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Back to Class: Your PHT NCAA tournament preview

2012 Frozen Four Tampa

It’s the most wonderful time of the year in college hockey. The NCAA tournament field is set and the regionals get under way starting on Friday. Once this weekend is through, we’ll know who will be headed to Tampa for the Frozen Four set for April 5 and 7 at Tampa Bay Times Forum.

The tournament’s top four teams are Hockey East tournament champions and No. 1 ranked Boston College, CCHA tournament runner-up Michigan, ECAC tournament champs Union College, and WCHA tournament champions North Dakota. Those four are the top seeded teams in their regions and set the table for what could turn out to be a memorable tournament.

That’s enough talk for now, here’s how the field of 16 breaks down.

Northeast Region - Worcester, MA (March 24-25)

Chris Kreider

1. Boston College vs. 4. Air Force
2. Minnesota-Duluth vs. 3. Maine

A bracket with the top team in the country as well as the defending national champions will grab your attention. Should the seeds hold here, a regional final with BC and UMD would be as dramatic as it gets. With Chris Kreider (pictured) and Johnny Gaudreau for BC and Hobey Baker Award finalist Jack Connolly for UMD, there’d be plenty of star power. UMD might have to worry about Maine, however, should Hobey finalist Spencer Abbott be able to play. Abbott was knocked out of action against BU in the Hockey East semifinals.

Atlantic Hockey champions Air Force come into the tournament as the 16th overall seed and have a history of being hard to eliminate. Just ask Michigan who was upset by Air Force in the first round back in 2009.

East Region - Bridgeport, CT (March 23-24)

Troy Grosenick

1. Union College vs. 4. Michigan State
2. Miami University vs. 3. UMass-Lowell

What you don’t know about Union College could come back to burn you. The Dutchmen powered their way through the season on the back of Hobey Baker Award finalist goalie Troy Grosenick (pictured) and top scorers Kelly Zajac and Jeremy Welsh. They’re fast and their power play is dangerous.

The highlight game of this region features Miami and Lowell, however, as the Redhawks are many people’s favorite to go to Tampa. Miami boasts Hobey finalist Reilly Smith and his 30 goals while Lowell has freshman Scott Wilson who leads them in points. One guy they might be without, however, is their second leading scorer Riley Wetmore. His absence hurt them in the Hockey East tournament as they were knocked off by Providence.

Midwest Region - Green Bay, WI (March 23-24)

Shawn Hunwick, Trevor Nill, Greg Pateryn

Michigan goalie Shawn Hunwick (31) makes a save on a shot by Michigan State forward Trevor Nill (4) as Michigan’s Greg Pateryn (2) defends in the third period of a college hockey game in Detroit, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)

AP

1. Michigan vs. 4. Cornell
2. Ferris State vs. 3. Denver University

Michigan and Cornell stand out as the featured game of this region and for good reason. They’re two premiere programs with historic legacies. The two haven’t met in the NCAAs since 1991 when Michigan took them down in three games. It’ll be a goalie battle between Shawn Hunwick of Michigan (pictured) and Andy Iles of Cornell. Having Ferris State there lurking as the two seed is intimidating as they sat at No. 1 for a while this season.

The only question they’ll deal with against Denver is which Denver tournament team will show up. Denver will either wind up going deep or get bounced in the first round in lackluster fashion. Going without star forward Jason Zucker won’t help their chances of knocking off the Bulldogs.

West Region - St. Paul, MN (March 24-25)

Brock Nelson

1. North Dakota vs. 4. Western Michigan
2. Minnesota vs. 3. Boston University

This is the region of death, plain and simple.

North Dakota and Minnesota just met this past weekend in the WCHA semifinals where the Fighting Sioux scored six unanswered goals to win 6-3. With future NHLers like Brock Nelson (pictured), Danny Kristo, and Corban Knight the Sioux are tough. No doubt the Gophers would like to get another shot at them, but they’ll have to get through a mercurial BU team that’s very capable of making a run themselves.

It’s not like the Sioux have it easy either as they’ll have to fight through coach Andy Murray’s Western Michigan team that just won the CCHA tournament over Michigan on Saturday. Surviving this region should earn the winning team a special commendation.