2015 NCHC Tournament

The 2015 NCHC Tournament was the second tournament in league history. It was played between March 13 and March 21, 2015. Quarterfinal games were played at home team campus sites, while the final four games were played at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, Miami received the NCHC's automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

2015 NCHC Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
Dates	March 13–21, 2015
Teams	2
Finals site	Target Center Minneapolis, Minnesota
Champions	Miami RedHawks (1st title)
Winning coach	Enrico Blasi (1st title)
MVP	Blake Coleman (Miami)
NCHC Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments ← 2014 2016 →

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 Target 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

2014–15 National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings
	Conference record									Overall record
	GP	W	L	T	SOW	PTS	GF	GA		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
#3 North Dakota	24	16	6	2	0	50	72	55		42	29	10	3	138	94
#8 Miami *	24	14	9	1	1	44	73	60		40	25	14	1	130	100
#4 Omaha	24	12	8	4	3	43	67	56		39	20	13	6	105	90
#5 Denver	24	13	10	1	1	41	79	68		40	24	14	2	131	99
#6 Minnesota–Duluth	24	12	9	3	0	39	68	59		40	21	16	3	115	97
#10 St. Cloud State	24	11	12	1	0	34	69	56		40	20	19	1	109	97
Western Michigan	24	6	13	5	4	27	51	73		37	14	18	5	98	107
Colorado College	24	2	19	3	1	10	43	95		35	6	26	3	74	136
Championship: March 21, 2015 indicates conference regular season champion; * indicates conference tournament champion Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll; updated March 23, 2015

Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round

	Quarterfinals March 13–15							Semifinals March 20					Championship March 21
	1	North Dakota	5	3	—			1	North Dakota	1
	8	Colorado College	1	2	—			6	St. Cloud State	3
	2	Miami	5	5	4
	7	Western Michigan	3	7	0								6	St. Cloud State	2
													2	Miami	3
	3	Omaha	1	1	—
	6	St. Cloud State	2**	3	—
													Third Place
	4	Denver	4	4	—			2	Miami	6
	5	Minnesota-Duluth	3	0	—			4	Denver	3			1	North Dakota	1
													4	Denver	5

* denotes overtime periods

Results

Quarterfinals

All times are local.

(1) North Dakota vs. (8) Colorado College

March 13	North Dakota		5–1		Colorado College	Ralph Engelstad Arena	Recap
Brendan O'Donnell (12) – PP – (Mattson, LaDue) – 08:01		First period			No scoring
Nick Mattson (4) – (unassisted) – 14:48 Connor Gaarder (7) – (Poganski) – 19:56		Second period			No scoring
Paul LaDue (5) – (Mattson, L. Johnson) – 04:01 Tucker Poolman (7) – (Stecher, Pattyn) – 07:07		Third period			02:14 – Matt Hansen (3) – (unassisted)
Zane McIntyre ( 21 saves / 22 shots )		Goalie stats			Tyler Marble ( 21 saves / 26 shots ) Chase Perry ( 10 saves / 10 shots )

March 14	North Dakota		3–2		Colorado College	Ralph Engelstad Arena	Recap
Jordan Schmaltz (4) – (N. Schmaltz, Parks) – 16:16		First period			15:23 – Teemu Kivihalme (5) – (Roos, Stoykewych)
Brendan O'Donnell (13) – (Mattson, Poganski) – 09:20		Second period			No scoring
Connor Gaarder (8) – (Poganski, Chyzyk) – 18:38		Third period			06:10 – Luc Gerdes (4) – (Bradley, Fejes)
Zane McIntyre ( 31 saves / 33 shots )		Goalie stats			Tyler Marble ( 28 saves / 31 shots )

North Dakota wins series 2 – 0

(2) Miami vs. (7) Western Michigan

March 13	Miami		5–3		Western Michigan	Goggin Ice Center	Recap
Blake Coleman (14) – (Barber, Paulides) – 09:42		First period			18:43 – Colton Hargrove (13) – (Dries)
Louie Belpedio (5) – PP – (unassisted) – 12:07		Second period			06:11 – SH – Sheldon Dries (14) – (unassisted)
Kevin Morris (5) – PP – (Coleman, Belpedio) – 06:54 Blake Coleman (14) – (Barber, Joyaux) – 12:48 Alex Gacek (4) – EN – (unassisted) – 19:18		Third period			01:44 – Kyle Novak (8) – (Muir, Nitsche)
Ryan McKay ( 31 saves / 34 shots )		Goalie stats			Lukas Hafner ( 20 saves / 24 shots )

