billsportsmaps.com

November 13, 2022

Billsportsmaps’ 15th anniversary throwback: Hockey of the North Atlantic, circa 1994 [hand-drawn map].

Filed under: 15th anniversary maps,Hand Drawn Maps,Hockey — admin @ 10:12 pm

By Bill Turianski ; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Billsportsmaps.com had its 15th year anniversary, on the 17th of August 2022. So I am posting a series of maps from the early days of this blog. This map was originally posted in October 2007.

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This is a map from my early days of sports maps, back in 1994. I was using a semi-transparent Bienfang watercolor-weight paper. First, I traced, onto that paper, the outlines from an enlarged photo-copied map (from an atlas). Then I used Swiss-made Caran d’Ache watercolor pencils, and plain graphite pencil. As you can see, back then, I was way more into the unbridled use of color and form, and less into accuracy. I can remember, halfway into the map, deciding to put in minor-league hockey clubs, only to realize (pre-Internet) that I had little chance of finding the logos for most of these small clubs. So I improvised: 1993 Ontario Hockey League trading cards I had helped (for logos of teams like the Sudbury Wolves, the Owen Sound Platers, and the Belleville Bulls); and for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League teams, I just used their names alone. This map has teams from the National Hockey League; the American Hockey League; the aforementioned OHL and QMJHL; and the East Coast Hockey League. Minor league affiliations of all 16 of the 1993-94 AHL clubs are noted by small logos of their parent NHL clubs. (1993-94 AHL/NHL affiliations: Adirondack Red Wings/Detroit Red Wings; Albany River Rats/New Jersey Devils; Binghamton Rangers/New York Rangers; Cape Breton Oilers/Edmonton Oilers; Cornwall Aces/Quebec Nordiques; Fredericton Canadiens/Montreal Canadiens; Hamilton Canucks/Vancouver Canucks; Hershey Bears/Philadelphia Flyers; Moncton Hawks/Winnipeg Jets (I); Portland Pirates/Washington Capitals; Prince Edward Island Senators/Ottawa Senators; Providence Bruins/Boston Bruins; Rochester Amerks/Buffalo Sabres; Springfield Indians/Hartford Whalers; Saint John Flames/Calgary Flames; St. John’s Maple Leafs/Toronto Maple Leafs). After I scanned the drawing in 2007, I cleaned it up slightly, added team names in Arial font, and tightened some of the circles on the map. The player in the map’s legend is New York Ranger goalie Mike Richter, with his Statue of Liberty mask, and in his 1994 NHL All-Star Game uniform. {1994-97 NHL All-Star uniforms (nhluniforms.com).}

Hockey of the North Atlantic, circa 1994 [hand-drawn map]

http://billsportsmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/hockey_of_the_north_atlantic2_2022_c_.gif



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March 23, 2022

2022 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list (1948-2019, 2021)./+Some notes on the current make-up Division I men’s ice hockey.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 11:41 am

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2022_16-teams_location-map_w-all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_e_.gif
2022 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list (1948-2019, 2021)



By Bill Turianski on the 23rd of March 2022; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament (en.wikipedia.org).
-Division I in ice hockey (en.wikipedia.org).
-uscho.com.
-Schedule, scores, etc…collegehockeynews.com/schedules.

Tournament starts 12 noon ET on Thursday, March 24 (Minnesota State vs. Harvard). Four games Thursday & four games Friday (Semifinals); Regional Finals on Saturday & Sunday. Frozen Four on April 7 and 9. ESPN will cover the whole tournament. {2022 Frozen Four: NCAA men’s hockey tournament schedule/ Teams at a Glance.}

2022 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list (1948-2019, 2021)…
The map is a basic location-map, with conference-affiliations noted for each team. Reigning champions are Massachusetts (UMass), of Hockey East. The Minutemen won their first D-1 men’s hockey title last year, beating St. Cloud State 5-0 {see this, from the Berkshire Eagle}. UMass returns to the tournament this year, though they stumbled in the Hockey East tournament final, losing to Harvard.

The four #1 seeds:
Michigan Wolverines (1),
Minnesota State Mavericks (2),
Western Michigan Broncos (3),
Denver Pioneers (4).
{Bracket.}

Teams qualified – by conference – are listed at the top-right of the map-page. The breakdown by conference:
-5 teams from the NCHC (including two #1 seeds: Western Michigan, Denver).
-3 teams from the Big Ten (including one #1 seed: Michigan).
-3 teams from Hockey East. (including last year’s champions, UMass)
-2 teams from the CCHA (including one #1 seed: Minnesota State).
-2 teams from ECAC Hockey.
-1 team from Atlantic Hockey.

At the lower-right-hand side is the all-time list of D-1 men’s hockey titles & Frozen Four appearances. (From the tournament’s start in 1948, to 2019, and 2021 [following the cancellation of the 2020 edition due to the COVID pandemic].)
{Titles list, by team.}

A long, narrow side-bar at the right-hand-side of the map shows the 16 teams’ locations and their total Tournament appearances. To see a full, sortable list of all NCAA D-1 men’s hockey Tournament appearances, {click here}.

At the top of the map is a section showing alternate logos for the 16 teams, arranged alphabetically.



Some notes on the current make-up Division I men’s ice hockey…
For men’s ice hockey, the WCHA has been scrapped, and in its place is the CCHA (Central Collegiate Hockey Association). (The WCHA is now just for women’s ice hockey.) This happened after the 2020-21 season, when 7 of the 10 then-current men’s members of the WCHA left to form a revived CCHA. The word “central” in the CCHA name is crucial here. Because the 3 teams that made the men’s WCHA such a sprawling and unwieldy conference have been dropped…Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, and Alabama-Huntsville. The resultant savings in travel costs are quite considerable for the teams in the re-vamped CCHA. CCHA teams are located in the states of Michigan (4 teams, 3 of which are from the Upper Peninsula), Minnesota (3 teams), and Ohio (1 team). {List of teams & map, here}.

But that left those three excluded programs – two in Alaska and one in Alabama – out of any conference, and fundamentally weakened. Alabama-Huntsville have suspended operations, but hope to be revived in the future. Alaska-Anchorage have also suspended operations, but are expected to return for the 2022–23 season, as an Independent. Alaska-Fairbanks have not suspended operations, though, and played 2021-22 as an Independent. At this point in time, there are now 3 Independent teams in D-1 men’s hockey: Alaska-Fairbanks, Arizona State, and a new team, LIU (see 2 paragraphs below).

Meanwhile, another D-1 men’s hockey program has suspended operations: Robert Morris, of Greater Pittsburgh, PA. In December 2021 it was announced that Robert Morris would return to D-1 men’s hockey two years later in 2023-24 {see this}.

-And finally, in the last two seasons, two programs have made their D-1 men’s hockey debuts…
•In 2020-21, the LIU Sharks joined D-1 men’s hockey. (Long Island University of Brooklyn, NYC, NY & East Meadow, LI, NY.) Independent.
•In 2021-22, the St. Thomas Tommies joined D-1 men’s hockey. (University of St. Thomas of St. Paul, Minnesota.) Member of the CCHA.

At this point in time [end of 2021-22 season], D-1 men’s hockey has 59 teams, down from 61 teams previously.



___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-AMK1211, for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Fernando Martello, for the illustration of the Michigan road jersey logo, at File:Michigan wolverines hockey unif.png (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Eswany33, for illustration of Minnesota jersey logo, File:Gopher Hockey Uniforms 2020-21.svg.
-Vintage Minnesota Hockey site, for illustration of Minnesota State Mavericks home jersey (gold) script-logo, at history.vintagemnhockey.com.
-American International site for AIC logo, aicyellowjacketsstore.merchorders.com.
-UMass jersey from umassstore.com.
-Most logos from en.wikipedia and sportslogos.com/[American colleges].

March 25, 2021

2021 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list (1948-2019).

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 12:45 pm

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2021_16-teams_w-2019-20attendance_all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_c_.gif
2021 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With 2019-20 attendance data, and all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list.





By Bill Turianski on the 25th of March 2021; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament.
-USCHO.com.
-Schedule, scores, etc…collegehockeynews.com/schedules.

Please note: on the map-page, there is a schedule for the first round of the 2021 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament (at the upper right-hand corner). I put that there instead of the usual – which is current attendance data of the qualified teams. I scrapped that this year for obvious reasons. The other change to the template is that I added tiny conference-logos, beside each of the 16 qualified teams, on the map. And under the small chart showing qualified-teams-by-conference, I listed all 16 teams alphabetically. And in that alphabetic list I show each team’s total Tournament appearances. (Michigan and Minnesota have the most tournament appearances – 38 – followed by Boston University with 37, Boston College with 36, North Dakota with 33, and Denver with 30.)

