First things first:  I have emailed you the 2013 bracket; please open it immediately, make your picks, and email your picks back to me in a typed, single line, as my picks appear here, including final score of final game:  1.Canisius 2.BC 3.Miami 4.NDme 5.Minn 6.NDak 7.UNH 8.MLowll 9.BC 10.Miami 11. Minn 12.MLowll 13.Miami 14.Minn 15.Miami 3-2.  You don’t have to feel like you really know who is going to win, and remember — no cost to play and the winner gets a prize.  So do it now!

Wow — what a weekend of upsets in the conference tournaments, and what a surprising NCAA Tournament field we have as a result!  So let’s start with Wisconsin, which was red hot as they sliced through their first two opponents with ease, and then fought a hard battle and prevailed over Colorado College to win the WCHA championship.  In the ECAC, Union College bombed and shut out Yale, and then beat Brown (yes, Brown) to win the tournament championship.  In Atlantic Hockey, Canisius College beat Niagra, and then smeared Mercyhurst to win the tournament championship.  In the CCHA and Hockey East, highly seeded teams prevailed, but in the CCHA, only after a major upset in the semifinals.   And Hockey East also featured an upset (major or not, depending on your point of view) but the top seed won the tournament championship.  Four out of five teams that swept the weekend shot up in the rankings, with one of them now ranked in the top echelon.  And now for a quick run through the conference scores and outcomes.

• Atlantic Hockey: Canisius came on strong late to break a see-saw battle, and beat top seed Niagra 5-3.  Mercyhurst overcame a 1-0 deficit after one by scoring four unanswered goals to upset Connecticut 4-1.  In the championship it was all Canisius as they hammered Mercyhurst from the get-go for a 7-2 win and the conference tournament championship.  Niagra ends the season ranked #14, and Canisius breaks into the top twenty at #20 and gets the NCAA autobid.  Atlantic Hockey sends two teams — both Niagra and Canisisu — to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since . . . . the answer is for the first time EVER!
• CCHA: A major upset was a recently hot #19 Michigan blasting #5 Miami of Ohio 6-2 in the semifinal, while Notre Dame held their own against Ohio State, 3-1.  In the final, Notre Dame had their hands very full with Michigan until they scored two in the third to win it, 3-1.  With this sweep on the weekend and the CCHA Tournament Championship, Notre Dame skyrocketed in the poll from the #9 to the #4 ranking, while Miami of Ohio dropped two rungs to #5.  These are the two teams the CCHA sends to the NCAA Tournament.
• ECAC: Both semifinal games were one-sided, blowout upsets!  Brown pounded #1 Quinnipiac to the tune of 4-0, and Union College pasted Yale, 5-0.  In the championship game, Union led 2-0 after one, and led 3-0 early in the second.  Brown scored midway through the second to make it 3-1, and the two stalemated for the next thirty-two minutes to give Union the Tournament Championship, 3-1.  And Quinnipiac shut out Yale 3-0 in a rather meaningless consolation game.  On the weekend Union shot up from #18 to #13 in the poll, Yale dropped four pegs to #15, and Quinnipiac rose from #2 to #1.  The ECAC sends these three teams to the NCAA Tournament, with Union getting the autobid.
• Hockey East: Boston College had a 2-0 lead midway through the second when Boston University sped things up, finding and capitalizing on many opportunities — they scored five unanswered goals to make it 5-3.  BC scored midway through the third to make it 5-3, and added an extra attacker with about three minutes remaining, but thirty seconds later Boston University found the empty net to win it 6-3, despite being outshot 47-27.  In the other semifinal, Providence scored midway through the first, and held the lead until UMass-Lowell appeared to wake up in the third.  UMass-Lowell scored early in the third, and again midway through the period to win it, 2-1.  In the championship game, UMass-Lowell and Boston University slugged it out for fifty-one scoreless minutes, until UMass-Lowell broke the tie, making it, and the final score, 1-0, giving UMass-Lowell the Tournament Championshp, with BU failing to extend the career of Coach Jack Parker, who has now officially retired from Boston University.  On the weekend, UMass-Lowell moved up two notches to #3 in the poll, BC dropped two spots to #6, Boston University remained at #17, and idle New Hampshire held at #10.  Hockey East sends UMass-Lowell, Boston College, and New Hampshire to the NCAA Tournament.
• WCHA: In the North Dakota/Colorado College play-in game Thursday night, the two teams largely traded goals with North Dakota scoring with about eight minutes remaining in the third to tie it up at 3-3.  In overtime, Colorado Collegs scored to record the upset win, 4-3.  In the other play-in game, Wisconsin upset Mankato State in a totally one-sided route, 7-3.  In the Wisconsin/St. Cloud State semifinal game Friday night, the first ended in a 1-1 tie, but Wisconsin managed a power-play goal in only a total of five shots in the second, compard to fifteen for St. Cloud, to take a 2-1 lead after two.  In the third, Wisconsin kept the pressure on, scoring another power-play goal midway through the period, to go up 3-1.  With about two minutes remaining, St. Cloud added an extra attacker, but Wisconsin found the empty net to make the final 4-1.  In the Colorado College/Minnesota semifinal, CC scored two goals early in the second off of only eight shots in the period, and clung to that 2-0 lead for the rest of the way, despite being outshot 35-20 in the game.  In the championship game, Wisconsin is very happy to have scored late in the first to take a 1-0 lead after one, as the two teams traded two goals apiece in the second, to end the period 3-2, Wisconsin.  The Badgers held onto this lead until the final buzzer for the win and the Tournament Championship.  On the weekend Wisconsin leapt from #14 to #6 in the rankings after their three game tournament sweep.  Minnesota dropped a notch to #2; North Dakota dropped a notch to #7; St. Cloud State dropped a couple of notches to #9; Mankato dropped three spots to #11; and an idle Denver moved up a spot to #12.  The WCHA sends all six of these teams to the NCAA Tournament.

