‘Hairy’ Decision

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November 17, 2003

Before the start of the 2003-04 college hockey season, Matt Hendricks couldn’t highlight his hair to his satisfaction.

He knew what he wanted — a shade of white. What he got was kind of a yellow-orange-gold look.

“I didn’t want it so bold,” Hendricks said, smiling. “But, it’s fading out a little bit.”

Funny, his hair choice — in a very small sense — kind of reflected the choices he faced this summer, when he was trying to decide whether to come back and play his senior season for the St. Cloud State hockey team.

On one hand, he knew what he wanted — a chance to play in the National Hockey League with the Nashville Predators, who drafted him in the fifth round (131st overall) of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, and the chance at a major paycheck. Heck, for that kind of money, he wouldn’t have to mess around with his hair on his own.

But the more he thought about it, the more he thought that coming back to St. Cloud State made good sense.

“At the beginning of the summer, I was about 90 percent sure I was going to leave, that I wasn’t going to come back,” Hendricks said. “As the summer progressed, my views started looking more toward school and staying here for one more year. I knew we had a lot of guys coming back that worked real hard.

“I figured, I’m young, I’m only 22, I can make that jump next year,” Hendricks said.

It’s a jump Husky fans, and St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl, were worried about all summer long.

“You can’t replace players like that,” Dahl said of his wing, who entered the season with 87 career points in 116 games played — easily the most in either category among current Huskies. “You don’t replace a senior [like that].”

Dahl had something the Predators could not guarantee Hendricks — ice time. The Blaine High School graduate will play in all situations for the Huskies, something the Predators could not promise. In addition, teammates voted Hendricks, along with senior defenseman Ryan LaMere, co-captains.

“The step [to the pros] is big. Once you go there, you can’t go back,” Hendricks said. “I figured that I needed to mature, that I need to work on my game more. I need to get those leadership skills that I’m already working on.

“And, you know what? It worked out for the best. I’m real happy,” Hendricks said.

One other factor weighed on Hendricks’ decision. Nashville has a stockpile of young forwards, and even if Hendricks wound up playing in the organization, he might be buried behind other similarly-aged and skilled players.

“As a 22-year-old playing in the American Hockey League under a team that’s pretty thick with forwards, younger forwards my age, I’m going to be playing two out of every three games,” Hendricks said. “Coming back to school made it sound that much better, because I’m going to be playing in all situations.

“There, if I get stuck sitting every third game, I can’t really show them what I can do. I can’t prove my point. If I stay one more year in college and prove to them [the Predators] what I can do, I’m going to get that much higher on the totem pole,” Hendricks said.

Dahl said the extra year of college hockey will help Hendricks, much like it helped Ryan Malone. Malone played his senior season with St. Cloud State in 2002-03, and then made the Pittsburgh Penguins’ opening-day roster this fall.

“Malone said he’s just so glad now that he stayed for four years,” Dahl said. “It made a big difference for him this year — particularly since both Ryan and Matt did not play two years of juniors. They came [to St. Cloud State] straight out of high school, although Ryan was a year older coming out of high school. That was the same situation with Hendie — he was just straight out of high school.

“So, I think [the senior year] is critical to their well being,” Dahl said.

When Hendricks was drafted by the Predators in 2000 after helping Blaine win the Class AA state high school hockey tournament, he had the typical reaction: “Two years [in college] and you want to leave,” Hendricks said. “But there’s a lot more involved in that.

“Physically, I’m there,” said Hendricks, in the best shape of his career (205 well-muscled pounds). “Mentally, I need to be a better player. I need to work on my temper. I need to work on my all-around attitude, along with my mental game, which has gotten progressively better since I’ve been here.”

He’ll get plenty of opportunities. He is the Huskies’ returning offensive leader in almost every category, including goals (18), assists (18), points (36), shots (125), penalties (28) and penalty minutes (64). This season, he has three goals and five points in 10 games.

“I’m not out there by myself, I’m out there with four other [skaters],” Hendricks said. “Talent-wise, we don’t have a guy that can skate the puck from one end to the other end and score. But we have guys that can get the puck over the red line and work harder than any guy on any other team in this league, and get the puck to the net, which is the blue collar mentality that we have.”

In this case, the blue collar mentality comes with a head full of yellow-orange-gold hair.

This Week in Hockey East: Nov. 13, 2003

By David H. Hendrickson

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November 13, 2003

He’s Put A Spell On ‘Em

I put a spell on you
Because you’re mine.

Can there be any doubt now that New Hampshire goaltender Mike Ayers owns Boston University?

The All-American took his mastery of the Terriers to absurd new levels when he shut them out this past weekend for the fourth straight time. The streak has included four different buildings and four different scenarios, but one common result.

The big doughnut.

It began on Jan. 25, two days after the Terriers lit him up for three third-period goals and a 5-2 win. Ayers responded with a 38-save performance at the Whittemore Center and he was on his way. Less than two months later — the Ides of March, to be precise — Ayers and BU goaltender Sean Fields both took shutouts into overtime at the FleetCenter in the Hockey East championship game, but Ayers emerged with the zero intact. Two weeks later, it was the same old story at the Worcester Centrum as Ayers’ 27 saves sent the Wildcats to the Frozen Four. And then this week, perhaps the toughest venue of them all, Walter Brown Arena.

Regular season home and away games, Hockey East playoffs and NCAA playoffs; the streak has run the gamut.

It now includes a total of 123 saves. To put that in perspective, the Terriers would have to score on the next 14 shots on Ayers to drop his post-Jan. 23 save percentage against them under .900. Fourteen shots, fourteen goals. That’s what it would take. Anyone wanna take a Vegas bazillion-to-one gamble that Ayers will let the next 14 BU shots in?

I didn’t think so.

That dominance has had BU coach Jack Parker saying everything from, “He’s a great goaltender” to “There was only one problem for us — that was Michael Ayers.”

As for Ayers, he isn’t about to provide bulletin board fodder for the next time the two teams meet, which isn’t until the final weekend of the regular season.

“I think we just play them at the right time,” he says. “I don’t know what it is, but defensively we’re playing strong defense against BU and we were fortunate to get some bounces here and there, which obviously helps.”

Bounces here and there? Four straight shutouts including 123 saves? Them’s a whole lot of bounces.

Still Ayers is able to play around with the suggestion that team Sports Psychology guru Tim Churchard could help him visualize a Terrier jersey on all future opponents.

“That’d be nice,” he says with a laugh. “We’ll have to talk to Coach Churchard this week about that.”

Fly On The Wall

Wouldn’t you like to have been a fly on the wall when Jack Parker, his assistants and players heard that Ayers, one day after shutting out the Terriers for the fourth straight game, had allowed three goals on Maine’s first four shots?

Even Strength On The PK

Going into Wednesday’s contest with UNH, Boston College’s penalty kill was not only clicking at a .949 rate, allowing only two power-play goals in 39 chances, but had also scored shorthanded three times. That is, the Eagles had scored more goals than they’d allowed while down a man or two.

Time to yell, “Even strength” when an Eagle goes into the penalty box? Well, maybe not, but you get the point.

Of course, BC has been firing both barrels of the double barrel PK shotgun — shutting down the opponent while also striking for key shorthanded goals — with aplomb the last few years.

Season	PK%	SHG
1999-2000	.885 (1st)	12 (1st)
2000-2001	.901 (1st)	12 (1st)
2001-2002	.824 (4th)	10 (1st)
2002-2003	.861 (2nd)	7 (2nd)

This year’s success to date, however, tops all of that. Of late, the Eagle penalty kill has been especially hot, stopping 24 straight power plays prior to the UNH game.

“It’s a real credit to a bunch of our players, [especially] Ryan Murphy and Ty Hennes, our main penalty-kill guys,” says Ben Eaves. “When they’re out there it seems like they’re creating as many chances as the power-play unit. We just take our lead from them.

“[Assistant coach] Ronnie Rolston has got us pressuring the puck. We feed off each other and just get our legs moving, trying to create havoc in the zone.”

Head coach Jerry York is also quick to praise Rolston’s influence. “He puts a lot of time and effort into it. He’s always talking to his brother [Brian] about the Bruins and he keeps right on the edge of current PK situations.”

Brian Rolston presumably has a tidbit or two about the penalty kill to share since he’s scored 24 shorthanders in his NHL career, including 14 over the last two years as a Boston Bruin.

Still, there’s only so much that Xs and Os can do without physical talent. And that’s where BC’s team speed gives an extra in-your-face, you-better-not-make-a-mistake advantage.

“We’re mobile and quick and we’re going to pressure,” York says. “We’re dangerous. We can throw Patrick and Ben [Eaves] out there and they can score goals. We’ve got six good ones.”

York also points to the improvement netminder Matti Kaltiainen has shown. “We’ve been good the last couple years, but now we’re getting better goaltending which makes us even more difficult to score power-play goals against.”

The Shorthanded King

When Maine lost 60 percent of its offense heading into this season, there were plenty of questions as to who would be able to fill the void.

One emphatic answer has been Todd Jackson, named a week ago as Hockey East’s Player of the Month. He’s scored seven goals, three of them game-winners and four on the penalty kill. As a captain, he’s also led one of the league’s most pleasant team surprises, last weekend’s difficult road trip notwithstanding.

“Every year you come back you’re going to get more responsibility,” Jackson says. “It’s happened to me through my years. This year I’m fortunate that Coach [Tim Whitehead] has given me a lot of opportunities on special teams and I’m playing with two really good guys, [Derek Damon and Greg Moore]. We’ve been clicking pretty well.”

While most observers, this writer included, expected Jackson to smoothly move into a larger role on the team and become one of the league’s top players, his prowess shorthanded has been surprising. In his first three years, he scored only once on the penalty kill, but his four in nine games leads the country.

“Teams sometimes are thinking strictly offense on the power play,” he says. “Sometimes it’s a great chance to take advantage of that. We’ve been fortunate to get some chances and I’ve been capitalizing on them.

“It’s definitely deflating for the other team because they usually have their top players out there and they’re thinking this is their chance to score. To get a goal against when you’re on the power play is tough.”

Although this past weekend’s losses on the road to BC and UNH were unpleasant bumps in the road, Jackson retains a pragmatic view.

“If you can learn something out of it and take some positives out it, then it’s not a complete disaster,” he says. “It’s a wakeup call and we realize we’re not invincible. It’s good to learn the lessons early in the season rather than in April.”

