College Hockey NCAAT - Thursday Open Thread

Submitted by I Bleed Maize N Blue on March 23rd, 2023 at 1:47 PM

U-M vs Colgate is tomorrow night, but Manchester & Fargo regionals are starting today.

WMU vs BU, 2 PM ET on ESPN2

MN St vs St. Cloud St, 5 PM on ESPNU

Cornell vs Denver, 5:30 PM on ESPNews

Canisius vs MN, 9 PM on ESPN2

mfan_in_ohio

March 23rd, 2023 at 2:10 PM ^

Woof. Plenty of fans disguised as empty seats in Manchester. Good thing these regionals aren’t at the 1 seeds home arenas, hockey is better if it sounds like it’s being played in the Law Library.

ShadowStorm33

March 23rd, 2023 at 2:17 PM ^

Pretty sad, especially considering how close it is to BU's campus. Listened to a USCHO podcast the other day, and they were talking about how all the arenas are going to be packed. Umm, not so much...

They really need to get their heads out of their asses and go to home sites for the 1 seeds. There is no reason not to...

ShadowStorm33

March 23rd, 2023 at 2:38 PM ^

It's not so strange (they can't host at their own arena after all), until you realize that it isn't SNHU's arena (the SNHU hockey team plays at something called the Ice Den apparently), but rather SNHU simply bought the naming rights. I've never understood schools buying the naming rights to non-school-affiliated venues (see also the former University of Phoenix Stadium)...

mfan_in_ohio

March 23rd, 2023 at 3:30 PM ^

I read somewhere that those aren’t the original moorings. They apparently shifted the goal location and they couldn’t go down as far as they wanted because they’d hit something in the refrigeration system, so they had to use the smallest pegs available. That’s why it only affects the goal in the away team end.  There’s a big renovation going on in the off-season there, hopefully it gets fixed.

mjw

March 23rd, 2023 at 3:05 PM ^

That was a bad icing call against WMU there.  Refs' heads are up their asses.

And former NHL goalie Andrew Raycroft had a good explanation at intermission for why WMU's goal should not have been waived off.  Puck was loose in front of goalie and then underneath him, so fair for WMU to whack at it.

lhglrkwg

March 23rd, 2023 at 3:15 PM ^

It's a good thing this isn't being played at Denver. There could be all sorts of unsightly things happening like full rows of seats! Or fans making noise! I tremble to think of such a universe.