By Adam Wodon

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

RIT's Matt Smith was on fire, netting two hat tricks in the Tigers' two-game sweep of Holy Cross. Photo courtesy of RIT Athletics

This is a tie between RIT's Matt Smith and Cornell's Ray Sawada. Smith had TWO hat tricks in RIT's two-game series sweep of Holy Cross. RIT won both games in OT, 5-4. It was the first postseason games ever for RIT as a Division I team and now it gets to host the Atlantic Hockey Final Five this weekend as the No. 2 seed. Smith has 27 goals on the season and leads the nation in power-play goals.

Sawada, meanwhile, was a third-round draft pick of the Dallas Stars in 2004 before coming to Cornell, but has never quite lived up to that promise. This season, as a senior captain, he had just four goals coming into the best-of-three first-round series against Dartmouth last weekend. But Sawada scored in each of the three games -- five all together -- as Cornell advanced to play Union this weekend.

PENALTY BOX

Wayne State's program will be in the penalty box forever after this weekend. The team was informed before the season started that it was being disbanded. Last weekend it played its final home game in front of about 300 friends and family at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum. Wayne State won Friday against first-place Niagara, but got blown out, 7-3, on Saturday.

"It was senior night and we knew it would be the end of the program, so I think emotionally we were a little spent. And it showed," said coach Bill Wilkinson. "The first 10 minutes we were in a fog. But we got through it. I know the kids have had this on their mind all year. But it (became) a reality. This is it, the final games we'll be playing at home forever."

It was a far cry from 1999, when the program's first home game was played in front of thousands at the Fairgrounds and the future looked bright. A new building was on the horizon and the school had a chance to compete in the state of Michigan against long-time hockey powers with a coach that had taken teams to the NCAA tournament before.

That arena never came.

WSU gets one more crack, starting with a play-in game at the CHA tournament this weekend in Buffalo against Alabama-Huntsville.

"A lot of times, I think we feel we're the lone wolf in the pack, we're alone by ourselves and playing for each other basically,"

Wilkinson said. "But Wayne State does not support the program, so in the end, we have to rally around ourselves and do the best we can."

WATCH OUT!

There are 17 best-of-three series to choose from, and two conference title games. Take your pick. The ones with the most implications for the NCAAs are Harvard-Quinnipiac; Wisconsin-St. Cloud State; Minnesota-Minnesota State; Boston University-Mass.-Lowell; and Providence-Boston College. Grab the popcorn.

Adam Wodon is the Managing Editor for College Hockey News.He has covered college hockey as a writer and broadcaster for 19 years.