Inside College Hockey | 2005 NCAA Frozen Four

April 6, 2005
NCAA Frozen Four Notebook
Minnesota's Three-Ring Circus
We gathered notes from all four teams' Wednesday practices

By Mike Eidelbes, James Jahnke, Joe Gladziszewski and Nate Ewell

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Other than maybe baseball players, hockey players have the best sense of their sport’s history. Take Minnesota’s senior class, for example. The Gophers’ six veterans – Jake Fleming, Justin Johnson, Jerrid Reinholz, Garrett Smaagaard, Judd Stevens and Barry Tallackson – know that two wins in Columbus would make them the second group of players to win three Frozen Four titles during their college careers.

”It’s special just to get to [the Frozen Four] three out of four years…the hardest part is getting here,” Smaagaard said as he pondered his potential place in college hockey lore. “I think I might be too young to take it all in. I don’t think I’ve totally taken in the fact that we’ve won two in a row.”

While no one in the Minnesota locker room would admit publicly that a championship this year would be a little sweeter than the titles in 2002 and 2003, it’s not a stretch to imply that a 2005 title would have a different feel because of the early departures of stars such as Keith Ballard and Thomas Vanek and the team’s heavy reliance on underclassmen. This year’s senior class may be short on sparkle, but they’re long on effort and persistence.

“We’re not on the top two lines and we’re not on the power play,” Smaagard said, “but we’ve been here before and we’ve played in big games.”

“All that stuff that happened in the past is out the window,” added Tallackson, quite possibly the favorite whipping boy for Gopher fans in the Don Lucia era. “It’s a whole different tournament.”

Different, yes, but the goal is the same as it was 2002 and 2003.

“To go three out of four years to the Frozen Four is something to be proud of,” Tallackson said, “but I’d rather have three national titles.”

— Mike Eidelbes

Watch & Learn

INCH checks in with video interviews with three players we caught up with after their Wednesday practices (you'll need the free RealPlayer to view each file):

Luke Fulghum
Gino Guyer
Drew Stafford

STRAUB FINDS A HOME ... AT HOME

The great Findlay diaspora of '04 scattered suddenly homeless players from Burlington to Niagara to Houghton. But only one former Oiler is fortunate enough to be playing in this weekend's Frozen Four in Columbus.

And Colorado College sophomore defenseman Brandon Straub makes no apologies for that. Sure, it was rough when Findlay, a northern Ohio university that had been part of College Hockey America discontinued its varsity program last winter. He felt bad for the fans and the seniors-to-be who couldn't transfer elsewhere, and especially for his laid-off coaches.

But look at him now. Instead of busing to Wayne State and Alabama-Huntsville with little fanfare, he's flying to the Final Five and the Frozen Four and feeling as much like a rock star as a college hockey player can.

"It's a complete 180 from last year," said Straub, a Colorado Springs native. "The competition in the other league, the top line could play anywhere, too. The difference is here, every line is that good. It pushes me every day.

"Just due to circumstances, my season could have been over a month ago (at Findlay). It's hard to tell whether I would have been pushed as much as I am here. How it all happened, I don't know."

Here's how: Straub was recruited a bit by CC while he played for the British Columbia Hockey League’s Nanaimo Clippers, but the Tigers ultimately went with other players in their recruiting class. Even though less than a year had gone by – and not much had changed on their roster – when the CC staff heard about the Oilers disbanding, they contacted Straub to see if he wanted to come home after his freshman season. One late May lunch with Scott Owens later, Straub had a partial scholarship and a spot on the roster.

"We thought we could bring him in to help replace (Richard) Petiot and Mark Stuart as a physical presence," Owens said. "He's steady and big, and every time he's played, he's been pretty effective."

Straub has played just nine games this season and hasn't recorded a point, but Owens gave him the nod against Michigan in last month's Midwest Regional final, pairing him with WCHA Defensive Player of the Year Stuart, no less. Owens said Straub most likely will play in Thursday's national semifinal against Denver, too, as junior Weston Tardy continues to be hampered by a broken wrist suffered a month and a half ago. The Tigers think the 6-foot-4, 217-pounder's physical style of play works well on an NHL-size rink like Value City Arena.

Not bad for a guy without a program a year ago.

"It all worked out for me," he said. "I loved the guys at Findlay, but I grew up dreaming to play here, and now I'm with another great group of coaches and another great group of guys."

Despite being just two hours away from his former home campus this weekend, Straub doesn't expect any former Oilers to be in the crowd Thursday. In fact, the only person for whom he had to secure a ticket was a girlfriend from Findlay.

Asked whether she is his current girlfriend, Straub just grinned. "It's questionable right now."

Fortunately, his program's stability isn't anymore.

— James Jahnke

SEEN AND HEARD AT THE SCHOTT

• Denver forward J.D. Corbin is likely out of the lineup for Thursday’s semifinal after suffering what is believed to be a broken collarbone during the Pioneers’ practice Wednesday afternoon.

Corbin, who has scored one goal and 18 assists in 41 games, crashed into junior center Gabe Gauthier during a drill. Just prior to the end of the Pioneers’ hour-long skate, Corbin was standing outside the DU locker room clutching his right hand. As the team filed off the ice, the sophomore from Littleton, Colo., left the locker room area for x-rays.

Junior Ted O’Leary is the probable replacement for Corbin in the Denver lineup. O’Leary, who hails from Arvada, Colo., has no points in six games for the Pioneers this season and last played in DU’s win against Colorado College in the WCHA Final Five championship game March 19. He substituted for forward Lukas Dora in Denver’s national championship game win over Maine in Boston last year.

