2015 NCAA Frozen Four Field for Boston Set

The 2015 NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Frozen Four field has been finalized.

The first semifinal game on April 9 at 5 p.m. at TD Garden in Boston will feature Providence against (Nebraska) Omaha. The second semifinal at 8:30 p.m. will star North Dakota against Boston University. Both contests will be televised on ESPN2.

Providence won the East Regional in its hometown and advanced to its first Frozen Four in 30 years by besting Miami, 7-5, and Denver, 4-1. Omaha won the Midwest Regional in South Bend, Ind., by topping Harvard, 4-1, and RIT, 4-0, to punch its ticket to its first-ever Frozen Four in its 18th season of varsity play.

North Dakota returned to the Frozen Four for the second straight season by claiming the West Regional in Fargo, N.D. with a pair of 4-1 victories over Quinnipiac and St. Cloud State. Boston University made it back to the Frozen Four for the first time since winning the 2009 national title by recording 3-2 wins over Yale and Minnesota-Duluth, the first one in overtime.

The full interactive bracket and all the regional results can be accessed here. The two semifinal winners will earn berths in the national championship game on April 11 at 7:30 p.m. (ESPN) in Boston.

At the Division III men's level, Trinity (Conn.) defeated Wisconsin-Stevens-Point, 5-2, at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis on Saturday night to clinch its first-ever NCAA men's hockey title.

NCAA Regionals Underway; Divison III Final Set

The first four games of the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championship are in the books. 

 

The Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H. began today with top-seeded Boston University edging Yale, 3-2, on overtime, to set up a Saturday final with No. 2 seed Minnesota-Duluth, which topped Minnesota, 4-1. 

 

The West Regional in Fargo, N.D. got underway Friday with St. Cloud State outlasting second-seeded Michigan Tech, 3-2, in overtime before No. 1 seed North Dakota upended Quinnipiac, 4-1.

 

The East Regional in Providence begins on Saturday, with Providence-Miami and Boston College-Denver, while the Midwest Regional in South Bend, Ind. opens tomorrow with Minnesota State-RIT and Harvard-Omaha. Those regional finals are scheduled for Sunday.

 

At the NCAA Division III men’s semifinals in Minneapolis, Wisconsin Stevens-Point routed Amherst, 6-2, while Trinity overcame Adrian, 5-3. The national final is set for Saturday night at Ridder Arena.

Minnesota, Plattsburgh State Win Women's NCAA Hockey Titles

Hannah Brandt scored the game-winning goal, Rachael Bona had a goal and an assist, and Amanda Leveille made 19 saves and added an assist as the University of Minnesota won its third NCAA Division I women's hockey national title in four years with a 4-1 victory over Harvard on Sunday at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis.

The No. 2 Golden Gophers, who dispatched RIT and Wisconsin earlier in the NCAA Tournament, now have five national titles to their credit, including back-to-back crowns in 2004 and 2005. No. 4 Harvard was seeking to become the second Eastern school to win an NCAA Division I women's hockey national championship after Clarkson edged the Gophers last year in Hamden, Conn.

Top-ranked Plattsburgh State won its second straight NCAA Division III women's hockey national championship with a 3-2 victory over No. 2 Elmira on Saturday at Stafford Ice Arena in Plattsburgh, N.Y. The top-ranked Cardinals, who also won in 2007 and 2008, got a goal and an assist from Giovanna Senese, plus the game-winner from Kayla Meneghin and 22 saves from Camille Leonard.

2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championship Finalized

The seedings are in, and the field has been set for the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championship. The regionals will be held this weekend, with the four regional winners advancing to the Frozen Four in Boston on April 9-11.

The top four seeds overall are Minnesota State, North Dakota, Boston University, and Miami.

March 27-28

Northeast Regional (Manchester, N.H.)

Yale vs. Boston University (2 p.m.)
Minnesota-Duluth vs. Minnesota (5:30 p.m.)

(Regional final - Saturday, 5:30 p.m.)

West Regional (Fargo, N.D.)

St. Cloud State vs. Michigan Tech (4:30 p.m.)
Quinnipiac vs. North Dakota (8 p.m.)

(Regional final – Saturday , 9 p.m.)

March 28-29

East Regional (Providence, R.I.)

Miami vs. Providence (6:30 p.m.)
Denver vs. Boston College (3 p.m.)

(Regional final - Sunday, 5 p.m.)

Midwest Regional (South Bend, IN)

Rochester Institute of Technology vs. Minnesota State (4 p.m.)
(Nebraska) Omaha vs. Harvard (7:30 p.m.)

(Regional final - Sunday, 7:30 p.m.)

Regional games will be televised  on ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNU and Watch ESPN.

