Don Brose, the architect of the Minnesota State hockey program, its father who raised it from its outdoor infancy to the pinnacle of Division II and guided it into its current Division I era, proudly witnessed his baby exorcise its postseason demons from a bar in Mankato.

“That game against the Gophers was textbook, the way they took away chances,” Brose said of the Mavericks who advanced in the Division I NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven tries. “I don’t think many people gave us a chance.”

While the balance of college hockey power within Minnesota’s borders has shifted considerably across the decades, the Gophers have long been, and continue to be, the dragon everyone wants to slay, even taking Minnesota Duluth’s massive success in recent years into consideration.

Did that make this win that much sweeter for Brose?

“Very much so because, let’s face it, people tend to look down on our league,” Brose said of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. “I think that gives a lot of credence to our league so I’m very happy for our league besides being very happy for coach Hastings and our players.”

MSU’s foray into the Frozen Four marks a first for the program but the last for the WCHA as a conference after all members, with the exception of the Alaska schools and Alabama-Huntsville, opted to leave the league for the re-born Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) under the leadership of former Minnesota coach Don Lucia as its commissioner.

While he would love to see the Mavericks send the league out in a blaze of glory, Brose has mixed feelings on the matter.

“It really makes me ill for what happened to the WCHA, how it broke up,” Brose said. “Because the [John] Mayasiches and the Red Berensons, you know, their historic pride in the league, what they did to build up the league and make it so strong, and now they have nowhere to hang their hat.”

Don Brose is flanked by captain Steve Forliti (left) and Steve Loomis (right) as the trio poses with Minnesota State’s 1980 NCAA Division II men’s hockey trophy.
Photo courtesy of Minnesota State University Athletics

The Mavericks in the Frozen Four is something Brose admitted he never could have imagined as a 29-year-old first-year coach flooding the outdoor rink for his upstart program to play on. Minnesota State was a split campus in those days with most of the athletic facilities located on the upper campus. The Mavericks played on a rink built on the lower campus football field which was already equipped with lights.

Brose was also an assistant baseball coach for nine years at Minnesota State and says it was sometimes colder playing baseball than it was to make ice for hockey.

“You never knew what kind of ice you were going to have,” Brose said. “If All-Seasons Arena wasn’t built, we probably wouldn’t have a program.”

Which would have been a shame considering Brose amassed a 536-335-79 record in his 30 seasons behind the MSU bench, including a Division II national championship to conclude the 1979-80 season. Brose would later steer the Mavericks into Division I in 1996, leading them through three seasons as an independent before making Minnesota State’s first season as a member for the WCHA (1999-00) his last behind the MSU bench.

The Mavericks, obviously, never trailed the Gophers in Loveland but history would not allow Brose to take anything for granted until the game’s latter stages.

“Well, I tell you what, I hated to play with a two-goal lead again,” Brose said. “When they got ahead two to zero, in the back of my mind, I thought, ‘Are we going through this again?’”

Brose can be forgiven for the fact it was actually a three-goal cushion barely 11 minutes into the game that got away from the Mavericks in 2019 before allowing six unanswered goals to Providence in their most recent NCAA tournament appearance.

Only most recent, though, because Minnesota State, like every other program in the country, had its NCAA postseason dreams dashed when the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak forced the NCAA to cancel its tournaments. The 2020 Mavericks might have been the program’s strongest ever, going 31-5-2 (.842) through the first round of WCHA tournament play before having the plugged pulled on its season.

As thrilled has Brose is for this year’s team, he can’t help but wonder what could have been.

“It’s sort of bittersweet because last year’s team was just a magnificent team,” Brose said. “To not have them get a chance was very bitter but to see this team make up for it and carry through was very good.”

We’ll never know if the 2020 team, and its gaudy record would have gotten Minnesota State over the hump of its 0-6 record all-time in NCAA Tournament games but the 2021 version, now sitting 22-4-1 (.833), flattened it, despite nearly being one-and-done themselves.

“It didn’t look good for a seventh time either when you get behind,” Brose said.

The Mavericks opened the NCAA West Regional against Quinnipiac and trailed the Bobcats 3-1 deep into the third period. But MSU scored twice in the final six minutes to send the game to overtime where Ryan Sandelin completed the comeback win at the 1:25 mark. 

