Hosts Jim Connelly (@jimmyconnelly), Derek Schooley (@derekschooley), and Ed Trefzger (@EdTrefzger) review the weekend's NCAA men's D-I regionals and news of the week.
They recap the regionals, looking especially at the winners: Boston University, Denver, Western Michigan, and Penn State. They also consider controversial penalties and look at ice issues and attendance statistics. They discuss coaching changes at North Dakota with Dane Jackson's promotion and Brett Riley filling the vacant position at Ferris State. The impact of the transfer portal and its implications for teams and players is explored. The episode concludes with a look ahead to the Frozen Four matchups and a new approach to USCHO's coverage in St. Louis.
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
Times are approximate:
00:00 Introduction and Sponsorship
01:07 Frozen Four field set
01:30 Regionals drama and controversies
03:46 Attendance and atmosphere
05:53 Boston University and Toledo regional highlights
10:44 Western Michigan's historic win in Fargo
22:37 Penn State's journey to Frozen Four via Allentown
26:25 Cornell band's trolling and UConn’s Brass Bonanza
28:30 Denver's dominance and BC's struggles in Manchester
33:52 North Dakota's new head coach: Dane Jackson
34:39 Brett Riley takes over at Ferris State
38:56 The transfer portal and roster challenges
47:05 Previewing the Frozen Four in St. Louis
49:39 Conclusion and upcoming coverage
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 (00:14):
Welcome to us e Cho Weekend review for Monday, March
thirty first, twenty twenty five. I met Trefskir alongside Jim
Connolly and Derek Scooley. This episode is sponsored by the
NCAA Men's d One Frozen four April tenth and twelfth
in Saint Louis. Find your tickets now at NCAA dot
com slash Frozen four, and I hear the supply is
(00:36):
getting pretty tight, so you better head on over there.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hey, everybody wants to see the Broncos. Everybody wants to
see the Broncos.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
That's yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
People checking on flights from Kalamazoo to Saint Louis.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
They want and you know what they also want to see.
They want to see me in a vintage nineteen ninety
four jersey. Wow, that's not true. Not sure it's still fed. Yeah,
that's where we're gonna find out.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We got to get some meet by ten glossies too,
so you can do you the autograph signing.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Good thing. Maybe it's super tid. You war a goalie.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Our Frozen four field is set and it was a
pretty eventful weekend of hockey. Quite a few upsets, lots
of overtimes, but two blue bloods and two first timers
Boston University and Denver the perennial attendees of the Frozen four,
and two teams making their first visit, Western Michigan and
(01:28):
Penn State. Well, let's talk about some of these regions here,
or maybe before we do that, some overall thoughts of
the weekend before we go region by region.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I talked to Jimmy last night as drive back from Manchester.
I thought there was a lot of drama. I thought
a lot of very close, good hockey games. Disappointed in
the ice conditions, at least in Game one. I've never
seen the net come off so many times, even after
they supposedly fixed it for the.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Regional final in Manchester.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Controversy as far as penalties, is it a trip in
over time as a trip and regulation?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Is it a transition play where it.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Should have been called that all of Minnesota fans are
probably wondering five minute major? Questionable? Not questionable. I think
we got a lot of stuff to talk about. That's
my thought. I think the hockey was excellent. Oh, I
think that we go back and just take a look back.
There were some games that kind of became blowaways. B
(02:31):
U's first.
Speaker 6 (02:33):
Round win, it was an unreal game that turned into
a blowaway mains loss to Penn State. That one, I
think really surprised a lot of people. Good showing by Bentley.
I know that's not really a thing anymore than it's
just a good showing by Atlanta Hockey, but they really
did push BC. Yeah, I thought there were a lot
(02:53):
of surprises, agreed Derek. Surprising that here we are that
the best cruise and we still have some controversial penalties,
non penalties, non calls, all of that sort of stuff.
I was trying to just reason this out myself. There
is a good one of the good reasons. I think
(03:15):
these types of individual plays that we can pick apart
and complain about happen every weekend, but we don't see them.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
You know.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
We maybe we see maybe if it's Minnesota or North
Dakota or a high end program, we see a replay
thrown to Twitter and then we judge it.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
But we're all watching the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
I think that so when you have calls that we
maybe think might be mistakes or something like that, or
the ice is an ideal.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
We as fans, we get on our heels.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Listen, how long have we been on our heels about
attendance of this tournament?
Speaker 5 (03:50):
This weekend I ran all of the numbers and these.
Speaker 6 (03:54):
Were just of the building capacities that are listed online.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
I think some are higher than they actually were.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
The overall capacity for all four regionals eighty two point
nine percent. That's excellent attendance. And you're talking about fourteen thousand,
almost fifteen thousand, fourteen thousand and Toledo almost ten thousand
in Fargo, fourteen thousand, one hundred, fourteen thousand, two hundred
(04:23):
or so in Manchester, about the same in Alenton. Those
are great crowds. You can't complain about that. The atmospheres
were really strong.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
But there were still people that did complain about it though,
Oh yeah, well, even within broadcasts there were why would
have this be if it was at Last Arena?
Speaker 4 (04:40):
How would this be if it was here? I think
people got to get over it.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
They're not changing it for the beast in the next
three two three years, because I think they've got regionals out.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
It's not twenty age. It's not being changed.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So it's celcum grated. Yes, celebrate the fact that we're
getting people in the building. It's good hockey and my
issues I think were my issues. But celebrate the fact
that we're traveling and that we're putting people there. I
think a lot of people are complaining, how would that
game bit an alfond?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
You know what? Then bid to host somewhere in Maine.
That's what it comes down to.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
They bid the host and there's no There was no
and I think this was bid out a long time
ago on the regionals.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
But there's no real guarantee that you're going to make it.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
How many times is Penn They've hosted Allentown and Penn
State not made it, So kudos them for continuing to
bid on it without the Maybe were they two for four?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Maybe? Yeah, I don't know. Just settle down. It's not
being changed for a while. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Three of the four regions the hosts weren't in it,
New Hampshire, Bowling Green, and North Dakota.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
So don't go back to Fargo because North Dakota wasn't there.
It still was great.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Yep. Yeah, let's get into the regions.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Boston University needed over time to get past Corn three
to two, and it was the end of a career
for Mike Schaeffer. A really nice story put together on
that at usccho dot com by our own Todd Moleski,
but as Quinn Hudson with a game winning goal after
Cornell had tied things late in regulation. So three straight
(06:18):
Frozen Fours and twenty fifth all time for Boston University,
but they haven't reached the final since twenty fifteen.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
And for j.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Pandolfo, every year as a player and every year as
a head coach, they have made the Frozen Four. But
be you the only one out of six teams from
Hockey East to make it in we talked about, Oh,
six teams from Hockey East and four teams from the
Big Ten? Is this dominant year? Is the NCCHC on
(06:46):
a down cycle? NCCHC got both their teams in, one
out of six from Hockey East, one out of four
from the Big Ten. But the one that made it
is bu What about that regional and the results on that.
First of all, it started out with a huge upset
of Michigan State by Cornell that broke my bracket in
the first game of the weekend. That may also have
(07:08):
been the upset of the tournament. But let's talk about
that regional.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Jesus, that question was going to be half the show,
right there, question everything files, everything in there.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Do we talk about the regional I'll start with just.
Speaker 6 (07:21):
Talking about the NC and I know we're not even
in one of the regions that they won, but kudos
to them. Hockey East be in a position going into
Saturday they could have had all four teams in the
pros and four they come out with one. It just
shows how difficult these regions are to win. But I
thought that this was one of the regions that you
got your money's worth. That bu opening game. That was
(07:44):
a crazy back and forth. I know what ends up
eight three, but that game felt like it could have
gone either way until.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
The third period.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
And then that comeback by Cornal to score two goals
late in the third periods one coming with less than
ten seconds left. What drama that wasn't It's just the
Cornell's story down the stretch. This season was so much
fun to watch. You don't get that enough anymore on
(08:14):
hockey where a coach a coaches don't usually announce their time.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
This year was odd. We had a bunch of guys
doing it to watch.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
His team then play for him and see how good
of a team that was. When they were fully healthy
down the stretch, they could easily have been the Frozen Four.
And of course Mike Schaeffer, the self deprecating humor. He
talks about how good he was as a first round
coach in the NCAA tournament, not a great coach in
(08:44):
the regional finals, just one appearance, but he's obviously done
a great job with that program. He'll be missed. And
for the Terriers, congratulations J Pandolpho. Seven times he's had
a chance to go to a Frozen Four as a
player or a coach. He set for seven.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I'm going to take it from the Cornell perspective. I
was so excited for Mike. Obviously, I played for Mike
at Western. I coached at Cornell for a year with Mike.
I was on the committee with Mike. World class person.
He's got a humor that can rub you wrong sometimes,
but it's also a humor that it comes from the
right place. So I was really hoping for them to
(09:27):
get through, and I was. I was rooting there. But
I will tell you this, the that region was really competitive.
We think that the Ohio State game, the attendance was great.
After Ohio State and Michigan State were out.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
But I will tell you this, the game was three three.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Everybody forgets it was street three and Ohio State scored
at the buzzer at the end of the second to
have a four to three lead, and it got called
back gratefully so because the clocket expired.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
But people forget that.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Another thing that how about the momentum swings and all
these games, teams would score and then they couldn't hold
the lead. One of the things we always talk about
as a coach the next two minutes after a goal,
and teams couldn't make it thirty seconds without a goal,
and that was the Ohio State team. And then the
big comeback. What a power play goal. They were talking
about how bad Cornell's power play was, and then they
(10:26):
go on what a beautiful goal it was, and that
was almost like an overtime goal. And then obviously the
celebration for bu and the sorrow for Cornell was I
guess we've now called it sudden victory according to ESPN
up in the upper corner, but it was sudden death
for Cornell, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
The next region to talk about is Fargo, Western Michigan
reaching its first ever frozen four, winning two to one
over U Mass. Broncos had two goals on the same
made Sunief of U Mass take the lead and held
on with it. And let's talk a little bit about
that penalty. We were texting a bit when that was
(11:06):
going on, and the major was for hitting from behind,
and the NCAA rulebook is very specific that if you push,
if you use the stick in the back, then it's
a major. If it's a minor, it says you can
only call a minor if those things don't happen, so
(11:27):
already was a major, and then it's up to the
officials to make the decision whether it is good enough
for a major and a game misconduct. And that's what
he got, which took some big offense out of the
lineup for UMass.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
After that penalty, I.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Thought he was their best player, most impactful. That really
hurt them when we played him, he was the best player.
