When it was all over, on the night of April 3, the University of Maine celebrated its second and final NCAA title of the 1990s. Marcus Gustafsson bested Ty Conklin on his own rebound with 9:10 remaining in overtime, giving the Black Bears a 3-2 victory over the New Hampshire Wildcats. A crowd of 14,447 paid to see neighbors and long-time rivals battle for supremacy.
While the matchup would suggest a taut Hockey East battle at Alfond Arena or the more-spacious Whittemore Center, the 1999 men's hockey championship was contested on the other side of the continent, in the confines of what's now known as Honda Center. Early spring slush in Orono and Durham was replaced by the radiant sun of Anaheim.
Seeking to cash in on the name recognition it enjoyed for almost two decades with its annual March basketball championship, the NCAA christened the final weekend of the Division I men's hockey tourney with the phrase "Frozen Four." Boston College and Michigan State were the other two participants.
It decided to showcase this newly-branded title quest in an unusual place -- a relatively new NHL arena in Southern California -- away from the traditional mid-level US cities such as Detroit, Cincinnati, Providence and Milwaukee and hockey-rich locales like Lake Placid, Saint Paul and Albany which had long welcomed the college game.
One major issue accompanying the new location was the question of who would host. The closest program in a major conference to Orange County happened to be located in the 49th state, so the University of Alaska-Anchorage gained the distinction of being the first school to be associated with holding a Frozen Four, exactly 3,429 miles from campus. It also created quite a unique logo: a hockey stick crossed with a palm tree in the foreground and a silhouette of Alaska in the background.
Fifteen years later, the Frozen Four has arrived, embedded itself into the culture of major college athletics, and will remain a fixture at sizeable venues in NHL cities.
In two weeks, Philadelphia gets its first turn to prove how it can host and promote college hockey on a large scale, though it is another in a string of major markets where the D-I game is lacking either within or close to its borders.
The University of Pennsylvania sported an ECAC program until the administration choked its life away in the late 1970s. Penn State, itself a newcomer to top-flight college hockey but which has a massive alumni base in the Delaware Valley, would have been an appropriate choice to host, its campus a little more that three hours away. Instead, ECAC Hockey got the nod. Princeton, though located in New Jersey, is less than an hour to the north and east.
After Anaheim, the next two Frozen Fours returned to their roots, so to speak. North Dakota claimed the first crown of the new Millennium by beating Boston College in Providence, while BC got its revenge on UND at Albany in '01.
Minnesota followed with the first of its back-to-back championships in 2002 at Saint Paul, only this time Xcel Energy Center -- and not the Civic Center -- played host as a legitimate NHL-sized venue. A sellout crowd of 19,327 attended the Gophers' 4-3 OT victory over Maine, while almost 58,000 fans showed up for all three Frozen Four matchups.
In the following year, at Buffalo, the tournament underwent its next major expansion, from two regions (East and West) comprising six teams each to a 16-team field with four schools in each of four regions (East, Northeast, West, Midwest). It didn't matter to Minnesota, which brushed off the lack of a first-round bye and bested New Hampshire for the last of its five titles.
With the exception of 2005 (Value City Arena in Columbus) and 2006 (Bradley Center in Milwaukee), the Frozen Four has been contested on the largest stages possible in keeping with the NCAA's desire to showcase its student-athletes to the widest audience. Arenas in Boston (2004, 2015); St. Louis (2007); Denver (2008); Washington, DC (2009); Detroit (2010); St. Paul (2011, 2018); Tampa (2012, 2016) and Chicago (2017) offer seating capacities twice as large as the most reputable state schools' home rinks.
That doesn't mean everything is perfect.
Four years ago, despite a record crowd of 37,592, a significant portion of Ford Field had to be conspicuously cordoned off to make its capacity small enough to justify holding a hockey event. Two years later on Florida's Gulf Coast, distance of a host team was again an issue as Alabama-Huntsville (approximately 650 miles away) was chosen. UAH also had the infamous distinction of having its hockey program cancelled by one administration before being resurrected shortly before the postseason began.
The Wells Fargo Center is a newcomer to the college game, playing host to a pair of Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoffs, in January and October of 2013. Despite the reported attendance numbers which indicated sellouts, the twin tilts between Penn State and Vermont in actuality filled half the house.
Nonetheless, better competition from traditional powers should promote better attendance.
There are six major conferences vying for attention, instead of the usual four clawing at each other to prove which is best. This year, Hockey East teams represent the largest slice of the pie, with five member institutions (BC, UMass-Lowell, Providence, Notre Dame, Vermont) included in the field of 16. Traditional powers North Dakota and Wisconsin play each other, meaning at least one of the most well-traveled fan bases in the country will miss out on a long journey right off the bat. However, top-overall seed Minnesota can send a legion of devotees, while Union, Quinnipiac, Colgate and even Robert Morris are relatively close.
When it's all over on the night of April 12, no matter who walks away with the trophy, Philly's Frozen Four seems destined to be a success.
Every national championship game -- Ford Field and last year in Pittsburgh excepted -- since 2000 has been a sellout. However, unlike the Steel City, the Quaker City has played host to multiple NCAA championships over the years in different sports. Average attendance, without padding, for the tournament's two days should hover right around official capacity of 19,500-plus. That's a true testament to the passion and migratory habits of college hockey fans.
The rest is up to the players, carrying the spirit and reputation of their schools onto the ice. Another tussle for the title between bitter rivals decided in overtime wouldn't be a bad thing, either.