What a weekend!  Tons of games, tons of action, some close thrillers and some surprises along the way.  With so many games to report on, I’ll just provide the scores/outcomes of the games, starting with . . . .

• WCHA:   North Dakota beat Denver 5-4 (North Dakota never trailed in this one); St. Cloud State shut out Wisconsin 2-0; and in the championship game, North Dakota beat St. Cloud 5-3 (North Dakota went up early 2-0, St. Cloud fought back, and trailing by one, sent in an extra attacker, pulling the goalie, and North Dakota scored a late empty netter to win 5-3).
• Hockey East:   BC had control of the game against Vermont,  scoring one in each period and shutting Vermont out 3-0; Maine blasted BU and took an early 3-0 lead (I watched this one, and Tony Pastor was there in person, and texted this summary to me:  “No miracles this year — Final 5-2 — But stange and exciting ending:  With just less than 4 min there was big pile up at the Maine goal.  A penalty was called on Maine but then there was a 5 min delay while the ref reviewed the tape.  Finally a decision:  a BU goal making the score 3 to 2.  Then 30 seconds later with BU shorthanded, BU had a clear breakaway from the blue line in.  But the Maine goalie stopped it, and then Maine went down and scored on the power play for a 4-2 lead.  An empty netter made the final 5-2.  The Maine fans, who outnumbered the Terrier fans, went crazy.  On to the frozen four without the defending champs.”);  in the championship game BC beat Maine 7-6 in OT, with four goals in the first, three in the second, five in the third, and one in OT.  Whew!
• ECAC:   Cornell thumped Brown 3-0, scoring two in the third; Union and St. Lawrence played a very close one, which I saw, with Union winning 3-1 (Union scored in the first, St. Lawrence in the second, and Union midway in the third, then with five seconds left got an empty netter).  In the championsip game Cornell was in total control taking it 3-0 over Union.
• CCHA:   Northern Michigan scored three in the second, and Ferris State came back and scored two in the third, to send it into OT — Northern Michigan scored quickly in OT to win 5-4; Michigan took a 2-1 lead into the third, then scored three more, and went on to beat Miami-Ohio 5-2;  In the championship game Michigan beat Northern Michigan 2-1 (Michigan scored first in the second, and in the third).
• Atlantic Hockey:   Make no mistake about it, Rochester Institute of Technology won this thing hands down:  They beat Canisius 4-0, and in the championship game RIT beat Sacred Heart 6-1.  Oh, in between that, Sacred Heart beat Air Force 2-1.

In some of these cases, the teams were headed to the NCAA tournament regardless of what happened (the four teams in the WCHA semis).  In others, teams were fighting for their hockey lives (note the fight Maine gave BC, and Michigan had to win the CCHA to get in — and did, making it twenty straight years they’ve been in the NCAA tournament).  So who are the 16 teams in the NCAAs?  In four different regions of four teams each we have . . . .

• Friday:   Denver vs. Rochester Institute of Technology at Noon Pacific Time on ESPNU; and Cornell vs. New Hampshire at 3:30 Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Saturday, 3:30pm Pacific Time, ESPNU.
• Also Friday:   St. Cloud State vs. Northern Michigan at 2:30 Pacific Time on ESPN Syndication, and Wisconsin vs. Vermont at 6pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.  Winners play Saturday, 6pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Saturday:   Boston College vs. Alaska Fairbanks at 10:30am Pacific Time on ESPN Syndication, and North Dakota vs. Yale at 2pm Pacific Time on ESPN Syndication.  Winners play Sunday at 2:30pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.
• Also Saturday:  Miami of Ohio vs. Alabama Hunstville at 1PM Pacific Time on ESPNU, and Bemidji State vs. Michigan at 4:30pm Pacific Time on ESPN Syndication.  Winners play Sunday at 5:00pm Pacific Time on ESPNU.

So, here we go.  Your brackets have been emailed to you by now.  Each game has a number under the line for the game winner.  Once you have made your picks, send them to me in a typed line, in game number order, by game winner.  Your entry emailed to me would look like this example:  1. Denver 2.UNH 3. etc….. and then list, at the end, your score for the final game you have picked, eg:  15. Miami 3-2.  Remember, it costs nothing to play, and the winner gets a prize.

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