Here's a close look at Thursday's NCAA Tournament men's hockey matchups
Advertisement
The Terriers will face an old nemesis in forward Gunnarwolfe Fontaine, who transferred from Northeastern for his graduate season and leads the Buckeyes with 40 points (17 goals, 23 assists). The Rhode Island native
Former UConn goalie Logan Terness (2.27 GAA, .925 save percentage) has started each of the last five games after splitting time with Kristoffer Eberly during the regular season. The Buckeyes are the third seed in their 11th trip to the tournament.
The winner will move on to face top seed Michigan State or No. 4 Cornell on Saturday. The Big Red finished sixth in the ECAC but won the conference tournament to extend Mike Schafer's tenure at least another week. The coach announced last June that he would call it a career after the 2024-25 season, his 30th.
Advertisement
The first day of the tournament will conclude when UMass takes on Minnesota in the second game of the Fargo, N.D., regional in a scheduled 8:30 p.m. start.
It will mark the first game for the Minutemen since the top 10 candidates for the Hobey Baker Award were announced, a list that somehow did not include forward Cole O'Hara, whose 51 points (22 goals, 29 assists) are fourth most in the nation. The junior is a true two-way player, playing on the top units on the power play and penalty kill.
UMass had four other players post 30 or more points — Aydar Suniev (36), Jack Musa (35), Lucas Mercuri (31), and Bruins draft pick Dans Locmelis (30). The Minutemen are the No. 3 seed and have qualified for five of the last six tournaments.
UMass has not played since
Minnesota was co-champion of the Big Ten with Michigan State. However, the Spartans took 7 of the 12 points during the regular season to earn the No. 1 seed and a bye in the conference tournament. That proved costly for the Gophers, who had to play Notre Dame in the quarterfinals, and dropped two out of three and were eliminated. They will have gone 18 days between games by the time the puck drops Thursday night.
The upset, combined with Western Michigan rolling to the NCHC championship, was enough for the Broncos to finish fourth in the PairWise and take the last No. 1 seed. Minnesota finished fifth overall and is the second seed.
Advertisement
The Gophers are making an NCAA-best 42nd tournament appearance and are led by Hobey Baker finalist Jimmy Snuggerud
's
49 points, while Connor Kurth and UConn transfer Matthew Wood each have a career-best 38. Sophomore Sam Rinzel was named the conference's defensive player of the year.
Should the Minutemen prevail, they'll advance to Saturday's final against the winner of the Western Michigan-Minnesota State game.
The setup has a familiar feel. In 2022, Western Michigan, Minnesota, and UMass were the top three seeds in the Worcester regional. The Gophers rallied from a two-goal deficit
Thursday's NCAA Tournament schedule
Toledo, Ohio, regional
Boston University (21-13-2) vs. Ohio State (24-13-2): 2 p.m. ESPNU
Michigan State (26-6-4) vs. Cornell (18-10-6): 5:30 p.m., ESPN+
Fargo, N.D., regional
Western Michigan (30-7-1) vs. Minnesota State (27-8-3): 5 p.m., ESPNU
Minnesota (25-10-4) vs. UMass (20-13-5): 8:30 p.m., ESPN2
Follow Andrew Mahoney
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
36 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
College football's new era: Big money, same old powerhouses line up as the favorites
The first includes college football's biggest brands, which are dominating the list of favorites once again: No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Ohio State, and No. 4 Clemson. Advertisement Second are teams we've talked about over the past few decades that are using money and celebrity coaches to elbow their way into the conversation: Colorado, North Carolina, and No. 23 Texas Tech. And then there are those who see the second year of the 12-team playoff and a different playing field created by revenue sharing and think they might be able to fashion a turnaround not unlike No. 20 Indiana's worst to (almost) first resurgence last year: Pick a name, any name, but a good starting point might be UCLA (now with star QB Nico Iamaleava ) or Virginia (which, like Indiana last year, avoids pretty much every top team on its conference schedule). Advertisement Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney who helped broker the 'It's a big change,' Kessler said. 'But I think the system will adapt and the better-managed athletic departments will do well, as they always do. And athletic departments that are poorly managed won't do so well, and probably didn't do so well in the old system, either.' Heisman watch equals title watch Pay or no pay, one thing hasn't changed in college football or any sport: Great players win games. It's no big surprise, then, to see Texas at the top of almost everyone's watch list. Leading the Longhorns is none other than Arch Manning, the sophomore quarterback with the reported $6 million-plus NIL deal, and the latest burgeoning star in a family that has produced lots of them, from Archie to Peyton to Eli. 'For Arch, he grew up in this era of seeing high-level football,' Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. 