The puck drops on NCAA women’s ice hockey conference championships

The GIST: Spring is in the air, but we’re not done with winter just yet — the puck dropped on most women’s hockey conference tournaments this week, the first step on the road to the March 23rd national championship game.

• And while it’s early in the postseason, these games are certainly not short on intrigue: The unique playoff structure makes the hunt for the natty extra-spicy from the beginning.

The context: Like other NCAA sports, hockey’s conference tourneys offer the winner an automatic bid to the national championship bracket. But that’s especially coveted in women’s hockey because the bracket is so small: Only five auto-bids and six at-large selections qualify for the 11-team natty.

• And while parity is improving, there are still only a handful of teams that dominate that at-large selection process…so if a squad wants to make a Cinderella run to the Frozen Four, they better clinch their spot by winning their conference tourney.

The top contenders: Only five different schools have ever won the sport’s 23 national tournaments, and four of them hail from the WCHA. It’s by far the most competitive conference, containing four of the top six programs, so expect world-class hockey and a whole lot of rivalry action when all eight teams take the ice today starting at 3 p.m. ET.

• No. 9 Clarkson, the fifth program to hoist the hardware, competes in the ECAC, the second-toughest conference. These East Coast early birds are already through their first round, which means quarter-final action awaits you starting today at 2 p.m. ET. Game on.