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Takeaways From Surprising First Day of NCAA Hockey Regionals: Puck Drop

Your daily briefing on what's going on in college hockey, everything from the assists on the ice to the Zamboni.
Christopher Walsh|
Freshman Ryker Lee celebrates scoring Michigan State's first goal of the 2026 NCAA Tournament during a 2-1 victory over UConn.
Freshman Ryker Lee celebrates scoring Michigan State's first goal of the 2026 NCAA Tournament during a 2-1 victory over UConn. | John Sexton/Boston College On SI

The No. 3 vs. 14 regional semifinal end up being a 2-1 game, and the No. 2 vs. 15 was nearly as close, but the underdog team had a goal disallowed and eventually yielded an empty-netter for a 3-0 final score.

Those were the games in which the favorites, Michigan State and North Dakota, won. Meanwhile, the other games in the Worcester and Sioux Falls Regionals were both upsets. Quinnipiac won its New England showdown with Providence in South Dakota, 5-2, and Wisconsin ended Dartmouth's historic season 5-1.

Welcome to the 2026 NCAA Tournament, where in the grand tradition of the the sport nearly nothing is predictable and anything can happen. If the first is indicative of what we're in store for en route to determining the national champion, it's going to be a wild ride.

• Goaltender Trey Augustine was the star of the game for Michigan State, stopping 41 of the 42 shots he faced, but have you seen Ryker Lee's goal? If it's not the goal of the tournament we can't wait to see the one that tops it. For more on the game check out Michigan State On SI.

• Jan Špunar stopped all 31 shots he faced to record the first shutout of the tournament. shutout. He's the first UND freshman goaltender to notch a shutout in a NCAA Tournament game since Jordan Parise in 2004.

• Surprising stat of the day: Dartmouth only managed 14 shots on net against Wisconsin, half of its opponent. Granted, the Badgers had two empty-net goals, but they also saw Quinn Finley, Grady Deering, Luke Osburn and Simon Tassy ring shots off the post. Don't be surprised if there's a lot of talk about why the Big Green finished No. 8 in National Collegiate Percentage (NPI) Index, which was used to pick at-large teams and seed the tournament, when it was No. 54 in strength of schedule out of 63 teams.

• With the empty-net goal for Quinnipiac, freshman Ethan Wyttenbach tied the program record for points in a season, 59 (Collin Graf and Brian Leitch). The Bobcats outshot Providence 38-25.

• In addition to Quinnipiac, the East is already down to Cornell and Bentley, which haven't played yet, as the three Hockey East teams were swept on the first day. Penn State is geographically an Eastern school, but not in college hockey since the Big Ten is considered a Western conference.

• Wisconsin (22-12-2) is headed to its first Regional Final since 2010, and by playing Michigan State the Big Ten is already assured of having a team in the Frozen Four. The Big Ten made an early big statement, but the first showdown with the NCHC is Friday between Minnesota Duluth and Penn State. It won't be the last as seven of the top 10 teams in the tournament are from those two conferences.

Puck Drop: Friday, March 27, 2026

• Alex Ovechkin set an NHL record by scoring a hat trick against a 21st franchise, breaking former Minnesota Duluth forward Brett Hull's record of 20, during the Washington Capitals's 7-4 win against Utah. It was his 34th hat trick, surpassing Hull for fourth place on the NHL’s all-time list, behind Wayne Gretzky (50), Mario Lemieux (40) and Mike Bossy (39).

• Quinnipiac women's hockey signed center Ilsa Lindaman out of the transfer portal from St. Thomas. Meanwhile, Lindenwood sophomore forward Hannah Dods is heading to the University of of British Columbia.

• Former North Dakota and Boston University center Sacha Boisvert made his NHL debut with the Chicago Blackhawks. The 18th-overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft turned pro on March 16.

College Hockey Thursday Scores

NCAA Tournament
Worcester Regional
No. 3 Michigan State 2, Connecticut 1
Wisconsin 5, Dartmouth 1

Sioux Falls Regional
Quinnipiac 5, Providence 2
No. 2 North Dakota 3, Merrimack 0.

College Hockey Friday Schedule

NCAA Tournament
All times Eastern
Loveland Regional
No. 4 Western Michigan vs. Minnesota State, ESPNU, 2:30 p.m.
Denver vs. Cornell, ESPN+, 6 p.m.

Albany Regional
No. 1 Michigan vs. Bentley, ESPNU, 5:30 p.m.
Minnesota Duluth vs. Penn State, ESPN2, 9 p.m.

Hockey Quote of the Day

“Boston is both a world-class city, home to some of the best academic and medical institutions on the planet, and a quirkily parochial place, where one of the biggest annual sporting events involves college hockey players competing for a beanpot and where generations of baseball fans actively believed they were victims of a curse.”
Steve Kornacki

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Published
Christopher Walsh
CHRISTOPHER WALSH

Christopher Walsh is the founder and publisher of Alabama Crimson Tide On SI, which first published as BamaCentral in 2018, and is also the publisher of the Boston College, Missouri and Vanderbilt sites . He's covered the Crimson Tide since 2004 and is the author of 27 books including “100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die” and “Nick Saban vs. College Football.” He's an eight-time honoree of Football Writers Association of America awards and three-time winner of the Herby Kirby Memorial Award, the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing honor for story of the year. In 2022, he was named one of the 50 Legends of the ASWA. Previous beats include the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Originally from Minnesota and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, he currently resides in Tuscaloosa.

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