In the wake of a basketball Final Four that saw four number one seeds all advance for the first time in 17 years, with the growing and grudging acceptance that the evolving nature of college basketball and NIL is tilting the field more than ever toward superconferences, it’s somewhat of a throwback to see how the hockey version, the Frozen Four, is playing out.
It’s important to remember that college hockey is a lot more concentrated and regional than either football or basketball; indeed, as the College Hockey, Inc. website documents, the only Power Four conference that even competes at the Division I level is the Big Ten, and with that only seven of the 16 current members field teams. And even when you factor in independents, including the ridiculous outliers like two campuses of the University of Alaska (quelle surprise) and the fledgling team from Tennessee State, only 64 schools are even in the hockey business at all. And plenty of them are schools that compete in other sports at much more modest levels. So the portal, such as it is, is modest and success, such as it is, is all the more coveted and appreciated.
Which is why this year’s Frozen Four, whose semifinals were conducted last night, is particularly exciting. Not only did only one top seed from the regionals advance, but the one that did was one of those schools playing above their weight, and one without any significant history of prior success. And boy did they put on a show, as THE DETROIT FREE PRESS reported last night:
How could it end any differently in this season of firsts for Western Michigan hockey?
After winning the school’s first conference championship last month (in double overtime over Denver), then advancing to its first Frozen Four, the Broncos now are headed to their first national title game after squeaking by Denver, 3-2, in double overtime Thursday night at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. Owen Michaels scored his second goal of the game 26 seconds into the second overtime, launching a wrist shot past DU goalie Matt Davis’ stick side — WMU’s 47th shot of the game. WMU was the more energetic squad for the first two periods, peppering DU goalie Matt Davis and the defending national champs with nearly 40 shots. Freshman goalie Hampton Slukynsky made several key stops, though the Pioneers, the nation’s top scoring team this season, were held below 20 shots in regulation for the first time this season.
The nightcap was equally gripping and pitted a strong legacy school against another upstart. But again, it’s hockey, so the assignation of those adjectives don’t fall out as one might first assume. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reported those results with appropriate perfunctory:
Jack Hughes and Cole Eiserman scored second-period goals and Boston University beat Penn State 3-1 on Thursday night to advance to its first Frozen Four final in 10 years.
Freshman Mikhail Yegorov stopped 32 shots and Jack Harvey scored an empty-netter with a minute left for BU (24-12-2), which lost in the semifinals in each of the past two years. The Terriers are five-time champions, who lost to Providence in the 2015 and are seeking their first title since beating Miami (Ohio) in 2009.
“We all came here for a reason to win a national championship, so just thinking about having the opportunity to do that in a couple of days is exciting,” Hughes said. “So it’s a little bit of a relief for now, and then we’re going to get back to work and hopefully win it all.”
Nicholas DeGraves scored 2:15 into the third for Penn State (22-14-4). The Nittany Lions — another Frozen Four first-timer — were making just their fourth NCAA tournament appearance since being established in 2011-12. Arsenii Sergeev made 31 saves in a showdown of two Russian-born goalies.
And the fact that a school that had just advanced to the College Football playoffs, with a much shorter history with hockey than their conference foes in hockey hotbeds like Michigan and Minnesota have had, was even there at all was clear proof that this foursome was a lot more unlikely than the one we just saw. The AP added even more context to how much of an overachiever Penn State was:
The Nittany Lions still accomplished plenty in a season in which they opened 0-8-1 in Big Ten play before finishing 9-11-4 and closing with a 4-3 OT loss to Ohio State in the conference tournament. “It’s always tough when the season ends. But I honestly just can’t help but feel so grateful and positive about this year and this team,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. “We were left for dead not long ago and for these guys to come back and play in St. Louis is remarkable, and better than that is how they did it.”
So we’re not quite getting a championship game that was as unexpected as the one we just got between Houston and Florida. But with BU–a school that could have had moi as a student had they only been willing to adjust their significant tuition enough for my family to deal with–looking to return to a level they enjoyed before schools from Pennsylvania, Alaska and (soon) Tennessee muddied up their waters–there’s nonetheless a compelling story to be found there.
They’ll be facing off Saturday night against those bucking Broncos, winner take all, and honestly, if you’re more inclined to be watching jockeying for playoff position or early season baseball and soccer, more power to you. Anything’s still possible in college hockey. And we just saw a couple of fantastic examples of it.
Courage…