Saturday Hockey Notes and Thoughts: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Just when things started to show signs of looking up, it's gone back into the swirl of negativity for the UMD Bulldogs.

4-1-1 over six games going into the Christmas break, the Bulldogs spent 40 minutes looking like they ate too many cookies during the bye, and a two-win Maine team got the one break it needed to burn UMD.

The break happened when Martin Ouellette made a save off a hard point shot, and the puck bounced right to Steven Swavely. He fed Ryan Lomberg out of the penalty box for a breakaway. Lomberg beat UMD freshman goalie Matt McNeely for the only goal of a 1-0 Maine win.

The Bulldog power play -- No. 1 in the WCHA for much of December -- was in a slumber Friday, scoreless in five chances, and often outworked badly by a Maine kill that has continuously improved this season. Things got so bad that UMD used its fourth line of Austyn Young, Charlie Sampair, and Adam Krause for the final seconds of the last power play, and the trio generated more good energy in 25 seconds than the two main power play units did at any point in the game.

Unquestionably, Maine played well. It executed the game plan to a tee, and Ouellette made some big saves. However, UMD spent too much of the game on the perimeter, not working hard enough to get in the tough areas and make the goalie's life difficult. Division I goalies are going to stop most unscreened shots from the outside. It's just the way it is. If a team is looking to win games by scoring goals from the perimeter, it better find a way to screen a goalie, or hope to be facing a bad goalie.

Because the Bulldogs weren't working hard enough as a unit, Maine got more of the advantages to be had out of the plethora of goofy bounces to be had on a terrible ice sheet with pucks that appeared to have been heated in a microwave before use. The Black Bears played a simpler game, while UMD tried too many times to do the fancy thing instead of just getting pucks and bodies to the net.

That lack of bodies to the net is what -- in part -- led to the game's only goal. Because UMD didn't get any real traffic in front of Ouellette, he was able to steer the rebound from a point shot right to a teammate in the slot, and that teammate -- Swavely -- had an easy outlet. It helped that no one for UMD sagged back when Lomberg got out of the box, so all he had to do was wait for the puck. Caleb Herbert and Drew Olson got on their proverbial horses, but had too much ground to cover.

It would be easy to sit here and rip the team, but it also doesn't take a genius to figure out that the effort was much better in the third period. Herbert's major penalty -- hard to argue the call based on the live look and one hard-to-see replay -- took five minutes of life out of the comeback effort, though the penalty kill was quite good.

Actually, the kill was good all night, which is a major reason why it was only a 1-0 game. Maine had trouble throughout the game generating good looks on the power play over its five opportunities, including the five-minute one. Had it not been for the shortie, the special teams game would have been dead-even, despite UMD's power play doing virtually nothing positive in five chances.

I thought Joe Basaraba had another good night. He continues to be a physical threat who does go to the tough areas and does wreak havoc in front of the opposing net. Joe is quietly having a very good season. I know a lot of you out there expect him to score more, but that's not necessarily his role at the moment.

Another guy I wanted to make sure to point out is Young. The freshman played limited minutes as the fourth-line center, but he was noticeable every time he was on the ice. The ejection of Herbert was an opportunity for him, as he got some time in the third period with Justin Crandall and Austin Farley -- another guy who brought some want-to, especially in the third period.

It seemed Tony Cameranesi and Mike Seidel had their struggles through the first 40 minutes with the crappy ice and microwaved pucks, but I thought they simplified things a bit in the third and did a better job of getting pucks to the net.

The third period was the way this team needs to play for 60 minutes. It knows that, and Saturday against Ferris State will be a chance to prove once again that it's capable.

Losing to a two-win team does nothing good for any team's NCAA at-large hopes, but as our good buddy John Forsyth (@blackbear93 on Twitter) pointed out after Friday's game, it isn't insurmountable from a mathematical perspective.

Where it becomes difficult is that we are 19 games into the season, and outside of the six-game run before Christmas, UMD has shown little consistency. Disappearing acts similar to Friday's first 40 minutes can't continue to happen -- not even once a month -- if this thing is going to get turned around.

Beat Ferris State, hit the beach, and get ready for Michigan Tech in two weeks. That's all that can happen now.

******

Wondering about potential lineup changes? Well, because it's a non-conference trip, everyone is here. Virtually anything imaginable might be in play, and I don't have any answers as to what things will look like for Saturday afternoon's game.

The one thing I will say is I think McNeely has earned the right to start a fourth straight game, simply by virtue of his play. Doesn't mean that will happen, as it's only my opinion, and my input on the lineup is usually not required or requested!

Game 19: UMD vs Maine (Florida College Classic)

ESTERO, Fla. -- Greetings from Germain Arena, which sits 10 miles or so south of Fort Myers, where the UMD hotel is located.

This is the home of the ECHL's Florida Everblades, and also the 12-year home of a college hockey tournament.

People wonder how the hell this works. I'll confess I'm also curious to an extent, but the Everblades have run this thing long enough for me to realize that it's working in at least some ways. Last year's tournament drew an announced 9,644 for the two sessions (average of 4,822 in a 7,000-seat building). That isn't bad.

When UMD was here in 2005, attendance was announced at 11,922 for the two days, an average of 5,961. I was in my first season calling games, and had almost literally no idea what I was doing, so I can't corroborate this with any memory of what it looked like in the arena.

