December
23, 2003
Everblades College Classic
TECO
Arena • Estero, Fla.
THE
FIELD
Saturday,
December 27
Cornell
vs. Notre Dame, 4:05 p.m. ET
Maine vs. Ohio State, 7:30 p.m. ET
Sunday,
December 28
Third-Place Game, 1 p.m. ET
Championship, 4:30 p.m. ET
LAST
YEAR
Maine
wrapped up a 16-game unbeaten streak with wins over Cornell
and Massachusetts to capture last year’s title.
INTERESTING
HISTORICAL FACT
Cornell,
Maine and Ohio State return to Estero for the fourth straight
year. Each school has been a part of every Everblades tournament,
making them regular visitors to Florida at this time of
year – just like the second-place teams from the Big
Ten and SEC (who meet a little further north in the Outback
Bowl). Craig Brush, the president and general manager of
the East Coast Hockey League's Florida Everblades, was a
three-year letterwinner for Cornell and a member of the
school's undefeated 1970 NCAA championship team. His sons
played at Princeton and Michigan State.
WHO
TO WATCH
 |
| Rob
Globke, a Florida Panthers pick, is a prototypical power forward. |
This tournament, with perhaps the strongest field of all this holiday season, is loaded with individual talent. The best of them all may be Notre Dame’s Rob Globke, a power forward who has enjoyed his most consistent season yet as a senior. Enjoy him now, because the next time he plays in Florida the tickets will be much more expensive – he’s a Panthers draft pick.
It’s impossible to miss 6-foot-5 Dave Steckel when Ohio State’s playing, although he could disappear for spells during his first three years with the Buckeyes. This year, he and classmate Paul Caponigri are delivering offensively – they’ve both got double-digits in goals, as does junior J.B. Bittner.
A couple more senior forwards are sure to entertain for Cornell and Maine: the Big Red’s Ryan Vesce and Black Bears’ Todd Jackson. Neither leads their team in scoring at the moment, actually, but both are worth the price of admission.
HOW
WE SEE IT
The literal answer to this headline, for most of us, is "on CSTV." We hear the golf in Florida is much better than New England or the Upper Midwest at this time of year, but we’ll be stuck shoveling snow when we’re not watching TV.
As for how we see the games unfolding, however, expect some low-scoring, defensive struggles. We didn’t mention them above, but all four teams feature excellent goaltenders – and even with the loss of Jimmy Howard to a knee injury, Maine may still have the best of the bunch in Frank Doyle. He’ll get a rare chance to start two games in a row.
Three of these teams are in the top 10 nationally in scoring defense (Notre Dame brings up the rear at No. 18). That’s due to more than just goaltending, as each plays a solid – some might say slow – defense-oriented system. A breakdown here or there, or an explosive individual effort offensively, could go a long way to determining this tournament. We’re not sure who will win, but we would bet the under.
