ECAC with 68 goals in 18 games, though only one member of the Big Red, Kyle Knopp (9-10–19), is among the ECAC scoring leaders. Knopp had four points (3-1) on the weekend and stretched his goal-scoring streak to six games. This means the Big Red are getting balanced scoring from all lines, and even from the defense.

In nets, the Big Red have two of the top six goaltenders in the ECAC. Jean-Marc Pelletier is third in GAA (2.36) and has a save percentage of .922. Jason Elliot, who won both games this weekend, has a GAA of 2.65 and a save percentage of .914.

Head coach Mike Schafer has mentioned that he likes one goaltender to carry the team through the stretch run and the playoffs. Perhaps Elliot’s two starts this weekend mean that Schafer has chosen him to bear the load.

Colgate’s first-period field goal was enough to keep Brown at bay, 10-7 on Friday, but the Red Raiders returned and dropped a 5-2 contest to Harvard on Saturday. Now, instead of putting points between themselves and Harvard, they are tied for seventh in the standings.

The man for the Red Raiders this weekend was Mike Harder. Harder had six points (2-4) and now stands just six behind Steve Smith in his quest for the all-time scoring mark at Colgate.

RPI came oh so close to keeping pace with the leaders in the ECAC, but a Vermont comeback to tie the game kept RPI one point behind the leaders. RPI won in overtime the night before, 5-4 against Dartmouth. The Engineers also lost a two-goal lead in the third period of that one before winning it in overtime on an Eric Healey goal.

"It goes to show that you’ve got to focus for 60 full minutes," said RPI coach Dan Fridgen. "Against a good hockey team, if you lose focus for 15-20 seconds, bad things happen.

"I told those guys that if you want to be a championship team, you have to focus for 60 minutes. Good teams keep coming, and if you give them an opportunity, they’ll get you. It’s all a learning experience for these guys."

Fridgen says the basics are important at this time of year. "We’ve got to keep the game simple. Just get the puck over the blue line."

There are two games this week, and that’s how the Engineers are looking at it.

"You have to put it in perspective," said sophomore right wing Matt Garver. "We have to come back and win two games next weekend."

"We’re not worried about what the other teams are doing at this point; we have to worry about what we do," said Fridgen. "All the other teams can win for that matter — it doesn’t really matter [since] we’re the ones that are in the race."

Union is also in the race, and in a big way. With two consecutive shutouts this weekend over Vermont and Dartmouth, Union has pulled into a tie for fifth place with Princeton. In goal for both 2-0 victories was Trevor Koenig, the ECAC Player of the Week for the second straight time. Koenig now has four shutouts, and leads the nation in save percentage and goals-against average.

Union’s two wins this weekend were a milestone in several ways. The win on Saturday clinched an ECAC playoff spot; also, they were the first consecutive shutouts for a Union squad since the 1938-39 season. It was also the 16th win for Union, their most in a season since they upgraded the program to Division I in 1991.

"I’m very pleased and happy for the players," said head coach Stan Moore after the Dartmouth game on Saturday night. "I’m very pleased that they can not only boast a playoff spot, but they can boast the career number of wins by a Union team. It’s an important milestone."

PICKS:

Cornell at Union: These teams battled to a tough 3-3 tie in Ithaca back in December. Expect no less when they get together this weekend. Neither team really opens it up, so it will be low-scoring and tight-checking. Playing at home gives Union an advantage. Union 2 Cornell 2

Colgate at RPI: These two teams also played a 3-3 tie back in December. Which Colgate team will show — the one that put up 10 goals against Brown, or the one that lost to Harvard? The Jekyll-and-Hyde persona of the Red Raiders has to be figured out. For its part, can RPI bounce back from a disappointing tie to Vermont? It has the offense. RPI 5 Colgate 2

Colgate at Union: Stan Moore sees his old team for the second time this season, with a quarterfinal-round bye possibly on the line. Both teams are certainly different now, and Union has it.Union 3 Colgate 1

Cornell at RPI: RPI played the perfect game the last time these two teams met, winning 4-2. Cornell is looking to exact revenge some on the Engineers. It will be a matter of stopping RPI’s offense. RPI 4 Cornell 2

Harvard (9-13-2, 8-8-2 ECAC, T-7th) and Brown (6-17-2, 3-14-1 ECAC, 12th) at No. 5 Clarkson (20-8-0, 13-5-0 ECAC, T-1st) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-7 p.m., Cheel Arena, Potsdam, N.Y.

Brown (6-17-2, 3-14-1 ECAC, 12th) and Harvard (9-13-2, 8-8-2 ECAC, T-7th) at St. Lawrence (9-17-4, 4-10-4 ECAC, 9th) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-7 p.m., Appleton Arena, Canton, N.Y.

Harvard had a good weekend despite losing one game. That loss, to Cornell, 2-1 on Friday night was a hard-fought battle defensively, right up the alley of Harvard. J.R. Prestifilippo was impressive again in goal, but did not get the offense he needed for the win.

The next night Harvard came back and Prestifilippo did get some scoring in a 5-2 win over Colgate. The Crimson need to keep the offense going in order to win games, though Prestifilippo is certainly keeping pucks out of the net.

Brown is fighting for its playoff life. After a shocker over Princeton, Brown lost to Colgate 10-7, and then 7-2 to Cornell. Brown’s big game this weekend will be against St. Lawrence. The Saints are in the same grouping with the Bears at the end of the ECAC standings, and Brown cannot afford to lose any more points.

The Bears are a combination of four points away from being eliminated from the playoffs, the combination occurring with Dartmouth.

Meanwhile, St. Lawrence earned two ties this weekend, and the points pushed the Saints past Dartmouth into ninth place in the standings. Two ties would often leave a coach unhappy, but not Joe Marsh.

"I’m not frustrated," said Marsh. "It would’ve been nice to hang on, but the way we’ve been going in the struggle for points, we have to take that one point and go with it. We took two points on the road the hard way, I guess, but I don’t care."

"[Ninth place is] where we’re at right now," said Marsh. "And I think in some cases we made our own bed. We’ve had a season that’s been rocky in a lot of areas.

