UMD followed an unlikely road to win collegiate hockey’s national championship.
Minnesota-Duluth beat the Irish, 2-1, last Saturday night to win the 2018 men’s NCAA hockey championship. It was the Bulldogs second national crown.
But the storyline this time round borders on unbelievability.
Few people expected UMD to make the tournament field, let alone win it.
For starters, the Bulldogs had a lackluster season. They finished a distant third in their conference (13-11 record), didn’t win the conference tournament, and ended the regular season with 16 losses. Those performances put UMD behind the 8-ball.
At that point, AP’s Mike Cook reports, UMD’s tournament bid hinged on two unlikely outcomes. First, the results of six conference tournaments had to go the Bulldogs’ way. Second, after those results were known, the NCAA’s computer-generated formula had to print out, “Bulldogs.”
And that’s exactly what happened! All six tournament results favored UMD and the Bulldogs edged out the University of Minnesota in the computer tally by (get this) .0001 point.
UMD had earned the last of 16 bids.
The Bulldogs then took care of business on the ice. They knocked off Minnesota St., Air Force, Ohio St., and ND in succession—all by one-goal margins–to win the crown.
UMD not only beat several of hockey’s big boys in the process, Duluth was the only non-Big Ten team in this year’s Frozen Four. When Michigan, Ohio St., and ND all advanced (yes, the Irish are a Big Ten affiliate in hockey), some wags called it “The Big Ten Invitational.” But that didn’t faze UMD. The Bulldogs edged OSU in the semi-final before knocking off ND in the final.
The irony is that UMD’s crown and it’s general standing in major college hockey comes courtesy of the Big Ten–at least in part.
How so? Five Big Ten schools—Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Wisconsin— had been playing hockey for quite some time, but they did so as members of other conferences. That changed when the Big Ten announced it would establish a 6-team league—adding Penn State–and begin competition in 2013.
The Big Ten’s decision to launch its own league created an earthquake in Midwest college hockey.
A number of former CCHA schools migrated to the WCHA. Others joined UMD—which had vacated the WCHA—to form (with still other schools) a new league, The National Collegiate Hockey Association. The NCHA, along with the Big Ten, launched play in 2013.
In the meantime, the Big Ten league expanded to seven teams, adding Notre Dame this past season.(Rutgers may become #8 with Illinois possibly joining as #9.)
This shakeout has created a David and Goliath situation in Central States college hockey–large, big-name schools in one major conference—the Big Ten—and a diverse set of smaller schools in two other major conferences, the WCHA and the NCHA (e.g., the University of Alabama, Huntsville, WCHA; and St. Cloud St., NCHA).
This year, at least, David took on Goliath and won. And that victory creates suspense about what the future holds for major college hockey.
