Several local players will continue their quest for a national championship in the NCAA Tournament, which will culminate in the 2017 Frozen Four on April 6 and 8 in Chicago. Five players spread across three teams will represent Western Pennsylvania in the quest for an NCAA title.
No. 10 North Dakota will play host March 24 and 25 in the first two rounds of the tournament. They’ll start things off with the first game of the tournament Friday at 3 p.m. against No. 7 Boston University.
The Fighting Hawks feature Irwin native and former Pittsburgh Penguins Elite forward Michael Gornall. The sophomore right-winger had three points and was a plus-8 in 16 games this season. He’s gotten more playing time as the year went on and dressed in the Hawks’ NCHC final loss to Minnesota-Duluth.
Also playing in the West Regional in Fargo, North Dakota will be No. 15 Ohio State. The Buckeyes were the next-to-last team to make the tournament field and had to wait until late on Sunday night to know that their berth was secured.
Ohio State has two local players. Junior forward Luke Stork played for the Pittsburgh Hornets and Upper St. Clair, while freshman defenseman Matt Miller skated for the Hornets and the Moon Tigers. Stork has six goals and eight assists in 38 games this year and has been playing left wing on the Buckeyes’s third line. Miller earned more playing time towards the end of the season, as 14 of the 19 games he’s played have come since the semester break. He’s settled into a role on the right side of the second defensive pairing and has seven points on the season.
Matt Miller takes a shot against Robert Morris last October. — BRIAN MITCHELL
The team the Buckeyes had to anxiously watch on Sunday night was No. 9 Penn State, and the Nittany Lions helped them out, beating Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game to send the Buckeyes to the NCAA Tournament.
Penn State had secured its bid the night before with a double-overtime win over Minnesota, and xit took two extra periods for the Lions to knock off Wisconsin on Sunday. Upper St. Clair forward Matt Mendelson and Ligonier Valley goaltender Matthew Erlichman both play for the Nittany Lions, but are unexpected to dress during the playoff run.
Penn State will play in the Midwest Regional in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they will face No. 8 Union on Saturday. No. 1 overall seed Denver and WCHA champ Michigan Tech are the other two teams in that region.
The full bracket for the 2017 NCAA Tournament is below.