"I was really pleased with the effort in both games [this weekend]…. That’s indicative of our season; we’re not quite finishing. We sustain some pressure for a while, then we’re prone to unforced turnovers. Nothing’s going real easy for us. But we’ll just keep working and plugging, and get into the playoffs, and hopefully we can get a second lease on life."

Clarkson remains in first place with a 2-1 overtime win over Princeton Friday, and a 2-0 shutout of Yale the next night.

"To come out with a win is a bonus, because we didn’t play our best hockey tonight," said head coach Mark Morris after the overtime thriller.

It was Hobey Baker candidate and ECAC Player of the Year favorite Todd White that came through for the Golden Knights.

"He’s the best all-around, two-way player in the country," said Morris on White. "He is. There’s no question in my mind. I’ve seen all the best players. And he’s a plus-25 right now.

"I compare him with a Brendan Morrison, a (Martin) St. Louis and (Eric) Perrin. He’s a better player at all facets of the game. He can play defense, he can play offense. He’s strong, he’s quick, and he does a lot of things well. And on top of that, he’s a 3.6 (GPA) academically. He does it all and it’s pretty impressive."

With just two losses in 1997, the Golden Knights are brimming with confidence as they head into the last two weekends.

"Confidence can do unbelievable things for individuals and teams, and it’s nice to know we’re headed in the right direction," said Morris.

PICKS:

Harvard at Clarkson: Harvard defeated Clarkson the last time out in December, 5-4. That was last time, though. Clarkson is red-hot, and full of confidence. Clarkson 6 Harvard 2

Brown at St. Lawrence: Brown is trying to avoid elimination from the playoffs, but it looks like it’s just a matter of time. The Saints — at home — make that time now. St. Lawrence 5 Brown 3

Brown at Clarkson: This game won’t mean a whole lot to the Bears, except in the pride category. They will put up a fight, but against a team going for first place, it’s not enough. Clarkson 7 Brown 3

Harvard at St. Lawrence: These two tied in December, 3-3. Can the Saints earn their first sweep of the year? Probably not. Harvard 4 St. Lawrence 3

Princeton (14-8-3, 9-7-2 ECAC, T-5th) and Yale (7-15-3, 4-12-2 ECAC, 11th) at Dartmouth (10-14-1, 5-12-1 ECAC, 10th) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-5 p.m., Thompson Arena, Hanover, N.H.

Yale (7-15-3, 4-12-2 ECAC, 11th) and Princeton (14-8-3, 9-7-2 ECAC, T-5th) at No. 8 Vermont (18-7-3, 10-5-3 ECAC, 4th) Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-7 p.m., Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.

Princeton has had a tough go at it since returning from its break. The Tigers lost senior Mike Bois, the best defensive forward on the team, to academic ineligibility. The Tigers have also last three of their last five ECAC games. In the meantime, Princeton has fallen from first place to a tie for fifth.

The latest ECAC weekend saw Princeton lose to Clarkson with 11 seconds left in overtime, and tie St. Lawrence on Saturday.

"I believe wholeheartedly that (the recent losses are) not through lack of effort," said Princeton coach Don Cahoon. "The first period was OK (against St. Lawrence), the second period was deplorable and the third period we got on them."

Through it all, Cahoon thinks that only good things lie ahead for his Tigers.

"We struggled at Cornell, last night was tough, and we struggled at Brown," Cahoon said after Saturday’s tie. "There was definitely some concern about being in the blahs, and I think we’re out of the blahs now. Now it’s a question of whether we can package a couple of good games to be able to get back in the hunt."

Yale is another team fighting for a playoff chance. The Elis are currently in 11th place, but are only one point behind Dartmouth and two behind St. Lawrence. That, of course, makes the Bulldogs’ game with Dartmouth an important one.

In order for the Bulldogs to get into the playoffs, they must score. Yale is now the lowest-scoring team in the ECAC after getting just four goals on the weekend. Yale’s top three scorers, Keith McCullough, John Chyz and Jeff Hamilton, have only scored nine, nine and two points respectively since the start of 1997. Not one single Bulldog is averaging over a point a game.

Dartmouth lost a place in the standings when the Big Green were swept by RPI and Union. Friday’s loss to RPI was extremely disappointing, as it came in overtime after the Big Green overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period.

"I thought the guys did a great job battling back to get it tied at 4-4," said head coach Roger Demment. "It’s a shame it had to end like that.

"It’s extremely frustrating, and we’re fighting for points for a playoff spot. I thought we matched up well against them. We battled back, and to give up a goal (in overtime) is pretty tough."

The last time Dartmouth faced Yale and Princeton, it was swept, 5-4 and 4-2, respectively. The game against Yale is one that looms large.

Vermont suffered the biggest fall of the four teams tied for first this weekend — shut out by Union and forced to battle back to tie RPI.

"I think we had a few things bouncing for us at the end of the game," said Vermont coach Mike Gilligan after the RPI game. "The puck hasn’t bounced for us the last couple of nights, but it started to in the last four minutes. We were very fortunate to come out of here (RPI) with a point.

"It was a real important point. It’s something I give the kids a lot of credit for hanging in there and getting it."

Gilligan hopes that things can carry over to this coming weekend, especially in the scoring department. "We were shooting at legs, sticks, and bodies," he said. "We have to convert, and we started to convert."

PICKS:

Princeton at Dartmouth: Princeton won the first matchup, 4-2. It looks like Princeton has gotten things together. Dartmouth also had things together, but could not get a point this past weekend. Princeton 4 Dartmouth 3

Yale at Vermont: Vermont will enjoy the game at home. Yale is young and fighting for a playoff spot, while Vermont will get scoring from the French Connection this weekend. Vermont 6 Yale 2

Yale at Dartmouth: The winner of this game has the upper edge on the last playoff position. At home, Dartmouth will hold a slight edge, and its offense increases that margin. Dartmouth 5 Yale 4

Princeton at Vermont: Vermont won a close one back at the beginning of January, 3-2. This is the last regular-season home game for the French Connection and Tim Thomas; for Princeton, that means tough luck. Vermont 3 Princeton 2

It’s here, ladies and gentlemen. The final weekend of the regular season is coming up, and it’s highlighted by a matchup between two potential first-place teams, Clarkson and Cornell.

