Yale got the earth shaking in the fist game of first round action in this year’s tournament, by sending the Minnesota Golden Gophers to the locker room with only one task:  To pack up their stuff and fly back to Minneapolis on the next plane.

The first period ended in a 0-0 tie, as both teams played great defense.  But in the second, Yale took over, scoring twice.  Power plays were key in the second, as Minnesota failed to score on two power play opportunities, and Yale had two opportunities, scoring on their second chance to make it 2-0.  Minnesota was the leading scoring team in the nation this year on power plays, which I suppose, to many, will call into question the quality of their opponents, given what happened in the second.

In the third, period, Minnesota scored two goals, and tied the game up with about 6:20 to go in the third.  On their first goal they were finally able to convert on a power play, the goal coming from Nate Schmidt.  Their second goal was scored by one of their supposed super-stars, Zach Budish.  Eric Haula assisted on both goals.

In overtime, the faceoff went to Minnesota, but Yale’s Kenny Augustino intecepted a pass behing the net by Minnesota’s Ben Marshall, fed it out to Jesse Root, and Root fired in his tenth goal of he season, giving Yale the 3-2 win, and sending the Gophers into the locker room to pack up and head home for the weekend and summer.

The results of this game are a major upset in our pool as 34 out of 34 picked Minnesota to win this game.  Not only that, but 19 picked them to make it to the final and 14 picked them to win it all.

On Saturday at 1:00pm Pacific Time, Yale will play the winner of today/tonight’s North Dakota vs. Niagra game.

OUR POOL

We have 34 people entered in the pool this year, one short of our highwater mark of 35 in 2011.  Of the sixteen teams in the Tournament, nine different teams were picked to win.  Of course, Minnesota won’t be winning, but they were chosen by the greatest number of people to win it all:

• Minnesota      14
• North Dak        4
• Ntr Dame         4
• Quinnipiac       4
• UM-Lowell       3
• Wisconsin        2
• Boston Col       1
• Mankato           1
• Miami-Oh        1

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

— Tom