It’s hardly a secret now. Former North Dakota coach Dean Blais — a two-time NCAA champion — is returning to college hockey.

The Nebraska-Omaha program will get an infusion of enthusiasm and — very soon — talent. Expectations should ratchet upward, and Blais will hold everyone accountable from Day One.

It’s somewhat surprising in a way. New Omaha athletic director Trev Alberts has dropped some hints about making sure the school can afford the guy he decides to hire to run the hockey program. Blais is likely not coming cheap, but his pricetag was obviously not too high for UNO.

Nor should it be.

Omaha is a solid market, and it’s one this university can tap into with the right coach. While Blais might make a lot of money in his position, he will put a winning product on the ice, and he will do what it takes to make sure the program is successful.

Not only that, but you shouldn’t discount the experiences Blais has had in hockey. Among them was the work he did at North Dakota, a program that is as much a part of its home city as any other in the country. The North Dakota men could play a scrimmage against the Kentucky club team, and it would still sell a large number of tickets at the Ralph. Blais worked every day with a support staff that knows how to market a college hockey program.

In Fargo, he helped build a USHL franchise from scratch, and they just played for the Clark Cup title this spring.

With all this in mind, does UNO’s decision regarding the WCHA become easier with Blais on board?

There’s no question that Blais has a great amount of respect for the WCHA, and vice versa. I remember seeing him in Denver before a UMD game there a few years ago, when he had a chance to catch up with former Blais assistant and current UMD coach Scott Sandelin. Current North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol got the gig after Blais left, and he was an assistant prior to that. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone within the WCHA who doesn’t respect Blais.

Alberts admits he is learning about college hockey. That said, he is well-aware of the prestige of the WCHA. More importantly, the financial advantage the WCHA offers (for example, their per-school guarantee for the Final Five is much higher than the CCHA’s is for their league finals in Detroit) could really tip the scales in favor of this move. After all, Alberts talked at his introductory press conference about making a bigger deal out of hockey — UNO’s only Division I sport.

This might not be a slam dunk, but it’s as close as you’re going to get to one. Barring a major philosophical upset, I would expect Nebraska-Omaha to join Bemidji State in the WCHA. Not to brag, but it’s a solution I predicted nearly two years ago.

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For years, one of the more entertaining college hockey discussions has been: Who will be the next coach at Boston University after Jack Parker? This conversation always has legs because — a) there was a time when Parker seemed closer to leaving (because of flirtations with the Boston Bruins, administrative jobs, etc…) … and b) because there are so many qualified candidates out there.

Parker wound up settling back in at BU, but, of course, he’s also getting older. Various candidates have come and gone since then, BU alumni and/or former Parker assistant coaches.

With today’s announcement that former BU All-American Joe Sacco has been named the new head coach of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, that list just got bigger, and more interesting.

Names that used to lead the charge, have fallen off. Current Massachusetts head coach Don Cahoon, a BU player in the early ’70s, is not appreciably younger, relatively, than Parker at this point. Blaise McDonald, a former assistant, now head coach at Massachusetts-Lowell, has not distinguished himself, necessarily. Buddy Powers, former head coach at RPI and Bowling Green — same thing. Former assistant Brian Durocher now is head coach of BU’s women’s team, and seems ensconced there.

In the current sweepstakes lead, many consider it to be current top assistant David Quinn, a BU alum and one-time first round NHL pick. Though he is currently a candidate for Nebraska-Omaha’s opening. But he has the experience, and, perhaps, at 42, the right age.

Another lead name is BU alum Mike Sullivan, formerly head coach of the Boston Bruins. He didn’t take the amateur coaching route, like others did, but he had a long playing career, then went into coaching the AHL and quickly got the Bruins job, before losing it after a couple of years. This is akin to the route Ted Donato took at Harvard, although Donato had even less head coaching experience.

Which brings us to Sacco. Sacco also had a long playing career, a brief stint as an AHL head coach, and now the NHL.

BU may ultimately go with people who have stuck around the college game, which would keep Quinn at the forefront. But by being BU alums and NHL head coaches, Sullivan, and now Sacco, immediately thrust themselves into the discussion as well.

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For all the concern about what could happen to Alabama-Huntsville in the near future, and for all the gloom and doom over its attempt to find room in the CCHA … the more it’s investigated, the more it might make sense.

However, this is only because of Nebraska-Omaha’s potential departure from the CCHA for the WCHA.

See, we’ve been part of the uproar here. We wrote recently that the WCHA’s open courting of Nebraska-Omaha, as a way of making Bemidji State’s WCHA entrance more palateable, was very unseemly. After all, if the WCHA was truly only trying to do what was best for college hockey as a whole — and bring in Bemidji State in order to save that program (with the impending dissolution of the CHA) — then how could it claim that while also robbing another conference of one of their teams? At best, it was a 50-50 proposition, from the big picture view of college hockey.

However, maybe not.

Huntsville’s longshot bid becomes a lot more intriguing vis-a-vis UNO, specifically. Huntsville has been labeled a longshot because of the distance from CCHA schools. In this economy especially, flying schools to Huntsville is an expense most schools don’t want.

