Joey Anderson, right, celebrates Minnesota Duluth’s go-ahead goal in the final minute Thursday (photo: Jim Rosvold).
CHICAGO — There was beauty and creativity in Alex Iafallo’s game-winning goal that sent Minnesota Duluth into Saturday’s national championship game, but it wouldn’t have happened without the Bulldogs winning a good old-fashioned puck battle.
The scrum developed off a Willie Raskob shot that went behind the net and up along the right-wing boards. There, Joey Anderson battled three Harvard players for the puck, a battle with two possible outcomes other than the one that led to Duluth’s win.
In one, Harvard could have gotten the puck out of the zone, a missed opportunity Harvard coach Ted Donato rued after the game.
“It appeared we had a couple opportunities to get the puck out,” he said, “[but] we got trapped with three guys on the boards.”
In the other Crimson-flavored scenario, Harvard might have won control of the puck and broken out in numbers the other way.
“My initial thought was that I hoped it didn’t go the other way because I was cheating a little bit into the zone,” Raskob said. “But once Joe won that battle, there were three [Harvard] guys along the wall and another guy down low. The rest is history.”
Indeed. Anderson backhanded a pass from the right wing boards to Raskob, who’d snuck down a bit from the left point.
“I just kind of held it for a second, and saw Al passing through and saw Willie screening on the weak side,” Anderson said. “I just threw a little pass over to him, and he did the rest from there.”
With a two-on-one advantage, Raskob dragged the puck to the side to set up an even better opportunity.
“I wanted to try to sell the shot a little bit,” he said. “I saw Al right away and I knew my play was going to be to him. So I tried to get [the defender] to come to me and try to commit to my shot. At times like that, guys are selling out, so I knew he was going to come hard, so Al ended up wide open.
“Obviously, Al is a little better player than I am, so I’m glad I found his tape and I wasn’t shooting the puck. There are things he does that other guys aren’t able to do.”
For Iafallo, who scored his 20th goal on the play, it was just repeating what they had done in practice so many times before, just a simple redirection that went through goaltender Merrick Madsen’s five-hole.
“We do it in practice all the time,” Iafallo said. “Just had to shovel it in. Worked out well.”
“Well” might be the understatement of the season, especially if on Saturday Duluth leverages the goal to secure its second national championship in seven years.
CHICAGO — Three goals in the last six minutes of the second period have given Denver a 5-0 over Notre Dame after two in tonight’s NCAA national semifinal.
Evan Ritt rushed up the right wing and wristed a goal in around the top of the net at 18:18 of the second period to break the game wide open.
Dylan Gambrell scored on a wrap around at 16:31 when he took a feed from defenseman Tariq Hammond and jammed a puck past Notre Dame goalie Cal Petersen at the left post.
Hammond scored his third goal of the season at 14:07 of the period to give the Pioneers a 3-0 lead. A stumble to the ice by backskating Notre Dame defenseman Luke Ripley in the neutral zone sprung a two-on-one Denver rush. Jannsen backhanded a pass on the doorstep to Hammond, who steered it into a wide-open net.
Henrik Borgström and Emil Romig scored for Denver in the first period.
Denver had a 17-8 shot advantage in the second period and has outshot Notre Dame 29-11 through two.
Neither team has been assessed a penalty in the game.
Harvard and Minnesota Duluth line up before Thursday’s first Frozen Four semifinal (photo: Jim Rosvold).
CHICAGO — With Minnesota Duluth’s 2-1 victory over Harvard in the first game of the Frozen Four on Thursday, the Bulldogs won their fourth straight one-goal game.
On March 18, Joey Anderson scored with 51 seconds left in the game to lift the Bulldogs to a 4-3 win over North Dakota in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship. The Bulldogs then won both of their West Regional games in overtime.
Alex Iafallo’s game-winner against Harvard came with 26.6 seconds left, so Minnesota Duluth has established itself as a clutch performer in the postseason.
“It’s kind of been our MO all year, another tight hockey game, another one-goal game,” said Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin. “And just real exciting to be moving on.”
Minnesota Duluth is 13-4 in one-goal games this season.
“I think as the game wears on, we play a really good style that allows us to maintain our game and take chances when we get them,” said Joey Anderson.
Late finishes
The last-minute goal by Iafallo marked the third time in the last four years that a semifinal game was decided in the last minute.
Minnesota defeated North Dakota 2-1 in 2014 on a goal with less than a second left, and North Dakota defeated Denver 3-2 last year in Tampa, Fla., on a goal by Nick Schmaltz with 56.8 seconds left.
Going to the box early
A boarding penalty at 1:08 of the first period to Harvard’s Luke Esposito was the earliest penalty in the Frozen Four semifinals since 2005, and the fastest in the Frozen Four since 2014, when Minnesota’s Brady Skjei was penalized just 14 seconds into the championship game against Union.
Even after one
When Joey Anderson scored at 18:34 of the first period, it marked the first time since 2011 that both teams had scored in the first period of a Frozen Four semifinal game. That year, both Duluth and Notre Dame scored in a game Duluth won en route to the program’s only national championship.
No goal
Harvard appeared to take a 2-1 lead midway through the third period, but the referees waved it off and after review, the on-ice call stood.
“I don’t know, it might have been an early whistle,” said Harvard captain Devin Tringale. “The goalie had the puck covered, I think, for a second and then it got pushed in the net. They didn’t have audio on the replay or something so they couldn’t … determine what actually happened with the whistle.”
Quality chances lacking
Minnesota Duluth fired 38 shots on net, and Harvard had 40. Despite that, it didn’t seem that either team had many excellent scoring chances.
“They’re a good defensive team,” said Sandelin. “They’re a good transition team. I didn’t think in the neutral zone, for us, I didn’t think we spread the rink out enough. I thought the first period was fine. The second period, I thought we just tried forcing too many plays and made it a little bit easier for them to stop us
through the neutral zone. And it’s a game against a good team that transitions well. You’ve got to manage a puck. I thought we got away from that a little bit, but it was a battle.”
“I think pretty much every bit of ice was hard to get out there,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato. “I give Minnesota Duluth a lot of credit for that. I thought neither team really had a lot of zone time. I think both teams had some good chances, but certainly in the first half of the game, I don’t think we were able to get out of our zone as cleanly as we would have liked and establish some offensive zone play.”
Alex Iafallo celebrates his last-minute goal for Minnesota Duluth (photo: Jim Rosvold).
CHICAGO — If the game is close and the clock is ticking and you’re Minnesota Duluth, the guy you want on the ice is senior forward Alex Iafallo.
“To say the least,” said Willie Raskob, the senior defenseman who passed the puck to Iafallo in the last minute of the Bulldogs’ 2-1 Frozen Four semifinal win over Harvard on Thursday. “I think Al’s a little bit better of a player than I am, so I’m glad I found his stick and wasn’t shooting the puck.”
[scg_html_ff2017]Iafallo’s goal at 19:33 in the third period was his sixth game-winning goal of the season, his second goal in the NCAA tournament and his sixth goal in his last eight games. It would be an understatement to say that Iafallo has elevated his game this season.
“I think personally for him, he wasn’t happy with last year,” said Duluth coach Scott Sandelin. “He came back just determined to be a better player. He worked hard to get stronger. He’s shooting the puck better this year. He’s shooting it more; I yelled at him when we had that three-on-two and he tried to pass across the rink.
“In his head, he has thought maybe that he’s better than how he was playing, from day one. And he’s had some really good moments at times, but I think this year he was really determined to have a consistently good year and be a leader on our team. He’s got so many dynamics to his game and he’s using them.”
Iafallo, a senior from Eden, N.Y., has 20 goals this season, a dozen more than he scored in either of his previous two seasons and nine more than he tallied as a rookie. He has four power-play goals this season after a junior year with none, and this year he scored his first two short-handed goals as well.
For Iafallo, his improved play comes down to one thing. “Confidence,” he said. “In other years, I know I wasn’t driving the puck as hard, getting to those special areas to get the passes. Tonight, Raskob made a great play and I was able to shovel it in there. Just getting to the right areas.”
Raskob said that he has always known that Iafallo would be able to perform.
