Bracketology: UConn women's hockey is on the outside looking

The women’s hockey season has reached the semester break with December’s last games wrapping up on Saturday. There won’t be another before December 30, but most teams won’t resume until the following weekend.

This includes UConn, which has nearly a month off. The Huskies finished off the first half on a three-game winning streak, capped off with a Dec. 7 win on the road against Maine. They get the second half going against Boston College on Jan. 3.

Chris MacKenzie’s squad is ranked No. 16 in the PairWise, which puts the Huskies as the sixth team out of the field and gives them an uphill battle to make it back to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row.

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 also 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 the top remaining seeds in the conference tournaments, which are listed below.

Penn State is six points clear of Syracuse at the midway point in the CHA while Colgate has just a two-point advantage over Clarkson and three on Cornell in the ECAC. UConn is second in Hockey East, trailing Boston University by two points, though the Terriers have a game in hand. Sacred Heart is clear of LIU by just one point in the NEWHA and Wisconsin is running away with the WCHA, up 11 over Minnesota- Duluth.

The following six schools will fill out the bracket.

The WHCA has four of the 11 total bids, with ECAC following at three. Hockey East has two and the other two leagues have one.

No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 2 Minnesota, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Minnesota- Duluth will host regionals. The Bulldogs will be joined by No. 5 Colgate.

While there isn’t a mandate to prevent intra-conference matchups, there aren’t any here, as three conferences have champions that represent the bottom three in the pecking order. This bracket wouldn’t need any adjustments.