Re: ALL THINGS DENVER--XL--This one's for Old Pio
It's official. DU playing BU in St. Paul. And 1 seed SCSU (3rd overall) playing Ferris State. Once again the NCAA does all things possible to avoid a one conference Frozen Four by putting DU and SCSU in the same regional. 1 seed NoDak (2nd overall) will play Michigan in Cincinnati. Minnesota-Duluth (a 3 seed) will play Providence in Worcester, Mass.
While I agree that the NCAA wants to avoid an all-conference Frozen Four, there was nothing they could do this year for the NCHC, and actually, it could turn into an all-Hockey East Frozen Four if it breaks right:
Providence or BC come out of Worcester
Lowell comes out of Albany
BU comes out of St. Paul
Northeastern or Notre Dame comes out of Cincy
Regardless, Denver finished sixth. The only regional without an NCHC team is Albany, where No. 8 Lowell would face No. 1 Quinnipiac in the quarters, strict bracket integrity. By seeds Lowell should face No. 9 BU in the first round, but they get No. 10 Yale to avoid a conference matchup. Duluth had to go to Worcester to avoid having an intra-conference matchup in Cincy between a 1 seed NoDak and 4 seed Duluth, and an intra-conference matchup in Worcester between a 1 seed Providence and a 4 seed Northeastern.
Denver by strict bracket integrity would have gone to Cincy and faced Harvard, but then still would have had to get past NoDak. And with HE having two teams in the 9-12 band and two in the 5-8 band, they had to do some switching.
