Icemen to Face UMD Tonight in NCAAs

DULUTH. Minn -- The difference is Duluth.

Two extremely similar teams play each other here tonight in the first contest of an NCAA two-game, total goals quarterfinal series.

The Harvard men's hockey team is led by a former coach of the year, a junior forward who is the team's leading scorer and a highly touted Hobey Baker finalist as well as the central figure on the highly successful first line and power play, a junior defenseman whose crisp passing keys the power play, a freshman sensation, who is the son of a former NHI star, and a hot goalie whose services are sought by the NHI's Calgary Flames.

The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) boasts last year's coach of the year, a junior forward, who is a leading candidate for the Hobey Baker Award and at the center of the success of a potent first line and power play unit, a junior defenseman whose crisp passing sets up the power play attack, a freshman sensation, who is the son of a former NHI star, and a goalie who the Flames are chasing.

Those are only some of the more obvious parallels between these two squads.

Others abound Both teams are enjoying a renaissance in the last four years, both are the skating scourge of their respective conferences, both rely on their first-line led potent power plays to defeat the clutch and grab tactics of their opponents and both have seen their programs benefit from an All-American who has won the Hobey Baker Award in the last two years.

Harvard, however, will be facing off in an unfamiliar Duluth Arena today and the Bulldogs will be playing in a rink in which they've won 22 of their 26 games this year.

The City of Duluth has been thinking of little besides the UMD hockey team as the Bulldogs skated to their second consecutive WCHA Championship Saturday night, rebounding from a 6-4 loss the night before to top the Gophers of Minnesota 6-2, and claim the series on total goals.

That was the third straight home series for the Bulldogs, who will play in front of a sold out Arena for the 23rd and 24th straight times this weekend.

Little maroon and yellow "UMD I" signs are plastered all over town

The only guarantee for tickets to this weekend's contests was to hop into the following the Minnesota games and wait until Monday morning when the previous 5639 seats went on sale.

The crowd is not traditionally a particularly lively one and even the appearance of the hated Gophers could not evoke much of a response from those assembled

"Most of the folks around here are Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or Finnish and are very conservative," season-ticket holder Peter Jacobson explains. "They are all Lutherans, and Lutherans don't display their emotions."

Out on the ice, in front of the staid folk in the stands, two skaters will be displaying everything they have to offer.

Hobey Baker candidates Scott Fusco of Harvard and Bill Watson of UMD lead their teams in scoring with 100 and 80 points, respectively Fusco ranks slightly ahead of Watson in points per game and sits in second place--a spot ahead of Watson on the national scoring chart.

Fusco, who is riding a 29-game scoring streak, has been suffering from back problems recently, which should slow him this weekend.

Watson, who is in better health, faces the kind of dilemma now that his Harvard counterpart will at the end of the season. The Chicago Black Hawks are anxious for Watson to john them as soon as possible.

Fusco, of course, is still deciding whether to accept an offer from the Hartford Whalers or stay for his final year.

On the blue line, UMD's Norm Maciver (12-46--58) matches up with the Crimson's Mark Benning (4-36--40). Benning and Maciver will play crucial roles in determining the success of their two teams power plays.

Benning who stands just two assists short of the Harvard record for a defenseman, has helped spark a unit that has connected on over 33 percent of its chances.

Maciver, on the other hand, has watched his team's man up unit struggle through the playoffs with just two goals in 25 opportunities However, on the year, the Bulldogs have put in 28 percent of their chances on the power play

Both squads also boast freshmen who have set new rookie goal scoring records but are better known for their famous fathers.

Crimson forward Lane Mac-Donald 21 goals are the best ever by a first year skater MacDonald's father Lowell was a three-time all star in the NHI.

UMD freshman Brett Hull's father Bobby is an NHI legend. Hull (31-27--58) is just a few points short of setting the few freshman records he doesn't already own.

The Crimson's goalie junior Grant Blair could be the difference this weekend for the visitors. As usual Blair has paced himself carefully over the course of the season and he has peaked as the playoffs have progressed allowing just nine goals in the last five games.

On the year, Blair has impressive numbers a 902 save percentage and a 281 goals against average.

UMD goalie Rick Kosti has also posted impressive stats, an 891 save percentage and a 3.17 gaa.

Kosti, however, has struggled with his concentration and has given up several cheap goals of Late.

Behind the bench the architects of the revival of their respective program UMD's Mike Sertich and Harvard's Bill Cleary. Will battle it out.

Cleary has led three of his last four teams to NCAA playoffs.

Sertich is responsible for a remarkable turnaround in Bulldog hockey which has seen UMD vault from obscurity to two straight WCHN titles and an appearance in the NCAA finals last year.

The difference, though between these high llying teams is that the entire city of Duluth rides on sertich's every move.

The people here care about nothing besides the Bulldogs and those people will be out in force tonight and Saturday.