Fresh off its 2009 CCHA Championship run at the Joe in Detroit, Notre Dame readies itself for the NCAA tournament. In the CCHA finals, Notre Dame found itself down 2-0 to Michigan (sucks!) before throwing 5 unanswered goals past Hogan and the rest of the Wolverines.
The CCHA Championships (regular and post season) are nice, but this team has a larger goal. To hold Notre Dame’s first-ever NCAA Hockey Championship trophy after the Frozen Four.
On Sunday, the NCAA announced the matchups for the NCAA tournament. By all accounts, Notre Dame got a pretty good draw. They received a #1 seed, along with Boston University, Denver University, and University of Michigan (sucks!).
ND gets to play in Grand Rapids (a short, three hour drive from Chicago, and even shorter from Notre Dame), so there should be ample fan support.
In the opening round, ND will take on the Beavers of Bemidji State, who won the weak College Hockey America conference tournament. Bemidji State owns a 18-15-1 record on the year, but there are a few games to take note of.
First, they have beaten WCHA teams. They beat St. Cloud State along with Michigan Tech throughout the year.
Secondly, they played NCAA tournament teams like the University of Minnesota – Duluth (UMD) very tight, along with the University of North Dakota. In fact, they lost two games to North Dakota by a combined two goals, and took them to overtime in North Dakota.
So to sum it up, Notre Dame cannot take this team lightly. They will need to be ready to go.
If (when) Notre Dame takes down Bemidji State, they will play the winner of Northeastern and Cornell. Northeastern is currently rated 6th in the nation, and Cornell is currently rated 9th. Neither of these teams present great match-ups, but it seems Notre Dame (if it had the choice, would like to play Cornell out of the weaker ECAC.
Due to previous commitments, tgiab.com will not be able to report live from Grand Rapids. If you need something to pump you up for Notre Dame hockey, just watch the below video. Go Irish! Beat Beavers!
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is it a new thing to travel to ND hockey games. i don’t remember it happening when we were there. i only went to one game and gramma and i won blackhawks tickets in the intermission contest.
A bunch of us went to Grand Rapids in 2004 for the tournament. It was the only game I attended while in college.
Yea, our team was awful until 2004, and then awful again our Senior year. I think the team is gaining some more support from the students and the community (since they are awesome now).
I actually probably would have gone if I didn’t have previous plans.
I’d also go if I didn’t have plans. Went to my first Irish game this season and the place was packed. I know they are sending buses up to Grand Rapids for the game as well.