College Hockey Thread
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There's not many midwest and west locations where that kind of scene can be avoided. Saint Paul is probably the only place that can draw a big crowd no matter which teams make it.
Was in Bridgeport yesteday with my son, and Clears and his twins. All 6 years old. Union MSU game was fairly meh. I might be missing something, but I'm a Quinnipiac season ticket holder, and wasn't really impressed with MSU in comparison. That surprised me. QU tied Union at home early in the year, Union came on stronger later in the season to win ECAC regular season.
Game 2 was a great game. UML in control for 40 minutes. Miami goalie is huge, I was calling him Sasquatch, but that makes for a big 5 hole, which UML took advantage of early. Last period all Miami, UML looked tired, back on their heels. UML goalie kept them in the game. But credit to UML for killing that 5 minute major (couldn't it have been a 2 minor? Refs were questionable both games). And the GW goal was all effort - UML guy just willed it into the net under the goalie.
Hate hate hate the delay of refs reviewing every goal, although they did overturn one.
Woulda been nice if BU was there (for a bigger crowd), but UML and Miami represented pretty well. Union OK, MSU brought the Spartan, but not much else. I'd say 2/3s full at best. Clears got 5 tix about 10 rows up from center ice on Wednesday.
I went last year, too, got to see Yale and Minn-Duluth. Really enjoy the Regionals.
And our crew of kids got 3 game pucks and a mascot tossed t shirt, so they did OK.
Game 2 was a great game. UML in control for 40 minutes. Miami goalie is huge, I was calling him Sasquatch, but that makes for a big 5 hole, which UML took advantage of early. Last period all Miami, UML looked tired, back on their heels. UML goalie kept them in the game. But credit to UML for killing that 5 minute major (couldn't it have been a 2 minor? Refs were questionable both games). And the GW goal was all effort - UML guy just willed it into the net under the goalie.
Hate hate hate the delay of refs reviewing every goal, although they did overturn one.
Woulda been nice if BU was there (for a bigger crowd), but UML and Miami represented pretty well. Union OK, MSU brought the Spartan, but not much else. I'd say 2/3s full at best. Clears got 5 tix about 10 rows up from center ice on Wednesday.
I went last year, too, got to see Yale and Minn-Duluth. Really enjoy the Regionals.
And our crew of kids got 3 game pucks and a mascot tossed t shirt, so they did OK.
Yeah, I have no idea what the site selection committee was thinking when they awarded that regional. And with a Ferris State-Cornell matchup in the final, I suspect it'll be even worse today. If you're going to put a regional in Wisconsin, it should be Milwaukee or bust. That won't necessarily solve the issue Domer cites, but it's a far more central location and travel hub that's a pretty short drive from the 3rd-largest city in the country. Plus there's so much more for attendees to do in Milwaukee. In Green Bay, you've got the Packer HOF and that's about it. It also offers very little in the way of drinking and dining options.
In fairness, I doubt the crowd in Bridgeport will be all that impressive either. Union and UMass-Lowell have undergrad enrollments of 2,194 and 11,276. Even relative proximity to both campuses (~155 miles for each) isn't going to help much.
I'm all for seeing such small schools advance, as even a top seed like Union has that "underdog" factor. But what sucks most about having them in the regional finals is it validates ESPN's decision to relegate nearly every game of the tournament (save the Frozen Four) to ESPNU or ESPN3.
Maybe there should only be 2 subregionals instead of 4. 8 teams at each site with play on Thursday/Saturday for one 4-team bracket and Friday/Sunday for the other one.
Aside from tiny enrollment, hockey is our only D-1 sport so there's not a huge culture of widespread, rabid support for athletics at Union. The strength of the program is pretty new too; they were nowhere near this good three years ago when I graduated. We did have a pretty good showing at Fenway compared to Harvard's fanbase which appeared to be families only.
#1 v. #2
The NCAA needs to schedule better. It's understandable to seemingly always have hockey and lacrosse and other "non-ESPN" sports always on weekends, but it creates a logjam, especially when you also have Elite 8. I, for one, would watch more college hockey and lacrosse if it was on weekday nights (especially since the NBA isn't that hot of a product)
It's hardly the NCAA's fault, unless you're talking about their culpability in signing the ESPN contracts. I blame the Worldwide Family of Shitheads for relegating all the hockey games to ESPNU/ESPN3. That's what's creating the logjam. Meanwhile, the mother ship is airing fucking women's basketball and NASCAR while ESPN2 is showing 30-for-30, a Magic Johnson documentary, and SportsCenter this afternoon/evening.
