National Championship Game Preview and Hobey Baker Award Announced

So let's just pretend my predictions on Sunday never happened shall we? Anyways, I'm taking a mulligan on the national championship game.
(2) Boston College vs (4) Notre Dame


In two shocking results, BC and ND advanced to the championship game by dominating the two highest seeded teams remaining in the field. Even though the Notre Dame-Michigan game went into overtime, Notre Dame physically took it to the Wolverines and showed that while Michigan was the most talented team in the field, sometimes extreme effort is enough to overcome that talent gap.

The championship game should be extremely interesting. Boston College's forwards shredded the best defense in the country on Thursday, and it's expected they will do the same to Notre Dame. Irish goalie Jordan Pearce will be a huge key in this game. He probably needs to stand on his head in order to give the Irish a chance at victory. Offensively the Irish have somehow been getting some goal scoring in the NCAA tournament, but it's hard to see them putting up too crooked of a number against the Eagles, even though their defense isn't very good. While the main focus will be on how successful Notre Dame's defense is at bottling up the BC offense, to me the more important matchup will be at the other end of the rink. If Carl Sneep, Mike Brennan, Nick Petrecki and the rest of the BC defensemen can shut down the Irish it will be a long day for Notre Dame fans, but in the end I think Ryan Thang and company will squeak out just enough to give Notre Dame a 3-2 upset win and the national championship.

Porter Wins Hobey Baker Award

As expected, Michigan's Kevin Porter is the 2008 recipient of the Hobey Baker Award, given to the best player in college hockey. Porter currently is tied for first nationally in goals with BC's Nathan Gerbe, and he finished second in points. Seen as one of the favorites the whole year, Porter locked down the award by scoring 4 goals in their NCAA Tourney opening round game against Niagara. Even moreso, Porter helped lead the young Wolverines to the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and even though they were upset in the Frozen Four semifinals, Porter was a huge reason they got that far. Porter previously had been named CCHA and national player of the year by Inside College Hockey.

Frozen Four Preview

Even though there's a decently big basketball game tomorrow night, my boss (Joe) thought it would be fitting to do a Frozen Four preview tonight.

(4) Notre Dame vs. (1) Michigan

This game features the first four seed to ever make the Frozen Four in the current 16 team format against the number 1 overall team in the tournament. The main story for the Irish is their lack of offense. They lost leading scorer Erik Condra to a lower body injury, so now Sophomore forward Ryan Thang (17-13--30) is the active leading scorer for the Irish. If Notre Dame is going to have a chance, their MVP, junior goalie Jordan Pearce is going to have to have a herculean effort. Pearce had 52 saves in the West regional, and one could expect him to have to make close to that amount on Thursday against the vaunted Wolverine offense.

That offense is led by Kevin Porter, the leading scorer in the country. Porter, who is also first in goals with 31, joins teammate Chad Kolarik on the front line. Porter and Kolarik will also be teammates at the next level, as both are owned by the Phoenix Coyotes. They both also bring it on special teams: Porter is tied for second nationally with 15 power play goals, and Kolarik is tied for third nationally with 4 shorthanded goals.

Prediction: Michigan just has too much offensively and if goalie Billy Sauer avoids having a complete meltdown I see Michigan moving on to the national title game.


(1) North Dakota vs (2) Boston College

These two have gotten to know each other very well, with this being the 3rd year in a row they will play in the national semifinals. This marks the first of these 3 meetings that the Sioux will be wearing the white jerseys.

Up front BC features the 2nd leading scorer in the country Nate Gerbe, a Hobey hat trick finalist, while North Dakota is led by Hobey finalist TJ Oshie (18-27--45). The Hockey East tournament champs have put up 150 goals this season, and in Gerbe they feature the most exciting player in the country. There have been some questions about his character (more on that in the Hobey preview) but there is no doubt that North Dakota will have to account for him whenever he is on the ice.

Defensively is where North Dakota has the huge edge. The Sioux are led by Senior goalie Jean-Philippe Lamoureux, who leads the nation in GAA at 1.64. To contrast, BC goalie John Muse is 19th at 2.26. Lamoureux also leads the nation in save percentage at 93.6%. Shockingly, Lamoureux was not a Hobey Hat Trick finalist, nor was he the conference's first team goalie. North Dakota also features a deep defensive core, led by preseason All-American Taylor Chorney. BC's blueline was hit hard when Brett Motherwell left the team early in the season to pursue a professional career, and they will be susceptible to North Dakota's offense, which has been nothing if not opportunistic this season.

Prediction: North Dakota's overall depth plus Lamoureux's skill in goal will move North Dakota into the championship game.

I'll have a Hobey preview later this week, and since at least one of these predictions is bound to be horribly wrong, I'll have a national championship game preview on Friday.