Note on my site’s existence…I have had serious trouble with my website, and this might be the last post I can make here. If that happens, the plan is to scrap this site here, and start anew, on a new site I will be calling billsportsmaps.net. That’s the plan, anyway. You can keep up on this by checking in at my twitter feed, twitter.com/billsportsmaps.




___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for segments of jersey illustrations of some teams (Boston University, Minnesota-Duluth, Wisconsin).
-Thanks to Fernando Martello for the illustration of the Michigan road jersey logo, at File:Michigan wolverines hockey unif.png (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to BC Interruption for the photo of the Boston College jersey logo.
-Thanks to Eswany33 for illustration of Minnesota jersey logo, File:Gopher Hockey Uniforms 2020-21.svg.
-Thanks to Minnesota State Mavericks site for photo of home jersey (gold) script-logo, msumavericks.com/index.
-Thanks to Vintage Minnesota Hockey for the illustration of the Minnesota State away jersey (purple), history.vintagemnhockey.com/[Minnesota State Uniform Evolution].

April 9, 2020

NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: Map of All-time Frozen Four Appearances (40 teams) (1948 to 2019/72 seasons), with Titles listed./+ A timeline history of the D-1 hockey tournament, the Frozen Four, and D-1 hockey conferences.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 8:07 am

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_all-time_frozen-four-appearances_40-teams_1948-to-2019_72-seasons_post_e_.gif
NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: Map of All-time Frozen Four Appearances (40 teams) (1948 to 2019/72 seasons), with Titles listed



By Bill Turianski on 9 April 2020. twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
Source: List of NCAA Division I Men’s Frozen Four appearances by team (en.wikipedia.org).

The NCAA Division I has 60 ice hockey teams. Those 60 D-1 men’s ice hockey teams are split into 6 Conferences (with 1 current Independent team [Arizona State]). Of those 60 D-1 men’s ice hockey teams, 40 teams have advanced into the the final four of the NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Tournament (aka the Frozen Four). You can read a timeline history of the D-1 hockey tournament, the Frozen Four, and all the D-1 hockey conferences, further below.

The map here shows the 40 teams that have made it to a Frozen Four (72 Frozen Fours, from 1947-48 to 2018-19). The other 20 D-1 hockey teams, which have never advanced to a Frozen Four, are also shown on the map, albeit in smaller text-size and without colors or logos. On the map, each of the 40 teams’ Total-Frozen-Four-Appearances are shown in graphic form by a team-colors-circle that radiates out from the team’s location. The team-colors-circles are sized, with the larger the total Frozen 4 appearances, the larger the team-colors-circle. Alongside each team’s team-color-circle/location-dot/logo is their number of appearances +their Division I men’s hockey titles (21 teams have won a D-1 hockey title). Like the team-color-circles, the team’s logo and text are sized, gradually getting larger with more Frozen 4 appearances; plus I bumped up the text 1-point-size if the team has won a D-1 hockey title.

There are two charts at the right side of the map-page.
∙ The smaller chart closer to the map shows the 60-team NCAA D-1 hockey set-up, by the 6 Conferences: with each school’s hockey-venue-location noted, as well as the season the team joined D-1 hockey (or re-joined D-1 hockey). Total D-1 titles by team, and by conference, are also listed.
The chart at the far right-hand side show these things…
∙ School’s team, with the team’s D-1 hockey conference and their primary logo.
∙ Number of Frozen Four Appearances (with last appearance noted).
∙ Number of D-1 men’s hockey Titles (with last title noted).

- {From Wikipedia, here is a map of all 60 D-1 hockey teams, by conference.}

- {From 2016, here is a map of 2015-16 D-1 men’s ice hockey attendance, that I made.} {If you are curious about D-1 men’s ice hockey conferences, go to the right-hand sidebar on my homepage at “NCAA, ice-…”, to see my 2016 posts on the 6 NCAA D-1 men’s ice hockey conferences.}

    A timeline history of the D-1 hockey tournament, the Frozen Four, and D-1 hockey conferences

As mentioned, there are 60 Division I men’s hockey teams. But actually, 20 of those of those teams represent schools which are otherwise Division II or Division III schools. Here are those 20 schools with D-1 hockey teams, but whose athletics teams are otherwise part of D-II or D-III…
∙ 4 of the 11 teams from Atlantic Hockey: AIC, Bentley, Mercyhurst, RIT.
∙ None of the 7 teams from Big Ten Hockey.
∙ 4 of the 12 teams from ECAC Hockey: Clarkson, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Union College.
∙ None of the 11 teams from Hockey East.
∙ 3 of the 8 teams from the NCHC: Colorado College, Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State.
∙ 9 of the 10 teams from the WCHA [ie, all except Bowling Green]: Alabama-Huntsville, Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, Bemidji State, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State-Mankato, Northern Michigan.

Of these 20 teams from otherwise D-II or D-II schools, seven have won D-1 hockey titles: Minnesota-Duluth (3 titles incl. 2019), Lake Superior State (3 titles), Michigan Tech (3 titles), Rensselaer (2 titles), Colorado College (2 titles), Union College (one title), Northern Michigan (one title).

The annual NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament began in 1947-48, when the NCAA selection committee chose four top D-1 hockey teams to compete in a single-elimination tournament. In the tournament’s first 29 years (1948-76), all the four teams that were selected for the tournament already comprised the Frozen Four. The first ten seasons of the tournament (1948-57) were held at Colorado Springs, CO. Since then, the tournament has been hosted by a different city each year. Michigan won the first D-1 tournament, as well as 6 of the first 10 tournaments; Michigan today has won a record 9 titles (though their last title was won 22 years ago in 1998). Since 2000, the most successful teams are: Boston College, with 4 titles in the last 20 tournaments (most recently in 2012), then Denver and Minnesota-Duluth, both of whom have won 3 titles in the last 20 tournaments, with Denver winning it in 2017, and Minnesota-Duluth winning it in 2018 and 2019.

So, from 1948 to 1976 (29 years), the D-1 hockey tournament comprised just 4 teams. Then, from 1977 to 1987, the tournament comprised 5 or 6 teams. In 1981, the D-1 hockey tournament became an 8-team competition. In 1988, the tournament became a 12-team competition. In 1999, the term Frozen Four was first used by the NCAA. In 2003, the present-day 16-team competition was instituted. The current 16-team tournament involves four city-venues for the Regionals (aka the first round) (in late March), and then another city-venue for the Frozen Four (in early April). Last year, the Frozen Four was held in Buffalo, NY, and the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs repeated as champions, defeating the Umass Minutemen 3-0. This season [2019-20], the tournament was cancelled on March 12, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Timeline of D-1 hockey conferences…

Prior to the the first D-1 hockey tournament in 1947-48, there was one “proto-conference”: the Quadrangular League/Pentagonal League. It was initially comprised of four Ivy League schools’ hockey teams: Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. The Quadrangular League allowed the four to stabilize schedules and to determine the best team of the 4, each season. Army joined in 1946, and it was re-named the Pentagonal League, a name which remained when Army left after the 1947-48 season. Army were replaced by another Ivy League team in 1948: Brown. The grouping continued on until 1954-55. But the Pentagonal League never had the clout to secure an automatic bid into the D-1 hockey tournament (once the tournament started up in 1947-48). This was exacerbated by the fact that the Ivy League never recognized hockey as a D-1 sport. So the Quadrangular League/Pentagonal League is considered an informal organization and is not recognized as an NCAA conference.

1947-48: Back when the D-1 hockey tournament started in 1947-48, D-1 hockey teams were Independent. There were 27 teams in NCAA D-1 hockey in that first season in which there was a trophy to play for {see this, en.wikipedia.org/[1947-48 D-1 hockey/Regular season]}. Of those 27 teams from 1947-48, 20 teams are still in Division I men’s hockey. Those 20 teams are: Army, Boston College, Boston U., Brown, Clarkson, Colgate, Colorado College, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Michigan, Michigan Tech, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Northeastern, Princeton, St. Lawrence, UMass, Yale.

