We're Low on Frozen Fours

Anyone else notice that after the Frozen Four in Philadelphia at the end of this season... we're going to plum out of Frozen Four locations? We don't know where it's going to be held next year. By comparison, during the 2005-06 season, we were aware of where the next seven in a row would be.

Well, fear not. Word is that the NCAA is going to be awarding the 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 Frozen Fours in December. But where will they be? Given the 10 cities that are finalists, odds are pretty good that they'll be in places that we've seen in the recent past - 8 of the 10 have hosted the event at some point in the last 12 seasons.

In 2009, during the last bidding round, I did a thorough run-through of possible 2013-15 Frozen Four sites for College Hockey News. The NCAA ultimately awarded only the 2013 and 2014 Frozen Fours, to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia respectively, making me look like an idiot for suggesting that they wouldn't both get 2 out of 3 when they ended up getting 2 of 2.

Boston (1960, 1963†, 1972-74, 1998, 2004): More and more, Beantown is expected to be a heavy favorite for the 2015 gig, and it's with good reason. Already one of what most would consider the four metropolitan meccas of college hockey (we'll get to the other three down the list), Boston hasn't hosted in 10 years and they're about ready for another one. They are considered to have the infrastructure and experience needed to host the event with the 18 months advance notice, and it's actually a bit shocking that they apparently didn't put in a bid to host last time around. The TD Garden has a bid in for this next round, and it would be foolish not to expect Boston to be one of the host cities, if not in 2015 then in 2016 for sure. The entirety of their bid packet should be "Hi. We're Boston."

Buffalo (2003): The Buffalo Sabres are backing a bid to host the Frozen Four at the First Niagara Center for the second time (along with Niagara and Canisius), and the bid does seem to have a lot going for it. The strong backing from the local NHL team should probably be seen as a good sign, as the 2009 and 2013 affairs in Washington and Pittsburgh had very strong support from the Capitals and Penguins, and Buffalo is the center of a significant hotbed of hockey action. The 2003 event didn't go off very well, but the support by Terry Pegula, who owns the Sabres and got varsity hockey going at Penn State, could be a deal clincher.

Columbus (2005): The last time the Frozen Four was held in Columbus, it was noteworthy for a few reasons. First off, the event featured four teams from the WCHA (none of which are still in that conference), which became a major turnoff for basically the rest of the country, and it was also held on the Ohio State campus, away from downtown Columbus. The Buckeyes' home arena is usually full of lots of empty seats (RPI draws twice as many fans on a regular basis in a building three times smaller), but it's still a touch small for a Frozen Four spot. This time around, the bid comes instead from the Blue Jackets' home, Nationwide Arena. It's bigger and closer to the action, but the location as a hockey destination may leave something to be desired. Not only do the Buckeyes not draw to their own games, the Blue Jackets have routinely been near the bottom of the NHL's attendance figures for years.

Washington (2009): It's hard to find anyone who disliked the Washington Frozen Four. It had thrilling games and was very well organized from top to bottom. At the time the bid was awarded, Washington was still considered something of a hockey backwater, in part due to a history of underachieving Capitals teams that the locals just never got excited about. Alex Ovechkin changed all that, and by the time the Frozen Four was hosted there, attendance had already begun picking up dramatically. Caps tickets are now in hot demand in the nation's capital. On top of that, long time Caps general manager George McPhee is a strong supporter of college hockey, which makes complete sense considering that he won the 1982 Hobey Baker Award while at Bowling Green. And of course, Adam Oates needs no introduction, either. It's not a shoo-in since Boston will be hosting at least over 10 years following its last gig, but it's a very strong contender. The arena's right on a subway line, which makes it easily accessible from lodging all over the area.

St. Paul (1958‡, 1966‡, 1989, 1991, 1994, 2002, 2011): Pretty much everything that was said about Boston could be said about the Twin Cities with one major exception - they hosted the event just three years ago, and while it was absolutely tremendous (speaking from personal experience), it's probably too soon to turn around and go back right away. If not for the Boston bid, the St. Paul bid would probably be the logical choice for a quick hosting job for 2015, but as it is it's probably too soon to bring the event back to Minnesota even in any of the other three years being awarded at this point. As one of the meccas of college hockey, the Twin Cities area can put on a true hockey show without even really trying, so any hockey fan should be hopeful that there will be another Frozen Four at the Xcel Energy Center in the future, it probably just won't be happening until 2019 at the earliest. If we're wrong about that, it would be quite OK.

