College Hockey post season

The bigten is terrible they say. They’ll have 2 teams in frozen four and potentially 3 teams while destroying everyone they’ve played.

Took 10 years but it could be the start of a long run of dominance. Good chance big 10 gets its first champion this year.

the gophers are pretty young, i seen a stat they showed last night there tied with Michigan as the youngest team in the NCAA hockey system.

lets just hope they stick around a bit, but with 14 already drafted by the pros……….

Does anyone know why the Big 10 semifinal and championship weren’t played at a neutral location?

Fife wrote:

Does anyone know why the Big 10 semifinal and championship weren’t played at a neutral location?

They used to do a neutral site in Detroit for the Big 10 conference tournament but it was an embarrassing failure. Like 500 fans/game in an NHL sized arena. So they moved it to home sites instead.

CaptainMusky wrote:

The bigten is terrible they say. They’ll have 2 teams in frozen four and potentially 3 teams while destroying everyone they’ve played.

It was clearly the best conference this season. It had the best non conference record, placed 4 teams into the tournament, and will have at least 2 in the frozen four.

That being said, this happened in 2018. There were 3 highly ranked Big Ten teams in the frozen four along with little ol’ Duluth. The Bulldogs came out on top.

Would not surprise me one bit if MN played the Wolverines in the title game on April 8.

The gophers and Michigan are super young. It’s a tall order to play 18 year olds against 25 year olds this time of year. They are both super skilled though. I honestly can’t believe that Harvard has 15 drafted players. That’s impressive. I wonder if their entry requirements are different for athletes.

Did you guys see the alley-oop the Quinnipiac guy did to himself? If that was by design that is even crazier than the Michigan goal imo.

Goal of the year turned into the save of the year and then overturned back to the goal of the year. The call and camera work was pretty confusing in real time but I guess they got it right before the refs did.

I’m thinking it was intentional-ish. Like he was trying to chip the puck at/into the net but instead put it right into his own wheel house for a tap in. Unbelievable goal with that was an inch from an unbelievable save.

CaptainMusky wrote:

The gophers and Michigan are super young. It’s a tall order to play 18 year olds against 25 year olds this time of year. They are both super skilled though. I honestly can’t believe that Harvard has 15 drafted players. That’s impressive. I wonder if their entry requirements are different for athletes.

They are super young but not that much younger than the other teams

Final 4 average age by team:
MI 21 year
MN 21 year 1 month
BU 21 year 9 months
Quinnipiac 22 year 3 months (3 players that are 98/99 birth year)

Old v Young has been a crutch/Argument but not so much this year. Ages are way closer this year.

UM x 2, have some of the highest collective skill ever assembled on 2 College teams. Elite skill will beat average skill that is just a year or so older every time. Gonna be great. Hope the ship is a big 10 affair.

Yeah this year the frozen four is much closer in avg age but that hasn’t been the case most of the time. When UMass won I think they had a 28 year old LOL

9 months to one year is actually a very significant difference when you are talking about the average age of a team (20 – 24 players or so) with a low age of about 18 and a high age of say 23, 24, or a year or two above that.

NCAA has rules for hockey player “start” of age eligibility that are higher than most other college sports.

I was fortunate to be at a UofM information session and they showed us different development plans for each sport. It was amazing to see the physical development of players as they when from 18 to 21.

That said, as noted above skill can overcome brawn in hockey. The MN 1st line is two freshman and a sophomore. Top scorer at MI is a Freshman. Saw them all in person – they ARE the real deal.

Brittman wrote:

The MN 1st line is two freshman and a sophomore. Top scorer at MI is a Freshman.

This exactly. It’s more than just an average age number. The younger teams generally have the youngest players driving the bus and the inverse is true for the oldest teams. Weight those average ages by time on ice or point shares and you’d see more separation. Not saying for this seasons frozen 4 teams but just in general.

And it’s not an excuse just fun to pay attention to and banter about. Teams are built differently and have success both ways.

MN is a top shelf team … line #2 would have historically been line #1 on teams a decade or more ago …

Nevers, Nelson, and Brodzinski is one heck of an experienced line #2. Brodzinski earned section tournament MVP.

MN is definitely a very young team. The only “upper classman” on the 4 forward lines are the players on line #2. The other three lines #1, #3, and #4 are all Freshman and Sophomores.

The Gopher D lines are a little bit older on average, but not by much.

tswoboda wrote:

Teams are built differently and have success both ways.

The transfer portal has changed things too. If you wanted to transfer a decade ago, you’d have to sit out a season and waste a year of eligibility. Right now that rule has been lifted, so all kinds of players hit the transfer portal looking for a better situation. Then you still have players that are eligible for that 5th year too because the first pandemic season did not count towards a year of eligibility. This isn’t just a hockey thing either. Players are hitting the transfer portal in other sports too.

