December
10, 2003
Fournier
Happy to be Home with Seawolves
By
Jess Myers
One of the
biggest keys to Alaska Anchorage’s better season has been
the play of sophomore forward Chris Fournier. The Anchorage native
is averaging a point a game for the Seawolves, and loving life
in his first playing season back home since transferring from
North Dakota after his rookie year there.
Fournier,
who missed the Seawolves' home split with Minnesota due to a nerve
injury in his left leg, will be back in action this weekend when
UAA hosts Colorado College. Asked if he misses North Dakota at
all, what with the Sioux enjoying the top ranking in the nation
and all, Fournier said he’s glad to play on this team, in
the familiar surroundings of his hometown.
 |
| Chris
Fornier stands second on the Seawolves in scoring with 5-7—12
in 12 GP. |
“We
don't have the record North Dakota does, but we're improving every
day,” he said. “You look at our top eight or nine
scorers and all but one is a freshman or a sophomore, and we signed
some good players in the early signing period, so I'm confident
that we'll be there before too long.”
And when asked
about his decision to leave Grand Forks after one season, Fournier
has no qualms about the move.
“It
just wasn't the right fit for me,” Fournier said. “I
got caught up in the glitz. They've got a really nice rink, but
that's about it. It wasn't the right place for me at all.”
Fournier,
who stands a stocky 5-foot-6 with a shock of red hair, brought
some impressive credentials to the college game. He was named
the Alaska prep player of the year after his freshman year at
Anchorage East, and was named the national junior hockey player
of the year in 2000-01. That season he led the USHL in scoring
with 83 points for the Lincoln (Neb.) Stars and was named the
league’s MVP before signing with North Dakota.
UND coach
Dean Blais said that while Fournier would certainly be an asset
to the current Sioux lineup if he were still on the team, he felt
that Fournier struggled with homesickness while in Grand Forks.
While denying there are any hard feelings about Fournier’s
departure among the North Dakota coaches, Blais said the reaction
among Sioux players may be different when Alaska Anchorage comes
to town for a series in early January.
“We’ll
find out what the players think when he plays here,” said
Blais. “I think there are some of our guys that are looking
forward to playing against him.”
SEEN
AND HEARD IN THE WCHA
Changing
of the Guard in the Bulldogs' Crease – Solid goaltending
was supposed to be one of the reasons that Minnesota Duluth would
be a contender in the WCHA title race this year. And as we plow
headlong into the holiday season, things are working out pretty
well between the pipes for the Bulldogs, who, at 7-3-0, are off
to their best WCHA start in more than a decade (the 1992-93 Bulldogs,
who won the school’s last MacNaughton Cup, also started
7-3-0). But it’s not exactly going according to the script.
While top
goalie Issac Reichmuth is clearly in the midst of a sophomore
slump these days, freshman Josh Johnson stepped in last week and
posted the school's first WCHA shutout since 2000. Johnson, who
played high school hockey in nearby Cloquet, Minn. (home of Derek
Plante, Corey Millen and Jessica Lange), stopped all 21 Michigan
Tech shots in a 4-0 win last Saturday, and was named the WCHA's
rookie of the week.
By contrast,
Reichmuth, who was named the league’s top rookie goalie
last season, is in what Elton John might call “a bad patch
lately.” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin lifted Reichmuth
after one period of last Friday’s game at Michigan Tech,
with the Huskies leading 4-0 (Tech held on for a 6-5 win). It
was the end of a stretch in which Reichmuth allowed 17 goals in
a little more than 10 periods of work.
So if Johnson
is the answer for the Bulldogs’s defensive struggles, he
arrives not a moment too soon, as Minnesota Duluth travels to
face top-ranked North Dakota in Grand Forks this weekend. Last
March, the Bulldogs goalies had 70 saves as UMD won and tied the
Sioux at Ralph Engelstad Arena. With the North Dakota offense
clicking on all cylinders, a similar effort might be required
if the Bulldogs hope to earn a point or two.
