Women's Hockey Bracketology: One more weekend left

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 in the sport.

The Huskies are No. 10 in the PairWise and the top seed in the Hockey East Tournament, playing BC today in the semifinals. With an 11-team NCAA field, it’s not likely that Chris MacKenzie’s team will secure an at-large bid, even though it only lost four league games all season, including three 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 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 was the first team to secure a bid, as the Nittany Lions won the CHA over Mercyhurst on Saturday.

Chalk prevailed in the best-of-three ECAC Tournament quarterfinals, as the top four seeds swept Nos. 5-8. No. 1 Colgate hosts No. 4 Cornell and No. 2 Clarkson takes on No. 3 St. Lawrence on Friday, with the winners playing for the championship on Saturday.

Hockey East is also down to four squads. No. 1 UConn hosts No. 4 Boston College, while No. 2 Northeastern will have a home date against No. 3 New Hampshire, each of which is on Wednesday. The title game is on Saturday.

The NEWHA had upsets, as Franklin Pierce and Stonehill took down the top two seeds in the league. The championship game is on Saturday. Neither of these teams is in a position to secure an at-large bid.

Minnesota is hosting the WCHA semifinals and finals, which will take place on Friday and Saturday, respectively. No. 1 Ohio State will face No. 4 Minnesota Duluth, while No. 2 Wisconsin draws the hosts.

The following six schools will fill out the bracket.

The six at-large bids are split between ECAC and WCHA, as Quinnipiac was eliminated in the quarterfinals, while Minnesota-Duluth moved on in its conference tournament, causing the swap. Other than that, the top seven in the PairWise stayed the same.

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 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.

The bubble

Quinnipiac, St. Cloud State, Princeton, and Northeastern are the first four teams out.

Quinnipiac and Princeton were eliminated in the ECAC quarterfinals, while St. Cloud State went down in the same round in the WCHA. Northeastern is still alive in Hockey East.