The NCAA Selection Show is at 9 pm eastern on ESPNews. Before then, we have to find out who receives the conference auto-bids and how the Pairwise will shake out. The CHA already completed their tournament last weekend. Syracuse took the title and is waiting to find out where they’ll play. The NEWHA tournament finishes up this weekend, but they don’t yet have an auto-bid. Beyond finding the winners, there could be a decent amount of movement in the Pairwise, as just 0.0134 separates fourth spot Wisconsin from eighth place Minnesota Duluth. In practical terms, that’s the difference between hosting a quarterfinal and having to play in an opening-round game. That’s a lot at stake.
ECAC
Princeton vs. Yale
The Tigers are the Cinderella team in this bunch. They already pulled a massive upset on Harvard in the quarterfinals and are one of just two unranked teams still in the running for a title and the NCAA tournament. In Harvard’s defense, Princeton is likely the most talented eighth seed there’s ever been. The ECAC was incredibly deep this year.
Princeton suffered a bit this year with Sarah Fillier off becoming an international superstar at the Olympics. It took them some time to figure out who they were as a team and be confident in that and the ECAC was far too strong to allow for them to catch up. The Tigers have been building and seem to have hit their peak at the absolute perfect time. Rachel McQuigge has been a solid presence in net for them all year and gave the skaters the chance to get things right. Now the team seems to have combined the strong defense with creative offense and that makes them a tough matchup for Yale.
The Bulldogs were building to a season like this for the past few seasons, which made losing last season that much tougher to swallow. But they picked up where they left off and set a program record for wins this season. Everything has been elevated at Yale over the past few seasons and I don’t think their place in the national polls or among the best of the conference is a one-off here. I believe coach Mark Bolding has created a program that can continue to compete at a national level.
I love an underdog story and chaos, plus I think things look different for a team that can play with the freedom of having nothing to lose. I’m picking Princeton here, but I’m guessing it’ll be close.
Quinnipiac vs. Colgate
Quinnipiac cruised through the opening part of the season, getting as high as fourth in the rankings. The second half has been tougher for them and there have been some head-scratching stumbles, but they dispatched rivals Clarkson in convincing fashion in the quarterfinal and see to have shaken off what happened to close out the regular season.
Similarly, Colgate was among the best teams in the country through the new year. They were seemingly scoring goals at will and had a number of players among the scoring leaders in the country. They were averaging more than five goals a game and frankly, it’s hard to lose when you put up that much offense. Things have slowed down since then, but the same players that were leading the nation in scoring are the ones scoring in overtime and making big plays in tough games. Dara Grieg has been a huge gain for Raiders. The former Wisconsin skater was looking for more ice time and has absolutely made the most of the opportunity with the Raiders.
The Raiders are big and physical and I like how their style matches up against Quinnipiac’s quick transition and attempts to move the puck up the ice. I expect a tough game. Both teams need to be smart and disciplined so that special teams don’t decide the outcome.
I’m not sure who to pick here, but am going to lean on Colgate’s offensive firepower and size to take the win.
Hockey East
Connecticut vs. Northeastern
Connecticut easily dispatched Vermont 3-1 in the semifinal in a game that I thought would be much closer to make the title game. They’ve also defeated and tied Northeastern already this season. They know the other Huskies aren’t infallible and have done a good job of getting pucks past Aerin Frankel.
Northeastern took the final game against UConn on the last day of the regular season 5-0. When NU is on, they can be tough to defend. They had three women named to the Patty Kazmaier top-10 list and one of them wasn’t team leading scorer Maureen Murphy, who actually leads the nation in goals scored.
I was surprised to see a closer game than I thought we’d get from Northeastern and Maine in the semifinal and that leads me to think Connecticut has as much a chance to take this title game. NU is not unbeatable and I think UConn has a decent shot of doing it here. My gut says Northeastern picks it up in a championship game, so I’m picking them, but will ne completely unsurprised if Connecticut pulls it off. Can I just pick the Huskies and leave it at that?
