{"id":58820,"date":"2014-05-12T19:28:32","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T00:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=58820"},"modified":"2014-05-12T19:28:32","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T00:28:32","slug":"with-connecticut-joining-the-fray-hockey-east-revamps-its-playoff-format","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2014\/05\/12\/with-connecticut-joining-the-fray-hockey-east-revamps-its-playoff-format\/","title":{"rendered":"With Connecticut joining the fray, Hockey East revamps its playoff format"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hockey East approved an expansion of its playoff format during its recent league meetings in Naples, Fla. <\/p>\n
With Connecticut joining the conference for the 2014-15 season, the conference directors voted to include all 12 teams in the postseason tournament as well as use a best-of-three format in both the opening round and quarterfinal rounds.<\/p>\n
Those rounds, played at campus sites, precede the Hockey East championship weekend that will again be hosted by the TD Garden in Boston.<\/p>\n
“The directors heard from the coaches that the best time of the year for the athletes is playoff time and the coaches made a strong argument for increasing those playing opportunities for the students,” said Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna in a news release. “The inclusion of a fifth-place team in the opening round may also have
\nbeen a factor.”<\/p>\n
This past season, as Hockey East welcomed Notre Dame as its 11th member, the conference put on an 11-school tournament, with teams No. 6 through No. 11 paired off in a single-game, opening-round format. The three winners joined the teams seeded No. 1 through No. 5 to make up an eight-team quarterfinal field. <\/p>\n
In 2015, the Hockey East postseason will be best-of-three opening-round play on campus from March 6-8 (No. 5 hosts No. 12, No. 6 hosts No. 11, No. 7 hosts No. 10, No. 8 hosts No. 9), best-of-three quarterfinal-round play on campus March 13-15 (schools No. 1 – No. 4 host four opening-round winners, highest vs. lowest, etc.) and then the semifinals March 20 at TD Garden and the championship March 21 at TD Garden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hockey East approved an expansion of its playoff format during its recent league meetings in Naples, Fla. With Connecticut joining the conference for the 2014-15 season, the conference directors voted to include all 12 teams in the postseason tournament as well as use a best-of-three format in both the opening round and quarterfinal rounds. Those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n