Minnesota Earns a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament

Minnesota will play #3 Omaha in Sioux Falls on Thursday

The Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s hockey team knew they would hear their name called during the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament selection show Sunday evening. They probably even had a decent idea of who they were playing and where thanks to the Pairwise rankings and NCAA Tournament selection criteria. They officially found out Sunday evening that the assumptions were correct as the Gophers are the #2 seed in the West Regional and they will face the Sioux Falls regional host and #3 seed Omaha Mavericks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday. Face-off is set for 7:30 PM and will air on ESPNU. The winner will advance to face the winner of #2 national seed Boston University and RIT Saturday evening to advance to the Frozen Four. That game is scheduled for 5:30 PM on ESPNU.

Omaha finished in 5th place in the regular season of the NCHC but went on a run through the NCHC Tournament taking two of three games in the opening round from #4 seed Colorado Collège before defeating North Dakota for the fourth time in five games this season in the NCHC Semifinal at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Their run would end with a 4-1 loss to Denver in the NCHC title game on Saturday, but they had done enough to comfortably be in the NCAA field.

As the host of the Sioux Falls region, the Mavericks had to be placed in Sioux Falls. With Wisconsin and Michigan both #3 seeds, the Gophers were locked into playing either Omaha or Cornell in the opening round, and the committee decided to keep the Gophers closer to home for attendance purposes, and to try and keep as close to bracket integrity matching Minnesota up with the #2 seeded Terriers rather than #4 Michigan State.

Minnesota ended the regular season ranked #7 in the Pairwise rankings. They have not played since losing to Michigan in the Big Ten Semifinal on March 16th. The Wolverines lost in overtime to Michigan State for the Big Ten title on Saturday night. Both the Spartans and Wolverines were headed to Maryland Heights, Missouri and the Midwest Regional. That bracket has been called this year’s “Bracket of Death” as Michigan State will face Western Michigan in one semifinal while Michigan will face North Dakota in the other semifinal.

Wisconsin is the fourth team out of the Big Ten to make the field, and they will be the #3 seed in Providence where they will face the defending NCAA Champ Quinnipiac in the opening round with the winner likely to see #1 overall seed Boston College in the regional final.

The last few teams in the field were determined on Saturday when Cornell won the ECAC auto bid and RIT won the Atlantic Hockey auto bid. Friday night when Michigan Tech knocked off Bemidji State to win the CCHA, and when St. Cloud State lost their NCHC semifinal to eventual champion Denver on Friday night, it was guaranteed that the Gophers would be the only Minnesoas team in the field, and the only one to potentially be able to play in the Frozen Four in their home state.

The full NCAA Tournament bracket is below:

We will have a full preview of the Sioux Falls region later this week.