College Hockey Update:  Yesterday in opening round action of the NCAA Tournament in the Western Regional in Fargo, N.D., American International played a tough and opportunistic game against the #1 team in the nation, St. Cloud State, and their persistent dogging of St. Cloud paid off as they denied St. Cloud of any more hockey this season.  American International played a smart, largely mistake-free game, and got on the board six minutes into the first period when Joel Kocur beat St. Cloud goalie David Hrenak.  AIC stood on this 1-0 lead for the remainder of the first, and for eight minutes of the second, until AIC sophomore Brennan Kapcheck put in a shot to extend the lead to 2-0.  St. Cloud State had started out sluggishly in the first period in which both teams notched only six shots on goal.  But after that St. Cloud had heard the bell and upped the offense to the tune of 13 shots in the second and 15 in the third, compared to only four and three for AIC.  But AIC stayed focused on transition, got back on defense, and played a classic bend-don’t-break game that confounded St. Cloud State.  AIC had afforded St. Cloud three power play opportunities, but St. Cloud couldn’t convert.  In the fourth, AIC was called on a tripping, giving St. Cloud their fourth power play of the game, and only fifteen seconds into it, St. Cloud was on the board midway through the third.  But AIC confounded St. Cloud for the rest of the game, and survived two minutes of St. Cloud’s extra attacker offense, to take the 2-1 win and advance to the Western Regional final game today at 6pm Pacific Time on ESPNU against Denver.

This is only the third time in the history of the NCAA Hockey Tournament that the #16 seed beat the #1 seed, and it is the first time that a team did so on their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.  In our pool this would be a major league upset, as 57 out of 58 participants chose St. Cloud State to win this game — only one single set of picks chose American International.

College Hockey Update Fun Corner Video Of The Day

Ok, you might need a break from this letdown, so let’s see if this helps.  The main thing I like about this video is that someone figured out the costumes for it — very clever costume solution:

https://www.facebook.com/crusoedachshund/videos/1131761756912318/

Thanks to Julie Schreader for sending this in.

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

— Tom