Western Collegiate Hockey Association

March 1, 2007

There will be the usual "Senior Night" at WCHA home sites for this weekend's regular-season finales, and when UMD plays host to Wisconsin, it will be an emotional moment for Bryan McGregor, Jeff McFarland, Ryan Geris, and Josh Johnson. If the WCHA wanted to advertise the benefits of completing four years of college hockey, the perfect method would be a poster of that Bulldog quartet.

McGregor would have to be front and center in any such array, because he has the most compelling story of the four. He came to the University of Minnesota Duluth as a highly-sought, 112-point scorer for the Vernon Vipers, champions of the junior British Columbia Hockey League. Then he sat and waited, played a little, sat some more, and waited, but he understood, as a freshman on a veteran team. He admits he spent three restless years failing to get much chance, and at one point had packed up to leave for a waiting position in the Junior A Ontario Hockey League. But he decided to stay, even though he scored only 9 goals and 12 assists--21 points - total, through three tough seasons.

As a senior, there was little indication things would be different, but he was different. But he has worked his way to a major-impact senior year. He played hard and effectively to move from the third line, to the second, and has finally become a solid resident on the first line, a solid 6-foot, 210-pounder who moved from center to right wing with sophomores Mason Raymond on the left, and MacGregor Sharp at center.

"Coach (Scott) Sandelin told me to quit thinking about hockey, to just go home and work someplace, and don't even think about hockey until I came back to school," said McGregor. "I went back home to Niagara Falls, Ontario, and worked construction, and I came back with a fresh perspective - a clean slate. I knew I had to come out of the gate well, too, but I had 10 breakaways in the first eight games and didn't score. I've probably had 65 breakaways this season, and I should have about 50 goals."

McFarland, another hard-working senior who has been a solid team guy but without much to show for it, and Geris, a defenseman who was granted a final year of eligibility after two injury-plagued seasons, also are hard-luck stories. So is Johnson, a goaltending star at Cloquet-Esko-Carlton High School, who won the Frank Brimsek Award as the state's best goalie with a 1.67 goals-against average, and eight shutouts en route to a state tournament trip. He had one solid year of junior hockey, but had never started more than four consecutive games during his first three seasons. He slid to a career-low 3-4 record with a 4.19 goals-against and .848 save percentage last season, as a junior.

After Johnson, Nate Ziegelmann, and Alex Stalock each played a period of the 8-1 preseason romp over Lakehead, freshman Stalock was granted the position, starting the next10 straight games. Johnson started only one of 17 games. When Sandelin decided to try alternating him with Stalock, he suffered a bad cut on his hand when teammate Andrew Carroll jumped over the boards while Johnson was manning the gate on the bench, and was set back another three weeks. He finally got into an alternating spot during Christmas break. In January, Johnson beat Michigan Tech, Colorado College, Northern Michigan, and took over after also beating Denver to open February. He has started a career-high five straight games, and has gone 4-1-1, and 6-2-1, with a loss and tie at North Dakota and the other loss against St. Cloud State.

For the year, Johnson goes into the Wisconsin series with a 7-4-1 season record - equaling half of his total victories through three seasons (14-12-2) - and has a 2.51 goals-against average and has brought his save percentage steadily upward to .901. He said he couldn't remember where he was playing, possibly Cloque-Esko-Carlton High School, the last time he started five straight games, but in the five he has a 3-1-1 slate and a 2.00 goals-against mark.

If Johnson's patience has been a virtue, McGregor also is nearing the end of his college days, but he seems to be just beginning to realize the potential that had failed to materialize through three seasons of part-time work, which could make him a plum as a free-agent for some discerning NHL team.