'He's watched Super Bowls. He's watched gold jackets getting put on. He's been to playoff games. He's been recruited at the highest level as the No. 1 player in the country.' Texas quarterback Arch Manning is among the favorites for the Heisman Trophy. Tim Warner/Getty Though it doesn't always work out, there are plenty of schools where a player with hopes of winning the Heisman Trophy also will have a legitimate chance to win the CFP. Besides Manning, other favorites include receiver Jeremiah Smith, whose success with defending champion Ohio State figures to depend a lot on whether the Buckeyes' next quarterback, Julian Sayin, who is also in the Heisman mix, is as good as advertised. Advertisement Clemson QB Cade Klubnik is among the favorites, as are the Tigers for a repeat title in the ACC. Quarterback Drew Allar is in his fourth season at Penn State, where the Nittany Lions are expected to face Ohio State for the Big Ten title (They play Nov. 1, and coach James Franklin is 1-10 against the Buckeyes). Meanwhile, LSU appears to be only a secondary threat to Texas as Georgia and Alabama are in the SEC, but Garrett Nussmeier is in that Heisman mix and can stay there with a good performance against Klubnik and Clemson on Aug. 30. Is the hype machine same as the win machine? Nobody has defined this new era of NIL as much as Colorado coach Deion Sanders. Sanders brought his unapologetic swagger to a program that had been in the dumps for decades. He made the Buffaloes relevant, producing TV ratings, celebrity sightings, a Heisman winner in Travis Hunter, and maybe the most talked-about player in the sport in his own son, Shedeur, whose Winning? That was another thing. Deion Sanders is 13-12 over his two seasons, and now that Hunter and Shedeur are gone, the only big expectations for CU are coming from Boulder. 'The next phase is we're going to win differently, but we're going to win,' Sanders said. Another celebrity coach, Bill Belichick, will start answering the question of whether fans and wins will Advertisement The 73-year-old coach said he was building an NFL-style program — meaning everything he does, from nutrition to training to, yes, contracts, will look more like the pros. It was the sort of notion that used to be spoken softly but can now be used as a selling point. 'Everything we do here is predicated on building a pro team,' said Carolina's new general manager, Mike Lombardi, who worked with Belichick in the pros. 'We consider ourselves the 33rd [NFL] team because everybody who's involved with our program has had some form or aspect in pro football.' Over in Lubbock, Texas, the Texas Tech athletic program has never been afraid to swing big. The program that gave us swashbuckling coach Mike Leach and Super Bowl quarterback Patrick Mahomes is being bankrolled by the billionaire head of its board of regents, Cody Campbell, who now has the school's football field named after him. Texas Tech has made a series of high-profile and expensive player signings — some for high schoolers who haven't arrived yet — and is estimated to be spending more on NIL than any program in the country besides Texas. 'I know there's a lot of expectations on this team,' said coach Joey McGuire, who is coming off an 8-5 season. 'We look at it as opportunities.' Do new payrolls mean even footing for everyone? The new world of revenue sharing and an expanded playoff does give more reason for hope across the country. When searching for blueprints of how that can work, most long-suffering programs will look to Indiana. The Hoosiers were an also-ran for decades, with one Rose Bowl appearance ever and one winning record in a non-COVID-19 season since 1995. Then coach Curt Cignetti arrived, brought 54 new players from the transfer portal and turned Indiana into a winner overnight. Advertisement It was a remarkable turnaround that ran counter to the realities seen in these stats: ⋅ There are 70 teams that make up the Power Four conferences, plus Pac-12 leftovers Oregon State and Washington State. ⋅ Since 2000, 36 of those teams have captured a total of 137 outright or shared league titles that have been won between the five largest conferences. ⋅ Of those 137 titles, 92 (67 percent) have been captured by 10 programs that have won five or more. The other 26 have combined to win 45. ⋅ That leaves 34 programs (48.5 percent) that haven't won any. In the NFL over the same period, only 10 teams (31 percent) have failed to reach the Super Bowl. Those numbers reflect how hard it is to break through in big-time college football but also the size of the glass ceiling that could be shattered in this new era of college sports. 'I think the rev-share world definitely has a chance to bring things to a more balanced circumstance,' said Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinksi, whose football program has a new coach, Barry Odom, after going 1-11 last season. 'Will there always be some programs that operate in a little bit of a different reality? Of course. But we're not concerned about that, nor are we crying in our beer about that. We've just got to find a way.'
