What: The 1998 NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey semifinals and championship. Where: The FleetCenter, in Boston, Mass. Who: Four teams — Boston College, Michigan, New Hampshire and Ohio State — qualified through the two NCAA regionals. Of the four, only Boston College had the benefit of a first-round bye, while New Hampshire is the … Read more
New Hampshire forward Mark Mowers, whose two shorthanded goals Sunday included the overtime game-winner against Boston University, was named Most Valuable Player of the NCAA East Regional. Overall, Mowers was 3-2-5 for two games in regional play. Meanwhile, in the West, Ohio State goaltender Jeff Maund made 46 saves while allowing just three goals in … Read more
It’s Monday, two days after Andre Signoretti’s overtime goal sent Ohio State to college hockey’s Frozen Four, and the Buckeyes are back in Columbus, where it’s 85 degrees. It’s the first day of Spring Quarter classes. After Buckeye hockey practice, the players linger a little. There are a couple of reporters, a couple fans. Everyone … Read more
The only real dust kicked up by this year’s selections lay in East Lansing and Columbus, where some fans are grousing about the committee’s decision to leave the Ohio State Buckeyes West as the fourth seed, setting up a potential second-round collision with top-seeded (and top-ranked) Michigan State. That contest would be a repeat of … Read more
A balanced draw of six West and six East teams, led by top seeds Michigan State and Boston University, makes up the 1998 NCAA tournament field as announced today by the selection committee. For the first time ever, the field includes three teams from each of the four major Division I conferences. MSU and BU, … Read more
When the NCAA announced that this year’s East and West Regionals would be available in a pay-per-view package, the instinctive reaction was, “What are they thinking? This sport needs more exposure, not less.” Fears that college hockey’s governing organization had sold its soul for a few pieces of silver, however, turned out to be groundless. … Read more
The NCAA announced Wednesday (Feb. 4) the television schedule for the 1998 Division I men’s ice hockey championship, which will be only the second ever to feature televised coverage of all games. As well as over-the-air network and cable distribution, regional games for the first time will be available nationally on pay-per-view. NCAA Productions will … Read more
To avoid conflicts with the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, and to improve the opportunity to sell tickets, the NCAA is moving the Division I men’s ice hockey championships a week later. As reported last fall on U.S. College Hockey Online, starting next year, the hockey semifinals and finals will be played one week after … Read more
When you feel you’ve wasted two years of your life, what tack do you take? If you’re ever going to be the Most Outstanding Player of a national championship tournament, you have to change course and make up for lost time. That’s the exact approach taken by North Dakota junior forward Matt Henderson. In the … Read more
According to the Hobey Baker selection committee, a Hobey Baker Award winner should “exhibit strength of character” and possess “oustanding skills in all aspects of the game.” According to Michigan head coach Red Berenson, this year’s Hobey Baker winner is “an excellent person” who “shares his success with his teammates.” And this year’s winner is … Read more
It’s been 50 years since Dartmouth and Michigan met in the first NCAA Championship game. Fifty years since Spif Kerivan, member of the Dartmouth squad, lost his front teeth. “My memories of the game are somewhat personal,” he says. “I also remember the game as a controversial game in terms of some of the calls,” … Read more
“Five Guys In Milwaukee,” which appears daily on USCHO during the NCAA championships, is Scott Brown’s travelog of a weekend at the Final Four. Friday, March 28 7:59 a.m. Today’s a relatively free day — no games, just the Hobey Baker presentation in the afternoon. We are taking full advantage of this fact to get … Read more
When North Dakota, Colorado College, Boston University and Michigan converged on Milwaukee for this years championship tournament, carloads and planeloads of Sioux, Tigers, Terriers and Wolverines came along to cheer. So did the Falcons, the Black Bears, the Golden Gophers, the Spartans, the Wildcats and the Lakers. The NCAA Championship Tournament attracts hockey fans from … Read more
“Five Guys In Milwaukee,” which appears daily on USCHO during the NCAA championships, is Scott Brown’s travelog of a weekend at the Final Four. Thursday, March 27 8:03 a.m. It’s awful early to be up, as far as I’m concerned. Dave doesn’t seem to have a problem with it, though — I suspect he’s the … Read more
“Five Guys In Milwaukee,” which appears daily on USCHO during the NCAA championships, is Scott Brown’s travelog of a weekend at the Final Four. Wednesday, March 26 9:27 a.m. We planned on leaving early, so Tim is at my place already. Im unprepared, which Tim takes due note of as he stands around waiting for … Read more
I’ve had the pleasure of living in both Milwaukee and Cincinnati during my radio/TV career. I was the play-by-play radio mouth for the Milwaukee Admirals of the IHL, and the Cincinnati Tigers of the then-formidable CHL. The two locales are the reigning and most recent NCAA Frozen Four sites — two distinctly different cities and … Read more
This is it: the whole season in a nutshell. Of the forty-odd teams which began the season vying for the NCAA Division I championship, only four still have a shot. Those four — Boston University, North Dakota, Colorado College and defending champ Michigan — meet this Thursday in the semifinals at the Bradley Center in … Read more
Scarcely had the NCAA tournament selection committee announced its seedings before the hue-and-cry began — especially in the West Regional, where the Minnesota Golden Gophers, fourth in the nation in the Pairwise Rankings, ended up the number-four seed. That puts the Gophers up against two Michigan teams: first Michigan State, and then the defending national … Read more
Despite losing the ECAC tournament final to Cornell, the regular-season champion Clarkson Golden Knights earned the top seed in the East, and the consequent bye. Cornell, though, was sent out West, leaving room for two WCHA teams to join the action in Massachusetts. Colorado College and Denver will take on New Hampshire and Vermont, respectively. … Read more
Editor’s note: This analysis was compiled before the Colorado College-Denver game Thursday evening, and does not account for that result. This analysis is based on an examination of the Pairwise Ranking, the computer ranking system used by the NCAA tournament selection committee. The PWR compares each tourney-eligible team in Division I which has a .500 … Read more