At all levels hockey is a niche sport. Sure it has pockets where it’s incredibly popular – Minnesota, Michigan, the Northeast… Canada. When you get to the college level it becomes even more niche. It’s a weird sport where you have DIII teams in every other sport competing at the DI level. There’s only one Power Conference from the other sports that sponsors hockey. Weirdly enough, despite the Big Ten not having all their teams participating in hockey they still make up half of the remaining four in the field – marketing dubbed it the Frozen Four because why not. It’s not going to get much publicity getting the major tv coverage on ESPN2 – granted it’s going against the masters so it’s an honorable demotion.
There’s a few different story lines in this year’s Frozen Four. First is the location and who isn’t there. TD Garden is hosting this year’s Frozen Four – but noticeably absent is a team from the Northeast. Division 1 hockey doesn’t have that many teams. It’s half the size of the FBS level of football at only 59 teams. Over half of those teams are in the northeast (as long as you count western PA in that definition). The point is, when it comes to college hockey – the northeast is pulling its weight in terms of number of teams. Playing in Boston without a local team means that this venue is about as neutral as you could hope for. While it might make the atmosphere a little more stale, it means that no team will have an edge there.
The next story is the conferences these teams come from – all of the teams are former members of the WCHA. Unfortunately the WCHA no longer exists in Men’s Hockey. It was the victim of the conference realignment that happened when the Big Ten decided to sponsor hockey and shook up the sport. But the point is, these teams can call themselves old rivals in some form or another. Denver, Michigan, and Minnesota were all founding members of the now defunct conference. Minnesota State joined much later in the conference’s history, but still has some experience against Denver and the big brother Gophers (maybe more like cousins since they aren’t part of the same university system, but I digress). The point is, these teams are all from major hockey places – Minnesota, Michigan, and Denver all have multiple national championships (oddly the State of Hockey has the least championships in this frozen four).
Despite the fact that Michigan has the most National Championships all time, Denver is the hot team as of late – last winning in 2017 and just one title behind Michigan. Minnesota also has a few championship banners housed in Mariucci Arena, but they haven’t raised one since the 2003 season. For Michigan you’d have to go all the way back to 1998. And Minnesota State has yet to win one, but 4 of the last 8 championships went to debutants. Plus they are the top seed in the tournament, so they’ve positioned themselves well.
Michigan and Denver will play the first semi-final on Thursday Afternoon and then the battle for Minnesota (in Massachusetts) will be the night cap to determine who goes to the title game. The matchups look good. Here’s my picks.
Michigan vs Denver
I haven’t watched many Denver games this year, but I have watched a few Michigan ones. They start hot. But they’re inconsistent. That inconsistency is leading me to pick Denver.
Minnesota State vs Minnesota
Minnesota State had one of the strangest games of the year. Leaving after an overtime goal was awarded against them in the conference tournament. Only to find out 20 minutes later that the goal was disallowed. They’ve turned it on even more since then to make it to Boston. Minnesota I’ve watched the most out of any these four teams. They don’t always come out fast, but they do finish strong. So as long as they go out hard early they’ll take care of this game. Homer pick: The Gophers
Final: Denver vs Minnesota
No use previewing it. I’m taking the homer pick. Minnesota to break the 20 year drought and come home with a championship.