How the NCAA Tournament and Frozen Four works

Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty ImagesThe NCAA hockey season will now to switching to the postseason, so I thought I’d do a quick write up explaining how it all works. It took me a while to understand, because there are three phases. Because Toronto will have one high profile prospect and a few other lower profile guys with chances to win the ultimate championship, I thought I’d do a quick explainer.

So, in short there are three steps to the NCAA post season for men’s ice hockey.

1) Conference tournaments

2a) NCAA Tournament

2b) NCAA Frozen Four

Here’s how each of the phases works. Note: this all concerns men’s Division I programs only.

NCAA Conference Tournaments

There are six Conferences among…