On ‘Cool’, ‘Sick’, and ‘Sweeeeeeet’

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October 24, 2003

This summer, quite suddenly, my son discovered the concept of “cool.”

He’s five and I learned about this on consecutive days in June. First, while riding to “Storyland” in Conway, N.H., my sister mentioned she had to go shopping for kids’ clothes.

“Cool or cute,” said Little Joe.

I wanted to make sure I heard correctly. “What did you say?”

Vulgar chants aren’t cool. Cornell fans holding up the "Cornell Daily Sun" while the opponents are introduced is cool.

“Cool or cute,” he replied. “Clothes are either ‘cool’ or they’re ‘cute’.”

The following week, he and his brother were selling lemonade and snacks in front of the house. As Son No. 1 shouted out to passing motorists, Son No. 2 spoke up.

“Don’t bother yelling at the guys on motorcycles,” offered Little Joe. “Guys on motorcycles are ‘cool’ and cool guys don’t eat this stuff.”

Ah, the power of Nickelodeon.

I can’t recall when I first grasped the notion of something or someone being “cool.” Maybe it was Steve McQueen. Or Sean Connery. It could have been an athlete but as everyone knows, being “great” and being “cool” are two different things.

No one had a better season in my youth than Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox in 1967. But Yaz was never cool. The Big Bad Bruins of the 1970s had talent. Orr was great. Espo was pretty good too. But Derek Sanderson was the one people tended to call cool. Him and perhaps Gerry Cheevers’ mask.

A diehard Sox fan, I just finished watching a dramatic Red Sox-Yankees playoff series and despite my devotion to the Sox, there was truly just one ballplayer in the series who was the personification of cool: Derek Jeter.

Hockey Cool, like cool itself, is in the eye of the beholder. I mean, believe it or not, the mullet was cool once. Still is in Barry Melrose’s house. When Gretzky played, having part of your jersey tucked inside your pants was cool. (When Teddy Green did it 20 years earlier, it was annoying.)

Remember “Cooperalls”? Some people thought they were cool once. I think.

When you were on the freshman team in high school, the varsity was cool. When you practiced and played games all over the place and generally worked out of the trunk of your family car, the guys who had a home rink and a permanent locker room were cool.

I remember watching the Boston University teams of the ’60s and ’70s and thinking their varsity jackets, red wool with cream color leather sleeves, were cool. On the other hand, their helmets, with that tall white stripe down the middle, were not.

Cornell’s Ken Dryden, standing majestically with his gloves atop his stick, was both great and cool. His mask, what there was of it, was cool.

When you sat on the bench, it was definitely not cool to have the blade of your stick up. They tell me that has changed. They also tell me that the word “cool” itself is not cool in many circles. It is now “sweet,” with the word pronounced as if there was more than two “e’s.” Or maybe you would call something “sick.” Like when a puck carrier, on a one-on-one, first puts a puck through a defenseman’s legs and then dekes a goalie and beats him with a backhand roof shot. An observer might say, “That’s sick!” Meaning it as a compliment, of course.

Gerry Cheevers. Cool.

When you went public skating in the old days, it was cool to have your pant leg tucked inside what we called the tendon guard. I’m not sure public skating at all is cool anymore. “Tacks” were cool. “Puckmaster” gloves by Stall and Dean were cool. If you were a goalie, and you had a pair of Kenesky pads, you were really cool.

Game jerseys that have those laces at the neck were cool. They are coming back. And in Canada, they’re called “sweaters.” That’s cool.

It is obviously cool to go out and support your college team and wear your school colors at places like North Dakota and Minnesota and UNH and Cornell and Michigan and so many other campuses. But it just doesn’t happen at other places that I’m too politically correct to identify. I will admit, however, that I went to one of those schools.

My kids think the Zamboni is cool. In fact, their favorite rinks to go to are the ones that now use two Zambonis to clean the ice.

Even though I’m a lifelong Bostonian, I have always been a Chicago Blackhawk fan. That’s because their uniforms, particularly the red ones, are the coolest in all of sports. Stan Mikita was cool.

Bobby Orr used to have just a single strip of tape on his stick blade. Kids thought that was cool. But kids who copied it, particularly kids who weren’t very good players who copied it, weren’t cool at all. Kids who used shiny electrical tape on their sticks were definitely not cool.

Throwing things on the ice couldn’t be less cool. Vulgar chants aren’t cool. Cornell fans holding up the “Cornell Daily Sun” while the opponents are introduced is cool. Leaving a game early because your team is losing is not cool.

In my house, my kids actually think I’m cool. They’re very young. Their mother, however, rarely thinks I’m cool.

I’m sure there are some among you who think that some guy writing about cool isn’t cool at all. But knowing when to stop? And stopping? That’s cool.

And another thing…

At the Hockey East Media Day, I joked that for our 20th anniversary season, we had contemplated coming out with Hockey East Action Figures. There would have been two Jack Parker figures, one as coach and one as athletic director. There would have been a limited edition Mike Milbury figure in a Boston College sweatsuit, commemorating his three weeks as the Eagles’ head coach during the summer of 1994. The Talkin’ Chris Serino figure might have been subject to censorship. And so on.

But then I started thinking, why not? Why not a set of College Hockey Figures? I am sitting in my office and I am looking at my “figurines” of Pedro Martinez, Nomar Garciaparra, Ted Williams, Derek Lowe, and Carl Yastrzemski. Oh, and my new Drew Bledsoe. And my Mike Richter. Okay. So I’m a geek. So what if I have the Danbury Mint on speed dial.

But can’t you imagine a College Hockey Set? Some of the technology out there is producing lifelike reproductions. You could see every detail of Ron Mason’s and John Markell’s hair cuts. I can envision WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod, black turtleneck, silver hair, standing six inches tall on my bookcase. What about the Ben Eaves-Patrick Eaves “Twin Pack”? Maybe there would be a “Father-Son” series. You know, Zach and Jean Paul Parise. Darryl and Ryan Sittler. Hell, Darryl and Ryan and Meaghan Sittler. What about the special “Rivals” series with Clarkson vs. St. Lawrence figures? Or Michigan vs. Michigan State figures? Maybe they would produce a special “Team Figure,” showing the Wolverines’ bench, complete with their long standing (literally) trainer and equipment manager, or, as one official has called them, “those two bookends”?

What about a “Throwback Set” with players and coaches from yesteryear. John Mariucci and John Mayasich, at Minnesota’s old Williams Arena. Guys like Murray Armstrong, and Snooks Kelley and Cooney Weiland wearing fedoras. Can you imagine Snooks’ mug in molded plastic? Their hats could be removable. Like Mike Sertich’s hairpiece.

But wait. Even the media could be captured in all their splendor. There’s the five o’clock stubble on USCHO’s Adam Wodon. There’s the super sized Larry Mahoney from the Bangor Daily News. There’s the Broadcastin’ Bernie Corbett figure thumbing for a ride. I don’t even want to think about how many batteries the Talkin’ Bob Norton figure would require.

As for me, well, if I can be so immodest, there certainly should be a Joe Bertagna figurine. Coat and tie. No. Casual. Sitting at my computer. Responding to e-mails from fans who think I should have better things to do with my time. Looking, sort of, what’s the word I’m looking for? I know, cool.

Joe Bertagna is the Executive Director of the American Hockey Coaches Association and Commissioner of Hockey East.

This Week in Women’s Hockey: Oct. 23, 2003

By David De Remer

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October 23, 2003

The marquee matchup in women’s college hockey this week was one that didn’t even count. Even if it was an exhibition, even if it did have quirky rules like an all-power-play second period, it was still Dartmouth at Harvard.

Dartmouth might have taken the contest between the consensus No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the nation by a 4-2 margin on Wednesday night, but both teams were the winners, simply because of the quality of competition. To keep up with the Western teams that start playing real games a month earlier, both teams felt they needed a preseason foe stronger than the usual high school. The change was welcomed by Harvard coach Katey Stone and new Dartmouth head coach Mark Hudak.

“Mark and I just talked to each other over the summer and decided it would be best for both of us to have some competition in our preseason exhibition season,” Stone said. “It’s great to play those younger teams, and it’s a great recruiting outlet for us. However, it doesn’t always show our weaknesses. We need to put the pressure right on our kids immediately and see who can handle it.”

Dartmouth handled the pressure better than Harvard at the outset, taking a 2-0 lead and a 17-3 shot advantage in the first period, but the teams played evenly for the rest of the night. There was plenty of room for improvement on both sides.

“We have a lot of work ahead,” Hudak said. “I was happy with the way the kids skated. I thought we transitioned worked pretty well. Our forecheck worked well at times. But the power play definitely needs a lot of work, and so does the penalty kill.”

The Harvard power play outscored Dartmouth’s 1-0 during the second period.

Harvard struggled to break the Dartmouth forecheck in the first period and often turned the puck over in the middle of the ice.

“I thought at one point, ‘Oh, God, they’re all over us,’ then all of sudden we gained our composure and we started to come at them a little bit more and that was a little encouraging,” Stone said.

Long-term, Stone hopes her team can do a better job of regrouping in the neutral zone and working back to the defenders.

With both teams just a week into practice, there weren’t many robust conclusions to be drawn from the evening. As anyone who watched Harvard’s 9-2 humbling of Dartmouth last November and Dartmouth’s 7-2 humbling of Harvard in last year’s ECAC final can tell you, Dartmouth-Harvard in March is not determined by Harvard-Dartmouth in the fall–even when it counts. This time, they’ll have to wait until January to play for real.

Hudak Attack

Before this past summer it was tough to imagine Dartmouth women’s hockey without Judy Parish-Oberting, given her decade-plus of service as a player, assistant coach and head coach. That imagining is over since Oberting left the profession for personal reasons during the summer and handed the reins over to Hudak, who has overseen the last five Dartmouth seasons as an assistant. There could not have been a much smoother transition, given the circumstances.

“I certainly know all the kids from having been there for the past five years,” Hudak said. “We’re changing a couple things that we’re doing and it’s been fun to work with them.”

Those changes, he said, were more a result of changing personnel than a coaching change. Against Harvard, the change looked good.

The most noticeable changes for Dartmouth were its lineup’s health and full attendance. Those have not been easy for the Big Green to maintain given its history of injuries and Canadian national team callups. Tri-captain Lydia Wheatley, gone for a season and a half with a torn ACL, is finally back, and tri-captain Meagan Walton is back from a tibia-fibula fracture suffered last January. Krista Dornfield was out with a back injury, but Hudak expects her back soon.

While serious injuries could be avoidable, there will be Canadian callups. During the Four Nations Cup in November, Cherie Piper and Gillian Apps will miss time, but this absence comes at an opportune time in the schedule unlike a year ago, when players were missing games against Frozen Four favorites.

But the biggest international tournament, the World Championships, comes at the most inopportune time — the days following the Frozen Four. Apps, Piper, and Meagan Walton have all spent time with the Canadian national team. Such players could be leaving when Dartmouth needs them the most. It’s a unique challenge for Hudak to face in his first season.

“We’ll see what happens at the end of the year,” Hudak said. “I mean that’s the real tough part, any of the kids that get picked for the Canadian national team will miss NCAAs–whatever players go.”

Line Up

As Dartmouth departed from the 2002-03 norm in having all of its players, so did Harvard in using all of its players.

