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NCAA Hockey Tournament Picture: March 6

Penn State will be in Ann Arbor for its most critical games of the season in the best-of-3 first round of the Big Ten tournament. The Nittany Lions are most likely in a win-and-in situation, but games from other conferences will loom large for the overall tournament picture. The Big Ten, Atlantic Hockey, ECAC, and CCHA all begin conference tournaments this week, with Hockey East and the NCHC following suit next week.

Playoff Picture

Based on the current Pairwise and the probability matrix, the playoff picture looks like this, with projected conference tournament champions in italics:

Locks (8): Boston College, Michigan State, Minnesota, Maine, Western Michigan, Providence, UConn, Boston University
Safe (2): Ohio State, Denver
Bubble In (4): Michigan, UMass, Quinnipiac, Penn State
Automatic Bids (2): Minnesota State, Holy Cross

Bubble Out (2): UMass-Lowell, Arizona State

Some notes here:

  • Quinnipiac- ranked No.