After 12 long years, Boston University men’s hockey has finally made it back to the national semifinals. Tonight, the Terriers face off against the Catamounts, the only team with a winning record against Jack Parker’s team this season. With a pair of four seeds set to face off in the other semifinal, this evening’s game is almost certainly the largest remaining obstacle in the Terriers’ path to a fifth national championship.
As the lone remaining ‘name’ school in the tournament ‘-‘- none of the other three participants have ever won a Division-I hockey championship ‘-‘- BU would normally stand to be the focus of every major storyline. In this instance, however, it’s almost the opposite. The Terriers are a known quantity: the frontrunners. Given the team’s season-long dominance, two more victories would grant this campaign some symmetry.
No, instead, the storyline has shifted to the biggest surprise of all ‘-‘- Bemidji State’s presence in the Frozen Four.
You might ask, Bemidji who? If you watched the NCAA Regionals, you’d be hard-pressed not to know about the Beavers by now. Still, for those of you who weren’t paying attention, Bemidji State University is located adjacent to Lake Bemidji in ‘-‘- where else ‘-‘- Minnesota, the official American capital of hockey.
All comparisons with the other four Minnesota schools playing Division-I hockey end there. Unlike their in-state counterparts, the Beavers are not a member of the prestigious Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA). Instead, after moving to Division I prior to the 1999-2000 season, Bemidji State has spent 10 seasons as part of College Hockey America (CHA).
The CHA’s large geographic footprint and ice hockey’s significant operating costs have made life difficult for conference members. This year, just four schools fielded teams in the CHA, down from six just a few years ago. Only an NCAA waiver allowed this year’s conference champion to earn an autobid for the national tournament.
As a result of the CHA’s shrinking membership, the remaining affiliates have scattered to the wind. Niagara University and Robert Morris University have both opted to join Atlantic Hockey; both were admitted in late January.
Meanwhile, the University of Alabama-Huntsville has applied to join the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). UAH would be the CCHA’s 13th member. Thirteen is an unconventional size for a conference, so the status of UAH’s application may depend on what happens elsewhere in the college hockey landscape.
That leaves Bemidji. After the WCHA lifted its moratorium on expansion earlier this year, BSU submitted an application to join the conference. There are arguments for and against accepting the Beavers as members. The WCHA currently has 10 members fielding men’s hockey teams; another application to join would give the conference the option of going to a 12-team format, ostensibly aiding the Beavers’ cause.
Alas, when the WCHA deadline for applications passed on March 30, Bemidji State’s application remained alone. Although the Beavers’ long-term outlook isn’t quite hopeless ‘-‘- there remains a significant chance of acceptance as a WCHA member, either for the 2009-10 or 2010-11 seasons ‘-‘- things aren’t exactly looking up, either.
This team without a home in a state with more hockey teams than you can shake your carbon-fiber stick at managed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The first opponent was none other than Notre Dame, the second overall seed in the tournament and an overwhelming favorite. Show’s over, right?
Five goals later, the Beavers found themselves matched up with Cornell, one of this tournament’s three peppermint look-alike contest entrants (BU and Miami of Ohio being the others). A near-repeat performance gave BSU a 4-1 victory and a trip to Washington, D.C.
Take a quick glance at the Frozen Four participants, and it’s easy to see which one doesn’t look like the others. Three of the remaining schools finished in the top 13 of the PairWise Rankings (PWR). Bemidji State? The Beavers didn’t even qualify as a listed team. KRACH, another objective rankings system, ranked BSU 36th overall; BU, Vermont and Miami were all 15th or better at the tournament’s commencement.
No CHA school has ever made it to the Frozen Four, let alone do so by winning two games by a total of seven goals. Whatever history the Beavers have to live up to is strictly their own. There is some history ‘-‘- the Beavers have won a remarkable 13 national championships at lower levels of competition. Still, nothing compares to this.
Everyone ‘-‘- well, almost everyone ‘-‘- loves an underdog story, unless you happen to be playing said underdog. The Beavers are that team. As was proven in their last two games, BSU has the firepower and the goaltending to beat tournament-caliber teams.
There’s no rooting against the Terriers here, none whatsoever, but just think about the possibilities, even for a second. Assuming BU finds a way to advance to the finals ‘-‘- knock on wood ‘-‘- the Beavers’ road to the Promised Land would be laid out right in front of them in red and white, one candy-cane after another. And candy-canes are fitting, since this is as close to Christmas as one gets in college hockey. Wouldn’t it be something special if that national championship had Bemidji’s name on it, just for once?
Wouldn’t it?
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