Gophers
Focusing on Other Goals Already? – When his team
started the season 1-3-0 in WCHA play, Minnesota coach Don Lucia
told reporters that you can’t win the MacNaughton Cup early
in the season, but you can lose it. After a surprising 6-4 loss
at Alaska Anchorage last weekend, statistics show that the two-time
defending national champs may be out of the running for conference
hardware before Santa comes to Mariucci Arena.
Minnesota’s
record is 4-7-1 in WCHA play with 16 conference games remaining.
Even if the Gophers were to go 16-0 in those games (which isn’t
likely, considering the slate includes home series with North
Dakota, Wisconsin and St. Cloud State, and trips to Minnesota
Duluth, Colorado College and Denver), it would be a rare feat
to win the league title with seven losses.
Since the
WCHA went to a 28-game conference schedule at the start of the
1997-98 season, no seven-loss team has claimed the league title.
North Dakota in ’98 and Denver in ’02 each won the
title with six losses. Equally notable is that since 1998, no
MacNaughton Cup winner has gone on to win the NCAA title in the
same season. In fact, since 1991, only one winner of the WCHA’s
regular season crown (North Dakota in 1997) has won the NCAA title
a month later.
So for Lucia,
who won three MacNaughton Cups but no NCAA titles at Colorado
College, the Gophers might be perfectly positioned for a run at
a NCAA three-peat.
“You
want to win the conference title, but you don’t want to
win it at all costs,” Lucia said earlier this season. “The
NCAAs have gotten so much more attention and so much more important,
that you’re not going to rush a player back from an injury
or do something drastic like that to try to win a conference title.”
|
Great Weekend Getaway |
 |
|
Denver at St. Cloud State (Fri.-Sat.)
It’s
a return to “road sweet road” for the Pioneers,
who are 4-1-1 in away games this season, but just 3-4-1
(0-4-1 in WCHA play) at Magness Arena. And while sophomore
slumps are the in thing in other markets, not so for Denver,
where second-year star Gabe Gauthier (renowned to be the
finest college hockey player Buena Park, Calif., has ever
produced) continues to lead the way offensively. For the
home-standing Huskies, these are the worst of times, as
St. Cloud State has gone 2-4-1 after surprising the nation
with their 8-0-1 start. Will home cooking get the Huskies
back on track, or will a return to eating hotel fare spark
the Pioneers once again?
While
You’re There: Downtown St. Cloud used to have two
of the great eateries in the college hockey world within
half a block, with Waldo’s Pizza and Bravo Burritos
just a few doors apart. Alas, both are gone. There’s
a Bravo Burritos a mile or two west of downtown on Division
Street, and the food is still great, but the strip mall
version just isn’t the same as the old place with
its smoky backroom bar filled with students munching on
Mexican food, sipping Tecate and studying for four minutes
when the Simpsons went to a commercial break. Oh, to be
young again. |
| Stick
Salutes |
| To
the students at North Dakota and many fans of the
Fighting Sioux, for their tireless volunteer work
recently. Since UND senior Dru Sjodin disappeared from a
Grand Forks mall parking lot on Nov. 22, police officials
have been overwhelmed by the number of students and citizens
who have given their time searching the fields, woods and
creeks of the region (often in harsh subzero weather) for
any trace of the woman. It looks as if this story will not
have a happy ending (police have a convicted sex offender
in custody, and have confirmed finding traces of Sjodin’s
blood and a knife in his car and one of her shoes under
a bridge near the Red Lake River), but the story has proven
that in times of need, the Red River Valley produces more
than just good hockey teams. There are some pretty good
people living there too.
•
To the University of Alaska Anchorage and its fans,
for their plans to help the Bazin family. During this weekend’s
series with Colorado College, the school will have 50 volunteers
roaming among the crowd at Sullivan Arena, soliciting donations
for the Bazin family to help pay medical bills. UAA officials
have said their goal is to raise a $10,000 gift. There are
plenty of things that are cold in Alaska at this time of
year, but the hearts of its people are, apparently, not
among them.
