Wockey Pool 2017 Day Two - Good (and Bad) Things Come in Threes

Day two of Wockey 2017 is in the books, and dare I say it was the most exciting day of competition since this!

This tournament, while not littered with upsets as in previous years, has still had some unbelievably exciting results.  Notre Dame came back from two goals down to defeat top seed Minnesota 3-2.  Harvard staved off upstart Air Force with an incredible last minute save.  Penn State celebrated its first NCAA tournament berth by scoring the most goals in a tournament game in 27 years in their 10-3 win over Union.  And in the West regional, all three games went to overtime after Minnesota-Duluth beat Boston University 3-2 in extra time.  All in all, it’s been a fantastic first weekend of the tournament.  And we still have two more games.

Chasing the improbable feat accomplished just two short years ago by Eric Fritz, three Wockeyites are still in contention for a perfect bracket.  Ron Goodman, father of last year’s Puckhead Chris, is attempting to restore his family’s pride by being perfect thus far.  Mike Varian is riding his bracket of random picks to potential perfection.  And Jason Sturm also has an unscathed bracket.  Well done so far boys!  Perfection is hard to achieve!

In the seedy underbelly of Wockey, we also have three potential Puckheads.  Bryan Otremba not only saw his beloved North Dakota squad fall in front of their home fans in double overtime, but more painfully, watched as pick after pick failed in his Wockey bracket.  Chris Walker spent so much time ripping his older brother’s foray into his forties that he forgot to make picks that would actually win in his bracket.  And Jason Kuss - three years removed from his stint as Wockey Champion - is poised to become the first Wockeyite ever to end up on both ends of the standings.  All three are guaranteed to finish with just six points, so the Puckhead will once again come down to the tiebreaker, which is total goals scored in the Frozen Four.  All three are going to have a gut-wrenching two weeks waiting to see if they can avoid the dreaded fate of the Puckhead.  They’ll certainly have to find some way to stay calm.

There’s one day left in the first weekend of Wockey!  Enjoy the last two games of the regionals.  Then it’s on to Chicago!

Your Impolite, Impotent, Imperfect Wockey Commish,

Alex

P.S.  Oh dear lord this.