Players who are trying to stay for a 5th season now are running into problems with new recruits who were told they could start their scholarships. That’s exactly what happened to Cruikshank. The Gophers had room for him last season; they did not this season. So he transferred to St Cloud for his final season – and had quite a ridiculous season might I add.

If you watched the handshakes between the Gophers and Huskies … there were lots of hugs between some Gopher upperclassmen and Cruikshank.

Canisius had quite a few 5th year transfer portal players.

The Gopher Football coach had some interesting comments on the transfer portal … it seems Fleck embraces it vs. fearing or despising it.

Barkely on MBB:

Charles Barkley said it best last night on 60 Minutes: The Transfer Portal and the NIL will leave the wealthiest 25 colleges in power, so we should enjoy this year’s March Madness while we can …

The “said it best” is not my opinion, but the quote I snipped. Albeit – I tend to agree.

Eventually the transfer portal thing will settle down, at least to a degree, once all the players who have that 5th year of eligibility gone. Next season those players will be seniors, so its still going to be like this for another two years.

Isaac Howard, a 1st round draft pick who played for Minnesota Duluth last season, just entered the portal. Michigan State “picked” him up in 2 days.

I think I read last week after the conference tournaments that there were over 100 kids in the college hockey transfer portal. That is insane.

It definitely changes the recruiting game but I also think college kids should be allowed to get endorsement money and choose where they want to play to some extent. Old vs. young teams should curb some of that in hockey.

AAA style recruiting now… one standout kid on the other team and the coach is standing outside their locker room waiting to talk to him and his parents after the game.

I read last week that the UofM is just NOW finally getting into the NIL game. That is sure a disadvantage and likely why they lost out to that Dennis Evans stud basketball recruit. He is going to a worse program, but getting good money in NIL to play there.

The University of Wisconsin has hired Mike Hastings as their new head a coach. During his tenure at Mankato, he led the Mavericks to a 299-110-25 record, 8 regular season wcha/ccha titles, 5 playoff tournament titles, 8 NCAA tournament appearances, 2 frozen fours, a nations best .719 winning percentage the past 11 years, and 3 coach of the year awards, plus a Hobey baker award winner in Dryden McKay.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I read last week that the UofM is just NOW finally getting into the NIL game. That is sure a disadvantage and likely why they lost out to that Dennis Evans stud basketball recruit. He is going to a worse program, but getting good money in NIL to play there.

Shouldn’t be up to the school to provide NIL. Unfortunately it will play a bigger and bigger part moving forward in college sports.

Minnesota plays Boston University today at 4pm on ESPN2.

Quinnipiac plays Michigan tonight at 7:30pm on ESPN2.

Both games are being played in Tampa, FL at Amalie Arena. John Buccigross and Barry “the greaseman” Melrose will have the call.

Excited for the game tonight. I hope they show up and pound those terriers. Do they announce the Hobey winner after the championship game? Kinda cool the Gophers have 2 of the finalists, but that might hurt them both.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Do they announce the Hobey winner after the championship game?

That is announced on Friday during a banquet. The “off” day in between games.

I was a long time season ticket holder at The Hooch. Section 4 row 13. Dropped them when I couldn’t give away tickets to games I couldn’t make.
Been to a number of Frozen 4s & Tampa is a great place to have as the host city.
Hobey Baker award ceremony used to be a walk in event vs ticket.
When Junior Lessard won in Boston I just got in line, shook his hand, & talked. We knew each other.
I would like to see Motzko get a NC. Class guy and has been through a lot but at this time of the year a hot goalie can be the key.
Ski U Mah!

The_Bladepuller wrote:

Been to a number of Frozen 4s & Tampa is a great place to have as the host city.

I’ve only been to one frozen four. It was in 2011 here in St Paul. The four teams were Notre Dame, Duluth, Michigan, and North Dakota. The HEAVY favorite was North Dakota. They were so stacked that season too. They out shot Michigan in the second semifinal about 40-15 and lost 2-0 (one goal was an empty netter).

The championship game was won by the Bulldogs in overtime. It was their first NCAA Championship in school history at the D1 level. The player who scored skated down the ice and then did a snow angel.

The other thing I remember about it is that they didn’t sell beer there because it was an NCAA-sanctioned event. I don’t know if that has changed, but in between semi-final games, everyone got their hand stamped and walked to a neighboring bar for a beverage because you couldn’t get one in the freaking building.

The_Bladepuller wrote:

I would like to see Motzko get a NC. Class guy and has been through a lot

x2. As a SCSU fan during the WCHA days it’s been tough, but I’m slowly coming around to rooting for the rodents. Motzko is a class guy, earned every bit of his success, and like you said has been thru hell the last few years so I gotta root for him! Go Goofers!

Quinnipiac is going to be a tough out their goalie is legit. Most likely to win the Richter award. The Gophers and Michigan have the most talent top to bottom, but that doesnt mean much at this time of year.
I think I heard there are a total of 31 drafted players in the Frozen Four which is a record. MN and Mich lead all teams with like 29 combined between them which is just simply unreal.