Chris Dilks at SB Nation’s Western College Hockey Blog was on the ground in St. Paul on Friday and Saturday for the NCAA West Regional at Xcel Energy Center. He filed an ‘odds and ends’ report with miscellanous observations from the two day event. The Wisconsin Badgers prevailed in the bracket to advance to the Frozen Four in Detroit.
NCAA Hockey: Miscellaneous Thoughts From The West Regional
- Attendance was 7100. I thought they would pick up more St. Cloud fans with it being a Saturday night, and being such a big game, but no luck. I still believe they priced out all but the hardcore fans with those tickets. Roman Augustoviz at the Star-Trib should have a article with quotes from the University of Minnesota's director of athletic communications Garry Bowman that talks about the attendance.
- All-Tournament Team: Blake Geoffrion, Garrett Roe, Tony Mosey, Brendan Smith, Ryan McDonagh, Scott Gudmanson. MVP: Blake Geoffrion. My ballot was pretty much the same, except swap Ryan Lasch for Tony Mosey, Erik Gustafsson for Ryan McDonagh, and Rob Madore for Scott Gudmanson.
I felt Lasch made a few more plays than Mosey. It was really hard leaving McDonagh off because he was a rock all weekend, but I felt Gustafsson deserved recognition for how well he played on Friday. It's only one game, but he probably logged as much ice time as most players do in three games, and it's all the more impressive since he did it on a pretty bad ankle. Gudmanson won two games, and was good when he needed to be, but he wasn't great. Really, the last two goals he gave up to St. Cloud were a little soft. Madore was brilliant against Wisconsin, but didn't get the offensive support he needed.
[...]
- I watched St. Cloud's final nine games of the season, and quite frankly, that's way too much. I did gain a greater appreciation for the way Ryan Lasch plays. It helps that he registered points in each of his team's last five games. But I think still his professional future is overseas.
Click over to WCH for the whole read.
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