Harvard won its first NCAA tournament game since 1994 (photo: Melissa Wade).
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Here are three takeaways from Harvard’s 3-0 win over Providence on Friday in the first semifinal of the NCAA East Regional.
1. Adam Fox makes his presence felt
While Harvard has made the national tournament for three consecutive seasons, Friday night was its first victory since 1994.
A big reason for that, and any future success the Crimson will have this year, is its depth on defense. That depth was bolstered by the addition of freshmen John Marino and Adam Fox this season. Fox, in particular, made his presence felt against Providence.
He assisted on Harvard’s first goal and then made it 2-0 when he cleaned up Ryan Donato’s rebound and backhanded the puck past Friars goalie Hayden Hawkey to make it 2-0 17:46 into the second period. Fox led the Crimson with four shots on goal and was also part of a Crimson penalty kill that denied Providence on all four of its chances.
Marino and Fox lengthen Harvard’s defensive depth. That was a problem for the Crimson last spring, as injuries left Harvard dressing several inexperienced players during the postseason.
2. Providence can’t catch any breaks
The Friars had a goal waved off in the first period due to an offside call, the first in what was several unlucky breaks throughout the game.
“The referees are human,” Providence coach Nate Leaman said. “To win a national championship, you have to get some bounces along the way. Harvard got a bounce there. I took a look at it between periods and it’s onside but we just had to keep going and I thought the guys did. It’s not like we didn’t get a chance after that.”
Providence had a wide-open net on a second-period power play, but a Friars skater whiffed on the shot. They also couldn’t take advantage of a pair of Harvard penalties that negated the Crimson’s man advantage and gave PC power plays of its own.
The frustrations culminated when Scott Conway hit a post late in the third period before the Harvard goal came loose in the ensuing frenzy around the crease.
Those were bad signs for a young Friars team that fell to 0-7-1 this year when trailing after two periods. Providence might be a well-structured, physical team, but it simply couldn’t convert its chances, especially when the game turned to comeback mode for the Friars.
“It’s tough to be disappointed with the way we played tonight. I thought we played a terrific game,” Leaman said.
3. Merrick Madsen up to task
The skaters in front of Harvard junior goalie Merrick Madsen get plenty of attention, and rightfully so. But Madsen proved he was up to the task Friday, making a career-high 41 saves for his third shutout of the season.
He made 17 saves in the opening period to help keep the game scoreless through a flurry of Friars opportunities in the opening minutes and then made several big stops in the third period to deny any thoughts of a Providence comeback. Since getting pulled after allowing six goals on 18 shots in an 8-4 loss to Dartmouth on Jan. 14, the junior has posted a .938 save percentage during a 17-game unbeaten streak for the Crimson.
Norwich (25-1-3) vs. Adrian (20-6-2)
Norwich and Adrian couldn’t have picked a better spot to have their first-ever meeting. The two teams are playing for a spot in the national title game. The Cadets are in the Frozen Four for the 12th time in program history and seeking their first national title since 2010. They have won three national titles. Norwich is the hottest team in the country, having won 23 consecutive games, and is one of the best offensively behind the play of William Pelletier and Kevin Salvucci. The two have combined for 36 goals. The difference-maker could be goalie Braeden Ostepchuk, who is 15-0. Adrian is in its third Frozen Four in program history, but has never won a championship. The Bulldogs are phenomenal offensively and have the nation’s best scoring defenseman in Cory Dunn, who has tallied nine goals and 27 assists. Trevor Boyd leads the team in goals with 18. He has dished out 17 assists as well. Their goaltending is solid as well, with Kevin Entmaa winning 15 games. I’m going with the upset. Adrian 4-3
Trinity (20-6-3) vs. St. Norbert (24-3-2)
Trinity is playing in its third Frozen Four and was the national champion in 2015. The Bantams have the nation’s best scoring defense, allowing 1.79 goals per game. However, the Bantams aren’t bad offensively either, with Sean Orlando and Tyler Whitney scoring 18 and 12 goals, respectively. Goalie Alex Morin is one of the best goalies in the country, fashioning a goals-against average of 1,72. He has won 18 games this season. St. Norbert is playing in the Frozen Four for the 11th time and has won 19 of its last 22 NCAA tournament games. Noah Nelson leads the team in points, tallying nine goals and 27 assists. Pijus Rulevicius has come through with six goals and 18 assists. Tanner Froese is the team leader in goals, scoring 13 on the season. T.J. Black has won 17 goals and owns a 1.22 goals-against average. St. Norbert is the only team in the Frozen Four that played in it last season. The Green Knights are seeking their fifth national title. St. Norbert 3-2
Players representing eight schools were named to the 2016-17 All-USCHO women’s D-III teams. National champion Plattsburgh led the way with six players, including two each on the first and third teams, followed by Adrian, which was the runner-up in the national championship game, with five players.
Other schools represented included Frozen Four teams Norwich with three players and Gustavus Adolphus with one player. WIAC champion and No. 5 Wisconsin-River Falls placed four players on the teams, while Morrisville, Johnson and Wales, and Connecticut College each played one player.
Leading the way on the first team were three of the finalists for the Laura Hurd Award, including winner Dani Sibley of Wis.-River Falls and finalists Melissa Sheeran of Plattsburgh and Kristin Lewicki of Adrian. Rounding out the first team were Kim Tiberi of Norwich and Sydney Smith of Adrian on defense, and Camille Leonard of Plattsburgh as the goalie.
The All-USCHO teams are voted on by the editor and writers.
First team
F: Kristin Lewicki (Adrian), Dani Sibley (Wis.-River Falls), Melissa Sheeran (Plattsburgh)
D: Sydney Smith (Adrian), Kim Tiberi (Norwich)
G: Camille Leonard (Plattsburgh)
Second team
F: Kaylyn Schroka (Adrian), Carly Moran (Wis.-River Falls), Sarah Shureb (Adrian)
D: Erin Brand (Plattsburgh), Kelly O’Sullivan (Adrian)
G: Amanda DiNella (Gustavus Adolphus)
Third team
F: Kayla Meneghin (Plattsburgh), Brooke Lupi (Adrian), Sarah Schwenzfeier (Norwich)
D: Megan Crandell (Plattsburgh), Paige Johnson (Wis.-River Falls)
G: Katherine Chester (Connecticut College)
Rookie team
F: Vanessa Klimpke (Morrisville), Hailey Herdine (Wis.-River Falls), Amanda Conway (Norwich)
D: Kelly O’Sullivan (Adrian), Hannah Kiraly (Plattsburgh)
G: Julia Aberg (Johnson and Wales)
Players representing nine schools were named to the 2016-17 All-USCHO Women’s D-I teams. Clarkson, which won its second national title by upsetting Wisconsin, led the way with five players, followed by runner-up Wisconsin with four.
Other schools represented included Frozen Four teams Minnesota with three players and Boston College with two players, ECAC tournament semifinalists Princeton with three and St. Lawrence with two, WCHA Final Face-Off runner-up Minnesota Duluth with two, and Cornell and Robert Morris with one each.
Leading the way on the first team was Patty Kazmaier Award winner Ann-Renée Desbiens of Wisconsin, who shattered just about every goaltending mark during her storied career at Wisconsin. Also on the first team were the other two members of the final Patty Kazmaier trio, Cayley Mercer of Clarkson, who came up with key contributions for her team in the Frozen Four, and Lara Stalder of Minnesota Duluth, who led the Bulldogs’ resurgence this year. Rounding out the first team were regular season scoring champion Kelly Pannek of Minnesota, Boston College defenseman Megan Keller, who led all blueliners in scoring, and Kelsey Koelzer of Princeton.
The All-USCHO teams are voted on by the editor and writers.
First team
F: Cayley Mercer (Clarkson), Lara Stalder (Minnesota Duluth), Kelly Pannek (Minnesota)
D: Megan Keller (Boston College), Kelsey Koelzer (Princeton)
G: Ann-Renée Desbiens (Wisconsin)
Second team
F: Brooke Webster (St. Lawrence), Annie Pankowski (Wisconsin), Geneviève Bannon (Clarkson)
D: Savannah Harmon (Clarkson), Lee Stecklein (Minnesota)
G: Shea Tiley (Clarkson)
Third team
F: Sarah Nurse (Wisconsin), Sarah Potomak (Minnesota), Kennedy Marchment (St. Lawrence)
D: Sidney Morin (Minnesota Duluth), Jenny Ryan (Wisconsin)
G: Katie Burt (Boston College)
The Frozen Four matchups are set with East meeting West in each of two semifinals on Friday. My quarterfinal picks saw my upset pick miss and the defending champions bounced by a strong Adrian team effort. I finished at 2-2-0 (.500), which brings the season total to 93-45-9 (.663). My Western counterpart, Brian, matched the output with his somewhat different picks, so now we are down to the semifinals and a total prognostication on the championship final assuming one or both of us gets it 100 percent right for Friday.
Here are the picks for the semifinal round to challenge Mr. Lester for pick and regional supremacy.
Friday, March 14
Trinity vs. St. Norbert
The two teams are in many ways mirror images of each other with NCAA experience, deep and talented offensive players, stout defense, and playoff-experienced goaltending. Special teams might slightly favor the Bantams, whose power play has been effective in the playoffs. The Green Knights are always in every battle and willing to go the distance, no matter how long it takes, but this one goes to Trinity in overtime off the stick of a senior who has been there before. Trinity 3-2
Adrian vs. Norwich
The Bulldogs EARNED their way to Utica by knocking off the defending national champions on the road and now face the nation’s number one team in the semifinals. Neither team has faced the other this season, but both bring potent offenses to the ice in a game that will generate a lot of chances to challenge opposing goaltenders. The Cadets haven’t been here in a while, and this senior class has been on a mission all season. They don’t get derailed here, but it is a battle to the final horn. Norwich 4-3
Stephen Collins posted 48 points in 2016-17 to lead Geneseo in the scoring department (photo: Dan Hickling).
Players from 22 different schools — including six participating this weekend in the NCAA Division III championship in Utica, N.Y. — can boast 2017 CCM Division II-III men’s hockey All-American selections as the squads were announced Thursday evening at the event’s banquet.
