What more can we say?
UMD is in the Frozen Four for a third straight year, and 24 hours from the point where I'm sitting here pecking away at the keyboard (mid-afternoon Monday), we will be in the air and en route to Buffalo.
The Bulldogs have done this thing before. Outside of the freshmen, who I'm sure will be well-versed on the processes, nothing will be new. It's a perk of making three straight trips to this great event: There are no mysteries.
And the players will enjoy themselves. I remember being downstairs at Xcel Energy Center before last year's semifinal game against Ohio State, and as I was recording my pregame chat with Scott Sandelin, you could hear the players hooting and hollering all the way down at the other end of the hallway.
I told Sandelin it was probably as loose as I'd seen this team before a big-spot game. And by “loose,” I mean He was perfectly fine with it, because he knew they'd be ready when the bell rang.
They were, as UMD led 2-0 barely three minutes into the game, and even after Ohio State closed within one, the Buckeyes struggled to pose a serious threat to tie the game. UMD won the game and then won the national championship 48 hours later, and the Bulldogs were just as loose before that game as they were the Ohio State contest.
It's probably something I'll watch for when I'm at the arena Wednesday and Thursday. And I expect they'll be ready to work when the time comes, but also trying to enjoy themselves and being around each other the rest of the time.
After all, this is an amazing time for this hockey program. There's a necessary intensity in a national semifinal game on a big stage, but getting to that intensity at gametime shouldn't preclude anyone from enjoying the moments leading up to that point.
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That past experience — which might be a huge part of how this team stays loose in these huge moments — is also a growing part of UMD's success in general.
Think about it.
Parker Mackay will play in his 13th NCAA Tournament game on Thursday. He hopes to get to 14 Saturday, which would be simply incredible.
(The NCAA doesn't appear to have tracked individual player appearances in the NCAA Tournament, but via some other record searches, I don't see more than one goalie — Scott Clemmensen for Boston College — who has started more than 13 games. I'll update if I can find any more definitive info on skaters playing in this tournament, but given the field didn't go to 16 teams until 2003, it stands to reason there aren't a lot of players who have as many games played in the tournament as Mackay does.)
Look at the roster.
Riley Tufte, Billy Exell, and Nick Wolff are already in double digits for tournament games played. Jade Miller is getting there. Hunter Shepard (6) is already tied for seventh all-time in goalie wins in the NCAA Tournament. And he's in his second season as the UMD starter. He also had a front-row seat for the Bulldogs' run in 2017, even though Hunter Miska played in those games.
The Bulldogs face a Providence team that is full of experience of its own. Penn State transfer Scott Conway will lace 'em up for the 153rd time as a college player Thursday, one of nine Friars who own at least 100 college games played. UMD has five, including senior and Alaska-Fairbanks transfer Peter Krieger, who will also play in his 153rd career game Thursday.
These are two older teams who have the kind of experience on their rosters that makes them scary. Providence's fourth-year seniors probably remember UMD knocking the Friars out of the 2016 NCAA Tournament, a 2-1 double-overtime victory. Mackay is the only current UMD player who played in that game. Bryan Lemos, Ryan Tait, and Vincent Desharnais all played for Providence that night and will be in the lineup Thursday.
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More to come later this week from Buffalo.
I'll be live on the radios from Buffalo Wednesday and Thursday, with my 10am show on KDAL emanating live from KeyBank Center Wednesday.
3:30pm pregame Thursday, faceoff at 4pm. We'll have it live on the radio and online, just like usual.
Back on the blog Wednesday after practices, and look for a Facebook Live at facebook.com/610kdal at some point Wednesday evening.
