The Clemson club ice hockey team will add another feather to its cap on this historic season next week as the Tigers travel to West Chester, Pennsylvania for their second straight and first-ever AAU national tournament appearance. I am trying to do.
Clemson will play the No. 5 Bishop's Gators starting Friday and the No. 6 Liberty Flames on Saturday. The Tigers then close out the weekend with a game against No. 16 Vanderbilt on Sunday, March 10th.
Last season, Clemson barely made it into the 32-team tournament as the No. 31 seed, but upset two of the three teams in the pool in the opening round. After losing to No. 2 Niagara in their first nationals tournament, the Tigers defeated No. 15 Penn State Harrisburg and No. 23 Fredonia State.
The No. 11 Tigers caught the league's attention after the team's performance in last season's tournament and its recent “Cinderella run” in the College Hockey South DII playoffs. In his AAU tournament last season he had 32 teams participate, but this season's show was more exclusive, with only his 20 teams from Division II able to compete.
After impressing everyone, including his team members, in last season's tournament, earning a spot this season has been one of the Tigers' biggest sources of motivation from day one.
“We all feel like we can make a real run at Nationals this year, but last year we didn't get the respect we deserved in the Nationals rankings,” forward Tommy Papa said before the Clemson-Florida State matchup earlier this season. I couldn’t do it,” he told The Tiger. .
“Some of our biggest rivals have moved up to DI, so we can't move up with them, but we feel we have something to prove.”
The top seed in Clemson University's pool belongs to the Bishop University Gators (7-7-1). Based in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, the Gators compete in the New England Independent Hockey Conference (NEIHC) alongside schools such as Stonehill College, Anna Maria College, and Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
The Liberty University Flames (13-5-0) participate in the Atlantic Coast Conference Hockey League (ACCHL) and are one of Clemson's biggest competitors. This season, the Flames and Tigers shared his two opponents, the South Carolina Gumcocks and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.
Last weekend, Clemson lost to South Carolina for the third time in the 2023-2024 season, 5-3. In September, the Liberty split a series with the Gamecocks, winning the first game 4-2, but losing the next day 5-2.
Similarly, the Flames split a series with Coastal Carolina two weeks ago, defeated the Chanticleers 5-4 on Feb. 9, but fell 4-3 the next day. Ironically, on the same weekend in September that Liberty split with South Carolina, Clemson swept Coastal Carolina 6-3, 3-2.
Clemson will have a rematch with Vanderbilt to close out pool play, but judging from the previous matchups between the two teams, the Commodores started the spring semester with a 6-1, 3-0 win over the Tigers. We should be concerned.
According to AAU, the winner of each pool will be determined by points and standard tiebreakers. These tiebreakers include wins, points won, goals conceded, goal difference, goals conceded, minimum penalties, and fastest goals, among other statistics. The winners of each pool will advance to the national championship semi-finals after the pool play round.
Additionally, AAU outlined that the national semifinals will feature a field of four teams, the winners of their respective pools. Teams will be reseeded by final national ranking and compete in a single-game elimination, with the winning two teams advancing to the AAU College Hockey National Championship Game.
Unlike last season, Clemson University is no longer the underdog, and there are high expectations for the Tigers' performance. The team has overcame the odds many times this season, but will try again to cement this season as historic.