Conference champions this spring who earned automatic berths to the NCAA Tournament include Boston University (Hockey East), Harvard (Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference), Miami (National Collegiate Hockey Conference) Minnesota (Big Ten), Minnesota State (Western Collegiate Hockey Association) and Rochester Institute of Technology (Atlantic Hockey).

The rest earned at-large bids through the Pairwise Rankings, which mimics the NCAA selection process.

BC's Carpenter Wins Kazmaier Award

Junior forward Alex Carpenter of Boston College is the 2014-15 recipient of the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top player in NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey.

Carpenter, a native of North Reading, Mass., and the daughter of retired NHL player and Stanley Cup champion Bob Carpenter, led the nation in scoring with 37 goals and 44 assists for 81 points in 37 games. She was presented with the award, named for the later Princeton University blueliner, on Saturday in Minneapolis, one day after BC was eliminated by Harvard, 2-1, in a national semifinal game.

Carpenter, who won a silver medal with the U.S. National Team at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, is the first Eagle ever to earn the Kazmaier Award. In three seasons at the Heights, she has tallied 91 goals and 100 assists for 191 points in 109 outings while helping BC to three consecutive Frozen Fours.

Hobey Baker Award Top 10 Announced

The 10 preliminary finalists for the 2014-15 Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the top player in NCAA Division I men's college hockey were released today. Per USCHO.com, here they are in alphabetical order:

• Union senior forward Daniel Ciampini
• Boston University freshman forward Jack Eichel
• RIT senior forward Matt Garbowsky
• Michigan senior forward Zach Hyman
• Michigan Tech senior forward Tanner Kero
• Denver senior defenseman Joey LaLeggia
• North Dakota junior goaltender Zane McIntyre
• Minnesota junior defenseman Mike Reilly
• Harvard junior forward Jimmy Vesey
• Robert Morris senior forward Cody Wydo

The Hobey Hat Trick concerning the three finalists will be announced on April 2, with the winner to ultimately be crowned in Boston on April 10, one day before the national championship game at TD Garden.

Eichel, the nation's leading scorer for most of the 2014-15 campaign and a projected top pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, is considered the favorite. Last year's winner, Johnny Gaudreau of Boston College, collected both the Hobey Baker Award and the national scoring title before moving on to the Calgary Flames.

Vermont Eliminates BC in Three Games

Nearly 25 years later, the Maroon and Gold was again done in by a green and gold opponent near St. Patrick's Day. 

The ninth-ranked Boston College men's hockey team will have to wait a week to discover its NCAA Tournament fate after falling, 1-0, to visiting No. 17 Vermont on Sunday in Game 3 of their best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series at Kelley Rink.

BC won, 4-2, on Friday before UVM (22-14-4 overall) evened up the series on Saturday with a 3-1 victory. BC fell to 21-13-3 on the season.

Alexx Pivitera scored the game's only goal less than three minutes into the third period of Game 3 to offset a 22-save performance by BC sophomore netminder Thatcher Demko.

Vermont junior goaltender Brody Hoffman made 36 saves for the Catamounts on Sunday, one day after stopping 39 shots by the Eagles. He played clean-up on Friday night, stopping all 12 shots he faced in his first action in nearly a month, and for the weekend recorded 87 saves on 88 shots to boost UVM to the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden in Boston.

The Catamounts will now face UMass Lowell on Friday at 5 p.m. The winner of that contest will meet the victor of the Boston University-New Hampshire tilt on Saturday evening for the Hockey East crown and the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

On March 15-16, 1991, BC dropped a two-game set to visiting Alaska Anchorage in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. (Like UVM, UAA’s colors are green and gold.) BC would not return to the national picture for seven years after that series, while the 3-2 and 3-1 wins remain the only NCAA Tournament triumphs by the Seawolves in their 35-year history.

The 2015 NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be televised at noon on Sunday on ESPNU. BC, which dropped to 11th place in the latest national polls, is ranked ninth in the current Pairwise Rankings, which mimics the NCAA Tournament selection process. That almost assures that the Eagles will receive one of the 16 NCAA Tournament bids for the 13th consecutive season, the longest current streak in Hockey East. 

UVM sits 19th in the current Pairwise, and the Catamounts will likely to have to win the Hockey East championship this weekend to advance to the national tournament.

2015 NCAA Women's Tournament Starts Saturday

The eight-school 2015 NCAA Women's Division I Tournament gets underway on Saturday with four quarter final match-ups:

Quinnipiac @ (3) Harvard
Clarkson @ (2) Boston College
Boston University @ (4) Wisconsin
RIT @ (1) Minnesota

(Top seeds in parentheses)

The winners advance to the Frozen Four on March 20-22 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Clarkson is the defending national champion.

Alaska's Parayko Signs with St. Louis

Alaska junior defenseman Colton Parayko has passed up his final year of NCAA eligibility with the Nanooks to sign a two-year entry-level contract with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, according to alaskananooks.com. He will be assigned to the Blues' AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves.

