Frozen Four Bracket

[KevinMcD]

This is a very Buffalo heavy final. 4 natives (Kennedy, Ratuchuk, and Muller from MSU, and Orpik from BC) Also a couple of Sabre Prospects (Gerbe and Kennedy)

[yh]

Reporting in from the Frozen Four . . . .

The CCSLC is represented by no fewer than two members, myself and Austin, Texas' very own Michael Schliefke (a/k/a Schlim) whom I met last night and who was kind enough to provide me with one of his custom-designed T-shirts. Muchas gracias, Amigo.

This is my first Frozen Four and I have to say that I am most impressed by the collegiality (no pun intended) among the attendees. Since this is such a popular event and since tickets are purchased a year in advance (for those lucky enough to hit the ticket lottery jackpot, that is), there are sizeable factions from a number of the big hockey schools notwithstanding their teams' absence from the event. The Minnesota contingent was well represented, to be sure. I also saw quite a number of Michigan Tech partisans and a handful of Wisconsin backers. From the number of pins covering the sweaters of a number of these folks, it was very clear to me that the Frozen Four has more than its fair share of regulars. It's been very cool to watch the camaraderie among on-ice rivals.

The award for the largest contingent present goes to North Dakota. The Sioux fans took up a full corner of the lower bowl and pockets of green and black clad Sioux backers were also dispersed throughout the rink. Coming in a fairly distant second was Maine. BC has a relatively small but vocal pocket of fans but the best of the four pep bands. Michigan State's fan base seems either very small or extremely widely dispersed so that it was difficult to determine where, if anywhere, their main contingent was situated. It's really a shame that the two largest fan packs have already had their teams knocked out, however I don't expect many of those folks to leave town so hastily. Everyone is here to see great college hockey and that can certainly be evidenced by the relatively low attrition rate among the Maine fans following their disappointing loss.

I say disappointing because they came out of the gates like gangbusters, potting a goal at the 00:23 mark and netting another one within the first 8 minutes of the game. Unfortunately for the Black Bears, they just couldn't sustain their early momentum and by the mid point of the 3rd period it was very clear that they were running on fumes. Maine goalie Ben Bishop, a Blues draft pick and native St. Louisan, got a substantial ovation at the beginning of the game, however it seemed to me that the combination of playing in the Frozen Four, being on the home ice of his future big league employer and playing in his hometown might have been just a bit much for the sophomore as he just didn't seem at the top of his game for much of the second and third periods. Meanwhile, Michigan State kept their cool throughout the game, battled their way back into a draw by the second period and put Maine into a near-panic mode once they had the lead. It wasn't the prettiest of wins but it was good enough to get them some additional ice time on Saturday night.

The BC-UND game was clearly the better of the two contests. This was a close game until very late in the third when BC refused to yield momentum to UND notwithstanding letting the Sioux back into the game twice. The "Curse of Ginn/Hester" struck again in this game as UND took an early lead and appeared to have an upper hand. BC chilled that early momentum by evening the score at 1-1 and the seesaw match was on. This was an extremely physical game with some crazy wicked saves by the UND netminder including one which can only be described as a bicycle kick pad save. By my count, three BC shots pinged off the crossbar during the game. It was an exciting contest all the way through. Blues prospect T.J. Oshie had three points (1 G, 2 A) on the night and really gave the hometown crowd something to cheer about. Michigan State is going to have its hands full with the Eagles on Saturday night.

Oh, and for those who are interested, UND wore black Nike Swift sweaters while BC wore full cut uni's. The Sioux certainly looked smaller with the combination of slimming black and the trim sweater design. Two things that bothered me about these sweaters were the small size of the crest (even for a trim jersey it seemed smaller than it had to be) and the fact that the side stripes of the sweater did not match up to the pants stripes (the jersey had a green-white-green stripe pattern while the pants were simply green-white).

Suffice it to say, Thursday was a terrific afternoon and evening of hockey and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the culmination of this festival on Saturday night.

[Ez Street]

Stupid Maine.

Oh well. Go Michigan State.

Yale have fun. Wish I was there.

[Sec19Row53]

Yale - If that law thing doesn't work out, you've got a future as a sportswriter. That's an excellent article you wrote!

[no97]

Thought I'd put this up for interested parties - my radio show about college hockey. This is the blog for The Hockey Show, a Minnesota Broadcasters Association "Media Best - Sports" award winning program that runs here on KBUN-AM in Bemidji (I'm the Sports Director). This show reviews the National Semi's from last night, and previews tomorrow's championship game:

The Hockey Show blog

Enjoy!

Moose

[yh]

What an unbelievable game!!!

First of all, it was great to see over 19,000 fans set the all time attendance record for a Frozen Four contest. Hopefully this bodes well for St. Louis getting another chance to host -- hell, I'll settle for getting into the rotation for regionals if it's going to be a while before we have another chance at a F4.

