Actually, I was pretty impressed by the Wayne State team here in Fairbanks.
They played 20 freshmen both nights--that's the first and last time I ever
expect to see that--and were much better than anyone might have expected in
a 3-1 loss and 3-3 tie with UAF.  They'd just added three European players
and had two solid goaltenders.  Carlson stopped 46 of 49 in the tie in
Fairbanks and Guerrera stopped of 31 of 34 here and 46 of 47 in a 3-1 win to
end the season against Clarkson.  Still you'd be hard pressed to put them
any better than about #45 or #46 among D1 teams this year and they were
inconsistent from one night to the next.  But Wilkinson is a good coach and
they appeared to be setting up a promising program with some good people
behind it.  I don't expect to see them making a run at a national
championship in three years, but they may well have a pretty good hockey
team.  It'll be interesting to watch and see if they can continue to develop
from this year's start.  Wilkinson did an awesome job of recruiting with
very little time to do it but that sure makes recruiting interesting after
this year.  How do you recruit when you have that many freshmen?
 
Eric Carlson
 
-----Original Message-----
From: The College Hockey Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of T. N. Long
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 11:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 2003 Tournament Selection
 
For all of the people who have had a hard time understanding and accepting
the team Niagara fielded this year, it's time to put it in the past and
begin thinking about the 2003 tournament.  It's highly likely that you'll
see a similar Wayne State team there.  With a highly motivated Bill
Wilkinson as coach and an all freshman team this year (academically, three
are sophomores and one is a junior), you may want to archive your
commentaries for use again three years from now. :-)
 
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