Hobey finalists: Atkinson, Frattin, Miele
March 30, 2011
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)—Cam Atkinson of Boston College, Matt Frattin fromNorth Dakota and Miami of Ohio’s Andy Miele are the finalists for this year’sHobey Baker award given to college hockey’s best player.
The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation made the announcement Wednesday,whittling the original list of 10 candidates. The winner will be announced inSt. Paul, Minn., at the NCAA Frozen Four on April 8.
Atkinson, a junior, had 31 goals and 21 assists for the Hockey East championEagles. He has signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Frattin, a senior, has led the Fighting Sioux to the Frozen Four. The WCHAPlayer of the Year leads the nation with 36 goals and has 24 assists.
Miele, a senior, had 24 goals and 47 assists for a nation-leading 71 points.
Notre Dame tops New Hampshire to reach Frozen Four
March 28, 2011
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)—Billy Maday scored with 5 seconds left in the secondperiod, Mike Johnson made 37 saves and Notre Dame advanced to the Frozen Fourwith a 2-1 victory over New Hampshire on Sunday night in the NCAA Northeastfinal.
Stephen Johns also scored and Riley Sheahan had two assists for Notre Dame(25-13-5). The Irish will face Minnesota-Duluth on April 7 in the semifinals inSt. Paul, Minn. Duluth beat Yale 5-3 on Saturday night in the East final inBridgeport, Conn.
Mike Sislo scored for New Hampshire (22-11-6) and Matt Di Girolamo made 36saves.
Notre Dame, a 4-3 overtime winner over Merrimack on Saturday, advanced tothe Frozen Four for the second time in school history. In 2008 in Denver, theIrish beat Michigan in overtime before falling to Boston College in the titlegame.
New Hampshire came out strong, outshooting Notre Dame 8-1, but the Irishbroke through first on Johns’ slap shot from the blue line with 12:34 left inthe first period. It was only the second shot on goal for the Irish, who spentmost of the early part of the period in their own end trying to stop theWildcats.
Johnson stopped everything that came his way and the Irish got a lift justbefore the second intermission on Maday’s goal. The Wildcats had just missed agreat opportunity when Johnson made a glove save on a wrist shot by John Henrionafter a drop pass from Damon Kipp with 21 seconds left.
Notre Dame won the faceoff and quickly got it to the other end, where thepuck slid to Maday, who had a goal and an assist against Merrimack, in the slotand he lifted a backhander over Di Girolamo.
Sislo cut it to 2-1 with 6:23 left in the game. Matt Campanale created theplay when he skated behind the Notre Dame net and slipped a pass to Sillo in theslot. The goal revived the crowd briefly, but a late penalty by New Hampshireforced the Wildcats to play short-handed as they tried to complete the comeback.
North Dakota routs Denver 6-1 to reach Frozen Four
March 28, 2011
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP)—Aaron Dell made 26 saves and top-ranked North Dakotarouted Denver 6-1 on Sunday in the NCAA Midwest final to advance to the FrozenFour.
North Dakota (32-8-3) will face Michigan on April 7 in the semifinals in St.Paul, Minn. Michigan advanced Saturday night with a 2-1 victory over ColoradoCollege in the West final in St. Louis.
Evan Trupp gave the Sioux, a 6-0 winner over RPI on Saturday, a 2-1 lead at7:06 of the second period, and Brett Hextall made it 3-1 on a power play with 53seconds left in the period.
Mario Lamoureux, Brock Nelson, Brad Malone and Jake Marto also scored forNorth Dakota, seeking its eighth national title and first since 2000.
Jason Zucker scored for Denver (25-12-5). On Saturday night, Zucker scoredin the second overtime in the Pioneers’ 3-2 victory over Western Michigan.
Michigan beats Colorado College 2-1 in NCAAs
March 27, 2011
ST. LOUIS (AP)—Scooter Vaughan’s end-to-end rush gave Michigan the lead onthe game’s first shot and the Wolverines’ defense bottled up Colorado Collegethroughout, earning a spot in the Frozen Four with a 2-1 victory in the NCAAWest Regional final Saturday night.
