COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE:  In the final game of the West Region in Fargo North Dakota, Saturday night, March 29th, the University of Massachusetts was first on the board with eleven minutes remaining in the first as a result of an outlet pass to the neutral zone, in turn passed to Dans Locmelis who was on a partial break.  Locmelis skated into and around Western Michigan goalie Hampton Slukynsky, handled the puck around him, and scored to give Massachusetts the 1-0 lead, which stood at the first break.  Massachusetts had the momentum in the first, out-shooting Western Michigan 12-5.

In the second Western Michigan responded to the alarms and had the momentum, but UMass held tough and the game that went scoreless the last eleven minutes of the first continued for nearly the entire second.  With two minutes left in the period, a penalty on Aydar Suniev (two goals in the UMass 5-4 win over Minnesota on March 27th) was escalated to a major penalty, and Western Michigan jumped on it.   With only a minute left in the second, Liam Valente scored on a one-timer from the top of the right face-off circle early in the major power play to tie it at one apiece.  Western Michigan out-shot UMass 15-6 in the frame, and took the newly minted tie into the second break.

With three and some change left on the major power play to start the third, it was Tim Washe at the top of the crease who tipped in a shot by Brian Kramer to give Western Michigan the 2-1 lead.  The major penalty ended and the two again skated to a draw for the remainder of the game, with UMass slightly out-shooting Western Michigan 11-10 in the third.  The 2-1 win advanced Western Michigan to The Frozen Four in St. Louis to face the winner of the Boston College vs Denver game (to be played Sunday, March 30th), on Thursday, April 10th, at 2:00PM Pacific Time on ESPN2.

So . . . . was this game an upset in our pool ?  Depends how you look at it.  On one hand, eleven entrants picked Western Michigan University to win this game, compared to only two having picked the University of Massachusetts to win it, so in terms of this matchup, I suppose it was not an upset. However, twenty-six had picked the University of Minnesota to win this game.

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

— Tom