DURHAM, N.H. (AP) – Garrett Stafford had helped guide Des Moines to the Junior A national hockey championship when Brian McCloskey of the University of New Hampshire came by to recruit him.

Michigan State, Minnesota, Colorado College and Michigan Tech also were after him, but Stafford chose UNH.

“I couldn’t say no to this guy,” Stafford said of McCloskey, citing the special attention he received and the relationship McCloskey built with him and his family.

He also saw New Hampshire come within one swipe of the puck from winning the national championship in 1999, losing to Maine 3-2 in overtime on national television.

“That was one of the big things,” he said. “I wanted to come to a winning team with a winning attitude.”

Stafford, a four-year defensive starter at UNH, gets his own chance at the Frozen Four on Thursday when the Wildcats play Cornell in the semifinals in Buffalo. Michigan and Minnesota play in the other semi.

He will be joined by many teammates who also chose relatively small UNH over bigger, more glamorous schools. They are the type of players who have helped make the Wildcats a hockey powerhouse under Coach Dick Umile, whose record in 13 years is 306-146-43.

The Wildcats are making their fourth trip to the Frozen Four in six years, and boast the second winningest program behind Michigan State the past five seasons.

“We may not be as glamorous as Michigan, Wisconsin or Boston College, but UNH has a lot of great selling points,” said McCloskey, who now coaches the UNH women and was named coach of the year.

“One of the best points is it has an appeal particularly to a kid who is looking for a smaller, more personal experience in school,” he said. Durham has about 13,000 people; it’s a college town only an hour drive north from Boston, and hockey is king with no Division I football or basketball as a rival.

And success has made recruiting easier.

“At first, kids would ask ‘UNH? What’s that? Now people know about UNH. Our nets have been cast pretty wide. There aren’t many hockey markets you can go in and not hear about the Northeast.”

But the biggest plus has been Umile, according to McCloskey.

“It all starts with Dick,” he said. “He has compassion for other people, a sense of fairness and great leadership skills.

“The object was to get those top kids on campus to meet Dick. They’re always looking to play for someone they respect and admire.”

Junior Pat Foley, who chose UNH over Michigan and the schools in his hometown Boston, also cited Umile.

“The reason I came to UNH? – Umile,” he said. “It just felt great sitting in front of him. He reminded me of my own father. He preaches family in the locker room.”

And there was “an aura about this place, too,” he said.

Umile, who played at UNH from 1969 to1972, calls it tradition.

“That’s one thing I could always sell,” he said, noting the 18 UNH All-Americans, one Hobey Baker winner and three other finalists for the top college hockey player, and the 29 former Wildcats who played in the NHL and the dozens of others who were drafted.

New Hampshire had a winning program for 18 years under Charlie Holt, who compiled a 347-232-18 record from 1968 to 1986. But the Wildcats fell on hard times when Holt left in 1987, until Umile brought them back.

“First, you’ve got to be a winning program,” Umile said, and to get that back he first recruited hard-nosed, character players who weren’t the big names, but were competitive.

Then came the move from “lively Snively,” an arena that looked like a large Quonset hut, to the new Whittemore Center in 1995.

“We went from 3,500 to 6,500,” he said. “The Whittemore Center took us to another level.

It is one of the finest arenas

in the country, and the Wildcats fill it every game with screaming fans as one of the top college hockey draws in the country.

“Recruits see the excitement hockey has,” Umile said. “Everybody gets excited. It’s fun for everybody.”

It worked on goalie Mike Ayers.

“Once a player sees a game here,” he said, “it’s tough to say no.”

AP-ES-04-07-03 1647EDT