THE MAINE SITUATION
ORONO, Maine (AP) -- The University of Maine athletic
eligibility scandal continued to unfold this weekend, as
new charges surfaced amid a probe of the episode by
chancellor J. Michael Orenduff.
The latest round of assertions came from Anne R. McCoy,
an associate athletic director who also charged last week
that Athletic Director Michael Ploszek planned to conceal
eligibility problems from the NCAA.
McCoy was quoted by the newspaper Sunday Sun-Journal of
Lewiston as saying that Stanley Tupper, a former congressman
called in earlier this month to investigate the matter,
was using a tape recorder as he interviewed her.
But McCoy said that when she began making the allegation
that Ploszek had told her he planned to conceal the
infractions, Tupper shut off the recorder.
"He turned around and shut it off," McCoy told the
newspaper. "It was like, 'Well, that's very interesting."'
McCoy also said she mentioned the tape incident to
others after the interview.
"This is not true," Tupper said. "I don't want to be
quoted as calling anyone a liar, but she was not taped."
McCoy was one of 22 people interviewed by Tupper on
March 7-9 as part of an investigation requested by
president Frederick Hutchinson after five graduate
student athletes were found to have been ineligible under
NCAA rules.
Two of the athletes had been allowed to compete in
events after their ineligibility was discovered in
mid-February.
Tupper's investigation concluded that there was no
intent to cover up the infractions, but he found serious
lapses of judgment in officials' handling of the situation.
Last week, McCoy, a member of the NCAA's compliance
committee, charged that Ploszek had informed her of
Maine's eligibility problems and said he would "feign
ignorance" if they became public. She said she reported
this to Hutchinson and Tupper.
Ploszek denied the charge. Hutchinson and Tupper said
they remembered speaking to McCoy, but did not recall
her saying that Ploszek planned to conceal the violations.
Orenduff, the university chancellor, said he
will personally investigate the matter.
By The Associated Press
All Times EST
EAST REGIONAL
At Knickerbocker Arena
Albany, N.Y.
First Round
Friday, March 25
Wisconsin 6, Western Michigan 3
New Hampshire 2, RPI 0
Second Round
Saturday, March 26
Boston U. 4, Wisconsin 1
Harvard 7, New Hampshire 1
------
WEST REGIONAL
At Munn Arena
East Lansing, Mich.
First Round
Saturday, March 26
Lake Superior St. 6, Northeastern 5, OT
Mass.-Lowell 4, Michigan St. 3
Second Round
Sunday, March 27
Lake Superior St. 5, Michigan 4, OT
Minnesota 2, Mass.-Lowell 1, 2OT
------
Championship Round
At St. Paul Civic Center
St. Paul, Minn.
Semifinals
Thursday, March 31
Boston U. (31-7-1) vs. Minnesota (25-12-4), 2 p.m.
Harvard (24-4-4) vs. Lake Superior St. (29-10-4),
8 p.m.
Championship
Saturday, April 2
Semifinal winners, 8 p.m.
MINNESOTA VS. MASSACHUSETTS-LOWELL
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Jeff Nielsen scored at
9:29 of the second overtime period Sunday to give
Minnesota a 2-1 victory over Massachusetts-Lowell in
the NCAA West Regional.
The game was the second longest in NCAA tournament
history and the longest in regional play.
Nielsen, who leads the Gophers with 29 goals, took
a pass from Tony Bianchi, came down the right wing
and fired a high wrist shot from the faceoff circle
that beat goalie Dwayne Roloson high on the glove side.
The goal broke up a duel between Roloson, who made
45 saves, and Minnesota goalie Jeff Callinan, who
stopped 35 shots.
The Gophers advance to the NCAA Final Four in St.
Paul, Minn., where they'll meet Boston University
on Thursday.
Lake Superior became the other team to advance from
the West Regional when the Lakers beat top-seeded
Michigan 5-4 in overtime.