(To put that in a bit of perspective, the Everblades are drawing 4,800 per game or so through 14 home games this season.)

We'll see what this weekend brings. Hopefully it ends up with two UMD wins.

Lines?

Lines.

UMD
Seidel - Cameranesi - Basaraba
Farley - Herbert - Crandall (Justin)
Danberg - Hendrickson - Flaherty
Sampair - Young - Krause

Olson - Welinski
Bergman - Corrin
Smith - Casto

McNeely - Crandall (Aaron)

Maine
Shore - Beattie - Norman
Leen - Swavely (Steven) - Lomberg
Anthoine - Higgins - Swavely (Jon)
Riley - Leidermark - Merchant

Rutt - Nemec
Williams - O'Connor
Hutton - Cornell

Sullivan - Ouellette - Morris

(I talked to Maine's radio guy, and it appears this is how the goalies are always listed on Maine's line chart. He said he'd "eat his shoe" if Ouellette wasn't the starting goalie, and it appears he's wearing a real shoe.)

UMD Prepares for Business in the Sun

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The palm trees scattered around the hotel property add a sense of "Holy crap, we're in Florida" to the fact that we're in Florida.

For hockey.

Holy crap.

Before incorporating some beach time into the itinerary, the UMD men's hockey team has business to take care of. The 13th annual Florida College Classic is underway Friday, with UMD playing Maine after Cornell takes on Ferris State. Maine is the defending champion and an annual co-host with Cornell.

For the Bulldogs, it's a second foray to Florida. UMD was here in 2005, finishing second to Cornell after beating Maine in the semifinals.

This isn't the Maine team that UMD saw in the NCAA Tournament last March. And while the same could be said the other way around, UMD has done much more this season to show it can still field a good team than Maine has.

The Black Bears are 2-11-2, and have scored only 20 goals in 15 games. There are some warning signs heading into this weekend, however. Junior forward Jon Swavely is back after missing 12 games with a lower-body injury. Senior forward Joey Diamond is mad that UMD ended his team's season last March, and he's an explosive player with poor numbers so far.

(Diamond is similar to UMD's Caleb Herbert in that regard. Both players have numbers through half the season that are not indicative of their overall skill and talent. And you can bet that will change in the next couple months, probably for both guys -- hopefully for Herbert!)

Maine has skilled players, but the Black Bears seem to lack the high-end skill they had in their top six last year. Diamond is still a dynamic player, but he doesn't have Brian Flynn, Spencer Abbott, Matt Mangene, or Will O'Neill around him. It makes the Black Bears not as dangerous, neither five on five nor on the power play, where UMaine is only at 7 percent on the power play, down some 75 percent from last year's 26.7 percent clip.

One thing has been obvious lately: Maine will sell out for their goaltender. Junior Martin Ouelette has played six in a row, and he has good numbers (.915 saves, 2.23 goals against) despite a 1-5-2 record overall. In the Boston University game (Maine's last before Friday's date with UMD), the Terriers had multiple sustained sequences in the UMaine zone, but couldn't get many -- if any -- shots on goal. Maine actually outshot BU 28-21 and lost 1-0.

For UMD, a big key in this game is going to be similar to the Saturday game in Alaska. Just stick with it.

The Bulldogs want to play a certain way, and UAA didn't let them do that in that Saturday game two weekends ago. The Bulldogs never trailed, but had to grind out a 2-1 win that was every bit as hard-earned as any win UMD will attain this season. Maine might not be as physical as UAA, but the Black Bears will make it really hard for UMD forwards to get to Ouelette for rebounds, and they're going to block some shots, too, if the BU game is any indication.

Reality is that Maine simply isn't going to score as many goals as it did last season. Not even close. So coach Tim Whitehead has gotten this group to buy into a certain way of playing. It isn't anything sexy, but it's what has to be done to keep the team in games.

If the forwards start producing more consistently, perhaps the style will be further adjusted. But it is what it is, and UMD may have to grind out another 2-1 kind of game to advance.

There were questions going into the season about whether UMD could handle that style. The 2010-11 and 11-12 teams were pretty good at beating teams that wanted to slow the game down, but previous UMD groups had struggled in that area.

Against Bemidji State and UAA -- teams notorious for playing more of a slow-down, grinder style -- UMD went 3-1. We'll take it.

Ahead on Saturday is either Cornell or Ferris State. Those two teams play the early game in Estero, about 15 miles down the road. Both semifinals are rematches of NCAA regional games from March, as Ferris beat Cornell in Green Bay for the right to go to the Frozen Four.

The four coaches in this tournament -- Whitehead, UMD's Scott Sandelin, Bob Daniels of Ferris, and Mike Schafer from Cornell -- have combined to win 1220 games in 69 years as head coaches. Sandelin is the "baby" of the group, in his 13th season as a head coach. Daniels is in his third decade with Ferris' Bulldogs.

Don't expect any lineup changes from UMD. It's safe to say Sandelin will run with the same group of 20 he used in Alaska for both games. Of course, if something goes awry, it's nice to know that he has all his players on this trip. Since it's non-conference, there was no reason to leave anyone at home.

UMD Preps for Florida Excursion

There are worse things in the country to prepare for than a late-December trip to Florida.