The last weekend of the regular season:

Friday, February 28: Clarkson at Cornell St. Lawrence at Colgate RPI at Yale Union at Princeton Vermont at Brown Dartmouth at Harvard

Saturday, March 1: Clarkson at Colgate St. Lawrence at Cornell RPI at Princeton Union at Yale Vermont at Harvard Dartmouth at Brown

Thanks to Adam Wodon for help on this article.

Jayson Moy is the ECAC Correspondent for US College Hockey Online.

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This Week in the WCHA: February 21, 1997

By Todd D. Milewski

February 21, 1997

WCHA Preview: Feb. 21-22, 1997 by Scott Brown

Despite a split against Northern Michigan, the North Dakota Fighting Sioux edged ever closer to the MacNaughton Cup last weekend. Although the Sioux managed only two points on the road, their competitors fared no better: Minnesota split a home series with Minnesota-Duluth, and Denver and Colorado College each won one game of a home-and-home series. Among the contenders, only St. Cloud, which took four points at home from Wisconsin, managed to gain ground on UND.

Farther down the standings, Michigan Tech moved out of the basement for the first time in recent memory, sweeping Alaska-Anchorage in Houghton. Northern gained the aforementioned split with the conference leaders, but dropped into last place anyway.

WCHA Standings

Meanwhile, the battle for home ice rages unabated. Second-place Minnesota, with 36 points, and third-place St. Cloud, with 35, seem good bets to finish in the top five, but Colorado College, Wisconsin, Denver and Minnesota-Duluth are all still in the hunt.

In particular, Minnesota plays at CC this weekend, Denver visits Wisconsin and St. Cloud heads to Duluth in three series which will have considerable impact on the arrangement of the standings. Rounding out the schedule are UAA’s visit to Grand Forks to play North Dakota, and Michigan Tech versus Northern Michigan in a home-and-home between in-state rivals.

This week’s games:

No. 7 Minnesota (21-11-0, 18-10-0 WCHA) at Colorado College (18-12-2, 16-10-2 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:35 p.m. MT, AFA Cadet Ice Arena, Colorado Springs, CO

This one is probably the biggest series in the WCHA this week. Minnesota, despite blowing a chance to get within one point of North Dakota last weekend, is still in contention for the title, while Colorado College, five points behind the leaders, is gunning mainly for home ice.

The Gophers were blown out on their home ice last Friday, dropping an 8-4 decision to Minnesota-Duluth. In that game, a five-goal Duluth second period erased what had been a 3-1 Minnesota lead. The loss kept the Gophers from gaining ground on first-place North Dakota, which had been beaten earlier in the evening by Northern Michigan.

Minnesota’s team effort did not sit well with many players, some of whom referred to the result as an embarrassment.

But Minnesota did come back to post the split. The Gophers won the recap going away, by a final score of 7-1. Minnesota goalie Steve DeBus (18-10-0, 3.23 GAA, .888 SV%), who made 20 saves, came within two minutes of his first shutout of the season before Brad Federenko got on the board for UMD.

The Saturday win, which kept the Gophers in sole possession of second place in the conference, was head coach Doug Woog’s 350th. Ryan Kraft totaled a career-high five points (1-4) in the win, and now has 5-7–12 in his last four games. Kraft leads the Gophers in goals (19), and is second in points (36).

In the meantime, Dave Spehar (14-17–31) scored three goals on the weekend (two in Saturday’s win) and was named WCHA Rookie of the Week for the first time.

Of even greater note was the performance of Minnesota’s special teams: on Saturday, the Gophers enjoyed an astonishing fifteen power plays, and converted five, both season highs. Simultaneously, the Gopher penalty-kill held UMD to an 0-for-5 performance on power plays.

Colorado College is coming off a home-and-home with traditional rival Denver. The Tigers split, 4-3 and 1-6, which means that it’s been 60 series since they lost a sweep.

CC’s impressive offense is headed up by WCHA scoring leader Brian Swanson (14-30–44), who has 20 points in his last 13 games despite being held to two assists on the weekend. Stewart Bodtker (14-17–31) missed Saturday’s contest thanks to a DQ the previous night — one assessed with only seconds to go in the game. He should be well-rested for Minnesota.

Scott Swanson (3-13–16), who has had a tough time generating offense this season, assisted on two scores Friday. Rookie of the Year candidate Toby Peterson (10-15–25) scored the game-tying goal.

Head coach Don Lucia went to Jason Cugnet (5-2-1, 3.24 GAA, .868 SV%) for netminding duties Friday, and was rewarded with a 4-3 victory. Number-one goaltender Judd Lambert (13-10-1, 3.40 GAA, .878 SV%), however, allowed six goals on 36 shots in the loss on Saturday.

Picks: Although Minnesota would love four points on the road, it ain’t likely to happen. Make it 61 straight for the Tigers. CC 4-2, UM 5-3

St. Cloud (19-10-3, 16-9-3 WCHA) at Minnesota-Duluth (17-13-2, 14-12-2 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 p.m. CT, DECC, Duluth, MN

St. Cloud was the big winner last weekend, moving into third place in the WCHA via its sweep of the Badgers.

Mark Parrish (18-13–31) earned his Offensive Player of the Week award, scored four goals and assisting on another. But he got plenty of help from Dave Paradise (19-15–34), whose three goals included both game-winners, and defenseman Randy Best (5-10–15), with a goal and two assists. Saturday’s win also featured the first goal of defenseman Geno Parrish’s (1-8–9) collegiate career.

Brian Leitza (13-5-0, 3.29 GAA, .884 SV% WCHA) played both games in net for the Huskies, making 47 saves for the two-game series. Leitza has been the primary goaltender down the stretch for SCSU, after splitting time most of the season with Tim Lideen (3-4-3, 3.07 GAA, .905 SV% WCHA).

The Huskies are 4-1-0 in their last five, and have not been swept during the 1996-97 season. They should face a stout test in Duluth, where UMD is 12-6-0 this season, versus only 5-7-2 on the road.