Freshman Nick Checco, who has five of his seven
goals in postseason play, sent the game into overtime
with a shot from the bottom of the faceoff circle
with 5:33 left in the third period. The shot went
between Roloson's pads and the goalpost, tying the
game at 1-1.
The Gophers applied heavy pressure throughout the
third period, outshooting Lowell 14-2. Minnesota
outshot the Chiefs 10-6 in the first overtime.
The play of goalies Roloson and Callinan dominated
the first two periods with Lowell holding a 1-0 lead on
defenseman David Mayes' second goal of the season
at 10:48 of the opening period.
Freshman Greg Bullock carried the puck behind the
net and passed to Mayes in the faceoff circle. His slap
shot went over Callinan's left shoulder to give the
Chiefs the lead.
Nielsen said he wasn't looking to pass when he made
the winning shot.
"Bianchi made a terrific play to get me the puck and
I got up a good head of steam," Nielsen said. "Checco
was coming up on the other side and the defense had
to be aware of him. When you're in overtime you think shot
first and usually good things will happen."
Roloson gave Nielsen credit for making an excellent
play.
"You don't know what the guy's going to do, but he
made the perfect play," said the Lowell goalie. "I was
on my way down but I didn't touch the puck. It was a
great shot."
Minnesota coach Doug Woog said his team started slowly,
but picked up intensity in the second period when Callinan
made some excellent saves.
"After he made those big saves we took over," Woog said.
"It's fun to have good goaltending because the other kid
was coming up big. Without good goaltending, you won't win."
LAKE SUPERIOR VS. MICHIGAN
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Rob Valicevic scored his
second goal of the game at 2:31 of overtime Sunday to give
Lake Superior State a 5-4 victory over top-seeded Michigan
in the NCAA West Regional.
The Lakers advance to the NCAA Final Four in St. Paul,
Minn., where they will play Harvard on Thursday.
Valicevic took a pass from Brad Willner in the slot
and one-timed a shot past goalie Steve Shields to give the
Lakers their first victory in five games against Michigan
this season.
It was the second overtime game of the tournament for
Lake Superior St., which beat Northeastern 6-5 Saturday
on Mike Morin's goal 15 seconds into the extra period.
Goalies Shields and Blaine Lacher of Lake Superior St.
each came up with several good saves in a scoreless
third period, where each team had eight shots.
Michigan dominated the second period, outshooting Lake
Superior St. 20-12 and scoring three goals to take a 4-3
lead, but the Lakers' Kurt Miller knocked in a rebound
with three seconds left in the period to tie the game.
The Wolverines' Mike Stone opened the scoring at 8:52
of the first period when his shot from the high slot
beat Lacher.
Lake Superior St. came back with three straight goals to
lead 3-1 at the end of the first period. Valicevic knocked
in his own rebound at 12:10. Defenseman Keith Aldridge
scored on a slap shot from the point at 14:43 and Jay Ness
deflected Dan Angelelli's shot past Shields 35 seconds later.
Stone started Michigan's comeback at 3:34 of the second
period when he banked the puck off Lacher's skate. Jason
Botterill scored a power-play goal on a deflection at 6:59
to tie the game at 3-3.
David Oliver put the Wolverines ahead 4-3 on a shot from
the point, only four seconds after Willner received a
tripping penalty.
Freshman center Brendan Morrison assisted on each of
Michigan's four goals.
Willner said he didn't see Valicevic open in the slot
moments before the winning goal.
"I just heard somebody yell and I passed the puck in
that direction," he said. "I was going to shoot, but
Michigan blocks a lot of shots from the defensemen, so
I figured it was better to pass the puck."
Both coaches said that Miller's goal with three seconds
left in the second period was the turning point in the game.
"It was very big, no question about that," said Lake
Superior St. coach Jeff Jackson. "The momentum had swung in
Michigan's favor, but we weathered the storm and caught a
break when Miller scored. That was the turning point for us."