But On The Other Hand

This writer rarely takes individual players to task. They are, after all, not professionals. Many have no future in professional hockey. They’re playing for the love of the game. Maybe I also tend to sympathize because I’ve got a son who’s just starting his collegiate hockey career (at Wesleyan). I’ve also coached a fair number of athletes and found them to be, on the whole, a lot of fun to be around and basically good kids. I’m not going to go out of my way to kick a kid publicly when he’s down.

But…

Exactly when is Maine’s Prestin Ryan going to harness his considerable talents and dispense with the goon-like behavior? That stuff may have played well in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League and it will almost certainly play well in the pros after he completes this his final season as a Black Bear. But it only hurts his own team when he does it in college hockey.

Ryan did himself and the Black Bears no favors picking up a game disqualification (and a resulting automatic one-game suspension) for punching after attempting a leg check. It isn’t often that late-game fracases result in one player getting the game DQ, but not the other. In this case, however, it appeared completely justified. Ryan was, again, sadly out of control.

As a result, the Black Bears defense — not the deepest unit in college hockey to begin with — had to face UNH’s forwards shorthanded. That’s not a good combination. Troy Barnes had already suffered a concussion, so when the Wildcats had their one-on-one way with the depleted blueliners it was pretty predictable.

And in Ryan’s case, completely avoidable.

When Whitehead was asked after the BC game if he was concerned about what happened at the end, he answered somberly, “Yes, I am. I’m very concerned about how it ended.”

While he didn’t elaborate, one would assume that Whitehead expects better, much better, out of his assistant captain.

This is, after all, not some new phenomenon. Two years ago, Ryan accumulated 91 penalty minutes. Last year, he broke Maine’s record with 120 minutes. After two seasons, he was already fourth on the school’s all-time list. This year he’s been assessed 44 penalty minutes in just eight games.

This is his final season of eligibility. Perhaps the light will never go on and he’ll continue to pile up the penalties, and suspensions as well, all the while leaving the Black Bears without their most talented defenseman.

But here’s hoping the light does go on and Ryan sticks to making use of the talents that many a kid can only dream about.

Quote Of The Week, Take I

Ayers on teammate Steve Saviano’s “sick” game-winner against Maine:

“It’s almost like he has fun toying with the defensemen. It’s weird. He gets into a corner and starts stopping-and-starting and it’s very difficult for a big defenseman to keep up with him.”

Quote Of The Week, Take II

After completing a four-point weekend with a win over Maine after shutting out Boston University, UNH coach Dick Umile was asked about Wednesday night’s game against Boston College.

“I’m not even going to think about it until after Sunday,” he said. “I’m going to have my pasta tomorrow and then I’ll worry about it. But we know who we’re playing.”

Quote Of The Week, Take III

Maine coach Tim Whitehead, after losing, 4-1, to Boston College:

“All their players outplayed ours. They outworked us in every category. We bit ourselves in the butt tonight.”

Ratings Rants

Several weeks ago, I received an email with the subject “East Coast Bias.” It arrived after the Red Sox’ agonizing seventh-game loss to the Yankees and began with the words, “First of all, nice game by the Sox last night.”

Nice guy.

In any case, he then went on to write:

Secondly, I think your ranking of the Gophers at number nine is a little suspicious. Why do you always rank Eastern teams higher? Is it because you don’t see many CCHA or WCHA games? The WCHA is by far the best conference in the country. I am a huge Gopher fan. I hate them all, but I at least admit that most WCHA teams are far and away better than Hockey East teams, plus Cornell and Harvard. The Gophers were a little sluggish last weekend, but they were at the start of the last two seasons also. I think you’ll be seeing a three-peat before teams like the previously mentioned Cornell, Harvard, [UNH], or even BC or BU.

Stick to the Beanpot.

WCHA! WCHA! WCHA! WCHA!

I’m not about to address every fringe lunatic email I receive, but since the vast majority of the ones that I get concern rankings or weekly picks, let’s look at this and be done with it.

First, can we agree that a team’s ranking should be based on performance and strength of schedule once the season is well underway? And in the early going when limited results and circular inconsistencies make it all a muddle, then expectations of how strong a team is get factored in as well, but to a lesser extent than performance and strength of schedule?

Take Minnesota, for example.

Please, take them.

Ba-doom.

(Gopher fans, that was just a back-at-you cheap joke intended for the emailer who rubbed the Yankees in my face. I love all the rest of you. Believe me. Would I lie to you?)

What I mean is that a week ago Minnesota was 2-4-0 and yet was still ranked 11th in the country. I’m sorry, but no matter how tough the schedule, I can’t see any justification for a team with that record in the national standings. Their performance just doesn’t justify it. The Gophers were there based on reputation alone and I don’t buy that kind of vote.

Hey, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Gophers get back into the rankings in future months when they deserve it, but I was relieved this week to see that the voters who thought that a 2-4 team could be nationally ranked decided that even a defending national champion that should be pretty good, but is instead 2-6-0, isn’t national caliber. At least not yet.

The same thing goes for the UNH fans who couldn’t understand why I dropped the Wildcats all the way to fifth a week ago. Yeah, there was that niggling loss to Niagara, they asked, but fifth?

Of course! To that point, New Hampshire hadn’t beaten anyone particularly strong and had a bad loss. There were teams whose performance was better.

Admittedly, there are points where circular comparisons can make evaluating performance difficult. For example, how good is Minnesota-Duluth? The Bulldogs are only 4-4-2, but had claimed a sweep at Minnesota to their credit along with a tie against Boston College. Now that Minnesota is 2-6, however, how much is that sweep worth?

Or how about BU? The Terriers are only 2-2-1, but the two losses were against Maine (on the road) and UNH, two known powerhouses so far. Strength of schedule.

Or how about St. Cloud? The Huskies are 7-0-1, but other than the two wins last weekend over Duluth all the others have been at home against Wisconsin, Michigan Tech and Princeton. If you don’t think that schedule has so far been weak, then I’ll challenge you to spell “cupcake” and I’ll even spot you the vowels.

So there’s no perfect formula this early in the season. But it is always performance and strength of schedule in the fore.

Anyway, back to Mr. East Coast Bias. (He declined to be named after the Gophers’ losses.) He went on to claim that I “always rank Eastern teams higher.”

Let’s look at the top 10 teams since after 10 it can become progressively more difficult to come up with attractive choices. At the time the letter was written, I had four Hockey East teams in my top 10, five from the WCHA and one from the CCHA. That split has been pretty typical in my choices all season long.

Can EastCoastBias add?

And how about “The WCHA is by far the best conference in the country.”

Based on what, EastCoastBias’s objective analysis?

Last January, I compared the facts in the “Top-to-Bottom?” segment of a column. The numbers indicated that Hockey East was the strongest conference top-to-bottom, followed by the WCHA, the CCHA and ECAC (in that order).

And what happened in the NCAA tournament? Other than Minnesota, all the other WCHA teams lost to the first opponent from an established conference they faced.

Was Minnesota a terrific team that deserved to win the national championship last year? Definitely. They proved it. That’s a terrific program that deserves all the credit it got last year.

And there are plenty other terrific teams in that league.

But was the WCHA the top conference? Nope. Strictly runners-up. The numbers showed it last January and the NCAA tournament results backed that up.

You wanna make claims? Make them on objective facts, not wishful thinking.

And skip the intentional rudeness if you don’t want to be taken to task. I respond politely to reasonable emails — although I admit to being woefully behind — but I’m losing my stomach for tolerating abuse.

Trivia Contest

Old business: the date of when Maine’s Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle earned back-to-back Defensive Player of the Week honors was Dec. 9-16, 2002. Ankur Patel included that information in his winning response, but I inadvertently left it out of last week’s solution.

Also, if you’re dying to win this trivia contest, here’s a hint. Go to the Hockey East page and look for this column there. It’ll show up earlier on that page than on the front page because of the way the columns are edited. Don’t give your competition a head start.

Alternatively, bookmark this page and then hit refresh a bajillion times until it shows up on Thursday night. That’ll also make my editors think I’m wildly popular with all those bogus requests for the page. Hey, I’m not proud.

Onward to last week’s question. It noted that Maine was off to an unprecedented 7-0 start and asked what Black Bear team began the season with the school’s longest undefeated stretch, when was it broken and by whom?

I’m not sure who enjoyed this question more, Maine fans or those from BU. The answer was the 1992-93 season when Maine started out with a 30-0-2 record. Their first and only loss of the season was 7-6 in overtime to Boston University on Feb. 19. The 1992-93 Black Bears, of course, went on to finish 42-1-2 and win the school’s first ever national championship. (A 3-3 tie with Providence in the second game is why this year’s 7-0 start was unprecedented.)

Chris Sayles got it first and his cheer is:

“When You Say Maine Black Bears, You’ve Said It All!!!”

This week’s question is quite a bit tougher. It recognizes Lowell’s Ben Walter for his great start with 10 goals in his first seven games and asks who the last UML player was to achieve this feat. Email my trivia account with your informed answers or wild guesses. The winner will be notified by Tuesday; if you haven’t heard by then you either had the wrong answer or someone else beat you to it.

And Finally, Not That It Has Anything To Do With Anything, But…

So Terry Glenn hates New England? And there’s even discussion about the guy who tried his hardest to derail the Patriots getting a Super Bowl ring? Hey, Terry, you’ll probably have a great game against us because you’ll actually get motivated for the game. An occurrence that won’t repeat itself for a couple years. But make no mistake. You D-I-D N-O-T deserve a Super Bowl R-I-N-G because you are a L-O-S-E-R.

Medication time for Hendrickson…

You know, I thought Brian Griese should have been starting over Jay Fiedler, too. Those comments about how Fiedler “never beats his own team” seemed to be damning with faint praise or, even more likely, a euphemism for “he stinks, but that team’s defense bails him out.” But when Griese loses four fumbles in two weeks and throws an interception returned for a touchdown, it kinda makes the other guy who “never beats his own team” a pretty attractive alternative.

Note to the overweight Dallas Cowboys fan — a male — who came dressed to a game as a Cowboys cheerleader. Guy, you need more than just boobies. Well … actually … technically … you need less.