Lee Moffie had a goal and an assist in the first period for Michigan(28-10-4), which has won 11 of 12 and will face either Denver or North Dakota inthe national semifinals April 7 in St. Paul, Minn. It’s the 24th Frozen Fourappearance and first since 2008 for a school that leads the nation with ninenational titles and has made 21 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances undercoach Red Berenson.
Notre Dame rallies to beat Merrimack 4-3 in OT
March 27, 2011
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)—Anders Lee scored his second goal of the game 5:18into overtime and Notre Dame rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits to beatMerrimack 4-3 on Saturday night in the NCAA tournament’s Northeast Regional.
The Fighting Irish (24-13-5) advanced to play New Hampshire in the regionalfinal Sunday night for a spot in the Frozen Four.
Lee got his stick in front of a clearing pass and knocked the puck backwardpast Joe Cannata into the net to win it. The Merrimack goalie just slumped tothe ice as Lee skated off and was swarmed by his teammates across the ice fromthe Notre Dame bench.
The Irish, who trailed 2-0 and 3-1, held off a frenzied start by Merrimack(25-10-4) in overtime.
The Warriors had the Irish scrambling from the start of overtime, firing offsix shots in the first five minutes, prompting Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson tocall a timeout.
Just 18 seconds later, Lee poked the puck into the net.
Cannata made 33 saves for the Warriors, who were in the NCAA tournament forthe second time.
Mike Johnson stopped 32 shots for Notre Dame, including all six he faced inovertime.
Billy Maday had a goal and an assist for the Irish. Ryan Flanigan ledMerrimack with a goal and an assist.
Minn-Duluth upsets top seed Yale 5-3
March 27, 2011
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP)—Mike Connolly scored a short-handed goal and hadthree assists as Minnesota-Duluth beat top-seeded Yale 5-3 to earn a trip to theFrozen Four.
Kenny Reiter made 30 saves for UMD (24-10-6), which used four second-periodgoals, three on the power play, to take a four-goal lead into the third.
“Kenny was phenomenal, I mean he stood on his head all weekend and madehuge stops,” said Jack Connolly, who added a goal and two assists for UMD.
This will be the fourth trip to the Frozen Four for Minnesota-Duluth andfirst since 2004. This one will be in St. Paul, about 150 miles from Duluth.
“It’s not often you get an opportunity like that to have the whole statebehind you,” Mike Connolly said. “So we’re definitely excited.”
Ryan Rondeau, who went almost 240 minutes without giving up a goal beforeAir Force scored on him in the first round, made 16 saves for Yale (28-7-1) andwas pulled at the end of the second period in favor of sophomore Nick Maricic,who made just his third appearance this season.
It was the second consecutive loss in a regional final for Yale.
Minnesota-Duluth opened the scoring with 2 minutes left in the first periodwhen Justin Fontaine and Mike Connolly broke out of the Yale zone shorthandedand Connolly put the puck past Rondeau.
Wade Bergman’s slap shot from just inside the left point made it 2-0 lessthan 3 minutes into the second period, and Duluth made it 3-0 when Jack Connollyscored from the bottom of the right faceoff circle
Yale’s Brian O’Neill appeared to put the Eli’s back into the game, scoringon a one-timer with 8:30 left in the period.
But 8 seconds later, he was called for making contact with the head ofMinnesota-Duluth’s Jake Hendrickson, drawing a major penalty and a gamemisconduct that left Yale unhappy with the call.
“In hindsight, the game was over then,” Yale coach Keith Allain said.“You’ve got momentum and they take one of our top players out of the game andput us on the penalty kill for five minutes.”
UMD’s Mike Seidel scored a few seconds into the power play, and JustinFontaine scored on a 5-on-3 just over a minute later after another Yale penalty.
Broc Little and Denny Kearney scored for Yale in the third, but it was toolittle, too late.
UMD has won six of its seven meetings with Yale, the last in 2005.
Denver tops Western Michigan 3-2 in 2 OTs
March 27, 2011
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP)—Jason Zucker scored off a rebound of his own shot11:14 into the second overtime to lift Denver past Western Michigan 3-2 in theNCAA regional semifinals Saturday night.
Zucker, the Western Collegiate Hockey Assocation’s freshman of the year,capped an improbable comeback for the Pioneers, who trailed 2-0 with less thanfive minutes left in regulation.