The friendly confines of the Duluth Entertainment and Convocation Center are home to a team that looked to be on its way out of contention a few weeks ago. First, the Bulldogs were swept in their own building by a charging Wisconsin team; then, the very next weekend, UMD granted Michigan Tech its first win in nearly three months, and followed that up with a tie for a one-point weekend in Houghton.

But the Bulldogs showed there’s no quit in them, bouncing back to sweep Denver and split a series with Minnesota at Mariucci Arena. Friday’s game against the Gophers cemented the UMD surge, as the Bulldogs used a five-goal second period to ice the victory.

In that game, UMD got consecutive goals by leading scorer Mike Peluso (18-17–35); freshman goaltender and Rookie of the Year candidate Brant Nicklin (17-12-2, 3.13 GAA, .900 SV%) turned in a 32-save performance against a pressing Gopher squad. Nicklin is on the verge of becoming the first Bulldog goaltender in 30 years to play every single minute of the WCHA season.

The next night, the Gophers turned the tables despite 39 saves from Nicklin (who did allow seven goals in the process). Only Brad Federenko’s (9-10–19) late goal prevented the shutout.

Picks: As mentioned above, the ‘Dogs are tough at home, and a sweep isn’t out of the question, especially since this could be the last home series for UMD. But St. Cloud’s probably too strong to let that happen. SCSU 4-3, UMD 6-3

Alaska-Anchorage (9-18-3, 7-18-3 WCHA) at No. 2 North Dakota (22-8-2, 19-8-1 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 8:35 p.m. CT, Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, ND

The Seawolves of Alaska-Anchorage finish up the season the hard way, traveling to North Dakota before coming home to wrap up the regular season against Colorado College.

UAA looked for much of the season to be a half-step better than its brethren — Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan — at the bottom of the WCHA; but after a 1-5-1 stretch which culminated in a road sweep by Tech last weekend, one that moved MTU out of the cellar and pulled UAA back toward it.

Friday’s loss was especially difficult to stomach, as Anchorage lost a 3-2 lead with nine seconds left in regulation and went on to lose in overtime. UAA also lost the recap, 5-3, with goaltender Doug Teskey (7-12-3, 3.27 GAA, .891 SV%) making a total of only 31 saves in the two games combined — that’s a .775 save percentage for the weekend.

The Seawolves, by the way, are winless (0-4-3) in OT this season.

The only piece of good news for the team last week came out of Detroit: senior center David Vallieres (7-18–25 WCHA) was selected to play for Team USA in the inaugural World University Games, to be played at the Joe Louis Arena in April.

Conversely, fans in North Dakota are getting closer and closer to being able to celebrate a WCHA regular-season title and the resulting NCAA tournament berth. The Fighting Sioux are now in a commanding position to claim the title — a three-point lead with only four games to play. In addition, the Sioux became the first team to clinch home-ice, with Saturday’s 5-3 win over Northern Michigan.

That game was critical for UND, which feared the consequences of being swept in what is still an open race to the MacNaughton Cup.

"We thought if we lost [Saturday’s] game, we’d probably lose first place, and we could lose the league title," said Kevin Hoogsteen in Tuesday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune.

But the Sioux didn’t lose, despite spotting the Wildcats a 2-0 lead through two periods; the UND snipers came through again late in the game, scoring five goals in the last 20 minutes to win. Sophomore Jesse Bull (11-6–17) was vital to the comeback, notching his first two-goal game with the first two Sioux tallies. Ian Kallay (16-20–36) had two goals as well, including the game-winner.

Going into this weekend, the Sioux’ confidence level might be further enhanced by a little history: although the all-time series between UND and UAA is fairly even (12-9-0 in favor of the Sioux), North Dakota has never lost to the Seawolves in Grand Forks.

Picks: Much as in the UM-CC series above, there’s a trend to consider here. Can Anchorage win its first game at North Dakota now? Probably not. UND 4-1, 5-2

Michigan Tech (8-21-4, 5-19-4 WCHA) at Northern Michigan (10-22-2, 6-21-1 WCHA) Friday, 7:05 p.m. ET, Lakeview Arena, Marquette, MI Saturday, 7:05 p.m. ET, MacInnes Student Ice Arena, Houghton, MI

Michigan Tech is riding high this week, the product of its weekend sweep of Alaska-Anchorage, a performance that lifted the Huskies out of last place for the first time in some time.

Andre Savage (14-14–28 WCHA) was the hero in Friday night’s OT win, scoring both the game-tying goal (a six-on-five with an empty net behind him) and the game-winner (just 29 seconds into overtime, on the first shot on goal for either team). Savage was quiet the next night, but his teammates didn’t need his help; Bret Meyers scored his seventh and eighth goals of the season to lead the way.

In net, Luciano Caravaggio (5-9-4, 3.36 GAA, .904 SV% WCHA) didn’t get a lot of work, facing only 43 shots on the weekend, including a bare 13 on Friday — none of which came after the second period. Caravaggio can undoubtedly use the rest: coming into the weekend, he was among the WCHA leaders in saves per minute of play.

The Wildcats should also be pleased with the results of their weekend, as they managed a split with the conference-leading Fighting Sioux. Friday’s 2-1 victory earned goaltender Dieter Kochan the Defensive Player of the Week award, despite the fact that he was held out of Saturday’s game with a knee sprain.

Kochan made 37 saves in the game, including 16 in the third period, and had a shutout spoiled at 19:59 of the third period, seconds after Aaron Cain scored an empty-net goal to secure the victory.

Northern is led on offense by its freshmen: Bud Smith (9-15–24) leads the team in points; Marquette native Roger Trudeau (10-5–15) is tops among the Wildcats in goals; Tyson Holly (9-3–12) scored the first goal on Friday; and J.P. Vigier (8-9–17) rounds out the rookie class of snipers despite missing the last five games with an ankle sprain.

Denver (17-11-4, 13-11-4 WCHA) at Wisconsin (15-15-2, 15-11-2 WCHA) Friday-Saturday, 7:05 p.m. CT, Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI

This series could go a long way toward deciding home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Both the Pioneers and the Badgers are on the bubble right now — Wisconsin holds down a tenuous fifth, and Denver is just two points behind them, tied with Minnesota-Duluth for sixth.

