In theory, Hockey East gets one automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament, just like the nation’s other five conferences. But in reality, Hockey East can virtually guarantee four of its teams will earn a spot in the national tournament if they make the right moves along the way. Consider it the longest playoff format in sports.
Since 1990, when Hockey East added Merrimack as its eighth team, the conference has used a standard playoff bracket with eight teams playing in the quarterfinals. And since 1990, 62 Hockey East teams have finished in the top four of the regular-season standings and then gone on to win in the quarterfinals. Fifty-five of those teams (88.7 percent) have earned a spot in the NCAA tournament.
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Surely, it’s easier said than done, but there is very little ambiguity for these teams in October when they begin their season-long journey. If they take care of business, they know they’ve got a great chance to skate for the national championship, whereas teams in other conferences have to play well and hope things fall into place for them.
“Our record speaks for itself on a national level,” Boston College coach Jerry York said. “Maine has won titles. BU has won titles. BC has won them, and that bodes well for us with at-large teams. All the coaches feel that a minimum of three teams [in Hockey East] should be almost guaranteed to go to the nationals and in particular strong years, a fourth and maybe a fifth team.”
Only seven teams have finished with a top-four seed, won their Hockey East quarterfinal series, and then been left out of the national tournament—Boston University (1992, 2008), Maine (1996), UMass (2004), UMass Lowell (2002), Providence (1999) and Vermont (2008).
The numbers are similarly favorable since 2003, when the NCAA tournament expanded from 12 to 16 teams. Since 2003, 20 of the 23 teams (87 percent) that have earned and won a home-ice playoff series have advanced to the national tournament.
Hockey East has sent 26 teams to the NCAA’s in that span, which means six teams—Boston College (2004), BU (2003), Maine (2007, 2003), UNH (2009), and Vermont (2009)—bypassed the two requisites of earning a top-four seed and winning a quarterfinal series. Interestingly enough, the 2007 Maine squad is the only Hockey East team since 1990 to advance to the NCAA tournament without finishing in the top four of the regular-season standings or winning a quarterfinal playoff series. And that 2003 BU team is the only other Hockey East team since 1990 to finish outside of the top four of the regular-season standings and still earn a national tourney bid (the Terriers did advance to the Hockey East championship game, though).
Since 1990, 64 of the 80 Hockey East teams (80 percent) that have finished in the top four of the regular-season standings have earned an NCAA bid. However, since 1990, winning a quarterfinal series increases a team’s chance to make the NCAA tournament by 8.7 percent.
Those numbers haven’t increased as much since 2003, though. In the seven years since the tournament has expanded to 16 teams, 24 of the 28 Hockey East teams (85.7 percent) that have finished in the top four of the regular-season standings have earned an NCAA bid. Teams that finish in the top four only improve their chances by 1.3 percent by proceeding to win a quarterfinal series.
“There’s very good balance in our league, and there’s been a shift of balance a little bit sometimes,” York said. “All of a sudden now, UMass is coming on very strong and Lowell has got a very good club. BC, BU, Maine, and New Hampshire are always trying to stay with it, and now teams like Vermont go to the Frozen Four last year. It’s been a remarkably competitive league over the years.”
UNH is the only team that has really cemented itself in the top four this seasons, so teams like Boston College, UMass, Maine, Lowell, BU, Vermont, and Northeastern understand how important it will be to finish in the top four and earn a playoff series on home ice. After all, those “automatic qualifiers” are still up for grabs, and Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna can’t help but feel the pride of his conference’s position on a national scale.
“The WCHA has all of those championships going way back, like the Yankees with [36 national championships since 1951] or whatever it is,” Bertagna said. “But in the last decade, we had [nine] years with a team in the final, so there’s some consistency there.”
