Associated Press
DETROIT - Wisconsin and Boston College advanced in the Frozen Four with a pair of routs.
They don't expect it to be as easy to win the NCAA hockey championship.
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The Badgers beat Rochester Institute of Technology 8-1, then the Eagles pulled away from Miami of Ohio to win 7-1 in the nightcap at Ford Field on Thursday.
When the teams meet Saturday night in a rematch of the 2006 finals, Boston College's Ben Smith expects the game to be much different than the semifinals were for the traditional powers.
"It won't be as high scoring," Smith said.
The Badgers got past Boston College 2-1 for their sixth national title four years ago and their first since 1990.
"I wasn't here in '06, but I know it was a pretty tough loss for a lot of the guys," Smith said. "It's exciting to be back in the national championship game."
Unless you were rooting for the winning teams, there weren't many thrills in this year's Frozen Four. The combined margin of victory of 13 tied the 1953 semifinals for the second largest in NCAA hockey history, two fewer than the differential from the 1954 tournament.
One rout didn't come as a surprise.
One did.
Wisconsin wasted little time showing why it has an elite college hockey program and that Rochester Institute of Technology isn't quite ready for the sport's biggest stage.
The Badgers scored in the opening minutes of the first two periods.
"Like a snowball, it just got rolling and got bigger and bigger," said Derek Stepan, who scored Wisconsin's second and eighth goals.
RIT, seeded 15th in the 16-team field just five years after moving to Division I, ended its first Frozen Four appearance with a thud.
"We ran into a powerhouse," Tigers coach Wayne Wilson said.
Smith put the Eagles ahead of top-seeded Miami 1-0 on a power-play goal with 1:28 left in the opening period. Boston College began to pull away with Jimmy Hayes' power-play goal early in the second and Joe Whitney's goal a minute later. The Eagles turned it into a lopsided affair with four goals in the third.
"We feel very good about playing Wisconsin on Saturday night, that's for sure," said Boston College coach Jerry York, whose 30th NCAA tournament win tied the career record set by Boston University's Jack Parker.
Boston College is in the championship game for the fourth time in five years and seeks its second title in three seasons and the fourth in school history.
The Frozen Four set a world indoor attendance record for hockey, drawing an announced crowd of 34,954 for the two games.
Ford Fieldhome of the NFL's Detroit Lionswas prepared for a record crowd with a rink set up near an end zone and portable seats along the boards opposite the team benches.
The two-game session smashed the Frozen Four attendance record of 19,432 set in St. Louis three years ago and hockey's indoor mark of 28,183 from Tampa Bay's home game at Tropicana Field against Philadelphia during the 1996 NHL playoffs.