With Justin D, Mike and Keith praising Alaska-Fairbank's Dean Fedorchuk, I'd
like to chip in a couple of comments of my own.
IMHO, Fedorchuk is deserving of All-America honors. He has impressed me
since the opening weekend of this season when he scored 5 power play goals
in the UAF-Michigan series. But, I'd like to make a case for another player
who is also very deserving of All-America honors and Hobey Baker
consideration, maybe more so than Fedorchuk.
The player I'm referring to is UAF's Tavis MacMillan. Fedorchuk is a GREAT
scorer, but could be accused of being one dimensional. He lives on the
power play, where all 5'7" of him (I question this as well) somehow manages
to park to the left of the goaltender and bang everything home. He is also
a dangerous shorthanded player -- not because of his defensive abilities but
because he floats near the neutral zone and looks for the breakaway.
On to MacMillan. Tavis strikes me as the on-ice leader for the Nanooks. He
is the playmaker on the power play, but does not play on Fedorchuk's line at
even strength (at least I don't remember them being together -- and they're
both listed as centers). He's bigger than Fedorchuk and plays a lot more
defense.
When I was in Fairbanks, I had a chance to speak with both players following
the Face-off luncheon. I was much more impressed with MacMillan than
Fedorchuk. (But then again, you don't have to be a Rhodes scholar to score
goals. :-)
I think there's room for both of them on my All-America team. But, based on
one conversation and two games, and following their stats throughout the
season, I have to say the MacMillan is at least on equal ground with
Fedorchuk when it comes to Hobey consideration.
Here's a peak at UAF's current scoring leaders:
NAME YR GP G A PTS PEN MIN PP SH HAT WG +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------
MacMillan,Tavis SR 21 11 31 42 20 40 2 0 1 1 6
Fedorchuk,Dean SR 21 25 16 41 24 48 13 2 4 3 -4
Lester,Don SR 21 12 23 35 9 18 4 1 0 0 0
Eckel,Jason JR 21 17 17 34 10 23 9 0 1 3 -4
Spring,Corey JR 21 12 10 22 8 16 3 0 0 1 9
Williams,Pat FR 20 6 12 18 6 12 3 0 0 0 11
Carter,Warren JR 21 6 12 18 6 12 0 0 0 1 7
--------------------------------------------------------------
And I have to agree with Mike...Michigan's David Oliver has to be one of the
front runners for the Hobey at this point, but I didn't want to hear it. :-)
John H
U Mich
P.S. For the first person who is interested, I have an extra 1993-94 UAF
Media Guide. I'll trade it for almost any other media guide that I don't
have. Just drop me an message off-line and let me know what I'm trading
for. Please note, UAF's guide is decent, but it's fairly small and only
runs $4-$5. So, if your school's guide is HUGE and costs $8-$10 or more
(Lake Superior comes to mind), you're getting the short end of the trade.
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