NCAA Men’s Hockey Regional Teams Announced

MINNEAPOLIS (gopherSports.com) -The field for the 2016 NCAA Men's Hockey West Regional has been set and includes some of college hockey’s most recognizable programs.

The four-team regional will be contested March 26-27 at Xcel Energy Center and the winner will advance to the 2016 NCAA Frozen Four.

The region features St. Cloud State, Denver, Boston University and Ferris State. All four schools have won a regional before and advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four. Boston University has played in 22 Frozen Fours and has won five championships, most recently in 2009. Denver has advanced to the Frozen Four 14 times and have been crowned NCAA Champion seven times. Its most recent title came in 2005.

St. Cloud State and Ferris State have each advanced to one Frozen Four. St. Cloud State played in the Frozen Four in 2013 and lost in the semifinals to Quinnipiac. Ferris State played in the Frozen Four in 2012 and fell in the championship game to Boston College.

Regional action gets underway at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday, March 26, with No. 2 overall seed St. Cloud State playing Ferris State at 2 p.m. CT (ESPNews). That game will be followed by Denver against Boston University and that game is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. CT (ESPNU)

The winners of the two semifinal games will face each other at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 27 on ESPNU. The victorious team will advance to the 2016 NCAA Frozen Four, which is being held April 7-9 at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, Fla.

Each of four participating teams will host a free one-hour open practice at Xcel Energy Center on Friday, March 25. The open practice times are: 11:30 a.m., 12:45 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. Practice times for each team will be determined on Monday and announced on the same day.

Single-session tickets, which start at $55, are now on sale for the event. Tickets are available at Xcel Energy Center Box Office (box office is closed on Sunday, March 20, but is open from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. starting on Monday, March 21), Ticketmaster Ticket Centers, by calling 800-745-3000 or online at ncaa.com/tickets and ticketmaster.com.

Local college students and students from the four participating schools are able to purchase discounted tickets for the event. The tickets are $24 (subject to applicable fees) and students may purchase up to two tickets each day with a valid student ID. This offer is only valid at Xcel Energy Center box office and starts one hour prior to the start of each daily session.

For more information on the 2016 NCAA Hockey Division I Men's West Regional and the 2016 NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Championship please visit GopherSports.com, xcelenergycenter.com and ncaa.com/frozenfour.

2016 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey West Regional

Saturday, March 26 - Xcel Energy Center - St. Paul, Minn. (region seeds in parentheses)

No. 1 St. Cloud State (31-8-1) vs. No. 4 Ferris State (19-14-6) at 2 p.m. CT on ESPNews/WatchESPN

No. 2 Denver (23-9-6) vs. No. 3 Boston U. (21-12-5) at 5:30 p.m. CT on ESPNU/WatchESPN

Sunday, March 27 - Xcel Energy Center - St. Paul, Minn.

West Regional Championship at 4 p.m. CT on ESPNU/WatchESPN

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