A year ago, the Crimson most typically rolled no more than three lines in a game, and no more than two lines during crunch time, including almost the entire NCAA final. Stone says that will be different this year.

“I think in order for us to win we’re going to be playing three lines on a regular basis,” Stone said. “If we can play four great, but I think when it gets crunch times it’s going to be three. I think that’s honest with this league and the competition we’re going to face. It won’t be two like it was before.”

Stone forecasts a season with fewer blowouts.

“It’s not going to be like last year for anybody,” Stone said. “There are going to be squeakers. We have to play great defense first and then you’ve got to work your way out, and be tough, and get lucky every once in a while.”

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Oct. 23, 2003

By Jim Connelly

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October 23, 2003

Were tremors felt?

If an Atlantic Hockey team upsets a Big Four opponent and nobody is there to see it, does it make a noise?

Okay, that’s a bad cliché, but last weekend the opposite nearly rang true in multiple venues on multiple nights. The upsets were brewing like a Halloween cauldron used to scare off the five- and six-year-olds in the neighborhood.

Connecticut started the mayhem on Friday night at Rensselaer, holding a 4-1 lead with less than 13 minutes to play, only to have the Engineers construct an impressive comeback and force the Huskies to settle for a 4-4 tie.

To the northwest, in Buffalo, Canisius clung to a 1-0 lead over Lake Superior in the final minute before the Lakers pulled their goalie and tied the game with 31 seconds remaining. Another blown lead, another tie. A night later was even tougher to stomach for the Griffs when they let go of a 2-1 lead on yet another extra-attacker goal with 44 seconds remaining. This time LSSU dealt a final blow in overtime, scoring with 1:33 to play to take three points back to Sault Ste. Marie.

But possibly the most impressive result — and the toughest to swallow for Atlantic Hockey fans — happened in Ann Arbor. Against No. 6 Michigan, Quinnipiac clung to a 4-3 lead in the third period, having battled back from two goals down earlier, and from a 3-2 late second-period deficit.

All that, though, went for naught when Michigan tied the game early in the third and won it in the closing minutes as Brandon Kaleniecki scored his third and fourth goals of the game to steal a 5-4 win for the Wolverines.

Similar to Canisius, Quinnipiac saw déjà vu on Saturday night when a 51-save effort by Justin Eddy was spoiled late in the third as Michigan broke a 2-2 deadlock.

Five nonleague games, three losses and two ties.

If you’re Hockey East or the WCHA, you’re licking your wounds. But the members of Atlantic Hockey are doing the opposite right now. They’re licking their chops, realizing that the playing field is beginning to level and that the league’s better teams can hang with hockey’s top clubs.

“I think the league is getting better in increments, considering the fact that we have an 11-scholarship equivalency cap,” said Canisius head coach Brian Cavanaugh, bringing up a topic for debate another day.

Said Pecknold of his almost-upset (times two): “The first night proved to my players that we do belong on the ice with [Michigan],” said Pecknold. “The second night probably proves to the college hockey world that we do belong.

“We put a huge scare into Michigan on both night and gained some credibility for our program and for Atlantic Hockey.”

Said Mercyhurst head coach Rick Gotkin, a bystander as his club was off last weekend: “What it really means is that Atlantic Hockey is getting better every year. Those of us involved aren’t shocked by that. Our league is better this year and the early scores bear that out. We’re starting to bridge the gap, I think.”

The long and short of all of this is recognition. For six years now, that’s what the members of the league formerly known as the MAAC hoped for. People sat up and took notice last weekend. A few of those people, some of whom might not want to admit it, cheered for Quinnipiac, cheered for Canisius or cheered for Connecticut.

The gap is closing, but there’s still room. Amidst the hoopla of the almost, there was also a 7-0 drubbing of Holy Cross by Maine. Ironically, Holy Cross has played three league games and holds a 2-0-1 record.

And so you don’t think that I skipped over it a dozen or so paragraphs earlier, yes, I know there’s a difference in scholarships. Like I said, that’s an issue for another day. The limit won’t change this year and there’s a very good chance it won’t change next year. But teams are making do. They’re taking the talent they have and bringing every ounce of effort and determination out.

Hopefully for Atlantic Hockey, that continues this weekend. Quinnipiac has the chance to put the tape in the VCR and hit rewind — hoping this time for a different ending — when the Bobcats travel for a two-game set to Wisconsin. A rested Mercyhurst team travels to Ohio State to take on the nationally-ranked Buckeyes. Holy Cross can atone for its loss to Maine with a game at Massachusetts.

And Canisius has the most daunting of all the tasks, facing No. 1 New Hampshire at the HSBC Arena as part of the Punch Imlach College Hockey Showcase.

“I’m going to promote the fact that we’re playing the number-one team in the country for the second year in a row,” said Cavanaugh. “That’s going to help our recruiting.”

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week

Chris Garceau, Army (Jr, F, Guilford, CT) — Garceau scored the game-winning goal in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over American International at Tate Rink. The former Canterbury Prep star tipped in a shot from the point five minutes into the second period while the Black Knights were on the power play. It was Garceau’s second goal of the season.

Goaltender of the Week

Justin Eddy, Quinnipiac (Sr, G, Apple Valley, MN) — The Quinnipiac senior netminder nearly helped the Bobcats steal at least one point from sixth-ranked Michigan on Saturday night in Ann Arbor. Eddy recorded 51 saves — including a Division I record 21 in the first period — against the Wolverines. His outstanding night was the third time in his career that he stopped at least 50 shots in a game. For the season, he is 1-1 with a 2.48 GAA and a .925 save percentage.

Freshman of the Week

Jeremy Leroux, American International (Fr, F, Lunenburg, Ont.) — Played a part in three of the four Yellow Jacket goals this weekend, scoring two and adding an assist. Netted two goals, including a shorthanded tally in a nonconference loss to Union, while adding an assist against Army.

Home-ice advantage?

There are plenty of sayings about home that go way, way, way back.

“Home is where the heart is.” “There’s no place like home.” You get my point.

In college hockey, there are further sayings.

“Home ice is worth a goal for us most nights.” “We love to play in front of the home fans. They’re great.”

How that affects Atlantic Hockey is an interesting tale. Because it’s still, for the most part, an emerging conference, the number of Big Four conference schools going on the road to play an Atlantic Hockey team is small. Further complicating matters is the fact that no facility in Atlantic Hockey even meets the median in terms of Big Four standards.

So ever since October 23, 1999, when Canisius lost 6-3 at Maine, the road has been the place for Atlantic Hockey teams.

Frank Bretti, former coach of the now-defunct Iona program, always felt that the key to the MAAC, and now Atlantic Hockey’s nonleague success started with the venue. Iona got a minor upgrade a couple of years before the program was dropped when it moved into a newly-built facility, still levels below most other Division I schools. He felt, though, that his venue was good enough to host Division I games, and in January of 2001 actually scheduled a home game against Colgate.

That move didn’t exactly start a trend. Since that time, home nonconference games for Atlantic Hockey teams have been few and far between. Last weekend, Canisius hosted Lake Superior for a weekend series. Sacred Heart will host Colgate in December. Other than that, all Atlantic Hockey games against the Big Four will be played on enemy territory.

The reason? Two different schools of thought.

Money factors deeply into both lines of thinking. If a team travels to a nonconference game without an agreement for the opponent to come the opposite direction a year later, a payout — referred to as a “guarantee” — is made. So should Michigan host Quinnipiac, as happened last weekend, without an agreement to play a year later in Connecticut, Michigan is responsible for paying the Bobcats.

The amount of the guarantee varies from school to school, situation to situation. According to Gotkin it’s a negotiation process that could land up to $15,000 into the Lakers’ pockets. Typically, the bigger the school, the bigger the guarantee.

So why, then — other than the obvious reason of not having to travel — could an Atlantic Hockey club not choose to host nonleague games?

There lies the second school of thought. At an institution such a Canisius, getting a big payday through a guarantee doesn’t mean much.

“Every school has their own internal policies as to how the guarantees are handled,” said Cavanaugh. “Some schools get the guarantee to go right back to the [men’s ice hockey] program.

“For us, it doesn’t go back to our hockey team, it goes to a [general] athletic fund. So for us, it’s much more worthwhile and valuable for us to have the team come back to our place and save us our traveling expenses.”

Cavanaugh points out that his club is given an annual budget that encompasses everything from equipment to personnel to travel. Isolated in Buffalo from the rest of the league, travel is pricey for the Griffs. So anyplace that a dollar can be saved is welcome.

“You get a budget to work with and have to work within those confines,” said Cavanaugh. “If we take all of these plane trips and then all of the league trips, we could go $20,000 over budget.

“Next year we’re going to Alaska and they’re paying for some of our plane tickets. But if RPI says, ‘Here’s $5,000 for you to come here,’ and they write me a check, I don’t see any of that money.”

According to Quinnipiac’s Pecknold, Canisius’ situation is unusual — and that’s not referring to the way money is handled.

“There are very few teams that will give you the return game,” said Pecknold, noting that the two-year home-and-home that Canisius had with Lake State was an exception, not the rule. “From the established four conferences, there aren’t a lot of teams who’ll play us if they’re not at home. It’s very rare that it’s going to happen.”

In fact, Pecknold goes as far to say that he feels that playing the road games is beneficial to his club.

“I’m not saying that I wouldn’t take the [home] games, but it was a great experience for our guys to play [last weekend at Michigan]. I want to put them in pressure situations so they get used to it so when we get to playoff time it’s not a big deal.”

Looking Ahead …

As mentioned, this week continues the tough nonleague matchups. Canisius, obviously has the toughest test facing the nation’s top team, New Hampshire. But the AH-WCHA battle between Wisconsin and Quinnipiac should get some attention.

The Bobcats more than survived against an extremely tough Michigan squad last week, and now have the chance to battle Wisconsin, which has lost three straight.

“Wisconsin isn’t as established as Michigan [this season], but they have likely the best freshman class in the country, if not at least one of the top three,” said Pecknold. “They’ve lost three in a row and this is their home opener, so they’ll be fired up.”

Pecknold noted that the Olympic-sized sheet in Madison could be a be factor.

“It will be a different game on the big sheet, because sometimes we go a full season without playing a game on that size ice.”

The back-to-back goaltending performances turned in last weekend by Jamie Holden and Justin Eddy gave both ‘tenders confidence, enough that it has trickled down to the coach.

“If we get some goaltending [against Wisconsin] like we did this past weekend, we’ll be in it,” Pecknold said.

This weekend also marks the first weekend of league play for Army and Bentley. The Falcons host the Cadets in a Friday matchup that will feature two of the league’s top goaltenders in Army’s Brad Roberts and Bentley’s Simon St. Pierre.

This Week in Hockey East: Oct. 23, 2003

By Scott Weighart

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October 23, 2003

Twin Bill

Fans at Friday night’s BU-Providence game can expect to come away with a case of double vision.

Terrier sophomore Brad Zancanaro will face off against his identical twin brother Tony Zancanaro of the Friars in the first Hockey East game of the season for both teams. Adding to the intrigue, both players’ coaches are twins as well.

“Interesting, interesting,” Friar Coach Paul Pooley said. “I’m a twin myself, but I’ve never played against my twin, even when we were in different leagues. I coached a twin at Ohio State who had a twin somewhere else, but they never played against each other. I don’t know how they’ll respond across the ice against each other. I can’t envision that against my brother.