Don Brose greets former Mavericks star Aaron Fox on his way to the ice.
Photo courtesy of Minnesota State University Athletics

Awaiting the Mavericks in Pittsburgh is St. Cloud State, one of Minnesota State’s oldest rivals going all the way back to the inaugural 1969-70 season. It’s the first NCAA Tournament meeting between the two schools separated by a little more than 100 miles and the Mavericks own a 63-56-13 all-time advantage over the Huskies in Division I and II play.

The matchup could not be more appropriate for Minnesota State’s virgin venture to the Frozen Four.

“That was one team that would play us all the way throughout the years; they gave us a chance our first season,” Brose said. “I look back to all the games we played against (long-time SCSU coach) Charlie Basch. He and I are very close friends. We would get together and play golf in the summer and we’re both Concordia (Minn.) graduates so I look at that a really being neat.”

While Brose passed the Minnesota State coaching torch on long ago, first to his assistant Troy Jutting before Mike Hastings arrived in 2012, he remains close to the program he birthed and believes it could not be in better hands.

“I think he’s the best coach in the United States,” Brose said of Hastings. “I think he can coach anywhere and I’m glad he’s coaching at our place.

“He demands a lot of the kids but he gives a lot back and he’s been a winner everywhere he’s been.”

Brose said he has never watched a practice in his going on 21 years of retirement, but prior to COVID he enjoyed congratulating the coaches and players personally after a win at home and he and Hastings exchange texts after big road wins. He envisions big things ahead for his beloved Mavericks under Hastings.

“I might have been part of setting the blocks, building the foundation for the program, but he is certainly the person that’s putting the skyscrapers on top of that foundation.”

The post Founding Father appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Bulldogs ride maturing blueline corps into second straight Frozen Four

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Just a sophomore, Nick Wolff is Minnesota-Duluth’s most experienced guy on a defensive group that was one of the team’s question marks heading into the season.

Assistant captains Carson Soucy and Brendan Kotyk, along with Neal Pionk and Willie Raskob didn’t return to the blue line this year after helping the Bulldogs reach the national championship game in 2017.

UMD sophomore forward Riley Tufte and freshman defenseman Louie Roehl embrace following Minnesota Duluth’s West Region final win over Air Force on Saturday. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Would their replacements be ready to perform? How much would their youth and lack of experience affect UMD’s ability to hang with the skilled and talented teams in the NCHC?

“We lost a lot, but we knew had a lot of great guys coming in,” Wolff said. “I don’t really consider myself the ‘old guy’. I’m just as goofy as they are. I learn off of them and they learn off of me.

“Right now, they’re killing it. (The young guys) just played one of our best weekend series we’ve seen them play.”

The UMD defense has shackled opposing offenses with the nation’s eighth-best scoring defense at 2.14 goals allowed per game all season and in the NCAA tournament when it mattered most.

The Bulldogs punched their ticket to their second straight Frozen Four and sixth in school history after they eliminated Air Force 2-1 in the West Regional final Saturday night at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

Minnesota-Duluth (23-16-3) will face the Denver/Ohio State winner in the Frozen Four semifinals April 5 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

“It was a really new team this year and we came together as a group,” UMD sophomore forward Joey Anderson said. “Going to two Frozen Fours is really cool, but we’re not done yet and we want to reach that final goal of winning the national championship.

UMD was able to do what St. Cloud State couldn’t do against Air Force on Friday, and that was to jump on the Falcons early and create chances right from the start, but most of all, suffocate the Falcons with a stifling defense and puck-possession game.

The Bulldogs held their opponents without a shot on goal for an entire period for the second night in a row. Air Force didn’t get its first shot on goal until the fourth minute of the second period.

“From the start, they took us to the woodshed,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said. “We haven’t seen speed like that all year.”

The Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead halfway through the first period when Dylan Samberg left the puck for Riley Tufte and went hard to the net, making contact with Air Force goaltender Billy Christopaulos at the edge of the crease.

