BUFFALO, N.Y.
– The status of Lanny Gare's injured shoulder was the biggest
question heading into Wednesday's practice sessions at the HSBC
arena, and it didn't take long to answer.
After practicing with the Wildcats, Gare stepped to the podium
during Wednesday afternoon's New Hampshire press conference and
announced that he won't play in Thursday's noon semifinal against
Cornell.
"I will not play Thursday. The shoulder is still too sore.
I can handle the puck but there is too much pain trying to shoot,"
he said." "It is too soon to return. Coach knew it was
going to be a long shot for me to play on Thursday."
AHCA
Announces All-Americans
The
American Hockey Coaches Association announced its East and
West All-American teams Wednesday. Leading the list of first-team
honorees are three players from Colorado College and two
skaters each from Cornell and Ferris State.
The complete list of first- and second-team selections:
EAST
FIRST TEAM G:
David LeNeveu, Cornell
D: Freddy Meyer, Boston U.
D: Doug Murray, Cornell
F: Ben Eaves, Boston College
F: Chris Higgins, Yale
F: Dominic Moore, Harvard
WEST FIRST TEAM G: Mike Brown, Ferris State
D: John-Michael Liles, Michigan State
D: Tom Preissing, Colorado College
F: Noah Clarke, Colorado College
F: Chris Kunitz, Ferris State
F: Peter Sejna, Colorado College
EAST SECOND TEAM G: Mike Ayers, New Hampshire
D: J.D. Forrest, Boston College
D: Noah Welch, Harvard
F: Stephen Baby, Cornell
F: Lanny Gare, New Hampshire
F: Colin Hemingway, New Hampshire
WEST SECOND TEAM G: Curtis McElhinney, Colorado Coll.
D: Brad Fast, Michigan State
D: Paul Martin, Minnesota
F: Shane Joseph, MSU, Mankato
F: Grant Stevenson, MSU, Mankato
F: R.J. Umberger, Ohio State
Approximately
an hour after Gare's announcement, Cornell's Doug Murray called
it a bluff. He was practicing at the time of the UNH conference
and hadn't heard the latest injury update.
"Personally, I don't think they'll be without Lanny Gare.
It's playoff time and you get out on the ice and play hurt or
not."
Gare did not rule out the possibility of playing in Saturday's
championship game if New Hampshire advances.
SEASON-ENDING SIMILARITIES
Thursday's semifinal games give Cornell and Michigan an opportunity
to face-off against the teams that ended their seasons in last
year's tournament.
Cornell's players reflected on last year's 4-3 loss to New Hampshire
in the finals of the East Regional in Worcester in a positive
manner. The Big Red have taken aspects of participating in that
national quarterfinal game and used them to help set goals for
this campaign.
"I think before the season, guys were sick and tired of losing
the big games. Our last game of the year we'd always end up losing.
Being at the regionals last year really put us over the edge as
far as experience," captain Doug Murray said. "I'm just
sick and tired of losing, we just need to go out and go for it,
and I don't think we really did that last year."
For Michigan, the 3-2 Frozen Four defeat at the hands of the Golden
Gophers makes for a more tangible lesson. The Wolverines need
to get off to a good start. They fell behind the Gophers 3-0 in
last year's game.
"Last year they took us right out of the game with a 3-0
lead, and they've done that to their last three opponents,"
Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "If we don't get started,
we won't have a good finish."
"We just need to make sure that the team is focused. When
we've been focused this season, we've come out and played well
at the start of the game. We've put teams on their heels,"
captain Jed Ortmeyer said.
HOMECOMING FOR RED
Berenson's National Hockey League playing career spanned 16 seasons
with Montreal, the New York Rangers, St. Louis and Detroit, and
he called Buffalo's Auditorium one of his favorite places to visit.
His pro career ended in 1978. Prior to the 1982-83 season, Berenson
joined his former coach in St. Louis, Scotty Bowman, behind the
Sabres' bench as an assistant. He held the post until accepting
the head coaching job at his alma mater in 1984.
"I really liked Buffalo when I was a player. I liked coming
in and playing in the old Auditorium and then they expanded it
and then eventually I was fortunate enought to come and be an
assistant coach here. We really enjoyed Buffalo. I feel very comfortable
here. This feels like a home building to me. Even though this
is a new building, as far as I'm concerned, it's still Buffalo."
GOPHER
GOALIES
As expected,
Minnesota coach Don Lucia announced Travis Weber would start in
goal for the Gophers. What wasn't expected was Lucia's admission
that they may have rushed the sophomore goaltender back too soon.
"His
finger was probably a lot more injured than what we let on,"
Lucia explained. "Now he's back to 100 percent. The two-week
break really allowed it to heal. He's been our number one goaltender
all year long and had he not been injured, he would've been playing
all the way up until know. He earned the opportunity to play in
this game."
Weber was hurt in a 5-2 win against Michigan Tech in the second
game of the Gophers' first-round WCHA playoff sweep of the Huskies
in Minneapolis last month and was sidelined for the WCHA Final
Five. Justin Johnson backstopped Minnesota to the league playoff
championship, but Weber was back between the pipes for the Gophers
at the West Regional two weeks ago.
Lucia's decision
to tab Weber as the starter raised a question from a reporter
about the state of Minnesota' goalies. The scribe noted that,
of the four teams in Buffalo, the Gophers seemed to have the shakiest
goaltending situation.
"Sounds
similar to last year, doesn't it?" replied Lucia, recalling
the much-maligned Adam Hauser, who helped the team to the national
title last season. "You don't have to be better than the
other guy. You just have to stop one more than him."
SEEN AND HEARD AT HSBC
• Berenson expected that North Dakota would be a more likely
Frozen Four candidate than his own Wolverines.
"When we played in the invitational tournament this fall
in this building, I don't know that many people, including ourselves,
expected that our team would be back here for the Frozen Four.
Talking to (North Dakota coach) Dean Blais, he didn't think his
team would be here and I thought his team had a better chance
than our team."
• Brian McCutcheon, assistant coach of the Buffalo Sabres
and member of Cornell's 1970 national championship team is among
the most notable Big Red supporters this weekend. He stopped by
the Big Red dressing room -- the one used by the Sabres during
the regular season -- to offer his congratulations and best wishes
on Wednesday after practice.
• Cornell coach Mike Shafer said the media crush surrounding
All-American candidate and Hobey Baker Award finalist Dave LeNeveu
leading up to the Frozen Four is nothing new for the Fernie, B.C.,
native. He went through a similar experience earlier this year
as a member of Canada's entry in the 2003 IIHF World Junior Championships
in Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia.
"His strength as a goaltender is focusing on the job at hand,"
Shafer said. "The media pressure that kid went under at the
World Junior Championships in Canada and the scrutiny that he
went under was a great preparation...for an event such as this."
• Lucia, when asked about his growth as a coach, acknowledged
prior playoff experiences at Colorado College and Minnesota as
factors in his continued maturartion behind the bench, but he
also said he took something away from an NCAA championship he
attended a couple years ago -- the men's basketball Final Four
in Minneapolis.
"Watching Duke win that thing, you sit there as a coach and
think, 'Boy, how nice would it be to win that?'"
• Understatement of the day, courtesy of Minnesota captain
Grant Potulny, when asked to compare his playoff hot streak this
season to his performance last year.
"I had a good weekend," Potulny said about the 2002
Frozen Four.
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