College Hockey Update:  Ok, first things first, and this is important — I have emailed you your own 2018 NCAA Tournament bracket (my email list just is not as complete as the email list on the system — if you did not get an email from me with a bracket please contact me right away with your email address and I’ll send one to you; my email address appears below right above the rankings table); please open it immediately, make your picks, and email your picks back to me in a single typed line as my picks are below, 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.St. Cloud State University 2.Mankato State University 3.Ohio State University 4.University of Denver 5.Boston University 6.Northeastern University 7.Notre Dame 8.Providence College 9.St. Cloud State University 10. University of Denver. 11.Boston University 12.Notre Dame 13.St. Cloud State Univ. 14.Boston Univ. 15.Boston Univ. 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 four winners last weekend that were not the highest ranked team in that conference, so let’s quickly run through this, conference by conference.

Atlantic Hockey:  The news here is that Robert Morris beat Mercyhurst, and that Air Force beat Canisius in the semifinals, shutting them out 3-0.  Air Force pounded Robert Morris in the championship game, 5-1, so they’ll be playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Big Ten:  In the championship game Saturday, Notre Dame scored twice in the first, but Ohio State came back to score once in the second and once in the third to force OT.  Nine minutes into OT Cam Morrison scored to win it for Notre Dame, 3-2.  Notre Dame ends the season at #2 in the poll; Ohio State at #5; Michigan at #10; Penn State at #12; and Minnesota at #15.  Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State will all be playing in the NCAA Tourament.

ECAC:  The news here is that Princeton roasted Cornell to the tune of 4-1 in the semis, while Clarkson squeaked by Harvard, 5-4 in OT.  Speaking of squeaked by . . . . In the final, Princeton scored in the first and held onto that lead until Clarkson scored in the third and the two went into OT.  Three minutes into OT Max Becker scored to give Princeton the 2-1 win.  Cornell ends the season ranked at #4 in the poll; Clarkson at #9, and Princeton at #16.  All three will play in the NCAA Tournament.

Hockey East:  Friday night BC was beating BU 2-0 midway in the second, when it appeared BU woke up and took things seriously, when Ty Amonte scored at the nine minute point, and then David Farrance added one two minutes later to tie at two apiece.  Fifteen minutes into the third BC scored to retake the 3-2 lead, but 47 seconds later Drew Melanson scored for BU to tie it at three apiece, where it stood at the end of regulation.  Sixteen minutes into OT the puck went to Patrick Curry in the crease on a rebound of a point-blank shot, and Curry scored for the 4-3 BU win.  Very similar play in the late game saw Providence down 2-1 to Northeastern with only two minutes left, when Kasper Björkqvist scored to tie it at two apiece and force OT.  Ten minutes into OT Brandon Duhaime scored to give Providence the 3-2 win.  Saturday night Providence came out and blasted BU with 18 shots in the first to BU’s nine, but both goalies stopped everything coming their way for a scoreless first.  In the second BU turned the table and out-shot Providence 12-9, but great goalie play yielded nothing but another scoreless frame.  But one minute into the third there was a fight for the puck at the board behind the net.  Jordan Greenway got the puck and saw Drew Melanson in the left faceoff cirlce and he fired the puck to him and Melanson one-timed a blistering shot from there and netted one for the 1-0 BU lead.  Try as Providence did, BU held them off and managed an 8-6 shot advantage in the period.  Providence added an extra attacker with about 1:45 to go, but about twenty seconds later, Logan Cockerill got the puck and took it into the Providence zone in traffic of Providence defenders, and passed it off to Bobo Carpenter, who tried to get a shot off but couldn’t.   As Providence started to move the puck up the ice, Cockerill and Carpenter stayed behind and put pressure on them; a pass from one Providence player was missed by the intended teammate, and Bobo Carpenter skated to it and fired it in to score the empyt-netter and make it 2-0 with 1:22 left; BU managed to hold off the six-on-five Providence attack, and took the win, 2-0.  Melanson is quite a story — after a strong freshman year at RPI (9 goals/11 assists), then a fall-off his sophomore year (4 goals, 7 assists), he decided he wanted to play elsewhere.  With one semester of classes waived freshman year from AP scores, he then took six classes per semester his junior year to graduate so he could move on and not sit a year out.  He came to BU as a graduate student for this his final year; BU coach David Quinn had to tell his parents that there would be a place for him but no scholarship, and that tuition, room, board, books and fees would be $71,000 they would have to pay for.  They drained their saving and sent him to BU for grad school.  Ok, back to the tournament — Providence ended the season at #7 in the poll; Northeastern at #8; BU at #13; and BC at #17.  Providence, Northeastern, and BU will all play in the NCAA Tournament.  BU is 6-0-1 in their last seven games, and they are 21-13-4 this season, and their reward for winning the Hockey East Tournament Championship is that they’ll be playing #4 ranked Cornell (a team with only five losses all season long) in the early game at 10:00am Pacific Time, Saturday, in Worcester, MA.  Could be a pretty darn tough outing for BU, a team that seems to show up sometime during the second . . . .