“I don’t want to say bizarre, but it will be different!”

“It’s the parents who will have to worry about which side they’re sitting on,” Terrier Coach Jack Parker said. “They’ll go after each other pretty good. It’ll be fun playing against each other, but at the same time it will be no holds barred. I don’t think that they’ll treat each other any different. They won’t go after each other, but they won’t back off either.”

Parker could be considered to be a reluctant expert on the topic of twin versus twin. The Terrier coaching legend played against his twin in a big high school game back in the 1960s.

“They used to have a tournament called the New England Catholic Tournament in those days, and I was playing for Catholic Memorial and he was playing for Malden Catholic,” Parker recalled. “It was the finals of the tournament, so it was a big game. There was a lot of hype beforehand; it was kind of weird in the Boston papers.

“It was fun, but it wasn’t so fun at the end of the game because Malden Catholic won. I think it was more of a big deal to the press than to the two of us, and I’m sure it will be a bigger deal for everybody else than for the two Zancanaros.”

Each player could be described as a big deal in a smallish package. Brad and Tony are listed as 5-5 and 5-6, respectively, but they both have unusually large hearts. As a freshman last season, Brad emerged quickly as a fan favorite with his hustle and energy. After a banner year in the USHL, his freshman numbers (5-9-14 in 42 games played) weren’t impressive, but they were also misleading.

“One of the reasons he was the second-leading scorer in the U.S. junior league was that he had a lot of assists; he led the league in assists,” Parker said. “It wasn’t that he was a great goal scorer; that wasn’t his forte. If his linemates aren’t scoring, he’s not going to get a lot of assists.

“In the second half of last season, all of a sudden Skladany and Magowan — who he was playing with the last 15-20 games down the stretch — started playing great, and I think it was because he was playing so well,” added Parker. “I was amazed at the end of the year to look at his point totals because I thought he had a great year for us. I thought he would have had more points than that. I think that will come. He’s very clever, very reliable and smart, does a great job killing penalties for us.”

Likewise, brother Tony is off to a slow start on the stat sheet but gets high marks from his coach.

“Can’t say enough good things about him,” Pooley said. “A tremendously committed individual; a student of the game, working very hard, and he is a talented hockey player on both sides of the puck.”

Pooley may have the best frame of comparison on the brothers. “We recruited Brad, too,” noted Pooley. “Tony probably gets his points a little differently than Brad. They both compete really, really hard; obviously, they’re both in great shape. Brad probably has the puck a little more than Tony at times, but Tony is really feisty, sticks his nose in there, probably in my estimation they’re very similar in the way they compete; they just get their points differently.”

“He’s always been more of a finesse player, but I think I’ve learned to play more of that in juniors,” Tony said about Brad. “Playing an extra year of juniors helped me with my finesse game, but I do agree with Coach Pooley.”

“That was the case when we were younger playing together,” Brad said of Tony’s style. “I had more of the finesse role than he did; he was more the in-your-face kind of guy. But in his junior years, he developed the finesse part of the game more. I think he can play any kind of game that his coach asks him to.”

So what do the brothers expect for Friday night’s first game in opposing uniforms? The common word all parties used in the separate interviews was ‘weird.’

“It’s going to be weird; it’s going to be different — never played each other before,” Tony said. “I’m kind of excited but nervous at the same time.”

“It definitely will be weird, but it’s something you’ve got to get over and go out there and play like you normally do,” Brad said. “Out on the ice, he’s just another guy from Providence hockey.”

Try telling that to Mom and Dad, who will be flying in for the game and who had a piece of advice.

Said Brad, “My mom said, ‘No fighting.'”

We’re No. 1 … or maybe No. 5

Probably the hardest part about filling in for Dave Hendrickson this week was trying to come up with a sensible poll. Boston College had been No. 1 but suffered its first loss when splitting in a road series against formidable North Dakota. Meanwhile, Maine kicked butt against light opposition, after downing preseason No. 1 Minnesota the previous week. Throw in UNH, also undefeated but somewhat untested, and see what you think about where to rank these teams — let alone the other top schools.

Do you go mostly with results at this point in the season? Do you opt for who you think is a really good even if they’ve lost a tough game? Do you care if a team looked so-so in winning against a weak opponent?

Readers who bashed Dave a few weeks back for “underrating” Maine should take notice: Black Bear Coach Tim Whitehead is the first to concede that this young Maine team may be a bit overrated right now.

“We have been pleasantly surprised,” said Whitehead, shortly before his team was ranked No. 5 this week with a couple of first-place votes. “We figured that it would take us some time to adjust. Our results so far are maybe a little deceptive. We’re going to have a lot of highs and lows this year just because with inexperience you typically don’t have consistency.

“We’re a little inexperienced at forward and defense, so for us to be rated as high as we are now? We’re perhaps a little overrated,” said Whitehead, chuckling. “But on the other side of that, I’m really excited about what we’ve been able to accomplish so far. We had two really different challenges obviously: the first weekend we were the underdogs and we were able to meet that challenge, and the second weekend we were the favorites, and we were able to meet that challenge… We didn’t play the score or the opponent in any case; we just played our game.

“It’s just too early for us to know how far we’ll go this year,” added Whitehead. “I know what we lost and what we have, and I know how competitive it is, and I know it’s going to be a real challenge to continue to play as consistently as we have. Mind you, that’s our objective.”

Meanwhile, Boston College Coach Jerry York saw his team go toe-to-toe on the road with one of the biggest offensive powerhouses in the country, coming away with a respectable split — only to dip behind UNH in the poll. Yet he agreed that the polls only mean so much right now.

“It’s so early; it’s so difficult,” York said of voting in the polls. “We were trying to do the same thing this morning. Early in the season it’s just throwing darts at the board. We need some more in-depth analysis to be accurate on this thing. We’re certainly in the top five. Are we five? Are we one? North Dakota’s certainly going to be in the top five; I was very impressed with their team. They’re a legitimate national contender, but we’re in that mix also.”

“We have a good team and we want to become very good,” York said. “But you’ve got to make some gains to add that adjective. That’s our goal, and we’re trying to achieve it. I think we’ve got to be a little bit better on the special teams. This weekend we were outstanding on penalty killing: We shut out North Dakota ten times on penalty killing [in Saturday’s win]. That’s one area that we’re really trying to concentrate on, and we saw some real positive signs Saturday night. It will be interesting as the year goes by, how much better we’ll get.”

What about the skeptics who say that BC doesn’t have the goaltending to go all the way this year? York acknowledged the scrutiny of junior netminder Matti Kaltiainen — especially after the Eagles surrendered four third-period goals in Friday’s 6-4 loss at Grand Forks.

“He certainly is one of the keys to our season, there’s no question about that,” York said. “I think Matti’s a good goaltender. Now is he a very good goaltender? That’s what he’s going to have to achieve. Our team has to go from good to very good, but our players have to do that also. We expect Matti to improve each week as he goes on.”

For the moment, UNH eked out the No. 1 slot. However, this weekend’s games against Canisius and Niagara will not be gimmes thanks to the suspension of a whopping eight players who were bystanders during an on-campus riot following the Red Sox’ heartbreaking Game 7 loss. Stay tuned for more topsy-turvy poll action.

Rave Reviews For Engelstad

Without even being asked about the new Ralph Engelstad Arena, York couldn’t help gushing about his first visit.

“Hey, have you had a chance to see that facility?” York asked. “I’ll tell you what: It’s better than most pro rinks, but the underneath is way better. All the dressing rooms, training rooms, weight rooms blow any NHL facility away. $104 million on one building they spent. It’s a great credit to college hockey. You gotta get out there!”

Tough Start For Redlihs

What a difference a year makes… and not in a positive sense in this case. As a freshman last season, Terrier blueliner Jekabs Redlihs played with poise and skill from day one. However, Parker agreed that the Latvian native has had a star-crossed sophomore season thus far.

“He’s been out [for the preseason game and the season opener versus Rensselaer] due to disciplinary problems,” said Parker. “He missed the Vermont game — he was going to miss it anyways because of that — and then breaks his collarbone; he’ll be out for four to six weeks, so tough start for him.”

However, there’s a silver lining for Terrier fans. “We’ll certainly get a good look at our three freshman defensemen because of that, but that will just make us a better team. Redlihs is a terrific player, and he’ll be a great player for us in the second half; he’ll be back in December.”

Freshman Tom Morrow, Kevin Schaeffer, and Sean Sullivan have been solid, not at all playing like rookies to date. “They’re playing with a little poise because they know they’ll be in the lineup for a little while.”

Eaves Hurt … Again

Speaking of injuries, the Eaves’ brothers misfortunes have continued this year … but perhaps not too seriously this time. After missing considerable time during his sophomore year and several games last year as well, Ben Eaves will be out of action again this weekend.

“He suffered a concussion on the second shift of Saturday night’s game,” York said. “He’ll be examined by the doctors — a rough guess [is that he’ll be out] seven to ten days.” He was hit into the glass from behind — just rapped his head into the glass.”

Obviously, keeping both Eaves brothers healthy will be critical in getting the Eagles into the FleetCenter in April. Fortunately for the Eagles, they are facing a light stretch in their schedule — Eaves may only miss one game.

Trivia Contest

Just in time for those of you preparing for midterms, a three-part trivia question:

1. Which former Hockey East player turned baseball player reached Double-A in the minors, partly due to switching from infield to catcher?

2. What former Hockey East player scored an impressive 106 goals in three ECHL seasons after concluding his collegiate career?

3. Now the really tough one: What former Hockey East player once inspired his coach to say, “It wouldn’t surprise me if he was named Prime Minister someday”? He was named Hockey East’s top scholar-athlete twice in a row. As a senior, he only scored three goals all season … but two were game-winners.

The winners all hail from different schools. Email me with your guesses. The winner will be notified by Monday; if you haven’t heard by then you either had the wrong answer or someone else beat you to it. If no one gets all three parts, we’ll award it to whoever comes up with the most correct answers in the quickest time.

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

For those of you wondering what happened to Dave Hendrickson this week, my sources have neither been able to confirm or deny whether he is out of action due to bulky mental hospital orderlies holding him down and squirting Prozac down his throat with a heavy-duty turkey baster in the wake of the Red Sox’ horrifying loss.

Personally, I favor the chewable Grady Little-shaped Prozac pills. There has been much heated, thought-provoking debate in town as to what the fate of the Sox manager should be. Some staunchly call for his head to be lopped off by guillotine on the Boston Common, while some more reasonably advocate a more reserved approach, such as being tarred and feathered and cast from the town.

Seriously, though, I have been surprised to find many local journalists speaking out in defense of Little. I can barely stomach any further consideration of baseball this year following the gut-wrenching spectacle on Thursday night. However, I will say that Grady’s best and worst quality is that he’s a player’s manager. He’s a really nice guy who is well-liked by the team, and he deserves credit for great team chemistry. But sometimes a boss has to be a boss, and there’s no room for being a nice guy when a trip to the Series is on the line.

