On Saturday night, the Yellowjackets had a chance to win the NCHA playoff title outright, and gain an automatic qualifier into the NCAA tournament, someplace they hadn't been since their last Peters Cup run in 2006.  They dropped the ball on Saturday, falling 4-3 to UW-Stout and forcing themselves, and their faithful who have come out strong at Wessman Arena the past several weeks, to sweat out the selection process of the tournament field.

Despite Saturday's loss, the 'Jackets maintained their number one ranking in the west region, and will live to host one more game, coming up Saturday, March 14 when Gustavus comes to town.  The Gusties won the automatic qualifier for the MIAC, defeating Hamline 5-2 in the final.

"I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm not happy because I'm thrilled with the way this came down, for a couple of reasons," said Yellowjacket Head Coach Dan Stauber.  "First, it's great for our team.  I've been on the other side of that where we've won the Peters Cup and not gotten that number one seed.  We felt with the way we've played all season long that we put ourselves in position to still hold that top seed even though we lost.

"Second, I'm thrilled to see four western teams in the field.  That means there will be two teams from the west playing in the Frozen Four.  It's been a long time since that's happened.  It's good for our region and good for the game."

In addition to the Yellowjackets, fellow NCHA heavyweights UW-Stout and St. Scholastica, along with MIAC champion Gustavus made the field.  St. Scholastica will travel to UW-Stout next Saturday.  The last time that two western teams advanced to the Frozen Four was in 2001, when Superior and River Falls made it.  Superior fell to Plattsburgh while River Falls lost to RIT.  Superior defeated River Falls in the third place game.  Plattsburgh went on to win the title.

"I feel for Terry because I know what he is going through," Stauber said.  "It's tough to win that final game and not get the number one seed.  But the benefit they will have is not having to deal with the play-in game.  They go straight to the quarterfinals and only have to win one to get to Lake Placid.  That's a nice perk for the four western teams this year."

There will be three play-in games, all of which will be played in the east region.  Seven teams made the field from the east - Plattsburgh, Amherst, Hobart, Elmira, Neumann, Babson and Nichols.  Plattsburgh is the one eastern team to get a bye into the quarterfinals.  Elmira will host Neumann in a rematch of their ECAC West semifinal game.  Hobart will host Nichols and Amherst will host Babson.  The winner of Elmira/Neumann will then travel to Plattsburgh while the winners of Amherst/Babson and Hobart/Nichols will meet in the other east region semifinal.

For the Yellowjackets, it's their first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2006, when the current senior class were freshmen.  That year, they won a play-in game against St. Olaf, 2-1 at Wessman Arena to advance to the quarterfinals.  There, they were annihilated by St. Norbert, the team they had beaten in the Peters Cup finals just a week before, by an 8-2 score.  This marks the first time that the 'Jackets will have hosted an NCAA quarterfinal game since 2001, when they beat St. John's 5-4 and 4-0 to advance to the Frozen Four in Rochester, N.Y.

"We had a hiccup over the weekend, and now we're getting a second chance.  Our guys need to realize that, as great as our season has been, none of that means anything now.  We played well and gave ourselves the chance to be in this position.  Now, there are no more chances.  We have to win to keep playing," Stauber said.

Ticket information for Saturday's game, as well as further NCAA tournament information will be available as the week progresses at www.jackethockey.com.