With the first day of action over, three of the four lower seeds advanced.  #1 Michigan was the only high seed to advance, knocking off the Niagara Purple Eagles 5-1.  Hobey Baker Finalist Kevin Porter scored 4 goals and teammate Chad Kolarik had 4 assists.  Also in the East Region was #3 Clarkson knocking off #2 St. Cloud State 2-1, a team with zero tournament wins in seven appearances now (thanks Nick!).

Over in the West Region, Notre Dame decided that Tournament time is the best time to start scoring goals.  They would be correct, and skated over #1 New Hampshire to a 7-3 win.  Although two goals were empty netters making the score look worse than it was,  the Fighting Irish advance to the West Region Final later on today.  Backed By Jeff Lerg, who stopped 41 of 42 shots, #3 Michigan State was able to upend #2 Colorado College in Colorado Springs.  Scoring three goals in the second, MSU never looked back and gets a date with CCHA counterpart Notre Dame in the final.

Today's Schedule (All times EST):

Northeast Regional (Worcester, Massachusetts)

Semifinal 1: 4:00pm: #4 Air Force vs. #1 Miami(OH)

Semifinal 2: 7:30pm: #3 Minnesota vs. #2 Boston College

Midwest Regional (Madison, Wisconsin)

Semifinal 1: 3:00pm: #4 Princeton vs. #1 North Dakota

Semifinal 2: 6:30pm: #3 Wisconsin vs. #2 Denver

East Regional Final (Albany, New York)

7:00pm: #3 Clarkson vs. #1 Michigan

West Regional Final (Colorado Springs, Colorado)

10:00pm: #4 Notre Dame vs. #3 Michigan State

Notes: The CCHA was 3 for 3 yesterday with Michigan, MSU, and Notre Dame winning.  Notre Dame is the second #4 team in NCAA history to knock off a #1 seed (#4 Holy Cross def #1 Minnesota 4-3 F/OT in 2006).  Wisconsin is the only team in the tournament with a sub .500 record, they somehow snuck in ahead 19-16-4 Minnesota State.

Once again, all games are shown on ESPNU.  However, both Midwest Regional games and the Minnesota-BC game are tape delayed and shown after midnight.  Those three games will air live on ESPN360 and ESPN Syndication.  If you have comcast, you should be able to view the games on a Comcast local channel. I was unsuccessful in finding any games on channelsurfing.net yesterday, but hey, it could have just been me.  Let the talking begin!  I'll of course be posting the scores as games go final again.