2023 NCAA Tournament Open Thread

[mbenecke]

The 2023 NCAA tournament begins today. I'll post the schedule and you can add commentary here, if you're following along with the games.

Hopefully some day soon, our Falcons will be back in the tournament. Crazy that the drought is already back up to 4 years already.

Thu 3/23
Western Michigan vs. Boston U 2:00pm ESPN2
Minnesota State vs. St. Cloud 5:00pm ESPNU
Denver vs. Cornell 5:30pm ESPNNews
Minnesota vs. Canisius 9:00pm ESPN2

Fri 3/24
Ohio State vs. Harvard 2:00pm ESPNU
Michigan Tech vs. Penn State 5:00pm ESPNU
Quinnipiac vs. Merrimack 5:30pm ESPNNews
Michigan vs. Colgate 8:30pm ESPNU

Sat 3/25
Western Michigan/Boston U vs. Denver/Cornell 4:00pm ESPNU
Minnesota State/St. Cloud vs. Minnesota/Canisius 6:30pm ESPNU

Sun 3/26
Ohio State/Harvard vs. Quinnipiac/Merrimack 4:00pm ESPNU
Michigan Tech/Penn State vs. Michigan/Colgate 6:30pm ESPNU

Thu 4/6
5:00pm ESPN2
8:30pm ESPN2

Sat 4/8
8:00pm ESPN2

[mbenecke]

WMU and Mankato lost on Day 1, but Ohio State is ROLLING Harvard right now. Not sure what all of that says about us, though.

[mbenecke]

The “CCHA Player of the Year” has given up 4 goals through 2 periods against Penn State, as Tech trails 4-0.

Feels nice when you’re proven right.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The first one was soft, but Tech is playing el stinko defense. Embarrassing display.

[AZIce]

Tech being down 4 may as well be 24 with that offense they have.......season over Huskies. Thanks for playing.

I think we all knew that CCHA had no great teams this year. Mankato was average all year and Tech made the tourney basically off the one weekend they won ASU's tourney here in AZ. They have been "goal challenged" all year.
Northern was probably the leagues only shot to actually win a tourney game as they were peaking at the right time, until they spit the bit in Mankato.

How about the B1G though, not just winning, but smoking teams......yeeeeshh.

[mbenecke]

It didn’t take long for the Big Ten to stake its claim as the best conference in college hockey. The NCHC is very good, but it feels like they’ve taken a backseat to the Big Ten now.

[mbenecke]

Michigan Tech suffers the biggest shutout loss in the history of the NCAA tournament tonight, losing 8-0 to Penn State.

Blake Pietila… congrats on the award, man. Really impressive stuff.

[AZIce]

Goals are 25-3 through 3 games!!.....Tech and Canisus were tomato cans, but Harvard was a solid club that OSU just boat raced......assuming UM will crush Colgate tonight as well.

[mbenecke]

The CCHA lost 4-0 and 8-0 on the national stage.

Thoroughly embarrassing. And we weren’t even all that close to the teams that got blown out!

[pdt1081]

The CCHA lost 4-0 and 8-0 on the national stage.

Thoroughly embarrassing. And we weren’t even all that close to the teams that got blown out!

The CCHA is stuck in the 90s. The upcoming league meetings will be very interesting, and probably feel a little deja-vu-ish for the WCHA 1.0 teams. When the "best" CCHA teams have to change the way they play for the tournament, it's not going to have very favorable results.

[mbenecke]

To hammer home the Big Ten point:

Minnesota won 9-2
Ohio State won 8-1
Penn State won 8-0
Michigan won 11-1

Utter insanity.

[TommyG]

It’s cyclical…BIG10 seems to be the deepest conference this year, but next year it could be back to NCHC. CCHA doesn’t doesn’t get the top tier skill players. When it’s to the big show, you better have a smoking hot goalie if you can’t consistently score 4 goals a night.

[mbenecke]

Boston U and Minnesota advanced to the Frozen Four yesterday, where they will play each other.

Ohio State plays Quinnipiac today at 4:00 on ESPNU, while Penn State plays Michigan at 6:30 on ESPNU. Winners of today’s games will also face off against each other in Tampa.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Bowling Green remains Ohio’s national champion for another year.

[mbenecke]

Remember when we went on the road and swept Quinnipiac in their own building during COVID? Our programs are on opposite trajectories since then.