While BC was given the cushion of a No. 1 billing, the Eagles still could be underdogs if they make it to Detroit, and any run by UNH or UVM would surely be a Cinderella moment.
Hockey East doesn’t boast a tournament favorite, but it has been competitive all season long, as evidenced by the parity of the conference tournament and the selection of three teams for the NCAAs. Such an evenly balanced season begs the question: Can a Hockey East team win the national title?
Here are five reasons why it could play out that way.
1. Location, Location, Location
Boston College won’t have to travel too far for the opening two rounds. After being seeded as the top team in the Northeast Regional, the Eagles kick off Saturday in Worcester, Mass., an easy drive from Chestnut Hill.
UNH only has to go as far as Albany, N.Y. for the East Regional. That bracket’s top seed is No. 2 overall Denver, which has to trek 1,800 miles away from home, roughly nine times farther than the Wildcats.
2. We’ve Been Down This Road Before
Boston College won two national championships in the last decade, including a title just two seasons ago. Some of the current Eagles — including netminder John Muse — played a major role in capturing the 2008 crown. This season’s Eagles already have added hardware to the trophy case, collecting a Hockey East title and Beanpot prize.
New Hampshire may not have found Hockey East tournament success, but the Wildcats are the regular- season champs, ahead of the top-seeded Eagles.
Vermont used its trip to the TD Garden for the Hockey East semifinals for a boost into the Big Dance, but the Catamounts' best experience is traveling out west and unseating a top team, beating Denver 6-4 in October. Denver actually is seeded higher than the Wisconsin team the potential giant killers will have to face on Friday.
3. Divide and Conquer
Thanks to the setup of the bracket, none of the three teams will have to face a conference opponent until the Frozen Four in Detroit. All three Hockey East teams were placed in different pods, and neither New Hampshire nor Vermont would have to face BC — which had the edge in both season series (2-2 against UVM but outscoring the Catamounts 13-8, and 1-0-2 over UNH) — until the championship game. In a one-and-done situation, a lack of familiarity can do wonders for an underdog, especially in a sport like hockey where one goal can make the difference between Cinderella going to the party and sitting at home.
4. It’s All Up for Grabs
Of the 16 teams in the field, only top overall seed Miami (Ohio) comes in with fewer than eight losses, and the RedHawks have seven. No team is free from blemish, and by the wonderful transitive powers that made one-win NJIT better than champion North Carolina in men’s basketball last season (New Jersey’s Science and Technology Institute beat Bryant which beat Yale which beat Harvard which beat Boston College which beat UNC), Alabama-Huntsville should already be favored over Miami. The Chargers — the 12-17-3 team that comprises the entire Division I hockey contingent south of the Mason-Dixon line — defeated Robert Morris in the College Hockey America (CHA) tournament, the same Robert Morris that went up to Ohio and stole two games from the RedHawks in January. Obviously, Alabama-Huntsville won’t be favored, but anything can happen, and highly competitive teams like UNH or UVM might not need too much luck.
5. Just Heating Up
Of the top four teams — the ones predicted to make the trip to Detroit — only the Hockey East champs are coming off a tournament victory. None of the No. 1 seeds other than Boston College won their conference title, all three falling in the semifinals. Denver is coming off back-to-back losses, falling first to North Dakota and then getting shellacked by Wisconsin 6-3 in the WCHA consolation game. While UVM and UNH may not have the momentum of BC, both teams had strong regular-season finishes to boost their stock in the NCAA tournament.
BC may be the Hockey East member most likely to capture the title. The Eagles have the talent to raise another banner to the Kelley Rink roof, but the battle-tested squads of New Hampshire and Vermont cannot be discounted if those clubs focus one game at a time.
As the likes of Ali Farokhmanesh and Omar Samhan have shown us in March’s other college sports spectacle, anything is possible.