Ummm … Forget I even went there …

Are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the poster child for how tough it is to stay on top, or what? A team with that defense is 4-5, one game ahead of the Detroit Lions? One game ahead of Detroit?

After visiting my son for Parents’ Weekend I offered to dry his hockey equipment off in our hotel room. Wow! I’m sure the maid was checking the closets the next day for dead bodies. Room 219 at that Super 8 Motel may never be the same.

But wasn’t last Sunday a great day for guys in their forties. Doug Flutie, as in 41-year-old Doug Flutie, passed for 248 yards and two touchdowns while also running for another two TDs. Suddenly being in your forties doesn’t seem all that bad. Hey, I’m just a few years older than Doug. I’m an athlete again. I’m full of energy, spark and vitality. I’m — dare I say it? — young again!

If Doug can do it, so can I! Yeah!

I can stay up until four in the morning playing poker with my buddies. I can resume all those sports that I’d been sidelined from because of knee, back and neck problems. When my wife gives me a kiss, it won’t be out of mere decades-long devotion or, even worse, sympathy. It’ll be because I’m a HUNK again!

If Doug can do it, so can I! Yeah!

Can I hear yeah? Yeah!

Young again! Yeah!

A HUNK again! Yeah!

…

On the other hand, all this emotion has left me a little drained. Would you mind if I take a little nap before I meet you for a killer game of shuffleboard?

Thanks to Scott Weighart and Jim Lothrop.

This Week in the CCHA: Nov. 13, 2003

By Paula C. Weston

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November 13, 2003

Girls with Pigs

Confused? So am I, but only because my mother raised me right. In the past few days, I’ve received email with subject lines too good not to share.

And while I’ve never seen a girl with a pig at a hockey game, it is Buck-a-Brat night at the Schott Friday.

Oh No: This Time the Fortune Cookie Is Right

The Bulldogs and Wolverines split a home-and-home series last weekend, and if you said that they’d do so — with each team winning at home, and each game decided by one goal — it makes you, not psychic, but a smart, odds-playing kind of fan.

These teams have split four of the last five home-and-home series, including this one, in mostly close games. Last year, the Wolverines beat the Bulldogs 6-4 (Jan. 31) in Yost before Ferris State rebounded the following night with a 4-3 win in Ewigleben.

Two years ago, Michigan took both regular-season games against the Bulldogs, but in 2000-2001, it was Michigan 4, FSU 1 in Yost (Nov. 10) the night before it was FSU 5, Michigan 4 (Nov. 11).

Last weekend, it took the Bulldogs overtime to beat the Wolverines in Big Rapids, the game-winner coming from Brett Smith, who told USCHO’s Christopher Brian Dudek that the tally was “most definitely the biggest goal” he’d ever scored.

Michigan head coach Red Berenson credited the Bulldogs with taking the momentum, forcing the Wolverines to “spend time trying to get it back.”

In Saturday’s 3-2 Michigan win, the Wolverines scored in the first, and the Bulldogs answered. Then the Wolverines scored in the second, and the Bulldogs answered. At 1:34 in the third on the power play, Jeff Tambellini scored for the Wolverines — and this time, the Bulldogs barked no more.

“We always play pretty well against Michigan,” FSU head coach Bob Daniels told USCHO’s Courtney Lewis, “but the reality is we need to do a little bit of soul-searching and find out if we’re going to be a pretty good team or if we’re just going to roll over.”

The Wolverines — who are minus-three as a team when playing five-on-five — need to do a little soul-searching of their own, said Berenson. “This was not a big step forward for out team,” Berenson said. “The power play’s been our salvation, really. The best part of our offense, maybe the only part of our offense, has been our power play of late.”

Oh No: This Time the Fortune Cookie Is Right … Again

Quick — what are the odds of Ohio State winning Saturday night? Pretty good, considering the Buckeyes are 5-0-0 in Saturday games this season, but 2-4-0 Friday nights.

Predictably, the Buckeyes split with the Northern Michigan Wildcats last weekend, losing 2-1 Friday and picking up the 6-1 win Saturday.

So, head coach John Markell, your Buckeyes are 4-0-0 after a Friday night loss. What do you say to that? “There’s another side to that — it’s because we’ve lost on Friday night.

“We need to teach ourselves how to get that edge going before we get into those positions. We need to teach ourselves how to avoid that situation. When you’re sitting atop the standings, it’s a learning experience.”

The idea of success being a learning experience is getting wearing a bit thin ’round these parts. The Buckeyes seem to be a team of take-it-then-leave-it, and Markell says that this weekend’s games against Michigan will be a real barometer for OSU.

“If we have trouble getting up for this game Friday night,” said Markell, “then this team isn’t what I think it’s made of.”

Be a Stud Like the Old Days

Congratulations to Nate Guenin, who now leads the CCHA in penalty minutes (42). The OSU sophomore defenseman and assistant captain surpassed UAF’s Aaron Voros, who earned a single two-minute timeout last weekend.

Markell said that Guenin was responding to Nathan Oystrick’s play in the third period of the 6-1 win, when both were given minor penalties and 10-minute misconducts.

“I don’t mind guys defending themselves,” said Markell, who said that Oystrick grabbed Guenin’s face mask. “Taking 10 minutes is better than getting kicked out of the game, and I commend him for keeping his temper in check during that incident.”

What bothers Markell are the avoidable penalties, penalties that find Guenin in the box for roughing or hitting from behind. Guenin knows, said Markell, that he needs to learn how to control himself in those situations. “He’s not a dumb kid.”

The Wonder of You and Me

Congratulations to the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks and the Lake Superior State Lakers, who split a pair of games in Omaha, earning each team its first CCHA victory of the season.

In addition to pitting two teams with no league wins against each other at the start of the weekend, the series also saw two of the CCHA’s most quotable coaches.

USCHO’s Brian Brashaw asked UNO head coach Mike Kemp if he remembered the last time the Mavs had a four-goal period, as they did in the middle stanza of Friday’s 7-1 win.

“About the time they invented dirt,” said Kemp. “I really don’t remember back that far.”

Anzalone, the reigning CCHA King of Quotes, said, “I don’t think we were as bad as we were ugly. We’re embarrassed — not embarrassed by losing, but embarrassed by the score.”

Scott Parse and Mike Lefley had two goals each for UNO in the win, and Chris Holt made 27 stops in the near-shutout. Four Lakers contributed goals in LSSU’s 4-1 win Saturday, and Jeff Jakaitis earned the Lakers’ first league win of the season.

Football Season Is Here! Please Your Woman Better!

Take her to a hockey game! In fact, get her tickets to these two games, and you can forget all about that diamond you promised her!

No. 5 Michigan (8-2-0, 4-2-0 CCHA) at No. 14 Ohio State (7-4-0, 6-2-0 CCHA)
Friday and Saturday, 8:05 p.m., Value City Arena, Columbus, Ohio

If there’s any antidote for the usual Friday slump of the Buckeyes, Markell says it’s a game against the defending Mason Cup Champions.

“Obviously, coming off a good road trip, momentum is important. Michigan may be the solution to that.”

A split in Marquette last weekend was good enough for OSU to stay atop the CCHA standings, one point ahead of the Michigan State Spartans, who earned three points against Notre Dame.

A split with the Ferris State Bulldogs in a home-and-home series was not, however, good enough for the Wolverines to remain tied for first.

“We’re not playing the kind of hockey we might have thought we were playing a week or two ago,” Michigan head coach Red Berenson told The Michigan Daily after the series. “We felt fortunate to win this [Saturday’s] game. I think there’s a lot of soul searching in this locker room. Guys know they really have to pick it up.”

With the end of the Big Ten football season looming one week away — and, for those of you playing along at home, that always means a Michigan-OSU game — these are the first two games between the clustermates this season. Whenever the Buckeyes and Wolverines play, there’s passion, there’s school pride on the line, and — lately — there’s some good hockey.

Last season, the Buckeyes and Wolverines tied two games in the Schott, 4-4 Mar. 7 and 3-3 the following night. It was Michigan that eliminated OSU from title contention in last year’s Super Six, 3-0, and the Wolverines who tossed out the Buckeyes in the 2001-2002 Super Six, 2-1 in overtime.

The Wolverines own this series with a 53-22-11 all-time lead; in fact, from Jan. 6, 1990 through Jan. 3, 1998, Michigan was 29-0-5 against OSU, which made for some feistiness between the two squads as recently as January of 2001, when then-Buckeye Eric Meloche called the Wolverines “a bunch of weasels.”

Now, however, you’re more likely to hear of the teams’ mutual respect than any trash talking. “They think we’re capable of competing at their level,” says Markell, noting that the Wolverines won’t overlook the Buckeyes in the foreseeable future.

“Last year, [Dwight] Helminen beat us,” Markell says. Helminen had a hat trick in the Wolverines’ 3-0 win over OSU in the Super Six. “He was the recipient of good teamwork, though, a good supporting cast.”

In the 4-4 tie, Eric Nystrom had two goals for the Wolverines, while Rod Pelley netted two for the Buckeyes. In the 3-3 tie, six different players between the two teams accounted for all six goals. Al Montoya had 67 saves for Michigan in the two games; Mike Betz made 61 saves on the weekend for the Buckeyes.

Here’s a look at the match. The stats are for overall games played.

Goals per game: UM 3.90 (first), OSU 3.36 (third)

Goals allowed per game: UM 3.00 (seventh), OSU 2.27 (second)

Power play: UM 26.0% (first), OSU 15.5% (ninth)

Penalty kill: UM 81.6% (seventh), OSU 85.0% (sixth)

Top scorer: UM T.J. Hensick (4-9–13), OSU Dan Knapp (2-10–12)

Top goal scorer: UM Jeff Tambellini (9), OSU Paul Caponigri (8)

Top ‘tender: UM Al Montoya (.894 SV%), OSU Mike Betz (.926 SV%)

These teams play a similar game, each with a blue-collar work ethic, neither with blazing stars. Each team takes a similar number of penalties per game, but don’t expect these games to be chippy — there’s way too much at stake. Not only is OSU attempting to remain at the top of the standings, but the Wolverines have two games in hand on the Buckeyes, and the clustermates meet again later in the season.

And their fellow clustermates are duking it out, down the road a ways.

