The Worldwide Leader in Sports – the self-proclaimed title given to ESPN – has done a lot to help grow the NCAA men’s ice hockey championship over the years.  Now, though, it seems like “that network” is doing everything to hurt this tournament when interest in the event is at an all-time high.

Back in the tournament’s growth spurt of the early 1990s, you can point directly to ESPN’s programming that included putting the national title game on TV in prime time on a Saturday night with the late Tom Mees serving as the passionate play-by-play voice as a reason for the sport’s growth.

Back then, the move was sensible for ESPN as it also had broadcast rights for the NHL and hockey was a major part of the network.

The result was positive. At one point a few years back, almost every game of the tournament was given prominent positioning in the ESPN lineup. Even in the regular season, ESPNU was the broadcast home for a number of games from many of the top schools.

But in recent years, college hockey seemingly has become an afterthought for ESPN, particularly in college hockey’s most important time — the postseason. And as an outsider, it certainly looks like the Worldwide Leader has the NCAA by the “you-know-what.”

ESPN has plenty of leverage with the NCAA. They broadcast some of their less compelling championships — most notably women’s basketball and softball — and also give a prominent position to some of the higher-rated events such as the College World Series and the men’s lacrosse tournaments, two events that annually rival men’s hockey as the top revenue-generating championships for the NCAA behind basketball.

But ESPN seems to be taking too much advantage of its leverage, something on display throughout this weekend’s regional tournaments.

A number of regional games were not shown on live television (in this Internet world, is there any other kind?) unless the participating teams could convince local or regional networks to fork over ESPN’s syndication fees to broadcast these games.

The most egregious example of this came on Saturday afternoon when ESPNU decided to show a college lacrosse regular season doubleheader live instead of showing the North Dakota-Western Michigan West Regional semifinal, a battle of the CCHA and WCHA playoff champs. Want to see that? Head over to ESPN3, where your ability to see the puck is subject to the speed of your Internet connection (that and being on a network that ESPN supports).

Lacrosse again caused a mishap later in the afternoon when Johns Hopkins and Virginia’s 2 p.m. game went into overtime, preempting the first 24 minutes of the Boston College-Air Force 4 p.m. opener in the Northeast Regional. That was the third time in four years that ESPNU’s lacrosse schedule ran into the first NCAA hockey game on Saturday.

Now, as Sunday has arrived, fans in Worcester must wait until 8 p.m. for the regional final between top-seeded BC and defending national champ Minnesota-Duluth.

The odds of Worcester even having a half-full house are slim. What parent is going to travel with their kids from Boston to Worcester knowing full well that, even if the game ends in regulation, they won’t arrive home until well after midnight and that is if the game doesn’t go to overtime?

This was on display a year ago when New Hampshire and Notre Dame faced off in a similar 8 p.m. regional final in front of a half full house in New Hampshire.

It’s tough enough that regional locations are in somewhat obscure places for travel like Green Bay, Bridgeport and Worcester, but holding the games at such obtuse times simply takes away from student-athletes’ experience to play the biggest game of their life — in front of a half-empty arena.

I know I’m not alone on this rationale. Saturday night, the usually mild-mannered BC head coach Jerry York was massively vocal in his displeasure of having to play at 8 p.m. on a Sunday night.

“I just wish the game was earlier and a little more user-friendly for our audience here in Worcester,” said York. “It’s great for TV, but it’s going to be very difficult for us to draw a big house on a Sunday night at 8 o’clock.

“It boggles my mind that Worcester and all the money they put into this that they can’t get a better game time than 8 o’clock on a Sunday night.”

All of this comes at a time when two networks — CBS Sports Network (formerly CBS College Sports) and NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus) — are champing at the bit to cover college hockey. Both networks dedicated significant resources toward robust regular-season TV deals (in the case of NBC, a postseason deal with Hockey East). You would think that either, if given the chance, would give this NCAA championship the appropriate treatment and coverage.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem like something that will change soon. It had the chance. The ESPN TV contract was to expire at the end of this season. That was until the NCAA signed a 12-year extension last December that gives ESPN exclusive rights to NCAA tournament broadcasts (with the exception of men’s basketball, owned by CBS, though ESPN gets the international broadcast rights for that tournament) through the 2023-24 season.

