3-0 at the Final Five
The Fighting Sioux are only the second team to win the Broadmoor Trophy from the Thursday night play in game (UMD was the first in 2009). This is also the last time the Final Five will be in its current form as the WCHA will expand to 12 teams (BSU and UNO) and the WCHA Final Five will have two play in games on Thursday next season. The Sioux are on a roll and have gone an impressive 12-2 since being swept by the Pioneers at the end of January. The Sioux will now wait to see where they play in next weekend’s NCAA hockey toruney.
There are the teams that more than likely are in the NCAA tourney.
AHA (1)
RIT (Conference Champ)
CCHA (4)
Alaska Fairbanks
Miami
Michigan (Conference Champ)
Northern Michigan
CHA (2)
Bemidji
Huntsville (Conference Champ)
ECAC (2)
Cornell (Conference Champ)
Yale
HE (3)
BC (Conference Champ)
New Hampshire
Vermont
WCHA
North Dakota
Denver University
Wisconsin
Saint Cloud
Links to the Story:
USCHO; MVP Trupp, North Dakota Battle Back for WCHA Title
Pucks and Bats; Find a silver lining? What silver lining! (Will it be Michigan again?)
Saint Cloud Times; WCHA Final Five: No. 1 seed eludes SCSU
Saint Cloud Times; Strong start, disappointing finish for Huskies
Grand Forks Herald; MEN'S HOCKEY: Slow start, fast finish for Sioux
USCHO has its final bracketology up.
ReplyDeleteUND has to go through UNH and then the winner of the BC/Michigan game to get to the Frozen Four.
Miami has the award of "Easiest track to the Frozen Four" possibly for the second year in a row.
#4 seed most likely to get the farthest has to be Michigan. I don't see Yale, NMU, or UNH making that much noise. And Michigan faces SCSU who, despite being pretty darn good this year, has a notorious repuation of being "one and done" even when playing teams they should beat (see IIRC Clarkson a few years back).
UND goes to Worcester and faces UNH in the opening round. BC faces Alaska.
I think this is the second or third toughest track to the Frozen Four.
I think Denver has the toughest track. RIT has surprised a few this year and Cornell can bore almost any team into submission...despite them not using those tactics this year.
UW might have just as difficult a track as UND depending upon if Michigan continues to be good.
I really hope Michigan is one and done. I also hope Alaska stuns BC. I doubt it. Something tells me only UAH is a bigger pretender than Alaska.
Why the UAH hatred? Don't be mad at them for keeping out another "real" team from the tournament. Be pissed at the board of governors that allowed the CHA to stupidly keep their autobid. UAH is there fair and square according to the current rule\.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any "hatred" for UAH.
ReplyDeleteI think they belong by virtue of the autobid system.
However, the reasoning behind keeping CHA's autobid doesn't make it a completely awful thing.
Yeah, it bit us in the arse. However, the Board of GOvernors thought the keeping of the autobid would maintain the CHA's life and prevent folding. Unfortunately, Wayne State folded and Air Force, Niagara jumped ship.
The CHA folded and the Board got bit again.
Charles I don't hate on UAH. Some fans feel that they took a bid from another team, that's not my opinion at all. My response to those teams was win more games.
ReplyDeleteWell done UND and Goon. Impressive to become only the second team to win the Broadmoor and play in the Thursday night game. That 5 on 3 in the second period was the turning point in the game. The Huskies had some excellent chances in the first half of the third period and all UND was doing was playing defense.
ReplyDeleteI think there is something seriously wrong with your fans though. Sitting next to one almost every game this past weekend, it seems they're all missing a Y chromosome. This guy next to me last night just couldn't figure out that an offsides call is not a reviewable play. Sad, very sad.
As far as the NCAA tourney, now its time to cheer for every WCHA team, even the hated Sioux. Bummer that UMD didn't make it and a team like Alabama Huntsville did, and its also too bad that there are no WCHA teams in the midwest regional. Pretty dominant showing by the WCHA though, two #1 seeds and two #2 seeds is exceptional.