NFL
By Jason Gulden
The final weekend of the NCAA Men’s hockey season is here. Back at the beginning of October, 63 teams were hoping to be in this position now. Unfortunately, 59 of those 63 teams are sitting at home right now, as we are down to the final 4 teams.
We determined those final 4 teams a couple of weekends ago during the regional round of the NCAA tournament.
Regional Round
The Worcester region didn’t have any NCHC teams playing. The teams in the region consisted of Michigan State, Connecticut, Dartmouth, and Wisconsin. Those games took place on Thursday, March 26th, and Saturday, March 28th.
Michigan State would beat Connecticut 2-1 to move on to the regional final. They would take on the winner of the Dartmouth-Wisconsin matchup. The winner of that matchup was Wisconsin, 5-1.
That would give us a Big Ten matchup between Michigan State and Wisconsin to determine the Worcester champion. Wisconsin has pulled off an upset against Michigan State in what has been the standout game of the tournament so far, winning 4-3. Wisconsin was trailing 3-1 at the 15:12 mark of the 3rd period. Over the next 35 seconds, Wisconsin would tie it at 3. The game would go into overtime, and Wisconsin would score just 24 seconds in.
The other region taking place on the same day as the Worcester region would be the Sioux Falls region. That featured North Dakota, Merrimack, Providence, and Quinnipiac. North Dakota would take on Merrimack and would come out victorious 3-0. Providence would take on Quinnipiac. Quinnipiac would win 5-2.
Quinnipiac would then take on North Dakota for the Sioux Falls championship. North Dakota would get their second shutout of the tournament with a 5-0 victory. North Dakota goalie Jan Spunar would stop all 53 shots he faced to earn back-to-back shutouts.
On Friday, March 27th, and Sunday, March 29th, the other two regions would take center stage. The Albany region featured Michigan, Bentley, Minnesota Duluth, and Penn State.
Michigan would take on Bentley and would take care of business with a 5-1 victory. Minnesota Duluth would take on Penn State. Duluth would win the game 3-1.
On Sunday, Duluth faces Michigan in the championship. Michigan would take an early 3-0 lead after the first quarter. Duluth would battle back but would fall 4-3 in what would be Duluth goalie Adam Gajan’s final collegiate game, as he would sign a professional contract with the Chicago Blackhawks a couple of days after the game.
The final region would be Loveland. That region consisted of Western Michigan, Minnesota, the state of Colorado, and the University of Cornell. Western would beat Minnesota State 3-1. Denver would take on Cornell and easily take care of them, 5-0.
That would set us up for an all-NCHC final for the Loveland Region. Denver would take care of business easily with a 6-2 victory.
Western Michigan’s goalie Hampton Slukynsky and his brother, forward Garrett Slukynsky, would play in their last collegiate game as they both signed professional contracts with the Los Angeles Kings.
Frozen Four
We are down to our final 4 teams in the NCAA tournament. Those games will take place this weekend at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. We have a Big Ten vs. NCHC semifinal game.
On Thursday, April 9th, we will have Wisconsin taking on North Dakota at 3 pm MST, followed by Michigan taking on Denver at 630 MST. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN2.
The two winners of those games will take on each other for the NCAA championship on Saturday, April 11th at 3:30 MST. That game will be broadcast on ESPN.
The NCHC is looking to win the National Championship for the third straight season and the 8th time in the league’s 10 years. This is the 11th season NCHC has been around, but the 2020 tournament was canceled when COVID shut down that postseason right before the first round of the NCHC tournament.
During that time, Denver has won it three times, last being in 2024, and North Dakota won it in 2016.
Good luck to Denver and North Dakota in the Frozen Four and then hopefully in the championship game.
Hobey Baker Finalist
On Friday, during the Frozen Four, we will learn who the Hobey Baker winner is. The finalists were announced on April 2nd, and the NCHC has two finalists this year. They are Denver’s defenseman Eric Pohlkamp and Minnesota Duluth’s Max Plante. Michigan’s forward T.J. Hughes joins them.
Eric aims to become the third Denver University player in school history to win the award. Matt Carle won it in 2006, and Will Butcher in 2017. Eric leads all defensemen in the nation with 18 goals and 39 points in 41 games.
Max was named the NCHC Player of the Year and is the tenth finalist in Minnesota Duluth’s history. He is the first player since 2020 to be nominated for the school’s award, which Scott Perunovich won. Maybe Max can do something his dad did—win the Hobey Baker. His dad, Derek, was a finalist in 1993.
T.J. Hughes was named the Big Ten Player of the Year. He averaged 1.44 points per game this season, totaling 56 points in 39 games. Over his career, he accumulated 178 points and led Michigan to the Frozen Four three times, including this year.
The award ceremony will be held at the Presidio Ballroom at Park MGM. It will be broadcast live on the NHL Network at 6 pm MST.
Closing
The college hockey season ends this weekend. Can the NCHC finish out on top again this season? The only way to find out. Tune in to the games on Thursday and the Championship game on Saturday. I will be back next week for the LAST college hockey article of the season. We will recap the Frozen Four along with the Hobey Baker winner, as well as anything else NCHC-related. Until next week, everyone, please enjoy some NCAA action this weekend.