I may be the only one who sees it as ironic that college hockey’s ugly step-sister treatment this season (which includes moving one of the the national semifinals from ESPN2 to ESPNU, a network many people don’t get in their homes, and the national title game from the flagship ESPN to ESPN2) coincides with this signing. It seems as if ESPN knows that they have the NCAA hostage when it comes to this championship.

Jerry York is right. Regional host cities put a significant amount of effort and money into hosting, as do those cities that bid and host the Frozen Four. It’s just too bad that the regional is diminished by the power and control of one network that doesn’t seem to care much about hockey anymore.

Everyone knows hockey players love to watch hockey on television.

So it may seem ironic that on a critically important night where outcomes of various other college hockey games – most of them televised – would affect Michigan State’s NCAA future, that many players chose not to watch any hockey.

Michigan State was eliminated from the CCHA tournament in the quarterfinals a weekend earlier. That’s when the waiting began, a painful grind that didn’t provide any outcome until after all conference championship games were played.

“I didn’t watch any of the games,” admitted Spartans junior forward Anthony Hayes. “It’s hard to watch hockey when you know how much of your fate depends on and you’re completely helpless.”

Senior forward Trevor Nill was just like Hayes. He couldn’t watch the conference finals last Saturday, but admits, he knew what needed to happen to get the Spartans to the tournament.

“Me personally, the USCHO PairWise Predictor was the number one visited site on my computer,” said Nill. “I didn’t get a chance to watch any games but the scoreboard updating and the PairWise Predictor were always on the screen.”

Junior defenseman Torey Krug wasn’t going to hide. He watched every single game (except the ECAC title game, he admits, because that was online pay-per-view and he didn’t want to spend the $10). He did, though, realize the irony that accompanied that ECAC final.

“It’s unique because we were rooting for Union College to win and here we are facing Union,” Krug said of Sparty’s first round opponent.

The players were a little varied in how they handled the stress. But first-year head coach Tom Anastos admitted that he was glued to the tube all night on Saturday.

“I have a set up at my home that has three TVs,” said Anastos. “I went to the CCHA third-place game to watch that live, then went home and watched the three championship games (Hockey East, CCHA, WCHA) on TV.

“I was only following the live score of the Union game and I finally caved in and paid the 10 bucks for the final period.”

That, of course, became money well spent when the Dutchmen rallied from a 1-0 third period deficit to win 3-1.

With all four teams practicing Thursday at the East Regional, there were plenty of quotable moments.

• Minnesota-Duluth head coach Scott Sandelin kicked off his press conference on Thursday by introducing leading scorer Jack Connolly as Zac Brown from the Zac Brown Band. I’ll admit that I had to do a Google image search for Zac Brown, but after looking at the photo, I see Sandelin’s point. Of course, Connolly is sporting a playoff beard that would make any NHLer jealous.
• Sandelin’s Bulldogs may not have felt very welcome when they arrived at their hotel, the Courtyard Marriott in nearby Shelton, Conn. When they arrived at breakfast Thursday morning, the sign outside of the room read: “University of Minnesota.” Said Sandelin, “They’re going to change that in a hurry.”
• When asked what concerns him about Minnesota-Duluth, Union coach Nate Leaman quickly quipped, “The weather,” saying he wouldn’t want to live there. He quickly recanted. “I didn’t mean that. Hopefully that doesn’t go into print in the Duluth paper. I’ve never been to Duluth, so I can’t say that.”
• Leaman referenced the 2010 ECAC tournament when talking about how he’s prepared his team for this weekend’s NCAA tournament, noting that he didn’t prepare his team for all the media attention and hype a year ago. This time around Leaman, who was part of the Maine coaching staff in 1999 that won the national title, imparted as much knowledge as he could on his team which is making its first NCAA tournament appearance.
• The ever-quotable Air Force coach Frank Serratore didn’t disappoint when he took the podium. When asked about having beaten Yale earlier this season in Colorado Spring, Serratore joked, “Because we beat them, I think they should have to beat us twice to be able to move on. Tomorrow, if they win we’ll go down to the Yale Whale and have the rubber game.”
• Serratore talked about how playing in front of a hostile environment for last week’s Atlantic Hockey title (Air Force beat RIT in Rochester in the finals) will prepare his team to face Yale less than an hour from their campus on Friday: “We played that championship game against RIT and there was like 4,500 people in there. It was all orange in there. It looked like a pumpkin convention.”
• This is Air Force and Serratore’s fourth trip to the NCAA Regional but its first since losing to Vermont in double overtime in the regional final in Bridgeport. Some may remember that the winning goal was scored on a puck that went through the net and some 20 minutes later – after a whistle finally halted play and the officials reviewed the goal on video – the goal was awarded. Remembering back to that game, Serratore quipped, “It’s not often technology works against the Air Force but it did that night.”
• Serratore said that in the first meeting between Yale and Air Force this season, a 4-3 win for the Falcons in which they scored the final four goals of the game, that he believed the altitude in Colorado played a factor in Yale becoming fatigued late in the game. When Yale coach Keith Allain was asked about that, he dodged the question with rare humor: “I can’t translate for coach Serratore. He talks real fast.”
• Many wanted to ask Allain about the possibility of his team reaching the Frozen Four for the first time in more than half a century. Asked if he realized what was at stake this weekend, Allain wanted nothing to do with referencing a Frozen Four berth. “What’s at stake is if you don’t win tomorrow, you don’t play anymore,” said Allain.