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Notre Dame coaches not ‘freaked out' as quarterback competition continues between CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Two weeks out from Notre Dame's Aug. 31 opener at Miami, coach Marcus Freeman wasn't yet ready to name a starting quarterback. Freeman held his final news conference of fall camp Sunday at Notre Dame Stadium following his team's 100-plus play closed scrimmage, during which quarterback competitors CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey split reps with the ones. Freeman said Carr and Minchey are still in competition, and he didn't provide an idea of when he will make the final determination of who will succeed 2024 quarterback starter Riley Leonard, who is now with the Indianapolis Colts. But Freeman did acknowledge that time is ticking down for the 2024 national runners-up, saying a decision will happen 'soon.' 'I never put a timeline on it,' Freeman said. 'I didn't because — why? It's only going to make you frustrated if you do that. I said, 'Hey, as soon as one clearly says he should be the starter, then we'll make a decision.' Now, we have to make a decision before we play, and we will. But there hasn't been that moment where this guy says he is clearly the starter. Let's just lead with the one. They've been battling. They've both done a really good job.' Freeman said he will take into consideration the opinions of coaches on what he called 'the best staff in America.' But ultimately, the decision will be his. 'We'll talk, and at the end of the day, I have to make a decision, and it will be my decision,' Freeman said. 'I'm not passing this along on anybody else. I have to make a decision.' Carr, in his second season with the Irish, is a former four-star recruit from Saline, Michigan, who is the grandson of former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr. He hasn't thrown a pass in a game yet at Notre Dame. Minchey, a former four-star recruit from the Nashville area, is in his third season with the Irish. He has completed 3 of 3 passes for 16 yards and rushed for 12 yards and a touchdown on two carries over two seasons. Freeman said he believes the competition has helped both Carr and Minchey to elevate their level of play. 'They're both really good players, man,' he said. 'They both have a short-term memory. They're able to move forward from mistakes. They're coachable. They both work at the game. They work outside of the NCAA-mandated hours. Again, there's not much negative I can say about them. Those dudes are improving and doing a really good job.' As anticipation grows among the Notre Dame fan base for the decision, Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock made sure to stress that the coaches have seen a lot of positives during the battle. 'They're both good enough to help us win football games, and that's why it's such a close competition,' Denbrock said. 'I guess I would add to that both of those young men have tremendous love and respect within the framework of our locker room. So we're not as freaked out about the fact that somebody hasn't been named the starting quarterback as a lot of people seem to be. It's because we know both individuals involved. We know how their teammates feel about them, care about them, trust them. And they both have played really well.' Denbrock said coaches mapped out a plan before camp to make sure Carr and Minchey were each getting similar work — in the number of reps and the type of situational work. Freeman said in his pre-camp news conference that he was zeroing in on consistency in the competition as he weighs his decision. And he added Sunday that watching the quarterbacks' decision-making will be a key determining factor. 'I don't want to just sit here and watch the outcome, good or bad, and blame the quarterback,' Freeman said. 'It's like, 'What decision was he supposed to make? Did he make the right decision?' Then you look and say, 'OK, was the ball good? Was the protection right?' All those different things that are on his plate. But that is more important to me than anything, the decision-making.' Continuing the competition means the starter won't receive as many reps with the first-team offense until a decision is made. But Freeman also put a positive spin on the offensive players getting so familiar with both quarterbacks, saying it could help if the Irish ever need to turn to the backup. Denbrock noted he has tried to use the competition to gather data and information about what will work best within the offense under each quarterback. 'It's going to be important that whoever wins the job that we play to the strengths of who they are and not put them in compromising situations, especially too early in the season,' he said. 'I don't think (the offense) will change a bunch, but there are several strengths and weaknesses and differences you have to be aware of when you're making a plan.' Whichever quarterback is chosen, he will be stepping into a high-pressure situation starting against No. 10 Miami in South Florida. The No. 6 Irish have tried to simulate pressure situations in practice with two-minute drills. But Denbrock noted the challenge ahead for a first-year starter. 'I hope everybody knows that no matter who we name the quarterback, it's no easy task going down to Miami and playing in a season opener,' Denbrock said. 'No matter who the starter is, there will be a learning curve involved in all of this. But we're confident we've got two guys who can compete at a very high level and do a really, really good job.'