Tampa (2012): Talk about a rehabilitation. When Tampa was announced as a surprise choice for 2012 back in 2005 (surprise partially because they were only expected to announce the '09, '10, and '11 sites), there was much caterwauling from the college hockey community. When the Tampa Bay Lightning canceled the mid-season tournament that they had been holding there in preparation, there was more howling. Too far from college hockey's footprint, they said. Non-traditional. Well, by the time 2012 rolled around, and even despite having a couple of difficult draws in Ferris State and Union, most people's tune had changed dramatically. Everyone who went seemed to love Tampa as a host and some even jokingly asked if they could just have it there every year. The bidding school? Wisconsin, of course. (Of course.) Two problems, though. First, the 2012 event, as fun as it was for attendees, did not sell out. Second, it's probably too soon to return to Tampa, given the NCAA's seeming preference for spreading the event around the country a little.

Pittsburgh (2013): By most accounts, last year's Frozen Four went very well, and had a lot of push from the Penguins. Things could have been downright disastrous given that all four of last year's participants were, shall we say, "non-traditional," given that only one (Yale) had ever been to the Frozen Four in the past, and it had been decades prior. But, like with Tampa, it's certainly too soon to turn back to the Iron City right away, not with some bigger hotbeds of the college game waiting their turn.

Philadelphia (2014): Yes, this year's event hasn't even taken place yet and the City of Brotherly Love is already hungry for more. See also Tampa, Pittsburgh, and then apply the fact that it would be even sooner. Not even really certain why they're putting forward the effort to bid again before they even know how the event is going to play out this year - if things turn out poorly it's not like they'd want to be hosting the event so quickly.

Chicago (never): The time might be just about right for a Frozen Four in the Second City. The Blackhawks have won two of the last four Stanley Cups, and in doing so, have vaulted themselves to the top of the NHL's attendance sheet five years running. The United Center holds a ton of people for hockey, and that's got to look attractive from the NCAA's standpoint. Considering the general lack of "non-traditional" college hockey markets besides Tampa, it would be a good move for college hockey in general to get some exposure in a large city that at least has Notre Dame somewhat nearby (and the Irish have played a few regular-season games in the city as well). The United Center isn't really that close to the most happening spots in Chicago, though, and a bit more troubling is that a few years ago, the area around the arena was deemed the most dangerous neighborhood in America.

Brooklyn (never): For years fans have talked about the possibility of hosting the Frozen Four on the grandest stage of them all, New York City. Even though there's no college team located in the five boroughs, there seems to always be interest for bringing the event to the City that Never Sleeps. Three hockey playing schools, Yale, Quinnipiac, and Army, are in the metropolitan footprint, and two of those schools just did battle for the national championship. But it's not Madison Square Garden that is the focus of this year's bid, instead, it's the newer, hipper Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the future home of the New York Islanders which is the center of an entertainment revolution in the most populated of the boroughs. The bid does have some serious problems with it, first and foremost, the small capacity for hockey (15,813, which isn't far off from what Albany holds), and the fact that New York City's a very expensive city to stay in. Still, it would be pretty nice to finally have the event in NYC.

A number of bids either never materialized or were left off the list of the Top 10, including the other two college hockey meccas, Detroit and Denver (which should probably be considered the shock of this round that Denver apparently didn't bid), Milwaukee, Kansas City, Orlando, Cleveland, San Jose, and Nashville.

There used to be a significant east-west balance in Frozen Fours, but that has died out recently - the 2005-09 Frozen Fours were all in college hockey's "west," while the 2012-14 editions have all been in the "east," and seven of the ten bids are in the east. That seems to be pretty much out the window, although you'd have to think at least one western locale will get to host.

So what are we going with? Let's try this on for size.

2015 - Boston: Really, a no-brainer here.
2016 - Chicago: The dangerous neighborhood aside, it makes complete sense for the NCAA to hit a burgeoning hockey hotspot.
2017 - Buffalo: Think the Pegula factor will come into play here - his bucks spent on Penn State and the Sabres.
2018 - Washington: The 2009 event went over well enough for this to be a good spot to bring it back.

† - Chestnut Hill, MA
‡ - Minneapolis, MN

2013: The Year of the Nerd

On August 6, 2012, an ECAC Hockey alum - RPI's Kobie Boykins, a forward on the team in the mid-1990's - was part of the team at NASA that landed the groundbreaking rover Curiosity on Mars.

It was another tale of ECAC alums doing what ECAC alums do - those that don't go on to play in the NHL (and even many who do) go on to become movers and shakers in fields from finance to industry, from science to small business.

But that's not to say that the league doesn't have its history of getting things done on the ice. We waxed eloquent over the summer at the addition of Adam Oates to the Hockey Hall of Fame, the announcement coming on the same day he was named head coach of the Washington Capitals.

That legacy, some said, was a relic of a bygone era. The ECAC, it was told, had been lapped by the power conferences, and was an afterthought on the national stage. Routinely written off, even as this tournament got underway. Even as the Frozen Four got underway with half the participants being members of the conference.

Today, the afterthoughts are... everyone else.

Quinnipiac and Yale place the conference in its brightest spotlight since the Hockey East split tomorrow night as they do battle to determine which of them will win the conference's first national championship since 1989, but this season, the ECAC went far, far beyond these two schools from southern Connecticut.