“When he stepped on campus and I saw him on the ice for the first time, I knew he was a special player,” Raskob said. “There’s things he does that other guys aren’t able to do. I think this year, it’s just been one of those seasons for him when he’s finally put it all together. He’s playing on another level. It’s unbelievable. It’s fun to watch for me and to have one of my best friends doing stuff like that is special.”
“I’m just trying to stay positive,” said Iafallo. “I owe it to my teammates, obviously. They’re making all the plays.”
Sandelin said that Iafallo’s senior success brings benefits beyond the statistics.
“For me, the thing I love about him most is that he always comes to the rink with a smile on his face, he loves to play and he loves being in Duluth,” said Sandelin. “I think that’s the coolest thing.”
CHICAGO — Denver leads Notre Dame 2-0 after the first period in today’s second NCAA national semifinal.
Pioneer defenseman and member of the Hobey Hat Trick Will Butcher set up Denver’s second goal when he carried the puck around the net from right to left. With no room to put it in near side and with Notre Dame goalie Cal Petersen’s paddle on the ice, Butcher slid a pass just past the end of Petersen’s stick. Henrik Borgström tapped it in at 14:50 of the period.
Emil Romig made it 1-0 Denver at 8:18, speeding out from behind the net and roofing a sharp angle shot on a feed from Colin Staub.
Denver outshot Notre Dame 12-3 in the period. Neither team was penalized.
Luke Esposito and Harvard’s seniors won 68 games over their final three seasons (photo: Melissa Wade).
CHICAGO — It’s difficult to find the words to sum up four years of college hockey, especially in the minutes after a sudden, season-ending defeat.
But Harvard coach Ted Donato and co-captains Alexander Kerfoot and Devin Tringale tried after the Crimson’s 2-1 loss to Minnesota Duluth in the first national semifinal on Thursday.
[scg_html_ff2017]”It’s tough to find words right now,” said Tringale. “We’re all pretty heartbroken. But just looking back, it’s been an absolute honor to wear a Harvard jersey the past four years. All the seniors share that sentiment. It’s probably going to take a little bit longer to process, but [this has been] the best four years of my life. It’s meant everything to me.”
“It’s very difficult to describe,” echoed Donato. “When you have the type of kids that we have as seniors this year and the success that they allowed us to have, I think the end was so sudden. It’s really just hard to describe.
“The emotions, the love in the locker room, and this was such a special group. This senior group was just incredible from a leadership standpoint and from a character standpoint.”
Kerfoot and Tringale — along with classmates Clay Anderson, Luke Esposito, Sean Malone, Tyler Moy and Phil Zielonka — left their mark on the program with 78 career wins, including 68 over their final three years. Their 28 victories this season was tied for second all-time for a program that dates to 1897.
From A to Z, the eight seniors contributed a total of 193 points this season, by far the most in Division I. Minnesota Duluth is a distant second with 155 points and counting.
Kerfoot, who assisted on Moy’s lone Harvard goal, finished his career with 123 points. Moy also cracked the career century point mark with 101. Six of the eight seniors played in more than 100 collegiate games.
Donato again tried to express what the class of 2017 has meant to Harvard.
“It’s really tough to swallow right now because these guys have really given their all all year,” he said. “Not only of themselves but to their teammates. And I think this will be an incredibly special group in my mind forever.”
“It’s incredible to be a part of this group,” said Kerfoot, looking ahead as well as back on his four years. “With who the team’s got right now and the direction the program’s going, everything’s looking up.”
CHICAGO — Alex Iafallo’s redirection of a Willie Raskob pass with 26.6 seconds left in the third period gave Minnesota Duluth a 2-1 victory over Harvard in the first Frozen Four semifinal on Thursday.
The Bulldogs (28-6-7) got 39 saves from Hunter Miska, 16 of them in the third period, and advanced to Saturday’s championship game.
Harvard also hit the crossbar in the closing seconds.
