Krog Wins Popular Vote for Top Honor

They would otherwise have spent the morning before the biggest hockey game of their lives relaxing. A little music in the headphones maybe, but certainly no marching band.

Roll over and sleep late? Sure. Pomp and circumstance? No.

But New Hampshire players and coaches weren’t complaining about getting up Friday morning to attend the Hobey Baker Award ceremony at the Anaheim Hilton Towers. Not when it was a chance to see Wildcat forward Jason Krog accept hockey’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.

“We would have had a day of rest, but we welcomed the chance to celebrate a special day with a special player,” Coach Dick Umile said. “He’s the guy who’s taken this program to another level.”

Krog has scored 34 goals this season--two of them Thursday night as New Hampshire beat Michigan State in the semifinals to advance to today’s 4:30 p.m. Frozen Four NCAA final against Maine at the Arrowhead Pond--and 50 assists, both tops in the nation.

But he’s much more than a goal-scoring machine and that, according to coaches, teammates and opponents, is what makes him the best player in college hockey.

“He just sets guys up for open nets,” said defenseman Steve O’Brien, the team’s co-captain with Krog. “He’ll come down the ice, pull up, and you know if you’re open he’s going to put the puck right on your stick. And he makes the passes through the sticks and skates, the passes most college hockey players just can’t make.”

In a couple of weeks, the 23-year-old Krog will have to start threading those passes through professional sticks and skates. He was overlooked five years ago by the NHL while playing junior hockey in Canada, but figures to be one of this year’s hottest free agents.

Maine defenseman David Cullen will get his fifth up-close-and-personal look at Krog this season--the Hockey East rivals each won two games--and he says just keeping a vigilant eye on Krog is never enough.

“You not only have to know where his stick is at all times, you also have to know where his options are because he’s so good at setting people up,” Cullen said. “You pay too much attention to him and all of sudden you look up and [Krog’s linemate Darren] Haydar is scoring a goal.

“You have to raise your defensive game when you play them. If you make a mistake, he’ll jump on it. I don’t think you can stop him, you just try to contain him.”

Maine Coach Shawn Walsh, who coaches Hobey Baker finalist Steve Kariya, says Krog deserves the award because of his ability to help his teammates raise their level of play--”He’s a Larry Bird presence, the way he uses guys,”--and his character, both on and off the ice.

Krog, a Hobey Baker finalist last year, was a unanimous choice as the Hockey East player of the year this season. He was the first Hockey East player to score 50 or more points in conference play since Maine’s Paul Kariya. A business major, he ranks in the top 10% of his class and he’s a finalist for the Hockey Humanitarian Award for his work with anti-drug programs in the community and as a peer advisor at the university.

“He deserves it because he plays the game the right way and for what he does away from the rink,” Walsh said.

Krog, who would much rather focus on winning the first NCAA hockey championship in school history, obviously isn’t a member of the Me Generation.

Asked about his spin on this whirlwind year, he says, “You know the most satisfying thing for me about this year? In the preseason polls, we were picked in the middle of the pack in our conference and had no ranking nationally. So everyone focused on stepping up their game and now we’re proving some people wrong.”

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NCAA Championship

* Who: Maine (30-6-4) vs. New Hampshire (31-6-3).

* Where: Arrowhead Pond.

* When: Today, 4:30 p.m.

* TV: ESPN.