AHA
Mercyhurst 3 at Connecticut 4 OT
Canisius 3 at Holy Cross 2 OT
Sacred Heart 0 at Air Force 4
American Int'l 1 at RIT 5
CCHA
Bowling Green 1 at Michigan 4
Ferris State 1 at Western Michigan 3
Alaska 1 at Miami 4
Lake Superior 4 at Notre Dame 3
ECAC
Quinnipiac 1 at Cornell 0
Harvard 1 at Dartmouth 2 OT
St. Lawrence 2 at Yale 5
Colgate 4 at Union 2
Hockey East
Vermont 3 at New Hampshire 4
Massachusetts 2 at Boston College 4
Maine 2 at Merrimack 6
WCHA
St. Cloud State 2 at Minnesota Duluth 3 3OT [Box Scores]
Bemidji State 3 at Nebraska-Omaha 2 [Box Scores]
Minnesota State 2 at Denver 3 OT [Box Scores]
Michigan Tech 1 at North Dakota 3 [Box Scores]
Wisconsin 3 at Colorado College 4 OT [Box Scores]
Alaska Anchorage 2 at Minnesota 0 [Box Scores]
Analysis - There were some amazing story lines emerging from last night’s college hockey games. Three games went to overtime... The Minnesota Golden Gophers, MTU Huskies, SCSU Huskies, MSUM Mavericks all had their season ended and will not play in the Final Five or the NCAA tourney. UNO after losing to the "pesky Beavers" is on the “bubble” of making the NCAA tourney, however, I think the UNO Mavericks will make the NCAA tourney baring some unforeseen wild finishes in the other leagues, like a 11 or 12 seed winning a conference tourney.
St. Cloud State 2 vs. Minnesota Duluth 3 3OT – I really expected this series to go another way, The Huskies owned an impressive 4-0-2 the last six games against UMD and after the SCSU Huskies had beaten the UMD Bulldogs 8-2 I really though that the SCSU Huskies would push the Bulldogs to the "brink" in this series. Nope! That result didn't happen. The win didn't come easy as the UMD Bulldogs needed three overtimes to beat the SCSU Huskies as Mike Connolly scored at the 1:13 mark of the third overtime to send the UMD Bulldogs to the Final Five. [Rink and Run], [SCSU Times]
Bemidji State 3 vs. Nebraska-Omaha 2 – The UNO Mavericks out shot the BSU Beavers 91-37 on the weekend but still ended up losing the series in two games. In talking to someone that watched the game in Omaha, BSU goalie Dan Bakala was nothing short of amazing this weekend and the difference in both games. Maverick fans will be watching the score board and the PWR/RPI this next week after the series loss to the BSU Beavers. The Mavericks are currently sitting in 12th of the PWR and should make the NCAA playoffs baring an unforeseen meltdown.
To quote a sports cliché this is why we play the games folks, there are no sure things in life and there are no give me’s in college hockey. Also, the games aren’t played on paper, the higher seed doesn’t always win the series. That’s life! That's WCHA hockey. I know there are some people in Omaha that are upset by the Beavers winning the series against the Mavericks but if you know anything about the BSU Beavers (I have followed them for years), they are team known for beating teams with better records, just ask Notre Dame and Cornell, shall we call the BSU Beavers giant killers?
The Beavers have been known to build their team from the goaltender out and add skilled smallish forwards with speed that play a high energy game and as the fans in Omaha found out Beaver goalie Dan Bakala is an awesome goaltender add the Beavers forward line of Matt Read, Ian Lowe and Jordan George and the BSU Beavers are a pretty good hockey team.
Seriously!!! I watched the Miami RedHawks outshoot the Beavers last season at the Ralph only to watch the Beavers win the game, the Beavers are intimidated by no one and the RedHawks were highly favored in this game. You have to play 60 minutes of hockey. I also believe that you have to give credit where credit is due; Beavers head coach Tom Serratore is a good hockey coach and gets the most out of his players. The Beavers resemble their coach they are small, they are intense and they're a hard working team. UNO went 0-5-1 against the Beavers and they were the only team that the Mavericks didn’t beat this season. [Up North Sports], [Omaha.com]
Minnesota State 2 vs. Denver 3 OT – The MSUM Mavericks blew another lead and lost another game in the third period after leading to the DU Pioneers. Actually, the MSU-M Mavericks have led the DU Pioneers in the last four games they played against the Pioneers, only to watch the Pioneers beat the Mavericks, talk about "ground hog day." I am sure the coaching staff has to be scratching their heads after watching their team go 0-3-1 in aforementioned games. Jason Zucker scored at the 1:29 mark of the first overtime to send the DU Pioneers to the Final Five in St. Paul, Minnesota. [Puckato], [Denver Post]
Michigan Tech 1 vs. North Dakota 3 – The Fighting Sioux won the game 3-1 in an uneventful, listless and relatively boring (insert your adjective) hockey game, that lacked any emotion. Hobey Baker hopeful Matt Frattin scored his 33 goal of the year on an empty net at the 19:54 mark of the third period to seal the game for the Fighting Sioux. Last night’s game was the first time that MTU had led in a game against the Fighting Sioux this season as MTU forward Ryan Furne scored at the 6:15 mark of the first period. UND Fighting Sioux junior forward Brett Hextall scored the equalizer at the 3:33 mark of the second period, new comer Fighting Sioux freshman forward Tyler Dicken scored his first career goal 2:01 minutes later and the Fighting Sioux never looked back.
