Garnet Hockey Report: Frozen Four 2011: Day 1

Semifinal Thursday is one of my favorite days of the year, and this year's ST was a great one. There were two barnburners where the team that controlled the play five-on-five lost. In Game 1, The University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 4-3 behind three power-play goals, while killing all five of Notre Dame's power-play opportunities (recap). The second game was another close affair, but was a low scoring games. After Michigan scored a goal midway through the first frame, they held on for dear life before sealing the game with an empty netter late in regulation to win 2-0. The star of Game 2 was definitely Wolverine goaltender Shawn Hurwick, who stopped all forty Sioux shots (recap). Who thought UMD and Michigan would be in the championship game?

In Game 1, the game got off to a blazing start as each team netted five goals in the first period. Both goaltenders, Kenny Reiter and Mike Johnson, seemed very jittery at first, but both settled in as the game went on. The theme of the game was special teams with UMD's PP and PK running on all cylinders (sound familiar Union fans?), while Notre Dame scored their third goal while killing a penalty. The FCC line had a good game, including Jack "Peroxide Jesus" Connolly scoring the game-winning goal. I was also once again impressed with UMD freshman defenseman Justin Faulk (he has some nice flow as well).

In the night cap, the Fighting Sioux had many great chances but either missed the net or didn't pull the trigger. But, you have to give a lot of credit to Hurwick and the Wolverine defense. The Wolverines were just opportunistic and played well defensively. It was a pretty big upset as many thought UND was the favorite to win the championship, and Michigan was just lucky to be there. The great Sioux fans were incredibly disappointed after the loss.

Personally, while it's nice to see UMD win and make it to the national championship game, it still hurts to see it. Seeing them win just makes me feel that it could have been Union. But, UMD has been excellent this post-season and deserves to be here. I also think the Dutchmen would have been over-matched by teams like North Dakota and Michigan. The ECAC still has a lot to prove to the WCHA and CCHA teams.

Each game had a great atmosphere. In the first game the UMD fans brought the energy, while large North Dakota crowd in Game 2 brought a ton of energy and fanaticism until the later half of the third period when they got nervous and quited down. The Xcel Energy Center was very full, especially in Game 2, which was evident by the crowded lower concourse. The food was also pretty good (cheesesteak and meatball hoagie).

I saw a grand total of four Union fans at the rink, which was pretty cool, and talked to two of them while waiting to buy a Frozen Four 2011 t-shirt. The t-shirt I bought was really cool because it had the logos of each team that made the NCAA Tournament on the back. It was pretty awesome to see Union's logo on Frozen Four t-shirts!

I also enjoyed Little Herb Brooks' appearance in Game 2 (click here if you don't know who he is), along with the overall Frozen Four atmosphere. It's a lot of fun seeing all the different jerseys and so many college hockey fans. Off the top of my head, the only ECAC jerseys I saw people wearing were RPI and Clarkson. I also saw: RIT, Lake Superior State, Nebraska-Omaha, Boston College, New Hampshire, and just a few others. It seemed that everyone was wearing a North Dakota jersey.

Tomorrow we will be going to Opening Day for the Minnesota Twins at Target Stadium. I've never been to an Opening Day so it should be a fun experience. I'm not too interested in the game. I just want to check out the new stadium and see if the food is good.

Anyways, here are some pictures I took today: