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Minnesota Golden Gophers<\/h4>\n
Schedule<\/a> :: Stats<\/a> :: Roster<\/a><\/p>\n Coach:<\/b> Don Lucia<\/a>, 15th season at Minnesota, 27th overall<\/p>\n Record:<\/b> 25-6-6 (14-3-3 Big Ten, first)<\/p>\n How they got in:<\/b> At-large bid<\/p>\n Regional seed:<\/b> First<\/p>\n Last NCAA tournament appearance:<\/b> 2013<\/p>\n Best NCAA finish:<\/b> Champion, 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002 and 2003<\/p>\n Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four:<\/b> The Golden Gophers have a potentially explosive offense and one of the best goaltenders in the country in sophomore Adam Wilcox.<\/p>\n Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four:<\/b> While the Gophers can score goals, they have difficulty with consistency. This is a less-experienced Minnesota team and a team that often struggles on special teams.<\/p>\n From almost the beginning of the 2013-14 season, it was clear that the Minnesota Golden Gophers were the team to beat in the Big Ten.<\/p>\n They weren’t flashy but they scored goals. They weren’t dominant, as coach Don Lucia pointed out repeatedly, but they continued to win games.<\/p>\n Minnesota earned the first regular season Big Ten championship and was at or near the No. 1 spot in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll for the majority of the season, but this year’s team is significantly different from teams past.<\/p>\n “We probably overachieved this season,” said Lucia. “We’re a good team with a very good goalie.”<\/p>\n While the Gophers have five players with a dozen or more goals and the No. 8 offense in the nation (3.41 goals per game), Minnesota is a team that has scored by committee all season — and players have scored in streaks.<\/p>\n Top scorer Kyle Rau, a junior forward, has netted five of his 12 goals in the last seven games. Rau’s classmate, forward Sam Warning, began the season on a hot streak, scoring five of his 12 goals in his first four games before hitting a 15-game drought … only to score five goals in three contests before another seven-game skid.<\/p>\n The team’s top goal scorer, Seth Ambroz, has 13 goals but hasn’t scored in his last eight contests.<\/p>\n In three of their last four games, the Gophers netted two goals or fewer, including their one-goal performance in a semifinal loss to Ohio State in last week’s Big Ten tournament.<\/p>\n “We have to work harder to get at hard areas of the rink,” said Lucia. “We hit posts … which reinforces how important it is to get pucks in front of the net. It’s not just a matter of shooting at the net; we have to shoot more and we have to funnel the puck to the right spots.<\/p>\n “At this time of year, you have to be more opportunistic. You just have to play using all of your resources.”<\/p>\n One resource upon which Minnesota has relied all season is sophomore goaltender Adam Wilcox, who is third nationally in GAA (1.91) and second for save percentage (.933).<\/p>\n Lucia said that the combination of Wilcox and the overall Minnesota team defense (2.03 goals allowed per game, third nationally) provides the Gophers with one of their best assets and something solid they can take with them from the Big Ten tourney.<\/p>\n “I was happy with the fact that we only gave up one five-on-five goal,” said Lucia. “When we’ve given up two or less most of the time we’ve won.”<\/p>\n But, he added, “Not only do you have to defend this time of year, but you have to find ways to score.”<\/p>\n The Gophers will not underestimate Robert Morris in regional play, said Lucia.<\/p>\n “There’s no easy game in the NCAA tournament,” he said. “The depth of college hockey from the last 10 years until now is night and day. Anybody can beat anybody, literally.”<\/p>\n If Minnesota plays an inconsistent game, it may be because of the youth of this team. The Gophers have eight freshmen who have played regularly this season.<\/p>\n “We’re young and it will be interesting to see how the young guys play this weekend,” said Lucia. “If we’re going to make it to Philadelphia, we need our veterans to play.”<\/p>\n — Paula C. Weston<\/i><\/p>\n Schedule<\/a> :: Stats<\/a> :: Roster<\/a><\/p>\n Coach:<\/b> Jeff Jackson<\/a>, ninth season at Notre Dame, 15th season overall<\/p>\n Record:<\/b> 23-14-2 (9-9-2 Hockey East, eighth)<\/p>\n How they got in:<\/b> At-large bid<\/p>\n Regional seed:<\/b> Second<\/p>\n Last NCAA tournament appearance:<\/b> 2013<\/p>\n Best NCAA finish:<\/b> Runner-up, 2008<\/p>\n Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four:<\/b> Notre Dame has offensive depth, senior leadership and excellent goaltending. That’s a great postseason combination. Additionally, they’re experienced at playing in tough postseason games.<\/p>\n Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four:<\/b> The Irish once again face St. Cloud State in the opener after falling 5-1 a year ago. That will be in the back of every player’s mind. At the same time, you have to believe that dictating the pace and possessing the puck are two critical keys for Notre Dame and an inability to do so simply won’t work.<\/p>\n The Notre Dame Fighting Irish need to rebound from an emotionally flat effort in the Hockey East semifinals, coach Jeff Jackson said.<\/p>\n It could be that the Irish put forth such an incredible effort to beat top-seeded Boston College in the best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinals that they didn’t have enough left in the emotional tank to win again. That, however, is hardly an excuse but more of a concern to the veteran bench boss.