brianvf

UM won the 1st NCAA title in 1948, then followed that up by winning it in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956. Rensselaer interrupted their streak in 1954, otherwise they could have won 6 in a row. What's amazing to me is that they've only won it three more times since 1956 after taking 6 of the first 9 titles. I believe that Red Berenson started coaching them during that 1954 season.

Who knew that BMT would become such a recruiting tool?

Great, I do all that and then you say that. Agreed though. Just look at all the 3 and 4 seeds in the F4. Crazy.

I think a lot of teams will struggle in the early season next year. Breakdown of next year's teams (since I am bored). MTU - Graduate 10 seniors. Keep their top 4 scorers though. UAA - Lost top scorer Crowder to the pros. Otherwise keep the rest of their top 5 scorers. MSUM - Might struggle. Lose Berge, their top scorer, and Bruess, plus they graduate both of their goalies. Next season they won't have a goalie that's played any WCHA minutes. UMD - Lose 7 seniors, including their best forward (Sharp) and their best dman (Meyers). Will their postseason run give them confidence for next year? SCSU - Might be decent offensively if Roe & Lasch stick around. Still need work defensively, especially with the rumors that Weslosky is leaving. UMN - Stoa gone, possibly Schroeder. Rumors going around about Hoeffel and Flynn. Otherwise, they only lost 2 seniors, so if the majority of players come back, they should be strong. CC - Could see them really struggling. Bachman, Rau, Walsky, Connelly all gone, plus their backup goalie O'Connell graduates. The only goalie left on roster saw 29min of playing time this year. Rumors that Sweatt will sign as well, which would be their top 4 point getters from this year all gone. UW - Hard to say until all their early departures are certain. McBain gone and Connelly graduates. Geoffrion, Mitchell, Davies, and McDonagh all flight risks. DU - Bozak good as gone, plus flight risks in Rakhshani, Wiercioch, and Ruegsegger. I could see a couple of the top 5 teams from this year moving down, and vice versa.

Agreed. Agreed. And agreed.

I would think Fontaine has an outside chance. He was right up there with Sharp in points all season. Pretty talented sophomore. I think Schroeder has a very good chance at leaving as well, depending on who drafts him. He tore it up at the WJC, which I'm sure really impressed the scouts... Going back to UMD...why do I get the idea that the Connolly's are going to be the type of players that torment the rest of the league for another three seasons? Those two look to be great pickups for Sandelin.

I think Marto and LaPoint will really head up the d-corps next season. Both of them really took a step forward this year, and I expect them to do it again next season. Genoway will be Genoway. Leading the rush up the ice and providing great offensive chances from the blueline. Yes, the opponent will get chances off his pressing occasionally, but IMO his defensive blunders are more than made up for by his offensive prowess. Next year he will be better at identifying the right times to pinch... Blood showed great improvement when he was required to fill in for LaPoint. Finehage, MacWilliam, and Gleason will battle for the remaining 2 open spots. While our d-corps will be younger this upcoming year, they will be good at moving the puck...Marto, Genoway, and Gleason are all very skilled skaters. If they can make a breakout pass to our skilled forwards, we'll be just fine.

A DU poster on USCHO said that there is a good chance that Bozak, Ruegsegger & Rakhshani all go pro this offseason. If true, that would be a huge blow to their offense for next season. Bozak was pretty much a guarantee to be gone, but the other two were just possibilities.

Simply awesome. I am a Beaver fan the rest of the way. So glad to see them make it instead of Cornell...I just can't stand their style of play. Go Beavers!!

I think UNH was the stiffest competition that they'll face on the way to the title. Regardless of what Vermont did against them in the regular season, I was much more impressed with BU than VT in the two games in the tourney thus far. I think they'll roll over VT and then beat the Miami/Cornell or BSU winner.

"New Hampshire goes for the tie....YES!!!"

BU's close win over UNH makes yesterday's loss harder to take. I feel that we have a more balanced attack than UNH...if BU would have played like that against UND, I think we could have taken them. Oh well, we'll never know now. Hats off to UNH, they played a good two games.

A fast and skilled Sioux team would be a puck possession team. As long as those dmen can make outlet passes to the forwards, the opposing team won't be able to get 40 sog because it will be in their end the whole time.

I bet you could replay that last 5sec 1,000 times and not get that same result. Of course, with all the miracle finishes in NCAA play this year, maybe that result would happen 7/10 times. Who knows.

I like it. Speed kills. You saw that with BSU last night against ND and with the BC teams of the last couple years. Kristo was the fastest skater at the WJC (according to his coach). Mattson has amazing wheels and Oshie-like stick handling ability. I'm on board with going back to the Hoogsteen-era fast as heck teams. Roll four lines of fast forwards, and eventually the opposing team will wear down. They can't hit what they can't catch.

Haha. Yeah, I heard that he would stop all practice sessions just short of the 60min mark. So, we really shouldn't be surprised that they let a goal in with 0.1 sec left. I mean, that's how they were taught.

Hakstol is facing more parity in college hockey than Gino and Blais ever did. The thought of Air Force and BSU making (or almost making) the F4 would have been unheard of back in their days. In the Gino and Blais eras, you could have made a list at the beginning of the seasons of 10 teams, and more than likely all four of the F4 teams would have been on that list. You can't do that anymore. Am I disappointed that Hakstol hasn't won a NT in his four trips to the F4? Definitely. But I'm not going to compare him to Blais and Gino because the situations are different. And I like how you are already writing off next year's team, especially being that our current season ended less than 12 hours ago. Nicely done.

Having a goalie coach on DU's staff certainly didn't help Cheverie against Miami.

As long as INCH predicts that we finish in 7th again, we'll be just fine.

Thank you seniors... Even though they never brought back the big hardware, this was an amazing group of guys that made for a lot of great memories on the ice. This was a very special group. To those that stuck around: Ryan Martens Andrew Kozek Matt Watkins Zach Jones Brad Miller Ryan Duncan Aaron Walski Joe Finley And to those who didn't: Jonathan Toews TJ Oshie Brian Lee Taylor Chorney Todd Alexander What a class...

Well, they do have a SHUTOUT going against UNH already.

I think I am less upset about this loss than what I would have been had it not been such a crazy tourney so far. Three #1 seeds are out. BSU has a chance to make it to the F4. Vermont going to the F4 for the 1st time since 1996, Miami going for the 1st time ever. And BU looks to be dominant. The parity in college hockey has really shown in the last couple days...anyone can beat anyone. So while I am still upset that the Sioux couldn't join in on the fun for longer, it still has been a very exciting tourney.

Brad with a good writeup on the Sioux blog: http://www.areavoices.com/undhockey/?blog=47220

Miami 2 UMD 1 FINAL