The opportunity remains for the Eagles to remove the “1949” title — referring to the school’s last national championship — thanks to a dramatic third-period comeback on the way to a 4-2 victory over St. Lawrence on Thursday night. That’s the good news for the Eagles. The bad news for the Eagles is their next … Read more
Jeff Panzer is not a picky man. He’ll take another 2-0 final in the national championship game Saturday night. Just as long as North Dakota has the 2. Panzer and the Fighting Sioux could only find the back of the net twice in their national semifinal against Maine on Thursday, though that was enough to … Read more
Boston College had just defeated St. Lawrence in dramatic fashion to advance to a national championship game against North Dakota. The Eagles were celebrating in the locker room. BC coach Jerry York got everyone’s attention and told them to make sure the door was closed. “This doesn’t leave the locker room,” he said. “You can’t … Read more
North Dakota coach Dean Blais didn’t have to say much to sum up his team’s 2-0 national semifinal victory over Maine Thursday. His goaltender, Karl Goehring, did most of the talking with his play on the ice. Goehring, who missed the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five and the quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament … Read more
Welcome back, old friend! Haven’t seen you in five years. For the first time since 1995 and the seventh time overall, Providence, R.I., is the host for the NCAA Hockey Championships — the Frozen Four. And with all due respect to Colorado Springs, Detroit, Milwaukee and Albany, to name a few, there is no better … Read more
Another year, another champion. While college hockey’s fraternity of teams is a select few compared to many other NCAA sports, the task of repeating as champion is among the most difficult. With Maine’s semifinal loss to North Dakota, another chance for it to happen — for the first time in 28 years — went by … Read more
Sometimes games come down to Xs and Os. A brilliantly designed faceoff play. A game plan that strikes at an opponent’s Achilles’ heel. A power play that breaks down a penalty kill with the precision of a Swiss watch. Blake Bellefeuille rose to the occasion in the semifinal against St. Lawrence, sending the Eagles to … Read more
St. Lawrence head coach Joe Marsh once said that he believes the key to any championship-caliber team is the play of its third and fourth lines. When the game is on the line and the stakes are higher than ever, the balance of power shifts from top to bottom. That’s when the real heroes emerge, … Read more
Twenty-four hours before Niagara upset New Hampshire in the Western Regionals, Purple Eagles head coach Blaise MacDonald delivered two sentences that poked fun at a collective college hockey community that had yet to learn that the CHA team deserved its first-ever NCAA playoff berth. “I’m a little disappointed we’re not the number-one seed. I’m very … Read more
The nightmare started last Sunday with 1:16 remaining in Maine’s game with Michigan. The Black Bears led, 4-2, and were headed back to the Frozen Four with dreams of becoming the first team to win back-to-back championships since Boston University in 1972. "I was pinching myself, hoping it was a bad dream." — Cory Larose … Read more
St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh referred to his team as being “absolutely giddy” after the third overtime of his team’s NCAA quarterfinal game against Boston University in Albany, N.Y. Apparently, the giddiness hasn’t exactly left Marsh just yet. Just another one of the repercussions of the longest NCAA tournament game in history. Marsh took the … Read more
We’re down to four. Thursday in Providence, R.I., championship contenders North Dakota, Maine, Boston College and St. Lawrence meet to decide the participants in Saturday’s title game — the culmination of another season of college hockey. Without further ado, the national semifinalists: North Dakota (29-8-5) vs. Maine (27-7-5) Thursday, 2:00 p.m. ET, Providence Civic Center, … Read more
On Wednesday, the NCAA issued a clarification and apology to viewers of Sunday’s Boston University-St. Lawrence game whose broadcast services cut away from the matchup during overtime. Television broadcasts of both the East and West Regionals are produced and syndicated by the NCAA, which sells broadcast rights nationwide. Both Fox Sports New New England and … Read more
They waited on Saturday while Michigan and Colgate battled into overtime for the right to face them. One day later, their well-laid plans began with a wakeup call at seven in the morning, leading up to an intended 3:30 afternoon game against the Wolverines. The Maine Black Bears were looking to become the first team … Read more
The fate of the longest game in NCAA tournament history was in their hands. Freshmen goaltenders Rick DiPietro (Boston University) and Derek Gustafson (St. Lawrence) combined for 149 saves — shattering the old NCAA tourney record of 99 set in the 1995 Maine-Michigan triple-overtime semifinal — before Robin Carruthers scored the game-winner at 3:53 of … Read more
“We got caught up in the hoopla…. [BU is] supposed to come here. This is their destination just about every year.” — St. Cloud senior captain Geno Parrish “There’s a lot of pressure on us, not just from our own fans in Boston, but the college hockey world. They expect that BU is going to … Read more
“Hey, buddy, you’re outta here!” ECAC partisans were dying to say that after Saturday’s Michigan-Colgate clash. Passions run high in any postseason, but even more so in this CCHA-ECAC tilt. Michigan coach Red Berenson and his colleague at Michigan State, Ron Mason, created a stir this past week, complaining about their seeding in the NCAA … Read more
After Shawn Horcoff picked up conference honors in an unprecedented five categories, Billy Jaffe quipped, “Thank you for coming to the 2000 Shawn Horcoff Awards–I mean, CCHA Awards Banquet.” Horcoff could be a household name around the CCHA, but the rest of the nation may be asking: Shawn who? Horcoff, the Spartan senior captain from … Read more
Once again this year, the NCAA used an objective selection process (the decision regarding Niagara notwithstanding) to pick the national tournament field. And once again, U.S. College Hockey Online’s Pairwise Rankings (PWR) correctly predicted the field that was selected, for the fourth straight year. Why is this so accurate? Well, it’s not because anyone at … Read more
In past seasons, the selection of teams for the NCAA tournament was absolutely straightforward. Last year, however, a new wrinkle created some ambiguity in the process when the selection committee added language that allowed it to reject a team based on conference strength. This was put into place primarily because of the insular nature of … Read more