Saturday, March 27, 2010

College Hockey Closer: Day 1

RIT 2, Denver 1: Clearly the biggest upset of the day. Denver, the overall #2 seed in the tournament, is taken down by RIT, a school that didn't play Division I hockey five years ago. The Tigers have stretched the nation's longest current winning streak to 11 games.

UNH 6, Cornell 2: Cornell took the early 1-0 lead, and looked to stifle the Wildcats for the rest of the game, but UNH broke the dam with a puck that went through the net on a very sharp angle. Just seconds later, they followed it up with another one past Ben Scrivens. Cornell's defense continued to break down, leaving Scrivens in bad spots, and it was effectively over when the Big Red gave up an absurd, uncontested breakaway that Bobby Butler deposited behind Scrivens to make it 4-1. UNH and RIT will meet in the East final tomorrow night at the Times Union Center in Albany.

St. Cloud State 3, Northern Michigan 2: The Huskies held the lead for most of the game, with Northern playing catch up. Eric Spady scored his first goal of the season with 4 minutes left to force overtime, and had the Wildcats some great chances, but St. Cloud State was able to draw a couple of (deserved) penalties and it looked like Northern was wearing down. They made it to the end of the first OT, but it only took seconds into double OT for St. Cloud to win their first NCAA tournament game ever.

Wisconsin 3, Vermont 2: Vermont goaltender Rob Madore has played a great game, but this Wisconsin team is just loaded with talent. It's frightening to even think about having to play them. Madore faced a lot of grade A opportunities, and he's stopped most of them, but the Badgers were just too much. Geoffrion, Davies, et al look like a killer squad right now, and Gudmandson just stoned Roloff on a point blank chance. I'd be surprised if St. Cloud can upset them tomorrow night.

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