Picks: The Wolverines are 1-2-0 on the road this season, and the Buckeyes are 2-4-0 Friday nights. You do the math. Michigan 3-2, OSU 3-2

This Will Make You Think This Weekend

It’s not just a Buckeye-Wolverine weekend — the whole cluster is in on the act!

No. 15 Michigan State (6-3-1, 5-2-1 CCHA) at Miami (5-5-2, 3-2-1 CCHA)
Friday and Saturday, 7:35 p.m., Goggin Arena, Oxford, Ohio

The Spartans have won nine of the last 10 meetings against the RedHawks, and are 57-15-5 against Miami all-time.

And they’re on fire.

Since losing two games at home to OSU Oct. 17-18, the Spartans are 5-0-1, the only near-miss being the 3-3 tie with Notre Dame last weekend — and absolutely anyone can lose to Irish netminder David Brown, so there’s no shame in that.

Still, a win instead of a tie last Saturday would have given MSU a tie for first place. “We really wanted to get a sweep on these guys and put us ahead in first place,” forward Lee Falardeau told the State News this week. “It’s hard, but at least we got one point, but we really should have gotten two out of it.”

Falardeau returned to active duty for the first time since a knee injury sidelined him Oct. 6.

Head coach Rick Comley said that taking three out of four points “is never terrible.”

“We didn’t play horrible,” Comley told the News, “but didn’t seem to have energy or the taste in our mouth to keep it going. If you don’t play well enough to win the game, you better say thanks and come back next week.”

The Spartans hit the road to take on the Miami RedHawks, who beat visiting Alabama-Huntsville twice last weekend by a combined score of 9-4. Greg Hogeboom, Mike Kompon, and Matt Christie each had a goal in each game; the RedHawks held Huntsville to just 34 shots on net for the weekend.

The two teams match well in net, each with goaltending tandems splitting time between the pipes. The Dominic Vicari and Matt Migliaccio have combined for a .895 overall save percentage for the Spartans, while Steve Hartley and Brandon Crawford-West are .890 overall for Miami.

Each team is well equipped up front. Jim Slater (9-8–17), Tommy Goebel (7-7–14), Mike Lalonde (6-7–13), and A.J. Thelen (3-8–11) are the double-digit scorers for MSU. Derek Edwardson (7-8–15), Mike Kompon (3-11–14), Greg Hogeboom (5-8–13), and Matt Christie (8-3–11) are their RedHawk counterparts.

The Spartans are allowing slightly fewer goals (2.80) per game than are the RedHawks (2.83), while scoring a few more (3.80 vs. 3.17). The power plays are comparable (MSU 25.0%, Miami 25.4%) and Miami has an edge on the PK (79.0% to MSU’s 70.0%). The RedHawks do seem to like to mix it up.

So what’s the difference? It could be momentum. After a two-game sweep of a nonconference opponent, the RedHawks have a little; after a six-game unbeaten streak against CCHA teams, the Spartans have a lot.

Picks: The RedHawks are unpredictable, and the Spartans are rolling. MSU 4-3, Miami 3-2

Holiday Gift for Taco Lovers

It’s snowing in Columbus as I finish this. It’s bright and crisp, with big, fluffy, floating snowflakes punctuating the air.

It was in the 80s last week.

This Week in the ECAC: Nov. 13, 2003

By Juan Martinez

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November 13, 2003

I admit it; I’m a rink rat. I’ve spent more hours than I can count in hockey rinks all over the Northeast watching practices, NHL, AHL and college games, not to mention kids from 6 to 16 in uniforms of every color imaginable.

Just when I think I’ve seen it all, I’m reminded once again of the unpredictability of sports. Or did it have more to do with the lunar eclipse?

Hmm …

In New Haven, the Yale Bulldogs (1-3-0 overall, 1-1-0 ECAC) finished the weekend with their first win of the season and a first for a rookie netminder whom head coach Tim Taylor calls “too good not to play.”

And play he did.

In their three games leading up to hosting Colgate, the Bulldogs had allowed an unspeakable 24 goals.

Enter Matt Modelski.

The Brighton, Michigan, native made 41 saves in the 3-2 overtime win against the Raiders, including 21 stops combined in the third period and overtime. And while it may be a bit early to declare games “must-wins,” this contest qualified.

It was additional pressure for Modelski, but he was well-equipped to handle it.

“Coach Taylor told me before that every game in college hockey is like a seventh game in the Stanley Cup playoffs,” explained Modelski to USCHO’s Katie Baker.

“In juniors, I played 60 games last year, and at the end we were fighting for home-ice advantage during the last 11 games of the year. We ended up getting home-ice by three points by winning all of those games, many of which were won in overtime or by one goal.”

Well, that explains it. The kid’s an old pro at this. However, what really had us scratching our heads was not how the game ended, but how it began.

Modelski was called for having illegal equipment before the game even started.

“The chinstrap on my helmet hung below the two inches that is allowed by NCAA rules,” said Modelski. “It’s a brand new rule this year, so nobody really knew what to make of it when it was called.”

Ah, but the officials knew and Modelski had to sit out the first 33 seconds of his first college game while getting the strap altered. It wasn’t exactly a dream start, but it didn’t bother the goaltender.

“The ruling didn’t really affect me at all,” he said, “and, if anything, it may have helped get the butterflies out.”

All goalies should be so lucky.

“It was the most exciting game I have ever played in,” Modelski admitted, “and I will never forget it. The win really helped the team out of a hard situation, and I’m just glad I could be part of it.”

Modelski was named ECAC Rookie of the Week for his performance.

The very same night — I’m telling you, there something to this eclipse theory — Yale’s travel partner, the Princeton Tigers (0-4-0, 0-2-0), lost to Cornell, 7-0, as the Big Red’s senior captain, Ryan Vesce, accomplished something else that had us shaking our heads.

Coming off a night in which he posted a goal and an assist against the Elis, the Lloyd Harbor, N.Y., native scored three times and added four helpers against the Tigers.

Simply amazing.

According to Vesce, who had 45 points in 36 games last season and is already up to 11 after just four contests, his seven-point performance was a first for him, and not just at Cornell (2-1-1, 2-0-0). Asked if he’d ever had a night quite like this, at any level, he didn’t have to think very long.

“Nope, never.”

Modest and team-oriented, Vesce quickly changed the focus of the conversation.

“It was nice to get the seven points,” he said, “but the most exciting thing was to get the two wins.”

In fact, Vesce admitted that he had no idea just what kind of numbers he was putting up as the game progressed.

“During the game, you focus on the system you need to play. You don’t really think about how many points you have.”

What he and his teammates were thinking about, however, was a return to form, at least in terms of execution.

“We had a big week of fine-tuning on our system. Anyone who saw the first two games did not see the Cornell of the past. We were more run-and-gun and we made some mistakes.”

There were no mistakes of note against Princeton, thanks in large part to the speedy 5-foot-8 forward’s career-highs in goals, assists and points. His seven-point effort was also the first such game for a Cornell player in 25 years and the first in the NCAA in four years.

For his efforts, Vesce was named ECAC Player of the Week.

Home is Where the Memories Are

Sometimes you can go home again and when Colgate’s (3-2-1, 1-1-0) bus pulls into its hotel in the North Country on Thursday, that’s exactly where interim head coach Stan Moore will be.

A product of Massena, N.Y., Moore will return for games in nearby Canton and Potsdam this weekend at schools and in towns that always bring back a wealth of memories from his childhood.

“Sometimes I chuckle at the fact that, first as an associate coach and now as head coach, I’m standing behind the bench as an opponent,” said Moore, who from 1996-98 made the trip as Union’s head coach.

“We try not to treat this any differently than any other road trip,” he said. “We just hope that we win; that we play well enough to win.”

From an Xs and Os standpoint, the fact that Moore grew up in the middle of hockey-crazed St. Lawrence County has no impact whatsoever on the games.

“It’s business as usual,” he explained.

Off the ice, however, Moore has many familiar faces waiting for him to complete the 168-mile trip from Hamilton, N.Y., to the St. Lawrence campus for Friday night’s game.

“My parents still live in Massena and my brother and sister are up there. I’ll see them after the game and anyone else who stops by.”

Moore’s father, Stan Moore Sr., is a North Country icon. Prior to coaching his son and former Clarkson coach Mark Morris during their school days in Massena, the senior Moore was a standout left wing with the Golden Knights from 1950-53. While there, he scored 109 points on 54 goals and 55 assists in just 42 games.

“I grew up with Clarkson and St. Lawrence hockey,” said the younger Moore, “and those were the two best venues to have.”

He practically grew up on the Clarkson campus until he was four, which is when his family moved to Massena so his father could teach math and coach hockey (and eventually golf as well) at Massena High School.

“I used to sell lemonade and crackers on the Clarkson campus in the summer,” said the younger Moore, “hoping that the faculty that was left would bite and give a young guy the opportunity to make some extra money.

“I’d also eat at the dining halls for 25 cents for lunch. We’d eat near the students and when one of the players would walk by it was easy to eat because your jaw was so far from your upper lip.”

Among the players Moore looked up to as a kid and now remembers fondly were Clarkson’s Steve Warr and St. Lawrence’s Steve Cady, now the Associate Athletic Director at Miami.

“He wasn’t a big guy,” said Moore about Cady, “but he gave everything he had.”

It Doesn’t Get Any Easier

They are a younger squad and, thanks to the departure of key players, the Bulldogs have much to build in a short time. As if that wasn’t tough enough, they’re forced to do it with one of the toughest early schedules in the league.

“Our schedule is very, very difficult,” said Taylor. “We were picked to be in the middle of the pack [in the ECAC] and started off with a road trip against the number one team in the country.”

The journey out to North Dakota was one that Taylor and the rest of the Elis want to forget. Losing by a combined 18-4, Yale was exposed in all ends of the ice. One week later they found themselves facing No. 11 Cornell and Colgate.

“We got waxed in North Dakota,” said Taylor, “then came back and got smacked around against Cornell.”

This weekend, Yale travels to first-place Brown (2-1-0, 2-1-0) and No. 12 Harvard (1-1-1, 1-1-1).

“Brown is a tough competitor,” said Taylor. “We’re certainly not looking past them to the Harvard game, but we know what is waiting for us. We’ll have our hands full.

“The challenge in this league is that you have to prepare to play two teams that are often very different.”

Such is the case this weekend for the Elis.

“With Brown, we’re preparing for their goaltender and defense. They are a better team than last year when they had a good season. They are better with the special teams.

