College Hockey Update:  Ok, first things first, and this is important — I have emailed you your 2015 NCAA Tournament bracket; please open it immediately, make your picks, and email your picks back to me in a single typed line as my picks appear here including the score of your final game.  My picks are provided here as an example of how your picks should look when they are sent to me (note that the number before each pick is the number under the space where you would write the score for each game on the bracket; it’s a “game number.):

1.Boston University 2.University of Minnesota-Duluth 3.University of North Dakota 4.Michigan Technological University 5.Mankato State University 6.Harvard University 7.Miami University of Ohio 8.Boston College 9.Boston Univ. 10. Univ. North Dakota 11.Mankato State Univ. 12.Miami Univ. of Ohio 13.B. U. 14.Mankato State U. 15.B.U. 3-2.

You don’t have to feel like you really know who is going to win, and remember — It costs nothing to play, and the winner gets a prize.  So do it now!

There were three upset winners in the conference tournaments last weekend, starting with the NCHC, where St. Cloud took down tournament favorite North Dakota in the semifinals, and Miami of Ohio took out Denver.  In the championship game it was Miami-Ohio taking a narrow win over St. Cloud State.  All four of these teams are in the NCAA tournament, plus Minnesota-Duluth and Nebraska-Omaha, also from the NCHC.  In the ECAC, Harvard upset Quinnipiac, and then beat Colgate (after Colgate had beaten St. Lawrence) for the championship.  So from the ECAC, Quinnipiac, Harvard, and Yale are in the NCAA tournament.  In Atlantic Hockey, RIT beat Canisius, and then beat Mercyhurst, which had stunned tournament favorite Robert Morris; so RIT goes from Atlantic Hockey.  In the little six, Hockey East, and the WCHA, the tournament favorite (highest ranked team) won.  So let’s run quickly through this, conference by conference.

Atlantic Hockey:  The news here is that Mercyhurst beat Robert Morris 4-3 in OT, and RIT beat Canisius 2-1.  With the #20 team taken out, RIT beat Canisius to advance to the NCAA tournament, and also popped up to #21 in the poll.

little six:  in the play-in round, Ohio State beat Penn State, and Michigan dispatched Wisconsin, to advance to the semifinals.  In the semis, Michigan beat Michigan State 4-1, and Minnesota beat Ohio State 3-0.  And in the final, Minnesota beat Michigan 4-2, and Minnesota advanced to the NCAA Tournament; they also rose up five spots in the poll to the #8 spot.

ECAC:  Harvard beat Quinnipiac, the higher ranked team in the poll, by a score of 5-2.  Colgate beat St. Lawrence 4-3, and in the championship game it was Harvard, 4-2 over Colgate.  Harvard shot up seven spots in the poll to #10, and is going to the NCAA tournament along with Quinnipiac, which dropped four spots down to #11, and with Yale, which rose up two spots to #17.

Hockey East:  Friday night UMass-Lowell beat Vermont 4-1 and Boston University beat New Hampshire 4-1.  I saw the BU/New Hampshire game, and UNH was in it very much so early on. BU just had the ability to get open at the net to build up a lead and to take the win.  Saturday night it was BU 5-2 over UMass-Lowell.  I also saw this game.  While BU went out to an early 2-1 lead, there was a long stretch in the second during which the puck rarely left the BU zone.  It was a little surprising to see BU survive that and to build on the lead for the 5-2 win.  In both games, it seemed as though BU played better defensively than in the previous two games of theirs I had seen this season, except that they did tend to leave the middle open in the New Hampshire game, giving the Wildcats some seemingly easily obtained great opportunities.  On the weekend, BU rose up to #2, on North Dakota’s losses, Lowell dropped two spots to #14, Vermont dropped three spots to #19, an idle BC edged down to #12, and an idle Providence edged down to #15.  Boston University, BC, and Providence are all in the NCAA tournament.

NCHC:  The more highly ranked (albeit by one slot) team, Denver, prevailed over Miami by a 6-3 score.  Newly ranked St. Cloud State upset the old apple cart on #1 ranked North Dakota by a 3-1 score.  Miami had its hands full, but prevailed over St. Cloud State, 3-2.  In the consolation game, Denver trounced North Dakota, 5-1.  So North Dakota slipped a couple of spots in the poll to #3, Miami of Ohio moved up a couple to #4, Denver edged down to #6, and St. Cloud State jumped up five spots to #13.  All four of these teams are in the NCAA tournament, plus Minnesota-Duluth, which was idle, and edged up to #7, and Nebraska-Omaha, which was idle, and edged up to #9.

WCHA:  Mankato State neatly disposed of Ferris State by a 4-0 score, and Michigan Tech eliminated Bowling Green by a 5-2 margin, in the semis.  In the championship game, it was Mankato 5-2 over Michigan Tech.  Mankato State edged up to #1, Michigan Tech edged down to #5, and both are in the NCAA Tournament.  Bowling Green dropped down seven spots to #16.

This year the top thirteen ranked teams, plus #15, #17, and #21, are the field of sixteen teams in the NCAA Tournament.  The outcomes of the conference tournaments seems to have only put three teams into the NCAA tournament:  Harvard, St. Cloud State, and R.I.T.  And I suppose we could say the tournament outcomes did impact UMass-Lowell and Bowling Green, which looked for most of the season as though they’d be in it, but aren’t.  So, this year the NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Tournament Contestants, and Regional Assignments are:

• Friday, March 27th, in Manchester, N.H., #2 ranked Boston University faces #17 ranked Yale University at 11:00am Pacific Time on ESPNU, and #7 ranked Minnesota-Duluth faces #8 ranked Minnesota at 2:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Saturday, March 28th, at 2:30pm Pacific Time, on ESPN2.
• Also Friday, March 27th, in Fargo, North Dakota, #5 Michigan Technological University faces #13 St. Cloud State University at 1:30pm Pacific Time on ESPN3, and #3 ranked University of North Dakota faces #11 ranked Quinnipiac at 5:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Saturday, March 28th, at 6:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Saturday, March 28th, in Providence, Rhode Island, #6 University of Denver faces #12 Boston College at 12:00 noon Pacific Time on ESPN2, and #4 Miami University of Ohio faces #15 Providence College at 3:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Sunday, March 29th at 2:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Also Saturday, March 28th, in South Bend, Indiana, #1 Mankato State University faces #21 Rochester Institute of Technology at 1:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU, and #9 University of Nebraska-Omaha faces #10 Harvard University at 4:30pm Pacific Time on ESPN3.  Winners play Sunday, March 29th at 4:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.

So here we go!  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 my picks that I listed at the very beginning of this post 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 26TH, AT 8:00PM 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=111 /]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers.  And send me you picks!!  Now!!

— Tom