This Independents-only set-up in D-1 hockey began to gradually change, with the belated creation of D-1 hockey conferences, first in 1950 with the now-defunct Tri-State League, then the following year of 1951 with the creation of what is now known as the WCHA…

1950: the Tri-State League begins play [conference is now defunct]. The first D-1 hockey conference was the Tri-State League (1950-72), a 3-to-6-team conference based in upstate New York, western Massachusetts, and Vermont, which featured small schools like Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Clarkson, Colgate, Williams (of Massachusetts), and Middlebury College (of Vermont). The Tri State League, despite only having a tiny number of teams (just four teams through most of the 1950s), annually received one of the two eastern bids to the NCAA tournament. The Tri-State League was able to place one team into each D-1 hockey tournament from 1952 to 1960. This accounts for the reason why both St. Lawrence and Clarkson have a considerable amount of Frozen Four appearances (9 and 7 appearances). And meanwhile, after 1951-52, the new MWCHL [WCHA], consisting initially of seven western schools (see next paragraph), was able to earn both western bids for the 4-team tournament each year. This situation, from 1950-51 up until 1959-60, left just one eastern bid available for more than two dozen eastern schools! That was unfair enough as it was, but it got worse in the 1960-61 D-1 season, with 25 Independent teams – all from the Northeast – effectively shut out of the post-season competition…because the 2 western bids for the tournament were sewn up by the WCHA, and the two eastern bids for the tournament went to St. Lawrence and Rensellaer, who were, astoundingly, two of only three teams which comprised the tiny but powerful 1960-61 Tri-State League {1961 D-1 tournament}. This made teams from the New England states feel that the Tri-State League was gaming the system. And, in fact, that is exactly why ECAC Hockey was formed later that year of 1961 (you can see more on that, two paragraphs below).

1951: the WCHA begins play. The second D-1 hockey conference was formed the following season of 1951-52: the still-active Midwest Collegiate Hockey League, or MCHL – which is now called the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, or WCHA. (The MCHL changed its name to the WCHA in 1959.) In 1951-52, there were seven teams that initially comprised the new conference: Colorado College, Denver, Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Instantly, the MCHL had enough clout to secure two of the four D-1 hockey tournament bids. That began in the first season of the MCHL [WCHA] in 1951-52, and that situation of the conference owning half the bids to the D-1 hockey tournament lasted 25 seasons, up to 1976. When the tournament expanded to 5 or 6 teams (1977-80 tournaments), the WCHA still owned 2 bids; when the tournament expanded to 8 teams in 1981, the WCHA got 3 bids (while the ECAC got 4 bids and the relatively new conference the CCHA got 1 bid). In that era (the 1980s), the WCHA and ECAC Hockey were unquestionably the two dominant D-1 hockey conferences.

In the past, the WCHA had a whole lot of successful D-1 hockey programs in it, including Michigan, Denver, North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan State, Colorado College, and Michigan Tech. Believe it or not, today, those seven teams account for 38 D-1 hockey titles – which is slightly more than half of the 72 D-1 hockey titles! But the profile of the WCHA has diminished considerably. Only one of those seven title-winning teams listed above still remains in the conference, and it is the smallest program of the seven: Michigan Tech, from the isolated Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The WCHA lost all of its big programs during the tumultuous 2010-14 NCAA realignment {see this: NCAA conference realignment/Hockey}. Basically, all the big programs fled from the WCHA, to either the new Big Ten Hockey Conference (Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota), or to the new NCHC (North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College). Today, the WCHA has, by far, the widest geographic range of D-1 hockey conferences. The 10 teams in the WCHA are spread all the way from Alaska (Alaska-Fairbanks and Alaska-Anchorage) to Alabama (Alabama-Hunstsville) to Minnesota (Bemidji State, Minnesota State at Mankato) to Michigan (all 3 Upper Peninsula D-1 teams [see two sentences below], plus Ferris State) to Ohio (Bowling Green). The conference is frankly too vast to be economically sustainable, and that has influenced the wish of 7 of its 10 members to break off, to re-form a different conference – the CCHA – in 2021-22 (see last paragraph further below). Of the ten teams in the WCHA, four of them have won D-1 hockey titles: Michigan Tech (3 titles), Lake Superior State (3 titles), Northern Michigan, and Bowling Green. That is a total of 8 D-1 hockey titles.

1961: ECAC Hockey begins play. In 1961, the third D-1 hockey conference was formed: the still-active ECAC Hockey. (ECAC stands for Eastern College Athletic Conference.) In 1961-62, ECAC Hockey was formed as a loose association of 28 college hockey teams in the Northeast (New England states plus New York and New Jersey). At the site called College Hockey Historical Archives, it is said…“ECAC Hockey, as it is known today, evolved slowly, starting from a dispute between the New England and New York schools. For the 1961 NCAA Tournament, the selection committee chose St. Lawrence and Rensselaer to represent the East, bypassing the Boston area schools. In the disputes that followed, it was decided to hold an eastern tournament the following season, with the tournament champion given an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.” {-excerpt from History of ECAC Hockey (augenblick.org).} The 3 New York teams that were getting into the tournament via the small Tri-States League all joined ECAC Hockey as founding members (Clarkson, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence), thus making the Tri-States League superfluous. In ECAC Hockey’s 4th season of 1964-65, the then-29-team ECAC Hockey split into Division I and Division II set-ups, with the creation of ECAC-2 (which is now defunct).

Throughout the 1961-62 to 1975-76 time period (15 seasons), ECAC Hockey and the WCHA were the only two conferences that got bids for the D-1 hockey tournament. That changed when the CCHA finally got an automatic bid in 1976-77 (see 2 paragraphs below). In the 1980-81 to 1983-84 time period, ECAC Hockey was at its most powerful, with control of 4 of the 8 bids to the tournament. But that changed when 5 ECAC Hockey teams left to form Hockey East in 1985 (see 3 paragraphs below).

The ECAC was the only D-1 hockey conference that was unchanged by the 2010-14 realignment. Today, the 12-team ECAC Hockey is a rather unusual college conference, as it includes within it all six of the D-1 Ivy League hockey teams (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale [Penn and Columbia do not field D-1 hockey teams]). ECAC Hockey has teams spread through 6 states in the Northeast and in New England. Six teams are from New York: Clarkson (Potsdam, NY), Colgate (Hamilton, NY), Cornell (Ithaca, NY), Rensselaer (Troy, NY), St. Lawrence (Canton, NY), Union College (Schenectady, NY). Two teams are from Connecticut: Quinnipiac (Hamden, Greater New Haven, CT) and Yale (New Haven, NY). One team is from Massachusetts: Harvard (Cambridge, MA). One team is from Rhode Island: Brown (Providence, RI). One team is from New Hampshire: Dartmouth (Hanover, NH). And one team is from New Jersey: Princeton (Princeton, NJ). Of the 12 teams in ECAC Hockey, five of them have won D-1 hockey titles: Cornell (2 titles), Rensellaer (2 titles), Harvard, Union College, Yale. That is a total of 7 D-1 hockey titles.

1971: the CCHA begins play [the conference is now defunct, but set to be revived in 2021]. The CCHA had less than half-a-dozen members for its first few seasons, including Bowling Green, Ohio State, Lake Superior State, and Western Michigan. The CCHA was initially full of small programs, and did not get an automatic bid into the D-1 hockey tournament until its sixth season, in 1976-77. The teams in the old CCHA were primarily from Michigan and Ohio. In 1981, the CCHA got much more respectable, with the addition of 3 title-winning programs from the state of Michigan: Michigan, Michigan State, and Michigan Tech. But 3 decades later, the D-1 conference realignment of 2010-14 decimated the CCHA. The CCHA disbanded after the 2012-13 season. However, plans are now set to revive the CCHA in 2021 {see last paragraph, further below}.

1984: Hockey East begins play. Hockey East was formed in 1984-85, by five former ECAC teams: Boston College, Boston University, New Hampshire, Northeastern, and Providence. These 5 decided to create their own league, because of scheduling concerns (they feared that the Ivy League teams in the ECAC would form their own conference, but that never came about). It also cannot be denied that the Hockey East set-up has decreased travel costs among its member-teams (seeing as it is a New-England-only-based conference). The 11-team Hockey East conference has teams spread throughout all of the 6 New England states, including 5 teams from Greater Boston. Hockey East teams are: Boston College, Boston University, and Northeastern from Boston, MA; and two more teams from the Greater Boston region: Merrimack (North Andover, MA) and UMass-Lowell (Lowell, MA); UMass (Amherst, MA), Maine (Orono, ME), New Hampshire (Durham, NH), Providence (Providence, RI), UConn (located in Storrs, CT but the hockey team plays 25 miles west in Hartford, CT), and Vermont (Burlington, VT). D-1 hockey title-winning teams from Hockey East are: Boston College (5 titles), Boston University (5 titles), Maine (2 titles), Providence. That is a total of 13 D-1 hockey titles.