Just tuned into BC-Air Force. I can't believe BC is only up 1-0. They have been all over Air Force.
Interestingly, Bill Riley was also the head coach of then D-II U-Lowell (now UML). He was the head coach of their D-II national championship teams, through their rise to D-1 and entry into Hockey East. He was the head coach there for 22 years. He was considered a very good referee and was quite a character at around five feet nothing and tough as nails.
The BU - Gophers game can also be seen live on Fox College Sports Pacific (264 on the Comcast dial), TYerriers will have 50 seconds of PP at the start of the 2nd, down 1.
yeah, Dog, too much stuff relegated to theESPN - Worldwide Leader in NBA, College Football, and Women's College Basketball networks.
yeah, Dog, too much stuff relegated to the
I remember going out of my way to see Brian Dumoulin play when he was a sophomore for Biddeford High School. He was totally dominant then - a defenseman who was impossible to get around, never lost a one-on-one battle, and could dangle to boot. I see he's still pretty good.
Oh my was that an awful call to kill Air Force's chances.
Oh my was that an awful call to kill Air Force's chances.
[quote name='Hendu's Gait' timestamp='1332626100' post='4027272']
The BU - Gophers game can also be seen live on Fox College Sports Pacific (264 on the Comcast dial),
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It's also airing on NESN.
The BU - Gophers game can also be seen live on Fox College Sports Pacific (264 on the Comcast dial),
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It's also airing on NESN.
Spencer Abbott, who had a brutal collision with the boards when he lost a skate edge in the Hockey East tourney, will be in the lineup for Maine tonight.
And Minn goes up 6-3 over BU with under 2:00 to play. C-ya, Terriers.
EDIT - Empty netter makes it 7-3.
EDIT - Empty netter makes it 7-3.
He's absolutely lethal with the fake shot. Fools guys all the time with that. Sadly he's probably gone after this year to CAR I believe.
And you don't make that call with two minutes left. Not to mention it wasn't an actual penalty either. I'll take it though. Not sure who I'd rather see tomorrow given that Abbott's back.
So sad to see BU bow out early in the Tourny again...
Sullivan just made a HUGE save on UMD's Brady Lamb as he broke in alone at the tail end of a Maine power play.
UMD's 4th straight goal, by JT Brown, makes it a 4-2 Bulldog lead. Sloppy and lazy play by Maine in their own end allowing Oleksuk to drive toward the net like Terry O'Reilly.
After taking a 2-0 lead, the Black Bears look totally out of synch and out of gas.
After taking a 2-0 lead, the Black Bears look totally out of synch and out of gas.
Maine gets a power play with a little over 2:00 left and they pull Sullivan to play 6-on-4. Yet Duluth still carries the play with ease. The nation's 2nd-best PP unit looked like the Washington Generals playing against the Globetrotters.
An empty-netter seals the deal, 5-2.
An empty-netter seals the deal, 5-2.
Killing off a 5-minute Big Red power play in the 3rd period had a lot to do with it.
Yeah they replayed the BU-U game from 3 to 5:30, leading into the regional final.
Good action so far. I also enjoy what ND did with their unis, considering they couldn't use the Sioux.
Good action so far. I also enjoy what ND did with their unis, considering they couldn't use the Sioux.
Duluth is doing nothing offensively and it looks like BC is playing a 1-2-2 right now so their best chance to do anything will probably be to try to burn BC after an up-ice rush. Not sure if they'll have too many of those chances though.
What a save by Milner. Beautiful flashing of the blocker.
That was a poor call, to say the least.
That was a poor call, to say the least.
It's about a ten hour drive for me. My mother lives not that far away from Tampa. I could drive down and stay with my mother and have a ridiculously cheap trip.
Except.
My mother gave us a weekend in Myrtle Beach that weekend.
So, um, yeah.
Oh, and my mother...wouldn't be there.
Well Glen Sather is going to be pissed off Krieder won't be joining them for another two weeks. And anytime Sather's pissed off, well, that's okay in my book.
Did anyone else catch Parker Milner being called "Patrick" in the postgame interview?
I wonder how much on-air talent gets paid to broadcast College Hockey regionals?
Of course, I also wonder why a 2 seed gets to play the regionals at home. The NCAA has a way of sticking it to schools that they don't like.
I wonder how much on-air talent gets paid to broadcast College Hockey regionals?
Of course, I also wonder why a 2 seed gets to play the regionals at home. The NCAA has a way of sticking it to schools that they don't like.
No because I was at the game. But I did hear during the Air Force game someone asking if Barry Almeida was winking at a teammate or if he had something in his eye.
Embarrassing.