Nine different schools led the way with two honorees each, including NCAA semifinalists Adrian, Norwich and St. Norbert.
Geneseo senior forward Stephen Collins is the only First Team repeat selection from 2016.
Norwich coach Mike McShane recorded his 700th career win this season (photo: Norwich Athletics).
For leading Norwich into the NCAA Division III championships, Mike McShane has been named the winner of the Edward Jeremiah Award as the CCM/AHCA Division III Men’s Coach of the Year.
It is the fifth such honor for McShane, who also captured the award in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2010. He was assisted this year by Steve Mattson, Alec Thieda, Bryce Currier and Cap Raeder.
Norwich enters Friday’s NCAA semifinal in Utica against Adrian on a 23-game unbeaten streak (21-0-2) and brings a 25-1-3 overall record to the event.
In 36 years as a head coach, McShane is 720-341-67 at Norwich (22 years), Providence (9) and St. Lawrence (5).
This year, in guiding Norwich to its 18th regular-season title in the past 19 seasons, McShane was recognized as the NEHC Coach of the Year by his peers. His Cadets squad rank in the top ten nationally in both team offense (4.28 g/gm—8th) and team defense (1.72 g/gm—3rd). Norwich led the NEHC in scoring offense (4.44 g/gm), scoring defense (1.44 g/gm), power play (29.5%) and special teams net (+16).
McShane also notched his 700th career win this season, becoming only the seventh coach in NCAA hockey history at any level to amass the 700-win mark.
The Edward Jeremiah Award is named in honor of the legendary Dartmouth coach and was first presented in 1970.
The runner-up for the 2017 Jeremiah Award was Hamilton’s Rob Haberbusch.
Hamilton netminder Evan Buitenhuis led the NESCAC in GAA and save percentage during the 2016-17 season (photo: Hamilton Athletics).
Hamilton junior goaltender Evan Buitenhuis has been chosen as the 2017 winner of the Sid Watson Award, symbolic of the best NCAA Division III men’s hockey player.
Buitenhuis went 17-5-4 this year with a 1.78 GAA and a .941 save percentage.
“Evan has a tremendous passion and work ethic for the game,” said Hamilton coach Rob Haberbusch in a news release. “He is literally the first person on the ice for practice and the last to leave. His accomplishments are a result of his constant drive to improve. Evan is equally as tremendous a person and teammate. He is selfless, humble and brings a positive attitude to the rink each day. He keeps constant watch over the morale of the team and especially his fellow goaltenders.”
Buitenhuis finished the NESCAC regular season first in both GAA and save percentage.
After an injury-riddled freshman year, Buitenhuis was named First Team All-Conference as a sophomore and First Team All-Conference and conference Player of the Year in 2016-17.
“Evan has been a major factor in Hamilton’s improvement during the last three seasons,” added Haberbusch. “As a team, we moved from a sixth-place finish in the NESCAC during Evan’s freshman year to fourth in his sophomore year, to first this current season, his junior year. This season was just the second time that Hamilton won the NESCAC regular-season title and the first time that Hamilton reached the NESCAC playoff championship game. This season also marks the first time that Hamilton has qualified for the NCAA tournament in our 99-year history of varsity hockey.”
The award is named in honor of former Bowdoin coach Sid Watson, a three-time winner of the Edward Jeremiah Award as Division III Coach of the Year. Watson won 326 games at Bowdoin in a career that spanned from 1959 to 1983.
The runner-up for the 2017 Sid Watson Award, for the second year in a row, was Geneseo senior forward Stephen Collins.
Brady Fleurent of the University of New England led all D-III players in scoring during the 2016-17 season (photo: David Bates/Fotografix Studio/University of New England Athletics).
The Gridiron Club of Greater Boston announced Friday that Brady Fleurent of the University of New England is the winner of the 17th Joe Concannon Award, presented annually to the best American-born college hockey player in New England at the NCAA Division II/III level.
The award was established in 2001 shortly after the passing of the longtime writer for the Boston Globe, who had a great passion for the game of college hockey while always advocating strongly for amateur athletics.
Fleurent, a sophomore from Biddeford, Maine, led all scorers in the nation with 18 goals and 35 assists for 53 points. He plays on the dangerous B-F-F line that includes teammates Ryan Bloom and brother and fellow finalist Trevor Fleurent. Brady’s 53 points broke the single-season scoring record for UNE and helped carry the Nor’easters to the championship game against Endicott College in the Commonwealth Coast Conference.
It was a phenomenal season for Brady and the team,” UNE coach Kevin Swallow said in a news release. “Brady has led the country in points for most of the season and was a threat to score any time he was on the ice.”
Fleurent was also recognized as the CCC Player of the Year and a First Team All-Star by the league coaches for his dominant performance on the ice. Equally important, he has displayed the qualities of sportsmanship and leadership essential to winning the award.
“You always want your best players to be good people and strong leaders and Brady most definitely has those qualities,” added Swallow. “He lives and breathes the game of hockey and brings so much to the rink and with his teammates every day. They feed off his energy, and his enthusiasm is contagious in the locker room and on the ice.”
The other Concannon Award finalists were senior forward Trevor Fleurent (UNE), sophomore defenseman Logan Day (Endicott), senior forward Jackson Leef (Westfield State), junior forward Colin Larkin (UMass Boston) and senior defenseman Cody Smith (Norwich).
“This is yet another outstanding group of finalists and, as always, it has become ever more difficult to easily select a single winner for the Concannon Award,” said Gridiron Club Hockey Awards Committee chairman Tim Costello in a statement. “This year marked a season where there was great competition in and among each of the New England conferences giving players greater opportunities to showcase their skills against the best the region had to offer. For Brady to distinguish himself above all others under consideration is a testament to his consistency and high-level performance in every game played for UNE this season. The fact that he is the winner among finalists that include his brother truly make this a unique recognition for the players and siblings as well as the other strong finalists.”
The Concannon Award will be presented to Fleurent at the New England College Hockey Writers’ Dinner on Tuesday, April 11 at the Prince Restaurant in Saugus, Mass.
Babson goalie Jamie Murray captured the award in both 2015 and 2016.
Penn State captured the Big Ten championship, but can the Nittany Lions add to the haul with a regional title? (photo: Michael Dubicki)
With the NCAA regionals kicking off Friday and continuing Saturday and Sunday, we asked our conference columnists to make their choices as to the four teams that will come out of this weekend and play for a national championship at the Frozen Four next month at the United Center in Chicago.
East Regional: Possibly the hardest regional to pick. A month ago, I’d have leaned toward Western Michigan. Providence is at home, and won the NCAA title two years ago as a four seed starting at home, but I think Harvard will scrape through.
Northeast Regional: The only regional with no NCHC teams. I don’t know too much about any of these teams. Minnesota has looked good, but I’ll pick UMass Lowell to make it through.
Midwest Regional: A possible trap regional for a Denver team that had been rolling until last weekend, filled with teams that match up well with the Pioneers. Nevertheless, I like Denver to make it through in two tough games.
West Regional: Will hockey fans get the war rematch of last weekend’s NCHC Frozen Faceoff? I think so, and being at home will be a huge boost for North Dakota. Can Minnesota Duluth beat North Dakota six times in a row? It probably depends if NoDak has Tucker Poolman. I’ll go with Minnesota Duluth to squeak through, but North Dakota is just as likely.
— Candace Horgan
East Regional: Providence will be the upset team out of the East. It happened two years ago and it can happen again. A fourth-seeded Friars team can use the energy of home ice to beat Harvard and either Western Michigan or Air Force. They will need good goaltending, though, from Hayden Hawkey to succeed.
Northeast Regional: UMass Lowell is playing its best hockey down the stretch. If that continues in the regional, look for the River Hawks, paced by balanced scoring, to emerge. Teams will have to play disciplined against the River Hawks if they want to win. Lowell boasts the third-best power play in the nation.
West Regional: Minnesota Duluth is, simply put, a powerhouse. And whether the Bulldogs need to beat North Dakota or Boston University in the regional final, they have the depth, defense and goaltending to advance. The one stumbling block could be North Dakota in front of a very pro-Hawks crowd in Fargo.
Midwest Regional: Denver simply seems like an unstoppable force. The Pioneers will want to avenge their semifinal loss in the NCHC tournament with a regional title and, simply put, on paper they just seem too strong of a favorite against the likes of Penn State, Union and Michigan Tech.
— Jim Connelly
East Regional: Harvard — One of the hottest teams in the country and the Crimson should get through the weekend with their depth at forward, defense and strong goaltending. They will have a tough test in the first round facing Providence in Providence. The championship experience gained during the season winning the Beanpot, the ECAC regular season and postseason tournaments will help them in their tough opening-round game.
Northeast Regional: UMass Lowell — All Norm Bazin knows how to do is win as the River Hawks have made the NCAA tournament five of the past six years. They have the right mix of offense and defense. Being 40 minutes from campus, they could make Manchester a second home for the weekend.
West Regional: North Dakota — Fargo will be packed with North Dakota fans and I think that will help the Fighting Hawks get to Chicago. Winners of five of their past six games, North Dakota is getting hot at the right time. It’s a deep region, but I believe last year’s championship experience will be key for them.
Midwest Regional: Denver — Like Harvard, the Pioneers are one of the hottest teams in the nation. As the No. 1 overall seed, they were rewarded by going to Cincinnati where they wouldn’t see North Dakota. They have three scoring lines with Henrik Borgström and Troy Terry stepping up their games since returing from the World Junior Championship in January.
— Nathan Fournier
Midwest Regional: Denver over Michigan Tech. Denver is not just the top overall seed in the field of 16; the Pioneers are arguably the best team in the nation, with an enviable consistency that will take them past the Huskies.
Penn State over Union. One of two things will happen: Penn State’s momentum — and its newfound smothering defense — will continue through the first game of this regional or the Nittany Lions will run out of steam. I think they get past the Dutchmen in spite of Union’s high-flying offense.
Denver over Penn State. Here is where Denver’s depth and experience prevail against Penn State’s passion and youth.
