Leavin' early (updated)

Update: Add St. Cloud State goalie Mike Lee to the mix ...

It's that time of year again, when college hockey players begin signing pro contracts. That includes players leaving before their eligibility is up. This week, Minnesota Duluth's J.T. Brown, a free agent, signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Denver's Jason Zucker inked a deal with the Minnesota Wild, the team that drafted him (he'll be in the Wild's lineup Thursday night). That puts the WCHA early departure list at six seven and all of college hockey at 14 18 so far.

Here's the WCHA list:

Mike Lee, St. Cloud State junior, Phoenix
J.T. Brown, Minnesota Duluth sophomore, Tampa Bay
Jason Zucker, Denver sophomore, Minnesota
Drew Shore, Denver junior, Florida
David Eddy, St. Cloud State junior, Calgary
Terry Broadhurst, Nebraska Omaha junior, Chicago
Jaden Schwartz, Colorado College sophomore, St. Louis

If you include departing seniors, the top five scorers and seven of the top 11 in the WCHA won't be back next year. Certainly, there will be eyes on North Dakota's Brock Nelson, Minnesota's Nick Bjugstad (still playing) and Wisconsin's Justin Schultz, all of whom were in the top 15 in conference scoring.

Frozen Four set

The NCAA tournament whittled itself down to the final four this past weekend. It's too bad we'll have to wait 10 days for the Frozen Four to begin. It may be my annual complaint, but there's no reason why there should be nearly two weeks between the regionals and the national-championship weekend.

Anyway, here are your four teams: Minnesota, Boston College, Union, Ferris State.

Interesting field, with two national powers, each with multiple national titles, and two first-timers. I'm sure some folks will think the semifinal between the Gophers and BC will be the true championship, but don't forget that Ferris won the CCHA and spent a few weeks ranked No. 1 in the country. Also, Union has been an under-the-radar top-10 team nearly all year.

Some other thoughts ...

• What a turnaround Minnesota has made. Don Lucia seemed to be on the hot seat lately, missing the NCAA tournament three years in a row. This year, not only did the Gophers win the MacNaughton Cup, but they're back in the Frozen Four for the first time since 2005.

• There isn't much for the NCHC teams to boast about this year (as some associated with the startup league did when the tournament field was announced), as five teams that will be in that conference two seasons from now went 2-5 in the tournament, with none making the final four. One of their wins came in a matchup of two NCHC teams, when North Dakota beat Western Michigan.

• Meanwhile, Ferris State, which knocked out Denver in the first round, of course, is one of the CCHA leftovers that will join the WCHA in 2013-14. It must be pointed out, however, that the Bulldogs were the only member of that future WCHA in the tourney.

• I still don't understand the rationale of the first two rounds of the tournament being either Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday. That Saturday has first-round games that conflict with regional finals. Since TV coverage seems to be lacking (ESPNU once again allowed regular-season college lacrosse to preempt hockey games), why not go to a Saturday-Sunday format and play up the four regional finals in one day?

• And what to do about attendance? Minnesota and North Dakota on Sunday played in front of a crowd of nearly 11,000. Nine days earlier in the Final Five semifinal in the same building (the Xcel Energy Center), they played in front of nearly 17,000. But the other regional finals drew crowds of 3,100 (Green Bay), 4,470 (Worcester) and 5,328 (Bridgeport) and the TV cameras showed plenty of empty seats.

• What did you think of North Dakota's new uniforms? With the NCAA mandate to rid the team of the "hostile and abusive" Fighting Sioux nickname and logo, UND finally unveiled jerseys without the logo. They were sharp, with an old-school flavor. The words North Dakota printed on the front of the sweater with the player's number between the two words. An interlocking ND was displayed on the shoulders. Since UND was the No. 1 seed, the team wore its home whites for both games, so we didn't get to see their road greens — or their blacks (you just know they have a black jersey, too, right?).

Final Five wrapup

After  four pretty darn good hockey games, Saturday's finale of the WCHA Final Five was a little anticlimactic. North Dakota won its third straight Broadmoor Trophy, beating Denver 4-0.

The Sioux not only got the conference's auto bid to the NCAA tournament but worked their way into a No. 1 seed. The bracket was released on Sunday morning. And here's the field:

WEST REGIONAL (St. Paul, March 24-25)
1-North Dakota vs. 4-Western Michigan
2-Minnesota vs. 3-Boston University

MIDWEST REGIONAL (Green Bay, Wis., March 23-24)
1-Michigan vs. 4-Cornell
2-Ferris State vs. 3-Denver

EAST REGIONAL (Bridgeport, Conn., March 23-24)
1-Union vs. 4-Michigan State
2-Miami vs. 3-UMass-Lowell

NORTHEAST REGIONAL (Worcester, Mass., March 24-25)
1-Boston College vs. 4-Air Force
2-Minnesota Duluth vs. 3-Maine

The Frozen Four will take place April 5-7 in Tampa, Fla. In the semifinals, the West and the Northeast regional winners will play each other, and the Midwest and the East winners will square off.

