Due to deaths and injuries, efforts have been made at several college campuses across America to curb freshman hazing.
Unfortunately, these efforts have not yet reached college hockey.
Freshman Adam Hauser, 18, felt the pain of the 6-4 Friday loss to St. Lawrence, letting in 6 of the 24 shots he faced.
Hauser is making efforts to put it behind him. When asked about his teammates treatment of him after the game, he added, “After the loss? After the beating? After the thrashing?”
Hauser’s sense of humor seems to be helping him get through his growing pains, with a little help from his teammates.
“They’re not saying, `Yeah, you were a sieve that night,’ but that’s understood,” Hauser said. “They are just trying to make me better, and hopefully one of these years, I can become the Willy Marvin.”
Marvin replaced Hauser as the starter Saturday, and picked up the win in his first career start.
Marvin has spent the majority of his time with the Gophers on the bench, and has picked up a few nuggets of wisdom for the youngster Hauser.
“Obviously he’s got a lot of potential. He’s got to understand that one game doesn’t mean diddly,” Marvin said. “Just like a win for me doesn’t mean much. If he goes out every day, knowing he can play at this level, he’ll get better and better each day.”
Coach Doug Woog is also a believer in Hauser’s ability to be a star in college hockey.
“I talked to him (Monday) and told him, `It’s not a sprint, its a marathon,'” Woog said. “He knows he didn’t play to what his expectations are, and I said, `A lot other people didn’t either.'”
The Fresh Prince of Warroad
Woog said Saturday that Marvin will start in the WCHA opener against Minnesota-Duluth Friday at Mariucci Arena.
But that’s news to Marvin.
“I didn’t know I was (named starter). I won’t think I am until I hear it from the coach personally,” Marvin said.
Marvin, recognized as the jokester of the locker rooms, marks good communication between himself and his defensemen as the key to success.
“I definitely feel that they’re out there for me, I’m out there for them.” Marvin said. “Being friends off the ice is another important part of being on a quality team. It comes together on the ice.”
Adventures in Goaltending
Although Marvin has been named starter for now, Woog said his goaltending situation remains unresolved. He said he expects to platoon Marvin and Hauser until one of them earns the job outright.
“That would be the anticipatory pattern, not having the same guy playing twice.” Woog said. “If I could predict how they were going to play then I would tell you how we would use them.”
With two goaltenders who have a combined two games of college experience, Woog is searching for someone to emerge as the starter.
“We’re just hoping that either of them or both of them will be consistent.” Woog said. “We’re going with the most consistent player; if they are both equal, then we’ll go that way.”
Slapshots
ù There was no juice in the power play this weekend as the Gophers went 1-for-15 with a man-advantage. The coaching staff, however, is not worried.
“I thought we showed much better puck movement than the teams we played.” Woog said.
His patience might not last long, however. Last season, Minnesota was a woeful 38-for-224 (17 percent) on the power play.
ù Wyatt Smith wins the “Thug of the Week” award with 4 minutes of penalty time. Bill Kohn, Reggie Berg and Mark Nenovich also had four minutes in the box, but because both of Smith’s penalties are for roughing, he wins the tie-break.