Wockey Pool 2019 - 8 Ball, Corner Pocket

Wockey Day Two...I mean One is in the books!  It was a magical Super Saturday with two teams punching their tickets to the Frozen Four, one game going to overtime, and a huge comeback in the East Regional.

Massachusetts and Denver both had strong performances shutting out their opponents to earn their spots in Buffalo for the Frozen Four in two weeks.  For Massachusetts, it’s their first trip to the Frozen Four while Denver will be chasing their 9th championship, which would tie them with Michigan for most all time.  

In the Midwest regional, UMD faced a determined Bowling Green team and trailed 1-0 until Parker Mackay scored with three minutes to play to tie the game.  In overtime, Mackay also netted the game winner putting the defending NCAA champion Bulldogs in position to make it to their third straight Frozen Four.  To get there, they’ll have to top Quinnipiac who knocked off first time NCAA entrant Arizona State (yes, Arizona State has a hockey team) 2-1.

Out east, Minnesota State-Mankato succumbed to their sixth straight NCAA loss keeping them winless in the tournament in their program’s history.  The Mavericks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first eleven minutes of the game.  However, six subsequent Providence goals sent the Friars into the regional final in their hometown where they’ll face Cornell, a 5-1 winner over Northeastern.

As for Wockey, one team sits at the top as we enter the final day of the first round.  Former Puckhead and extraordinarily annoying younger brother of your Wockey commish, Zach Walker, picked just one game incorrectly through the first two days to lead the pool with 31 points.  If Cornell and Quinnipiac win tomorrow, Zach will have correctly picked all of the Frozen Four teams, a feat which will be the second most disgusting thing I’ll have had to deal with during this tournament.

On the other end of the bracket, seven Wockeyites are vying for the not-so-coveted title of Wockey Puckhead.  Jon Tousignant and Derek Martinson are guaranteed to finish with their current totals of three points.  Joining them if Quinnipiac wins the Midwest will be Chad Clore, Paul Sylvester, and former St. Cloud State great Craig Shermoen.  If Minnesota-Duluth moves on, they’ll also be tied with Erik Pederson and Stu Speicher.  Either way, the naming of the Puckhead in the final season of Wockey will come down to a tiebreaker in the Frozen Four which will inevitably be won by Jon Tousignant who, despite having participated in the pool for years, messed up his entry by flip-flopping his “Frozen Four Goals Scored” and “Total Tournament Goals Scored” tiebreaker.  Unless the Frozen Four is a scoring bonanza and his predicted Frozen Four goals total of 62 is even remotely close, Jon will be your Puckhead.  Jon, a huge Minnesota-Duluth fan, will likely be alright with this if the Bulldogs end up as the first back-to-back NCAA champs in over a decade.  But if the Dogs don’t win...well, Jon, I know the feeling.

I also must take this opportunity to thank those of you who have reached out to check on my personal health in the aftermath of what happened last night in Fargo.  I want you to know that while I considered ending it all, I was able to step back and realize I have more to live for than St. Cloud State hockey.  After getting back to my hotel room last night, I removed all the plastic knives and electric cords from my hotel room.  Then I started researching other teams I could get behind and settled on Minnesota State-Mankato.  Then after the Mavericks lost tonight, I decided to forego giving a crap about college hockey altogether and choose a different eam from a different sport.

And so I am thrilled to announce that plans to discontinue the Wockey Pool have been put on hiatus.  I have decided to bring back Wockey for its fourteenth year under the rebranded name “The Williards Pool” in which competitors will wager on which team they think will win the Midwest Collegiate Billiards Conference.  Personally, I’m putting my faith in the Lindenwood Lions who have gotten off to a tremendous start in the first season of the conference with wins over such vaunted programs as Missouri S&T, 8-Ball Drifters, and most impressively One More Shot.  I trust the majority of you will follow me into this unexplored, yet promising landscape of vigorous collegiate competition.

In the meantime, we have one more day of hockey regionals to look forward to as Minnesota-Duluth faces Quinnipiac in the Midwest region and Cornell takes on Providence in the East.  Let us all hope and pray Zach’s teams lose or we will literally never hear the end of it.

Your Resentful, Regretful, Reinvented Wockey Commish,

Alex

P.S.  This.