(And we proudly mention that we semi "called" Quinnipiac being good this year, pointing out just how stacked they were at pretty much every facet and how many seniors they had. True to Quinnipiac fashion, they just had to find a way to surpass even those expectations - something they've done in every season they've been in the ECAC. They did that during the regular season alone, and now they've kicked it up to a new level.)

In addition to winning the national championship, the conference also was responsible for the dethroning of last year's national champions, via a 5-1 demolition by the conference champions, Union.

We're never afraid to toot our own horn here at WaP - if the Bulldogs win tomorrow night, RPI will have defeated the eventual national champions twice this season, by a combined score of 10-2 (we've mentioned it a bit on Twitter, where more than a few people yesterday proclaimed that RPI was the best team in the conference at the end of the season). The Engineers finished in 2nd place in the conference, and despite an upset in the first round, were still in the national tournament picture until a wild finish to the conference tournaments bumped them out.

Brown was in that picture too, by their own doing. They gutted out a hard-fought series with the Engineers to give themselves a shot, and put themselves on the cusp with a masterful performance against that same team that you just saw humiliate the WCHA regular-season champs on the biggest stage of all.

Dartmouth had a tremendous first-half of the season in which they looked unstoppable. St. Lawrence had a tremendous second-half of the season in which they too looked unstoppable at times. And we haven't even talked about the league's perennial beasts - it wasn't Cornell's finest season by any stretch of the imagination, but they certainly finished strong.

Guess what? That's more than half the league mentioned just right there.

The last month has made this season property of the ECAC - the league will finish with an incredible 8-2 record in the NCAAs, with the only two losses coming at the hands of a fellow league member. The power conferences, they tried to take down Quinnipiac, Yale, and Union, and they went 0-for-6 for their troubles.

Now they can sit back and watch the newest hot rivalry in the ECAC take center stage, and put on a show. Yale has the tools to do this again next year (they'll have questions in net, but what else is new), while Quinnipiac's senior-heavy roster means they're more than likely going to have to take care of business this weekend.

Given how thoroughly these teams dominated their semifinal matchups last night (Yale was the aggressor for 59 minutes against a fantastic UML team, which underscores how good the River Hawks are that the game made it to overtime), we are in for a treat tomorrow night.

All you Hockey East, WCHA, NCHC, and Big Ten fans can tune in if you like. They're bound to put on a show for you. And if you don't like what you're seeing... then you don't like hockey.

EZAC, eh?

How you like us now?

EZAC!

So there it was, Easter night, and suddenly it dawned on me.

The national championship game could be a rematch of the ECAC consolation game.

Yeah. We're not in Kansas anymore, are we?

A couple of times this season, I've pooh-poohed some of the more excited suggestions about what the ECAC could accomplish on the national level. So far, I've been proven about right - three NCAA bids was about what I expected. So what is it to say that the ECAC now has two teams in the Frozen Four for the first time since 1983, and just a year removed from ending a nine-year drought without even a single team in the ultimate event of the college hockey season?

Some would say it was nothing but luck. Those people will point to the fact that Yale essentially backed into the tournament after failing miserably in Atlantic City (scoring a grand total of zero goals in two games), that Union could well have been out of the NCAAs themselves if they hadn't won the ECAC title (probably true), and that Quinnipiac had a lousy February and (of course) was never a deserving #1.

Ask Minnesota, North Dakota, and Boston College about what kind of year the ECAC had. Those three powerhouse programs can boast a single split regular-season title (the Gophers, with St. Cloud State earning the #1 seed in the conference tournament) between them while two ECAC teams do battle in Pittsburgh for the opportunity to claim the league's first national championship since 1989.

While I was trying to calm down the overly optimistic expectations of four or five bids, I also pointed to the upward trend the league has been experiencing in the last couple of years as a legitimate source of optimism, and this is certainly another sign of growth. In 2011, we saw the league picking up three bids for the first time in several years. In 2012, it was a Frozen Four berth. Now, it's both, plus an extra spot in the Frozen Four.

Now, we don't need to have Quinnipiac and Yale win tomorrow to make this a successful season for the league, and there are plenty of additional steps that need to be taken before we can really pound our chests. And, as I also brought up earlier this season, the ECAC is set to pretty much overtake the "new" WCHA starting next season in terms of stature.

So, what are the chances of an ECAC champion this weekend? I'd go with... fair. It sounds pessimistic to say that with half the teams being from the ECAC, but it's about as far as I'd be willing to go. UMass-Lowell, on their current seven-game win streak, has given up either one goal or none at all in six of those games. That's a defense that's dialed in. St. Cloud State played exceptionally well in the WCHA, and settled for a #4 seed based almost entirely upon non-conference stumbles against UNH, RPI, and Northern Michigan, plus a loss to Wisconsin in the WCHA tournament. They're good.

