Things I’m Thinking About Before the Frozen Four
By Brendan Locke- April 10th, 2025
As the calendar turned to 2025 some four months ago, Western Michigan was rolling, yet they raised doubts in what was considered a weak NCHC. Boston University got drubbed in New Haven to the tune of a 7-4 loss to Yale and sat barely above .500. Penn State was sitting with a 7-9 record, had a four-game stretch in November where they allowed 27 goals, and were not even “receiving votes” on USCHO’s January poll. Oh, and Denver lost to a club hockey team.
Of course, this was exactly who everyone expected to make it to St. Louis
Sure…
Yet, here we are, Denver pantsed the tournament favorite, Western won two low-scoring affairs, BU caught fire, and Penn State knocked off the Hockey East champ.
With all of this comes the bye week, the men’s basketball Final Four, the Masters, and a litany of other things. So, if you need to shake the cobwebs off to prep for this weekend of hockey, I don’t blame you.
Here are some things that have been swimming around in my head for the past ten days.
Can Cole Eiserman have a signature moment?Cole Eiserman can be really, really great gamebreakingly great. Yet, he’ll have shifts, periods, games where you question if he is even on the ice. The Islanders’ first first-round draft choice has 23 goals and 11 assists on the season.
The freshman is like that wide receiver who doesn't get a target for an entire game, then hits on an 85-yard touchdown once where he just runs faster than everyone else.
When Eiserman uses that breakaway speed, there isn’t a defenseman in the country who can catch up to him. He did it to secure the win in the Beanpot, he did it against UMass in the Hockey East playoffs in overtime. The ceiling is there for him to put on a Frozen Four show, the likes of which we rarely see. But is his floor high enough to elevate if he doesn’t have his “A” game? Eiserman tends to score in bunches, with 12 of his 23 goals on the season coming in just five games. He has two hatricks this year, and three times he’s scored twice in a game.
He finished the season on one of those streaks, scoring seven times in his final six games. Yet, most recently, in a rock fight against Cornell in the regional final, he registered just two shots on net and didn’t get on the scoresheet. Will the trend continue, or is it just a blip on the radar and a return to form for the freshman?
Speaking of form…
Is Mikhail Yegorov really going to DO this?He showed up in the middle of the season with bright orange pads, got thrown in his first game against the most potent attack in college hockey. He then got a penalty before he had even registered a second of icetime and went on to make 23 saves to give his team a chance against BC back in January. Oh, and he had to go to the Bahamas to get his student visa before he could even come to Comm. Ave.. So for those keeping score at home, that’s St. Petersburg -> Omaha-> Nassau-> Boston.
All he’s done since is win the Beanpot without even knowing what it was. He made 69 saves on 71 shots in two games. He had to get the Beanpot explained to him the week before the tournament, then promptly went out and won the “Most Outstanding Goaltender Award."
Combine that with a .931 save percentage and allowing more than two goals just twice in the 16 games he’s played since late January. If BU goes on to win, this is going to be one of the most insane stories in college hockey history. He’s been simply sensational, and there is no other way to put it. He lights up every press conference that he’s in and has the game to back it up.
You just have to be gutted for Mathieu Caron, who rode a .915 save percentage and a 2.35 goals against last year. He was brilliant in the Frozen Four loss to Denver last year. Yet, that number ballooned up to .899 and 3.05 this season and left Jay Pandolfo with little to no options.
But does the story sound familiar in New England? A backup gets the nod in the middle of the season over the fan-favorite starter. That backup goes on to a legendary run to win a championship.
Comparing Yegorov to Tom Brady may be a bit of a reach. But bear with me.
BU is the first team to reach the Frozen Four in three straight seasons since Minnesota Duluth’s runs from 2017 to 2019.
If Yegorov can be the difference for the Terriers to break down the door and win a national championship for the first time since 2009. They may just build him a statue outside Agganis.
They just have the hottest team in the country standing in their way.
Can Penn State’s Depth scoring continue to lead the way?Aiden Fink has rightly hoovered up a lot of attention for the Nittany Lions this season, he’s fourth in the nation in points with 54. He broke the single-season points record at Penn State. Yet, he hasn’t cashed in with a goal since February 28th. His center, Reese Laubach, has registered three points since a series with Notre Dame on February 14th. The opposite winger on that top line, Danny Dzaniyev, has three goals since that Notre Dame series as well.
So how the hell are boys from “Hockey Valley” doing this?
Depth scoring.
