BOSTON – With all of the conference finals completed, it is time to project the field and bracket for the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Hockey Tournament. The field is set with 11 at-large bids after the six conference champions were awarded an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. There will be six New England teams,...
BOSTON – With all of the conference finals completed, it is time to project the field and bracket for the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Hockey Tournament.
The field is set with 11 at-large bids after the six conference champions were awarded an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. There will be six New England teams, Quinnipiac, UMass, UMass Lowell, Northeastern, Harvard and American International, among this year’s field of 16 teams vying to cut down the twine on April 9 at the Frozen Four in Boston at the TD Garden.
Hockey East Tournament winner UMass, the defending national champion, will be the highest ranked team in the league while ECAC Hockey entrant Quinnipiac is the highest seed for teams from the New England region. It’s a down year for Hockey East as the league will not have a first or second seed at any of the four regional sites.
The official NCAA Tournament field and bracket will be announced Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU. While there is no debate over the 16 teams in the tournament, due to the committee’s strict adherence to the Pairwise Rankings, the specific brackets and which teams slide into the four regional sites are up for opinion. It’s important to keep in mind that the committee tries to avoid intra-conference matchups in the first round, looks to bolster attendance when possible, and keeps the integrity of the bracket by maintaining teams in their bands, one through four.
Below is my projection for the 2022 NCAA Tournament bracket:
Albany, N.Y. Regional
1. Minnesota State (35-5-0)
2. North Dakota (24-13-1)
3. Notre Dame (27-11-0)
4. Harvard (22-10-3)
Loveland, Colo. Regional
1. Denver (27-9-1)
2. Minnesota Duluth (21-15-4)
3. Michigan Tech (21-12-3)
4. UMass Lowell (21-10-3)
Worcester, Mass. Regional
1. Western Michigan (25-11-1)
2. Minnesota (24-12-0)
3. UMass (22-12-2)
4. Northeastern (25-12-1)
Allentown, Pa. Regional
1. Michigan (29-9-1)
2. Quinnipiac (31-7-3)
3. St. Cloud (18-14-4)
4. American International (22-12-3)
