The Road to the 2015 Frozen Four Begins Friday

The 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championship will begin on Friday March 27^th, as 16 teams have survived the regular season and Championship Tournaments to make the NCAA Tourney with one goal in common: to reach and win the Frozen Four.

There are Four Regions: East, Northeast, West and Midwest.

The Top Four Seeds are: Minnesota St. Mankato in the Midwest; North Dakota in the West; Boston University in the Northeast and Miami (Ohio) in the East

The first region to begin play will be the Northeast Region on Friday March 27^th at 2:00PM EST with Boston U. taking on Yale. Then at 5:30 or so, Minnesota Duluth will take on Minnesota. The winners will meet each other at 5:30 on Saturday March 28^th. All games in this region will be played at Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Also starting on Friday March 27^th, the West Region will have Michigan Tech meet St. Cloud State at 4:30PM EST and then at 8:00 or so, North Dakota will face off against Quinnipiac. The winners of these two games will meet on March 28^th at 9:00PM EST. All games in this region will be played at Scheels Arena in Fargo, North Dakota.

The East and Midwest Regions will begin play on Saturday March 28^th, with the East Region games starting at 3:00PM EST with Denver meeting Boston College. Then at 6:30PM or so, Miami (Ohio) will face off against Providence. The winners will meet on Sunday March 29^th at 5:00PM EST. All games in this region will be played at Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Midwest Region will start play on Saturday March 27^th at 4:00PM EST with Minnesota St. Mankato versus RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology). Then at 7:30PM or so, Nebraska University of Omaha will meet Harvard. The winners will meet on Sunday March 29^th at 7:30PM EST. All Games in this region will be played at the Compton Family Ice Center in South Bend, Indiana.

The Frozen Four will be played at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The two Semi-finals will take place at 5:00PM EST and 8:30 or so on Thursday April 9^th and the National Championship Game will be played at 7:30 PM EST on Saturday April 11^th.

I believe that the East Region is the toughest of the four, as anyone of the four teams can advance to Boston and the Frozen Four. Yale may be the 4^th seed out of 4 teams, but won it all two years ago in the same situation. Besides that, Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth are both VERY good teams. The favorite will be Boston University, led by the freshman sensation Jack Eichel.

My predictions are as such:

East Region: Miami, (Ohio) will defeat hometown Providence and Denver will defeat Boston College. Denver will then punch a ticket for Boston.

Midwest Region: Minnesota St. Mankato will defeat RIT and Harvard will upset Nebraska University at Omaha. Minnesota St. Mankato will then go to Boston. If you are wondering why Mankato sounds so familiar, well it was the “big city” that the Ingalls family sometimes visited on the long running TV show “Little House on the Prairie”.

Northeast Region: Boston University will defeat Yale and Minnesota will defeat Minnesota Duluth. The Golden Gophers of Minnesota will then defeat Boston University in a hard fought matchup. I pick Minnesota because they have been there before and have older players who have been in this situation many times.

West Region: St. Cloud State will defeat Michigan Tech and North Dakota will defeat Quinnipiac. North Dakota will then move on to Boston.

In the Semi-finals: Minnesota St. Mankato will defeat Denver and Minnesota will defeat North Dakota and set up an all-Minnesota Championship Game and the Golden Gophers will win it all for head coach Don Lucia.

There you have it folks, my fearless predictions on College Hockey. Check back and see how I do.