1998: Atlantic Hockey begins play (as the MAAC). The 1998-99 season saw the creation of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). In June 2003, MAAC Hockey broke off from the rest of the MAAC, and reorganized as Atlantic Hockey. In 2004, the Atlantic Hockey conference was granted an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Atlantic Hockey is comprised of small D-1 programs, 10 of 11 of which are in the Northeast (except for Air Force Academy, who play in Colorado Springs, CO). Here are the 11 teams in the Atlantic League: Air Force; American International College [AIC] (Springfield, MA); Army (West Point, NY); Bentley (Waltham, MA); Canisius (Buffalo, NY); Holy Cross (Worcester, MA); Mercyhurst (Erie, PA); Niagara (Lewiston, NY); Robert Morris (Moon Township, Greater Pittsburgh, PA), Rochester Institute of Technology [RIT] (Henrietta, Greater Rochester, NY), Sacred Heart (located in Fairfield, CT but the hockey team plays 6 miles east in Bridgeport, CT). None of the eleven teams in Atlantic Hockey have won the D-1 hockey title. In fact, in the 16 seasons that Atlantic Hockey has had an automatic bid into the D-1 hockey tournament, only one team in the Atlantic Hockey conference has ever advanced to the Frozen Four…that was RIT, in 2010.

March 2011: the creation of the Big Ten Hockey Conference is announced. The Big Ten Hockey Conference would begin play two-and-a-half years later in 2013-14. That announcement started up the whole, sordid conference realignment in D-1 hockey. The roots of this was the inclusion of Penn State as a D1-hockey team (Penn State debuted as an Independent in D-1 hockey in 2012-13). The shakeup in D-1 hockey conferences occurred in much the same way (and in nearly the same time-period) as the recent realignments in NCAA D-1 football and in NCAA D-1 basketball. After the dust had settled in D-1 hockey, there were 6 conferences instead of 5, and one conference was dissolved – the Central Collegiate Hockey Associaition [CCHA](/see 3 paragraphs above; also see 2 paragraphs below). The Big Ten D-1 Hockey Conference was instituted in the 2013–14 season, combining Penn State with Michigan State, Michigan, and Ohio State from the defunct CCHA, plus Minnesota and Wisconsin from the severely-weakened WCHA. That formed a six-member Big Ten Hockey Conference. Four seasons later, Notre Dame joined Big Ten hockey in 2017-18, to make it a 7-team conference. Here are the locations of the 7 teams in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI); Michigan State (East Lansing, MI); Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN); Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Greater West Bend, IN); Ohio State (Columbus, OH); Penn State (State College, PA); Wisconsin (Madison, WI). Four of the seven teams in the Big Ten Hockey Conference have won D-1 hockey titles: Michigan (with a record 9 titles), Wisconsin (6 titles), Minnesota (5 titles), Michigan State (3 titles). That is a total of 23 D-1 hockey titles, which is the most of any D-1 hockey conference, despite its small membership-size.

July 2011: the creation of the NCHC is announced. The NCHC was formed as a reaction to the establishment of the Big Ten Hockey Conference. Basically, the 8 future NCHC teams fled two conferences (the WCHA and the CCHA) which had a majority of small-program-teams. Those 8 teams did this in order to consolidate in a conference with other medium- or large-sized D-1 hockey programs. This, in order to not be overshadowed by the new 800-pound gorilla in the room, the Big Ten Hockey Conference. So four months after Big Ten Hockey was announced, 6 schools from the the WCHA announced their intention of leaving the WCHA, to form a new D-1 hockey conference, to be called the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, or NCHC. Those schools were Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO); Denver (Denver, CO); Miami (of Ohio) (Oxford, OH); Minnesota-Duluth (Duluth, MN); North [Dakota (Grand Forks, ND); and Omaha (Omaha, NE). A few months later, those six were joined by two more: St. Cloud State (St. Cloud, MN) [also formerly of the WCHA]; and Western Michigan (Kalamazoo, MI) [who would be leaving the soon-to-be-defunct CCHA]. The 8-team NCHC has four teams that have won D-1 hockey titles: North Dakota (with 8 titles), Denver (also with 8 titles), Minnesota-Duluth (3 titles including 2019), Colorado College (2 titles). That is a total of 21 D-1 hockey titles [2nd-most].

February 2020: the revival of the CCHA is announced. (The CCHA originally existed as a D1-hockey conference from 1971 to 2013.) The CCHA will be re-formed, starting in 2021-22. Seven schools, which comprise 70% of the WCHA, announced their intention to start a new D-1 hockey conference, adopting the name of the old CCHA. The 7 teams: Bowling Green (Bowling Green, Greater Toledo, OH); Ferris State (Big Rapids, MI); Lake Superior State (Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Peninsula, MI); and Northern Michigan (Marquette, Upper Peninsula, MI) (all of whom were previously members of the old CCHA when it disbanded in 2013); Michigan Tech (Houghton, Upper Peninsula, MI) (who were in the original CCHA three seasons, from 1981-84), plus Bemidji State (Bemidji, MN) and Minnesota State (Mankato, MN). Now, in their announcement of the conference-shift, there is only talk of “improving geographical alignment” {see this, from USCHO.com}. But what it all really boils down to is this…because of travel costs, those 7 Upper Midwest teams want to break away from three remote teams: the two D-1 hockey teams from Alaska (Alaska-Anchorage and Alaska-Fairbanks), and the D-1 team from northern Alabama (Alabama-Huntsville). As Adam Wodon said at College Hockey News.com…“the three “leftovers” here: Alaska, Alaska-Anchorage and Alabama-Huntsville. I think there’s a pretty clear consensus that everyone feels badly for those programs, and no one wants D-1 to lose teams, but that the other seven schools had to do what they had to do. The path of least resistance for shedding those three schools, was to leave and form a new conference. It was far easier than just kicking them out of the existing WCHA. So now those three will be left on their own, basically nomads. The WCHA could exist in name only, but it wouldn’t matter. With only three teams it wouldn’t get an automatic NCAA bid. Those programs are in trouble, let’s face it.”…{-excerpt from Forget the Name, New-CCHA Will Grapple With Bigger Issues, on Feb. 19 2020, at collegehockeynews.com.}
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to contributors at en.wikipedia.org/List of NCAA Division I Men’s Frozen Four appearances by team; en.wikipedia.org/List of NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey champions.

March 27, 2019

2019 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With 2018-19 attendance data, and all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list./+Update: illustrations for the 2019 Frozen Four: UMass Minutemen, Denver Pioneers, Providence Friars, Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 12:21 pm

/ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2019_16-teams_w-2018-19attendance_all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_e_.gif
2019 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2017-18 attendance data, and all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list



By Bill Turianski on 27 March 2019. twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-Live scores (collegehockeynews.com).
-2019 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament (en.wikipedia.org).
-2018-19 attendance [#1 North Dakota 11.3 K; #2 Wisconsin 10.0 K; #3 Minnesota 7.9 K; #4 Ohio State 6.4] (uscho.com).

-St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State land No. 1 NCAA hockey seeds (by Randy Johnson at startribune.com).

-NCAA men’s hockey tournament: Tiering all 16 teams, Frozen Four picks (by Chris Peters at espn.com).

    Update: illustrations for the 2019 Frozen Four: UMass Minutemen, Denver Pioneers, Providence Friars, Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

Teams below shown in the order of their qualifying…

2019 Frozen Four – UMass Minutemen. Their 1st Frozen Four appearance.

umass-minutemen_2019-frozen-four_h_.gif
Photo and Image credits above –
Filip Lindbergh makes a save, photo by Charle Krupa via gazettenet.com. Players celebrate 1st goal, photo by Charle Krupa via gazettenet.com. John Leonard makes it 2-0, photo by Charles Krupa via bostonglobe.com/sports. Screenshot of Cale Makar slap shot goal, image from video at ncaa.com/video. Cale Makar celebrating after goal, photo by Melissa Wade at uscho.com/photo-gallery-umass. Players file onto ice to celebrate, photo by Charles Krupa via bostonherald.com. Players celebrate, photo from umassathletics.com/news. umasshoops.com/newboard/[logos 7 wordmarks, 2016].

2019 Frozen Four – Denver Pioneers. Their 16th Frozen Four appearance (and first since their 2017 D-1 Tournament title).

denver-pioneers_2019-frozen-four_c_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Screenshot from @DU_Hockey via denverpost.com. Photo and Image credits above – Colin Staub celebrates goal, photo by Michael Vosburg via duluthnewstribune.com/sports. Screenshot of Liam Finley scoring, from video at ncaa.com/video. Filip Larsson makes a save, photo by Michael Vosburg via therinklive.com. Denver players celebrate, photo by Michael Vosburg via therinklive.com.

2019 Frozen Four – Providence Friars. Their 5th Frozen Four appearance (and first since their 2015 D-1 Tournament title).

providence-friars_2019-frozen-four_b_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Greg Printz scores, photo by Kris Craig at providencejournal.com/sports. Josh Wilkins scores, photo by Melissa Wade at uscho.com. Scott Conway celebrates after scoring, photo by Kris Craig at providencejournal.com/sports. Goalie Hayden Hawkey, photo by Eldon Lindsay/Cornell Athletics via cornellsun.com. Players celebrate win, image from abc6.com.

2019 Frozen Four – Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. Their 7th Frozen Four appearance (and the 3rd straight Frozen 4 appearance for the 2018 D-1 Tournament champions).

minnesota-duluth-bulldogs_2019-frozen-four_e_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Screenshot of Peter Krieger about to score, from video at ncaa.com/video. Peter Krieger celebrates scoring, photo by Omar Phillips at uscho.com/gallery. Screenshot of Kobe Roth about to score, from video at ncaa.com/video. Roth and teammates celebrate goal, photo unattributed at duluthnewstribune.com/sports. Jersey logo, photo by totalhockey.com/product/Minnesota-Duluth_Bulldogs_Jersey. Jersey shoulder-patch-logo (Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge shoulder patch), image from theumdstatesman.com/blog.

    2019 D-1 hockey tournament: 15 teams from 6 conferences + 1 Independent.

The #1-seeds. St. Cloud  State (1) [NCHC], Minnesota Duluth [NCHC], Minnesota State [WCHA], Massachusetts (UMass) [Hockey East].

Many of the big college hockey teams have been shut out of the 2019 D-1 NCAA tournament. Failing to make it were…Michigan (with a record 9 titles and 25 Frozen Four appearances); the 2016 champions North Dakota (the highest-drawing D-1 team, with 8 titles and 16 Frozen Fours); Wisconsin (the 2nd-best-drawing D-1 team, with 6 titles and 11 Frozen Fours); Boston College (with 5 titles, and a joint-best 25 Frozen Four appearances); Minnesota (5 titles, 21 Frozen Fours); and Boston University (5 titles, 22 Frozen Fours).

Minnesota Duluth, the reigning champions, return. The Bulldogs have now made it to 5 consecutive D-1 tournaments (since 2015). Minnesota Duluth draw 5th-best in D-1 hockey, at 6.0 K in their 6.7-K-capacity arena. Minnesota Duluth won their first title in 2011, and have made 6 Frozen Four appearances.

Only one hockey power with more than a couple titles to their name has made it to the 2019 tournament…the Denver Pioneers. Denver won the title two years ago (2017), and Denver have won a joint-second-best 8 titles (plus 15 Frozen Fours). The burgundy-and-gold-clad Pioneers have now made it to an impressive 12 straight D-1 tournaments (since 2008). The Denver Pioneers, who have to compete with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche for the local puck-fan-dollar, draw a solid 5.5 K in their 6.0-K arena (9th-best attendance in D-1 hockey).

And speaking of college hockey teams located in NHL towns, it bears mentioning Ohio State. The Buckeyes, who share their city with the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, have now made it to the D-1 tournament for a third straight year, following their 2018 Frozen Four appearance. And then in 2018-19, the Buckeyes saw a big attendance increase: they drew over a thousand more per game (going from 5.3 K in 2017-18, to 6.4 K in 2018-19).

Massachusetts (UMass) is another team that made the 2019 tournament after seeing a big attendance increase: up 1.8 K per game. The Minutemen, of Amherst, MA, were drawing 2.5 K four years ago; last season they drew 3.0 K; and then this season they drew 4.8 K (which was 12th-best in D-1). And the Minutemen were selected as one of the #1-seeds. UMass has only ever made one other D-1 tournament appearance (in 2007). This is yet another example of the competitiveness in D-1 hockey these days.

Returning teams (10 teams). Here are the 10 teams that qualified for the tournament in 2018, and have qualified again in 2019…
[∙#-of-consecutive-appearances, Name. Conference. Location(s).]
∙2x, Clarkson Golden Knights. ECAC Hockey. Potsdam, NY.
∙3x, Cornell Big Red. ECAC Hockey. Ithaca, NY.
∙12x, Denver Pioneers. NCHC. Denver, CO.
∙5x, Minnesota–Duluth Bulldogs. NCHC. Duluth, MN.
∙2x, Minnesota State Mavericks. WCHA. Mankato, MN.
∙2x, Northeastern Huskies. Hockey East. Boston, MA.
∙4x, Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Big Ten. Notre Dame, IN].
∙3x, Ohio State Buckeyes. Big Ten. Columbus, OH.
∙6x, Providence Friars. Hockey East. Providence, RI.
∙2x, St. Cloud State Huskies. NCHC. St. Cloud, MN.

Debut teams (2 teams). Here are the 2 teams that have qualified for the D-1 tournament for the first time…
-American International Yellow Jackets. Atlantic Hockey. Springfield, MA.
-Arizona State Sun Devils. Independent. Tempe, AZ/Glendale, AZ.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of some teams (Minnesota-Duluth, Ohio State, UMass), such as at File:CCHA-Uniform-OSU.png.
-Thanks to contributors at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_Men%27s_Frozen_Four_appearances_by_team; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_men%27s_ice_hockey_champions#Team_titles.

-Thanks to Cornell store, for photo of jersey-script-logo, cornellstore.com/Hockey-Jersey-Red.
-Thanks to Game Worn Auctions for photo of UMass jersey-script-logo, gamewornauctions.net.
-Thanks to Quinnipiac bookstore for Q-logo photo, bkstr.com/.
-Thanks to Northeastern Huskies on twitter, for new logos, twitter.com/[@gonuathletics].
-Thanks to Minnesota State Mavericks site for photo of gold jersey script-logo, msumavericks.com/index.
-Thanks to WCHA online shop, for photo of Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks banner logo, unrl.co/collections/mankato/products/mavericks-hockey-basefit-hat-white.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2018-2019 (uscho.com).
-Thanks to CollegeHockeyNews.com, for articles, info & live scores.
-Thanks to eliteprospects.com for stats (eliteprospects.com/league/ncaa).

May 16, 2018

2018 CHL Memorial Cup tournament (in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada from May 18 to May 27) – the 4 teams: the Regina Pats, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Swift Current Broncos.

Filed under: Canada,Canada>OHL,Canada>QMJHL,Canada>WHL,Hockey — admin @ 7:44 pm

By Bill Turianski on 16 May 2018; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-2018 CHL Memorial Cup (en.wikipedia.org).
-CHL official site: chl.ca.
-Preview…Why watch the 2018 Mastercard Memorial Cup: Top prospects, great storylines (by Rory Boylen at sportsnet.ca/hockey).

Host team: Regina Pats.

regina-pats_brandt-centre_2018-chl-memorial-cup_k_.gif

Photo and Image credits above – Regina Pats’ jersey illustration and shoulder-patch logo: from sportslogos.net/[Regina Pats]. View of Regina’s skyline, photo by 28thegreat at File:Regina Skyline.png. Brandt Centre, photo by Neil Cochrane/CBC at cbc.ca. PPCLI badge from army-armee.forces.gc.ca/en/ppcli/1st-battalion.page. Regina Pats 100th anniversary jersey (a re-working of the team’s first jersey worn in 1917), from patsstore.ca. Sam Steel, photo by Keith Hershmller via chl.ca. Libor Hájek, photo by Keith Hershmiller via rodpedersen.com. Cameron Hebig, photo by Keith Hershmiller/Regina Pats via cjme.com. Cale Fleury, photo unattributed at twitter.com/WHLPats.

2018 QMJHL champions: Acadie–Bathurst Titan.

acadie-bathurst-titan_kc-irving-centre_2018-chl-memorial-cup_d_.gif

Photo and Image credits above – Acadie-Bathurst Titan jersey, illustration from sportslogos.net/[Acadie Bathurst Titan]. Aerial shot of Bathurst, New Brunswick, photo from facebook.com/destimationbathurstNB. View of Bathurst from harbour bridge, photo from iccimmigration.in/immigration/new-brunswick. K.C. Irving Regional Centre, photo by Kevin Jordan at qmjhlarenaguide.com. Olivier Galipeau, photo unattributed at telegraphjournal.com. Jeffrey Truchon-Viel, photo by Emmanuelle Parent via acadienouvelle.com. Evan Fitzpatrick, photo by Vincent L. Rousseau via letitan.com. Antoine Morand, photo by RDS via canucksarmy.com.




2018 OHL champions: Hamilton Bulldogs.

hamilton-bulldogs_first-ontario-centre_2018-chl-memorial-cup_e_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Hamilton Bulldogs jersey illustration and shoulder-patch logo from sportslogos.net/[Hamiton Bulldogs]. Skyline of Hamilton from top of the Mountain (Niagara Escarpment), photo by Lucasmascotto at File:Collage of Tourist Spots in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.jpg. Exterior of FirstOntario Centre, photo from 900/CHML via globalnews.ca/news. Brandon Saigeon, photo by Aaron Bell via niagarathisweek.com/sports. Robert Thomas, photo by John Rennison/The Hamilton Spectator at thespec.com. Kaden Fulcher, photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images North America via zimbio.com. Ryan Moore, photo by Getty Images at gettyimages.ae.

