If the DU Pioneers are to repeat as NCAA men’s hockey champions, they’ll have to do it the hard way — again.
The University of Denver will open the 16-team NCAA Tournament in New England for the third year in a row, it was revealed Sunday afternoon. The Pioneers were placed in the Manchester Northeast Regional, which features No. 1 overall seed Boston College, Providence and Atlantic Hockey champion Bentley.
The defending national champion Pios (29-11-1) will take on Providence (21-10-5) in the opening round at 3:30 p.m. MDT Friday at SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H. The winner will play either Boston College (26-7-2) or Bentley (23-14-2) in the regional title game next Sunday at a to-be-announced time.
DU lost to Western Michigan in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship in double overtime late Saturday night. Western Michigan (30-7-1) ended up getting the No. 4 overall seed as a result, but is in a brutal bracket with Minnesota State (27-8-3), Minnesota (25-10-4) and UMass (20-13-5). And now the Pios are headed to New England yet again.
DU entered last year’s tournament as the No. 3 overall seed, but was placed in the Springfield, Mass., regional. They ended up taking down UMass and Cornell with back-to-back 2-1 wins to advance to the Frozen Four then beat Boston U and Boston College back-to-back to claim the program’s record 10th national title.
The win over Cornell avenged an NCAA loss the year prior, when the Pios were again sent to New England as the Manchester Regional’s top seed.
“It seems to happen to us a little bit more than everyone else,” Carle said of the tough regional draw after last year’s 2-1 win over Cornell in the regional championship. “… Will we ever let it be an excuse for us? Not a chance. We’ll play anybody, anywhere, anytime.”
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