College Hockey/Team USA

MSU, UM, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Western Michigan, and Michigan Tech all Get In

NCAA Tournament: Where Things Stand After Playoff Weekend

NCAA REGIONAL
• Michigan Tech earned the CCHA’s automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament and will open against No. 1 Boston College on Friday.
• Tech is making its third straight NCAA appearance and is 19-14-6 overall after winning the Mason Cup on Friday night as CCHA Playoff Champions.
• The Huskies and Eagles will play at Amica Mutual Pavilion in the Providence, Rhode Island Regional with a 2 p.m. faceoff.
• It is the fourth NCAA tournament under head coach Joe Shawhan and the program’s 16th all-time appearance.
• Tech won the NCAA Championship three times (1962, 1965, and 1975) and last earned a win in 1981, finishing third.

OTHER REGIONAL MATCHUP
• No. 8 seed Wisconsin will play No. 9 seed Quinnipiac in the other regional semifinal at 5:30 p.m.
• The winners will play in the regional championship on Sunday at 4 p.m. for a chance to move to the Frozen Four at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 11 and 13.

ON THE RADIO
• Mix 93.5 FM WKMJ broadcasts all Michigan Tech hockey games.
• Fans can listen live on the radio at Mix 93.5 FM WKMJ, online at TheMix93.com or Pasty.com, or by using your favorite radio streaming app.
• Dirk Hembroff will call all the action in his 22nd year behind the microphone.

TV COVERAGE
• ESPNU and ESPN+ will televise Friday’s game against BC.
• The Regional Championship will be televised on ESPN2 at 4 p.m.
• John Buccigross (play-by-play) and Colby Cohen (analyst) will call the action in Providence.
• Fans in Canada can watch the NCAA Tournament on TSN+.

NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTES
• Michigan Tech is 9-10 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Huskies have dropped five straight games with the last win in 1981.
• Tech has been to the NCAA Tournament 16 times.
• The Huskies are making their third straight appearance and fourth under head coach Joe Shawhan.

TECH IN PROVIDENCE
• Tech is 4-0 in NCAA Tournament games in Providence.
• The Huskies won the 1965 NCAA Championship at Meehan Arena in Providence. Tech shutout Brown 4-0 in the semifinal and defeated Boston College 8-2 in the final.
• In the 1981 NCAA quarterfinal at Schneider Arena, Tech won a two-game total goal series over Providence to advance to the national semifinal.

BROTHER & SISTER IN NCAA
• Trevor Russell (Michigan Tech) and Sydney Russell (Stonehill).
• McKade Webster (Denver) and Makenna Webster (Ohio State).
• Scott Morrow (UMass) and Sydney Morrow (Colgate).

SERIES INFO
• Boston College – Tech is 4-7 all-time against BC. The Huskies are 3-2 against the Eagles in neutral-site games. Tech defeated BC at the Ice Vegas Invitational at T-Mobile Arena in 2018 in their last meeting. The Huskies are 2-0 against the Eagles in the NCAA Tournament with a national semifinal win in 1956 and a national championship victory in 1965.
• Quinnipiac – The Huskies and Bobcats have never met.
• Wisconsin – Tech is 54-104-11 against Wisconsin. The Badgers swept the Huskies in Houghton earlier this season. Tech is 2-4 in neutral site games against UW.

MASON CUP CHAMPIONS
• Michigan Tech captured its first-ever CCHA Mason Cup Championship with a 2-1 victory at No. 20 Bemidji State Friday evening.
• It was the 12th conference tournament championship for the Huskies and the second under Coach Shawhan (2018). The previous 11 titles were all in the WCHA: 1960, 1962, 1965, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, 2017, 2018.
• Chase Pietila scored in the first period and Ryland Mosley scored the eventual game-winner in the second period.
• Blake Pietila made 34 saves to earn his 76th career victory.
• It was the fifth straight win for the Huskies and the seventh victory in the last eight, snapping an 11-game unbeaten streak by Bemidji State.

CCHA SEMIFINAL
• Michigan Tech advanced to the CCHA Mason Cup Championship Game with a 4-3 victory on March 16 over Minnesota State.
• Logan Pietila scored the final two goals, including the game-winner with 9.1 seconds left. Jack Works and Kash Rasmussen also scored and Blake Pieitla made 29 saves.

CCHA QUARTERFINAL
• The Huskies defeated Bowling Green 5-0 on March 8 and 6-5 on March 9 at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena to open the CCHA Playoffs.
• Ryland Mosley scored three goals, Isaac Gordon had two, while Henry Bartle, Tyrone Bronte, Arvid Caderoth, Logan Pietila, Blais Richartz, and Jack Works also found the back of the net.
• Blake Pietila earned his 24th career shutout Friday and his 74th win Saturday.

HUSKIES RANKED
• Michigan Tech is ranked No. 20 in this week’s USCHO and USA Hockey/The Rink Live polls.
• The Huskies were No. 10 in the preseason USCHO Poll and were No. 9 on October 9 and No. 17 on October 17. The received votes in the 19 previous weeks.

SCOUTING BC
• Boston College is 31-5-1 overall and is the tournament’s top seed.
• The Eagles have been No. 1 in the USCHO poll since January 29.
• BC is making its 37th NCAA Tournament appearance and are the Hockey East regular season and tournament champions.
• The Eagles have won 12 in a row and will be playing 48 miles from their home arena.
• Head coach Greg Brown is in his second season and was named Hockey East Coach of the Year.
• Hockey East Goaltender of the Year Jacob Fowler is 29-5-1 with a 2.19 goals against average and .925 save percentage.
• Cutter Gauthier leads the nation with 35 goals and Will Smith leads the nation with 58 points. Both were named to the All-Hockey East First Team.