Okay, enough baseball, already. I am stubbornly spurning this meaningless Series, as the notion of holding my nose while rooting for the Marlins holds little appeal. For those of you looking for an early jump on your holiday shopping, here are some of the best books I’ve read this year thus far: Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem has to be the all-time best-ever quirky mystery revolving around a narrator with Tourette’s Syndrome. Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz is an entertaining travelogue in which the author tells the story of legendary explorer Captain Cook while retracing many of his voyages. The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte is another intelligent mystery, revolving around chess and art restoration.

When Nietsche Wept by Irvin Yalom is an incredibly imagined historical novel revolving around philosopher Nietsche and psychoanalytic pioneer Josef Breuer. If you’re not scared off by epic-length classical fiction, Tom Jones by Henry Fielding is an incredibly intelligent and surprisingly bawdy book for the 17th century. But before you declare me a literary snob, I thought that the latest Harry Potter book was perhaps the best yet, though maybe it’s just tied with the third one (The Prisoner of Azkaban).

For those of you who insist on confining your reading to sports-related topics, I highly recommend The Game by Ken Dryden as well as Moneyball by Michael Lewis. I think I know more than a little about baseball and hockey, but I learned a great deal from both books, which artfully show us a behind-the-scenes view of each sport.

As you might have figured out by now, yes, I’m to blame for this week’s literary-minded Question of the Week.

This Week in the WCHA: Oct. 23, 2003

By Todd D. Milewski

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October 23, 2003

The New Crowd

Some thoughts this week, while trying to figure out the last time Michigan Tech and Alaska-Anchorage were the talk of the league — for winning.

Winning the first four doesn’t compare to winning the last four, but for Denver, it’s a confirmation that the Pioneers should be improved this season.

Some things are just so unbelievable you have to go back and check them again. But yes, despite 10 power-play chances, North Dakota had just 18 total shots on goal last Saturday against Boston College.

So there’s St. Cloud State at the top of the WCHA standings. Now the Huskies play the other Huskies, who were picked ahead of St. Cloud by The Hockey News. Something tells us those tidbits might have St. Cloud somewhat fired up.

And finally, your WCHA players of the week: On offense, Colin Murphy of Tech; on defense, Kevin Reiter of Anchorage. Well deserved, too. Yes, this is the same WCHA.

Starting Early

The tip-off was the tic-tac-toe goal. St. Cloud State’s Brock Hooton, Ryan LaMere and Peter Szabo teamed up on a perfect passing play, setting up Szabo for an easy putaway.

The indication was that the Huskies were playing well as a team in just their second game of the season. Keep in mind that this was a team that had lost significant offensive threats and a number of players from the dressing room, so coming together as a team may not have been expected so early.

But perhaps the credit for St. Cloud State’s good first weekend and Alaska-Anchorage’s 3-1 start should go to something away from the rink. Both of those teams went on excursions outside of hockey in an effort to get the team to operate as a cohesive unit.

The Huskies took a weekend off from preseason training and went camping. Along the way, they had some Survivor-esque challenges to do as groups. Some of the players who were the most vocal in objecting to a camping trip were converts, swept up in the team-building atmosphere.

Camping also was part of the offseason for the Seawolves, who did something as a team once a week to get a jumpstart on jelling.

It’s impossible to say whether there’s a direct relationship between those events and the good starts each team has had. But it is likely that the offseason teambuilding helped them avoid unforeseen team issues early in the season. Better to get those out of the way away from the rink.

Craig Dahl’s Huskies seem to have adapted well, maybe in part due to the camping trip.

“It’s a long season, we’ve got a lot of things to work on,” Dahl said after the Huskies completed a sweep of Wisconsin last Saturday, “but here’s what I liked: When I challenged our guys after the second period both nights to get their feet moving and stay together and lock it down, they did a really good job for this early in the year.

“They really are a team mentality, that’s what they have. There’s not any individual standouts, really. You could say [captain Matt Hendricks], but he doesn’t have that mentality. He has a lunchbucket mentality.

“I really like it. They’re fun to be around. They’re fun to coach. And they’re fun in practice. Winning helps, of course.”

Over? Did You Say Over?

You get one of these games every once in a while. It doesn’t make them any less astounding when they happen.

Down three goals with just over two minutes remaining last Saturday night, Michigan Tech staged a rally for the ages that left the Huskies celebrating a remarkable victory over rival Northern Michigan. Nick Anderson cut the Wildcats’ lead to 6-4 with 2:05 left, setting up the Colin Murphy show.

The junior scored his second goal of the game with 1:26 left to draw within one. He completed his hat trick with 28 seconds left and Cam Ellsworth pulled to force overtime. And he netted his fourth of the game and won it 2:58 into the extra session.

In all fairness, it’s a game Tech should have won — if only because it held a 3-1 lead midway through the second period. You could say the Huskies should have won Friday night’s game in Marquette, too, having had overtime forced upon them by a goal with the NMU goalie pulled.

“I’m happy for our guys,” said Huskies coach Jamie Russell, who should have no trouble remembering his first collegiate head coaching victory. “They deserved a better fate last night, and tonight, they never gave up. It’s one of those games that people will remember for an awful long time, I’m sure.”

Making an Impression

2-3-5.

That’s what Dallas Steward lived with all offseason.

2-3-5. Two goals, three assists, five points. That was his junior season.

Then, he entered his senior year hearing his coach say he was going to be more of a role player.

Apparently, he figured that role was to be a goalscorer.

After a pair of goals in the Nye Frontier Classic last weekend, Steward sits atop the stats sheet for the 3-1 Seawolves with three goals and an assist for four points.

He was named the tournament’s most outstanding player, making this already quite the turnaround from last season.

Then again, it mirrors the Seawolves, who won their tournament for the first time since 1990 and are 3-1 for the first time since 1994-95.

Another Milestone

Denver’s victory over Northeastern last Saturday represented the 350th career coaching victory for George Gwozdecky and his 200th with the Pioneers.

He’s 37th on the all-time coaching victories list, eight wins behind longtime Geneseo coach and secretary of the NCAA ice hockey rules committee Paul Duffy. Gwozdecky is 14th among active coaches in victories, trailing such WCHA coaches as Don Lucia (387) and Craig Dahl (384).

Are You Hootie?

Perhaps lost in the defensive success last weekend for St. Cloud State was the offensive play of right winger Hooton, one of those players from whom the Huskies are expecting more of a contribution this season.

Hooton, a sophomore who had seven points in his first season in St. Cloud, assisted on all three Huskies goals last Saturday night.

The Ottawa draft pick took a step down last season after earning a first-team spot in the Interior Division of the all-British Columbia Hockey League team in 2002. Dahl pointed him out before the season as a key to the Huskies’ offense, and Hooton is off to a good start.

“Hootie’s such a big, strong, fast guy, I’d like to see him play with more jump,” Dahl said. “And I think he’s starting to learn that. But I think we’ll see better.”

Back to the Drawing Board

Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves said this week he’s glad Quinnipiac had a strong weekend against Michigan before coming to the Kohl Center. The Bobcats’ one-goal losses at Yost might have given the Badgers players the message that, yes, they do have a series to play this weekend.

And the Badgers have tried to shift the forward lines in an effort to draw more from a sputtering offense. At Wednesday’s practice, Rene Bourque, last season’s top scorer who has no goals through four games, lined up with freshmen Andrew Joudrey and Robbie Earl. The freshmen have been two of the more energetic and productive players for UW thus far.

The Badgers were forced to use that combination last Saturday after Ryan MacMurchy, who normally plays the right side with Joudrey and Earl, was sent packing for a check from behind in the first period.

MacMurchy, who was second in scoring last season and also hasn’t put a goal on the board yet this season, was the right wing with Adam Burish and Nick Licari in practice.

“Right now, the worst thing that those two young men [Bourque and MacMurchy] could do for each other is just put pressure on themselves,” Eaves said. “The first rule of when you’re in a hole is stop digging. … Rene will score. Ryan will score. They just have to go back to make sure they’re working hard, they’re having fun, and take a look at, ‘Am I getting chances?’ And they are.”

The two goals Wisconsin scored in its series against St. Cloud last weekend was the lowest total for a league-opening series in team history.

Happy to Have It

Is Kevin Ulanski making a run at the national scoring title?

You wouldn’t have expected it from the Denver junior, but, with nine points after four games, Ulanski is the nation’s top scorer. He had a pair of two-point nights at the season-opening Lefty McFadden tournament and added a three-point game last Friday and another two points last Saturday against Northeastern.

“I’m just plugging away, getting to the net,” Ulanski told the Denver Post. “Hopefully, this streak will continue.”

In 70 career games before this season, Ulanski had 57 points. A good run the rest of the season would have him top that total in his junior year alone.

No Shot

It’s an event when North Dakota gets held to 18 shots on goal. Eyes popped when Colorado College held the Sioux to 20 shots in a WCHA Final Five semifinal game in 2001, but UND still won that game 2-1. And it had only four power-play attempts that afternoon.

So with 10 power-play attempts last Saturday in a 2-1 loss to Boston College, how does one explain just 18 shots?

“We had a hard time cycling and we had a hard time — obviously — on the power play,” UND coach Dean Blais told USCHO’s Patrick C. Miller. “They just pursued the puck everywhere. They didn’t allow us a chance to set up. We didn’t get shots off quick enough. They always got into our shooting lanes. There always seemed to be a leg or a body in front of the guys when they teed it up. That’s quickness, anticipation and experience.”

That’s something, all right.

Joy, Pain

Minnesota will raise its second straight NCAA championship banner to the rafters of Mariucci Arena before its game against Minnesota-Duluth on Friday. On Saturday, the Gophers will honor the late Herb Brooks, who led Minnesota to its first three of five national titles.

Like St. Cloud State, the Gophers will wear patches with “HB” on them, and a ceremony will be held during the first intermission.

In Other Words

The WCHA rookie of the week was North Dakota’s Drew Stafford, who has two game-winning goals in the Sioux’s first three games. … Wisconsin freshman goaltender Brian Elliott is expected to get his first career start this weekend. … Colorado College has won its home opener for six straight seasons. … This is the third time Denver has started the season 4-0. Both previous times, the Pioneers made the NCAA tournament. … Minnesota State’s Cole Bassett got a game disqualification for fighting last Saturday and will sit out Friday’s game at Bemidji State. …

CC’s Brandon Polich is expected to be out until at least Thanksgiving with a lacerated spleen suffered last Friday. The Tigers are toying with the idea of putting winger Colin Stuart at center, coach Scott Owens told The Gazette of Colorado Springs. … Minnesota-Duluth’s Junior Lessard takes a six-game scoring streak into this weekend’s series at Minnesota. … Last weekend’s nonconference losses to Providence gave Minnesota State the same number of home losses this season as all of last season: two.

This Week in the ECAC: Oct. 23, 2003

By Juan Martinez

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October 23, 2003

The ups and downs continued for ECAC clubs last weekend as they battled their way through tough nonconference opponents.

Colgate beat No. 14 Ferris State in the Raiders’ home opener. Union swept a pair at home to move to 3-0-0, the Dutchmen’s best start in their Division I history. Vermont and Rensselaer mounted late rallies to earn ties at home. Clarkson took three of four points on the road for its most successful opening weekend since 1999.

On the down side, both Colgate and St. Lawrence lost their Saturday contests.

That brings us to this weekend, when 11 ECAC clubs strap on the skates. The Raiders are off, but after just a week of practice, all six Ivies open their seasons with home exhibition contests.

