NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament Brackets

[Ignatius L Hoops]

 

[From the Parkinglot]

I’ll come here to say it’s a freaking joke, even though you knew it was comingz

 

[SHGopher]

 

[GophersInIowa]

A complete joke as usual. But just win and it doesn’t matter.

 

[SHGopher]

Twitter is a meltdown with unhappy Minnesota people. There is good and bad to this bracket.

For starters, here is the bracket from last year:

2022 Division I Men's Ice Hockey Official Bracket | NCAA.com

The official 2022 College Men's Ice Hockey Bracket for Division I. Includes a printable bracket and links to buy NCAA championship tickets.

www.ncaa.com

Last year a Minnesota team was in each region. This year is the opposite, variety. There are tradeoffs either way. Putting them together one year is interesting and regional.

Here are the latest team rankings.

National Polls - College Hockey, Inc.

collegehockeyinc.com

DI Men's Ice Hockey Rankings - USCHO.com | NCAA.com

Men's USCHO DI rankings

www.ncaa.com

So Minnesota has to beat #7 St Cloud State. Good. People are moaning and crying that Minnesota has not played enough to stay crisp. MINNESOTA WILL WIN the regional bracket.

2023 Division I Men's Ice Hockey Official Bracket | NCAA.com

The official 2023 College Men's Ice Hockey Bracket for Division I. Includes a printable bracket and links to buy NCAA championship tickets.

www.ncaa.com

Now for the ugly:

Michigan's worst opponent would be #10/11 Penn State. Michigan gets an easy path at first. Michigan did just beat Minnesota.


And the others:

Quinnipiac would potentially face a #6. Denver would potentially face a #5. Is Minnesota's match with a #7 that bad?

And I was at the game where Michigan beat Minnesota. Let them get their easier path to get flabby for the final defeat later.

After that Minnesota as the #1 gets to play the weak team coming out of the Denver team region. Coast to the championship game after that and I assume face Michigan again -- unless Quinnipiac beats Michigan.

 

[bonin21]

All that typing because it seems you don't know what the pairwise is?

 

[SHGopher]

All that typing because it seems you don't know what the pairwise is?

I think I know the pairwise. I have a bias to the USAToday coaches, journalists poll and use that with the other USHO that is similar when taking about ranking.

 

[SHGopher]

I think I know the pairwise. I have a bias to the USAToday coaches, journalists poll and use that with the other USHO that is similar when taking about ranking.

Anyway, I was giving my higher level tradeoffs view.

Most everyone else is fuming. Read comments:



The biggest knock is to make sure only 1 Minnesota team can be in the final four, but the alternative is that didn't work out well last year with Minnesota teamS in or the year before when 3 Minnesota teams were in.

2021 Division I Men's Ice Hockey Official Bracket | NCAA.com

The official 2021 College Men's Ice Hockey Bracket for Division I. Includes a printable bracket and links to buy NCAA championship tickets.

www.ncaa.com

Tradeoffs.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Apparently the head of the committee said it was about selling tickets. The problem is Fargo is already sold out.

Just let the higher seeds host the first two rounds.

 

[bonin21]

Apparently the head of the committee said it was about selling tickets. The problem is Fargo is already sold out.

Just let the higher seeds host the first two rounds.

Saying that publicly just shows it's amateur hour.

 

[Donovan]

I get the frustration, but all the whining on Twitter is a bit embarrassing. If we don’t make it out of Fargo, I’m blaming it on some sort of non-rational karma.

 

[bonin21]

Or, you know, blame it on facing a better team than they should have had to.

 

[disco]

The best thing about the brackets? The significant absence of North Dakota.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

I get the frustration, but all the whining on Twitter is a bit embarrassing. If we don’t make it out of Fargo, I’m blaming it on some sort of non-rational karma.

With only 16 teams, the competition gets really good really fast in the tournament. Number 6 vs number 8 isn't that different, they are both teams who are very good but not quite at the level of the best of the best. Either one could beat us in the second round if we don't play well and with intensity for 60 minutes, and we will beat either one if we do.

 

[Gophers1992]

Regarding the two seeds, was the only alternative to SCSU Harvard? If so I think Harvard scares me more.

 

[bonin21]

With only 16 teams, the competition gets really good really fast in the tournament. Number 6 vs number 8 isn't that different, they are both teams who are very good but not quite at the level of the best of the best. Either one could beat us in the second round if we don't play well and with intensity for 60 minutes, and we will beat either one if we do.

Sure, but if you're not going to do bracket integrity just draw random groups then for each at large bid with auto bids going against 1, 2, 3 as expected.

 

[Crosby]

With only 16 teams, the competition gets really good really fast in the tournament. Number 6 vs number 8 isn't that different, they are both teams who are very good but not quite at the level of the best of the best. Either one could beat us in the second round if we don't play well and with intensity for 60 minutes, and we will beat either one if we do.

I agree with this 100%. Yes, if you look at it... technically we got screwed. It has happened to teams many times in this tournament before and it will continue to happen unless they just have highest seeds host the regionals. Now it's time for us to STFU about it, stop whining on Twitter, and just support our team. Beat Canisius.

 

[TRF Guy]

To be the best you need to beat the best. Bring on Fargo and Let’s Go!!!!

 

[bonin21]

Here are the regions with the USCHO and USA Hockey rankings, for reference. Michigan with the cakewalk.

