Frozen Four, West Regional tidbits, Wilcox update

FROZEN TALK

The first semifinal of the Frozen Four on Thursday of next week -- Ferris State vs. Union -- will be on ESPNU. The second semifinal --- Gophers vs. Boston College -- and the championship game on Saturday will be on ESPN2. ESPN3.com will stream all three games as well.

* WCHA teams are 7-8-3 against Hockey East teams this season with one game left, Gophers vs. Boston College on Thursday of next week..WCHA teams are even worse against CCHA teams, 12-16-1, but have an 11-5-4 against teams from the ECAC.

The Gophers will face Boston College, a Hockey East team on April 5, and either Ferris State (CCHA) or Union (ECAC) on Saturday, April 7, if they can upset the Eagles.

* Tampa Bay received the bid to hold the Frozen Four in 2005 and has been preparing ever since. It will be in the Tampa Bay Times Forum, where the Lightning of the NHL plays. ... The Frozen Four moves to Pennsylvania the next two seasons. It will be in Pittsburgh in 2013 and Philadelpha in 2014.

* WCHA teams have won 37 NCAA titles since the conference was founded in 1951. In the past 10 years, a WCHA team has won a national title six times. The WCHA had a five-year run of dominace from 2002-06 when the Gophers won titles in 2002 and '03, Denver in 2004 and '05, Wisconsin in 2006. Minnesota Duluth won its first title last year.

Ferris State will be joining the reshaped WCHA in 2013-14 when seven teams leave it, the Gophers and Wisconsin for the Big Ten Conference and five others for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

THE ZINGER

The best line of the West Regional -- not on the ice, but in the media interviews -- was delivered by Garry Bowman, director of athletic communications.

Gophers coach Don Lucia and two of his players were arriving in the interview room. And Lucia made some kind of comment about the timing of his arrival.

Without hesitation Bowman said, "I have been waiting for you for four years."

Nice zinger, with some truth in it.

LAST THOUGHTS ON UND WIN

Did you notice the difference in officiating at the West Regional?

The ECAC crew on Saturday called 18 penalties -- nine per side -- in the Gophers' 7-3 victory over Boston University. BU coach Jack Parker thought they did a good job, that most of the penalties were warranted.

Even so, only two of the four were back with another all-ECAC crew for Sunday's game. the Gophers beat North Dakota 5-2 and had only three minor penalties. The officials Sunday seemed to let a lot more go. UND had four penalties for eight minutes.

Early in the third period, for instance, UND captain Mario Lamoureux pounded on Gophers freshman Travis Boyd, whose helmet came off, and there was no call.

* All six players named to the West Regional all-tournament team were Minnesotans: Forwards Brock Nelson (Warroad) and Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie) and defenseman Ben Blood (Plymouth) of North Dakota and forward Kyle Rau (Eden Prairie), defenseman Nat Schmidt (St. Cloud) and goalie Kent Patterson (Plymouth) of the Gophers.

* Watched replay of part of Gophers and UND game at home.

It was neat to watch freshman Travis Boyd of the Gophers raise his arms after scoring his first goal and all his teammates coming to him.

One of the TV announcers, either Clay Matvick or Dave Starman, commenting on UND not hitting as much as usual: "They have not tenderized a lot of beef tonight."

Danny Kristo of UND is a pretty smart player. In the third period, Gophers defenseman Justin Holl had his stick out to the side as he was skating, and Kristo goes right for it and trips to draw a penalty when he trips over it. Holl looked stunned.

Adam Wilcox, who will be a freshman goalie at Minnesota next season, has been playing well for Tri-City of Kearney, Neb. His team lost its last game 4-1 to Dubuque, the defending Clark Cup champion.

But before that,. he had stopped 100 of 103 shots in the past three games as the Storm went 3-0.

Wilcox is 22-17-0 overall for Tri City, which is sixth in the Western Conference of the UHSL. The Storm's record is 24-30-0; they are in sixth place in the Western Conference, meaning they currently has the last spot for the playoffs.

Wilcox has a 2.74 goals-against average, the seventh best in the USHL, and a .917 save percentage, the third best.

* Defenseman Brady Skjei, another Gophers recruit coming in next fall, has two goals and one assists for the under-18 U.S. national team in his last five games. One of his goals was a game-winner over Indiana.