Archive of USCHO’s blog content
When Bemidji State upset Notre Dame and then Cornell in Grand Rapids, many among the Midwest Regional press corps groused about the way the Beavers’ wins would affect the television audiences for the Frozen Four. I have to admit that I expressed some of the same concerns after the Irish lost Saturday night. Given the … Read more
My head is still spinning from the two days in Grand Rapids that changed the history of college hockey. A hearty congratulations to the Bemidji State Beavers, who earned every bit of their trip to the Frozen Four. What a great thing for that program, the incredible people associated with it and for college hockey. … Read more
If you have no particular rooting interest in this year’s NCAA tournament (or even if you do but can separate that from an overall view of things), answer this question: Is this year’s tournament the best in recent memory, or maybe just the one with the most parity? How else does the Frozen Four feature … Read more
I wanted to get this post up Friday, but then the games started and, well, there went the rest of the night at Mariucci Arena. With 37 entries in an informal NCAA tournament poll I conducted, some interesting things developed: ** Only 8 percent did not have either Boston University or Notre Dame winning it … Read more
When talking about the Midwest Regional with Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson, Jackson said that the Saturday-Sunday format was actually better for Notre Dame student fans. Because of the university’s strict attendance policy, students would be unable to leave classes early on a Friday to get to an early game two hours away in … Read more
Last year, the No. 4 team in the CCHA went to the NCAA title match. In 2007, the No. 4 team in the CCHA won the NCAA title match. Today, two No. 4 teams upset the No. 1 seeds in their brackets. And leave it to Michigan – with its rich NCAA tourney history – … Read more
MANCHESTER, N.H. – On paper, top seeded Boston University looks by far like the hottest team in this weekend’s Northeast Regional. The Terriers have just two losses since Christmas and are the only club of the four participants to have won its league championship last weekend. If you listened to head coach Jack Parker speak, … Read more
MANCHESTER, N.H. – Quite possibly no team in the NCAA tournament field is as thankful to be playing as Ohio State. The Buckeyes were the last at-large team selected for the 16-team field. To boot, they sat idle last weekend after losing a hard-fought, three-game quarterfinal series to Alaska two weekends ago. To say that … Read more
MANCHESTER, N.H. — While the excitement of the NCAA Tournament is in Manchester, N.H., this weekend for the North Dakota Fighting Sioux, you can’t blame any players for having some concern for those back home. The Sioux left behind a state wrapped up in a natural disaster right now as the Red River in Fargo, … Read more
MANCHESTER, N.H. – Though the reason for taking time off last weekend might not have sat too well with New Hampshire, the third seed in this weekend’s NCAA regional in Manchester, N.H., the Wildcats team is looking at the rest as nothing but a positive. UNH, of course, was missing from last weekend’s Hockey East … Read more
I’ve been covering Division III hockey before any of the guys on your national champion Neumann Knights were born. And I have never seen anything like what transpired this post season. Starting with the ECAC East playoffs, it was a wild an unpredictable ride that saw two unheralded teams playing in the national title game. … Read more
By this time, we’re all looking ahead to the NCAA regionals next weekend, but there were some amazing things that took place in the conference tournaments this weekend that need to be revisited. ** Of the 19 games played, eight were shutouts. Four of those came in Saturday’s championship games, with Minnesota-Duluth, Yale, Boston University … Read more
Sitting in the recently renovated, bright and airy lobby of the Marriot Hotel in Detroit’s Renaissance Center – that’s the Ren Cen to the locals – it’s impossible to think about this year’s CCHA Championship Tournament without looking ahead to next year’s Frozen Four, to be played just up the road at Ford Field. It’s … Read more
Denver’s line chart for today’s semifinal game against Wisconsin at the WCHA Final Five is a little thin down the middle. With Tyler Bozak and Tyler Ruegsegger out injured, the Pioneers have only three centers listed, and one of them is hurting, too. Jesse Martin, who’s listed on the top line between Rhett Rakhshani and … Read more
A quick update on the WCHA awards: Wisconsin defenseman Jamie McBain is the league’s player of the year, and North Dakota’s Dave Hakstol is the coach of the year. The first team includes McBain and North Dakota’s Chay Genoway on defense; Minnesota’s Ryan Stoa, Colorado College’s Chad Rau and St. Cloud State’s Ryan Lasch at … Read more
This is a great time of the year for college hockey, with conference playoffs, NCAA regionals and the men’s Frozen Four dotting the landscape. But this coming weekend is my favorite of them all, and here’s why: ** Men’s conference tournaments and all the PairWise banter that comes with them. I’ve only ever been to … Read more
No overtimes in the first round of the WCHA playoffs? It seems like a rarity, but it happens. No Game 3s? Same deal. Until this season, however, those two things have never happened together since the league went to best-of-three series in 1988. The five first-round series this weekend combined for no overtimes and no … Read more
The voting process for the WCHA awards was a little more rushed than usual — I didn’t know I was going to be voting until last Friday night, and the ballots were due less than 48 hours later — but I managed to pull together all of my statistical research in good time. This year, … Read more
You should always remember and learn from your failures. And in terms of picking the WCHA standings, I’ve had plenty of failures. The good thing (for me, anyway) is that I’m usually not alone. In the media poll I organized before this season for The Capital Times, I was one of 22 voters to pick … Read more
I won’t proclaim to be the master of the PairWise, but cursory analysis this morning makes me believe that BU may have already locked up the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament. Much of this is due to the strongest RPI and a sick, I am talking SICK record against Teams Under Consideration. … Read more