If you have no particular rooting interest in this year’s NCAA tournament (or even if you do but can separate that from an overall view of things), answer this question:
Is this year’s tournament the best in recent memory, or maybe just the one with the most parity?
How else does the Frozen Four feature the top overall seed, a three seed and two four seeds — one of which had an RPI ranking of 37th going in?
We’ve seen our share of upsets in the tournament, but this season’s list and the way some of the games finished makes the last three days an unforgettable experience.
We saw Minnesota-Duluth score twice in the last 40 seconds of regulation, the second with 0.8 seconds left, to force overtime against Princeton, and the Bulldogs won it.
We saw New Hampshire complete a rally with 0.1 seconds left in regulation, then beat North Dakota in OT.
We saw Cornell score with 18 seconds left to beat Northeastern.
And none of those three victorious teams made it to the Frozen Four.
Boston University punched its ticket to Washington, D.C., by scoring with 14.4 seconds left against New Hampshire.
Vermont earned a spot on Saturday when the referees found after a lengthy video replay that a Dan Lawson shot tore through the net in overtime against Air Force.
Then there were the No. 4 seeds.
Miami made it with a strong all-around effort, beating a pair of WCHA teams in WCHA territory.
And Bemidji State made a run for the ages, ousting Notre Dame on Saturday and Cornell on Sunday to earn the first Frozen Four trip for a school not associated with the WCHA, CCHA, ECAC or Hockey East. Think that’ll do anything for its application with the WCHA?
All in all, it was quite a weekend. We can only hope the Frozen Four comes close to matching it.