NEWHA
Sacred Heart at Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce won three of the four games these teams played this season, but Sacred Heart’s win came just a week ago in the second-to-last game of the regular season. The Ravens needed to beat SHU in the final game to take the league championship and did so. Franklin Pierce had an 11 game win streak in the second half and is home to the conference Goalie of the Year in Suzette Faucher.
Sacred Heart had a backloaded schedule in the second half and weren’t as successful navigating it as they’d have liked. But they are an experienced team with a number of seniors who will be looking to go out on a high. They have NEWHA Player of the Year Anna Klein and will be looking to use a strong offense to out-gun the Ravens.
With the season-series win and strong showing in the second half, it’s hard to pick against Franklin Pierce here.
Saint Anselm vs. LIU
Saint Anselm started slow, but steadily climbed out of that hole as the season progressed to end up third in the conference. NEWHA Rookie of the Year Tyra Turner has 14 goals and 14 assists on the season and is always a thread to light the lamp.
LIU looked like the might have the conference sewn up early, not losing in their first ten games against NEWHA opponents, but ended the season tied with Franklin Pierce and lost on the tiebreaker. The Sharks bring a lot of experience, not just in seasons played, but in the postseason.
I think LIU’s offense strengths and postseason experience carry them to the finals.
WCHA
Wisconsin vs. Ohio State
On the one hand, Ohio State full on dominated the Badgers in Columbus just a couple of weeks ago. I’m not certain there’s a scarier team out there than the Buckeyes right now. The already stellar team really seems to have locked in as the postseason approached and have showcased a wide variety of offensive threats combined with very good goaltending to make them look virtually unbeatable. They feature some of the very best special teams in the country, making it even more difficult to find any advantage on them.
While OSU has had things come together even more in the closing weeks, it’s been much the opposite for Wisconsin. They have been playing with a thin bench for much of the year thanks to season-ending injuries to Kendra Nealey and Marianne Picard and put just 15 skaters on the ice when they visited Ohio State. But even that doesn’t account for how scrambled the Badgers looked. The team definitely looked more like the team from earlier in the season in their series with Bemidji State in the quarterfinals, but at this point it’s unclear with Wisconsin squad will take the ice on Saturday.
They are still a team who lost just six games this year – two to Ohio State, three to Minnesota and one to Minnesota Duluth. But they have a habit of starting slow, something Ohio State will not let them get away with unscathed, and the thin defense has become more of an issue as the season has worn on. The Badgers are simply giving up too many turnovers that turn into points and a team like Ohio State is going to expose that.
I think this will be closer than it might seem based on their series two weeks ago, but I do think Ohio State comes out the winner.
Minnesota Duluth vs. Minnesota
Minnesota gets to play at home and is on a nine-game winning streak. They seem to have returned to form as the kind of Gophers squad longtime women’s hockey fans are used to seeing in Minneapolis but hadn’t gotten a glimpse of in the past few seasons. Taylor Heise is a huge key to this game – in order to beat the Gophers, teams have to keep her contained, but not overcommit to only stopping her and her linemates. There are other scorers on this team, but there does seem to be some correlation to how well the team plays and how well Heise performs. She’s not just the offensive leader of the team – she’s the heart of it, as well.
Minnesota Duluth has been all over the polls this year, but their position has fluctuated. What the Bulldogs have is the x-factor in Elizabeth Giguere. That’s not to say that Gabbie Hughes, Anna Klein and the rest of the roster aren’t major factors in UMD’s run to this point, but there’s only a small handful of players that one would want to have the puck in a do or die situation and Giguere is one of them. Her calm but deadly handling of the puck to score the game winner in game three of the quarterfinals is the stuff of goalie nightmares
These two teams seem to match up evenly when they hit the ice, no matter what their respective records or stats say. It’s probably Minnesota’s game to lose, but there is no limit to the impact Giguere has in elimination games.