“Harvard is one of the better skating teams in the conference. They are committed to their 2-1-2 forecheck and it is very difficult to get skating room against them.”

It’ll be another tough test for the Bulldogs the following weekend when they start a run of three games in five days (November 21-25) against Dartmouth, Vermont and Princeton.

“The team is still evolving,” said Taylor, “still trying to establish an identity. It’s hard to establish anything if you’re not getting wins. That’s what made the win [over Colgate] extremely important. It showed that if we do things right, compete and work hard, we’re a team that can win.

“If we hadn’t won, we’d be a team full of doubts and anxiety regarding who we are and how we play.”

Tuning In

Despite annual rumors of an impending deal with anyone from the Empire Sports Network to the New England Sports Network, fans of the ECAC continue to be shut out from seeing other clubs and marquee games from around the league.

A handful of schools have the occasional game on a local cable system or statewide public broadcasting station, but other than that, fans who can’t attend games are relegated to Internet radio broadcasts.

The debut of College Sports Television (CSTV) brings new options for fans and, this week, the league announced that Cornell, Harvard and Yale will appear on the new network.

“It’s wonderful that CSTV has made a commitment to college hockey,” said ECAC Commissioner Phil Buttafuoco. “College hockey fans have reinforced that commitment by expressing interest in its coverage. Viewers will watch teams with tremendous history and tradition in college hockey.”

The games include (all times are ET):

Cornell vs. Notre Dame (Everblades Classic), December 27, 4 p.m.

Everblades Classic Championship Game, December 28, 4 p.m.

Cornell at Harvard, January 9, 8 p.m.

Harvard at Yale, February 6, 8 p.m.

The Harvard women will also be featured on CSTV in a rematch of last year’s Frozen Four when the Crimson take on Minnesota-Duluth, December 12, at 8 p.m. Note the new start times for the evening games; a change from the traditional 7 p.m. league start time.

The network will also air the ECAC Championship Game from Albany, N.Y., on March 20, at 7 p.m.

CSTV can be seen in approximately 15 million homes nationwide on cable and satellite through Adelphia and Insight systems, as well as DirecTV.

Friday Night Special

If the Vermont Catamounts (0-5-2, 0-2-0) get the sense that their surroundings on Friday are a bit dark, they don’t need to check their vision. As part of Rensselaer’s first-ever “Black Friday” festivities, the team will wear special black jerseys during the game against UVM.

The Engineers are also encouraging their fans to wear black clothing from head-to-toe, with students that wear any black item of clothing receiving a free ticket with their student ID.

During the first and second periods, all fans will have an opportunity to take part in an auction to purchase the jerseys. Bids will begin at $80. The highest bidder at the start of the third period will be declared the winner and awarded the sweater on the ice immediately after the game.

Two Minutes For …

As promised at the start of the season, each week we’d like to give a fan the opportunity to express their thoughts on an issue related to the ECAC. This week, we welcome Ryan Luley. The following is his “Two Minutes For … ” contribution. Readers are encouraged to submit their own thoughts to us at [email protected]. Ryan, the stage is yours, and thanks!

“I love college hockey, I love the ECAC, and most importantly, I love my alma mater, St. Lawrence University; three significant reasons why I am writing this today. You see, in January at the NCAA Convention, [representatives from] some 400 Division III schools will decide whether St. Lawrence, Clarkson and RPI, among five other schools, should be allowed to offer scholarships for hockey, a sport in which all three ‘play up’ to Division I.

“The presidents and athletic directors at these institutions have made great points, provided valid statistics and generally have defended their collective cause very well. So, rather than regurgitate those points, I’d like to offer a fan’s view of this issue.

“St. Lawrence is hockey. Hockey is St. Lawrence. Not every student at St. Lawrence derives pleasure or excitement from the hockey program, but by-and-large the campus comes alive in the winter for the hockey season.

“Division III might take away St. Lawrence’s scholarships, but [it] can’t take away Appleton Arena, the siren and ‘Here Come the Saints,’ the banners in the rafters, Clarkson vs. SLU and, most importantly, the tradition of Saints hockey.

“Hockey is part of the St. Lawrence experience whether you throw yourself in amongst it or not. Not long ago, St. Lawrence decided that hockey’s Division I standing was an important part of the University’s history, and that to remain a competitive Division I program, it was necessary to provide scholarships.

“If this legislation passes, three ECAC schools will lose more than just scholarships. They will lose the ability to compete at a national level, and most importantly, they will lose tradition. St. Lawrence, Clarkson and RPI are three vital pieces of what the ECAC has become. If they are weakened, the league is weakened.

“If it ain’t broke, PLEASE don’t fix it.”

In Case You Missed It …

In other Rensselaer news, the Engineers recently announced the hiring of Andrew Will as interim assistant coach. He began his duties November 5.

Will, a defenseman at Union, served as an assistant under Kevin Sneddon for four years with the Dutchmen. While in Schenectady, his duties included working with defensemen, video analysis, recruiting and strength and conditioning.

As a player, Will served as captain in his senior campaign (1996-97). That season he was named to the All-ECAC Second Team All-Star squad and was awarded the league’s Best Defensive Defenseman honors.

Also reported on USCHO last month was Colgate’s decision to start awarding athletic scholarships. The decision leaves Union and the Ivies as the only schools in the ECAC that do not award hockey scholarships. Of course, Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Rensselaer face much larger issues regarding their scholarships and Division I status for next season.

The Raiders’ decision was based on making the school more competitive for excellent student-athletes who have, on many occasions, been lost to programs offering scholarships. The University also envisions the more competitive and successful teams that will result as a way to inspire stronger school spirit among faculty, staff and students.

St. Lawrence was the most recent ECAC school to add scholarships, doing so in 1998 and reaping the rewards with three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, a regular-season title and back-to-back league championships.

While it is impossible to guess how soon, or if, the Raiders’ new policy will translate to increased success on the ice, Colgate’s decision certainly adds to the very competitive recruiting environment nationally, and especially in the ECAC.

What’s On Tap

Cornell and Colgate travel to the North Country this weekend to battle Clarkson (4-2-2-, 1-1-0) and St. Lawrence (2-6-3, 1-1-0). Nationally-ranked for 32 consecutive weeks, the Big Red have won four in a row and nine of the last 10 against the Knights, their opponents on Friday. Versus the Saints, Cornell is on a 3-0-1 run over the last two seasons.

Colgate is 4-1-2 over the last seven games against the Saints. The teams tied both of their games last season. St. Lawrence leads Colgate 28-19-1 all-time at Appleton Arena. The Saints lost two of three games against the Raiders in the ECAC playoffs last season, but are on a 5-0-2 run at home against them. Meanwhile, the Saints have lost two straight to Cornell at home after enjoying a 4-0-3 run. Overall, since 1994-95, SLU is 8-6-4 over Cornell, but 0-3-1 in the last four.

Clarkson is the only ECAC team with an all-time winning record against Cornell (44-41-8) dating back to a 0-0 tie in Ithaca during the 1922-23 season. Against Colgate, the Knights closed out the 1990s with four consecutive losses, but have rebounded to go 7-0-1 since, with three shutouts in the last four games.

Vermont and Dartmouth (2-0-1, 1-0-1) head on the road against Capital Region partners Rensselaer (3-3-1, 1-1-0) and Union (6-2-1, 1-1-0). The Cats and Engineers split last season’s contests, while Union swept a pair from Vermont. Rensselaer leads the all-time series against UVM, 30-26-7. In the last 10 games, the Engineers are 5-3-2 against the Cats, with a 17-7-5 advantage at home.

While the Cats have the historical edge over the Dutchmen, 14-9-2, Union has won the last five with UVM’s last win coming January 2001, 6-3, at Gutterson Fieldhouse. Union is 6-3-2 at home against Vermont, including three consecutive victories.

Finally, this weekend, Princeton and Yale visit Harvard and Brown in an all-Ivy dust-up. Good news for the Tigers as they enter Bright Hockey Center with a 6-3-2 record in their last 11 games in the Crimson’s home rink, including a 2-1 victory last season and an unbeaten streak of four contests.

Against the Bears, Princeton trails the all-time series 55-70-4, with a 22-40-1 mark in Providence. Brown defeated the Tigers four time last season, including in the ECAC playoffs.

The Elis travel to Rhode Island on Friday to continue a tradition that began during the 1897-88 campaign. Yale leads all-time 75-64-7. Brown split their regular season games last season, but captured two of three in the postseason.

Harvard and Yale own a rivalry that dates back to 1899. The Crimson lead the series 128-69-17 all-time and swept both games last season. Harvard has won three of the last four regular season match-ups against the Elis.

Proof of the Power of the Eclipse

You can’t make this stuff up. SLU redshirt senior Tony Maci scored his first goals in 49 career games with a pair in the win over Rensselaer. His teammate, redshirt junior Jamie Parker, tallied his first in 36 career contests in the same game.

And here’s another. When Princeton scored early in the second period on Friday, it marked the Tigers’ first lead this season and snapped a run of 237:22 without a lead that dated back to last season.

You can just feel the tidal forces at play.

Thanks to Katie Baker and Ryan Luley for their contributions to this column.

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Nov. 13, 2003

By Jim Connelly

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November 13, 2003

First Analysis of Standings: Interesting

We’re six weeks into the season, and for most Atlantic Hockey teams a couple of weeks into the league schedule. With a total of 15 league games complete, a quick check of the standings reveals some interesting trends.

Three clubs stand without a loss: Mercyhurst and Quinnipiac are both 3-0-0 and Holy Cross is 4-0-1. Four teams are without a win: Canisius is 0-4-1, Bentley is 0-1-1, American International is 0-2-0 and Sacred Heart is 0-3-0. Sandwiched in between are Army at 2-1-1 in fourth place and Connecticut at 1-2-0.

The translations would be that a clear early-season line seems to be developing between the top of the league and the bottom. The league’s top three teams follow the preseason predictions. The Crusaders, Lakers and Bobcats were all figured to be top clubs. That those three teams would jump out early isn’t shocking, but is interesting. Looking around at other conferences, even the top teams have blemishes.

The bottom of the league is similar. Many questioned whether Canisius and Sacred Heart could be strong with young lineups. A few wondered if Bentley could hold its pattern as a dominant MAAC club as the league transitioned over to Atlantic Hockey. And AIC was the preseason pick for the cellar, all due respect to the Yellow Jackets.

