Joel Carlson

This isn’t basketball.

It’s not Virginia losing to the Retrievers-like madness, but as a hockey fan, this is utter insanity. Looking at the facts, University of North Dakota had their 15 YEAR NCAA Tournament streak ended this year, Boston College has had their first back-to-back years of not making the tourney since 1997, and just to top it all off, one of UND, BC, and University of Minnesota had made the tournament every year since 1977. ALL of that has changed as of tonight.

Two weeks ago, Minnesota had 99% next to their name for tournament odds.

This morning it was 98.2%. They just needed one of six games to go right for them. After all the dust and ice has settled on this championship Saturday, they won’t make it.

Stunningly, Princeton upset Clarkson, Robert Morris lost to Air Force, Boston University beat down Northeastern, Denver crushed St. Cloud, Northern Michigan University lost to Michigan Tech, and Ohio lost to Notre Dame. It’s safe to say that today was actual madness, and it’s in March so…you can connect the dots on that one.

It’s really all Minnesota’s fault for losing four in a row to Penn State on the road, but the thought of all of the games going the wrong way for Minnesota today seemed unlikely. If you asked anyone at the beginning of the season if Minnesota would make the tournament, they would have said yes, the only exception being North Dakota fans because they just don’t like Minnesota.

College hockey has changed.

BC, UND, and the U of Minnesota will not be in contention for the Frozen Four. Nate Wells, a writer for The Athletic broke down the incredible series that destroyed Minnesota’s chances:

If you’re an odds guy here’s another example of how crazy today was:

College hockey is awesome with upsets all around. Basketball keep your “March Madness”, hockey has its own “Hockey Hysteria”, and it’s not even the playoffs yet.