Michigan hockey fans outnumbered by those from nearby WCHA teams at Frozen Four
BY JEFF SHELMAN Special to AnnArbor.com
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Officially the Xcel Energy Center is a neutral site.
The reality, however, is when the Michigan hockey team takes the ice tonight for the second national semifinal game of the Frozen Four against North Dakota, the Wolverines will pretty much be the road team.
In most years, the Frozen Four isn’t short on geographic diversity. There will be teams from the Northeast, the Midwest and sometimes an outlier from the Rocky Mountains.
But not this season. For the first time since 2005 and only the second time since 1992, there isn’t an eastern team in the Frozen Four.
With this weekend’s event in Minnesota’s capital city and two Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams -- North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth -- in the field, demand for tickets has been high.
Both WCHA teams are within reasonable driving distance of St. Paul -- Duluth is only about 150 miles away -- and both schools have significant alumni bases in the Twin Cities.
How high has the demand been? On Thursday morning, there were exactly four tickets in a building of about 19,000 that were priced at less than $240 per seat on StubHub. Those tickets (which were in the $180 range) were in the upper deck on the ends.
Lower level tickets ranged from about $250 per seat to more than $400.
Despite the demand, fans of North Dakota were out in force. Located in a state without any major professional sports, the Sioux is clearly the biggest draw in the state. The fact that North Dakota is top-ranked nationally only adds to that interest.
North Dakota has certainly had significant recent success playing at Xcel Energy Center. The Sioux have won five games in a row in this building. They won a pair of games here last month en route to the WCHA Final Five title. In 2010, North Dakota won three games here to win the conference tournament title.
Will Michigan be able to counter the crowd and North Dakota’s recent success? Will the Wolverines gain the support of the Minnesota-Duluth fans in the building? That will be made clear this evening.
Comments
81wolverine
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 12:22 p.m.
I give the loyal Michigan fans who were there a lot of credit. That's not a short trip. It was like home ice for ND and will be even more so in the finals. Oh well. Michigan will prevail. Go Blue1
Blu-dogg97
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 3:43 a.m.
Michigan might have been out numbered,but the team won a hard fought contest,against a very good team in NDSU .. Michigan's goalie was spectacular, 47 saves ithink, great game,and great win.. 2-0. Barry Melrose gave Michigan no shot,and kept saying NDSU was a much better team..Well it didn't work out that way ! Michigan played great team defense to win it.. Great Job Red and Go Blue. ..