Him and O'Hara were dominant together and to lose that,
especially when you got a five minute major later, it
was a big key.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Talk to a lot of people about this.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
It's a lot of coaches, a lot of coaches feel
if that was a two. I am within the thing
that it could have I think it should have been
a five, but they could have.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
They should have kept them in the game.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Now I believe that you could have kept them in
the game on that they changed the rules. That's another
thing people are We need to know the rules when
we're talking about things on the air as gospel, because
I think that so many times our game is different
than pro hockey, and people on the commentary, the color especially,
(12:32):
they're doing a great job. I thought the broadcasts were great,
but sometimes they don't know the college rules and the
differential between that and the NHL, and we make changes
every year. So I think that's another one of my things.
Like you said, you got to go on the rules
committee video and see the changes because and know what happens.
But half the coaches said it was two. The other
(12:54):
half were iffy on the five. I think it should
have been a five, but I would have I thought
they should have kept them in the game. The referee
two feet away, did he even put his hands up
for a penalty, let alone a five?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
You can review it.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I think that's a five and a standalone five, and
they can stand the game.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
In my opinion.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
I was okay dated too, and when I watched it first,
it's tough. That was a game I was watching on
a laptop, so getting a good view wasn't the easiest
thing to do. So I still haven't seen it on
a full sized TV. I've only been watching this on
phones and laptops. God out in Manchester yesterday, being in
(13:39):
the bottles of that arena and running into people. They
seemed like the consensus there too, was that that some
people were saying maybe shouldn't have been a penalty. I
thought it was a penalty, definitely, but a five minute
major in a situation like that, it seemed like a lot.
But U Mass had their own chance, like they power
(14:00):
play five minute major later in the third. If I
remember writing that they didn't score on it, Western did.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
It's all about who.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
Scores and the I know that we'd love to complain,
and that's that goes back to the point I made
when we opened to talk about the regions. We just
all saw the games this weekend. We could complain every weekend.
This is what we're just seeing on a big stage.
Some of these calls a little bit more elevated.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I have no problem with it being a five, But
like I said, I think it's right now. You've got
to get You've got to get to the level of
a We changed the rules to lighten it so we
didn't have to throw people out all the time. And
I think that's one of the ones where he was turning,
he was sliding, he was slipping all of that. That's
why you can kept You could have called the five
(14:49):
standalone and left him in the game like they did
on the contact of the head. Right after that, I'm
with the five change the game completely.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Western's power play, big time goal.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Brian Kramer gets a shot through and tipped by Washee
for the second goal. He was taught that as one
year here with the Colonials to move to his left,
so we taught him that. So I do have some
help in winning the game for the Broncos because Brian
was an outstanding player for US on AIIC. But no
really happy for my alma mater. At the texts and flowing,
(15:24):
you're going to see a big Bronco presence in Saint Louis.
And also we're still forgetting about the Minnesota game. The
Minnesota game, that's the one where if you really want
to get nitpicky about officials. I don't have a problem
with calling a trip there, but also if you don't
want to put a team down, then call a dive,
even that out.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Because it's a transition play. The puck comes back the
other way.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
The bigger beef that Minnesota fans should have is the
high stick behind the net on goal number two. Now,
that was a penalty and that ended up in a goal.
I think that was a trip. I think they should
have called it a dive and even up. But they
should have stopped play because that was a defenseman going
up the ice. When a defenseman's going up the ice,
(16:08):
you had two forwards back taking a three on three rush,
and they don't do that very often. However, they play
their systems. They're not used to it. And you could say, yes,
Snugger needed the guy in the back door, but it's
they were two forwards back taking that three on three
rush and that's not normal for them.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
Yep, we're now going to officiate games in the referee
in this fast board of hockey saying oh no, it
was a defenseman that got tripped. I have to call
matching penalties. Now I leave it alone. There's no why
are we going to go matching penalties because the puck
got turned over?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
They called matching companies all the time they do it.
It's they're out.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Yeah, but that's the out I thought.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
I think that's what makes some of these officials the
better reps, that they don't always look for it.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Are you saying that's not a trip.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
I'm saying that was a borderline trip and even regulation. Yeah,
the stick is the ice that goes up.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
He is the light.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
The kid fell really easily. That's why.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
So if you want, I'm okay with giving the dive,
But I'm not going to say that the referee should
have been sitting there and say, ooh, a defense and
now we need to put the arm up because the
defense'sman lost the pot.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
But I'm going back on the other side of the defending.
I'm saying people are saying snugger. The counterpoint to that
is snuggroot should have picked up his man. But the
fact is it was a defense new Fel. It was
a transitional turnover, and you had two guys back playing
the rush that aren't used to doing that.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
That's where I was going with that.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
Yeah, I'm not too worried about that part. But it
was a controversial play, no doubt. But again, I get
into this whole thing with we talked about referees.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Minnesota a thirty one lead, they should have closed that
came out. That's true. Nobody's talking about Bob mots Go
finding ways to blow the game.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
They're just talking about Bob Motsko blowing his lid in
a press conference afterwards.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Well, just to bring the referee conversation to a close here,
I'm going to go back.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
I agree with Derek on the five.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And the main reason I agree with it I understand
where you're coming from, Jim, Well, did that really go
to be a five? Shouldn't that have been a two?
But this is one of the rules in the rule
book where they're very definitive, as opposed to like goaltender
interference where it's clouds and rainbows and unicorns and stuff.
(18:36):
It says right in there you may not call a
minor penalty if they use the stick in any way
to a player's back, or if the player impacts the
boards in an excessive or forceful manner, and says you
may call it if those things happen. And since the
stick was used to the back. It pretty well fits
the definition. So yeah, maybe it was not that egregious
(18:59):
in the core to play, but the rule book is
pretty specific on what you call there.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Once you decide that's a penalty at all.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
And I get it that that art does elevated to
a five. Yeah, it was a tough one because again,
it's not didn't feel like it was from behind, it
from the side if the guy was going down. I
know the points that Greg Carbo probably had, but I
also think that Greg Carbo really took the high road
(19:26):
after that his postgame comments.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
One more thing from that regional, that first round, the
double overtime win over Minnesota State, Now that was just
a great game to watch.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
Yeah, that was how everything was kicking off. I thought
that was one of the best games of the tournament
in surprising. We give Minnesota State Lukes Fan all the
credit for the way that team went in and fought.
They never they didn't feel like they were up against it.
They looked very much like Cornell, playing with excitement, playing
(20:01):
with the houses money. I thought that effort was fantastic
and Western found a way, and that's something to be
said about this Western team. They're finding ways to win
really close games down the stretcher. That's what makes them
even more dangerous.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
What I say leading into that game Alex versus Alex,
and I thought Alex Tracy was outstanding. I thought he
was great in that game. And obviously Alex bump, he
would need him to be the best player on the
ice and for both ways. And I think Alex Tracy
was everything that you could have asked in that game.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
But we're going to take a pause and continue after
that with looking at the various regionals. This episode is
sponsored by the NCAA Men's D one Frozen four April
tenth and twelfth in Saint Louis.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
The NCAA Men's Frozen four, the pinnacle of men's collegiate
ice hawk any.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Question, Professor, NCAA Men's Hockey is back.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Are we ready?
Speaker 7 (21:11):
You prepared to hype your squad for all three periods?
Bring glory home to your kids?
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Oh you're ready. It's Frozen four.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Tome the NCAAA Men's Frozen four, April tenth and twelfth,
twenty twenty five and Saint Louis by your seats today
at NCAAA dot com.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
So that's Frozen four.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
But let's continue with weekend review the Penn State win
in Allentown. The overtime winner against Yukon was just a
pretty play. But what a game that was. Penn State
never led until they scored the game winning goal. They're
going to their first Frozen Four. They they had a
tight game against Yukon, and we'll get to that, But
(21:57):
how about what led into it. Did anybody expect Maine to,
let's not put too fine a point on it, to
kind of lay an egg the way they did against
Penn State in the first round.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
He certainly did not, especially when they scored early. I'm saying, okay,
here we go Maine. It was a fluky bounced goal
that ended up being the first goal from Maine, but
then Penn State a quick response, and then it was
just put on the gas pedal. The credit to Guy
Godowski for getting his team ready and having a response
(22:30):
in them when they fell down. I was surprised. I
was chexting with a friend of mine from Hockey Is
over the weekend, pointing mate should out. I hope that
Maine doesn't let this take away from everything that happened
a week ago, getting back to the Garden and winning
Hockey East and having fourteen thousand fans in the garden
(22:52):
that were probably all main fans. That was fantastic. And
this right afterwards probably leave such a bare pill in
the miles of Maine and their fans. So I hope
it doesn't take anything away from the accomplishment to win
their first Hockey East championship in twenty but I think
(23:12):
it was twenty one years that stood out.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah, there was an interesting regional I will say this.
I thought that game, the Penn State game, I was outstanding.
I thought that Penn State the Yukon game was back
and forth, up and down team that I haven't got
to see very much in Yukon. I thought, I love
the drama the former Yukon goalie being now the goalie
for Penn State. The freshman I thought played really well
(23:38):
for Yukon and net another game that momentum like nobody
could get it. You score, the other team scored, you
score Penn State scores right away each time, and you
got to be able to sustain momentum for some amount
of time and.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Protect the lead.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And I really thought Yukon had the better chances in
overtime as well. And then big time play by Tomarsico
or whoever gave to Marsco to the park and Jamarsco gets.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
A nice shot right down the middle and.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
There you go. It's ten states in their first Frozen Four.