When the discussion swirled around Bowling Green’s potential demise, replacing BGSU with Huntsville was a costly difference.

But in terms of UNO, there is no cost difference. And this is the huge key.

A check of Google Maps shows that the driving mileage distance from Detroit to Omaha, Nebraska, is 732 miles. The driving distance from Detroit to Huntsville, Alabama, is only 663 miles.

True, the airport situation may be trickier, but the end result may be no more expensive for CCHA teams.

So perhaps UNO to the WCHA, while a rough “see ya later” to the CCHA, may be the one scenario that is best for college hockey right now.  Let’s face it, everyone’s between a rock and a hard place, but at least there is some semblance of a solution that would benefit everyone, somewhat — and potentially save two programs.

Update: And, as UAH SID Jamie Gilliam points out, Huntsville was just named the top place to live!

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It’s a little early, but we’re approaching the next round of Frozen Four bids in the near future. Bids will officially be taken this fall for the 2013, 2014, and 2015 Frozen Fours, and will be announced in spring or summer 2010.

To date, the only four cities which have officially announced as preparing to bid are Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., and Omaha, Neb.

The traditional selection criteria are as follows:

• Facility Requirements and Needs (Seating Capacities, etc.)
• Locker Room Space
• Media Facilities
• Hotel Facilities
• Headquarters Hotel
• Media Hotel
• Officials Accommodations
• Team Accommodations
• Fan Accommodations
• Financial Projections
• Ticket Prices
• Projected Ticket Sales

So here’s a somewhat exhaustive primer for the 2010 round.  I’ve included most of the cities that bid in 2000 (which awarded Frozen Fours to Boston, Columbus, and Milwaukee), 2003 (St. Louis and Denver), and 2005 (Washington, Detroit, St. Paul, and Tampa), along with some words on recent host cities.

The “Big Hockey City” Picks

New York – Madison Square Garden is an oft-rumored venue for the Frozen Four, but despite the fact that six different locations in Upstate New York have hosted the event, it still has never come to the Crossroads of the World. Quinnipiac and Atlantic Hockey were rumored to be putting together a bid in 2003, but nothing ever materialized. If MSG puts forward a bid, it’ll almost certainly get very close consideration – there are few cities in the world, let alone in the hockey-playing United States, that can compare with NYC, and few hockey meccas left out there that compare with MSG. On top of that, a recent BU-Cornell game there sold out, leading to a rematch there next season. Even if MSG doesn’t put a bid forward, there are still viable options across the Hudson in the Izod Center at the Meadowlands (which bid in 2000 and made the short list) or the Devils’ new digs at Prudential Center in Newark.

Pittsburgh – Robert Morris is backing a bid for the Frozen Four from the replacement for “The Igloo,” Consol Energy Arena, which will be the Penguins’ new building starting in the 2010-11 season. With the trend toward NHL arenas (by 2012, 7 of 10 Frozen Fours will have been in pro buildings), a local college hockey team with neighbors, plus a number of regular-season college hockey games taking place already at Mellon Arena in the recent past and near future, a strong support for the sport in the area, and a state-of-the-art brand new building to boot, and the Pittsburgh bid will look very, very strong indeed. The one drawback could be the fact that the building won’t be finished by the time the bids are decided upon, a fact which has caused problems for other bids in the past.

Philadelphia – The soon-to-be-yet-again-renamed Wachovia Center failed to earn a bid in both 2003 and 2005 despite making the short-list both times. Hotel accommodations near the stadium were a tripping point, but this should be resolved by the middle of the next decade thanks to a new hotel being planned at the current location of the old Spectrum across the street. This time, the building would have to face competition from Pittsburgh, which would be a tough sell. There’s practically no chance that the NCAA would hold two Frozen Fours in three years in the same state when there’s never been even one there.

The Recent Hosts

Buffalo – HSBC Arena has the benefit of being a modern NHL arena and being close to the Canadian hotbed of Southern Ontario. I don’t know how well received the city was in 2003, but Buffalo and HSBC Arena are probably interested in hosting again if their bid in 2005 is any indication. They weren’t shortlisted, probably because it was considered to be too soon. Anything prior to 2015 is probably still too soon.

Boston – The biggest shock of the last round of Frozen Four bids was that despite the unexpected decision to award the 2012 Frozen Four in addition to the planned awards for 2009-11, Boston was not among the cities chosen to host. At the time, the popular sentiment was that Boston might as well already be penciled in for 2013, and there hasn’t been anything in the last four years that would lead a person to presume that this has changed at all. Boston could submit a bid written in crayon comprised of nothing but “we want to host the Frozen Four” and they’d probably still be the favorites for 2013. The bottom line here is that if TD Garden submits a bid, they are practically assured to host by 2014 at the very latest.

Columbus – Maybe this is just me, but perhaps Nationwide Arena would be a better choice for Columbus down the road if they seek to host the Frozen Four again, which they probably will given that they submitted a bid for 2005, but like Buffalo, they were too soon then and probably would still be too soon this time. The relatively nearby bid of Pittsburgh could be tough to overcome, too.