With that …

‘Gate Crashers

At one end of the rink stood nationally-ranked Ferris State, the defending CCHA regular-season champs, with three games under their belts. The Raiders stood at the other end having played just once (a 3-3 tie at Northeastern), but with a strong game plan to slow the Bulldogs’ attack.

“I think our own physicality took their offense away,” said Colgate interim coach Stan Moore. “We talked about being physical. You hear all the time, ‘Hit them, hit them, hit them,’ but you need to know why. You do it to condition your opponent. To get them to possibly make mistakes because they anticipate being hit. The first guy [into the offensive zone] is physical, the second guy supports him and the third guy reads the play and decides whether to go in or stay back.”

The strategy worked for Moore’s club as they pulled off the 5-3 win on Friday. But things didn’t start off as planned.

“The first game was a more wide-open offensive game,” said Moore, “and that probably favored Ferris State. We were down 2-0, but got on the board with a power-play goal, which we were happy to do. Then we scored early in the third period and took the lead [with another goal].”

The goal, just 21 seconds into the final frame, provided the Raiders with a huge lift. And despite a defensive miscue that led to the Bulldogs tying the game at three, Colgate’s four third-period tallies were the difference.

“It’s always a momentum shift when you score or get scored upon in the first and last minutes of a period,” explained Moore. “Unless you are the one scoring, we always tell our players to look up at the scoreboard and see the time. As coaches, it is our responsibility to put the players out there to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Ferris State came back with a strong effort on Saturday, adjusting to Colgate’s style of play to secure the split as it continues its five-game road trip this week.

“Saturday was a much better played game,” said Moore, “and to their credit, Ferris said ‘OK, so this is how they are going to play,’ and responded to our physicalness. To do that on the second night of a road trip, to show that they wanted to come out and challenge, that was impressive.

“It was a tighter game. We always talk about how college hockey games are like playoff games and in the playoffs that gets ratcheted up. Well, that’s the way it felt.

“This is a game of inches, we know that, but it was a game of millimeters on Saturday.”

Despite senior David Cann’s strong performance in the season opener, junior Steve Silverthorn was given the start Friday and earned an encore appearance the next night.

“I expected that after Cann put in minutes, I wanted to get Steve some time and give him the start at home. He didn’t start well, but he finished well. He became more determined after [giving up] the two goals,” said Moore.

“You need to be able to adjust and be adjustable when you’re given suggestions and he did. A large part of that is trust and Shep Harder (a former standout Colgate netminder and current assistant) has done a great job of having the ears of both goaltenders.

“After Steve played so well, it wasn’t difficult to start him the second night. He actually had a better quality of play on Friday, though, but it was like the Maytag repairman for both goaltenders on Saturday: neither had a lot of work.”

Silverthorn made 37 saves on the weekend and will certainly make Moore’s decision more difficult when the Raiders return to the ice in November.

In the meantime, Moore says he will “change things up a bit” in practice over the next two weeks as the Raiders continue to work on elements of their game.

“Some days are like MTV,” he said, “it’s a grind out there and you go after it. Systematically, we’re good, but I’d like to see us fight through games a bit more. Not to always assume that all games will have a flow. Some games will be messy. We need to adjust to mess. The teams that can do that well will be the most successful.”

Union Uprising

They have two more wins than any other ECAC team. They average 4.3 goals per game while allowing just two per contest. The power play is clicking at 26.3%. The penalty killing is 19-for-19. Five players are averaging a point per game and their leading scorer already has eight points.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the 2003-04 Union Dutchmen.

“We’re off to a good start,” said rookie head coach Nate Leaman, “but it is a long season.”

Way to kill our excitement, coach.

OK, OK, it is a long season and it’s only three games, but c’mon, can’t we even be a little excited about the fast start? We love darkhorses and these Dutchmen are just that — picked to finish 11th by the coaches and ninth by the media. We’d love to see them exceed expectations. That’s what makes the ECAC so much fun each year.

Aren’t you at least a little excited, coach? Can you give us one small “whoo-hoo?”

“We’ll take it game-by-game,” he said. “This weekend will be a good test to see where we’re at.”

Sigh.

And so it goes, but we’re keeping our ticket punched for the Dutchmen bandwagon.

We now return you to good ol’ fashioned reporting.

The Dutchmen reached this point with a pair of home wins last weekend against Merrimack (3-1) and AIC (6-3) in games that, according to Leaman, were tougher than the scores indicated.

“Against Merrimack, we played well in the third period,” he said. “They only had four shots. It was definitely our best period. We made some real good decisions with the puck, some good reads. We finished the body well and were playing together. It was tough for them to get any momentum.”

Union returned to the ice for an afternoon game against AIC the next day, adding a new hurdle to its eventual success.

“It was a mentally tough game,” Leaman said. “It was tough for us to play twice in less than 24 hours. We were not sharp mentally. We played well in the first and third periods, but they outplayed us in the second.”

In situations where the mental edge is missing, just how do a coach and his team battle through it while fighting for the win?

“You keep things as simple as possible,” explained Leaman. “You get the puck to the net, dump it into the zone and quickly move it out of your zone.”

Union will face another series of tough tests this weekend. As Leaman points out, they have back-to-back road games and will be facing Bowling Green’s talented junior netminder Jordan Sigalet — he of the 56 saves in the team’s lone win (vs. Notre Dame).

“They have excellent goaltending,” said Leaman of this week’s opponents. “Sigalet is good and they have good team speed.

“This is going to be a big, big contest for us … both games will. We have to be extremely smart and make good decisions with the puck. It all starts there.”

Union will also need to continue to receive the kind of strong goaltending from the sophomore duo of Kris Mayotte and Tim Roth that has helped them to their unblemished record.

Mayotte, who nabbed the win against Merrimack, has a 1.00 goals against average (GAA) and .958 save percentage. Roth is 2-0-0 with a 2.50 GAA and .904 save percentage.

“Tim’s played two of our three games,” said Leaman, “but we have a competition there. We will evaluate who starts this weekend after two practices, our final one here (Wednesday) and Thursday out there.”

What Leaman does know already is where his offense will come from. While the coach continues to stress a balanced scoring effort, he loves what he’s seeing from Scott Seney. The sophomore, who was named ECAC Player of the Week (see below), leads the team with four goals and eight points and has been a major force on the ice.

“He’s a big guy who is winning a lot of battles,” Leaman said about the 6-3, 220-pounder. “Two of his assists this weekend came from winning a battle on the wall and passing the puck up. He’s a very skilled center that sees things very well. He has a knack around the net and is a big leader for us.”

Fit to Be Tied

Vermont and Rensselaer both skated to ties last weekend, each trailing at some point in the third period. But, as is often the case in sports, one coach was pleased with his tie while the other was disappointed.

“We played a pretty good game all the way around,” said UVM coach Kevin Sneddon about his team’s come-from-behind 2-2 tie against No. 8 Boston University. “Both teams played physical. [BU] played stronger on offense, cycling the puck and challenging the net, but we were quicker and more explosive going up ice.”

The Catamounts once again received solid goaltending from Travis Russell, who made 27 saves, and now has a 2.95 GAA and .908 save percentage in three contests.

“I thought he played a strong game,” said Sneddon, adding that Russell kept UVM in the contest until the Catamounts were able to tie it midway through the third while on the man advantage.

“We finally scored a clutch power-play goal after struggling a bit,” Sneddon said. “It was good to get the monkey off our back.”

The Catamounts had been 1-13 on the power play coming in. They exited the game at 2-20.

“The biggest difference for us, though,” continued Sneddon, “was that we competed hard for 65 minutes. We can’t say we did that in our games against UNH and BC. We had lapses in those games.”

Vermont plays St. Francis Xavier in an exhibition game Sunday before traveling to Michigan Tech for a pair over the Halloween weekend. A week later, they open the ECAC season by hosting Harvard and Brown.

“The biggest challenge now is to not take a step back,” said Sneddon. “We need to continue to play good, sound team defense and find a way to create more scoring opportunities on the power play and five-on-five. We’re turning down shots we should be taking. We need to be a lot more hungry for loose pucks.”

Meanwhile, in New York’s Capital District, Rensselaer coach Dan Fridgen was nowhere near as pleased with the effort of his Engineers in their home opener. His club fell behind 4-1 against Connecticut before scoring three unanswered goals to salvage the tie.

“We scored one within the first minute,” explained Fridgen, “and sometimes when that happens teams begin to roll. [Our] players thought it would be easy and stopped doing the little things.

“Give UConn a lot of credit, though. They have a lot of freshmen and they are hungry and work real hard. We really didn’t handle getting that first goal that well.”

Not that we could ever solve this age-old sports mystery, but the Engineers’ play for most of the game — save for the final 11 minutes — does beg the question of why it is that teams let up on their opponents.

“If we had the answers,” Fridgen said, “you would bottle it and make a lot of money. That’s a secret that lives within the players. And if you’d ask them, they’d probably tell you they don’t know.”

Fridgen didn’t say much to his club between the second and third periods, but he did shorten his bench. He played three lines and four defensemen and watched as ECAC Rookie of the Week winner Oren Eizenman lifted his club to salvage the deadlock.

“We look at the whole thing,” said Fridgen, “as a learning experience as a team, to understand what it takes to win.”

Rensselaer hopes to build off that surge as it plays host to Army in the Engineers’ only contest this weekend.

“Army is very consistent year-to-year,” said Fridgen. “They are well-coached and are a hard working, physical and disciplined team. They keep coming at you regardless of the score, whether they are in the lead or behind.

“We need to be ready to match their intensity and pay attention to and do the little things.”

A New Beginning

New coach.

New uniforms.

New attitude.

Early success.

With an exhibition game in its back pocket, Clarkson set out to change recent history with a solid opening weekend. Thanks to the work of ECAC Goaltender of the Week Dustin Traylen, the Golden Knights had their best debut since a pair of wins at Northern Michigan back in the previous century (1999).

“To come away with three of four points in a tough place to play was good,” said head coach George Roll, “but we still have a long way to go.”

To that end, it is worth noting, since we’ve dipped into history already, that Clarkson followed up those Northern Michigan wins with an 0-2-7 run. Ouch!

Back to this season …

“Friday night we didn’t play well for two periods,” said head coach George Roll, “but Traylen kept us in the game. We didn’t put on a great effort, but we stayed disciplined and came back with four unanswered goals to win.

“Saturday we played well in stretches and when we didn’t Traylen was there to bail us out and keep us in it. Unfortunately, we gave up a late goal on a bad clear.”

Roll was also impressed with intangibles.

“The win gave our guys a lot of confidence,” he said. “The older guys were saying that they had never come from behind like that since they’ve been here.

“The whole attitude around the program has changed. The bottom line is that they are having fun. That’s more important than the wins and losses and everyone seems to be enjoying coming to the rink and playing the game.”

They will need that enthusiasm this weekend as No. 10 Colorado College rolls into Potsdam with an undefeated mark (2-0-0).

“I’ll be honest with you: we don’t know a lot about Colorado,” said Roll, “but we’re more concerned about our own performance. We’re still concentrating on execution and special teams.

“They are a quality team and are certainly more skilled than us so we’ll have to play a tight defensive game. We gave up too many shots this weekend (81). That’s one of our biggest concerns. If we do that against Colorado, it’ll be a much different result.”