Parayko was named Western Collegiate Hockey Association Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-WCHA, and a WCHA Scholar Athlete during his three years at UAF, and was also named to the NCAA Division I All-American Second Team last season.

A 6-foot-5, 224-pound native of St. Albert, Alberta, Parayko served as UAF's captain this past season. He also led the team with 67 blocked shots while recording six goals and 17 assists for 23 points, as the Nanooks finished 19-13-2 overall (14-12-2 WCHA).

Parayko tallied 17 goals and 49 assists for 66 points in 104 career games with Alaska. He also helped UAF to three straight Governor's Cup championships over rival Alaska Anchorage, including last weekend in his final collegiate games in blue and gold. He was drafted by the Blues in the third round (86th overall) of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, following the completion of a two-year junior career with Fort McMurray (AJHL). The Oil Barons, like the Nanooks and Blues, also wear blue and gold.

ECAC Quarterfinals this Weekend

The quarterfinal round of the 2015 ECAC Division I Men's Hockey Tournament is set, as outlined at USCHO.com, following last week's best-of-three opening round for the bottom eight seeds:

No. 10 Union at No. 1 Quinnipiac (Season series: Quinnipiac won, 2-0)

No. 9 Rensselaer at No. 2 St. Lawrence (Season series: Tied, 1-1)

No. 6 Harvard at No.3 Yale (Season series: Yale won, 3-0)

No. 5 Dartmouth at No. 4 Colgate (Season series: Colgate won, 1-0-1)

Union ousted No. 7 Cornell in two games over the weekend, including a 7-0 win in the clincher on Saturday. Rensselaer advanced after outlasting Clarkson in three games, the only conference first-round series to go the distance. Harvard swept No. 11 Brown, and Dartmouth did likewise with No. 12 Princeton.

The quarterfinal winners advance to the single-elimination ECAC Championship in Lake Placid on March 20-21, with the conference's automatic berth in the 2015 NCAA Tournament at stake. Union has won the last three Whitelaw Cups.

UAF Wraps Up 2014-15 Season This Weekend

Alaska Fairbanks faces the end of its season this weekend with two games at rival Alaska Anchorage to decide the annual Governor's Cup. UAF (17-13-2 overall, 12-12-2 WCHA), which stands in fifth place in its conference, is ineligible for the WCHA and NCAA postseason races due to academic violations from 2008 to 2012.

The Nanooks, who dropped a pair of games to UAA by 2-1 and 3-2 (OT) counts in Fairbanks on Jan. 16-17, need to win both games this weekend at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage to force a Cup-deciding shootout. UAA (8-20-4, 5-19-2 WCHA), on the other hand, sits in last place in the WCHA, and can only advance to the league playoffs if it sweeps UAF, and both Alabama-Huntsville and Lake Superior State are held pointless.

As part of its capitulation regarding the NCAA violations, UAF had to vacate two of its past Governor's Cup victories over UAA, along with its appearance in the 2010 NCAA Tournament where the Nanooks fell in the first round to eventual national champion Boston College.

ADDENDUM: UAF won, 3-2, on Saturday night and then won, 1-0, in the ensuing shootout to claim its third straight Governor's Cup.

Hockey East, ECAC Tournament Fields Set

The first round of the 2015 Hockey East men’s championship is set. This year’s opening round will be best-of-three series for the lower eight seeds, instead of the single-elimination games that were played last season. Higher seeds will be the host teams:

No. 5 Notre Dame vs. No. 12 Massachusetts

No. 6 Northeastern vs. Mo. 11 Merrimack

No. 7 Vermont vs. No. 10 Maine

No. 8 New Hampshire vs. No. 9 Connecticut

The survivors will be re-seeded and will advance to the second round, also on best-of-three and played on campus sites. Having byes this week are the conference’s top four finishers, Boston University, Providence, Boston College, and UMass Lowell, who will all host games on March 13-15.

The four second-round victors will then advance to the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden in Boston on March 20-21 for single-elimination matchups , with the winner claiming Hockey East’s automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Tournament. UMass Lowell won its first league postseason title last season.

The Eastern College Athletic Conference's men’s division championship will open its own best-of-three first round set of series this weekend, with the top four seeds having byes, and the bottom eight looking to advance to next week. Higher seed is again the host school:

No. 5 Dartmouth vs. No. 12 Princeton

No. 6 vs. No. 11 Brown

No. 7 Cornell vs. No. 10 Union

No. 8 Clarkson vs. No. 9 Rensselaer

Winners will be re-seeded to face the top four teams in Quinnipiac, St. Lawrence, Yale and Colgate in best-of-three series played on campus sites. The four second-round winners will be off to Lake Placid on March 20-21 for the ECAC Championship and its single-elimination contests, with the ECAC’s automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Tournament at stake. Union is the defending three-time ECAC Tournament champion.