College Hockey Weekend

For those of you mourning at the site of your NCAA basketball brackets (go George Mason!), this was a good weekend to turn your attention to college hockey.

While I may bleed green for MSU throughout the year, a concept that many a friend enjoy referring to as artificial, there is no denying that my allegiance is with the alma mater when it comes to college hockey, the Big Red of Cornell. Some of my fondest college memories are from Friday and Saturday evenings at Lynah Rink. Aside from some random coverage on CSTV and ESPNU, it is a rarity that I get to watch the Big Red icers in action. Therefore, when the NCAA pairings were released last weekend and Cornell was going to be in action in Green Bay, WI, there was no question that we had to find room in the schedule to attend. Even better was the fact that Jed's alma mater, the Badgers of Wisconsin would also be playing in the same region.

Jed and I made the trek up to the Resch Center in Green Bay to watch the Midwest Regional semi-final games on Saturday afternoon.

The Badgers had an impressive showing in the first game, eliminating the Beavers of Bemidji State University with a 4-0 shutout. Jed didn't like me rooting for Bemidji...but how can't you like a team name Bemidji. After the first period, it was really no contest.

In the second game, Cornell came out sloppy and gave up two power-play goals to traditionally strong Colorado College and last years Hobey Baker winner, Marty Sertich. However, the Big Red rebounded from the poor first period to control the remainder of the game and to pull out a 3-2 victory. It was a great game, and more importantly it setup the match-up with Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon for the regional crown.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out for me to stay in Green Bay for the final game. The game proved to be a classic. Unfortunately, it was not a classic with a good result for Cornell. The Badgers and Big Red ended up playing the 2nd longest NCAA tourney game, as it took the Badgers three overtimes to finally notch a goal and to upend the Big Red 1-0 in a 4.5 hour affair. Despite all of those ugly Badgers, it must have been an electric setting. Congrats to UW for the win, as they advance to join North Dakota, Maine, and Boston College in this years Frozen Four. Kudos to Cornell on a good year.

BTW: had Owen owned any Badger gear, I would have had him wearing it on Sunday, as we know that the Owen jersey jinx works wonders. Instead, I realized halfway through the first period that Brecken had dressed Owen in a sweater with a bear on it. Despite me trying to convince Brecken that it looked like a Badger, there was no denying that it was more like a Cornell Big Red bear than it was a Badger. The jinx lives on. Tune in next week when Owen plans on wearing a Detroit Tigers outfit for opening day...maybe their season will turn for the worse as well this year (arguably nothing to do with Owen in that one though). Cheers.