Photo courtesy John Leyba, The Denver Post
The NCAA must have been sweating it out last year experimenting with Chicago as a first-time destination for the Frozen Four. The Windy City does not have any Division I hockey programs, and strangely neither does the rest of the state of Illinois despite a large number of top college players coming from that area. Yet the NCAA rolled the dice on a major city that has recently gone hockey-crazy because of their Blackhawks.
Of the four Frozen Four finalists, Denver and Harvard weren’t assumed to be the big draws leaving it up to the University of Minnesota-Duluth and the University of Notre Dame to fill the 3rd largest hockey arena in North America. The NCAA lucked out since Duluth brought a good amount of fans from Minnesota and the Fighting Irish seemingly drew their whole fan-base.
Unfortunately for the Fighting Irish fans, they had to see their hockey team fall to the Denver Pioneers 6-1 in a lopsided game that ended their season.
It seems like it was just yesterday when the Pioneers hoisted the NCAA championship trophy, but the summer has come and gone. As the Pios embark on a new season as defending champs, they will start on the road the second week of October against a familiar foe, the Fighting Irish.
The #4 Irish will host #1 Denver this weekend at the Compton Family Ice Arena this weekend!
— Notre Dame Hockey (@NDHockey) October 10, 2017
Who’s In?
The Fighting Irish’s incoming class features the New Jersey Devils 2017 7th round pick Matt Hellickson and 6’4 German forward Max Eisenmenger. Overall, the Irish added four forwards, one defenseman, and two goalies for the 2017-18 season.
Who’s Out?
The Irish lost a couple captains from their 2016-17 Frozen Four roster that will be difficult to replace. Forward Anders Bjork and goaltender Cal Petersen both decided to sign pro contracts with the Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings, respectively.
Bjork was a 5th-round pick of the Boston Bruins in 2014. He led the Irish in goals (21), assists (31), and points (52) last season.
Peterson was the #1 goalie last season who put up great numbers for the Irish. He was 23-12-5 with a goals-against average of 2.22 and a save-percentage of .926. Peterson started all 40 games last season.
ND Strengths
The Fighting Irish lost their leading scorer, but are returning a handful of defensemen who are looking to build on last season. Luke Ripley, Andrew Peeke, Jordan Gross, and Dennis Gilbert make up a strong defensive core that will be hard to score on this year.
Gross had the most productive season offensively scoring 10 goals and 22 assists in 40 games last season. Gilbert (2015-CHI-3) and Peeke (2016-CBJ-2) are two 6’2 200 pound defenseman who will be looking to continue another strong defensive campaign this season.
ND Weaknesses
The elephant in the room has to be the loss of Cal Petersen. Losing Bjork is a big for the forward group, but Petersen stood on his head all year to help the Fighting Irish earn a Frozen Four appearance.
What Jim Montgomery did so well in the Frozen Four against the Irish was game-plan to expose Petersen. The speedy Pioneers kept the in puck deep and wore out the big Irish defenders, capitalizing on several defensive lapses in their defensive zone. Look for more of the same in this series.
Key Stats
- ND 2016 home record vs. non-conf. teams: 8-3-1
- ND 2016 shots per game: 32.8
- ND 2016 goals per game: 3.2
- 41% of ND’s total goals came in the 3rd period in 2016
Who to watch
#18 – F Jake Evans – 40GP 13G 29A 52PTS
#15 – F Andrew Oglevie – 40GP 21G 20A 41PTS
#3 – D Jordan Gross – 40GP 10G 22A 32PTS
#26 – F Cam Morrison – 40GP 12G 12A 24PTS
#1 – G Dylan St. Cyr – Freshman goalie
Prediction – Denver splits the series with Notre Dame
The Pioneers lost a major piece of their team in captain Will Butcher, but returning stars Henrik Borgstrom, Troy Terry, and Dylan Gambrell will keep the Pios at the top of the national ranks. Last season, the Pioneers started slow out of the gate losing games to Ohio State and Boston University in the Ice Breaker Tournament and a similar start may be evident this season. It will take a couple games for the Pioneers to back into shape for Montgomery’s high-energy system and for new captain Tariq Hammond to settle in after his injury in the National Championship game back in April.
The Fighting Irish have started the season strong with two wins against the University of Alabama-Huntsville last weekend. Forward Jake Evans leads the team with 2 goals and 3 assists while freshman goaltender Dylan St. Cyr posted an impressive 34-save shutout in his first Division I NCAA start.
With the Pioneers itching to get back into action for the first time this season and the Fighting Irish looking to get revenge from last year’s Frozen Four, this weekend’s series at the Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend should not disappoint.
READ NEXT: 2017-18 UNIVERSITY OF DENVER HOCKEY SEASON PREVIEW
Doubtful the NCAA was “sweating” about hosting NCAA Frozen Four in Chicago. The NCAA makes money no matter how many fans show up.
Great to finally have college hockey back. Having the game on NBC-SN tonight is a sweet bonus.
Guessing Notre Dame will be pretty psyched for revenge tonight, so DU better be ready.
Go Pios.
My intentions were not to question the NCAA making money but their ability to fill a venue with a 22,000 capacity in a state where no college hockey is played. If Notre Dame didn’t make the Final, there would’ve been a lot more empty seats.