Milwaukee – The Bradley Center has hosted the Frozen Four three times successfully and probably will get another crack at it in the near future, but they’d have better luck waiting until next time. The building did host its first two Frozen Fours just four years apart, but that was in the mid-90s – a lot has changed since then.

St. Louis – The Scottrade Center hosted the 2007 edition of the Frozen Four, and by most accounts did a pretty good job with it. According to reports, the city’s planning to give it another shot already, but this is definitely too early for the Gateway city to be hosting again.

Denver – I’m tempted to say that Denver might be able to get a little quicker of a turn-around time that Boston and the Twin Cities are entitled to as the two epicenters of college hockey, but given recent history, where St. Paul will have spent 9 years waiting for the Frozen Four’s return and with Boston having to wait at least that long, I don’t think Denver will have a shot until the next round of bidding.

The Odder Picks, With History

Omaha – Nebraska-Omaha’s home building, Qwest Center, bid just before opening in 2003 and are planning for a bid in this cycle already. Although it probably wouldn’t seem like it to an outsider, Omaha is actually a pretty decent hockey city, with strong junior hockey roots as well as strong support for the Mavericks. Omaha is still probably a darkhorse for the Frozen Four, though, as the area and the facility may both be a touch small for the tournament.

Kansas City – KC has been patiently waiting for their chance to host a Frozen Four, missing out in 2000 and 2005 for different reasons. The city was short-listed in 2000, but lost on a bid centered around Kemper Arena, an older facility. 2005 was instead centered around the Sprint Center, a newer, state-of-the-art facility which hopes to attract an NBA or NHL team, but in 2005 the building existed only on paper, breaking ground just days after failing to make the short-list cut. Now the building is a reality and has drawn rave reviews. With another bid in the works, and with the Hockey Commissioners Association placing the 2012 IceBreaker there, KC may just make the short-list again and could be a favorite for a bid if everything shakes out well.

San Antonio – The Alamodome has been a part of the last two bid processes, in 2003 and 2005. Both times the bid was supported by the University of Texas-San Antonio. In the past, there had been some hesitance to place the Frozen Four in a location without a hockey-connected host, but the 2009 Frozen Four was hosted by Navy with no problems. San Antonio would combine the NCAA’s penchant for including non-traditional locations with size – according to Wikipedia, the building seats 36,000 for hockey, which would make it as accessible as Ford Field will be next year, only with fewer empty seats and likely, better sight lines, since the facility has two permanent Olympic-sized rinks. Could they get that many to make the trip to San Antonio, though? Questions still abound, and San Antonio definitely isn’t a “hockey city” even by looser southern standards.

Miami – BankAtlantic Center in nearby Sunrise failed to make the short list in 2005, probably thanks to Tampa making the cut. I wouldn’t expect the NCAA to be so quick to return to Florida after 2012, especially since this bid will be awarded prior to that event.

Orlando – TD Waterhouse Center, now Amway  Arena, bid in 2000, supported by Disney, Quinnipiac, and what was then the MAAC. While I’m sure a Disney Frozen Four would be magical indeed, the same reasoning applies to Orlando as it does to Miami.

Atlanta – Philips Arena bid in 2000 with Georgia State as the sponsor, and didn’t make the cut. If a bid gets put forward there could be interest, but since they didn’t put forward bids in 2003 or 2005, perhaps the interest isn’t there.

Phoenix – The Coyotes’ Jobing.com Arena in Glendale failed to make the short-list in 2005. Speaking from personal experience, Arizona’s a great place to watch a hockey game (especially in February), but with all of the turmoil going on with the Coyotes right now, there are probably better choices for a non-traditional location.

Los Angeles – The 1999 Frozen Four in nearby Anaheim was a success financially for the NCAA, but the cost of transporting the teams there – three of them were Hockey East teams – put a damper on the net return. Fan reaction tended to be negative to the area at the time as well, leading me to believe that LA probably isn’t a strong contender.

San Jose – A bid backed by RPI was put forward in 2000 and made the NCAA’s short-list, but the financial issues surrounding the then-recent 1999 Frozen Four in Anaheim may have helped put the kibosh on the HP Pavilion’s chances. With the time that’s passed in the interim, if the interest is there and there’s a sponsor, the Shark Tank might have a decent shot if California as a whole isn’t “poisoned” by the ’99 event. Just as with Atlanta, no bids in the last two cycles may indicate that the interest isn’t there anymore.

My Own Odder Picks

Dallas – If the NCAA is insistent on following the NHL’s lead by showcasing itself in warm-weather, non-traditional sites, it stands to reason that a Frozen Four in Dallas, which has been one of the most successful warm-weather success stories, would be an intriguing idea, and, to be honest, American Airlines Center is a very nice facility for hockey. If the interest is there for a bid, I have to think it would get some very serious consideration.

Chicago – So while we’re listing off practically every NHL arena out there, especially in traditional climates, why not the United Center? Right now, the sole sports focus of the city of Chicago – other than the Blackhawks’ current playoff run and the Cubs – is on the 2016 Olympics. That bid won’t be over until October, and it wouldn’t give much time to throw something together in the interim.