Northeast Regional: Minnesota over Notre Dame. The Golden Gophers have a deep, consistent, experienced team. The Fighting Irish have a deep, slightly less-consistent, experienced team. Notre Dame’s defense may be the factor, but I see Minnesota advancing.
UMass Lowell over Cornell. Lowell is arguably the best team in this bracket, in spite of its second seed. The River Hawks have the third-best scoring margin in D-I and they’ve dropped just one game in their last 12.
UMass Lowell over Minnesota. I’m just not picking against the River Hawks.
West Regional: Minnesota Duluth over Ohio State. While I like the Buckeyes’ offense, inconsistency has been their issue all season. They played well, but not well enough in the Big Ten tournament. And the Bulldogs are very, very good.
North Dakota over Boston University. I can’t imagine North Dakota bowing out on home ice in the first round of this regional.
North Dakota over Minnesota Duluth. If this were played at a neutral site, I’d pick the Bulldogs. The only reason I see North Dakota emerging from this regional is because the Fighting Hawks are playing at home.
East Regional: Harvard over Providence. The Crimson ride a 14-game win streak into this regional. Providence has struggled in its last eight games. Harvard wins.
Western Michigan over Air Force. Neither of these teams should be underestimated. The Broncos have a good offense. The Falcons have a great defense and come into the tournament hotter. I’m still picking Western. Call me a throwback CCHA homer.
Western Michigan over Harvard. I admit this pick makes little sense. On paper, Harvard is the better team. I think it’s easy for teams to look past the Broncos, though. Plus, CCHA homer.
— Paula C. Weston
Northeast Regional: UMass Lowell — It seems a little cliche to pick the River Hawks, but I’m okay with it. They looked the part of a national champion in winning Hockey East, and they’ll have the benefit of playing closer to home than everyone. Cornell is a sneaky sleeper pick for me here.
East Regional: Harvard — I really wanted to pick Western Michigan, but the Broncos’ NCHC tournament run ended the polar opposite of Harvard’s second half. The Crimson haven’t even tied since Jan. 21 as part of a string of 15 straight games without a loss. Over their 14-game winning streak, they’ve scored 66 goals.
Midwest Regional: Penn State — Denver is the No. 1 overall seed, but Penn State won their way into the tournament and has gotten hot. Remember that the Nittany Lions were No. 1 in the USCHO poll earlier this year. That still has to count for something for a team that proved it could win with the pressure on during the Big Ten tournament.
West Regional: Minnesota Duluth — This will all hinge on the BU-North Dakota game. If the Fighting Hawks win, the regional final becomes less certain. But I think BU wins that game. Unfortunately, it’ll be such a fight that they’ll have to come back and take on a team that should use their first game as a tuneup for the rest of their run.
— Dan Rubin
Midwest Regional:
Denver over Michigan Tech
Penn State over Union
Denver or Penn State
Denver vs. Penn State could be one of the more exciting regional championship games. The Pioneers have tournament experience and a chip on their shoulder after losing in the NCHC title, while Penn State is making its first trip to the dance.
Northeast Regional:
Minnesota over Notre Dame
Cornell over Umass Lowell
Minnesota over Cornell
The Gophers feel like a heavy favorite to me in this region. I don’t see them falling short of Frozen Four.
West Regional:
Minnesota Duluth over Ohio State
North Dakota over BU
Duluth over North Dakota
If this was soccer, we’d call this the group of death. Should be a tight weekend in Fargo.
East Regional:
Harvard over Providence
Western Michigan over Air Force
Western Michigan over Harvard
Just have a hunch the Broncos get it done out East. I’m also expecting overtime.
Bowling Green goalie Chris Nell was in net for 17 of the Falcons’ 21 wins in 2016-17 (photo: Omar Phillips).
After three years with Bowling Green, junior goaltender Chris Nell has signed a free-agent, entry-level contract with the New York Rangers.
He will begin play with its AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, at the end of the month.
Nell topped the Bowling Green record book in career shutouts by earning 11 through 84 games played with the Falcons. Nell also posted the best career save percentage in Bowling Green history at .922 and career GAA of 2.07 in 4986:32 career minutes.
In February, Nell also set the program record for shutout minutes at 207:31 after earning three straight shutouts. Nell claimed the shutout title with the eighth of his career in a 3-0 victory over RIT on Dec. 30, bumping Tyler Masters (1999-03) and Andrew Hammond (2010-13) down to second all-time, who each hold seven career shutouts in their time with the Falcons.
In his sophomore season, Nell was also honored with All-WCHA First Team accolades after recording a 1.31 GAA and a .930 save percentage.
Nell will leave to begin play with the Wolf Pack on March 29.
Of the four teams in the West Regional this weekend at the Scheels Arena in Fargo, N.D., three have won a national championship in the last decade.
Those would be Boston University (2009), Minnesota Duluth (2011) and North Dakota (2016), and those three schools join Ohio State this weekend vying for a Frozen Four berth in two weeks in Chicago.
UMD won the NCHC playoff crown, while the other three schools earned at-large bids to the NCAA tournament.
Here’s the schedule for the West Regional, followed by a look at the four teams:
• Boston University vs. North Dakota, 2 p.m. CDT Friday, ESPN2
• Minnesota Duluth vs. Ohio State, 5:30 p.m. CDT Friday, ESPNU
• Regional championship, 5 p.m. CDT Saturday, ESPNU
Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs
Minnesota Duluth captain Dominic Toninato put together a 15-goal, 27-point season for the Bulldogs in 2016-17 (photo: Candace Horgan).
Coach: Scott Sandelin, 17th season at Minnesota Duluth and overall
Record: 25-6-7 (19-5-4 NCHC, second)
How they got in: NCHC playoff champions
Regional seed: First
Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2016
Best NCAA finish: Champion, 2011
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: The Bulldogs are deep and ooze senior leadership that steps up at the right time. They’ve been one of the best teams all year.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: They have to overcome the curse of the NCHC Frozen Faceoff as no winner of the tournament has won an NCAA tournament game the next weekend. Duluth’s penalty kill is a weakness, succeeding only 80 percent of the time, and that plays into Ohio State’s strength, its top-ranked power play that clicks at 32.45 percent.
Last weekend, Minnesota Duluth completed a perfect run through the NCHC playoffs by defeating North Dakota 4-3 in the championship game on a dramatic five-on-three power-play goal with under a minute to go, less than two minutes after North Dakota had tied it.
“This group has been pretty resilient,” said Minnesota Duluth coach Scott Sandelin. “I don’t think they panic. I think we’ve been in a lot of those situations where we’ve given up the first goal or we’ve been behind, and we just stay with the game. I think that’s a compliment to our players for doing that. Sometimes when those things happen throughout the year, you build that inner confidence that you know the game is never over and you have to keep staying with it and I think our guys have done a pretty good job of that for pretty much the whole year, because we’ve been in a lot of those situations.”
Upon returning to Duluth, the team learned it was placed in the West Regional in Fargo, N.D., and would potentially have to go through North Dakota again to advance to the Frozen Four. It would be the sixth time this season the two would face off – Duluth has won all five.
Standing in Duluth’s way of that potentially intriguing storyline from a journalistic perspective is Ohio State, which Sandelin noted with wry humor.
“You guys can help build that up, but this is the time of year where you have to have a very narrow focus,” said Sandelin. “It’s the time of year where if you don’t play well and you don’t win, you don’t play any more, so it can only be on the team you are playing. Obviously, there will be outside noise about that, but the key is to just focus on the things we need to do to beat a good Ohio State team, and we know that’s going to be a tough battle. They’re there for a reason, they’ve had a good year, they have some really high-end players, and that’s our focus.”
Duluth is led offensively by senior Alex Iafallo, who likely should have been a Hobey Baker nominee. Iafallo averages 1.18 points per game. The Bulldogs also get a lot of leadership from not just Iafallo, but his classmates Dominic Toninato, Kyle Osterberg, Carson Soucy, Willie Raskob, Brenden Kotyk, Sammy Spurrell and Dan Molenaar.
The Bulldogs also have talented young players in sophomore forward Adam Johnson, sophomore defenseman Neal Pionk, freshman forward Joey Anderson and freshman netminder Hunter Miska, who has a .917 save percentage and looked strong in Minneapolis.
While Duluth gave up three power-play goals to North Dakota in the NCHC championship, the Bulldogs found a way to win, and Sandelin did feel the PK was strong.
“I thought our penalty killers did an outstanding job,” Sandelin said. “It was similar to the Omaha weekend where they had six power-play goals on the weekend but we walked out of there feeling like we didn’t do too many things wrong. It’s hard – you start giving a team three five-on-threes, eventually they are going to score, especially a team like North Dakota with the players they have. Overall, I think our guys did a good job and the biggest thing is not giving them opportunities.”
— Candace Horgan
Boston University Terriers
Stud freshman Clayton Keller led Boston University in scoring this season, despite missing time to play for the U.S. at the World Junior Championship (photo: Melissa Wade).
Coach: David Quinn, fourth season at Boston University and overall
Record: 23-11-3 (13-6-4 Hockey East, t-first)
How they got in: At-large bid
Regional seed: Second
Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2016
Best NCAA finish: Champion, 1971, 1972, 1978, 1995, 2009
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: There may not be another team with high-end NHL prospects than Boston University. If all of their top players play to their potential, this team could be the toughest out. On that list, of course, is goaltender Jake Oettinger, who on any night can steal a game.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: This has been a team that struggles with consistency all season. Of late, its biggest problem has been digging itself into holes. Twice in the Hockey East quarterfinals, BU fell behind 2-0 only to come back and win. In the semis, a 3-0 hole against Boston College proved too deep. As the competition gets greater, comebacks become so much harder.
When you place the nation’s top 16 teams into the NCAA tournament bracket, you hope every now and again, as the committee, that you find a diamond in the rough matchup
In Fargo, N.D., the NCAA has found that diamond.
Boston University and North Dakota will face off in the West Regional. Two of college hockey’s powerhouses that have enough NHL draft picks combined to fill out an entire NHL game-night roster.
Add to the fact that North Dakota is a little more than an hour from campus and will fill the arena to the rafters with fans makes the game an even bigger attraction.
You might think that would be upsetting to BU coach David Quinn.
Not so.
