Pucks and Pins

People often ask me “You’ve been to so many Frozen Fours, which is your favorite”. That’s a really good question. “Favorite” could have many definitions such as location, your favorite team winning, or your least favorite team losing. Or you had the best time on the off day. My favorite Frozen Four will be the one where UNH wins the national championship. In the meantime, here are my top 3 in reverse chronological order:

2023 – Tampa – Quinnipiac beats Minnesota in Overtime

This one settles an old sports grudge from 2002 when Maine was playing Minnesota in the national championship game. The tournament was in St. Paul, so of the 20,000 plus fans in attendance most of them were Gopher fans. Maine was leading with about 30 seconds left in the game. Minnesota pulled their goalie, Maine kept icing the puck which resulted in faceoffs in front of the Maine goalie. Minnesota tied the game to force overtime. In overtime, there was a bad penalty called on Maine, which resulted in a Gopher power play. Of course Minnesota scores and wins the championship.

Flash forward to 2023 in Tampa – Minnesota has a two goal lead late into the third period. Quinnipiac pulls their goalie for the extra skater with about three minutes left in the game. They get one back. Then they tie the game forcing overtime. Quinnipiac wins the faceoff and scores the winning goal 10 seconds into overtime.

i met the Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold this year after a game they played at UNH, and was able to tell him coach how happy it made me to see the Gophers lose in the same way that Maine did in 2002.

2009 – Washington beats Miami in Overtime

When I met BU Coach Jack Parker, I told him that I think this was the best coached game I have ever seen. Miami (Ohio) had a two goal lead with less than a minute left in the game. BU was heavily favored in this one. The partisan crowd was very quiet so it was like watching a game in a library. BU gets one goal back and the crowd goes nuts. I figured that that Rico Blasi, the Miami coach at the time, would call a time out to settle down the team. He did not. BU then tied it up and ended up winning the game in overtime. To this day, I am convinced that if Miami had called a time out they would have won the national championship

1999 – Anaheim, CA – Maine beats UNH in Overtime

Yes, you read that one right. In a previous life I was a Maine fan. How I came to be a rabid UNH fan will be a separate post altogether. FOR THE RECORD, I still do cheer for the Black Bears when they aren’t playing UNH.

Maine had a 2-0 lead heading into the second period. They also had a two man advantage. At the end of the first penalty, UNH goalie Ty Conklin passed the puck to Mike Souza, who fed Darren Haydar as he was coming out of the penalty box. Haydar scored on a clean breakaway. To this day, I think of this whenever I see someone on a breakaway.

Mike Souza tied the game at 2-2 in the third period. UNH had several great chances at the end of the game and in overtime, but Maine goalie Alfie Michaud stood on his head and stopped everything. Maine won it in overtime on a goal by Marcus Gustafsson (Conklin had lost his stick, recovered it and was just getting reset when Gustafsson scored).