But a lot of drama in that region. Once again,
crowd was outstanding. It was buzzing, and hats off to
Penn State.
Speaker 6 (24:24):
Yeah, Matt Tomarsco really showed well in that region. Obviously
against Maine, I thought he was very good. But then
that game winning yesterday, that whole play, the behind the
back pass to get to Marscow to park and then
to release them, that those relief plays. I was really
happy to see the hockey valley as it is to
(24:46):
see them. I didn't I guess I didn't realize how
far Allentown is. It's not exactly close to campus. I
know it's not I knew it wasn't right there, but
I didn't realize. I think it was one hundred and
thirty three miles.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
They said to it.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
That's a lot of fans making making their way. And
I know that it's the state's team. They probably have
fans everywhere in that state, but that is that certainly
was a great crowd in the atmosphere and at Allentown
this weekend.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
You're going to get sick to hear in that we
are Oh crap, it's already bad. What before they make it.
You're going to hear that at the Frozen for Ah,
it's just going to be nauseating.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Speaking of fight songs, we didn't mention that before. Major props.
Great trolling by the Cornell banding in the first stoppage
against Michigan State playing Michigan's fight song the victors to
a chorus of foos in the arena in Toledo.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
That was That was big time right there.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Also a great move by alentm by playing Brass Bonanza
every time the Yukon scored.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know how they felt about it,
but it was great for a longtime hockey fans to
hear the old Whalers song that.
Speaker 6 (26:02):
Is Yukon's goal song. It holds it. So yeah, they've
kept it going. But I didn't know that we'd hear
a NANCYAA tournament game.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
So Penn State keeps rolling. They lost Ayton Row to
start out in the Big Ten fifteen to four in four.
Since the new year, they may have more momentum than
any other team coming into the Frozen Four.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
We've been talking about it, right, this is We've been
talking about it for a couple of weeks. Penn State
just doesn't stop. But it took him. It was hard
for them in the Big Ten tournament. Gosh, this is
this shouldn't be a surprise.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
Once they hit the gas pedal and once they started
rolling in the second half and we watched just slowly
moving out that I had the written off. Okay, so
Allentown's going to be the region it's going to struggle
with attendons because there's no local team. Oh, they ended
up having one of the best atmospheres because of Penn
State being there. They're playing as well as anybody. When
(27:00):
you really look at these four teams and it's end
up with a I think it's a one, two, three,
and four seed one of each. They're all playing really
good hockey right nobody's struggling. Be Is probably the closest
right now because they had a bad semi final in
Hockey East, but they rebounded Western Michigan. They're a champion.
(27:21):
Penna State got to the finals Denver. They got to
the finals and had a three nothing lead in their final,
So all these teams even before this weekend were playing
good hockey.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
The other regional was in Manchester, and Denver continued to
be able to handle Boston College as they won that regional.
Interestingly enough, in the seven previous times that you had
a rematch of the previous year's national championship in the
following year's playoffs, all seven times the team that lost
(27:53):
the year before one. Denver's the first one to break
that with a three to one win over BC. Matt
Davis did finally give up a goal with fifty three
seconds left in the second period after shutting out Denver
or a shutting out Boston College last year for Denver's championship,
but he was terrific and now Denver gets to look
(28:17):
for a back to back title for the first time
since four to five. But what happened to BC? BC
had a three to one win over Bentley, but didn't
get the game winning goal till a minute seventeen minute
eighteen left in the third period. They couldn't score against Bentley,
they couldn't score against Denver, and they had trouble in
the Hockey East tournament too. What happened to BC down
(28:39):
the road here down the stretch.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Something just triggered in that offense. I think a lot
of it have happened when Oscar Yelvik was injured and
ended up having siege and injuries and surgery that required
Greg Brown to flip his lines a little bit. But
for some reason, the second can line of Boston College
at that point, they hadn't scored in quite some time
(29:06):
until Teddy Stega got that goal last night. It was strange,
uncharacteristic that this offense that has been so strong just
started to fall apart down the stretch, and their.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Defense was always there.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Three goals against, including an empty netter twice and then
one goal in those are the three playoff games. They
only allowed five goals into a goal with an empty
without an empty net. It just things happened, and you've
seen it. Derek and coaches talked about it all the time.
The worst thing you can have happen is that you
(29:44):
hit a slump or you mentally get a little bit
challenged in the postseason and you and that is something
that you can't overcome.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I thought did respond well from having their I guess
they're not their slump, but getting knocked out early, I
thought that would really fire that up and have them
hitting on all cylinders coming into the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
But they really struggled against Bentley.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Everybody mocked us for having the Atlanta Hockey Bethley Show,
including jim did me and you ed and then we
got it from Steve metcalf two. But Bentley showed well
for them. But Boston College something just they lost their power.
They they had a power outage at the wrong time.
Matt Davis, what can you say about him?
Speaker 4 (30:27):
I got it. I told you this when we talked last.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Night, Jimmy, I said Matt Davis was he gave up
some soft goals for Western's comeback. I said this on
the show that they were sought and wow, was he
good this weekend. Get him to the NCAA tournament. He
just turns to it into a different goalie. I wouldn't
be surprised to see Denver get another national championship and
(30:50):
him just keep winning because he gave up two goals
this whole weekend again should it probably could have been
the most outstanding player.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
I don't know who got it.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Bulliam was awesome, but like you said, there was just
a power outage at the wrong time for them, and
even Providence didn't really have an answer for Denver as
far as scoring, and Denver got a big lead.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
US.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
What do we're saying that the NCAA tournament starts and
so does Denver. They put themselves in it, and we
knew they were going to be in the tournament in November.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Yes, and now they're out of the gate. Yeah. Now
they're just sitting here and speaking at the right time.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
We've got more to look at some news and also
a quick look ahead to Saint Louis. Will do that
when US Echo Weekend Review returns. Continuing with usc CHO
(31:54):
Weekend Review news, you talk about a late news dump
and this was not really the case in this situation,
but more of trying to get ahead of the portal.
Is Dane Jackson, longtime assistant and player at North Dakota,
was promoted to head coach on Saturday night, kind of
right in the middle of results coming in from the
(32:15):
games being played. Does this help maintain continuity in recruiting?
What's the story with Dane Jackson, a guy who's been
around the program a long time.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
I will say yeah, obviously he's been there forever and
you knew they were going to hire a house.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
They always they don't go outside the North Dakota family.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
But it seems like he was the guy the players
wanted and to retain their best players. Sometimes Jeff listen
to what the players want, and the players wanted Dane Jackson.
And so it is Dan Jackson and all those guys
are staying now, and I think that makes them better.
But he does have some people to replace, and it
(32:55):
helps at the transfer.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Portals opening right now and we'll see where it ends up.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
But they needed somebody in place to not to lose
their best current players.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
I saw this move coming in the same light there
schools like you have to keep the current player base
happy and still know that you're going to be able
to build.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
If I'm a North Dakota.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
Fan, I'm familiar with Dane Jackson, But am I is
this what gets me going? Is this what excites me?
Probably because of the familiarity. But at the same time,
you got rid of your coach because you weren't happy
with the results. So if you bring in somebody from
(33:41):
that coaching tree, do the results change? I guess that's
the big question that we're going to see answer for
North Dakota. That But that's the one that kind of
goes through my head that you said it in schools,
like they don't typically go outside the North Dakota family
does not, and they didn't have a lot of time
to conduct a search. But does not conducting a national
search hurt them or help them?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I guess they say they did. They had three other finalists,
but they were Nick four from the development team, Jason
Herder from Western Michigan, and Matts maybe from Waterloo. So
they say they did, but this was ear Mark Dane Jackson.
The one thing I will say is assistants to the recruiting.
So these are Danes players, Dane, these are Danes guys,
(34:25):
and we'll find out if they made the right choice
down the road, if there's how much better he's going
to do than Brad Berry. Those are big shoes to
fill literally and figuratively.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
There was one other coaching position filled and that came
out officially on Friday evening, and that was Brett Riley
being hired to fill the shoes of Bob Daniels at.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Farris State.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
After thirty three years, Riley has done a terrific job
with l i U Portal Wise, that gets Riley in
place at Ferris before the portal. Meanwhile, LU has a
coaching change in the players going into the portal.
Speaker 6 (35:10):
Right now, that's too bad for LU because what in
a nice season they had and they've obviously built something.
This is a program that started during a pandemic, which
I've always given credit for doing that. That'll be a
tough coach to replace there. But Ferris got a good,
really good coach in Brett Riley and the Riley family.
(35:33):
The coaching tree continues. I know what he was going
to do at LU is going to be great. I
bet he'll do great things at Ferris and I believe
this will be a program that gets back to really
competitive quickly.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah, Brett did an outstanding job. He was an Independent
coach of the Year. It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy
at home games, it wasn't easy to recruit to an
independent easy to do all those things, and he excelled
at it. And he had a year this year that
it's going to be tough to duplicate whoever comes in,
because that shows you what a great job he did.
(36:10):
And you got to get why the Giddin's good. He's
a young coach, he's enthusiastic and comes from a great family,
and I'm sure he'll enjoy being in a league for
once comparatively too, just trying to schedule games and make
sure you try to get a home game. So congratulations
to Brett. He was a guy that would have been
(36:31):
involved in a lot of jobs that are open right now.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah, and go into a program like Faris that's got
an established tradition and is in a solid league, but
not where you're going to have a huge spotlight on you,
like at Minnesota. In North Dakota is a terrific place
to settle down, whether you're going to be there a
few years or for thirty three years like his predecessor.
A great situation there. The portal opened yesterday, Oh did it? Yeah,
(37:01):
I'm sure that missed your notice.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
Yeah, it wasn't a reminder on my phone two days before.
