If I have this right, this is the third year in a row that the No. 4 overall seed has gone down in the first round. (UNH the past two years, to Notre Dame last year and Miami-Ohio the year before. Or I could be reading the brackets entirely wrong.) At any rate, Michigan appears to be the fifth No. 1 seed in a region to go one-and-done (UNH twice, Clarkson against UMass in 2007, and the infamous Minnesota-Holy Cross game in ’06) since the tournament went to 16 teams in 2003. (And then Denver became No. 6. Hey, Rhett Rakhshani: how you feel about turning pro?)
Attendance: 8,478, three better than the Bridgeport Sound Tigers’ largest crowd, Jan. 30, 2005…
Hey, remember the Bridgeport Sound Tigers?
Hershey clinched a playoff spot (no worse than third, in fact) with a 4-0 win at Bingo. Alex Giroux scored No. 52. Ho, hum. (Interesting final penalties: a double minor for roughing to Collins, and a triple minor to Bois.)
EastWatch provides a helpful ‘x’ to mark the spot. Other letters will follow.
Bridgeport did receive good news: Philadelphia lost to Toronto, cutting the Sound Tigers’ magic number to one. (Since this is CatamountsBlog… Vermont’s own Jaime Sifers: goal.) Binghamton’s loss cuts the Sound Tigers’ magic number over the Senators to three, though it’s effectively two if Bridgeport wins or Binghamton loses once more. For similar reasons, I think the Penguins can clinch tomorrow night with four points.
Take a peek at Tris’ blog again: A Grand Rapids player broke his leg tonight in almost the same spot where Chris Cozzan went down.
OK, staring through the netting has wrecked my head. (The 13-hour day probably hasn’t helped, either.) See you tomorrow.
Edit: Got this in the e-mail:
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … American Hockey League referee Chris Cozzan was injured during Friday evening’s game between the Norfolk Admirals and the Grand Rapids Griffins at Norfolk’s Scope Arena.
With 5:34 remaining in the first period, Cozzan was accidentally cut in the neck by a player’s skate blade. He was immediately tended to by emergency medical personnel and team trainers and doctors, and was transported to Norfolk General Hospital to undergo surgery to repair the injury.
Cozzan is expected to make a full recovery. No other details are available at this time.