CHICAGO — Here are the line combinations for the second Frozen Four semifinal game on Thursday between Denver and Notre Dame:
Denver (31-7-4)
Jarid Lukosevicius – Dylan Gambrell – Troy Terry
Tyson McLellan – Henrik Borgstrom – Liam Finlay
Evan Janssen – Matt Marcinew – Logan O’Connor
Emil Romig – Evan Ritt – Colin Staub
Will Butcher – Adam Plant
Tariq Hammond – Michael Davies
Blake Hillman – Matt VanVoorhis
Tanner Jaillet
Evan Cowley
Notre Dame (23-11-5)
Cam Morrison – Jake Evans – Anders Bjork
Dylan Malmquist – Andrew Oglevie – Jack Jenkins
Mike O’Leary – Dawson Cook – Ben Ostlie
Joe Wegwerth – Tony Bretzman – Bo Brauer
Dennis Gilbert – Jordan Gross
Andrew Peeke – Bobby Nardella
Luke Ripley – Tory Dello
Harvard and Minnesota Duluth are tied after two periods in the national semifinals (photo: Melissa Wade).
CHICAGO — Harvard goaltender Merrick Madsen stopped all 13 shots he faced in the second period, and the Crimson were tied with Minnesota Duluth 1-1 through 40 minutes Thursday in the Frozen Four semifinals.
Hunter Miska stopped the 10 shots he faced in the second period and has 23 saves for the game. Madsen has 25 stops.
Both teams had to kill a penalty in the second period.
Harvard’s John Marino was called for tripping early in the middle frame, and Minnesota Duluth’s Brenden Kotyk got a roughing minor in the final four minutes.
The Crimson’s Tyler Moy and the Bulldogs’ Joey Anderson scored in the first period.
Tyler Moy’s goal hits the net to give Harvard a 1-0 lead in the first period on Thursday (photo: Melissa Wade).
CHICAGO — Harvard’s Tyler Moy and Minnesota Duluth’s Joey Anderson scored in the first period, and the teams were tied 1-1 after 20 minutes of the Frozen Four semifinals on Thursday.
Moy scored his 22nd goal of the season 15 minutes into the first period to break the scoreless tie.
CHICAGO — Defenseman Carson Soucy is in the lineup for Minnesota Duluth for the first time since March 3 when the Bulldogs play Harvard in the Frozen Four semifinals on Thursday.
Soucy has missed the Bulldogs’ last seven games with a lower-body injury.
Here are the full lineups for Game 1 at the United Center:
Minnesota Duluth (27-6-7)
Alex Iafallo – Dominic Toninato – Joey Anderson
Kyle Osterberg – Adam Johnson – Karson Kuhlman
Riley Tufte – Avery Peterson – Parker Mackay
Blake Young – Jared Thomas – Billy Exell
Neal Pionk – Brenden Kotyk
Carson Soucy – Willie Raskob
Nick Wolff – Dan Molenaar
Hunter Miska
Hunter Shepard
Nick Deery
Harvard (28-5-2)
Ryan Donato – Alexander Kerfoot – Lewis Zerter-Gossage
Luke Esposito – Sean Malone – Tyler Moy
Phil Zielonka -Jake Horton – Nathan Krusko
Devin Tringale – Ty Pelton-Byce – Michael Floodstrand
Wiley Sherman – John Marino
Jacob Solson – Adam Fox
Viktor Dombrovskiy – Clay Anderson
Rensselaer athletic director Lee McElroy, left, and president Shirley Ann Jackson, right, present new coach Dave Smith with an Engineers jersey (photo: Rensselaer Athletics).
Dave Smith has been named head coach at Rensselaer, the school announced Thursday.
Smith spent the last 12 seasons in the same position at Canisius, compiling a 172-223-59 record and an Atlantic Hockey tournament championship and NCAA tournament appearance in 2013.
“It was a very difficult decision to leave Canisius and something we were very proud that we built,” Smith said at a news conference Thursday. “But it was very easy to look at the strengths of RPI — the history, the traditions.”
Smith played at Ohio State before a six-season professional playing career. Before coaching Canisius, he was on coaching staffs at Mercyhurst, Bowling Green and Miami.
He takes over a team that finished 8-28-1 this season. Seth Appert was fired in March after 11 seasons.
The Engineers finished 11th in ECAC Hockey this season after finishing sixth in 2015-16.
“If we can gain success in our league, we can be on the biggest stage of all, which is playing today and playing Saturday,” Smith said, referencing Harvard playing in the Frozen Four. “And that’s the goal.”