So taking all of this into consideration, one has to ask: Is Atlantic Hockey becoming predictable? Coaches disagree.

“We’ve only played three league games. Our league schedule started so late and we played a lot of nonconference games in October,” said Sacred Heart coach Shaun Hannah. “It’s really far too early to tell anything.

Even the top of the pile agrees.

“There haven’t been enough games yet to tell,” said Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin. “As easily as you can win two, you can lose two. Something eventually is going to give.

“Much like I did last year, I think it’s anybody’s regular season to have. It’s all about getting the right mental aspect and the right chemistry at the right time.”

For clubs such as Canisius and Sacred Heart, a lot of the early season reflects youth. As the season progresses, they believe that they’ll be contenders.

“To someone who is right in here in the middle of it, they see that we’ve made a lot of progress,” said Hannah of his squad, which sports 10 rookies. “We have to overcome some things here early.

“We’ve been in every game except the Providence game (a 7-2 loss). In all of the other games we made some mistakes in the defensive zone that have cost us goals and wins. But we’re making progress every night.

“The attitude is totally positive.”

As for the fact that the league’s preseason favorites have jumped out to fast starts, there are two schools of thought.

“These teams have obviously had a good start and jumped out in front,” said Hannah. “But it’s early enough that there’s an opportunity for teams to creep back in there. We’ve got a real big chunk of the schedule left to climb the ladder and get back in the thick of it all.”

Gotkin, on the top of that ladder, doesn’t see these early-season wins as any more critical than, say, a nonleague game.

“With the playoff structure this year, every team makes the playoffs and there is no home ice, so there’s none of that to be had this year,” said Gotkin, referring to a playoff system that will provide spots for all nine teams with the entire single-elimination playoffs played at Army’s Tate Rink. “In the past we had clear goals — to make the playoffs, get home ice and win the league.

“Now all we have is to win the league and hope that in March we’re playing well enough to win three straight games.”

Regardless, it will be interesting to watch the coming weeks to see if the Atlantic Hockey standings will become a melting pot or a league with a continental divide.

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week

David Wrigley, Mercyhurst (Jr, F, Washago, Ontario) — Wrigley had a six-point weekend, including a four-goal game against Army Friday night. He scored in the first period, had two goals (including the game-winner) in the second, and added his fourth in the third. He also assisted on Mercyhurst’s first goal against UConn Saturday and the game-winner in overtime.

Goaltender of the Week

Jamie Holden, Quinnipiac (Jr, G, Telkwa, B.C) — Holden put together another fine outing on Saturday as the Bobcats downed Sacred Heart, 4-2. The junior turned away 41 of 43 shots, including 19 in the third, to help the Bobcats to their third straight win. The 41 saves were the second most for him this season, coming second only to a 45 save effort at Wisconsin.

Freshman of the Week

William Magnuson, Connecticut (Fr., F, Rochdale, MN) — Magnuson scored his first goal of his UConn career in timely fashion, slipping the puck in the net in overtime to give the Huskies a 4-3 win over Canisius on November 7. Magnuson has one goal and one assist on the season for two points.

Alum in NHL a First for League

Pat Rissmiller, who two seasons ago led the then-MAAC in scoring capturing league honors as player of the year, has become the first MAAC/Atlantic Hockey player to appear on an NHL roster.

After signing with the San Jose Sharks as a free agent on September 30, 2002, Rissmiller has spent a good part of two seasons on the roster for the Cleveland Barons, San Jose’s AHL farm team. This year, Rissmiller leads all Barons scorers with 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in 11 games, has a plus-5 rating and is 11th in the league in scoring.

The Sharks will hope that Rissmiller can help a lineup that has been unimpressive at 3-6-6-1, only a point ahead of hapless Phoenix for last place in the Pacific Division.

Over his collegiate career, Rissmiller scored 143 points, highlighted by a 46-point senior campaign. The native of Belmont, Mass., registered 40 points in 72 games with the Barons last season.

Wild Weekend Out West

Mercyhurst and Canisius were the sites of some strange happenings last Friday and Saturday — ones that over time you may only see once or twice.

Start Friday night at Canisius. Connecticut held a late 3-2 lead in a game that had been relatively peaceful. That was until the final seconds.

With the goalie on the bench in favor of the extra attacker, the Griffs buried the equalizer with just two seconds remaining as Daryl Pierce set up Jaymie Harrington to knot the score at three.

In the excitement of the goal, though, a skirmish broke out in front of the UConn net where Pierce ended up throwing and landing punches in front of referee Rick Prochaska. The man in stripes slapped Pierce with a major and game disqualification for fighting, giving the Huskies a five-minute power play to take them through much of the overtime period.

Three minutes, 26 seconds into the OT, William Magnuson buried the game-winner for UConn, spoiling the Canisius comeback and making Pierce into the goat.

“One of their guys (Pierce) celebrated a little too much and celebrated on one of our players,” said UConn coach Bruce Marshall. “I think the ref had to call something and he ended up calling a major.

“It was a great learning point for a young team. Our captain (the player who got punched) didn’t retaliate and I told the guys afterwards that I probably couldn’t have done that.”

One night later, though, the tables turned on UConn. Playing at Mercyhurst, the Huskies jumped to a 4-1 lead in the second only to see Mercyhurst climb back into the game, tie it in the third period and win in overtime.

The kicker, though, was the fact that Mercyhurst was awarded a penalty shot just 12 seconds into overtime when UConn D-man Mark Murphy covered the puck his own crease. David Wrigley took the shot for the Lakers a night after he scored four goals in a 7-2 win over Army, but was stuffed by UConn goalie Scott Tomes.

That, though, would matter little once a Rich Hansen shot deflected off a UConn defender and controversially ended up in back of Tomes.

“It looked like [Tomes] got his arm on it before it went in the net,” said Marshall, who also noted that the penalty shot was the first he’s ever seen awarded in his 16 years of coaching, “but the ref was in position and said the arm and the puck were in the net.”

“It was wild,” said Gotkin, whose team extended its winning streak to four with Saturday’s victory. “Goals were disallowed, goals were awarded. There were penalty shots. A little bit of everything was going on here Saturday night.”

Yes, indeed, a little bit of everything.

‘Gate Will Sail Into Harbor

Following up a recent column on the lack of home games that Atlantic Hockey teams play against the Big Four conferences, Hannah pointed out that the Pioneers, in fact, will host ECAC member Colgate this December at the Arena at Harbor Yard — the AHL home of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

It’s the second straight year that the Pioneers are part of college hockey at this venue. A year ago Sacred Heart teamed up with Quinnipiac and now-defunct Fairfield to host the MAAC Hockey Challenge. This year, it will be a solo show for the Pioneers when they host the Raiders on December 12, and Hannah is hoping for a solid fan turnout.

“We wanted to find the teams that have a marketable image,” said Hannah about choosing a nonleague opponent. “Strength of alumni was what we looked for when we were looking for the team to bring in.”

According to Hannah, Colgate has a large alumni base in the southern Connecticut and New York City area, all easily accessible to Bridgeport. He hopes that strong ticket sales can make an event in a venue like this profitable.

“It can be a financial situation that works,” Hannah said. “If we sell some tickets and play some opponents who are good draws, then it can work.”

Hannah noted that much of the push to play in the Arena revolves around balancing SHU’s schedule. The Pioneers have played most of their nonleague games on the road since moving to Division I six years ago.

This Week in Division III: Nov. 13, 2003

By Chris Lerch

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November 13, 2003

Is It February Already?

It just seems that way. One of the major grudge matches in Division III hockey, traditionally reserved for the final showdown of the regular season, happens Friday night when Elmira invades RIT’s Ritter Arena for the 65th meeting between the two schools. The Tigers lead the series 31-29-4.

Elmira is coming off a split of conference games last weekend. The Soaring Eagles dropped a 4-2 decision to Manhattanville on Friday before rebounding with a 7-3 win over Neumann on Saturday.

Elmira hasn’t been to RIT this early in the season since 1989 when the Soaring Eagles lost to the Tigers in the finals of the RIT tournament. But even then, they returned for the traditional mid-February brawl.

Soaring Eagles coach Tim Ceglarski says he likes the new arrangement. “I think it’s healthy for everybody,” he said. “When all the key games are late in the season, sometimes you don’t know what kind of team you really have until then.

“You also get to see what other teams have and what they’re doing,” added Ceglarski. “It’s a lot better than scouting to just play everybody once earlier in the season.”

By the end of this weekend, Ceglarski will have seen all but one of his ECAC West opponents. He’s already convinced that it’s going to be the same old dogfight, probably even tougher.

“You can’t look past anyone or take a night off in the ECAC West,” he said. “I know the NCHA is a very strong league, but I’d put our top four or five teams against theirs.”

Domination

Speaking of the NCHA, its annual non-conference battle with the MIAC has been a one-sided affair. Going into this weekend, the NCHA is 13-1-2 against its Midwestern rivals. 16 more games between the two leagues are on tap for this weekend.

Making Progress

Things are looking up at Neumann. After finishing last season 1-22-1 and being outscored 173-48. the Knights are off to a 3-4 start with a goal differential of only minus-5.

“They’re bringing in good players,” said Ceglarski. “The players being recruited are coming from leagues playing a higher level of hockey than they had before.”

Former Neumann player and Hockey Humanitarian finalist Bryan Isola was recently drafted by the by the Jacksonville Barracudas of the new World Hockey Association 2. The WHA2 is a developmental league for the WHA, which begins play in 2004, hoping to fill the void in the likely event of an NHL lockout next season.

Weekly Awards

ECAC Northeast Player of the Week — Cameron Vandeveer, Lebanon Valley. The sophomore winger scored a pair of goals in two Flying Dutchmen wins. Vandeveer got the game winner in a 4-1 win over UMass-Dartmouth.

Goalie of the Week — The honors are shared between Lebanon Valley’s Sonny Holding and UMass-Dartmouth’s Ryan Grant. Grant stopped 65 of 69 shots last weekend, while Holding made 60 saves in wins over Hobart and UMass-Dartmouth.

Rookie of the Week — Josh Green, Stonehill. The freshman netminder, making his first collegiate start, made 24 saves in a 3-2 loss to Wentworth.