<\/p>\n “I can’t tell you why because you’re playing for a championship,” Jackson said, referring to his team’s lack of emotional sharpness, as he put it. “It just didn’t seem we had the same sharpness with the puck. When we had chances, we didn’t capitalize.”<\/p>\n Now his Irish will face a team in the second game of the NCAA West Regional in St. Paul that ended their season in the same round last year. That game, Jackson said, mirrored what happened to his team against Massachusetts-Lowell last Friday.<\/p>\n “The game Friday night reminded me a little bit of our game last year with St. Cloud,” said Jackson. “Our guys have to be ready to play our game. You have to have some specific strategies against the teams you play and how they perform in certain situations.”<\/p>\n Jackson said St. Cloud possesses the same dangers as a year ago. The Huskies force mistakes and capitalize, translating to the Irish needing to find ways to lower the overall number of mistakes.<\/p>\n “They’re an opportunistic team and they transition very well. They are good on the power play and they have offensive depth,” said Jackson. “We’ve got to find a way to generate offense. Last year, they bottled us up offensively as well. We’ve got the guys who can do it; they just have to get it done.”<\/p>\n A major focus of the team will be its senior class. That class’ success includes a trip to the Frozen Four as freshmen and a CCHA tournament title as juniors.<\/p>\n The seniors, in fact, are what Jackson considers the catalyst to his team’s turnaround in Hockey East after disappointing early-season results.<\/p>\n “I don’t think that we would’ve gotten to the Boston Garden, I don’t think we would’ve made it to the NCAA tournament if it wasn’t for our senior class,” said Jackson. “They played their best hockey over the last two months to get us out of a big hole. This is their last kick at the can so I assume they’ll be ready to lay it all on the line.”<\/p>\n — Jim Connelly<\/i><\/p>\n Schedule<\/a> :: Stats<\/a> :: Roster<\/a><\/p>\n Coach:<\/b> Bob Motzko<\/a>, ninth season<\/p>\n Record:<\/b> 21-10-5 (15-8-3 NCHC, first)<\/p>\n How they got in:<\/b> At-large bid<\/p>\n Regional Seed:<\/b> Third<\/p>\n Last NCAA tournament appearance:<\/b> 2013<\/p>\n Best NCAA finish:<\/b> National semifinals, 2013<\/p>\n Why they’ll get to the Frozen Four:<\/b> St. Cloud State has balanced scoring from a variety of players, including captain Nic Dowd and sophomore Jonny Brodzinski. The Huskies also displayed excellent team defense during the first half, and the combination could help them win their region.<\/p>\n Why they won’t get to the Frozen Four:<\/b> St. Cloud’s defense seemed to go on walkabout at several times during the second half. If they can’t get back to their smothering first-half defense, the Huskies could be in for an early exit.<\/p>\n The first round of the NCAA tournament brings St. Cloud State to St. Paul, Minn., two weeks after the Huskies failed to advance to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in Minneapolis by being upset by Miami in the first round of the tournament.<\/p>\n However, for coach Bob Motzko and his players, that early exit may prove to be a blessing.<\/p>\n “We were disappointed, we wanted to be there,” Motzko said. “But in the same breath, the fact that our season wasn’t over, we practiced this week, and it’s not that I want to say that you get over it because you’re disappointed, but we know we have a great chance to be playing in two weeks.<\/p>\n “Our concentration was to get healthy, fine-tune a few things and recharge our battery. We use the term reboot; we needed a reboot. Just having the time off that we did and the mental time, we were able to reboot. You could see it. By midweek, we were getting sharp again and refreshed, and that’s what we are hoping for.<\/p>\n “Some teams have proven in the past that that’s a good formula, the teams that have had a little rest to get ready to play, and we hope that plays out in our favor.”<\/p>\n Last year, St. Cloud advanced to its first Frozen Four. However, a poor start against Quinnipiac proved too much to overcome for the Huskies.<\/p>\n While St. Cloud felt it learned from that loss and got off to a good start in the 2013-14 season, the second half proved problematic.<\/p>\n After starting the season 11-2-3 in the first half, the Huskies went only 9-6-2 in the second half.<\/p>\n Despite those stumbles, St. Cloud State won the Penrose Cup as NCHC regular season champion on the last weekend of the year when it swept Colorado College.<\/p>\n St. Cloud’s first-round opponent is Notre Dame, and the Huskies are hoping that they can get back to playing their best hockey at this critical time of the year.<\/p>\n “The one thing this tournament teaches you is that every year is different,” said Motzko. “You think you want to be in a certain region and you think this region may be a better draw for you, and none of that is true. You just get there and want to be playing the best hockey at that time.<\/p>\n “You want to have a great weekend of hockey. It really doesn’t matter who you play or where you go; that’s proved out over the last handful of years. Our draw, obviously tremendous respect for Jeff Jackson and Notre Dame. They have a lot of veterans on their team. They’re a battle-tested team. They were playing outstanding hockey down the stretch. We just hope we have all those ingredients too, and you just get after it when the tournament starts.”<\/p>\n — Candace Horgan<\/i><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.photoshelter.com\/img-get\/I0000zNn_2Yn3Ihk\/s\/500\/400\/140104-23493580.jpg\")
Notre Dame Fighting Irish<\/h4>\n
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St. Cloud State Huskies<\/h4>\n
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Robert Morris Colonials<\/h4>\n