The Knights will take on the Tigers without rookie defenseman Matt Curley, who is out a month with a second degree shoulder separation. Sophomore John Sullivan is recovering from a slash to the wrist, but Roll is unsure whether he’ll be back for Friday night’s contest.

In their place, Roll said the Knights will insert speedy freshman forwards Max Kolu and Brodie Rutherglen into the lineup.

Saints’ Tests Continue

After an impressive season-opening win against Miami, St. Lawrence has struggled to find consistency as it battles through a wave of injuries. To make matters worse, they’ve all hit during the Saints’ difficult nonconference slate of games. The latest result of the bad timing? A 5-1 loss at Massachusetts, which moved to 3-0-0, their best start since moving to Division I.

“We certainly got a giant wakeup call against Massachusetts,” said SLU coach Joe Marsh. “They played well, particularly in the second period. They are a fast team, really good on the transition.

“We didn’t play the way we needed to against them. Our special teams are still struggling. We got one, but it was too late to make a difference.”

Life doesn’t get any easier for the Saints this weekend.

“Now we’re going from the frying pan, into the fire with Maine coming in,” continued Marsh. “We addressed those things we noticed in the game and there’s room to make others see that we’re a better team than what we showed against Massachusetts.

“The intangibles, work ethic and discipline are the things we addressed right away. We told them that we have a tremendous amount of work to do, but let’s have some fun doing it.

“We’re 1-2-2, but we have 31 games, a major portion of our schedule left. We always play a tough nonconference schedule and there’s a reason we play it.”

That schedule is giving the healthy Saints a chance to play against top competition, something Marsh preaches as important to his players’ development. They’ll all be tested again this weekend against No. 5 Maine.

“We need to be quick to the puck and read the play defensively,” explained Marsh. “We had a tremendous amount of turnovers against Massachusetts, we need to be better disciplined with the puck.

“We’ll look to battle every shift and will be looking to measure ourselves versus a great team. Against them, you find out in a hurry what your strengths and weaknesses are. They are the type of team where we need everybody.

“Hopefully, returning home and playing Maine can generate a lot of energy, but we need to create our own and not wait for other things to happen to do that. If we create some positive energy, that will carry us.”

Continued strong play from netminder Kevin Ackley will help too.

“He’s done a good job for us,” said Marsh. “We’re relying on him pretty heavily. We need his solid presence right now. [Junior Mike] McKenna saw some time against Massachusetts and played well. We need him to start pushing Kevin a bit. Competition is good.

“Who knows, we may see them both this weekend, but we’re probably going to start Kevin on Friday.”

Health-wise, junior captain Josh Anderson is still out with a shoulder injury and classmate defenseman Matt Macdonald is also still sidelined. There’s no set timetable for either player’s return and, in Anderson’s case, Marsh said that they have no desire to rush him back.

“He keeps himself in terrific shape, so I have no doubt when he returns he can step right in.”

For the coach, all of these speed bumps are part of what happens this time of year.

“Early in the season, you address a lot of issues,” he said. “There’s no reason to panic. It doesn’t hurt to get a wake-up call, the key is how you respond.”

They’ll have their chance on Friday.

Ivy Tune-Ups

With only days of practice, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton and Yale hit the ice for exhibition games that will serve as final tune-ups before the ones that count begin in earnest over Halloween weekend.

“We’re hoping to get the opportunity to see some of our young guys,” said Bears coach Roger Grillo. “We’ll see how we respond to an opponent and not just playing each other in practice. We’ll be looking at everything as we need to set line combinations, defense pairings and special teams.”

The only setback of note for Brown will be the absence of offensive threat Les Haggett, who had his knee scoped and will be out for at least a week.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Princeton coach Len Quesnelle begins his quest to turn around the Tigers’ fortunes.

“We’ve gotten the engine started,” he said, referring to time spent in practice, “now we just need to make it stronger.

“We’ll find out where we are technically. We have a short window before St. Cloud (October 31 and November 1), so we need to focus on our systems. Everyone was really focused on the importance of stressing defense all summer and through practice so far. We need to be.”

Harvard’s Mark Mazzoleni looks at the upcoming exhibition contest as a way to evaluate talent as well.

“We’ll look at the younger players. We already know what the older players can do. We’ll see if last year’s freshmen and sophomores have taken the step up.”

A Response to “Ticket-Gate”

A few weeks ago, we discussed Harvard’s decision to not sell single-game tickets to this season’s Cornell contest. At the time, none of the Cornell representatives we contacted responded to our questions, but we’ve since heard back from one of them.

Tom Pasniewski is the director of programming for the Cornell Club of Boston, a non-profit organization serving the approximately 9,000 Cornell alumni in the Boston metropolitan area. In his role with the Club, Pasniewski plans and oversees a staff that designs and executes nearly every aspect of the 30-40 events it runs each year.

“In my capacity as a fan,” he explained, “I think that the policy is meant to draw more Harvard fans and not necessarily keep Cornell fans out … but when you single out one game, it appears very unfair.

“It’s hard not to think that Cornell is being singled out. You have Boston University on the schedule with thousands of students from BU in Boston and they can buy tickets to that game without having to buy for another game.”

An excellent point, and one we tossed back into the lap of Harvard Ticket Manager Erin Hobin-Audet, a BU grad herself.

“We studied several games before we chose which ones to include in a package,” she explained. “We didn’t necessarily single the Cornell game out.

“Yale, BU and Cornell are all big games for us, but the timing played a role. By choosing Cornell, the package has a game in November, December, January and February.”

Switching hats, Pasniewski continued.

“In my role as a board member of the Club, I must say that Harvard has been very generous to the Cornell Club of Boston in the past.

“ECAC policy requires a school to give 200 tickets to a game [to the visiting team] plus 25 for the visiting band. In the past, 100 tickets have gone to Cornell and the Cornell Club has been allowed to purchase a varying number of tickets, but in excess of the remaining 100.”

And what does the Club do with those tickets?

“[They] are sold later, as the game time approaches, to members of the Club, their families and friends. This is our biggest event of the year and we have in the past always been able to purchase more than 100 tickets. So, this, too, is a change from past years.

“[Our] members are given a window period during which they may purchase tickets from the Club to the game by phone or mail. This typically sells out our entire block of tickets. We take extra pains to be sure that members are not buying for students or non-members. Not that we don’t want Cornell students to come to the game, but we have to be sure that all our members who want tickets can get them and most years, we can’t even do that.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Pasniewski assured us that the Club never sells tickets for more than what Harvard normally charges the general public ($12). Tickets are purchased from Harvard at the group rate of $8.

“Harvard offers group discounts based on varying levels of the number of tickets purchased, explained Pasniewski. “Part of that discount is passed along to our members. [Any] profits that we make on ticket sales are used to fund a large pre-game gathering, traditionally held on Harvard property, which we pay Harvard to do and which we are reconsidering in light of this new ticket policy.

“Within their rights? Yes. Fair? No.”

While he also admits that he can see the motivation for Harvard’s new policy, Pasniewski, like the rest of us, is curious to see what will happen when the doors swing open for the game in January.

“For years, Lynah Rink at Cornell has been consistently sold out and a very difficult place to get a ticket. I think now that Harvard is playing hockey on a higher plane, they want more tickets for their fans.

“Whether their fans come remains to be seen. This game is at a time when classes are not in session.”

According to Hobin-Audet, the game takes place during Harvard’s “Reading Period,” the week students return to campus to study for finals.

“I’m sure by Friday night,” she said with a laugh, “they’ll be looking for something to do.”

So will we … stay tuned.

And the Winners Are …

Three new faces popped up in the ECAC’s weekly awards this time around. Union’s Scott Seney was named Player of the Week as he compiled two goals and five points on the weekend.

“He’s been a great plus to the team,” said Leaman. “He’s good on the defensive side of the game as well. He’s very aware of what he needs to do and plays in all situations for us. That’s what you want from your big players.”

Rookie of the Week honors went to the Engineers’ Oren Eizenman, who nearly singlehandedly carried Rensselaer to its 4-4 tie with a pair of goals in the third period.

“He’s a good player,” said Fridgen. “He sees the ice well and plays both ends of the ice equally as hard. He’s still feeling his way through as a freshman, but he took charge on offense and we needed it. Some of our upperclassmen weren’t doing it. It’s great for a coaching staff to see that.”

Between the pipes, Clarkson’s Dustin Traylen earned Goaltender of the Week accolades for his 78-save effort over the weekend.

“We watched game tape of him in the spring,” said Roll, “and noticed that last year he was spectacular at times and other times he wasn’t. We talked to him about conditioning and dedication and, to his credit, he came back much stronger this year. He played 125 minutes this weekend and that’s an example of his conditioning.”

(Players named to the weekly Honor Roll are listed in the sidebar.)

This Week in the CCHA: Oct. 23, 2003

By Paula C. Weston

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October 23, 2003

The Sky Is Falling

Ohio State in first place? Michigan State in last? Western Michigan pushing the Buckeyes for the top spot?

Is this the end of civilization as we know it?

No. It’s just the third week of league play.

Remember last year, when the Spartans were ninth in January, only to surge to the top tier in the second half and capture home ice for the first round of the CCHA playoffs?

“They’re still going to be a very good team in our league. I have no reservations about whether they’re going to get stronger.”

Those are the words of Ohio State head coach John Markell, whose Buckeyes swept the Spartans in East Lansing last weekend. It was OSU’s first-ever sweep in Munn Arena, the Buckeyes’ second-ever sweep of the Spartans, and the first time MSU has been swept at home since 1995.

The Buckeyes and Spartans are clustermates, and Markell remembers well how MSU finished up strong last year. “Early in the season, it’s nice to get those points.”

The difference last weekend, said Markell, was Mike Betz, OSU’s senior goaltender. Betz allowed just one goal in the two games, for a .979 save percentage, earning him CCHA and USCHO Defensive Player of the Week honors.

“Obviously we played very well,” said Markell. “We used our experience in net to get us through. He [Betz] is certainly steady.”

After a shaky start to the season, with losses to Denver and Notre Dame — the latter deemed “embarrassing” by OSU captain J.B. Bittner — the Buckeyes seem to have bounced back to play some surprisingly good hockey.

With three veterans on defense and as many as five rookies floating in and out of the backfield — forward Bryce Anderson has been shoring up the skimpy blueline — it’s easy to question the strength of the Buckeye defense. And without the services of first-rounders RJ Umberger and Ryan Kessler, with an offense that had trouble lighting the lamp last season, there’s been no end to speculation about the OSU offense.

And yet the Buckeyes held the Spartans to one goal last weekend, and OSU is outscoring opponents two-to-one in league play, 21-15 overall.

The early losses were “probably our fault,” said Markell, so the coaching staff took another look at its strategies. “It’s [now] a simple system to play,” said Markell, adding, “The rookies are good hockey players.”

As for the perceived loss of power up front, said Markell, “That’s stoking the fire.” The current Buckeyes “know they’re still good hockey players,” said their coach.

Another plus for OSU, said Markell, is the reduction of penalties during the past few games. “We’re doing our job to stay out of the box — it’s a must this year. We get five penalties or more a game, and I’m livid.”

And while last weekend’s sweep was sweet for the Buckeyes, Markell knows that it’s early in the season and there’s another opponent this weekend. “It’s nice to have that success, but our credibility is thrown out the door if we don’t come to play this weekend.”