|
| Bench
Minor |
| To
Michigan Tech assistant athletic director Dave Fischer,
for coming up with a snappy nickname for the Huskies’
top line. Fish sent out a press release after last Friday’s
win over Minnesota Duluth with a headline praising the “Run
DMC line” for scoring four goals. As loyal INCH readers
will remember, it was this web site that suggested said
nickname for the trio of Taggart Desmet, Colin Murphy and
Chris Conner a few weeks ago. While we’re happy to
see Fish take our suggestion, how about giving a little
credit? The bench minor will be served by Minnesota Vikings
stadium public address announcer Jim Carroll, a four-year
hockey letterwinner at Michigan Tech. |
PUCKS
TO PICK UP AFTER PRACTICE
• Colorado
College fans got some great pre-holiday news recently
when Tigers assistant coach Norm Bazin’s condition was upgraded
by officials at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, Wash. Bazin,
who was seriously injured in a car accident on Nov. 20 outside
of Spokane while en route to scout a player in British Columbia,
was originally listed as critical and underwent several surgeries
in the immediate aftermath of the accident. But last weekend Bazin
was upgraded to serious, then further upgraded to satisfactory
and released from the hospital’s intensive care unit. Bazin’s
family has declined to release details about the nature of his
injuries, but the news that the 32-year-old is on the mend was
certainly welcome among members of the college hockey family.
• Bazin’s
improved health was part of a general trend with the Colorado
College hockey team. After missing more than a month
with a broken bone in his hand, Tigers star forward Brett Sterling
sent notice to the league last weekend that he’s back in
action by scoring a pair of goals in his team’s 6-1 home
win over St. Cloud State. And top goalie Curtis McElhinney was
back in uniform, although not yet back in action, last weekend
as well. McElhinney, who missed a month of games due to a case
of mono, served as the backup to freshman Matt Zaba last Saturday
and will travel with the team to Alaska Anchorage this weekend.
• Even
in the midst of his team’s disastrous 2002-03 season, when
the Seawolves went winless in WCHA play, Alaska Anchorage
coach John Hill kept the faith that better times were ahead. His
faith was rewarded last weekend when UAA got its biggest win in
recent memory, beating Minnesota 6-4 before a raucous crowd at
Sullivan Arena. Hill told the Anchorage Daily News that
intense defense was the key to getting the crowd and his team
into the game. “We created turnovers with our pressure and
our relentlessness, Hill told the paper. “I think it was
most complete effort since I've been here.” With the win,
the Seawolves now have six points in WCHA play (with a 2-6-2 conference
record) after 10 games. They earned a grand total of six points
(with a 0-22-6 conference record) in 28 games last season.
• Minnesota
State, Mankato’s sports information director, Paul
Allan, is one of the most friendly and hockey-smart people in
the college game. But he might be to blame for the Mavericks struggles,
if you consider the possibility of the notebook jinx. Some history:
in the 2000-01 season, Western Michigan junior forward Mike Bishai
lit up the scoring charts with 68 points, and came back to Kalamazoo
the next year as the nation’s top returning scorer. WMU
officials promoted Bishai’s Hobey Baker candidacy by sending
out hundreds of reporters notebooks touting the senior star. Bishai
responded with a down year (by his own lofty standards), notching
only 37 points. In a somewhat similar move, Allan sent out reporters
notebooks promoting MSU, Mankato star Shane Joseph this year,
and the results have been less-than-stellar thus far. Joseph entered
the season as the nation’s leading returning scorer after
putting up 65 points last season. This year, Joseph has just 11
points in the team’s first 12 games. To be fair to Joseph
(and Allan), the early departure of Grant Stevenson may have a
little more to do with the scoring dropoff than the promotional
notebooks.
• INCH
will make the bold prediction that the Wisconsin Badgers
will lose a game sometime in the future – but maybe not
in 2003. Bucky keeps rolling along, even getting a W in an exhibition
game versus Riga 2000 from Latvia this week. In games that count
in the standings, the Badgers have now rattled off a dozen games
without a loss (8-0-4) which marks the school’s longest
unbeaten streak since the 1981-82 season. Students of history
will remember that season as Badger Bob Johnson’s final
campaign behind Bucky’s bench, and that the Badgers made
it to the NCAA title game that year, losing to North Dakota
in the final in Providence. With North Dakota ranked number one
in the nation and Wisconsin coming on strong, might we be headed
for another Sioux-Badgers NCAA final in New England? Stay tuned.
