The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, the only four seed to make the Frozen Four, beat top-rated Michigan in an overtime thriller on Thursday to advance to the NCAA championship game. The Irish will play Boston College on Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
Calle Ridderwall, who opened the scoring, finished it, too, getting the winner for the Irish at 5:44 of overtime. A Notre Dame point shot rebounded high in the slot to Ridderwall, who fired it by freshman goalie Bryan Hogan.
I fell asleep for the last half of the third period, and missed the overtime too. And then I yelled (scaring the heck out of my poor wife) when I checked my iPhone at 7 this morning when I saw the news. It was tied 3-3 when I conked-out; and I figured that in erasing a 3-0 deficit the Wolverines were in great shape to overcome the horrendous goaltending from Billy Sauer (sorry, Billy, you know it's true) and take their rightful place in the final against B.C. It was not to be.
Anything can happen in OT; and obviously it did. This was a great Michigan hockey team. All season they played a confident, aggressive game; and even though they only has 2 seniors, their inexperience was turned into a positive the whole year. It's a shame that Sauer folded, because it was his play (especially in the first half of the season) that gave them the confidence to play the way they did. But for the last month you could see that Billy was not just the same goaltender; and I worried about the tournament because of it. There is no way they should have lost to Notre Dame; and I predict now that BC will crush them in the final - Michigan was the only team that stood a chance against the BC juggernaut that is seeking revenge for losing in the last 2 finals.
There goes part of my Dream Weekend... Oh well. Go Tiger! Go Rangers! Go Mets?
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