The 2019 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament was the national championship tournament for men's college ice hockey in the United States. The tournament involved 16 teams in single-elimination play to determine the national champion at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the highest level of competition in college hockey. The tournament's Frozen Four – the semifinals and finals – were hosted by the MAAC at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York from April 11–13, 2019. This was the second Frozen Four in the city of Buffalo, as it previously hosted in 2003.
This year’s tournament was the first since 2007 to feature multiple programs, AIC and Arizona State, making their first appearance in the NCAA playoffs. Arizona State’s tournament appearance was also the first for an Independent program since 1992.
The tournament is as remembered for the lack of attendance as anything that happened on the ice. All semifinal and championship games had at least 5,000 fewer spectators than the building capacity (19,070) and the title game saw the lowest attendance since 2000. Though there was much discussion on the matter, a general consensus by fan bases was that the ticket prices of $200–$300 were far too high even for a championship game.
Tournament procedure
The tournament is composed of four groups of four teams in regional brackets. The four regionals are officially named after their geographic areas. The following are the sites for the 2019 regionals: Future NCAA DI Championship sites through 2026 | NCAA.com March 29–30 Northeast Regional, SNHU Arena – Manchester, New Hampshire (Host: New Hampshire) West Regional, Scheels Arena – Fargo, North Dakota (Host: North Dakota) March 30–31 East Regional, Dunkin' Donuts Center – Providence, Rhode Island (Host: Brown) Midwest Regional, PPL Center – Allentown, Pennsylvania (Host: Penn State)
The winner of each regional will advance to the Frozen Four: April 11/13 KeyBank Center – Buffalo, New York (Host: MAAC)
Qualifying teams The at-large bids and seeding for each team in the tournament were announced on March 24. Teams were seeded according to their PairWise rankings (PWR) 1 thru 16 then matchups were adjusted to prevent teams from the same conference meeting in the first round. After the four groups were decided they were placed in regions as close, geographically, to the top seed as possible. The ECAC Hockey had four teams receive a berth in the tournament, the NCHC and Hockey East each had three teams receive a berth, the WCHA and Big Ten had two teams receive a berth, while one team from Atlantic Hockey received a berth. For the first time since 1992 an independent program, Arizona State, also received a tournament berth.
West Regional – FargoMidwest Regional – AllentownSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth typeAppearanceLast bidSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth typeAppearanceLast bid1St. Cloud State (1)NCHC30–5–3At Large14th20181Minnesota–Duluth (2)NCHC25–11–2Tournament champion13th20182DenverNCHC22–11–5At-Large29th20182QuinnipiacECAC25–9–2At-Large6th20163Ohio StateBig Ten20–10–5At-Large9th20183Arizona StateIndependent21–12–1At-Large1stNever4American InternationalAtlantic Hockey22–16–1Tournament champion1stNever4Bowling GreenWCHA25–10–5At-Large10th1990East Regional – ProvidenceNortheast Regional – ManchesterSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth typeAppearanceLast bidSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth typeAppearanceLast bid1Minnesota State (3)WCHA32–7–2Tournament champion6th20181Massachusetts (4)Hockey East28–9–0At-Large2nd20072NortheasternHockey East27–10–1Tournament champion7th20182ClarksonECAC26–10–2Tournament champion22nd20183CornellECAC20–10–4At-Large22nd20183Notre DameBig Ten22–13–3Tournament champion11th20184ProvidenceHockey East22–11–6At-Large15th20184HarvardECAC19–10–3At-Large25th2017
Number in parentheses denotes overall seed in the tournament.
Tournament bracket
Note: * denotes overtime period
Results
West Region – Fargo, North Dakota
Regional semifinal
Regional Final
Midwest Region – Allentown, Pennsylvania
Regional semifinal
Regional Final
East Region – Providence, Rhode Island
Regional semifinal
Regional Final
Northeast Region – Manchester, New Hampshire
Regional semifinal
Regional Final
Frozen Four – KeyBank Center, Buffalo, New York
National semifinal
2019 National Championship
(MW1) Minnesota–Duluth vs. (NE1) Massachusetts
Scoring summary Period Team Goal Assist(s) Time Score 1st UMDParker Mackay (16) – GW PPAnderson and Tufte 3:51 1–0 UMD 2nd UMDMikey Anderson (6)Mackay and Richards 35:48 2–0 UMD 3rd UMDJackson Cates (8)Laderoute and Anderson 57:18 3–0 UMD Penalty summary Period Team Player Penalty Time PIM 1st UMAMarc Del GaizoInterference 2:31 2:00 UMDScott PerunovichHolding 12:23 2:00 UMAJake GaudetElbowing 18:37 2:00 2nd UMDNoah CatesRoughing 36:59 2:00 UMACale MakarInterference 39:41 2:00 3rd UMDKobe RothElbowing 46:47 2:00 UMDPeter KriegerHolding 54:58 2:00 UMAKurt KeatsRoughing 58:15 2:00
Shots by period Team 1 2 3 T Massachusetts 5 7 6 18 Minnesota–Duluth 14 11 6 31
Goaltenders Team Name Saves Goals against Time on ice UMA Filip Lindberg 28 3 60:00 UMD Hunter Shepard 18 0 59:53
All-Tournament team G: Hunter Shepard (Minnesota–Duluth) D: Mikey Anderson (Minnesota–Duluth) D: Marc Del Gaizo (Massachusetts) F: Parker Mackay* (Minnesota–Duluth) F: Justin Richards (Minnesota–Duluth) F: Billy Exell (Minnesota–Duluth) * Most Outstanding Player(s)
Record by conference Conference# of BidsRecordWin %Regional FinalsFrozen FourChampionship GameChampions ECAC Hockey 4 2–4 2 – – – NCHC 3 6–2 2 2 1 1 Hockey East 3 5–3 2 2 1 – Big Ten 2 1–2 1 – – – WCHA 2 0–2 – – – – Atlantic Hockey 1 1–1 1 – – – Independent 1 0–1 – – – –
Media
Television ESPN had US television rights to all games during the tournament for the fifteenth consecutive year. ESPN aired every game, beginning with the regionals, on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, and ESPN3, which were streamed online via WatchESPN.
In Canada, the tournament was broadcast by TSN and streamed on TSN Go.
In the UK, the tournament was broadcast by BT Sport ESPN.
Broadcast assignments Regionals Northeast Regional: John Buccigross, Barry Melrose, Colby Cohen and Quint Kessenich – Manchester, New Hampshire West Regional: Clay Matvick and Dave Starman – Fargo, North Dakota East Regional: Leah Hextall and Billy Jaffe – Providence, Rhode Island Midwest Regional: Kevin Brown and Fred Pletsch – Allentown, Pennsylvania
Frozen Four John Buccigross, Barry Melrose, Colby Cohen and Quint Kessenich – Buffalo, New York
Radio Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the Frozen Four and broadcast both the semifinals and the championship. Brian Tripp, Pat Micheletti, & Shireen Saski
References