NBC Sports
2 hours ago
- NBC Sports
College football season kicks off with thrilling matchups and high stakes
After a long and busy season for college athletics, the football season arrives with a host of tantalizing angles. A look at some of the big games among the top teams, what's at stake and the hurdles that must be cleared on the way to the national championship. When does college football start? A handful of games kick off the season Aug. 23, with the most intriguing a Big 12 matchup between No. 22 Iowa State and No. 17 Kansas State that will take place in Dublin, Ireland. Both teams are considered contenders in their wide-open conference. Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson threw for a school-record 25 touchdowns last season and ran for seven more. Iowa State played in the conference title game last year. The following weekend has some doozies: No. 9 LSU faces No. 4 Clemson, No. 6 Notre Dame visits No. 10 Miami and defending champion No. 3 Ohio State hosts No. 1 Texas. Before the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams last year, a game like that might have been make or break. Now, teams have second chances and can afford three (maybe four) losses and still get in. Who are the favorites? The AP Top 25 and the coaches poll both list Texas as the preseason No. 1 team and the Longhorns are currently the favorite (plus-450, or 9-2 odds) to win the national championship, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Ohio State is right behind them (plus-525), followed by No. 5 Georgia and No. 2 Penn State (both 7-1) and then Clemson and No. 7 Oregon (both 9-1). Key games to watch Preseason No. 7 Oregon visits No. 2 Penn State on Sept. 27 in a rematch of last season's Big Ten title game. Penn State also has a game against Ohio State on Nov. 1. .... Speaking of the Buckeyes, the national title helped them get over their fourth straight loss to preseason No. 14 Michigan. That rematch is in its usual spot, Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 29 at the Big House. ... TCU at North Carolina (Bill Belichick's coaching debut) on Sept. 1 ... Oklahoma vs. Texas on Oct. 11 ... USC at No. 6 Notre Dame on Oct. 18 ... LSU at No. 8 Alabama on Nov. 8 ... No. 11 Arizona State at Colorado on Nov. 22. The 12-team playoff The College Football Playoff remains at 12 teams this year with one significant tweak: Unlike last year, conference champions will not be guaranteed a bye in the first round. But the best five conference champions are still guaranteed spots in the tournament. Seeds 5-8 will host first-round games against 9-12 on Dec. 19 (one game) and Dec. 20 (three games). The quarterfinals will be at the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 1, then at the Orange, Rose and Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1. The semifinals will be Jan. 8 at the Fiesta Bowl and Jan. 9 at the Peach Bowl. The title game will take place at Hard Rock Stadium outside of Miami on Jan. 19. Heisman watch Keep in mind that last year's winner, Travis Hunter, didn't show up in the watch list in this very space last year. With that said, the early favorites include quarterbacks Arch Manning (Texas), Garrett Nussmeier (LSU) and Cade Klubnik (Clemson), along with Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith and, for those looking for a longshot, Alabama receiver Ryan Williams.