That's not to say that Yale and Quinnipiac don't have things going for them as well. The Bobcats may be as dialed in on offense as UML is on defense, and a matchup between the Q and the River Hawks could be very exciting - as could the actual Yale-UML matchup provided that the Bulldogs get the offense they had in Grand Rapids rather than the one they had in Atlantic City.

Overall, though? This is a weekend to enjoy if you're a college hockey fan. It's the Frozen Four, of course, and that's cause every year. But this year? It's an even bigger celebration of what makes college hockey special. It's borne out of Union beating Boston College and St. Cloud State beating Notre Dame. Name another sport where that result would be even remotely possible.

When the casual college sports fan looks at the Frozen Four and says "who the hell are these guys?", you can take pride when you say - these are four damn good college hockey teams, and they proved it.

What If: Whistle Blown for Offsides

* March 1985: George Servinis scores a disputed goal to put RPI ahead 2-0 in the national championship game

Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World


The hard part was supposed to have been beating Bill Watson, Brett Hull, and Minnesota-Duluth. That was plenty hard, considering how long it took to get it done. But after three overtimes, John Carter finally potted the game winner to give UMD its second consecutive long-game heartbreaker and lift the Engineers to a place they hadn't been since 1954 - the national championship game.

Providence wasn't even supposed to be there. Their run was supposed to have ended against BU in Hockey East's first ever semifinals. After a 5-2 upset, it was supposed to have ended to Hockey East's first ever regular-season champions, Boston College. With a little home cooking - the neutral site for Hockey East's first tournament was the Providence Civic Center - the Friars earned the nascent league's inaugural title with a 2-1 double overtime win. Then they weren't going to survive a two-game, total goals set at CCHA champions Michigan State. They did. Surely they wouldn't survive BC a second time in the Frozen Four. Once again, an overtime winner. The Providence Friars were into the national championship game, against all odds.

Friar netminder Chris Terreri earned himself the nickname "the Extra Terreri-al" with out of this world goaltending, and he was perhaps some of the best proof you'll ever find that a team can ride a hot goaltender pretty far. But there was no doubt he was in for a real test facing down an RPI team that was one of the greatest offensive juggernauts in the history of college hockey. Three goals was a bare minimum for the Engineers in 1985.

RPI looked to be on their way to three with a power play goal just 4:29 into the contest off the stick of sophomore Neil Hernberg. The Friars then had to survive two more RPI power plays in the first period, and Terreri made 13 saves to keep the score 1-0 after one period.

Perhaps Providence's most golden opportunity to put themselves in position to tie things up came early in the second. Mark Jooris' hooking penalty 38 seconds in was compounded by a cross-checking call against captain Mike Sadeghpour, giving the Friars a two-man advantage for 32 seconds. RPI killed Jooris' penalty, but still had 25 seconds left to kill on Sadeghpour's minor when a faceoff came in the RPI end. Providence won the faceoff, but a blue line pass by Peter Taglianetti was stolen by George Servinis, who immediately went on a breakaway, faked Terreri down and put the puck into an empty net to give RPI a 2-0 lead. The picture of Servinis shooting past a splayed out Terreri is one of the most famous pictures in RPI's hockey history.

There was just one minor problem. Servinis was in a position to intercept the pass, in part, because he appeared to have skated into the faceoff circle just before the puck was dropped, which made him offside. That's not supposed to be legal, but the goal counted anyway - one wonders how the linesman who was dropping the puck missed the movement into the circle.

The rest is history - Providence provided some drama with a power play goal midway through the third period, but it was as close as they would get as Terreri put up a brilliant effort with 40 saves, stifling the RPI offense as no other goaltender had all season by allowing just two goals, but the Engineers skated away with their second national championship.

How would things have been different if Servinis' goal had been called back? Tough to say for sure. Obviously, both teams scored one legitimate goal each, but we can't calculate how the teams played differently in the second period and the first half of the third with RPI holding a 2-0 lead as opposed to a 1-0 lead. The Engineers certainly had their opportunities to add to their advantage with three more power play chances before Providence's Paul Cavallini made it 2-1, but a combination of brilliant play by Terreri and tired legs from having played a three-overtime contest the night before made for a bit of a power outage by the awesome RPI offense. The Engineers were 1-for-7 on the man advantage.

We'd like to think the 1-0 edge might have produced some added urgency for the RPI power play on those final three opportunities. The Engineers didn't face much adversity in that championship season, but when the game was tight they put things together, bouncing back from a 3-2-0 start to the season to go undefeated the rest of the way and winning overtime games against a less than stellar Brown team in Providence and against Division III Union in Schenectady (albeit a Division III team that had played for the national championship a season earlier).

Providence, remember, had plenty of time to get themselves back into the game, but could only manage the one goal thanks to RPI's outstanding defense led by Daren Puppa, Ken Hammond, and Mike Dark, not to mention some good discipline after the Sadeghpour penalty ended, as they allowed only two more power plays from there on out (including John Carter's hooking call which helped get the Friars on the board).

