Sunday, March 18, 2012

Paths to Tampa Are Set

Paths to Tampa Are Set
Boston College celebrates its third straight Hockey East tournament title Saturday night.

Boston College, Michigan, Union and North Dakota earned the top four seeds in the 2012 NCAA Tournament that begins play Friday, March 23. The winners of the four regionals will advance to the NCAA Frozen Four, April 5 & 7 in Tampa, Fla.

Boston College, the Hockey East champions, will face Atlantic Hockey champion Air Force in the first round of the Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass. The other half of that regional features defending national champion Minnesota Duluth and Maine, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007.

The winner of that regional will meet the winner of the West Regional in Tampa. North Dakota, which won the WCHA Final Five in St. Paul this past weekend, returns to the Twin Cities to meet Western Michigan in the first round at Xcel Energy Center. The host school, Minnesota, is the second seed and faces Boston University in the first round.

On the other side of the bracket, two CCHA schools – Michigan and Ferris State – hold down the No. 1 and 2 seeds in the Midwest Regional, to be played at Green Bay’s Resch Center. The Wovlerines will face Cornell in the first round, while Ferris State faces Denver.

Bridgeport, Conn., hosts the East Regional, and Union returns to the site for the second year in a row. Three first-year head coaches meet in this region, with Rick Bennett’s Dutchmen meeting Tom Anastos and Michigan State in the first round. Miami is the No. 2 seed and meets Norm Bazin’s UMass Lowell team in the other first round matchup.

Bracket Notes

  • One-quarter of the NCAA field has first-year head coaches – three of them in the East Regional.
  • The Northeast (4) and East (3) Regionals have 7 of the 8 Hobey finalists in the field. One is in the Midwest, none in the West.
  • The top 6 schools in all-time NCAA appearances are all in the field; the next 4 (Wisconsin, Harvard, Clarkson, New Hampshire) all missed this year.
  • Two schools – Union and Denver – play in the same regional sites as last year, seeking better results.
  • Boston College’s last three NCAA title runs began by playing in the Worcester Regional.
  • Five of the top seven scorers in the tournament are in the Maine-Minnesota Duluth first-round game.
  • Three of the No. 1 seeds (Boston College, Michigan, North Dakota) have combined for 63 Frozen Four appearances. Union is seeking its first.
  • All four teams that started the season at the 2011 Ice Breaker in Grand Forks made the NCAA field.