Hungry like the Woolf January 25, 2002

WCHL's leading goal scorer tries to get through January's dog days

JEFF NAHILL
Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO - The dog days, that late-season period of fatigue popularized by baseball, has hit the hockey world. The players, many of whom are Canadian, have endured another holiday season away from home and three months of grueling play.

It's a grind right now.

BILL WECHTER / Staff Photographer With 33 goals this season, Gulls forward Mark Woolf is on pace to threaten the West Coast Hockey League's single-season record of 61.

Mark Woolf of the Gulls knows the feeling. The West Coast Hockey League's leading goal scorer recently went through a five-game scoreless streak. He rebounded on Jan. 16 with two goals and two assists against Anchorage and currently leads the league with 33 goals, a pace that would leave him just shy of the league record of 61. But the wear and tear are evident.

The Gulls haven't lost consecutive games all season but have struggled in the last month.

"The dog days of January are amongst us right now," said Woolf. "Guys are tired. In November and December we played with 14 guys every night. It's always January. "It's not like you get sick of playing, but you get tired of playing same teams night in and night out. But that's what you have when you only have eight teams in the league. When you play teams in your own division, it's like a playoff game...It takes a toll on your body, especially for a 31-year-old guy like me." But Woolf hardly plays like a 31-year-old.

"He's a great hockey player," said Dennis Purdie, Woolf's teammate the past two years in San Diego and, before that, two years with the Ayr Scottish Eagles of the British Ice Hockey Super League (BISL). "A tough player, a competitor. He doesn't like to lose. He doesn't accept losing. That's one of the best things he brings to the team. Other guys look at that and follow that.

"As long as we're winning and someone is doing the scoring, he's happy. That doesn't bother him."

Well, maybe.

"Guys that get to score at that level, they want to score," said Gulls coach/general manager Steve Martinson. "I don't pretend to say that if Mark goes three or four games without scoring and we win three or four games, he's not going to be completely satisfied. He's going to be glad the team won and I'm not saying he would put himself above the team, but he wants to score and that's what makes goal scorers, goal scorers."

OK, Mark, come clean. Would you rather score a goal or win a game?

"Always, I'd rather win a game," said Woolf. "Marty (Martinson) talked about bringing guys like Dennis and me in here a long time ago when we first started. The conversation we had was that we always want to bring guys in here who play two-way hockey, and it doesn't matter who scores the goals. The two points at the end of the night was always the factor of how we were going to situate our team.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself to score every night and when I don't, I get really disappointed. I don't get too low or too high, but around here we have such great depth and that has enabled us to win games more and more. We really need to get scoring from other lines."

Martinson admits he doesn't know where the Gulls would be without the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Woolf.

"The first half of the season his goals have translated into a lot of wins," said Martinson. "He's been scoring, but he's a pretty complete player. He's physical. He's strong in the corner.

"Sometimes you have goal-scorers that are missing something ---- their skating, their puckhandling, their size. Woolf has the whole package."

Which translates into a lot of ice time.

"You get tired," said Woolf. "Marty looks to us older guys to lead by example out there. If you have your top players working their tails off every night, hitting and backchecking, all aspects of the game, you have no excuse for anyone else not to play that way."

So how did Woolf get so wise? And why isn't he playing with the big boys in the NHL?

"I attribute that to sometimes things happen in juniors or your first year or two of pros, and you're branded as a guy who doesn't get a second chance," said Martinson. "Some things may have happened when he was younger, and by the time he got his game back on course the way it is, it was too late to be an NHL prospect."

Said Woolf: "I made my own bed and I laid in it. I got drafted by the Boston Bruins (sixth round, 1990 NHL Entry Draft). I had one camp there. A scout put his reputation on the line for me. I don't think the coach (Mike Milbury) or GM (Harry Sinden) wanted to draft me. They obviously didn't like the way I played. I had a good opportunity.

"Some players here talk about playing in the NHL, and they have an opportunity to move up in years to come. They have a long way to go yet. It doesn't matter what you do, but you have to refine your skills and become a better all-around player. Guys that play (in the NHL) can skate well and fly like the wind.

"If players want to get to the next level, they have to take it seriously. That's the kind of attitude and veteran leadership that I'm trying to show them. We all try to preach that here. It's not only what you do on the ice, but what you do off the ice."

And right now Woolf, as one of three assistant captains, is trying to get the team to concentrate on winning a second straight Taylor Cup championship. The Gulls won last year despite losing captain B.J. MacPherson to a serious injury.

"The last one we won here was a special one due to the circumstances," Woolf said, "but for all the returning players and the new ones Marty has brought in, I think everyone understands that every team in this league is out to get us every single night. There are some nights we have some real close games and that's some character-builders for our hockey club coming down the stretch here. That's all we're trying to do, get our team ready for the playoff run."

And get through the dog days of January.