Frozen Four
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The Frozen Four is the trademarked name of the final two rounds of the NCAA Division I championship of ice hockey in the USA. Schools advance in a single-elimination tournament from four regional sites to a single site, where the national semifinals and final game are played. The NCAA started a women's Frozen Four beginning in the 2000-01 season.
In 2006, the men's version will take place at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while the women's version will be held at Mariucci Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
The 2005 men's semifinals, at Value City Arena on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, pitted defending champion Denver against Colorado College and Minnesota against North Dakota. Denver defeated North Dakota in the championship game to win their second straight National Championship. The 2005 women's final, held at the Whittemore Center on the campus of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire, matched defending champion Minnesota with 2004 runnerup Harvard, with the Gophers successfully defending their title with a 4-3 win.
The Frozen Four, though not called as such, began in 1948 when Michigan defeated Dartmouth. The first 10 championships were played at the Broadmoor Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo.. Since then, sites rotate as chosen by the NCAA Division I ice hockey committee. The tournament was first referred to as the "Frozen Four" in 1999, and previous tournaments were retroactively renamed.
The Frozen Four regularly sells out well in advance, helping make the Division I men's ice hockey tournament one of the most profitable for the NCAA, trailing only the Division I men's basketball tournament.
The semifinals of the Frozen Four were once played on Thursday and Friday, with the championship on Saturday. But it provided an unfair advantage for the team with the extra rest. The semifinal games are now played in separate sessions on Thursday, with a championship game on Saturday. The Hobey Baker Award ceremony, Hockey Humanitarian Award ceremony, and USCHO.com Town Hall Meeting take place annually on Friday of Frozen Four weekend. The Patty Kazmaier Award is handed out during the women's Frozen Four.
Future Frozen Four sites
Men:
- 2006: Bradley Center (Milwaukee, WI)
- 2007: Savvis Center (St. Louis, MO)
- 2008: Pepsi Center (Denver, CO)
Women:
- 2006: Mariucci Arena (Minneapolis, MN)
- 2007: Herb Brooks Arena (Lake Placid, NY)
See also
- NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship (listing final games in all divisions)
- NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Championship (listing final games in all divisions)