College Hockey Update:  Well, it’s here.  The big one we’ve all been waiting for. Massachusetts against St. Cloud State.  Two teams, both of which breezed their way into the Frozen Four, and then played nail biters in the semifinals, will meet tomorrow, Saturday, April 10th, in Pittsburgh, PA., at 4:00pm Pacific Time, on ESPN.  Both teams demonstrated great resilience yesterday, clawing their ways back from late game deficits, to advance to the NCAA Championship Game.  These were two spectacular games to watch, and if you were able to see them, well, you are very, very lucky.

St. Cloud State, ranked #7 at the end of the season, started off the tournament crushing #10 Boston University 6-2, then battering #2 Boston College 4-1, and then prevailing in a see-saw battle yesterday against #5 Mankato State, surrendering three unanswered goals after an early lead, and not scoring the winning goal until the very end of regulation.  Massachusetts, ranked #6 at the end of the season, similarly started off the tournament thumping #13 Lake Superior State 5-1, then blanking #14 Bemidji State 4-0, and then prevailing in a tense nail-biter against #9 Minnesota-Duluth, surrendering two unanswered goals after an early lead, tying it up midway through the third, and not scoring the winning goal until fifteen minutes into overtime. The two teams have a very limited history against each other, and it’s really about St. Cloud State, having won a 3-1 game at UMass on November 25, 2000, and then a 5-1 game over UMass at St. Cloud on January 4,  2002.  Other than that there’s the hip pocket pairwise that says . . . . hmmm . . . . this season UMass was 0-2 vs. Boston University, and was 1-2 vs. Boston College, and St. Cloud State just obliterated those teams.  Just saying . . . .

EARLY GAME:  ST. CLOUD STATE GETS EARLY LEAD, THEN WINS LATE

What a great game this was!  An early hooking penalty on Mankato only two minutes into the game gave St. Cloud State a power play advantage, and they capitalized on it only a minute later when Spencer Meier joined in the fun in front of the Mankato net and shot in a rebound of a rebound for the 1-0 lead.  First reaction:  Wow, St. Cloud is really going to win this thing!  St. Cloud St. stifled Mankato in the first half of the period, but a St. Cloud penalty fifteen minutes into the first gave Mankato a power play opportunity, which they converted only a minute later when Nathan Smith snagged a puck blocked by the St. Cloud defense, and quickly fired it to the net to tie it at one apiece.  Second reaction:  Oh, Mankato is in this thing; who knows?  Ok, face-off and a fast break bing-bang-boom, and only ten seconds after Mankato’s score, Tyler Kupka put St. Cloud State up, 2-1, the score going into the first break.  Reaction — St. Cloud State just announced they’re going to win, so don’t mess with them.  Only three minutes into the second a Mankato turnover led to Will Hammer firing a shot high into the net for the 3-1 St. Cloud State lead.  All I was thinking was, wow, St. Cloud State has this one in the bag. Mankato State had other plans, apparently.  With the play generally even up to that point, aside from the score, Mankato turned the channel and the second became Mankato’s, as they out-shot St. Cloud State 15-7.

Twelve minutes into the second, Mankato had an odd man rush, and a rebound yielded a shot to the net by Walker Duehr that narrowed the lead to 3-2.  A minute later a tripping penalty on St. Cloud State put Mankato on the power play, and a minute later it was Nathan Smith once again, this time skating in to fire a shot in to tie it at three apiece, the score going into the second break.  My reaction was:  Hmmm . . . .  In the third, play was pretty even, and four minutes in, Dallas Gerads broke for a two-on-one, passed to teammate Walker Duehr, and pass back, and Gerads fired in the shot for the 4-3 Mankato lead.  My reaction was — where is St. Cloud, and do they realize this game is probably over?  But St. Cloud rallied, hung tough, and six minutes later a Will Hammer redirect of a Spencer Meier shot didn’t go — but — it bounced off the goalie right to Joe Molenaar, who shoved it in the goal to tie it at four apiece. What a game!  The two battled it out for the next nine minutes, and with a few minutes left I was sure this was going to OT.  But with time scarce, the puck was fed from the left side corner to a St. Cloud player up the ice, who fired a low line drive to the net, which Nolan Walker redirected for the winning 5-4 score, with only fifty-three seconds left, to send St. Cloud State to its first ever Frozen Four Championship Game.  What a game!!  What a team!!  St. Cloud State has great forwards who just keep driving on their opponents.  They hung tough in this game, and came back strong when it really didn’t look very good for them at all.

The outcome of this game was . . . . how should we look at this?  It wasn’t an upset as regards St. Cloud vs. Mankato, as seven participants picked St. Cloud State to win, and six picked Mankato State to win this game.  However, in total, eighteen of fifty-two picked Boston College, eighteen of fifty-two picked Minnesota, and three picked Boston University.  So it was a huge upset, riding on two big upsets earlier in the bracket, namely Mankato beating Minnesota, and St. Cloud State beating BC.