Yes, UMD is still a game under .500 (7-8-3), but at 4-1-1 over the last six games, the Bulldogs got things going in the right direction before a weekend off. During that off week, UMD players wrapped up final exams for the first semester, and also got to take some time away from the rink to celebrate Christmas.

The team returns to practice Wednesday, then flies to Florida on Thursday to play Maine (2-11-2) on Friday evening in Estero, a community of around 18,000 people located not too far south of Fort Myers.

This is the 13th annual Florida College Classic, an event that is hosted by the ECHL's Florida Everblades and played at Germain Arena, a building that seats around 7,000 fans. The Classic is co-hosted by Maine and Cornell, both of which have played in the event in each of its 12 previous years. The Black Bears have won the event five times, including two of the last three years, while Cornell has won it three times. One of those was in 2005, when the Big Red beat UMD in a shootout after a 1-1 tie in the championship game. UMD beat Maine 4-1 in the opening round.

(In case you're wondering why there's a hockey tournament in Florida, Everblades owner Craig Brush is a Cornell alum who played on the Big Red's 1970 NCAA title team.)

The weather looks awesome, with sunshine and temps in the 70s expected, outside of a small chance of a thunderstorm Saturday. But make no mistake: This is a business trip for UMD first.

The business starts Wednesday, as the players try to shake off the rust after a layoff. Before the layoff, things were going well, as the Bulldogs put together four wins in six, including their first sweep in Anchorage since 1996. It doubled as UMD's first WCHA road sweep since Dec. 2-3, 2011, at Michigan Tech.

On Friday, UMD faces a Maine team that has scored just 20 goals in 15 games, but seems to be gaining some footing as of late.

In its last six games, in which Maine has gone 1-3-2, the Black Bears have allowed 12 goals after surrendering 24 in their previous six and they have scored 10 goals after scoring just five in the six prior games.

Also, Maine is 4 for 27 on the power play (14.8 percent) and 20 for 23 on the penalty kill (87 percent) after going 1 for 32 (3.1 percent) with the man-advantage in the previous six games and killing off 31 of 40 (77.5 percent).

Doesn't sound like much -- coach Tim Whitehead said it's been "baby steps" -- but they had to start somewhere. If the Black Bears are going to start scoring, expect a lot of it to center around senior Joey Diamond. The abrasive star scored 25 goals last season, but has just three in 14 games this season while battling injury.

A win over Maine could lead to a matchup with a Cornell team that should be a tournament contender, making the matchup quite valuable for a UMD squad that enters the weekend with a pedestrian 2-2 record in non-conference games.

As the Bulldogs look to head in the right direction, it's paramount that they avoid a slip this weekend. Do well in Florida, take another week off, and then look ahead to a lot of home games in the second half.

Sunday Hockey Notes and Thoughts: UMD Survives, Advances, Must Start Better

WORCESTER, Mass. -- For the ninth time this year, UMD allowed the first goal in a game and won anyway.

In this case, the timing was pretty good.

After falling behind 2-0, UMD used a huge power play goal and a funky bounce to gain momentum, and then never looked back, beating Maine 5-2 in the Northeast Regional semifinals Saturday night.

Maine took a 2-0 lead on a very strange play that I'll explain in just a little bit, and watching the ESPNU replay of the game Saturday night/Sunday morning, it looks as if UMD was able to regroup while the officials tried to sort out what the hell happened on that particular play. The Bulldogs came out with some jump immediately after play resumed, eventually getting a power play chance 2:44 later on when JT Brown was chopped to the ice while he skated across the slot.

Less than a minute into the power play, Jack Connolly scored on a wrist shot to get UMD on the board, and the comeback was on.

"They got on the power play and they buried," Maine defenseman Will O'Neill said. "They got some momentum to make it 2-1. Then it was a one-goal game, and there was no quit in our guys too. We still thought we had control of the game because we were playing well."

Every shift after Maine's second goal, it seemed UMD got better. It was not totally out of nowhere, but it also was in a way, because turning points are rarely obvious when you're viewing the game live. You often have to think back for them.

"But the guys have shown that kind of resiliency all year," UMD coach Scott Sandelin said. "The latter part of the year here where we’ve dug ourselves a hole and come back in games is when we’ve been able to come back and get the lead."

Later in the second period, UMD began to forecheck much more effectively. The reward came on one of the more bizarre goals anyone will ever see. Caleb Herbert stole a puck near the Maine blue line and skated in all alone. His shot missed the net, bounced high off the glass behind the goal, and caromed back over the top of the net. The puck then hit Maine goalie Dan Sullivan in the back of the right leg (in the calf, it appeared) and went over the goal line before anyone knew what happened.

"I thought I had the goalie beat on the right side there and ended up missing the net," Herbert said, "but we’ve been working on it in practice you know where you bank it off the wall and it comes back over. I had that going for me and it ended up going in."

(Reporters love when people make jokes in press conferences, by the way. They ate that one up.)

(Great tweet from UMD freshman Adam Krause, by the way, who referred to Herbert's shot as a "bank off the nacho stand.")

From there, it was alllllll UMD.

"I thought we pressured the puck a little bit better in the second period and even the third," Sandelin said. "But we didn’t get caught as much on the wrong side of the puck and we had numbers back, so I thought our guys played a real smart period, which helped them not get a whole lot going."

