Dustin

4-2 Final.

absolutely

I would say the need to be playing for and winning NCs is immediate.

That's the point I was trying to make earlier.

One would assume so, since it's the Midco broadcast used for the NCHC TV stream.

So 1 point next weekend is enough to win outright? I thought it was 1 to guarantee a share of the cup and 2+ to win.

No, because they could still hold UND to 1 point in the standings if they stay tied and win the shootout.

If there's one thing this team is short on, it's upper-class defensemen. Two Juniors and a Graduate Student. I think the formula for NCAA success is more upper-class defensemen. We'll see if the overall depth of the whole roster can overcome that.

The NCHC quarterfinal host sites are now determined, correct? Grand Forks, Denver, Kalamazoo, and Duluth?

Unbelievable the saves Homer made in the clutch. But still uncomfortable with him in net. Špunar needs to bounce back for us to make any noise.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

Didn’t read the whole thread so maybe it’s been said already, but I’m glad Špunar got that game out of the way.

This actually could almost truly regionalize the tournament (great for fans) without sacrificing bracket integrity (good for the sport). Tournament seeding would still play out as normal, but you could take the two pods with the most eastern teams and put them in the East regional and the two pods with the most western teams and put them in the West regional.

I am fine having neutral regional sites, but what I'd like to see is two super regionals (an East and West) with 8 teams. They would function the same way, essentially, they would just play 6 games in one venue over 4 days. The venue should an NHL rink in a city centrally located for the majority of college hockey programs, like St. Paul, Detroit, Boston, and maybe Denver. This way, people can travel to a place (or just be close by, potentially, depending on how the seeding shakes out) they would actually be interested in going. Basically, image half of the bracket being all in one place. You'd get a mixture of eastern and western teams in both regionals. The assignment of teams to a regional could based on which regional is closest to the overall #1 seed and everything else would fall into place. Or if one side of the bracket were lopsided with, say, western teams, they could be assigned the West Regional. These are the current 2-7-10-15 and 3-6-9-14 pods, based on USCHO bracketology. Now imagine all these games are played in St. Paul.

I am not saying they "shouldn't" send the #1 overall seed to Loveland, if that's how the NPI works out. It would be a different story, too, if more host institutions had tournament participants, then it wouldn't appear as a "singled out" situation. Some team who is a #1 regional seed is going to have to travel hundreds to thousands of miles to potentially face Denver in the state of Colorado. The good thing is that it probably won't be UND.

I can't imagine any current or potential #1 seed liking having to travel to South Dakota (from Michigan or Pennsylvania, most likely) only to be in the same regional as North Dakota. Same could be said for the #1 seed that will have to travel to Colorado (again, from somewhere Michigan or Pennsylvania) to be in the same regional as Denver. The Sioux Falls regional could (and probably will) be awesome, but the others are just not well suited geographically this year. I know you can't coordinate what teams are going to be good in 3-4 years, when the regionals are set, but maybe this is the year that finally results in a change.

I think the 3x3 format benefitted the Americans in this case, being the younger team. They had a hard time getting going 5x5 today.

Hope the domination continues!

Unless you're going to be the #1 overall seed and get the Atlantic Hockey champion, I don't see much difference between playing seeds 13-15. Now maybe there's an "undeserving" bid stealer from, say, the CCHA, but even so, the likely candidates would be just below the bubble.

I've been working on my own bracketology over the last few weeks and I've been wondering if the committee would send the the #1 overall seed to a regional with a participating host. Seems a little unfair.

The season, and potentially the program, would be in a very different spot without this.

The second tier list is spotty, AFAIC. Not quite on board with Harvard or New Hampshire. Would put Michigan Tech in there before those two.

Without Denver's and especially BC's success this century, I am not sure they would be in the discussion. They would be in a category with Cornell, Colorado College, and Michigan Tech - some titles in the first generation of the tourney, but not sustained.

I thought 8 vs 9 at the site of the top seed. Not the case?

It's fun to hear all the recognizable names from college hockey.