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.
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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.
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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].