Toronto – OK, I admit it, now I’m just getting weird, but given some of the picks we’ve seen, why not Toronto? Actually, here’s a couple of good reasons why not Toronto – the NCAA hasn’t, to my knowledge, ever crowned a champion outside of the lower 48, and it would be a logistical nightmare for fans with passport requirements now in place for returning to the United States. But if you could throw those two considerations out, you know there’d be a lot to love about a Frozen Four at the Air Canada Centre.

Sorry

Detroit, St. Paul, Tampa, and Washington – It’ll be much too early for these four cities, even though Washington Capitals manager George McPhee has already indicated after the very successful event there this year that he’d like to host the Frozen Four again, and soon. Detroit and St. Paul will probably have another shot to host sometime in the late 2010s, though, for Detroit hopefully before Joe Louis Arena closes, since the building will be going on 40 years old by that point. We won’t know about Tampa’s chances for the future until 2012.

Albany and Providence – The party’s over for both of these cities. The Times Union Center in Albany seems to submit a bid practically every time they are requested, and Providence is one of those true college hockey destinations, but neither the Dunkin’ Donuts Center nor the TUC are big enough for what the Frozen Four has become since they last hosted the event in 2000 and 2001 respectively.

That’s It

So how about it? What do YOU think? Any place I left out? Any city not getting its due props? Feel free to drop a comment or two before I make my “Way Too Early Picks for the 2013-15 Frozen Fours, Like My Opinion Mattered” predictions.

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You probably wouldn’t believe it if I said that I practically predicted that the Frozen Four would turn out this way, but I did. I only wish that I had actually predicted it.

Shortly after the NCAA tournament field was announced, I mentioned to Adam Wodon that there were more than a handful of teams that had been idle during conference championship weekend, having crashed out of their conference tournaments a week early. This year, a full quarter  of the field did not have a game in the week before the NCAA tournament began thanks to tournament losses: Vermont, New Hampshire, Miami, and Ohio State. Adam then casually added Bemidji State to the list, although their week off came after the early CHA championship tilt.

I probably wouldn’t have noticed or even cared if not for a piece I wrote in this space two years ago following yet another first round exit by St. Cloud State, this time to a Maine squad that had concluded its regular season and Hockey East tournament by losing four consecutive games to UMass, getting a week off between the Hockey East quarterfinals. Head coach Bob Motzko later pondered on his radio show about the significance of having a week off.

It happened again to the Huskies last year, when they were knocked off by Clarkson – who had been upset in the ECAC quarterfinals by Colgate.

This year, three of those five teams advanced to the Frozen Four, and a fourth, New Hampshire, got an opening round victory and very nearly made it four for Frozen Four.

This isn’t even the first time Miami has earned an NCAA win following an idle week – in 2007, while Maine was resurrecting a dismal end to their season with a trip to St. Louis, the Redhawks squeezed into the NCAA tournament and upset New Hampshire in Manchester for their first ever victory in the national tournament.

Is it fair? Motzko asked an open-ended question on that show, pondering whether the NCAA ought to require that teams advance through the first round of their tournament to be eligible for an at-large bid. Such a rule in place this season would have left those four teams home and been a benefit to Wisconsin, Minnesota, Boston College, and St. Lawrence. Think last weekend would have shaped up differently?

Did Vermont, Miami, and Bemidji State have an advantage in having a week off? Possibly. I suppose it depends, in the Catamounts’ and Redhawks’ case, on what’s important. Was a league title important to them or not?

I drew a comparison today between college hockey and European soccer (hang on a second, trust me on this one). For those unfamiliar with international club soccer, teams have multiple competitions that they engage in during the year – usually, a domestic league, a domestic cup tournament, and for the very best, the continental championship tournament. In this sense, you could compare the regular season conference games to the domestic leagues, the conference tournaments to the domestic cups, and the national tournament to the Champions League. In Europe, it’s a bit different as all three competitions typically take place simultaneously throughout the year, but you still see that teams sacrifice positions and success in one or more of these competitions in order to find greater success in another.

Perhaps the same holds true in college hockey. Would a team sacrifice standing in the league in order to get a better draw for the playoffs? It’d be hard, but I’ll bet they would if they could. Would a team that expects a bid to the NCAA tournament hold something in reserve during the conference championships? Perhaps.

Whatever the answer, that advantage is now gone at this stage – all four teams will have had roughly the same amount of time to prepare for battle, and rest assured, the cream will rise. I’m not going to make any predictions, really, but if you needed much more indication that this may be Boston University’s tournament to lose, consider that they had to beat two well rested teams to reach the Frozen Four – and were the only team in the bracket able to do it at all.

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I am proud to say I cover hockey. However, I am a fan of the sport first.

I’ve been a UMD season-ticket holder since 2003. I remember sitting in front of the television and yelling to the point of nearly losing my voice as the Bulldogs skated to the 2004 Frozen Four, and then took a two-goal lead in the national semifinal against Denver.

