The NCAA is moving towards men’s and women’s ice hockey tournaments, both of which are set to commence next month. The women’s tournament will be held exclusively in Erie, Pa., hosted by Mercyhurst. The men’s tournament is still scheduled to utilize four regional sites before moving to the Frozen Four in April at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
Manchester, N.H. was set to host the Northeast Regional, but the SNHU Arena backed out last month. The NCAA is still searching for a fourth site.
Meanwhile, conferences have begun to formulate plans on how they will award automatic bids in conference tournaments. Below is an outline on how each conference plans to handle their league playoffs.
ECAC
- Dates: March 18-20
- All games held on campus sites
- Single-elimination tournament
ATLANTIC HOCKEY
- Dates: TBD
- All 11 teams will qualify and remain in their pods
- Air Force will play in the pod with the worst No. 3 seed
- First Round: Single-Elimination
- Quarterfinals: Best-of-3
- Championship Weekend: Semifinals and championship will be single-elimination held at the highest-remaining seed.
BIG TEN
- Dates: March 18-20
- First Round (March 18): Single-elimination (2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5)
- Semifinals (March 19): Single-elimination
- Championship (March 20): Single-elimination
- All games held at Compton Family Ice Arena at Notre Dame.
WCHA
- Dates: March 12-20
- Quarterfinals (March 12-14): Best-of-3
- Championship Weekend (March 19-20): Single-Elimination
- All games held at the home arena of the higher seed.
- Championship Weekend held at the home arena of the highest-remaining seed.
HOCKEY EAST
- Dates: March 10-20
- First Round (March 10): Single-elimination (6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10, 8 vs. 9)
- Quarterfinals (March 14): Single-elimination
- Semifinals (March 17): Single-elimination
- Championship (March 20): Single-elimination
- All games held at the home arena of the higher seed.
NCHC
- Dates: March 12-16
- Quarterfinals (March 12-13): Single-elimination
- Semifinals (March 15): Single-elimination
- Championship (March 16): Single-elimination
- All games held at Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D.
