Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey

Albany, Mar 27, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The NCAA Hockey Tournament kicked off on Friday. The first hockey match took place between Rochester Institute and Denver. The other game that took place in the second half was held between St. Cloud State and Northern Michigan. Rochester Institute won over Denver in the maiden game of the NCAA Hockey Tournament, causing a huge upset in the expectations of the losing team as well as their fans. The loss for Denver did indeed come as a shock, considering that the team had been the number one seed in the United States College Hockey Online poll and also the overall seed in the tournament.

On the other hand, the win of the St Cloud State over Northern Michigan also came at a great effort. It is not surprising that the win meant a great deal for the St Cloud State, for this is their first victory in the NCAA Hockey Tournament. The coach of the Denver hockey team seemed really disappointed at the loss, commenting that it was really unexpected, particularly because this is the third time that they had lost the season opener, three times in a row.

However, some of the observers feel that the upsets seen in the opening games of the NCAA Hockey Tournament is not surprising. For many of them, the NCAA Hockey Tournament this time is going to be a very unpredictable one, considering that even those teams which are otherwise considered really good had not performed particularly well in the respective conference tournaments. However, Denver was in fact being pitted as a favorite, despite the fact that it had been pitched against one of the strongest teams in college hockey.