Daily Skate: NCHC, Big Ten teams push for home-site NCAA regionals
May 1—GRAND FORKS — The idea of playing NCAA regional games at home sites was raised again last week at the American Hockey Coaches Association convention in Naples, Fla.
Members of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and the Big Ten were the primary supporters of the change.
But like other times this idea has been raised in the past 10 years, there did not appear to be nearly enough consensus to make it happen, especially after a year in which attendance was strong at the regionals.
Those against the change have argued it's too big of an advantage to play at home.
Supporters noted that some schools who are against home-site regionals award their conference's NCAA tournament automatic bid through league tournaments that are played entirely at home sites.
Supporters of a change have raised a couple of different options.
In one, first-round regionals would be played at the home of the top eight seeds. Then, super regionals would be played the next weekend like the NCAA baseball tournament. That would lead into a neutral-site NCAA Frozen Four.
In another, the regional setup would remain the same, however, teams would be allowed to bid to play at home sites (example: Ralph Engelstad Arena) rather than pseudo-home sites (example: Fargo's Scheels Arena). In that scenario, teams would be limited to hosting once every three or four years.
If there is a change in tournament format — none seems likely at the moment — it couldn't happen until at least 2026-27. The NCAA has already awarded regionals and Frozen Fours through the 2025-26 season.
UND will host a regional in Fargo in 2025 and the Frozen Four in Las Vegas in 2026.
The NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee can make rules changes every other year.
This is not one of those years.
It does, however, have the ability to look at 2022's rules changes and make alterations if there were unintended consequences from the previous rules cycle.
Among the potential immediate rules adjustments:
1. Removing the ability to review goals for too many players on the ice. According to the rule book, a goal can be waived off if there's a "gained advantage" with the extra player, but there was ambiguity about what constitutes a "gained advantage."
2. Removing the ability for officials to review "any aspect" of a play when a coach challenges a call on the ice. It's possible the NCAA will only allow officials to look at the specific action coaches are challenging.
The Committee is allowed to issue points of emphasis in non-rules change years.
Several topics were discussed:
1. Coaches were not happy about some of the protocol penalties. Officials last season began calling minor penalties for teams that failed to leave the ice on time after pregame warmups or those who went to their goalie after the period instead of the locker room (this has long been in the rule book, but just ignored by officials). The coaches feel penalties should only be called in egregious situations — not if a player is one second late getting off the ice.
2. Currently, centers are allowed to stay and take draws after a first faceoff violation. They receive a minor penalty on a second violation. Previously, the center got thrown out of the dot after a first violation and a winger had to take the draw. The change was made a couple years ago to speed up the game. However, some are questioning whether the change actually sped up the game.
3. The Rules Committee wants to take steps to curb diving, embellishment and slew-footing.
Two of UND's youngest recruits were recognized Monday by the United States Hockey League.
Forwards Mac Swanson and Sacha Boisvert were named to the USHL's all-rookie teams.
Swanson, who tallied 12 goals and 55 points for the Fargo Force, was named to the first team.
Boisvert, who tallied 17 goals and 45 points for the Muskegon Lumberjacks, was named to the second team.
Both players are high school juniors. They are eligible to come to campus beginning in the fall of 2024.
According
to a report
in The Athletic, Snoop Dogg has joined with Neko Sparks to attempt to purchase the Ottawa Senators.
UND currently has four former players on Ottawa — defenseman Jake Sanderson, defenseman Tyler Kleven, defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker and forward Shane Pinto.
If that group emerges successful, the former Fighting Hawks could soon find themselves working for the legendary rapper.
* Warroad's Hampton Slukynsky won gold with Team USA at the IIHF World Under-18 Tournament in Basel, Switzerland, on Sunday. Slukynsky, a goaltender, played 6 minutes, 48 seconds in the tournament, stopping all four shots he faced.
* The USHL's Madison Capitols hired former Wisconsin Badgers assistant Andy Brandt to be their general manager and head coach. UND commit and former East Grand Forks Senior High defenseman Trey Ausmus plays for Madison.