I don't even know why I did it. Everybody knows it,
but I put it on my phone anyway.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
So as we're recording right now on Monday morning, something
like one hundred and fifty four players unofficially in the
portal from the public trackers, the people who put together
the various portal trackers either have somebody giving them the
information or have a way to see it. The general
public does not see the official portal, so there's some
(37:34):
things that we don't see. So maybe Derek, before we
talk a little bit in general about the portal, what
kind of things do you as a coach get to see.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
I just saw that some players just got out it.
So there's probably about one hundred and fifty five. There
were ninety something yesterday that won the portal that were
into the teens already today. Like you see names real time,
it comes up pretty quickly, that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
And right now, what.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
If you ask me what there is. There's a few
draft picks out there that are going to be recruited
by high end teams. And there's not a big depth
in goalies right now. And obviously the biggest one this
morning on defense was mc kadowski going in. I'm sure
it's Atlantic hockey, and then goal you've got all the
(38:22):
sac well, lot and Zacher went in, and then Gibson
Homer from Arizona State, who I thought was good when
I saw them play out at their tournament. It's interesting,
it's an interesting everybody's involved, everybody's got to be there.
And in that space, and you've got to make sure
that you have a great fit.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
It's got to fit culturally.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Sometimes the best ones that you get are the ones
you don't get, and it's a it's an interesting process
because players are going in because they want to go
to better places. Players are going in because they no
longer have spots on their current teams.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
And at the end of the day, that's that's the
world we're living in. And you can sit here and
put your head in the sand and say you don't
like it, which I don't, but you have to live
in that space. You don't like going from twenty nine
to twenty six roster spots. I don't, but that's the
world we're living in, and it stinks to aff to
may have those conversations with people, but you also have
(39:23):
to upgrade your team as well schools.
Speaker 6 (39:26):
How much is there a must now for the portal
for coaches? I start out with most games when I'm broadcasting,
just going through and I highlight if there's a player
for the portal, just so I don't forget that they
played somewhere else before here. And certain teams five six
guys in a given night in the lineup a certain
(39:48):
teams zero or one.
Speaker 5 (39:50):
Do you almost have to attack the portal now though?
Speaker 4 (39:53):
Yeah, I think so. I think you got to.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
You have to play in the space a little bit.
You can upgrade, upgrade from what you currently have and
potentially can lose some players. Very rarely do you go
through an off season about having somebody going to the portal.
So you've got to be ready to have your freshmen.
Then you've got to be ready to go into the portal. Now,
Major Junior, there's just so many options for coaches now.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
It's more.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Figuring out what you want to do and how you
want to do it, and it's a challenge. It's a
challenge to make sure you get the right player too,
because yes, coaches usually they hit half the time. You
think they're all going to be good because they come
from different places, but there's a reason they're leaving those
places as well, some of them.
Speaker 6 (40:41):
I know that we've complained a lot about lowering the
ross sides to twenty six, but does that maybe make
it easier as a coach in the portal.
Speaker 5 (40:50):
Era that you have less players to try to keep happy.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
We haven't played with that yet.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
I'll let you know it's not fun right now because
you're waiting for the House settlement on April seventh to
find out for sure. Everybody's been saying that most likely
it's going to get passed. So but you don't want
to be overreactive too early, because I do.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
I think the number of twenty six is too low,
but there's nothing I can do about it. I didn't
have anything to do with the say of it, and
I just got to follow the rules.
Speaker 4 (41:23):
It'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
It'll be interesting to see how many teams have to
play shorthanded because this numbers four and at times have
that the right number of players. So we'll find out
as we go, but just trying to manage.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
It with the rules we have today.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
There's going to be some schools that are still going
to decide because the end of February, the NCAA extended
the deadline to opt in. Are we going to see
people coming into the transfer portal late May thirteenth is the.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
End of it?
Speaker 5 (41:56):
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (41:56):
What are those schools going to be able to do
to try to nowgate treating players right and waiting to
see what they decide is an athletic department.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Yeah, that's the million dollar question.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
We're waiting till April seventh to see where things fall,
what the what the landscape is.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
But a lot of it is you if you follow
other sports, A lot.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
Of teams are told to prepare for how it is
going to be with roster limits. I've also heard a
nasty rumor that, which would be crazy, is that even
if it gets postponed, the NCAA is going to come
down and say that you have to get to twenty six.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
That's everybody, even if you're off the end or not,
and that's for all sports. And I think that would
be really long shot.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
I think that's a crazy one, But I've heard you
hear so many different things. Until it happens, you just
play with the rules that you have. But we've been
told to expect it, and I.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
Would say probably fifty to sixty percent.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Of Division one teams are going to be at twenty
six roster sponts next year.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
And as we talked about, between the transfer portal, the
house versus NCAA decision and the addition of Canadian Major Junior,
there may be a couple hundred players out there looking
for homes that would have been able to find one
under the current situation, that are going to be stranded essentially,
(43:20):
not true, they're gonna there.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
What's going to happen is that it's going to be
a trickle down. It's going to make Division three really good.
It's going to make Independence really good. So there's going
to be a trickle down because of this, and there's
gonna be there's going to be homes for everybody. It's
just going to make everybody's that's gonna up everybody's game.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
It's going to up there.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Like you said, there may be people stranded, they're going
to find a place if they want it at Division
three to where then that makes Division three better. They're
going to find a place that the bottom end Division
three is going to go play club.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
Then that's going to make that better.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
So I think that the trickle down is going to
help it because there are so many better hockey players
out there and spots. It's bad to have lost spots,
but it's going to help hockey everywhere.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
And there's a wider division in talent from the bottom
to the top in Division three than there is in
Division one. You look at the teams that just played
in the D three National Championship. Hobart and Utica are
very good hockey teams playing at a high level, and
then you have.
Speaker 4 (44:23):
I'm national champions now. Yeh, congratulations Mark Tiller.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah, he is put together a dynasty there in Geneva,
New York. But then there are teams with makeshift arenas
and tents for locker rooms and things like that in
the Division three level, so maybe that will up things.
That's a You're looking at it as the cup half full,
and I was looking at it as the cup half empty.
Speaker 5 (44:49):
Kudos for your optimism.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Usually you're the other way around.
Speaker 5 (44:52):
You're I know.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
But you start You started off by saying we're going,
let's be really excitable today.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
This is ed excitable. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
It just was up late watching hockey this weekend. Last
thing on our docket today is a quick look ahead
at Saint Louis. You've got two teams in for the
first time in two perennials, and one half of the
bracket is Western Michigan taking on Denver rivals in the
NCCHC and a rematch of that double overtime win for
(45:26):
Western Michigan over Denver in the NCCHC Championship.
Speaker 6 (45:30):
I think that's pretty great for the NCHC going into
the Frozen four knowing you have a team playing for
the National Championship the next two Saturdays from now. That's
a nice feeling for Heathy Williams. Not to mention that
our team's already went for and oh in the tournament
thus far. Perfect with the first two Browns, I think
(45:53):
that's a really fun matchup and they I haven't seen
it officially. School you told me that is the early
game on Thursday, correct, Yes, I mean that's what a
way to start if you're tired about two absolute heavyweights.
I know BU and Penn State might have the more
recognizable national brands, but I think that Denver Western Michigan game,
(46:17):
call me crazy, that could be the National Championship game.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
That's going to be at five pm Eastern time, four
pm Local time. The late game eight thirty Eastern, seven
to thirty Central has Penn State and BU. And we
already talked about how Penn State is on a roll
and b you has been has been good but at
times not great and at times great.
Speaker 5 (46:43):
They've been.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Up and down, but goaltending has been the big difference
since January hasn't it, Jim.
Speaker 6 (46:49):
It has and your gov has been fantastic. All that said,
if this is a game that gave the fans a
nine to seventh final, we'd love it. In Saint Louis,
the coaches would hate it. But these two teams can
do it. I think Penn State played a ten six
game this year. We used scored eight a couple of times.
(47:13):
These teams can put these numbers up. They shoot the
bucket time. They have plenty of offensive talent. You're looking
at the so for a really high scoring game, I
say that it'll be two to one in forri blew overtime.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
That's going to be two games that could have complete
opposites type checking, good goaltending in the first one and
then could be wide open up and down, back and
forth and right. Knowing this and so they're going to
be both two to one, one to nothing. Because it's
a tournament. I'm excited. I'm looking forward to Saint Louis.
(47:47):
I got a couple of things to look forward to.
That's a big week. This is a big one for me.
Speaker 5 (47:52):
This is did the Derek Schoolly home frozen four?
Speaker 2 (47:55):
By the way, the odds makers have set the over
under on both of the games at six and a half.
So they're looking at some goal scoring. Denver an early
slight favorite over Western Michigan and be you a little
bit stronger favorite but still pretty close over Penn State.
Speaker 5 (48:11):
And that's what they're seeing right now.
Speaker 6 (48:12):
I think at this point in the season, you get
to the Frozen four, it's going to be a close matchup.
So do you shouldn't have any plus three hundreds or
plus four hundreds in this type of odd.
Speaker 4 (48:23):
We're into the one sixties and the transfer portal ed
so climbing.
Speaker 5 (48:28):
Yeah, I might as well.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
They should print out a the old ticker tapes they
used to show for the stock market. There should be
a ticker tape along for that. We're going to be
on the ground in Saint Louis, a change of plans
from previous years. We're not going to have a fixed
location with a live stream podcast. Instead, we're going to
be all over town talking to a bunch of different people,
(48:51):
previewing games, getting some highlights, will have social media hits
throughout the day Wednesday through Saturday, and we'll assemble all
of that into a long form video program. We'll have
as much if not more coverage with people in Saint Louis,
And we're really looking forward to this little bit of
a different change in how we bring you the information.
Speaker 5 (49:15):
I think it'll be fun. Stay tuned.
Speaker 6 (49:17):
Next week we'll have probably a little bit more of
a rollout schedule when you can expect to see some
content from Saint Louis each day. But I promise you
this will it'll be a different way. But I think
if you love our site, you'll love it even more.
