NCAA Women’s College Hockey – Conference Tournament Previews

We have made it to such a fun time of the season, the conference tournaments for the NCAA women’s hockey teams! The outcomes of these tournaments may not have a huge impact on the national championship tournament, but you never know what upsets could happen, or which teams could make a statement in these tournaments to change up the field for the upcoming NCAA tournament. Let’s look at each conference and what we might expect to see over the upcoming couple of weeks.

WCHA Conference

Teams in the conference:

• Wisconsin
• Ohio State
• Minnesota
• Minnesota Duluth
• Bemidji State
• Minnesota State Mankato
• St. Cloud State
• St. Thomas

This remains the toughest conference in women’s college hockey, with 5 of the current top-15 ranked teams in the country. It seems likely that the national championship will once again come out of the WCHA, and the WCHA Final Faceoff could be a preview of the NCAA championship game once again.

The first round of the WCHA tournament are best of three series this weekend, with the higher seeds being the hosts. The winners will then all head to the beautiful new Lee & Penny Anderson Arena at the University of St. Thomas for the WCHA Final Faceoff next weekend, with the championship game being held on Saturday, March 7th. Short of any upsets, expect to see Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Minnesota Duluth heading to the Final Faceoff. The expectation is that Wisconsin and Ohio State will play for the WCHA title, but both Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth have shown the ability to upset top teams, so it could truly come down to any of these 4 teams.

Hockey East

Teams in the conference:

• UConn
• Northeastern
• Boston College
• Boston University
• Holy Cross
• Merrimack
• Maine
• New Hampshire
• Providence
• Vermont

Hockey East has a different format than some of the other conferences for their tournament; they all play single-elimination games rather than the weekend series the other conferences use for the first round of their tournaments.

The first round of games already happened on Wednesday, with Maine defeating Merrimack and Boston University defeating Providence.

The next round of games is on Saturday, February 28th, with the winners facing off in the semifinals on Tuesday, March 3rd, before the Hockey East Championship game happening next Saturday, March 7th.

I would expect the conference to come down to UConn and Northeastern. Both teams have had strong seasons, and a championship game matchup between these two would be a fun one to watch. Northeastern won all 3 of their head to head matchups during the regular season, but expect a close and exciting game if these two teams make it to the Hockey East championship.

ECAC

Teams in the conference:

• Brown
• Clarkson
• Colgate
• Cornell
• Dartmouth
• Harvard
• Princeton
• Quinnipiac
• RPI
• St. Lawrence
• Union
• Yale

The ECAC tournament started off with single-elimination games for their lower seeded teams, and those games have already finished. This weekend, we will see best of three series , with the winners moving on to the championship in Lake Placid. NY next weekend.

I would expect the conference championship to come down to Yale and Princeton, but there are definitely some other teams in this conference that could challenge for a title as well.

AHA

Teams in the conference:

• Delaware
• Lindenwood
• Mercyhurst
• Penn State
• RIT
• Robert Morris
• Syracuse

This weekend features best of three series, with the winners moving on to the championship next weekend.

Penn State has had the best season in their program history, and look to be the clear choice to win this conference. If anyone upsets Penn State next weekend, it could also have an impact on the teams that make it into the NCAA tournament , so this is a conference to keep an eye on for any upsets.