All Episodes

March 14, 2025 • 21 mins
USCHO Edge hosts Jim Connelly (@jimmyconnelly), Dan Rubin (@DanRubin12) and Ed Trefzger (@EdTrefzger) look at money lines and over/under for three conference semifinal rounds and three quarterfinal games on March 14-15, 2025.



  • Bentley +145 @ Sacred Heart -188; over/under 4.5
  • Army +250 @ Holy Cross -345; o/u 5.5
  • Notre Dame +325 @ Michigan State -475; o/u 5.5
  • Penn State +105 @ Ohio State -135; o/u 6.5
  • Bowling Green +135 @ St. Thomas -175; o/u 5.5
  • Bemidji State +250 @ Minnesota State -345; o/u 5.5
  • UMass +150 @ Boston University -195; o/u 6.5
  • Cornell -125 @ Colgate -105; o/u 5.5
  • St. Cloud State +325 @ Western Michigan -475; o/u 5.5 (our "pizza money" game)


This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division I Frozen Four, April 10 and 12 in St. Louis. Get your tickets now at ncaa.com/frozenfour
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Usccho dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to us Cho Edge for Friday, March fourteenth, twenty
twenty five. This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Men's
d one Frozen four April tenth and twelfth in Saint Louis.
Get your tickets now at NCAA dot com slash Frozen four.
I'm Ed Trevsker alongside Jim Connolly and Dan Rubin. It

(00:32):
is a playoff edition of us Echo Edge. We're going
to look at semifinal games in three conferences and then
in our second segment pick out three games to look
at more in depth. And we're going to start in
alphabetical order, and that means Atlantic Hockey America. Bentley is
at Sacred Heart. The over under on this one is

(00:52):
four point five. Bentley is the underdog at plus one
forty five and Sacred Heart is a minus one eight eight.
On the other side, Army is at holy Cross five
and a half is.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
The over under.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Big underdog is Army at plus two point fifty and
holy Cross is minus three forty five.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
I've always thought that this year the top three in
Atlantic Hockey were the top three, but now we have
this emotional Army team that they're playing for their head coach,
just with that gap, and given the struggles that Holy
Cross had last weekend with the ai C A program,

(01:33):
not when it too dissimilar of a position emotional. I
like Army here, I really do. And then Sacred Heart Bentley,
that one's just a toss up for me. I guess
I'd probably go hole Ice there. The value is not
that bad.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Four and a half though four and a half I'm
not touching the over under that one.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
I know that Bentley shuts out a lot of opponents, but.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Come on, four and a half and thinks I'm picking
against Bentley, They're crazy. That's just not happening, not in
any not under any circumstances, is not knowing any inside
not that like, it's just that's.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Those are my guys.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
So the one thing I'll say is, and I said
this at the beginning of the year, is use the
odds to determine where you feel, where you can see
what people believe about this particular matchup. And so the
Bentley Sacred Heart series, with the over under being four
and a half, indicates a lot of respect to the goaltenders.
And I think this is probably one of the better

(02:35):
goaltending matchups of the weekend. Army holy Cross same idea,
where plus two fifty indicates respect towards what holy Cross
did over the entire course of the season. Plus two
fifty for Army indicates that Army, like you said, as
a hair behind and coming out of the five hole,
is a It doesn't take emotion into account. It doesn't
even take last month or whatever it is into account.

(02:55):
It just factors in the numbers. That's I think what
you can use to determine how you would if you
want to pick them. But I think in this conference
everything's a pick them at this point. This is a
league where the four has hosted the seven and the finals.
Do it what you will. This is a toss up
between all four teams. Well, we all know where I'd go.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
We do the over under a four and a half,
we Bentley and Sacred Heart. I don't know if it's
going to be tonight's game, but it wouldn't surprise me
to see one of those games going to overtime at
nothing apiece. You've had the top rookie goaltender and the
guy who's had ten shoutouts this season going against each other.
Back when we were looking at futures. Last weekend, I

(03:38):
said I would pick Army as the dark horse. They
are playing great hockey. They're eleven three and two since
getting over a nine game losing streak that carried into
the beginning of January. I think if there's a game
they're going to take, it might be Friday night, so
tonight's game. So I really like Army in that one

(03:59):
as a dark course, and I'm going to stick to
it the.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Values there on it right.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
If anything, if to throw it back in this in
this conference, I think that's the one you make at
All America.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, and I still think holy cross his head and
shoulders above in this league, despite the valiant effort that
AIIC put on last weekend. Let's go to the Big Ten.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
We've got a.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Couple of games there, one close one and one very
lopsided one. Let's start out with the number one seed,
Michigan State. Notre Dame comes into the weekend after an
upset of Minnesota last last weekend. It took three games
for them to do it. Notre Dame is a plus
three twenty five Michigan State's and minus four seventy five