"They were playing solid defensively," said Maine star Spencer Abbott, who returned from a concussion and scored a power-play goal, but was almost a complete non-factor five-on-five. "Our line had trouble getting the puck in their end. My hats off to them. They just did a great job defensively. They were all over us, especially on the power play."

UMD got the winner from Jake Hendrickson in the second, a rebound off a Brady Lamb steal and shot. The Bulldogs smothered Maine in the third. JT Brown and Hendrickson added goals, UMD held Maine to three shots on goal, and the Bulldogs had the win.

Now comes another huge challenge in the No. 1 overall seed, Boston College.

"The good thing, while we were watching Maine they were playing BC so that helped a little bit," Sandelin said. "But . . . I thought the game we watched in the Hockey East final they were good. They’ve got great depth, they’ve got some big players, some big skilled players, and I thought they smother you. They really play the game up and down the rink."

Maine coach Tim Whitehead expects a super game Sunday night.

"Yeah it will be a great game. I mean we were really hoping to get an opportunity to play BC again. They’re such a great team you know we have so much respect for them coming out of our conference. And so I think it will be a great hockey game. You’ve got two strong teams that have a lot of confidence and have earned that confidence and I just think that it will be a great hockey game."

Hopefully, there's a little bit more flow than the games Saturday had. I expect Boston College to be able to use a bit more of its speed and skill than Air Force allowed it to. That should make for a fantastic contest, with a Frozen Four bid on the line.

******

I keep getting questions about it, and since I'm here to help, here is the (final?) explanation on why Maine's second goal -- scored by Mark Mangene -- was indeed allowed to stand, and why it should have been.

Here's what happened: UMD forward Caleb Herbert lost an edge and crashed into the Maine goal while trying to forecheck. Play was allowed to continue as the Black Bears rushed up the rink. UMD stopped playing, almost unanimously. Mangene took a feed from Mike Cornell, skated in, and beat Reiter with a backhand shot.

It took me a while to find the right rule, but the NCAA did later issue a statement on the play, citing the rule I told everyone about on the radio:

6-10-c. A player, including the goalkeeper, shall not delay the game by deliberately displacing a goal post from its normal position. The referee shall stop play when a goal post has been displaced.

Note: If the non-offending team has an offensive opportunity and its defensive goal cage has been displaced, play shall be allowed to continue until the scoring chance is complete.

Simply put, UMD has to keep playing. No excuse for stopping the way the Bulldogs did there.

"It's a good lesson for your team," Sandelin said. "That's a good reason why you never quit playing on anything.

"I think it might have been different had it not happened earlier in the game, and they blew it."

Sandelin was referring to a play in the opening minute of the second period, where Brian Flynn of Maine ran into the UMD net while trying to go around on a forecheck. UMD was denied a scoring chance opportunity to dump the puck down the rink while short-handed. A different play, but certainly you can understand a bit why there might have been confusion on the UMD side.

It still was irritating to see so many guys in white just give up on the play. Yes, they are assuming a whistle, but in reality, it's no different than when you see a puck graze the netting above the glass on the ends. Sometimes, the officials miss it, even if the players see it. I've seen instances where teams have stopped playing because the players saw the puck hit the net, and since there was no whistle, those players paid a price. That's why everyone bangs into your head as a player to go until you hear a whistle.

You assume nothing.

Tough play to have go against you, but it was nice to see UMD rally from it in the end.

******

Two first-time entrants punched their tickets to the NCAA Frozen Four Saturday. In the East Regional, Union topped UMass-Lowell 4-2, and the Dutchmen found out later Saturday they will play another first-time Frozen Four entrant, Ferris State. The Bulldogs beat Cornell 2-1 for the Midwest Regional title in Green Bay.

The Frozen Four is April 5 and 7 in Tampa. Presumably, Union and Ferris State will be the early semifinal, to be followed by the winners of Sunday's regional finals. The UMD-Boston College winner will play the West Regional champion, which will be either North Dakota or Minnesota.

In those games Saturday, North Dakota held off Western Michigan 3-1. The Team That Shall Not Be Named took a 2-0 lead early in the second, then held off a furious WMU rally. Brock Nelson had two points for North Dakota. Minnesota advanced with a 7-3 whipping of Boston University. The game was tied 2-2 in the second period before Seth Helgeson scored from the high slot to give Minnesota the lead for good.

The announced attendance for Saturday's games in St. Paul was under 10,000, a possibly-shocking fact if you haven't been a regular follower of mine. I've said for months those tickets (close to $100 for the two-day package, which was all you could buy until late this past week) were severely overpriced, especially considering the WCHA Final Five, which also inexplicably did not sell out a single game, also has overpriced tickets.

I know the host committee has to recoup costs to conduct this event in that building, but everyone -- student athletes, fellow fans, broadcasters, and the surrounding area -- would have benefited from a bit more reasonable ticket prices. More people equals more atmosphere, and it's not like you don't have a vibrant group of hockey fans in the area. They were interested, but they were priced out of the event.

Game 40: UMD vs. Maine (NCAA Northeast Regional Semifinal)

WORCESTER, Mass. -- You're going to have to bear with us if you're looking for online updates without listening to the broadcast. I'll update at twitter.com/BruceCiskie as much as I can, but the wireless in this building is pretty awful. It will be hard to use TweetDeck as I usually do.