UMD’s Joey Anderson (13) and Dylan Samberg (4) watch Anderson’s shot settle in the back of the Air Force net to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead in the first period of their 2-1 West Regional final win over the Falcons. (MHM Photo / Jonny Watkins)

Tufte took a shot from the point and Joey Anderson cleaned up the rebound. Officials determined after a review that Samberg’s contact didn’t prevent Christopaulos from making the save, one night after Samberg interfered with the Minnesota State goalie to overturn a UMD goal in overtime.

Wolff made the score 2-0 a few minutes later with a wrist shot while trailing the play on a rush.

“I thought it was important to go out and get the first goal,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said. “We were able to carry that momentum through the rest of the period. We talked before the game about starting on time and getting a lead.”

The Falcons started to apply pressure as the second period progressed and finally broke through with 6:16 left in the game. Evan Giesler scored it for the Falcons, trying to make a pass out front from behind the net and the puck deflected off Hunter Shepard and over the goal line.

Shephard and the Bulldogs withstood a late desperation surge by Air Force to seal the trip to St. Paul where UMD won its title in 2011.

“We’re going home (to the ‘X’),” Wolff said. “We’ve all played there before. I played in the state tournament there. It’ll be good to be home.”

Added Sandelin: “It’s great for our program, but I’m more happy for our players. We have a very young group, so we talk about how hard it is to get here. They needed to get here to realize how hard it is to win two games to get to the Frozen Four.”

The post UMDefense Grounds Falcons appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

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Parker Mackay’s goal has UMD a win away from Frozen Four repeat

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — After seven minutes, it looked like Minnesota State was on its way to a history-making night, but by game’s end, Minnesota-Duluth made sure history repeated itself.

The Bulldogs are back in the region final for a second year in a row after a 3-2 overtime win in the West Regional Friday night at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls.

Parker Mackay scored on a wrist shot from the slot 2:28 into OT to make UMD 9-0 all-time in the first-round games while the Mavericks are still looking for their first NCAA Tournament win in program history.

“We were feeling pretty confident after the third period,” Mackay said. “We didn’t want to get too complacent.”

Third-seeded UMD improves to 22-16-3 and will face No. 4 Air Force at 8 p.m. Saturday for a berth in the Frozen Four. MSU finishes the season 29-10-1.

Minnesota State’s Zeb Knutson watches his first-period shot elude Minnesota Duluth goaltender Hunter Shepherd to give the Mavericks a 1-0 lead in Friday’s West Regional semifinal. (MHM photo / Jonny Watkins)

The Mavericks scored two quick goals before the seven-minute mark of the first period by Zeb Knutson and Ian Scheid and UMD was punchless out of the gate with just one shot on goal by the time MSU was up 2-0.

“We had a good start,” Knutson said. “Everyone was dialed in and excited for the game.”

Then the Mavericks offense went dormant. No registered shots on goal for roughly 35 minutes, including the entire second period and no goals the rest of the game.

“We’ve played them three times and neither team’s gotten out to tremendous leads,” MSU coach Mike Hastings said. “I thought we survived the second period.”

UMD began the long road back with an 8-0 shots on goal advantage in the second period, highlighted by Karson Kuhlman’s goal at the 6:38 mark.

“We got the jitters out in the first period and just stuck with it,” UMD’s Nick Swaney said.

MSU made an effort to regroup during the second intermission and get back on the offensive and rebuild its lead. Knutson and Connor Mackey each connected with posts, but that was it.

“We got back in the locker room and we all came together as a team and said ‘hey, we can do this,’” MSU forward and Hobey Baker Award semifinalist C.J. Suess said. “I felt like after coming out of the locker room our spirits were up and that we were ready to go in the third.”

Nick Swaney’s one-timer shot from the low left circle got past Connor LaCouvee with 4:08 left in the third period to send the game to overtime.

It didn’t take long for the back-and-forth overtime fireworks to blast.

Players watch as UMD’s Nick Swaney (23) scored what was thought to be the game winner 55 seconds into overtime before the goal was reversed after review due t goaltender interference. (MHM Photo / Jonny Watkins)

UMD’s players jumped over the boards and rushed across the ice to mob Swaney who had just put the puck in the net for the Bulldogs 55 seconds into OT.

“We just called upstairs and asked our guy to take a look at it and we thought there was contact prior to the puck going in,” Hastings said. “I had a pretty good idea it was going to be overturned.”