March 14	Miami		5–7		Western Michigan	Goggin Ice Center	Recap
Riley Barber (18) – (Sullivan, McKay) – 02:24		First period			12:11 – SH – Frederik Tiffels (10) – (unassisted)
Austin Czarnik (6) – (Murphy, Coleman) – PP – 08:28 Austin Czarnik (7) – (Louis) – 11:03		Second period			01:33 – Frederik Tiffels (11) – (unassisted) 02:17 – Nolan LaPorte (11) – (Dries, Hargrove) 09:48 – Colton Hargrove (14) – (LaPorte, Dries) 02:17 – PP – Kyle Novak (5) – (Kessel, Kovacs) 19:16 – Chris Dienes (5) – (Hargrove, Fleming)
Sean Kuraly (18) – (Morris, Louis) – EA – 16:22 Blake Coleman (16) – (Czarnik, Kuraly) – EA – 19:37		Third period			19:48 – EN – Will Kessel (7) – (Kovacs, Moldenhauer)
Ryan McKay ( 11 saves / 16 shots ) Jay Williams ( 7 saves / 8 shots )		Goalie stats			Lukas Hafner ( 19 saves / 22 shots ) Frank Slubowski ( 25 saves / 27 shots )

March 15	Miami		4–0		Western Michigan	Goggin Ice Center	Recap
Scott Dornbrock (2) – (Gacek, Wideman) – 10:30		First period			No scoring
Riley Barber (19) – (Murphy, Coleman) – 01:57 Austin Czarnik (8) – (Morris, Louis) – 03:12		Second period			No scoring
Blake Coleman (17) – EN – (Morris) – 15:07		Third period			No scoring
Jay Williams ( 35 saves / 35 shots )		Goalie stats			Frank Slubowski ( 8 saves / 11 shots ) Lukas Hafner ( 14 saves / 14 shots )

Miami wins series 2–1

(3) Omaha vs. (6) St. Cloud State

March 13	Omaha		1–2	2OT	St. Cloud State	CenturyLink Center Omaha	Recap
No scoring		First period			14:02 – David Morley (14) – (Nevalainen, Ilvonen)
Austin Ortega (19) – (Guentzel, Cooper) – SH – 09:43		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			No scoring
No scoring		Second overtime period			09:49 – Joey Benik (14) – (Morley)
Ryan Massa ( 7 saves / 8 shots ) Kirk Thompson ( 30 saves / 31 shots )		Goalie stats			Charlie Lindgren ( 45 saves / 46 shots )

March 14	Omaha		1–3		St. Cloud State	CenturyLink Center Omaha	Recap
No scoring		First period			15:59 – PP – David Morley (16) – (Storm, Ilvonen)
No scoring		Second period			11:47 – Nick Oliver (3) – (Rehkamp, Daly)
Grant Gallo (2) – (Brady, Guentzel) – EA – PP – 16:44		Third period			17:38 – Joey Benik (14) – (Murray)
Kirk Thompson ( 25 saves / 28 shots )		Goalie stats			Charlie Lindgren ( 35 saves / 36 shots )

St. Cloud State wins series 2 – 0

(4) Denver vs. (5) Minnesota-Duluth

March 13	Denver		4–3		Minnesota-Duluth	Magness Arena	Recap
Ty Loney (8) – (unassisted) – 10:52		First period			05:00 – Kyle Osterberg (6) – (Toninato, Corrin)
No scoring		Second period			04:42 – Andy Welinski (9) – (D. Johnson, Cameranesi)
Ty Loney (9) – (Janssen, Q. Shore) – 01:22 Danton Heinen (15) – (LaLeggia, N. Zajac) – PP – 06:46 Ty Loney (10) – (Q. Shore, LaLeggia) – 15:26		Third period			03:32 – Cal Decowski (4) – (Thomas)
Tanner Jaillet ( 27 saves / 30 shots )		Goalie stats			Kasimir Kaskisuo ( 28 saves / 32 shots )

