Two New England Division 3 teams, one old and one new, journeyed into the heart of the Adirondack Mountains in quests for history this March. Colby College and Salve Regina faced off against western powerhouses St. Norbert and Wisconsin Stevens Point in the Division 3 Frozen Four semifinals at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid.
Although neither squad captured NCAA gold, both clubs did themselves proud on the national stage. They both were eliminated by eventual champion St. Norbert, but the two New England squads gave the Green Knights all they could handle, Colby falling 4-3 in the semis and Salve going toe-to-toe for 90 minutes before succumbing in a twoovertime championship thriller.
While Salve had reached the NCAAs in 2016 and was a national contender all year, Blaise MacDonald’s Colby Mules were a true Cinderella, overcoming a horrendous stretch of January hockey to fall below .500, before rediscovering their love of the game with a sensational run through the NESCAC playoffs. Consecutive blowout wins over conference powers Amherst, Wesleyan and Trinity thrust them into the NCAA tournament, where they won their first NCAA game in history vs. the University of New England.
They continued their victory tour on the national stage, stunning heavily favored Geneseo, 2-1, the game-winning goal coming with less than two seconds left. Goaltender Sean Lawrence left everyone in Wilson Ice Arena shaking their heads over his netminding wizardry. The Mules entered the Frozen Four with the most enthusiastic well-wishers, all sharing a hockey high that comes from five straight postseason road upsets, all while facing extinction. Matching up against the nation’s No. 1 team in prime time in the House of Miracles was just another stop on their victory tour. But it was here in Lake Placid that their MVP backstop blinked. Superman Lawrence was exposed to the green Kryptonite of St. Norbert, allowing three bizarre goals in the game’s first 11 minutes, slow-motion pool shots leaking in from every conceivable angle. MacDonald did not so much as glance at backup goalie Andrew Tucci on the bench, choosing to stick with his stud horse through good times and bad.
The Mules somehow made a game of it, scoring twice in under three minutes late in the second, then drawing a penalty seconds later, poised to tie the game with their fans roaring. But a spectacular shorthanded tally by eventual tournament MVP Tanner Froese deflated the Mules again, leaving them trailing by two with 20 minutes left in their season. ACHA Coach of the Year MacDonald’s intermission speech revealed much of the wisdom he had acquired from his 31 years behind the bench.
"It’s Friday night, and we’ve got the ice rented until 9:30," MacDonald (Billerica, Mass.) said to his troops. "Let’s just keep on playing."
And play they did, mustering nine more of their 43 shots, and closing within a goal at 4-3 when freshman Justin Grillo sniped from the bottom of the circle. With nearly six minutes left to play, the blue-clad "Mule Train" crowd came to life, trying to resuscitate their Cardiac Kids one more time. And with 40 ticks left and Lawrence on the bench for an extra attacker, senior Michael Rudolf got two tantalizing whacks at the disc from the St. Norbert’s doorstep but couldn’t get the bounce. "We got a puck dancing around the crease to tie the game," said MacDonald, whose voice trailed off, lamenting the end of a season with one of the most remarkable postseason runs in memory. "These guys have a tremendous amount of passion and fun playing the game."
Salve Regina’s season was nearly the exact inverse of Colby but was ended by the same team in the same Frozen Four. The Seahawks were led by first-year head coach and Rhode Island native Zech Klann (Jamestown, R.I.), who was a Salve stickboy growing up. He replaced sevenyear coach Andy Boschetto (Watertown, Mass.), who joined the Niagara staff in June 2017. The two men essentially changed on the fly, with Klann taking over in July, and the team never missed a beat. In his head coaching debut, the former UMass forward found himself facing the reigning D-3 national champs in Norwich, and Salve emerged victorious. The Seahawks went on to a banner season, winning the Codfish Bowl by knocking off top-ranked Adrian and collecting a number of big-name scalps in their sprint to a 14-2-2 conference record in the Commonwealth Coastal Conference, who boasted three squads in the 12-team NCAA field.
The Seahawks stubbed their toe against Nichols in the CCC semis, but that simply added to their historical ledger. They became the first Salve team to earn an at-large bid to the NCAAs, a bye into the quarters, where they avenged their loss to Nichols with a thrilling 4-3 victory. Klann’s whirlwind maiden voyage found him coaching his way into the Frozen Four, as his program continued to pile up accolades. Two Salve players were named ACHA All-Americans: junior goalie Blake Wojtala (first team) and sophomore Jack Billings (second team). Offensively they scored more than four goals per game, and defensively, every player willingly laid out to block shots. Together they cemented a habit of winning big at the little school in Newport.
