ALBANY — Saturday's postgame press conference was difficult for Clarkson University men's hockey coach George Roll.

It wasn't just that his team came one win short of reaching the Frozen Four after losing 2-0 to top-ranked Michigan in the East Regional final at the Times Union Center.

It was that Roll realized he was never going to coach the members of the senior class again, a group of athletes that led Clarkson back to the level of the nation's elite.

"It's going to be difficult," Roll said. "They will be a tough group to replace. They're great young men. If they were my kids, I'd be honored. They have no regrets. They did what we asked and more."

Five of the seniors played Saturday — Nick Dodge, David Cayer, Steve Zalewski, Grant Clitsome and David Leggio. Mike Arciero, who provided inspiration in practices, was not dressed for Saturday's game.

They had a tough freshman year, being part of a team that lost 23 games to set a school record.

But they finished their careers with an ECAC Hockey Tournament and regular-season championship and the first NCAA Tournament win for the program in 12 years.

"(Roll) always likes to give credit to other people," Dodge said. "This program is in great hands. They developed me into a far better player than I was coming into the program. I've enjoyed every second they coached me."

Said Clitsome, "All three coaches (including assistants Greg Drechsel and Jean-Francois Houle) have done a great job of getting the confidence of the players and bringing the team together."

BAD-TIMING AWARD

The Albany-area newspapers have been filled with speculation all weekend about just how soon Dodge, a Carolina Hurricanes draft pick, will be joining the American Hockey League's Albany River Rats.

Dodge picked up a penalty during the second period of Saturday's game and while he was sitting in the box the official sitting in it said to him, "Hey, Nick, this is the River Rats' home box."

Dodge had no response.

FIRST GAME IN 46 YEARS

The last time Clarkson played Michigan in a hockey game was a national semifinal in 1962 at the then state-of-the-art Utica Memorial Auditorium.

Wolverines coach Red Berenson played for the team then, and was on the losing end of a 5-4 score. A few nights later he was suiting up for the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens.

"We were the favorites and Clarkson wasn't," Berenson said. "I don't remember a lot about it. I just remember we couldn't score."

ECAC Hockey historian Jim Finke, a 1962 St. Lawrence University graduate, attended the game to root for the Saints, who lost to Michigan Tech in a semifinal the following evening.

"I just remember the positive that we actually beat a western team," Finke said. "That never happened much in those days. I wasn't kind of widely rooting (for Clarkson), but I wanted a Clarkson win. It was the north country against the world type attitude."

MISMATCH

Saturday's game was just a 2-0 final, but Michigan outnumbers Clarkson in just about every other category. The Wolverines have a student body of over 41,000 students, while Clarkson's is just 3,000.

"It's sort of like in NFL football when the Green Bay Packers play the New York Giants," Berenson said. "I've seen a lot of small schools win national championships."