Assistant coach Trevor Large will serve as interim coach at Canisius while a search is underway.
“We are grateful for the tremendous contributions that Dave Smith made to the growth of our hockey program,” Canisius athletic director Bill Maher said in a statement. “His dedication to building our hockey program and ensuring the student-athletes had a broad impact on our campus community were as important to Canisius as the championship success they achieved on the ice. Dave led our program to new heights, and the Smith family will always be an important part of Canisius. We wish him well in this next step of his career.”
CHICAGO — USCHO Live! is on the road in Chicago with live broadcasts each day of the Frozen Four at Kitty O’Shea’s at the Chicago Hilton. Thursday’s two-hour preview of the national semifinals airs from 1 to 3 p.m. CDT. Our guests are Candace Horgan, USCHO NCHC columnist, who is covering Denver; Jake Brown, Irish Illustrated; Ty Halpin, Frank Cole, Steve Piotrowski — NCAA officials who will discuss rules and officiating; and Joe Bertagna, Hockey East commissioner.
Join us for the conversation live or online, Thursday, April 6, at 1 p.m. CDT using the player below or listen using the Spreaker Radio app for iOS, Android or Windows phone.
Stop by for free giveaways and to hear the show in person.
Be part of the conversation! Send your tweets to @USCHO or your emails to [email protected]. Each episode of USCHO Live! features a look at news around NCAA hockey, a look ahead at upcoming games and events, and conversation with people who coach, administer and play college hockey, and journalists who cover the sport.
About the hosts
Jim Connelly is a senior writer at USCHO.com and has been with the site since 1999. He is based in Boston and regularly covers Hockey East. He began with USCHO.com as the correspondent covering the MAAC, which nowadays is known as Atlantic Hockey. Each week during the season, he co-writes “Tuesday Morning Quarterback.” Jim is the winner of the 2012 Joe Concannon award. He is the color analyst for UMass-Lowell hockey’s radio network, and is a studio analyst for NESN.
Ed Trefzger has been part of USCHO since 1999 and now serves as a senior writer and director of technology. He has been a part of the radio broadcasts of Rochester Institute of Technology hockey since their inception — serving as a producer, studio host, color commentator and as RIT’s play-by-play voice for 10 seasons. Ed is vice president and general manager of CBS Sports Radio affiliate 105.5 The Team in Rochester, N.Y., and COO of its parent company, Genesee Media Corporation.
Ryan Collins skated in 98 career games with Minnesota (photo: Jim Rosvold).
The Columbus Blue Jackets announced Thursday that Minnesota defenseman Ryan Collins has left school to sign a three-year, entry-level deal with the club.
Collins will join the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League for Friday’s game at Milwaukee.
This past season, Collins had three goals and nine points in 37 games for the Gophers.
In 98 career games at Minnesota, Collins tallied four goals and 18 assists for 22 points.
Collins was originally taken in the second round (47th overall) by the Blue Jackets in the 2014 NHL Draft.
Dennis Cholowski rang up 12 points in 36 games from the St. Cloud blue line in 2016-17 (photo: Jim Rosvold).
The Detroit Red Wings announced Wednesday that they have signed St. Cloud State freshman defenseman Dennis Cholowski to a three-year, entry-level contract.
Cholowski posted one goal and 12 points in 36 games last season for the Huskies.
Last June, Cholowski was chosen by the Red Wings with the 20th overall pick in the first round of the NHL Draft.
The Frozen Four teams skated at Chicago’s United Center on Wednesday (photo: Jim Rosvold).
CHICAGO — From three coaches who have been to the Frozen Four collectively eight times with their current schools and one who is ending his program’s 23-year drought, this year’s Frozen Four coaches may all want their players to live in the moment, but they have each prepared their clubs in varying ways.
Learning from the past
While the pressure is on for Denver as a high-powered, experienced team — and the only club returning from last year’s Frozen Four — senior forward Evan Janssen said Wednesday that maintaining focus and keeping the distractions low is as easy as staying off line.
[scg_html_ff2017]”I think a lot of us try to stay off social media and reading into those [online stories and speculative reports],” Janssen said after practice. “We just try to focus on ourselves. We always preach how you’ve got to stay in the moment.”
