NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament: Manchester Regional Preview

Story posted March 23, 2023 in CommRadio, Sports by Logan Bourandas

With many of the collegiate hockey powerhouses based in the other regionals for the 2023 NCAA Tournament, there are fewer eyes on the Manchester Region, which happens to include last season's champion.

Denver looks to start its quest for back-to-back titles as it comes in as the No. 1 seed in the region and No. 4 overall in the tournament.

Even without the Bobby Brinks of the world who put up dominant campaigns en route to a title, the Pioneers reloaded in the hopes of championship number 10.

Sophomore Massimo Rizzo took a huge jump this season, leading the team with 46 points while senior Magnus Chrona had another strong season in net with a 2.19 goals against average and a .915 save percentage.

While the Pioneers didn’t come away with the NCHC conference title, falling in the semifinals to Colorado College, they still finished with a 30-9 record with a solid 8-5 record against ranked opponents.

Their first-round matchup will be against Cornell which makes its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2019.

Like Denver, the Big Red also came up short in its conference tournament falling in overtime to Harvard in the ECAC semifinals.

That capped off a season where Cornell finished with a 20-10-2 clip with the big resume-boosting win coming back in late January with a 4-0 win over then-No. 1 ranked Quinnipiac.

While the Big Red have six players with 20 points or more, the big piece to watch is in the net as sophomore Ian Shane helped Cornell allow just two goals a game on the season.

In 29 starts, Shane won 19 of them with an impressive 1.76 goals against average and a .913 save percentage.

The other matchup in the region starts out with Boston University which earned the No. 2 seed in this region.

For the Terriers, they have appeared in the third-most NCAA Tournaments all-time with this marking appearance No. 38.

Helping the push to make this most recent appearance was a run in the Hockey East conference tournament that can be taken out of a fairy tale.

In both the semifinals and finals, the Terriers found themselves down by one goal in the third period but tied it up in both games for the eventual overtime winners.

Scoring the goal in the championship-winning game was freshman defender Lane Hutson who was the teams leading point-scorer with 47.

Senior forward Matt Brown has also played a big role with a huge jump from the prior year.

Brown scored 17 points in the 2021-22 season but that has gone up to 44 points to add an extra dimension to the Terriers' offense.

They’ll take on the Western Michigan Broncos who are making their second consecutive appearance in the tournament.

Looking to improve off of a regional finals appearance last season, the Broncos came away with a 23-14-1 record.

The Broncos failed to win a game in the NCHC Quarterfinals, falling in a two-game sweep against Colorado College and losing the final game in overtime.

Western Michigan boasts three 40-point scorers on their roster led by freshman Ryan McAllister with 48 on the season.

All the action from the Manchester Region is set to get underway on Thursday.

Logan Bourandas is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.