Want to get through this ROSA four.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
You're going to give me a microphone and may walk
the streets.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Right, Yes, the man on the Street interview that back
there Stern Allen in the early fifties on the First
Tonight Show.
Speaker 5 (49:48):
And have you heard of Derek Schooley. We could do
one whole segment on that, Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
That we'll wrap up this edition of Weekend Review. We'll
be back with one of these after the Frozen four
and maybe as news hits during the summer. But this
episode has been sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division. One
Frozen four April tenth and twelfth in Saint Louis. Get
your tickets at NCAA dot com slash Frozen four for
(50:17):
Jim Connolly, for Derek Scooley. I'm Ed Trevsker and this
has been us c CHO Weekend Review
Usccho dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to us e Cho Weekend review for Monday, March
thirty first, twenty twenty five. I met Trefskir alongside Jim
Connolly and Derek Scooley. This episode is sponsored by the
NCAA Men's d One Frozen four April tenth and twelfth
in Saint Louis. Find your tickets now at NCAA dot
com slash Frozen four, and I hear the supply is
(00:36):
getting pretty tight, so you better head on over there.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hey, everybody wants to see the Broncos. Everybody wants to
see the Broncos.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
That's yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
People checking on flights from Kalamazoo to Saint Louis.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
They want and you know what they also want to see.
They want to see me in a vintage nineteen ninety
four jersey. Wow, that's not true. Not sure it's still fed. Yeah,
that's where we're gonna find out.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We got to get some meet by ten glossies too,
so you can do you the autograph signing.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Good thing. Maybe it's super tid. You war a goalie.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Our Frozen four field is set and it was a
pretty eventful weekend of hockey. Quite a few upsets, lots
of overtimes, but two blue bloods and two first timers
Boston University and Denver the perennial attendees of the Frozen four,
and two teams making their first visit, Western Michigan and
(01:28):
Penn State. Well, let's talk about some of these regions here,
or maybe before we do that, some overall thoughts of
the weekend before we go region by region.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I talked to Jimmy last night as drive back from Manchester.
I thought there was a lot of drama. I thought
a lot of very close, good hockey games. Disappointed in
the ice conditions, at least in Game one. I've never
seen the net come off so many times, even after
they supposedly fixed it for the.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Regional final in Manchester.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Controversy as far as penalties, is it a trip in
over time as a trip and regulation?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Is it a transition play where it.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Should have been called that all of Minnesota fans are
probably wondering five minute major? Questionable? Not questionable. I think
we got a lot of stuff to talk about. That's
my thought. I think the hockey was excellent. Oh, I
think that we go back and just take a look back.
There were some games that kind of became blowaways. B
(02:31):
U's first.
Speaker 6 (02:33):
Round win, it was an unreal game that turned into
a blowaway mains loss to Penn State. That one, I
think really surprised a lot of people. Good showing by Bentley.
I know that's not really a thing anymore than it's
just a good showing by Atlanta Hockey, but they really
did push BC. Yeah, I thought there were a lot
(02:53):
of surprises, agreed Derek. Surprising that here we are that
the best cruise and we still have some controversial penalties,
non penalties, non calls, all of that sort of stuff.
I was trying to just reason this out myself. There
is a good one of the good reasons. I think
(03:15):
these types of individual plays that we can pick apart
and complain about happen every weekend, but we don't see them.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
You know.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
We maybe we see maybe if it's Minnesota or North
Dakota or a high end program, we see a replay
thrown to Twitter and then we judge it.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
But we're all watching the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
I think that so when you have calls that we
maybe think might be mistakes or something like that, or
the ice is an ideal.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
We as fans, we get on our heels.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Listen, how long have we been on our heels about
attendance of this tournament?
Speaker 5 (03:50):
This weekend I ran all of the numbers and these.
Speaker 6 (03:54):
Were just of the building capacities that are listed online.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
I think some are higher than they actually were.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
The overall capacity for all four regionals eighty two point
nine percent. That's excellent attendance. And you're talking about fourteen thousand,
almost fifteen thousand, fourteen thousand and Toledo almost ten thousand
in Fargo, fourteen thousand, one hundred, fourteen thousand, two hundred
(04:23):
or so in Manchester, about the same in Alenton. Those
are great crowds. You can't complain about that. The atmospheres
were really strong.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
But there were still people that did complain about it though,
Oh yeah, well, even within broadcasts there were why would
have this be if it was at Last Arena?
Speaker 4 (04:40):
How would this be if it was here? I think
people got to get over it.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
They're not changing it for the beast in the next
three two three years, because I think they've got regionals out.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
It's not twenty age. It's not being changed.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So it's celcum grated. Yes, celebrate the fact that we're
getting people in the building. It's good hockey and my
issues I think were my issues. But celebrate the fact
that we're traveling and that we're putting people there. I
think a lot of people are complaining, how would that
game bit an alfond?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
You know what? Then bid to host somewhere in Maine.
That's what it comes down to.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
They bid the host and there's no There was no
and I think this was bid out a long time
ago on the regionals.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
But there's no real guarantee that you're going to make it.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
How many times is Penn They've hosted Allentown and Penn
State not made it, So kudos them for continuing to
bid on it without the Maybe were they two for four?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Maybe? Yeah, I don't know. Just settle down. It's not
being changed for a while. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Three of the four regions the hosts weren't in it,
New Hampshire, Bowling Green, and North Dakota.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
So don't go back to Fargo because North Dakota wasn't there.
It still was great.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Yep. Yeah, let's get into the regions.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Boston University needed over time to get past Corn three
to two, and it was the end of a career
for Mike Schaeffer. A really nice story put together on
that at usccho dot com by our own Todd Moleski,
but as Quinn Hudson with a game winning goal after
Cornell had tied things late in regulation. So three straight
(06:18):
Frozen Fours and twenty fifth all time for Boston University,
but they haven't reached the final since twenty fifteen.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
And for j.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Pandolfo, every year as a player and every year as
a head coach, they have made the Frozen Four. But
be you the only one out of six teams from
Hockey East to make it in we talked about, Oh,
six teams from Hockey East and four teams from the
Big Ten? Is this dominant year? Is the NCCHC on
(06:46):
a down cycle? NCCHC got both their teams in, one
out of six from Hockey East, one out of four
from the Big Ten. But the one that made it
is bu What about that regional and the results on that.
First of all, it started out with a huge upset
of Michigan State by Cornell that broke my bracket in
the first game of the weekend. That may also have
(07:08):
been the upset of the tournament. But let's talk about
that regional.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Jesus, that question was going to be half the show,
right there, question everything files, everything in there.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Do we talk about the regional I'll start with just.
Speaker 6 (07:21):
Talking about the NC and I know we're not even
in one of the regions that they won, but kudos
to them. Hockey East be in a position going into
Saturday they could have had all four teams in the
pros and four they come out with one. It just
shows how difficult these regions are to win. But I
thought that this was one of the regions that you
got your money's worth. That bu opening game. That was
(07:44):
a crazy back and forth. I know what ends up
eight three, but that game felt like it could have
gone either way until.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
The third period.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
And then that comeback by Cornal to score two goals
late in the third periods one coming with less than
ten seconds left. What drama that wasn't It's just the
Cornell's story down the stretch. This season was so much
fun to watch. You don't get that enough anymore on
(08:14):
hockey where a coach a coaches don't usually announce their time.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
This year was odd. We had a bunch of guys
doing it to watch.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
His team then play for him and see how good
of a team that was. When they were fully healthy
down the stretch, they could easily have been the Frozen Four.
And of course Mike Schaeffer, the self deprecating humor. He
talks about how good he was as a first round
coach in the NCAA tournament, not a great coach in
(08:44):
the regional finals, just one appearance, but he's obviously done
a great job with that program. He'll be missed. And
for the Terriers, congratulations J Pandolpho. Seven times he's had
a chance to go to a Frozen Four as a
player or a coach. He set for seven.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I'm going to take it from the Cornell perspective. I
was so excited for Mike. Obviously, I played for Mike
at Western. I coached at Cornell for a year with Mike.
I was on the committee with Mike. World class person.
He's got a humor that can rub you wrong sometimes,
but it's also a humor that it comes from the
right place. So I was really hoping for them to
(09:27):
get through, and I was. I was rooting there. But
I will tell you this, the that region was really competitive.
We think that the Ohio State game, the attendance was great.
After Ohio State and Michigan State were out.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
But I will tell you this, the game was three three.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Everybody forgets it was street three and Ohio State scored
at the buzzer at the end of the second to
have a four to three lead, and it got called
back gratefully so because the clocket expired.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
But people forget that.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Another thing that how about the momentum swings and all
these games, teams would score and then they couldn't hold
the lead. One of the things we always talk about
as a coach the next two minutes after a goal,
and teams couldn't make it thirty seconds without a goal,
and that was the Ohio State team. And then the
big comeback. What a power play goal. They were talking
about how bad Cornell's power play was, and then they
(10:26):
go on what a beautiful goal it was, and that
was almost like an overtime goal. And then obviously the
celebration for bu and the sorrow for Cornell was I
guess we've now called it sudden victory according to ESPN
up in the upper corner, but it was sudden death
for Cornell, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
The next region to talk about is Fargo, Western Michigan
reaching its first ever frozen four, winning two to one
over U Mass. Broncos had two goals on the same
made Sunief of U Mass take the lead and held
on with it. And let's talk a little bit about
that penalty. We were texting a bit when that was
(11:06):
going on, and the major was for hitting from behind,
and the NCAA rulebook is very specific that if you push,
if you use the stick in the back, then it's
a major. If it's a minor, it says you can
only call a minor if those things don't happen, so
(11:27):
already was a major, and then it's up to the
officials to make the decision whether it is good enough
for a major and a game misconduct. And that's what
he got, which took some big offense out of the
lineup for UMass.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
After that penalty, I.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Thought he was their best player, most impactful. That really
hurt them when we played him, he was the best player.