IN THE CCHA TOURNAMENT
• Tech is 9-8-1 all-time in the CCHA Tournament.
• The four wins this season were the most in program history in the tournament.
• The Huskies were in the CCHA from 1981-84 and went 1-6-1.

GORDON ALL-CCHA
• Isaac Gordon is the CCHA Rookie of the Year.
• He was also named to the All-CCHA Second Team and CCHA All-Rookie Team.
• In CCHA games, Gordon played in all 24 contests for the Huskies and was second among all CCHA skaters in goals (11) during conference play, pacing league rookies in points (20) and plus-minus (+10) and finishing second in shots (66).
• Fifth overall in plus-minus, he was third on Michigan Tech with nine assists, including two helpers on the power play. Notching three multi-point games, he had two five-game point streaks during the conference season and tallied a game-winning goal against Bowling Green (Dec. 2).

PIETILA ALL-CCHA
• Blake Pietila was named to the All-CCHA Second Team.
• In CCHA games, Pietila went 12-9-2 with a 2.05 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage, leading the league in conference wins, games played (23), shutouts (3), and total saves (578).
• He finished third in goals-against average and save percentage, helping the Huskies to three shutout victories and a place in the Mason Cup Championship.

THIRD IN NCAA SHUTUOUTS
• Blake Pietila earned his 24th career shutout on March 8 against Bowling Green, placing him in sole possession of third-most in NCAA Division I men’s hockey history.
• Only Minnesota State’s Dryden McKay (34) and Michigan State’s Ryan Miller (26) had more.
• Pietila is Tech’s all-time leader in shutouts and the active NCAA leader.

POINT STREAK
• 5 Game – Ryland Mosley – 4 goals, 5 assists

TOP ROOKIE
• Freshman Isaac Gordon leads the Huskies with 36 points and 18 goals this season. He leads the CCHA in points and is ranked second in goals.
• His 36 points are the most by a Tech rookie since Colin Murphy in 2002-03 when he tallied 37.
• Gordon is fourth in goals amongst NCAA rookies.

MOSLEY LIGHTS THE LAMP
• Ryland Mosley is tied with Isaac Gordon with 18 goals this season, placing him second in goals in the CCHA.
• He was named the First Star of the CCHA Mason Cup Championship with the game-winning goal.
• Mosley has tallied a career-high 33 points in his fourth season, tallying 18 goals and 15 assists.

MISC STATS

by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@CHN_AdamWodon)– Article Originally Appeared in College Hockey News

A lot is fairly clear cut right now when it comes to where teams stand for making the NCAA Tournament. But in some cases, it’s not absolute, and for others, it’s downright dicey.

Taking a look at the current Pairwise, the top 11 here are locks to make it.

We also know that bubble teams like New Hampshire and Providence lost any chance at making the NCAAs after losing this past weekend.

Cornell sits at 15, but even with a win in the ECAC semis — followed by a loss in the final — it wouldn’t be enough for Cornell to move up even one slot. A team like Massachusetts at 12 could not fall far enough with one loss to go below Cornell. And Western Michigan (13) and Colorado College (14) are done playing.

So Cornell must win the ECAC Tournament to make the NCAAs.

Actually, if anyone besides Quinnipiac wins the ECAC (the other two teams are Dartmouth and St. Lawrence) then whatever team is sitting at 14 would be bumped out. This is most likely Colorado College. However, there is a far-flung scenario where, if UMass loses the Hockey East semi, it could just barely fall below CC, and then UMass would be out. Now, it’s obviously feasible if not likely UMass will lose the Hockey East semi, since it’s playing Boston College, but numerous other things need to happen in the math to make this scenario possible.

If you want to play around with the scenarios, the best way to do that is with CHN’s You Are the Committee tool, which is back for 22nd year. You plug in winners of different games, and see what would happen. We’ll be playing around with possibilities all week and discussing on social media.

The other wild card is St. Cloud State. The Huskies have a slim chance of winning the NCHC semi against Denver, losing the final, and still having enough to be ahead of CC and make it. So Colorado College also needs a St. Cloud State loss, which means it’s relying upon rival Denver.

To explain further, Colorado College sits at 14, which is the cut line for the tournament with CCHA and Atlantic Hockey schools set to grab the 15th and 16th slots as automatic bids. If Quinnipiac doesn’t win the ECAC Tournament, that would mean another ECAC team takes the 14th slot. Similarly, St. Cloud State could win the NCHC and take that slot. There are far-flung scenarios where CC would move up to 13 and get in anyway, but it would take a lot. The clearest path for the Tigers is for Quinnipiac to win the ECAC, and St. Cloud to lose the semifinal against Denver.

If you’re unfamiliar with how the Pairwise works, it’s an objective algorithm that determines which teams make the NCAAs and which don’t. To read more about its inner workings, see our Pairwise Primer.

As far as the seedings — which teams will go to which of the four NCAA Regionals, and which teams they will play — that’s a whole different ball of wax. The Committee has a methodology it follows to do this, too, and very often it falls into place neatly. This is one of those years where it looks like it may be chaotic, for various reasons. This is where some subjective decisions will have to be made.

We know that Boston College and Boston University will be the top two overall seeds. Normally that would be an easy placement against the 15h and 16th seeds. But this year may not be so simple.

We’ll be writing a lot more about the seeding process and scenarios during the course of this week, so stay tuned to College Hockey News for that.

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