DETROIT — Perhaps no one in Ford Field this weekend will have as much experience in Frozen Fours as Boston College head coach Jerry York.

York, who played in the Frozen Four in 1965, falling to Colorado College in the title game as a member of the Eagles, not only has led BC to the national title twice (2001, 2008), he also coached Bowling Green (led by captain Wayne Wilson, who will coach RIT this weekend in Detroit) to national title game in 1984.

To say that this event has grown since then would be an understatement. But as this years event moves to its biggest landscape of all time, Ford Field, where the attendance is expect to exceed 30,000, York put the growth into perspective.

I think back to 1984 in Lake Placid, it was a sold out building, it was loud, there was a lot of energy in the building, said York. I had played in the mid 60s at Brown when there were 3,000 people at an NCAA championship game. There was energy in the building. There was a lot of excitement. So theres a lot of parallels with Frozen Fours as you go through the years.

Now whats happened is its gone from 3,000 to 8,000 to who knows, 33 or 35 thousand tomorrow. Whats happened is the world has found out how tremendous our college hockey game has become. The enthusiasm of the fans generally earlier it was just the participants fans that were there now were getting fans from all the conferences despite whoever is playing in the game.

I think the energy and the enthusiasm of the coaches, the athletes is the same. Now the world is finding out that with college hockey we better get to Anaheim, we better get to Milwaukee, we better get to Detroit to watch this event.

DETROIT The NCAA mens basketball tournament has become famous in past years for splicing together a highlight video from the 65-team event that airs prior to the national championship game called, One Shining Moment.

During the layoff between the regional tournament and the Frozen Four, the Boston College staff put together a video, not of shining moments from this years tournament, but instead of great championship moments from sports history.

From Muhammed Alis knockout of Joe Frazier to the 1980 Olympic Team, if theres been a championship moment, this video had it.

The video, which originally was put together by someone outside of Boston College, was then edited by the staff to include some of Boston Colleges great championship moments over the year, such as Krys Kolanos national championship overtime game-winning goal in 2001. The two versions were shown to the team, first without the BC highlights and second with the Eagles historic moments.

When asked about the video, many of the players had different memories and items they enjoyed. When BC goaltender John Muse was asked about it what he liked most, his answer was pretty strange.

I liked it because it was pretty short, said Muse, conjuring up laughter from the media thinking he was referencing a problem with attention deficit disorder.

Muse, though, went on to explain.

You realize that the great moments in sports dont happen all the time. There are very few great moments in sports. Being able to put yourself into the DVD is great because you realize that opportunity doesnt come every day.

Were here with an opportunity that may not come again (winning a national championship). We have to put ourselves in the present right now and realize we have such a great opportunity. We have to come ready to go tomorrow and have our best game. Not only tomorrow but throughout the weekend.

DETROIT No team has ever played a hockey game on Ford Field. But that doesnt mean Boston College doesnt have a bit of a home ice advantage heading into Thursdays national semifinal game at the Frozen Four in Detroit.

The Eagles may not have played on Ford Field, but that have played on the ice that is now sitting on the field.

Boston College faced Boston University at Fenway Park in January on a special game played after the National Hockey League hosted the annual Winter Classic at the historic ballpark.

The exact same ice system that was used in that game is being used at Ford Field this weekend, according to Dan Craig, the ice guru for the NHL who engineered the temporary ice rink.

Boston College lost the Fenway game, 3-2, but hopes to maybe take the little bit of experience on the temporary ice into Thursdays game.

