Scott Sudikoff eager to break more ice with the Women’s Frozen Four

The Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo., is barely a half-hour drive west of America’s ultimate tribute to tackling new territory.

When the Gateway Arch’s construction crew finished their project in 1965, the Associated Press stated that the structure “…symbolizes the pioneer spirit of the men and women who won the West, and those of a latter day to strive on other frontiers.”

Count the Women’s Frozen Four in with those latter-day seekers, and sportscaster Scott Sudikoff along with it. Both the entity and its presenter will make Missouri the newest location in their respective lifetime logs this weekend.

Sudikoff will put in his second consecutive appearance at the event when he calls Friday’s semifinal doubleheader for the ncaa.com live stream. Coming off of last year’s edition in Durham, N.H., the lifelong Northeasterner is poised to record a few more business miles than usual.

“Yeah, I’ve mostly been working in the Northeast with my affiliations with schools/conferences like Harvard, the Ivy League, UMass-Lowell, America East,” he told Pucks and Recreation. “But it’s been great getting to do some extra travel recently, like St. Louis coming up. I think it’ll be a great place for the event, as hockey is a very popular sport in the area, and it’s fun to have the event in different places each year.”

“Different” applies to this year’s host site with more emphasis than normal. St. Charles will be only the third city to host its first Women’s Frozen Four in this calendar decade. The likes of Erie, Pa. (2011) and Hamden, Conn. (2014) have been the other icebreakers in recent memory.

By bequeathing Missouri the hospitality privileges, NCAA women’s hockey is also acknowledging one of its newer programs. St. Charles is home to the Lindenwood Lions, who entered the sport’s varsity ranks in 2011. Only Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., has joined the Division I family since.

To date, other than the aforementioned Erie and Lake Placid, N.Y., the Frozen Four has rotated exclusively between Minnesota and New England. With this year’s tournament, the game’s quintessential collegians will cater to a locality mixed with as-yet unestablished and unacknowledged devotees.

“Getting the game in front of new eyes is always important,” Sudikoff said. “I’m sure there will be plenty of youth groups and teams coming out to the games, and it will show these young players that the sport of women’s hockey is a fantastic game to watch and play.”

That statement comes from a broadcaster with the broadest possible sports horizons. Sudikoff has lent his voice in virtually every capacity — play-by-play, public-address, talk radio, TV hosting. In one or more of those roles, he has covered baseball, basketball, field hockey, football, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, track and field and volleyball.

With that resume, it is plain that unchartered territory does not faze him. Although, pressure can come from the personnel he is assigned to partner with. As it happened, another women’s hockey gig has been the epitome of that fact so far.

After calling games at Harvard and Northeastern, Sudikoff got a breakthrough in 2015 when the New England Sports Network (NESN) began televising select Boston Pride games. To no one’s surprise in the sport’s community, the network enlisted AJ Mleczko as his color counterpart.

By that point, the Harvard-educated two-time Olympian had been a decade-long analyst. She has been in the booth for NBC at the last three Olympics and at most Frozen Fours. In addition, Mleczko has worked with NESN elder statesman Tom Caron at most Women’s Hockey East playoff finals.

Of his Pride assignments, Sudikoff reflected, “Probably the only time I've been nervous for a broadcast based on my color commentator, since she’s used to working with someone like Doc Emrick.

“She was incredibly easy to work with, and obviously brings the knowledge. I’ve been lucky to stay in touch with her over the past year, and got to catch up with her last year in Durham for the Frozen Four, and hope to see her again in St. Louis.”

For every enriching nugget Mleczko dished up at his side, Sudikoff witnessed equal revelations with his first helping of firsthand exposure to world-class women’s hockey.

“The big realization when doing some NWHL games last year was just how good some of these women are,” he said. “Seeing the best talent in the world on the ice together was incredible to see, and very eye opening. I’ve watched on TV before, but when you're there in the building with a front row seat, you have a much greater appreciation.”

When he ventured north of his home state border to New Hampshire last March, the NCAA’s elite programs refreshed that realization.

“I had called numerous women’s hockey games over the years, and watched previous Frozen Four games,” he said. “But I still don’t think I anticipated how good the action would actually be to see live. I think that’s one of the striking things when you get to a final four situation like that; seeing matchups like Minnesota versus Wisconsin and Boston College versus Clarkson. When you get that many good players together, the competition is amazing.”

That competition translated to a pair of semifinal overtime decisions, with both victors coming from behind. The subsequent title game saw Minnesota defend its crown while spoiling BC’s bid for a perfect 41-0-0 run.

In turn, while Sudikoff referenced the business incentive of building “relationships with the NCAA and the production company responsible for broadcasting the event,” the subject matter stood strong enough on its own to bring him back for 2017.

“They were three of the best games I’ve ever had the privilege to do play-by-play for — in any sport, men’s or women’s,” he said, “and I no doubt think I’ll see similar games this year.”

More viewers are likely to notice, and therefore catch, this year’s grand finale. The Big Ten Network will carry Sunday’s championship, giving the Women’s Frozen Four a live TV abode for the first time since 2010. (The 2016 Minnesota-BC bout aired on a CBS tape delay one week after the fact.)

As of this writing, Sudikoff is unsure whether he will get the call to give the call for BTN. But he is already enthralled by his immersion into the game’s play-by-play club, concomitant with milestones at multiple levels.

First, it was NESN’s pounce on the NWHL’s inaugural season. Now, it is the college game’s main event expanding to new venues.

The achievements and aspirations those developments speak to are nothing shy of relatable for Sudikoff.

“It’s fun being around a sport that is growing and getting better and better,” he said. “I take pride in helping to grow the game in my small way, by giving it the proper broadcast coverage it deserves.

“Selfishly, in five, 10 or 15 years, whenever, when the sport is regularly on TV and a pro league is flourishing, I want to be able to say I’ve been on the train the whole time.”