Hockey East is the only one of college hockey’s six conferences to stage an entirely single-elimination tournament.
That’s just fine with Massachusetts coach Greg Carvel.
“Love it,” Carvel said. “I think the three-game series are stupid.”
A best-two-of-three quarterfinal round was a mainstay of the Hockey East tournament until 2021, the first year post-pandemic when the league scrapped the format in favor of three rounds of one-and-done.
For Carvel, it comes down to quality over quantity.
“It’s not the NHL where you can play a seven-game series,” Carvel said. “You earn home ice, you got one game, you should win that game. Why should I have to beat this team twice to move on?”
Hockey East commissioner Steve Metcalf, while maybe not as adamant in his opposition to best-of-three as Carvel, also favors a single elimination tourney. He said the format allows all 11 teams to participate in a compact tournament that spans only eight days.
“There’s no bye week when you’re idle, and no coach wants to have a bye week,” Metcalf said. “You’re playing single-game playoffs, which is what you do in any regular-season tournament and certainly the NCAAs. So the format is similar. You’re not putting undue wear and tear on your team with a two-out-of-three series.”
Currently, every conference except Hockey East features a three-game series at some point in its tournament. NCHC’s eight-team postseason is set for best-of-three quarterfinals and single-elimination semifinals and final in Minneapolis. ECAC Hockey’s 12-team tournament is single elimination in the preliminary round and best of three in the quarters, followed by a single-elimination final four in Lake Placid, N.Y. B1G and the CCHA do the good ol’ three-game set for its first round and single elimination after that at campus sites.
Atlantic Hockey America takes it to a relative extreme, with best-of-threes in both the quarterfinal and semifinal round, followed by a single-game final, all on campus sites.
A single-elimination quarterfinal, of course, increases the chance of a lower seed pulling off an upset, and creating what some might perceive as a nightmare scenario with the semifinals at TD Garden populated by less heralded teams. However, that has not been the case in the four tournaments Hockey East has staged since converting to an all-single-elimination format. The lowest seed to play at the Garden was No. 7, which happened twice — UMass Lowell in 2021 and Providence in 2023.
In fact, one would have to go back to 2014 for the last time the No. 1 seed failed to reach the Garden — No. 8 Notre Dame eliminated top seed Boston College 2 games to 1 in the quarterfinals. (BC did go on to the Frozen Four that year, losing to eventual champion Union (ECAC Hockey) in the national semifinals).
“That possibility exists,” Metcalf said of a possible scenario where an abnormal number of high seeds were sent packing in early rounds. “We’re also of the mind that there are a lot of teams that would draw well at the Garden. And we’ve sold a lot of tickets to the Garden already without knowing what teams are going to be there.”
Metcalf said a single-elimination tournament makes the regular season more competitive. Since seeds 1-5 receive a bye into the quarterfinals, and 6-8 get home ice in a preliminary round game, it adds a layer of intrigue that he thinks would be missing if only the top eight made the tournament and home ice went to the top four seeds.
“You’re able to reward teams for their place in the regular season,” he said. “(Seeds) 1-2-3 get something more than 4; 4 gets something more than 5 gets; 5 gets something more than 6 gets. You’re playing for something right through to the end of the regular season.”
With the conclusion of Wednesday night’s preliminary round, the Hockey East quarterfinals are now set. On Saturday, No. 6 UMass (2-1 winner over No. 11 Vermont) will visit No. 3 Boston University; No. 7 Lowell (3-2 overtime winner vs. New Hampshire) is at No. 2 Maine; and No. 9 Northeastern (3-2 overtime winner at Merrimack and the only lower seed to advance to the quarterfinals) is at No. 1 BC.
One quarterfinal matchup was already set — No. 5 Providence will visit No. 4 Connecticut on Friday night. The semifinals and final are March 20-21 at TD Garden.
