NCAA West Regional

What a weekend! Today was the conclusion of the NCAA Regional Tournament. The Frozen Four competitors are set: Boston College, Maine, Michigan State, and North Dakota. I had the great opportunity to watch the NCAA West Regional held in Denver, CO at the Pepsi Center. The four teams that competed were Air Force, Michigan, Minnesota, and North Dakota.

Competition began yesterday afternoon when the Air Force Academy Falcons took on the #1 overall seed Minnesota Golden Gophers. With Air Force as the only team from Colorado to make the NCAA tournament, crowd support was squarely placed on them. Air Force got off to a great start, having Jeff Hajner scoring the only goal in the first period 9:55 into the contest. Jay Barriball evened up the score 9 minutes into the second, however Air Force answered back with a power play goal at the 19:23 mark of the second. The Falcons seemed to be in good shape headed in the third, especially after Brett Nylander scored about 5 minutes into the third, however the Gophers, perhaps remembering their embarrassing loss to Holy Cross in last years’ regional, finally showed up the play, scoring three unanswered goals in the third period to win the game 4-3, advancing to the final. From a Colorado Avalanche fan perspective, all of the Avs’ prospects that were involved in this game (Mike Carman, Ryan Stoa and Derek Peltier from Minnesota) all got on the boar with either goals or assists.

In the second game on Saturday, the Michigan Wolverines faced the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota. To say that this game was exciting doesn't really come close to what it was. These two pretty stacked with talent teams combined for 13 goals (which I believe ties a record for most goals in an NCAA tournament game). Luckily for us all, North Dakota came out on top beating the Wolverines 8-5. I've read many opinions on this game (lack of appreciable goal tending and/or defense, the refs let everything get out of hand, etc.) however I think it was all a hockey game should be. There was intensity, grit, a bit of chippiness, and lots of goals. Personally, I loved seeing 13 goals scored...a comment on the two Avs prospects that were seen in this match-up. Senior forward TJ Hensick and Sophomore Goalie Billy Sauer both put in pretty good performances. Hensick scored twice and had one assist while Sauer made 19 saves on 27 shots, some of which were pretty amazing. My biggest observation from these two is that Hensick is a whiner...it seemed after every play he was in the ref's face complaining about some perceived slight. He was penalized for this with a 10 minute misconduct at the 7:34 mark of the third period. I've heard many rumours that he has no intention of signing with the Avs as he would much rather play for the Detroit Red Wings, to which my comment would be, great...they can have him! Sauer has some great potential, it's good to have him in the pipeline.

The final game, showcasing (in my opinion) the two best teams to watch in the nation, Minnesota vs. North Dakota, lived up to its billing. It was a very tight game throughout. I thought North Dakota earned their win splendidly. Minnesota, though Avalanche prospect Mike Carman got them on the board first, seemed to be playing catch-up the entire game. The crowd was simply amazing...it was pretty evenly split between those rooting for North Dakota and those rooting for Minnesota. Chris Porter had one of the best weekends of his career, scoring the game winner in OT on Sunday, as well as scoring twice and assisting once on Saturday. He earned his tournament MVP title to be sure.

Overall, I think the city of Denver did a great job of hosting this event. I feel confident that next year's Frozen Four will be one of the best the NCAA has ever seen. It really says something about the state of hockey in Colorado that even though DU and CC didn't make the tournament, we were able to break the three game attendance record set by Ralph Englestad Arena last year with the reported 33,000+ attendees.

As usual, I took many (over 100!) pictures...