It’s unfortunate for the Pioneers that they have to play this series on the road, since they have a current 11-game unbeaten streak (8-0-3) in Denver. That streak was preserved last Saturday against Colorado College, a 6-1 thrashing of the Tigers in the second game of their home-and-home twin bill. That victory broke a less-welcome streak the Pioneers had built — six consecutive losses against their in-state rivals.

Eight different Pioneers scored the nine Denver goals against CC last weekend, with Gavin Morgan, who scored his fifth of the season on Friday and his sixth the next evening, the only repeater. In goal, the tandem of Jim Mullin (6-6-4, 2.96 GAA, .889 SV% WCHA) and Stephen Wagner (7-5-0, 3.10 GAA, .896 SV% WCHA) performed credibly, though Mullin took the loss on Friday, allowing four goals on 29 shots. The duo are currently one-two in WCHA goals-against average.

In contrast to their home record of success, the Pioneers are only 6-9-1 on the road this year, including a 1-4-0 record in their last five. That’s just fine with the Badgers, who host Denver this weekend. Wisconsin was swept out of the National Hockey Center last week, losing a 5-4 battle on Friday before being blown out, 7-1 on Saturday.

There wasn’t much for Jeff Sauer’s bunch to cheer about after those games. The defeat in the opener was Wisconsin’s first loss to a WCHA foe on Friday all season (11-1-1), although Brad Englehart (16-16–32) managed a goal and an assist.

On Saturday, all-time Badger saves leader Kirk Daubenspeck (13-13-2, 3.91 GAA, .883 SV%) suffered the ignominy of being pulled midway through the second period, after allowing a shorthanded goal to make the score 7-0. Daubenspeck’s replacement, Mike Valley, had better luck, with nine saves on nine shots over the final 30:10.

The lone Badger goal on Saturday came courtesy of Joe Bianchi (15-16–31), whose unassisted tally gives him 11 points in his last eight games. Freshman Dustin Kuk (7-17–24), who scored Friday, is tied for the WCHA rookie lead in assists (with Minnesota’s Dave Spehar).

Next week’s action, listed below, is the final week of WCHA regular-season play. After that, fans can look forward to U.S. College Hockey Online coverage of the WCHA first round, and reports from the Final Five at the St. Paul Civic Center.

Friday, Feb. 28 Colorado College at Alaska-Anchorage North Dakota at Denver Wisconsin at Minnesota (at Target Center) Minnesota-Duluth at Northern Michigan Michigan Tech at St. Cloud

Saturday, March 1 Colorado College at Alaska-Anchorage North Dakota at Denver Wisconsin at Minnesota Minnesota-Duluth at Northern Michigan Michigan Tech at St. Cloud — End regular season —

Scott Brown is Features Editor for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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This Week in the CCHA: February 21, 1997

By Paula C. Weston

February 21, 1997

CCHA PREVIEW: Feb. 21-23, 1997 CCHA Preview: Feb. 21-23, 1997 by Paula C. Weston

With just two weeks of regular-season hockey left in the CCHA, several teams are scrambling to make the playoffs. Others are working for NCAA recognition.

The No. 1 Michigan Wolverines held firm to first place last week, beating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to sweep that season series. This weekend — the last weekend of regular-season play for Michigan’s core of amazing seniors — finds the Wolverines hosting Lake Superior, a team tied for second in the CCHA with Miami.

Last weekend, the Lakers beat Ferris State on Friday, but allowed Michigan State to gain some ground, losing to the Spartans on Saturday. Lake Superior and Miami each have 33 points, and it’s highly unlikely that either team will catch Michigan before the regular season ends.

Miami had a great weekend north of the border, beating both Ferris State and Michigan State. Miami will host its next four games, beginning with a Mid-American Conference rivalry game against Bowling Green on Friday night. Miami then hosts the rubber match of its series with the Spartans on Saturday.

The fourth-place Spartans finish their swing through Ohio with another series-deciding game. This one will be against the Buckeyes; last weekend, the Spartans lost to Miami, and beat Lake Superior.

Fifth-place Bowling Green is coming off a conference win and a non-conference loss. The Falcons beat Western Michigan at home, and lost on the road to the Buckeyes. The Falcons are on the road, but in their home state this weekend — playing Miami on Friday, and Ohio State on Saturday.

Western Michigan lost two conference games last weekend, to Ohio State and Bowling Green. The Broncos had been on quite a tear before the losses. They’ll try to recapture that momentum this weekend in a home-and-home series against Notre Dame.

Ohio State has moved into seventh place, at least for the moment. The Buckeyes surprised Western Michigan, then beat Bowling Green in a non-conference game, both at home. Ohio State will try to extend its four-game win streak when it hosts Bowling Green on Saturday, and Michigan State on Sunday.

Eighth-place Ferris State travels to ninth-place Alaska-Fairbanks to battle for the eighth and final CCHA playoff spot. These three games are the last for either team in the regular season. Ferris lost last weekend to two of the top teams in the conference, Lake Superior and Miami. Alaska-Fairbanks beat Division III leader St. Norbert in two games at home.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are in last place in the CCHA, after losing two games to Michigan last weekend. The Irish want to make the games against Western count this weekend, since they’ll have just one game remaining after this series.

Last week’s record in picks: 7-4 Overall record in picks: 87-62

Lake Superior (19-11-4, 15-7-3 CCHA) at No. 1 Michigan (28-2-3, 19-2-2 CCHA) Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, MI

These two games will be emotionally charged for both teams — they are the last games Lake Superior will play in the regular season, and the last games the Wolverine seniors will play during the regular season at Yost. Expect tears, and lots of them.

But no one should cry about the matchup itself. Lake Superior at Yost — what a way to end a season!

"When the Lakers go to Yost," says Laker head coach Scott Borek, "the crowd noise is not twice as bad, but it’s at least one and half times as bad as it usually is. What a great test for our team. We’re playing the team most people consider the odds-on favorite in the country to repeat for an NCAA title."

