Gravel ready for ‘Frozen Four’ experience

The NCAA hockey tournament is down to its final four teams, known as the ‘Frozen Four’.

This years remaining teams have a lot in common- not one of them has ever won a national title in college hockey. But that will change come Saturday night.

St. Cloud State is making its first trip to the ‘Frozen Four’ in school history. The Huskies defeated two CCHA teams in Notre Dame and Miami to advance to the ‘Frozen Four’.

SCSU is preparing for its National Semifinal game tomorrow night against the best team in college hockey this season, Quinnipiac.

St. Cloud is getting in plenty of practice at Robert Morris University. The Huskies have Kingsford native Kevin Gravel on the squad.

Gravel and his teammates can’t wait to hit the ice tomorrow night.

“Its good to just get going out here in Pittsburgh”, said Gravel. “The week we had off after regionals, guys were getting a little anxious just sitting around in St. Cloud.”

“Quinnipiac is a team that comes hard. They’ve been the #1 team all year and you don’t get that by luck. They won their regional and we won our regional, so its going to be a great matchup come Thursday night.”

Three of the four teams in the ‘Frozen Four’ had never previously made an appearance in the National Semifinals. The only team with prior experience this far in the tournament is Yale, but their last trip was back in 1952.

The Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, PA is the site of the ‘Frozen Four’.

Yale and UMass-Lowell will face-off Thursday at 4:30pm. St. Cloud and Quinnipiac are scheduled to drop the puck at 8pm.

Both games will be live on ESPN2.

The National Championship game is Saturday at 7pm.