Boston College, Michigan, Union & North Dakota Top NCAA Hockey Tournament Seeds

The field is set for the 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Tournament. The top four seeds for this spring include Boston College, Michigan, Union (N.Y.) and North Dakota.

Here's a look at the pairings (numbers refer to overall tournament seeds, not national or regional rankings):

March 23-24

NCAA East Regional (Bridgeport, Conn.)

No. 15 Michigan State vs. No. 3 Union

No. 12 Massachusetts-Lowell vs. No. 5 Miami

NCAA Midwest Regional (Green Bay, Wisc.)

No. 13 Cornell vs. No. 2 Michigan

No. 11 Denver vs. No. 6 Ferris State

March 24-25

NCAA Northeast Regional (Worcester, Mass.)

No. 16 Air Force vs. No. 1 Boston College

No. 10 Maine vs. No. 7 Minnesota-Duluth

NCAA West Regional (St. Paul, Minn.)

No. 14 Western Michigan vs. No. 4 North Dakota

No. 9 Boston University vs. No. 8 Minnesota

Air Force, BC, Denver, Miami, Michigan, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota, Union and Western Michigan all participated in last year's national tournament, with Minnesota-Duluth winning its first national championship.  UMass-Lowell had the longest NCAA Tournament drought of any team in this year's field, having last appeared in 1996.

The four regional winners this weekend will advance to the NCAA Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla. on April 5. Those pairings will be Northeast vs. West, and Midwest vs. East. The national semifinal winners will then meet April 7 to decide the national champion.