INCH's podcast this week focuses on the Frozen Four, as well as the regionals, and some Hobey Baker talk.
United States of Hockey has a preview of each team heading into Thursday's semifinals.
Here's a nice freelance on the XCel Energy Center and what hockey means in the state of Minnesota.
The Pipeline Show talked with all four Frozen Four coaches on their show tonight. If I recall, there's been some bad luck for coaches that snub that show, so it's nice to see all four participate.
Here are four players that are flying under the radar, but should be key contributors this weekend, courtesy of The College Hockey Blog.
College Hockey News' talks about UMD goalie Kenny Reiter's emergence as Duluth's top goalie and his impressive East regional performance. Coincidentally, I was going back through old emails last week looking up something entirely different, and came across an old list of which schools certain players were looking at. Kenny Reiter's name was on that list, and the first, and probably most impressive name on the list was Union, the school he ended up shutting in the NCAA tournament. Duluth picked him up a few months later and the rest is history.
This probably comes as no surprise after the way they've turned things around this year, but Notre Dame's team is pretty tight together.
Notre Dame's Ryan Guentzel is making a triumphant return to the Twin Cities after being passed over by the hometown Gophers. Apples and oranges, but Guentzel's 37 points were eight points better than the output of Minnesota's leading scorer, Jacob Cepis.
Corbin Knight made a huge jump from 13 points to 44 points from freshman to sophomore year.
Matt Rust could meet his brother Bryan in the national title game if Michigan and Notre Dame both advance in the semifinals.
Michigan's Brandon Burlon is expected to be back for Michigan after missing the regionals with a bad infection that caused him to lose 15 pounds. Burlon reportedly put back on nine pounds, and will likely see some power play time for Michigan.
Michigan is also one of the few teams that doesn't like the week off between the regionals and Frozen Four. This debate seemed to come up a lot more last year, but it's just not feasible to go from crowning regional champions on Sunday night and then playing a national semifinal on Thursday afternoon.
USCHO talked with coaches whose teams had played both Michigan and North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth and Notre Dame.
An editorial in the Grand Forks Herald about the North Dakota hockey team is pretty much what you'd expect. You're likely to laugh if you live anywhere with trees.