So maybe it's just us being homers here, but if it hadn't been George Servinis on a disputed call, we think it probably would have been someone else over the course of 35 minutes of game play that would have collected a memory for the ages.

What If: Lake Placid in March

* March 1984: Jon Casey leads North Dakota to a 9-6 series upset over home-standing RPI in the NCAA tournament

Van Halen - Jump


Something was certainly afoot in Troy in 1983, and it made the entire college hockey world stand up and take notice of RPI in ways it hadn't for at least 20 years dating back to its last NCAA tournament appearance and perhaps even 30 years dating back to Gordie Peterkin and the goal that shocked the college hockey world.

The 1983-84 Engineers were beastly. Practically able to score at will, RPI dominated scoreboards night in and night out, beatable only when held under three goals in a game (they were 1-4 in those games during the regular season, all five were one-goal games). Furthermore, they were unbeatable at home with a perfect 17-0 record at Houston Field House, winners of 23 straight in Troy dating back to a December 11, 1982 loss to Clarkson by the time the 1984 NCAA tournament began. During that run, they outscored opponents at home 177-84, averaging over seven goals per game.

So when North Dakota, runners-up to Minnesota-Duluth (in both the regular season and the tournament) in the 6-team WCHA came to Troy for the quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament, there weren't too many giving the Fighting Sioux a fighting chance. While RPI was busy dominating all comers in the east down the stretch to the tune of 15 wins in their last 16 games on their way to the ECAC title (mostly - Clarkson proved more than game in both RPI's only loss and in the ECAC semifinal), North Dakota had limped to a 6-6-2 record in the same stretch, their final win a 5-4 "victory" in the back end of a two-game series with Duluth in the WCHA playoffs that followed an 8-1 loss that had the Bulldogs in cruise mode.

Truly, the Engineers had a date with destiny in front of what was sure to be a favorable crowd at the Frozen Four in Lake Placid. North Dakota senior Jon Casey had other plans.

With some of the greatest names ever to don the Cherry and White blasting away at him, Casey put on a display of brilliance in net that propelled North Dakota to an upset of the ECAC champions and into the Frozen Four themselves. The netminder faced a total of 93 shots in a two-game, total goal series at Houston Field House, and managed to emerge victorious on the other end. In game one, Casey allowed the Engineers four goals, but the RPI defense, frequently able to bend significantly due to the usual higher output from the offense, allowed five, giving the Fighting Sioux a one-goal edge heading into the back end of the series.

The Engineers couldn't have been overly concerned about falling out of the tournament at that point, after all, they had put together a barrage and were still just one goal down. Another similar effort the next night offensively combined with a boost defensively would surely still see them through. But as good as Casey had been on Friday night, he was even more effective on Saturday night, limiting RPI's freakish offense to only two goals, while the Sioux were able to pump in four of their own. Despite being outshot 93-52, the total score was 9-6, and it was North Dakota, on the back of an incredible performance by their goaltender (with a save percentage of .935, good by today's standards and unheard of at the time), who was off to Lake Placid, leaving the Engineers to wonder about what could have been.

Mike Addesa and some of his charges were critical of the officiating in the series (which had featured western referees), but at the end of the day, officiating can't accomplish what Casey did in net - the numbers simply don't lie.

But what if Jon Casey hadn't been Superman that weekend in March? What if the heavy favorites from that school with the funny name had gotten the job done and moved on to the Frozen Four for the first time in 20 years?

Presuming that the heavy favorites had found a way to continue their usual goal scoring ways and had gotten themselves past Casey and North Dakota, the Engineers would have been the lone eastern team in the 1984 Frozen Four at Lake Placid, which actually ended up being an all-western affair. RPI was not the only team that could have been local in Lake Placid - Clarkson, it should be noted, came within a goal of forcing a Game 2 overtime at Minnesota-Duluth. Boston University, meanwhile, did face overtime in its Game 2 while hosting Bowling Green, the odd sight of a 4-1 game going into overtime thanks to a 4-1 BU win the night before ended with a goal for the Falcons, sending the CCHA regular season champs to the Frozen Four.

But leaving everything else alone, RPI would have gone to Lake Placid with Minnesota-Duluth, Michigan State, and Bowling Green as the other three teams. North Dakota faced off with the Bulldogs, leading to the possibility that an RPI win over North Dakota would have created the classic RPI-UMD matchup that graced the 1985 tournament, just one year sooner.

The 1984 Duluth squad, as one would expect, was largely the same as the 1985 team, with one major exception - Brett Hull was still a year away from matriculating. Both teams included 1985 Hobey Baker winner Bill Watson as the top scorer, both included Norm Maciver, who went on to a long NHL career, and both featured Rick Kosti in net. The 1984 team, in place of Hull, really, had defenseman Tom Kurvers, who had won the 1984 Hobey Baker.