(04:44):
over under on that one is five and a half.
The close one is Penn State at Ohio State over
under a six and a half. There plus one oh
five is Penn State and minus one thirty five is
Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
I'll just straight out picks. I like Michigan State and
Penn State here. Michigan State just the single game at home.
I know that Notre Dame can give them fits. They
played really well last weekend knocking out Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Just give me Minnesota Michigan.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
State at home, and then I'm having a hard time
going against Penn State right now. Everything that guy Gadowski
has his team doing is working, and nothing against Ohio State.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I just like Penn State right here.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
Look, if you're going to take Notre Dame in any situation,
it would have been last week.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
There's a super large pizza bet.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
That's the You're not going to hit that twice, or
at least if from a picking standpoint you can't pick
that twice. That's just lightning doesn't strike twice in those situations.
So I would stay away entirely from betting it, largely
because of the odds. But I will say that Michigan State,
if you could pair it with something else and get

(05:59):
better odds on the parlay that might help you out
a bit, But you're right, I think Penn State is
I wouldn't pick against Penn State.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
For anything right now, and at.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
Plus one oh five, there's enough value that I don't
think you're going to get that you shouldn't be getting,
at least on Penn State. At plus one oh five,
I would say Penn State, the way it's been playing,
should be a favorite, and most of its matchups that's
not going to be the case because they have to
go on the road. But also, Ohio State does not
carry the same type of home ice advantage I feel

(06:33):
then it would have been if you flipped it and
had to play it in Hockey Valley. So I like,
I'm with you, Penn State, Michigan State. Yeah, I got
to go with that too.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
I think about Ohio State and they were just three
inches off getting swept last weekend and had to battle
back in overtime and win it. These are single elimination
games too, so they could be crazy. It would not
surprise me to see the Penn State Ohio State game
go into extra innings, so to speak.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
But yeah, great matchup there.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Let's go to the CCHA the two games there are
Bowling Green and Saint Thomas and the other half of
that one is Bimigie State at Minnesota State.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
Bowling Green got the good win last weekend.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
The odds on that one over unders five and a
half plus one thirty five for Bowling Green minus one
seventy five for Saint Thomas. Before we move on to
the other half of that, this one is very interesting
for a strange reason.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Jim.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, it's something that I didn't realize and I it
was only brought to my attention by Brad Schlossman from
the Grand Forks Herald. It was he mentioned on the
College Hockey Today podcast that dropped on Wednesday night. Saint
Thomas is not eligible for the NCAA Tournament US in
the CCHA. If they advanced to the championship game, their

(07:56):
opponent will automatically earn the automatic qualifier. If Saint Thomas
is to beat Bowling Green this weekend in advance to
the CCHA championship game, then the auto bid will be
determined and it will be whoever comes out of the
Minnesota State game. It's something I hadn't thought about, hadn't

(08:19):
looked at, and it's this whole Saint Thomas story, and
the CCHA is almost its own little saga, and it
just it looks like it will. It has the potential
to end on a saga as well.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
So five and a half's the over under.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Plus one thirty five for Bowling Green, minus one seventy
five for Saint Thomas. The other part of the bracket
Bamidge at Minnesota State. Beamigie State is plus two fifty.
Minnesota State is minus three forty five. I'm going to
say I'm going to start out on this one because
last weekend I said Bowling Green was your dark horse,

(08:53):
and so I'm gonna stick with them to get that
road victory that rode upset and right now, how can
you go against Minnesota State.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
I think when you look at what makes a championship team,
one of the things I come back to is at
this time of year is what happens in the back.
I picked the winner of the Bowling Green Michigan Tech
Series to be the dark horse, and I think Bowling
Green with Christian Stover is a legitimate contender at this point,

(09:22):
largely because of the goaltending. And then when you look
at Minnesota State, Alex Tracy Gleeb's most defensive categories, most
goaltending categories. So I think that we're not going to
have to worry about anything with the ruling. But I
also think in terms of gambling, there's tremendous value on
Bowling Green because it's plus one thirty five. I could

(09:44):
easily see Bowling Green walking to Saint Thomas and win
this one running away almost when I say that a
two nothing or a three to one type of game,
which I know hits the under.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
So I don't I think there's some really.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Good value here, largely because of the goaltenders on those
two teams.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, I have a hard time picking against Minnesota State,
but if there's a team that could do it, but Midgie,
You've got a very experienced coach, You've got a team
that seemingly has playoff success almost every year in the CCHA.
So I almost want to pick THEMIJI, but I'm gonna

(10:23):
go with Minnesota State. And then on the other side,
I see Saint Thomas. I picked them as my kind
of dark horse last week. I said, you can't better
against Rico Blasi in the postseason, so I'll stick there.
And they did have a comfortable weekend last weekend, I
guess that whole scenario I put forward about crowning or

(10:45):
handing out an automount of qualifier this weekend, I think
it's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
With that, we'll take a break and we'll look at
three specific games coming up tonight and tomorrow in some
of the other leagues around college hockey. This episode is
sponsored by the ends Men's d one Frozen four April
tenth and twelfth in Saint Louis.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
The NCAA Men's Frozen four, the pinnacle of men's collegiate
ice hawk Any.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Question, Professor, NCAA Men's Hockey is back. Are we ready?

