INDIANAPOLIS â The National Collegiate Womenâs Ice Hockey Committee announced today the field of 11 teams that will compete in the 21st National Collegiate Womenâs Ice Hockey Championship. Regional competition will be held on the campuses of the top four sites, while the 2022 NCAA Womenâs Frozen Four will be hosted by Penn State University at Pegula Ice Arena in State College, Pennsylvania. Regional semifinals will be played March 10 with the regional finals March 12 on campus sites. The winning team from each regional final will advance to the 2022 NCAA Womenâs Frozen Four on March 18 and 20.
Eleven teams were selected for the championship. Of the 11 teams, the top five teams are seeded.
Four conferences were awarded automatic bids for the 2022 tournament. The remaining seven teams were selected at-large. The automatic qualifying conferences and their representatives are College Hockey America, Syracuse University; ECAC Hockey, Colgate University; Hockey East Association, Northeastern University; and Western Collegiate Hockey Association, The Ohio State University. Clarkson University, Harvard University, Quinnipiac University, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Yale University were selected as at-large teams.
Ohio State enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed and will host and play the winner of the regional semifinal on Thursday in the Ohio State Ice Rink between Quinnipiac and Syracuse. Minnesota, the No. 2 seed, will host and play the winner of the regional semifinal between Minnesota Duluth and Harvard which will be held Thursday at Ridder Arena. Northeastern enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will match-up against the winner of Thursdayâs regional semifinal between Wisconsin and Clarkson. Colgate, the No. 4 seed, will host Yale, the No. 5 seed, on March 12 in a regional final. All game times will be updated and posted on krikya18.com.
Both semifinal games will be broadcast live, Friday, March 18. The first semifinal game will air on ESPN+ at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time with the second semifinal game also being broadcast on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. Eastern time. The national championship game will take place at 4 p.m. Eastern time, Sunday, March 20 on ESPNU.
The 2021 championship was played in Erie, Pennsylvania with Wisconsin capturing the title by virtue of a 2-1 win over Northeastern.
For more information regarding the championship, log on to krikya18.com.