Thursday, April 07, 2005

Frozen Four Preview

The Gopher Hockey team makes thier 3rd appearance in 4 years in the NCAA Frozen Four. The last 2 times the Gophers came away with the 2002 and 2003 National Championships. This year, however, the Gophers are a dark horse. The power play has just plain sucked all year long, and the Gopher defense, which has been great in the NCAA tournament, was not a strength of this team during the regular season and may be the downfall of this team. More likely however, is that the game will come down to goaltending. I don't think thats a good thing for the Gophers, as North Dakota's Jordan Parise is a very hot goaltender right now, and Minnesota's Kellen Briggs has been up and down. With the 2 best teams in the country, Colorado College and Denver, playing in one semifinal, the Minnesota - North Dakota semifinal seems to be a game for second place. Even so, I'll be glued to the TV tonight and sweating profusely trying to will the Gophers into Saturday night. (Although I apparently don't have cable starting Saturday, and will have to find somewhere else to watch the game.)

Preview and Prediction (Star Tribune)
WCHA Frozen Four (MN Daily)
Gophers two games away from crown (Star Tribune)
Frozen Four preview (Pioneer Press)
USCHO (College Hockey Online)

MarxistGopher's Call:

North Dakota - 3
Minnesota - 2

Colorado College - 4
Denver - 3

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

be sure to keep in mind while celebrating this kind advice emailed to University students by Jerry Rinehart, our friendly Vice Provost for Student Affairs:

"To avoid trouble, be sure not to join crowds following the games-
"observers" who do not respond to police instruction will be treated as rioters."

sounds like a great recipe for a lot of tear gas to me.

Jay said...

1 out of 2 ain't bad.