Frozen Four: Union College's unlikely rise to the top

Oddity is commonplace at Union College.

The tiny liberal-arts school in Schenectady, N.Y., has a bizarre motto - "We All Become Brothers Under the Laws of Minerva." Its campus contains one of the world's only 16-sided buildings. And it has had not one but two presidents with the first name Eliphalet.

So no one should be shocked if, odd as it sounds, this college of 2,100 students, with no athletic scholarships and a sports budget comparable to what its three Frozen Four rivals spend on hockey alone, departs Philadelphia this weekend as the 2014 NCAA men's ice hockey champion.

Division I hockey is still a small enough universe - 59 colleges in six leagues - that an obscure, under-resourced program like Union can seriously contend for a title, an unthinkable ambition in almost any other sport. Last year, for example, Yale beat Quinnipiac in the title game.

Union, the NCAA tournament's overall third seed behind No. 1 Minnesota and Boston College, is making its second Frozen Four appearance, both in the last three seasons. By comparison, the other three teams in Thursday's Wells Fargo Center semifinals - Union-B.C. is at 5, Minnesota-North Dakota at 8:30 - have a combined 65.

"Our coaching staff doesn't focus on what we don't have when it comes to some of the budgets and facilities we're up against," Union athletic director Jim McLaughlin explained. "We focus on what we can control."

The Dutchmen's roster includes just one NHL draftee, Flyers prospect Shayne Gostisbehere. North Dakota and Minnesota have 14 each, Boston College 10. Yet East Region-champion Union was ranked No. 1 nationally this season for the first time and arrives in Philadelphia with a 30-6-4 record and a nation-best 15-game unbeaten streak.

Not bad for a program that can't offer scholarships to offset its $46,785 annual tuition, plays in a 2,000-seat arena, and has demanding academic standards. U.S. News & World Report ranks Union 41st among the nation's liberal- arts colleges.

With all that to overcome, Union continues to win recruiting battles for the best prospects in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere.

"We feel like we can offer the best of both worlds," said Union coach Rick Bennett, a onetime Hershey Bear. "We feel you can really become both a tremendous student and hockey player here.

"Sure, it's tough [to be without scholarships]," Bennett admitted. "In today's economy, if you have a full scholarship, nine times out of 10, that's where you're going to go. But if you have a family that's put money away for a child's education, and they value life after hockey, then I think a school like Union stands a very good chance."

A third of its 27 players are from Canada. The rest hail from nine states, including two from the Philadelphia area - defenseman Charlie Vasaturo of Sewell, Gloucester County, and forward Nick Cruice from Dresher, Montgomery County.

Union's best player, the offensive-minded defenseman Gostisbehere, is from Florida, an indication of how hockey's talent pool and Union's search area are widening.

"What sold me on Union," Gostisbehere said, "is that they were looking for character first."

But hockey's growth could threaten the success of small colleges like Union. With the number of players increasing, it wouldn't surprise many in college hockey if more large state schools followed the lead of Penn State, which ascended to Division I from club status this season.

That doesn't concern Bennett, 46, whose NHL career lasted nine games with the Rangers in the early '90s.

"If the game expands, it means there are more hockey players," he said. "And if there are more hockey players, there's more we can recruit. We'll just keep doing what we've been doing."

Union hockey dates back more than 100 years. World War II killed the program, and it wasn't until the 1970s that it returned, at the Division III level

Ex-NHL coach Ned Harkness built the on-campus Achilles Center and a powerful team that hoped to jump to Division I. But a recruiting scandal and its messy aftermath ended the ambitions and Harkness' career there.

Then, in 1990, ECAC Hockey, a league comprising several Ivy and Patriot League colleges, asked Union to become its 12th member.

"The driving force behind our going Division I was that we were going to be associated with a great group of institutions that had similar philosophies," said McLaughlin, a former small-college all-American football player at Union. "We were excited to accept."

The real turnaround began after 1998, when Kevin Sneddon became coach and formed a hockey boosters group, the Garnet Blades.

That group will raise about $200,000 this season, a college spokesman confirmed. Union reported spending $273,250 on hockey in 2013. The booster funds not only supplement normal revenues, McLaughlin said, but allow for expanded recruiting and facility upgrades.

Primarily because that $273,250 includes no scholarship expense, it is a half-million dollars less than the expenditures of the other Frozen Four competitors.

As the Dutchmen improved, so did their home-ice advantage. The tiny Achilles Center, its domed roof amplifying all the noise students generate, now provides "one of the greatest atmospheres in college hockey," McLaughlin said.

"[A hockey game] is the thing to do on campus on weekends," said the athletic director, noting that Michigan will visit the Achilles Center next season for the first time.

Following a disappointing 2006-07 season, coach Nate Leaman had his players do conditioning drills in the snow and mud, a messy session that Bennett credits with triggering the success that's followed.

"It helped make us a team," said Bennett, an assistant at the time.

In 2011-12, with Bennett the head man, the Dutchmen made it to their first Frozen Four, losing to Ferris State, 3-1.

"We went to Tampa, and they didn't really enjoy it," Bennett recalled. "Everyone was worried and not sure what was happening. And it all happened so fast that we never really had a chance to take it all in.

"This time, we want to take it all in, enjoy the experience."