March 14	Denver		4–0		Minnesota-Duluth	Magness Arena	Recap
Trevor Moore (20) – (unassisted) – 19:38		First period			No scoring
Danton Heinen (16) – (Butcher, Levin) – 07:36 Matt Tabrum (2) – (Jacobson, Arnold) – 12:38		Second period			No scoring
Joey LaLeggia (13) – (unassisted) – EA – 17:37		Third period			No scoring
Evan Cowley ( 36 saves / 36 shots )		Goalie stats			Kasimir Kaskisuo ( 28 saves / 31 shots )

Denver wins series 2–0

Semifinals

(1) North Dakota vs. (6) St. Cloud State

March 20	North Dakota		1–3		St. Cloud State	Target Center	Recap
Keaton Thompson (3) – (Poolman, Simonson) – 15:02		First period			19:35 – David Morley (17) – (Brodzinski, Prow) 19:54 – Joey Benik (15) – (Russell)
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			18:55 – EN – Joe Rehkamp (5) – (Bertsch, Rabey)
Zane McIntyre ( 21 saves / 23 shots )		Goalie stats			Charlie Lindgren ( 19 saves / 20 shots )

(2) Miami vs. (4) Denver

March 20	Miami		6–3		Denver	Target Center	Recap
Riley Barber (20) – (Caito) – 14:15 Anthony Louis (8) – (Czarnik, Caito) – 18:58		First period			17:27 – Will Butcher (3) – (Didier)
Cody Murphy (12) – (Coleman) – 04:53 Austin Czarnik (9) – (Morris) – 18:26		Second period			18:52 – PP – Daniel Doremus (11) – (unassisted)
Louie Belpedio (6) – (Louis, Morris) – 09:38 Alex Gacek (5) – (Wideman, Paulides) – EN – 17:32		Third period			06:05 – Trevor Moore (21) – (Heinen, Doremus)
Jay Williams ( 22 saves / 25 shots )		Goalie stats			Evan Cowley ( 15 saves / 18 shots ) Tanner Jaillet ( 8 saves / 10 shots )

Third Place

(1) North Dakota vs. (4) Denver

March 21	North Dakota		1–5		Denver	Target Center	Recap
Connor Gaarder (9) – (O'Donnell, Poolman) – 14:34		First period			15:07 – Josiah Didier (3) – (unassisted) 17:50 – Quentin Shore (10) – (N. Zajac, Loney)
No scoring		Second period			10:27 – Matt Tabrum (3) – (VanVoorhis, N. Zajac)
No scoring		Third period			06:02 – Nick Neville (1) – (Arnold, Tabrum) 17:50 – Emil Romig (4) – (Moore)
Zane McIntyre ( 30 saves / 35 shots )		Goalie stats			Tanner Jaillet ( 25 saves / 26 shots )

Championship

(2) Miami vs. (6) St. Cloud State

March 21	Miami		3–2		St. Cloud State	Target Center	Recap
Blake Coleman (18) – (Barber, Murphy) – 16:15		First period			06:03 – PP – Jonny Brodzinski (20) – (Prow, Benik)
Blake Coleman (19) – (Czarnik, Belpedio) – PP – 07:37 Blake Coleman (20) – (Joyaux) – 09:20		Second period			12:00 – Joey Benik (16) – (Prow)
No scoring		Third period			No scoring
Jay Williams ( 18 saves / 20 shots )		Goalie stats			Charlie Lindgren ( 18 saves / 21 shots )

Tournament awards

Frozen Faceoff All-Tournament Team

• F Blake Coleman* (Miami)
• F Austin Czarnik (Miami)
• F Joey Benik (St. Cloud State)
• D Louie Belpedio (Miami)
• D Tim Daly (St. Cloud State)
• G Charlie Lindgren (St. Cloud State)

* Most Valuable Player(s)

References

1. http://www.nchchockey.com/news_article/show/491055?referrer_id=878553