Coach Jim Montgomery said he took last year’s run in the tourney — and eventual loss to North Dakota in the semifinals — as a learning moment on how to better prepare the Pioneers this year leading up to the matchup with the Fighting Irish.
“We started preparing for Notre Dame earlier than we started preparing for North Dakota because mentally we were fresh,” Montgomery said. “We didn’t waste a lot of emotion winning the regional. The second thing I think that we’ve learned is how to manage our time while we’re here. We purposely scheduled our practice — luckily, being the No. 1 seed, we could — so we have two hours of down time here before the banquet, which is going to allow our players just to relax mentally and get away by themselves.”
Keeping the routine
Minnesota Duluth senior Dominic Toninato said the Bulldogs have kept up the same routine practice-wise, but with all the traveling in recent weeks “the big difference is trying to catch up on some school [work].”
And part of that routine is a ritual three-puck warmup game.
“They were fired up to play the three-puck game at the United Center,” coach Scott Sandelin said after Wednesday’s Frozen Four practice. “We do it every Wednesday. It’s a little warmup. [Earlier] I’m debating, should we do it? Should we do it? If I had not done it, they probably wouldn’t have had a good practice.
“They stay in their routine. This time of the year, there’s not a lot of different things you want to be doing. You want to keep them comfortable. You want to keep them confident.”
Removing the noise (or at least trying)
Despite this being the program’s first Frozen Four appearance in more than two decades, red-hot Harvard (on an 18-game unbeaten streak — the longest for a team entering the Frozen Four since 1991) is keeping its cool by simply removing the noise and treating this like any other game, according to the players at least.
“If we get too caught up in everything else, we won’t be as focused on our game,” senior forward Alexander Kerfoot said. “Obviously, we still have a lot of work to do, so we’re just trying to treat this like any other weekend.”
Added classmate Sean Malone: “We’ve played in really big games this year with the Beanpot and ECAC tournament and things like that. I think we could use our experience there and know that we have to come out playing our game hard right away.”
But coach Ted Donato admitted that it’s nearly impossible to completely ignore all the noise on college hockey’s biggest stage and treat this like any other game.
Harvard’s Clay Anderson, Alex Kerfoot, Luke Esposito, Eddie Ellis and Ty Pelton-Byce watch Wednesday’s practice (photo: Melissa Wade).
“Honestly, no, it’s not possible,” Donato said. “They’re not practicing at the United Center every day or in a great city like Chicago. They understand the opportunity that’s in front of them. I think there are certainly different challenges that they might not see at other times in the year, but I think they did mention that they feel like some of the experiences they’ve had, whether it’s playing in the Beanpot or even at Madison Square Garden, you realize that things come fast and furious in those types of games.
“This is certainly a different game. I think you can always try to — in your mind, just think of it as a different game. But we haven’t been to the Final Four in a long time. So it’s not just another game. But mentally, they’re preparing as if it’s another big game that they’re playing.”
Controlling distractions
After two prior trips to the Frozen Four with Notre Dame, coach Jeff Jackson knows there’s a number of things the team has to be prepared for.
One of the most important things to remember at this stage in the game is avoiding all the distractions.
“Hockey is hockey; no matter where we’re playing, it’s the same thing, same size rink,” he said. “But when you put everything else around it, it’s the distractions, and controlling those distractions is probably the biggest thing.
“You’ve got all these different things going on. Today, they’ve been doing stuff all day long, so have I. From the morning, you’ve got thing after thing after thing, not what you’re accustomed to. It’s different than what you’re accustomed to. You’ve just got to make sure you don’t allow everything that’s going on around, away from the hockey game, affect the hockey game.”
Notre Dame practices at the United Center on Wednesday (photo: Melissa Wade).
CHICAGO — Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson won national championships at Lake Superior State in 1992 and 1994, while leading the Lakers to four other NCAA tournament appearances.
At Notre Dame, the title hasn’t yet happened, but he’s gotten the Irish into the tournament eight times, with this year being his third Frozen Four with the team.
“Things have changed a lot since the Lake State days in college hockey,” he says. “When I started at Notre Dame, I honestly believed it was a real diamond in the rough. It was a program that had so much potential, obviously, with the name recognition and the tradition and the great education that you get at Notre Dame. I figured it would be a great place to recruit.”
