2018 NCHC Tournament

2018 NCHC Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
Dates	March 9–17, 2018
Teams	8
Finals site	Xcel Energy Center Saint Paul, Minnesota
Champions	Denver Pioneers (2nd title)
Winning coach	Jim Montgomery (2nd title)
MVP	Tanner Jaillet (Denver)
NCHC Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments ← 2017 2019 →

The 2018 NCHC Tournament was the fifth tournament in league history. It was played between March 9 and March 17, 2018. Quarterfinal games were played at home team campus sites, while the final four games were played at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, Denver received the NCHC's automatic bid to the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

Format[]

The first round of the postseason tournament features a best-of-three games format. All eight conference teams participate in the tournament. Teams are seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The top four seeded teams each earn home ice and host one of the lower seeded teams.

The winners of the first round series advance to the Xcel Energy Center for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. The Frozen Faceoff uses a single-elimination format. Teams are re-seeded No. 1 through No. 4 according to the final regular season conference standings.^[1]

Conference standings[]

Note: GP = Games Played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PTS = Points; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against

2017–18 National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings v t
	Conference record									Overall record
	GP	W	L	T	SOW	PTS	GF	GA		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
#6 St. Cloud State	24	16	4	4	1	53	93	59		40	25	9	6	144	101
#5 Denver*	24	12	6	6	4	46	76	53		41	23	10	8	135	86
#1 Minnesota–Duluth	24	13	11	0	0	39	79	56		42	25	16	3	132	92
#17 North Dakota	24	8	10	6	3	33	71	68		40	17	13	10	117	95
Omaha	24	10	13	1	0	31	75	97		36	17	17	2	121	134
Western Michigan	24	10	13	1	0	31	82	94		36	15	19	2	115	129
Colorado College	24	8	12	4	3	31	63	85		37	15	17	5	99	121
Miami	24	6	14	4	2	24	62	89		37	12	20	5	103	128
Championship: March 17, 2018 indicates conference regular season champion; * indicates conference tournament champion Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll; updated March 5, 2018

Bracket[]

Teams are reseeded after the first round

	Quarterfinals March 9–11							Semifinals March 16					Championship March 17
	1	St. Cloud State	5	2	4*			1	St. Cloud State	3*
	8	Miami	2	3*	3			4	North Dakota	2
	2	Denver	0	3	6
	7	Colorado College	2	2	1								1	St. Cloud State	1
													2	Denver	4
	3	Minnesota-Duluth	5	2	—
	6	Western Michigan	0	0	—
													Third Place
	4	North Dakota	4	4*	—			2	Denver	3
	5	Omaha	0	3	—			3	Minnesota-Duluth	1			3	Minnesota-Duluth	1
													4	North Dakota	4

* denotes overtime periods

Results[]

All times are local.

Quarterfinals[]

(1) St. Cloud State vs. (8) Miami[]

March 9	St. Cloud State		5 – 2		Miami	Herb Brooks National Hockey Center	Recap
(Winiecki, Benson) Jack Ahcan - 06:02		First period			15:28 - Kiefer Sherwood (Hutton, Belpedio)
(Jackson, Brodzinski) Jimmy Schuldt - PP - 06:11 (unassisted) Blake Lizotte - GW - 15:14		Second period			No scoring
(Jackson, Borgen) - PP - 11:39 (Fitzgerald, Ahcan) - EN - 18:50		Third period			04:26 - (Sherwood, Hutton)
( 24 saves / 26 shots )		Goalie stats			( 24 saves / 28 shots )

March 10	St. Cloud State		2 – 3	OT	Miami	Herb Brooks National Hockey Center	Recap
No Scoring		First period			01:54 - (Mahalak, Sherwood) 17:33 - Grant Hutton (Sherwood, Mahalak)
(Eyssimont, Jackson) Ryan Poehling - PP - 07:20		Second period			No scoring
(Ahcan, B. Lizotte) - PP - 02:43		Third period			No scoring
No scoring		First overtime period			07:10 - GW - Grant Hutton (Belpedio, Knies)
( 17 saves / 20 shots )		Goalie stats			( 30 saves / 32 shots )

March 11	St. Cloud State		4 – 3	OT	Miami	Herb Brooks National Hockey Center	Recap
No Scoring		First period			09:31 - Grant Hutton (Sherwood, Green) 16:22 - PP - (Dornbrock, Mahalak)
(Jackson, Eyssimont) Jimmy Schuldt - 01:26 (Ahcan) - 18:13		Second period			01:31 - (LaValle)
(J. Lizotte, Borgen) - PP - 14:08		Third period			No scoring
(Newell, Ahcan) - GW - 08:14		First overtime period			No scoring
( 17 saves / 20 shots )		Goalie stats			( 30 saves / 32 shots )

St. Cloud State won series 2–1

(2) Denver vs. (7) Colorado College[]

March 9	Denver		0 – 2		Colorado College	Magness Arena	Recap
No Scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			05:07 - GW PP - (Blumenschein, Halloran) 09:27 - (Bradley, McCaskill)
( 21 saves / 23 shots ) Tanner Jaillet		Goalie stats			( 37 saves / 37 shots )

March 10	Denver		3 – 2		Colorado College	Magness Arena	Recap
No Scoring		First period			16:41 - SH - (unassisted)
(Mitchell, Lukosevicius) Henrik Borgström - PP - 02:06		Second period			17:40 - (Bradley, Bergh)
(Lukosevicius, Borgström) Troy Terry - 02:17 (Mitchell, Hillman) Troy Terry - GW - 14:29		Third period			No scoring
( 25 saves / 27 shots ) Tanner Jaillet		Goalie stats			( 46 saves / 49 shots )