Weve been following the construction throughout the week, said BC alternate captain Ben Smith. There was a lot of anticipation getting out there today. Its pretty cool out there. A unique experience.

It feels a little bit different, said BC captain Matt Price, when asked to compare the ice to Fenways. The stars arent there when you look up.

But is there any sort of advantage to having played on the actual ice before?

Weve got a sense for the board a little bit, said Price.

Maybe thats enough.

DETROIT When this season began, Boston College goaltender John Muse was the teams biggest question. Coming off surgery in the summer to repair his hip, head coach Jerry York wondered if wed see the standout netminder before November.

When he appeared in net, though, to start the season, many were shocked. But a somewhat slow start and inconsistent play at times saw Muse on the bench heading into the playoff run. Freshman Parker Milner played made four straight and five of six starts between February 21 and the teams opening playoff game on March 12.

It was that March 12 contest, though, a 6-5 win over Massachusetts, that Milner, for the first time looked a bit jittery in net. The net night, Muse was back between the pipes and has been there ever since.

Parker was playing great, said Muse, the day before his team faces Miami in the national semifinal at the Frozen Four at Ford Field in Detroit. When you have a hot goalie, you dont change it up.

Point taken, certainly. Which might make some wonder if York ever thought about going back to Milner after the team 9-7 regional final victory over Yale. Muse surrendered a career-high seven goals, just a week after matching his previous career mark of six goals allowed in the Hockey East title game, a 7-6 overtime win over Maine.

Muse, though, was never concerned whether or not hed be the starter on Thursday in Detroit

As for the Yale game, they scored a bunch of goals, but a wins a win, said Muse. Thats all were looking for right now.

MANCHESTER, N.H. On paper, top seeded Boston University looks by far like the hottest team in this weekends 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, though, heading into the tournament, you might never know that. Parker was disappointed with his teams effort down the stretch, through the Hockey East quarterfinals and even last weekend when the Terriers beat Boston College and Mass.-Lowell to win the Hockey East title.

So its no surprise, then, when asking the players what the past week of practice was like it didnt sound very much like a Club Med atmosphere.

We got in a few kids faces [at practice], said senior co-captain Matt Gilroy. I think we got the wins last week and that was important. But the atmosphere in practice all week was that we had to work real hard. We really got after each other and were really excited to get to the national tournament right now.

Its always been difficult to judge whether the team is ready to play tonight or ready to play this week, said Parker when asked what to expect on Saturday night. We had a good week of practice and the kids seem to be enthusiastic. The stars seem to be aligned properly and we just came off a big win. But you never know whats going to happen with the emotions of a tournament. You never know what will happen with the pressure of an NCAA tournament.

Get Out the Measuring Tape

Parker, during his teams practice on the Verizon Wireless Arena ice on Friday, pulled out a tape measure and began measuring the space between the lines. His findings were that the rink sets up as expected, with 64-foot neutral zones, matching what is suggested by the NCAA.

When I looked at [the neutral zone] upstairs, it looked bigger than our rink, said Parker. When I looked at it on the ice, it looked normal. I just wanted to see what it was.

Back to Parkers Roots

Ohio State is not a very familiar opponent for the Terriers. Saturdays game will be the first between the two schools in the NCAA tournament and the two teams have met just twice ever, both in holiday tournaments and both won by BU.

For Parker, though, one of those games may be more memorable. BUs contest with Ohio State on December 28, 1973 at the Rensselaer Tournament in Troy, N.Y., was just Parkers second game behind the BU bench. Parker had taken over the reigns at Christmas time when Leon Abbott was let go by the school. Parkers Terriers beat Dartmouth in the opening game of the tournament, then faced Ohio State the next evening.

For the record, BU won that game, 6-5.

Wilson Has Added Incentive

Colin Wilson may be a tad more familiar with Ohio State than the rest of the Terriers as hes played with Buckeyes John Albert, Joseph Palmer, and C.J. Severyn prior to arriving on campus. The four guys skated together on the U.S. Under-18 Team in the National Team Development Program before embarking on college careers.

Its obviously going to be an exciting game here, said Wilson. Playing against old teammates makes it a little bit more exciting; it makes me want to win just a little bit more to get a little bragging rights against those guys.

BU History 101 with Jack Parker

Theyve won the Ice Breaker Tournament, the Denver Cup, the Hockey East regular season, and the Hockey East Championshipso where does the 2008-09 Terriers rank among the other clubs in BU history?

