Three schools from Hockey East are headed to the NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey Tournament this week to compete for a national title, as the brackets were announced on Sunday evening.
The University of Massachusetts made it back to back Hockey East Titles when they defeated UConn 2-1 in the championship game in overtime at TD Garden on Saturday night. The #11 ranked Minutemen, who are also the defending national champions, improve to 22-12-2 on the season and get the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament with the victory over UConn. Also earning an at-large bid to the field are the UMass-Lowell Riverhawks (21-10-3). The #13 Riverhawks lost to UMass in the Hockey East semifinals, but earned a bid when Bemidji State lost in overtime 2-1 to Minnesota State in the CCHA Final on Saturday. 2017 was the last appearance in the tournament for UML when they lost 3-2 in overtime in the regional final to Notre Dame. The last team in from Hockey East is the #10 Northeastern Huskies (25-12-1). NU lost to UConn in the conference semifinals on Friday, but was able to earn their first bid since the 2018-19 season where they lost 5-1 to Cornell in the first round.
Here are the first round matchups for the Huskies, Riverhawks, and Minutemen-
Worcester, Massachusetts Regional:
Northeastern vs #3 Western Michigan (25-11-1)- Friday, March 25 12 p.m.
Massachusetts vs Minnesota (24-12-1)- Friday, March 25 6 p.m.
Loveland, Colorado Regional:
UMass-Lowell vs #4 Denver (27-9-1)- Thursday, March 24 9 p.m.
The other matchups include #1 Michigan vs American International and Quinnipiac vs St Cloud State in the Allentown, Pennsylvania Regional, #2 Minnesota State vs Harvard and North Dakota vs Notre Dame in the Albany, New York Regional, and Minnesota Duluth vs Michigan Tech in the other game at the Loveland Regional.
