Opinion: Masses don't know what they're missing in college hockey

DENVER - The timing is terrible. The games are wonderful.

Unless you're a college hockey freak, the Frozen Four is hard to find, hidden in the shadows of a crowded sports world.
The Frozen Four arrives each year on the same weekend at the Masters and a week after that overgrown basketball monstrosity known as the Final Four.

The tournament's name doesn't help. When I think of Frozen Four, images of a quartet of hostages shivering in Siberia pop into my mind.

College hockey's grand tournament deserves a bigger audience. The season's final games retain a genuine, gritty charm. Hype is nowhere to be found, and Dick Vitale - thank God - never brings his shrill, silly act anywhere near the ice.

Instead, there's an innocent, pure focus on the game. This version of hockey emphasizes everything that's best about the sport.
The violence is there, but never veers into the barbaric acts sometimes tolerated in the NHL. College hockey is blessed with teamwork and grace and just enough hitting.

Fans are a distinctive bunch. They don't watch their favorite teams on TV. I always laugh when talking with a fan who absolutely adores, say, North Carolina's basketball team even though he has never traveled within 750 miles of Chapel Hill.

Hockey fans watch games in person. The bond between players and fans isn't formed in the artificial realm of TV. The bond is intimate, special, strong.

Boston College drained most of the drama from Saturday's final. The Eagles drummed Notre Dame's Fighting Irish, the surprise of the tournament, but there was one moment to remember.

With 15 minutes left, and BC leading 3-1, Notre Dame defenseman Kyle Lawson kicked the puck into the net. He didn't just kick it once. He kicked the puck with his right and left skates. Everything about the goal screamed it wouldn't stand.

Notre Dame fans, blind to reality, began shouting "goal! goal! goal!" while officials watched the replay. Irish fans were astoundingly loud.

And when Lawson's goal was - properly - disallowed, Eagles fans let loose an arena-shaking celebratory yell. They were even louder.

BC sophomore wing Ben Smith laughed about the moment in a jubilant Eagles locker room.

"Our fans," he said, "are BC people. It's almost like they're from our neighborhood.

"College hockey, it's a small world, but I like it."

I do, too. College hockey is how college sports should be.

The Final Four has grown into an inescapable part of modern American life, largely because of friendly gambling. Only Americans who reside in caves decline to enter office pools.

College basketball's finale just keeps growing, but much has been lost. The Final Four features an inflated feel with the best teams resembling corporations led by slick, celebrity CEOs.

Sure, millions and millions watch the last game of the college basketball season while a relative few catch hockey's finale.
Those millions don't know what they're missing.

Columnist David Ramsey can be reached at 476-4895 or david.ramsey@gazette.com. Check out David's blog, David Ramsey Says What? at daveramseysez.blogspot.com