Albany has been kind to Maine in NCAA tournament play in recent years. The Black Bears added another two victories to their impressive resumé this weekend and advanced to the Frozen Four in Milwaukee.
On Saturday, Maine got goals from six different players and 25 saves from goalie Ben Bishop to beat ECACHL champion Harvard in the tournament’s opening round. The Crimson offense, which scored 24 goals in its previous three games, only managed one goal, while the Black Bears peppered Crimson goalie John Daigneau with 44 shots en route to a 6-2 victory.
“We were outplayed for the entire game from top to bottom,” said Harvard Head Coach Ted Donato after the loss. “But I would like to congratulate our guys on a great season.
“We were not able to establish our forecheck, so we played the entire night against their forwards in our zone,” he added.
Maine raced out to a 3-0 first-period lead against Michigan State in the championship. The Spartans, who defeated New Hampshire 1-0 in the semifinal on a Tim Crowder goal, got another goal from Crowder to get within two after one. Maine retook the three-goal lead in the second, but Crowder scored again with 12 minutes left in the third.
The Spartans drew within one, but Maine got an empty-net goal and held on for a 5-4 victory. Maine’s John Hopson, who scored three goals on the weekend, was named regional MVP. Crowder and Bishop were named to the team, along with Michele Léveillé and Matt Duffy from Maine, and Corey Potter of Michigan State.
Maine led after two periods in each game. The Black Bears have not lost a game when leading after two since December 2001. Since that loss, they have put together a 102-0-6 mark in those situations.
Maine is now 5-0 in Albany, with all games coming in NCAA tournament play. The Black Bears are also 14-6 in their last 20 tournament games over the past eight seasons. In that time, they have made four Frozen Four appearances, three national title game appearances, and won one national championship (1999).
In the national semifinal, Maine will take on Wisconsin, which won a 1-0 triple-overtime thriller over Cornell on Sunday. Wisconsin also shut out the Bemidji State Beavers in the regional semifinal.
The other Frozen Four game features the Boston College Eagles and the North Dakota Fighting Sioux, in a rematch of the 2000 and 2001 national title games. North Dakota took the title in 2000, but Boston College’s Krys Kolanos scored an overtime winner to bring the title back east in 2001.
Boston College took down rival Boston University, 5-0, in the regional final, and beat Miami 5-0 in the opening round. North Dakota beat Michigan 5-1 in the semifinal and defeated upstart Holy Cross in the final. On the same day the Sioux beat the Wolverines, Holy Cross pulled off one of the greatest upsets in tournament history by beating Minnesota, the number-one team in the nation.
Last year’s Frozen Four featured four teams from the WCHA. This year, however, there are two WCHA teams and a pair of Hockey East teams. The last time an eastern school won a national championship was Boston College in 2001. Minnesota won in 2002 and 2003, and Denver won in 2004 and 2005.
