DENVER- Greetings from the Mile High City, where the biggest spectacle in college hockey is taking place, The Frozen Four. In this year’s edition, we have three teams familiar to the event in Boston College, Michigan and North Dakota, and we have a new team crashing the party, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

On Wednesday, the teams practiced on the ice in front of media and a few fans were in attendance as well. Boston College is coming in as winners of their last seven games. The Eagles got here by defeating Miami in the Northeast Regional final in a 4-3 overtime thriller at the DCU Center in Worcester last weekend.

“It’s nice to be playing hockey this time of year when the weather is getting hotter and hotter,” said BC senior captain Mike Brennan. “It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster year, especially at the beginning and the end of the year.”

There has been a lot of emotion on the BC side all year during the ride. They have handled it well up to this point and yet again, they will face the North Dakota Fighting Sioux (for at least three periods this time).

“I can tell you that I do seem to feel a little more excited this particular year,” said legendary Eagles coach Jerry York. “When you advance out of the regional with an overtime goal, and when you beat a quality team like Miami you really get a great deal of satisfaction.”

When talking about the rivalry with North Dakota, York said “I’ve had ten national championship appearances with BC, and North Dakota has been an opponent in seven of them and two were in the national championship game. This rivalry is something, it’s really special.”

The last time the Fighting Sioux and the Eagles played was in October. With hazy conditions outside, inside the Conte Forum happened to be worse with fog coming from the ice. Most North Dakota players remember that night, the last time they were in Boston.

“I think for both schools it was kind of disappointing,” said North Dakota defenseman Taylor Chorney. “It was a heck of a game for the first two periods, but the difficulties with the ice and the arena were hard to shut ‘er down.

“It’s good to get a chance to play a team from a different league. There’s a little bit of a rivalry between Boston College and North Dakota. I know they’ve had a lot of good games in the Frozen Four over the past couple of years, even in the early 2000’s and 90’s.”

Said North Dakota goaltender, Jean-Phillipe Lamoureux, “The Boston College, North Dakota rivalry is great for college hockey. You have a team from the East and they always seem to be in the mix towards the end of the year. I think it’s great for the game and exciting for the fans.”

North Dakota got here by defeating Wisconsin at their home ice at the Kohl Center in the Midwest Regional final. Down 2-0, the Sioux fought back and overcame Wisconsin in overtime to get to this point.

“Going into the third period we just had to believe in each other,” forward T.J. Oshie said. “It all started with the first shift, on a power play, just had to get a good shift and shoot the puck.

“We weren’t getting very many shots on net and you can’t score goals without that, so we just kept plugging away and went from there.”

While North Dakota and Boston College will have the first game, the second game will feature Notre Dame and Michigan. Notre Dame got here with grit and style. Their West Regional started off with a 7-3 win over New Hampshire and concluded with a 3-1 victory over last year’s national champions, the Michigan State Spartans.

“It’s an honor to get to this point in the season,” said Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson. “If you’re playing in April you’ve had a good season. People might talk about our second half and our first half, but what really matters is what have you done lately.”

Notre Dame has seen Michigan twice this season, each ending in a loss.

“It was a really good start to that series, we both played well,” assistant captain Brock Sheahan stated. “It was just us breaking down, and them capitalizing and that’s what they do, so we have to make sure we minimize our mistakes because they’re talented and they’ve got guys who can put the puck in the back of the net.”

And of course, the favorites in the Frozen Four, the Michigan Wolverines had something to say as well. At 33-5-4, the Maze and Blue have had one of their finest seasons for quite awhile. The last time they were in a similar position was back in 1997, that year Michigan lost to Boston University in the semifinals. This year, the Wolverines are back in the Frozen Four for the first time since 2003.

“Our season went well, we started off sharp against Boston College in an overtime win which was a good start,” said Michigan forward Chad Kolarik. “We continued rolling through the regular season and the playoffs.”

“We accomplished a lot of our goals this season,” noted Hobey Baker candidate Kevin Porter. “It’s been a successful season and we still have a few games left and we have one main goal left.”

With only two seniors on the roster, it was up to the 11 freshman to come in and contribute. Names such as Aaron Palushaj and Max Pacioretty have turned out to be key contributors to the scoring department while Scooter Vaughan and Chad Langlais have filled in nicely on defense.

“They’ve done a great job all year,” said Porter. “Every day they have worked hard and they have listened and they have been phenomenal all year long.”

Said Michigan coach Red Berenson, “From a coaches perspective, they’ve had to fill some big roles on the team and it’s not unusual to look up on the ice and see all freshman on the ice. We have had one freshmen line that plays together and they’ve been able to hold their own.”

Berenson has been there before, but this year was unexpected, well at least in the pre-season.

“I think that we’ve had teams that were expected to be back that never made it,” Berenson pointed out. “The team has surprised all of us right from day one. The bottom line was our goals for never changed much, but our goals against changed by at least one goal a game. That starts in goal and goes right through the team. With such a young team, it’s quite an accomplishment to be here.”