BC Wins Yet Another National Title

Is Jerry York the best collegiate coach currently coaching a team? If he's not, he's right up there.

BC beat Ferris State 4-1 Saturday night to win their 5th NCAA title, their 4th under York, and their 3rd in 5 years. York now has 5 championships as a head coach. He won his first with Bowling Green in 1984.

The BC Eagles ended the season with 19 straight wins. They haven't lost since January 21st. That streak includes a Beanpot win, a Hockey East tournament win, and some impressive victories in the NCAA tournament. They beat last year's champs, Minnesota-Duluth, as well as WCHA regular season champs Minnesota.

Parker Milner was the biggest key to the Eagles' success. At the start of the season, he was one of 3 goalies vying to replace John Muse. He eventually settled into the role, then dominated. In the NCAA tournament he stopped 110 of 112 shots (.982 SV%). He's the Tim Thomas of college hockey. He was deservedly named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

The Eagles have 9 players with NHL affiliation, and they're losing 6 seniors. But their ability to continually reload has been why theirs is the best program in the sport. Milner is only a junior, this guy Johnny Gaudreau is only a freshman.

They're already poised to make a run at the 2012-13 NCAA title.

Frozen Four Preview

Two historic programs, two newcomers. Two northeastern teams, two from the Midwest, playing for hockey supremacy in Florida. It's the Frozen Four and it's on tonight.

The first semifinal starts at 4:30pm (ESPNU) and pits the Union College (NY) Dutchmen against the Ferris State Bulldogs. Many people don't even know where these schools are, let alone how good they are at hockey. FYI, Union is just outside of Albany, NY and Ferris State is in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Union has the goaltending. Ferris State's netminder isn't bad either. I didn't expect Union to get this far. They play in a league that isn't very deep. They were also inexperienced. I still have trouble picking them to win this game, but goalie Troy Grosenick is quite capable of stealing it.

Ferris State won two close games to get to Tampa, but they were against Denver and Cornell. Cornell gave the Bulldogs some trouble, and Union finished ahead of Cornell in the ECAC.

Union went through Michigan State and UMass-Lowell to get this far. They rolled through the ECAC tournament. They haven't allowed more than 3 goals since February.

Union wins a goalie duel 3-2.

At 8:00pm on ESPN2, BC takes on Minnesota in the other smeifinal.

Boston College vs. Minnesota represents an historic theme in college hockey. East vs. West. The Hub of Hockey vs. The State of Hockey. BC and Minnesota have 9 national titles between them (5 since 2001), 43 Frozen Four appearances, 27 conference tournament titles, and 26 regular season conference titles. These programs know how to win.

Minnesota will be BC's biggest challenge of the season. The Eagles have won 17 in a row. They're accustomed to elimination hockey. They won the Beanpot, won at Fenway Park, even beat North Dakota in North Dakota back in October. They're goaltending situation has been resolved thanks to the tremendous play of Parker Milner. They roll 4 lines and 3 of them can score at any moment.

Minnesota, however, is big. They're strong. They can skate and keep pace with BC while also punishing them. UMass gave BC trouble this season because of their ability to skate. And if UMass had better finishers, then the Minutemen could have beaten the Eagles with regularity. Minnesota have those better finishers.

Based on pure logic, I might pick Minnesota. But I'm sentimental. And I also don't bet against a team that's won 17 straight games.

BC wins 5-4 in double OT. Then goes on to win their 5th national title, 3rd in 5 years, and 4th under Jerry York.

The Championship Game will be Saturday night at 7:00pm on ESPN2.

NCAA Hockey Preview: Midwest Region

These games will be played in Green Bay.

Friday 5:30pm
#2 Ferris State Bulldogs vs. #3 Denver Pioneers

The Bulldogs won the CCHA regular season title then were quickly knocked out of the CCHA tournament. Denver made a dramatic run in the WCHA tournament, winning the first round in overtime, the quarterfinals in OT, and the semifinals in double OT before losing the finals to North Dakota. Both these teams can score, so this should be a shootout. Ferris State is good but they were 4-5-1 against the other CCHA teams that made the NCAA tournament. And they lost in the CCHA quarterfinals. I'll take the team that grinded their way through multiple elimination games. Denver wins 5-3.

Friday 9:00pm - ESPNU
#1 Michigan Wolverines vs. #4 Cornell Big Red

As someone who went to school in Ithaca, and as a passionate hater of the University and state of Michigan, I would love to see Big Red triumph over blue and maize. However, I don't see this as possible. Michigan scored 3.25 goals per game this season. Cornell didn't allow many goals, but the ECAC was an offense-poor league. Cornell can score a bit, but Michigan has goalie Shawn Hunwick (Matt's little brother. Very little brother. He's 5' 7"), a Hobey Baker (college hockey's Heisman) finalist. Michigan wins 5-2.

That would give us a Denver/Michigan regional final. And I think Denver would struggle to score on Hunwick, and wouldn't be able to keep up with Michigan's scoring. Michigan wins 4-2.

The Midwest finals will be Saturday at 9:00pm on ESPNU.