As you are probably aware, not much has gone right for UMD since. They were on their way to a win over St. Cloud State in the first round of the 2007 playoffs, but then Bobby Goepfert stood on his head for four overtimes over two nights. His team was pretty thoroughly outplayed, but part of playing the game is scoring goals, and UMD just couldn’t on those nights. St. Cloud won the series, and UMD was sent to the golf course prematurely, only to find when they got there that the two best players on that 2006-2007 team (Matt Niskanen and Mason Raymond) had signed pro contracts.

Last year’s team was strong defensively, but couldn’t score goals. MacGregor Sharp led the team with 17 points. Andrew Carroll led in goals with eight. It doomed them to an eighth-place finish and a two-game playoff loss to Denver.

With how the regular-season ended, no one saw this coming. The Bulldogs went 0-3-2 down the stretch, with two straight losses to Alaska-Anchorage providing a painful farewell for seven UMD seniors. In retrospect, one of the worst home weekends in a long time may have been a blessing in disguise. UMD deserved to lose those games, and they knew it. Instead of moping or resigning themselves to a one-and-done playoff fate, this Bulldog team used the adversity as a coming-together point.

Since they didn’t know they had to fly to Colorado Springs until the close of play Saturday, they had to set up a rather arduous travel schedule. Fly to Minneapolis and then Denver Wednesday evening, and bus from Denver to Colorado Springs. It was early Thursday morning before they arrived. Instead of being tired after such a difficult late-season trip, UMD looked fresh and prepared Friday. A 4-1 win Friday was followed by a 3-1 triumph Saturday.

By now, you know full well what happened over the weekend in St. Paul. It was the kind of history that you don’t get to see every year, and it was a performance for the ages. In a way, it was fitting, because this team made a commitment to themselves after that Anchorage series, and they’ve played near-perfect hockey since.

The most amazing statistic is that they have yet to trail in the playoffs. In fact, the only time any UMD playoff game this year has been tied has been 0-0. Once UMD has taken the lead, they’ve held it. You can credit Alex Stalock all you want, but the 18 guys in front of him deserve their props, too.

One of my worries about UMD going to Colorado College is that they struggled (3-5-3) on the big sheet during the regular season. They allowed too many goals in most of those games, including four in one at Anchorage, six at St. Cloud State, and five at Minnesota. The defense took a few hits in those games, but they have protected Stalock wondrously in the first five playoff games.

Princeton brings speed, skill, and goaltending to the table Friday night. UMD can’t be looking forward to a potential rematch Saturday with Denver (neither can Denver, for that matter, or it could be Miami vs Princeton in front of 550 friends and family at Mariucci). But they haven’t looked forward to anything yet. They’ve focused on the task at hand, even on Saturday night in the WCHA Final Five championship, when they led 3-0, fans were ready to party, and it would have been easy to lapse. Instead of giving up a lame goal late in the game, UMD only let Denver attempt six shots the whole period (five were blocked).

No matter what, the thousands of Minnesotans who will show up at Mariucci Arena Friday night need to appreciate what this UMD team has done. They not only made history, but they’ve shown that from adversity can come special achievements.

That this group of kids banded together and stormed into the NCAA Tournament is the stuff of stories 20 years from now. Expectations are growing in Duluth, but let’s hope the fans also bring a sense of perspective to the rink Friday. The ride this team has taken us on the last two weeks is one that won’t be forgotten anytime soon, and we thank you for it.

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It’s been a season where there have been a lot of very good players, and no definitive obvious Hobey picks. It’s going to be interesting to see who wins that award, and we still have our own Player of the Year pick coming up.

Our 2008-09 All-CHN Teams reflect the difficulty in coming up with a decisive group. Our staff placed their votes, and we came up with a consensus. Here are my personal thoughts — feel free to chime in, argue away, and call me a dope. Y’all have never actually needed that invitation to do so in the past, however.

Ryan Stoa — He was not named a Hobey finalist, but should’ve been. I felt he was the forward who most impacted the game every time he was out there. Minnesota had its problems this year, but no moreso than Wisconsin, and Jamie McBain was a Hobey finalist despite having one of the worst plus-minus ratings on the team, minus-8.

Ian Cole was the other non-Hobey finalist to make our First Team. You almost have to pick a Notre Dame player somewhere. Goalie Jordan Pearce has great numbers, but isn’t necessarily spectacular. This is not a knock on him — he doesn’t need to be. The forwards are all-around solid everywhere, but they spread it around. Teammate, Nathan Lawson, was named CCHA Defensive Defenseman of the Year. But Cole seems to be the most complete package of any defenseman I’ve seen.

David McIntyre stood out to me because he was one of the nation’s leaders in plus-minus despite playing on a sub-.500 team. That’s hard to do. Matt Gilroy is, of course, a Hobey finalist, and needs no defense — but his numbers aren’t great. I think his play goes beyond the numbers. He’s had the numbers in the past. He came to BU as a walk-on forward and took years to learn the defensive side. BU has plenty of scorers, but they are now also one of the best defensive teams in the country. That’s why the Terriers are scary.

