Saturday, March 27, 2010

Badgers, Huskies win; Denver falls ... to RIT?

Wisconsin and St. Cloud State eked out wins in the West Regional on Friday night, with the Badgers defeating Vermont 3-2 and the Huskies getting their first NCAA tournament victory with a 4-3 double-overtime win over Northern Michigan. Wisconsin and St. Cloud will play each other for a trip to the Frozen Four at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The shocker came out in Albany, N.Y., where RIT, a team that was blasted out of Mankato's Verizon Wireless Center 6-1 and 3-0 over New Year's weekend, upset Denver 2-1. RIT goalie Jared DeMichael stopped 39 shots and allowed only a late power-play goal. He's the goalie whom Minnesota State hung six even-strength goals on with 32 shots on New Year's Day. The Tigers played a different goalie the next night. Just goes to show what a difference almost three months can make.

RIT will play New Hamsphire, which knocked off Cornell.

The Midwest and Northeast regionals begin today. In Fort Wayne, Ind., it will be the CCHA vs. the CHA with Miami and Michigan playing Alabama-Huntsville and Bemidji State, respectively. In Worcester, Mass., Boston College will play Alaska and North Dakota will face Yale.

For the Sioux, Yale will be no easy test. But North Dakota is red-hot, thanks, in part to the play of junior Evan Trupp.

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