MIGHTY DUCKS NOTEBOOK / ROBYN NORWOOD : Two Enter Camp by the Back Door

Every NHL training camp has its longshots, but not many of them get there quite the way Brian Corcoran or Jan Mikel did.

Corcoran was sweating on a football field at the University of Massachusetts this time last year, a 6-2, 250-pound defensive end with only a couple of months of college hockey under his belt.

Mikel, a Czech, was preparing to play hockey in North America but took some poor advice and ended up in Fresno playing in a glorified beer league.

“It was really bad,” Mikel said. “After the first practice I said, ‘What time is practice tomorrow?’ They said, ‘We don’t practice again until next week.’ I was very upset. I practiced by myself.”

Now they are defensemen in the Ducks’ camp, Corcoran already armed with a minor league contract and Mikel here by invitation, hoping to earn one.

Neither has a chance to make the Ducks’ team, but they have a chance to learn and make an impression before they go to camp with minor-league affiliate Baltimore next week.

Duck Coach Ron Wilson terms Corcoran “a project” because he hasn’t played much hockey--only parts of two seasons his junior and senior years after UMass revived its hockey program. Scout Paul Fenton spotted his big body and solid skating last winter when he happened to see a game with UMass’ 6-28-2 hockey team. When the Ducks found out he was a Division I-AA football All-American who had 13 sacks in 11 games last season, they signed him.

“He has a lot of catching up to do,” Wilson said. “But he hits as hard as anybody. He’s probably easily the hardest hitter here.”

Corcoran had to change his body, going from a 250-pound defensive end to a 215-pound defenseman.

“It feels a little strange,” he said. “I look in the mirror and think, ‘Who’s that?’ People see me and say, ‘What happened to you?’ I knew I couldn’t play this game at 250. It’s too fast.

“My goal is just to learn a lot in a hurry and get this first taste of it. I never expected anything close to this level.”

Neither did his football coach at UMass, Mike Hodges.

“The whole hockey thing’s a dream. When he came here we didn’t even have a hockey team,” Hodges said. “His opportunities in football were limited. He was a 250-pound defensive end and the guys at the next level are 6-5, 6-6.

“I don’t know anything about hockey, but he’s a very competitive young man and he won’t be intimidated. For a guy as big as he is, he’s got quick feet and good balance. He’s seldom knocked off his feet, and I know that’s an attribute in hockey.”

As for Mikel, Wilson said, “You’re not sure what to expect when you hear somebody played in Fresno.”

Mikel, who earned room and board and maybe $150 a week for Fresno’s West Coast Hockey League team, won’t argue.

“I didn’t know where I was going. If I knew, I wouldn’t have come,” he said, explaining that he thought he would be playing for a university team instead of a semi-pro team that played teams from Anchorage to West Palm Beach.

But Mikel learned English and his Fresno coach, John Oliver, tipped off the Ducks that they should invite him to camp, making the whole disaster worthwhile.

Notes

After a somewhat disappointing first season, right wing Valeri Karpov is making one of the best showings of any forward, Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “He just had to get some experience and learn what works and what doesn’t,” said Wilson, who says Karpov lost his confidence last season. . . . Another player who has played well is center Jarrod Skalde, who played for the Ducks during their first season but signed with independent Las Vegas in the International Hockey League last season. Skalde has gained bulk and confidence, but faces an uphill battle because the Ducks are deep at center. . . . With the two rinks at the new Disney ICE facility, Wilson says the Ducks are getting “the same amount of work, and more quality work, done in less time.” Wilson added: “We’re trying a couple of little different things, some of them almost like football, where you break off into small groups and then come back together. We have a unique opportunity not a lot of teams get.”