BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

One factor many haven't talked about is that Penn St probably becomes something of an insta-premier program, or it should happen pretty quickly. It's good for college hockey to break into the PA market, imo. There's no real presence there at the moment, but it's a good hockey area now. I expect by 2020 they'll have great players and a following. I could spurn other Big Ten schools to start programs. I think the next most logical choices would be Northwestern and Illinois.

microbob, why doesn't ECAC get any respect in the college hockey world?

Pretty sweet goal by Yale to take down Air Force in OT.

this tournament.

First time I've seen Jaden Schwartz. Kid can play some hockey.

Apologies to the Michigan cadre, but you're going to need Hunwick to stand on his head if you're going to get past either one of these teams.

7-2 after 2, BC looks shell-shocked. 2 goals and a great takeaway followed by set-up from Jaden, and a couple hustle goals from the PK unit. Looking forward to watching these guys again.

I know this has been touched on itt but how the hell does Miami, as a 1 seed, have to play NH IN NH???

just thought I would let you guys know that, right now the semi finals between UWO and UNB are being streamed free online.

The championship game between the winner of this game plays McGill tomorrow in the championship.

http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mice/index

Tight, defensive, playoff hockey. Or how to go score 4 power play goals and still lose.

http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/s...how/game/49423

I don't think I've ever seen someone put up a +7 in an OT game, lol.

scoreboard

I was going to wait until the end of the game to respond to that. These things can change at any moment.

I mean I love this tournament, it's fantastic drama, but it's like the biggest crapshoot in sports. Is there a post season with as much variance as this? Can't think of it. The last team in can't be that big of a dog to the best team in the country. The #16-15 teams (the last two in) can be mediocre, but once you get beyond that, the 4 seeds are often dangerous, and it's hockey. 1 game is a blip, so much variance. And sometimes even the literal last team in is still capable of stringing together a couple of wins, even against top competition.

They should put the regional in the 1 seeds home ice to make the regular season more meaningful and give the higher seeds some kind of benefit. Unless you're UNH, in which case you just get it every year anyway. Miami being a #1 and having to play at the #4 seed's barn is a jopke.

Well, I was way off. Michigan pretty much dominated IMO, although the score didn't reflect that.

ship ship

Pretty much agree with all of this. The one seeds used to beat the four seeds pretty routinely, but now there's too much depth. I like the home ice suggestion, or maybe steal an idea from the basketball tournament and have a 4 play a 5 with the winner playing the 1 seed.

Great time to be playing your best hockey of the season boys! Go Blue!

CAPORUSSO NEEDS A NATTY TITLE!!!

lol does North Dakota really have a kid named Trupp? That is awesome. I just hope Michigan avoids giving up 3-on-2 rushes when he's on the ice. That would be ****ing moronic.

michigans gonna ship it this year

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BLUE

This tournament is basically the biggest crapshoot in all of sports. Very fun though. Wish this was last year so Michigan could play in Detroit, but this should be very fun to watch.

Because their conference is no good?!?!?!

Well, and the no scholarship thing at the Ivy schools, etc. But with my team we have a couple of ECAC'ers with bright futures and potential NHL ceilings (out of Mass-Lowell and Brown). Not NHL All-Stars but being good enough to make it there at all is something. However, this same team is grabbing guys up from the WCHA left and right. We now have 6 different WCHA teams represented on our roster. My joke is that they have a goal to get a player from EVERY WCHA team. We also have 4 different CCHA'ers.

Anyway, Yale is no doubt a good team. But I just don't see that squad as a favorite to win the WCHA...or even the CCHA which probably isn't quite as deep. I don't think many people considered them the favorites to win the national title.

They get taken to overtime by Air Force and then lose to a good Duluth team. And then combine their performance with Union and RPI not even scoring a goal in their first round losses. ECAC just doesn't seem to be at the same level as the W, C or East.

I haven't looked at any regular season records across conferences though and I wasn't following any of this very closely this year. So maybe I'm misinformed on that.


In other news, meh for Miami and their loss at NH. Tough draw for them. They would have been better off NOT winning the CCHA tournament and thus not getting a 1 seed. Seems weird to actually say that but it ended up being true amazingly enough.

Few guys I know put together an NCAA hockey pool....and my bracket was very quickly busted just like I always am in hoops of course.

not that anyone cares but mass-lowell isn't ecac just fyi!

And a guy named Blood.

UND is so ****ing good this year. I went to the Final Five in St Paul couple weeks ago, which they won in 2OT over Denver, and they are just so much faster and more skilled than ANY of the other teams in the WCHA...and the WCHA is a pretty talented conference. Like Dvaut said, its college hockey, anything can happen, but its tough for me to give Michigan much of a shot.

One upside is that UND takes a lot of really stupid penalties.