Speaker 5 (11:16):
Be prepared to hype your squad for all three periods?
Bring glory home to your kid.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Oh, you're ready. It's Frozen four.

Speaker 5 (11:25):
Tome the NCAA Men's Frozen four April tenth and twelfth,
twenty twenty five and Saint Louis. Buy your seas today
at NCAAA dot com S's Frozen four.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
We're back with us ccho edge in Hockey East. They
had a few playoff games on Wednesday to get down
to eight, which means a Saturday game for U Mass
at BU will start there the over under on that
one is six and a half. U Mass is the
underdog at plus one fifty b us A minus one

(11:58):
ninety five, and You Mass has been resurgent in the
last couple three weeks, haven't they.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, I'd say a month and a half.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
They've played their best hockey, going back to when they
beat Boston College on the road. At the same time,
I think he was probably finally finding their astride, and
they're playing their best hockey right now. If this game
was in U Mass, I might I might take the
minute Men. The fact that it's at BU, I'd probably

(12:27):
have to go with the Terriers. I do think that
this is one that probably hits the under, though six
and a half is a pretty high standard to try
to meet for a playoff game. I know that they
happen every now and again, but in general, I feel
like playoff hockey is more tight checking. So I'm looking
more for a three to two game here, so I'll
take the under.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
I like this matchup as being the Hockey East kind
of game of the weekend.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
I really like the odds on You Mass. I think
you Mass is.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
I think you guys both picked them as a dark
horse coming out of this league, and I think that's true.
I think you Mass has also solidified its place now
in the national tournament, which is a big deal for
what the team had to do to get into it
into the national tournament this time of year. More than
the numbers here, or at least the money line, I

(13:16):
like the over under.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
I like it as an under, I really do.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
I think both these teams have a chance to put
on a show defensively. I think that the problems that
plague BU are gone in the back with penalties, and
I think UMass has one of the more underrated back
lines just in general. And you have top white, top
end talent with guys like Cole Hara in this game.
So I really like this as a game of the weekend.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
I think I do Mass to get the guard.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
I do feel pretty good that our dark horses from
last weekend are all still playing this weekend. That something
in there that doesn't mean you won that futures, but
that makes us feel a little bit a little bit.
What's the word validated? Validated? That's the word. That's the
word I was looking for. Do you validate parking two?

(14:08):
That depends where at the garden Now they don't validate
parking there. They charge you an arm and a leg
in the other arm.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Two.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Let's go to the next one. Cornell and Colgate in ECAC. Now,
it's been a rough year for Cornell with injuries and
a good campaign for Colgate. Those regional rivals take the
ice at Class of sixty five Arena on Saturday evening.
Five and a half is the over under Cornell is

(14:36):
minus one twenty five and Colgate is minus one oh five,
so almost to toss up in this one.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah, part of me really is desperate to say, oh,
this is just Cornell getting rated on their reputation going
on the road and being the favorite. Colgate has had
a nice season, and not that Cornell is struggling team.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
I think they're actually playing some of their better hockey.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
This has been a tough year for them, the final
year for Mike Schaeffer. I know he's had some health
problems throughout this season. So I think that it's been
a tough situation for Cornell. But I still don't think
I would have made them the favorite on the road here,
So give me Colegate as the home home slight underdog here.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
Yeah, I think that this is weird to me, because
there isn't a whole lot in Cornell's basket on the
whole season to warrant being the favorite in this game,
at least based on the full body of work. And
I understand that there are pieces of this with Cornell
where there's a whole bunch of yahbuts where yeah, but

(15:46):
they were hurt and so now they're back to full
power and they're starting to play more and more like
the team that they.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Should have been all year.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Colegate is usually a hair behind Cornell, like the there's
there's all these different there's all these different reasons in
there that I don't think are taken into account when
we see odds in college hockey. When we talk about algorithms,
you're not supposed to throw the emotional thinking into it.
So I don't really understand where the minus one twenty
five is coming from. But I do think that Cornell

