HOT TOPIC

There’s plenty of scoring talent headed to Grand Rapids, Mich. this weekend, but even the most talented players will have trouble against these four defensive juggernauts. Notre Dame (first), Cornell (fourth) and Northeastern (10th) are among the top-10 nationally in overall team defense and all of them allow fewer than 2.25 goals-per-game. The Bemidji State Beavers aren’t too shabby in their own end either. They’re 23rd nationally with an overall goals-allowed rate of 2.68. Teams know heading into this one that they’ll have to bear down around the net and make every opportunity count, because those opportunities won’t come along very often.

BACK STORY

A disallowed goal off a skate hurt Notre Dame in last year's championship game.

One of these teams is headed to the Frozen Four, and it will bring the grand total of Frozen Four appearances this decade by this region’s participants to three – Notre Dame of course was there last year and Cornell was in the Frozen Four in 2003. With so much at stake, the biggest jobs of the leaders and coaching staffs on each bench might be controlling emotion. These teams thrive when they focus on the little things. Any distractions or dreams of the nation’s capital will only hurt them in reaching that eventual goal.

ON A ROLL

Bemidji State is on a 12-2-1 run dating back to late January counting a pair of convincing wins against the U.S. Under-18 National Team. The key to the Beavers offense has been their top line of Tyler Scofield, Matt Read and Matt Francis, who have combined for 13 goals and 13 assists over the last four games. CHA Rookie of the Year Brad Hunt has a cannon from the blue line and used it to net seven power-play goals.

The only common opponent between the two semi-final opponents is Minnesota-Duluth. The Fighting Irish won their only game while the Bulldogs swept a two-game set from the Beavers. But Bemidji State had never played then-ranked UMass before beating them at the Ledyard Bank Classic at Dartmouth in January. Over the last eight years, the CHA champ has lost to the eventual national champion three times.

SOMETHING TO PROVE

Northeastern has spent the majority of the season in the top five of the national polls, and it led the Hockey East standings all year – that was, of course, until Boston University stole the regular-season title during the final buzzer of the final game. The Huskies are 2-3-0 in their last five games. While they’ve put together a tremendous season that has completely turned around the direction of the program, they have fallen in each of their most important games – four in-season tournament title tilts, the regular-season finale and the Hockey East semifinals, which involved blowing a 2-0 lead. Northeastern has to show it can take that next step and win the games that count the most.

ONE TO WATCH

Cornell's Riley Nash

Cornell sophomore Riley Nash is playing with the type of pizzazz that made him a first-round NHL draft pick. He has played a big role in getting Cornell back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years and earned a spot on the All-ECAC Hockey First Team after a stellar season. His patience with the puck, vision and skill to make plays once they develop are what sets him apart from other players. He scored the game-tying goal against Princeton in the final minute of the conference semifinals last weekend, and is averaging a point-per-game, with 13-21-34 in 34 games played.

MR CLUTCH

There are only 16 players in the country who have five or more game-winning goals this season, so picking one “Mr. Clutch” on a Notre Dame team that has three players with five game-winners – no other team has more than one player amongst that select group – proves a bit of a challenge. But only one of those three Fighting Irish skaters had a game-winning goal in both the CCHA semifinals and Championship game last weekend – Sophomore Ben Ryan. Ryan isn’t a slouch defensively when it comes to big games, either, as coach Jeff Jackson had him skating opposite opponents’ top lines throughout last years run to the national championship game.

SUNDAY STORYLINE

Did you hear the one about the Catholic hockey team that played on a Sunday? No? Well, you’re about to. Notre Dame should get past a Bemidji State team that has fared reasonably well against a collection of non-conference foes from the WCHA this season, but the Beavers haven’t seen anyone like the Irish. The Cornell-Northeastern matchup, while it may not yield many goals, is intriguing in the sense that the two teams are awfully similar in many ways. With two of the country’s better goalies in tow, this game may break on which team converts on the few golden opportunities it’ll get.

Notre Dame’s versatility is quite remarkable. You’d think a team with the skill of the Fighting Irish would loathe playing against one like Cornell or Northeastern, clubs that prefer to proceed at a more controlled pace, but Notre Dame is quite adept at grinding out wins. The odds of either the Big Red or the Huskies bouncing the Irish in regional final aren’t very good, but the blueprint for upsetting Notre Dame has at its core a Herculean effort from either Ben Scrivens or Brad Thiessen.

James V. Dowd, Mike Eidelbes, Joe Gladziszewski, Jeff Howe and Warren Kozireski contributed to this preview.