NCHC:  In a back-and-forth semifinal game between St. Cloud State and North Dakota, North Dakota scored midway through the third to tie it at two apiece, and the game went to OT.  In OT a Nick Poehling goal came along at the two minute point to give St. Cloud State the 3-2 win.  In the other semi, Denver had a 1-0 lead into the second, and UMD scored two minutes into the frame to tie it at one apiece.  But Denver scored two minutes later for the 2-1 lead and held onto it until late in the third when UMD added and extra attacker.  Denver found the empty net and ended it 3-1, Denver.  Both the championship game and the consolation games turned out to be pretty one sided, with Denver beating St. Cloud 4-1 and North Dakota beating UMD 4-1.  St. Cloud State ended the season ranked at #1 in the poll; Denver at #3; UMD at #11; North Dakota at #14; and Nebraska-Omaha at #20.  St. Cloud State, Denver, and Minnesota-Duluth will play in the NCAA Tournament.

WCHA:  In Saturday night’s championship game, Michigan Tech scored early in the second to take the 1-0 lead, and held onto it until late in the third when Northern Michigan added an extra attacker; Michigan Tech found the empty net to make the final 2-0, Michigan Tech.  Mankato State ended the season ranked at #6 in the poll; Michigan Tech at #18; and Northern Michigan at #19.  Mankato State and Michigan Tech will both be playing in the NCAA Tournament.

This year the top thirteen teams, plus teams ranked #16, #18, and #21, comprise the field of sixteen teams in the NCAA Tournament.  So, this year the NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Tournament Contestants, and Regional Assignments are:

• Friday, March 23rd, in Bridgeport, Connecticut , #18 Michigan Technological University faces #2 Notre Dame at 12:00 Noon Pacific Time on ESPN2, and #9 ranked Clarkson University faces #7 ranked Providence College at 3:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Saturday, March 24th, at 3:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Also Friday, March 23rd, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the #21 ranked United States Air Force Academy faces #1 ranked St. Cloud State University at 1:00PM Pacific Time on ESPNU, and #11 ranked University of Minnesota at Duluth faces #6 ranked Mankato State University at 4:30pm Pacific Time on ESPN3.  Winners play Saturday, March 24th, at 6:00pm Pacific Time, on ESPN2
• Saturday, March 24th, in Worcester, Massachusetts, #13 Boston University faces #4 Cornell University at 10:00am Pacific Time on ESPNews, and #10 University of Michigan faces #8 Northeastern University at 1:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNews.  Winners play Sunday, March 25th at 1:00pm Pacific Time on ESPN2.
• Also Saturday, March 24th, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, #16 Princeton University faces #5 Ohio State University at 12:30PM Pacific Time on ESPNU, and #12 Pennsylvania State University faces #3 University of Denver at 4:00pm Pacific Time on ESPN3. Winners play Sunday, March 25th at 3:30pm 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 22nd, AT 8:00PM PACIFIC TIME — THAT IS ABOUT 72 HOURS FROM THE TIME OF THIS POSTING.  If you did not receive a bracket email me for one at:  [email protected]

This provides the top 21 teams, rankings, records, and last week’s results:

[table id=173 /]

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

— Tom