AFA, CC draw tough foes in NCAA hockey tournament
Drawing a tough opponent was hardly a surprise but that did little to dampen the teams’ enthusiasm when Air Force and Colorado College’s NCAA hockey tournament pairings were announced Sunday morning.
No. 4 seed Colorado College will play West regional No. 1 seed, No. 3 overall, Boston College (30-7-1) at 7 p.m. Mountain Friday at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. The Eagles return 17 players from last year's national championship team.
The East regional (Bridgeport, Conn.) was announced first with No. 4 seed Air Force (20-11-6) taking on No. 1 overall Yale (27-6-1) at 4:30 p.m. Friday. Air Force handed the Bulldogs their first loss earlier this season. It is also the same arena where Air Force recorded its first tournament win.
“I’m doing great,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said. “The way things were at the start of the season (new goalie, 0-4 start), this wasn’t expected.”
According to ESPN, both games will be televised on ESPNU.
CC senior captain Ryan Lowery knew the Tigers (22-18-3) were in the NCAAs by Saturday night, but that didn’t diminish the moment for him and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association program on Sunday.
“(I feel) excitement and a feeling of achievement,” Lowery said from Denver International Airport, where the team watched the ESPN2 selection show before boarding a bus to Colorado Springs. “We got our program back where it belongs, among the best in the country.”
Fittingly, the Tigers, which lost out in the WCHA Final Five tournament semifinals to eventual champ North Dakota on Friday, take on one of the best programs in Division I.
“Anytime you are one of the fours and you’re playing a No. 1, you’ve got a tough opponent,” Tigers coach Scott Owens said. “BC has had success in the postseason and they have the speed and offense to match up with anybody. But it is one game and we’ve been playing pretty good hockey lately.”
The other half of the West regional pits No. 2 Michigan and No. 3 Nebraska-Omaha, both teams CC has played this season at 3:30 p.m. Friday. The Tigers lost in the Great Lakes Invitational championship to the Wolverines and split their season series with the Mavericks.
“Now we’ll see if we can pull off an upset,” Lowery said.
Air Force heads to its second hostile environment in a row, winning the Atlantic Hockey Association title for the fourth time in five years, and doing so in Rochester, N.Y. against RIT.
“They were 4,000 partisan fans and all of them were wearing orange,” Serratore said. “It looked like a pumpkin convention. No doubt we’ll be facing a similar situation (this Friday).”
The East regional includes tournament newcomer Union, the No. 2 seed, taking on Minnesota-Duluth at 1 p.m. Friday.
North Dakota is the No. 1 seed in the Midwest regional in Green Bay and plays the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at 11:30 a.m. Mountain on Saturday. Denver, the No. 2 regional seed, takes on CCHA runner-up Western Michigan at 3 p.m.
The Northeast regional in Manchester, N.H. features No. 1 seed Miami versus host New Hampshire at 2 p.m. Mountain and No. 2 Merrimack taking on No. 3 Notre Dame at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
