NCAA Tournament Field Set :Terriers face Denver in Saint Paul

The 16 team NCAA tournament field is now set after this past weekend's conference championship games and obviously the Boston University Terriers made the field for the second straight season. The Terriers will face the Denver Pioneers in the first round of the West Regional in St. Paul, Minnesota. The winner of that game faces the winner of #2 overall seed St. Cloud State and Ferris State who is the king of the garbage that is the WCHA. The Terriers first round game is at 6:30 pm on Saturday night on ESPNU as seen in the bracket below.

New Teams In Hockey East: Time for Divisions

So as many of have read UCONN Mens Hockey will joining the Hockey East in two years. Now I was thinking and writing on Twitter the other day and talking to the BSRS crew that runs the blogs twitter account about what this means. Personally, I think that this is great news and gives us the ability to create two divisions within Hockey East. Call it as you may North vs. South, Private vs. Public but I broke down the divisions into possible mouth watering playoff hockey.

The South Division would contain: Boston University, Boston College, Providence College, University of Notre Dame, UCONN, & Northeastern University. The reasoning is that you can't break-up BU, NU, & BC. They play in the Beanpot & obviously need to keep those teams together. PC, UND, & BC just make the Catholic schools perfectly happy. UCONN is the hard one to work in there. Historically, UCONN has a rivalry with fellow past & present Big East teams in Providence, Boston College, & UND. So I guess you can place them in there and place Merrimack in the North Division.

The North Division would contain: UVM, UNH, Maine, UMass-Amherst, UMass-Lowell, & Merrimack. So right off the bat you need to have Maine & UNH together. They hate each other. UVM is far enough north to contend with UNH & Maine. The UMass teams stick together based on how they are both state schools from Massachusetts. Merrimack is again the odd choice and since they don't fit in the South, you have to place them in the North.

You can keep the regular season the same as it has been. If it works, keep it. The playoffs will have 4 teams from each division. Rank them 1-4 in each division. Take the 1s in each division and play the respective 4s. Take the 2s in each division and play the respective 3s. The division finals will happen in the Garden and the Hockey East Finals will happen in the Garden as well. In each division, the odds for having a rivalry game INCREASE for Hockey East Quaterfinals/ Division Semifinals and make the hockey just so much better. 


Probably just a pipe dream...


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Looks like BU is heading to St.Paul eh?

The NCAA released its 2012 men's ice hockey championship bracket today and the BU Terriers were ranked as the 9th overall seed. This leaves them as the top 3 seed and heading to St. Paul, Minnesota. They also get the luck of playing the University of Minnesota at their host site at the XCEL Center. This seems to be set up for the Terriers to play in front of 17,000 Gopher fans and us of course. The other game in BU's West Bracket is 1 seed North Dakota vs 4 Western Michigan. We couldn't be more pumped for this game and a chance at the national title for the first time since we have been around talking shit and pretending to know something about hockey.

Many fans have already deemed BU's chances slim with this type of draw but all you ask for is a chance and that is what this team has. This team has been left for dead by person after person this season. They were wrote off as a team with no chance after they lost their top 2 centers mid-season. They, instead, went on a winning streak throughout the month of January. They were written off again in late February when they lost a top 4 d-man. They came out and took 3 out of their last 4 to end the regular season. They seemed to have no chance in the third and deciding game of the HE QF series with New Hampshire when they trailed 4-1 midway through the game. Guess what? They came back and won the game in double OT. The critics have been there all season and will continue to be there leading into the game Saturday. However, this is an ideal situation for this team. They feed off of the fact that no one will pick them to win. They thrive in hostile environments(undefeated outside the city of Boston in 2012) and we have no reason St. Paul will be any different. Don't stop believing Terrier fans. This team has the potential to win it all even after everything that has happened when many expected them to miss the NCAA tournament all together.

Oh yeah here is the rest of the bracket

East(Bridgeport,CT)

1 Union vs 4 Michigan State

2 Miami(OH) vs 3 Lowell

Midwest

1 Michigan vs 4 Cornell

2 Ferris State vs 3 Denver

Northeast

1 BC vs 4 Air Force

2 Minnesota-Duluth vs 3 Maine

West

1. North Dakota vs 4 Western Michigan

2 Minnesota vs 3 BU

New conference forming in college hockey...possibly more

The formation of the Big Ten Conference in 2013-2014(due to the emergence of Penn State hockey) is throwing the conference affiliation of college hockey into a big loop. The formation of this six team league leaves both the WCHA(10) and CCHA(8) short of teams and this situation could result in the end of both of the leagues. There is a report that five teams from WCHA plan to leave for the 2013-2014 season along with Miami to make a new conference. Notre Dame also has been reported to be contemplating between staying in the CCHA, the new conference, or moving to Hockey East or WCHA. The only real outcome here is the following conference breakdown:(stay with me here)

Big Ten(6): Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Minnesota, and Wisconsin

New League(8): Miami,Denver, North Dakota, Colorado College, Minnesota-Duluth, Notre Dame, Western Michigan and Nebraska-Omaha

Hockey East(10): Same as is (BU,BC, Merrimack, UNH,UVM ,Lowell, UMASS, PC, Northeastern, and Maine)

CCHA/WCHA leftover league(10): Alaska,Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Northern Michigan, Alaska-Anchorage, Bemjidi State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, and St. Cloud State.