Back to the Final Five, the all-tournament team was Denver's Jason Zucker and all North Dakota players after that. UND goalie Aaron Dell, who had the shutout win on Saturday was the MVP, but that award should have gone to Sioux forward Brock Nelson, who had four goals in the tournament and was dangerous every time the puck was on his stick. As St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko said after his team lost to North Dakota on Thursday: "That's the player in our league (Nelson) that we're going to watch in the NHL for a long time."

Throughout the Final Five, it was hard not to think about the future of the event. Next year will be the final one with the current conference lineup. The big breakup takes place shortly after that. Outstanding hockey scribe Jess Myers, writing for 1500ESPN Twin Cities, reported that the WCHA and the Big Ten may be close to an agreement in which the two conferences will alternate back and forth between the Xcel Energy Center and Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. (Meanwhile, Myers reported, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference could be mulling a deal with the Target Center in Minneapolis.)

WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod said Saturday, "We're talking about a lot of options." He said the reported deal with the Big Ten was an option, but so are going to home sites or centralized neutral sites like Green Bay or even Duluth.

The top 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award were announced on Thursday. From the WCHA, UMD's Jack Connolly and Wisconsin's Justin Schultz made the list.

It's North Dakota and Denver

What a day a the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul as the WCHA's top two seeds went down in dramatic fashion at the Final Five.

First, Denver defeated Minnnesota Duluth 4-3 in double-overtime. Zac Larraza scored the game-winner at  8:14 of the second overtime, and goalie Sam Brittain survived the Bulldogs' 70 shots on goal, stopping 67. Denver put 49 shots on Kenny Reiter.

In the second game, North Dakota was left for dead, trailing the regular-season champions 3-0 and getting outshot 22-8 at one point in the second period. The Sioux then proceeded to score six unanswered goals, getting one in the second period and five in the third to win 6-3. They outshot the Gophers 20-3 the rest of the way. Just a stunning comeback/collapse — take your pick.

That means Denver and North Dakota will play for the Broadmoor Trophy on Saturday night.

Wow.

Cooper signs

Add Cameron Cooper's name to the list of Minnesota State seniors who are turning pro. Cooper agreed to a deal with the Toledo Walleye and is expected to be in the lineup for tonight's game in Chicago.

Meanwhile, Joe Schiller is listed as a defenseman for the Las Vegas Wranglers. His versatility to play both D and forward certainly must have been a factor in that team's decision to sign him. Both Las Vegas and the South Carolina Stingrays, which signed Michael Dorr, are in action tonight, too.

Final Five updates

North Dakota 4, St. Cloud State 1: Brock Nelson scored two goals — his 24th and 25th of the season — including an empty-netter to lead the Fighting Sioux (are we calling them that again?) past the Huskies and into Friday's semifinals against Minnesota. The Xcel Energy Center should be a packed house for that one.

Corban Knight started the scoring for North Dakota at 7:40 of the first period, and St. Cloud's Ben Hanowski tied it with a power-play goal with 3:46 left in the first. Nelson put the Sioux ahead with 4:09 remaining in the second period, and that lead held, even with a strong push by the Huskies late in the third.

Aaron Dell stopped 29 shots in the win. the Huskies' Mike Lee finished with 24 saves.

The Sioux added a second empty-netter by Danny Kristo to finished off the Huskies.


Denver 3, Michigan Tech 2 (OT): Jason Zucker's goal at 2:18 of overtime gave the Pioneers the win in the first game of the Final Five on Thursday afternoon in St. Paul.

Tech goalie Josh Robinson made 41 saves, and had a 2-1 lead late in the third period. But Denver's Luke Salazar tied the game with 4:32 to play in regulation. Denver outshot Michigan Tech 44-29.

The Pioneers' Drew Shore assisted on his team's first two goals, the first by Ty Loney. Blake Pietila scored for the Huskies, and Ryan Furne put them up by a goal just 18 seconds into the third period.

On the game-winner, Zucker — the Minnesota Wild draft pick playing in his future home rink — was all alone near the left post and took a nice pass from the WCHA's top rookie, Joey LaLeggia, and fired past Robinson.

Denver will play Minnesota Duluth at 2 p.m. on Friday. Tech's season ends with a 16-19-4 record. The Huskies were 4-30-4 a year ago.

"We changed the culture," first-year coach Mel Pearson said. "We raised the bar." Said senior Brett Olson, who had won just 15 games in his first three seasons at Tech: "This season was huge for our program. At the beginning of the year we talked about bringing pride back to the program."

Schiller, Dorr sign

Less than a week after their college hockey careers came to an end, Minnesota State seniors Joe Schiller and Michael Dorr turned pro, signing with ECHL teams.

Schiller will join the Las Vegas Wrangers, and Dorr will join the South Carolina Stingrays.

In Vegas, Schiller will again team up with his old MSU pal Channing Boe.

Read more on their signings here.