The USCHO staff is hard at work in the bowels of the Bradley Center, putting the finishing touches on another college hockey season. When we’re done, we’ll pack up for the night, hoist a few cold ones and then tomorrow go our separate ways, returning to places like Boston, Minneapolis, Albany, Columbus and Rochester.

On behalf of everyone at USCHO, thanks for making us the Number One site for college hockey. We’ve got bigger and better things planned for the off-season and beyond. We love college hockey as much as you do, and it’s a pleasure and a privilege to bring it to you all season long.

And if you made it this far with this Blog, thanks for reading. We’ll see you in St. Louis!

With its win tonight, Wisconsin becomes the first school in Division I history to win a title in both men’s and women’s hockey in the same season. Middlebury (VT) has done it three straight times in Division III, including this season.

Badger senior defenseman Tom Gilbert, who scored the game winning goal, said the pressure was on after the women won.

“The hardest part was watching the girls win a national championship and then waiting two more weeks for us to have a chance to do that,” he said. “It’s nice for our programs and in the state of Wisconsin to be back competing for a national championship. It is something we work for all year. It’s hard work and dedication that got us here.”

It’s 20 minutes since the game ended, and the Badgers aren’t ready to leave the ice. The seniors will stay on as long as they can, to bask in the cheers and delay taking that jersey off for the last time.

Most of the fans have stayed as well, even after the awards ceremony, which saw junior Robbie Earl capture the well-deserved Most Outstanding player.

I chuckled as the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee was introduced. William Bellerose, the Associate Athletic Director at Holy Cross was cheered, as if he had personally engineered the Crusader’s upset win over archrival Minnesota. Not surprisingly, Joel Maturi, the Athletic Director at Minnesota, also a member of the committee, was soundly booed.

In the locker room, Wisconsin senior Ryan MacMurchy sat at his locker, still not wanting to take his sweater off.

“I’ve still got mixed emotions here,” he said. “I don’t want to take my jersey off yet. Four years. It’s been a long road. But hey, we won our last game for the senior guys and that’s all you can ask for. I’m just so proud of everyone in this room and we got it done.”

In the press conferences, both teams presented themselves well and talked about the shot from BC’s Peter Harrold that hit the post in the closing seconds.

“Peter shot it and I got a piece of it and I thought it went in,” said Brian Bolye. “I thought we tied it up but we didn’t and we lost a national championship. It’s not the best feeling in the world right now.”

“At that point, with seven seconds left in the game, you just have to get the puck down to the net, and I threw it toward open ice,” recalled Harrold. “You throw it at the net and hope that something good happens. Maybe you get a tip, maybe the goaltender doesn’t see it and it goes in. Its really all you can hope for at that point.”

“I didn’t hear it (hit the post),” said Wisconsin goaltender Brian Elliott. “I knew there was only a couple seconds left and I knew I had the short side… all they had was the far side. Hopefully if it was any closer I would have got a pad on it. Posts are your best friends and I got one tonight.”

Tom Gilbert got the game winner, on the power play off some nifty puck movement by the Badgers.

“Joe Pavelski made a great pass to me and I just buried my head,” said Gilbert. “I knew the puck was going to go in. I can’t describe how I feel.”

MacMurchy summed it up nicely.

“It’s a storybook ending and a Cinderella story,” he said. “We hadn’t won anything our whole four years. Looking at the schedule, you saw the Green Bay Regional and Milwaukee with the national championship. We wanted to be there so bad. We knew it would be a great sea of red fans. It was everything it lived up to be in our dreams and we got it done with blood, sweat and tears. We’re just a hard-working bunch of guys, competitive guys, and we got it done.”

I’ll be liveblogging the title game, so check back for frequent updates.

Pregame:

-12:13: The house is almost packed with about 12 minutes till game time. The video scoreboard is showing highlights from the semifinals, and the pro-Wisconsin crowd is cheering every Badger and booing every Eagle whenever they appear on the big board.

-5:52: The players take the ice. The first “Let’s Go Red!” cheer of the night erupts. I’m sure we’ll be hearing this a few more times.

-3:12: Who said the Bradley Center couldn’t get loud? Holy Cow. Based on the sea of red, the North Dakota and Maine fans sold their tickets.
First Period:

0:00: And we’re under way.

3:22: BC is looking tentative with a couple of giveaways in their zone. The Eagles take a penalty as a result.

5:57: BC kills that one off, but right back to the box are the Eagles.

9:01: OK. There are some BC fans here. After killing off the penalty, the Eagles do a good job on the forecheck and Pat Gannon puts a backhand past Badger goalie Brian Elliott to make it 1-0 BC. The place gets surprisingly loud.