The other two leagues of Atlantic Hockey and the ECAC would remain the same unless the Ivy's break off and then a whole new can of worms would be opened as UCONN could possibly move to Hockey East if they got better and if URI starts a program since they have the facility to do so. This is all speculation though. The remaining teams in the CCHA and WCHA need to join to make a league of six or more. This realignment also opens the door for the independent Alabama-Huntsville get a chance to lose that tag and finally join a league so it has a chance to make the NCAA tournament and get decent recruits realistically. stay tuned for more on this story. In the end of the day, this really doesn't matter as BU is going to win the next 10 championships no matter who plays there. Parker retires after the eighth and Bavis wins two more as coach. You'll see.

Michigan and UMD advance to play for National title...guess who called this two months ago

Minnesota Duluth beat Notre Dame 4-3 in a thriller tonight in the first Frozen Four Game with the Connolly brothers and defenseman Justin Faulk who had 3 assists.

Michigan beat powerhouse North Dakota 2-0 in the latter game to move onto their 12th NCAA championship game appearance. They were lead by goalie Sean Hunwick who made 40 saves in the effort to keep the Fighting Sioux off the scoreboard all night including a series of big saves in a 1-0 game in the third. An empty net goal sealed it for the Wolverines after that.

The two face off for the championship Saturday night. Who could have predicted such upsets and drama in this tournament? No number one seeds advancing..no two seeds advancing. Oh wait I did on Febuary 21st. No biggie just calling the championship game 45 days before it happens. Vegas should hire me quick before they go broke when I actually have money to gamble with. Oh yeah called 3 out of the 4 Frozen Four contenders too. Bow to me bitches ...bow to me.

NCAA Hockey Tournament predictions -take 4

Here goes attempt number 4 to predict the NCAA Tournament Field for Mens Ice Hockey. The first three are linked up here(1st-12/19,2nd-2/11,3rd-2/21 so you can see how quickly things can change with the Pairwise System. So here is my "expert" opinion of how things shake out now. This will probably seem mathematically impossible by next monday but it is worth a shot. Here goes nothing. Here is how I see the Pairwise ending today...

1. Yale- Once again they don't play anyone tough so they won't lose enough to lose the number one spot overall.
2. North Dakota- I think they win the WCHA and get rewarded with the second best #1 seed.
3. Michigan- This team is hot right now behind legendary coach Red Berenson
4. Boston College- The superfrauds get their wish and #1 seed in the tournament despite losing the HE final to an undecided team(Choose from BU, Merrihack or Maine)
5. Denver- They take a #2 seed and prepare for a run in the tourny
6. Union- They are the second most overrated team in the country behind Yale but simply are playing ECAC teams down the stretch and therfore will continue to win
7. Merrimack- They will bounce back after getting trounced up in Maine and still get a 2 seed.
8. Notre Dame- They are getting hot at the right time of the year
9. Nebraska-Omaha- They are so damn streaky but I think they end the year hot enough to grab a tourny at-large bid
10. Miami- This team is too skilled to not get in and will be one of the toughest outs once they get there
11. Minnesota-Duluth- ChrisCo's brother puts the team on his back and gives them a good chance to make a run this year
12. BU- The Terriers make a deep run into the HE tournament racking up TUC wins against Maine and UNH along the way to solidify their playoff berth. Yeah I m a homer
13. UNH- The University of No Hardware knows they need wins this weekend to solidify their positioning along with a good conference tournament. They seem bound to face UMASS in the first round so that should not be an issue.
14. RPI- I hate this team that is all
15. Colorado College- They sneak in with a few clutch wins coming down the straight
16. Robert Morris- They get Yale in the first round after winning the great Atlantic Hockey conference tournament

Here is what the brackets would look like
Bridgeport
1 Yale vs. 4 Robert Morris
2 Notre Dame vs 3 Nebraska Omaha

Manchester
1 BC vs 4 RPI
2 Denver vs 3 BU

Saint Louis
1 Michigan vs 4 Colorado College
2 Merrimack vs 3 Minnesota-Duluth

Green Bay
1 North Dakota vs 4 UNH
2 Union vs 3 Miami (OH)

Bracket winners here
Manchester- Denver
Bridgeport- Notre Dame
Saint Louis-Michigan
Green Bay- Miami(OH)

Championship- Michigan over Denver (5-3)