Our staff ultimately put BU’s Colin Wilson on the Second Team. I must say, I struggled whether to include him. He led BU in scoring, but on the strength of 35 assists. I tend to value goals much more than points. He’s nowhere near the goal-scoring leaders. Tough to leave a Hobey winner entirely off the list, but as dominant goal scorers, BC’s Brock Bradford, Michigan’s Louie Caporusso, and Minnesota-Duluth’s MacGregor Sharp are tough to top. Of course, Wilson doesn’t have to carry the load, so that hurts him in a sense, with BU’s scoring so spread out. So it’s no knock on him, really. But these are individual awards.

Absent from the list, Hobey finalist Jacques Lamoureux of Air Force, the nation’s leading goal scorer with 32. Tough one, but this the age old debate on what it means to score that many goals in a lower-level league.

Forwards that were hard to pass up included: Corey Elkins (Ohio State) , Jason Lawrence (BU) and Brock McBride (St. Lawrence).

Defensively, it was hard to pass up Michigan’s Chad Langlais and his plus-27.

The goaltending spot was really tough. We mentioned Pearce. Hobey finalist Zane Kalemba of Princeton also was not on the list. But the toughest was what to do with Alex Stalock. Like Stoa, he may be the most physically talented of any goaltender in the country, and I realize his numbers are hurt by playing in a more open system and with a defense that isn’t as strong. And, obviously, his last five games have been ridiculously good, and it led UMD to a historical Final Five win. But Chad Johnson was CCHA Player of the Year, and led the nation in save percentage. That’s very impressive in its own right. Stalock may yet deserve it, with a few more wins here this season. But it has to be picked on a whole season.

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Well, this was our projected bracket and discussion of the possibilities, as of last night: http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2009/03/21_ncaatournament.php

As you can see, we weren’t far off. We only got tripped up on the switch of Northeastern and Minnesota-Duluth. We can only speculate that this was for attendance purposes, since it deviates from setting up a “true” 2 vs. 7 matchup in the Midwest (Notre Dame-UMD) and 3-6 in the West (Denver-Northeastern).

Of course, the teams were tied in the Pairwise, basically, so it doesn’t matter too much.

Everything else went according to expectation. And you can read about all the rationale, as we laid out, in the article mentioned above.

Further explanation and analysis, and conversation with the committee, is forthcoming.

As for the brackets themselves, here are some thoughts:

Northeast – Manchester

Boston University is the top overall seed, but because of the seeding processes — as we discussed last night — the Terriers have to play Ohio State in the first round. BU should be able to take care of that young team, but OSU has beaten good teams over the course of the year.

So New Hampshire and North Dakota square off in the other matchup. You have to think the Sioux will be rarin’ to go after losing twice at the Final  Five. Then again, UNH has been off a week, and is probably annoyed too.

Midwest – Grand Rapids

Because of the BU issue mentioned earlier, Notre Dame is the beneficiary of facing the lowest overall seed, Bemidji State. Meanwhile, Cornell is banged up, but the program has a strong history of winning first-round games, while Northeastern hasn’t even made the tournament since 1994. Cornell has won at least a game here the last five trips to the NCAAs, but only the seniors on this team have had a trip. That was the year Cornell lost to Wisconsin in triple OT.

West – Minneapolis

Denver faces Miami again, with the matchup of George Gwozdecky and Enrico Blasi. Blasi played for Gwozdecky at Miami. This matchup has happened before in the NCAAs, with Denver winning. So it’s not new, but still interesting.

Princeton, meanwhile, gets the chore of facing red-hot Minnesota-Duluth, and its goaltending star Alex Stalock. Princeton has a Hobey finalist in net in Zane Kalemba. Princeton will play hard and tough, and is better prepared than in  last year’s appearance, but we’ll see how they match up on the big ice against Duluth. Princeton has not played on that surface much, if at all, while Duluth has plenty of experience with it.

East – Bridgeport

This should be a very well-attended bracket. Yale is local, and will draw. Vermont travels very well, and will get people down from nearby Burlington. Michigan, the top seed, of course travels well and has plenty of alums. That leaves poor old Air Force, which will play tough, for sure, and give Michigan a run.

Yale-Vermont is an intriguing matchup. We’ll see how the best the ECAC has to offer all year, stacks up against a fourth-place Hockey East team.

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The “Pairwise” is the familiar moniker given to the NCAA’s process of picking and seeding teams for the NCAA tournament. Each year, we break it down six ways to Sunday. On the CHN main site right now, you can see the current Pairwise … read about how it works, and what it all means with the CHN Primer … and even plug in your own results from this weekend’s games and figure out what the final Pairwise would look like, with “You Are the Committee“.

So, here we are, with the running commentary of how the results effect team’s NCAA hopes, ongoing, throughout the weekend.

Saturday … 11:02 p.m. — OK, the games are done. Go to the main site for our final Bracket Analysis — and remember, the Selection Show is Sunday 11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN2 — where you can see how we did.

