Big day for Lady Bills
They hope to avoid fate of St. Lawrence: forced out after positive test
Johnstown scores in the first minute and piles on seven more en route to a home-field shutout of Bethlehem.
The combined 58-32-4 record of the four teams assigned to Albany this weekend for the NCAA hockey regional won’t mean a thing if the hidden assassin invades Times Union Center.
“This opponent is a pretty tough opponent, COVID,” Boston College coach Jerry York said. “We tell the kids, don’t go looking for COVID, because it’s unbeaten.”
Each team is eyeing a trip to Pittsburgh, site of the Frozen Four on April 8-10, but the year-long pandemic that continues to rock the sports world can’t be forgotten.
That came more into focus Sunday, when St. Lawrence, which had won the ECAC’S automatic bid to the NCAAS, was forced to drop out after coach Brent Brekke tested positive for COVID -19. The Saints likely would have been the fourth team assigned to Albany.
Instead, Notre Dame got into the 16-team field and will play Boston College at 1 p.m. Saturday in the opening game.
“We all have to put our smart hats on for a while,” Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson said, “just rec
ognizing, first of all, that St. Lawrence went from being on an all-time high to probably being at an all-time low within 24 hours. We were the fortunate ones to be able to take advantage of their misfortune, and I feel bad that it happened that way.”
Teams will continue to go through rigorous testing protocols, hoping to escape the issue that came up Saturday night in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Virginia Commonwealth was forced to withdraw before playing a game due to multiple positive tests, giving Oregon a “no contest” advancement in the bracket.
“The cadence once they are on site is that they must test negative twice before being able to practice, and then continue to test every day as long as they continue to win and they remain on site,” an
NCAA spokesman said. “They also must have a negative PCR within two days of arrival.”
The NCAA has said that a replacement team will be considered within 24 hours of the bracket release, which was 7 p.m. Sunday. Now that deadline has passed, and the field is now locked.
If a team is forced to withdraw after competition begins, the opponent will advance by the NCAA’S “no contest” rule.
“The testing was done three times a week,” said York in his 27th season at Boston College and 49th as a Division I head coach. “We’ve done it since late September, so we’re used to it, but it never becomes easier waiting for those results to come back.”
Boston University, which will face St. Cloud State in the second semifinal at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, played the fewest games of those in the 16-team NCAA field. The Terriers (10-4-1) didn’t play their first game until Jan. 8, two
months after the normal start to the season.
“We did have some moments where we were paused, but we did have some moments where we needed to be paused (to keep) everyone healthy,” BU coach Albie O’connell said. “There were some unfortunate times when other teams were paused when we had the opportunity to play. It was a lot of ups and downs, and the mental grind of it was hard.”
“I don’t think it really
makes a difference,” Terriers captain Logan Cockerill said of the low game total. “We have 14 or 15 games played. It’s not like we played four or five games and we’re going to the national tournament. There could be arguments either way for disadvantage or advantage, but we’ve been practicing for the last nine months, getting better as a team, so we’re confident heading into the tournament.”