MYHockey Rankings NCAA Men's Division I Championship Simulation

The Format & Schedule

With any NCAA Tournament selection process, the first place to start is with the locks – or automatic qualifiers. With no conference tournaments played this year, we will default to the regular-season champions as the 2020 automatic qualifiers. They are listed below with their resumes.

Keep in mind that the NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championship consists of six automatic qualifiers who win their conference tournaments plus 10 additional at-large teams selected using various criteria. For our purposes, we considered our MHR rankings, the USCHO national poll, the Pariwise rankings and the RPI – along with our MHR strength-of-schedule ratings –  in determining the at-large bids and seeding.

This year’s tournament, as always, was to consist of four regionals with the champion from each region advancing to the Frozen Four at Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit April 9 and 11.

This year’s regional sites were going to be:

• Worcester, Mass. – DCU Center – March 27-28
• Loveland, Colo. – Budweiser Events Center – March 27-28
• Albany, N.Y. – Times Union Center – March 28-29
• Allentown, Pa. – PPL Center – March 28-29

For our format, we will attempt to stick to the following schedule (any changes will be announced via Twitter). We will use the day in between games for fan voting:

• Massachusetts Regional Semifinals – March 24 & 26
• Colorado Regional Semifinals – March 28 & 30
• New York Regional Semifinals – April 1 & 3
• Pennsylvania Regional Semifinals – April 5 & 7
• Massachusetts Final – April 9
• Colorado Final – April 11
• New York Final – April 13
• Pennsylvania Final – April 15
• Frozen Four Semifinal #1 – April 17
• Frozen Four Semifinal #2 – April 19
• National Championship Game – April 21

 

Matchups & Results

Massachusetts Regional – March 24 & 26 at DCU Center in Worcester

#1 Minnesota Duluth 5,  #4 Michigan 3

Perunovich 3 assists, Shepard 27 saves

RECAP

 

#2 Boston College 4 #3 Clarkson 3

Finkelstein 3rd-period PPG wins it for Eagles

BC Goals: Newhook, Hardman, Cotton, Finkelstein

Knight 27 saves

RECAP

  

Massachusetts Regional Final - April 9 at DCU Center Worcester, Mass.

#1 Minnesota Duluth vs. #2 Boston College

 

 

Colorado Regional – March 28 & 30 at Budweiser Events Center in Loveland

#1 Minnesota State 5, #4 Arizona State 2

Michaelis 2 goals,  assist

Minnesota State goals: Michaelis 2, Tuomie, Scheid, Smith

McKay stops last 23 shots he faces

RECAP

 

#2 Denver 3, Bemidji State 2 (2OT)

Finlay GWG in 2nd OT

Chrona 44 saves, Driscoll 48 saves

RECAP

 

Colorado Regional Final - April 11 at Budweiser Events Center Loveland, Colo.

#1 Minnesota State vs. winner #2 Denver

 

 

New York Regional – April 1 & 3 at Times Union Center in Albany

#1 Cornell 4, #4 Western Michigan 3

Mullin 2 PPG in 3rd period to win it

Kaldis & Barron 2A each

Galajda 27 saves, Bussi 25 saves

RECAP

 

#3 Ohio State 3, #2 UMass 2 (OT)

Westlund wins it in OT after watching Leonard tie it late from the box.

OSU: Lasczynski 1G, 1A

UMass: Leonard 1G, 1A

 

New York Regional Final - April 13 at Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.

#1 Cornell vs. winner #3 Ohio State

 

Pennsylvania Regional – April 5 & 7 at PPL Center in Allentown

#1 North Dakota vs. #4 American International

#2 Penn State vs. #3 UMass Lowell

North Dakota, the consensus computer pick as the nation’s top team, would appear to be a strong favorite to emerge from this group, but Penn State is battle-tested after winding up on top in the Big Ten and has proven over its short history that it can compete with the best in the land on any given night. And this is a better and more experienced AIC team than the one that shocked St. Cloud last year.

UMass Lowell already knocked off the Nittany Lions, 3-2 in overtime, this year and also has wins over UMD, BC and UMass on its resume. A revenge game for Penn State, this might be the best game to watch of the opening round.