Wisconsin, the WCHA Conference Tournament Champion, was completely crushed by UMass-Lowell today in first-round action of the NCAA Tournament.  Wisconin had just come off of a hot weekend in which they defeated WCHA Conference Regular Season Champion St. Cloud State, as well as Mankato and Colorado College.  This might have some people, again, wondering about the quality of the opposition Wisconsin faces during the year.

UMass-Lowell sort of toyed with Wisconsin early on, and then just tore them apart.  At the end of one, UML led 1-0 off of a goal by Joseph Pendenza, seven minutes into the period.  In the second, UML’s Christian Folin scored about three minutes into the period, followed by teammate Shane Thompson about fourteen minutes into the period, to put the Riverhawks up 3-0.  At this point the game was essentially already over.  In the third, Wisconsin was able to net one on a power play about eight minutes into the period, but five minutes later the fun stared for UMass-Lowell again, when Derek Arnold added a goal.  At this point the game was over, and as Wisconsin pulled their goalie and added an extra attacker, UML’s Adam Chapie found the empty net for a goal, and then with only three seconds remaining, UML’s scored on a power play, to make the final 6-1.

UMass-Lowell will face the winner of the Denver/New Hampshire game tomorow at 3pm Pacific Time.

In our pool, this result is actually an upset, with 23 out of 34 entries having picked Wisconsin to win.  In fact, ninteen people had picked Wisconsin to make it to the Frozen Four.

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go RedHawks!