This post will be updated.
A 16-9-4 regular season record, runner-up finish in the ECAC Tournament and No. 11 ranking in the PairWise has resulted in Cornell men’s hockey earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Red will take on No. 2 seed Northeastern next Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in the East Regional in Providence.
Joining the Red and Northeastern in the East regional are No. 1 seed Minnesota State and No. 4 seed Providence. All games in the East Regional will take place in the Dunkin Donuts Center. The first round will be broadcasted on ESPNEWS and the second round on ESPN2.
Should Cornell win the regional semifinal, it will take on the winner of Minnesota State and Providence in the regional finals on Sunday.
Cornell lost an overtime heartbreaker to Clarkson in the ECAC championship game on Saturday, but the Red’s win over Brown in Friday’s semifinals locked up an already nearly-assured spot in the national tournament.
It is the third consecutive NCAA bid for Cornell — the first time that has been accomplished in the 24-year tenure of head coach Mike Schafer ’86.
This will also be the third straight season that Cornell faces the Hockey East champion in the NCAA Tournament.
East Regional
📍 Providence, Rhode Island(1) @MavHockey
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(4) @FriarsHockey(3) @CUBigRedHockey
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(2) @GoNUMHockey#NCAAHockey pic.twitter.com/2vQy5ypdc4— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) March 24, 2019
After first-round losses in the NCAA Tournament to Massachusetts teams each of the last two seasons — UMass-Lowell in 2017 and Boston University last season — Cornell will hope to move past the first round for the first time since 2012, when it beat Michigan before falling to Ferris State in the regional finals.
Like it has been most of the season, Cornell will be shorthanded next weekend. Junior forward Jeff Malott is done for the year with a long-term knee injury suffered in the championship game against Clarkson, and sophomore goalie Matt Galajda also injured his knee in the loss, though his availability remains unclear.
Cornell is one of four ECAC squads to earn a tournament bid; no league earned more selections. In addition to the Red and the league champion Golden Knights, Quinnipiac and Harvard earned spots in the tournament. It’s the first time the league is sending four teams to the national tournament since the ECAC and Hockey East Association split in 1984.
The Red will hope for a similar fate as the Cornell women’s team, which beat Northeastern in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament en route to the program’s first Frozen Four since 2012.
The matchup between the Red and the Huskies will take place Saturday, March 30 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence.
The full 2019 bracket is below:
