So this is the first time I've ever been to the East coast, meaning this is probably my favorite road trip of the hockey season - maybe overall if not for the Miami football trip. 

The Gophers don't play until tonight, but the 2008 NCAA Northeast Regional kicks off at 3 p.m. (CDT) with No. 1 Seed Miami facing off with No. 4 Air Force. Storyline for tonight:  This year's Hobey Baker Finalist and Miami senior forward Ryan Jones takes on 2007 Finalist  and Air Force senior forward Eric Ehn. Ehn will suit up for the first time tonight since January after suffering an ankle injury. He has 25 points in 24 games this year.

Other notes: Air Force is just a sibling of Minnesota really.  Not only is Falcons junior defenseman Greg Flynn brothers with Minnesota sophomore forward Ryan Flynn, but Air Force also lists freshman forward Jacques Lamoureux  as a scratched player. His twin sisters Monique and Jocelyne will play for the women's hockey team next season and his brother J.P. is a senior goalie at UND.

I'm sure it's common knowledge by now but apparently a couple fans managed to hack into the Hobey Baker Award voting and give their choices substantiallly more votes (I've heard as high as 200,000 votes for RIT's Simon Lambert).  Now the HB site has a note that automated voting is not in the spirit of the award and that further "cheating" will force the selection to not use fan voting. 

Here's the line-ups:

Miami (which I've now been told is the proper listing, not Miami (OH) as I was told during football season):

Andy Miele - Nathan Davis - Jarod Palmer

Justin Vaive - Nino Musitelli - Gary Steffes

Justin Mercier - Carter Camper - Tommy Wingels

Ryan Jones (Hobey Baker Finalist) - Pat Cannone - Brian Kaufman

Mitch Ganzak - Vincent Loverde

Alec Martinez - Kevin Roeder

Ray Eichenlaub - Brad Robbins

Goalies: Jeff Zatkoff (Starter), Charlie Effinger

Air Force

Matt Fairchild - Jeff Hajner - Derrick Burnett

Josh Frider (Moorhead, MN) - Eric Ehn (2007 Hobey Baker Finalist) - Brent Olson (Baudette, MN)

Sean Bertsch - Josh Schaffer - Mike Phillipich

Josh Print - Scott Kozlak (Duluth, MN) - Blake Page

Owen Kelly (extra forward)

Gregg Flynn (Lino Lakes, MN: Ryan Flynn's brother) - Brad Sellers

Frank Schiavone - Matt Charbonneau

Brett Nylander (Baudette, MN) - Michael Mayra

Goalies: Andrew Volkening (Starter), Ian Harper

Oh and I guess I'm supposed to post a link to ncaa.com and ncaasports.com.  I hope we don't get sued.