ASU Win Streak Ends, Still Atop NCHC

Arizona State's winning streak may have come to an end, but the Sun Devils remain atop the National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings.

ASU's 10-game win streak, which dated back to Nov. 16, ended on Saturday with a 4-3 overtime loss to visiting North Dakota, one night after the Sun Devils bested UND by a 4-1 count at Mullett Arena. Both teams are now tied for first place in the NCHC with 19 points, with UND at 7-3-2-0 (W-L-OTW-OTL) and ASU at 6-4-1-2.

ASU (11-8-1 overall) is in its first campaign in the NCHC after spending the first nine seasons of its NCAA Division I existence as an independent. The Sun Devils are currently 14th in the Pairwise Rankings, which mimics the selection process for the NCAA tournament.

Boston College Hockey Season Could Be on Precipice

 

Boston College could win the Hockey East Association men's regular-season title this weekend. Despite that potential accolade, the Eagles could also be on the outside looking in when the 16 berths to the 2017 NCAA Tournament are announced late next month.

BC, following a pair of ties with Vermont last weekend and a loss to UMass Lowell tonight, is currently tied for 17th in the Pairwise Rankings, which mimic the selection process for the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles (18-12-4 overall, 13-4-3 HEA) would realistically have to move up to at least 14th place in the Pairwise to get into the nationals for the seventh straight season, as the winners of the six NCAA Division I conference tournaments will again earn six of the 16 NCAA bids. For example, WCHA front-runner Bemidji State is the highest-ranked team in that conference, standing at 24th in the Pairwise.

Upset wins by lower-ranked schools in the various tournaments could also snatch up the remaining auto-bids and keep BC out of the national picture, along with defending NCAA champion North Dakota (14^th). BC’s 5-8-1 mark in non-conference games this season includes losses to Air Force (15 ^th -tie), Notre Dame (15^th-tie) Wisconsin (20^th), Quinnipiac (21^st-tie), and Merrimack (29^th). BC went 12-3-1 overall from mid-October into early December, but is just 5-5-2 over its last dozen outings.

The Eagles play a home-and-home series with Hockey East rival and eighth-rated UMass Lowell on this weekend, with the River Hawks having won the first game, 4-1, tonight in Chestnut Hill, Mass. A win on Friday in Lowell could play a sizable part in determining not only the Hockey East regular-season champion, but just how deep BC’s campaign may extend into March, a journey which may require a win in the Hockey East championship game.

Quinnipiac, North Dakota Top Pairwise Rankings

North Dakota, Quinnipiac, Providence, Boston College and St. Cloud State round out the top five teams in this week's USCHO.com Division I men's hockey poll.

The Pairwise Rankings, which mimic the NCAA Tournament selection process, however, paint a slightly different (and perhaps more relevant) picture of the top teams in the country.

The rankings as of Jan. 12, with conference affiliation in parentheses:

1. Quinnipiac (ECAC)
2. North Dakota (NCHC)
3. St. Cloud (NCHC)
4. Harvard (ECAC)
5. Cornell (ECAC)
6. Providence (Hockey East)
7. Omaha (NCHC)
8. Michigan (Big Ten)
9. Boston University (Hockey East)
10. Boston College (Hockey East)
11. Notre Dame (Hockey East)
12. Yale (ECAC)
13. UMass-Lowell (Hockey East)
14. Denver (NCHC)
15. Penn State (Big Ten)
16. Minnesota-Duluth (NCHC)
17. Minnesota State (WCHA)
...
21. Holy Cross (Atlantic Hockey)

The top 16 teams get in, including the tournament winners of the six NCAA Division I conferences. That means someone on the bubble of 16 could get bumped by a lower-ranked team (or teams) that wins its conference tournament.

We've still got a long way to go between now and late March, when the bids will be announced.

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.

One NCAA Tournament Berth to Go

The final berth in the 2013 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship will come down to tomorrow's final CCHA Championship.

If Michigan, winner of its last five games, defeats Notre Dame on Sunday in Detroit, the Wolverines will garner the CCHA's automatic bid and advance to their 23rd consecutive NCAA Tournament. If the Fighting Irish, who are already in line for an at-large bid, triumph, then Yale will also get in.