Although the Lakers would like the points, Borek says there’s little pressure on his players. They know they have home ice for the playoffs, they know they can’t catch Michigan, so all they have to do is go to Yost to play their best hockey.

"No matter what we do, Miami and Michigan State can pass us. The pressure’s off us. With only two games left, you can focus on these guys [Michigan] totally. You don’t have to worry about anyone else."

Michigan head coach Red Berenson expects tough games against the Lakers this weekend. The Lakers and the Wolverines have met twice before this season, and both decisions went to Michigan: once for the Great Lakes Invitational title, and then a three-goal victory in a conference game at Joe Louis earlier this month.

"We’ve had good games against them," says Berenson. "I can’t say that we’ve handled them easily. We’ve scored timely goals in close games. It’s important to them to look good at the end of the year."

Berenson says his team is not invulnerable, in spite of only two losses and two ties this season. "We expect this will be a good test for us. We’re like any other team. If we don’t work hard and play together, we don’t play well. We really need our role players to play well as well as our talented players."

Berenson says that most people think of only those graduating seniors and star players when they think of the Wolverines, but if the other players on the team don’t play well, Michigan can — dare we say it? — lose.

"You know the opposition is going to give you that second effort against Michigan," says Berenson, "so you’d better give the second effort [too]."

Michigan is more than a team of talented seniors. Don’t forget junior goaltender Marty Turco, who has logged 1,239 league minutes in the net for the Wolverines while maintaining an astonishing 2.42 goals-against average.

Only a couple of other CCHA goaltenders have matched the time Turco has spent in the net this season, and one of them plays for Lake Superior. Laker John Grahame has 1,478 league minutes, and his GAA is 3.33.

The emotion of Lake Superior’s last regular-season games and the last regular-season home games Michigan’s seniors will play, combined with some veteran CCHA goaltending, should make for great games this weekend in Yost.

PICKS: Michigan 3-2, 4-2

Ferris State (11-21-2, 7-16-1 CCHA) at Alaska-Fairbanks (12-20-0, 6-18-0 CCHA) Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 6 p.m., Carlson Center, Fairbanks, AK

If you want drama on ice, forget the Ice Capades — this is the real thing. These are the final three regular-season games for both of these teams, and they’re potentially the final three games of the season for each of the these teams. As unlikely as it may be, both teams could miss the playoffs. Both really, really need these points.

The Nanooks are hot right now, having won six of their last seven games. Unfortunately, only one of those was a conference game. The momentum they’ve gained, however, could carry them through this weekend.

The Nanooks will be bolstered by the welcome homecoming of injured player Erik Drygas. As most hockey fans know, Drygas injured his spine during a practice before the beginning of the season, and has spent the last few months in therapy in Colorado. Drygas, a Fairbanks native, will be present at the Ferris series, and there will be a special presentation to him between the second and third periods of the first game against the Bulldogs.

Drygas’ presence alone will lift Nanook spirits.

The Nanooks are getting some nice goaltending from freshman Chris Marvel. Marvel played inconsistently at the start of the season, but has lowered his GAA to 3.87. His save percentage is .871.

The Bulldogs, for their part, don’t know yet which goaltender will get the start Friday. "They’re goaltending has been good lately," says Ferris State assistant coach Drew Famulak. "Our goaltending has been inconsistent. [Jeff] Blashill played well early. [Mike] Szkodzinski played well in the middle. We don’t know who we’ll go with."

Famulak acknowledges that the Bulldogs’ season comes down to this weekend. "Both teams will be battling for the playoffs. Right now we are in the playoffs. Fairbanks could change that for us this weekend."

The Nanooks have 12 points, the Bulldogs 15. Nothing is decided yet. A sweep by either team could mean more than just a playoff spot — it could mean a finish higher than eighth place, and a first round against someone other than Michigan.

"Right now Fairbanks is full of confidence," says Famulak. Ferris State is coming off a two-loss weekend. "We need to concentrate on playing good, solid hockey and creating more scoring opportunities."

Ferris State may be a little overwhelmed by UAF’s Olympic-size ice sheet.

PICKS: UAF 4-2 Friday, Ferris 4-2 Saturday, UAF 5-3 Sunday

Western Michigan (13-14-4, 9-10-4 CCHA) vs. Notre Dame (8-23-1, 5-18-1 CCHA) Friday, 7 p.m., Joyce ACC, South Bend, IN Saturday, 7 p.m., Lawson Arena, Big Rapids, MI

These are two teams that need to rebound. After going 4-2-2 in their games previous to last weekend, the Broncos dropped two league games while traveling through Ohio. They will make the playoffs, but where they finish and who they play may be determined by the games this weekend.

The Irish, on the other hand, are trying to break an eight-game losing streak. With just 11 points and three games left, Notre Dame will have a hard time making the playoffs.

"We’re hanging in, just," says Irish head coach Dave Poulin. "We still have a hope, but we need some help."

The Irish own the series against their closest competitor in the standings, Alaska-Fairbanks. But both Ferris State and Ohio State have the edge in their respective series against the Irish, so it’s going to take more than Notre Dame victories to give the Irish a playoff berth.

Notre Dame had the chance to put some distance between themselves and the Buckeyes in a more positive way two weeks ago. Instead, as Poulin puts it, "We put them on a roll.

"It was very disappointing that weekend [against Ohio State]. We just didn’t respond — flat-out didn’t respond. It was the most pressure we’ve experienced since I’ve come here. You can get away with a couple of people not responding, but when the whole team lacks response, you lose."

The Irish lost two to Michigan last weekend, but Poulin says that his team rebounded from the losses against the Buckeyes to play the Wolverines well in Yost.

Michigan head coach Red Berenson agrees. "Those are games we were expected to win, but we had to work hard to score against [Irish goaltender] Eisler on Friday. He was outstanding. The Irish put themselves in a tough position. They’re a team that’s up-and-coming."

But maybe not this season. Poulin admits that he and his team have a lot to learn, and experience may be the key to this weekend’s games. Western is a team that is more used to winning than is Notre Dame, and they’ve done so more recently.