This weekend, OSU faces Mercyhurst, the team picked to top the newly-created Atlantic Hockey league. “When we scheduled this team, we wanted to play the top team in that league — and they’re good,” said Markell. “They’re veteran-laden, and we have to respect that. This will be a real character test for us.”

Mercyhurst is 0-1-0, having lost 5-3 to Michigan on the road (Oct. 4) in the season opener for both squads. The Lakers also beat Brock in exhibition play, 4-2, in Erie (Oct. 11).

Laker senior Mike Carter had a goal and an assist in the loss to the Wolverines, and sophomore Andy Franck recorded the loss in net for Mercyhurst.

You, You, You, Questionable People, You!

Years ago, I penned a piece on the enthusiastic crowd at Yost Arena and their chants — borrowed from the Lynah faithful, and then made the Wolverines’ own. Since then, I’ve become increasingly dismayed by the escalation of the use of profanity at Yost and other venues, and students’ increasing belligerence when confronted with their truly bad behavior.

Now, someone else, someone far more influential than this beat writer, has taken a public stand.

Thank you, Red Berenson.

Berenson made a personal appeal to the student section at Yost Arena before last Friday’s game against Quinnipiac, when he strode onto the ice with his five-year-old grandson in tow.

Berenson said that it was an “accumulation of things” that led to his appeal to the students at Yost Arena.

“We’ve had feedback from season-ticket holders. And there’s been some discussion about whether the obscenities were acceptable or not. I wanted to respond to let them know that I, personally, think it’s not acceptable.”

Berenson quickly and sincerely praised the students at Yost for their loyalty; they do make the Michigan home rink one of the toughest to play in the CCHA. “I love the enthusiasm we’ve had from our crowd and from the student section in particular. I love the way they’re in sync with the game.”

But, Berenson said, “It’s not acceptable to say these things in front of women, in front of children, and in front of season-ticket holders.”

Berenson rightly called the obscenity-laced chants “in bad taste” and “unfair for families.” He said he wants his grandson to be able to come to the games without reservation. “I want his mother to be able to condone his coming to the games.”

Berenson, calling himself “old fashioned,” said he doesn’t like to think that women in the student section are participating in the questionable behavior. “I don’t think their mothers would approve,” said Berenson of the students involved.

Of course, the problem is not just with hockey, and it’s not just at Yost Arena. “We’re not the only school that’s had obscenities coming from their student section,” said Berenson, “and we’re not the only sport.” Last year, Western Michigan head coach Jim Culhane made a similar appeal to the students at Lawson Arena, where the chants are arguably worse than those at Yost.

“Whether it changes what they’re doing and rethink it a little bit, we’ll see,” said Berenson.

Yost’s “C-ya!” chant has evolved from an innocuous, humorous send-off for opposing players headed to the sin bin to a profanity-laced chant that does nothing more than appeal to the lowest common denominator.

I’ve said it all along, and I’ll say it again: there’s nothing creative about stringing together a slew of vulgarities. There’s nothing clever about calling an opposing player a “b**ch.” There’s nothing new about swearing.

At an academic institution the caliber of the University of Michigan, you’d think the students would come up with something better than that.

Unfamiliar with the “C-ya!” chant? I’m not going to repeat it here, but I will offer a sanitized version written by an USCHO.com reader who posts on the Message Board under the handle “Funkymoses,” edited here for spelling and grammar. From this, you can easily make the leap to the more offensive version:

Ahhhhhhh see ya chump, synonym for male genitals (d version), wuss, object used for ‘feminine hygiene,’ rectal cavity, synonym for male genitals (p version), cheater, female dog!

If you don’t laugh out loud at this, you have no sense of humor. This version, chanted in unison at any hockey game, would be hilarious.

I once heard fans at a college game — long before I became a reporter — taunt the opposing goalie because said netminder had to sit out the previous term for low grades. All they chanted, repeatedly, was, “GPA!” The effect was cumulative through the third period, and the goalie got rattled. It didn’t hurt that the visiting team was losing, too.

No profanity, nothing lengthy, but cruel, funny, and clean.

You can’t tell me that students from the University of Michigan can’t top that.

Games of the Week

Two teams perhaps in transition. One slow out of the gate, but not to be underestimated, the other a constant offensive threat.

Western Michigan (2-1-1, 2-1-1 CCHA) vs. Michigan State (1-3-0, 0-2-0 CCHA)
Friday, 7:05 p.m., Munn Arena, East Lansing, Mich.
Saturday, 7:05 p.m., Lawson Arena, Kalamazoo, Mich.

What is wrong with the Spartans? Well, it’s difficult to win games when you score one goal in a given weekend.

“We have a first line but right now don’t have a good second line,” MSU head coach Rick Comley told the Lansing State Journal this week. That first line of Jim Slater, Mike Lalonde, and Tommy Goebel is responsible for seven of the Spartans’ nine overall goals, and Slater has five of them alone.

Once Lee Falardeau fully recovers from his knee injury and the Spartans have two viable offensive lines, MSU will be as deep as any team at this early point in the season. And while it is early, there are other Spartans noticeable mainly through their inability to find the net. Ash Goldie, Kevin Estrada, and David Booth come to mind.

There’s also a young defense in front of the goaltending duo of Matt Migliaccio and Dominic Vitari, and neither Spartan netminder seems to have come into his own yet this season. After being swept 5-0 and 4-1 by OSU last weekend, Comley said that inexperience was a factor in both games.

“We’re very young at defense. It’s tough for freshmen to come in here and be effective at all times. That’s a tough style to play against [the style the Buckeyes used], and it takes a mature team. What really hurts you is the lack of a senior class. Usually a program is run by seniors, and we have one.”

The Spartans face very stiff competition in the Western Michigan Broncos this weekend, a team that has blown hot and cold in recent seasons, but a team that can always seem to find the net.

Last weekend, WMU took three points from Nebraska-Omaha, beating the Mavericks 5-1 Friday before tying UNO 2-2 Saturday, both games at Lawson Arena. This was one week after splitting with last year’s regular-season champion, Ferris State.

The points put the Broncos second in the standings and in a very good spot to begin the season. Vince Bellissimo and Lucas Drake lead the Broncos with two goals and three assists each in four games, but Dana Lattery, this week’s CCHA Offensive Player of the Week, had three goals and an assist last weekend against UNO after missing the first two games with a wrist injury.

Offense is rarely the issue with WMU, a team that scored nearly at will last season — but gave up more than they earned. Early indications this year show a team improved in overall defense; the squad is at +17 collectively after four games, and the goaltending tandem of Mike Mantua and Scott Foster has a combined save percentage of .917. Mantua is 2-1-0, while Foster got the tie last weekend.

Here’s a look at how the teams match up by the numbers. These are overall stats, and bear in mind that it’s very early in the season.

Goals per game: MSU 2.25 (tie ninth), WMU 3.35 (tie fourth)

Goals allowed per game: MSU 4.25 (10th), WMU 2.50 (tie second)

Power play: MSU 18.2% (tie third), WMU 8.3% (11th)

Penalty kill: MSU 66.7% (11th), WMU 90.0% (third)

Top scorer: MSU Jim Slater (5-1–6), WMU Vince Bellissimo and Lucas Drake (3–5 each)

Top ‘tender: MSU Matt Migliaccio (.859 SV%), WMU Scott Foster (.923 SV%)

MSU leads this series, 55-22-6 all-time, with a 27-4-5 record against WMU in Munn, and a 22-16-1 edge in Lawson. The Spartans are 5-3-2 against the Broncos in their last 10 meetings, and WMU hasn’t won in East Lansing in 10 years.

“We’re really looking forward to the challenge of playing one of the premier teams in our league,” WMU head coach Jim Culhane told the Western Herald this week. “We know it will be difficult playing in their building, but State has to face the same test Saturday.”

If the Broncos continue to play good overall team defense in front of strong goaltending, they’ll be worthy opponents for any team in this league, premier or otherwise.

If the Spartans lose Saturday, they’ll be off to their first-ever 0-4 start in CCHA play.

Picks: MSU 4-3, WMU 5-2

Elsewhere Around the League

There are three other league series this weekend.

NMU at Michigan

The Wolverines continue to win with tenacity rather than finesse, and it took big plays from two players to beat the visiting Quinnipiac Bobcats last weekend. Brandon Kaleniecki netted four goals in Michigan’s 5-4 win Friday, while Jeff Tambellini had a hat trick in Saturday’s 3-2 victory.

“We have got to play better defensively,” said Michigan head coach Red Berenson. “We have to play better on special teams. We need to play better without the puck. We need to play better with the puck.”

The Wildcats come off a frustrating split with Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech, having beaten the Huskies 4-3 in overtime Friday before losing in OT Saturday.

“They’re off to a good start,” said Berenson of the Wildcats. “Because they’ve lost so many key forwards, you don’t know so much about they’re team. They’re more of an unknown team except for Kowalski, their goalie. They’ve scored a lot of goals and apparently play pretty well in the early going.”

Look for that experience to win out over youth this weekend — except in net.

FSU at UAF

While FSU swept UAF in Big Rapids last year, this could be a costly weekend for the Bulldogs, who are 8-10-0 against the Nanooks at the Carlson Center. The Bulldogs dropped just three road games all last season, but are already 1-2-0 on the road this year.

Scoring is an issue for the Bulldogs this season, and FSU clearly misses the man who made the offense click last year, Hobey Baker finalist Chris Kunitz. Six months later and having returned most of the Bulldog squad, FSU is struggling to find an identity. Sophomore Greg Rallo (1-4–5) leads the team in scoring. Mike Brown — so fine in net last season — has a .859 save percentage through four games this year.

The Nanooks open their league play against the Bulldogs this weekend, and the performance through their first four games shows some of the same weaknesses the Bulldogs are facing early on. Ryan Campbell (1-3–4) leads the Nanooks in scoring. Kevin Bartusch (.821) has seen the lion’s share of work in net in the absence of the injured Preston McKay. UAF is being outscored 20-12 in four games played.

Early as it is in the year, this series is a good barometer for both teams. How well FSU responds to splitting on the road in Colgate last weekend will say much about the maturity of the team, while the Nanooks will attempt to recover from two games against Colorado College during which they were outscored 14-5.

Miami at LSSU

The Lakers lead this series all-time 50-23-10, with each team leading in its own venue, but the RedHawks swept the Lakers in two games by a combined score of 11-1 last season — and that is the story of each of these teams, and of this series.

Miami’s high-flying offense is led by Derek Edwardson (4-4–8) and a talented supporting cast, including Mike Kompon (1-6–7), who earned his 100th career point in Miami’s 4-4 tie against UMass-Lowell in Anchorage last weekend.

Eight different RedHawks have at least one goal through six games, an impressive indication of the effectiveness of the Miami offense. The game in net continues to be a problem for Miami, with Steve Hartley and Brandon Crawford-West combining for a .878 save percentage.

For the Lakers, the problem is seldom the net with Matt Violin (.921) doing the backstopping, but LSSU has scored just three goals in two Division I games played, an early echo of their 2002-03 offensive woes.

