From CHN:
Allentown, Pa., Friday/Sunday
1. Michigan vs. 4. American International
2. Quinnipiac vs. 3. St. Cloud State
Albany, N.Y., Thursday/Saturday
1. Minnesota State vs. 4. Harvard
2. North Dakota vs. 3. Notre Dame
Worcester, Mass., Friday/Sunday
1. Western Michigan vs. 4. Northeastern
2. Minnesota vs. 3. Massachusetts
Loveland, Colo., Thursday/Saturday
1. Denver vs. 4. Massachusetts-Lowell
2. Minnesota Duluth vs. 3. Michigan Tech
Not because its particularly midwestern or close, but I’m modestly glad they gave us Allentown. Albany and Woostah were pushed recently by various pundits, reasoning that AIC and QU would drive better attendance there, and that would have worked against our interests (again, modestly).
Wow shout out lilgirlwknd for nearly hitting this thing DEAD ON at 12PM today. LINK
The only thing he/she missed was a swap of Umass and MTech.
Impressive. I officially crown lilgirlwknd the Jerry Palm Lunardi of College Hocketology!
...but faster and more accurate!
Did I do that right?
ha. I'd make my username something easier to type if the mgo-overlords hadn't made it impossible to change anymore. Maybe I need to email Seth if people think my username is lil girl weekend...
And don't give me too much credit, they pretty much follow the pairwise and avoid 1st round interconference games so there wasn't much expected variation
Nope. You get all the credit. You are Jerry Palm Lunardi of Hocketology.
And I have no clue why you'd want to change from lilgirlwknd. Sounds like some JoJo Siwa, maybe some hair braiding, trying on makeup, some stories about boyyyssss, and college hockey. Amazing!
Agree, I thought they'd put Quinnipiac in Albany and whoever else the teams were in their bracket. Give lilgirlwknd credit for putting UM in Allentown.
Thanks for sharing
Lets go get a natty....we are due! Go Blue!!
Wheel. Snipe. Celly. Ship.
March 20th, 2022 at 10:46 PM ^
Pitter patter
Bummed it’s in Allentown and not Albany/Worcester but I think they could have done worse in terms of the draw (miss ND, NoDak, etc.)
Rough draws for Minnesota State and Western as 1 seeds. Like our chances to get to the Frozen Four.
That's about as good as it is going to get for us. Knock on wood because it's the evil spirts I am most worried about.
After yesterday, it feels like we’re going to win everything!
We have a great goaltender, strong offense, and solid defense. I like our chances.
Tough draw for Western. I wonder how our cancellation with them changed all of how this fell. May not have mattered in the end
Pretty much best you could hope for in a regional for us. Fingers crossed
Totally agree. QU and SCSU could beat us (not a particularly revelatory qualifier; it’s single-elimination!), but every other 2/3 match-up seems more threatening to its #1 than ours.
Co-sign. Essentially the got the least worrisome team west of Massachusetts that could have been included, which for this year is the most important thing you could ask for.
Going all the way back to 1980, that the first round of college hockey playoffs is a weekend series, but the remaining games are single elimination has never made any sense to me.
The only weirder thing was the brief period when the WCHA first round playoffs were total goals, not game wins. So you could win 3-0, lose 1-0, 1-0, and win the series.
The entirety of the NCAA tournament is single elimination though.
I think he was trying to say the format in (I think) the 80s/early 90s didn't make sense to him like the current format doesn't. IIRC it did used to be best of 3 before the frozen four. I believe Yost lore says Michigan stole a lot of their cheers from the visiting Cornell(?) fans back in the early 90s for one of those best of 3s
NCAA tournament in the 80s also had total goals, two games at the higher seed as well, 8 teams, then went to 12 with the byes and 2 out of 3 in qtrs, then they made it single elimination for qtrs. A lot of changes, some actually because the sport grew.
pump it up!
Got the entire session in Alb. Ok M got the best draw and is in Allentown. As expected
but I had no idea the games in Alb would be noon and 6. I live here and don’t want to spend 10 hours in Albany
Let's Go Blue!
Anyone who is familiar with the PPL Center in Allentown know why the seats on the "bottom" of the seating chart are both more expensive and (relatively) less available? What is better about them?
No ND seems good to me
American--a different one from the WBB American! America, give us all your Americans and we'll crush them! Michigan vs. America--MICHIGAN WINS EVERY TIME!!
Loveland and Albany are going to be proverbial street fights, good to see UM avoid them. Note, UM can win 2-1 street fights but it won't be fun for fans.
+1 for proper use of the term "proverbial" vs the normally (abused) word, "literal." The College of Language, Science & the Arts approves!
March 20th, 2022 at 10:38 PM ^
Go Blue!
March 20th, 2022 at 10:42 PM ^
Looks like a pretty good draw to me. Let's go, Blue!
March 20th, 2022 at 11:09 PM ^
I’m not enthralled with the possibility of facing SCSU’s remarkable special teams units, but you have to beat good teams in the tournament and I’m much happier with this scenario than a lot of the other options, particularly with Notre Dame as a potential second-round opponent.
Michigan could lose either of the regional games. But things set up well for the games to be winnable. The path to the FF is there.
A very, very tough Denver matchup beckons in the semi if chalk prevails, or maybe UMD if it doesn’t. But Minnesota, Minnesota State, Western, and both NDs are on the other side—we would have to play, at most, one of them. For the title, if we get there.
This is the time we’ve been waiting for. The terror begins. But so does the opportunity: the tenth national championship is there to be won.
Four wins to go.
It's funny how much loss aversion has inverted my expected enjoyment of this year's tournament. Because a) UM has a good claim on being the best team in the country, b) the randomness of one game hockey tournaments, and c) the fact that this will be the last dance for so many special players, I am much more nervous (even dread-filled) about the regional round than I have been in past years when there were a lot of "house money" scenarios at play.
That is why I was so happy about Saturday night. Not just the banner thing, but also the fact that their path (exorcising multiple demons using different approaches, in front of sellout/raucous home and away crowds) was kind of a mini-NCAA tournament on its own. Of course there would be significant disappointment if they don't make it to Boston, but at least they were able to show the best of themselves against stiff competition.