College Hockey Update:  How many ways can you say fast?  It doesn’t matter how many you can come up with, I think that they would all apply to the Yale team that is just flying through the NCAA tournament.  By fast, I would mean you really, really have to keep your eyes on the game at all times, or these guys are bound to do something and you won’t even have seen it.  And when I say fast, I need to add in the word attacking.  What a show these guys put on yesterday.

UMass-Lowell did their part to keep the game close.  And they don’t get any closer, in score, than this game yesterday.  But whereas Yale pressed hard on offense, and held tight defensively, UMass-Lowell did not do the same.  UMass-Lowell held Yale off, but did not press them offensively.

Yale came out and scored midway through the first on a powerplay goal, and then again late in the first, to take a 2-0 lead to the locker room.  Yale essentially ruled the first period in terms of control of the game, setting the tempo (once again, Yale fast), and offensive attack.  Yale badly outshot UMass-Lowell 11-5.

In the second, UMass-Lowell picked up their game quite a bit, but were still not quite at the level of Yale.  The Riverhawks were quite opportunistic, scoring two goals late in the second, both scored within fourteen seconds, to tie it up at 2-2.  But even at that, Yale outshot the Riverhawks 13-10 in the second, and controlled the game.

In the third, Yale came out with guns ablazing, and it was obvious they were playing to win.  All they did the entire period was attack UMass-Lowell.  Meanwhile, the Riverhawks seemed content to simply stop Yale, and seemed to be playing not to lose.  An incredible approach, considering they needed a goal to win.  Despite all the Bulldogs did, and they did a lot, outshooting the Riverhawks 16-3, UMass-Lowell hung in there and ended the game tied at 2-2.  This seemed entirely to the credit of Connor Hellebuyck, the UMass-Lowell goalie, who was under constant assault from Yale.

So off to OT they went.  The question was, what would UMass-Lowell look like in OT?  Well, sadly for them, they looked a whole lot as they did in the first three periods.  About a minute into OT, with Yale constantly attacking in the UMass-Lowell zone,  it seemed as though it was just a matter of time.  UMass-Lowell couldn’t hold out forever, right?  And seven minutes into the period, Yale senior forward Andrew Miller got the puck, and kept it.  He closed in on the goal, faked in from the right side to the left side, then sort of stalled, and then took off to the left, taking Hellebuyck with him.  But he didin’t take the puck with him, and shot it between Hellebuyck’s legs for the win.

Yale advances to the NCAA Hockey Championshp game tomorrow at 4:00pm Pacific Time on ESPN.

The Pool

This is beyond a whopper of an upset.  What, are you nuts?  No one, not a single person in our pool, took Yale to win a single game.

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go College Hockey!  Great teams are playing great hockey everywhere.