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}.
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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)…
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.
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Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs (back-to-back Frozen Four appearances)…
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.
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Notre Dame Fighting Irish (back-to-back Frozen Four appearances)…
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.
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Ohio State Buckeyes (their 2nd Frozen Four appearance, and their first one in 20 years)…
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.
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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.)
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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).
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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).
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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.