I think its pretty easy to say who the best teams are in BU history, said Parker. Its the teams that won the national tournament. You measure everybody else to them. The best team that didnt win the national tournament would probably be the 76 team and maybe the 96 team. The 96 team was probably the best team, but it was the most difficult year; that was the year of the Travis Roy injury. It was a difficult year for everybody on that team; we were defending national champions and we lost in the semifinals of the national tournament. This years team is as good a team as Ive ever coached up until this point in the season. It remains to be seen whether or not, you know, if theyll join the other four as the best in BU history.

Playing Against the Hunter

BU coach Jack Parker was very well aware that his first round opponent, Ohio State, has already beaten the other three number one seeds: Michigan, Notre Dame and Denver.

He hopes his club doesnt become the fourth.

Theyre probably thinking, Heres another number one seed to beat, said Parker. Theyve beaten some good teams and were going to have our hands full.

Melissa Parrelli contributed to this report.

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 the wait was a tough one might be an understatement.

I think I was more nervous than the players, said Ohio State head coach John Markell. I refused to look at [the scenarios that would get us in]; I would just bug everybody else.

Truthfully, it was a long week. But we were hoping that our body of work gave us opportunities. I knew the committee went off the numbers and if we could hang in there and get the proper teams winning, [wed make it].

Markell admitted that his teams bid required almost planets to align. There needed to be a minimal number of upsets so that teams outside of the top 14 in the PairWise rankings didnt steal a bid. He also, though maybe didnt realize it at the time, needed some help from Minnesota-Duluth, which won the WCHA tournament and in the process beat Minnesota, which finished two-ten thousandths of a point behind Ohio State in the final RPI, which was used to break the tie between the two clubs and determine the final bid.

I was driving home when the Yale-St. Lawrence game had about two minutes to go and [Yale] was down, 2-1 [when I left], said Markell, knowing that St. Lawrence winning in last Fridays ECAC quarterfinal could hurt his teams chances. I think I had a little road rage. We needed [Yale to win]. Yale came through in the end with a minute and a half left.

At that point I said, Maybe things are going to fall into place for us.

The final piece of the puzzle that had to fall into place was Boston Universitys win over Mass.-Lowell.

I told [BU coach] Jack [Parker] in the hall, I was your biggest fan on Saturday night, said Markell, who ironically must now face those same Terriers in tomorrows Northeast Regional. I couldnt watch the game. We were just very fortunate the way things fell for us.

Experience Counts

Ohio State might be the number four seed in this regional and must now face the number one overall seed in BU, but Markell believes firmly that his teams experience this season, including some big wins against Michigan, Notre Dame and Denver, all NCAA tournament teams, could help.

In fact, win or lose this year, Ohio States schedule, playing in the CCHA has tested them from day one and prepared them for this weekend.

BU has the power play like Notre Dame, they have the explosiveness like Michigan, said Markell. Our league provides us with the opportunity to play similar teams [to BU]. When those teams are playing very well, they would match up with the likes of BU.

Playing the likes of Michigan and Notre Dame, then, has also taught Markell that Saturday evenings game will take a yeomans effort if the Buckeyes are to come away victorious.

If we stand around and watch BU play, its going to be a long night, said Markell. But we have to come out and compete and battle. Thats what Im worried about.

Fountain of Youth

Twenty-two of the 27 players dotting the Buckeye roster are underclassmen. Is the teams youth exceeding everyones expectations this year?

Being a young guy, I thought at the start of the year we bonded pretty well, said freshman Zac Dalpe, who was named to the CCHA All-Rookie. I kind of had a feeling we were going to come this far into the playoffs in the tournament, so its not really a surprise. But were definitely happy to be here. Like I said, were a young team, but we cant use that as an excuse anymore.

Markell explained how important it was for goaltending to be solidified this year, and sophomore Dustin Carlson (21 wins) has been getting the job done, being the first Buckeye goalie to hit the 20 win-mark for a single season since Dave Caruso set the program record with 25 in 2005.

I thought the last few years have been disappointing, but coming into this season we knew we had to have a goaltender come forward and Dustin Carlson did that, said Markell.

Scouting Boston University

The Ohio State Buckeyes, making their first appearance in the NCAAs since 2005, are done studying for mid-term exams and have put all of their concentration on breaking down the nations number one team, Boston University.

