Info for College Hockey Playoffs

As the NCAA Conference Playoffs get underway this weekend with the ECAC & CCHA 1st Rounds getting underway this week. Both Conferences use the same playoff format as the 1st Round will have the teams ranked 5-12 will play in the 1st Round will play a best of 3 series where the winners will play the top 4 teams at their place in the Quarterfinals.

Then when we reach the Semifinals and Final, it will be a single game format as the CCHA Championship will be awarded in Detroit in Joe Louis Arena this season. While the ECAC Conference Tournament Championship will be played in Albany, New York this season.

The big thing to remember for the 1st 2 Rounds of the Conferences that use this format is that the lower seeded team doesn't have a home game in the series, which makes it even that makes it that much bigger to get at least 1st Round Home Ice.


ECAC

For the ECAC, the Quarterfinals and Semifinals will use the same format as the Conference Semifinal and Conference Championship Games will be in Albany, New York this season.

As with all the NCAA D1 Conferences, the 6 Conference Champions will gain automatic entry to the NCAA Division 1 Tournament. While the rest of the field will be used via the Pairwise Rankings where the top 10 teams that are not the Conference Champions will round out the field.

For Teams that have Southwest Connections, either currently or will be in the near future. A few teams did well in the final weekend of the regular season.

For the Colgate Raider team, wins over Rensselaer and Union put the team in 4th and have earned a 1st Round Bye and will await the highest seeded 1st Round Winner next week when they host the Quarterfinal Round from April 13-15.

CCHA

In the CCHA, Chris Brown's University of Michigan team finished the regular season with a split against Norte Dame and got them in 7th place. It's good enough for a 1st Round matchup against Lake Superior who finished in 10th place during the regular season.

Current Omaha Lancer Teammates and Northern Michigan Wildcats C.J. Ludwig and Ryan Daughety will follow their new teams as Northern Michigan finished the regular season with a weekend sweep over Lake Superior, it got them the 4th and final 1st round bye and could be getting ready for a team like the Alaska Nanooks in the Conference Quarterfinals next weekend.

Finally for Fargo Force forward and Future Nebraska-Omaha Maverick player Johnnie Seafoss will follow his team as they finished the regular season in 6th place after finishing with a split over CHA Power Houst and future WCHA Team Bemijdi State over the weekend. If they beat a pretty weak Bowling Green Team could be the layout like Ferris State in the Quarterfinals next weekend.

That could be an interesting matchup after Alaska was at one point, possibly a big contender for the CCHA Conference Title earlier in the season when they cracked the National Top 10 Rankings.

In addidition to the ECAC & CCHA that start this weekend, the WCHA, Hockey East and CHA Conference Tournaments start next weekend. Look for the matchups as we get them into the Conference Tournaments that start up for them next weekend.



CCHA 1st Round Matchups

#5 Alaska VS. #12 Western Michigan

Game 1, 3/5: @ Alaska 7:05 PM AT
Game 2, 3/6: @ Alaska 7:05 PM AT
Game 3, 3/7: @ Alaska TBD (If Necessary)

#6 Nebraska-Omaha VS. #11 Bowling Green

Game 1, 3/5: @ Nebraska-Omaha 7:35 PM
Game 2, 3/6: @ Nebraska-Omaha 7:05 PM
Game 3, 3/7: @ Nebraska-Omaha TBD (If Necessary)

#7 Michigan VS. #10 Lake Superior

Game 1, 3/5: @ Michigan 6:35 PM
Game 2, 3/6: @ Michigan 6:35 PM
Game 3, 3/7: @ Michigan TBD (If Necessary)

#8 Ohio State VS. #9 Norte Dame

Game 1, 3/5: @ Ohio State 6:05 PM
Game 2, 3/6: @ Ohio State 6:05 PM
Game 3, 3/7: @ Ohio State TBD (If Necessary)


CCHA 1st Round Byes

#1 Miami of Ohio, #2 Michigan State, #3 Ferris State, #4 Northern Michigan


ECAC 1st Round Matchups

#5 Rensselaer VS. #11 Brown

3/5: Game 1, @ Rensselaer 6:00 PM
3/6: Game 2, @ Rensselaer 6:00 PM
3/7: Game 3, @ Rensselaer 6:00 PM (If Necessary)

#6 St. Lawrence VS. #12 Clarkson

3/5: Game 1, @ St. Lawrence 6:00 PM
3/6: Game 2, @ St. Lawrence 6:00 PM
3/7: Game 3, @ St. Lawrence 6:00 PM (If Necessary)

#7 Quinnipiac VS. #9 Dartmouth

3/5: Game 1, @ Quinnipiac 6:00 PM
3/6: Game 2, @ Quinnipiac 6:00 PM
3/7: Game 2, @ Quinnipiac 6:00 PM (If Necessary)

#8 Princeton VS. #10 Harvard

3/5: Game 1, @ Princeton 6:00 PM
3/6: Game 2, @ Princeton 6:00 PM
3/7: Game 3, @ Princeton 6:00 PM (If Necessary)


ECAC 1st Round Byes

#1 Yale, #2 Cornell, #3 Union, #4 Colgate


Here's a look at the Dates of the 2010 NCAA Hockey Tournament


East Regional

March 26-27 @ Times Union Center in Albany, New York

Midwest Regional

March 27-28 @ Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Ft. Wayne, Indiana

Northeast Regional

March 27-28 @ DCU Center in Worcester, Mass.

West Regional

March 26-27 @ Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota

Frozen Four

April 8 & 10 @ Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan