No Gophers in Frozen Four but several Minnesotans are playing for a national title
You won’t see the Minnesota Gophers men’s hockey team playing in the Frozen Four in St. Paul this weekend, but each team does have at least one Minnesotan on the roster.
There are seven Minnesotans playing in the Frozen Four in St. Paul between Michigan, Denver, Boston College and Boston.
The Denver Pioneers almost didn’t get to this point, Denver junior Tristan Broz scored a game winning goal in double overtime against Massachusetts in the opening round of the national tournament.
“None of us wanted to stop playing hockey, stop coming to practice, stop seeing each other every day,” said Broz. “It was special to keep the thing going and now we are here.”
Broz played in the Frozen Four once already, two years ago with the Gophers before he transferred to Denver.
“To play in two Frozen Fours in three years of college hockey is pretty incredible and I hope to go all the way this time,” said Broz.
Tristan is from Bloomington and his Denver teammate Jared Wright is from Burnsville.
Michigan has three Minnesotans on their roster, Jose Eernisse and Jackson Hallum, both from Eagan, and Garrett Schifsky from Andover.
Will Traeger from Inver Grove Heights skates with Boston College, and there is Jack Harvey from Stacy, MN.
This weekend, will be the first time in five years that Harvey has played a game in Minnesota. He’s the only Minnesotan on Boston’s roster and he has pride in that.
“At BU there’s never a lot of Minnesota people or Minnesota guys. It’s a lot of Massachusetts, New York, out east guys,” said Harvey. “I feel like not many people get to do something like this, go to school away from home and then end up playing in the Frozen Four, at home.”
Denver and Boston University play at 4 p.m. on Thursday in the opening round of the Frozen Four. That is followed by Michigan against Boston College at 7:30 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center.