Frozen Four 2013: Quinnipiac, Yale advance to all-Conn. title game

PITTSBURGH -- The Quinnipiac Bobcats are headed to the national championship game. The nation’s top-ranked college hockey team showed why they deserve that honor on Thursday evening, easily defeating a strong St. Cloud State Huskies team, 4-1, with a sound mix of speed, opportunism and brilliant goaltending from Hobey Baker finalist Eric Hartzell.

The Bobcats stormed out to a 3-0 lead early and never looked back. A goal by Jordan Samuels-Thomas just 1:49 into the game gave QU a 1-0 lead, and from there, they piled on with goals by Ben Arnt and Jeremy Langlois to take a 3-0 lead into the second period.

PITTSBURGH -- After a slight delay thanks to overtime in the Yale vs. UMass-Lowell game, we’re just about set for puck drop at CONSOL Energy Center between the Quinnipiac Bobcats and St. Cloud State Huskies. Here’s a look at the lines for both teams:

Matthew Peca - Connor Jones - Kellen Jones

Clay Harvey - Jeremy Langlois - Travis St. Denis

Bryce Van Brabant - Ben Arnt - Jordan Samuels-Thomas

Kevin Bui - Cory Hibbeler - Russell Goodman

PITTSBURGH -- Due to extra hockey being played in the Yale vs. UMass-Lowell game, the faceoff for our second game at the 2013 Frozen Four has been delayed about 45 minutes. It’s expected that the puck will drop between Quinnipiac and St. Cloud State at 8:46 p.m. ET as opposed to the originally scheduled 8 p.m. start time.

The game will still air on ESPN2 as scheduled, but if you tuned in at 8 p.m. and saw Gruden’s QB Camp instead, that’s also related to the delay. No worry.

PITTSBURGH -- There’s no doubt that after a back-and-forth first 40 minutes, Yale and UMass-Lowell sat back and played a much more conservative hockey game in the third period.

Both teams created a handful of chances in the final 20 minutes of regulation, but neither really seemed to threaten with consistency. Yale seemed to get the puck deep and create zone time a bit more often than Lowell did, but even they didn’t get many tough pucks on UML goalie Connor Hellebucyk.

PITTSBURGH -- The 2013 Frozen Four kicks off at 4:30 p.m. ET Thursday from Consol Energy Center with the Vegas-favorite UMass-Lowell River Hawks taking on the 15th-overall seeded Yale Bulldogs. It’s the first ever Frozen Four game for UMass-Lowell, the 2013 Hockey East champions, and it’s the first for the Bulldogs since the 1950s.

Here’s a look at the lineups for Thursday’s Frozen Four opener: