NCAA Frozen Four Hockey 2017: Schedule, Bracket, Odds, Live Stream, Predictions
It may not have the notoriety or history of the Final Four in college basketball, but the Frozen Four is often a brilliant show put on by the best college hockey players in the country.
Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Harvard and Notre Dame are this year's participants in the college hockey championship, which be contested at the United Center in Chicago.
The semifinal round will be held Thursday night, with the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs taking on the Harvard Crimson at 6 p.m. ET and the Denver Pioneers taking on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at approximately 9:30 p.m.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Both games will be televised by ESPN2 and can be live-streamed via WatchESPN.
The championship game will be played at the United Center Sunday at 8 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN and live-streamed via WatchESPN.
| Minnesota-Duluth vs. Harvard | April 6 | 6 p.m. | ESPN2 | WatchESPN | Harvard |
| Denver vs. Notre Dame | April 6 | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2 | WatchESPN | Denver |
The powerful Pioneers are plus-115 favorites to come away with the championship, according to OddsShark, with Minnesota-Duluth as the second choice at plus-225. Harvard follows at plus-280, while Notre Dame is the outsider at plus-500.
A $100 wager on Denver will return a profit of $115 to the bettor, along with the stake, if the Pioneers are successful.
Denver (31-7-4) is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA hockey tournament, and the Pioneers earned their way to Chicago as a result of victories over Michigan Tech and Penn State in the Midwest Regional.
Troy Terry scored a hat trick in the win over Penn State that punched Denver's ticket to the Frozen Four, and he has scored 41 points this season. Henrik Borgstrom is the team's leading scorer, with 21 goals and 21 assists.
The Pioneers are a stellar defensive team, and goaltender Tanner Jaillet has a .928 save percentage.
Notre Dame (23-11-5) is going to have to play its best hockey if the Fighting Irish are going to find a way to pull off the upset.
The Irish have beaten good teams to get to this point, and that was proved in the Northeast regional semifinal with a 3-2 upset win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Notre Dame earned its way into the Frozen Four with a 3-2 overtime victory over UMass-Lowell. Notre Dame had lost an earlier tournament game to the same school, but Andrew Oglevie was undaunted and scored the winner early in the extra session.
Forward Anders Bjork, who has been drafted by the Boston Bruins in 2014, is Notre Dame's leading scorer, with 21 goals and 31 assists.
Minnesota-Duluth (27-6-7) is red-hot coming into the final weekend of the season. The Bulldogs have reeled off seven straight victories for head coach Scott Sandelin.
The Bulldogs have been winning tight games recently, and they got the best of Ohio State in the West Regional semifinals with a 3-2 overtime victory. Willie Raskob scored the winner in the extra session, and that qualified them to compete against Boston University in the final.
It was another overtime victory for Minnesota-Duluth as Adam Johnson netted the winner on a power play to eliminate the Terriers and send the Bulldogs to the United Center.
Alex Iafallo leads Minnesota-Duluth in scoring, with 19 goals and 30 assists.
Harvard (28-5-2) will be playing in its first Frozen Four since 1994, and head coach Ted Donato has a team that has been filling the net all season. The Crimson lead the nation in scoring at 4.14 goals per game.
The Crimson got the best of Providence 3-0 in the Eastern Regional semifinal and then punched their ticket to Chicago with a 3-2 victory over the plucky Air Force Falcons in the final.
Donato's teams has won 16 straight games and is led by Alexander Kerfoot and Tyler Moy, who both have 44 points.
Predictions
Denver has quite a bit of swagger, and head coach Jim Montgomery is going to have a hard time keeping his players' minds on the business of beating Notre Dame.
The Pioneers may already be thinking of a final-round matchup, which is going to allow Notre Dame to put a scare into the favorites. Look for Notre Dame to take an early lead before Denver comes back and pulls out a 4-3 victory.
Minnesota-Duluth has found a way to win back-to-back overtime games and will be pressed hard by a Harvard team that has shown the ability to score key goals all year. The Bulldogs will play this game on even terms for two periods, but the Crimson will assert themselves in the third and pull out a 5-3 victory.
Harvard won't stop there and will get a chance to celebrate after beating Denver in the Frozen Four title game Sunday.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
