For the second time in four years, Colorado is sending each of its Division I hockey teams to the NCAA Tournament — and with the possibility that all three could advance to the Frozen Four.
The University of Denver earned a No. 2 seed at the Midwest Regional, and Colorado College and Air Force obtained the No. 4 seeds at the West and East regionals, respectively. The Front Range schools also played at different regionals in 2008, when they made the 16-team NCAA field for the first time together.
The Pioneers (24-11-5) are bound for Green Bay, Wis., where they will play Western Michigan (19-12-10) on Saturday at 3 p.m. MDT. The winner will play either No. 1 North Dakota (30-8-3) or No. 4 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (20-12-5) on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
If the first-round favorites win, the regional final will be a rematch of North Dakota’s 3-2 double-overtime victory over DU in Saturday’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association championship game.
“Being in this tournament as many times as we have, we know there is no easy pairings, there is no easy bracket, there is no bracket that is more difficult than another,” DU coach George Gwozdecky said Sunday. “In the past, whether it was the national championship years (2004 and 2005) or not, I’ve always found that the most challenging game of the tournament is the first one.”
DU has been eliminated in the first round the past three years, including the last two as a No. 1 seed.
Colorado College (22-18-3), which failed to qualify the past two years, has a tough first-round draw with defending NCAA champion and No. 1 West seed Boston College (30-7-1) in St. Louis. The Tigers and Eagles will play at 7 p.m. MDT Friday, after the first game between No. 2 Michigan (26-10-4) and No. 3 Nebraska-Omaha (21-15-2). The regional final is at 7 p.m. Saturday.
“BC has had success in the postseason and they have the speed and offense to match, but it is one game and we’ve been playing pretty good hockey lately,” CC coach Scott Owens told The Gazette.
Air Force (20-11-6) earned its fourth Atlantic Hockey Association Tournament championship and NCAA automatic bid in the past five years and will play Yale (27-6-1), the No. 1 overall seed, on Friday at 4:30 p.m. in Bridgeport, Conn. Also in that region are Union (26-9-4) and Minnesota-Duluth (22-10-6).
Regional winners will advance to the April 7-9 NCAA Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn.
The WCHA led the country with five teams making the NCAA Tournament (DU, CC, North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth and Nebraska-Omaha). The Central Collegiate Hockey Association had four teams make it (Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, Western Michigan), and three apiece qualified from the Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey (Yale, Union, RPI) and Hockey East (BC, Merrimack, New Hampshire).
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
