Union College might not know exactly what hit them.  Quinnipiac unloaded on Union fast and furious in the person of Matthew Peca, who scored three goals in three minutes, midway through the first period.  Union was able to contain Quinnipiac for the rest of the first, which ended 3-0, Quinnipiac.  And Union was able to contain Quinnipiac in the first half of the second, but did not manage to score.  Seven minutes into the second, Jordan Samuels-Thomas put Quinnipiac on the scoreboard again to make it 4-0.  And four minutes later Kellen Jones scored to make it 5-0, Quinnipiac.  Union was again able to hold Quinnipiac off the rest of the period, which ended 5-0.  Union got on the scoreboard three minutes into the third, but the two teams held each other in check from that point on, with the final score 5-1, Quinnipiac.  Quinnipiac advances to the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, and will play St. Cloud State.

St. Cloud State Mops Miami of Ohio

Joey Benik put St. Cloud State on the scoreboard early, at the five minute mark of the first period, and the Huskies never looked back.  Make no mistake about it — this is not your typical WCHA team.  This team can score goals, and keep opponents from scoring.  And not just against WCHA opponents, but against opponents.  While Miami did a good job of containing St. Cloud for the remainder of the first, Joey Benik was back in the net five minutes into the second to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead.  Two minutes later, Miami’s Blake Coleman converted on a powerplay opportunity to make it 2-1.  But two minutes later, Cory Thorson scored for St. Cloud, putting them up 3-1 midway through the second.  Miami again did a good job of containing St. Cloud for the duration of the game after that goal, but could not turn the corner against them and get on the scoreboard again.  Late in the game Miami put an extra attacker on the ice, but Cory Thorson found the empty net with one second remaining to make the final 4-1, St. Cloud.  St Cloud State advances to the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, and will face Quinnipiac.

Next Games

Ok, now the winning teams have ten days off.  Normally I think this is bad for the teams that came out of nowhere and just played out of their heads without even thinking about what was going on.  They get ten days to “look down,” seeing how high up they went compared to normal, and they get too, too much time to think about whether or not they should even be where they are, and to think about all they have got to lose if they don’t win their next game.  On the other hand, the favored teams figure they would have been there, and they go home and think about hockey.  That’s my guess as to why we saw teams in the past such as Bemidji and RIT get clobbered in the semifinals after roasting some pretty heavyweight teams.  Here’s the good news on this front, and in general for college hockey, I think:  Not one of these four teams has been to the Frozen Four before.  Threfore they all have the same disadvantage in that respect.  None of them should be able to be composed in the next ten days; no advantages anywhere for any of them.  Know what this means?  It means we are guaranteed a first time winner of the NCAA Championship.  The last first time winner was Minnesota-Duluth in 2011.  Remember how great that was?  The last time before that?  Maine in 1993.  This is going to be great.  And what a Frozen Four it is.  The ECAC has two teams, Quinnipiac and Yale in the Frozen Four.  Last time the ECAC did that?  I don’t know, but I would imagine it would have been during that  time from 1983 to 1990, when the ECAC had a team in the championship game six times in that eight year stretch.  How did the various conferences do?  Someone gave me a good idea about how to guage this — look a the percent of teams they had in the field at the start, and look at the percent of teams in the field now.

Pretty good idea.  Thank you, I’ll use it.  Atlantic Hockey had two teams in at the start (12.5%) and have none now ( 0%), so they didn’t fare too well, and were perhaps not expected to.  but they played two great games, with Niagra making it tough on North Dakota, and Canisisus making it very tough on Quinnipiac.  CCHA had two (12.5%) at the start, and they have none now ( 0% ).  Notre Dame did not make a good showing against a very solid St Cloud team; Neither did Miami of Ohio; but Miami of Ohio had a solid showing in the opening round against Mankato.  Hockey East had three teams (18.75%) and they have one now (25%), so I suppose they held their own.  They had two blowout wins in the first round, one stinker of a loss in the first round, and an all-Hockey-East match to determine a Frozen Four team.  How about the vaunted, chest-pounding WCHA?  Let’s see, six teams to start (37.5%), and one now (25%), so not exactly holding their own.  First round?  Half of the teams suffered blowout losses.  One team lost as a one seed to a four seed, ranked #2 in the country, losing to the #15 ranked team in the country.  One team barely got by the #14 team in the country, and then was roasted by the #15 team in the country.  Of these five teams in opening round play, the WCHA was outscored 19-6.  In their second round loss, outscored 4-1.  Add that up, and we get 23-7.  One team showed up to play hockey, and has been a demoliton crew on ice, outscoring two CCHA teams 9-2.  Let’s just say WCHA showing, not good.  Pretty bad.  And the ECAC?  Three teams to start (18.75%), and they have two now (50%).  What else?  They have been beating top ranked teams along the way.  I would have to say pretty good.  Excellent.  Great for college hockey.

So the next games are the Frozen Four.  A new, fresh set of teams in the Frozen Four.  The first time in 22 years that no team in the Frozen Four is from a school with a $1 million FBS deal.  Four great teams.  So, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, televised on ESPN2:

• Thursday, April 11th at 1:30PM Pacific Time:  #15 Yale vs. #3 UMass-Lowell
• Thrusday, April 11th at 5:00PM Pacific Time:  #9 St. Cloud State vs. #1 Quinnipiac

And the championship game will be played on Saturday, April 13th at 4:00PM Pacific Time, probably on ESPN2, maybe on ESPN.

Do you have your championship game get-together planned?  Have a good kielbasa and sauerkraut recipe on hand?

Our Pool

The Quinnipiac win was not an upset as the majority of entries — 18 out of 34 — chose them to advance to this point.  On the other hand, the St. Cloud win qualifies as an upset, as 13 out of 34 had chosen Notre Dame to win this game, and ten had chosen Miami.

Now, I don’t know if we should describe the state of affairs for most people in the pool as “no water left in the pool,” or “in the deep end.”  Either way it’s not super good news for a number of entries as a number of picks highly favored in the pool just burst into flames in the first round.  I don’t know if we have ever had such huge numbers of contestants with so few correct picks.  Maybe it’s just my imagination, but this seems like an awful lot to me.  Anyway, here are the current standings.  This is the number of correct picks out of a possible twelve so far (if you think I don’t have your score right, contact me, but please check your picks first before you do so):

NOTE:  THE SCORES LISTED BELOW WERE UPDATED ON FRIDAY, APRIL 12.  I MADE A COUNTING ERROR IN THE TOTAL OF CORRECT PICKS FOR FIVE CONSTESTANTS/ENTRANTS.  THE ERROR WAS UNDERCOUNTING BY 1 CORRECT PICK FOR EACH OF THESE FIVE.  THE SCORES LISTED BELOW NOW REFLECT ONE EXTRA CORRECT PICK FOR:

• MBettendorf:  from 4 to 5
• BBettendorf:  from 4 to 5
• NCruz:   from 7 to 8 — this is a big one
• RCruz:   from 5 to 6
• Faribrother:  from 4 to 5

8   NCruz

7    McLean, Ramsey

6    Bogosian, RCruz, Kaycie, Reichel, Ryan, DShymanski, Speare

5    BBettendorf, MBetendorf, Fairbrother, Holte, Ide, Krajan, O’Connell, Pastor, Rarden, TShymanski, Smigielski, Sweeney

4    Allen, Cattermole, Huberty, O’Brien, Peterson, Slaughter, GSchreader, JSchreader, Wienbar

3    Kramer, Sell

2    OSchreader

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

— Tom