Inside College Hockey | 2005 Frozen Four Notes

April 5, 2005
NCAA Tournament
A Half Dozen Frozen Four Notes You Heard Here First

• Three for all – Five Gophers – seniors Jake Fleming, Justin Johnson, Garrett Smaagaard, Judd Stevens and Barry Tallackson – have a chance to join Michigan's Carl Isaacson, Alex MacClellan and John Matchefts (1951-53) as the only players to win three Frozen Four titles.

• Rocky Mountain High – For the first time in the tournament's 57-year history, two schools from Colorado will be represented at the Frozen Four. Colorado College and Denver make Colorado the fifth state to send two teams to the Frozen Four in the same season. Two teams from Massachusetts have achieved the feat on seven occasions, while Michigan teams have done it six times.

Michigan, incidentally, is the only state to have three teams in the same Frozen Four. The 1992 event in Albany featured Michigan, Michigan State and champion Lake Superior State.

Minnesota, the self-proclaimed "State of Hockey," has never had two representatives in the same Frozen Four. New York (three times) and New Hampshire (once) are the other states to turn the trick.

• Alumni Reunion – Not only are there four WCHA teams in the Frozen, but all four coaches are alums of WCHA schools: Gwozdecky (Wisconsin), Hakstol (North Dakota), Owens (Colorado College) and Lucia (Notre Dame was in the 'W' when he was there). That's never happened before, either.

• Why wait? –North Dakota's Dave Hakstol is just the sixth coach to lead his team to a Frozen Four in his first season as a college head coach, and the first since 1986. The others:

1986 – Doug Woog, Minnesota
1979 – Gino Gasparini, North Dakota
1974 – Jack Parker, BU
1964 – Rube Bjorkman, Rensselaer
1956 – George Menard, St. Lawrence
1953 – John Mariucci, Minnesota

No coach has ever led his team to a national title in his first season as a college head coach. A handful (including Jeff Jackson, Herb Brooks, Murray Armstrong and North Dakota's Bob May) have done it in their second year.

• Western power – The WCHA is guaranteed its fourth straight national championship this year. Not a bad run, but by WCHA standards it's merely OK. The WCHA has won five straight titles on two occasions (1973-77 and 1979-83) and an incredible 12 in a row between 1955-66.

• States of the games – Here's the list of the home states, provinces and European countries represented on the four teams at the Frozen. In 1999 there were no Minnesotans. Last year there were none from Michigan. This year it's Massachusetts that gets shut out.

Minnesota	46
Colorado	14
Alberta	8
North Dakota	8
Manitoba	4
Saskatchewan	4
Alaska	3
California	3
Michigan	3
British Columbia	2
Illinois	2
New York	2
Wisconsin	2
Finland	1
Maryland	1
Missouri	1
New Hampshire	1
Nova Scotia	1
Ontario	1
Pennsylvania	1
Slovakia	1