Saturday … 9:31 p.m. — We (MikeM and I) can’t see how BU would go anywhere but Manchester at this point. All signs point that way. No. 2 overall seed is Notre Dame, no matter what, so we figure they go to Grand Rapids. The No. 4 overall will be paired with No. 5 overall Yale, in Bridgeport. No. 4 will be Michigan or Denver. That leaves Minneapolis for the other one. If Northeastern is No. 6 overall, that means it will be in Minneapolis. That leaves No. 8 North Dakota in Manchester, and No. 7 Minn.-Duluth in Grand Rapids.

Saturday … 8:51 p.m. — Still awaiting some finals. Believe it or not, there’s still too many combos, at least when it comes to seeds. The teams are pretty much all set. Ohio State will be in unless Lowell wins HEA. Miami is No. 13 probably. That means that neither CCHA team can play Notre Dame at No. 2 or Michigan at 3 or 4. So this means BU will be stuck with one of them, as opposed to a “lesser” team in Air Force or Bemidji State. This happened to Cornell in 2003, when it had to play Mankato, and won 5-2.

Saturday … 8:10 p.m. — So the top two seeds overall, either way, are BU and Notre Dame. That means they should be in Manchester and Grand Rapids, respectively. Even though UNH is at No. 9 and could be a second-round matchup in Manchester, the committee hasn’t really cared about that in recent years. If Michigan wins the CCHA, it could get to No. 3, but that’s about it.

Saturday … 6:24 p.m. — The stunned media corps found out minutes later that there was a shootout taking place on the ice for the EAC consolation game. It was completely irrelevant — though I’m not sure any St. Lawrence fans knew this. SLU won it – yawn. Question: Should Guy Gadowski have pulled Kalemba in the shootout to make sure he didn’t get hurt?

Saturday … 6:16 p.m. — Indeed Marsh pulled the goalie. What a little mini-drama that was. Princeton had the puck in the St. Lawrence zone most of the last two minutes, so it wasn’t until late that Marsh finally pulled Petizian. It was the right move. It ends in a tie, and St. Lawrence is done. Princeton moves on. First Princeton tie in 2 1/2 years. Oh, the irony.

Saturday … 6:05 p.m. — OT in Albany. Does SLU coach Joe Marsh know to pull his goalie in OT? Does Princeton coach Guy Gadowsky know not to? We’ll find out which coaches know about the Pairwise and which don’t.

Saturday … 5:39 — Found a scenario where Wisconsin loses out to Ohio State by .0002 RPI. It happens if Yale, Notre Dame and Minnesota-Duluth all win later.

Saturday … 5:37 — If Yale and Notre Dame win, Ohio State hangs onto the comparison with Air Force by a miniscule amount — less than .0001 — and Wisconsin finishes just .0003 behind in RPI.

Saturday … 5:34 p.m. — Wisconsin and Northern Michigan have won consolation games. This helps Ohio State. It looks like the Buckeyes will make it over Minnesota, unless Lowell wins, in which case, OSU is also out. A Cornell win helps even more, but it looks safe even if Yale wins.

Saturday … 3:54 p.m. — Whoops. As Mike Machnik pointed out, that below scenario does NOT keep St. Lawrence out. The tie that would be created at No. 13 between Minnesota and SLU (plug those results into You Are the Committee and see for yourself) would actually go to St. Lawrence. That’s because the committee has been breaking ties in recent years via RPI. So thanks to the person who pointed out that below scenario, but that doesn’t do it. So I go back to what I originally said — that I cannot find a scenario where St. Lawrence wins the consolation and doesn’t make it.

Saturday .. 3:04 p.m. — OK, here’s the results that leave St. Lawrence out even with a win. It does require Lowell winning, and taking the 14th spot away. I thought SLU would be safe at No. 13 regardless, but apparently can slip to No. 14 in this scenario.

• Hockey East Championship game: Mass.-Lowell defeats Boston University.
• ECAC Championship game: Yale defeats Cornell.
• ECAC Consolation game: St. Lawrence defeats Princeton.
• Atlantic Hockey Championship game: Mercyhurst defeats Air Force.
• CCHA Championship game: Notre Dame defeats Michigan.
• CCHA Consolation game: Northern Michigan defeats Alaska.
• WCHA Championship game: Denver defeats Minnesota-Duluth.
• WCHA Consolation game: North Dakota defeats Wisconsin.

Saturday … 1:49 p.m. — So, we’re back in the Albany press room, and let’s follow up with the last post from last night. Playing around more with the wacky Ohio State-Minnesota situation, it appears that things come down — in most cases — to whether Ohio State can flip the comparison with Air Force. Doing so, requires staying ahead of Air Force in the RPI. If Air Force wins Atlantic Hockey, that will require help elsewhere, but the “help elsewhere” has basically no bearing on Ohio State directly, it’s just the way the wacky RPI works, with the strengths of opponents and opponents’ opponents, etc… For example, if Cornell defeats Yale today, it provides a nice RPI boost to Ohio State. Alaska winning the CCHA consolation also provides some RPI “points,” as does a Michigan win over Notre Dame.

