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BC Bulletin

A Wild Start to Hockey's Championship Weekend and Bracketology Update: 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|
Merrimack goaltender Max Lundgren makes a save with the end of his stick against Massachusetts in the 2026 Hockey East semifinals.
Merrimack goaltender Max Lundgren makes a save with the end of his stick against Massachusetts in the 2026 Hockey East semifinals. | John Sexton/Boston College On SI
  1. Women's Frozen Four
  2. ECAC Tournament
  3. Hockey East Tournament
  4. AHA Tournament
  5. Big Ten Tournament
  6. NCHC Tournament
  7. Breacketology Update
  8. Puck Drop: Saturday, March 21, 2026
  9. Hockey Quote of the Day
  10. We'll Leave You With This ...

Minnesota State is in. Boston College, Massachusetts and St. Thomas are all out. A couple of teams are going to be sweating Saturday out in a big way.

On the women's side, for the fourth-straight year Ohio State and Wisconsin will square off for the national championship, although that meeting was anything but a lock on Friday, when the home team at Penn State's Pegula Ice Arena put up a huge fight and took the reigning champions to overtime.

There's a lot to get to but let's start with the CCHA. Junior defenseman Evan Murr and senior forward Tristan Lemyre both had a goal and two assists, and Alex Tracy gave up just one goal as for the second straight year Minnesota State edged St. Thomas to win the the conference championship game. Junior Luigi Benincasa and senior Jack Smith scored third-period goals to put the game away with third-period goals, and senior captain Mason Wheeler blocked a season-high 11 shots.

With the win, the Mavericks claimed the first automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament, and moved up to No. 14 in National Collegiate Percentage (NPI) Index that will be used to determine at-large teams and the seedings for the upcoming NCAA Tournament (see below). Minnesota State has won four of the five Mason Cup titles since the CCHA was reconstituted for the 2021-22 season.

Women's Frozen Four

Friday, March 20
At Pegula Ice Arena, Penn State
No. 1 Ohio State 5, No. 5 Northeastern 0
No. 2 Wisconsin 4, No. 3 Penn State 3

Championship Game
Sunday, March 22
At Pegula Ice Aren, Penn State
1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Wisconsin, ESPNU, 4 p.m. ET

• No. 1 Ohio State took control with four goals in the second half of the first period, while goaltenderHailey MacLeod made 15 saves to notch the shutout. Joy Dunne got the first one at 10:14, and was followed by Kaia Malachino and Sanni Vanhanen, with Emma Peschel netting hers with .6 reamining on the clock. Sara Swiderski completed the scoring in the third period on a shot that deflected off a Huskies defender. The Buckeyes (36-4) put 42 shots on goal.

• Senior Kristen Simms scored her 100th career goal on a power play just a minute into overtime to send No. 2 Wisconsin (34-4-2) to its fourth-straight NCAA championship game.  Laila Edwards scored two goals and Adéla Šapovalivová had one on a wraparound for the Badgers. Penn State's Tessa Janecke scored the first goal of the game, and also on a breakaway with 4:59 remaining to tie the game at 3-3. It was the frist Frozen Four appearance for the host No. 3 Nittany Lions (33-6), who played in front of a program and Women’s Frozen Four record crowd of 5,176.

ECAC Tournament

Semifinals
Friday, March 20
At Lake Placid, N.Y.
Dartmouth 4, Clarkson 0
Princeton 3, Cornell vs. 2

Championship
Saturday, March 21
At Lake Placid, N.Y.
Dartmouth vs. Princeton, 5 pm ET

• Although Dartmouth was outshot 31-26, it scored all the goals to defeat Clarkson and advance to the ECAC Championship for the first time since the 1979-80 season. Emmett Croteau notched the shutout and his teammates blocked 17 shots. Nathan Morin and Colin Grable both scored in the first period and the Big Green added two empty-net goals.

