Bracketology: UConn women's hockey is just three wins away

UConn women’s hockey, fresh off its first Hockey East regular season championship, is knocking on the door of the school’s first NCAA Tournament bid — men’s or women’s. The Huskies are No. 11 in the PairWise and the top seed in the Hockey East Tournament, awaiting the lowest remaining seed from the two Opening Round matchups in the quarterfinal. With a 11-team NCAA field, it’s not likely that Chris MacKenzie’s team will secure an at-large bid, but it’s lost just four league games all season, three of which were in October.

Bracketology

Unlike most NCAA Tournaments, the hockey committees merely seed the teams and fill the regionals without actually selecting the field, which is done by the PairWise rankings. The five conference champions are paired with the top six teams in the rankings that have not already qualified to fill out the field. This objective measure gives teams a sense of what they need to do at all times while also giving fans a sneak peek at what may be coming down the road.

There are some differences from the men’s bracket selection process, but there are many similarities. The top five teams in the 11-team field earn a seed and the top four will host regional finals. The top three will also host regional semifinals and play the winners of those teams, while No. 4 will face No. 5. There’s no requirement that No. 4 and No. 5 are from different conferences, while the regional semifinals will avoid intra-conference matchups unless it “corrupts bracket integrity”. The USCHO has an in-depth explainer here.

The first five teams in the field are top remaining seeds in the conference tournaments, which are listed below.

Penn State is in the CHA championship on Saturday against Mercyhurst. The Lakers are No. 16 in the PairWise, which leaves this as a one-bid league.

In the ECAC, the best-of-three quarterfinals are this weekend. The single-game first round went according to seeding, so the top eight teams are still alive. The semifinals and final are also single games. In addition to the four schools in at-large position, Yale and Princeton are the third and fourth team out, respectively.

Hockey East will begin its tournament on Wednesday with two opening round games, followed by the quarterfinals on Friday and Saturday. Each round is a single game.

The NEWHA semifinals are on Saturday, pitting No. 1 LIU against No. 5 Franklin Pierce and No. 2 St. Anselm against No. 3 Stonehill. The final is March 9 at the highest remaining seed. None of these teams are in position to secure an at-large bid.

The best-of-three quarterfinals are on the schedule this weekend in the WCHA. The single-game semifinals and final are March 8 and 9.

The following six schools will fill out the bracket.

This field is dominated by ECAC teams with five of the 11 bids are earmarked for the league, while WCHA is the other multi-bid conference, with three. The remaining three conferences have just the tournament champion.

No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 3 Clarkson and No. 4 Colgate would host regionals, with the Raiders joined by No. 5 Minnesota. The final six teams would play regional semifinals at the site of the top three seeds.

While there isn’t a mandate to prevent intra-conference matchups, there miraculously aren’t any here. This bracket wouldn’t need any adjustments.

The bubble

Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State, Yale and Princeton are the first four teams out. Each of them are still alive in their conference tournaments, with the Bulldogs and Huskies facing off against each other in the WHCA quarterfinals.

In a best-of-three ECAC Tournament quarterfinal, Yale draws St. Lawrence, while Princeton must beat Clarkson to stay alive.