10:10: BC’s Chris Collins collides with teammate Brian Boyle, catching a knee in the head. He goes to the bench, clearly shaken up.

11:39: The Badgers take a penalty and Collins is back on the ice. A quick shift and then he’s off, still looking a little shaky.

12:10: The teams return to even strength.

18:03: Pressure by Wisconsin results in another BC penalty.

20:00: End of one. 1-0, BC.

Second Period:

0:03: BC returns to full strength. Most of the crowd thinks that’s debatable.

1:17: We’re tied. Robbie Earl gets upended at the red line but becomes the trailer and goes puts the puck in the net right before he winds up there.

2:28: Another BC penalty.

4:28: Another bullet dodged by the Eagles. Penalty over.

6:30: BC gets a turn with the man advantage.

8:30: Wisconsin back to full strength. BC fans think that’s debatable, too.

10:18: During a TV timeout, a picture of Chris Collins’ mom is put up on the scoreboard. Boos erupt. Gotta love Badger fans.

17:31: Earl gets upended again and comes off the ice favoring a leg.

19:48: Earl is back on the ice and looks fine.

20:00: And we go to the dressing rooms tied at one.

Third Period:

0:50: The Badgers take a crosschecking penalty to open the period. The crowd doesn’t like it, especially when a replay is flashed on the scoreboard.

2:14: BC takes a penalty to even things up. UW on the power play in seven seconds.

4:14: Penalty expires. Wisconsin now 0-5 with the man advantage. BC is 0-3.

5:39: BC on the power play. Can anyone score on the PP?

7:39: Apparently not.

8:34: The Badgers get another chance on the power play. Shots are 30-20 in favor of UW so far. Crowd on its feet.

9:32: Yes, someone CAN score on the power play. Nice puck movement by the Badgers. A set of crisp passes finds Tom Gilbert all alone in the slot. He beats BC goalie Cory Schneider low stick side to make it 2-1.

11:29 Another BC penalty. And a delay as one of the holes holding a post on the BC net needs some repair.

13:29: Penalty over, but time’s beginning to become a factor.

16:32: BC’s Peter Harrold gets two minutes for boarding. Tough penalty to take this late in the game. Crowd on its feet again.

19:16: BC can’t get Schneider off.

19:34: The Boston College net is empty.

19:58: BC hits the post!

20:00: Badgers are Champs!

What better way to set the stage for tonight’s title came than to take in the USCHO Fan Forum Poster’s game, held this year at the Kern Center on the campus of Milwaukee School of Engineering?

This annual event brings college hockey fans that frequent USCHO’s Fan Forum message board together to play a pick-up game of the sport they love.

I talked with organizer Pete Berryman, a.k.a. “PGB-OHIO” prior to the contest.

“This will be the fifth year and the fourth for me,” said Berryman. “Thirty-one people signed up, and it looks like everyone’s here.”

The task of organizing the event usually falls on a hockey-playing poster within the geographic area of the Frozen Four, and Pete took on the challenge of finding a place to play and signing up participants back in September.

While the quality of play was slightly less that what fans will see tonight (OK, I’m being generous here, it was pretty bad), everybody was skating hard and having a lot of fun.

“This is my second year (at the game),” said Theresa Spisak, known on the Fan Forum as “Quizmire”. “I played on the BU women’s club team and just graduated. It’s a chance to play some more hockey. Everyone’s having a blast.”

One of the highlights of the game was a scrap between the diminutive “MeanEgirl” and the much larger “JayPointRC”.

“Number 27 started some [stuff] with me, so he asked for it,” said MeanEgirl, who in real life goes by BethLynn McCallum.

The spectators, which numbered in the tens, were into the contest, banging cowbells and serenading both goaltenders with “Sieve” chants.

The game was rather loosely refereed by two guys in stripes (vertical stripes), one of which did not venture from the boards and seemed to be a little unsure on his skates.

In the end, the home team (known as the “Hacks”) pulled out a 9-7 win over the “Goons” to take home the coveted USCHO trophy (OK, no trophy) and bragging rights until St. Louis.

“I could have gone to the cheese store instead,” said one spectator. “This was definitely more fun that that.”

Seriously, nice job guys and girls. See you in St. Louis.

We’re about two hours away from dropping the puck on the final game of the 2005-2006 season. We at USCHO are at 41 stories and counting so far this week, with much more to come.

