Dartmouth-Union pre-series notebook

by Ryan Fay

Union's bid to become the first ECAC Hockey team to win three consecutive Whitelaw Cups since Boston University in the mid-1970's is about to get underway.

The top-seeded Dutchmen open a best-of-three ECACH quarterfinal series against 10th-seeded Dartmouth tonight at Messa Rink. Game two is set for Saturday and game three, if necessary, would occur on Sunday. All games start at 7 p.m.

A few notes ahead of the series:

Bye week beneficial

image: Pat Salvas/Dartmouth

As the top-seed in the ECACH tournament, Union was one of four teams that received a bye for last weekend's opening round.

It turned out to be beneficial.

With final exams upcoming, it gave the Dutchmen time to get ahead on academics before turning the focus back to hockey this week.

"We've had a few days off here, we call them academic days," said Union head coach Rick Bennett. "Being a trimester school, they are going to go into finals here soon so basically, with the bye week, it gives us a chance to really focus more on school, which in turn helps you through hockey. You go into the game on Friday knowing you've done the school work. I think that helps a lot."

The bye also gave players a chance to get fully healthy before the postseason.

"Having that week off allowed some guys to get some rest that some guys needed," said senior captain and defenseman Mat Bodie.

The Dutchmen (24-6-4) are expected to have a full roster to work with this weekend, including junior forward Max Novak, who missed the final five regular season games after suffering an injury Feb. 14 at Cornell.

"As far as I know, we're good to go," Bennett said.

Just another game for Stevens

Junior goaltender and Niskayuna native Colin Stevens has passed big tests before.

He entered the season with the arduous task of replacing Troy Grosenick, who surrendered his senior season of eligibility when he signed with the San Jose Sharks last summer.

Grosenick left the program as arguably its best goaltender of all time, finishing his Dutchmen career as the program's career leader in goals against average (1.89) while placing second in career wins (40).

Stevens saw limited action behind Grosenick the past two seasons, but more than proved his mettle in the starting role this year. He backstopped Union to its third Cleary Cup in the past four seasons after going 20-4-2 with a 2.02 goals against average, a .927 save percentage and five shutouts.

"I think he saw what Troy had done through the regular season and the playoffs and you watch that, you learn from that just like the other guys," said Bennett. "Sometimes, you've just got to wait for your number to be called and that's what happened this past year. He's done a great job."

Stevens' next test is carrying his success into the postseason, which can be a different animal than the regular season. He's expected in goal tonight for what would be his first collegiate playoff start.

He's taking a business as usual approach.

"I've been treating it like any other game, its three periods, a 60-minute game, it's no different," Stevens said earlier this week. "I'm not going to prepare any differently. Practice is huge for me, I'm going to have a huge week of practice this week and get going Friday."

Almost as hot

Union enters the weekend riding the country's longest active unbeaten streak at nine games (8-0-1).

Dartmouth has been almost as hot. Thanks to getting healthier and showing a stronger commitment to defense, the Big Green recovered from a 4-16-3 start to go 6-2-1 in their last nine contests.

Last weekend, Dartmouth was the only road team to win an opening round ECACH series. The Big Green beat RPI in three games after rallying from a 1-0 series deficit and a two goal deficit to start the third period of game three.

"It was very impressive when you watched the three games to see how they only played with five defensemen," Bennett said. "To go through a series like that, and to show that heart, that was very impressive. They played with tremendous passion and heart in that series."

Union posted a two-game sweep of Dartmouth in last season's ECACH quarterfinals. This season, the Dutchmen breezed to a 7-2 romp at Thompson Arena on Nov. 1 before eking out a 3-2 win at Messa Rink on Dec. 11.

"The last time they were in our building (Dec. 11), they brought a tough contest," said senior forward Daniel Carr. "We have to be ready for that and more."

Bodie knows knocking off the Big Green won't be easy.

"The hardest thing to do is to eliminate a team, whether it is a one-game, or three-game series," he said. "We're excited to start playing."

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