Just one point behind Bowling Green, Western Michigan has almost as much to gain as the Irish do in this series. Home ice is out of the question at this point, but playoff position can be key. Although who finishes where hasn’t yet been decided, you can bet that Western would rather play the fourth-place team than the third-place team.

PICKS: Western Michigan 4-3, 4-3

Bowling Green (15-14-3, 10-11-3 CCHA) at No. 6 Miami (22-9-1, 16-6-1 CCHA) Friday, 7 p.m., Goggin Arena, Bowling Green, OH

This in-state rivalry pits two schools whose other teams compete in the Mid-American Conference. According to Miami head coach Mark Mazzoleni, that revs up an already exciting matchup.

"With Bowling Green," says Mazzoleni, "because we’re MAC schools, our fans get into it. Also, since I’ve come here, they’ve been a very good team. They’ve been a team we’ve been chasing."

The roles are reversed this season for Miami and Bowling Green. BGSU, picked as high as eighth nationally in preseason polls, has been plagued with injuries and inconsistencies. Miami, picked to finish no higher than sixth in the CCHA in preseason polls, has been a team to chase this season.

Miami won two road games last weekend, one against Ferris State, and one against Michigan State. Miami broke a four-game losing streak with a road tie against Bowling Green; since that game, Miami has won three straight.

Since that tie with Miami, Bowling Green has been 2-3-1. The Falcons have been up and down and back and forth all season. If it hasn’t been the injuries, it’s been the goaltending. If it hasn’t been the goaltending, it’s been lack of leadership. At this point, Bowling Green is no longer playing for home ice, and the Falcons are likely no longer playing for NCAA recognition.

Miami has the distinct advantage of playing at home after two road wins. Bowling Green lost a non-conference game to Ohio State last weekend after soundly beating Western Michigan at home.

Also, Miami is playing like a team. For many reasons, especially injuries, the Falcons haven’t resembled one of those much this season. Throw in Miami’s ability to score "opportunistic" goals and its superior goaltending, and it’s tough to pick against them.

PICK: Miami 3-1

No. 9 Michigan State (18-10-3, 14-6-3 CCHA) at No. 6 Miami (22-9-1, 16-6-1 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., Goggin Arena, Oxford, OH

The most recent meeting between these two teams was just last weekend in Munn, and Michigan State head coach Ron Mason was not too pleased with the outcome.

"Miami played well," says Mason. "They had some opportunistic goals." But, added the Spartan chief, "I didn’t feel too good about the game." The final score was 2-1, and Miami held the Spartans scoreless until 13:49 of the third period.

Miami head coach Mark Mazzoleni says he’s certain that the Spartans will be motivated when they come to Oxford Saturday night. "The guy [Mason] hasn’t won 800 games for nothing."

Mason says he knows something of what to expect when his team plays the rubber game of this series. "Miami will continue with their same style — good checking, and their goaltender comes up with big saves.

"They’ll probably play a little better than they did here," says Mason, in his typically-understated way. "And they played O.K. here."

Both teams have secured home ice during the playoffs, but each team want to play well for NCAA recognition. "Right now we’re motivated to win as many games as we can," says Mason. "We’re right on the NCAA bubble."

Mazzoleni says, "We went into the stretch with six games, and we haven’t put any more emphasis on any one game. We’re a team that’s not good enough to look ahead at any games beyond the one we’re playing next."

Miami plays Friday night. This game is Michigan State’s first game of the weekend. Revenge is an ugly word to use in college hockey, but the thought has probably crossed a Spartan mind or two. Both teams will be motivated by nearly identical reasons. What a game.

PICK: Miami 3-2

Bowling Green (15-14-3, 10-11-3 CCHA) at Ohio State (11-22-0, 8-15-0 CCHA) Saturday, 7 p.m., OSU Ice Rink, Columbus, OH

It’s been called "The Ice Dink." Ah, the much-maligned Ohio State Ice Rink. Small, no bathrooms or concessions, and if the puck hits the ceiling — which it frequently does — play is usually stopped to clean up the debris that’s fallen to the ice.

"The guys are excited to come back to the small rink," says Ohio State head coach John Markell. "They call it the War Memorial."

After many seasons that must have felt more like campaigns, it may seem absurd for the Buckeye players to want to play in the tiny Ice Rink. But if you attended last week’s Thursday night game between Western Michigan and Ohio State at the Ohio Expo Center, you might know how the "guys" feel. Only 560 people attended that game in an arena that holds over five thousand. At the Ice Rink, 560 can make some noise.

The Buckeyes get to bunker in their happy place when Bowling Green comes to town, and location may make the difference in this game.

These two teams met in a non-conference game last Sunday, and Ohio State won 4-2. That was at the Expo Center, with a small, non-noisy crowd, and little at stake for either team. Ohio State did manage to keep its win-streak alive; four games in a row is as many as OSU has won since the 1991-92 season.

Defense has been a big part of the recent Buckeye turn-around. "I think what’s really helped is that Ryan Skaleski has come in and solidified our defense," says Markell. "The defense is doing the little things right. They’re giving themselves the chance to get things right. It’s just little things."

Arguably, one of the best "little things" is freshman Buckeye goaltender Ray Aho. Much has been made of Aho’s height — he’s five feet, six inches tall — but this freshman has shown that he has absolutely everything he needs to play at this level. "He’s got confidence," Markell explains. "His reaction is quicker because he’s become more acclimated to the league."

Markell knows that Bowling Green will come in ready to play. "I think they’re going to come in with a better effort. We only played two periods of hockey [in last Sunday’s win], and we have to have a better effort."

Lately, the Buckeye effort has not gone unnoticed. In the past five weeks, Buckeye players have won Player of the Week four times: Aho earned the honor two weeks in a row. Two weeks later, Dan Cousineau was named Defensive Player of the Week. Just this week, Jarret Whidden was named Offensive Player of the Week for his five points — including the game-winning goal against BGSU — last weekend.

A little momentum can go a long way.