The video replay showed Dylan Samberg running LaCouvee over in the crease and preventing the MSU goalie from making the stop on Swaney’s rebound shot.

A good goal was the call on the ice, but called off after review.

“I thought the guys did a good job refocusing and going back out there,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said. “I think all my excitement went out with the (disallowed) goal. I was still excited for second goal but not as excited as the first one.

UMD goaltender Hunter Shepard experienced a flurry in front of his own net after the ensuing faceoff. The puck slid toward the net on a Nick Rivera shot amid the scrum, but MSU’s Brad McClure was knocked into the goal and his breezers prevented the puck from crossing the goal line.

Shepard finished with 19 saves and LaCouvee had 19 for MSU.

Back on the other end, after a defensive-zone turnover, Justin Richards found Mackay gliding down the slot and hit him with a pass. Mackay took a second, head faked and put the puck over LaCouvee’s shoulder.

“They had been blocking shots all game so I was just trying to maybe fake it out and see if there was a shot lane,” Mackay said. “Sure enough, I just tried to get the puck on net and it went in.”

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Regional woes continue for top-seed Huskies

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Those who proudly wear St. Cloud State red and black would like to say this isn’t familiar territory, but lately, it appears to be the truth.

The No. 1 overall seed of the NCAA Tournament Huskies fell to Air Force 4-1 in the West Region semifinals Friday afternoon at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

“It’s miserable,” junior forward Robby Jackson said. “I just sucks, man. I don’t even know how to put it into words. We battled tooth and nail, but we couldn’t solve their goalie today.”

Air Force improves to 23-14-5 and will face either Minnesota State or Minnesota-Duluth in the regional final at 8 p.m. Saturday. St. Cloud State finishes the season 25-8-6.

The Falcons, ranked well beyond the top 16 in the PairWise Rankings and qualified by winning the Atlantic Hockey playoff title, struck twice early in the second period on goals by Tyler Ledford after the first 20 minutes went scoreless.

Air Force goaltender Billy Christopoulos makes one of his 39 saves to lead his team over St. Cloud State and into Saturday’s NCAA West Region final. (MHM Photo / Jonny Watkins)

The chances SCSU failed to score on or were stopped by Air Force goaltender Billy Christopoulos from that point on will surely haunt the Huskies, who had 18 shots in the second period.

“The second period was crazy, the chances we got,” SCSU coach Bob Motzko said.

The Huskies are 1-4 in their last five NCAA tournament games and the only lead they had in any of those was a one-goal lead for a 7 ½ minute stretch early in the 2015 West Region final against North Dakota, which UND won 4-1.

There was the 4-0 loss to Minnesota in the 2014 West Region final, followed by a first-round overtime win against Michigan Tech in 2015 in which SCSU never led until the OT goal.

And then, the overtime loss to Ferris State in the 2016 West Region when the No. 2 overall Huskies rallied to tie the Bulldogs, only to lose in overtime.

“I never thought we’d hurt worse than we did when we lost to Ferris, but here we are,” Jackson said.

The NCAA tournament has been a lot more kind to Air Force, which beat Western Michigan in the 2017 first round and has now won three tournament games in program history.

Air Force scored its first goal three minutes into the second period when Ledford broke up a soft pass from SCSU Jimmy Schuldt and knocked it out of the air and past goalie David Hrenak. Officials went to the monitor to check if Ledford’s stick rose above the plane of the cross bar, but the goal was called good on the ice and evidence of a high stick playing the puck was deemed inconclusive.

“We just watched (the play),” Falcons coach and Coleraine native Frank Serratore said. “It was really close.”

Ledford tipped home a Matt Koch centering pass for another goal and his sixth of the season, and then Christopaulos became the star of the show.

The junior from North Carolina stretched across the crease to reach out and rob the Huskies with his glove in the second and third periods, once on a cross-ice pass from Ryan Poehling that hit Jackson in the skates before he could shoot, allowing Christopaulos time to get over.

“(Christopaulos) is dialed in right now,” Motzko said. “If he stays dialed in, Air Force is going to win tomorrow. Someone’s gotta score on this kid.”

