Union College May Be Small, but It Has Extra-Large Dreams BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - Playoff beards are also fashionable among college hockey players, except for those who play at Union College. The Dutchmen must shave before class each Monday morning, no matter the time of year. "If your hair gets too long, the guy over here lets us know," the sophomore goaltender Troy Grosenick said Thursday, tilting his head toward a clean-shaven man in a golf shirt. Rick Bennett, a 44-year-old former left wing who spent all but 15 games of his professional career in the minor leagues, has taken Union, a liberal-arts institution of 2,200 students in Schenectady, N.Y., to a 24-7-7 record and the No. 3 national ranking in his first season. To clarify, Union is No. 3 nationally in Division I hockey - the big time. The Dutchmen are the top seed in the East Regional and are to play Michigan State in a first-round game on Friday. Michigan State has a larger student population, about 48,000, than Union has living alumni. That factoid came from Jim McLaughlin, the athletic director at Union, which plays in Division III in 23 of 25 intercollegiate sports - all but men's and women's hockey. Union does not provide athletic scholarships, and the college has had a Division I hockey program only since 1991. "Our hockey players, basketball players and chemistry majors go through the same financial-aid process," McLaughlin said. So how did little old Union College, which was founded in 1795, become so good at hockey, packing its 2,000-seat arena for every home game? There is apparently not a simple answer. Bennett, who played briefly in three seasons for the Rangers in the early 1990s, gets a lot of the credit from the players. An assistant under Nate Leaman, who is now at Providence, Bennett was responsible for recruiting many players on the current team. "We don't really feel it's a hard sell at all," Bennett said when asked about the school's size. You can't play this game forever. The college's academic portfolio and setting have made it attractive to those who wanted to play major-college hockey but did not want a big university. Or they may have been overlooked. Grosenick, a native of Brookfield, Wis., had a 39-19-6 record for the Cedar Rapids Roughriders in the U.S. Hockey League, but he did not have many college options. Then there are Union players like Kelly Zajac, a senior forward from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Zajac, the younger brother of Travis Zajac, the Devils" center, was playing for the Salmon Arm SilverBacks of the British Columbia Hockey League when Bennett paid him a visit. "They gave me a good opportunity to come in and play," Zajac said, "and this program was turning corners and was headed in the right direction." Zajac, an economics major, then said: "And I like the small class sizes here, being able to know everyone on campus. I've been able to make some great friends. Union was hardly an overnight success when it moved into Division I; the Dutchmen had only two winning seasons in the ECAC between 1991 and 2007. The turning point, Bennett said, probably came after Union finished the 2006-7 season with a 14-19-2 record, and the coaching staff called for the players to do a conditioning drill on their hands in the snow and muck. They became more of a team, he said. The Dutchmen won more conference games than they lost in two of the next three seasons, and they earned their first N.C.A.A. tournament berth last year. They lost to the eventual champion, Minnesota-Duluth, 2-0. Bennett, a native of Springfield, Mass., played at Providence and turned professional in 1989. After he played for the Rangers - one goal, one assist and 13 penalty minutes - he drifted from one American Hockey League outpost to another. Finally, he was a player-coach for four years for two E.C.H.L. teams: the Jacksonville Lizard Kings and the Pee Dee Pride. The Pride's coach then was Jack Capuano, who is now the coach of the Islanders. Capuano gave Bennett tips and answered his questions. Bennett figured he wanted to coach for a living, and now is less than 24 hours from his first N.C.A.A. game as a head coach. "I was just always kind of a team-first guy," Bennett said of his playing days. And he has rules. For one, no beards. He said at a news conference on Thursday that if a player wants to look like someone from Mötley Crüe, he could play elsewhere. Bennett would like a big-time hockey program to fit, like an ice skate, into a college that is both charming and rigorous. "You can have the best of both worlds - you really can," McLaughlin said.