• Joshua Karnish broke a 2-2 tie with 7:55 to go as Princeton advanced to play for an ECAC Championship for the first time since 2018. David Jacobs and Julian Facchinelli both scored and Kai Daniells had two assists. George Fegaras scored on Cornell's first shot of the night, and Ryan Walsh had the other goal for the Big Red.

Hockey East Tournament

Semifinals
Friday, March 20
At TD Garden, Boston
Merrimack 2, Massachusetts 0
Connecticut 4, Boston College 3 (OT)

Championship
Saturday, March 21
Connecticut vs. Merrimack, 7 p.m. ET

Junior goaltender Max Lundgren was the story, making 24 saves to record the first shutout in the Hockey East semifinal since Connor Hellebuyck (2014). It was also his first shutout since Oct. 24, his first-ever start for the Warriors. Sophomore Ryan O'Connell got the game-winning goal, which was all Umass goaltender Michael Hrabal gave up before the Warriors got an empty-netter. Merrimack became the first-ever No. 8 seed, and the lowest-seeded team, to ever advance to the Hockey East Final, where is will face Connecticut, which edged Boston College in overtime.

AHA Tournament

Championship
Saturday, March 21
Sacred Heart at Bentley, 7 p.m. ET

Big Ten Tournament

Championship
Saturday, March 21
Ohio State at Michigan, BTN, 8 p.m. ET

NCHC Tournament

Championship
Saturday, March 21
Minnesota Duluth at Denver, 6 p.m. MT

Breacketology Update

The NCAA tournament includes the six conference tournament champion, plus the 10 top at-large teams. Minnesota State is the first conference champion. The 10 teams that are locks regardless of Saturady's outcomes are (in order) Michigan, North Dakota, Michigan State, Western Michigan, Denver, Minnesota Duluth, Dartmouth, Providence, Penn State and Quinnipiac.

Some things that we learned after Friday's games.

• Wisconsin has not locked down a spot yet. It will finish No. 12 in RPI, but it needs one of the bid-stealers to lose on Saturday. Explanation: A bid-stealer is a team ranked lower than No. 16 that wins its conference tournament and "steals" the spot from the bottom of the top 16. For example, the winner of the AHA tournament between Bentley and Sacred Heat (No. 25 and 27 respectively) means that it's impossible for the team at No. 16, St. Thomas, to get an at-large bid.

If No. 19 Ohio State (Big Ten), No. 20 Princeton (ECAC) and No. 22 Merrimack (Hockey East) win their conference championships, the teams out would be No. 14 Augustana, No. 13 Connecticut and, yes, Wisconsin.

• Augustana fans need to root for a sweep by No. 1 Michigan, No. 7 Dartmouth and Connecticut.

• By losing to Princeton, Cornell fell to No. 11 in NPI, but that could make it easier for the selection committee to put the Big Red in the Albany regional.

Puck Drop: Saturday, March 21, 2026

• The Hockey Commissioners Association announced three finalists for the 2026 Mike Richter Award for outstanding goaltender: Trey Augustine, Michigan State (Big Ten), Michael Hrabel, Massachusetts (Hockey East), Josh Kotai, Augustana (CCHA). Augustine was a 2025 semifinals.

• Breakaway On SI says there's no question anymore who the No. 1 pick should be in the 2026 NHL Draft, that Penn State freshman Gavin McKenna has reclaimed his status as the clear top player.

• Merrimack College named former Boston College assistant coach Courtney Kennedy, who had been with USA Hockey since 2013 including as the head coach of the Under-18 USA Hockey team, the new head coach of the women's ice hockey team.

• Interesting quote from CRO.ticker from Dave Checketts, the former Utah Jazz and New York Knicks president, warning that private equity firms would be forced to aggressively monetize venues in ways that fundamentally clash with traditional college fanbases. “Where private equity ends up in college sports is one of the great questions around and I would love to invest, and we have the capital to invest, but I don’t understand how that’s all going to play out.”

Hockey Quote of the Day

"It's been a long time coming. It's a historic moment for USA Hockey."
Cammi Granato on first world title

We'll Leave You With This ...

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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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