“One of the things we’ve talked about is that as a player if you could play any game in the first round,” said Quinn, “this is it.”
He wants his team to relish the chance to play in a hostile road environment even if he understand this will be a challenge that isn’t easy.
“They’re a team that is healthy,” said Quinn of the Fighting Hawks. “A lot of their top players have been out for stretches of time.”
One thing he understands his team can’t do is chase the game. BU fell between by multiple goals in all three playoff games they’ve played. It something Quinn says he’s cautioned his team against all season.
But he’s also realistic to the fact that his opponents are plenty hungry to play with the lead.
“You have to play well to be able to score.,” said Quinn. “I thought we played very well in the first period on Friday [against Boston College] and had some golden chances to make it 1-0. The more chances you have, the more you can score, but you have to finish on those chances.”
The fact that BU came from behind from two-goal deficits against Northeastern in the Hockey East quarterfinals and nearly rallied from three goals down to BC late on Friday does say one thing about this Terriers team: there isn’t a lot of quit.
“We feel that way,” said Quinn when asked if his team feels the ability to come back. “We’re never out of it. You feel it on the bench and in the locker room.”
— Jim Connelly
North Dakota Fighting Hawks
North Dakota goalie Cam Johnson took the Fighting Hawks to a national title in 2016 and has the potential to backstop the team to another championship in 2017 (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: After an up-and-down regular season, UND has been playing some of its best hockey of the season in recent weeks and will essentially play home games this weekend in Fargo.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: Should UND defeat Boston University in the teams’ regional semifinal on Friday, a Minnesota Duluth team that defeated the Fighting Hawks five times earlier this season could deny UND a trip to Chicago.
No NCAA men’s Division I hockey team has won back-to-back national championships in over a decade, and it didn’t always look this season as though North Dakota would get that chance.
The Fighting Hawks, last season’s title winners, struggled just to clinch home ice in the first round of the NCHC playoffs. After sweeping St. Cloud State, UND still needed one more win to lock up a return trip to the NCAA tournament.
A 1-0 NCHC semifinal victory over top-ranked Denver on March 17 did the trick. UND then dropped a 4-3 decision to Minnesota Duluth in the conference title game, but there’s a feeling of comfort in Grand Forks, N.D., knowing the Hawks’ season isn’t over.
Heading into this weekend’s West Regional in Fargo – just 80 miles away down Interstate 29 – there’s plenty of confidence, too.
“There was a list of four very strong teams there,” UND coach Brad Berry said of the NCHC’s last four teams vying for the conference title in Minneapolis. “And our team battled extremely hard and we learned a lot from our team as far as being at that level. We wanted to win the championship, but we needed to win one game to solidify ourselves in the NCAA tournament and we did that, so we ticked that box and we’re on to the next one here.
“We feel that our team is playing very well right now in playing as a team, and we’ve had a little bit of adversity through the year playing inconsistent hockey as a young team, and I think we’ve grown through the year here to make our team stronger. I know (losing in) the championship game wasn’t the way we wanted it to end, but it left us even more hungry and stronger as our group commits to this upcoming weekend.”
Most players on UND’s roster have played this far into a college season before, but the Hawks are getting plenty of firepower from youth. Freshman forward Tyson Jost has collected 16 goals and 35 points this season, and the Hawks’ top three point-scorers this season (in order: Shane Gersich, Jost and Brock Boeser) are underclassmen.
UND’s younger players aren’t carrying all the water, however.
“We really only have one senior that’s an everyday player in Gage Ausmus as our captain, but our leadership has grown strong by committee in our locker room and it’s driving the bus right now,” Berry said. “This is the time of year that you need the leadership pushing, and they are.”
As for vying for the program’s ninth national title and eight freshmen’s first rings, UND continues to try and pattern this season on the last one.
“The whole year, we ended up winning a national championship but we didn’t skip a step,” Berry said of UND’s 2015-16 campaign, his first as a collegiate head coach. “We really broke it down into each individual game and each goal that we wanted to try to attain, and everybody wants to try to get to the end goal of winning the national championship or getting to the Frozen Four, but you can’t skip any steps.
“I think our group has done a pretty good job of really breaking it down into small goals and trying to make sure you focus on the things at hand, and it’ll be no different this week with us preparing for Fargo.”
— Matthew Semisch
Ohio State Buckeyes
Ohio State sophomore Mason Jobst rang up a team-best 36 assists among a team-high 55 points during the 2016-17 season (photo: Michael Dubicki).
Coach: Steve Rohlik, fourth season at Ohio State, fourth overall
Record: 21-11-6 (11-8-1 B1G, third)
How they got in: At-large bid
Regional seed: Fourth
Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2009
Best NCAA finish: Frozen Four in 1998
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: The Buckeyes are second in the nation in scoring with an average of 3.97 goals per game. Ohio State also has the nation’s top power play, converting 32.5 percent of its chances this season.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: Inconsistent defense has plagued Ohio State this season, and it’ll face a tough test considering the other three teams in the West Regional are in the top 20 in team offense. The Buckeyes’ penalty kill is also near the bottom of the barrel, killing only 74.2 percent of its opportunities this season.
After an eight-year absence, Ohio State is back in the NCAA tournament.
“It’s exciting to get in the door,” Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik said after Sunday’s selection show. “Now we’re excited to maybe try to go make some noise.”
The Buckeyes weren’t a shoe-in for the field of 16, and had to cheer for conference rival Penn State to defeat Wisconsin in the final game of the Big Ten tournament last weekend. The Nittany Lions downed the Badgers in double overtime, giving the final at-large bid to the Buckeyes.
“Watching the games (Saturday) night, it was kind of a weird 24 hours for us emotionally,” OSU senior Nick Schilkey said Sunday. “It was a weird roller coaster of emotions, not really knowing (and) waiting to see the outcome of the games. You always like to have your fate in your own hands, but with how things went, it didn’t turn out that way. It was crazy to watch [Saturday], they went into two overtimes just prolonging the experience, but at the end of the day, we were just really happy to see how it all turned out.”
Schilkey said that team watched the Penn State victory together and admitted that it was weird to root for the Nittany Lions.
This year marks Ohio State’s seventh appearance in the NCAA tournament and is the first under Rohlik.
“It says a lot about everybody in this program – it just didn’t happen this year,” Rohlik said of breaking back into the tournament field. “This has been a work in progress. This is for all the alumni. This is for everybody that’s put a brick in the wall here at Ohio State. We’re just trying to carry on the torch and we’re fortunate enough that we’ve got a chance here in the big dance.”
Rohlik was an assistant coach at Minnesota Duluth, Ohio State’s opponent on Friday, for 10 seasons before heading to Ohio State. He served as an assistant for the Buckeyes before landing the head coaching job in 2013.
“At this point, you have nothing to lose,” Rohlik said. “We know we’re playing one of the best teams in the country. We’ve got to go up there and be our best to five ourselves a chance, and that’s our approach every weekend.”
The Buckeyes are gifted offensively. Sophomore Mason Jobst leads the team in scoring with 55 points. Schilkey is the most dangers goal-scoring threat and he’s lit the lamp 27 times this season. Fellow senior David Gust and sophomore Dakota Joshua have scored 18 and 12 goals, respectively.
“We’re a confident group,” Schilkey said. “And we know that we deserve to be here.”
Senior goaltender Matt Tomkins has started the last five games for the Buckeyes. He has a 2.48 GAA this season with a 12-4-3 record.
While the Buckeyes’ defense has been suspect at times this season, their 2.89 goals allowed per game average puts them in a tie for 30th in the nation – they have kept games close. Six of Ohio State’s 11 losses this season, including its loss to Wisconsin at the Big Ten tournament, have been by one goal.
The Utica Memorial Auditorium first opened in March 1960 (photo: Angelo Lisuzzo).
When the 2017 NCAA Division III men’s hockey championships are held this weekend in the Utica Memorial Auditorium, history will be made for only the second time.
The Aud, as it’s affectionately known, will become the second building to host both the Men’s Division I and Division III hockey championship.
The first was the Lake Placid Olympic Center Arena, now referred to as the Herb Brooks Arena, built for the 1980 Olympics and of course the home of the “Miracle on Ice.” Lake Placid held the Frozen Four in 1984 (Bowling Green over Minnesota Duluth, 5-4, in the famous four-overtime marathon) and 1988 (Lake Superior State beat St. Lawrence, 4-3, again in overtime).
It then became a semi-permanent host for Division III starting in 2008. D-III will return to Lake Placid next year for the seventh time. It also hosted the 2007 women’s Frozen Four (Wisconsin over Minnesota Duluth, 4-1), making it the only building to hold three different college hockey national championships.
The Frozen Four was also held in Lake Placid’s original Olympic Rink built for the 1932 Olympics, now called the Jack Shea Arena, in 1970. That was the year Cornell finished off a 29-0-0 perfect season by beating Clarkson, 6-4.
Now, it’s Utica’s turn.
The Utica Aud was a design ahead of its time. Ground broke in 1957, but the Aud did not open till March 13, 1960, almost exactly three years later. It was the world’s first pre-stressed dual-cable roof system, designed by esteemed architect Lev Zetlin, who also did the New York State Pavilion “Tent of Tomorrow” seen at the 1964 World’s Fair.
This design, which used struts between the cables, influenced many other dome structures, including today’s Madison Square Garden. This design enabled it to be only the third arena at the time without any obstructed views.
The innovative cable suspended roof was finally recognized in 2011 by the American Society of Civil Engineers, designating it a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. New York’s Museum of Modern Art recognizes the arena as an architectural landmark, displaying photos and renderings in its permanent collection.
Two years after opening, the Aud hosted the 1962 Frozen Four. Only four teams qualified for the national tournament at that time. St. Lawrence (ECAC) and Michigan Tech (WCHA) got the automatic bids as conference tournament champions. Another ECAC North Country team, Clarkson, along with WCHA’s Michigan, got the at-large bids.
Clarkson, who was the number one seed in the East, squeaked by Michigan, 5-4, while Michigan Tech had no trouble with St. Lawrence, 6-1. Michigan Tech did one better in the championship game, besting Clarkson 7-1. Michigan beat St. Lawrence, 5-1, in the third-place game.
