Now, Kid Kariya Is the Maine Man

He graduates this spring, with a spot on the honor roll and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Maine. His parents, both teachers, would be thrilled and proud if he pursued a master’s degree or a career on Wall Street.

But if the kid follows another career path, Mom and Dad will love him and support him just the same. And, truth be told, the kid wants to do the same thing his big brother does for a living.

This would be easier, of course, if his big brother weren’t one of the finest hockey players on the planet.

No NHL club drafted Steve Kariya last year, or the year before that, not even as a last-round gamble on a player with superlative hockey genes. Too small? Too slow? Even Paul Kariya, the Mighty Ducks’ superstar, once wondered whether his little brother could skate fast enough to play professional hockey, according to Maine assistant coach Grant Standbrook.

“I wish Paul would get himself in front of a TV set sometime before the end of our season,” Standbrook said. “Something has clicked with this kid the last couple of months. He’s unstoppable. He’s a threat to go 200 feet every time he gets the puck.”

Maine coaches, frankly, never imagined Steve Kariya would follow Paul from this campus into the NHL, not until this second half of his senior season. Steve blossomed so late that, at 21, he is too old for the NHL draft. He can sign with whatever team he likes, including Paul’s Mighty Ducks.

That, however, is business left for summer. Steve Kariya, a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in college hockey, leads fourth-ranked Maine (27-6-4) into the NCAA playoffs this week. If the Black Bears beat unranked Ohio State on Friday and sixth-ranked Clarkson (N.Y.) on Saturday, they qualify for next week’s Final Four, on Paul’s home ice at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

“At the beginning of the year, I made the comment about what a dream it would be to get to Anaheim with a Kariya as captain,” Maine Coach Shawn Walsh said. “I didn’t think he’d be quite so dominant.

“But, if we get there, he’ll be the one player everybody watches.”

Think Theo, Not Paul

To say a player is focused is a cliche these days, a description deprived of meaning by relentless overuse. If you must use the word, however, you can properly describe the Kariya brothers as focused.

The Black Bears play in a cozy campus arena, with a few thousand seats and 13 boxes--luxury boxes would be an overstatement--perched atop the seats. Stephen King, who cranks out horror novels the way the Kariyas crank out goals, lives nearby and attends many a game in his box.

Another box doubles as a modest shrine to Steve Kariya. One sign displays his last name in large letters; another features his name and that of his linemates. As Kariya walks off the ice and into the locker room, after practices and after games, he passes almost directly beneath that box.

And yet, in this cocoon of a small university in a small town, Kariya insists he has no idea who sits in that box, no idea who his biggest fans might be. (A local cellular phone company pays for the box.)

So, when the Kariya brothers tell you they never have discussed playing together on the Ducks, you believe them.

“It’s just not where my focus is,” Steve Kariya said. “I have a hard time focusing beyond the next game.”

Said Paul: “I don’t ever talk to him about that kind of stuff. I want him to concentrate on what he’s doing now and enjoying himself. This is the most fun time of his life.”

What could be more heartwarming, more thrilling, more downright fun than playing with your brother in the NHL, skating alongside each another the way you did growing up in Vancouver? And, for this reunion, what team could be more appropriate than the one that borrowed its name from a Disney movie?

D4: The Kariya Brothers? Not so fast.

“We won’t sign a player because it’s neat,” said David McNab, Duck assistant general manager. “We won’t sign a player because it’s a novelty. That would be unfair to the player and the organization.

“I don’t think Paul would want that. I don’t think Steve would want that. If he can help the organization, we would do that.”

Can he help? Two NHL general managers recently shared their evaluations with Walsh.

“One watched him come out to warm up and said, ‘That’s him? He’s too small,’ ” Walsh said. “The other watched him play and said, ‘Can you imagine if they put him with [Pavel] Bure in Florida?’

“I’d still like to see the Ducks put him with Paul in Anaheim.”

Too small? Steve is 5 feet 7, three inches shorter than Paul but one inch taller than Colorado Avalanche star Theo Fleury. And Steve, who acknowledges he was “very weak” as a freshman, has bulked up from 142 to 170 pounds.

“His first year, he didn’t have the strength he needed to be dominant in college hockey and even consider going to the next level,” Standbrook said. “The big difference is, Steve is not deterred going for the puck. Not to say he was as a freshman, but he kept getting knocked down. Nobody knocks him down now.”

