College Hockey Update:  Well it’s here; one of the best, best events in sports kicks off tomorrow, Thursday, April 8th, at 2:00pm Pacific Time, in Pittsburgh, PA., when #7 St. Cloud State faces #5 Mankato State in the first Frozen Four semifinal game, followed at 6:00pm Pacific Time by #9 Minnesota-Duluth facing #6 Massachusetts in the second semifinal game.  Both of these games will be on ESPN2, if you are near a TV at either/both of those times.  The two winners will face off in the Championship Game this Saturday, April 10th, at 4:00pm Pacific Time, scheduled for ESPN.

One of these teams has done well in the tournament a lot lately, and three really haven’t.  As regards the NCAA Championship, any of these other three would be brand new fresh blood for the sport, one really brand new, one that has been around for a while, and one that has come on the scene in the last few years.  Since going DI in 1996, Mankato State has made seven appearances in the NCAA Tournament, but had never won an NCAA Tournament game until this year — and now they have two of them.  That makes this the first Frozen Four ever for Mankato.  St. Cloud State has a similar history, having gone DI in 1987.  St. Cloud State quickly made it to the NCAA Tournament in their second year in DI, and made a total of six NCAA Tournament appearances in their first twenty-two DI seasons, but did not manage to win an NCAA Tournament game in that stretch.  Then in their twenty-third season they registered their first NCAA Tournament win in their seventh trip at the 2010 edition.  In the last twelve seasons, starting with that 2010 trip, St. Cloud State has made eight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including four trips in a row from 2013-16, and seven out of the last eight, including this year (2020 is not included in that count since there was no tournament last year). They have registered five NCAA Tournament wins, including two wins in the 2013 tournament, which took them to their first Frozen Four.  So here they are in their second Frozen Four, and it’s been eight years since the last one.  It would be a first, and a very big step, for St. Cloud State to make it to the final game.   Massachusetts started playing outdoors on a frozen pond in 1909 — I believe St. Cloud State had a similar beginning.  The UMass program was on and off, and got back on track in 1954, joined the old, large, original ECAC in 1961, and was assigned to ECAC-2 (D2) in 1964 — still out on the pond.  By the end of the 70s the pond was no longer of use, and so ended UMass hockey.  With the opening of the Mullins Center in 1993, UMass hockey returned as a D1 independent, and then into Hockey East the next year, 1994.  In their existence as a D1 school (1954-1963, and 1993 to present, 38 total seasons including this year), UMass didn’t make its first NCAA Tournament until the 2007 edition, when it captured its first tournament win.  It was not until 2019 that they returned, that time making it to the final game.  And now they are back, and in the Frozen Four.

It wasn’t too long ago that Minnesota-Duluth won their first NCAA Championship — in 2011.  They have now been to the NCAA Tournament fourteen times, nine since 2009; this is their eighth Frozen Four (fifth since 2011), and they made the final game in five of their previous seven trips to the Frozen Four, 1984 and 2017, and they won it all in 2011, 2018, and 2019. Minnesota-Duluth has established itself as the current force to be reckoned with in NCAA Hockey, no question about it, and it doesn’t seem to matter what their season record was coming into the tournament.  They make it a point to take care of business when it matters the most.  Ok, all four teams are excellent, ending the season ranked at #5, #6, #7, and #9; basically the bottom half of the top ten.

This is the third NCAA Tournament appearance in a row for Mankato State, and their sixth in the last eight tournaments.  This season they are 22-4-1, and are 8-2-0 in their last ten games. They are led by two guys in double digits in goals scored, Julian Napravnik, and Reggie Lutz, with ten each.  Their primary goalie, Dryden McKay, has a 1.40 GAA, and a saves percentage of .931.  They have the highest average age per player at 22.8 years; they have the fifth highest power play rate of success at 25.8%, and the tenth highest penalty kill success rate at 85.4%.  They’ve just won their first two NCAA Tournament games ever — will they stay this hot in the Frozen Four?