Red Berenson was a forward on that Michigan squad and made the All Tournament Team. Len Ceglarski was the coach for Clarkson. The Most Outstanding Player was Lou Angotti. John MacInnes was the winning coach.
The attendance for the final game was reported at 4,210 … in a place which lists its hockey capacity at 3,860.
Hockey has played a prominent role in Utica. ACHL, NEHL, UHL, and AHL pro franchises (the Comets being the latest) called the Aud their home over the years. Utica hosted the State high school championship from its inception through 2015. Local high schools use it, as does the Jr. Comets youth program, and, occasionally, Mohawk Valley Community College.
Some of the action scenes in the iconic hockey movie Slap Shot were filmed in the Aud.
College hockey returned to Utica in earnest in 2001 when Utica College formed a men’s and women’s program. Renovations were made to give the college teams their own locker rooms, offices, and training room. The Pioneers have been hugely successful, often selling out the place, leading the nation in Division III attendance many times. This attendance was able to be maintained even after the AHL returned to Utica in 2013.
It was this local support for college hockey that led the NCAA to return a championship after 55 years, putting the Utica Memorial Auditorium in the same company as the Herb Brooks Arena, a company of two.
New York State and college hockey hosting tidbits
– Even though Colorado hosted the most Frozen Fours (thanks to 11 in the Broadmoor Ice Palace) with 14, New York (second with 10) hosted the Frozen Four in more cities (6) and buildings (7) than any other state — the aforementioned three in two buildings in Lake Placid and the one in Utica, twice each in Syracuse (Onondaga War Memorial) and Albany (Knickerbocker Arena/Pepsi Arena now known as Times-Union Center), and once each in Buffalo (HSBC Arena, now KeyBank Center) and Troy (RPI Field House).
– New York also dominates hosting the Division III national championship. Two factors help. One, New York has the most D-III programs, so when the host site was on campus locations, odds were New York would have a team ranked high enough to host. Two, Lake Placid being selected as a neutral site so many times. In total, including 2017 and 2018, New York has hosted 18 times in six different cities in seven different buildings.
– The D-III breakdown for New York hosting, again including the next two years, is Lake Placid (7), RIT (3), Plattsburgh (3), Elmira (2 in Murray Athletic Center and one in First Arena), Union (1), and Utica (1). (Note: the most times an on campus site hosted is Middlebury, Vermont, with four, which they did in two different buildings which held two each.)
– Thanks to Plattsburgh’s and Elmira’s domination in women’s hockey, New York easily leads all the Division III women’s championship hosting categories. New York hosted a total of 11 times in three locations — Plattsburgh (6), Elmira (3), and RIT (2). Those three sites, along with Middlebury and Wisconsin-Superior, have hosted D-III championships in both genders.
– On the flip side, New York only hosted one Women’s Frozen Four, the one in Lake Placid.
A pair of teams from Hockey East will play out East this weekend with a chance to play for a national title in two weeks’ time in Chicago.
Hockey East champion UMass Lowell joins conference mate and at-large bid Notre Dame, in addition to at-large bids Minnesota and Cornell in Manchester, N.H., at the SNHU Arena.
Here’s the schedule for the Northeast Regional, followed by a look at the four teams:
Coach: Don Lucia, 17th season at Minnesota, 29th overall
Record: 23-11-3 (14-5-1 B1G, first)
How they go in: At-large bid
Regional seed: First
Last NCAA appearance: 2015
Best NCAA finish: Champions, 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002, 2003
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: Minnesota has experience at key positions. Seniors Justin Kloos, Vinni Lettieri and Taylor Cammarata all played in the Gophers’ loss to Union in the 2014 NCAA championship game.
Why they won’t get the Frozen Four: Eric Schierhorn has been hit or miss this season in goal and the Gophers can’t afford him having a bad game in the tournament.
After missing out on the NCAA tournament last season, Minnesota left no doubt about whether its season would continue beyond the conference tournament this season.
The Gophers will be part of the tournament for a NCAA-record 37th time. The Gophers also became the first team in NCAA history to win six consecutive regular-season conference championships this season.
“We have the highest of expectations,” senior captain Justin Kloos said of getting back into the NCAA tournament. “So I don’t know if we’re trying to prove anything to anyone other than ourselves. We’ve been through a lot and we just want to play our best hockey at the end of the year.”
Tyler Sheehy, this year’s Big Ten player of the year, led the Gophers with 53 points (20 goals, 33 assists). Kloos and fellow senior Vinni Lettieri both scored 18 goals this season.
Goaltender Eric Schierhorn posted a 23-11-3 record with a 2.60 GAA and a .908 save percentage.
Minnesota lost its first game at the Big Ten tournament in double overtime to Penn State, but had an NCAA tournament berth in the bag going into the game.
“It was tough to lose in double overtime on Friday, but the blessing is that we knew we were in the tournament,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “The extra day off was probably good for us. We’ve talked about how we haven’t had an off week the whole second half and some guys talked about they felt their legs a little bit on Friday.”
Along with the extra bit of rest, Lucia said he liked the way Minnesota played in the 4-3 loss.
“When I watched the video, I thought that as the game progressed, our play improved,” Lucia said of the loss to Penn State.
Minnesota will play Notre Dame in its first NCAA tournament game this season, a team that the Gophers have history with in more ways than one. They didn’t play their future conference rival this year, but did the four previous seasons. Lucia played at Notre Dame from 1977 to 1981 and his son Mario skated for the Irish from 2012 to 2016.
“It’s a very good regional, and a great matchup for us to start with against Notre Dame,” Lucia said. “We know them, and they know us. We’re excited to get back into the tournament and compete for a national championship.”
The Gophers nabbed the final No. 1 seed in this year’s tournament, but that doesn’t mean the road to Chicago is easy. Minnesota may have the more national championships and Frozen Four appearances compared to the other teams in the region, but the fact that its last title was 14 years ago is evidence of how hard it has become to win four consecutive games at the end of the season.
“What’s the old adage this time of year? Survive and advance,” Lucia said. “It doesn’t matter how you do it. You’ve got to find a way to try and win the game the first day and move forward and prep for whoever you play in Game 2.”
— Drew Claussen
UMass Lowell River Hawks
Joe Gambardella is atop the UMass Lowell scoring charts with 51 points on the year (photo: Melissa Wade).
Coach: Norm Bazin, sixth season at UMass Lowell, ninth overall
Record: 26-10-3 (14-7-1 Hockey East, tied-first)
How they got in: Hockey East playoff champions
Regional seed: Second
Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2016
Best NCAA finish: Third place, 2013
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: This is a deep team both offensively and defensively that can score with four lines and attack aggressively from the point. It also has a potent power play that changes games. This may be Lowell’s deepest scoring team of all time.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: There still is a little bit of inexperience that at times can change momentum in games. When Lowell is successful it is aggressive but if it falls into a shell, it’s not a good formula. Tyler Wall is the all-time wins leader among rookie goaltenders at Lowell but you still have to worry about inexperience from a natural freshman.
Just seven years ago, UMass Lowell was one of college hockey’s afterthoughts.
But six seasons, five NCAA tournament appearance, two regular-season titles, five consecutive Hockey East tournament game appearances and three Lamoriello Trophies has changed that thinking a bit.
Certainly the culture of the program, the engagement of the fan base and the ability to seek and find top talent exists.
That, though, makes the logical next step a national title.
In 2013, the team was close. A 3-2 overtime loss to eventual champion Yale in the national semifinal is the closest this school, currently celebrating its 50th year of hockey, has come.
Before there is a national title, though, returning to the Frozen Four is the eminent goal.
If the River Hawks return, they’ll take the same Yellow Brick Road that paves its way through nearby Manchester, N.H. That was the region that Lowell dominated in 2013 and that is the path to Chicago again this year.
But coach Norm Bazin, in his sixth season with the program, is a realist who knows it won’t be easy.
“Every team that’s in the NCAA’s is a great team,” Bazin said. “We’re pleased to be able to bring a lot of our fans to Manchester. That’s a big bonus for us.
“We’ll have a lot of homework to do. But after we do our due diligence, we know we’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game to have any opportunity at success.”
That ‘A’ game has shone through the later part of this season. Aside from a four-game skid at the end of January, the River Hawks won 18 of 19 games, including a 5-1 win over Notre Dame in the Hockey East semifinals and a 4-3 edge-of-your-seat victory over Boston College in the title game.
Similar to 2013, this year’s Lowell team has succeeded through depth. While the top line of Joe Gambardella, C.J. Smith and John Edwardh have been the offensive catalyst at times, all four lines have proven scoring talent, particularly the all-freshman line of Colin O’Neill, Ryan Lohin and Kenny Hausinger.
When asked what has made the difference, not just this year but in Bazin’s six seasons on Lowell’s campus, the Hockey East Coach of the Year points to belief.
“Our whole school is ecstatic,” said Bazin. “We’ve done it with great kids and these kids believe. Before you succeed you have to believe. I really think believes they can do it.”
“Doing it” this weekend would mean a trip to Chicago. And there, Lowell can certain take its next giant leap to college hockey greatness.
— Jim Connelly
Cornell Big Red
Jared Fiegl has played in all 34 games this season for Cornell (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).
Coach: Mike Schafer, 22nd year at Cornell and overall
Record: 21-8-5 (13-4-5 ECAC Hockey, third)
How they got in: At-large bid
Regional seed: Third
Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2012
Best NCAA finish: Champion, 1967, 1970
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: This is one of the most balanced Big Red teams in recent years; Cornell is solid in all aspects of the game.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: Despite being a better skating team than in years past, Cornell can still have trouble against teams with speed, as it did in the ECAC title game against Harvard.
In addition to making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2012, Cornell is also ready to showcase a new style of play it didn’t feature the last time it was on the national stage.
In this past, the Big Red has been typecast as a lumbering, defense-first team. Senior goalie Mitch Gillam and a steady defensive group lend creditably to the latter characterization, but the Big Red have adapted to the changes in college hockey by adding more speed to its lineup.
Cornell’s freshman class features several smaller players who can skate, including defenseman Yanni Kaldis.