Western Michigan looks like it will be sidelined, regardless of whoever wins tomorrow's last-ever CCHA title. That's largely because previously not-under-consideration Canisius won the Atlantic Hockey playoff crown and that league's automatic berth, "stealing" a spot from a higher-ranked team, according to the Pairwise Rankings.

Also earning autobids by winning league postseason titles this weekend were UMass Lowell (Hockey East), Union (ECAC) and Wisconsin (WCHA). Earning at-large bids, according to the Pairwise, should be Quinnipiac, Minnesota, Miami, Boston College, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Denver, Niagara, Minnesota State and St. Cloud State.

The NCAA Selection Show will air on Sunday at 9 p.m. on ESPN2. The NCAA Regionals will be held on March 29-31 in Manchester, Providence, Toledo and Grand Rapids, Minn., while this year's Frozen Four will take place on April 11-13 in Pittsburgh.

Ferris State Set to Clinch CCHA Crown

There's something to be said for starting off strong. That, and for laying low.

With all the annual talk of Michigan, Miami, Notre Dame, and even an improved Michigan State, it's Ferris State that now stands at 16-6-4 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, six points ahead of second-place Michigan. The Bulldogs need just one point against Western Michigan this weekend to clinch the CCHA regular-season title outright, having already copped at least a share of this year's crown.

It's FSU's first CCHA title since 2002-03, when it also made the NCAA Tournament for the first and only time to date. The Bulldogs swept Lake Superior State in the CCHA Tournament's first round and topped Northern Michigan in the semifinals that spring, only to fall to Michigan in the championship contest. FSU then defeated North Dakota and fell to defending national champion Minnesota in the NCAA West Regional in Minneapolis to finish the campaign with a best-ever 31-10-4 overall mark.

The Bulldog names back then featured Chris Kunitz up front and Mike Brown in goal. Now it's Jordie Johnston (16 goals, 31 points) and Taylor Nelson (17-4-2, 2.07 GAA) leading the way for Ferris (22-8-4), which is also fourth in the current Pairwise Rankings. FSU won nine of its first 11 games overall this season, and five of its first seven conference outings, en route to winding up where it is now.

The one constant nine years later is head coach Bob Daniels, now in his 20th season behind the bench in Big Rapids, Mich., with 330 wins and counting to his credit at helm of the Bulldogs. No. 331 would be particularly sweet if it came this weekend.

"We’re excited that we have a share of the title, but at the same time we don’t want to share it. We want to have this thing out­right,” said Nelson to the Ferris State Torch. “We’re really excited for this upcom­ing week­end, and we want to win it all.”

Wolverines Back on Track

Earlier this season I wrote about what was wrong with the University of Michigan. Following a 4-3 loss at Alaska Fairbanks on Nov. 27, the Wolverines were just 7-8-2 overall less than eight months after coming within an overtime goal of a national championship.

Fast forward almost two months from that game in Fairbanks, and whatever ailed the Wolverines seems to have been cured. A 4-1 win over Ohio State outdoors at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Sunday completed a weekend sweep of the rival Buckeyes and left U-M with an overall mark of 14-9-4 overall.

Since a split at Alaska, and prior to last night's 3-1 setback at Notre Dame, Michigan had gone 7-0-2, including yet another Great Lakes Invitational title in December in Detroit when they bested both Boston College and Michigan State in back-to-back contests.

The return of defenseman Jon Merrill from a semester-long suspension has helped. So has the formation of a forward line of NHL draft choices in senior David Wohlberg, freshman Alex Guptill, and junior Chris Brown, who have 25 points apiece this season to lead all Wolverine scorers. Senior goaltender Shawn Hunwick has been steady in net, and is 14-8-3 this winter with a 2.22 goals-against average and a .926save percentage.

Michigan was also seventh in the nation in goals scored per game (3.44), and 11th in goals given up per outing (2.41). The Wolverines were also ranked seventh in NCAA Division I in the latest Pairwise Rankings, and should be in good shape to both compete for a CCHA crown and extend an NCAA Tournament streak that began back in 1991.