-> Allentown, Pa., Regional (Friday/Sunday)
1.
Maine (24-7-6) vs. 4.
Penn State (20-13-4), Friday, 8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
2.
Connecticut (22-11-4) vs. 3.
Quinnipiac (24-11-2), Friday, 5 p.m. ET, ESPN-U
Regional Final, Sunday, 4:30 or 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Like with the Michigan State/Ohio State bracket, there is potential for a rematch of the conference tournament final just played, with Maine and Connecticut being the top two seeds here. Maine defeated UConn to win its first Hockey East tournament title in 21 years. Now it will try to return to the Frozen Four for the first time since the last time it was in St. Louis — 2007.
To do so, it will have to get through Penn State, the host of this Region, which was on fire down the stretch of the season, coming from way back in the Pairwise to qualify as the last at-large team at 13th overall. This will be Penn State's fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in just 12 seasons on Big Ten play (it would've qualified in 2020 as well, if not for COVID shutting down the season), but it has fallen short of the Frozen Four a couple of times. Two seasons ago, Penn State lost 2-1 in overtime to Michigan in the Regional Final in Allentown.
Harrison Scott and Taylor Makar lead Maine with 18 goals each, while Albin Boija is a Richter Award finalist in net.
Penn State has its first Hobey Award finalist in forward Aiden Fink (23-29—52), who leads all forwards in CHIP at 75.4.
Maine and Penn State have never met.
UConn has made the NCAAs for the first time, though its head coach, Mike Cavanaugh, is no stranger, having been on numerous national championship staffs at Boston College before taking the job in Storrs. The key for the Huskies this season, after losing some high-end guys to the transfer portal last year, was getting some key leadership to return. That stabilized things and allowed people like sophomore Joey Muldowney to blossom; he's gone from 5 to 27 goals this season.
Quinnipiac won the national championship two years ago, and nearly made the Frozen Four again last year. This year, the Bobcats were expected to take a step back, but instead won the ECAC regular-season championship for a fifth straight year, and finished 12th overall in the Pairwise. They've had a lot of turnover the last couple years, but went hard into the portal to fill holes. Top scorer Jeremy Wilmer came over from BU, 20-goal scorer Jack Ricketts from Holy Cross, defenseman Charlie Leddy from Boston College, and so on.
UConn and Quinnipiac met in the first game of the Connecticut Ice Tournament earlier this year, with the Huskies winning, 2-1, in overtime. <-
* UConn won w/ 5 seconds left in regulation - not OT *
www.ncaa.com
www.uconnhockeyhub.com