The goal in the waning moments of the third period by Frattin brought everyone that wasn’t standing to their feet. After the game the Fighting Sioux were presented the MacNaughton Cup at center ice for winning the regular season championship, the celebration was very subdued as the team didn’t even want to touch the MacNaughton Cup. The guys didn't actually touch the cup from what I can see and they looked like they didn’t even want to be around the historic MacNaughton cup. Incidentally, the last three teams to win the cup have lost their first round game in the NCAA tourney. [Fighting Sioux], [USCHO], [UND Hockey Blog], [Grand Forks Herald]
Wisconsin 3 vs. Colorado College 4 OT – The C.C. Tigers need a goal from Scott Winkler at the 16:31 mark of the third period to force overtime and then got a goal from super freshman Jaden Schwartz at the 5:48 mark of the third period to extend the Tigers season. Game three is this evening at 8:07 pm central. [Madison.com], [Eye of the Tigers]
Alaska Anchorage 2 vs. Minnesota 0 – Gopher Fans are already marching on the campus of the University of Minnesota with rakes and pitchforks after their team failed to make the Final Five for a second consecutive season in a row, I don’t think even Doug Woog managed to miss the WCHA Final Five two season in a row.
This will be the third consecutive season in a row that the Gophers have missed the NCAA tourney as well… Gopher fans known for their sense of entitlement are fed up with head coach Don Lucia, a man that Gopher fans once praised not so long ago as being the second coming of Jesus Christ after Lucia’s team had won back to back NCAA titles in 2001-2002 and 2002 –2003.
My how the mighty have fallen, the Gophers have gone from the penthouse to the outhouse in eight short years, Gopher Nation has officially turned on their head hockey coach and they are jumping off Lucia’s bandwagon. Grab a bag of popcorn and a soda and watch Gopher fans are now in full meltdown mode on Gopher Puck Live, Star Tribune and USCHO, it’s almost comedic. Gopher fans are angry and they want blood and they want it now!!! Minneapolis and Saint Paul Police are patrolling the bridges in the Metro area and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has signed an executive order making it a criminal offense to be caught walking on a bridges this week because of fears that distraught Gopher fans will jump off.
Now it’s not tough to put this into perspective, I come from a fan base that wants to fire the head coach of a team that has never had a losing season in his seven years as coach. Mind you, this is the same head coach that has led his teams to the Frozen Four, albeit and they lost in all four (finshing second in one and third three times) and after an 8-4 loss to the UNO Mavericks which are led by former Fighting Sioux head coach Dean Blais; some Sioux fans wanted Dave Hakstol fired. But I digress…
I get it and I can see why the Gopher fans are upset with the way things are, the Minnesota Gophers hockey program has had a relatively successful division one college hockey program that was looked at in the 1980-1990’s and early 2000’s as being the bench mark of college hockey in the WCHA and the college hockey world. None-the-less, I also don’t think it’s an understatement to say that the University of Minnesota Golden Gopher hockey team has all the advantages that the other four division one teams in the state of Minnesota don’t have (BSU, UMD, MSU-M, SCSU), they have an awesome television package with FSN, the Gophers for the most part have a fawning/adoring metro media and the Golden Gophers have all of the advantages afforded to them because they're Big Ten school to boot, these advantages include the Minnesota Rule at the Final Five. That "Minnesota Rule" means jack today. The Gophers also get the first pick of the best blue chip Minnesota hockey players that play on the USDT team in Ann Arbor, Michigan before any other team in Minnesota gets a look.
Here's the problem, the Gopher hockey program never had any respect for their opponent this past weekend, and the Gophers showed it when their players make clueless comments like this, "We knew we had to get in the dirty areas. We knew that we are a better team than they are and we didn't take advantage of it [Friday]." Really! The Gophers are the better team? I wonder how Jake Hansen surmised that. It doesn’t appear to be a true statement. I doubt that the UAA Seawolves were impressed with the Gophers 19 NHL draft choices or the fact that half of their team was made up of blue chip athletes the Gopher coach staff got the first pick of. Who's smiling now?
It’s also comments like this from the beat writers that breath contempt from the opposing fan bases, check it out, “Mickey Spencer, a fourth-line winger for Alaska Anchorage, broke a scoreless tie with a breakaway goal early in the third period. And that's all the Seawolves and Chris Kamal, their freshman goalie, really needed.” Who cares what line Spencer plays on?
The fact remains that the Gophers got beat by a hungrier team that wanted it more. Its teams that play strong fundamental hockey that win college hockey games. The Seawolves got good goaltending from a Chris Camel and blocked 24 shots and the Gophers didn’t score. Season over. [Star Tribune], [Kare 11], [Delusions of Grandeur]