“The physicality is gone out of the game,” Big Red coach Mike Schafer said earlier this season. “Everything is gone out of the game. You can’t get into anybody anymore, so you have to be quicker and you have to be faster. We want to still play the same kind of hockey; I just think that speed will help us.”
It did last Friday, as Cornell beat Union 4-1 and quieted the Dutchmen’s explosive trio of Mike Vecchione, Spencer Foo and Sebastian Vidmar.
Cornell was able to do that thanks in part do that thanks in part to a variety of multi-talented players in its lineup.
Senior forward Jake Weidner was named ECAC Hockey’s top defensive forward and is an excellent faceoff man. Sophomore Mitch Vanderlaan led the Big Red with 15 goals and also plays an important role on the penalty kill, while senior defenseman Patrick McCarron has matched his career total of 25 points this season.
With Gillam (.921 save percentage) solid in net, and an increased emphasis on speed throughout its lineup, the Big Red could make a push for its first Frozen Four berth since 2003.
“Look at Yale, they’ve been a great defensive team,” Schafer said earlier this year when talking about one of ECAC Hockey’s top national contenders in recent seasons prior to slumping this year. “They’ve always been a team that’s got great skating speed and they stay above you. It’s teams like that have had success on the national level and that’s where Cornell belongs. We want to get back to that level and to do that, we’ve got to switch up. We’re in transition. We’ve got some guys who are good sized, but we’ve got to make a transition and make sure that an ingredient in our recruiting is speed.”
— Nate Owen
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Hockey Humanitarian Award finalist Anders Bjork tied for the Notre Dame team lead with 19 goals this season and leads the Fighting Irish with 47 points (photo: Mike Miller/Fighting Irish Media).
Coach: Jeff Jackson, 12th season at Notre Dame, 18th overall
Record: 21-11-5 (12-6-4 Hockey East, fourth)
How they got in: At-large bid
Regional seed: Fourth
Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2016
Best NCAA finish: Runner-up, 2008
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: The Irish system favors playing as front-runners, so if they can grab the leads and establish their forecheck, they can be very difficult to beat. Similarly, goaltender Cal Petersen has been known to steal a few games.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: The Irish can get pushed off their game at times by teams that can play fast and physical. Also, this Notre Dame team hasn’t fared well outside of the confines of the Compton Family Arena, so they need to prove they can succeed away from home.
Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson knows going into the NCAA tournament that he has the horses to compete and win. Even if that didn’t show last weekend in the Hockey East tournament.
Jackson’s bunch were pretty hot coming into the TD Garden, having swept Providence the weekend prior and came within a game of winning the Hockey East regular-season title outright (they instead finished fourth).
But he’s also aware that the effort Notre Dame put forth against UMass Lowell, a potential opponent in the regional final for the Irish if they can get past top-seeded Minnesota on Saturday, things have to improve.
“It boils down to our game with the puck,” said Jackson. “That’s where we got in trouble with UMass Lowell.
“Our forwards if they do a good job with the puck, minimize the mistakes that put our defense and goaltender in a difficult position.”
What the Irish will focus on this week are the positive from a strong second half of the season and what the team did right to have success.
“At this point in the season, it doesn’t matter who you play,” said Jackson. “It’s more about you or your game.
“The last six weeks has been a grind for us. We’ve had to play some very tough teams. We weren’t happy with the way things finished out in Boston, but we had a really good second half, especially the last six weeks.”
That said, its opponent in Saturday’s opener, Minnesota, is one that is familiar from the recent past – Notre Dame has played Minnesota each of the last four seasons – and will become more familiar moving forward when Notre Dame joins the Big Ten next season.
“But we’ve seen Minnesota each of the last four years,” said Jackson. “We know the quality of team that they are and the things they bring to the table.
“I think they’re very skilled and they play with pace. They’ve got a lot of weapons. They’re not a one- or two-line team.”
Sophomore captain Luke Kunin led Wisconsin with 38 points during the 2016-17 season (photo: Jim Rosvold/University of Minnesota).
The Minnesota Wild announced Thursday the signing of Wisconsin sophomore forward Luke Kunin to a three-year, entry-level contract starting with the 2017-18 season.
He will report to the Iowa Wild of the AHL on an amateur tryout agreement for the remainder of this season.
Kunin totaled 38 points (22 goals, 16 assists) and 30 penalty minutes in 35 games during his sophomore season with the Badgers, leading the team in goals, points, power-play goals (9) and shots (112), tied for first in short-handed goals (2) and tied for third in game-winning goals (2), all while serving as Wisconsin’s first sophomore captain in 41 years.
He also served as the captain of Team USA at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship, helping the U.S. capture a gold medal.
Originally selected by Minnesota in the first round (15th overall) of the 2016 NHL Draft, Kunin totaled 70 points (41 goals, 29 assists) and 32 PIM in 69 career games during his two seasons at Wisconsin.
Minnesota Duluth’s Hunter Miska is the lone freshman among the five finalists for the Mike Richter Award (photo: Jim Rosvold).
The five finalists for the 2017 Mike Richter Award, which honors the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA men’s Division I hockey, were announced Thursday.
The fourth annual award will be presented at the Frozen Four in two weeks in Chicago.
Player's Name
Class
School
Stats
Michael Bitzer
Jr.
Bemidji State
22-14-3, 1.71, .932
Tanner Jaillet
Jr.
Denver
24-5-4, 1.82, .930
Hunter Miska
Fr.
Minnesota Duluth
24-4-5, 2.23, .917
Cal Petersen
Jr.
Notre Dame
21-11-5, 2.14, .928
Charles Williams
Sr.
Canisius
21-7-5, 1.82, .943
Past winners of the award include Thatcher Demko (Boston College, 2016), Zane McIntyre (North Dakota, 2015) and Connor Hellebuyck (UMass Lowell, 2014).
Candidates for the award were determined by nominations from all 60 NCAA Division I men’s hockey head coaches. The 10 semifinalists, five finalists and winner are selected by a committee of coaches, scouts and members of the media.
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: Denver has the top defense in the country, giving up only 1.80 goals per game, and has incredibly talented offensive players that can score highlight-reel goals.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: While the forwards are talented, they are young, and as North Dakota proved, if you can keep them in check they can get frustrated. Even keeping a team to a single goal might not be enough in that scenario.
For the second straight year, Denver entered the Frozen Faceoff as the hottest team in the country and this year, the Pioneers had won 13 straight. For the second straight year, the Pioneers also lost the Friday game. This time, they fell 1-0 to North Dakota, as Denver’s vaunted offense struggled, getting only 12 shots through two periods.
Questioned about whether being on that big stage may have impacted his young talented forwards, coach Jim Montgomery stated the experience was valuable.
“I think the experience of being back in that single-elimination game was great for our entire team,” Montgomery said. “I thought our young players, our freshmen especially, played well in that game. I thought that (Liam) Finlay, (Michael) Davies and (Henrik) Borgstrom were three of our better players. To me, I thought it was our veteran players needed to assert themselves more. I think if you look that any time a team wins a championship, it’s those veteran players that have to come through because they’ve been there before. Our veteran players have been to Minneapolis four times, and have been all the way to a Frozen Four, so they are the ones that need to lead with confidence for us.”
After losing to North Dakota, Denver rested its top four scorers and its starting goaltender (Tanner Jaillet) for the consolation game, but still emerged with a 3-1 win over Western Michigan to guarantee the top seed for the NCAA tournament. The power play came through with a key goal, and the penalty kill was outstanding in both games, killing all opposing power-play chances, four in each game.
However, Montgomery does see room for improvement on the power play.
“I think our attitude as a team and commitment to team defense, led by our ‘D’ corps, has been great all year,” said Montgomery. “I think the attitude of our game that needs to improve, and you talk about our youth up front, it hurts us. We don’t have the same attitude of being hard to play against offensively as we do defensively, and you see it in special teams. Our penalty kill was really good all weekend long, and in the North Dakota game, our power play wasn’t. That’s where you have to get through to your skilled forwards that they have to play hard in order to be rewarded with success.”
Denver is the top seed in the Midwest Regional. First up is Michigan Tech, and Montgomery and his players remember how a different WCHA team gave them fits last year, and expects an even sterner test.
“The only thing we control is getting prepared to play against a Michigan Tech team that we know is very dangerous,” said Montgomery. “I’ve already watched a game of theirs and you can see why they are successful. They have a really good ‘D’ corps, a freshman goalie (Angus Redmond) that’s playing great, and they have four really balanced lines that really are tenacious and come at you. We know if we compare to last year, this team is better than the Ferris State team that we were tied at 3-3 with six minutes left last year.”
— Candace Horgan
Union Dutchmen
Union’s Mike Vecchione leads the nation with a 1.68 points-per-game average with 62 points in 37 games thus far for the Dutchmen (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).
Coach: Rick Bennett, sixth season at Union and overall
Record: 25-9-3 (16-4-2 ECAC Hockey tied for first)
How they got in: At-large bid
Regional seed: Second
Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2014
Best NCAA finish: Champions, 2014
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: The duo of Mike Vecchione and Spencer Foo are among the most dynamic players in the country.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: Defense. Union allows 2.78 goals per game, 26th in the nation among Division I teams.
After tying with Harvard for first place in ECAC Hockey during the regular season, Union lost a chance at an outright playoff title last weekend with a 4-1 loss to Cornell in the semifinals.
But that loss to the Big Red may have been just what the Dutchmen needed heading into the NCAA tournament.
Coach Rick Bennett said after that loss that his team may have underestimated Cornell.
“We total got outplayed by that team,” said Bennett. “We’re off next week, so hopefully we can get the guys’ attention, and I believe we will, rebound and move forward.”
Union is fourth in the country in scoring and is three years removed from one of the most dominant runs in recent NCAA tournament history en route to the school’s first national title.
That was followed by a pair of subpar seasons that saw the Dutchmen not only fall out of the national tournament picture, but the top of the standings in ECAC Hockey as well.
Earlier this year, Bennett said he and his coaching staff made some adjustments and focused more on improving themselves instead of looking at their opponent.
Those changes have paid off, as Union avoided the slumps of the previous two years and enters the NCAA tournament with one loss in its last eight games.
