It’s that time again, folks! The Frozen Four, the pinnacle of the college hockey season, is finally upon us, with the semifinal round set to begin this evening in St. Louis. It’s a big moment for college hockey watchers, and the Flyers will once again find themselves well represented at this point in the tournament.
The action will kick off this evening with the matchup between Denver and Western Michigan (with the Broncos featuring, of course, buzzy Flyers prospect Alex Bump), beginning at 5:00 PM ET on ESPN2 and ESPN+. And this is, it goes without saying, is a big one. Denver is coming in with some serious momentum, as the reigning national champion and having defeated the top-ranked team in the country in Boston College pretty handily in their regional final, and they’re coming in to face Western Michigan, making their first appearance in the Frozen Four in program history. But the Broncos aren’t going to make this easy on them — they’ve been competitive in tight games throughout the tournament, and for them, there will be no surprises about Denver’s game. With both playing in the NCHC, there’s a real familiarity there, and, also notably, Western Michigan’s had some success against this Denver team already this year, having split their regular season series with a win and an overtime loss, and beating them in the final of the Frozen Faceoff.
Following that, we’ll see Penn State and Boston University (with our pal Devin Kaplan) facing off at 8:30 (still on ESPN2 and ESPN+). This one, too, is going to be an interesting matchup — Penn State went into their regional as the four-seed, and managed to upset both Maine and UConn, though they did have some trouble in that second game, BU is a team that isn’t going to clog up the neutral zone in the same way that UConn did, and instead is one that’s going to be able to skate with them and trade chances. BU might be the favorite heading into it, given the strength of their roster and regular season, but this one feels like it really could go either way.
The winners of these games will face off on Saturday at 7:30, and a new (or perhaps not new) National Champion will be crowned. This is sure to be an exciting slate of action.