Dustin

I think there was a very early version of the NCAA hockey tournament that was only 4 teams, yes. Not sure how they were decided.

Haven’t put hardly any thought into this, so just spitballing here. With neutral conference tournaments dying and moving to home sites, and NCAA regionals typically very poorly attended, what if we skipped all that and gave the 6 conference regular season champs a birth into the “frozen 6”? The teams would be seeded 1-6 based on some sort of pairwise and the 4/5 and 3/6 winners (played on Wednesday?) play the 1 and 2 seeds in Thursday semifinals, then the championship on Saturday.

At least they had a good crowd of Michigan State fans for the first day.

Man, what happened?? I went to dinner with Maine up 1-0 and they’re down 4-1.

I’m ok with a Maine resurgence. They were a dominant program for a while, but it’s been a long road back.

UConn will win its first ever NCAA tournament game. Congrats to them. Nice to see more (flagship) schools in the mix.

Especially 3-4 year D men.

That “Oh My God!” really amps up the hilarity to me.

I’m going to reserve my opinion on the nature of the search until its final results are known. I have no reason to suspect a smoke and mirrors show as distraction to hire Jackson.

Yes it is. With the loss tonight, their natty gap matches the 23 years between 1979 and 2002. As much as we envy Denver, we have a lot to be grateful for. Of all the blue bloods, no one has a shorter natty gap than us.

They would be fortunate to have him. Hopefully he heads due north instead.

I’m guessing the regional final will look a lot more like the Minnesota-UMass game than the WMich-Mankato game?? Could be in for another wild one.

Just goes to show UND isn’t the only one who can go one and done. First Michigan State and then Minnesota. Will they fire their coaches??

Wow! No penalty and then a game winner!

Just saw the game highlights - what a heartbreaker for Michigan State.

And now a WMich victory.

Just catching up after some travel & leisure today. Michigan State out??!!

Not only continued the success, but ramped it up. Plus 2 gold medals at the WJC with Team USA. unbelievable run he is having.

To me, this is the primary reason. Your employer bought a “home” regional multiple times and you weren’t a good enough team to make it.

Regarding Canadian recruiting: while I know (especially) western Canada has been a primary source of UND’s players throughout its rich hockey history, I would be in favor of a (not necessarily American) coach who has connections to burgeoning American talent. Take a look at this article from late December. Canadians in the NHL are on a pretty sharp decline, while Americans are trending upward. https://soundofhockey.com/2024/12/26/data-dump-nationality-trends-across-the-nhl/amp/

“There will be many outstanding and very qualified applicants that would die for this job. This position is looked at as the NHL of college hockey. My hope is that the current administration proceeds in this hiring process with open minds and with an absolute strong conviction to hire the best leader from all the great candidates that apply for this important position. The program is owed this.” That doesn’t sound like no one’s interested.

Who’s turning down anything? Sometimes you get a conference championship on the way to a natty, sometimes you don’t. Just get the natty.

It’s definitely fair. Natty’s are #1 in my book, and I can’t fathom an alternate opinion. I don’t care if UND has great team after great team, but none ever get the Natty, what fun is that?

How long have you been waiting to use that one?!

I’m hoping for Raboin. His connection to Carle and the WJC gold medals are what’s selling it for me. The regional connections are a bonus.