March 11	Denver		6 – 1		Colorado College	Magness Arena	Recap
(Staub, Hillman) Logan O'Connor - 05:11 (Terry) - GW - 15:57		First period			No scoring
(Terry, Borgström) Jarid Lukosevicius - 06:33 (Terry) Henrik Borgström - 14:40 (Lukosevicius, Hammond) - 14:58		Second period			No scoring
(Terry, Borgström) Jarid Lukosevicius - 08:51		Third period			07:35 - (Bradley, Williams)
( 18 saves / 18 shots ) Tanner Jaillet / ( 9 saves / 10 shots )		Goalie stats			( 25 saves / 29 shots ) / ( 9 saves / 11 shots )

Denver won series 2–1

(3) Minnesota–Duluth vs. (6) Western Michigan[]

March 9	Minnesota–Duluth		5 – 0		Western Michigan	AMSOIL Arena	Recap
(Swaney, Samberg) - GW PP - 04:55 (Anderson, Perunovich) Riley Tufte - PP - 14:08		First period			No scoring
(Anderson, Krieger) Scott Perunovich - 04:55 (Perunovich, Anderson) - PP - 14:08		Second period			No scoring
(Exell, Wolff) - 17:54		Third period			No scoring
( 26 saves / 26 shots ) Hunter Shepard		Goalie stats			( 8 saves / 12 shots ) / ( 11 saves / 12 shots )

March 10	Minnesota–Duluth		2 – 0		Western Michigan	AMSOIL Arena	Recap
(Exell, Miller) - GW - 02:24		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
(unassisted) - EN - 00:52		Third period			No scoring
( 19 saves / 19 shots ) Hunter Shepard		Goalie stats			( 23 saves / 24 shots )

Minnesota–Duluth won series 2–0

(4) North Dakota vs. (5) Omaha[]

March 9	North Dakota		4 – 0		Omaha	Ralph Engelstad Arena	Recap
(Poganski, Poolman) Shane Gersich - GW - 13:52		First period			No scoring
(Gardner, Poolman) Christian Wolanin - PP - 01:00 (Shaw) - 12:39 (unassisted) - 16:39		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			No scoring
( 25 saves / 25 shots ) Cam Johnson		Goalie stats			( 30 saves / 34 shots )

March 10	North Dakota		4 – 3	OT	Omaha	Ralph Engelstad Arena	Recap
(Smith, Simonson) Matt Kiersted - 10:13 (Olson, Wolanin) - 14:05		First period			15:28 - (Buchta, Spinner)
No scoring		Second period			05:25 - (Vesel, Jones)
(Poolman, Shaw) - 10:14		Third period			05:41 - (Alferd, Pope)
(Kawaguchi, Poolman) - GW - 00:53		First overtime period			No scoring
( 18 saves / 21 shots ) Cam Johnson		Goalie stats			( 29 saves / 33 shots )

North Dakota won series 2–0

Semifinals[]

(1) St. Cloud State vs. (4) North Dakota[]

March 16	St. Cloud State		3 – 2	OT	North Dakota	Xcel Energy Center	Recap
(Ahcan, B. Lizotte) Patrick Newell - 05:54		First period			No scoring
(unassisted) - 05:53		Second period			04:39 - (Olson, Poolman)
No scoring		Third period			10:10 - PP - Jordan Kawaguchi (Olson, Jones)
(unassisted) - GW - 01:47		First overtime period			No scoring
( 21 saves / 23 shots )		Goalie stats			Cam Johnson ( 31 saves / 34 shots )

(2) Denver vs. (3) Minnesota–Duluth[]

March 16	Denver		3 – 1		Minnesota–Duluth	Xcel Energy Center	Recap
(Mitchell, Terry) Henrik Borgström - 08:55		First period			No scoring
(O'Connor, Davies) - GW - 04:22		Second period			01:37 - Scott Perunovich (Anderson, Thomas)
(O'Connor) - PP EN - 19:11		Third period			No scoring
( 24 saves / 25 shots ) Tanner Jaillet		Goalie stats			Hunter Shepard ( 16 saves / 18 shots )

Third place[]

(3) Minnesota–Duluth vs. (4) North Dakota[]

March 17	Minnesota–Duluth		1 – 4		North Dakota	Xcel Energy Center	Recap
No Scoring		First period			07:22 - Austin Poganski (Jones)
No scoring		Second period			07:22 - GW - (Poolman)
(Samberg, Exell) Mikey Anderson - SH - 16:37		Third period			15:51 - PP - Shane Gersich (Hoff, Poganski) 19:04 - PP - Ludvig Hoff (Wolanin, Kawaguchi)
( 27 saves / 31 shots ) Hunter Shepard		Goalie stats			Cam Johnson ( 27 saves / 28 shots )

Championship[]

(1) St. Cloud State vs. (2) Denver[]

March 17	St. Cloud State		1 – 4		Denver	Xcel Energy Center	Recap
No Scoring		First period			04:24 - (Barrow, Mitchell) 19:54 - GW - (O'Connor)
No scoring		Second period			02:06 - (Finlay, Olischefski)
(Fitzgerald) Ryan Poehling - 15:54		Third period			17:06 - Dylan Gambrell (unassisted)
( 10 saves / 13 shots ) / ( 13 saves / 14 shots )		Goalie stats			Tanner Jaillet ( 19 saves / 23 shots )

Tournament awards[]

Frozen Faceoff All-Tournament Team[]

• F Henrik Borgström (Denver)
• F (St. Cloud State)
• F (Denver)
• D Ian Mitchell (Denver)
• D Jack Ahcan (St. Cloud State)
• G Tanner Jaillet* (Denver)

* Most Valuable Player(s)

^[2]

References[]