Kreider Sparks Rangers to Stay Alive in Pittsburgh

 

Chris Kreider (Boston College) made his 2014 Stanley Cup Playoff road debut a memorable one.

He hustled to get a loose puck back to the left point early Friday night in Pittsburgh, diving to the ice to beat Penguins forward and former BC teammate Brian Gibbons. He then followed up a rebound by Ryan McDonagh (Wisconsin) on that same play with his first goal of the postseason, sparking the New York Rangers to a 1-0 lead en route to a 5-1 win in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series at Consol Energy Arena.

Kreider, who also had an assist, and now has seven goals in 28 career NHL playoff games, is coming off of surgery on a broken left hand. That injury caused him to miss 23 games before he finally skated in Wednesday’s 4-2 loss in Manhattan in Game 4. His goal on Friday also broke the Rangers’ 0-for-36 drought on the power play this postseason that extended back to Game 2 of New York’s first-round, seven-game series victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Rangers forward Martin St. Louis (Vermont) was in the lineup for New York one day after the passing of his mother in Canada. He skated 16 minutes, had one shot on goal,  and was named the contest's third star.

Pittsburgh now leads the best-of-seven series with the Rangers, three games to two. Game 6 is slated for Sunday evening at Madison Square Garden.

Yale Wins First-Ever National Title

The fourth time was the charm.

Yale University shook off three earlier losses this season to league rival and top-ranked Quinnipiac University with a 4-0 win on Saturday night in the NCAA Division I national title game before a crowd of 18,184 at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

The victory in the latest "Battle of Connecticut" in this year's NCAA Frozen Four earned Yale, the 15th seed overall in the 2013 NCAA tournament, its first national championship in its 117-year-hockey history. It also marked the first Eastern College Athletic Conference national crown in 24 years, since Harvard beat Minnesota, 4-3 in overtime, in 1989.

Clinton Bourbonais broke a scoreless deadlock with his redirection of a Gus Young shot with 3.5 seconds remaining in the second period, and Jeff Malcolm made 36 saves on his 24th birthday to provide Yale with all the tools it needed.

“He did what great goaltenders do,” said seventh-year Yale head coach and former Bulldog netminder Keith Allain at NCAA.com. “He gave us a chance to win.”

Charles Orzetti, captain Andrew Miller, and Pittsburgh native Jesse Root (empty-netter) produced third-period goals as Yale (22-12-3 overall) won its fourth straight game against a ranked team, and its third against a No. 1 seed in this year's national tournament.

Miller, who also scored the game-winning goal in Yale’s 3-2 OT win over UMass Lowell in a national semifinal on Thursday, was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Root had powered the Bulldogs into the NCAA West Regional final in Grand Rapids, Mich. on Good Friday with his goal just nine seconds into sudden death in a 3-2 triumph over second-ranked Minnesota. The next day, Yale scored four times in the final eight minutes to eliminate No. 7 North Dakota, 4-1.

Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist Eric Hartzell made 27 stops in his final appearance for Quinnipiac (30-8-5), which had just defeated Yale three weeks prior by a 3-0 count in the ECAC Tournament consolation game in Atlantic City. The Bobcats were ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of the 2012-13 campaign, and had outscored Yale by a 13-3 count in their previous three meetings.

Not on Saturday night, though, sending the NCAA trophy to New Haven, Conn. for the first time.

Connecticut Rivals Yale and Quinnipiac to Face off in Frozen Four Finale

Call it a tale of two teams from Connecticut, with the final chapter now coming up.

Whoever loses tonight in Pittsburgh, though, the Eastern College Athletic Conference and the Constitution State will still win.

League rivals Yale and Quinnipiac will meet for the NCAA Division I men's college ice hockey national championship on April 13 at the Consol Energy Center following semifinal victories against UMass Lowell and St. Cloud State, respectively, on Thursday night.

Quinnipiac (30-7-5 overall) won all three meetings with Yale (21-12-3 overall) this season, including a 3-0 decision in the ECAC Consolation Game at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on March 23. The two schools are separated by just eight miles in Connecticut’s Greater New Haven area, and have been league rivals since the Bobcats joined the ECAC in 2005. All-time, the newcomers also lead the season series with the Bulldogs, 10-5-2.

Quinnipiac also fashioned a 21-game unbeaten streak from November to March of this season, and was ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of the new calendar year before stumbling in Atlantic City.

“It’s been a great ride,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold to the New Haven Register. “And we’ve got to get one more.”

Yale, which won at Denver and Colorado College in November, has won eight of its last 10 games, falling only in the ECAC semifinals and consolation in that span.

“People have been calling us a Cinderella story but that means they haven’t been paying attention,” said Yale forward Nico Weberg, who has been sidelined since early March with a concussion, to the Register. “I think we’re a hard-working team. We play hard, we skate hard and we grind teams down."

