Star-Tribune college-hockey writer John Gilbert must have had a little chat with
Northern Michigan coach Rick Comley to get most of the material for his "College
hockey notes" in today's (2/15/94) Star-Tribune with headline "Northern Michigan
coach in quandary over Olympics":
 
..Comley has a stake in several teams.  "We have a player on four different
Olympic teams in this tournament," Comley said.  "Mark Beaufait is playing for
the U.S., Brad Werenka is with Canada, Phil DeGaetano is with Italy, and Eric
LeMarque with France."
 
Canadian and U.S. players often change citizenship, a practice that has become
popular while also making teams from Italy and France very competitive, but for
a coach and a college, Comley and Northern Michigan can claim a record for
helping populate four different national teams, at least until someone can prove
otherwise.  As an additional twist, all four of those teams are in Pool B,
meaning they all will play each other in round-robin action.
 
{temporarily end quoted stuff.  There's a section titled "Hockey East showdown"
that has no info that'd be new to anyone on the list... and then this one,
titled "Splits or else":}
 
While the WCHA-leading Gophers meet Alaska-Anchorage this weekend, the series at
St. Cloud and Marquette, Mich., could enhance or eliminate a couple of
contenders.
 
Second-place Colorado College, which tied the Gophers for first place Friday
night before losing the second Wisconsin game, plays two games at St. Cloud
State.  And Wisconsin and Northern Michigan, tied for third and only three
points back, meet at Marquette.
 
"Everybody's got to split to stay in the race, no question," said Badgers coach
Jeff Sauer.  "I felt that we had to split at CC last weekend or be out of it.
We had one poor period at CC and had to play catch-up the first game, but
Saturday we played really well  And this weekend we've got to win at least one,
and that will be tough."
 
Wildcats coach Comley said:  "I don't consider us in it any more, because I
don't think we can win with the lineup we have right now.... We only had enough
players to dress 19 players last Saturday."
 
Because of injuries, the Wildcats lost the second game to Alaska-Anchorage.
That split means the Wildcats are 1-2 in their last three home games, after
winning their first 12.
 
{End quoted stuff.}
 
Is Comley playing the typical coaches' game of lowering expectations, or is the
injury situation at Northern really that bad?  (Worse than, say, having two of
your first-line forwards out with injuries, one of them for the rest of the
season?)
 
Pam Sweeney                            Go Gophers!!!
[log in to unmask]         1993 WCHA Playoff Champions!!!
[log in to unmask]              Ski-U-Mah!!!