NCAA Tournament Takes Day 4: Denver, Penn State punch Frozen Four tickets

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Hockey East entered the NCAA tournament with six teams in the field, the most of any conference.

And they entered the regional finals with a chance to put four of those teams into the Frozen Four. Today, two of those teams could have punched their tickets.

But a few bad performances and a few unlucky bounces came together to create what is almost a worst-case scenario: Hockey East will send just one to the Frozen Four. No. 1 Boston College and No. 8 Providence lost to Denver. No. 3 Maine and No. 6 UConn lost to Penn State. No. 10 UMass lost to Western Michigan.

Only No. 7 BU was able to advance out of a regional, and now they have to play one of the two teams that already beat two Hockey East teams.

Funnily enough, the NCHC only put two teams in the tournament, and