ESPN College Sports

This year, more than any in recent memory, college hockey features no dominant team heading into the NCAA Tournament.

The result is more than just a wide-open field.

As the brackets were announced Sunday morning, they contained a number of intriguing matchups. This weekend alone, we could see déjà vu all over again, with up to five rematches of national championship games from the last nine years.

In this quick look at the best and worst of the brackets, we examine some of those matchups and fill you in on what to expect when the tournament opens Friday afternoon.

Biggest Controversy
With the selection of the teams pretty cut and dried, the only eyebrow-raisers involved the placements of a couple seeds. First, Denver edged Colorado College for the No. 2 seed overall, even though some of the mathematical comparisons favored the Tigers. But the defending champion Pioneers won the head-to-head comparison, including Saturday's WCHA championship game, to earn a first-round game against Bemidji State.

Elsewhere, the numbers gave Minnesota the top seed over Cornell even though the Big Red have the nation's best record and won the ECACHL regular-season and playoff titles. Those teams could potentially meet in the West Regional final, making the question of where they are seeded fairly inconsequential.

Best No. 2 Seeds
Michigan is the nation's highest-scoring team. Cornell is the best defensive team in the land. Both won their respective league titles in the regular season and playoffs, but it wasn't good enough for either to earn a No. 1 seed. Their presence in the Midwest and West Regionals, respectively, compound the difficulty Colorado College and Minnesota face in getting to the Frozen Four.

Boston College and Denver, the other No. 1 seeds, not only get to face the Atlantic Hockey and College Hockey America autobids in the first round, respectively, but would also meet North Dakota and New Hampshire, the "lesser" No. 2 seeds, in the second round.

Best First-Round Matchup
New Hampshire and Harvard won't have to travel far to get to Amherst for the Northeast Regional. However, the matchup should be worth the trip for anyone in attendance. This looks to be the most evenly matched first-round game. The Wildcats play a free-wheeling, offensive style, while the Crimson like a bit more defensive game. But Harvard has enough skill up front to keep pace with UNH.

Most Likely First-Round Upset

Discounting the No. 2 vs. 3 games — since those would be mild upsets at best — the biggest chance for a surprise lies in the West Regional. Minnesota's rematch of the 2002 national championship game against Maine in the first round could spell trouble for the top-seeded host school.

Black Bear goaltender Jimmy Howard is an upset waiting to happen, while Minnesota played Saturday's game without its leading scorer, Tyler Hirsch, after a bizarre postgame incident on Friday night. Hirsch's status is uncertain for this weekend. The Gophers could also be missing freshman defenseman Alex Goligoski, who was injured in Saturday's WCHA consolation game.

All-Injury Bracket
Regional hosts may want to create an auxiliary training room at the DCU Center in Worcester. The top two seeds, Boston College and North Dakota, enter with injury lists that read like a Hobey Baker Award watch list. Each team's best offensive player — Patrick Eaves for BC and Brady Murray for the Sioux — is questionable for the weekend, heading the lengthy injury dockets.

Most Intriguing Possible Regional Final
A Michigan-Colorado College game — which would be a rematch of the 1996 national championship — looms in Grand Rapids. The meeting would feature a fantastic offensive duo on each side. CC's Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling share the national lead with 61 points apiece. Michigan's T.J. Hensick and Jeff Tambellini, who've each scored 52 points this season, haven't been quite as productive but are nearly as fun to watch.

ESPN.com's college hockey notebook is compiled by the staff of insidecollegehockey.com, an ESPN.com associate.