PICK: Ohio State 4-2

No. 9 Michigan State (18-10-3, 14-6-3 CCHA) at Ohio State (11-22-0, 8-15-0 CCHA) Sunday, 1 p.m., Ohio Expo Center, Columbus, OH

A little momentum may travel far, but maybe not too far. This is, oddly enough, the rubber match of the series between these two teams. Michigan State won one in Munn Ice Arena; Ohio State also took one in Munn. It used to be that no one but the Spartans won there.

"Our building is not as intimidating as it used to be," claims Michigan State head coach Ron Mason. "Also, our kids put a lot pressure on themselves to win at home."

Sometimes that pressure backfires. Not only did the Buckeyes beat the Spartans in Munn, so did Miami, just last week. And so did the Nanooks, earlier in the season.

Ohio State head coach John Markell expects Michigan State to come to play for revenge. "They have four games left," he says. "They could move up the ladder."

Mason knows the key to beating Ohio State is getting to them early in the game. "Ohio State plays a more laid-back, defensive style of hockey. They have that good neutral-zone trap. If you can get to their goaltender and open the game up, you have a good chance with them."

The confidence that Ohio State feels is shared by the coaching staff. "Every team is aware of us now," says Markell. "Teams are going to have to come in here with their ‘A’ game. We’re starting to get attention. People know that we’re not an easy game.

"If we could win our next four, we could catch Western."

With Bowling Green, Michigan State, Western Michigan and Michigan remaining for the Buckeyes, that could be the biggest "if" in history. On the other hand, all four of those games are at home, and two are at the "War Memorial."

Nah.

Ohio State needs points to secure a playoff berth, but Michigan State really wants to go to the NCAA tournament. Ohio State won’t lay down, but Michigan State’s experience — at every level — will give the Spartans the definite edge.

PICK: Michigan State 5-3

Paula C. Weston is the CCHA Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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UMass-Lowell Announces 30-Year Team

USCHO Staff Report

February 21, 1997

UMass-Lowell announced their 30th Year Anniversary Team to commemorate three decades of varsity hockey. The team will be honored during the final regular season home game on Saturday against Providence.

The program marked its beginning in 1967 when it formed a Division II team, became a powerhouse in the late seventies and moved into Division I in 1983-84. Players from all eras populate the 12-man squad.

Dwayne Roloson (1994 graduate) and Brian Doyle (’80) backstop the team.

Roloson, a 1993-94 Hockey East Player of the Year and Hobey Baker finalist, recorded 1,148 saves in 1992-93, still a school record. In his senior year he led UMass-Lowell to the Hockey East championship game and into overtime in the NCAA quarterfinals. He currently plays in the NHL for the Calgary Flames.

Doyle holds the Lowell career records for wins (74) and lowest goals against average (3.26). He ranks second with most wins in a season (25) and save percentage in a year (.905). Doyle backstopped the 1978-79 NCAA Division II championship team.

Paul Lohnes (’82), Bob Kearin (’73), Paul Ames (’87), and Ed Campbell man the anniversary team’s blue line.

Lohnes earned Division II Hobey Baker honors in his senior year after leading his team to its third NCAA championship in four years. A three time All-American, Lohnes remains the top-scoring defenseman in Lowell history with 58 goals and 109 assists, good for eighth place overall. The New England Hockey Writers Association named him the top defenseman in New England after his senior year.

Kearin represents the earliest player selected. He helped lead UMass-Lowell to its first-ever postseason appearance in the ECAC tournament in 1972. He holds school records for most shorthanded goals by a defenseman in both a game and a season. His four goals against Connecticut also stands as a school mark for defensemen.

Ames, a two-time All-Hockey East selection, scored 17 goals and added 57 assists during his career. As a senior, he led UML to 22 wins, good for their first second-place finish in the league.

Campbell, scored 20 goals to go with 71 assists in three years before signing with the New York Rangers. He holds the dubious school record for career penalty minutes (326).

All six forwards — Mike Carr (’83), Jon Morris (’88), Craig MacTavish, Greg Bullock, Dean Jenkins (’81), and Tom Jacobs (’79) — earned All-America honors at least once during their careers.

Carr won the 1983 Divison II Hobey Baker, giving the school back-to-back winners with Lohnes. His 134 goals, 145 assists and 279 points all rank as school records. In his senior year he led UMass-Lowell to a 29-2 record and earned All-America honors.

Morris trails only Carr with career marks of 97 goals, 134 assists, and 231 points. As a junior he earned All-America honors and a berth on the All-Hockey East team. Morris won the G. Harvey Chandler Award as the team’s top scorer in all four of his seasons.

MacTavish, winner of five Stanley Cups, totaled 62 goals and 71 assists in just two years. In 1978-79 he helped lead Lowell to its first NCAA championship. His 88 points that year — still a school record — earned him All-America honors.

Bullock registered 49 goals and 75 assists in his two years. After a Rookie of the Year season in 1993-94, he then added All-America and Hobey Baker finalist honors the following year. That year the New England Hockey Writers Association also named him top forward in New England.

Jacobs ranks third in career scoring, his 97 goals, 103 assists and 200 points surpassed only by Carr and Morris. His 42 goals during the 1978-79 NCAA championship season still stands as a school record. His 80 points that year is bettered only by MacTavish’s 88 and garnered him All-America honors.

Jenkins, a sophomore on the 78-79 squad, added another NCAA crown in 1980-81. He earned All-America honors as a junior and senior during which Lowell went 50-12. His 73 goals and 118 assists puts him fifth in career scoring.

The team was selected by a committee consisting of UML Director of Athletics Dana Skinner, Assistant Director of Athletics Tim Burton, Sports Information Director Jim Seavey, former head coach Bill Riley, former player and assistant coach Norm Bazin ’94, Assistant Athletic Trainer Artie Poitras, Tully Forum rink manager Don Lampron, Lowell Sun writer Chaz Scoggins, WLLH Radio Sports Director Bob Ellis, and former sports information director and current SID at Southern Maine B.L. Elfring.

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Umile Suffers Heart Attack

This Week in the ECAC: March 7, 1997

Mankato Sets Full Division I Schedule for 97-98

This Week in Hockey East: March 7, 1997

This Week in the CCHA: March 7, 1997

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