St. Cloud State’s Will Borgen (20), Robby Jackson (23) and Jimmy Schuldt (22) mob teammate Blake Lizotte after his third period goal. (MHM Photo / Jonny Watkins)

The Huskies scored with time ticking away on their season with 2:51 left in the third period. Blake Lizotte entered the zone and hit Newell on a pass near the far boards and Lizotte redirected Newell’s shot into the goal.

SCSU pulled Hrenak after the Huskies won the ensuing faceoff, but the Falcons gained possession of the puck as he got to the bench, leaving the net wide open as Air Force skated the puck through the neutral zone.

Jordan Himley sent the puck into the net for Air Force, effectively sucking out of the building whatever steam SCSU had generated and added another empty netter shortly after.

“We played the whole game waiting for that big goal to go in, but it came a little too late,” Motzko said. “We all know now, parity in college hockey has never been greater.”

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It’s Wednesday evening and the action is starting to pick up for Erik Martinson and the interns helping him get the Denny Sanford Premier Center ready for the ball.

Martinson has been in Sioux Falls since Sunday, nailing down the fine details of a well-run NCAA Regional hockey tournament from hiding all advertisements and signage to converting football and basketball locker rooms to hockey before the teams get there.

No. 6 Minnesota State and Atlantic Hockey Association champ Air Force roll in first. Top-seed St. Cloud State and No. 12 Minnesota-Duluth are set to arrive a little later.

“I don’t know how we got three Minnesota teams in one region, but I think it’s awesome,” said Martinson, assistant athletics director for operations at the University of North Dakota.

“I’m glad it all worked out with the PairWise Rankings, because I think we’re going to have a great atmosphere.”

Denny Sanford Premier Center Twitter Image

The West Region has a definite Minnesota flavor, with the three Minnesota teams plus Colorado Springs-based Air Force, which has plenty of Minnesota ties with Coleraine-native Frank Serratore behind the bench and seven Minnesota-native players.

“Hopefully there’s more of a positive flavor for the Minnesota teams because of the proximity,” MSU coach Mike Hastings said. “It was nice that we had a 2 1/2 -hour bus ride instead of hopping on a charter and flying like we’ve had to in the past.”

The idea of an arena filled with green-clad North Dakota fans faded as conference championship weekend progressed, but when the NCAA tournament bracket revealed a nice consolation Sunday morning.

“The best outcome would’ve been if UND was here,” Martinson said. “The next-best outcome is what we have with the teams that we got here.”

The NCAA regional rounds have seen notably sparse crowds, especially since the sites were required to be off campus starting around 10 years ago. Hundreds of empty seats are usually visible on TV and thousands more unoccupied in the upper decks, often closed off.

Those in charge at the Denny Sanford Premier Center hope and are confident that won’t be the case this weekend.

“Obviously, North Dakota not making the tournament is going to have an impact,” said Ty Halpin, the on-site NCAA representative in Sioux Falls this weekend.

“But the fan bases are able to drive and I think the game times are conducive to fans coming. Talking to people here, they think a lot of the people who bought tickets thinking North Dakota would be here, will probably still come. Even if it’s not full, it’s still going to be an enthusiastic atmosphere.”

UND showed what an electric atmosphere at a regional can look like with a much smaller, 4,000-seat arena with much of its fan-base willing to pay anything for a ticket when the school hosted at Fargo’s Scheels Arena in 2015 and 2017.

The crowds at those games, around 90 percent Fighting Hawks fans, spilled into the standing-room areas.

“I was down on the ice handing out championship hats to UND players after the region final (at Scheels Arena in 2015),” Martinson said. “It was the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my life because it’s all the noise is coming at you. Atmosphere drives everything.”

UND’s absence and a larger arena to fill have created challenges when it comes to attendance while trying to match the crazy atmosphere of the Fargo regionals.

The Denny Sanford Premier Center – with a capacity of 10,678 – is home to the United States Hockey League’s Sioux Falls Stampede, an indoor football team and live concerts. The arena is the only one out of 16 in the USHL that seats more than 10,000.

No. 1 in the PairWise Rankings, St. Cloud State was the easy pick for the top seed in the West Region since the selection committee tries to reward top seeds with shorter travel. To maximize attendance, the committee had to do some flip-flopping.

