Boston College NCAA Tournament Gameday Morning: Denver

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

A favorite segment of mine from football season joins us here in March for hockey and the start of Boston College’s trek through the 2014 NCAA Tournament.

It’s gameday and the stakes are getting high. The Eagles, the number one seed in the Northeast Region, begin their march to the Frozen Four in Philadelphia via the DCU Center in Worcester. The puck drops on today’s game at 4pm.

The opponent and hopefully soon-to-be-vanquished foe: the Denver Pioneers. Denver used to be in the elite echelons of the game back in the heyday of George Gwozdecky, but here in 2014, they are happy just to be in the tournament. The Pioneers had no alternative but to win their automatic bid to the big dance on ice, taking the NCHC crown in the conference’s inaugurual season.

Denver has won four games in a row, though they did not have an outrageously difficult route to the title (PairWise Rankings in parenthesis): Nebraska-Omaha (29), Western Michigan (22), and Miami-OH (31). Still, a conference championship is a conference championship; Denver has one and the Eagles don’t. Boston College’s sights have now been set much higher.

Hockey gameday info is as follows:

Gametime
4:00pm Eastern

Television
ESPNU (Joe Davis, Billy Jaffe)

Radio
WEEI 850AM (John Rish, Andy Powers)

Morning Line
Boston College is evidently a 1.5-goal favorite (muchas gracias BCMike22)

Connect with Soaring to Glory During the Game
Live tweeting: @SoaringtoGlory (editor Joe reporting live from STG World Headquarters in Boston)

Possible additional commentary from campus by @kylepegan and from the East Boston consulate by @Andrew_BC2012