Switch in time saves UMass

The choice, as Thomas Pock remembers it, was never a matter of if, only where. If he wanted to play in the NHL, he wasn't going to stay in Austria. "The one sport we have at home is skiing," says Pock. "If you want to be a world-class skier, you better stay there. Other than that, you want to leave."

So Pock became TransAlpine Man, shuttling between Klagenfurt and Amherst, playing for the University of Massachusetts in Hockey East and the Austrian national team at Olympus. Somewhere in the middle, he became a fearsome hybrid -- a defenseman with a forward's scoring touch, the Minutemen's top gun.

"He presents a lot of problems," says New Hampshire coach Dick Umile, whose eighth-ranked Wildcats take on UMass tomorrow night in the conference semifinals at the FleetCenter. "He's all over the ice. You've got to pay attention to him all the time."

Not that he's hard to miss -- at 6 feet 1 inch, 208 pounds, Pock is an imposing blue liner. And his numbers -- a team-leading 38 points, with 15 goals -- are strictly top-shelf. "He's so threatening," says UMass coach Don Cahoon. "His ability to take the puck end to end and to draw people to him . . ."

Who knew that Pock had a touch of Orr in him? Who among college coaches knew him at all, other than UMass assistant Bill Gilligan, who'd coached Pock's father, Herbert (a three-time Olympian and the present national coach), in the Austrian league?

"I'm sure if Bill hadn't spent so much time there, nobody would have known about me," says Pock, who wasn't drafted by the NHL but almost certainly will sign as a free agent. "I don't think anybody came to Austria to look for players."

Pock, who'd been playing for the club team in Klagenfurt, down near the Slovenian border, was ready for an upgrade. "I wasn't going to stay at home," he says. "It was time to leave. I had the dream, like every kid, to play in the NHL."

So it was either going to be major junior in Canada or a Division 1 college. And if it was going to be college, it was going to be UMass. The Gilligan connection made sure of that.

"When people back home heard I was going there, they told me to bring my dancing shoes," Pock remembers. "They thought it was a party school."

If Pock wanted to party, he says, he could have stayed home in Klagenfurt. "I didn't travel 5,000 miles to have fun every day," he says.

For the first couple of years at UMass, the hockey wasn't much fun. The Minutemen were losing and Pock wasn't scoring -- 11 goals in 56 games. So Cahoon, whose team was having trouble getting out of its own end early last season, asked Pock if he'd mind playing defense. "I don't know how long this thing will be for," the coach told him. "I don't know how effective you'll be. But I'd like you to try it."

Pock, who'd always wanted to try life as a D-man, was game, even after an uneven debut. "I know it's not going perfect," he told Cahoon, "but I'd rather stick with it."

Once he'd been on the far side of the blue line for a few more games, Pock became a man transformed. "When he was a forward, I didn't know what the hype was about," says Boston University coach Jack Parker. "But on defense, his hockey sense really came out. It was like night and day. He immediately became a dominant player."

Pock's scoring soared -- 17 goals last year, second in the nation among defensemen. And UMass came to life, shocking top-seeded Maine at Orono in last year's opening round and playing eventual champion UNH to within a late goal in the semifinals.

Now, coming off a sweep of UMass-Lowell last weekend, the Minutemen are back at the Fleet after an up-and-down season (18-11-6) that makes the Tirol seem flat. Had UMass stayed on its early roll (9-2-1), Pock would have been a strong contender for the Hobey Baker Award as the nation's top collegian. "If we'd done a little bit more as a team," muses Cahoon, "that would help his cause."

This weekend, Pock's cause is the Hockey East title and an automatic NCAA berth, both of which would be novelties around Amherst. Then, it's back to Austria to get ready for next month's world championships in Prague, which will determine the teams for the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy. If he's tied up for another couple of weeks, Pock won't mind. Neither will the Austrian coach, who just happens to share the same address.