Step 2: Search "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams
Step 3: Click on second video, sit through five seconds of advertisement before skipping
Step 4: Giddily listen to song on repeat while printing out NCAA men's hockey bracket and searching Google for box scores of recent Quinnipiac games*.
*Repeat for Niagara, Canisius, and Yale
Yes folks, we've gotten down to the nitty gritty of the college hockey season. The time has come for boys to become men. For Cinderella teams to emerge, upsetting high seed after high seed along the way. For Nic Dowd and Nick Jensen to cut their hair and donate it to charity after failing to gain their all-impressive second ever NCAA tournament win. The time for completely irrelevant hockey cities to take on the everlasting prestige of the Frozen Four and show why they will forever be irrelevant. This year, the road to Pittsburgh is at least paved in snow, unlike last years trip to the great hockey destination city of Tampa (but that's a story for another time).
This years class of sixteen teams not only include the best of the best from all five conferences, but also a fair number of surprise teams that were included in the tournament as a result of winning their respective conference championship game. Despite earning only 2 points on my bracket last year, I will now share my completely nonsensical, 100% unbiased 2013 NCAA Tournament predictions with you.
(1) Quinnipiac def. (16) Canisius
It wouldn't be a college hockey season without a totally obscure, ambiguous ECAC team somehow procuring a number 1 seed, amirite?! Gotta give this one to QU though--Canisius's improbable tourney run is cut short by the determination of Quinnipiac to show the rest of the college hockey nation that they are, in fact, to be taken seriously. (We still won't take you seriously.)
(2) Minnesota def. (15) Yale
It may be the Gopher arrogance talking, or just the fact that we're the best team in the country, but when I say the Gophers beat Yale, I mean by like double digits. And Wilcox gets a shutout, and Skjei won't turn the puck over, and Haula plays so well the Hobey Baker committee makes a public announcement detailing how wrong they were in their top 10 finalists and bestows the Hobey upon him right then and there. So yeah.
(14) Wisconsin def. (3) UMass-Lowell
After how well the Badgers played at the Final Five, I'll award them with one win in the NCAAs, against the overall #3 seed no less.
(4) Notre Dame def. (13) St. Cloud State
Not only do the Dowd/Jensen/whoever else mops look terribly dirty and unkempt, they also decrease the aerodynamicity of their star players and invariably impede the progress of their team. The only positive for these two St. Cloud legends is that they don't sport those excruciating sparkle gold helmets that Notre Dame has to shield their heads, for that would just be way too much ugly for one person to handle.
(5) Miami def. (11) Minnesota State-Mankato
It's hard to believe the Mavericks will be able to pull of the upset after the way they played against Wisconsin in the Final Five. MSU, take solace in your freshman goalie earning WCHA ROY and your coach with Coach of the Year, because that's the only hardware your program is earning this year.
(6) Boston College def. (12) Union
Self-explanatory.
(7) New Hampshire def. (9) Denver
While the WCHA may have been unquestioningly the most difficult conference in college hockey this year, Denver's lackluster play and goalie woes have been more than evident the past few weekends. While Gwoz is no stranger to tourney time and will surely have his team ready to go come Friday, I fear that Denver's on ice issues may continue against a talented UNH team. (Oh, and east coast bias, too.)
(8) North Dakota def. (10) Niagara
To be quite honest, I was uncertain whether UND would be able to pull off the win this game based on their play (or lack thereof) against CC during the Final Five play-in game. After much deliberation (and realizing Niagara has recently lost to Canisius and been swept by Air Force), I hate to conclude that this will be an easy win for the Sue, and can only hope that the last Minnesota/UND game for the next few years is one where a Frozen Four berth is on the line.
