UMD Gets First NCAA Hockey Title

((HT: ESPN/NCAA/youtube))

It took a little extra time, but bully for the Bulldogs of Minnesota-Duluth...

They knocked off Michigan to win the NCAA hockey crown 3-2...
Here's the game-winner by Minnesotan Kyle Schmidt...


The only other title game appearance for the Bulldogs came in 1984, when they lost to Bowling Green in four overtimes...

Whadya wanna bet the party is like in Duluth what with the football team's successes in Division 2 and now this...???

The Hockey Game of The Weekend

((HT: ESPN))

It's from the Frozen Four title game between Miami and Boston University. BU was the number one seed and Miami was a four. The Redhawks had the lead for most of the game, but the Terriers scored two in the final minute of regulation.

The seniors at BU win their 100th game as a class and get another title...their 5th.

Here's the game-winner in overtime.
Gary Thorne and Barry Melrose have the play-by-play...

Frozen Focus Turns To Miami of Ohio

((HT: Duluth News Tribune))

Bemidji State’s out-of-the-blue story is over. Let Miami’s begin.

That’s Miami of Ohio, by the way, a distinction not needed in the world of college hockey — especially not this week. The RedHawks are headed to the NCAA championship game after beating fellow upstart Bemidji State 4-1 on tonight at the Frozen Four.

Bemidji State had the funkier name and the support of kindred spirits from George Mason — which loaned its “Green Machine” pep band to the green-clad Beavers for the week — but Miami had the three-goal burst in the second period in the first national semifinal game played by any sports team in the school’s history.

Miami (23-12-5) ((pictured, thanks Duluth News Tribune)) will face the winner of Boston University and Vermont, who played later tonight, in Saturday’s title game. Bemidji State (20-16-1) will head home with a George Mason-like feeling — good enough to make its sport’s biggest stage, but not good enough to win once it was there.

Stunning upsets in the first two rounds made Bemidji State the darlings of the Frozen Four, much as George Mason was at basketball’s Final Four three years ago. The borrowed pep band even played a chorus or two of “Livin’ on a Prayer” — GMU’s unofficial theme song of 2006.

Had the Beavers not been here, Miami would have carried the banner for the underdogs. The RedHawks, who not long ago used to call themselves the Redskins, come from Oxford, Ohio.

Only one Division I hockey school — Alabama-Huntsville — is further south. Oxford’s population of 22,000 could almost squeeze into the Verizon Center, although Bemidji’s 14,000 or so would fit with room to spare.

Tommy Wingels, Alden Hirschfeld and Bill Loupee all found the net during the second-period barrage, scoring more goals against Bemidji State in 7 minutes than the Beavers allowed in the first two rounds, when they shocked the college hockey world by beating Notre Dame and Cornell.

Wingels also had an empty-net goal in the third. Freshman goalie Cody Reichard made 24 saves for the RedHawks.

Both schools were not only in the Frozen Four for the first time, but both were No. 4 seeds in the regionals — the lowest rung of the 16-team tournament. As might be expected from the newcomers, the first period was more of a shake-the-nerves, feeling-out process than anything else. There were no goals and just two penalties

Wingels started the scoring by beating goalie Matt Dalton stickside from the left circle early in the second period. The goal ended a streak of 10 consecutive successful penalty kills for the Beavers.

Wingels then supplied the backhand just-in-front-of-the-crease pass to Hirschfeld to make the score 2-0, and the school that brought its own pep band suddenly had by far the loudest cheering section.

Matt Read pulled Bemidji State within one with a power-play goal about a minute later, but Loupee restored the two-goal lead a minute later when he camped next to the crease and got his stick on the puck, deflecting it off a sprawling Dalton and into the net.

A 16 Seed Makes A Final Four

No, it's not what you think...

The Bemidji State Beavers have made it to this year's Frozen Four by knocking off Notre Dame and Cornell. They're a 16-Seed playing Miami of Ohio in a national semi-final. They even got a police escort from the airport ((pictured, thanks BSU Athletics)) to the arena.

It's the first time in the "modern era" of the Frozen Four that a 16-seed has made it this far in the tournament...and they're looking for another one of those "Miracle On Ice" scenarios like there was in some medal-winning event that happened in New York state back in 1980.

Kevin Pates from the Duluth News-Tribune has the Beaves as "media darlings."

Shea Walters and Bemidji State got together at the right time. Walters, a forward from Hibbing, spent three years in junior hockey and joined the Beavers for a historic run as a 21-year-old freshman.

Bemidji State is 14-2-1 the past 17 games in getting to the Frozen Four for the first time in the program’s 10 years at the Division I level.

“Playing three years after high school was the best decision I’ve ever made,” said Walters, a 2005 News Tribune all-area first-team pick. “I gained more confidence, more maturity and was just better prepared for college. I couldn’t have asked for a better situation.”
He was with Green Bay in the U.S. Hockey League for two years and played for North Iowa in the North American Hockey League in 2007-08, producing 84 points in 57 games.

Walters has played at wing and center, and has four goals and 11 assists for 15 points in 33 games. He says practices at Bemidji State have been intense all season under coach Tom Serratore, which has paid off in four postseason victories (including the College Hockey America playoff title) and five wins in a row overall.

“We’ve heard from hockey fans from all over,” said Walters. “A lot of them are saying, ‘Who are you guys?’ They’re excited about seeing a fresh face in the NCAA tournament.”
Also on the team are sophomore forward Ryan Cramer of International Falls, and junior defenseman Kyle Hardwick of Warroad, Minn., a younger brother of former UMD defenseman Jay Hardwick. Former UMD captain Bert Gilling is in his 10th year as an assistant coach.

Joe Dufek tells us the good news...
((HT: Northlands News Center))