LATE GAME:  MASSACHUSETTS GET EARLY LEAD, THEN WINS LATE

Hey wait a minute — didn’t I just write this one?  Whew!  Somewhat emotionally drained by the roller coaster of emotions fueled by the first game, I was relieved to have a break between the two to recover.  This game between UMass and Minnesota-Duluth opened up with Duluth freely moving the puck up the ice at will, with slick team play and a look of ease and control as they did it.  Massachusetts scraped and scrapped, but it seemed that the story on the ice was, anything UMass thought they could do, Duluth knew they could stop it.  A hooking penalty on Tanner Laderoute put UMass a on the power play, and half a minute later Zach Jones made a drop pass back at the blue line to Matt Kessel who quickly passed it back to Jones, who shot a nifty wrister from out of the left point, past a UMass screen, and past the Duluth goalie, putting UMass, somewhat surprisingly, up, 1-0.  But the momentum was all Duluth’s, out-shooting UMass 10-5 in the period, and as if on schedule, two minutes later Duluth moved the puck out of the corner and a shot went to the crease, hit someone, and got past UMass goalie Murray. UMD was controlling the area around the goal, and Laderoute seized the moment and tapped the puck in to tie it at one apiece, the score going into the first break.  All things considered, it was fairly reminiscent of the 2019 Championship Game between the two, with the exception being that UMass had scored.  The second started, and it was a lot like the first — there was a real friction in this game, with Duluth pretty much in control, but UMass not rolling over, and seeming to get in the way of Duluth in ways that Duluth didn’t expect (and I didn’t either), and as a result, UMass staying in the game, more or less.

To the extent that Duluth controlled the first, it was even more so in the second.  Eleven minutes into the second, Cole Koepke moved to the net from the corner and tried a wrap around that didn’t go, but he got the rebound himself and put it in to give Duluth the 2-1 lead. UMass didn’t seem able to be there on that one, as Duluth continued to control things around the net.  Duluth outshot Massachusetts 16-6 in the second, and it seemed as though UMass was destined for another “we hung around but couldn’t get around the bend” type of games against the Mighty Duluth.  The third started out feeling a lot like the first two periods, but after a bit, UMass appeared to be asserting themselves more so around the net, pushing back, jockeying for position, call it what you will.  Then something really weird happened at the eight minute point.  An Anthony Del Gaizo shot was blocked and the rebound was kept in the Duluth zone at the blue line by Zach Jones, who sent the puck in deep, behind the net.  Bobby Trivigno snagged the puck, and got off a shot that was blocked, and all that jockeying for position stuff paid off as it went right to Josh Lopina, who shot it, but it was blocked too.  But Anthony Del Gaizo had come from behind the net, getting position in close, got the rebound and shot it in past the post before Duluth goalie Stejskal could close it off.  And boom, wham-o, UMass had tied the game up, 2-2, with twelve minutes to go.  Don’t get me wrong, UMass was getting position at the net, asserting themselves, but in the third, Duluth outshot UMass again, this time 10-4.  I couldn’t help but feel it was just a matter of time until the third Duluth goal. Ask North Dakota.

But UMass fought for their lives, fought for position, and managed to get two great opportunities to score, and they did.  And the game was tied.  The two fought it out for the remainder of the third, sometimes not too elegantly, and time ran out.  Again came the feeling that this OT thing would just be a matter of UMD getting a shot in the net.  OT started, and it didn’t take long to see an entirely new game.  It appeared that Minnesota-Duluth was either conserving energy, figuring this would be at least two OTs, or they were hanging back, waiting for an overly eager bunch of UMass guys to get carried away, make a mistake, and hand UMD the puck in a wide open situation.  Whatever it was, it was zany out there, as UMass was as frenetic as it gets. Guys in white jerseys were flying everywhere, sacrificing, pushing, getting position on everything — every shot, every pass, every rebound, every everything.  I mean talk about puck hogs!  UMass controlled the period, keeping the puck in the Duluth zone, seemingly the entire time (and of course that’s a bit of an exaggeration).  Duluth was almost entirely on defense, attempting to keep up with a bunch of rabid dogs after a raw burger.  It was nuts. After fifteen minutes of this tornado on the ice, and the puck kept in the Duluth zone for a prolonged period, Bobby Trivigno managed to out-maneuver two defenders down low, and fire a shot across the crease right to the stick of Garret Wait, parked at the post, who tapped it into the net.  And it was over.  UMass had come out in OT, grabbed the wheel by both hands, and driven the result of the game to send them to the Frozen Four Championship Game.  In fifteen minutes of OT, UMass outshot UMD 13-2.  Massachusetts was outshot in regulation 36-15, and in the game 38-28. But they managed to get their two goals in regulation, and orchestrated a maniacal blitz in the OT period that looked like five guys running around with their hair on fire, to get the winning goal.

The result of this game are an upset in our pool because only four participants picked UMass to win this game, compared to thirty of fifty-two picking North Dakota.  In a head to head comparison it wasn’t much of an upset, with four having picked UMass, and seven having picked Duluth (six for Wisconsin, three for Michigan, and two for Bemidji State).

TOMORROW’S GAME 4:00PM PACIFIC TIME ON ESPN

And what’s going to happen tomorrow?  Well let’s find out!  No matter what, we’ll have a first-time NCAA Hockey Champion, and that is nothing but great for college hockey!

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

— Tom