Both the Miami University Redhawks and the Bemidji State Beavers will be making their first ever appearance in this year’s Frozen Four, the semifinals of the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament.
The game will take place at 5:00 EST on Thursday and it will be the first of two semifinal games played at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C., the host city of this year’s Frozen Four.
The second semifinal game will feature the Boston University Terriers, the tournament’s overall top seed and the University of Vermont Catamounts, who captured the East Region with victories over Yale and Air Force.
How They Got Here
Both the Redhawks and the Beavers were seeded as #4 seeds out of just four teams in each region. Miami’s road to the Frozen Four had to go through the University of Denver and the University of Minnesota-Duluth, two teams that the Redhawks’ goalie Cody Reichard was able to limit to one and two goals a piece in the two victories, 4-2 over the Pioneers and 2-1 over the Bulldogs respectively.
Bemidji State played its opening round game in Grand Rapids against the top-seeded Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, whom the Beavers defeated in a blowout by a lopsided score of 5-1. Next came the Cornell University Big Red, who looked as if they would be headed to D.C. after scoring the opening goal on goaltender, Matt Dalton. However, Bemidji managed to score four straight unanswered goals to advance past their Ivy League opponent from New York.