I’m blogging from the press area at Bradley arena, watching the skills challenge, a new idea that’s growing on me. Similar to the NHL challenge done at all-star time, the Skills Challenge pits seniors (men and women) from the East and West regions against each other in events like skating, stick handling, etc.

Prior to this, we had the presentations of the Hobey Baker and Humanitarian awards. The favorites for both were the winners, Denver’s Matt Carle and Princeton’s Eric Leroux, respectively. The ceremonies seemed a bit rushed with the new format (they used to be held in banquet halls instead of the middle of a hockey rink. No speeches from the coaches and very quick comments from the recipients.

There’s a bigger crowd here that I would have expected, seeing that it costs $10 while admission to the Hobey and Humanitarian used to be free. But the seniors selected for the Skills Competition are putting on a good show. Adam Hanna, a D-III player from St. John’s does a nice job, stopping 22 of 25 as well as ESPN’s Barry Melrose asked Hanna why more goaltenders don’t win the Hobey Baker, which is kind of ironic since Hanna won Division III’s version, the Sid Watson award. Kind of ironic? Hell, it’s very ironic.

The Skills Challenge ended on a bizarre note, as the teams tied in points at the end of the events, something the producers apparently didn’t plan on. After much discussion, the organizers decided to hold a sudden death shootout, but they messed up the order and gave the East an extra round, which they won to take the trophy.

“We got hosed,” joked Denver’s Gabe Gauthier outside the locker room. “And we’re sharing the room with (the East) so there’s gonna be a rumble.”

I asked Hanna if he felt like he needed to represent D-III. “Not really,” he said. “I was just part of the group. No one cares where you came from.”

As I leave, I see dozens of kids clamoring for autographs from all the players, men and women, who are signing them with wide grins on their faces.

Yeah, this thing could grow on me.

Friday is one of my favorite days at the Frozen Four. Practices, Hobey and Humanitarian, and often some time to sightsee. This year, things are running a bit differently with the skills competition added to the mix.

That messed up USCHO’s plans a bit, as for the past few years we’ve been holding a Town Meeting just prior to the Humanitarian and Hobey presentations. This year with the change in schedule, we weren’t able to do that. Instead, we’re holding the Town Social, a reception for USCHO Extra subscribers and other friends.

We’re getting ready to head over for that, but earlier today a couple of us went over to the arena to catch a little of the practices.

We saw the last 30 minutes of BC’s workout, and it was light with the players having fun. Lots of fans in attendance.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel, blog a bit and get ready for the rest of the day. More later.

Thanks to Jeremy Dailey for the photo.

Seriously. The consensus is centered around the other two thirds of the “Hobey Hat-Trick”. Most pundits are picking Denver’s Matt Carle, and Wisconsin’s Brian Elliott stock has certainly risen even more in the past few weeks. Most of the talk has centered around these two players, both of whom deserve the award.

But Collins has also continued to be one of the hottest players in College Hockey, recording a hat-trick today to lead BC into the NCAA finals. He’s now got 34 goals to go with 29 assists.

“Collins is an impact player, and he had a huge impact on the game tonight,” said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol.

“Chris has done it all year long,” said BC coach Jerry York, “He’s had a fabulous year for us.”

Coming out of nowhere has not helped (Collins had 29 total goals going into his senior campaign) but he’s made up for it this year. All those bad bounces and clanged posts have now turned into goals.

There’s a theory being tossed around the press area that Carle and Elliott may split votes from people that primarily follow the Western Leagues, while Collins will get a more unified Eastern vote.

I don’t think that’s the case, but you never know. All of these guys are worthy.

We’ll find out tomorrow. For now, it’s getting close to midnight and the USCHO crew still has some work to do. More from me tomorrow.

Things have come a long way since I covered my first Frozen Four in 1996. Heck, it wasn’t even called the Frozen Four back then.

In the “olden” days many reporters didn’t have laptops. Most relied on notepads and tape recorders. But things have gone high tech lately with solid state recorders and the newest feature – transcribed press conferences.

Starting a few years back, reporters didn’t have to take their own notes or record press conferences anymore – the NCAA transcribed the comments, printed them out and gave them to reporters. A nice feature, but most of us are on deadline and can’t wait to get them. They’re useful to compare against our notes to make sure we got things right.

But for the past two seasons, things have gotten even easier. Now not only are the quotes transcribed, they’re emailed to us within minutes of the end of the press conference. It’s still a little too long to wait if you’re on deadline, but the time saved by cutting and pasting makes up for that.

For now, I’ll stick to my own notes and recordings for things that need to be filed immediately after the game, but I do find the emails very convenient for everything else.