Frozen Four: Here Are The 16 Teams That Made The 2024 NCAA Men's Tournament
The field is set for the 2024 NCAA men’s hockey tournament, with the road to the 2024 Men’s Frozen Four beginning with the regionals next weekend. We now know the 16 teams that have made the tournament. All that’s left to determine now is where these teams will be playing.
The NCAA men’s hockey tournament selection show will be Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET where the matchups will be revealed.
While there is a set order of seeds, regionals are not simply No. 1 vs. No. 16 and so on. The selection committee has a series of parameters it uses (explained below) to place teams in their respective seeds.
Conference playoff champions receive automatic bids to the NCAA tournament.
Michigan Tech defeated Bemidji State on the road Friday night to win the CCHA playoff championship to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Huskies will be playing in their third straight national tournament.
Boston College didn’t need help to get into the NCAA tournament, but earned an automatic bid by defeating Boston University in the Hockey East championship game Saturday night at TD Garden. The Eagles will enter the NCAA tournament with the nation’s best record and both the Hockey East regular-season and postseason championships.
Cornell had only one path to the national tournament and that was to win the Whitelaw Cup in ECAC, which is exactly what they did Saturday in Lake Placid. The Big Red ended St. Lawrence’s Cinderella run to the championship game with a gutty 3-1 win over the Skating Saints to punch their ticket to the tournament.
RIT had to win Atlantic Hockey to break an eight-year NCAA tournament drought and had home ice advantage to do it. They took care of business in a 5-2 win over AIC with a pair of empty-net goals to send the home fans happy and earn their first bid to the NCAAs since 2016.
Michigan State won an absolutely wild Big Ten championship game over archrival Michigan to win their first Big Ten conference title. The Spartans got a goal from Patrick Geary in overtime to earn a 5-4 win and further cement their status as a No. 1 seed in the tournament.
Denver dispatched Omaha in the NCHC Championship Game, earning a 4-1 win to claim their first conference tournament title since 2018.
Boston College is the No. 1 team in the country in both of the major NCAA polls and in the all-important Pairwise rating system that crystallizes the criteria for teams to reach the NCAA tournament.
The Eagles have been led by one of the most potent offensive attacks in the country and boast four of the nation’s top seven scorers including national scoring leader and San Jose Sharks prospect Will Smith, who has 67 points in one of the most productive seasons by an NCAA freshman in 30 years.
There are four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament. Boston College is No. 1 overall, with Boston University nabbing the second top seed. University of Denver has a top seed and Michigan State rounds out the quartet of No. 1s.
The two teams that finished closest to the NCAA tournament without getting in was Colorado College and Providence. They finished 15th and 16th, respectively, in the Pairwise, but were eliminated due to automatic bids from Atlantic Hockey and the CCHA.
The 2024 NCAA Men’s Hockey regionals are played in four different locations.
Maryland Heights, Mo. | Centene Community Ice Center
Providence, R.I. | Amica Mutual Pavilion
Sioux Falls S.D. | Denny Sanford PREMIER Center
Springfield, Mass. | MassMutual Center
After the Pairwise ratings and automatic qualifiers have been determined, the selection committee does its best to put the No. 1 seeds in the most geographically-beneficial location.
Additionally, if a school that is the host school for a regional site, they will be placed in their host regional. Nebraska Omaha is in the tournament and hosting the Sioux Falls regional, so will be automatically placed there. UMass is the host at the Springfield regional.
The committee also does its best to avoid matchups between opponents from the same conference in the first round of the regionals. The committee also does take into consideration what would be best to boost attendance in the regionals.
The 2024 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four will be played in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the Xcel Energy Center April 11-13. Here is the schedule:
Thursday, April 11:
Saturday, April 13:
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