Lines?

Lines.

UMD
Flaherty - Connolly - Seidel
Herbert - Oleksuk - Brown
Basaraba - Hendrickson - Grun
Crandall (Justin) - Tardy - Krause

Bergman - Lamb
Casto - Smith
Olson - McManus

Reiter - Crandall (Aaron)

Maine
Abbott - Flynn - Diamond
Anthoine - Higgins - Mangene
Andersson - Leidermark - Swavely
Shemansky - Beattie - Parker

O'Neill - Cornell
Hegarty - Nemec
Pryor - O'Connor

Sullivan - Ouellette - Seeley

Saturday Hockey Notes and Thoughts: Now, You See Why I Give Everyone A Shot

WORCESTER, Mass. -- I get crap every year, it seems, for not wanting to make any predictions on the NCAA Tournament.

Now you see why.

16 teams make this tournament. Any damn one of them could hoist the trophy in Tampa, and they all have a shot until someone eliminates them.

It sounds like cliche-ish coach speak, and it might be, but it's also absolutely, positively true. 100 percent true.

Proven again Friday, when two lower-seeded teams -- including one that blew a 3-0 lead and took a five-minute major penalty that spilled into overtime -- won games on a scintillating night of action to open the tournament.

Seeds don't matter. "Skill level" doesn't matter.

I went on a Twitter rant earlier this week, talking about how this is NOT the best way to decide the best team in college hockey. In reality, this isn't even a way to decide something like that.

That doesn't mean it's not a great tournament.

Reality is that tournaments don't decide the best team, because the best team rarely wins, especially when it's "win or go home." Other sports try, by conducting best-of-five or best-of-seven series, but even those samples are often too small to do anything but muddy the water.

Over the course of the college hockey regular season, there's no question -- no doubt whatsoever -- that Michigan was a better team than Cornell. More wins. Better power ratings. Better strength of schedule. Head to head, no one would have argued when comparing the two teams.

Of course, none of that matters now, because Cornell beat Michigan 3-2 in overtime in Green Bay Friday night. It's Cornell that moves on, and Michigan -- a team many expected to get back to Tampa and take another shot at its tenth national title -- is left to pick up the pieces.

You just want to give the big trophy to the best team over the course of an entire season? Talk to European soccer leagues. As an example, the Barclays Premier League -- regarded as the best of its kind in the world -- has 20 teams. Over the course of a 38-game campaign, each team plays everyone else in the league twice, once home and once away. Three points for a win, one for a draw, and at the end, the team with the most points is the champion.

It's fair. Complete round robin. No unbalanced schedule.

And if you want to just figure out the best team, it's about the only way.

Tournaments are about generating drama (well, revenue, too). They're about generating excitement. And they're about the fact that your particular group of teams is too big to have a fully balanced schedule, where you just give the title to the top record.

This is what's so wrong about college football, which tries to have it both ways. By not instituting a full-on playoff, one of the big talking points from the BCS hacks is that the regular season -- where the top teams rarely play head-to-head -- matters. But how can you say the regular season matters when the national championship game pitted two teams that had already played each other, and the team that lost the regular-season meeting at home ended up dominating in the "playoff" game?

In college hockey and other sports with a playoff system, the regular season matters. But for most of the 16 teams in the NCAA Tournament, the regular season was nothing but preparation for the NCAAs. You can try to get hot at the right time, and you can try to play your "best hockey" heading into the tournament, but games like Friday in Green Bay blow those theories out of the water.

Cornell was not hot, and Cornell was not playing its best entering the tournament. What mattered most was just getting into the tournament. Same for Ferris State, which beat Denver 2-1 in Green Bay Friday. The Bulldogs hadn't played for two weeks, because as the top seed in the CCHA tournament, they lost at home to Bowling Green in a best-of-three quarterfinal series. Denver, meanwhile, played very well at the WCHA Final Five last weekend, beating Michigan Tech and UMD in overtime (UMD in two overtimes, actually) before falling to North Dakota in the title game.

UMass-Lowell was similar, as the RiverHawks lost to Providence in three games in the Hockey East quarterfinals, took a weekend off, and ended up beating Miami in overtime in the East Regional Friday.

Every time you have a theory about how this all works, something happens to destroy it.

Makes me think more and more about what UMD coach Scott Sandelin said Friday. In talking about tournament experience, he mentioned that one of the things he's learned is to let his players enjoy these moments. It's hard to argue with that notion, because no matter how well you think you've prepared your team for it, there's just no guarantee that the moment will last.

******

Just another NCAA Tournament lid-lifter, eh? In the East, we're guaranteed to have a team in the Frozen Four for the first time ever, as UMass-Lowell will play Union for a spot in Tampa. Union's 3-1 win over Michigan State was the school's first NCAA Tournament win ever. Those teams meet Saturday at 5:30pm.

The other regional final Saturday pits Cornell against Ferris State in the Midwest. The ECAC hasn't placed two teams in the Frozen Four since 1996. Cornell in 2003 was the last to make it. The CCHA, meanwhile, started with five teams and is down to two (Ferris State and Western Michigan).

The Northeast Regional and West Regional semifinals are Saturday, with title games set for Sunday.

