Final NCAA Pairwise & Probable NCAA Field

1 [AQ] Boston University
2 [AQ] Notre Dame
3 Denver
4 Michigan
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5 [AQ] Yale
6t Northeastern
6t [AQ] Minnesota-Duluth
8 North Dakota
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9 Vermont
10 New Hampshire
11 Cornell
12 Princeton
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13 Miami
14 [AQ] Air Force
15t Ohio State
XX Bemidji State

WCHA Championship Game
Duluth 4 - Denver 0

The University of Minnesota-Duluth controlled the WCHA Championship Game to win their first playoff championship in 24 years. Duluth also became the first "play-in" game participant to win the Final 5.

Denver was never able to muster any serious offensive threat throughout the game. Duluth on the otherhand netted two power play goals and a beautiful back door goal in the 2nd Period.

Luckily for DU, Michigan lost to Notre Dame in the CCHA Championship Game and DU retained the #3 seeding in the Pairwise Rankings. Nonetheless the playoff field still has many issues and DU could be sent to Minneapolis or Bridgeport next week in the NCAA Tournament.

The tournament field will be announced on Sunday morning on ESPN2 at 9:30 AM MT.
Boxscore

Pairwise Rankings

Denver Post game recap


Duluth News Tribune game recap

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Other than EGO this loss was meaningless. In fact, it might have been positive as far as delivering the message to the team that if you don't go 100 percent anyone of these teams will beat you. I feel good about our chances to get to D.C. See you all there.

Anonymous said...

I'd agree with this. We won the Tourney last year and got our ass kicked by Sconnie.

The Selection Committee has some interesting choices to make, lets hope they give DU some justice.

Anonymous said...

even though i might be able to go to the minnesota regional i'd rather see du in bridgeport as NorDak or UMD should be in Minnesota and they should both travel better than DU

Anonymous said...

First off, congrats to UMD. They dominated the WCHA tourney with strong wins against UM, NoDak and DU, not to mention the sweep of that team down south of us.

Having said that, I still think our chances are as good as anyones of winning the tourney that matters...

Lets Go DU!

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Duluth.

May well be the best team in the WCHA right now. They remind me of DU in '04.

Anonymous said...

This game may not of meant much to us, but I hope DU took a few notes and realized... they need to play with intensity, passion and drive that UMD displayed tonight. Everyone has to do their part, you can't allow others to get ahead of you and you can't be lazy on the play. Hopefully the ass kicking we got tonight served as our example now.

Hell of a game by UMD... they played a perfect game. I don't know what Sharp's status is regarding already being drafted or not... but if he isn't I hope the NHL scouts are looking at this guy. He was incredible.

Anonymous said...

Congrats to UMD first of all. They played a great tournament.

As for DU, I don't know how to describe my disappointment in especially our defense. All the goals that UMD scored were allowed by letting the UMD players just walk around our defense. I hope that DU learns from this match and takes it with them to regionals and hopefully the Frozen Four.

All we can do right now is wait and see who we'll play. But whoever it is...good luck DU. LETS GO DENVER!

Anonymous said...

first goal: unfortunate well placed shot, chevy barely let it in as it took a strange bounce off his pad and he missed the poke check
2nd goal: MULLEN! put some wood on the duluth player or at least try to break up the pass. that is what happens when you are not a long time defensemen sometimes your instincts are off.
3rd goal: somebody play the body, also we looked discombobulated as duluth started the pp
4th: empty net we looked for some offense did not matter

time for the NCAAs and it looks like our old friend Enrico Blasi and the Miami Redmen i mean redhawks.

Anonymous said...

Great tournament for UMD. Looked like Denver wasn't quite as hungry. I hope they can get a fully-recovered Tyler Bozek back for the NCAA's. I'm not 100% sure that the field of 16 is set. Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are virtually tied, even though OSU hold the tie-breaker(s). But since Minnesota is one of the four hosts for the regionals, and Minnesota's AD Joel Maturi is the head of the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey committee, I wouldn't be surprised to see Minnesota added as the 16th team. OSU, who really isn't a hockey school would be left out. Too bad !

Anonymous said...

Minnesota and Wisconsin are out. OSU is in. The PWR is straightforward, and the math is the math.

I don't have a problem with Bridgeport or Minneapolis, but I hope we don't see UMD in the regional.

Anonymous said...

Nice job on making history. You guys really looked strong against a team that was playing their 3rd game in a row.

Anonymous said...

Of all teams in our bracket, DU would have the best chance against UMD, on the revenge factor alone.
Still NO ONE wants to play UMD now. Let's hope they are one and done next week. But then, they have "home ice" AGAIN!!

Twister said...

Disappointing loss. I didn't see any of it, but it sounds as though DU did not play very well or with much inspiration, but at the same time, it didn't sound as though UMD was to be denied. Wow, they beat CC twice in a row, then UMN, then UND, and then DU. Amazing run. Hats off to the Bulldogs.