Forgotten 4 to Frozen 4

EAST LANSING - North Dakota, Boston College, Maine and Michigan State all faced similar adversity this season.

Each team struggled so badly through stretches that it appeared none of the four would reach the NCAA Tournament.

Next week, the four teams will be at the Frozen Four in St. Louis to decide college hockey's national championship.

"We were just about down and out only a few weeks ago. We had lost four straight games and didn't know if we'd get in until the end of all the conference tournaments,'' Maine coach Tim Whitehead said. "We realize how difficult it is to get here.''

North Dakota looked anything like an NCAA title contender just before Christmas, going into the break with a 4-10-1 record in its previous 15 games.

Boston College coach Jerry York questioned his team's direction and future after inconsistent play and a three-game losing streak in early February.

And the Spartans, of course, put their NCAA hopes at risk with a late slump, going 1-4-1 to end the regular season.

But the No. 2 seeded Eagles and No. 3 seeded Black Bears, Sioux and Spartans rebounded in different ways to make the NCAA tourney and survived regional play to land in the Frozen Four.

In next Thursday's NCAA semifinals, Michigan State (24-13-3) plays Maine (23-14-2) at 4 p.m. at the Scottrade Center in a matchup of two defensive-minded teams. At 8 p.m., in a battle of uptempo, aggressive offensive teams, Boston College (28-11-1) faces North Dakota (24-13-3).

The championship game is at 7 p.m. on April 7.

The Spartans, 5-1 in their past six contests, played their two best games of the season in defeating Boston University 5-1 and Notre Dame 2-1 in the NCAA Midwest Regional in Grand Rapids to shock a lot of people and earn its first Frozen Four berth under coach Rick Comley.

"We've had a roller-coaster type of season, but you have to play well at the right time and we did,'' Comley said. "Jeff Lerg has faced some tough challenges against some outstanding goaltenders and played great.''

The Black Bears found themselves on the NCAA tourney bubble after losing four straight games to Massachusetts, two to end the regular season and two in the first round of the playoffs.

But despite not playing in the Hockey East final four, Maine still earned an at-large berth in the 16-team NCAA Tournament.

With standout goaltender Ben Bishop, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound sophomore, recovered from a groin injury and returning to action after missing four games, the Black Bears knocked off St Cloud and Massachusetts in the NCAA East Regional to earn a trip to the Frozen Four for the fourth time in six seasons.

"UMass really made us a better team by taking it to us four games in a row,'' Whitehead said. "They forced us to re-evaluate ourselves and improve on our weaknesses.''

North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol said it took until the second half of the season for his team to jell because of the loss of several key seniors and the departure of five underclassmen to pro hockey.

"I don't think we had a huge turnabout in terms of effort or performance. Obviously, with wins and losses, there is a big difference from the first half to the second,'' said Hakstol, who has guided the Sioux to the Frozen Four in each of his three seasons as coach, after replacing Dean Blais as coach in 2004.

Since Christmas, North Dakota is 17-3-4 and 7-1-1 in its past nine games, including a wild 8-5 victory over Michigan and 3-2 overtime win against Minnesota in last week's NCAA West Regional in Denver.

"We had an awful lot of holes to fill,'' Hakstol said. "It's not only freshmen that are adjusting but also our returning players stepping into more predominant roles that took time.

"But our team has worked hard all season and has had the leadership in locker room and ultimately that's led to our success.''

It helps that the Sioux have arguably the best sophomore class in the nation, a talented group that includes high-scoring forwards Ryan Duncan (31-26-57), T.J. Oshie (16-33-49) and Jonathan Toews (17-28-45) and standout defensemen Taylor Chorney (8-21-29), Brian Lee (2-23-25) and Joe Finley (1-6-7).

Oshie, Toews, Lee and Finley are NHL first-round draft picks, while Chorney was picked in the second round. Duncan, the WCHA player of the year and leading scorer and one of the three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, is a free agent.

Boston College looked like it could miss the NCAA Tournament unless it turned its season around in early February after getting swept at Vermont and losing in the Beanpot title game to Boston University.

"We were really struggling at that point, but I thought our team was better than that,'' York said. "We kept grinding away and seemed to catch fire right after the Beanpot.''

York said his team, which has won 12 games in a row, turned things around with better special teams play and improved goaltending by junior Cory Schneider.

"He's a returning All-American and during the course of the year, he wanted to be perfect,'' York said. "He was concerned about shutouts and save percentage but wasn't playing as well as last year.

"Then he settled down and focused on winning games, and his save percentage went up and his goals-against went down.''

So now, the Eagles are the hottest team in the country and The Sioux aren't far behind.

But like the Spartans and Black Bears, they haven't forgotten where they came from to reach the Frozen Four.