MSU, ranked sixth in the PWR, was slotted to play Midwest Regional host No. 11 Penn State in Allentown, Penn. and No. 12 Minnesota-Duluth would’ve played No. 5 Denver out east in a natural bracket.

Good news for those who value bigger crowds and better atmosphere more than bracket integrity.

“You never know what’s going to happen once the 16 teams are determined,” Hastings said. “I’ve never really tried to figure out who we’re going to play. The important thing is to focus on getting in and progressing from there.”

A large chunk of tickets were gobbled up more than 5,000 on presale by UND fans, who assumed their team would play in Sioux Falls this weekend, and it’s hard to blame them, given their program’s 15-year streak of tournament appearances.

(A host team is automatically placed in the region it’s hosting as long as it qualifies for the tournament.)

Each team that qualifies for the tournament is allotted 400 tickets, typically offered first to their season-ticket holders and Halpin estimated 1,000 tickets were sold via the NCAA’s official ticket exchange.

Fans that do make the trip to Sioux Falls will be impressed when they walk through the four-year-old Denny Sanford Premier Center’s doors, according to Halpin. He said he was impressed by the “four adequate locker rooms” and the sightlines provided by a steep upper deck that makes the fan feel closer to the ice.

“It’s phenomenal and it’s still pretty new,” Halpin said. “They’ve dressed it up pretty well from an NCAA perspective and it has all the bells and whistles you can ask for.”

The post Minnesota’s Ice appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The NCAA selection committee have announced the 16-team tournament for the 2018 Division 1 tournament. Three schools from the State of Hockey will be represented: the St. Cloud State Huskies, the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs and the Minnesota State Mankato Mavericks. All three schools were seeded at the West Regional in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

SCSU is the No. 1 seed among the entire field and will play Air Force in their first round matchup; with UMD and MSU seeded second and third and will play one another as well.

• No. 1 St. Cloud State vs. No. 4 Air Force
• No. 2 Minnesota State vs. No. 3 Minnesota Duluth

The winners of the first two games will meet in the regional final for the rights to go to the Frozen Four.

With all three Minnesota-based schools seeded in the one regional, there can only be one Minnesota school represented at the Frozen Four, which will be held in St. Paul on April 5th and 7th. 

Tale of the Tape

The St. Cloud State Huskies have spent a good amount of time near the top of national polls. SCSU boasts a very balanced attack on both sides of the ice as the team has scored 143 goals this season – second to only Minnesota State.

Hobey Baker finalist Jimmy Schuldt is a mainstay on the blue line, while Robby Jackson and Mikey Eyssimont pace the team with 42 and 39 points respectively

Head coach Bob Motzko has used a goalie tandem all season with David Hrenak and Jeff Smith appearing in 24 and 19 games.

Minnesota State and their prolific offense have been causing havoc on their opponents all season. Seniors C.J. Suess – also a Hobey Baker finalst – and Zeb Knutson each have 40-plus points on the season.

The team’s depth is incredible as fourteen players on the Mavericks roster have double-digit points on the season.

Although, the unsung hero of the team is senior goaltender Connor LaCouvee, who’s 1.76 GAA is the third best figure in the nation.

Meanwhile, the UMD Bulldogs might be penning a thank you note to a barrage of schools. After a wacky turn of events on Saturday, March 17, that bounced the University of Minnesota Gophers out tournament consideration, the Bulldogs received the last at-large bid into the tournament.

Bulldogs goaltender Hunter Shepard makes deflects a puck at the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul (MHM / Jonny Watkins)

Duluth trotted to St. Paul for the NCHC Frozen Frozen Faceoff red hot having won seven of their eight. However, the team played two disappointing games this past weekend losing to Denver 3-1 and North Dakota 4-1.

Despite losing key players that made the National Championship game last year, a solid group of underclassman have UMD back in the tournament. Sophomore goaltender Hunter Shepard is a rock between the pipes, owning a .924 save percentage while also pitching eight shutouts this season.

Finally, the Air Force Falcons are back at the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year. Led by their fearless bench boss Frank Seratore, the team won the AHA conference tourney.

Air Force has strong senior leadership with Erik Baskin, Tyler Ledford and Jordan Himley leading the team in points this season.

The puck will drop from the Denny Sanford Premier Center at 4:00 P.M. on March 23rd.

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