ECAC West Player of the Week — Jason Kenyon, Manhattanville. The junior forward scored two goals, including the game winner, in a big 4-2 win over Elmira.

Goalie of the Week — Greg Fargo, Elmira. Fargo made 69 saves in a 4-2 loss to Manhattanville and a 7-3 win against Neumann.

Rookie of the Week — Justin Rohr, Manhattanville. Rohr scored his first career goal in a 2-1 win against Utica.

MCHA Player of the Week –Brock Anundson, UM-Crookston. The Golden Eagles junior forward had a pair of goals and three assists in a weekend split with MSOE. Anundson got the game winner on Friday, and assisted on both goals in a 3-2 loss on Saturday.

Goalie of the Week — Matt Burzon, MSOE. The Raider’s goalie stopped 27 of 29 shots in a 3-2 overtime victory against Minnesota-Crookston.

Rookie of the Week — Nick Anton, Lawrence. Anton repeats as ROTW after a three-point weekend in a split with Northland.

NCHA Player of the Week — Adam Kostichka, Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The junior forward had a combined five points, including a pair of shorthanded goals, in Pointer wins against Lawrence, Bethel and Hamline.

SUNYAC Player of the Week — Matt Donskov, Cortland. The senior forward had two goals and three assists in the Red Dragons’ sweep of Brockport and Geneseo.

Goalie of the Week — Brett Walker, Geneseo. The junior netminder made 47 saves in a 2-2 tie with Oswego.

Rookie of the Week — Scott Lengyel, Cortland. Lengyel tallied his first career goal and chipped in an assist in a 7-4 victory against Geneseo.

Musical Chairs

If you haven’t already, read Scott Biggar’s piece on the increased number of players transferring these days. There are quite a few more this season due to the demise of hockey programs at Iona, Fairfield and MCLA. While there are many D-I to D-III transfers that will make significant contributions to their new teams, there are also three Division III to Division III moves worth noting:

Nick Cote — The senior transferred from the defunct MCLA program, where he scored a whopping 72 goals, including a league-leading 33 last season. Imagine what he can do with a more talented cast.

Ryan Gill — The senior compiled a 24-4-4 record at St. Norbert, but lost his starting job last season. He’s now at Concordia, and recorded the only MIAC win in the 16 MIAC vs. NCHA games last weekend, a 6-2 decision over Wisconsin-Stout. Gill made 33 saves.

Manu Mau’u — The junior forward scored 97 points in two seasons at Johnson & Wales; he now plays for rival Curry. The teams square off on Valentine’s day.

Feel the love.

This Week in the WCHA: Nov. 13, 2003

By Todd D. Milewski

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November 13, 2003

The Proving Ground

Some thoughts this week, while coming up with excuses why we picked St. Cloud State for eighth place this season:

Black safety nets are now installed above the Plexiglas behind the goals at the Kohl Center. It’ll be interesting to hear how people high up in the 300 level like trying to see the other end of the ice through not only a net, but the suspended horizontal piping that holds it up.

Through 22 WCHA games so far this season, only one has ended in a tie (4.5 percent). That pace is down quite a bit from last year, when 26 of the 140 WCHA games ended in ties (18.6 percent). 36 percent of the games have been decided by one goal or less, so it’s not for a lack of close games. Maybe this is the season when winning two points takes more of an emphasis than not losing the sure one point.

The preliminary report of the Division III legislative review committee of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association recommends the full Division III body oppose the elimination of the waiver that allows Colorado College and other D-III schools who play at the Division I level of the right to award athletic scholarships. It’s about time someone wised up.

Michigan Tech’s Chris Conner was named the player of the month for October by the Hockey Commissioners’ Association. And thanks to the group for the name change from the cumbersome Ice Hockey Collegiate Commissioners Association.

And finally: Hey, some things surprise everyone. St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl had no complaints when his team was picked for eighth by the WCHA coaches, too. Now the Huskies are in first place and get a chance to prove they belong there with a series at North Dakota this weekend.

Talking Down

In the wake of losses that put them at 2-5 and 2-6 early this season, Minnesota players started hurling negatives at themselves.

“There are guys in the locker room who either don’t have heart, or they’re not playing hard,” captain Grant Potulny told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis after Friday’s 7-3 loss to North Dakota. “To be [2-5] is absolutely ridiculous.”

Sophomore Tyler Hirsch, to the St. Paul Pioneer Press: “Right now, we don’t have any heart.”

Sophomore Gino Guyer, to the Star Tribune on Saturday: “We didn’t compete as hard as we could for 60 minutes. We haven’t done that all year. We need some kind of spark.”

Gophers coach Don Lucia, who didn’t say a word to his team after Friday’s loss, refused to buy into the “no heart” talk.

“I think they’re frustrated,” he said. “I don’t question our players’ hearts. They’ve won two national titles. So that’s not an issue with me. I can go back to a couple things: We’ve got new goaltenders we’re breaking in; all of a sudden, your top two [defensemen] get hurt. They’re not excuses, it’s the reality.

“And I do believe there was, to start the year, a little bit of a hangover. Why is Tampa Bay 4-5 [in the NFL]? It’s a little bit of human nature. And I also believe we started with a very difficult schedule. So I think it’s been a combination.

“I don’t point the finger at one area. It’s not our goaltending, it’s not our [defense], it’s not our forwards — it’s a little bit of all of it. We have to coach better and our forwards have to play a little bit harder than what they’ve played. I think they think they’ve played hard, but I don’t think they’ve scored like they’re capable of scoring.”

Lucia also said he wouldn’t do much to alter the way his team approaches things.

“We didn’t come out and skate our guys on Monday or anything like that,” Lucia said. “We came out and practiced, tried to get better. I’ve been at this thing too long. I’m not going to change our approach.”

Shooting Themselves in the Foot

Getting 41 shots on goal and scoring only once last Saturday night against Alaska-Anchorage only magnified the scoring problems this season for Minnesota State.

The Mavericks have a 6.5 percent shooting efficiency this season, the lowest among WCHA teams. They’re last in scoring, a half a goal per game behind Anchorage, which ranks ninth.

All this while Mankato’s defense is third in the league in goals allowed per game. All this somewhat puzzles Mavs coach Troy Jutting because he sees his team giving effort and getting chances but getting no rewards.

Shane Joseph, the highly touted senior who had 29 goals and 65 points last season, has only four goals and five points through eight games.

“Shane’s only got four goals, but it’s not for a lack of opportunities and it’s not for a lack of work,” Jutting said. “They’re all working pretty hard at it. I don’t care who you play in this league, if you get 41 shots on net, you’ve had a pretty good night. The quality of those shots were pretty good as well. I don’t fault the kids at all — I don’t fault their effort, I don’t fault their desire, it’s just not happening. It’s kind of tough because I know it’s starting to drain on them mentally.”

The frustrating part for the Mavs is that, with goalscoring, there’s not much Jutting or his staff can do, especially because the chances have been there. All they can do is hope the scoring funk goes away before it becomes an epidemic.

“We’re getting shots. Forty-one shots and one goal is not going to cut it,” Jutting said. “We’ve got to find a way to score some goals. And it’s a tough thing because with goalscoring, it’s not something you can really coach. Most of it becomes a mental thing with the kids. If they’ve struggled with it, it becomes one of those things where kids start to put pressure on themselves and then I think it gets worse.

“We’re just at a stage where we’ve got to figure out a way to break through a little bit that way. I think if we can, then it’ll get a lot better. But until you score some, you don’t have the confidence you need to score. I think the problem complicates itself.”

Wisconsin broke out with 14 goals last weekend against Michigan Tech, and the Mavericks have to be hoping for a similar kind of performance this weekend at home against the Huskies.

Meanwhile, the Mankato defense has held up remarkably well considering it’s playing three freshmen every night. The Mavs are allowing only 2.5 goals per game.

“As it turns out, that’s been very good,” Jutting said.

Getting Defensive

In a normal situation, you’d look at this weekend’s St. Cloud State-North Dakota series and come to the conclusion that the Huskies’ league-best penalty kill should play a big role.

Not so fast. Because the Sioux have struggled to finish the job on the power play this season (they scored their first three PPGs last weekend but still rank last in the WCHA at 8.1 percent), that aspect of the game may not be a factor at all.

North Dakota’s offense, which is averaging 5.71 goals per game, will be enough for the Huskies to try to stop.

“We know it’s going to be a tough weekend, trying to contain those forwards,” St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl said. “We just can’t make any mistakes defensively, that’s for sure.”

Not Good Enough

Jamie Russell got a look at some of the shortcomings of his Michigan Tech team last weekend, then got a look at the results.

Wisconsin exploited a number of weaknesses to run out to a 6-0 lead on Friday. A night later, the Badgers pulled away in the third period to earn a sweep at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

“In terms of systems and assignments, we did most of the things right most of the time,” Russell said. “In this league, that’s not good enough. You’ve got to be thorough for 60 minutes and you can’t blow an assignment on a faceoff, you can’t get beat on a backcheck.”

The Huskies’ line of Conner, Colin Murphy and Taggart Desmet went scoreless for the first time this season on Saturday. It also was the first time the Huskies have been swept this season.

“There are some positives to take from the weekend, but bottom line, we didn’t get any points,” Russell said. “We’ve got to win some games on the road now.”

Keeping Their Heads

Wisconsin players appear to be taking a mature approach to their rivalry games against Minnesota at the Kohl Center this weekend.

Considering Minnesota’s recent dominance in the series (the Gophers have won 10 of the last 12 meetings), it might be time for a new way of looking at things for the Badgers.

UW players acknowledged the rivalry this week, but then went on to talk about how big a couple victories would be in the WCHA race.

“It is a big rivalry, but at the same time you know you want to win some games,” UW forward Nick Licari said. “We are on a four-game winning streak right now and we want to do whatever it takes to keep that going, it doesn’t matter who we play.”

Representatives of the Minnesota side, especially Lucia, have appeared to have a cool reaction to rivalry questions in recent years, and maybe that’s why the Gophers have been the more successful team. An argument can be made that if you focus too much on the rivalry, you lose sight of the games themselves.

Badgers senior Rene Bourque talked about how much he wanted to beat the Gophers, then came back with a levelheaded statement: “We can’t let that get in the way of the things we want to do.”

Needed Rest

Colorado College coach Scott Owens said his team will use this bye week to recharge its batteries.