Mea Culpa

Senior OSU forward Scott May was a healthy scratch in the Buckeyes’ 5-3 win over Notre Dame, and wasn’t sidelined for a violation of team rules, as I originally reported. May came back with a vengeance against the Spartans, with two goals and an assist in the 4-1 win last Saturday.

Painful, Just Painful

17:55. 18:34. 19:32.

Those were the times of Michigan Tech’s fourth, fifth, and sixth goals, all in the third period of the second game between the Huskies and the Northern Michigan Wildcats last weekend. Those goals tied the game for Tech, which went on to win 7-6 in overtime.

But perhaps it was just karma. In the first game, Northern pulled Craig Kowalski in favor of the extra skater and tied the game 3-3 with less than a minute to go. NMU went on to win that game 4-3 in OT.

Quote of the Week

“We’re going to scratch and claw for every goal we get.” — UNO head coach Mike Kemp, after the Mavericks and the Broncos skated to a 2-2 tie Oct. 18.

The Antidote to Baseball

Last night, I was awakened by the plaintive cry of my cat, Mabel.

Was she hurt? Cold? Hungry?

Or was she merely reliving the eighth inning of the seventh game of the 35th American League Championship Series?

It could have happened in Yankee Stadium. It could have happened against Roger Clemens.

As a sportswriter, I have little to add to the debate surrounding perhaps the worst decision in the history of modern sport.

As a lifelong, diehard, born-to-mourn Red Sox fan, I can only say this: Owie.

Hats off to Joe Torre, one of the sport’s greatest.

Drop the puck.

This Week in the CHA: Oct. 23, 2003

By Mike Volonnino

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October 23, 2003

Another week, another dramatic upset for a CHA squad.

It was Air Force’s turn to move to the forefront, flying up to Alaska to defeat Miami, 2-0, in the consolation round of the Nye Frontier Classic. Senior Mike Polidor continues to impress between the pipes for the Falcons, notching his first shutout and the first win for his team against a member of the Big Four since 1999. The win comes on the heels of Findlay’s upset of Michigan State the previous week.

After crisscrossing the country, Air Force gets some well deserved home cooking against American International.

“Just goes to show you that this conference has gotten to the point where on any night, anyone can beat anyone,” said Alabama-Huntsville coach Doug Ross.

Ross’ cliché will get the most severe of tests this weekend. Niagara makes the short trek to Buffalo to play Massachusetts-Lowell and the newly-dubbed No. 1 team in the nation, New Hampshire, in the College Hockey Showcase.

This is a landmark CHA weekend for this season. Alabama-Huntsville opens its season, so for the first time, all six teams will be in action. Findlay-Wayne State renew a burgeoning rivalry. And the Purple Eagles have a chance to upset the early balance of power in college hockey.

“Our guys are obviously excited,” said Niagara coach Dave Burkholder. “In our short history as a Division I program, we’ve never had the opportunity to play the number-one team in the nation, and so now we get a real test.”

Niagara catches an added break because eight Wildcat players were suspended in the aftermath of the New York Yankees’ ridiculous Game 7 victory over the Boston Red Sox (take Pedro out, Grady). If ever a team was poised for defeat, it would be this weekend.

“You look at the teams from Hockey East, and they will play half of their division schedule against teams in the top-10,” Burkholder said. “We get at most eight games against college hockey’s best, and you have to make them count.”

As alluring as the game against the top team in the nation may be, the seniors may be more focused on Friday’s game. This will be their first chance to play Lowell and its coach, Blaise MacDonald.

MacDonald started the Niagara program from scratch in 1995, and remained its pilot until 1999-2000, leaving after taking the Purple Eagles into the NCAA tournament in 2000. Niagara’s seniors are his last recruiting class there, and they have not hid their emotions on wanting to impress their former coach.

“This will be a big night for the seniors,” Burkholder said. “Blaise has been gone a while, but the seniors remember him and what he did for the program. It’s going to be a special night for everyone involved.”

The weekend may be important emotionally for the seniors, but Niagara will need the help of a freshman if it hopes to win. Over the first couple games of the season, the Purple Eagles’ best player has been rookie power forward Jeremy Hall.

He scored one of the Purple Eagles’ two goals in its opening loss to Union and netted the only tally in their 1-0 exhibition win over Brock. Niagara’s big guns have taken a couple of games to get their skating legs, but Hall has been solid.

“Hall has been everything we’ve hoped for when we brought him in here,” Burkholder said. “I’ve only had two games to evaluate players, but he’s doing what we recruited him for — scoring goals.”

Of course, Niagara has some big time goal scorers, including Joe Tallari. Tallari struggled a little in the first two games with an injury, but he’s fully recovered and looks to make an impression on the national stage.

“It sometimes takes the veterans a couple of games to get rolling,” Burkholder said. “Everyone played against Brock to get their conditioning and their legs. This will be the first time we’ve had a normal college hockey week, with a game on the weekend and four days of practice.”

“Our seniors have great leadership, ” he added. “I’m interested in seeing how much we’ve improved and this weekend will tell us where we are at.”

Clash of the Titans?

Nobody can yet confuse Findlay-Wayne State with Yankees-Red Sox (I’m begging you to take Pedro out, Grady), but one of these teams may need Don Zimmer’s services by the end of the season.

The two teams, just an hour and a half apart, played the first of six contests last Thursday with the Warriors defending home ice in a 3-2 win. On Friday, Findlay gets to try and hold serve in its first home game of the year.

“Anytime you play a team the number of times we will, a rivalry will naturally start to develop,” said Findlay coach Pat Ford. “Things have started to get snarly already.”

The penalty box did not lack company last week. The game was decided largely on special teams. Wayne State cashed in on two of its seven power plays, while Findlay came up empty on its six — including a five-on-three advantage

“We are so close to each other, that not only will a rivalry develop on the ice, but our fans can travel to the other building to see the games,” said Wayne State coach Bill Wilkinson. “This thing will develop the old-fashioned way, by playing each other six times in one year. We will really know each other well by the end of the season.”

Right now, the coaches are just trying to know what they have on their roster. Wilkinson has a prized talent in sophomore forward Derek MacKay, who had a goal and an assist on Thursday, but aside from him it is difficult to evaluate anybody. Wayne State is besieged by injuries.

Assistant captain Steve Kovalchik — hand in a cast after suffering a wrist injury — will be out two-to-six weeks. Junior center Bill Collins has an arm injury and freshman Jason Baclig is recovering from a shoulder injury and may return to the lineup on Friday.

“We’re really banged up right now,” Wilkinson said. “I guess it is better to be injured early in the season than late.”

The injuries have focused Wayne State on team concepts.

“We need to improve our system play and our coverage in the defensive zone,” Wilkinson said. “I’m not so concerned about our offense.”

Through the season, Findlay will try and make Wilkinson worry about his offense, because about the only thing that Ford has concluded from his team’s early games is that sophomore Jon Horrell is his top goaltender.

On Friday, however, Ford is likely to start freshman goaltender Will Hooper.

“We’ve figured out that Horrell can play at this level,” Ford said. “When he started this season he was practically a freshman. I might start Hooper this weekend to give him some experience before the conference schedule begins. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from him too so far.”

The Oilers must improve special teams if they hope to reverse their fortunes from last week. Ford worked this week at finalizing his two power-play units. Forwards Rigel Shaw and Chris Weller are the keys up front to making the man advantage work, and as a bonus, Findlay gets back freshman defenseman Kenny McCauley to quarterback everything. McCauley suffered a hip pointer against Boston College, but will be back in the lineup on Friday.

“Part of the reason that we’ve struggled is that we haven’t had real consistent power play units,” Ford said. “We’ve given everyone opportunities to play on special teams and now we’ve solidified two units. It’s still a work in progress.”

With the game on home ice, Findlay has to make the most of the opportunity to play in comforting environs. It will be back on the road next week.

“Even though the season is young, it seems that we’ve been on the road for a long time,” Ford said. “Of course it’s tough to convince a Colorado College or Denver to come here and play.”

“This is a critical three-week stretch for us,” he added. “We’re off to Clarkson and Colgate next week before the start of our conference schedule. We need to make the most of the home ice.”

Welcome Back, Chargers

Last seen losing an overtime classic to Bemidji in the CHA semifinals, Alabama-Huntsville kicks off its season against Connecticut. Coach Doug Ross did not sound so much concerned with the Huskies as grateful for the respite from weeks of practice, and for the chance to evaluate his team.

“We’ve been waiting a long while to play a game,” he said. “It’s time to get onto the ice and drop the puck. I want to see what our new players can do.”

With nine freshmen on the roster, Ross has his evaluative work cut out for him.

“Last year we played our first six games on the road, going to Wisconsin, Denver and Minnesota,” Ross said. “We have a young team this year, so it will be a welcome change to have our first four games at home.”

Prediction Challenge

Last week, I beckoned to all you CHA prognosticators to send in picks. I received a grand total of one entry. I didn’t think I intimidated that many of you.

These selections are courtesy of Chris Brown of Huntsville. Thanks, good luck and send your picks to [email protected].

Friday night

Niagara 3, UMass-Lowell 1. Lowell will still be smarting from the trip to Alaska, and a healthy Joe Tallari will put Niagara on top.

Wayne State 4, Findlay 3. The Michigan State win was a happy surprise, but a young Wayne State team will be looking to prove itself.

Air Force 3, AIU 2. The cadets have confidence after the Miami win, and they’ll get it done on home ice.

Bemidji 2, Mankato 2. Bemidji will repeat some of last year’s low-scoring affairs and walk away with a tie.

UAH 2, UConn 1. UAH will suffer from a very young team and a very late start to the season, but it won’t be enough for the Huskies to win in Huntsville.

Saturday night

New Hampshire 5, Niagara 2. Niagara won’t be able to keep up with the talent of last year’s runner-up.

Air Force 4, AIU 1. Air Force comes out strong to get the sweep on home ice.

Minnesota State 3, Bemidji State 1. Minnesota State comes back looking for a big in-state win, and they get it at the Fieldhouse.

UAH 5, UConn 1. UAH will get it together after a sloppy Friday night game and win the way it should over UConn.

UNH Suspends 8 In Aftermath of Campus Riot

USCHO Staff Report

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October 21, 2003

New Hampshire has suspended eight players for two games, and they will not travel to this weekend’s Punch Imlach College Hockey Showcase tournament in Buffalo.

The eight players — seniors Nathan Martz and Tyler Scott, juniors Matt Hoppe, Tyson Teplitsky, and Robbie Barker, sophomores Andrew Leach and Mark Kolanos, and freshman Brett Hemingway — were disciplined for violation of team rules on Oct. 16, when a riot broke out on campus in the aftermath of Game 7 of baseball’s American League Championship Series.

“While not directly involved in the disturbance on the UNH campus that took place … the student-athletes were asked by [coach Dick] Umile to stay away from the downtown area,” the school said in a news release. “However, the players were present as bystanders during the incident on Main Street.”

Six other students face criminal charges as a result of their actions that night, none of which were athletes.

“This program has a history of service to the campus and the broader community,” Umile said. “We would rather continue in that role, than be the audience to those who choose to be disruptive and disrespectful to the community.”

Said UNH athletic director Marty Scarano, “Our student-athletes are role models and are held to a higher standard and their actions are a reflection of UNH athletics, their teams and the University. On this particular night some of our student-athletes made poor choices.”

Martz is leading the Wildcats with four points this season.

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