Him and O'Hara were dominant together and to lose that,
especially when you got a five minute major later, it
was a big key.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Talk to a lot of people about this.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
It's a lot of coaches, a lot of coaches feel
if that was a two. I am within the thing
that it could have I think it should have been
a five, but they could have.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
They should have kept them in the game.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Now I believe that you could have kept them in
the game on that they changed the rules. That's another
thing people are We need to know the rules when
we're talking about things on the air as gospel, because
I think that so many times our game is different
than pro hockey, and people on the commentary, the color especially,
(12:32):
they're doing a great job. I thought the broadcasts were great,
but sometimes they don't know the college rules and the
differential between that and the NHL, and we make changes
every year. So I think that's another one of my things.
Like you said, you got to go on the rules
committee video and see the changes because and know what happens.
But half the coaches said it was two. The other
(12:54):
half were iffy on the five. I think it should
have been a five, but I would have I thought
they should have kept them in the game. The referee
two feet away, did he even put his hands up
for a penalty, let alone a five?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
You can review it.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I think that's a five and a standalone five, and
they can stand the game.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
In my opinion.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
I was okay dated too, and when I watched it first,
it's tough. That was a game I was watching on
a laptop, so getting a good view wasn't the easiest
thing to do. So I still haven't seen it on
a full sized TV. I've only been watching this on
phones and laptops. God out in Manchester yesterday, being in
(13:39):
the bottles of that arena and running into people. They
seemed like the consensus there too, was that that some
people were saying maybe shouldn't have been a penalty. I
thought it was a penalty, definitely, but a five minute
major in a situation like that, it seemed like a lot.
But U Mass had their own chance, like they power
(14:00):
play five minute major later in the third. If I
remember writing that they didn't score on it, Western did.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
It's all about who.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
Scores and the I know that we'd love to complain,
and that's that goes back to the point I made
when we opened to talk about the regions. We just
all saw the games this weekend. We could complain every weekend.
This is what we're just seeing on a big stage.
Some of these calls a little bit more elevated.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I have no problem with it being a five, But
like I said, I think it's right now. You've got
to get You've got to get to the level of
a We changed the rules to lighten it so we
didn't have to throw people out all the time. And
I think that's one of the ones where he was turning,
he was sliding, he was slipping all of that. That's
why you can kept You could have called the five
(14:49):
standalone and left him in the game like they did
on the contact of the head. Right after that, I'm
with the five change the game completely.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Western's power play, big time goal.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Brian Kramer gets a shot through and tipped by Washee
for the second goal. He was taught that as one
year here with the Colonials to move to his left,
so we taught him that. So I do have some
help in winning the game for the Broncos because Brian
was an outstanding player for US on AIIC. But no
really happy for my alma mater. At the texts and flowing,
(15:24):
you're going to see a big Bronco presence in Saint Louis.
And also we're still forgetting about the Minnesota game. The
Minnesota game, that's the one where if you really want
to get nitpicky about officials. I don't have a problem
with calling a trip there, but also if you don't
want to put a team down, then call a dive,
even that out.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Because it's a transition play. The puck comes back the
other way.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
The bigger beef that Minnesota fans should have is the
high stick behind the net on goal number two. Now,
that was a penalty and that ended up in a goal.
I think that was a trip. I think they should
have called it a dive and even up. But they
should have stopped play because that was a defenseman going
up the ice. When a defenseman's going up the ice,
(16:08):
you had two forwards back taking a three on three rush,
and they don't do that very often. However, they play
their systems. They're not used to it. And you could say, yes,
Snugger needed the guy in the back door, but it's
they were two forwards back taking that three on three
rush and that's not normal for them.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
Yep, we're now going to officiate games in the referee
in this fast board of hockey saying oh no, it
was a defenseman that got tripped. I have to call
matching penalties. Now I leave it alone. There's no why
are we going to go matching penalties because the puck
got turned over?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
They called matching companies all the time they do it.
It's they're out.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Yeah, but that's the out I thought.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
I think that's what makes some of these officials the
better reps, that they don't always look for it.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Are you saying that's not a trip.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
I'm saying that was a borderline trip and even regulation. Yeah,
the stick is the ice that goes up.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
He is the light.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
The kid fell really easily. That's why.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
So if you want, I'm okay with giving the dive,
But I'm not going to say that the referee should
have been sitting there and say, ooh, a defense and
now we need to put the arm up because the
defense'sman lost the pot.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
But I'm going back on the other side of the defending.
I'm saying people are saying snugger. The counterpoint to that
is snuggroot should have picked up his man. But the
fact is it was a defense new Fel. It was
a transitional turnover, and you had two guys back playing
the rush that aren't used to doing that.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
That's where I was going with that.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
Yeah, I'm not too worried about that part. But it
was a controversial play, no doubt. But again, I get
into this whole thing with we talked about referees.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Minnesota a thirty one lead, they should have closed that
came out. That's true. Nobody's talking about Bob mots Go
finding ways to blow the game.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
They're just talking about Bob Motsko blowing his lid in
a press conference afterwards.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Well, just to bring the referee conversation to a close here,
I'm going to go back.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
I agree with Derek on the five.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And the main reason I agree with it I understand
where you're coming from, Jim, Well, did that really go
to be a five? Shouldn't that have been a two?
But this is one of the rules in the rule
book where they're very definitive, as opposed to like goaltender
interference where it's clouds and rainbows and unicorns and stuff.
(18:36):
It says right in there you may not call a
minor penalty if they use the stick in any way
to a player's back, or if the player impacts the
boards in an excessive or forceful manner, and says you
may call it if those things happen. And since the
stick was used to the back. It pretty well fits
the definition. So yeah, maybe it was not that egregious
(18:59):
in the core to play, but the rule book is
pretty specific on what you call there.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Once you decide that's a penalty at all.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
And I get it that that art does elevated to
a five. Yeah, it was a tough one because again,
it's not didn't feel like it was from behind, it
from the side if the guy was going down. I
know the points that Greg Carbo probably had, but I
also think that Greg Carbo really took the high road
(19:26):
after that his postgame comments.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
One more thing from that regional, that first round, the
double overtime win over Minnesota State, Now that was just
a great game to watch.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
Yeah, that was how everything was kicking off. I thought
that was one of the best games of the tournament
in surprising. We give Minnesota State Lukes Fan all the
credit for the way that team went in and fought.
They never they didn't feel like they were up against it.
They looked very much like Cornell, playing with excitement, playing
(20:01):
with the houses money. I thought that effort was fantastic
and Western found a way, and that's something to be
said about this Western team. They're finding ways to win
really close games down the stretcher. That's what makes them
even more dangerous.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
What I say leading into that game Alex versus Alex,
and I thought Alex Tracy was outstanding. I thought he
was great in that game. And obviously Alex bump, he
would need him to be the best player on the
ice and for both ways. And I think Alex Tracy
was everything that you could have asked in that game.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
But we're going to take a pause and continue after
that with looking at the various regionals. This episode is
sponsored by the NCAA Men's D one Frozen four April
tenth and twelfth in Saint Louis.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
The NCAA Men's Frozen four, the pinnacle of men's collegiate
ice hawk any.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Question, Professor, NCAA Men's Hockey is back.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Are we ready?
Speaker 7 (21:11):
You prepared to hype your squad for all three periods?
Bring glory home to your kids?
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Oh you're ready. It's Frozen four.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Tome the NCAAA Men's Frozen four, April tenth and twelfth,
twenty twenty five and Saint Louis by your seats today
at NCAAA dot com.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
So that's Frozen four.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
But let's continue with weekend review the Penn State win
in Allentown. The overtime winner against Yukon was just a
pretty play. But what a game that was. Penn State
never led until they scored the game winning goal. They're
going to their first Frozen Four. They they had a
tight game against Yukon, and we'll get to that, But
(21:57):
how about what led into it. Did anybody expect Maine to,
let's not put too fine a point on it, to
kind of lay an egg the way they did against
Penn State in the first round.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
He certainly did not, especially when they scored early. I'm saying, okay,
here we go Maine. It was a fluky bounced goal
that ended up being the first goal from Maine, but
then Penn State a quick response, and then it was
just put on the gas pedal. The credit to Guy
Godowski for getting his team ready and having a response
(22:30):
in them when they fell down. I was surprised. I
was chexting with a friend of mine from Hockey Is
over the weekend, pointing mate should out. I hope that
Maine doesn't let this take away from everything that happened
a week ago, getting back to the Garden and winning
Hockey East and having fourteen thousand fans in the garden
(22:52):
that were probably all main fans. That was fantastic. And
this right afterwards probably leave such a bare pill in
the miles of Maine and their fans. So I hope
it doesn't take anything away from the accomplishment to win
their first Hockey East championship in twenty but I think
(23:12):
it was twenty one years that stood out.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah, there was an interesting regional I will say this.
I thought that game, the Penn State game, I was outstanding.
I thought that Penn State the Yukon game was back
and forth, up and down team that I haven't got
to see very much in Yukon. I thought, I love
the drama the former Yukon goalie being now the goalie
for Penn State. The freshman I thought played really well
(23:38):
for Yukon and net another game that momentum like nobody
could get it. You score, the other team scored, you
score Penn State scores right away each time, and you
got to be able to sustain momentum for some amount
of time and.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Protect the lead.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And I really thought Yukon had the better chances in
overtime as well. And then big time play by Tomarsico
or whoever gave to Marsco to the park and Jamarsco gets.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
A nice shot right down the middle and.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
There you go. It's ten states in their first Frozen Four.
But a lot of drama in that region. Once again,
crowd was outstanding. It was buzzing, and hats off to
Penn State.
