There was plenty of excitement in the three Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal series that went ahead, with Army West Point, Canisius and Niagara advancing to Springfield over Sacred Heart, RIT and Robert Morris, respectively.

Now that the Frozen Faceoff has ended, it seems fitting to look back on the NCHC season. It’s likely that three teams from the conference may make the NCAA tournament, possibly four, but with so much up in the air with selection, it’s also possible only two teams, North Dakota and St. Cloud State, will be chosen.

Another sign of how much things have changed, as if one was needed, was evident in Sunday’s conversation with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren. When Warren took over at the helm of the conference in January 2020, a college hockey reporter opening an interview with a line of questions about an infectious disease wouldn’t have been normal. Such is life for the Big Ten, and sports in general, these days.

Shortly after dropping his son off for hockey practice, Lake Superior State coach Damon Whitten looks out from his office window at the Taffy Abel Arena. A collection of banners stares back at him. This is his office view every day, a reminder of the proud tradition of Lakers hockey that includes an era that stretches from 1987-96. They made the NCAA tournament eight straight times during that run, winning three national titles and finishing runner-up once. Since the 1995-96 season, the Lakers have topped the 20-win plateau just twice, most recently in 2018-19. It is something that weighs on Whitten, especially given the position of the banners in respect to his office.

For the most part, the four ECAC Hockey teams playing this year made it through the season unscathed. But news that Clarkson was cancelling its season last week after some team members violated the school’s COVID-19 policies brought back flashbacks to last March, when teams started to drop out of the league tournament before the entire hockey season was eventually canceled. However, that wasn’t the case this season, as the three remaining teams are set to compete in the abbreviated ECAC Hockey playoffs starting Thursday.

When Providence and Massachusetts square off this evening for a spot in the Hockey East title game, there will be two players on opposite sides who have evolved significantly this season to become offensive leaders of the respective clubs. UMass' Bobby Trivigno and Providence's Tyce Thomspon each lead their respective clubs in scoring, but both played have evolved throughout this season to each be playing their best hockey down the stretch.

Are we there yet? It’s a valid question, given how long this COVID-compressed season has felt, given how easily the season could have been derailed, given the intensity of competition that’s taken place in mostly empty arenas. As each team in the Big Ten prepares for the three-day, single-elimination playoff championship tournament that begins March 14, a picture of a unified, almost defiant conference emerges along with snapshots of the unique, specific experiences that define each team in the league.

“Our guys embraced, initially, that underdog role, and I think that has morphed and transformed itself into the fact that we wanted AIC to be a hockey destination. There’s not a lot of people that knew where Gonzaga was, but there’s a lot of people that know that they’ve got a really good basketball team. That’s the goal here for AIC. They might know that there’s this little school in Springfield, Massachusetts, but that school has a pretty good hockey team. We’re pretty proud of that.” - AIC coach Eric Lang

Prep work to get arguably the best facility in college hockey ready for a rearranged conference tournament is nearly complete. The Ralph Engelstad Arena (REA) in Grand Forks, N.D., is just about good to go for this year’s NCHC Frozen Faceoff.

Connor Murphy has played roughly 1,100 more minutes than he did a year ago. He went into the season expecting to fight for the top Northeastern goaltending job with Devon Levi, who spent the first part of the season with Team Canada for World Juniors. But Levi broke a rib, and hasn’t seen game action with Northeastern yet.

Bowling Green’s change in fortunes came at the most opportune time.

Entering last Saturday's game against then-No. 6 St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth was in a slump. Admittedly, the slump was only three games, but for the team that has won the last two national championships and played in three straight national championship games, it was cause for concern that the Bulldogs had lost three straight. While a win wasn't necessarily going to be a surprise, it's likely that few expected the Bulldogs to roll to a 5-1 triumph over St. Cloud.