UMD defeated North Dakota to advance to the national championship game, but it wasn't for lack of effort by Jon Casey, who continued his amazing performance to limit a team with two eventual Hobey Baker winners to just one goal in regulation. The Bulldogs advanced in overtime, 2-1. Would RPI have done any better? It's almost impossible to know for sure. To their advantage, they would have been closer to home, but RPI did end up with a 1-3 record against WCHA teams in 1983-84 in real life, coupling the two losses to North Dakota with a split against Wisconsin in Madison. It certainly would have been a very, very good game, probably quite similar to the 1985 classic (especially since UMD went to four overtimes in the 1984 national championship).

We're probably assuming a lot by pondering further, but the Engineers would likely have been favorites against Bowling Green in the national championship had they advanced that far. The Falcons had a number of players who had long NHL careers, including Garry Galley, Dave Ellett, and Gino Cavallini, and they were coached by Jerry York, who was in search of his first national championship. They had overachieved a bit on their way to what would eventually be that first national championship.

The question really isn't whether RPI could have beaten Bowling Green here, because it presumes an answer to the previous situation. The question really is this: if RPI had won the 1984 national championship - certainly a happening that would not have been outside the realm of possibility - what would have changed?

Would the professional exodus that took place after the 1985 championship have taken place? Possibly. Daren Puppa probably would have stuck around since he'd just finished his freshman season, but would sophomore Adam Oates have stayed? Hard to say for sure, but probably just as hard to see them staying. It's certainly not a given that the Engineers would have been in a position to go back to back, especially if they'd run into a UMD team with extra motivation to beat RPI in 1985.

Outside of RPI, one wonders if Jerry York would have caught on at his alma mater in 1994 without the national championship win in his back pocket from a decade prior. That seems pretty likely, but if not, what becomes of the current Boston College dynasty? Just a ponderance.

All in all, it's hard to see exactly what RPI would have gone on to accomplish if they had lived up to expectations in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but it certainly underscores the speed with which Mike Addesa was able to build a national contender in Troy.

Union in Perspective

First ECAC team since...
* Win an NCAA game: Yale, 2011

* Defeat a Hockey East team in the NCAA tournament: Cornell, 2009

* Defeat a CCHA/Big Ten team in the NCAA tournament: Cornell, 2005

* Reach the Frozen Four: Cornell, 2003


Could become the first ECAC team since...
* Defeat a WCHA team in the NCAA tournament: Yale, 2010

* Reach national championship game: Colgate, 1990

* Win national championship: Harvard, 1989

* Sweep regular season, tournament, and national title: RPI, 1985

The Dutchmen reaching the Frozen Four leaves only two current members of the ECAC that have never been: travel partners Princeton and Quinnipiac.

Who are we rooting for? You shouldn't even have to ask.

Plenty of reasons:
1) If Union can win a national championship, anyone can.
2) Union having a national championship and Clarkson still being empty-handed would be hilarious.
3) Equally hilarious - watching all the chest thumpers from the supposedly "superior" conferences try to explain why an "EZAC" team won it.
4) Losing to a team five times in one season isn't nearly as bad if that was the eventual national champion.
5) Stephen van Rensselaer was Dutch.
6) Mark Jooris' kid.
7) Keeping it in the family, what kind of big brothers would we be if were weren't rooting for our little brothers?

I have to agree with a college hockey pundit I regularly chat with regarding the Dutchmen - there are teams out there that play better offense, better defense, have a better power play, and better penalty kill than Union, but none who are as good at all four. This is just a very, very balanced team - we learned that best during the playoffs. Nothing better than having a team capable of simply waiting for the other team to make a mistake, and that's what they have right now.

We rip on Union because... hey, they're Union. And it's fun. But at the end of the day, we agree with what Col. Knowlton told the TU - it's not like we're going to be rah-rah about it and wear the sweater, but we're in their corner.

Go get 'em, kid. Have a pumpup, on us.

Last Word on Detroit

Bill Bellerose, the chairman of the NCAA's Division I Men's Hockey Committee, wrote an open letter to the college hockey community on the Frozen Four in Detroit.

I think the majority of fans that were able to join us had a great time in Detroit. However, after reading the web (and receiving some emails), I thought I would take this time to address some issues and concerns that have been raised with the 2010 Men's Frozen Four.

Let me first start with the venue. Everyone at Ford Field and the Detroit LOC was tremendous to work with. They bent over backwards to meet the needs of the committee, teams and fans. In addition, the people of Detroit were very friendly, from the security people at the events to the hotel and restaurant staff that I encountered, everyone was welcoming of college hockey fans in Detroit. In addition, there were a ton of things to do, including Tigers home games and a fan festival at the host hotel.