With confidence and competence peaking, the Seahawks leaped onto the Olympic sheet against Wisconsin Stevens Point. In the first period of the biggest games of all their lives, they were outplayed by the biggest margin imaginable.
How bad was it against the Pointers from Wisconsin? Late in the first period Salve was being outshot 20-0. The Seahawks’ first credited shot on goal was after a 150-foot clear at the 13:41 mark. The only good news in this decidedly onesided period was that Wojtala’s defense allowed him to see the barrage of shots coming his way, and he gained confidence with every save. With just over a minute remaining in the stanza, freshman Erik Udahl (East Walpole, Mass.) collected a turnover in neutral ice, scooted unmolested to within 20 feet, and calmly fired the game’s first goal over the glove of Max Milosek. Incredibly, Salve led after one, despite being outshot 23-4. "Welcome to the tournament, boys," said Klann, who made several adjustments in the unsettled room, one in particular. "Let’s start bumping them off stride, start playing a little more physical and see what happens."
Brawny freshman John McLean (North Andover, Mass.) took notice. In one shift midway through the second, the 6-foot-2 McLean unloaded on two different Pointers, and little pepper-pot Danny Philbrick (Rye, N.H.) did the same. After that one violent shift, the Wisconsin skaters had lost some of their appetite for the battle. Wojtala painted a 55-save masterpiece, Udahl potted his second goal on a power play, and Philbrick buried the dagger into an open net. Salve had played the worst period of hockey imaginable, and Wojtala covered it in lipstick in a tidy 3-0 win.
Twenty-four hours later, Salve shared the ice with the country’s top ranked team — St. Norbert College, a massive squad with 13 skaters 6 feet or over, dressed in their intimidating hunter green sweaters. This time the Seahawks were prepared to battle from the drop of the puck, engaging with the champs at every turn.
The national championship game was by far the best game of a compelling Frozen Four, with both clubs skating full tilt. All-American Wojtala proved mortal in this game, allowing his first goal of the weekend via a deadly wrister to the short side. Distraught for but a moment, the All-American returned to work. The Green Knights had superior speed to accompany their size advantage, allowing them to maintain possession for long swaths of time, forcing Salve to expend massive amounts of energy simply to clear pucks from their end. The Seahawks’ abundant will kept it a one-goal game until midway through the second period.
With uncle Mike rooting from the Herb Brooks Arena concourse, Danny Eruzione (Winthrop, Mass.) got called for a five-minute boarding call at the 9:36 mark. St. Norbert’s Luke Davidson cashed in on a power-play marker, and Eruzione still had two more minutes to sit. Trailing 2-0 and a man down, Salve was in danger of letting the championship game slip away. But when Klann looked down his bench, he did not see a single helmet sag.
"Everybody was positive, everybody was saying the right things on the bench, tapping sticks for every minute killed." And then two upperclassmen contributed to extend the evening for Salve. Senior Patrick Thompson gambled to engage in a shorthanded battle behind the St. Norbert net and managed to get his blade on the puck. He fed junior Cameron Russo at the bottom of the circle, who let a wrist shot fly. It pinballed off the joint of the crossbar and post, then danced in the twine. Russo spun a jig to celebrate, and all that positive energy on the Salve bench exploded in hockey joy.
A period later it was a frosh who tied the score, Paul Boutoussov with a balletic spin move, from backhand to forehand with his back to the net, sweeping a wrist shot into the far side from the slot. Much of Newport had travelled to the Adirondacks, and the Ocean Staters staged a beach party at the 1980 Olympic Center.
With both goalies playing at their supreme best, the two teams combined for 46 more shots before the night was done, a classic Lake Placid championship night that extended deep into a second overtime. This historic hockey barn, constructed exactly 40 years ago in preparation for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, has seen some suddendeath clashes for the ages, like 1988 Lake Superior State over St. Lawrence or Bowling Green’s quadruple OT classic in 1984. March 24, 2018, belongs in the Olympic Center pantheon of college hockey thrillers.
The record books will show that Green Knights MVP Froese set up Brad Pung for the championship winner 9:42 into the second session of sudden death. It was St. Norbert’s fifth national championship, and fourth in eight years. For Salve, it would surprise no one to see at least one more appearance in these championships before their 12 remarkable freshman matriculate out of Newport.
Klann was not considering the future when he bravely addressed the media after a night full of hockey drama. "When we tied it up, we knew it was going to be a nailbiter. It was a hell of a game, a hell of a game."