2018 WHL champions: Swift Current Broncos.
-From the Everett (Washington) Herald, here is an article about the town of Swift Current and its hockey team, subtitled…’Home of the Broncos, Saskatchewan’s seventh-biggest city is a hard-core hockey town on the prairie‘ (by Ben Watanabe on May 4 2018 at heraldnet.com).
-reddit.com/r/hockey/[1986 Swift Current bus tragedy].

swift-current-broncos_credit-union-i-plex_2018-chl-memorial-cup_k_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Swift Current Broncos jersey illustration and shoulder-patch logos from sportslogos.net. Aerial shot of Swift Current, SK, photo by City of Swift Current via heraldnet.com/news/silvertips-fans-meet-the-enemy-stronghold-of-swift-current. Photo of road leading to Swift Current, photo by CanadaGood G Melle at flickr.com; flickr.com/photos/canadagood. Innovation Credit Union i-Plex, photo from tourismswiftcurrent.ca. Swift Current Broncos (I) logo (1973-74) from hockeydb.com/[swift-current-broncos]. Lethbridge Broncos logo from sportslogos.ne/[Lethbridge Broncos]. Swift Current Broncos (II) logos from sportslogos.net/[Swift Current Broncos (II)]. Swift Current Broncos bus crash [December 28 1986] memorial, photo from leaderpost.com/sporst. 1989 Swift Current Broncos players celebrate winning the 1989 Memorial Cup 4-3 in OT over Saskatoon [May 13 1989], photo unattributed at reddit.com/[thread: Swift Current Broncos bus crash, December 30 1986]. Aleksi Heponiemi, photo by Marissa Baecker/Getty Images via habseyesontheprize.com. Glenn Gawdin, photo unattributed at nhl.com/flames. Stuart Skinner, photo by Keith Hershmiller via leaderpost.com. Tyler Steenburgen, photo unattributed at reddeerexpress.com.

___
Thanks to the contributors at the following links…
- Western Hockey League;
-Ontario Hockey League;
-Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
-Thanks to the fine site known as Elite Prospects.com (Hockey Prospects), for player info…eliteprospects.com.

March 21, 2018

2018 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2017-18 attendance data, and all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list./ +Update: the teams that qualified for the 2018 Frozen Four: Notre Dame, Minnesota-Duluth, Michigan, Ohio State.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 12:46 pm

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2018_16-teams_w-2017-18-attendance_all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_b_.gif
2018 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2017-18 attendance data. + All-time D1 Titles-and-Frozen-Four list



By Bill Turianski on 21 March 2018. twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament (en.wikipedia.org).
-Here is the bracket with game times (uscho.com).
-Live scores…ncaa.com/scoreboard/icehockey-men/d1 .
-USCHO.com.
-D1 Hockey attendance [2017-18 regular season/all 60 teams] (uscho.com).
-Top ten Frozen Four moments from the past 25 years {twitter.com/NCAAIceHockey/status/978270577860411393}.

    Update: the teams that qualified for the 2018 Frozen Four (shown alphabetically)…
    Michigan, Minnesota-Duluth, Notre Dame, Ohio State

Michigan Wolverines (their 25th Frozen Four appearance [all-time most]) (and first since 2011)…
michigan-wolverines_2018-frozen-four_d_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Michigan players celebrate first goal of the game (5 minutes in), photo by Michael Dwyer/AP via mlive.com/wolverines. Brendan Warren celebrates after scoring, photo by Associated Press via toledoblade.com. Michigan players celebrate the victory, photo by Michael Dwyer/AP via freep.com. Michigan Flying-wing hockey helmet, image by billsportsmaps via photo of Bauer helmet at hockeyworld.com.

Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs (back-to-back Frozen Four appearances)…
minnesota-duluth-bulldogs_2018-frozen-four_c_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Freshman Joey Anderson celebrates with teammates after opening the scoring against Air Force (1st Period/9:03), photo unattributed at twincities.com. Defenseman Nick Wolff scores with wrist-shot from top of left face-off circle, screenshot from video at ncaa.com/video. Players celebrating with traveling fans after victory, photo by Jim Rosvold at uscho.com. Jersey logo, photo by totalhockey.com/product/Minnesota-Duluth_Bulldogs_Jersey. Jersey shoulder-patch-logo (Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge shoulder patch.), image from theumdstatesman.com/blog.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (back-to-back Frozen Four appearances)…
notre-dame-fighting-irish_2018-frozen-four_e_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Andrew Ogelvie celebrates ND’s equalizing 1st goal with teammates, photo by Matt Dewkett at uscho.com. Dylan Malmquist scores winning goal with 0:27 left in game, photo by Jessica Hill/AP via ndinsider.com/hockey. Notre Dame Main Building’s golden dome, which is symbolized by the blank-gold Notre Dame Fighting Irish football helmet [and the blank-gold Notre Dame Fighting Irish ice hockey helmet], photo by Know1one1 at File:The Golden Dome.jpg (commons.wikimedia.org), via collegemagazine.com/cms-guide-university-notre-dame. Notre Dame shamrock-on-hockey-pants-logo (2017-18 gear), drawn from template at licensing.nd.edu. Notre Dame teams’ colors: drawn from template from licensing.nd.edu.

Ohio State Buckeyes (their 2nd Frozen Four appearance, and their first one in 20 years)…
ohio-state-buckeyes_2018-frozen-four_d_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Kevin Miller scoring the first of his two goals, photo by Rich Schultz/AP via denverpost.com. Goalie Sean Romeo made 30 saves for the Buckeyes, photo by Omar Phillips at uscho.com. Players celebrate win, photo unattributed at twitter.com/Bucknuts247. Buckeyes hockey helmet, photo from ohiostatebuckeyes.cbsi-auctions.com. 2017-18 jersey, photo from shop.ohiostatebuckeyes.com.

The map…The map page shows the 16 D1 hockey teams that qualified for the 2018 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament. Each team is placed on the map in their venue-location, with a circular device which shows the teams average attendance in graphic form (the larger the circle, the higher the attendance). Alongside the team’s school-name is their attendance-rank within the 60-team D1 level. The 16 teams’ 2017-18 attendance data (listed by attendance-rank), can be seen at the top-right of the map page. The attendance-data-list includes: average attendance, venue-capacity, percent-capacity, and numerical-change-in-average-attendance from the previous season. (The highest-drawing team in D1 hockey is North Dakota; you can see the whole attendance list at USCHO.com, here: Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2017-2018.) At the lower-left of the map page is the complete list of NCAA D1 hockey titles & Frozen Four appearances (1948-2017). And at the top-center of the map is a banner showing, in alphabetical order, alternate logos of the 16 teams. (Note: In case you’re wondering, I made that Michigan Wolverines hockey-helmet-logo. No one online, to my knowledge, has ever tried out that sort of an illustration for any of the D1 hockey teams that sport helmet-logos which are the same design as their schools’ football-helmet-logos [ie, Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State Buckeyes, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and Penn State Nittany Lions]. Which is a mystery to me, because those schools’ hockey-helmet-logos are awesome, and deserve more recognition. Heck, for that matter, why don’t NHL teams sport football-helmet-style hockey-helmet-logos? Like this. I think it is a marketing opportunity that has gone wasted all these years. But I digress.)


The tournament…{Tournament Watch (collegehockeynews.com).} The first two rounds of the tournament will be played on the weekend of Fri-Sun March 23-25, in four locations (Sioux Falls, SD; Allentown, PA; Bridgeport, CT; Worcester, MA). The winners of each sub-bracket will comprise the Frozen Four, who will reconvene two weeks later on the weekend of Fri-Sun April 6-8, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, at the 17,950-capacity Xcel Energy Center (which is the home of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild).

#1-seeds: St. Cloud State Huskies (1), Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2), Cornell Big Red (3), Ohio State Buckeyes (4).
There were a few unheralded teams winning the five conference tournaments, most notably the Princeton Tigers, who won the ECAC for only the 3rd time (in 67 seasons). Four of the six teams that won their conference tournaments were so low-ranked in the polls that, for the first time ever (since 1983), all four of the #4-seeds were conference-tournament champions (Princeton, Air Force, Michigan Tech, Boston U). Those four teams would not have qualified for the D1 tournament had they not won their conferences. {See this, 2018 NCAA Tournament: First Look (collegehockeynews.com).} So that threw a wrench into the post-season plans of some big programs, including Minnesota and Boston College, and, most notably, North Dakota…North Dakota were shut out of the D1 tournament for the first time in 15 years (North Dakota had qualified for the D1 tournament every season from 2003 to 2017).