Speaker 6 (24:24):
Yeah, Matt Tomarsco really showed well in that region. Obviously
against Maine, I thought he was very good. But then
that game winning yesterday, that whole play, the behind the
back pass to get to Marscow to park and then
to release them, that those relief plays. I was really
happy to see the hockey valley as it is to
(24:46):
see them. I didn't I guess I didn't realize how
far Allentown is. It's not exactly close to campus. I
know it's not I knew it wasn't right there, but
I didn't realize. I think it was one hundred and
thirty three miles.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
They said to it.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
That's a lot of fans making making their way. And
I know that it's the state's team. They probably have
fans everywhere in that state, but that is that certainly
was a great crowd in the atmosphere and at Allentown
this weekend.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
You're going to get sick to hear in that we
are Oh crap, it's already bad. What before they make it.
You're going to hear that at the Frozen for Ah,
it's just going to be nauseating.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Speaking of fight songs, we didn't mention that before. Major props.
Great trolling by the Cornell banding in the first stoppage
against Michigan State playing Michigan's fight song the victors to
a chorus of foos in the arena in Toledo.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
That was That was big time right there.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Also a great move by alentm by playing Brass Bonanza
every time the Yukon scored.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know how they felt about it,
but it was great for a longtime hockey fans to
hear the old Whalers song that.
Speaker 6 (26:02):
Is Yukon's goal song. It holds it. So yeah, they've
kept it going. But I didn't know that we'd hear
a NANCYAA tournament game.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
So Penn State keeps rolling. They lost Ayton Row to
start out in the Big Ten fifteen to four in four.
Since the new year, they may have more momentum than
any other team coming into the Frozen Four.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
We've been talking about it, right, this is We've been
talking about it for a couple of weeks. Penn State
just doesn't stop. But it took him. It was hard
for them in the Big Ten tournament. Gosh, this is
this shouldn't be a surprise.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
Once they hit the gas pedal and once they started
rolling in the second half and we watched just slowly
moving out that I had the written off. Okay, so
Allentown's going to be the region it's going to struggle
with attendons because there's no local team. Oh, they ended
up having one of the best atmospheres because of Penn
State being there. They're playing as well as anybody. When
(27:00):
you really look at these four teams and it's end
up with a I think it's a one, two, three,
and four seed one of each. They're all playing really
good hockey right nobody's struggling. Be Is probably the closest
right now because they had a bad semi final in
Hockey East, but they rebounded Western Michigan. They're a champion.
(27:21):
Penna State got to the finals Denver. They got to
the finals and had a three nothing lead in their final,
So all these teams even before this weekend were playing
good hockey.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
The other regional was in Manchester, and Denver continued to
be able to handle Boston College as they won that regional.
Interestingly enough, in the seven previous times that you had
a rematch of the previous year's national championship in the
following year's playoffs, all seven times the team that lost
(27:53):
the year before one. Denver's the first one to break
that with a three to one win over BC. Matt
Davis did finally give up a goal with fifty three
seconds left in the second period after shutting out Denver
or a shutting out Boston College last year for Denver's championship,
but he was terrific and now Denver gets to look
(28:17):
for a back to back title for the first time
since four to five. But what happened to BC? BC
had a three to one win over Bentley, but didn't
get the game winning goal till a minute seventeen minute
eighteen left in the third period. They couldn't score against Bentley,
they couldn't score against Denver, and they had trouble in
the Hockey East tournament too. What happened to BC down
(28:39):
the road here down the stretch.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Something just triggered in that offense. I think a lot
of it have happened when Oscar Yelvik was injured and
ended up having siege and injuries and surgery that required
Greg Brown to flip his lines a little bit. But
for some reason, the second can line of Boston College
at that point, they hadn't scored in quite some time
(29:06):
until Teddy Stega got that goal last night. It was strange,
uncharacteristic that this offense that has been so strong just
started to fall apart down the stretch, and their.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Defense was always there.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Three goals against, including an empty netter twice and then
one goal in those are the three playoff games. They
only allowed five goals into a goal with an empty
without an empty net. It just things happened, and you've
seen it. Derek and coaches talked about it all the time.
The worst thing you can have happen is that you
(29:44):
hit a slump or you mentally get a little bit
challenged in the postseason and you and that is something
that you can't overcome.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I thought did respond well from having their I guess
they're not their slump, but getting knocked out early, I
thought that would really fire that up and have them
hitting on all cylinders coming into the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
But they really struggled against Bentley.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Everybody mocked us for having the Atlanta Hockey Bethley Show,
including jim did me and you ed and then we
got it from Steve metcalf two. But Bentley showed well
for them. But Boston College something just they lost their power.
They they had a power outage at the wrong time.
Matt Davis, what can you say about him?
Speaker 4 (30:27):
I got it. I told you this when we talked last.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Night, Jimmy, I said Matt Davis was he gave up
some soft goals for Western's comeback. I said this on
the show that they were sought and wow, was he
good this weekend. Get him to the NCAA tournament. He
just turns to it into a different goalie. I wouldn't
be surprised to see Denver get another national championship and
(30:50):
him just keep winning because he gave up two goals
this whole weekend again should it probably could have been
the most outstanding player.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
I don't know who got it.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Bulliam was awesome, but like you said, there was just
a power outage at the wrong time for them, and
even Providence didn't really have an answer for Denver as
far as scoring, and Denver got a big lead.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
US.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
What do we're saying that the NCAA tournament starts and
so does Denver. They put themselves in it, and we
knew they were going to be in the tournament in November.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Yes, and now they're out of the gate. Yeah. Now
they're just sitting here and speaking at the right time.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
We've got more to look at some news and also
a quick look ahead to Saint Louis. Will do that
when US Echo Weekend Review returns. Continuing with usc CHO
(31:54):
Weekend Review news, you talk about a late news dump
and this was not really the case in this situation,
but more of trying to get ahead of the portal.
Is Dane Jackson, longtime assistant and player at North Dakota,
was promoted to head coach on Saturday night, kind of
right in the middle of results coming in from the
(32:15):
games being played. Does this help maintain continuity in recruiting?
What's the story with Dane Jackson, a guy who's been
around the program a long time.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
I will say yeah, obviously he's been there forever and
you knew they were going to hire a house.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
They always they don't go outside the North Dakota family.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
But it seems like he was the guy the players
wanted and to retain their best players. Sometimes Jeff listen
to what the players want, and the players wanted Dane Jackson.
And so it is Dan Jackson and all those guys
are staying now, and I think that makes them better.
But he does have some people to replace, and it
(32:55):
helps at the transfer.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Portals opening right now and we'll see where it ends up.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
But they needed somebody in place to not to lose
their best current players.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
I saw this move coming in the same light there
schools like you have to keep the current player base
happy and still know that you're going to be able
to build.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
If I'm a North Dakota.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
Fan, I'm familiar with Dane Jackson, But am I is
this what gets me going? Is this what excites me?
Probably because of the familiarity. But at the same time,
you got rid of your coach because you weren't happy
with the results. So if you bring in somebody from
(33:41):
that coaching tree, do the results change? I guess that's
the big question that we're going to see answer for
North Dakota. That But that's the one that kind of
goes through my head that you said it in schools,
like they don't typically go outside the North Dakota family
does not, and they didn't have a lot of time
to conduct a search. But does not conducting a national
search hurt them or help them?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I guess they say they did. They had three other finalists,
but they were Nick four from the development team, Jason
Herder from Western Michigan, and Matts maybe from Waterloo. So
they say they did, but this was ear Mark Dane Jackson.
The one thing I will say is assistants to the recruiting.
So these are Danes players, Dane, these are Danes guys,
(34:25):
and we'll find out if they made the right choice
down the road, if there's how much better he's going
to do than Brad Berry. Those are big shoes to
fill literally and figuratively.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
There was one other coaching position filled and that came
out officially on Friday evening, and that was Brett Riley
being hired to fill the shoes of Bob Daniels at.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Farris State.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
After thirty three years, Riley has done a terrific job
with l i U Portal Wise, that gets Riley in
place at Ferris before the portal. Meanwhile, LU has a
coaching change in the players going into the portal.
Speaker 6 (35:10):
Right now, that's too bad for LU because what in
a nice season they had and they've obviously built something.
This is a program that started during a pandemic, which
I've always given credit for doing that. That'll be a
tough coach to replace there. But Ferris got a good,
really good coach in Brett Riley and the Riley family.
(35:33):
The coaching tree continues. I know what he was going
to do at LU is going to be great. I
bet he'll do great things at Ferris and I believe
this will be a program that gets back to really
competitive quickly.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah, Brett did an outstanding job. He was an Independent
coach of the Year. It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy
at home games, it wasn't easy to recruit to an
independent easy to do all those things, and he excelled
at it. And he had a year this year that
it's going to be tough to duplicate whoever comes in,
because that shows you what a great job he did.
(36:10):
And you got to get why the Giddin's good. He's
a young coach, he's enthusiastic and comes from a great family,
and I'm sure he'll enjoy being in a league for
once comparatively too, just trying to schedule games and make
sure you try to get a home game. So congratulations
to Brett. He was a guy that would have been
(36:31):
involved in a lot of jobs that are open right now.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah, and go into a program like Faris that's got
an established tradition and is in a solid league, but
not where you're going to have a huge spotlight on you,
like at Minnesota. In North Dakota is a terrific place
to settle down, whether you're going to be there a
few years or for thirty three years like his predecessor.
A great situation there. The portal opened yesterday, Oh did it? Yeah,
(37:01):
I'm sure that missed your notice.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
Yeah, it wasn't a reminder on my phone two days before.
I don't even know why I did it. Everybody knows it,
but I put it on my phone anyway.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
So as we're recording right now on Monday morning, something
like one hundred and fifty four players unofficially in the
portal from the public trackers, the people who put together
the various portal trackers either have somebody giving them the
information or have a way to see it. The general
public does not see the official portal, so there's some
(37:34):
things that we don't see. So maybe Derek, before we
talk a little bit in general about the portal, what
kind of things do you as a coach get to see.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
I just saw that some players just got out it.