******

The usual keys apply for UMD and Maine on Saturday. The Bulldogs need to avoid the little mistakes that can turn into big problems. Against Denver, those mistakes ended up in the back of UMD's net. A bad dump-in turned into DU's first goal. A blue-line turnover led to a Jason Zucker breakaway goal. The inability to clear the puck from the defensive zone led to the double-overtime winner.

UMD played great outside of those mistakes, and it needs to continue that thread against Maine. Get pucks to the net. Get bodies to the net. Pressure the Black Bears defense and get in goalie Dan Sullivan's kitchen.

At the other end, protect the goalie. Play a simple game with chips out of the zone if there is nothing else available. Don't get bottled up because of silly turnovers or poor puck support.

Even doing all the right things guarantees you nothing, but at least there are no regrets for UMD if it plays its best game and is still beaten.

******

Our coverage from DCU Center in Worcester starts at 6pm, with faceoff at 6:30pm. IF Boston College and Air Force play overtime in the opening game, it's unlikely that the UMD game will start on time. There must be 50 minutes between games, so as long as that first game ends by 5:40, UMD will start as scheduled.

You can hear the game on 94X -- 94.1 FM in town, and 104.3 FM everywhere else -- and along the Bulldog Sports Radio Network, which includes KQ 105.5 (Grand Rapids area) and KQ 106.7 (Babbitt/Ely). On the internet, we have two streams of the game. One at www.94xrocks.com. The other stream can be accessed here. If you can get that stream from wherever you are, we ask that you do so. The 94xrocks.com stream is capped at 200 listeners, so the more people that listen to the other stream -- which has an unlimited audience -- the better. That will allow people who are on the go to use the Red Rock Radio app to listen to the game.

NCAA Northeast Regional: Spencer Abbott a Game Time Decision

WORCESTER, Mass. -- As soon as I heard what happened to Maine senior forward Spencer Abbott -- a Hobey Baker finalist -- I knew this was going to be a story throughout the week.

Abbott sustained a head injury during the Black Bears' 5-3 win over Boston University in last week's Hockey East semifinals in Boston. He has not practiced much this week, but did skate without taking contact during Friday's workout at DCU Center.

Whitehead confirmed the terminology "game-time decision" to me Friday, not that it was really a surprise to anyone.

"Unfortunately, we have got to be patient," Maine head coach Tim Whitehead said Friday. "These are the kind of injuries that you don't mess around with.

"This isn't something that you say 'Hey, he's gonna give it a try,' or see how it feels. He's either cleared or he's not."

Pressed at Friday's press conference for details on the process Abbott must work through to be allowed on the ice Saturday, Whitehead made it abundantly clear that clearance could come in time for Abbott to play, even if it might seem somewhat unlikely.

In a conversation I had with him after the press conference, Whitehead joked that it seems you almost "need a presidential pardon to get cleared from a head injury," but he is fully understanding of the protocol that his star player must pass.

While it isn't clear if Abbott will play on Saturday, Whitehead is confident that his team will be okay if it doesn't work out in the Black Bears' favor.

"It’s been a week now," Whitehead said, "and I thought we handled the situation well against BU. We were able to bounce right back after three minutes and get the game-winning goal. . . I think the BU game was almost a microcosm of our season with our team.

"We’ve handled adversity within the game and off the ice with anything that’s thrown at us, and the boys have handled it very well. So I think we’re prepared and now we’ve had a week to adjust to it as well. So I think if he’s not playing we’ll certainly be ready, and if he is that’s just a bonus."

UMD is reporting no injuries. Expect a similar lineup to what you have seen so far in the playoffs.

NCAA Northeast Regional: Where Experience Could Matter

WORCESTER, Mass. -- I've danced this dance enough to know what the typical refrain is when it comes to the NCAA Tournament and the topic of experience.

Teams that don't have it talk about how it's not that big a deal. Teams that have it talk about how it is absolutely a big deal.

I've always been on the fence. Yeah, it's nice to have NCAA Tournament experience, but it doesn't grow on trees. It isn't something you buy in a hardware store. Total Hockey doesn't have bottles of it on its shelves. You can only get it by, yes, making the NCAA Tournament.

And hearing about how you don't have any experience in the tournament.

It's like a rite of passage. So congratulations, Maine, because you've made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007, allowing idiots like me to talk about how none of your players have experience in this event.

Naturally, Maine coach Tim Whitehead had an answer, and it was a good one.

"We’ve had the Frozen Fenway experience," he said Friday, "and I think they handled the distractions and the atmosphere that really reminded me of the regionals and Frozen Fours that I’ve been in. It was a very similar type of feel coming into Boston. All the excitement, four teams at the event, a lot of off-ice, good distractions. Great excitement for the game and for our league and for the state schools and we handled it very well."

Whitehead is no stranger to this event. Saturday will be his 17th NCAA Tournament game as a head coach, so he's been through all the built-in distractions. While there's more media involved in an NCAA regional than any conference event, he brings up a good point with the Frozen Fenway bit.

"When the puck was dropped they were able to keep their focus within the glass and the boards and we got to have a great victory over our arch rivals UNH in overtime – couldn’t have scripted it any better.