Forward Mike Vecchione, the nation’s leading scorer, was a freshman on that team and has earned the trust of the coaching staff to play in virtually all situations. He’s also one of the top faceoff men in the country.
Vecchione has played much of the season with Spencer Foo (60 points) and Sebastian Vidmar (40 points), although Foo has been split from the trio for the last month. Those three account for nearly half of Union’s goals scored this season, so how secondary scorers such as Cole Maier (15 goals) or Brett Supinski (36 points) perform in the playoffs could helped determine how far the Dutchmen go.
The Dutchmen’s 2014 national title team featured a dynamic puck-moving defensive group led by Mat Bodie and current Philadelphia Flyers blueliner Shayne Gostisbehere. This year’s group might not be quite as explosive, but still has puck-mover Jeff Taylor (33 points) and Nick DeSimone (nine goals) with the ability to generate offense from the back end.
Goalie Alex Sakellaropoulos’ numbers may not stand out, but his important to the Dutchmen was underscored when the senior missed four games with an injury earlier in the season – Union was 2-2 in those games.
If things go as planned for Union over the next few weeks, Sakellaropoulos and his classmates could end their collegiate careers the same way they started them – as national champions.
— Nate Owen
Penn State Nittany Lions
Andrew Sturtz led Penn State with 21 goals during the 2016-17 campaign (photo: Michael Dubicki).
Coach: Guy Gadowsky, fifth season at Penn State, 17th overall
Record: 24-11-2 (13-9-1-0 Big Ten, fourth)
How they got in: Big Ten playoff champions
Regional seed: Third
Last NCAA appearance: This is Penn State’s first NCAA appearance
Best NCAA finish: N/A
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: Their newfound smothering defense and more stamina than any team in the field.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: It’s hard to follow up back-to-back double-overtime performances with play at the same level.
After a first half that positioned Penn State to flirt for a week with the top spot in the PairWise Rankings and a first place in the USCHO.com Poll, the Nittany Lions returned to play among the mere mortals as Big Ten play began in earnest in 2017.
Entering the Big Ten playoff tournament last weekend as a team on the PWR bubble, the Nittany Lions knew that two wins would likely earn them their first NCAA playoff berth. Three wins, though, meant a championship, and that’s exactly what Penn State did, playing through No. 1 seed Minnesota and No. 2 seed Wisconsin to do it.
And they needed 13 periods of hockey, taking the Golden Gophers and the Badgers to secure that playoff championship, the first for a program in only its fifth year of varsity play.
“They’re pretty tired,” PSU coach Guy Gadowsky said on Monday.
In Saturday’s 2-1 title win against Wisconsin, the Nittany Lions looked understandably gassed at in both overtimes, but they never made the kind of silly mistakes that come from fatigue and lead to defeat. A big question about Penn State’s appearance in the Midwest Regional is how well the team will recover. Fortunately for the Nittany Lions, the games in Cincinnati begin Saturday, giving them an extra day to prepare.
Another advantage, said Gadowsky, is the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Cam Davidson.
“Cam Davidson is the MVP of that weekend for sure,” said Gadowsky. “So we have that kind of faith in him. I know he’ll have them ready to go by the weekend.”
Penn State’s inconsistent season made them a dark horse of the Big Ten tournament. They contended for the regular-season title but struggled in the second half. The Nittany Lions were 5-7-0 in their last dozen games to end the regular season – and every loss was to a team that they beat in last weekend’s tournament.
In both overtime games, Penn State’s freshman class received the most attention. Liam Folkes had the goal Saturday that gave the Nittany Lions the title, assisted by classmate Brandon Biro. Denis Smirnov had the assist on Friday’s OT winner, scored by junior Erik Autio. And Peyton Jones made save after save against the Minnesota and Wisconsin offenses.
“It’s great to see in such important games like this,” said Gadowsky. “They’ve exceeded all of our expectations. Obviously, there are no freshmen now, and because of that I give a lot of credit to the upperclassmen to bring them along so quickly.”
Gadowsky credits the seniors for more than leadership off the ice. Senior forward Dylan Richard made plays that led to both overtime goals, said Gadowsky.
“I thought Dylan Richard was the best player in both overtimes and that line just seemed to have the most jump,” Gadowsky said.
With a young program and a big freshman class, that leadership is key to Penn State’s success in the NCAA tournament.
“The mentality of the leaders is what’s going to really shape it,” said Gadowsky. “And I have a lot of faith that they will approach it the right way. I don’t think I have to worry about how they will represent themselves.”
Gadowsky said that regardless of what’s at stake this weekend, he and his staff want the Nittany Lions to appreciate the moment.
“I will tell you that it is really hard to get there – we know that,” said Gadowsky. “We’re going to enjoy it. It’s a business trip, but we’re really going to enjoy it because we know how hard it is to get there.”
— Paula C. Weston
Michigan Tech Huskies
Shane Hanna has skated in all 44 games for Michigan Tech this season and has contributed eight goals and 26 points from the blue line (photo: Jim Rosvold).
Coach: Mel Pearson, sixth season at Michigan Tech and overall
Record: 24-14-7 (15-7-6 WCHA, second)
How they got in: WCHA playoff champions
Regional seed: Fourth
Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2015
Best NCAA finish: Champions, 1962, 1965, 1975
Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four: Unlike their last tournament appearance — Tech’s first since 1981, well before the players on the team were born — this team knows what it’s like to win, and it knows what it’s like to get here. They’ve also played more games than any team still alive in the tournament thanks to the WCHA’s new playoff format. They’re battle-tested and have been in playoff mode for an extra week.
Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four: They’re the No. 16 seed for a reason. Although the Huskies have been good, they likely haven’t seen a team like Denver this season.
Michigan Tech’s 3-2 double-overtime victory over Bowling Green in the WCHA championship game last Saturday in Houghton, Mich., will perhaps go down as one of the all-time best in league history.
Bowling Green had rallied from a 2-0 third-period deficit to tie things up and send it into overtime. Then defenseman Shane Hanna became the hero for the Huskies, scoring the game-winner 6 minutes, 25 seconds into the second OT period.
The fact that it was at home, in front of more than 4,000 partisan Huskies fans, made it all the more special for Tech to raise its first-ever Broadmoor Trophy. The fans even stormed the ice after the game.
Now, coach Mel Pearson said his team has to find a way to to get beyond the WCHA title game hangover and focus on their NCAA tournament Midwest Regional matchup with top-seeded Denver.
“It was a great night for us, but now we have to move beyond that,” Pearson said.
That the Huskies are back in the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years might not have been a surprise in the preseason, when they were picked to finish second overall in the league.
But Tech stumbled out of the gate, winning just once in its first eight games. That set the Huskies back in the standings and allowed Bemidji State — who wound up as the league’s regular-season champions — to pull out far ahead.
All of that was before Pearson settled on his No. 1 goalie. The Huskies used Devin Kero and Matt Wintjes in their first eight games of the season and gave up 28 goals in that span.
But after a loss and a tie at Michigan, Pearson decided to put freshman Angus Redmond in the crease for next week’s series against rivals Northern Michigan. Redmond — or “Beef,” as he is known — won 2-0 and 5-1 and the starting job has been his ever since.
The Huskies went 10-3-1 over their next 15 games and Redmond is 22-9-5 as a starter overall. He’s also second in the country in GAA (1.76) with four shutouts in 37 games played.
Offensively, the Huskies have been solid. They’ve scored 129 goals this season, but have poured it on recently, netting 26 goals during their six-game WCHA playoff run. Twelve different players have scored at least one of those.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who have scored in the past couple weeks,” Pearson said. “I think we had 11 different guys score against Lake State (in the first round). We’re getting timely scoring from a lot of people. We have a lot of different people that can score, and that’s what makes us dangerous.”
Hanna, Jake Jackson and Joel L’Esperance scored for Tech against BG, while Gavin Gould had four goals — including a hat trick — in Tech’s semifinal series win over Minnesota State.
The Huskies know they’re going to need contributions from everyone playing well this weekend against Denver.
“They were a Frozen Four team last year [and] they have a lot of guys back,” Pearson said. “They’re built to win and they’re built to win now.”
The former WCHA rivals used to play often. Pearson mentioned their WCHA Final Five game in 2012, when the Pioneers beat the Huskies 3-2 in overtime and said he’s excited to play them once again.
“[One of the] last times we played them, we had a real good game in the playoffs,” he said. “We’ve had some really good games with them and I’m looking forward to sort of renewing that rivalry.”
The Adrian Bulldogs made program history this year, advancing to the national title game and hosting the final weekend. Six different Adrian skaters finished in the top 12 in scoring nationally, including freshman defender Kelly O’Sullivan.
The NCHA freshman of the year, O’Sullivan finished the season among the best in the country. She was first in scoring among rookies and third in scoring among blueliners, and was named an ACHA first-team All-American. Her 26 assists were best among freshmen and tied for eighth overall in the country. The next-closest freshman defenseman trailed O’Sullivan by 19 points in the national rankings. She had 11 multi-point games, including a three-point game in the final series of the year against Lake Forest.
On an already potent offense, O’Sullivan carved out a spot as a threat from the blue line. She and linemate Sydney Smith combined for 22 goals and 54 assists. She finished the season with a plus-48 rating (fourth-best on the team), having scored two game-winning goals and amassing 129 shots on goal for the season.
She was named to the Panther/Cardinal Classic All-Tournament team after tallying two power-play goals in the first period to help lift Adrian over Utica and was also named to the D3hockey.com National Team of the Week for her performance.
Adrian completed the first-ever unbeaten and untied season in NCHA history, going 18-0-0. They won their third-consecutive NCHA regular season title and second-consecutive tournament championship Slaats Cup. She had three assists in the regular-season title-clinching series against Lake Forest and added a goal and two assists over the course of the playoffs.
Congratulations to Kelly O’Sullivan, the USCHO Division III rookie of the year.
Listed on the roster at 5-feet-5 and 165 pounds, senior Tyler Piacentini plays much bigger on the ice for the No. 1 Norwich Cadets. Entering this weekend’s Frozen Four, Piacentini, a two-time captain, is excited to have reached the Frozen Four for the first time in his four years with the Cadets, but feels there is yet more to achieve starting on Friday night against Adrian.