McGregor has 13-11--24 statistics this season, exceeding the 21 points he totaled in his first three years. Raymond, the team's most explosive scoring threat, has 14-29--43, and has been involved in 45.3 percent of all of UMD's goals this season. McGregor has worked well with him, and scored seven of his season's goals in a six-game surge that also has coincided with UMD's late-season upswing. The last goal in McGregor's run was last weekend in the 3-2 victory over Alaska Anchorage, which also was the sixth time he had scored UMD's first goal in a game, before he failed to score in the 5-0 second game. The sweep lifted UMD out of 10th place, dropping the slumping Seawolves to last, with their WCHA season completed.

"This was the first time I'd ever been on a team that was in last place, and it doesn't feel too good," said McGregor, of the long, torturous struggle. "Nobody respects you, around the league or even among our own fans. But you have to go through adverse times. If you never faced it, you won't know how to deal with it."

McGregor, more than anyone, knows how to deal with adversity. Back home in Niagara Falls, his parents supported him fully, as did his grandparents, who lived up the street. His grandmother backed him a chocolate cake every time he scored a hat trick in youth hockey. Then he had the chance to play for Cowichan Valley in the British Columbia Junior League. He lived with former NHLer Doug Bodger, who taught him a lot through example, and by watching every hockey game and old videos on a 70-inch television set.

Cowichan Valley acquired a flashy scorer named T.J. Caig and a couple of other players for the stretch run, and a week later, one of them made a serious impression on McGregor. "I was skating a drill in practice," McGregor recalled, "and this new guy caught me with an elbow and drove it right into my face. It broke my jaw, and I landed face-first. It pretty much shattered my face. The coach rushed me to the hospital, and they had to do a lot of surgery, and put metal in my jaw, and wire my mouth shut."

Nobody expected him back, but he returned after six months at home, joining Cowichan Valley for a game in Nanaimo. "I was skating out for my first shift, and a guy from their team punched me right in the face," McGregor said.

He recovered again, and played three weeks with Caig, who was a scoring machine who later was recruited to UMD. "He was my idol," said McGregor. "But I was doing well. I scored three goals and three assists one night, and after the game, our coach told me I had been traded to Vernon. I couldn't believe it. But I got a goal on my first shift, got 2-2 in the game, and we went on to win the BCHL championship."

McGregor scored 49-46-95 for Vernon in 61 regular season games, and added 10-7-17 during an undefeated run through 12 playoff games. That's a 59-53-112 season in 73 games. So coming to UMD, McGregor had high hopes and unlimited potential.

Instead, he met only frustration when he couldn't crack the lineup, and more when he'd get in, play well, then be a healthy scratch the next game. That 2003-04 season also was rocky off the ice.

"I was rooming with Jesse Unklesbay," McGregor recalled. "He was 26, and I was 18 -- eight years older than I was. We'd be home at night, and he'd be talking to his fiancé on the phone, and I'm watching cartoons."

A friendly, personable sort, McGregor adjusted, but he couldn't adjust to not playing regularly, and he wondered if he had made the right choice by going to UMD. At one point, he was informed that he had a guaranteed spot to play with Peterborough in the prestigious Ontario Hockey League. He was set up with a family to live with, and even told who he would play with on a line.

"I almost left," he said. "I had my car all packed, and I was ready to go."

But he stayed, and fought through the frustration. This season, despite the team's struggles, has made up for the first three years. And McGregor knows that for him and his fellow seniors, as well as for the whole UMD program, there is still room for more before this season officially ends.

Wisconsin, of course, is the defending NCAA champion, and travels to Duluth needing to beat UMD to survive the hectic middle-of-the-pack battle where the fifth and final home-ice spot for the playoffs is still up for grabs. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, need to keep building on the momentum of their 4-2-1 run in order to have any chance of springing a playoff upset. It would take an opening-round series upset to reach the WCHA Final Five, then three straight victories there to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA.

That's pretty far-fetched. But after what Bryan McGregor has been through, anything is possible. Besides, he scored two goals in three straight games in the last month, but he hasn't gotten a hat trick yet in a college game. And back in Niagara Falls, his grandmother still sets the chocolate cake mix on the table before every game he plays, just in case.