Ok – I see what you are saying – financial risk vs empty seat risk.
As someone who was at the NCAAs in Chicago last year, I was expecting a very heavy Notre Dame presence, given the national brand name and the fact that the ND campus is an easy drive from Chicago. What surprised me was how few ND fans were actually there – maybe 2,000-3,000 people at most – perhaps half of what North Dakota brought to Tampa the year before, from far further away. Even DU had about 1,000 fans in the house for the Notre Dame game and somewhere around 1,500 for Saturday’s game.
To sum it up, the Frozen Four has about 8-10,000 travel fans who show up every year, no matter where they hold it and no matter what teams are in it. The rest of the crowd comes from the participating schools and local hockey fans.
Damian is spot-on. The NCAA rarely sweats or rolls the dice on its annual hockey tournament, since the host city contractually guarantees that that the NCAA will make a profit, with the local organizers making up for any financial shortfall. Thus, the only real risk here is on the local organizing committee, who are responsible for ticket sales and most of the revenue generation. That’s why DU hasn’t bid for an NCAA tournament recently in hockey or lacrosse – they don’t think they can make enough revenue to pay the guarantee…
I am looking forward to seeing this DU team skate hard out of the gate. Last year, it was a slow start to the season, and now that all of Monty’s players are his own recruits, so we should expect them to play the system, with the exception of the freshmen, who often take a few months to adjust to the grind, speed, size and physicality of the college game.
Also, both games are on NBC Sports Network nationally. Friday night’s game is a 5pm MT, Saturday’s game is at 4 pm MT.
Cable Providers
CenturyLink Prism – Denver – Denver – Digital
NBCSNChannel 640NBCSN HDChannel 1640
Charter Communications – Paonia – Digital
NBCSNChannel 404
Comcast Suburbs Denver N&S – Aurora – Digital
NBCSNChannel 73NBCSN HDChannel 689
Satellite Providers
C-Band – USA – Satellite: North America
NBCSNChannel G7-21
DIRECTV Denver – Denver – Satellite: Local
NBCSNChannel 220 NBCSN HDChannel 220
DIRECTV – USA – Satellite: United States
NBCSN HDChannel 220 NBCSNChannel 220
DISH Denver – Denver – Satellite: Local
NBCSN HDChannel 159
DISH Network – USA – Satellite: United States
NBCSN HDChannel 159Channel
Doubtful the NCAA was “sweating” about hosting NCAA Frozen Four in Chicago. The NCAA makes money no matter how many fans show up.
Great to finally have college hockey back. Having the game on NBC-SN tonight is a sweet bonus.
Guessing Notre Dame will be pretty psyched for revenge tonight, so DU better be ready.
Go Pios.
My intentions were not to question the NCAA making money but their ability to fill a venue with a 22,000 capacity in a state where no college hockey is played. If Notre Dame didn’t make the Final, there would’ve been a lot more empty seats.
Ok – I see what you are saying – financial risk vs empty seat risk.
As someone who was at the NCAAs in Chicago last year, I was expecting a very heavy Notre Dame presence, given the national brand name and the fact that the ND campus is an easy drive from Chicago. What surprised me was how few ND fans were actually there – maybe 2,000-3,000 people at most – perhaps half of what North Dakota brought to Tampa the year before, from far further away. Even DU had about 1,000 fans in the house for the Notre Dame game and somewhere around 1,500 for Saturday’s game.
To sum it up, the Frozen Four has about 8-10,000 travel fans who show up every year, no matter where they hold it and no matter what teams are in it. The rest of the crowd comes from the participating schools and local hockey fans.
Damian is spot-on. The NCAA rarely sweats or rolls the dice on its annual hockey tournament, since the host city contractually guarantees that that the NCAA will make a profit, with the local organizers making up for any financial shortfall. Thus, the only real risk here is on the local organizing committee, who are responsible for ticket sales and most of the revenue generation. That’s why DU hasn’t bid for an NCAA tournament recently in hockey or lacrosse – they don’t think they can make enough revenue to pay the guarantee…
I am looking forward to seeing this DU team skate hard out of the gate. Last year, it was a slow start to the season, and now that all of Monty’s players are his own recruits, so we should expect them to play the system, with the exception of the freshmen, who often take a few months to adjust to the grind, speed, size and physicality of the college game.
Also, both games are on NBC Sports Network nationally. Friday night’s game is a 5pm MT, Saturday’s game is at 4 pm MT.
Cable Providers
CenturyLink Prism – Denver – Denver – Digital
NBCSNChannel 640NBCSN HDChannel 1640
Charter Communications – Paonia – Digital
NBCSNChannel 404
Comcast Suburbs Denver N&S – Aurora – Digital
NBCSNChannel 73NBCSN HDChannel 689
Satellite Providers
C-Band – USA – Satellite: North America
NBCSNChannel G7-21
DIRECTV Denver – Denver – Satellite: Local
NBCSNChannel 220 NBCSN HDChannel 220
DIRECTV – USA – Satellite: United States
NBCSN HDChannel 220 NBCSNChannel 220
DISH Denver – Denver – Satellite: Local
NBCSN HDChannel 159
DISH Network – USA – Satellite: United States
NBCSN HDChannel 159Channel