7 former RoughRiders in Frozen Four

Seven former Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have advanced with their teams to the NCAA Frozen Four men's hockey championships, April 7 and 9 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

Three former Riders are part of a Notre Dame team that plays a national semifinal against Minnesota-Duluth.

Sophomore Mike Johnson is the team's No. 1 goaltender, playing in 35 games and compiling a 20-9-4 record, 2.57 goals against average and .906 save percentage. He played two games for the Riders in 2007-08 and the entire 2008-09 season.

Freshman winger Jeff Costello has played in all 43 Irish games, compiling 11 goals and six assists. He played in Cedar Rapids from 2008 to 2010.

Freshman defenseman Jared Beers has played in 25 games, scoring a goal and seven points. He played last season for the RoughRiders.

Minnesota-Duluth has two former RoughRiders forwards in sophomore Mike Seidel and junior David Grun. Seidel played from 2006 through 2009 in Cedar Rapids and has eight goals and five assists this season in 35 games for UMD. Grun (three goals, eight points) played a pair of games for the RoughRiders in the 2006-07 season before being traded.

The other semifinal features Michigan and North Dakota. Defenseman Mac Bennett and forward Derek DeBlois are freshmen for the Wolverines who played last season for the RoughRiders.

Bennett has two goals and 12 points in 30 games, DeBlois a goal and five assists in 25 games.

Here is an interview with Johnson done on ESPNU following Notre Dame's regional final win Sunday night over New Hampshire:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=6265030