With regards to the selection of Ford Field, my term as a committee member literally started about a month prior to selecting sites. The main discussion of the committee at the time was that by selecting Ford Field we could help promote the sport by allowing thousands more to see our premier event than had ever seen it before (also remember the economy was different at the time) and provide our student-athletes with a tremendous experience. Looking back on the weekend, I think we were very successful in that manner as approximately 19,000 more people were able to share the event with us this year than will be able to see it in Saint Paul in 2011, and in the process set a world record for attendance at an indoor hockey game.

Hopefully we exposed people to the event that were never able to see it before and we can capitalize on that next year during the regular season and for years to come. Not only were more people able to enjoy it from a size standpoint but also from an affordability standpoint because due to the size of the venue we were able to have some tickets priced as low as $40.

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There definitely were opportunities for change if this scenario presented itself again. While the majority of sight lines were very good, there were some issues, especially with the seats right behind the team benches and the pitch of the temporary seating. In addition, some people mentioned the lack of atmosphere, but I thought looking at the seats full of 37,000 plus was a great atmosphere. While the noise certainly wasn't deafening, unfortunately we didn't have any overtime contests, or last minute game-winning goals, so it is very difficult to determine if lack of noise had to do with venue or closeness of games in the last half of the third period.

As a committee, our next order of business is to select sites for 2013 and 2014. As most fans are aware we will be at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul next year and at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa in 2012. With the bids received I can assure you we will be in NHL or NHL-type facilities for 2013 and 2014. This is my last year on the committee so I can't speculate on where the committee will decide to take the Frozen Four beyond 2014.

However, if there comes a time when Ford Field bids again, and the committee at that time reached out for my opinion as the chair of the 2010 Men's Ice Hockey Championships, I would definitely tell the committee that it is something they need to take a serious look at. I am certainly not advocating that this is something we should do all the time, or even every four or five years, but I think it would be a mistake to say that we should never consider doing it again. We need to continue to be aggressive in trying to build and grow college hockey, and where that leads us I am not sure, but we certainly need to keep our eyes open.

It's certainly a fair assessment of what was a very different Frozen Four at Ford Field in Detroit. I've got my own little list to go along with it.

There were a few things that were bad about the Frozen Four. The ice looked awful. During every media timeout, there was a whole crew of people tending to the ice. The atmosphere was mostly subdued, but I really think that can be chalked up to three stinker games that provided zero drama. When the closest game of the weekend is a 5 goal drubbing, there's just nothing to get excited over, even if you're the team that's winning - atmosphere isn't generated when your team is pounding on its opponent.

But it wasn't entirely due to the crappy product on the ice. It was the pure size of the building as compared to the way it was set up and the number of people that were there. I'm sure that building can get loud during a Lions game, but when only half of the seats are being used, any noise that the crowd is making gets lost in the wide expanse of empty space. A number of RIT fans complained that the national championship was largely devoid of passionate fans from the competing schools, however, they were situated on the far end of the building from the side where both UW and BC fans were. Both of your humble bloggers were seated directly between the UW and BC sections, and we assure you, both were making solid sound (although there was considerably less coming from Badger fans, for good reason). Meanwhile, we had a hard time hearing RIT fans throughout the weekend for the same reason - we were just too far away from them.

Those are really the only complaints, though. The city of Detroit, for the second time this season for us, was an unexpected delight to visit. We had the opportunity to catch a Tigers game ahead of the national championship, visited Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan, and Yost Arena during the off day, and met plenty of friendly locals. I personally accounted for people representing the colors of 46 of Division I's 58 programs (sadly, only half of the ECAC, which was almost entirely represented by RPI and Cornell fans). It was an unforgettable experience and - this can't be underscored strongly enough - it's not a trip that any in our group would likely have made if the event was taking place in a traditional hockey arena setting, and we're sure that was true of a lot of the people who made the trip due to the availability of tickets. The event, as flawed as some of it was, exposed more people to the overall event that is the Frozen Four, and future Frozen Fours will be better off because of it.

Now, if the Engineers can make it to St. Paul next year... well, we might just have to do this again.

Frozen Four: Motor City Madness

I ended up running out of time for writing up the previews for the Northeast and Midwest regionals thanks to my travels at the West Regional in St. Paul. Big fail on my part. We'll both be at the Frozen Four (which starts today) this weekend, but fortunately, I wrote this a few days ago. Sweet.

#15 RIT vs. #3 Wisconsin
5pm, Ford Field, Detroit

Needless to say, only one of these teams was ever "supposed" to be in Detroit. RIT (28-11-1) has surpassed any and all expectations by becoming the first Atlantic Hockey team to reach the Frozen Four and they are certainly the buzz of the tournament. Given no chance against Denver or New Hampshire, the Tigers won a pair of matchups that they'd probably lose 7 or 8 times in 10 tries for an improbable trip to Detroit. They squeezed out a trap-filled victory over the Pioneers for the first upset, but then showed their versatility by stomping New Hampshire the next night. We'd thought RIT might have been ill-prepared for top competition, but we were obviously mistaken. They're not pushovers.

