No. 1 Overall Seed

photo from MGoBlue.com

I was on an airplane when it ended, but the Wolverines rode a stellar performance by goalie Billy Sauer to defeat Miami 2-1 in the CCHA Tournament Championship game last night at Joe Louis Arena.  The highlights of both UM games at Joe Louis Arena can be seen in the multimedia section at www.mgoblue.com, which can be accessed here.

Aaron Palushaj scored midway through the second period, putting Michigan up 1-0 after two periods, even though Miami was outshooting the Wolverines 21-12 at that point.  Halfway through the final period, Tim Miller made a beautiful move on a face-off in the Miami end, pushing the puck between Miami center Nate Davis' legs, then getting around him to send the puck to Brandon Naurato, who put the puck into the open net.

Miami made it 2-1 with 40 seconds left with the goalie pulled and Michigan shorthanded, but Michigan's defense prevented any further shots, and that's where it ended.

The win gave the Wolverines their first CCHA tournament title since 2004-2005, when they also completed the regular season/tournament double dip.

NCAA Pairings Released

This morning, the NCAA released the NCAA tournament pairings.  Michigan was given the no. 1 overall seed as a result both of its CCHA championship and the fact that all of the other contenders for top seeds struggled over the last week.  North Dakota and Colorado College both lost in the WCHA semis, and New Hampshire lost in the Hockey East semis.

Michigan is the no. 1 seed in the Albany, NY regional, where they will face Niagara, champion of the CHA.  Also in the regional are St. Cloud St., out of the WCHA, and Clarkson, which won the ECAC regular season, but which could not make it out of its conference tournament quarterfinals.  It's about as good a draw as Michigan could have hoped for.

The other no. 1 seeds are New Hampshire, which must play in the West Regional hosted by no. 2 seed Colorado College, North Dakota, which plays in the Midwest Regional hosted by no. 3 seed Wisconsin, and Miami, which plays in the Northeast Regional at Holy Cross in Worcester, just an hour's drive from Boston (so you know it will be a pro-BC crowd there).

The fundamental problem for setting up this tournament is that Michigan and Miami, the top two overall seeds, had no regional sites anywhere near them, and Colorado College and Wisconsin were both hosting regionals on their home ice but by seasons' end, not worthy of no. 1 seeds (and considering Wisconsin's losing record, one wonders how they got a no. 3 seed).  All in all, there doesn't look to be a whole lot to complain about.

The WCHA has six teams in the tournament (North Dakota, St. Cloud, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado College, and Denver), and the CCHA four, including the top two overall seeds (Michigan, Miami, MSU, and Notre Dame, which squeaked into the tournament as the last at-large team).  The ECAC had two (Clarkson and tournament champ Princeton), as did Hockey East (Boston College and New Hampshire).  The CHA (Niagara) and the AHA (Air Force), as usual, placed only their conference champions in the tournament, and received the bottom two seeds. 

But don't feel too smug about that first game, Michigan fans.  Just a couple years ago, top seed Minnesota suffered one of the great upset losses of all time with an opening-round loss to AHA champ Holy Cross.  As they say all the time in the basketball tournament coverage, in a one-and-done scenario, anything can happen.

Michigan opens play on Friday, March 28, at 7:30.  The second round game will be Saturday at 7:00.  Both games will be televised on ESPNU.

Happy Easter, and Go Blue!