#1/1 UMN
#24/24 Canisius
#6/6 St. Cloud
#10/9 Mankato

#2/2 Michigan
#19/19 Colgate
#10/11 PSU
#13/13 MTU

#3/3 Qpac
#14/14 Merrimack
#7/7 Harvard
#8/8 OSU

#4/4 DU
#12/12 Cornell
#5/5 BU
#9/11 WMU

 

[DanvilleGopher]

Here are the regions with the USCHO and USA Hockey rankings, for reference. Michigan with the cakewalk.

#1/1 UMN
#24/24 Canisius
#6/6 St. Cloud
#10/9 Mankato

#2/2 Michigan
#19/19 Colgate
#10/11 PSU
#13/13 MTU

#3/3 Qpac
#14/14 Merrimack
#7/7 Harvard
#8/8 OSU

#4/4 DU
#12/12 Cornell
#5/5 BU
#9/11 WMU

They did just come in and show who the true #1 was IMO... deserving of what they ended up getting??

You've been saying all year they're better than the good guys once they have their full roster available, looks like others agreed!

The gophers just need to show they can fight through adversity, which honestly I haven't seen them do in quite a few years!

Hopefully they'll use this as motivation and Motzko will see that angle as well..

 

[Crosby]

Here are the regions with the USCHO and USA Hockey rankings, for reference. Michigan with the cakewalk.

#1/1 UMN
#24/24 Canisius
#6/6 St. Cloud
#10/9 Mankato

#2/2 Michigan
#19/19 Colgate
#10/11 PSU
#13/13 MTU

#3/3 Qpac
#14/14 Merrimack
#7/7 Harvard
#8/8 OSU

#4/4 DU
#12/12 Cornell
#5/5 BU
#9/11 WMU

Good visual. Here they are with pairwise, which we know is basically what they use to do the selections. First value shown is rank within the field of 16. Second ranking is vs all of college hockey.

#1/1 UMN
#16/41 Canisius
#6/6 St. Cloud
#11/11 Mankato

#3/3 Michigan
#15/25 Colgate
#8/8 PSU
#10/10 MTU

#2/2 Qpac
#14/14 Merrimack
#7/7 Harvard
#9/9 OSU

#4/4 DU
#13/13 Cornell
#5/5 BU
#12/12 WMU

 

[bonin21]

UMN and Canisius should have been switched with Michigan and Colgate.

Fargo tickets are sold and with SCSU/Mankato they would have been fine anyways.

 

[From the Parkinglot]

What could go wrong.

 

[Gophers1992]

What could go wrong.

Look at a list of the oldest teams in college hockey most years. It's generally not good teams. Meanwhile 3 of last year's frozen four were among the youngest teams in the country.

 

[Gophers1992]

They did just come in and show who the true #1 was IMO... deserving of what they ended up getting??

You've been saying all year they're better than the good guys once they have their full roster available, looks like others agreed!

The gophers just need to show they can fight through adversity, which honestly I haven't seen them do in quite a few years!

Hopefully they'll use this as motivation and Motzko will see that angle as well..

Has nothing to do with who they thought was the true #1, it was about attendance/geography. Not saying that makes it right, but that paired with PSU being a host screwed us. We just won the B10 by 19 points over Michigan so they better not be calling them the true #1.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Just win baby...

 

[bonin21]

Just win baby...

20 years is a long time, and I don't see a better chance than this one in the next few including with Eiserman.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

I just hope we can make it through the tournament without sleeping through a half (or worse a full) period. Most frustrating thing about the last two tournaments is that it didn't feel like we brought anything close to our A game in the games we got eliminated in. If we lose a game where we are working hard every shift for 60 minutes, and consistently being in the right place and making smart plays, I can live with that. With this teams talent, I don't think we lose if we do those things.

 

[From the Parkinglot]

My biggest issue is how poorly the big ten readies their teams for the hockey tournament.

Minnesota has played 2 games since beating Ohio state on February 25th. That’s two games over the course of 4 weeks.

Penn state has not played a game since March 5th losing to Ohio state. Again 3 weeks off not playing a game.

Ohio state has played 1 game since they beat Penn state on March 5th. That game was at Michigan on March 11th.

Michigan has played 2 games since they beat Wisconsin on March 4th. They beat Ohio state on March 11th and beat Minnesota on March 18th.

Meanwhile Minnesotas region has 3 teams that just got done winning a true conference tournament. The big ten needs more teams and at this point I don’t care who they are.

 

[SHGopher]

My biggest issue is how poorly the big ten readies their teams for the hockey tournament.

Minnesota has played 2 games since beating Ohio state on February 25th. That’s two games over the course of 4 weeks.

Penn state has not played a game since March 5th losing to Ohio state. Again 3 weeks off not playing a game.

Ohio state has played 1 game since they beat Penn state on March 5th. That game was at Michigan on March 11th.

Michigan has played 2 games since they beat Wisconsin on March 4th. They beat Ohio state on March 11th and beat Minnesota on March 18th.

Meanwhile Minnesotas region has 3 teams that just got done winning a true conference tournament. The big ten needs more teams and at this point I don’t care who they are.

This is a strong argument. The Big Ten should do something about this. Why do Minnesota teams and Big Ten teams fall short of the NCAA championship? Maybe the Big Ten could at least schedule games Wednesday, Saturday, Saturday through the Big Ten Tournament.



I think one reason Wisconsin women's hockey was able to upset Minnesota and Ohio State this year for the championship was because Wisconsin played an extra game against a weak team for shooting practice and then stayed sharp.




Men Frozen Four Last Year -- 2 Big Ten teams + 1 more MN team but all lost.




Men's Frozen Four in 2021 - 3 Minnesota teams and all lost




I don't know.