But this is a bigger stage - and Wisconsin (27-10-4) isn't a pushover either. The Badgers rebounded from their disappointing 3rd place showing at the WCHA Final Five with a pair of solid wins to claim the West Regional title two weekends ago, winning a tight back-and-forth war with Vermont before outlasting St. Cloud State. While the Tigers just being in Detroit is a major victory, anything less than the national championship is a failure for the Badgers.

The Tigers ended the seasons of three Hobey Baker finalists in Albany (Rhett Rakhshani, Marc Cheverie, and Bobby Butler). Can they make it five (and two of the three Hobey Hat Trick)? It's doubtful. This is another game where if these teams played 10 times, RIT would be on the losing end 7 or 8 times at least. They'll be the fan favorites, and even though it was also true in their last two games, they're a sucker's bet.

Prediction: Wisconsin 5, RIT 3

#4 Boston College vs. #1 Miami
8:30pm, Ford Field, Detroit

This game, meanwhile, was practically expected from the moment the brackets came out. The Redhawks (29-9-7) have been the prohibitive favorites for the national championship since the beginning of the season, even after their 3rd place finish in the CCHA Tournament (which, like Wisconsin, they avenged in the NCAA regionals two weekends ago). They're still the favorites now, even after a relatively weak showing in the regional round, where they outlasted a feisty Alabama-Huntsville team in a one goal game, then needed 2 overtimes to take out a white-hot Michigan team. As dominating as Miami can be, they haven't had it on display since the conclusion of the CCHA regular season.

The Eagles (27-10-3) are on an 11-game unbeaten streak (second only to RIT's 12-game winning streak) after running roughshod over the Northeast regional, turning in a solid 3-1 win over a game Alaska squad before outscoring Yale in an absolute barnburner, 9-7 in a game the Eagles led 9-4 at one point. Boston College will be seeking their third national championship in ten years after going 52 years between their first and second NCAA titles.

In terms of today's games, this one is easily the closer matchup and, minus the Cinderella factor, the more compelling one. Each of these teams will be facing a huge challenge on the other side of the ice. This one, honestly, could go either way. Miami, one would think, would be powered by coming so close to winning it all last season, but that hasn't shown in recent games. They do have the skill and firepower to run with Boston College. Maybe now, in front of thousands upon thousands of fans at Ford Field, that urgency will be on display.

Prediction: Miami 4, Boston College 3

The national championship game should produce a compelling game either way. Miami/Wisconsin, our prediction, would be a fantastic matchup of two top teams who hit road bumps in the conference tournaments and came back strong. A third RIT win would produce an inconceivable matchup with the potential to humble the mighty conferences of the nation. RIT/BC especially would be fire against fire.

It'll be hard to match the overall insanity of last year's Frozen Four, but with an intriguing field at a unique venue, the ingredients are there for a compelling final weekend.

Women's Frozen Four: Three Regulars, One Total n00b

The final weekend of the women's hockey season is upon us. We've been over the highs and the lows of all four of these teams, so we'll just quickly go over the ins and outs of the semifinal games, which take place tomorrow at Ridder Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN.

Cornell vs. #1 Mercyhurst (5:00 pm)

The Big Red (20-8-6) suffered their 11th consecutive losing season last year, but it was their second consecutive season with at least 10 wins, an improvement over the previous six. They get to finish off their first winning season since 1998 and their first 20-win season in the history of the program with their first trip to the Frozen Four. Their reward for their minor upset over Harvard last weekend is Mercyhurst (30-2-3), the odds-on favorite for the championship.

The Lakers fairly easily took care of another first-time NCAA opponent in Boston University last weekend, and although Cornell has proven that they have a shot at writing their name among the nation's elite squads, Mercyhurst has the size, scoring, and resume to suggest that they should be on their way to a second consecutive national championship.

Prediction: Mercyhurst 4, Cornell 2


#3 Minnesota vs. #2 Minnesota-Duluth (8:00pm)

The Gophers (26-8-5) and the Bulldogs (29-8-2) are somewhat acquainted with each other as two of the most dominant teams in the WCHA year-in and year-out and with a combined six national championships (seven if you include the Gophers' 2000 AWCHA triumph in the final national championship not sponsored by the NCAA), but unbelievably, this is the first time the in-state rivals have ever faced off in the Frozen Four.

This will be the sixth time this season that the teams have faced each other. The first four were during the regular season, with the home team winning each contest. The fifth was in the WCHA Championship game, held at Ridder Arena, which was won by Minnesota-Duluth. The Bulldogs have won the last three, but this one is for all the marbles, and it's on the Gophers' turf again. Duluth did beat Noora Raty in the championship game, but faced her backups when the teams met in Duluth while Raty was away for the Olympics. As the records indicate, these teams are very, very close. Home ice advantage is the tipping point.

Prediction: Minnesota 3, Minnesota-Duluth 2

The title game takes place Sunday at noon.