Bracket ABCs: CHN Bracket Projection: College Hockey News

March 19, 2022
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by Adam Wodon/ Managing Editor (@CHN_AdamWodon)

This year, it was relatively boring following the Pairwise down the stretch. It was like, last year, the college hockey Gods gave us the COVID-crazed bracket, where it all went by opinion, so this year the Gods decided to give us a breather.

Other than waiting to see which teams outside the top 15 would earn automatic NCAA bids and take away spots from the Top 15 teams, there wasn’t much else to worry about. Yes, there was some late drama into which team would earn the final No. 1 seed, if you’re into that kind of thing, but in the end, it didn’t really matter much.

Ultimately, only Ohio State was knocked out. It needed all three possible upset teams to lose, and all three of those games went to overtime. Two went its way, one did not – Harvard defeated Quinnipiac, and the Crimson took the final spot. Northeastern at No. 14 sweated out those OTs too, but ultimately made it.

As far as placement, though, the committee has many options. That’s because it doesn’t really matter which Regional any of the No. 1 seeds goes to, other than Denver. Technically, if you want to stick to the “closest to home” mantra, Michigan would go to Allentown, as the No. 1 overall. But Allentown, Worcester and Albany are all flights for all of them, so it really doesn’t make much difference.

Still, we’ll assume that’s the way it will be.

The only thorny issue for the Committee is which game to swap opponents. Well. 7 overall is North Dakota, and No. 10 overall is St. Cloud State. They would naturally face each other in a straight bracket, but they are from the same conference (NCHC), so they can’t play each other.

That means the Committee can choose which teams to swap. It can swap No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 10 St. Cloud State. Or it can swap No. 11 UMass with No. 10 St. Cloud State.

We’re choosing the first option here, but there’s no way to know what they’ll do, no real protocol to decide.

Allentown, Pa.

1. Michigan vs. 16. American International
8. Quinnipiac vs. 10. St. Cloud State

Albany, NY

2. Minnesota State vs. 15. Harvard
7. North Dakota vs. 9. Notre Dame

Worcester, Mass.

3. Western Michigan vs. 14. Northeastern
6. Minnesota vs. 11. Massachusetts

Loveland, Colo.

4. Denver vs. 13. Massachusetts-Lowell
5. Minnesota Duluth vs. 12. Michigan Tech

If the Committee goes the other way, you’d have Minnesota vs. St. Cloud State instead; and North Dakota vs. UMass; and Quinnipiac vs. Notre Dame. Maybe the Committee thinks those matchups would be more interesting and that’s how it will go – I kinda do too, so we’ll see.

You could also juggle some things around to get Quinnipiac in Albany to help attendance a bit. The Committee has been adverse to making flips for that reason in recent years, but there’s no reason it couldn’t or shouldn’t.