Too Much for Two Days

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

An incredible weekend

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

Wake Up Call for the Terriers

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

Wait Was A Long, Nervous One for Ohio State

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

Hail to the Knights

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

Musings from Motown

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

Best weekend of the year

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

First time for everything

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