PC Hockey Faces Defending Champion Denver in First Round of NCAA Tourney - McMahon

PC Hockey Faces Defending Champion Denver in First Round of NCAA Tourney - McMahon

The Providence College hockey team, its coaches, and scores of fans gathered in the campus watering hole, McPhail’s Pub, on Sunday afternoon to hear their NCAA fate on college hockey’s Selection Sunday.  A large roar went up when “Providence” was announced to be playing the Denver Pioneers on Friday at 5:30 PM in the Manchester, NH regional.

The NCAA selects 16 teams for the tournament—6 conference winners and 10 at-large teams.   

Note that 6 of the 16 teams are Hockey East teams:  Boston College, Maine, UConn, Boston University, Providence, and Massachusetts. The Big 10 placed four teams in the tournament.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

Both UConn and Bentley are in the NCAA tournament for the first time. Bentley was an automatic bid since it won the Atlantic Hockey Association’s tournament this past Saturday.

The four regional sites for the first and second-round games this year are Manchester, NH; Allentown, PA; Toledo, OH; and Fargo, ND.  The Frozen Four will take place in St. Louis on April 10 and 12.  Providence has been an NCAA hockey regional location several times, most recently in 2019 and 2024

The placement of teams in the regional locations follows a traditional approach. The top four seeds are split up among the four regionals to play the bottom four seeds; the top seeds generally play as close to home as possible; other teams close to the regional sites typically play in those sites to drive attendance; and intra-conference games are avoided if possible.

The Friars last played the Denver Pioneers of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) in the 2023-24 season at Schneider Arena and won 4-3.

Denver is a tough draw for PC this year. In fact, PC has the toughest draw of any team in the tournament. Denver is the reigning National Champion. And if PC beats Denver, they then will likely play the #1 team in the country, Boston College.

Denver has won ten national championships—the most of any team in the country—and has won two of the last three, winning in 2022 and 2024.

 

Here are the matchup stats for PC and Denver.            

 

 

When asked on Sunday at the NCAA Selection Show gathering on the PC campus how PC would stop Denver’s scoring, Friar Coach Leaman answered, “Aggressive forechecking. We face high-scoring teams in Hockey East, and we know that consistent forechecking will be a key to slowing down Denver.  We also have to stay away from penalties.”

Even though PC is the #8 seed and Denver is the #9 seed, Denver is favored to beat the Friars for several reasons:

    --Denver simply has more talented goal scorers than PC;

    --Denver’s power play is significantly more effective than PC’s;

    --Providence will have had a two-week layover since its last game against UConn.

The Friars will have their hands full, but the last time Denver and Providence met in the NCAA tournament was in 2015, when PC beat Denver and then went on to win the NCAA title. Puck drop for the Denver-PC game is at 5:30 on Friday in Manchester, NH. It’s less than two hours' driving time, so let’s hope Friar fans turn out to support their team. The game will also be televised on ESPN+.