This year the sesaon-ending top fifteen teams, and #20, constitute the NCAA Tournament’s sixteen teams.  The results of the conference championshps had little to do with which teams made it to the NCAA Tournament, with the exceptions of Canisius College and Union College, which both made it, and Western Michigan, which did not make it, despite looking like they had a lock on it for quite a while.  Michigan will not be in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in twenty-three seasons.  This year the NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament contestants and regional assignments are:

• Friday:  In Grand Rapids, Michigan, #15 ranked Yale faces #2 ranked Minnesota at 11:00am Pacific Time on ESPNU, and #14 ranked Niagra faces #7 ranked North Dakota at 2:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Saturday, March 30th at 1:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Also Friday:  In Manchester, New Hampshire, #8 ranked Wisconsin faces #3 ranked UMass-Lowell at 1:30pm Pacific Time on ESPN3, and #12 ranked Denver faces #10 ranked New Hampshire at 5:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Saturday, March 30th at 3:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Saturday:  In Providence, Rhode Island, #20 ranked Canisius faces #1 ranked Quinnipiac at 2:30pm Pacific Time on ESPN3, and #13 ranked Union College faces #6 ranked Boston College at 6:00pm Pacific Time, on ESPNU.  Winners play Sunday, March 31st at 3:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Also Saturday:  In Toledo, Ohio, #9 ranked St. Cloud State faces #4 ranked Notre Dame at 10:30am Pacific Time on ESPN3, and #11 Mankato faces #5 Miami of Ohio at 2:00pm Pacific Time on ESPN3.  Winners play Sunday, March 31st at 1:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.

And we’re off and running!  Your bracket has been emailed to you; IMPORTANT:  Each game has a number under the line where you would write the game winner.  Once you have made your picks, send them to me in a typed line, in game number order, listing the winner.  Your entry emailed to me would look like the example I gave you at the very beginning of this posting, at top.  Remember, it costs nothing to play, and the winner gets a prize.

ALL PICKS MUST BE SENT TO ME BY THURSDAY NIGHT, MARCH 28TH, AT 10:00PM PACIFIC TIME — THAT IS ABOUT 72 HOURS FROM THE TIME OF THIS POSTING.

This provides the top twenty teams, rankings, records, and last weekend’s results:

[table id=66 /]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned.  And with the Terriers out, I’ll be rooting for Miami of Ohio, as long as they are in it, on behalf of our departed friend, Frank Mattson, so go RedHawks!

— Tom