• The injury update from the Minnesota camp is much more positive, as freshman defenseman Alex Goligoski has practiced with the team every day this week and looks like he’s a go for Thursday’s semifinal against North Dakota.

Goligoski hurt his wrist in the first period of the Gophers’ loss to the Fighting Sioux in the WCHA Final Five third-place game. A member of INCH’s All-Rookie team, the Grand Rapids, Minn., product scored five goals and 15 assists in 32 games.

• With the nation's top two teams playing in tomorrow's early game, it has the look of a recent AFC Championship game.

"We're not looking past tomorrow's game," said Colorado College head coach Scott Owens. "Not because we think this is the title game, but because we think (Denver is) the best team."

Still, Owens sees some validity to the thought that the Frozen Four should be structured to have the top two remaining seeds meet on Saturday.

"That's an argument that goes on all the time," he said. "Now you look at it and it seems a bit unfair."

• Despite the sunny skies in Columbus, a few players stopped to do a little star-gazing Wednesday afternoon. With the NHL season cancelled, ESPN has rolled out its A-team of broadcast talent for this year’s Frozen Four. Analysts Bill Clement and Darren Pang attended the practice sessions, chatting up players and coaches from each of the four teams. After a lengthy chat with Clement prior to his team’s skate, North Dakota sophomore Erik Fabian grabbed Clement and Pang and had a teammate snap a photo with a digital camera.

• Our regular readers are well aware of the INCH staff’s affinity for Miami University and the city of Oxford, Ohio. So it should come as no surprise that we’ve managed to squeeze a Frozen Four-related nugget about Miami into our notebook.

Actually, it’s a rather interesting note – Miami has ties to three of the four teams here in Columbus. Denver coach George Gwozdecky came to the Mile High City after a five-year stint as Miami head coach, and he brought assistant Steve Miller along. Matt Cady, whose ended a three-year playing career with the RedHawks last season, is in his first year as the Pioneers’ graduate assistant. Minnesota assistant Joe Motzko served in a similar capacity at Miami under Gwozdecky and Mark Mazzoleni, while Colorado College assistant Joe Bonnett was a RedHawks’ assistant from 1997-2001.

• As Jeff Sauer noted in Tuesday's edition of The Dean's List, no WCHA officials will work this weekend, despite four of the league's teams being in attendance. INCH has learned that CCHA crews will officiate this weekend (our expectation: referees Steve Piotrowski and Matt Shegos), a revelation that didn't bother CC's Scott Owens.

"This is a national tournament, and whoever they put out for referees will be thought through very carefully," Owens said. "In some ways it's fresh. You don't go into a game thinking, oh, he doesn't call much, or oh, he always looks for Mark Stuart. There's some freshness to it which I think is good."

• Colorado College junior defenseman Lee Sweatt wanted a better vantage point while taking in the end of Denver’s Wednesday practice. He hoisted himself up to the second row of the Value City Arena bleachers, which are four feet above the arena floor. During his ascent, his right foot slipped off the metal bleachers – nearly assuring the likelihood of a groin injury – but he regained his balance and arrived at his destination unscathed. Asked how he would’ve explained such an injury to the coaching staff, Sweatt shrugged and walked away.

• North Dakota's Robbie Bina, who suffered a fractured vertebra on a hit from behind by Denver's Geoff Paukovich at the WCHA Final Five, traveled with the Sioux. He's moving around fairly well, wearing a solid neck brace. Denver's helmets sport a sticker saluting Bina's No. 28.

• ESPN’s broadcast production staff installed a track system along the top edge of the glass where a mobile camera will slide to follow the action during all three games. It’s a similar system to the one used at the Olympics for track events. This camera, which will make fans feel like they’re hovering over a winger’s shoulder, wasn’t even used during the 2004 Stanley Cup playoffs.

• A common complaint on Wednesdays at the Frozen Four focuses on the ice, which is usually new to accommodate the NCAA logos and often fighting with warmer April temperatures. Publicly players expected better conditions on Thursday, but privately one compared the ice to skating on a well-worn pond in February.

PLUSSES AND MINUSES

With temperatures topping out in the mid-70s, Wednesday’s weather in Columbus was beautiful. Come to think of it, it’s the kind of weather we expected in Anaheim in 1999.

Value City Arena is one of the nation’s premier college hockey venues, but the facility has been particularly dressed up for the Frozen Four. Advertising panels have been covered and replaced by the names of the 16 schools that competed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Larger ad panels on the message boards in each of the arena’s four corners have been outfitted with logos of the teams competing in Columbus this week.

We’re probably the only people in central Ohio to complain about the weather. Don’t get us wrong…it was beautiful outside. But what good is it if we’re stuck in the Value City Arena media workroom all day?

Maybe it was the weather, or maybe fans are late in arriving to Columbus, but attendance at today’s practice sessions was spotty at best. It wasn’t shocking to see few fans watching small schools Colorado College and Denver skate, but the Minnesota and North Dakota fans – who usually show up for these things in droves – weren’t around, either.

MFor the second straight year, the banner hanging from the Value City Arena commemorating Minnesota’s national titles fails to mention that the Gophers won it all in 2003. Denver’s banner, on the other hand, had been updated since last year’s Frozen Four in Boston.

“I saw that,” said Smaagaard. “I was wondering if Denver’s was on there from last year and it was, so they must’ve skipped us. I don’t know what that’s all about. We’ll have to get that changed.”