Michigan coach Red Berenson said he knew the Wolverines
could be in trouble after Miller scored.
"Last-minute goals are usually back-breakers," he said.
"You hate to give one up like that."
FOLLOW-UP STORY ON THE EAST REGIONAL
By JOHN KEKIS
AP Sports Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Shots. You've got to take them to
win hockey games.
Wisconsin and New Hampshire found out Saturday night
that's easier said than done against Boston University
and Harvard.
Both the Terriers, the top-ranked team in the nation,
and the Crimson threw up walls around their goalies and
advanced to college hockey's final four: BU held the
Badgers to just 14 shots and beat them 4-1; and Harvard
tamed the Wildcats, limiting them to a season-low 17
shots in a convincing 7-1 triumph.
About the only thing that went right for the Badgers
(26-15-1) were the opening minutes. They gained an early
lead when Mike Doers scored just 3:09 into the game.
After that, the entire rink became Terrier territory.
BU held Wisconsin to just two shots on goal in the
second period and five in the third.
"The first period I thought we played them nose to
nose," Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer said. "We just didn't
take the shots, and they did a good job of bottling us
up. We just didn't generate offense in the second period.
That was the difference in the game."
The Terriers (31-7-1) did, getting goals from Jay
Pandolfo and Ken Rausch to take a 3-1 lead. BU could have
had more, if not for the brilliant play of Wisconsin
goalie Jim Carey. He stopped Jon Pratt on a breakaway less
than a minute after Pandolfo's goal, stymied Rich Brennan
and Bob Lachance on a pressure-packed BU power play,
and got help from the left post on a blast by Lachance
midway through the period.
"We really controlled the pace of the game," said BU
coach Jack Parker, whose Terriers are back in the semifinals
for the second time in four years. "I thought we might be
able to take advantage of their defense with our speed up
front. Because of that, we controlled a little more of the
play from center ice than I anticipated. I was really
pleased with the way we were able to meet them as early
as the red line sometimes on their initial rush. We did a
pretty good job of not letting them get started."
In essence, New Hampshire got one-timed out of the
playoffs. Harvard (24-4-4) thrives on one-timers, especially
on its potent power play. The Wildcats found out in dizzying
fashion in the third period when the Crimson struck for five
goals in a seven-minute span.
Trailing only 2-1, New Hampshire (25-12-3) appeared ready
to take Harvard down to the wire in the close-checking game.
"They were banging in there, but we were grinding it out,"
UNH coach Dick Umile said. "They executed some great plays.
They blew it open on the one-timers."
Defenseman Sean McCann started the barrage at 6:44 with
one of his stunning one-timers. McCann took a cross-ice feed
from Steve Martins on a Harvard power play and ripped a
shot past New Hampshire goalie Trent Cavicchi from the top of
the circle. It was his 21st goal of the season and 16th
power-play goal.
"That's been our strength all season," Harvard coach
Ronn Tomassoni said. "The third goal was a huge goal. You
could almost feel it on the bench. We finally relaxed."
Not for long. Just 34 seconds later, Chris Baird streaked
down the left boards and fed Perry Cohagan, whose wrist
shot made it 4-1. Less than three minutes after that, Baird
finished off a 3-on-1 break by poking the puck past Cavicchi.
Jason Karmanos made it 6-1 with 8:17 left and Cory
Gustafson completed the rout with another one-timer two
minutes later. The victory sent the Crimson back to the
semifinals for the first time since their national
championship season of 1989.
"The team has had a lot of confidence for the last 10
games," said Brian Farrell, who scored the game's first
goal on a Harvard power play and added two assists in the
third period. "Everybody's got the attitude that the bounces
are going to happen for us and we're going to win at some
point, and everyone just keeps plugging away."
"The expectations we've had for ourselves the past four
years have been pretty high," Tomassoni said. "We're just
happy to be going to the Final Four."
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