In 2018, Big Ten-hockey has supplanted Hockey East, as the conference with the most teams into the D1 tournament…
Ever since the re-organization of D1 hockey of 2013/14, which saw the demise of the CCHA, and the creation of two new D1 conferences (the NCHC and the Big Ten D1-hockey-conference), the D1 conference with the most teams in the D1 tournament was Hockey East (in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017) as well as the relatively-brand-new NCHC (which also had 4 teams into the tournament in 2017). But this season, the 5-year-old Big Ten D1-hockey conference has the most qualified teams (four: Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State). And two of them are #1-seeds (Notre Dame & Ohio State).

So the 7-team Big Ten D1 hockey conference has just placed more than half its members into the D1 hockey tournament…
-Notre Dame: who were in the CCHA, but then jumped that sinking ship with a temporary move over to Hockey East (for four seasons), and are now in their first season of Big Ten D1-hockey. [Notre Dame has won zero D1 hockey titles/3 Frozen Four appearances (last in 2017).]
-Ohio State: [Ohio State has won zero D1 hockey titles/1 Frozen Four appearance (in 1998).]
-Michigan: [Michigan are winners of the all-time-best 10 D1 hockey titles (last in 1998)/all-time-best 24 Frozen Four appearances (last in 2012).]
-Penn State: who are a long-time Big Ten school in other sports, and who are in only their 6th season of D1-hockey. [Zero D1 hockey titles/zero Frozen Four appearances.].

Here is the breakdown of the 16 teams that qualified for the 2018 D1 Hockey Tournament, by conference…
Big Ten – 4 teams…conference-winner (Notre Dame/#1-seed, + 3 at-large bids (Ohio State/#1-seed), (Michigan/#2-seed), (Penn State/#3-seed).
NCHC – 3 teams…conference-winner (Denver/#1-seed) + 2 at-large bids (St. Cloud State/#1-seed), (Western Michigan/#2-seed).
Hockey East – 3 teams…conference-winner (Boston University/#4-seed) + 2 at-large bids (Providence/#2-seed), (Northeastern/#3-seed).
ECAC – 3 teams…conference-winner (Princeton/#4-seed), + 2 at-large bids (Cornell/#1-seed, (Clarkson/#3-seed).
WCHA – 2 teams…conference-winner (Michigan Tech/#1-seed), + 1 at-large-bid (Minnesota State/#2-seed).
Atlantic – 1 team…conference-winner (Air Force/#4-seed).

___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of some teams (Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Boston U), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to hockeyworld.com, for image of hockey helmet used to make the Michigan Wolverines banner logo (of Michigan’s sublime flying-wing hockey helmet).
-Thanks to WCHA online shop, for photo of Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks banner logo, unrl.co/collections/mankato/products/mavericks-hockey-basefit-hat-white.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2016-2017 (uscho.com).
-Thanks to CollegeHockeyNews.com, for articles and info.

May 27, 2017

Canadian Hockey League: 2017-18 CHL location-map, including 2016-17 attendance chart with titles listed.

Filed under: Canada,Canada>OHL,Canada>QMJHL,Canada>WHL,Hockey — admin @ 5:45 pm

chl_2017-18_location-map_2016-17_attendance-chart_for_whl_ohl_qmjhl_60-teams_w-titles_post_e_.gif
CHL location-map with 2016-17 attendance chart





By Bill Turianski on 27 May 2017; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-CHL official site, chl.ca [live scores at top banner]
-Canadian Hockey League (en.wikipedia.org),

Links for 2016-17 attendances (home regular season) (from HockeyDatabase.com)…
-Ontario Hockey League 2016-17 Attendance Graph.
-Quebec Major Junior Hockey League 2016-17 Attendance Graph.
-Western Hockey League 2016-17 Attendance Graph.


Best percent-capacity figures in the CHL in 2016-17…
Below are the 12 teams in the CHL that were best at filling their arena, in 2016-17. (Best Percent-Capacity, or: Average Attendance divided-by Seated Capacity.) 7 of these teams are in the OHL. 3 of these teams are in the WHL. 2 of these teams are in the QMJHL. The top 2 played to SRO (standing-room-only)…the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL, and the Oshawa Generals of the OHL.
#1). Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL): 103.6 percent-capacity (2,228 per game in their 2,150-capacity arena [ie, 78-standing-room-only-customers-per-game]).
#2). Oshawa Generals (OHL): 100.5 percent-capacity (5,209 per game in their 5,180-capacity arena [ie, 29-standing-room-only-customers-per-game]).
#3). London Knights (OHL): 99.5 percent-capacity (9,003 per game in their 9,046-capacity arena).
#4). Kitchener Rangers (OHL): 98.3 percent-capacity (7,015 per game in their 7,131-capacity arena).
#5). Kelowna Rockets (WHL): 93.7 percent-capacity (5,162 per game in their 5,507-capacity arena).
#6). Niagara IceDogs (OHL): 90.6 percent-capacity (4,804 per game in their 5,300-capacity arena).
#7). Barrie Colts (OHL): 88.4 percent-capacity (3,709 per game in their 4,195-capacity arena).
#8). Guelph Storm (OHL): 86.1 percent-capacity (4,063 per game in their 4,715-capacity arena).
#9). Shawingan Cataractes (QMJHL): 85.9 percent-capacity (3,545 per game in their 4,125-capacity arena).
#10). Regina Pats (WHL): 84.1 percent-capacity (5,456 per game in their 6,484-capacity arena).
#11). Owen Sound Attack (OHL): 82.8 percent-capacity (2,898 per game in their 3,500-capacity arena).
#12). Prince Albert Raiders (WHL): 82.6 percent-capacity (2,133 per game in their 2,580-capacity arena).
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-List of Memorial Cup champions/Tournament appearances by current CHL teams.
-WHL/ Ed Chynoweth Cup.
-OHL/ J. Ross Robertson Cup.
-QMJHL/ President’s Cup (en.wikipedia.org).
-Hockey Data Base.com.

May 17, 2017

2017 CHL Memorial Cup tournament (in Windsor, Ontario/ May 19 to May 28) – the 4 teams: Windsor Spitfires (host team), Erie Otters (OHL), Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL), Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL): photo-illustrations with standout players in 2016-17.

Filed under: Canada,Hockey — admin @ 7:39 pm

By Bill Turianski on 17 May 2017; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2017 CHL Memorial Cup (en.wikipedia.org).
-CHL official site, chl.ca.

Windsor, Ontario will host the 2017 Memorial Cup…
The 2017 Memorial Cup tournament will be held at the 6,450-capacity WFCU Centre in Windsor, Ontario, with the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires the host-team. Windsor is just across the border from Detroit, Michigan {see illustration below}. The tournament will run from May 19th to May 28th, 2017. Here is a preview, from the Hockey Writers.com,
2017 Memorial Cup Teams Preview (by David Jewell on Wednesday May 17 2017 at thehockeywriters.com).

    the 4 teams that have qualified for the 2017 CHL Memorial Cup tournament…
    Windsor Spitfires (host team) , Erie Otters (OHL), Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL), Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)…

Host team: Windsor Spitfires…
Windsor Spitfires, host of 2017 CHL Memorial Cup tournament…
windsor-spitfires_2017-memorial-cup_wfcu-centre_r_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Windsor Spitfires logos/info via sportslogos.net/Windsor_Spitfires.
Windsor home jersey, illustration from sportslogos.net/Windsor_Spitfires. Night-time shot of downtown Windsor with Detroit skyline in background, photo by Owen Wolter at flickr.com via windsorite.ca. View of Windsor skyline, photo by Tim Fraser/Windsor Star via windsorstar.com. Exterior-shot of WFCU Centre, photo from citywindsor.ca. Interior-shot of WFCU Centre [ca. 2009], photo by Kevin Jordan at ohlarenaguide.com/spitfires.
Players…Jeremy Bracco, photo by Tim Jarrold at inplaymagazine.com/windsor-spitfires-vs-saginaw-spirit-february-23 [2017]. Mikhail Sergachev, photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images via gettyimages.com. Michael DiPietro, photo by Jason Kryk/Windsor Star at windsorstar.com/hockey.