“None of us had been to a Frozen Four in our time at Norwich,” noted Piacentini. “It really means a lot to the team and especially to our seniors, who have been close but not able to get here like other teams in recent years. Last season was not a typical one for us with our overall record and early exit from the conference playoffs. Injuries and other things happen, but we make no excuses and none of us were happy with the results. It was important for us to bounce back this season and all of the hard work and dedication from the upperclassmen and the great recruits coach (Mike) McShane and coach (Steve) Mattson have brought in helped bring it all together.”
Since November 18, 2016, or 25 games ago, the Cadets are unbeaten entering the Frozen Four. They bring four lines that are contributing offensively, led by forwards William Pelletier and Kevin Salvucci with 43 and 36 points respectively, and have the added punch from Cody Smith on the blue line, who has added 33 points this season. Piacentini, who sees a lot of ice team in all situations, has 15 goals this season and most importantly, five game-winning goals for the Cadets.
“We are going well right now with all four lines chipping in,” said Piacentini. “Our D-men are playing great and we have two goalies that have just been able to focus on doing their job with the five guys in front of them doing theirs. We are going in focused on the game on Friday night and hope we have two more games in our season.”
Knowing that this edition of Norwich hockey hasn’t been to the Frozen Four, Piacentini isn’t worried about his team playing on the big stage or smaller ice surface than the friendly confines of Kreitzberg Arena.
“We have a very tight and mature group,” said Piacentini. “There are a lot of guys that could be wearing letters on their jerseys, so leadership and work ethic are qualities that all of our players bring to the ice along with just being super competitive. We love playing at home and on a bigger surface, but we have had success on smaller ice surfaces all season as the visiting team. In Utica, we will have to adjust a little bit but it won’t have much of an impact on our game. We are very excited to play.”
The Cadets face Adrian in the second semifinal on Friday evening, with the winner moving on to Saturday’s national championship game. The focus is on Adrian, but the Norwich captain fully expects his team to be playing in two games this weekend to close out the season.
Trinity forward Sean Orlando (David B. Newman/David B. Newman Photography)
Orlando and Bantams looking for more big game magic
Two seasons ago, the Trinity Bantams won the national championship over last year’s title holders from Wisconsin-Stevens Point by a 5-2 score, and the first goal of the game was scored by Sean Orlando. This year, the senior leads the Bantams in scoring and a return to the Frozen Four, where he and his teammates hope to add a second national championship to their resume as the most successful senior class in Trinity hockey history.
Orlando and the Bantams have turned up their game at the crucial point of the season, and the senior forward has been a key offensive weapon in Trinity’s playoff run, including the NESCAC tournament and NCAA tournament leading into the Frozen Four. In five tournament games, (three NESCAC and two NCAA) Orlando has recorded five goals and two assists for seven points to lead the team. He scored the first two goals in the win over Plattsburgh in an NCAA first-round game before adding the key tying goal against Endicott in a game the Bantams won 2-1 in double overtime.
“Sean is a special, special player,” stated coach Matt Greason. “Along with Ryan [Cole], he brings great experience and is a calming presence with the team in addition to being so talented on the ice. Sean’s first goal against Plattsburgh showed off his amazing talent after he walked through two defensemen and roofed a backhander over the goalie. Not many players make that play at this level anywhere in the country.”
Fellow seniors Ethan Holdaway (8-13-21) and Brandon (8-12-20) and Ryan Cole (13-19-32) have also been key performers in the balanced attack that has the team scoring better than four goals per game. The scoring across the lines and an effective power play that have emerged in the second half of the season are two aspects of Trinity’s game that don’t have them worried about matching up with anyone, including Friday afternoon’s opponent, St. Norbert.
“Skill and talent sometimes become barriers to success,” said Greason. “Early in the year, we were looking for easy offense. We thought skill alone was going to create the pretty highlight-reel goals. We needed to get to the hard areas and score some ugly goals and make the commitment to making that the foundation of our success. Once we got there, that was where the skill took over and if you look at our win over Endicott, the two goals may have gone a total of four feet off sticks into the net.”
The Bantams’ last loss dates back to Feb. 3 against Williams. Since then, they are 10-0-0 and have outscored their opponents 46-14, including six games where they have scored at least four goals in recording a win. While the offense has been great, equal credit should be given to the defensive group and goaltending of Alex Morin, who has backstopped the current win streak.
Morin out-dueled Endicott’s Kevin Aldridge in last weekend’s quarterfinal win, stopping 49 of 50 shots faced, and the team has immense confidence in playing in front of him. The Frozen Four is a new experience for the Bantams’ netminder, but is a stage that all of his coaches and teammates think the junior will embrace with his competitive drive come game time Friday afternoon.
“Alex does not lack any confidence,” noted Greason. “He needed to be great to beat a very, very good Endicott team and outlast a great effort by their goaltender. I don’t worry about Alex in any crease in any game setting. He is a competitor, and as I said before we wouldn’t want to go into battle with anyone else between the pipes.”
For the seniors, this is the last chance for a national championship, but also a familiar environment for those that led the way in 2015 and hoisted the trophy in Minnesota. For Orlando and this group of seniors, a case of history repeating itself would be a most welcome weekend in Utica.
Blake Thompson of St. Norbert (St. Norbert Athletics)
St. Norbert is headed to the Frozen Four this week, and it’s a familiar place for the Green Knights, who are in it for the 11th time in the last 15 years, winning four national titles along the way. They advanced with a thrilling 4-3 overtime win over Augsburg and now play 2015 national champion Trinity Friday in the national semifinals.
The stage will be a little bigger, but that is the extent of what changes for the Green Knights.
“We’ll do what we have done every other week this year, and that’s get ready for a Friday tilt,” St. Norbert coach Tim Coghlin said. “We’ll do the same thing we do for any other opponent, and that’s dig as deep as we can to learn about them.”
At the same time, Coghlin understands the importance of this weekend.
“It’s a special circumstance for sure,” Coghlin said. “It’s something you hope all players get a chance to experience.”
The Green Knights, who are 22-5-1, last won a national title in 2014. They were the national runner-up a year ago. Roman Uchyn’s overtime goal against the Auggies last Saturday has St. Norbert just two wins away from a championship.
Taking the next step means getting past Trinity, which needed two overtimes to skate past Endicott, 2-1, in its national quarterfinal game last weekend. The Bantams are 20-6-3.
“We don’t know a ton about Trinity,” Coghlin said. “The biggest wow factor about them is the last time they won it, they beat a good Adrian team and a good Stevens Point team. Those are two teams we know very well because we play them a lot. They have 13 upperclassmen, all of whom played the last time they won a championship. Hats off to them. They look like a team on a mission.”
St. Norbert has a great deal of experience as well. Eleven players on the roster are either juniors or seniors. Only two players on the roster are freshman.
The Green Knights are the only team back in the Frozen Four for the second consecutive year, which speaks volumes about the program.
“It tells you how hard it is to make it back,” Coghlin said. “We have guys we hope we can rely on from last year because they have experience. They will have to step up their games.”
Experience only goes so far. Intangibles come into play as well in a team’s quest to win a title.
“To win at this time of the year, you need that “it” factor,” Coghlin said. “We don’t know what “it” is. Sometimes it’s goaltending, sometimes it’s the power play or penalty kill, and sometimes one team is more committed than the other. And sometimes it’s all of those things together.”
The Green Knights have been phenomenal on both ends of the ice. They have cranked out 107 goals, including 13 by Tanner Froese. Uchyn and Riley Christiansen have tallied 11 apiece.
Then there is the tough-to-crack defense that has given up only 45 goals. T.J. Black leads the way in goal, giving up only 24 goals. He has won 17 games.
“We lead the nation in goals-against, and our success starts there,” Coghlin said. “We try to play a 200-foot game offensively and defensively. We know we have to bring our A game to have a chance to win at this time of the year.”
Bulldogs punch ticket to Frozen Four
A year ago, Adrian had its dreams of a national title dashed in a 5-2 national quarterfinal loss to Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
The Bulldogs found themselves matched up with the Pointers again Saturday night in another NCAA quarterfinal showdown. This time, the result was different, with Adrian rolling to a 6-3 win to punch a ticket to its fourth Frozen Four in program history.
Trevor Boyd scored twice. He also dished out an assist. Kyle Brothers and Connor Armour tallied two assists apiece, and Kevin Entmaa, one of the best young goalies in the country, made a career-best 39 saves.
The game was tied entering the third period. Boyd broke the tie just over six minutes into the third period and the Bulldogs never looked back. Cory Dunn and Austin Harvey added goals to finish off the win. Entmaa played a crucial role in that third period as well, helping to swing the momentum in favor of the Bulldogs by stopping all 15 shots the Pointers took in the period.
Entmaa now has 15 wins, the most in his career in a season, and the Bulldogs, who are 20-6-2, are off to the national semifinals for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
Beating the reigning national champs is quite an accomplishment. The next challenge is taking down the top-ranked team in the land in Norwich, which owns a 25-1-3 record and a 23-game unbeaten streak.
Although it won’t be easy, the Bulldogs are more than capable of beating the Cadets and getting a shot at the program’s first title. Three players have tallied more than 30 points, including Dunn, who has nine goals and 27 assists. Boyd is the leading goal scorer with 18, and has dished out 17 assists as well.
Then there is Brothers, who has come through with eight goals and 27 assists. Ten other players have racked up at least 11 points, and Entmaa has been phenomenal in goal, making 541 saves in 23 starts. He has fashioned a 2.18 goals-against average.
After back-to-back losses to NCHA rival St. Norbert, Adrian has won eight of its last nine. The only loss during that stretch was to the rival Green Knights in the conference title game.
The two teams could meet for a fourth time in the national championship, as both are in the Frozen Four. Even if they don’t play for a championship against each other, Coghlin will be the first to tell you it’s impressive that two teams from the same conference are in the Frozen Four.
“It’s a big deal,” Coghlin said. “It speaks well for the NCHA and how competitive that league is from top to bottom. It’s great to have two teams represent our league in the Frozen Four.”
