Twenty Teams Battle For Five Conference Titles, NCAA Auto-Bids This Weekend

North Dakota all but ended Minnesota-Duluth's season on Thursday night, winning the play-in game to the WCHA Final Four. While UMD still has a chance at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament field, which will be announced on Sunday, their season very well could be over.

Meanwhile, twenty teams are still vying for just five conference championships in the WCHA, CCHA, ECAC, Hockey East and Atlantic Hockey. All five conferences will name champions this weekend, kicking off their final four festivities on Friday evening.

We've already previewed the ECAC Hockey Final Four, which begins at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY on Friday night with two semifinal games. The 11th-seeded Brown University Bears shocked the college hockey world by advancing with a three-game series win over top-seeded Yale. The Bulldogs will likely make the NCAA's on an at-large bid, but Brown's only chance is to win this tournament. They'll start that process against second-ranked Cornell in the do-or-die semifinal at 4 PM ET Friday.

At 7 PM Eastern in the other semifinal, the kind-of-hometown-team from Schenectady, Union College, takes on the St. Lawrence Saints. The two winners of these games will face off in the championship game on Saturday at 7, while the losers will face off in the consolation game on Saturday at 4. The entire tournament will be broadcast live on NHL Network.

Switching to the WCHA, their unconventional 'Final Five' tournament kicked off with the UND-UMD play-in match Thursday night. As mentioned, North Dakota won that game 2-0 to move on to the Final Four, which begins with two Friday games at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN.

At 2:07 PM Central, St. Cloud State will take on the Wisconsin Badgers for the right to advance to the championship game. Wisconsin has a ridiculous defensive corps and they're the only team in the country with two Hobey Baker Award finalists. St. Cloud has hit a rough patch at exactly the wrong time of year, winning just three of their last eight games before the tournament. They've made it this far, though, and as the number three seed, there's no reason to think they can't win two straight games.

In the other semifinal at 7:07 PM CT, North Dakota will face top-seeded Denver. DU has basically already secured a top-seed in the NCAA's, so the big question coming into the weekend is simply if they want to win as badly. The winners advance to the championship game on Saturday at 7:07 CT, while the losers will play in the third-place game at 2:02 PM CT Saturday. The tournament will be broadcast on Fox Sports North.

The CCHA Championship also kicks off Friday with two games at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. At 4:35 Eastern, Northern Michigan will take on Ferris State, and both of these teams are strictly on the NCAA bubble. The only way they're guaranteed to play beyond this weekend is to win two games and a CCHA title. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports Detroit.

In the second semifinal, top-ranked Miami University will face seventh-ranked Michigan at 8:05 ET. Miami rolled through the regular season with just six losses, but they survived a scare last weekend against Ohio State in this tournament. Michigan is out of NCAA contention without winning the tournament this weekend. This semifinal will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.

Switching back east to the often forgotten Atlantic Hockey Association, they'll hold their Final Four at Rochester, New York's Blue Cross Arena on Friday and Saturday. Playing in their own city, Rochester Institute of Technology has absolutely run away with things in AHA this season, taking 55 points, a league record. Their opponent at 4:05 PM ET is Canisius, another semi-local team from Buffalo who swept Mercyhurst College to get this far. Canisius is certainly the underdog, but in a one game semifinal anything can happen.

At 7:35 ET, Air Force will take on Sacred Heart in the other semifinal. They've played each other four times this season in two weekend series. Each team swept on home ice, but in one game at a neutral site, who knows what will happen. Here's a stat for you, however: Air Force has won the AHA three years running now, compiling a 13-1 record in tournament play all-time.

The Atlantic Hockey tournament is not televised, but the winners will face off in the final at 7:05 ET on Saturday. For all four teams, it's do-or-die in terms of making the NCAA tournament, a fact that could make the AHA tournament the most entertaining of the lot.

Finally, we come to Hockey East, another tournament in which most of the teams have a lot to play for. Boston University, Boston College, Vermont and Maine comprise the Final Four, with only BC having an NCAA bid locked up. Vermont has a shot at making the NCAA's if they lose this weekend, but nothing is guaranteed. BU and Maine absoultely, positively need to win the Hockey East title to advance to the national tournament.

In the 5 PM ET game at Boston's TD Garden, BC will take on eighth-ranked Vermont. While UVM has never beaten BC in the Hockey East tournament -- 0-3 all time -- they're 2-1 against the top-seeded Eagles this season. In the Friday nightcap, third-ranked BU will take on fourth-ranked Maine at 8 PM ET. The final will take place at 7 PM on Saturday night. Each game will be broadcast on NESN.

If you're slightly confused because UVM has a shot at the NCAA's despite a lower seed in Hockey East than BU and Maine, well, you're not the only one. It has to do with the PairWise rankings, the system the NCAA selection committee uses to determine who makes the national tournament. As you can see on the linked chart, Vermont is ranked 13th there entering this weekend while BU and Maine are tied in 18th.

Twenty teams left, battling for just five conference titles. It's hard to believe that it gets any better than this.