ScottD wrote, in part..
> Also, am I wrong thinking Maine has the easiest route to the frozen fou
>of the non-bye teams? OSU was the last team to be chosen for the tournement
>and Clarkson doesn't scare me.
Maybe we should be scared!
It's true that Ohio State is on a skid (they've lost 5 of their last 8,
beating only FSU (3 times)). But they have had a decent year and are
very good defensively. In one of the CCHA's higher scoring games, last
October, they tied MSU 4-4. OSU has its own Hobey Baker candidate in
forward Hugo Boisvert. Boisvert is 2nd in CCHA scoring with 15-23-38 in
27 CCHA games.
OSU more importantly IMHO boasts the CCHA Goaltender of the Year in Jeff
Maund. Maund is a Sophomore who is said may turn pro after this season.
Maund's stats in CCHA games this season are 27 games, 17-7-3, with a
0.928 save rate in 1617 minutes. His GAA was 2.08. Only MSU goaltender
Joe Blackburn had better numbers (0.935 and 1.36).
Says the CCHA of CCHA Rookie of the year defenseman Jason Crain:
Ohio State defenseman Jason Crain, of Natrona Heights, Penn., led
Buckeye freshmen with 2-13-15 overall and 2-9-11 in league games. He
was third on the team, first among defensemen, with a +8 rating in
league games. He ranked fourth among CCHA freshmen defensemen in
scoring. He was an important part of OSU s power play, ranked third
in the CCHA overall, scoring seven of his overall points (1-6-7) with
a man advantage. Ohio State was 11-2-1 when Crain registered a plus
rating.
In addition to Maund and Boisvert on the CCHA 1st team was Andre
Signoretti, defenseman, on the All-CCHA 2nd Team.
The average OSU CCHA game score was 2.90 to 2.20. OSU was 2nd in CCHA
penalty kill rate with 88%. The OSU power play was *not* very
impressive at 14.4% (8th in CCHA).
On paper OSU looks a lot like Maine. The difference is that Maine has a
number of wins against top teams and fewer overall losses.
If Maine can get their power play going, an OSU achilles heel might be
that they take a lot of penalties (10th in CCHA at 23.6 minutes/game)
On the other hand, NCAA tournament games generally do not have a lot
of penalties called!
Should Maine get past OSU on Friday night, they will come up against
a rested Clarkson team. The ECAC says about Clarkson:
The Knights are in the tournament for the fifth consecutive year and
will have participated in 9 of the 10 tournaments held in the 1990's.
By virtue of winning both the regular season and playoff titles in
the ECAC the Knights received the #2 seed in the East and a
first-round bye. They stand just one win away from the 1999 Frozen
Four to be held April 1 and 3 at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim,
California.
Top scoring Crusaders are:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clarkson | Overall - 36 Games Played (25-10- 1 .708)
---------------------|--------------------------------------------------
Player YR/POS| GP G A PTS P/GM G/GM PEN/MIN PP SH GW GT EN
Erik Cole (x) SO F | 35 22 19 41 1.17 0.63 24/ 48 1 6 4 0 4
Mikko Ollila SR F | 34 9 23 32 0.94 0.26 7/ 14 0 0 3 0 0
Ben Maidment SR F | 36 12 17 29 0.81 0.33 4/ 8 7 0 6 1 0
Willie Mitchell SO D(y)33 10 19 29 0.88 0.30 16/ 40 4 0 2 0 0
Matt Reid JR F | 36 10 13 23 0.64 0.28 18/ 60 3 2 1 0 0
Philippe Roy JR D | 35 9 13 22 0.63 0.26 20/ 40 5 0 1 0 0
Don Smith SO F | 36 9 12 21 0.58 0.25 9/ 18 5 0 1 0 0
Carl Drakensjo JR F | 36 7 14 21 0.58 0.19 15/ 38 1 0 0 0 0
Yan Turgeon JR F | 33 9 11 20 0.61 0.27 8/ 16 3 0 1 0 0
(x) Cole was 10th in ECAC scoring. However, he led the ECAC in
short-handed goals (6) and points (8).
(y) Mitchell led the ECAC in scoring by a defenseman.
In Goaltending ...
Goaltending | GP Minutes GA Savs Sav% GAA Record Win% ST SO
Andrew Gibson FR | 6 157:09 8 47 .855 3.05 0- 1- 0 .000 2 0
Shawn Grant (z) FR | 35 2002:50 87 825 .905 2.61 25- 9- 1 .729 34 2
Open Net | 6 10:13 0
---------------------|--------------------------------------------------
Clarkson | 36 2170:12 95 872 .902 2.63 25-10- 1 .708 36 2
Opponents | 36 2170:12 131 1210 .902 3.62 10-25- 1 .292 36 0
(z) Grant's 2.61 was 5th in ECAC; his 0.905 was 6th in ECAC.
The average Clarkson score was 3.64-2.64. Clarkson was 2nd in offense
and third in defensive scoring. Clarkson was 8th in ECAC penalty
minutes with 14.9 minutes/game. Clarkson was also 4th best in ECAC
Power Play (18.6%) and Penalty Kill (84.5).
The ECAC keeps a stat called "special teams net". Clarkson and St.
Lawrence tied for 1st place in this category.
Clarkson started this season 1-6, with losses to NMU (2), NoDak (2),
PU and StL. Since then, they have been 24-3-1 with losses to Colgate (2),
UNH and Lowell.
Clarkson has been in the NCAA tournament 9 of the past 10 years. As
with us during that span, some of the best players have graduated and
some of the best play this season. :-)
It's interesting, I think, that we've had great success this year, yet
the measure of this team for many of us will be how well we do this
weekend and next.
Hope this helps, wayne
Wayne T. Smith
[log in to unmask] Old Town Landing
Co-owner of the College Hockey lists - Hockey-L and Hockey3
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