If UNH had been able to finish off Boston University on Sunday night in the Northeast Regional, how wide open would this Frozen Four have been? BU, the No. 1 team in the nation much of the season, will be the favorite next week in Washington, D.C. . . . Hockey East rival Vermont, which beat the Terriers twice in November, will try to have something to say about that. BU and Vermont play at 8:30 on Thursday, April 9 in the second semifinal. The first has Miami playing Bemidji State at 5 p.m. . . . Wide open? BU has won four national titles, its most recent in 1995. The Terriers have not been to the Frozen Four since 1997. . . . . The other three teams have been to the Frozen Four a grand total of once. Vermont made it in 1996 when Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas was in net and NHLers Martin St. Louis and Eric Perrin were up front. The Catamounts lost 4-3 in double overtime to Colorado College that year. So BU is the only one of the Frozen Four programs that has even played in the national championship game.
The University of Vermont has qualified for the NCAA’s Frozen Four for the first time since 1996 and second in its history. Next up for the Catamonts: UNH or BU. The winner of today’s Northeast Regional finale at 5:30 at the Verizon Wireless Arena between UNH and BU will play Vermont in a national semifinal game on Thursday, April 9 in the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. . . . Vermont’s wild 3-2 win in the second overtime against Air Force Saturday night in Bridgeport guaranteed a Hockey East team will be playing in the national championship game in Washington. . . . Vermont’s game with Air Force had an odd ending. Play continued for nearly two minutes after a Vermont shot beat Air Force goalie Andrew Volkening and went through the net. No one was sure the puck had gone in. At the frst stoppage of play, the referees reviewed the videotape and ruled it had and awarded Vermont the goal and the game.
Sophomore forward Danny Dries has been dismissed from the UNH hockey team, the schools sports information department announced this morning. Dries was kicked off the team for “violation of team rules” on Thursday afternoon. . . . Dries had been playing on the second line and was sixth on the team in scoring with 10 goals and 11 assists. . . . Greg Manz, another sophomore forward, is taking his spot on the second line with Phil DeSimone and Bobby Butler for this afternoon’s 2 p.m. game against North Dakota in the Northeast Regional in Manchester. Manz has played in four games this season and does not have a point. He scored one goal in his 11 games last year. Manz last played in a game at Minnesota on Nov. 8.
If the Northeast Regional that starts at the Verizon Wireless Arena this afternoon at 2 with a game between No. 3 seed UNH and No. 2 North Dakota is anything like the two regionals that got under way yesterday, it should be a wild weekend. . . . Both No. 1 seeds that played yesterday lost. No. 4 Air Force knocked off No. 1 Michigan, 2-0, despite being outshot, 43-13, in the East Regional in Bridgeport, Conn. No. 4 Miami eliminated No. 1 Denver, 4-2, in the West Regional in Minneapolis. . . . No. 3 Vermont’s 4-1 win over No. 2 Yale in Bridgeport meant that in yesterday’s four games, the lower seed won three. And No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth needed a pair of extra attacker goals in the last 40 seconds to just to tie the game and then beat Princeton, 5-4 in overtime.
While practices and press conferences are the order of the day at the NCAA’s Northeast Regional hockey tournament at the Verizon Wireless Arena, two other regionals begin today. Vermont is the only one of the four Hockey East teams in the tournament that plays its first game today. The Catamounts, the No. 3 seed in the East Regional, play host Yale in Bridgeport, Conn., at 6:30 tonight. . . . Northeastern, No. 2 in the Midwest, plays Cornell tomorrow at 4 in Grand Rapids, Mich. . . . The other two Hockey East teams, UNH and BU, play at the Verizon Wireless Arena tomorrow. UNH plays North Dakota at 2 and BU meets Ohio State at 5:30. The winners in Manchester meet in the Regional final at 5:30 on Sunday. . . . The West Regional in Minneapolis starts today.
