Not sure how much updating I will be able to do this year (work is crazy busy and the kiddos are another year older, meaning more sport travels), but the 2022-23 NCAA hockey season is upon us. Feel free to chime in with games you see, thoughts you have, etc.
One thing of interest out of Bemidji is that they will host next season's (2023-24) Icebreaker with North Dakota. Army and Wisconsin are the other two opponents and will rotate between Bemidji and Grand Forks.
I think it is a great move by the Icebreaker committee to go to two sites. This year is the first year they are trying it with Denver and Air Force hosting it. Maine and Notre Dame will be making this the trip to the foothills of the Rockies to complete this year's field. In listening to Tom Serratore on his radio show this week out of Bemidji, the move to two hosts was due to the fact that very few would be present at the game the host was not playing in on Friday and Saturday (games were usually at 3 and 7). By having two host sites, you get two 7 PM games both days with a host school playing in each game. If both Bemidji and UND sell out the games, you could have over 15,000 fans each night (11,000+ in Grand Forks, 4300+ in Bemidji)! I see no problems with UND selling out, hopefully the Beaver faithful show up in decent numbers.
BSU opens their season this weekend hosting Arizona State. ASU opened last weekend at Duluth, suffering two losses to the hands of the Bulldogs. They stayed in Minnesota for the week, so the Sun Devils should not be dealing with any travel legs.
One thing of interest out of Bemidji is that they will host next season's (2023-24) Icebreaker with North Dakota. Army and Wisconsin are the other two opponents and will rotate between Bemidji and Grand Forks.
I think it is a great move by the Icebreaker committee to go to two sites. This year is the first year they are trying it with Denver and Air Force hosting it. Maine and Notre Dame will be making this the trip to the foothills of the Rockies to complete this year's field. In listening to Tom Serratore on his radio show this week out of Bemidji, the move to two hosts was due to the fact that very few would be present at the game the host was not playing in on Friday and Saturday (games were usually at 3 and 7). By having two host sites, you get two 7 PM games both days with a host school playing in each game. If both Bemidji and UND sell out the games, you could have over 15,000 fans each night (11,000+ in Grand Forks, 4300+ in Bemidji)! I see no problems with UND selling out, hopefully the Beaver faithful show up in decent numbers.
BSU opens their season this weekend hosting Arizona State. ASU opened last weekend at Duluth, suffering two losses to the hands of the Bulldogs. They stayed in Minnesota for the week, so the Sun Devils should not be dealing with any travel legs.
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