Inside College Hockey | 2004 Frozen Four Semifinal Preview

April 5, 2004
NCAA Frozen Four

BOSTON COLLEGE
vs.
MAINE

Thurs., April 8 • 6 p.m. ET
ESPN2
Semifinal 1 Preview | A Coach's Take

	Overall	Conference	Home	Away	Neutral
BC	29-8-4	17-4-3	14-3-1	8-5-1	7-0-1
Maine	32-7-3	17-5-2	17-1-1	8-4-2	7-2-0

	Goals/Gm.	GA/Gm.	PP Pct.	PK Pct.	PIM/Gm.
BC	3.5 (7th)	1.9 (2nd)	.185 (21st)	.894 (1st)	14.6 (42nd)
Maine	3.3 (11th)	1.6 (1st)	.170 (32nd)	.843 (23rd)	19.2 (6th)

Boston College: Northeast Region first seed
Boston College 5, Niagara 2
Boston College 3, Michigan 2 OT

Maine: East Region first seed
Maine 5, Harvard 4
Maine 2, Wisconsin 1 OT

Small, skilled forwards on both sides create an intriguing matchup up front. Both teams like to generate offense out of the cycle, so puck possession is critical, and Maine may have an edge on faceoffs. The Black Bears are also more likely to try to stretch the defense with long passes out of their own zone, specifically to speedster left wings Todd Jackson and Greg Moore. With the exception of 20 minutes against Harvard, however, the Black Bears have not been a high-scoring club lately – they have a tendency to make an opposing goalie look good. On the other side, no line in the Frozen Four can match the skills of the Eagles’ first unit, and their second line isn’t far off. As good as Maine can be at cycling, BC is better. Although small forwards dot both rosters, but each coach has size at his disposal, and both focus it on one line – Tim Whitehead’s trio of Dustin Penner, Jon Jankus and Mike Hamilton has been hot of late, and has more scoring touch than Jerry York’s checking line of Justin Dziama, Brian Boyle and Ned Havern.

Goals have been tough to come by against these teams, which rank 1-2 in the nation in scoring defense. The Black Bear goalies tend to get all the credit for their numbers, while the Eagle defensemen get the accolades for theirs. Of course, a little bit of both is true. Maine’s got a no-name group of defensemen who go out and do their jobs – watch a few games and the only name that may stand out might be Prestin Ryan’s (except Jeff Mushaluk, because it’s fun to say). That said, they are remarkably efficient; in addition to Ryan, defensive connoisseurs will enjoy watching Mushaluk and his partner, Mike Lundin. Those two have the best size of the bunch, and could punish the smaller BC forwards. The Eagles have more of a “big-name” defense, led by Andrew Alberts and J.D. Forrest, which is as good of a top pair as you’ll find in the nation. They limit opponents shots by keeping them to the outside of the rink, and minimizing turnovers on the breakout. Other than Alberts they don’t have a ton of size, which actually matches up fairly well against Maine.

These teams combined for the top three vote-getting goalies on the All-Hockey East balloting. For Maine, Jim Howard – who should get his fifth straight start – has been outstanding. At his best, like his last visit to the FleetCenter, he squares to shooters and doesn’t give them much net to see. When he struggled against Harvard two weeks ago, he didn’t have much defensive support and appeared to be caught off-guard by some of the Crimson’s quality chances. Matti Kaltiainen, meanwhile, is supposed to be BC’s weak link, but keeps winning. He susceptible to soft goals, like Michigan’s first two weeks ago, but will make some terrific saves as well.

Speed and skating ability are the typical ingredients on a good penalty kill, so it’s not surprising that both of these teams are dangerous with a man in the box – in fact, they share the national lead with 12 SHGs apiece. BC is much more effective at killing penalties than Maine, however, and they have the more potent power play as well, giving the Eagles the edge here. While no one would expect a penalty-filled national semifinal, these teams do know each other well – they combined for 108 penalty minutes in a game at Kelley Rink in November.

These are two brilliant coaches who have been in this situation before. Neither has had to spend too much time preparing for their opponent, but they’ve had to keep their teams fresh after a long layoff. Tim Whitehead seems to have projected his personality onto his team: focused and expecting success. You can see the results in their string of seven straight one-goal victories. Jerry York gets the last change, and he may try to get his first line away from Prestin Ryan. Then again, he’s shown a willingness to throw them out and challenge them against the best, so he may not worry about that matchup as much as which defensemen face Maine’s crafty Michel Léveillé line.

WHY MAINE WINS: Nothing can dictate playoff results like goaltending, and Maine has that in its favor. In their last appearance at the FleetCenter the Black Bears rope-a-doped Massachusetts – the Minutemen wore themselves out taking shots on Jim Howard, until Maine eventually counter-punched in the third OT. Score a timely goal here or there and it won’t take that long.

WHY BOSTON COLLEGE WINS: Possession is the name of BC’s game, they have the ability to tilt the ice surface in their favor. While not a necessity (see: regional final vs. Michigan), getting goals from beyond the first line would provide a big lift. Keeping the red-hot power play going would help as well.