In a night of an avalanche of offense, Minnesota got on the board early, only three minutes into the game, when freshman Justin Kloos flipped in a rebound that was botched by Union goalie Colin Stevens.  This was a crazy, frenetic game from the get-go, with the teams racing up and down the ice, firing the puck from all over the place.  It took Union a bit to get real traction, but it sort of broke open the dam when it happened, about seven minutes after Minnesota’s first goal, when Union’s Shayne Gostisbehere fired a shot between the legs of Minnesota’s Justin Holl that beat Minnesota goalie Adam Wilcox, and it was tied at 1-1.  But this was a crazy night, and half a minute later, Minnesota’s Sam Warning found a rebound off of a shot by Kyle Rau, and netted it for the 2-1 Minnesota lead.  At this point it was looking like a real dogfight, and one that Minnesota would not be left out of.  There were so many times last night that players pounced on rebounds and fought back and forth for the puck with the goalie, and multiple shots were fired at the net, and five minutes after Warning’s goal was one of them, in which Union’s Mike Vecchione put in a goal on the fifth shot from five rebounds, to tie it at 2-2..  To call it amazing doesn’t seem to do the job, but let’s just leave it at that.  And just one minute later, Union’s Eli Lichtenwald shot a rebound in for a goal to make it 3-1. Union.  And one minute later, Union’s Daniel Ciampini shot yet another rebound in to make it 4-2, Union.  I think it was during this fourth goal that I had looked away for a second to dip a chip or something, and when I looked back and saw it, for a second I thought it must have been a replay.  It was just too much all happening too fast.  And then I wondered, “Well it must really seem that way to Adam Wilcox.”  It really was something akin to one of those shark feeding-frenzies you see on The Discover Channel every once in a while.  Just a clot of these hyper-driven Union guys right at the net, like a massive mosquito attack at dusk near an otherwise lovely lake in the summertime.  Well the last three minutes I sure didn’t take my eyes off of the game for another second.  The period ended and it seemed so surreal, as if I wondered if they would somehow score one from the tunnel into the locker room.  Six goals in the first period, three Union goals in less than two minutes, and a total of 35 shots on goal.  Minnesota was in this with 15 shots and two goals, but Union had out-feeding-frenzied them.

The second opened up and and Minnesota had lots of drive and energy, and only one minute into the period, Minnesota’s Taylor Cammarata scored to close the Union lead to 4-3.  The second seemed every bit as crazy as the first, and about four minutes after Cammarata’s goal, Minnesota’s Nate Condon slammed a shot that bounced off the pipe, nearly tying the game.  Thirty-five shots in the first?  How about another thirty-two in the second?!  Minnesota had 18 of them.  But despite all the energy and hustle in the second period, it played out much differently than the first, as it went scoreless for nineteen minutes after Cammarata’s lone goal of the period.  The teams went to the locker rooms with Union holding their slim one goal lead.

The third period played at a slightly slower pace.  How much could these guys have left in them?  I mean could they really play a three period game with 100 shots on goal?  Six minutes into the period, Union’s Max Novak shot one in past Wilcox, and Union was up, 5-3, where it stood for the next eleven minutes.  A Union penalty gave Minnesota a power play, and they capitalized on it when Hudson Fasching scored to make it 5-4 with several minutes left on the clock.  A couple of minutes later, Minnesota’s Taylor Cammarata was charging to the goal, and Union’s Gostisbehere broke it up and got the puck out to defenseman Matt Bodie, who passed up to Union’s Kevin Sullivan, who shot and scored to make it 6-4, Union, with about a minute left.  Minnesota pulled Wilcox to add an extra attacker, but half a minute later, it was Matt Bodie who found the empty net, and made the final 7-4, Union.

Wow.  Union College.  A game with 89 shots on goal, 49 by Union.  What a game.  Shayne Gostisbehere started the Union scoring off in the first, and here’s a good one:  All seven Union goals were scored when he was on the ice, and the only Minnesota goal that was scored when he was on the ice was on a Minnesota power-play, making him a nearly unheard of “plus seven” player in one night.  He was named the most outstanding player, and is the sole NHL draftee on the Union team.  I suppose we should emphasize that differently:  the sole NHL draftee on the Union TEAM.  Union’s seven goals?  Scored by seven different players.  Union has defensemen who are superb defensive players, but they are also brilliant skaters, and great with the stick, so that when they are on offense, it is more like they have four, or even five forwards.  It’s a thrill to watch.  And it all led to the first NCAA Championship ever for Union College.  For those who have not been paying attention, there are five great conferences in college hockey, all playing great hockey.  And there is nothing to say that there isn’t great hockey being played in the sixth, Atlantic hockey as well.  The rise of the ECAC to this level of prominence is a great, great thing for college hockey.  Can’t wait to see what next season is like.  Remember, this Union team beat Boston College in the NCAA tournament two years in a row, and their record against BC is 2-0; their record against Minnesota is now 2-2.  And that’s two years in a row that Minnesota was sent packing by an ECAC team.

Now, The Ever So Important Pool

I have received many emails asking me who won the pool — I guess you get forty entrants, that’s going to happen.  This might sound ridiculous, but I thought the pool results this year were almost as exciting as the hockey results themselves.  How can I say that?  Because the most correct picks we have had in the fifteen-game era, has been eleven.  And this year we had four entrants with ten correct picks after the first twelve games.  So here’s what I had to do:  I had to map out all possible outcomes for the Frozen Four teams (that is eight possible outcomes), and I had to determine, for each person who could possibly reach ten correct picks, their standing under each of the eight possible outcomes.  This year there were 21 people who could have ended with ten or more, so that meant mapping out 168 different point totals.  Once I did that, I had to determine who won, who was tied, and then determine all the tie-breakers to determine who is really left, and how to determine the winner.  This year the outcomes created two two-way ties, two three-way ties, a four-way tie, and a six-way tie.

I think I must report what would have happened if Minnesota had won:  This would have created a six way tie with twelve correct picks (a new record), and thirteen total points (a new record), among Julie Schreader, Jason Holte, Jim Allen, Clarke Fairbrother, Bill Hollywood, and Kent Mattson.  First tiebreaker, did you have the winner, one more point — they all had Minnesota.  Second tiebreaker — how many teams did you correctly pick in the championship game — Schreader and Holte only had Minnesota, where the other four had both Minnesota and Union, so these four get two more points, and advance.  Next tiebreaker, how many correct picks in the Frozen Four, and all four guys had three correct picks. for one more point each.  Who scores first?  They all said Minnesota, no tiebreaker.  Who scores last?  They all said Minnesota, no tiebreaker.  Time and period of first score?  The goal was scored about three minutes into the game, and the guy who had the greatest amount of time left on the clock at the time of the first score was Kent Mattson.  Would have been Kent, the winner, had Minnesota gone on to win.  Whew!

But what actually happened, was that Union won.  Wow!  Must be crazy to figure that one out, eh?  So how do we do it?  Well, it was surprisingly easy.  All six of those last people have one less correct pick, for starters.  But one person who did have twelve correct picks in the above scenario, did not take Minnesota to win, so she only had twelve points, and not thirteen, so she was not in the tiebreaker discussion.  And with Union winning, she has thirteen correct picks, and fourteen points.  This shatters the previous record in the fifteen game era (eleven correct picks had occured among thirteen entries spread among the years 2003, 04, 05, 06, 08, and 10; in addition, seven more got eleven correct picks this year, and one got twelve with the correct winner for thirteen points).  Getting back to our winner, so she stands alone atop the heap of forty entrants in this year’s pool, and it is . . . . Erin Toohey.  Thirteen correct picks out of fifteen.  The only two games she did not get were Wisconsin in the first two rounds — she chose Wisconsin to beat North Dakota, and they lost; and she chose Wisconsin to beat the winner of the Notre Dame/St. Cloud State game (she chose the winner, St. Cloud State to advance to this game) — Wisconsin was not in that game, having lost in the first round.  Missing only two picks, and getting the correct winner has only been done once before in our pool, in 2001 when there were only twelve teams in he tournament, and only eleven games played.  In 2001, Jim Slaughter won the pool in a tiebreaker, as he, Ted Bremer, and Scott Shymanski all had only two incorrect picks, and all three had chosen the correct wining team that year.  This year’s win by Erin is an amazing win for these reasons:  1) It is her first year in the pool; 2) She broke the record; 3) She was at the award ceremony for last year’s winner, Nick Cruz; 4) When interviewed at the awards ceremony last year, Nick’s girlfriend, Dray Harris, warned, “wait until we enter the College Hockey Update Pool next year,” and her bff, Erin Toohey, added, “Yep, then he’s toast;” (click on this link to last year’s post containing that quote — scroll down to the bottom:  https://collegehockeyupdate.com/2013/04/17/prize-awarded-to-pool-winner/), 5) She is a recent graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, as is Nick Cruz, last year’s winner (is LMU taking over our pool?), and 6) Upon reading that quote last year, Erin’s Godfather, Don Slaughter, said,”That’s about right, she is one very smart and special girl; there’s no stopping her.”  I think it’s like Union winning the championship!  Congratulations, Erin.  I have your prize, and we need to schedule a formal awards ceremony, hopefully here in San Francisco, maybe late this week.  Or maybe not, since I have learned since originally posting this, that you are living now in Dublin, Ireland.  Hmmm…… maybe mailing this thing out this year.

Final Pool Standings

Winner, Erin Toohey 13 Correct picks, 14 total points

12 Picks, 13 Points Kaycie

11 Picks, 12 Points Carlisle

10 Picks, 11 Points Bogosian, Schmidt

11 Picks, 11 Points Allen, Fairbrother, Holte, Hollywood, Mattson, JSchreader

10 Picks, 10 Points O’Brien, PReichel, Sell, TShymanski, Speare

8 Picks, 9 Points Ramsey

9 Picks, 9 Pts. Harris, Huberty, Peterson, OSchreader, DShymanski, Smigielski, Sweeney

7 Picks, 8 Pts. Rarden

8 Picks, 8 Pts. Cattermole, Krajan, Kramer, McLean, Ryan, Wienbar

7 Picks, 7 Pts. Breen, Cruz, MReichel, MShymanski

6 GSchreader

5 O’Connell, Pastor

3 Bettendorf, Slaughter

Well, it’s over.  What a great season.  Seasons like this expand the sport.  More great teams.  More excitement.  Thanks to you all for coming along for the ride, particularly the forty who entered the pool.  And thanks to my behind the scenes contributors John McLean, Greg Schreader, Dave Reichel, and Bruce Carlisle, who know a whole lot more about hockey than I do, and who give me insights and technical clarifications from time to time (John clarified today that Gostisbehere was on the ice for the power-play Minnesota goal, and that ppg’s don’t count in the +/- stat, which I was not aware of).  And thanks to anyone else who chimed in with a helpful tidbit — I know there were a couple, and I am not remembering who you are right now!

So, that’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers, go College Hockey!

— Tom