The final two games in yesterday’s NCAA Tournament ended in two upset wins.

#13 North Dakota  Slips By #4 Wisconsin

North Dakota scored early, five minutes into the first, to take a 1-0 lead, and Wisconsin came back to tie it up, and the first ended 1-1.  In the second, North Dakota again took the lead seven minutes into the period, and the two teams played the remaining fourteen minutes in stalemate, ending the second at 2-1, North Dakota.  Midway through the third Wisconsin scored to tie it at 2-2, and late in the period it appeared regulation would end that way.  But with only two minutes left, North Dakota’s Mark MacMillan’s redirected goal put North Dakota up 3-2.  Shortly after that Wisconsin added an extra attacker, but North Dakota’s leading scorer Rocco Grimaldi (at right, #19, in the picture above) found the empty net not once but twice in the final minute, giving North Dakota the 5-2 win, and giving Grimaldi what I’ll refer to as an empty hat trick.  North Dakota advanced to play #6 Ferris State at 3:30pm Pacific Time today on ESPNU, for a berth in the Frozen Four.

How big of an upset was this?  In our pool, 33 of 39 entries picked Wisconsin to win this game, and many took Wisconsin to go deep in the tournament.

#10 Providence Slams #7 Quinnipiac

This one got ugly for Quinnipiac fast.  Providence scored early, only four minutes into the first period for a 1-0 lead.  Quinnipiac played effectively for the next twenty-one minutes — the last sixteen of the first, and the first five of the second — keeping the game at 1-0.  Quinnipiac outshot Providence 13-10 in the first, and outshot Providence 11-7 in the second (in fact outshot Providence n the entire game by quite a margin, 37-26), but Providence caught fire in the second, scoring five minutes into the second, and then scoring two more in the next nine minutes, all unanswered, to make a deep 4-0 hole for Quinnipiac.  And then it was Providence’s turn to play effectively and hold Quinnipiac in check, and they did it for the final 26 minutes, to shut Quinnipiac out and take a 4-0 win.  Providence advanced to play #1 Union today at 12:00 noon Pacific Time on ESPN2 for a berth in the Frozen Four. That’s in less than an hour!

This was another big upset in our pool, as 2/3 (26 of 39) of the entries picked Quinnipiac to win this game.

GAME SCHEDULE FOR TODAY

• #1 Union vs. #10 Providence College, 12:00pm Pacific Time, ESPN2 for Frozen Four
• #3 Boston College vs. #17 Denver, 1:00pm Pacific Time, ESPNU, first round
• #2 Minnesota vs. #22 Robert Morris Univ., 2:30pm Pacific Time, ESPN2, first round
• #6 Ferris State vs. #13 North Dakota, 3:30pm, ESPNU, Pacific Time, for Frozen Four
• #5 UMass-Lowell vs. #11 Mankato State, 4:30pm Pacific Time, ESPN3, first round
• #8 St. Cloud State vs. #9 Notre Dame, 6:00pm Pacific Time, ESPNU, first round

What an amazing day of college hockey!

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

— Tom