His goal allowed Denver to snap a three-game losing streak in NCAA games.
In a rematch of the WCHA finals, the Pioneers (25-11-5) will play No. 1ranked North Dakota on Sunday for a trip to the Frozen Four. The Sioux won thelast meeting in double overtime.
“For those who were ready to write us off, you should know better,” Denvercoach George Gwozdecky said. “This team has shown—I hate to use the wordresiliency because it’s such an overused term in sport—but certainly this teamhas always shown throughout the year that our third period is by far our bestperiod of games.”
The rally left the Broncos (19-13-10) stunned and heading home after makingtheir first NCAA tournament appearance since 1996.
“I can’t even put into words how proud I am of them and the effort they putforth,” Western Michigan coach Jeff Blashill said. “They have a great fightand courage and they continued to fight and unfortunately we just ended up onthe wrong side.”
After a scoreless first period—in which the Broncos hit two crossbars anda post—Western Michigan’s Derek Roehl scored more than halfway through thesecond.
Roehl cleaned up a rebound on a shot that got Pioneers goalie Sam Brittainout of position and put it home with a backhanded shot at the 13:17 mark.
Trevor Elias scored at 3:32 of the third. But Denver’s Kyle Ostrow got thePioneers within one on with a power-play goal at 15:31 and Matt Donovan scored2:07 later to tie it.
Denver had a chance to win it in regulation as a shot trickled throughWestern Michigan goalie Jerry Kuhn’s pads but the puck missed the net by inchesas the horn sounded.
Denver tops Western Michigan 3-2 in overtime
March 27, 2011
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP)—Jason Zucker scored off a rebound of his own shot11:14 into the second overtime to lift Denver past Western Michigan 3-2 in theNCAA regional semifinals Saturday night.
The Pioneers (25-11-5) were hoping for a WCHA finals rematch with No. 1ranked North Dakota and they got it after rallying late to beat the Broncos(19-13-10).
Denver will take on the Sioux for a trip to the Frozen Four in the regionalfinal Sunday.
After a scoreless first period—in which the Broncos hit two crossbars anda post—Western Michigan’s Derek Roehl scored more than halfway through thesecond.
Trevor Elias scored at 3:32 of the third. But Denver’s Kyle Ostrow got thePioneers within one on with a power-play goal at 15:31 and Matt Donovan scored2:07 later to tie it.
Minn-Duluth upsets to-seed Yale 5-3
March 27, 2011
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP)—Mike Connolly scored a short-handed goal and hadthree assists as Minnesota-Duluth beat top-seeded Yale 5-3 to earn a trip to theFrozen Four.
Kenny Reiter made 30 saves for UMD (24-10-6), which used four second-periodgoals, three on the power play, to take a four-goal lead into the third.
This will be the fourth trip to the Frozen Four for UMD and first since2004.
Ryan Rondeau, who went almost 240 minutes without giving up a goal beforeAir Force scored on him in the first round, made 16 saves for Yale (28-7-1). Hewas pulled at the end of the second period in favor of sophomore Nick Maricic,who made just his third appearance this season.
It was the second consecutive loss in a regional final for Yale.
New Hampshire upsets Miami of Ohio 3-1
March 26, 2011
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)—Kevin Goumas scored twice and New Hampshire goalieMatt Di Girolamo stopped seven shots in the third period as the Wildcats upsettop-seeded Miami of Ohio 3-1 Saturday in the NCAA tournament’s northeastregional.
Mike Sislo also scored for the Wildcats (22-10-6), breaking a 1-all tieearly in the third period and Di Girolamo carried UNH the rest of the way.
New Hampshire will play either Notre Dame or Merrimack on Sunday in theregional final.
Di Girolamo didn’t allow a goal after Bryon Paulazzo put Miami (23-10-6) up1-0 just 53 seconds into the game. He finished with 21 saves and was mobbed byhis teammates at the net after the final horn as New Hampshire fans chanted“U-N-H!”
Goumas tied it at 1-all exactly one minute after Miami’s only score andlater and added an empty-net goal with 1:25 left in the third.
Cody Reichard made 24 saves for the RedHawks, whose quest for a thirdstraight appearance in the Frozen Four ended in the regional semifinals.
