Inside College Hockey | 2003 Frozen Four Scouting Reports

NCAA Tournament Coverage

April 8, 2003
NCAA Tournament

Semifinal Scouting Reports

Inside College Hockey talked to two head coaches whose teams have played the teams involved in each of Thursday's semifinal games. In exchange for anonymity, they gave us a candid breakdown of the matchups:

Cornell vs. New Hampshire

They are fairly similar in that both are really good defensive teams. UNH is more of a quick, transition team, but they are very, very good defensively. And a lot of it is on the goaltender – he sees a lot more rubber than Cornell’s goalie.

Cornell, without question, is the strongest defensive team in the country. No matter who they play, they don’t get a lot of opportunities. They’re a hard-working, physical, really good defensive team, and it’s not just their defensemen – their forwards, defensemen and goaltender are all part of it.

They both play with a little bit of a left-wing lock, but UNH varies it a little bit more. UNH is more of a team that will play strong defensively, but they’re creative and very skilled up front. They’ve got a goalie who, when they do have a breakdown, will bail them out. He’s been just fantastic this year.

I think with Cornell, they’re not going to beat themselves. You’ve really got to try to get the puck to the net whenever you can, because you’re not going to have many chances. You can’t pass up an opportunity to put the puck on net. Cornell is also going to block a ton of pucks, and what happens is that a lot of teams shoot wide on them. They’re a tough team to play against, and it can be frustrating.

You’ve got to play a lot of a similar style to beat Cornell. Your defensemen have to be big and strong, or quick, agile and strong, in order to get the puck from them along the wall.

Against UNH, you literally cannot give up the puck in any kind of a dangerous area, because they’ll turn it up as quickly as any team. In one touch, it’s up the ice. They’ll possess it, but they’re more of a transition team, so you’ve got to keep out of danger areas, and that’s what Cornell does really well. If they give up the puck, it’s probably going to be below the goal line, and then they have to go through five guys and the goalie, 190 feet away, to score.

Cornell is as disciplined a hockey team as I’ve ever seen. They’re disciplined, focused and there’s absolutely no b.s. – they don’t talk to the refs, they don’t chirp at the other team. All they do is play and play hard. They are as consistent a team as you’ll find – they’re okay to beat you 3-2 or 2-1, they don’t feel the need to beat you 5-2. There are a lot of teams that aren’t like that.

UNH’s goaltender is a real big reason for their success. I think he’s tremendous. Cornell has statistically the best goaltender in the country and maybe the best goalie ever in college hockey, and he’s great. But he does not see a lot of rubber.

So they look similar in a lot of ways, but there are differences in how they play. I think it’s really going to be a toss-up. If UNH plays their A game and Cornell has their B game, UNH has an edge, and vice versa. I’ve got a feeling they’re both going to have their A games, and that makes it a complete toss-up. It really should be a classic.

Michigan vs. Minnesota

If you start by looking at the goalies, you've got to give the advantage to Michigan. Montoya has been strong all season and he's playing particularly well lately, so Michigan definitely has the hotter goalie entering the tournament. Minnesota's Weber was playing really well, but he got that finger injury and hasn't really been the same since then. And the kid behind him, Johnson, hasn't proven that he's a playoff goaltender. Weber might be good enough to be a playoff goalie, but he hasn't proven it yet. So Michigan has the edge in goal.

Defensively, Minnesota clearly has an advantage. You can't underestimate what players with the abilities of Paul Martin and Keith Ballard mean come playoff time. Ballard is good enough to change the course of a game by himself. And Matt DeMarchi has stepped up his game and played really well the second half of the year. So Minnesota has the advantage on the blue line.

Up front, the teams are really even, with one exception. Grant Potulny's experience and abilities give a slight edge to Minnesota. He's so good at using his size in front of the net and making plays come playoff time that he puts Minnesota a step ahead of Michigan at forward.

Both teams are young in a few areas, but Minnesota has the added experience of winning it last year and Michigan has made great improvements over the course of the season.

The intangibles favor Michigan on a few fronts. First, Minnesota has the pressure of trying to be the first team to repeat in more than 30 years, and that's not a small thing. There's certainly a reason why nobody has repeated in that time. It's tough to get back to the Frozen Four and even tougher to win it.

Also, you've got to give Michigan the nod playing on the road. Both teams had the luxury of playing at home for the Regionals, but Minnesota has been playing at home for more than a month and there might be an adjustment involved with their first true road trip in more than a month. You've got to factor in that Michigan opened the season in Buffalo, playing a tournament in HSBC Arena. That might be just a little advantage, but it's definitely an advantage. Michigan knows the ice, knows the locker rooms and knows the town just a little bit and, even if you've been to a town just once, that makes a big difference.