Those expectations have been met. Jackson has delivered sustained excellence. But the ultimate prize is still yet to come.
“We’ve had success, [but] you still you want to win national championships,” he says. “For us, we’ve been close.”
For Lake State, close most often translated into the ultimate prize.
“The times we won at Lake State, everything fell into place,” he says. “It’s a number of different things.
“There are a lot of things that are out of your control, but there’s some things that are in your control. If you manage those things that are within your control, then you can win.”
At Notre Dame, things that have been outside the team’s control have cost them in past Frozen Four appearances.
“In our first trip [in 2008], we were playing without our captain, our best player, Erik Condra,” Jackson recalls. “That team did a great job getting there. They were a four seed [like this year].
“We knocked off Michigan, the No. 1 overall [seed] in the semifinal, and that was quite a feather in that team’s hat, but we had a tough time against Boston College.
“Last time [in 2011], we ran into a good Minnesota Duluth team.”
Close but no cigar. Can this year be the one?
“You’ve got to put yourself in position to win championships,” Jackson says. “That’s what our goal is at Notre Dame every year, whether it’s a conference championship or a national championship.
“Then all those things have to fall into place. As coaches, we try to make sure the things that are within our control, that we manage those things. The things that are outside of our control, there’s nothing we can do about.
“Every year it’s different. This year’s team is certainly different than the first two that made it to the Frozen Four.”
Perhaps the third time for the Irish will be the charm.
Jeff Jackson is in his third Frozen Four as Notre Dame coach (photo: Jim Rosvold).
CHICAGO — The student faces the teacher. It’s an age-old theme, one the Frozen Four will see yet again when Denver coach Jim Montgomery, the student, faces Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson.
The two faced each other first when Montgomery was still playing, a star in his own right at Maine joined by superstar Paul Kariya. In the 1993 national championship game, Kariya set up Montgomery for three third-period goals to rally the Black Bears to the title over Lake Superior State, 5-4, denying Jackson what would have become a three-peat one year later.
“It wasn’t Jim Montgomery, it was Paul Kariya,” Jackson teased recently. “Jimmy just happened to be at the other end of the passes.”
Though he gained the upper hand that day, Montgomery recognized coaching greatness when he saw it. When it came time for him to try to break into college hockey coaching, he turned down a paying assistant position elsewhere to learn as an unpaid volunteer under Jackson.
“Our relationship is special,” Montgomery says. “I learned from a great coach. He’s here [at the Frozen Four] again for the sixth or seventh time in his career, and I’ve managed to get back here for the second year in a row.
“So whatever he taught me, I’ve been able to apply. I think both teams play the same way: We don’t beat ourselves and we’re hard to play against.”
Those early years were serious dues paying.
“It’s hard to break into college hockey [coaching] now because the [NCAA] eliminated graduate assistantships,” Jackson says. “For a lot of young guys that want to be coaches, there’s really no easy avenue for them to get into the business, and it’s unfortunate.
“We take pride in the fact that we actively go out and find good young people that we think may have potential to be coaches and bring them in as volunteers.
“But it’s not easy. They have to have the means to do it because we have to follow NCAA rules. We can’t do anything to help them get paid.”
Jackson gets great satisfaction that for Montgomery those hard times have borne sweet fruit at Denver.
“That’s one of the great things about coaching,” Jackson says. “You’re not only watching your former players go on to win in the National Hockey League and maybe be all-stars or hall of famers, but you’re also watching the guys that went on to be doctors and presidents of companies. But there’s also that third aspect of people that work for you as assistant coaches, people that help you, and hopefully you help them.
“With Jimmy, he’s a great young coach. He’s got a great future ahead of him. He’s got all the right aspects to being a great coach. I’m proud of him.”
Of course, Jackson still hopes he sends his student home with a loss.
“Tomorrow, we’ll go head to head, and whatever happens happens,” Jackson says. “It’s part of coaching. You develop coaches, and you end up competing against them.
“That’s the great thing about coaching. It’s the relationships that you establish, and it’s been my life, and to see him be successful is a great part of that.”