Penn State potted five goals against Ritcher Award finalist Albin Boija of Maine. Three of those goals came from second liners JJ Wiebusch and Matt DiMarsico, and the other two came from Dane Dowiak, who is listed on the fourth line. So often in college hockey, it’s the inverse of this Penn State team (see Boston College). If you can survive and limit a top line and force a team to try to find scoring elsewhere, it’s a recipe for success. But when each of your second liners have picked up nearly a point a game and are north of 30 points on the season. What do you do defensively?
Photo via Kylie Barton / Penn State Athletics
The young forward group from Happy Valley is playing with outrageous confidence right now. In January they were sitting in the 40s of the pairwise ranking, and the only reason they were there was because of Fink. But as the team has made their run, their leading point producer’s role has lessened and a weight taken off his shoulders.
It’s going to be a tall task to try to solve Yegorov. But if the depth lines of Penn State can find matchups against the bottom-pair defensemen of BU, it could be a busy day in the crease for Big Mike.
Western Michigan Offense against Matt Davis, The Fight of the Century! Western Michigan possesses the best offense in the country. The Broncos are averaging over four goals per game and have 10 players with over 20 points on the season.
Matt Davis is not human.
Unstopable force, meet unmoveable object.
Alex Bump may be one of the best pure goal-scorers in the nation. Amid a nine-game winning streak to close the season for Western, Bump has tallied 11 points. Including two against Davis in the NCHC championship game last month.
But when the NCAA logos get put at center ice, Davis turns into a mutant who makes some of the most absurd saves you will ever see in your life. In six career games in the tournament, Davis has allowed five goals. Stifling Boston College twice, Macklin Celebrini and Lane Hutson, Cole O’Hara, Trevor Connelly I could go on, but you get the point.
Davis certainly gets help from an all-world defense core that does not get pushed around and can get pucks out of their zone quickly. But it continues to be Davis to be the one who sets the tone for this Pios team. He just figures out a way to play his best hockey when it matters the most.
Western, on the other hand, has not lost in over a month, and while everyone knew about the potent offense. Questions were raised in regard to their ability to win a rock fight.
They went out and did it twice.
Minnesota State was the best defensive team in the country and they were able to dig out an ugly win in overtime. Then, they shut down a high production line of UMass in the final moments to secure back-to-back 2-1 victories to get to the first Frozen Four in school history.
Western has scored 40 goals in their past nine games, winning all of them. But they face Denver for the fourth time this season, and the Broncos have won two of those matchups. Beating a team three times in a season is a mountainous task. Trying to do it against Denver, and that mountain just grew 5 miles.
I have a really hard time believing that Denver is going to turn this into a track meet. They are going to make Western earn every inch of ice.
Can ANYONE prevent Denver from scoring off the rush?Every goal Denver gets is seemingly seconds after they gain the offensive zone. While research proves that my eye test was in fact, not true,they do score often on the rush. They got two against Providence to put the game away and two against BC, but one got called back. They are so quick through the neutral zone and so often hit a trailing defensemen that can either distribute one last time or try to shoot for themselves.
They are so difficult to play against, and this is what takes the cake. Teams can have three or four straight shifts with the Pio’s hemmed in their own end. Then Denver just goes down and executes the prettiest odd-man rush you have ever seen.
Zeev BuiumI haven’t mentioned him above this and just feel a need to. He’s mind blowingly good, complete domination of the ice and I truly have no clue how he went 12th overall in the draft.
Why are we going up against the Masters?What is the one thing that nearly every hockey player does in the summer?
Golf.
What is the one event, regardless of how into golf you are, everyone watches?
The Masters.
Having the national semi-final going up against one of the most watched events in sports is just dumbfounding. If you took a queue from college basketball and went semi-final Saturday, national championship Monday, I think that there could be a slot for that. Or, you could not take a bye week, and go Friday night and Sunday the same weekend as the Final Four.
I think that could work.
Instead, we get 5:00 on Thursday. A very available and free timeslot for everyone to go tune into ESPN 2.
Just brilliant.
We have two blue bloods and two new bloods in this iteration of the Frozen Four. Denver has the chance to make history, Jay Pandolfo has the chance to put his name next to Jack Parker. Western Michigan can win its first national championship across the school for the first time since 1965. One of the biggest brands in college athletics can cement that they are, in fact, a hockey school and usher a new era in the NIL and portal era.
For more coverage of the best conference in college hockey - Follow ECH blogger Brendan Locke on X @_Brendanlocke
