The Frozen Four is set, and the entries in our pool ran the gamut on these four teams from heavily favored, to nearly not chosen at all, to make it to this point.  Three of the games were solid shows of strength by the winners, and one was a tense fight to get the final decision.

Union College controlled the game with UMass-Lowell early, with Daniel Ciampini scoring a goal just three minutes into the first, and holding the Riverhawks scoreless through the period.  Union got on the scoreboard again early in the second on a Jeremy Welsh goal, but UMass-Lowell was not going to go away, as seven minutes later Terrence Wallin scored to make it a 2-1 game.  And just three minutes later, Unon’s Josh Jooris made it 3-1 on a power play opportunity.  In the third, Union’s sense of safety in this game was taken away with an early Lowell goal by Matt Farreira, and the Riverhawks struggled and fought, trying to tie it up for the next fourteen minutes, and eventually sending out an extra attacker.  Unon’s Kyle Bodie found the empty net with a minute to go to make the final 4-2, Union, and to send the Dutchmen to Tampa to the Frozen Four, Thursday, April 5th.  Friday and Saturday Union earned its first two NCAA playoff wins in the history of their program, having only been in the tournament once before, and that was last year when they lost in the first round to UMD.  You have to admit that it’s amazing to see a small, liberal arts college getting this far into the tournament, and especially with the way Union has been playing — they have not fluked into thier wins in any way, and in fact are playing powerful, big time hockey.  It’s good for the sport to see a real challenge to what appear to be the normally accepted conventions.

Union was favored to make it to the Frozen Four by 11 of 31 entries in our pool.

Ferris State and Cornell battled for two complete scoreless periods on Saturday.  In the third, Ferris State’s Garrett Thompson broke the deadlock with a power play goal right at the start of the period, to put Ferris State up 1-0.  But only a minute later, Cornell came back to tie it up at 1-1 on a goal by Dustin Mowery.  Five minutes later a goal by Ferris State’s Jordie Johnston again broke the deadlock, and this time it was for good, as Ferris State prevailed, 2-1, and earned a berth in the Frozen Four in Tampa, Florida, on Thrusday, April 5th.

This would have to rank as a huge upset in our pool, or at least an unexpected result, as only two entries out of 31 picked Ferris State to advance to the Frozen Four.

Minnesota had a score to settle yesteday in the West Region Final game against North Dakota, and they saw to it that they did.  The Gophers got on the scoreboard midway through the first with a goal by Ben Marshall to make it 1-0.  In the second, Minnesota opened the scoring immediately with a power play goal by Erik Haula, to make it 2-0.  North Dakota’s Danny Kristo responded just a minute later with a goal, cutting the lead to 2-1.  Seven minutes later, Taylor Matson responded with another Minnesota goal to make it 3-1, and five minutes later, Travis Boyd scored another goal to make it 4-1, Minnesota.  The second was all Minnesota’s, as they outshot North Dakota 12-2.  In the third, North Dakota outshot Minnesota 15-4, but to no avail, as the teams traded goals, and Minnesota won the game, 5-2, to advance to the Frozen Four in Tampa, on Thursday, April 5th.

Minnesota was favored to appear in the Frozen Four by 7 out of 31 entries in our pool.

A tense, relatively even, and scoreless first period opened the East, and last, Regional Final game yesterday in Worcester, MA.  But early in the second period, Pat Mullane scored to put Boston College up 1-0 on a power play goal.  Only a minute later, Bill Arnold scored a goal, and BC was up, 2-0.  The two teams proceeded to grind each other down for the remaining fiteen scoreless minutes of the second.  In the third, BC’s Patrick Wey scored only a minute into the period, and BC was up, 3-0.  And then, midway through the third, BC’s Johnny Gaudreau scored on a power play opportunity to make it 4-0, which was the final score that sends BC to the Frozen Four in Tampa on Aprl 5th.

Boston College was heavily favored to make it to the Frozen Four by 22 out of 31 participants in our pool.

Thursday, April 5: #3 Union College faces #9 Ferris State at 1:30pm Pacific Time, on ESPNU.  Then #1 Boston College faces #6 Minnesota at 5pm Pacific Time on ESPN2.

Saturday, April 7: The winners will face off in the NCAA championship game at 4pm Pacific Time on ESPN2.

Wow, do we have a leader in the pool!  The two upsets on Friday — the elimination of Michigan and Miami of Ohio — certainly cost a lot of the entries a lot of points.  Here are the standings so far — participants are listed by the number of correct picks, out of twelve possible:

10 OSchreader

8 Cruz, Krajan, Kaycie, Sell

7 Kramer, Holte, Peterson, Ramsey, JSchreader, Smigielski, Wienbar

6 BBettendorf, Bogosian, Fairbrother, DShymanski, Ryan

5 Allen, MBettendorf, AEsposito, JEsposito, Ide, Pastor, GSchreader, MShymanski, TShymanski, Slaughter, Speare, Sweeney

4 Huberty, McLean

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned.  And once again, since the two teams I would have been rooting for (BU, and my backup for Frank Mattson, Miami of Ohio) are now out of this, it’s probably best if I keep it to myself as to who I am now rooting for . . . .

— Tom