TAMPA, Fla. — As the higher seed, Quinnipiac will dictate the matchups Saturday in the NCAA Frozen Four’s national championship game at Amalie Arena. That advantage could be key in stopping North Dakota’s CBS Line, which had great success against the lower-seeded Denver Pioneers in the semifinals Thursday.
The C stands for left wing Drake Caggiula, who had a hand in UND’s first three goals — scoring twice — against DU. The B is for right wing Brock Boeser (two assists) and the S is for center Nick Schmaltz (goal, assist). DU couldn’t stop them, and Schmaltz’s goal in the final minute of regulation broke a 2-2 tie to beat the Pioneers. UND added an empty-net goal for a 4-2 victory.
Quinnipiac (32-3-7) and North Dakota (33-6-4) received two of the four No. 1 regional seeds, but the Bobcats are No. 1 overall. UND is No. 3.
“I don’t remember which week it was, but us and North Dakota kind of went back and forth in the PairWise and I felt it was really important for us to be the No. 1 overall seed so we could have last change,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said Friday. “There are times we use it to our advantage and there are times we don’t. I think with North Dakota, with that big first line, we do have to be conscious of that. And we will adapt and adjust, and we’ll probably use two lines to match up against them because we also want to stay in our flow.
“I’m really big on that. We want to keep our flow and our tempo. So we respect that line, and we’ll have to defend it well. And we’ll certainly have our No. 1 matchup when we get against it, but we won’t do it all the time. We’ll have a second line that will be able to go against it too.”
Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or @mikechambers
