Another great weekend of hockey on the horizon. The Wild wind down their regular season by taking on Vancouver tonight and Colorado on Sunday. And the NCAA tournament (the much sweeter sixteen) kicks off today at 3pm central when the pucks drops at the East Regional in Albany.
Unlike Sisyphus, I've actually enjoyed some measure of success with my NCAA brackets. Last year, I won a nice Alexander Ovechin jersey for coming out on top in a local pool. This year, I'll be gunning for another fabulous prize and, more importantly, adding to my vast reservoir of hockey cred.
Once again, the St. Cloud Times Bracket Challenge is a great way to make your picks and follow your progress. And once again, a bunch of delusional Husky fans are picking SCSU to win the NCAA title (11% at last count).
The toughest first round pick for me was SCSU against Clarkson. Normally, I would ALWAYS take a WCHA team over an ECAC squad, but the Huskies have a history of choking like dogs (pun intended) in the NCAA tourney. In fact, they've NEVER won a single game in the tourney. Yet this year some fans think they'll win the whole thing? Not bloody likely. Against my better judgment, I did go with SCSU over Clarkson by a score of 4-3. However, I wouldn't be shocked to see them wearing the choke collar once again.
Since we started in the East, let's get on to the rest of that region's picks.
Michigan has no problem with Niagara 5-1.
Then they put down the Huskies 4-2 to reach the Frozen Four in Denver.
In the West, New Hampshire defeats the Golden Domers 3-2 while hometown CC staves off Michigan State 2-1.
CC then sends UNH packing and punches their ticket to Denver with a 3-2 win.
In the Midwest, the back-in Badgers--probably the least deserving team to ever reach the NCAA tourney and get home ice--will lose to Denver 3-1. And there will be much rejoicing throughout the college hockey world. Meanwhile, North Dakota will run down the pretty boys from Princeton 4-2 setting up an all-WCHA regional final the way God intended.
Denver looked great last weekend at the WCHA Final Five, but beating the talented Sioux twice in two weeks is a tough task. UND nips Denver 2-1 in OT to deny the Pioneers a chance to return home to the Frozen Four.
Finally, the Nordeast. High-flying Miami should have little trouble grounding Air Force 5-2. Then the heart vs head game. The Gophers have had a nice run and good goaltending can make all the difference in the world (ask last year's champion Michigan State Spartans), but I think the lack of firepower--especially on the power play--will catch up to Minnesota on Saturday. Let's say BC 3-2.
In the final, Miami will be too much for BC to handle and the Red Hawks will thrill the hockey fans of Ohio--all 63 of them--by reaching the Frozen Four.
Which sets up an all WCHA/CCHA field in Denver. Not exactly a shocking prediction. Both semi games should be close and an overtime or two is a distinct possibility. I like Michigan to beat CC 3-2 and North Dakota to clip Miami 4-3 giving us a Wolverine-Sioux national championship matchup.
This is the same final pairing that Sisyphus has, but unlike him I see North Dakota coming out on top 3-2. The Sioux have the most talented team in the country. If they can keep their heads and play smart, they should win it all. But they've shown a propensity for gooning it up this year. They got away with a lot of that in the WCHA. However, in the NCAA tourney the refs usually call a much tighter game and if the Sioux try to intimidate their way to a national title, they will fall short. If you spend too much in the box and give your opponent too many power plays, you will lose no matter how talented you are.
I'm betting that wiser, calmer heads will prevail during the tournament and North Dakota will come through. Based on the behavior of the Sioux during the regular season, betting on North Dakota's better angels may turn out to be a foolish wager.
No comments:
Post a Comment