The ECAC is guaranteed its first national champion since 1989, when Harvard edged Minnesota, 4-3, in overtime at the new-demolished St. Paul (Minn.) Civic Center on a sudden-death score by Ed Krayer.

It also marks the first appearance of an ECAC team in the national final since Colgate lost, 7-3, to Wisconsin in 1990 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, and the first time that two ECAC schools will meet with the national title on the line since Boston University defeated Boston College, 5-3, at the Providence Civic Center in 1978 (before those two schools moved to the Hockey East Association six years later).

“Both the Bobcats and the Bulldogs pulled off impressive wins on the ice last night, once again focusing the eyes of college sports on Connecticut," said Governor Daniel P. Malloy to the Register. "There’s no doubt that these two teams have made Connecticut the center of the college hockey universe.”

A stretch that has expanded from just eight miles apart to encompass the entire nation for one night.

St. Cloud's LeBlanc Wins 2013 Hobey Baker Award

Drew LeBlanc of St. Cloud State University is the 2013 winner of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as college hockey’s top player.

The award was presented to the senior forward tonight at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, site of the 2013 NCAA Frozen Four.

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association Player of the Year and the WCHA Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year, the first such skater to earn both accolades simultaneously in the 52-year history of the league, LeBlanc finished the 2012-13 campaign with 13 goals and a nation-high 37 assists for 50 points, one year after suffering a severely-broken leg that limited him to 10 games and force him to redshirt the rest of the 2011-12 campaign.

"Wow," said LeBlanc on NHL Network upon taking the podium to accept the 33rd Hobey Baker Award. "This is one of those things ... It's an unreal moment for me. I'm humbled, honored, and blessed.

In 171 career games with the Huskies, the six-foot, 185-lb. LeBlanc collected 42 goals and 105 assists for 147 points. He ended his college career in Thursday's 4-1 loss to Quinnipiac and fellow Hobey Baker finalist Eric Hartzell in an NCAA semifinal. Johnny Gaudreau of Boston College was the other finalist.

A four-time WCHA All-Academic choice, LeBlanc, a Hermantown, Minn., native has also served as a high school math student-teacher this season.He prepped with the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League before enrolling at St. Cloud.

More on this story at Bleacher Report.

Yale Advances to National Title Game

And to think they almost didn't make the field.

The last school to gain a berth in this year's NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Tournament, the Yale University Bulldogs are one of the last teams standing following a dramatic 3-2 national semifinal victory over third-ranked UMass Lowell in overtime on Thursday at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

Yale will now face Connecticut and ECAC rival Quinnipiac , a 4-1 semifinal winner over St. Cloud State, on Saturday night for the national title. It will be the first NCAA Championship Game appearance for both the Bulldogs and the Bobcats, who faced each other three times this year, all Quinnipiac victories.

Senior captain Andrew Miller corralled a bouncing puck at the UML blueline, stepped outside a defender, and ultimately slipped a backhander between the pads of River Hawks netminder Connor Hellebuyck (44 saves) just 6:59 into sudden death to lift Yale to its third straight NCAA Tournament victory over a ranked opponent.

The Bulldogs, who made the national tournament when Michigan was eliminated in the CCHA title game and missed out on an at-large NCAA bid, defeated No.2 Minnesota (3-2 OT) and No. 7 North Dakota (4-1) two weeks ago at the NCAA West Regional in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Mitch Witek and Antoine Laganiere staked Yale to 2-0 lead after the first period before UML tied the contest on second-period scores just 14 seconds apart by Riley Wetmore and Joseph Pendenza . It stayed that way even though Yale outshot UML, 16-3, in the final 20 minutes of regulation, and 6-0 in the extra session before Miller struck. Jeff Malcolm finished with 16 saves for Yale, which outshot the River Hawks, 47-18.

Frozen Four Finally Here

It's the most wonderful time of the year. One of them, anyway.

The NCAA Men's Hockey Frozen Four and the final weekend of the 2012-13 college hockey campaign are finally here.

The early game today at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh will feature Yale (18-12-3) vs. UMass Lowell (26-10-2) at 4:30 p.m. ET, followed by St. Cloud State (23-15-1) against top-ranked Quinnipiac (27-7-5). All four schools are seeking their first-ever hockey national championship. Only Yale has previously advanced to this point, albeit in 1952.

Yale advanced to this year's semifinals by besting WCHA opponents Minnesota and North Dakota two weeks ago at the NCAA West Regional in Grand Rapids, Mich. UMass Lowell, the only team at the Frozen Four that won its conference tournament championship, bested Wisconsin and Hockey East rival New Hampshire at the Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H., while St. Cloud upended a pair of CCHA schools, Notre Dame and Miami (Ohio), at the Midwest Regional in Toledo. Lastly, ECAC regular-season champion Quinnipiac ousted New York schools Canisius and Union at the East Regional in Providence to punch its ticket to Pittsburgh.

Both of today's contests will be televised live on ESPN2. The winners will advance to Saturday night's championship contest at 7 p.m. on ESPN.