Five WCHA Teams Earn Berths in NCAA Div. 1 Men's Championship
 |
March 21, 2004
Tournament Brackets in PDF Format
Pairings in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
MADISON, Wisc. Five Western Collegiate Hockey Association-member teams, led by University of North Dakota and University of Minnesota who were both rewarded with No. 1 seeds, have earned berths in the 16-team field for the 2004 NCAA Division 1 Men's Championship, as announced today (March 21) by the NCAA Division 1 Men's Ice Hockey Committee. The tournament kicks off next weekend, March 26-28, at four regional sites in Colorado Springs, Colo., Grand Rapids, Mich., Albany, N.Y., and Manchester, N.H. The 2004 WCHA regular season and MacNaughton Cup-champion Fighting Sioux (29-6-3, .803) will be the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and will travel to the West Regional in Colorado Springs, while the 2004 WCHA Final Five and Broadmoor Trophy-champion Golden Gophers (26-13-3, .655) will be the No. 1 seed at the Midwest Regional in Grand Rapids. Minnesota has won the last two consecutive NCAA championships while the Western Collegiate Hockey Association owns a record 33 national titles since it's founding in 1951. Additional No. 1 seeds were given to Boston College and the University of Maine of the Hockey East Association.
The three other WCHA teams who earned berths in the 2004 NCAA Division 1 Men's Championship today were the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs (26-12-4, .667), who are the No. 2 seed for the Midwest Regional, the University of Denver Pioneers (23-12-5, .638), who are the No. 2 seed for the West Regional, and the University of Wisconsin Badgers (21-12-8, .610), who are the No. 3 seed for the East Regional in Albany, N.Y.
The four regional winners advance to the 2004 NCAA Men's Frozen Four. The entire championship uses a single-elimination format. The 2004 bracket is only the second with 16 teams after having only 12 teams in the field since 1988.
The following conferences and teams received automatic qualification: Atlantic Hockey (Holy Cross); Central Collegiate Hockey Association (Ohio State); College Hockey America (Niagara); Eastern College Athletic Conference (Harvard); Hockey East Association (Maine); and Western Collegiate Hockey Association (Minnesota).
ESPN, Inc. will air all 15 tournament games live. ESPN will produce the 12 regional games and syndicate each game for interested local cable systems, regional sports networks and selected over-the-air stations. The 12 regional games will not air on ESPN or ESPN2 but rather an ³ESPN Syndication² television platform.
ESPN2 will broadcast the semifinal games. ESPN will televise the national championship game. For a complete clearance list, long onto www.ncaasports.com, click broadcast info, then click TV schedule.
2004 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES: Michigan's consecutive tournament appearance streak has reached 14, topping Minnesota's 13-year streak of NCAA appearances from 1985-97... Holy Cross and Notre Dame become the 43rd and 44th different teams to participate in the Division I men's championship... Head coaches Mike Eaves of Wisconsin, Paul Pearl of Holy Cross, Enrico Blasi of Miami, Scott Sandelin of Minnesota Duluth, Dave Burkholder of Niagara, Dave Poulin of Notre Dame, are making their first coaching appearances in the tournament... the last coach to win the NCAA title in his first appearance was Dean Blais of North Dakota in 1997... Minnesota is making its 28th appearance in the NCAA tournament, the most of any school... five of the last eight national championship games have gone to overtime... for the ninth time in the last ten years, every Division I men's hockey game will be televised live.
(Information in this release courtesy of NCAA.)
|
|
 |
