With Selection Sunday for the NCAA Hockey Tournament a week away, all six automatic bids to the tournament are up for grabs on Saturday night, when all conference tournaments will wrap up.
In some leagues, like Atlantic Hockey or the WCHA, will be fighting out for the lone bid their league will get. Other leagues, like the NCHC or Hockey East, know that it’s a matter of just how many teams will be part of the national tournament.
Hockey East has five of the top 16 teams in PairWise Rankings, a USCHO.com tool that is used to approximate the process that the selection committee uses for doling out at-large bids, as well as the RPI. The National Collegiate Hockey Conference has another four of the top 16. With 10 at-large bids to play for, seven of them may be going to those two conferences alone.
Here’s what lies ahead for the six college hockey conferences going into their respective championship weekends.
Atlantic Hockey Association
Who: No. 1 Robert Morris vs. No. 6 Army; No. 2 Air Force vs. No 5. Rochester Institute of Technology 
Where: Blue Cross Arena at The War Memorial, Rochester, N.Y.
When: Friday, March 18 starting at 5 p.m. EDT; Championship game is Saturday, March 19 at 7:05 p.m. EDT
How they got there: Top-seeded Robert Morris needed a third game against No. 8 Bentley to advance to Rochester, thanks to five second-period goals. Army advanced by sweeping No. 3 Holy Cross in Worcester. Robert Morris split with Army last month.Â
Rochester is the defending league champion and went on the road to sweep Mercyhurst, while Air Force grounded Canisius with a pair of 4-1 wins. Air Force won the season series 1-0-1.Â
Big Ten
Who: No. 3 Penn State vs. No. 6 Wisconsin (winner plays No. 2 Michigan). No. 4 Ohio State vs. No. 5 Michigan State (winner plays No. 1 Minnesota)
Where: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul
When: Thursday, March 17 and Friday March 18 at 4 and 7:30 p.m. CDT; Championship game is Saturday, March 19 at 7 p.m. CDT. Â Â
How they got there: Minnesota won the Big Ten regular season title by a point over Michigan, but will still likely need to win the tournament title to advance to the NCAA tournament, as they sit 17th in the RPI. The Golden Gophers and Wolverines will both get to sit back and watch on Thursday to see who they’ll each get to play on Friday.
Penn State took three of the four games with Wisconsin this season, winning both games in State College and splitting the pair in Madison two weekends ago. The Nittany Lions are slumping, having lost three in a row, including getting outscored 13-2 while getting swept in Ann Arbor. Wisconsin split with Minnesota last weekend, but that was the Badgers’ first regulation win since Jan. 30.
Michigan State and Ohio State split its series last weekend in East Lansing, with Ohio State winning in overtime and the Spartans winning in a shootout on Saturday. The teams split their earlier series in Columbus. The Buckeyes have won five of their last seven games, with their only two losses coming in shootouts.
Eastern College Athletic Conference
Who: No. 1 Quinnipiac vs. No. 7 Dartmouth; No. 3 Harvard vs. No. 4 St. Lawrence   
Where: 1980 Rink at Herb Brooks Arena, Lake Placid, N.Y.
When: Friday, March 18 starting at 4:06 and 7:36 p.m. EDT; Championship game is Saturday, March 19 at 7:36 p.m. EDT
How they got there: Quinnipiac, despite entering the conference semfinals as the top-ranked team in the country, were the only of the final four teams to require a third game to advance. Cornell stunned Quinnipiac on Saturday night to force a game three, which the Bobcats pulled out 6-3.
They’ll face a Dartmouth team that went into New Haven and took two one-goal games from Yale. The Big Green dropped both games to Quinnipiac this season.
Harvard, the defending tournament champion, advanced by sweeping aside Rennselaer, while St. Lawrence won a pair of 3-2 games over Clarkson – one in overtime, the other in double overtime. Harvard won both regular season matchups with St. Lawrence.
Hockey East
Who: No. 2 Providence vs. No.4 UMass Lowell; No. 1 Boston College vs. No. 6 Northeastern
Where: TD Garden, Boston
When: Friday, March 18 starting at 5 and 8 p.m. EDT; Championship game is Saturday, March 19 at 7 p.m. EDT
How they got there: Third-ranked Providence returns to the site of last year’s National Championship game win with a sweep of Merrimack, 3-1 and 2-0. The Friars have won 10 straight games and 14 of 16 games since mid-January. No. 8-ranked UMass Lowell also advanced with a sweep, knocking off No. 11-ranked Boston University 3-2 and 5-0. The two teams split their season series 1-1, with each team winning at home.
Fifth-ranked Boston College required a Sunday night overtime victory over Vermont to advanced. The Catamounts forced a third game with a 4-2 win on Saturday night, but the Eagles advanced on Ryan Fitzergald’s 22nd goal of the season midway through the overtime. No. 14 Northeastern, which enters the weekend on the bubble, went into South Bend and swept the No. 3 Fighting Irish, 3-1 and 6-4. The Eagles won the season series 1-0-1.
National Collegiate Hockey Conference
Who: No. 1 North Dakota vs. No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth; No. 2 St. Cloud State vs. No. 3 Denver.
Where: Target Center, Minneapolis
When: Friday, March 18 starting at 4:08 CDT; Championship game is Saturday, March 19 at 7:38 p.m. CDT
How they got there: All four advancing teams won in two-game sweeps. Top-seeded and No.1 in the country North Dakota is on an eight-game winning streak after sweeping Colorado College in the quarterfinals. North Dakota is yet to advance to the NCHC championship game despite making the Frozen Faceoff in the first two years of the conference.
No. 16 Minnesota-Duluth advanced to the Frozen Faceoff for the first time with a sweep of Miami last weekend. The Bulldogs are on a six-game winning streak heading to Target Center, but have lost all four games with the Fighting Hawks this season.
Friday’s nightcap is also a battle of Top 10 teams in the country No. 4 St. Cloud State swept Western Michigan to advance to Target Center in two games that were much closer than their four regular season games, where the Huskies won by an average of 8-2.
No. 6 Denver is riding an NCAA-best 11-game win streak into Minneapolis, sweeping No. 17 Omaha in the quarterfinals. However, the Huskies took both meetings with Denver in the regular season, winning 5-2 and 6-2.
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
Who: No. 2 Minnesota State vs. No. 3 Bowling Green; No. 1 Michigan Tech vs. No. 4 Ferris State
Where: Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Mich.
When: Friday, March 18 starting at 4:07 and 7:37 p.m. EDT; Championship game is Saturday, March 19 at 7:37 p.m. EDT
How they got there: No. 16 Minnesota State and Bowling Green each needed to win a third game on Sunday to advance to the Final Five. Minnesota State knocked out Lake Superior State after winning on Friday night but getting shutout despite 57 shots on goal in a regulation loss. The Mavericks made their fourth consecutive Final Five win a win on Sunday night.
Bowling Green dropped the opener of its series with Bemidji State before winning 7-2 and 3-1 to advance to Grand Rapids. Bowling Green and Minnesota split their regular season series, 1-1-2.
Friday’s night-cap features two teams that swept their way into the Final Five. Top-seeded Michigan Tech knocked off Alaska 7-1 and 5-3 in Houghton, while Ferris State escaped Northern Michigan with 3-2 and 5-2 wins. The Huskies and Bulldogs split their season series 2-2.
Follow Lonny on Twitter @lonny_goldsmith and you can always reach him at lonny.goldsmith@prohockeynews.com
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