Hockey East announced Tuesday the new playoff format for the 2018 Hockey East tournament.
The playoffs will begin with two best-of-three series at campus sites before moving to the TD Garden for the 34th annual championship weekend March 16-17, 2018.
“We return to the format last used in 2014,” said Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna in a news release. “It will create a number of late-season ‘races,’ for first, fourth, fifth and eighth, each with identifiable benefits.”
All 11 teams will once again make the playoff tournament. The five highest seeds will all receive byes into the quarterfinal round, while seeds four and five will be guaranteed to play each other at the higher seed’s arena on the second weekend of the playoffs. Seeds six, seven, and eight will host seeds nine, 10, and 11 in the opening round on March 2-4. The three winning teams will then be reseeded and travel to the top three seeds for quarterfinal match ups from March 9-11.
Tournament semifinal games will take place Friday, March 16.
Semifinal tickets include admission to both semifinal games. Winners of the semifinals will advance to the Hockey East title game, set for 7 p.m. Saturday, March 17, to determine the winner of the Lamoriello Trophy. Student tickets, located in the upper balcony, will be made available for $10 when showing a valid student ID, either on campus or at the TD Garden box office.
Groups of 15 or more are also eligible for a $5 discount on $17 balcony seats and a $7 discount on select loge seats. All discounted tickets must be purchased at the TD Garden Box Office. To take advantage of group discounted tickets, contact the TD Garden group sales department at 617-624-1805 or groupsales@tdgarden.com.
Tickets will become available on school campuses beginning on Monday, March 12, when the four remaining schools are identified.
