March 31, 2005

Big arena, great crowd, and fantastic hockey, with North Dakota facing Minnesota and Denver taking on Colorado College, in a classic men's college hockey doubleheader of legendary rivalries.

Wait a minute. That was two weeks ago, on Saturday, March 19, on the final day of the 2005 Red Baron WCHA Final Five at Saint Paul's Xcel Energy Center. They were highly entertaining games, with North Dakota ­ the fifth-place finisher in the WCHA season ­ taking down third-place Minnesota 4-2 in the league playoff third-place game, and Denver slipping past Colorado College, 1-0, in a battle for the playoff championship between regular-season co-champions.

They were such entertaining games that the hockey gods apparently determined that they should be replayed. So the two games will be redone, at Value City Arena at The Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, April 7 as the semifinals of the 2005 NCAA Frozen Four.

There were debates, even among the participating coaches, about how much importance there was on those WCHA playoff games. There will be no such debate at the NCAA Frozen Four. Denver (30-9-2) and Colorado College (31-8-3) meet in the 2:00 pm ET first game next Thursday, while Minnesota (28-14-1) and North Dakota (24-14-5) collide at 7:00 pm ET.

In fact, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association could truly make it a sweep by winning the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as well, because Colorado College linemates Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling were named to the final three, along with Cornell goaltender David McKee, as the Hobey Hat Trick. The winner will be named in Columbus during the NCAA Frozen Four Friday, between the Thursday semifinals and the Saturday championship game.

Perhaps the last time all four competing coaches could be aligned in total agreement was in discussing Sertich and Sterling. Scott Owens, their coach at Colorado College, said he couldn't pick one over the other. The other three coaches, who have to stop them, instead of benefiting by them, felt the same.

Both are extremely dynamic, and I think they're the best two players in college hockey, said Denver coach George Gwozdecky.

Sterling is a natural goal-scorer and the way they played against us, I'd have to choose him, said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol. But Marty Sertich has had such a great year, obviously he's very deserving too.

Minnesota coach Don Lucia said: If I had to choose, I'd choose to have Oeem on my team. Sterling is tough around the net and a great goal-scorer. Sertich is more of a playmaker, very quick, and they're like a hand in a glove ­ they work together so well. They're both deserving winners.

That's just a peripheral attraction to the tournament, however. The main event is the all-WCHA tournament.

It's true that getting five teams among the 16 NCAA tournament entries gave the WCHA a tremendous advantage over, say, the CCHA, which had only Michigan and Ohio State, or even Hockey East and the ECAC, which both had three teams selected. Michigan, for example, had to beat two WCHA teams to reach the Frozen Four. The Wolverines beat Wisconsin, 4-1, and led Colorado College 3-0 before the Tigers rallied for four unanswered goals and a 4-3 victory. Had the four regional winners been bunched into one regional, it would have been wildly competitive, but only one would have advanced. However, the NCAA tournament committee split the WCHA teams to send them to all four regionals. All four could have failed to make it, if they weren't deserving.

Look at how competitive this tournament was, said Minnesota coach Lucia. Even Mercyhurst and Bemidji State played very well, and both of our games went overtime. Colorado College had tough games with both Colgate and Michigan. So it was a very competitive tournament.

Hakstol, in his first year behind the Fighting Sioux bench since replacing Dean Blais, echoed Lucia's stand. The NCAA committee did a great job of creating great regionals. Minnesota had the home-ice advantage, maybe, but they had to beat Maine and Cornell to win. Otherwise, Denver had to beat New Hampshire, and CC had to beat Michigan, basically in their backyards, and we were fortunate to get past both Boston University and Boston College, right in Boston.

No question, the results prove the WCHA teams defeated the best teams from all the other conferences in the country. The bigger question is, will anybody outside the WCHA care about the Frozen Four? Is the fact that the Frozen Four is all from one conference good for general college hockey interest, or is it possibly a negative?

First of all, college hockey is cyclical, said Denver coach George Gwozdecky. But I don't think this is a bad thing for the Frozen Four. In fact, it might be good, because of the uniqueness.

Colorado College coach Scott Owens agreed. I don't think there is a downside to it, he said. Actually, it's a unique story. If it was something like a three-year trend, it could potentially be bad, but it's never happened before.

Hakstol said: There's no negative at all, in the large picture.

At Minnesota, Lucia explained how the results proved the merits of the WCHA. His Gophers tied for third in the WCHA chase, then lost 3-0 to Colorado College and 4-2 to North Dakota to place fourth in the WCHA tournament. However, they turned around to beat both Maine, 1-0, and Cornell, 3-2, in NCAA regional battles, both of which went overtime.

We certainly knew, at the Final Five, that getting four WCHA teams to the Frozen Four was always possible, said Lucia. Our league is so strong that we know if we can finish in the top half of the WCHA, we'll be OK nationally. Look at last year, when we made it to the NCAA but got knocked out by Minnesota Duluth, then Minnesota Duluth got knocked out by Denver, and Denver went on to win the national title.

One other thing is that all four of these programs have very strong commitments from their institutions.

That commitment is indicated by the glistening arenas that house all four entries.

Our program got into the new World Arena after playing in the biggest firetrap west of the Mississippi for 50 years, said Owens, whose CC Tigers remain the top seed among the Frozen Foursome.

Minnesota's Mariucci Arena, amazingly enough, is the oldest of the four, but remains one of the standards used by teams, including the Minnesota Wild, when they plan new buildings. Colorado College got its new World Arena downtown in Colorado Springs, after the legendary but long-outdated and tiny Broadmoor Arena was razed. North Dakota has the ultra-luxurious Ralph Engelstad Arena. And Denver has its new Magness Arena.

As of next week ­ the final week in this memorable and unique college hockey season ­ all four Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams will leave those state-of-the-art arenas behind and try to make Ohio State's new Value City Arena at The Jerome Schottenstein Center their home away from home. It will be the first NCAA hockey tournament to consist of all four teams from one conference. But what a conference.

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