St. Cloud State is sort of a regular in the NCAA Tournament with this their eighth appearance since 2010, and seven out of the last eight tournaments.  This season the team is 19-10-0, and is 7-3-0 in their last ten games.  They are led by three guys in double digits in goals scored: Easton Brodzinski with thirteen; and Veeti Miettinen and Jami Kranilla, with eleven each. Brodzinski is out, having suffered a broken femur in their last game, but the team demonstrated great depth and stormed to a big win over Boston College to get here.  Goalie David Hrenak has a 2.51 GAA and a saved percentage of .910.  He played a tough game against Boston College, allowing only a first period goal and blocking twenty-six of twenty-seven shots for their 4-1 win.  St. Cloud State has the twelfth highest average age per player, at 22.3, the thirteenth highest penalty kill success rate at 84.8%, and the sixteenth highest power play success rate at 21.7%.  Will St. Cloud State get over the hump and make it to the Championship Game?

Massachusetts has the shortest history in the NCAA Tournament, but their second trip, in 2019, got them to the Championship Game.  These guys are 18-5-4, and are 9-0-1 in their last ten games.  The are led by two guys who are in double digits in goals scored, Carson Gicewicz with seventeen, and Bobby Trivigno with ten.  Primary goalie Filip Lindberg has a 1.33 GAA, and a saves percentage of .946.  Secondary goalie Matt Murray has a 2.01 GAA, and a saves percentage of .913.  Why am I writing about the backup goalie?  Well, here’s some not so good news for good old UMass:  Because of the coronavirus protocols, they have four players out now.  They just happen to be their leading goal scorer, Carson Gicewicz, their primary goalie, Filip Lindberg, one more wing, and their third goalie.  So they shift to Matt Murray in the net, who has a GAA that is 50% higher than Lindberg’s, and they lose Gicewicz, who has scored 18% of their goals this season.  Oh, but don’t worry about the situation in the net.  In the event Murray were to be injured, etc…, the team found out that the assistant to their equipment manager, a student by the name of Zac Steigmeyer, primarily a defenseman in high school, played games as goalie late in his high school experience.  He’s the backup goalie.  Suffice it to say this is probably not the lineup UMass dreamed of taking into the Frozen Four.  UMass has the thirtieth highest average age per player at 21.10, the second highest penalty kill success rate at 91.4%, and the thirteenth highest power play success rate at 22.3%.  Will UMass be able to overcome these critical losses and stay hot against the two-time defending NCAA Champions — the team that blanked them in their only-ever Championship Game appearance?

Minnesota-Duluth has become a regular in the NCAA Tournament with this their ninth appearance in the last twelve tournaments.  They have also established themselves as the current force to be reckoned with, having appeared in all of the three last Championship Games, and having won it all in both of the last two tournaments.  And they are this force, regardless of their regular season record.  This is when they shine their brightest.  This season their record is 16-10-2, and they are 5-5-0 in their last ten games.  Perfect.  They’ll be on fire. Just watch.  Four players are in double digits in goals scored:  Cole Koepke with fourteen; Nick Swaney and Kobe Roth with thirteen each; and Jackson Cates with eleven.  Freshman goalie Zach Stejskal has a GAA of 1.75 and a saves percentage of .934.  He played the first 125 minutes of their 142 minute game against North Dakota, stopping 57 of 59 shots over the 6 1/4 periods he played.  He was relieved by Ryan Fanti, who sports a GAA of 2.36 and a saves percentage of .907.  Fanti blocked all six North Dakota shots in his seventeen minutes of relief, en route to UMD’s 3-2 5OT win to get here.  Minnesota-Duluth has the forty-second highest average age per player at 21.7, the twenty-first highest power play success rate at 19.8%, and the forty-third highest penalty kill success rate at 75.8%.  Will Minnesota-Duluth close it out again this year?

Before anyone wants it to be, this thing will be over.  For those who can get near a TV, it promises to be great viewing.  The icing on the cake (they love that sort of talk in Minnesota, which is just filled with cake eaters) will be the NCAA Championship game on Saturday, April 10th, at 4:00PM Pacific Time, scheduled for ESPN.

So get your viewing all set up, along with your pizza, polish sausage, or if you are at one of those snobby parties in Minnesota, basted brooke trout in a beurre blanc sauce, with many, many cakes to choose from for desert, particularly if you are one of those chi-chi suburbs south of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  But make sure your beer is cold (or Irish Coffee hot).

And yes, I know everyone wants to win the pool from the barrage of phone calls and emails.  The huge upsets all over the place made this a heck of a year.  We will all know who the winner is, soon enough.

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

— Tom