The NCAAs: Whats at stake this weekend?

The answer to the question in the title is, frankly, not a whole lot. BC is pretty much going to be the #1 seed in Manchester, NH. With their series win last weekend, UNH has solidified themselves as a solid 2 or 3, meaning the committee SHOULD put the Eagles in the Northeast Regional.

With that said, the field is starting to take shape, and the bubble is getting thinner for the borderline schools.....

1 Yale
2 North Dakota
3 Boston College
4 Michigan
5 Miami
6 Denver
7 Minnesota-Duluth
8 Merrimack
9 Union
10 Notre Dame
11 New Hampshire
12 Western Michigan
13 Nebraska-Omaha
14 Colorado College
15 Dartmouth
16 RIT (Atlantic Hockey leader)

Bubble: RPI, BU, Maine, Minnesota all need some help this weekend. None of these teams are alive in their respective conference tourneys.

BC stands pat as a #1 in the latest PWR, but the big thing here is that with one more win, Northeastern enters as a TUC. This would not hurt BC much, as they would have a 2-2-1 record against the Huskies should they fall Friday night, but it won't help, either. A loss would probably keep them in 1 seed land, which means a favorable opening round opponent and an easier route to the Frozen Four, but that added TUC record could turn ugly. Its best to beat NU and get the auto berth as Hockey East champs.

UNH is in pretty good shape here, too. A loss to a top ten PWR team like Merrimack would not hurt their standing either. This is good, a 4 seed for UNH means BC is going out west.

Here's the take home message: BC does not NEED this weekend to go terrifically well to get where they want to go in the NCAA tourney. They do, however, want to win this thing. WE want them to win this thing. This is playoff hockey, and the more of it you play, the better. They will put their best effort to take home another Hockey East championship. We'll take a look at the final four later this week....