Michigan Hockey Earns Two-Seed, Draws Northeastern In First Round
Michigan will get to do this 719 miles from home [Bill Rapai]
The pundits preached patience before the season, but what was supposed to take a few seasons took just one: Mel Pearson and his staff have guided Michigan to an NCAA tournament berth in their first season behind the bench. The appearance will be Michigan’s second in the last six seasons.
Michigan drew the two-seed in the Northeast Regional and will face three-seed Northeastern on Saturday, March 24th at 4:30 PM in Worchester, MA. You can catch it live on ESPNews
Northeastern is Pairwise’s highest-ranked three-seed. Northeastern finished the season with 23 wins, including a relatively impressive (based on the rest of the bodybags on their schedule) home-and-home sweep of Boston University in November, a one-off win at Boston College in December, and wins over both schools in February’s Beanpot tournament. They also took Pairiwse no. 7 Providence to overtime in a home-and-home series in January and again in the Hockey East semis.
Northeastern’s powered by an explosive first line, good goaltending, and a high dose of Michigan’s kryptonite. Their top line of Nolan Stevens, Adam Gaudette, and Dylan Sikura put up 41, 59, and 52 points, respectively. Gaudette and Sikura are also both Hobey Baker top-ten finalists. Goaltender Cayden Primeau has a .932 SV%, including a stellar .936 at even strength and .906 when down a man. Northeastern also features the nation’s third-best power play at 27.2%, which is the highest % power play in the tournament fold and the absolute last thing you want to see if you wear a block-M sweater.
Facing Northeastern in the Northeast Regional is a fairly heavy-handed hint at Michigan’s other opponent: geography. Northeastern’s campus is a brisk 52-minute drive from the DCU Center. Should Michigan advance, they would face either one-seed Cornell (Pairwise #3) or four-seed Boston University (Pairwise #15) on Sunday. Boston University’s campus is an even closer drive than Northeastern’s (by two minutes), and they’ve recently found a way to get all their talent on the same page, surging to a Hockey East title by way of victories over Boston College and eventual two-seed Providence. Cornell may have more overall wins, but considering location, top-end talent, recent results, and the all-important PP%, Michigan might rather face Cornell for a shot at the Frozen Four.
March 19th, 2018 at 10:25 AM ^
March 19th, 2018 at 10:42 AM ^
Geography is going to be an issue anywhere Michigan plays. We do not get the gift draws that BC and BU get virtually every year, because we're in the west.
I am pretty happy with this. Northeastern will be a tough, tough matchup, but it's not a nightmare and if Michigan plays well and gets a break or two they can win. The Cornell-BU pairing is very favorable if Michigan advances, which means that a FF berth is a vague possibility.
It shouldn't be expected, not with this team. But it could happen. We were fortunate that the seedings fell in such a way that the "group of death" in Sioux Falls was not a possibility, and it's also helpful that we aren't forced to take on a scary-good Denver team in the first round, either. Hard to draw it up much better than this, even with Northeastern's matchup challenges.
Like the basketball team, it's not likely, but the scenario that sends Michigan to the final game is real and at least possible.
March 19th, 2018 at 11:00 AM ^
March 19th, 2018 at 11:28 AM ^
Go Scots!
Signed,
College of Wooster Class of '06
March 20th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^
March 19th, 2018 at 11:05 AM ^
Apart from the obvious benefit of playing a worse-ranked team to advance, wouldn't Michigan rather face the four seed to be deemed the home team and get last change?
That seems way more important than the possible crowd noise advantage from playing a team that will have more fans in the building.
March 19th, 2018 at 11:05 AM ^
Can someoone try to explain to me why somehow we play only like 50 miles from Northeasterns campus when we are the higher seed ?
March 19th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
There are four regional locations, and none of them are anywhere close to Ann Arbor, so playing someone that's closer to home has always been a possibility.
I've written quite extensively about the injustice and absurdity of the regional system.
That said, this is not a huge deal. Northeastern will have some fans. So will Cornell and BU. The arena will have some noise, but it will not be Yost or anything. Anyway, the committee's location priorities are attendance-based, so they'll put games somewhere where they hope that fans will attend.
March 19th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^
This is as good a place to post this as any. So, what if we had home sites for regionals? Let's do this lacrosse-style.
Let's make 4 rules:
(1) The top 8 teams are seeded and play the first round at home. #9-#16 are unseeded and play on the road.
(2) Minimize the number of flights (e.g., this year you can create the matchups with only 3 flights, and the other 5 schools travelling by bus).
(3) No first-round intraconference matchups.
(4) Try to get higher seeds against lower seeds, as long as rules 1 to 3 are not violated.
So...these are our matchups:
March 19th, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^
Yes. Waaaaaaay better. Every team is justly treated. Tech has a chance at the ultimate upset, UMD-Mankato play a bit of a rivalry game in front of a raucous crowd, OSU either finds space at the Schott or fills in the lower deck at nationwide again (they have the whole weekend to find a time slot). Air Force and Denver stay close to home. PSU doesn't even have to travel that far to Cornell.
This is so much better than what we have now it's not funny.
I will call this the "field hockey" format: 4 regionals of 4 teams each, hosted by the top 4 seeded teams (also with a requirement to minimize flights but don't allow any first-round intraconference matchups.
I had a post on this last year and I was going to refresh it for later this week. Its very similar to what you're saying...and including a little bit more.
March 19th, 2018 at 11:41 AM ^
Given the density of teams in New England and the fact that there is always one or two regionals in there area, it's essentially inevitable that some New England team is going to essentially get a home game. Depending on how much of New York state you'd consider to be New England, there are 20-25 D1 teams in that area which is basically a third of D1 hockey
Regionals only happen in places where they can get attendance figures. Until the regionals return to home rinks, midwestern teams are almost always going to be screwed
March 19th, 2018 at 11:51 AM ^
I once looked up BC's draws during their dynasty years and was shocked to find that they virtually never played in a regional that was further than 2 hours from home. One time they didn't make the tournament, and the other they played in St. Louis in the regional we won on our way to the final in 2011.
Every other draw they had received to that point in the 16-team era had been close to home.
Accurate up to a couple of years ago. Don't know about more recently.
March 19th, 2018 at 11:56 AM ^
It is amusing that so many schools are so anti-home regionals. A few New England schools get home regionals every year. North Dakota and Minnesota teams typically will too.
March 19th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
March 20th, 2018 at 11:57 AM ^
March 19th, 2018 at 11:35 AM ^
The appearance will be Michigan’s second in the last six seasons.
Really puts into perspective how far we've fallen in the last decade or so
Also this fact...
Northeastern also features the nation’s third-best power play at 27.2%, which is the highest % power play in the tournament fold and the absolute last thing you want to see if you wear a block-M sweater....is the thing that makes me worried we might get bombed out of the first round here. A 4-1 exit seems plausible, though one could hardly be disappointed with that result in year one of Mel.
March 19th, 2018 at 11:40 AM ^
We could easily lose in the first round. Perhaps badly. The season is already an unqualified success.
Then again, things go right... the team could be in St. Paul in a couple of weeks.
I now live in Boston and have watched them play multiple times this year. They were VERY impressive in the Beanpot Tournament -- which historically has been dominated by BU and BC. They are very atheletic and have a great goalie. However, they can be beaten especially if the crowd is taken out of the game early.
Already have my tickets for the game -- Can't wait to cheer on the WOLVERINES to VICTORY!
What do you think the best way is for getting tickets for saturdy? Mgoblue sent me to stubhub, but they cost a lot more than the tickets on the NCAA website. Did you find yours another way?
ooops
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