Montana Tech Hockey Qualifies for Western Regionals

The Montana Tech Digger Hockey team qualified for the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II Western Regional Tournament, which will be hosted by Arizona State University in Tempe on February 28th and March 1st. The top two teams in each Region receive a berth* to the National Tournament; and teams ranked third through tenth vie for the two remaining spots in the National Tournament. The West Region consists of 39 teams.

*This year, the host team for the National Tournament is University of Utah, so they receive an automatic berth.   “This is a great honor and an amazing feat for a team in only its fifth season,” noted Montana Hockey Team manager Mary North-Abbott. “This is a group of 22 young men, primarily studying engineering (20 engineering students, 13 of them in petroleum engineering), who pay $1,000 each to participate on the team and take a couple of nights each week away from their studies to practice.”

The Diggers are 18-4 on the season, beating teams such as:  Arizona State (Elite), Weber State, Washington State, Utah State, Montana State, Brigham Young and San Jose State Universities.  The other teams that advanced to Regionals practice five times a week, have conditioning and dryland training, and a have a paid coaching staff. North-Abbott added, “The sheer talent we have on the team is remarkable; for them to compete with much larger schools and at the high level they do, is very impressive.”   Montana Tech will play #8 Denver University, a team they lost to in the Mountain West Collegiate Hockey League playoffs two weeks ago. The Diggers didn’t play their usual high caliber game during the league tournament and definitely look forward to avenging that loss next weekend.

For more information on the Western Regional Tournament schedule, please visit:  http://www.sundevilhockey.com/DII/?page_id=1518.

The west ranked teams are listed below by school and points:  

1. Arizona State Elite (12) 10
2. Northern Arizona  (1)  20 
3. Utah**    30
4. Boise State   43
5. Montana Tech   58 
6. Utah State   60 
7. Arizona State PAC8  75
8. Denver    78
9. Weber St   82
10. Loyola Marymount   96
11. Cal St Fullerton  117
12. San Jose St   120
13. Cal St Long Beach  123
14. Cal St Northridge  149
15. San Diego St / North Texas 151

Also Receiving Votes: Texas AM-Texas   For more information on the rankings, please visit http://achahockey.org/view/achahockey/men-s-d2-1/men-s-division-2-acha-rankings  or contact Mary North-Abbott at mnorthabbott@mtech.edu.