Erie Otters (OHL champions in 2017).
From The Hockey Writers.com, Celebrating the Erie Otters’ OHL Championship (by Mark Scheg on May 13 2017, at thehockeywriters.com).
erie-otters_2017-ohl-champions__2017-memorial-cup_i_.gif
Otters’ jersey illustration, from sportslogos.net/Erie_Otters. Erie (aerial shot), unattributed at pinterest.com. Erie Insurance Arena, photo from goerie.com jpg. Game-action photo, by MountaindewPSU at aviewfrommyseat.com/Erie+Insurance+Arena/section-119/row-E/seat-2.
Players: Dylan Strome-3AZ, photo by Terry Wilson/OHL via sportsnet.ca. Alex DeBrincat-39Chi, photo by Keith Dotson/OHL at ontariohockeyleague.com jpg. Taylor Raddysh-58Tam, photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images North America via zimbio.com. Anthony Cirelli-72TB, photo by Claus Anderson at gettyimages.com. Darren Raddysh-un, photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images via ohlwriters.me jpg. Warren Foegele, photo by Dave Mead Photography via ontariohockeyleague.com. On-ice post-game celebration, photo by Dan Hickling/OHL Images via ohlwriters.me. Anthony Cirelli holds Robertson Trophy aloft, photo by Greg Wohlford/ETN at goerie.com/sports/champions-otters-win-ohl-title-on-cirellis-ot-goal. Erie players celebratory pose, photo by Dan Hickling/OHL Images via chl.ca/erie-otters-are-2017-ohl-champions jpg.




Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL champions in 2017).
From CHL.ca, Saint John Sea Dogs are 2017 QMJHL Champions (chl.ca on May 11 2017).
saint-john-seadogs_2017-memorial-cup_n_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Sea Dogs jersey, photo from saintjohnseadogs.com/adult-replica-jersey-blue; illustration from sportslogos.net/Saint_John_Sea_Dogs. Saint John near arena, photo by Jaroslaw Binczarowski File:Stjohnpanoramo.jpg (commons.wikimedia.org). Harbour Station, photo by Andrew Touchakis Photography from facebook.com/Harbour-Station. Saint John skyline at twilight, photo by DDD DDD~commonswiki at File:Saint_John,_NB,_skyline_at_dusk5.jpg (commons.wikimedia.org).
Players: Mathieu Joseph, photo from sjseadogs.com. Matthew Highmore, photo by François Laplante/FreestylePhoto/Getty Images North America via zimbio.com.
Thomas Chabot , photo unattributed at stationnation.blogspot.com. Callum Booth, photo from twitter.com/SJSeaDogs. Team photo after title-win, photo by Vincent Ethier/LHJMQ Média at theqmjhl.ca/sea-dogs-crowned-presidents-cup-champs-again.

Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL champions in 2017).
From the Seattle Times, Seattle Thunderbirds beat Regina in OT to take WHL title (seattletimes.com/sports on May 14 2017).
seattle-thunderbirds_showare-center_2017-whl-champions__2017-memorial-cup_m_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Thunderbirds’ jersey illustration, from sportslogos.net/Seattle_Thunderbirds.
Aerial shot of Kent, WA with Mt. Rainier in background, photo from City of Kent, Washington at Linkedin.com. ShoWare Center, two exterior-shots, photos by Lara Swimmer at djc.com.
Players: Keegan Kolesar, photo by Doug Westcott via eliteprospects.com. Mathew Barzal, photo unattributed at alchetron.com/Mathew-Barzal. Ethan Bear, photo from seattlethunderbirds.com/ethan-bear-named-chl-player-of-the-week.Carl Stankowski, photo from seattlethunderbirds.com. Alexander True scoring winner in OT, photo by Keith Hershmiller at kentreporter.com/thunderbirds-rally-capture-first-whl-crown-with-dramatic-ot-win-at-regina. On-ice celebration, photo by Troy Fleece/Regina Leader-Post via seattletimes.com/sports/seattle-thunderbirds-beat-regina-in-ot-to-take-whl-title.

___
Thanks to the contributors at the following limks…
- Western Hockey League;
-Ontario Hockey League;
-Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
-Canadian metro-areas.
-USA metro-areas (en.wikipedia.org).
-Thanks to The Hockey Writers.com site, now on my blogroll, at thehockeywriters.com.
-Thanks to the fine site known as Elite Prospects.com (Hockey Prospects), for player info…eliteprospects.com.

March 22, 2017

2017 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2016-17 attendance figures & percent-capacity figures. + All-time D1 Titles-&-Frozen-Four list./+ Update: the 2017 Frozen Four: Denver Pioneers, Harvard Crimson, Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 8:24 pm

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2017_16-teams_w-2016-17-attendance_all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_b_.gif
2017 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2016-17 attendance figures & percent-capacity figures. + All-time D1 Titles-&-Frozen-Four list
By Bill Turianski on 22 & 27 March, 2017. twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

-Here is the Bracket (en.wikipedia.org).

Update [Monday March 27 at 2:00pm ET]…

    The 2017 Frozen Four:
    Denver Pioneers, Harvard Crimson, Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Denver Pioneers…
Path to 2017 Frozen Four – 1R: Denver 5, Michigan Tech 2. 2R: Denver 6, Penn State 3.
Denver’s second-straight and 16th Frozen Four appearance.
denver-pioneers_2017-frozen-four_k_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Action shot, photo by Angelo Delfuso at facebook.com/DenverHockey/photos. On-ice celebration, photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post at bsndenver.com/denver-pioneers-beat-penn-state-6-3. Team-photo celebration, photo by Shawn Conkle at USCHO.com. Alternate script logo from shoppioneers.com.

Harvard Crimson…
Path to 2017 Frozen Four – 1R: Harvard 3, Providence 0. 2R: Harvard 3, Air Force 2.
Harvard’s 13th Frozen Four appearance (previously: 1994).
harvard-crimson_2017-frozen-four_i_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Shot of Harvard goalie Merrick Madsen (31) during the first period, photo by Stew Milne via denverpost.com. Shot of final-buzzer/on-ice-celebration, photo by Melissa Wade atuscho.com . Shot of team with H-crest-banner, photo by Thomas W. Franck at thecrimson.com. Shield-template to make Harvard VE-RI-TAS hockey jersey shoulder-patch-logo: at freepik.com.

……


Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs…
Path to 2017 Frozen Four – 1R: Minnesota-Duluth 3, Ohio State 2 (OT). 2R: Minnesota-Duluth 3, Boston University 2 (OT).
Minnesota-Duluth’s 5th Frozen Four appearance (previously: 2011).
minnesota-duluth-bulldogs_2017-frozen-four_n_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Adam Johnson OT winning goal celebration, screenshot of image from video at ESPN.com. 1st photo by Carlos Osorio/AP via timesunion.com/sports. 2nd photo by Jim Rosvold at uscho.com. Jersey logo and jersey-shoulder=patch-logo, photos by totalhockey.com/product/Minnesota-Duluth_Bulldogs_Jersey.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish…
Path to 2017 Frozen Four – 1R: Notre Dame 3, Providence 2. 2R: Notre Dame 3, UMass-Lowell 2 (OT).
Notre Dame’s 3rd Frozen Four appearance (previously: 2011).
notre-dame-fighting-irish_2017-frozen-four_s_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -Andrew Oglevie after scoring, photo by Richard T. Gagnon/Getty Images via sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaa-hockey-notre-dame-denver-grab-final-two-frozen-four-spots. 2 shots of OT celebration, photos by Elizabeth Frantz/Concord Monitor at concordmonitor.com. Shot of celebratory pile-on, photo by Richard T. Gagnon at uscho.com. Clover pants-logo (2016-17 gear), drawn from template at licensing.nd.edu. Colors: image from licensing.nd.edu.

#1-seeds: Denver (1), Minnesota-Duluth (2), Harvard (3), Minnesota (4).

Here is the breakdown of the 16 teams, by conference…
NCHC – 4 teams…conference-winner (Minnesota-Duluth/#1-seed) + 3 at-large bids (Denver/#1-seed), (Western Michigan/#2-seed), (North Dakota/#3-seed).
Hockey East – 4 teams…conference-winner (UMass-Lowell/#2-seed) + 3 at-large bids (Boston University/#2-seed), (Notre Dame/#4-seed), (Providence/#4-seed).
ECAC – 3 teams…conference-winner (Harvard/#1-seed), + 2 at-large bids (Union College/#2-seed), (Cornell/#3-seed).
Big Ten – 3 teams…conference-winner (Penn State/#3-seed), + 2 at-large bids (Minnesota/#1-seed), (Ohio State/#4-seed).
WCHA – 1 team…conference-winner (Michigan Tech/#4-seed).
Atlantic – 1 team…conference-winner (Air Force/#3-seed).

I will have an update for this post on Monday the 27th, with small illustrations featuring the 4 teams that have made it to the 2017 Frozen Four (like I have been doing for the past 5 years/ here is last year’s Frozen Four (Boston College, Denver, North Dakota, Quinnipiac). I will also update the Frozen Four list on the map page.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2016-2017 (uscho.com).

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