Spartans: 4 Bears: 2

My initial instinct and prediction about this game was wrong as Michigan State pulled out a 4-2 win against the Maine Bears. I thought that MS would show some fight and keep it close and they definately did just that. Maine pulled out to a 2-0 lead before the Spartans took over the game and finished it off. Hopefully tonight ND will take a cue from MS and beat the evil team from the East; BC

On the eve of the 'Four

Tomorrow at 2pm Mountain Time the Frozen Four will officially kick of with Maine and Michigan State then followed at 6pm by the WCHA rep. North Dakota and much hyped Boston College. As ESPN does a brief overview of the games, I would love to open it up and see what everyone thinks will happen tomorrow and then Saturday night. Personally, I will pick Maine to take out Michigan State in a close game early. The reason for this is not because I want it to happen (I don't like the east teams that have a media following) but simply because of experience. Maine is consistly in the top 10 each season and has won a National Title recently. However, State does have an experienced coach that will keep it close and I would love to see them pull it out but I think they will be slightly overmatched in this one.
Later tomorrow night I am going to pick the WCHA North Dakota Fighting ----- (they lost their appeal so who knows what they will be next year). This boils down to a hatred of all things BC on all the websites and highlights and wanting the WCHA to win it all again. Also, ND took down a rolling Minnesota team and has really come together late in the year, a team that I personally thought wouldn't even make the WCHA tournament not too long ago. BC plays a weaker schedule and I think will be worn down in a close game, but I'll take ND somewhere in the range of 5-3. I will also pick them to win it all over Maine Saturday night; they will be on a roll and Maine will be tired after beating a pesky up-and-coming Michigan State team. These are my unscientific picks, let's hear yours!

Frozen Four Set

The 2007 Frozen Four is all set to begin Thursday night in St. Louis. The WCHA is left with one surviving team out of 3. North Dakota took out regular and postseason WCHA Champ Minnesota in OT on Sunday night to return to the Frozen Four once again. They are joined by Michigan State (who took out Notre Dame), Boston College and Maine. North Dakota is the clear powerhouse here with 7 national titles (all the rest each have 2) and coming out of a conference that was won the last 5 National Championships and 6 out of the last 7. BC and Maine won in 2001 and 1999 respectively. Michigan State is the underdog of the 4, last winning a title in 1986 but having been to the Frozen Four last in 2001. It will be a great final 3 games beginning Thursday afternoon at 2pm MST on ESPN2 followed by BC and ND at 6pm MST. Personally I am pulling for ND because of the WCHA conference and I hate the east coast teams, if you can believe that I could hate a team from the east haha. I'm excited that the games will be on ESPN2 and aren't going to be in the middle of the day like when CC and DU played a few years back. The final will be Saturday night at 5pm MST on ESPN and hopefully help give college hockey more exposure!

World Arena History

Well, the weekend series against #4 St. Cloud State didn't start off as well as hoped. It's funny how mental lapses can ruin a game. Fortunately, CC didn't lose any ground in the standings and hopefully can rebound tonight. I just remembered today that my first CC games was a loss against St. Cloud up at Clune arena. I remember clearly because I was wondering why the opposing team was wearing Montreal Canadiens jerseys, haha. I was just looking over some of the history of CC and came across some nice pics of the old Broadmoor World Arena/ Broadmoor Ice Palace. I remember walking there in elementary school for field trips. I never did see a CC game there but my parents always talked about the traffic in the Broadmoor neighborhood after the games. This place was one of the premier centers in the country with Cheyenne Canyon in the background. It hosted the NCAA championship 11 times between 1948 and 1969. I really wish The Springs still had something like that, something nationally known, especially for the hockey team. It seems like college hockey is seen (on a national scale anyway) and an east coast sport. Teams like Boston, Maine and UMass seem to get all of the national attention. Even when the WCHA had all final 4 teams, there was not too much in the way of national attention. It's too bad people have so many preconcieved notions about certain things. For example, people here in Nebraska (for the most part) think that it always snows in Colorado and we all go skiing all the time, even though those of us in the Springs know that its usually 50 degrees in the winter. This is probably off the hockey topic but its something that makes me mad. National exposure=top tier recruits and money and fans. If only College hockey could be more known as a national sport, rather than a sport with good east coast teams. That just seems like the way it is. Anyway as for tonight, GO TIGERS!