Mar. 11—GRAND FORKS — UND is not headed to St. Paul this weekend.
The decades-long tradition of playing the conference semifinals and championship in the Twin Cities is over.
The National Collegiate Hockey Conference has abandoned the neutral-site final four in favor of playing its entire tournament at home venues.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOther leagues around the country have gradually started to go this route.
The Central Collegiate Hockey Association, Big Ten and Atlantic Hockey have all shifted their tournament format in the last decade. The NCHC is starting it this year.
It means Saturday's semifinal game between UND and Minnesota Duluth will be in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The other semifinal between Denver and Western Michigan will be at Denver's Magness Arena.
"You were watching from afar — the Big Ten and some of their final games and the CCHA," UND coach Dane Jackson said. "It looked pretty impressive when you see how much passion there was in the home sites. I think that's what got our attention. Obviously, we had great experiences at the old Xcel Energy Center for a lot of years. It's hard to keep that momentum. I'm really excited about it. I think it's going to be a great shift for us."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSeveral players and coaches spoke in favor of the change this week.
"The biggest games of the year should have the best crowds of the year," Western Michigan coach Pat Ferschweiler said. "Hopefully, we can turn this into the NCAA as well and figure out how to do that better as well. I think this is a great stepping stone.
"Congratulations to Denver and Grand Forks for earning the right to host these games. We would have loved to be at Lawson Arena. They'd have been hanging off the rafters here in a pretty special environment. But both those places will be pretty special, too. We're really looking forward to it."
Although it means the Broncos will be playing on the road, Western Michigan captain Owen Michaels said he's excited for it.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"That's what it's all about," Michaels said. "That's how it should be in every kind of format in college hockey. We're looking forward to going into a great environment and playing some great hockey."
Denver captain Kent Anderson has played in back-to-back NCHC title games in St. Paul, but said he welcomes the change in format.
"It's really exciting to play more playoff hockey in front of home buildings, especially for us here at Magness," Anderson said. "It's great for the players, the fans. . . just the excitement of having a trophy on the line. I think it's great for college hockey. Even away games, just the energy, you don't have that when you're not in a home building."
The neutral-site conference tournament reached its peak in the mid-2000s with the old Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center, now known as Grand Casino Arena.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThey'd regularly pack in 18,000 fans for matchups that featured some of college hockey's biggest names like North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Denver.
But in 2013, Minnesota and Wisconsin moved to the newly formed Big Ten. UND, Denver, Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State, Colorado College, Omaha, Miami and Western Michigan created the NCHC.
The league tournament was never the same — for anybody.
The remaining members of the WCHA — now the CCHA — changed their format to home sites in 2017. The Big Ten followed suit in 2018. The NCHC hung on until 2025.
Last year's NCHC double overtime final between Denver and Western Michigan drew just under 6,000 fans in an 18,000-seat building — a massive change from the raucous atmospheres of 20 years ago.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"We're excited to not only see our building, but also the semifinal atmosphere in The Ralph," Denver coach David Carle said. "I think it'll be wonderful and a great showcase of NCHC hockey, and a great experience for all four teams that are still remaining."
Minnesota Duluth coach Scott Sandelin said his main concern is the length of the new format. It is now three weeks instead of two. It means NCAA-bound teams could have a longer time off before the NCAA tournament.
Had the Bulldogs lost to St. Cloud State in a quarterfinal series last weekend — they were trailing in the final minute of both games — they would have been off for 20 days before the NCAA tournament.
The same thing happened to Minnesota last year. The Gophers were upset by Notre Dame in the Big Ten quarterfinals and had 18 days off before the NCAA tournament. The Gophers then lost to UMass in the first round.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"My concern moving forward is hopefully we don't have any situations like Minnesota last year, where a top seed gets knocked out early and has to sit out for an extended period of time before you play a regional game," Sandelin said. "I think that's going to be tough. Right now, it's good. Nothing like that happened in the first week."
The losers of this weekend's semifinals will have two weeks off before their NCAA tournament game, rather than one like the past.
"You look at this weekend and two teams are going to be out and waiting to play," Sandelin said. "As our league adds St. Thomas, there could be more and more of those possibilities in the future."
Sandelin said he is looking forward to good atmospheres in the home sites, though.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHe attended a CCHA final when his son, Ryan, played at Minnesota State.
"It was a pretty fun environment," he said. "I expect the same thing in our buildings."
NCAA regional crowds have been hit-and-miss over the last 15 years, depending on which teams are placed in which regionals.
Some NCHC coaches are pushing for the regionals to shift to campus sites like most other NCAA sports, including women's hockey, women's basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball. The new College Football Playoff also begins on campus sites.
"It's an opportunity lost to feature college hockey at its best," Ferschweiler said of neutral-site NCAA regionals. "The home environment in front of the students, absolutely beautiful buildings. . . I think this is a failure, no doubt, and hopefully we can correct this in years moving forward."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMichaels, the Most Outstanding Player of last year's NCAA Frozen Four, said he'd also like to see NCAA regionals played at home sites.
"I think that would be awesome, getting those games at the end of the year, playoff games, two teams playing for their lives, on campus," Michaels said. "You'd get the student sections. They'd be electric. I think that would be a ton of fun to play in and be a part of. Whether at Lawson or on the road, I think it would be awesome. I know our group would love that, but that's well above our pay grade, so we'll leave it to the people in charge to handle that stuff, and we'll go wherever they tell us."
Carle said with four of the six NCAA leagues playing their own league playoffs at home, it should help trigger change at the NCAA level.
"It just continues to drive forward the chatter and conversation about why do we play regional games at neutral sites," Carle said. "It actually makes zero sense the way we do it. We have people who are willing to die on a hill for it, for whatever reason, and want to stay stuck in the past, and who have a real closed mind with wanting to change and wanting to try to grow the excitement around our sport, which we all feel is so excellent and can be enhanced by the fans and their engagement."
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