Said Walsh: “He’s more of a Theo Fleury type of player than a Paul Kariya type of player. Steve loves going into the corners and battling, not that Paul didn’t. Steve has more of a tenaciousness, versus Paul’s breathtaking speed and open-ice abilities.”

Too slow? Forget his last name. Compared with Paul Kariya, virtually every NHL player is too slow.

“This kid is the fastest I’ve seen this year in college hockey,” Standbrook said. “I saw [Boston College star and third-round draft pick Brian] Gionta just about fall backward trying to catch him.”

Said Steve: “When you’re that small, you really have to use your speed and your smarts. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have those attributes.”

Fleury stars regularly on NHL highlight reels. Steve Kariya will too, Walsh believes.

“He’s an electrifying presence,” he said. “He’s one of those guys who plays so you come out of your seat and say, ‘Did you see that?’

“This guy is not going to stop until he makes it.”

No Fear of Shadows

Paul Kariya pays someone to cook for him. Steve Kariya learned to cook for himself this year. He had to. He moved out of the dorms and into an apartment and he preferred not to survive solely on fast food.

“I don’t have the cash flow to have my own cook,” Steve said, grinning. “If I had my preference, I’d have someone cook for me. I just want to eat healthy.

“I’m no gourmet chef. I can make pizza, spaghetti and chicken. I’m not going to cook up a five-star meal.”

Paul Kariya did not stick around campus long enough to move into an apartment. He played one season at Maine.

In what McNab called “the greatest freshman year--maybe the greatest individual year--anyone’s ever had in college hockey,” Kariya scored 100 points in 39 games, winning the Hobey Baker Award and leading Maine to the 1993 NCAA championship.

An enormous portrait commemorating that magical year, featuring Kariya in various poses, hangs on a wall in the campus arena.

Mental toughness? Steve still enrolled at Maine, in the formidable shadow left by Paul.

“Sometimes the pressure is a lot,” said Noriko Kariya, a sophomore at Maine and one of two Kariya sisters. The third and youngest Kariya brother, Martin, has committed to play hockey at Maine next fall.

“Everybody knows who you are. But we’ve dealt with that at home. It’s not a bad thing to be associated with my family.

“I think Steve has always had to struggle. He’s behind Paul. He has a lot to live up to. He also has the size factor. But he is so talented, so fast and so agile. I think Steve is going to succeed at whatever he does.

“He is a determined, disciplined person. It may take him a little longer, but he’ll get there.”

Next year?

“He’s not going to play in the National Hockey League next year,” McNab said. “Very few players step right in and don’t play in the minors. But, with his talent level, he’ll end up playing somewhere in the NHL in the next couple of years.”

Steve Kariya is dreaming--not California dreaming, necessarily, but dreaming nonetheless.

“I don’t think there’s a hockey player alive who doesn’t want to play in the NHL,” Kariya said. “I was no different growing up. It’s still my dream.

“I am not picky. If there was a team in Antarctica, I’d go there. I’m just looking for an opportunity to prove myself.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NCAA Hockey Tournament

* When: East and West regionals (12 schools) begin Friday in Worcester, Mass., and Madison, Wis.

* Top seedings: East--New Hampshire (29-6-3); West--North Dakota (32-5-2).

* Frozen Four: At Arrowhead Pond; Semifinals--Thursday, April 1 (1 p.m. and 6 p.m.); Final--4:30 p.m., Saturday, April 3.

* Ticket information: (714) 704-2500 or Ticketmaster at (213) 480-3232, (714) 740-2000.

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NCAA LEADING SCORERS

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Player, School GP G A P Jason Krog, New Hampshire 38 32 47 79 Jason Blake, North Dakota 37 28 41 69 Brian Swanson, Colorado College 40 25 40 65 Ryan Carter, Iona 33 33 30 63 Mike Souza, New Hampshire 38 19 39 58 Steve Kariya, Maine 37 23 34 57 Brian Gionta, Boston College 36 25 32 57 Danny Riva, Rensselaer 36 22 35 57 Rejean Stringer, Merrimack 36 17 39 56 Jeff Farkas, Boston College 40 31 24 55 Darren Haydar, New Hampshire 38 29 26 55

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