College Hockey Update:  Ok, first things first, and this is important — I have emailed you your 2014 NCAA bracket; please open it immediately, make your picks, and email your picks back to me in a single typed line as my picks appear here including the score of your final game: 1.Minn 2.St. Cloud 3.Ferris 4.Wisc 5.BC 6.Lowell 7.Quinn 8.Union 9.Minn 10. Wisc 11.BC 12.Union 13.Minn 14.BC 15.Minn 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!

Well, it was certainly a weekend of upsets in the conference tournaments, and there is a surprise in the NCAA field as a result!  Lets start off with the surprise, Denver, which had a hot hand and got a great assist from Miami-Ohio, who knocked North Dakota out of the running in the NCHC tournament; so Denver beat Western Michigan, then Miami-Ohio, ended up ranked #17, and got into the tournament on the conference-winner autobid, having won the NCHC tournament championship.  In the ECAC, Union beat two ranked teams, Cornell and Colgate, by three-goal margins, and won the ECAC tournament championship for the third year in a row.  In Atlantic Hockey, Robert Morris squeaked by Niagara with an OT win, and then cruised to win by a three-goal margin over Canisius, to win the Atlantic Hockey tournament championship.  In the Big Ten, Hockey East, and WCHA, highly ranked teams won the conference tournament championships, but with a major upset in the Big Ten semifinals, and an upset in the Hockey East semifinals.  All six teams that swept the weekend moved up at least two spots in the rankings, with three of them moving up four or more spots.  And now let’s take a quick spin through the conference tournament outcomes and scores:

• Atlantic Hockey: Canisius and Mercyhurst fought through a see-saw battle to end in a 4-4 tie in regulation, and the game went deep into the second OT period, with Canisius scoring with six and a half left to win it 5-4.  In the second semifinal, Niagara scored twice in the last three minutes to tie it up, 4-4, but Robert Morris scored deep in the first OT period, with five minutes left, to win it 5-4.  Yes, both these games ended 5-4.  In the final, Robert Morris scored twice in the last seven minutes to seal a 7-4 win for the Atlantic Hockey tournament championship, and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.  This is the first appearance in the NCAA Tournament for Robert Morris University.  Atlantic Hockey sends one team to the NCAA Tournament.
• Big Ten: In their play-in games on Thursday, Ohio State was down 1-0 , but scored in in the second to make it 1-1, which is where it ended; in the first OT period, Ohio State scored early, five minutes into it, to beat Michigan State 2-1 and advance to the semifinals.  And in the second play-in game, wouldn’t you know it, Michigan couldn’t avoid choking.  Michigan was served up Penn State, a team with only seven wins all year long, and only three in the big ten, and Michigan couldn’t get it done — amazing.  This game actually went scoreless for nearly two full periods, until Penn State got on the board with only twenty seconds remaining in the second period, and for a while it looked as though that’s how it would end.  But with nine minutes left in the game, Michigan tied it at 1-1, where it ended in regulation.  Then more scoreless hockey — half of the third, all of the first OT, and another thirteen minutes in the second OT, and then hapless Penn State scored to win it, 2-1.  Sheeeeesh!  I’m pretty sure that all Michigan had to do was to win that one game, and they would have been in the NCAA Tournament — it wouldn’t have mattered if they would have lost the next night.  But that’s all it took, and after twenty-two straight years of making it to the NCAA Tournament, Michigan has a new streak going — two straight years without making it to the NCAAs.  One can only imagine the depths of the still and silent darkness this creates in the now painful psyche of the Wolverine fan base, knowing that once again they came so, so close to it, yet missed it completely.  In the semifinals, surprise!  Ohio State scored twice in the last nine minutes of the third to break the 1-1 tie and win it 3-1 over Minnesota and advance to the final.  I’d say that’s a major upset.  In the second semifinal, after a scoreless first, Penn State netted one, one minute into the second, but Wisconsin fired back thirty seconds later to tie it, and then on a power play with ten seconds left in the second to make it 2-1, where it stayed all through the third and was the final.  In the final game, with Ohio State up 3-2 with about seven minutes left in the third, Ohio State score to go up 4-2, but in the next minute, Wisconsin scored twice to tie it at 4-4, where it ended in regulation.  Eight minutes into the OT period, Wisconsin scored again, to win it 5-4.  Wait, wasn’t that the OT score in the Atlantic Hockey semifinals?  Anyway, Wisconsin won the Big Ten tournament championship, and heads to the NCAA Tournament.  The Big Ten sends two teams to the NCAA Tournament.
• ECAC: Colgate found themselves down 2-0 in the first and with three minutes left in the period, scored to make it Quinnipiac 2, Colgate 1.  The game stalemated, and with a minute to go, Colgate added an extra attacker and it paid off huge as they scored to tie it at two with fifty-six ticks left on the clock.  One minute into the second OT period, Colgate score to win it 3-2 and advance to the final.  In the second semifinal, Union had things in hand, 4-2, against Cornell, and found an empty net, late, to make the final 5-2 to advance to the final as well.  In the final it was all Union, as they led 4-0 with seven minutes left in the fourth, when Colgate scored to make it 4-1.  Colgate added an extra attacker with four minutes to go, and it paid off a minute later when they score to make it 4-2.  But just a half of a minute later, Union found the empty net to make it 5-2, which is how it ended, giving Union the ECAC tournament championship.  This is the third consecutive ECAC tournament championship for Union College.  The ECAC sends three teams to the NCAA Tournament.
• Hockey East: In the second it was all New Hampshire as they scored three times after a scoreless first, to make it 3-0.  Providence scored early in the third with seventeen minutes remaining, and that was the end of the scoring, as UNH took it 3-1.  It was all UMass-Lowell in the other semifinal as they swamped Notre Dame 4-0.  And it was the same story in the final, as UMass-Lowell beat UNH 4-0 for the Hockey East tournament championship.  Hockey East surprisingly sends five teams to the NCAA Tournament.
• NCHC: In the first semifinal between Denver and Western Michigan, a see-saw battle entered the third period tied at 3-3, and with only five minutes remaining, Denver scored the winning goal to make it 4-3.  In the other semifinal, Miami of Ohio scored once in each period and blanked North Dakota 3-0.  In the final, Denver led 4-2 late in the third, when Miami scored an extra attacker goal, and it ended 4-3.  In the consolation game North Dakota blanked Western Michigan 5-0.  The NCHC sends three teams to the NCAA Tournament.
• WCHA: After taking an early two goal lead, Ferris State found itself down 4-2 midway through the second, but rallied to score two in the next four minutes to tie it up, 4-4, where it stayed for the next twenty-five minutes of regulation.  In the first OT period, Ferris State ended it only three minutes in, to take the game5-4 over Alaska-Anchorage.  Mankato State would have nothing of the sort, and just whipped Bowling Green to the tune of 4-0.  In the final game (just think! a conference championship where the top two teams actually made it to the final game!), Mankato State again came out with guns a-blazing at they took a 2-0 first period lead.  Ferris State did score in the second to make it 2-1, but Mankato scored again in the third to make it 3-1, and when Ferris State added an extra attacker late in the game, Mankato held them off, and with only four seconds remaining found the empty net to make the final 4-1.  The WCHA sends two teams to the NCAA Tournament.

