Denver received the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region. Denver's regional opponents will be the Western Michigan Broncos No. 3 seed (who they face off with first), the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Engineers No. 4 seed and foe North Dakota Fighting Sioux No. 1 seed. The Pios, in very limited action, are 2-2 against the Broncos, 11-1 versus the Engineers and 115-132-8 against conference mate North Dakota. The Pios do hold a historical advantage in the NCAA tourney going 4-1 versus the Sioux and won their only match versus RPI. To start things off on Saturday the 26th of March the Sioux will face RPI at 11:30am MDT and DU will face WMU at 3pm. The winners will face of Sunday, March 27th at 3:30 MDT. The Frozen Four starts Thursday the 7th of April
The Midwest Regional games will be played at the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Resch Center has been prettied up and newly painted with the NCAA logos. Hosting the event will be Michigan Tech University (the only way they are getting close to the tourney) and PMI Entertainment Group. The last time Green Bay hosted, five years ago, the final game came down to a 3OT thriller in which Wisconsin beat Cornell 1-0.
There are many previews out there including from
The staff reporters at USCHO.com
Mike Eidelbes at Inside College Hockey
College Hockey News also does a great job following the whole Tournament.
The Tournament has been criticized for its structure, the one loss and done, way of doing things. In fact in the past four tourneys, No. 1 seeds are just 9-7 against No. 4 seeds in the first round. The conclusion some might take is luck means much more than quality of the team. Not sure I am fully on board with that way of thinking, although I would like to see series match-up as opposed to only one game, but it does mean your squad better be on top of their game from dropping of the puck.
Lastly my sure to be completely wrong predictions
West Regional - Yale vs. Air Force: AF; Union vs. Minnesota-Duluth: Union; Regional Final: Union
Northeast Regional - Miami vs. New Hampshire: Miami; Merrimack vs. Notre Dame: Merrimack; Regional Final: Miami
Midwest Regional - North Dakota vs. RPI: RPI Denver vs. Western Michigan; Denver; Regional Final: Denver
West Regional - Boston College vs. Colorado College: CC; Michigan vs. Nebraska-Omaha: Michigan; Regional Final: Michigan