UNH sophomore forward James van Riemsdyk said today that he has not thought too much about whether he will return for a third season with the Wildcats next year, or leave for professional hockey. “Probably sooner rather than later, as soon as the season’s over,” van Riemsdyk said about the timing of his decision. “Just so that no matter what happens, the staff has a chance to respond and do what they have to do to move on and move forward. Obviously, I respect how they need to have time so they can let other guys know what they want them to do.” . . . Van Riemsdyk was picked No. 2 overall in the NHL draft in 2007 by the Philadelphia Flyers. His options include leaving after the UNH season ends for the pros, signing and going to Flyers’ camp this summer or coming back to school. . . . Last year, van Riemsdyk was third on the team in scoring with 11 goals and 23 assists for 34 points in 31 games. This year, he leads the Wildcats with 17 goals and 22 assists in 34 games.
The winners of the Northeast Regional in Manchester and the East Regional in Bridgeport, Conn., will meet in one of the semifinals at the NCAA Frozen Four. Boston University is the No. 1 seed overall in the tournament and Michigan, which is playing in Bridgeport, is the No. 4 and that puts them in the same bracket at the Frozen Four. Winners out of the West and Midwest Regionals are slated to meet in the other Frozen Four semifinal. Denver is the top seed in the West Regional and Notre Dame the top in the Midwest. . . . The Frozen Four begins at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., with the two semifinal games on Thursday, April 9. The national championship game is Saturday, April 11 at 7 p.m. . . . This Saturday, UNH plays North Dakota at 2 in the opening first-round game in Manchester and BU takes on Ohio State in a game scheduled for 5:30. . . . In Bridgeport, Michigan faces Air Force on Friday at 3 in a first-round game and a contest between Yale and Vermont follows.
UNH has drawn North Dakota as its first-round opponent in the NCAA’s Northeast Regional hockey tournament scheduled for the Verizon Wireless Arena next Saturday and Sunday. UNH is the No. 3 seed in the Regional and North Dakota the No. 2 and they will meet at 2 on Saturday afternoon. The Fighting Sioux are in the NCAA tournament for the seventh straight season, UNH for the eighth straight. North Dakota has advanced to the Frozen Four each of the last four years. . . . The Fighting Sioux won the WCHA regular season championship this year, but were knocked out in the league tournament semifinals by Minnesota-Duluth, 3-0. They then lost a third-place game to Wisconsin, 4-1. . . . North Dakota brings a 24-14-4 record into the NCAA tournament. . . . The UNH-North Dakota winner advances to Sunday’s Regional final against the winner of Saturday’s late game between No. 1 seed Boston University and No. 4 Ohio State. . . . See tomorrow’s Union Leader for more on UNH, North Dakota and the Northeast Regional.
The UNH hockey team this morning is tied for No. 10 in the PairWise rankings that mimic the system used by the NCAA to select the 16 teams for its Division 1 tournament. The numbers mean that UNH is a good bet to receive an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament when the field is announced Sunday morning at 11:30 on ESPN2. . . . UNH is expected to be a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the Northeast Regional, which will be played Saturday and Sunday at the Verizon Wireless Arena. The Wildcats lost in the first round the last two years the tournament was held in Manchester. Michigan beat them, 4-1, in 2004 and Miami knocked them out, 2-1, in 2007.
Inside College Hockey, like USCHO, predicts UNH will play Cornell in a first-round game at the Northeast Regional next Saturday at the Verizon Wireless Arena. Both of the college hockey websites have Boston University playing Bemidji State in the other game in Manchester. . . UNH and Cornell last played on Dec. 29, 2006 in a first-round game at the Florida Classic. Cornell won that one, 5-2. . . . The teams met in back-to-back seasons in the NCAA tournament in 2002 and 2003 with UNH winning both games. The Wildcats beat the Big Red, 3-2, in an NCAA semifinal in Buffalo in 2003. The year before, UNH won, 4-3, in the East Regional final in Worcester to earn a spot in the Frozen Four.