"So they had that experience, it was successful, and then last weekend again the experience at TD Garden is very similar to what you would get at a regional. The crowds were probably bigger there than we would even expect here, and again they handled that well so I think we’ll be fine with that."

That said, the NCAA Tournament is different than a league tournament or an outdoor hockey game. There's more pressure than in an outdoor game -- that's just a regular season game, with nothing more than maybe two points (if it's a league game) on the line -- and there's more media and outside stuff than in a conference tournament.

It's part of why UMD is confident heading into Saturday's regional semifinal.

"Coming down to this time of year, one game can keep your season going in a hurry," senior defenseman Brady Lamb said Friday. "Making sure you take care of every chance you get on the ice, whether it’s five shifts a game or 25 shifts a game, you have to make sure you’re ready to go at all times and take nothing for granted."

Senior captain, leading scorer, and Hobey Baker finalist Jack Connolly agrees.

"The experience helps a lot," he says. "We (have) some younger guys on the team this year that have never had a taste of the NCAAs, and how big of a stage it is and how difficult it is to get here. Having a good upperclass that has been through this the last few years definitely helps."

Head coach Scott Sandelin agrees to an extent, saying that teams that have been through the tournament grind still feel the excitement to get there, but it's not quite the same thing as it is for a newbie.

"When you have a team that doesn’t have that experience," the 12th-year coach -- a veteran of three previous NCAA trips as UMD's bench boss, said, "you can still have that excitement but you tend to be pretty wide-eyed and get caught up in it."

Sandelin himself has learned a few things along the way. One of them is the importance of letting his players enjoy the moment they're in.

"We can get so caught in not letting them enjoy it," he said. "I think that's one of the things I've learned from '04 to last year. We're gonna go out and play hard, and whatever happens happens.

"Obviously, the ultimate goal is to play into April. But right now I want them to enjoy tomorrow, and if we have another one on Sunday, we'll enjoy that."

None of this means that UMD's past experience will matter in the game Saturday. If the Bulldogs don't start better than they did in last week's Final Five game against Denver, it won't matter how much more experience they have on this stage than Maine does.

No one knows this better than Sandelin, and you can bet his players are well aware of it, too.

NCAA Northeast Regional Notes and Quotes: UMD vs Maine

WORCESTER, Mass. -- The practice sessions have wrapped up at DCU Center, as have the press conferences for each team involved in Saturday's Northeast Regional games, which begin at 4pm Eastern time.

UMD battles Maine at 7:30 Eastern in the second game. Here are some thoughts, starting with Maine.

Maine coach Tim Whitehead on the health of senior and Hobey Baker finalist Spencer Abbott:

"We just have to wait and see if he can get cleared by the doctor. . . Several people have asked me if he’s going to give it a go, but you don’t give it a go with a head injury. It’s whether or not he has been cleared yet, and he has not been cleared yet. We just have to take it day-by-day. It’s been a week now, and I thought we handled the situation well against BU. We were able to bounce right back after three minutes and get the game-winning goal. . . I think the BU game was almost a microcosm of our season with our team. We’ve handled adversity within the game and off the ice with anything that’s thrown at us, and the boys have handled it very well. So I think we’re prepared and now we’ve had a week to adjust to it as well. So I think if he’s not playing we’ll certainly be ready, and if he is that’s just a bonus."

Whitehead on his team's return to the NCAA Tournament:

"It feels great. It’s not about me as a coach or even our staff. We’re part of it of course. We have to try to guide them and I feel we’ve done a good job of that. But in the end it comes from them, and we just are continuing to encourage them to make sure they take ownership of the team and responsibility and do everything they can do. This particular year we’ve focused very much on staying healthy and we’ve altered our training. We’ve done everything we can possibly do to avoid serious injury. For the most part it’s been as good as it’s been. The last couple years were extremes, but that was important for us and we’ve worked hard to improve our goaltending and that was just time. Last year we had two freshmen and a sophomore and they just needed time to develop. They’ve done a great job, and we just focused on blocking out all the people that call themselves faithful and all that chatter, and just focus on us, focus on the locker room. We believe in each other. Coaches believe in the players, players in the coaches, players in each other and that’s all we can do – focus on that. And the guys have been great. I’m just real happy for them because that’s all they care about – what’s going on with our team, and they did it themselves. Now this is a great opportunity for us, and let’s make the most of it. We’re not just here to enjoy the ride, we’re here to win some hockey games. So we have an opportunity tomorrow to prove that we can play with these teams."

Senior forward Brian Flynn on getting back to the NCAA Tournament (Maine's first since 2007):

"It’s exciting. This is definitely something that we wanted to do before graduating here. And to get it in our senior year, and to be put in the bracket with BC who we just lost to in the (Hockey East) championship, and the (reigning) national champions, they’re a great team. We know we have our hands full and it’s a challenge we’re excited for."

Whitehead on his seniors:

"It’s a great feeling for them. We’re very proud of them. Obviously they’ve persevered through some very tough challenges, last season in particular. We felt we had a team that could get to the tournament the last two years and they never quit. And we’ve been on the doorstep for two years in a row and this is the third year that we’ve been on the bubble, so I’m really happy for them mostly that they’ve found a way to fight through all of that stuff and get to the tournament and have this opportunity. We’re very proud of them."