(16:18):
at this point is the real test, is facing its
realist tests so far, and I think that Bulgate has
all of the different things that make an ECAC Championship
run possible, and it starts, like I said in back,
when I talk about goaltending, Cornell has been human in
the back this year where they where Ian Shane had been.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
A machine for the last couple of years.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
All of that said, still like Cornell to win the series,
but I don't know if they're going to win the
Friday game. I do again, I like the under on
five and a half. I like that there are underdog
odds plus one hundred on the under, but I don't
know if I like Cornell on Friday.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
I do think I like Cornell in.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
The whole series though, and our pizza money game. And again,
no disrespect intended, but it's what the oddsmakers are saying.
Is Saint Cloud State at Western Michigan in the NCCHC
over under on this one is five and a half.
The money line Saint Cloud State is plus three twenty

(17:21):
five in Western Michigan minus four seventy five.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
If people have been listening for the last few weeks,
I've been, at least philosophically. I've been eating a lot
of pizza because I haven't been making this bet. I've
been saying I'll over to the pizza and saved the money.
It's hit a few times too. I always am in
an arena on Friday night when I'm getting a text
from Rubin that the pizza money bet is about to hit,
but this one, I actually this is no disrespect to Western.

(17:50):
They only have four losses against NCAC teams this season.
Three of those came in overtime. All that said, I
don't think when this season started, if you told me
that Western Michigan was going to be the number one seed,
I don't think I would have picked Saint Cloud to
be the number eight seed that they'd have to play.

(18:10):
This is way too good of an eighth place team
for Saint Cloud. They're getting healthy goaltending, especially I at
least for one night.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Give me in this first game.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
I'm going to take Saint Cloud at plus three twenty
five and hopefully have some extra pizza for later in
the weekend.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
Do you know how much pizza I could have been
eating this year with hitting on these like when I
do text you, I feel like I feel like there's
someone out there who has eaten so much pizza this
year because of me.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
And I'll tell you what.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
It's a Friday and during let so you can even
take the topics off of it.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Make sure it's a non meat pizza.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
You can still get your pizza in without having to
worry about it. But the point of the pizza bet,
I'll say this is you look for the is for
me when you look at the long odds on a
game is try to find the long odds that would win.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Now.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
I know, I texted you guys during the week and
I said, what about a pizza bet on Brown at
plus four fifty against Quinnipiac. We know Quinnipiac doesn't do
well in the postseason. Historically Brown has had a success
blah blah, all those things that went into it from
twenty nineteen. But I don't know if they're going to win.
There's so many better pizza bets. Same idea with Northeastern
against Boston College. When you look at it and be like,

(19:28):
all right, is this a pizza game?

Speaker 3 (19:30):
All right?

Speaker 4 (19:30):
I don't know Northeastern in a single elimination game. I
like Saint Cloud in a pizza plus three twenty five.
I think Saint Cloud is a good hockey team, and
against Western Michigan, I really like the ability to turn
in and turn that plus three twenty five into more
than one pizza night. So it is that is the

(19:52):
one where when you look, you don't just take the
game with the long odds that's got the longest odds
and say, hey, it's one game, let's hope for the best.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
You look for the one that you think is actually
going to hit.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
And if you give up from plus four to fifty
to plus three twenty five for a team like Saint Cloud,
you're gonna be a joint a lot of pizza during
the week, get one with meat topping, so this way
you can have it after Friday.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
One last question before we wrap up.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
And I don't even know if they would do this,
and I don't know if anybody would actually do this,
but say you could put together a parlay of Saint Cloud,
mich Western Michigan, Brown, Quinnipiac and Northeastern BC.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
You have pizza for a year, right, be bathing and
tomato sauce.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
At that point.

Speaker 4 (20:34):
The amount of pizza that you'd be having, that'd be
oh my heartburn would be on spire with the amount
of pizza I'd be eating.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
All three underdogs, right, yep?

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yes, one hundred dollars bet on those three games that
they all hit eleven five eighty seven.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Wow, that would be pizza for ten years.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
Not if the rate things are going, that'd be like
too by in five years. That'd be like two pizzas.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, yeah, well it's appecially if the eggs, eggs and
the pizza.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
All right, take that eleven grand buy gold with it,
and then you can afford pizza. Anyway, This does not
represent financial advice. Talk to your broker or your next
door neighbor or your brother in law before investing.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Did you do the outro yet or no?

Speaker 2 (21:23):
No, we're going to do the outro now. I just
had to get the disclaimer in there, but remember fdi C.
This episode has been sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division.
One Frozen four April tenth and twelfth in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Get your tickets now at NCAA dot com. Slash Frozen
four for Jim Connolly, for Dan Rubin, I'm ed Trefsker

(21:44):
and this has been usc cho Edge
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

The Joe Rogan Experience

The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.