Obviously theyre the number one seed, OSU sophomore Sergio Somma said. Theyre a really good team, really talented. Watching the tape, theyre really explosive. We just need to play our game and be physical, be in their face and try to put the pressure on them and take the game in the end.

I watched BU play against Denver in the Denver Cup and they were just a fantastic hockey club. said Markell .I watched a little bit of tape [of the Hockey East final against] UMass Lowell. They have everything, they possess everything.

Melissa Parrelli contributed to this report.

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, N.D., has been overcome with snow and ice after a massive storm pounded the already saturated area a few days ago. It is predicted that the level of the river could reach record highs by Monday and possibly cause massive flooding in the Fargo region.

A couple of hours before we left yesterday, we all got text messages to our phones that classes have been canceled for the next two days, including Monday, so that people can go out and sandbag in the surrounding areas, said Sioux defenseman Chay Genoway. Were focused on hockey right now but we wish everyone well back home.

According to reports, workers in North Dakota have tried many things to avoid the river from overflowing including building walls of sandbags, controlling the river levels at the locks, even placing dynamite in the massive ice blocks to explode the glacial like formations. But at this point, it looks like the river levels will continue to rise and surpass records set back in 1897 as well as those in more recent memory when flooding caused more than $3.5 million in damage in 1997.

Hearing all about the flood of 1997 and hearing peoples experiences, you never think youre going to be a part of that, said Ryan Duncan. A couple of guys on our team have people and family in Fargo. You see how much that hits home. Guys are wondering how high the river is going to crest. Were definitely here to play hockey but its something that really hits home.

Hakstol Loved His Team from the Beginning

This season certainly hasnt been an easy one for North Dakota. To say the team started slow is an understatement.

The Sioux began the year 5-8-1. Even after putting four wins together heading into the Christmas break, North Dakota returned and lost to Michigan State and Michigan Tech in the Great Lakes Invitational.

But since the calendar turned to 2009, North Dakota has just four losses, including two last weekend in the WCHA Final Five.

Through thick and thin, head coach Dave Hakstol feels this team still has been one of the best hes ever coached.

Wins and losses-wise, were not fine with our start, said Hakstol. Work ethic-wise is a little bit more important at that time of year. And this is the kind of group who has showed up at the rink since day one. From the summer and the [off-ice] commitment that they had, all the way through the early part of the year when we were not putting wins together. This has been a team thats been based on work ethic and being a good team together.

Asked if there was any point in the season that turned it around, Hakstol couldnt identify one.

A lot of times you can look back and pinpoint one spot of adversity or one major weekend where theres a turnaround, said Hakstol. Not with this team.

A lot of our media members back in Grand Forks thought I was hallucinating or a little bit crazy early on in the year because I continued to say, right from media day on, I like this team. Thats based on what I saw in the character of the guys and how much this group of guys care about each other.

What Underdog?

Word has been stirred up that the third seeded Wildcats are considering themselves the underdog in the opening game of the regional against the second seeded Fighting Sioux on Saturday. But Hakstol feels a little differently concerning the preconceived notions of the two teams.

No, said Hakstol in response to being asked if UNH is the underdog. I dont mean to be short on that, but I guess I dont quite understand them as an underdog. Were playing in their back yard and I think they play here fairly often and are familiar with it. You can take any mental mindset that you want and try and spin it, but what you have are two pretty good teams. However you want to motivate yourselves as a team, thats up to each individual team. The bottom line is that going into tomorrow nights game, only one is going to have a chance to play on Sunday.

Scouting the Wildcats

As they say, there is no I in team. North Dakota captain Ryan Duncan claims that the media may mention the same names a lot, but the entire Wildcat lineup is a force to be reckon with.

We know they are a fast team and transition very well, Duncan said. They have a lot of skilled players who are underrated. Everyone knows about James van Riemsdyk, but they have a lot of other players who are dangerous and a little under the radar. We just need to focus on what we need to do.

Coach Hakstol added, UNH is a very good hockey team throughout their lineup. They are extremely competitive and have a great balance.

So how will the Fighting Sioux actually fight through such a solid UNH roster?

Its the time of year where you have to be sharp and at your best for 60 minutes, Hakstol said. This has been a team based on worth ethic and being together Weve put last weekend behind us [going 0-2 in WCHA Final Five] and have stayed very focused [on Saturday].

Melissa Parrelli contributed to this report.