Top Seeds Pushed To Limits In NCAA Hockey Tournament Regionals

No. 4 Air Force Academy head coach, Frank Serratore, insisted that the rest of the coaches in the West Regional were not going to take him and his team lightly. After Friday’s opening tilt, upending the No. 1 overall team 4-1, he also ensured the entire tournament field won’t take his team lightly.

Despite the consistent forechecking, two empty net goals proved to be the deciders. Bob Motzko and company struck within one, and with a couple minutes still remaining, decided to pull David Hrenak. Needless to say, it was a tragic miscue as the Huskies turned it over to Jordan Himley while Hrenak raced back to his net after being halfway to the bench. Hrenak laid face down on the ice, pretty much summing up the entire emotion for the St. Cloud State Huskies who came in with big expectations.

Serrratore’s brother is the head coach of Bemidji State’s men’s hockey team and he attributed a part of the winning effort to his scouting report on the Huskies. An Air Force team with great discipline took the ice and played like they were built —a truly defensive team.

“We got through the first period and to be honest with you we just wanted to stay with the process,” Serratore said. “We wanted to be able to win this game in the third. We had to weather the storm, they came hard and the skill level knocking those pucks out of the air and keeping pucks in, it was like oh my god.”

For the majority of the game, Air Force had to play in their own zone. St. Cloud continually pressed but even the power play could not sink, mainly due to a stalwart performance by Air Force goaltender Billy Christopoulos, who had 39 saves. Christopoulos made spectacular save after save throughout the night and was rightfully praised by his teammates for being “the backbone of the team.”

The only Minnesota school left standing, Minnesota-Duluth, took Minnesota State to overtime and brought themselves closer to back-to-back Frozen Four appearances. UMD scored initially about a minute into overtime but the goal was overturned on a goalie interference call.

The subsequent action saw Minnesota State nearly embracing their first-ever NCAA tournament win. Nicholas Rivera, of MSU, was staring at a sure goal with the puck leaving his tape but it bounced off teammate Brad McClure’s backside who fell down in front of the net. Moments later, UMD’s Parker Mackay lifted the Bulldogs to a date with Air Force for the West Regional Championship Saturday —overtime lasted 146 seconds.

“This has been an unbelievable experience for us,” MSU head coach Mike Hastings said. “It didn’t end the way we wanted to. I thought we had a good start, but obviously our second period wasn’t great for us. I felt like we reset and had a decent third period but they had a look and found a way to finish. I’de like to say congratulations to the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Scott Sandelin and his staff.”

Another No. 1 seed found itself in trouble, however, for Notre Dame, their overtime thriller with Michigan Tech didn’t result in a first-round exit. Notre Dame powered through and took the win (4-3) on Jordan Gross’s second goal of the night at 16:24 of overtime. Assists were credited to Jake Evans and Jack Jenkins.

A scoreless first period didn’t entail a low scoring game. Joel L’esperance found himself breaking free from two defenders and in on goal at 1:13 of the second to open the scoring (1-0). The Fighting Irish answered with two goals of their own at 3:40 and 7:04 of the same period on goals by Dylan Malmquist and Joe Wegwerth respectively.

A battle of attrition ensued with both teams striking and answering with goals. Michigan Tech leveled the score at the 56-second mark of the third period with Gavin Gould’s goal. The game quickly picked up the pace even more but Notre Dame was not flustered. Gross scored his first of the game on a power play to give Notre Dame their second lead of the night —it was the only power play goal.

Jake Jackson sent it to overtime for Michigan Tech at 18:54 of the first period, but that was Tech’s final goal of the season as Notre Dame converted in overtime saving themselves, and not becoming the second No. 1 seed to fall.

No. 2 Providence took the lead early and held off No. 3 Clarkson the entire game to take the victory on a single goal. Kasper Bjorkqvist scored at 4:02 of the first on the power play to make it 1-0. Bjorkqvist received a pass on the goal line to the left of Jake Kielly and skated to the front of the net where he snuck the puck into the net. That was all Providence needed, and a little defense the rest of the game, to earn a spot in the East Regional versus Notre Dame.

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