We’re talking about splitting minute hairs here. Ohio State, in some cases, beats out Air Force by .0001 in the RPI. These shifts are within a range of .0018 or so. It’s crazy. And it has nothing to do with anything Ohio State or Minnesota is doing directly.

A St. Lawrence win, meanwhile, helps Minnesota, because in most cases, it flips the Minnesota-Princeton comparison in the Gophers’ favor, sometimes by as little as .0001 in RPI.

There is also a crazy scenario where Wisconsin wins the consolation and Mercyhurst wins Atlantic, and somehow that gets the Badgers within .0003 RPI of Ohio State. So that close to getting in the NCAAs. I can’t find any way to actually get Wisconsin in, however.

Someone on the Cornell message board said there was a scenario where St. Lawrence wins the ECAC consolation, Mercyhurst wins Atlantic, and so SLU still doesn’t make the NCAAs. But I have not been able to replicate that.

Saturday … 1:24 a.m. — Just wrapping up things in Albany for the evening. The weirdest thing about this year’s Pairwise, is that Minnesota and Ohio State, two teams that were knocked out by Thursday, are wavering back and forth for the last spot, all dependent on results elsewhere. Their respective RPIs teeter around a few percentage points here and there depending on other results all over the country. Depending on various combos, one or the other makes it. Meanwhile, the only other spot up for grabs is the winner of the Princeton-SLU ECAC consolation. Also, of course, if Lowell wins Hockey East, it knocks out Minnesota and Ohio State. Miami looks safe. We’ll go more into the seedings during Saturday afternoon.

Friday … 11:05 p.m. — Cornell wins in 2nd OT. Princeton and St. Lawrence to play for an NCAA bid Saturday. Princeton gets in with a tie, SLU doesn’t.

Friday … 10:49 p.m. — Minnesota-Duluth stuns North Dakota with shutout win. Bulldogs are IN. Book it. North Dakota, 2 seed at best.

Friday … 10:05 p.m. — Another stunner out East, with Cornell scoring two late goals to force OT with Princeton. The winner gets a bid. Loser has to win tomorrow in the consolation. Meanwhile, BU and BC are 0-0, and teams like Ohio State are sweating that one out. If BC wins, it means Hockey East will get another bid.

Friday … 8:09 p.m. — Lowell stuns Northeastern with a late goal, then a win in OT. This means Northeastern will be a respectable No. 2 seed. A Lowell win upsets the apple cart for the likes of Ohio State. Still looking for a way for the ECAC to get four teams in. It doesn’t look like a tie helps St. Lawrence enough, however.

Friday … 7:20 p.m. — Notre Dame also gets a stunner. It keeps everything lined up with the higher seeds so far. This helps teams like Ohio State, in particular.

Friday … 6:36 p.m. — I’m trying to get St. Lawrence and the 2nd game ECACs loser in the NCAAs – a tie doesn’t seem to help SLU enough. Trying to see if SLU wins the consolation, if there’s any way for Princeton/Cornell to get in … Princeton, in one scenario, misses out by .0006 RPI

Friday … 6:28 p.m. — A stunning ECAC finish. St. Lawrence, poised to win, keep things in line for a possible 4 ECAC bids … and all of a sudden, Yale scores twice in about 20 seconds, both with under two minutes left, to steal the game. This means, the loser of Saturday’s ECAC consolation game, most likely will not get in. As we said earlier in the week — they should agree to tie.

Friday … 5:40 p.m. — I punched in North Dakota winning the WCHA, Northeastern winning HEA, and Yale in ECAC, and none of them were able to pass Denver. Pioneers will be a No. 1 seed for sure.

Friday … 5:33 p.m. — Denver has defeated Wisconsin, eliminating the Badgers once and for all. Denver may have locked up a No. 1 seed. Going to crunch some numbers.

Friday … 3:52 p.m. — Games are about to begin in Albany. The ECAC could get 4 teams in the NCAAs for the first time, but the best chance for that is St. Lawrence beating Yale in this game.

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ST. PAUL – There are only four teams left at the 2009 WCHA Final Five. Of them, one of them (Wisconsin) knows they have to win the tournament and “steal” the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Two (North Dakota and Denver) could fall flat on their faces in St. Paul, and still make the field safely. Such is life when you’ve finished first and second, respectively, in the regular-season standings of one of the toughest conferences in the country.

The other (Minnesota-Duluth) can make the NCAAs without winning another game, but only if nothing else goofy happens when the puck is dropped on other conference tournaments later Friday. Their safest path to the icy version of the Big Dance is to win one more game, whether it be Friday in the semifinals or Saturday in the finals (remember, the WCHA does play a third-place game).

To make things more interesting, the team eliminated Thursday night (Minnesota) can still make the NCAAs, but they must sit at home and watch the events of the weekend unfold first. If they can hold on to 14th position in the Pairwise, and no upsets occur in any league tournaments, the Gophers can still make the field. It’s going to be about 34 more hours, however, before they know which “sticks” they’ll be getting out next: hockey, or golf.

A depleted Denver team battles Wisconsin in the semifinals, while UMD takes on red-hot top-seed North Dakota.

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