Looks like I am just a little late on the uptake here, but the Frozen Four starts on the 28^th of March. I know that this takes a bit of a backseat to the Men’s Basketball tournament, but I still like to keep a little bit of an eye on it.

This year the Denver Pioneers beat Minnesota for their 15^th WCHA championship. For the first round, the Pioneers will face off against Wisconsin. Wisconsin has a 15-16-7 record while Denver is riding a 23-13-1 record. Wisconsin shouldn’t be an issue for Denver.

The Air Force Falcons on the other hand, will have a tougher time than Denver in the first round when they face the top seeded Miami (Ohio).

Other games in the first round include:

Michigan (31-5-4) and Niagara (22-10-4)

St. Cloud St. (19-15-5) and Clarkson (21-12-4)

Colorado Col. (28-11-1) and Michigan St. (24-11-5)

Notre Dame (24-15-4) and New Hampshire (25-9-3)

North Dakota (26-10-4) and Princeton (21-13)

Boston College (21-11-8) and Minnesota (19-16-9)

The teams to watch this year:

Michigan: CCHA champions and the top ranked team in the country right now. Need I say more?

Denver: Winning the WCHA title for the 15^th time is nothing to sneeze at. They also have the playoff and championship experience to go all the way.

Minnesota: While the Gophers looked like they wouldn’t make the NCAA tourney this year, they fought tooth and nail through February and pulled a 3-1-2 record for their last 6 games. This brought them from ninth to seventh place and into the playoffs.

Miami (Ohio): While they did lose the CCHA championship to Michigan this year, they fought a hard battle from minute one. Expect this to translate to the NCAA tournament.

So let’s get to filling out those brackets!

You can print your bracket from the NCAA’s website at:

http://www.ncaa.com/uploadedFiles/Sports/Ice_Hockey_(M)/2008D1MHBracket.pdf