Detroit - After Sunday’s 3-2 CCHA Tournament championship game loss to Michigan, an irritated MSU head coach Ron Mason said he didn’t want to talk about the NCAA Tournament.
“We don’t know who we’re playing, and we don’t know where we’re going to be,” Mason said.
Well, now the Spartans know both. MSU (27-8-5) received a No. 3 seed in the West Regional, which starts Friday at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor. The Spartans will face No. 6 seed Colorado College (25-12-3) at 4:30 p.m. Friday. If they win, they will battle No. 2 seed Minnesota at 4 p.m. Saturday.
Had the Spartans beat U-M in Sunday’s title game, they might have earned a No. 2 seed and thereby a first-round bye. But the Spartans are trying to keep their focus on the future, not the past.
“We’re pretty happy with it,” junior defenseman Brad Fast said of the No. 3 seeding Sunday night. “Colorado College will be a good game for us. I don’t know too much about them yet, but it will be a huge game.
“We’re just excited to be in the tournament.”
U-M also is in the West Regional, as a No. 4 seed against No. 5 seed St. Cloud State. But because of the tournament’s cross-region Frozen Four format, MSU and U-M can’t meet until the NCAA final.
Two teams from each region will advance to the Frozen Four on April 4 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. If all favorites were to win, the No. 1 seed from the West would play the No. 2 seed from the East and vice versa.
The national championship game is April 6.
Denver is the No. 1 seed in the West and, along with Minnesota, gets a first-round bye. In the East Regional in Worcester, Mass., No. 1 seed New Hampshire and No. 2 seed Boston University received byes.
The East Regional starts Saturday with first-round games pitting No. 3 seed Maine versus No. 6 seed Harvard and No. 4 seed Cornell against No. 5 seed Quinnipiac.
MSU is 3-1-3 against teams in the tournament field, with a 2-0-0 record against Quinnipiac, 1-1-2 mark versus U-M and a single tie against Minnesota.
Tickets for the West Regional are on sale now through U-M. Call (734)764-0247 or log on to www.mgoblue.com for ticket information. A U-M spokesperson said Sunday night about 1,500 tickets remain.
“Ann Arbor is always hostile toward us, no matter what,” senior right wing Adam Hall said. “But as far as traveling distance, it’s nice because it’s the shortest.
“I didn’t really know how we’d be seeded with Michigan winning the tournament, but it’s a nice seed. CC isn’t a team we face often, but we played them early in my MSU career, so they’re not totally unknown.”
Hall was referring to one of the better games in recent MSU history, when the Spartans topped the Tigers 4-3 in the West Regional semifinal on March 28, 1999, in Madison, Wis. MSU’s four four-year seniors were freshmen in that game.
Late last month, senior defenseman Andrew Hutchinson said the victory over Colorado College was his favorite game as a Spartan.
MSU trails the overall series to the Tigers 33-43-1, although the teams have only played three times since 1981. Colorado College won the most recent meeting - a 4-1 decision on Oct. 9, 1999, in Colorado Springs.
Colorado College claimed third place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Tournament with a 2-1 win over St. Cloud State on Saturday. The Colorado Springs-based school has an enrollment of 1,950.
James Jahnke can be reached at jahnkeja@msu.edu.