So there's probably about one hundred and fifty five. There
were ninety something yesterday that won the portal that were
into the teens already today. Like you see names real time,
it comes up pretty quickly, that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
And right now, what.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
If you ask me what there is. There's a few
draft picks out there that are going to be recruited
by high end teams. And there's not a big depth
in goalies right now. And obviously the biggest one this
morning on defense was mc kadowski going in. I'm sure
it's Atlantic hockey, and then goal you've got all the
(38:22):
sac well, lot and Zacher went in, and then Gibson
Homer from Arizona State, who I thought was good when
I saw them play out at their tournament. It's interesting,
it's an interesting everybody's involved, everybody's got to be there.
And in that space, and you've got to make sure
that you have a great fit.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
It's got to fit culturally.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Sometimes the best ones that you get are the ones
you don't get, and it's a it's an interesting process
because players are going in because they want to go
to better places. Players are going in because they no
longer have spots on their current teams.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
And at the end of the day, that's that's the
world we're living in. And you can sit here and
put your head in the sand and say you don't
like it, which I don't, but you have to live
in that space. You don't like going from twenty nine
to twenty six roster spots. I don't, but that's the
world we're living in, and it stinks to aff to
may have those conversations with people, but you also have
(39:23):
to upgrade your team as well schools.
Speaker 6 (39:26):
How much is there a must now for the portal
for coaches? I start out with most games when I'm broadcasting,
just going through and I highlight if there's a player
for the portal, just so I don't forget that they
played somewhere else before here. And certain teams five six
guys in a given night in the lineup a certain
(39:48):
teams zero or one.
Speaker 5 (39:50):
Do you almost have to attack the portal now though?
Speaker 4 (39:53):
Yeah, I think so. I think you got to.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
You have to play in the space a little bit.
You can upgrade, upgrade from what you currently have and
potentially can lose some players. Very rarely do you go
through an off season about having somebody going to the portal.
So you've got to be ready to have your freshmen.
Then you've got to be ready to go into the portal. Now,
Major Junior, there's just so many options for coaches now.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
It's more.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Figuring out what you want to do and how you
want to do it, and it's a challenge. It's a
challenge to make sure you get the right player too,
because yes, coaches usually they hit half the time. You
think they're all going to be good because they come
from different places, but there's a reason they're leaving those
places as well, some of them.
Speaker 6 (40:41):
I know that we've complained a lot about lowering the
ross sides to twenty six, but does that maybe make
it easier as a coach in the portal.
Speaker 5 (40:50):
Era that you have less players to try to keep happy.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
We haven't played with that yet.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
I'll let you know it's not fun right now because
you're waiting for the House settlement on April seventh to
find out for sure. Everybody's been saying that most likely
it's going to get passed. So but you don't want
to be overreactive too early, because I do.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
I think the number of twenty six is too low,
but there's nothing I can do about it. I didn't
have anything to do with the say of it, and
I just got to follow the rules.
Speaker 4 (41:23):
It'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
It'll be interesting to see how many teams have to
play shorthanded because this numbers four and at times have
that the right number of players. So we'll find out
as we go, but just trying to manage.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
It with the rules we have today.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
There's going to be some schools that are still going
to decide because the end of February, the NCAA extended
the deadline to opt in. Are we going to see
people coming into the transfer portal late May thirteenth is the.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
End of it?
Speaker 5 (41:56):
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (41:56):
What are those schools going to be able to do
to try to nowgate treating players right and waiting to
see what they decide is an athletic department.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Yeah, that's the million dollar question.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
We're waiting till April seventh to see where things fall,
what the what the landscape is.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
But a lot of it is you if you follow
other sports, A lot.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
Of teams are told to prepare for how it is
going to be with roster limits. I've also heard a
nasty rumor that, which would be crazy, is that even
if it gets postponed, the NCAA is going to come
down and say that you have to get to twenty six.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
That's everybody, even if you're off the end or not,
and that's for all sports. And I think that would
be really long shot.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
I think that's a crazy one, But I've heard you
hear so many different things. Until it happens, you just
play with the rules that you have. But we've been
told to expect it, and I.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
Would say probably fifty to sixty percent.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Of Division one teams are going to be at twenty
six roster sponts next year.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
And as we talked about, between the transfer portal, the
house versus NCAA decision and the addition of Canadian Major Junior,
there may be a couple hundred players out there looking
for homes that would have been able to find one
under the current situation, that are going to be stranded essentially,
(43:20):
not true, they're gonna there.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
What's going to happen is that it's going to be
a trickle down. It's going to make Division three really good.
It's going to make Independence really good. So there's going
to be a trickle down because of this, and there's
gonna be there's going to be homes for everybody. It's
just going to make everybody's that's gonna up everybody's game.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
It's going to up there.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Like you said, there may be people stranded, they're going
to find a place if they want it at Division
three to where then that makes Division three better. They're
going to find a place that the bottom end Division
three is going to go play club.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
Then that's going to make that better.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
So I think that the trickle down is going to
help it because there are so many better hockey players
out there and spots. It's bad to have lost spots,
but it's going to help hockey everywhere.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
And there's a wider division in talent from the bottom
to the top in Division three than there is in
Division one. You look at the teams that just played
in the D three National Championship. Hobart and Utica are
very good hockey teams playing at a high level, and
then you have.
Speaker 4 (44:23):
I'm national champions now. Yeh, congratulations Mark Tiller.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah, he is put together a dynasty there in Geneva,
New York. But then there are teams with makeshift arenas
and tents for locker rooms and things like that in
the Division three level, so maybe that will up things.
That's a You're looking at it as the cup half full,
and I was looking at it as the cup half empty.
Speaker 5 (44:49):
Kudos for your optimism.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Usually you're the other way around.
Speaker 5 (44:52):
You're I know.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
But you start You started off by saying we're going,
let's be really excitable today.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
This is ed excitable. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
It just was up late watching hockey this weekend. Last
thing on our docket today is a quick look ahead
at Saint Louis. You've got two teams in for the
first time in two perennials, and one half of the
bracket is Western Michigan taking on Denver rivals in the
NCCHC and a rematch of that double overtime win for
(45:26):
Western Michigan over Denver in the NCCHC Championship.
Speaker 6 (45:30):
I think that's pretty great for the NCHC going into
the Frozen four knowing you have a team playing for
the National Championship the next two Saturdays from now. That's
a nice feeling for Heathy Williams. Not to mention that
our team's already went for and oh in the tournament
thus far. Perfect with the first two Browns, I think
(45:53):
that's a really fun matchup and they I haven't seen
it officially. School you told me that is the early
game on Thursday, correct, Yes, I mean that's what a
way to start if you're tired about two absolute heavyweights.
I know BU and Penn State might have the more
recognizable national brands, but I think that Denver Western Michigan game,
(46:17):
call me crazy, that could be the National Championship game.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
That's going to be at five pm Eastern time, four
pm Local time. The late game eight thirty Eastern, seven
to thirty Central has Penn State and BU. And we
already talked about how Penn State is on a roll
and b you has been has been good but at
times not great and at times great.
Speaker 5 (46:43):
They've been.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Up and down, but goaltending has been the big difference
since January hasn't it, Jim.
Speaker 6 (46:49):
It has and your gov has been fantastic. All that said,
if this is a game that gave the fans a
nine to seventh final, we'd love it. In Saint Louis,
the coaches would hate it. But these two teams can
do it. I think Penn State played a ten six
game this year. We used scored eight a couple of times.
(47:13):
These teams can put these numbers up. They shoot the
bucket time. They have plenty of offensive talent. You're looking
at the so for a really high scoring game, I
say that it'll be two to one in forri blew overtime.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
That's going to be two games that could have complete
opposites type checking, good goaltending in the first one and
then could be wide open up and down, back and
forth and right. Knowing this and so they're going to
be both two to one, one to nothing. Because it's
a tournament. I'm excited. I'm looking forward to Saint Louis.
(47:47):
I got a couple of things to look forward to.
That's a big week. This is a big one for me.
Speaker 5 (47:52):
This is did the Derek Schoolly home frozen four?
Speaker 2 (47:55):
By the way, the odds makers have set the over
under on both of the games at six and a half.
So they're looking at some goal scoring. Denver an early
slight favorite over Western Michigan and be you a little
bit stronger favorite but still pretty close over Penn State.
Speaker 5 (48:11):
And that's what they're seeing right now.
Speaker 6 (48:12):
I think at this point in the season, you get
to the Frozen four, it's going to be a close matchup.
So do you shouldn't have any plus three hundreds or
plus four hundreds in this type of odd.
Speaker 4 (48:23):
We're into the one sixties and the transfer portal ed
so climbing.
Speaker 5 (48:28):
Yeah, I might as well.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
They should print out a the old ticker tapes they
used to show for the stock market. There should be
a ticker tape along for that. We're going to be
on the ground in Saint Louis, a change of plans
from previous years. We're not going to have a fixed
location with a live stream podcast. Instead, we're going to
be all over town talking to a bunch of different people,
(48:51):
previewing games, getting some highlights, will have social media hits
throughout the day Wednesday through Saturday, and we'll assemble all
of that into a long form video program. We'll have
as much if not more coverage with people in Saint Louis,
And we're really looking forward to this little bit of
a different change in how we bring you the information.
Speaker 5 (49:15):
I think it'll be fun. Stay tuned.
Speaker 6 (49:17):
Next week we'll have probably a little bit more of
a rollout schedule when you can expect to see some
content from Saint Louis each day. But I promise you
this will it'll be a different way. But I think
if you love our site, you'll love it even more.
Want to get through this ROSA four.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
You're going to give me a microphone and may walk
the streets.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Right, Yes, the man on the Street interview that back
there Stern Allen in the early fifties on the First
Tonight Show.
Speaker 5 (49:48):
And have you heard of Derek Schooley. We could do
one whole segment on that, Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
That we'll wrap up this edition of Weekend Review. We'll
be back with one of these after the Frozen four
and maybe as news hits during the summer. But this
episode has been sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division. One
Frozen four April tenth and twelfth in Saint Louis. Get
your tickets at NCAA dot com slash Frozen four for
(50:17):
Jim Connolly, for Derek Scooley. I'm Ed Trevsker and this
has been us c CHO Weekend Review
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