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2018 NCAA Ice Hockey Tournament Preview

For 12 of 16 teams breathing life into their national title hopes through the NCAA Ice Hockey Tournament, the college hockey season will prove to be a cruel spouse by Saturday night. The 2018 tournament features one unique aspect which is probably the greatest omission of the tournament —Minnesota, North Dakota, and Boston College are not in.

Every national tournament since 1977 has had at least one of these perennial powerhouses. The three schools have combined for a total of eight national titles since the start of the new millennium in 2000. With steep competition at the conference level, it was ultimately the automatic bids that caused bubble teams on the periphery of the top-16 of the Pairwise to slip down.

More specifically, it was .0001 of a point in the RPI that shifted things around and solidified the 2018 tournament field. It could be said that the decision of Minnesota’s head coach, Don Lucia, to resign, also rested on that slight 1/10000th of a point.

All three Minnesota schools were placed in the same regional (Sioux Falls-West). With that said, the likely explanation was to boost attendance seeing how they were dependent on a North Dakota sellout. Of the three Minnesota schools, two are from the NCHC (St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth) and Minnesota State is from the WCHA. Denver is the third NCHC team and was placed as the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Regional.

The NCAA may have found a way to almost guarantee a Minnesota school in the Frozen Four, but Air Force should never be underestimated. Let us not forget how they earned their first NCAA tournament win ever —a 2-0 victory over the East Regional’s top-seeded Michigan in 2009. On that night, the Falcons faced a stacked Michigan team with 11 NHL draftees.

The winner of each regional punches a ticket to the 71st annual Frozen Four at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. National semifinal games will be on April 5. The West champion faces off against the Midwest champion and the East champions against the Northeast champions. The National title game will be held on April 7.

West Regionals

No. 1 St. Cloud State vs. No. 4 Air Force (FRI 4 PM ET) ESPNU

No. 3 Minnesota State vs. No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth (FRI 7:30 PM ET) ESPN3

Regional Final (SAT 9 PM ET) ESPN2

East Regionals

No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 4 Michigan Tech (FRI 3 PM ET) ESPN2

No. 2 Providence vs. No. 3 Clarkson (FRI 6:30 PM ET) ESPNU

Regional Final (SAT 6 PM ET) ESPNU

Northeast Regional

No. 1 Cornell vs. Boston U. (SAT 1 PM ET) ESPNEWS

No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 Northeastern (SAT 4:30 PM ET) ESPNEWS

Regional Final (SUN 4 PM ET) ESPN2

Midwest Regional

No. 1 Ohio State vs. Princeton (SAT 3:30 PM ET) ESPNU

No. 2 Denver vs. No. 3 Penn. State (SAT 7 PM ET) ESPN3

Regional Final (SUN 6:30 PM ET) ESPNU

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Manuel Brizuela

A native of Los Angeles, Manny is a graduate student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Since sports is ultimately where Manny would like to end up as a digital media producer, particularly with the sport of hockey, he felt it necessary to make connections in the state of hockey. Thus, moving across the country and landing opportunities to dabble with NCAA Division 1 hockey.
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