NCAA Tournament Thoughts
By Fetch
First of all, congrats to the Vermont Catamounts. Vermont became the first team to advance to the 2009 Frozen Four with a double OT win over Air Force. Air Force got absolutely robbed of a goal late in the game, and Vermont came up with a great goal to win it in double OT and advance to the game.
And while we’re on the subject of that game, congrats to Air Force for their spectacular season. Andrew Volkening came out and shut out Michigan and held his own against a very talented Vermont team. I picked Air Force to make the Frozen Four, and they were a shot away from doing to. Air Force has a lot of players, most notably Jacques Lamoureux, coming back to campus next year and they should be in the NCAA tournament yet again.
For the second year in a row we will have a 4 seed in the Frozen Four as Miami has made it. Justin Mercier had both goals for the RedHawks and Cody Reichard had 25 saves. Duluth had a great run at the end of the season, but it finally ran out. After being on the doorstep for the past few years, Miami is going to a Frozen Four. This program has now officially stepped into elite status.
In Grand Rapids, we saw the biggest upset in the history of college hockey, as Bemidji State beat Notre Dame. I really thought Notre Dame would win the championship this year, and they just flat ignored Bemidji State. Quite frankly this Beaver team isn’t even really that good. They are easily the worst team to ever win an NCAA game, but the bottom line is they went out and got it done, and Notre Dame flat out gave the game away.
Talk about fantastic finishes: Between Duluth’s stirring comeback over Princeton, Cornell’s big win over Northeastern and UNH’s comeback over North Dakota. The UNH-UND game was the only one of these three that I actually got to see. Although Chay Genoway has had a really good year and I think he has an NHL future, he had a rough rough game, as did Joe Finley. Quite frankly I’ve never seen the big deal with Finley, but he does have a lot of potential due to his size. I have a sneaking suspicion that he will be a better pro than college player.
Tomorrow two more Frozen Four bids will go out, to either BU or UNH and either Cornell or Bemidji State