This year the top fourteen ranked teams, plus #17, and #22, constitute the NCAA Tournament’s sixteen teams.  The results of the conference championships did not have much to do with which teams made it to the NCAA Tournament, with the exception of Robert Morris and Denver, which both made it, and Michigan, which looked as though they were near a lock on it for a while, but just didn’t do it.  This year the NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Tournament Contestants, and Regional Assignments are:

• Friday, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, #1 ranked Union College faces #14 ranked Vermont at 11:00am Pacific Time on ESPNU, and #7 ranked Quinnipiac faces #10 ranked Providence College at 2:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Saturday, March 29th, at 12:00 noon Pacific Time on ESPN2.
• Also Friday, in Cincinnati, Ohio, #6 ranked Ferris State faces #12 ranked Colgate at 1:30pm Pacific Time on ESPN3, and #4 ranked Wisconsin faces #13 ranked North Dakota at 5:00pm Eastern Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Saturday March 29th at 3:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Saturday, in Worcester, Massachusetts, #3 ranked Boston College faces #17 ranked Denver at 1:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU, and #5 ranked UMass-Lowell faces #11 ranked Mankato State at 4:30 Pacific Time on ESPN3.  Winners play on Sunday, March 30th at 2:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Also Saturday, in St. Paul, Minnesota, #2 ranked Minnesota faces #22 ranked Robert Morris at 2:30pm Pacific Time on ESPN2, and #8 ranked St. Cloud State faces #9 Notre Dame at 6:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play on Sunday, March 30th at 4:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.

So we’re off an running!  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 27TH, AT 9:00PM PACIFIC TIME — THAT IS ABOUT 72 HOURS FROM THE TIME OF THIS POSTING.

This provides the top twenty teams, rankings, records, and last weekend’s results:

[table id=88 /]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!  And send me your picks!!  Now!!

— Tom