April 11, 2008
NCAA Frozen Four
Frozen Four Championship: Coach's Takes

Inside College Hockey talked to coaches whose teams have played against the teams involved in Saturday's national championship. In exchange for anonymity, they gave us their candid breakdowns of the matchups.

Boston College vs. Notre Dame

Boston College's forwards … Notre Dame, being the good Catholic institution that they are, should pray, because when you face the speed and depth of speed that they can come at you is what's so impressive. They just can come at you in waves and when you look at Gerbe and Ferriero and Whitney, they have some special playmakers up front. Gerbe's the guy that makes them tick, but what's impressive is the depth of speed especially and the intensity with which they attack offensively.

Top-end players versus depth guys … I feel like it's the best players that win you these games, but it helps, obviously. Both teams have depth players when you look at Boston College's fourth line they have two very big, strong, power-type forwards which is different than most of the rest of their lineup and provides a different dimension for them. I still think normally, your horses are going to win you the title in these types of games – the Gerbes and Lawsons and players of that caliber and magnitude. Those guys are going to have to come and be forces.

Notre Dame's forwards and creativity … It almost seems like they've found a little more creativity and ease to their game with their second lease on life. They probably thought they were maybe going to miss the tournament or be out with their struggles down the stretch. In the tournament games now it seems their offensive confidence and smoothness and the ease with which they seem to be playing with the puck seems to be a lot higher than it was. Maybe the pressure of getting back to the tournament again and establishing themselves as a perennial tournament team was getting to them at the end of the year. Now that they got here it seems like they've just gone and played. It's impressive what they're doing without Erik Condra, who is their best player, but Ryan Thang obviously is probably the guy that you look to that makes them tick with his intensity, his competitiveness and his goal scoring ability. But a couple of their freshmen – I thought Ben Ryan and Calle Ridderwall their stick skills were very high and they made a lot of plays.

Tactics and strategy for the Irish … Notre Dame's game is still a possession game and Jeff Jackson is a great tactical coach at taking care of the puck. Being strong defensively is still what they want to be. I would guess that the day here in between of preparation for Notre Dame is that possession is going to be critical. If the possession arrow goes to Boston College more tomorrow night and more to their speedy forwards, they're going to control and dictate the pace of the game and probably be on the positive end of the scoreboard. You don't want to get into a track meet with Boston College because they're probably going to beat you.

Notre Dame's defense … Most teams in college hockey because of the early signings and such, probably have two high-end defensemen, the teams that make the tournament especially. When you look at Notre Dame, their top six is good, but their top four is special and guys that are high end college players and guys that have a chance to go on and play in the National Hockey League.

How Notre Dame responded … I thought they did a great job in the Michigan game of weathering the storm and never letting Michigan get too much momentum. They got that second goal right away but then they stemmed the tide and controlled the game so well. They transitioned the puck and broke it out well, and there was never a stretch of time that Michigan had the puck in Notre Dame's zone for like a five-minute stretch, whereas that's not usually the case when you play Michigan. And that's Notre Dame's strength is that they move the puck so well.

Boston College defense … I still don't think that's what they consider the strength of their team but the patchwork of their D corps has been impressive with Mike Brennan and Carl Sneep and Nick Petrecki obviously is a special freshman. He really is, the things he can do offensively and also physically, he can really change the outcome of the game with how he plays. The D corps has become real good, but I still think it's their forwards that make them go. When their forwards are dogging the puck and are tenacious on the forecheck their defensemen don't have to spend a lot of time in the D zone and they don't have that much of the game being pressured upon them. I think that's the key for Notre Dame to spend a good deal of time in Boston College's zone cycling, puck possessing, protecting, and trying to wear down their defensive corps and keeping Boston College's small, skilled forwards away from the puck.

The goaltending matchup … Statistically they both look good, but I think they both could be vulnerable. Not necessarily an Achilles Heel because they've both had really good years. Jordan Pearce had a great year stepping out of David Brown's shadow and John Muse had a great year as a freshman but I think when you watched the games in the tournament they both give up a lot of rebounds, they both punch big rebounds into the slot on wide angle shots. Pearce has a tendency to give up soft goals as he did with Michigan last night. That seems to be the potential issue, probably as much for Notre Dame as any. Muse gives up the big rebounds and everything but as a freshman his composure and his ability to handle some of the big situations in the Hockey East tournament and the national tournament has been pretty impressive.

Preparation during an off day … It's interesting, and it's a weird dynamic having that day off because it's not something in college hockey that we're used to. Usually we play back-to-back nights and now you have a lot of time off before the biggest game of the year and I think you need to resist the urge to over-coach and over-prepare and to over-hype the game.

What they need to do to win … Both teams have gotten here for a reason. They've played on their strengths to get here. Notre Dame is a great tactical team and they are going to play a very disciplined system, they are going to be very good defensively and are going to be very good with the puck. Boston College is a go-go team. They don't want to be a slow, systematic, rigid team. They're best at transition, they're at their best when they're transitioning a little bit and playing to their strengths which are their speed and aggressiveness. With both coaches being so well experienced and having won so many big games, I would see them preparing their teams those ways. Boston College wants to push the pace at all costs and Notre Dame probably wants to control the pace at all costs. Whoever can dictate the pace and tempo, I think, is going to come out with the better result.