The action in this contest was end-to-end for the better part of the game. Intense checking, great defense and superb goaltending from both squads made this a contest for the ages. Once again, MSU stuck to their guns, never getting down or panicking when BC struck first blood. It was fairly clear from the get-go that goals were going to be extremely hard to come by, so when BC netted the first tally it would have been understandable for the Spartans to get hasty, but they didn't. These were two very well coached squads who should be very proud of their performances.

As I stated in my earlier post, this was an experience the likes of which I have never before had the privilege of enjoying first hand. I'm giving serious consideration to applying for tickets to next year's tilt in Denver. It was a great event to be a part of and I really hope it's not another 32 years before St. Louis gets to host another Frozen Four.

[no97]

What an unbelievable game!!!

First of all, it was great to see over 19,000 fans set the all time attendance record for a Frozen Four contest. Hopefully this bodes well for St. Louis getting another chance to host -- hell, I'll settle for getting into the rotation for regionals if it's going to be a while before we have another chance at a F4.

The action in this contest was end-to-end for the better part of the game. Intense checking, great defense and superb goaltending from both squads made this a contest for the ages. Once again, MSU stuck to their guns, never getting down or panicking when BC struck first blood. It was fairly clear from the get-go that goals were going to be extremely hard to come by, so when BC netted the first tally it would have been understandable for the Spartans to get hasty, but they didn't. These were two very well coached squads who should be very proud of their performances.

As I stated in my earlier post, this was an experience the likes of which I have never before had the privilege of enjoying first hand. I'm giving serious consideration to applying for tickets to next year's tilt in Denver. It was a great event to be a part of and I really hope it's not another 32 years before St. Louis gets to host another Frozen Four.

Don't take this the wrong way, as from all I understand, St. Louis did a bang-up job of hosting the Frozen 4 (in fact, to see what some die-hard college hockey fans thought about the St. Louis FF, check out this message board thread from US College Hockey Online), but if college hockey hotbed St. Paul, MN has to wait ten (10) years between Frozen 4's (the last was in 2001, and the next is in 2011), and Boston was skipped in the last rotation (last hosted in 2004 and can't host until 2013 at the earliest), then St. Louis is on about a once every 30-year list...

Moose

[schlim]

The Frozen Four was great, this was the fourth one I've been to, with Boston in 98, Providence in 99 and Columbus in 03 rounding out the others. Atmosphere wise, the arena seemed far quieter than Boston and Providence, and even the fans rooting for their teams seemed a bit quieter than years past - with the exception of Columbus, which never seemed to be too into it.

The three games were great and all had distinct qualities - as yh said, the Michigan St.-Maine game seemed laid back and low key compared to the BC-North Dakota game. It was amazing how Michigan St. held in there when their goalie seemed completely unaware he was in the game for a period and a half. The BC-ND game was intense - heavy checking, big players on both sides - BC seemed to be able to match the strength and size of ND better than in years past when they seemed to rely more on finesse. Plus their captain Boyle was gigantic on the ice.

The jerseys all looked great - I was surprised Dakota's NIKE jerseys looked better than I thought, at times, the bagginess of BC's jerseys seemed out of place - and this was the first time I'd seen the nike jerseys in action. I wish Michigan St. would lighten their green - they have a crisp design and look great, but the green appears too close to black on the ice. Maine's are classics, and shouldn't ever change too much. I've always liked their two toned blue, well before it got as popular as it has over the past few years.

I did catch up with yh briefly during the Maine-Michigan St. game, it was great putting a person with the name. I used to live in KC and got to explore St. Louis a bit during the trip - the art museum was incredible, as was the Kemper Museum at Washington U, which was a beautiful campus. The temperatures made being outside unbearable, but I was able to soak up a mostly quiet downtown filled with sweet brick buildings and a lot of great architectural facades. I also managed to head up to the top of the Arch - a crazy monument altogether, with a dizzying and claustrophobic visitor's deck 600 feet up in the middle. I topped off my visit with a very worthwhile trip to the Intl. Bowling Hall of Fame, which was filled with '5000 years of bowling history' and a collection of HoF plagues that had the greatest sculpted heads I've ever seen.

I took a slew of pics that'll be on my website in a day or two. It was a great time filled with some really great games. I sat in front of the BC goal when Michigan St. scored with 18 seconds left - what a shocking end when everyone was settling in for overtime.

[yh]

Don't take this the wrong way, as from all I understand, St. Louis did a bang-up job of hosting the Frozen 4 (in fact, to see what some die-hard college hockey fans thought about the St. Louis FF, check out this message board thread from US College Hockey Online), but if college hockey hotbed St. Paul, MN has to wait ten (10) years between Frozen 4's (the last was in 2001, and the next is in 2011), and Boston was skipped in the last rotation (last hosted in 2004 and can't host until 2013 at the earliest), then St. Louis is on about a once every 30-year list...

Moose

Well, that'd still be a two year improvement for us (we last hosted in '75)! I do hope we can score a regional or two in the next few years.

Schlim - glad you enjoyed your visit and had the chance to take in some sights. Had the temps been a little more hospitable I would have recommended a visit to the Central West End (not too far from the museum district and Wash. U for that matter). Hopefully there will be a next time.