Good timing. Between bumps and bruises and all-out injuries, the Tigers could use a break right now.

Senior captain Colin Stuart is the latest addition to the injury list. He’ll be out until at least mid-December with a separated shoulder suffered in a home loss to Denver last Friday. The other key injuries: Brett Sterling, whose broken thumb likely will keep him out until Thanksgiving; and Brandon Polich, whose lacerated spleen won’t allow him to return before January.

Defenseman Jesse Stokke played in a forward position last Saturday night just to give the Tigers 12 players on offense. “We’ve been doing a little bit with patchwork,” Owens said, “but we’re hanging in there.”

Owens noted that the 4-1 victory over Denver last Saturday, sealed with three third-period goals to break a 1-1 tie, was an important step for his team.

“It was big for us because it’s our natural rival, first of all,” Owens said. “They had beaten us in our building in front of 7,700 people and it wasn’t pretty. So it was huge for our young team’s development to come back the next day and to win in their building. From that standpoint, building the team and confidence and young guys learning, it was very, very valuable.

“I don’t know if we’re a fourth-place team or a seventh-place team. I don’t know where we’re at. But every point is going to be important.”

Sad Note

St. Cloud State played last weekend’s series at Minnesota-Duluth with a heavy heart after attending the funeral of the wife of their longtime goalie coach, Bill Frantti.

Frantti’s wife Kathy died on Nov. 1. Many Huskies players went to the funeral last Wednesday.

“Bill’s a great guy,” Dahl said. “He’s in his 70s and he’s like a grandfather figure to a lot of the players. … Anytime you lose somebody within the family, it’s important to show support and respect.”

When It Rains …

For the second straight year, a Potulny has suffered a long-term injury for Minnesota. Last season, Grant went out in the first game with a fractured ankle and ligament damage.

Now, younger brother Ryan is expected to miss four months after surgery Friday to repair damage to the lateral collateral ligament in his left knee. He was injured in last Friday’s game but still played on Saturday. An MRI on Monday showed the damage and, on Tuesday, doctors determined surgery was necessary.

The school said Ryan Potulny is eligible for a medical hardship waiver to regain a season of eligibility. There’s a chance he could be ready for the WCHA playoffs if he can stay on the four-month projection, but Lucia said it’s doubtful Potulny would be back this season.

“We’re going to do what’s best for him,” Lucia said, “not what’s best for us.”

Lucia added: “Ryan was starting to play real well for us. He was on the power play, and that’s the one facet that has been going pretty decent for us this year.”

Potulny is tied for seventh among rookies with five points, all on assists.

Turnabout is Fair Play

Adam Coole said Scott Sandelin grabbed his arm after last weekend’s series at the DECC and told him he was proud of him.

It was quite a comeback for the St. Cloud State goaltender. Coole, a Duluth native who was released by Sandelin, the Minnesota-Duluth coach, before joining the Huskies, earned a two-game sweep of the Bulldogs.

“It’s not payback because he never once mentioned anything about Duluth,” Dahl said. “I think his whole thing was he wanted to prove to himself that he could play at the Division I level. He went into a very high pressure situation playing up there on Friday night because it is his old hometown and it’s his old team. I figured it was going to be tough on him emotionally, but I figured if he could play well in a big game — not necessarily even thinking win — with that much pressure, that would give him a lot of confidence and help build his morale for down the road. He did an excellent job. He handled himself with class.”

Coole is 4-0 with a 2.18 goals against average and a .936 save percentage. He leads the league in save percentage, is tied for the most wins and has the second-best goals against average. Not bad for someone who was 5-22-4 coming into this season.

The Breakout

Once Brandon Bochenski broke his scoring drought against Minnesota, points came pouring in for the North Dakota forward.

Bochenski got his first goal in 10 games against the Gophers on a redirection off his shin pad, one of his five points in a victory over Minnesota last Friday. He had two goals, three assists and a pretty good feeling.

“I think I’ve had some of the most unusual goals ever,” Bochenski told the Grand Forks Herald. “And that was my first goal in 10 games against them, so it broke a lot of things — luckily not my leg.”

It also ended the Sioux’s run without a power-play goal. North Dakota started the season scoreless on its first 27 attempts.

Moving On

Wisconsin assistant coach John Hynes is leaving the Badgers after this weekend’s series with Minnesota to become the head coach of the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich.

It’s Hynes’ third stint with the NTDP — he was a graduate assistant there and worked under Mike Eaves before both left for Wisconsin before the 2002-03 season.

And it puts the Badgers in a bind. Eaves said the school would post an opening for two weeks and see what kind of response it gets. Considering it’s a ways into the season, he’s not sure what to expect and said it’s possible the Badgers will go through the rest of the season with only one full-time assistant, associate head coach Troy Ward.

“I think the timing of this job was a little bit tough, in the middle of the season,” said Hynes, 28. “But Mike and I talked quite extensively, just as far as the opportunity and my history with that program. One of the things that is important to me is that it’s not just a junior program or another team; it is the national program.”

Houghton Says Hello

Leftover notes from a trip to Houghton last weekend:

He’s 6-foot-7 without the skates, so with blades on, Michigan Tech’s John Scott has to duck to get through doorways at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Have to admit, too, it was a little odd seeing the defenseman barreling in on a breakaway and maybe odder to see him score on it.

Gotta love the Tech pep band, but why is it that when they sing the theme from “The Muppet Show,” the line you can hear the clearest is: “Why do we always come here?/I guess we’ll never know/It’s like a kind of torture to have to watch the show.” And we wonder what Rolf has to say about that — the Huskies’ Rolf Ulvin, that is.

In Other Words

WCHA weekly award winners were North Dakota’s Bochenski on offense, St. Cloud State’s Coole on defense and Wisconsin’s Jake Dowell as the top rookie. … Alaska-Anchorage finally can move on with its program now that the streaks are over. The Seawolves ended a 35-game winless streak at the start of the season, and last Saturday they ended a 31-game skid in league games — on the road, no less. They had lost 19 straight road league games. … Denver’s Connor James moved into 49th place in the schoool’s scoring books at 117 points. It’ll be a stretch to reach the top 10, however — he needs 53 more points this season. … Minnesota-Duluth and Bemidji State will be playing Saturday’s game for ownership of Babe the Blue Ox, a 10-pound brass trophy. And it’s not likely anyone in the UMD camp needs reminding of the 3-2 loss to the Beavers last season. … Five Wisconsin players scored their first collegiate goals last weekend against Tech, including senior defenseman Jon Krall, who did so in career game No. 96. “I kind of shocked myself when I took the shot,” Krall said. … This weekend’s games with St. Cloud State end North Dakota’s nine-game, season-opening homestand.

FARA Announces Opposition to D-III Scholarship Proposal

USCHO Staff Report

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November 13, 2003

The NCAA Division III Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FARA) has weighed in against the proposal that would eliminate the ability of Division III institutions that “play up” in a single Division I sport to grant athletic scholarships.

The proposal is part of a sweeping Division III reform package that is in the finals legislative phase. It will be voted on by the Division III membership at the annual NCAA Convention in January. If this piece of the reform package is passed, it would eliminate the ability for four Division I hockey schools to award scholarships — Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Rensselaer and Colorado College.

In FARA’s preliminary report, Dennis Leighton, the faculty representative at the University of New England, and Lorrie Clemo, the faculty representative at Oswego State, made recommendations on 18 pieces of the legislation.

The intent of the entire legislation is to steer Division III athletics back in line with its stated goals and philosophies. The ability to “play up” in one sport was confirmed by the passing of a waiver in 1982-83.

Proponents of the new legislation want to eliminate the waiver because they believe the Division III philosophy should apply consistently across all members.

In stating its objection, FARA said, “Less than two percent of current Division III member institutions and roughly 250 participating student athletes operate under this waiver. These institutions have developed identities through the success of their Division I sport that greatly impact recruitment among the general student population as well as alumni relations and gift-giving. Elimination of this waiver may create an undue burden on these member institutions.

“Eliminating the waiver will impose a burden on the affected institutions in terms of potential damage to their institutional identities, while no significant benefit will accrue to other membership institutions.”

The affected schools have been waging an aggressive education campaign in hopes of persuading the more the 400 Division III school presidents to reject this part of the reform package.

Staking Claim to Top Spot

Weekly Awards

Correction, of sorts

Trouble Deep at Quinnipiac

Fit to Be Tied

Saints-Knights, Round One

Sign Here

Former Brown Trainer Passes Away

What’s On Tap

Finally, the Gang’s All Here

Domination, Week Two

Finally, Part II

MCHA Happenings

Weekly Awards

Great Save

He’s Put A Spell On ‘Em

Fly On The Wall

Even Strength On The PK

The Shorthanded King

But On The Other Hand

Quote Of The Week, Take I

Quote Of The Week, Take II

Quote Of The Week, Take III

Ratings Rants

Trivia Contest

And Finally, Not That It Has Anything To Do With Anything, But…

Girls with Pigs

Oh No: This Time the Fortune Cookie Is Right

Oh No: This Time the Fortune Cookie Is Right … Again

Be a Stud Like the Old Days

The Wonder of You and Me

Football Season Is Here! Please Your Woman Better!

This Will Make You Think This Weekend

Holiday Gift for Taco Lovers

Home is Where the Memories Are

It Doesn’t Get Any Easier

Tuning In

Friday Night Special

Two Minutes For …

In Case You Missed It …

What’s On Tap

Proof of the Power of the Eclipse

First Analysis of Standings: Interesting

Weekly Awards

Alum in NHL a First for League

Wild Weekend Out West

‘Gate Will Sail Into Harbor

Is It February Already?

Domination

Making Progress

Weekly Awards

Musical Chairs

The Proving Ground

Talking Down

Shooting Themselves in the Foot

Getting Defensive

Not Good Enough

Keeping Their Heads

Needed Rest

Sad Note

When It Rains …

Turnabout is Fair Play

The Breakout

Moving On

Houghton Says Hello

In Other Words

There’s No Place Like Home-and-Home

Insert Paul Bunyan Joke Here

Alabama-Huntsville Rests

Random Walk

Weakness Becomes Strength

Crusade Almost Over

Cats’ Cradle

Bear Market

Bear Market, Part II

Remaining CSTV Friday Night Hockey Schedule

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