A few interesting notes have surfaced so far in the 2013 NCAA tournament. Here are some that stand out:
• For only the second time in 65 tournaments (not counting the first), and for the first time since 1958, the Frozen Four will not include a team that previously won an NCAA Division I championship. (The first tournament doesn’t count, obviously, because there was no defending champion.) Denver, Clarkson, North Dakota and Harvard took part in the four-team tournament in Minneapolis in 1958, with the Pioneers coming out on top.
• There will be two teams from ECAC Hockey in the Frozen Four for the first time in 30 years. Harvard and Providence played in the 1983 tournament in Grand Forks, N.D., before the formation of Hockey East took the Friars to that league. To find the last time two current ECAC members were in the national semifinals, you have to go back to 1980, when Cornell and Dartmouth made it in a five-team tournament.
• Jesse Root’s goal for Yale nine seconds into overtime on Friday was the fastest overtime goal in NCAA tournament history. That broke the record of 15 seconds set by Lake Superior State in a 6-5 victory over Northeastern in the 1994 West Regional first round. The Lakers won two more overtime games that year before blowing out Boston University 9-1 in the national championship game.
• Of 10,648 completed entries in College Hockey Pickem 2013, only two perfect brackets remain. You can see their brackets on the standings page.
