It’s the best time of the year in Division 1 men’s college hockey.
Selection Sunday is over, and the 16-team bracket for the NCAA Tournament has been set.
Five New England-based teams — four from Hockey East and one from ECAC Hockey — are now four wins away from a national championship. The tournament field was announced during Sunday night's selection show on ESPNU.
Within our home region, Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I., and MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass., will serve as two of the four regional hosts. The road to the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn., will also run through Maryland Heights, Mo., and Sioux Falls, S.D.
Now that the bracket is announced, here is a look at why each of the New England teams could go the distance.
Boston College (31-5-1, PairWise No. 1)
How they got here: The dominance of the Hockey East champion Eagles allowed them to lock up the overall No. 1 seed in the field earlier this month. Since then, their 12-game win streak — the longest by a Hockey East team since UMass’ 14-game run en route to the 2021 national title — continued during the league’s championship weekend at TD Garden. Beating UMass and Boston University by a combined 14-3 score lifted BC to its first Lamoriello Trophy since 2012, which was also its last national championship year.
Second-year coach Greg Brown has incredible talent at his disposal, including four of the nation’s top seven scorers, a handful of drafted defensemen and one of the best freshmen goaltenders in college hockey history in Jacob Fowler. On the offensive side, Will Smith (Lexington, Mass.) has a nation-leading 67 points after a four-goal title game at the center of the ‘Freshman Line’ with Gabe Perreault and Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass.), while sophomore Cutter Gauthier is tops with 35 goals. And the list goes on…
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What’s next: Providence Regional — Semifinal: 2 p.m. Friday vs. Michigan Tech (19-14-6)
Why they could go on a run: Well, why not? A No. 1 overall seed hasn’t won the whole thing since Denver in 2017, but these Eagles have all the tools to change that. They are a complete team, a freight train just chugging along. All of that talent, the run they’re on — there is just so much to like. They have responded to every bit of adversity, following each of their losses with at least four straight games unbeaten. Reaching the season-long goal of a Frozen Four berth to St. Paul is on the horizon.
Boston University (26-9-2, PairWise No. 2)
How they got here: The Terriers were the closest competitors of their archrivals down Commonwealth Avenue all season, but Saturday’s title game loss marked a hard end to a seven-game win streak. Fortunately for fans around New England, the road is far from over for Hockey East Player and Rookie of the Year Macklin Celebrini, stud sophomore Lane Hutson (whose 1.33 points per game lead the nation’s defensemen) and their teammates who are still 10-2-1 in their last 13 games.
While Celebrini has been the talk of college hockey as a likely No. 1 overall draft pick this summer, there are plenty of other standouts in coach Jay Pandolfo’s cupboard. Freshman defenseman Tom Willander and Brown transfer goaltender Mathieu Caron were also Hockey East All-Stars.
What’s next: Sioux Falls Regional — Semifinal: 5:30 p.m. Thursday vs. RIT (27-10-2)
Why they could go on a run: Though the final PairWise seeding prevented BU from being kept close to home, it will still be a No. 1 regional seed and should have plenty of confidence in its ability to make a deep run. Pandolfo has often praised the depth of his club, including players like Ryan Greene who has had no sophomore slump, freshman Shane Lachance (Andover, Mass.) whose versatility has helped him slot up and down the lineup, and graduate defenseman Cade Webber who has already set a single-season NCAA record for blocked shots.
Maine (23-11-2, PairWise No. 5)
How they got here: Third-year coach Ben Barr’s transformation of the Black Bear program has reached another new stage with appearances in both the Hockey East ‘final four’ at TD Garden and now NCAAs for the first time since the 2011-12 season, all after being predicted to finish ninth in the league. The freshman duo of brothers Bradly and Josh Nadeau gives Maine its first pair of 45-point scorers since that same year, while seniors like captain Lynden Breen and former Bentley transfer Harrison Scott have added important veteran presence.
Maine certainly wasn’t out of Friday’s game due to even-strength effort as it has a 33-18 shot advantage over BU. Giving up two power-play goals was the difference. Senior Victor Ostman and freshman Albin Boija split goaltending duties for much of the season, but the latter has done solid work since taking over the position early last month and boasts a .916 mark which included a Hockey East quarterfinal shutout of New Hampshire.
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What’s next: Springfield Regional — Semifinal: 5:30 p.m. Thursday vs. Cornell (21-6-6)
Why they could go on a run: The incredible depth and competitiveness of Hockey East this season has been well documented, but Maine is especially battle-tested entering the tournament given the still-growing nature of the program. Nineteen of the Black Bears’ 36 games have been against ranked opponents, and beating top-five Quinnipiac and Boston College early in the season were highlights among 11 wins in those contests. While the players win games, Barr’s championship pedigree shown from Union to Providence to UMass is already making an impact in Orono.
Quinnipiac (26-9-2, PairWise No. 9)
How they got here: The reigning national champion Bobcats are set to continue a fourth consecutive postseason in which they did not claim the Whitelaw Cup despite being the top seed in ECAC Hockey. If Rand Pecknold’s team wants to play in April again, history will have to repeat itself on a harder road as a No. 3 regional seed.
Despite boasting the league’s Player of the Year and a repeat Hobey Baker Award finalist in junior Collin Graf (Lincoln, Mass.) and a defense — backstopped by Boston University transfer goalie Vinny Duplessis — that allows just 1.9 goals per game, Pecknold was left “embarrassed” after his team was largely outcompeted and shut out in a playoff game for the first time since 2018 in Friday’s 3-0 semifinal loss to a St. Lawrence team that was five games below .500 and ranked 40th in the PairWise entering the game.
What’s next: Providence Regional — Semifinal: 5:30 p.m. Thursday vs. Wisconsin (26-11-2)
Why they could go on a run: It’s no secret that Pecknold has developed a blueprint that works at this time of the year and there is plenty of reason to believe in it, but his team will need a major bounce-back effort in order to have success. Before Friday, the Bobcats had allowed more than two goals in only one of their last eight games and not more than three since November. It always starts from the net out with Quinnipiac, though its deep offense including Graf and classmate Jacob Quillan above the 40-point plateau makes for a rare dynamic combination.
Massachusetts (20-13-3, PairWise No. 14)
How they got here: After an 8-1 loss to Boston College in Friday’s first Hockey East semifinal, the Minutemen were left waiting to hear their postseason fate until Denver beat Omaha for the NCHC title late Saturday night. That result gave UMass a .0004 edge on Colorado College for the No. 14 PairWise spot, making it the last at-large team in the field.
Coach Greg Carvel admitted that his team was “a long way” from its best against the Eagles, but knows that it has plenty left to show as it heads to Springfield as a regional host. UMass boasts two of the league’s top defensemen in juniors Scott Morrow (Darien, Conn.) and Ryan Ufko while goaltender Michael Hrabal leads a talented freshman class. Aydar Suniev and Jack Musa are the team’s top goal scorers as freshmen (12 apiece) and have helped to form a balanced attack that includes seven players with at least 20 points.
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What’s next: Springfield Regional — Semifinal: 2 p.m. Thursday vs. Denver (28-9-3)
Why they could go on a run: Though this team’s story is pretty similar to Quinnipiac in having a deep roster backed by solid goaltending, it will need more down the stretch in order to replicate the magic of a few years back. Splitting their 14 games between February and March (7-7-0) dropped UMass from apparent tournament lock to firmly on the bubble, but being the last team in the field is not a disqualifier for success. Just ask 2015 Providence. Fifteen of UMass’ 20 wins have come when it scored first, so mark a quick start as a key to the game against a Denver program with its own recent championship history.