UMD coach Scott Sandelin on how he prepares his team for this game:

"We tend to try to focus on our team and what we need to do. For us, we have a lot of respect for their program and their team and how hard they're going to work. Getting off to a good start is really critical for us. Obviously, last Friday that didn't happen, and we dug a hole. Playing catchup hockey this time of year is kind of death."


UMD senior captain and Hobey Baker finalist Jack Connolly on what older brother Chris, the captain of Boston University, told him about Maine, a Hockey East rival:

"I picked his brain a little bit about the team. Obviously he’s played them quite a bit. He said they have a lot of speed, but I think we can get after their defense and capitalize on their weaknesses. They’ve been playing pretty good as of late and that’s an aspect of the team you can get after as well. I think we have a lot of speed on our team and will be able to work their team down low and will have to try and get some goals around the crease."

UMD senior defenseman Brady Lamb on his team's success on the road:

"The biggest thing we try and do is make sure our home is a tough place to play. We also like to put pressure on the other teams when we go to their place. Being on the road gives our team more chances to come together and unite a little tighter. We have a lot of fun on the road and I think that transfers to our team chemistry, and we have a lot of guys working for each other out there."

UMD senior center Travis Oleksuk on the season thus far:

"It’s been a long year, (we’ve) played a lot of games out, had a lot of ups and downs like any team has. Right now we’re feeling good about how we’re playing and real excited to get things started on Saturday and looking forward to try and have some success out here."

Sandelin on Connolly:

"Everyone thought he was too small, kind of that stigma I think we’ve heard with a lot of different college players. I think he’s fought that all the way. He’s a good athlete, a good hockey player. It was an easy decision for us. I’ll be honest with you, when we recruited him my biggest fear was that we had to tell him he was going to play two years of junior hockey, and I didn’t think we were going to get him. It took about five minutes for the commitment, and we got him in after one year at Sioux Falls and not two. He went to juniors under the understanding he was going to play two years – and that was my biggest fear, he’d say no, I want to come after one year, and we’re fortunate we got him. As good a hockey player (as) he is, he is a better person. He’s been a great ambassador for our program and our community."

NCAA Tournament Underway

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Greetings from downtown Worcester, which bears a resemblance to downtown Bridgeport. Very industrial, and not a whole lot going on around our hotel.

UMD arrived via charter flight at around 9 Eastern time Thursday evening. The Bulldogs arrived at the hotel a little after 10, once they dropped their gear off at the DCU Center.

All four teams in the Northeast Regional practice on Friday, starting with Air Force and Boston College, then Maine and UMD. Teams will participate in press conferences after their practices.

I'll be at the rink for most of Maine's practice, and will attend both Maine and UMD's press conferences. I'll post notes and quotes from the day later on.

Also, since I'm apparently into shameless self-promotion, I'll be on Beyond The Pond Saturday at 10:35am. Listen on KFAN in the Cities, The Fan 1490 in the Twin Ports, or kfan.com and iHeartRadio. I'm presuming that the basis for my appearance will be to talk about UMD.

A few nuggets to chew on, mostly courtesy of the NCAA media guide and weekly note packets filed by the participating leagues and teams.

• Maine is making its first NCAA men's hockey tournament appearance since 2007, but the Black Bears have had at least one team or individual from its athletic program take part in an NCAA Tournament every year since 1986. Amazing run for a school probably not regarded as a sports powerhouse.
• Maine won men's hockey national championships in 1993 and 1999, and played for titles in 2002 (lost in overtime to Minnesota) and 2004 (lost 1-0 to Denver). This program is not a stranger to the NCAA Tournament, though it's been a while since its last appearance.
• The Black Bears are 7-1 all-time in NCAA games in Worcester. Boston College is 8-1, and its last three national championships have started with regionals in Worcester.
• Maine coach Tim Whitehead is 10-6 (.625) in NCAA Tournament games. UMD's Scott Sandelin is 7-2 (.778).

Two regionals are underway Friday. In the East Regional in Bridgeport, Union faces Michigan State, and UMass-Lowell takes on Miami. Winners play Saturday in the regional final. The Midwest Regional in Green Bay kicks off with Michigan playing Cornell, and Denver battling Ferris State.

All the games in the tournament can be seen online at ESPN3.com.

UMD Game Will Air on Fox Sports North

For those who haven't heard, UMD's game Saturday in Worcester against Maine will air on Fox Sports North's Plus channel.

Game time is at 6:30pm, and it will air following the conclusion of the Minnesota-Boston University game in the West Regional, which starts at 4pm. The full broadcast will air live on ESPN3.com, regardless of when FSN Plus is able to join the game.

You can find out where you can see the game on your TV set here.

UMD doesn't report any injuries or anything like that. Maine star Spencer Abbott -- a Hobey Baker finalist -- is not practicing because of a head injury, and multiple reports indicate that the Black Bears are "preparing as if he won't be available," or something along those lines.

I don't doubt that Abbott is injured, and I certainly hope it's not serious, but I'd bet UMD is preparing as if Abbott will be available. If he's not, Maine still has some hella dangerous players like Brian Flynn and Joey Diamond up front, guys who are certainly capable of making things difficult on a UMD defense that -- in my view -- struggled a bit at times against Denver on Friday.


I'll be on Maine Sports Network at around 10:40 Wednesday morning (Central time) to talk about the game. You can stream it here.