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Enjoy the NCAA hockey tournament, which starts this weekend with four regionals, because it seems quite likely the ruling body will look over something approaching Western domination and make some major changes to the structure.

Logic, in the form of the Pairwise ranking of teams based on record, strength of schedule, and overall performance, took firm control of the 16-team pairings this year, which means the National Collegiate Hockey Conference that we all know and love as the strongest in the nation landed six slots in the field. It might seem logical that an NCHC entry -- North Dakota, St. Cloud State, Miami of Ohio, Nebraska-Omaha, Denver, or UMD -- might provide the ultimate champion. But it will be difficult.

The firing commences Friday, in the Northeast Regional at Manchester, N.H., where UMD will collide with Minnesota at 4:30 p.m., following the game between top-seed Boston University and Yale at 1 p.m. The winners meet Saturday for a slot in the Frozen Four at Boston. Also Friday, the West Regional at Fargo, N.D., sends St. Cloud State against Michigan Tech at 3:30, and top-seed North Dakota against Quinnipiac at 7. Those winners, also, play Saturday for a ticket to Boston.

The other two regionals play Saturday-Sunday events, including the East, at Providence, where Denver meets Boston College at 2, followed by Miami against Providence. Winners play Sunday for the third berth in the Frozen Four. At South Bend, Ind., the Midwest Regional features MSU-Mankato against RIT at 3, and Nebraska-Omaha against Harvard at 6:30, with those two winners also playing Sunday.

Pick your favorites. Me? I like UMD to beat Minnesota for the fourth straight time, with its week off from league tournament play offset by the resurrection of the top line, Dominic Toninato centering Adam Krause and Alex Iafallo, plus the built-in incentive of that big block “M” on the chests of their foes. Then I like UMD to harness a speedy BU team to reach the Frozen Four. I also like Miami of Ohio to win the East, and an all-Western Midwest Region final with MSU-Mankato subduing a youthful Nebraska-Omaha in the final, and I like St. Cloud State to squeeze past Michigan Tech and then overcome a suddenly struggling North Dakota outfit in the West Regional final.

If that happened, you could have all four Frozen Four teams being from the West, with three NCHC teams and the league and playoff champ from the WCHA. Those four, in Boston, might mean a relatively empty arena.

Splitting up the WCHA to form the Big Ten and NCHC conferences, has expanded the number of automatic berths in the NCAA field to six. Here is RIT -- the Rochester Institute of Technology -- winning its league playoff and gaining an automatic berth, even though RIT is ranked 38th in the country in Pairwise. Maybe RIT can pull off a stunning upset against MSU-Mankato, the nation’s No. 1 team. And maybe it will be a lopsided verdict, by more than a touchdown.

Whatever, the NCAA marshalled its braintrust to try to prevent a repeat of the year when the WCHA supplied all four finalists. And frankly, much as I loved it, the tournament was a little boring with all the familiarity.

When this weekend is over, the four survivors take two weeks off before convening for the Frozen Four. That should be just the time needed for us to wrap our minds around the fact that we might, for once, have a spring sports season in the Northland.

UMD, SSC, UWS Play At Home!

As an eye-witness, I can say that on Tuesday, there were baseball and softball games in Duluth. St. Scholastica christened Wade Stadium’s revised field with its artificial turf by whipping Wisconsin-Superior 6-0 in a Division III battle. That field and its weatherproof surface will serve area college and high school teams well.

Meanwhile, up at Malosky Stadium’s football field, the UMD softball team took on St. Cloud State in a Division II doubleheader. For a while, it looked bleak for the home team, even though their little northwest corner of the football field, converted into a portable softball field, was in good form.

The Bulldogs couldn’t get the bats going against St. Cloud State ace Kelly Franks, who limited them to four hits, while striking out 12 in a game that got away from UMD and wound up 7-0. The nightcap was much more exciting. UMD got the lead, but the Huskies fashioned a 2-2 standoff. The Bulldogs got out of the top of the eighth, then connected. With Becky Smith on first, the Bulldogs came up with three straight solid hits. The first two loaded the bases, and then freshman Alexia Klaas, the left fielder, hit a long blast foul to left, but came right back to drill a single to left, scoring Smith and giving UMD a 3-2 victory.

That was good news. The big news was that there were spring games going on, where we had gotten used to having the last two or three springtimes coming and going resembling winter more than summer.

While Bulldogs Rest, Tournaments Rage On

If you’re a hockey fan, you couldn’t have figured out a better way to fill last Friday and Saturday than by following my tracks. Because there was the chance UMD might be playing in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, I had secured press credentials for the Target Center event, starting with semifinals Friday night. Here’s a run-through of my itinerary:

North Dakota, No 1 in the country, was a big favorite over St. Cloud State, but coach Bob Motzko’s Huskies had shown their merit by going to Omaha and beating Nebraska-Omaha twice. When North Dakota gained a 1-0 lead in the first period, it looked like it was falling into place. But David Morley scored at 19:35 and Joey Benik scored from the right edge at 19:54, and the two goals in 19 seconds reversed the game and put the Huskies in command. UND played with more and more intensity and desperation, but the team lacks a true sniper, and Joe Rehkamp’s empty-net goal clinched a 3-1 victory. With goaltender Charlie Lindgren in top form, and Joey Benik the best player on the rink, St. Cloud State showed it could beat the best team in the country.

A solid block of the 11,473 at Target Center stayed around for the second semifinal, and weren’t disappointed. Denver might have been the favorite, but Miami of Ohio broke from a 1-1 tie with a goal late in the first period, and two more in the second, taking a 4-1 lead. The fourth goal, but Austin Czarnik, was a highlight video special, as he stickhandled away from two pursuers, came out of the right corner to beat another, then veered across the goal-mouth to score with a perfect backhander. When Denver rallied for the net two goals, Miami put the Pioneers away with two in the third for a 6-3 verdict.

Robb Leer, former television sports guy at KSTP, now coordinates events for Target Center, and he knew how to attract the media despite the ridiculously placed press box, located high in the stratosphere. In the press room, between games there were lots of salads, lots of plump burgers, and binfuls of walleye filets!

Next day at Xcel Center, my plan was to watch the Wild play St. Louis at 1 p.m., then hang around until the WCHA final, between Minnesota State-Mankato and Michigan Tech -- two strong, tough, unrelenting teams. When Mankato beat Ferris State the night before, and North Dakota lost, UND dropped from first to second and Mankato rose to the No. 1 rank in the country.

But first, the Wild entertained 19,204 with a resounding 6-3 victory over the Blues, and it wasn’t really that close. Now, St. Louis is good enough to win the Stanley Cup. Brian Elliott is great in goal, and forwards like T.J. Oshie, David Backes, and lesser known standouts like Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz, make the Blues a big-time threat. But not this day. Chris Stewart and Thomas Vanek staked the Wild to a 2-0 lead in the first period, and Zach Parise and Jonas Brodin made it 4-0 four minutes into the second.

Tarasenko, who spent much of the game dashing through two or three Wild skaters with Pavel Datsyuk-like moves, finally scored for the Blue, at 10:02 of the second period, and then Schwartz, former Colorado College star, beat the unbeatable Devan Dubnyk with a backhand in front, off a Tarasenko rebound, just 1:39 later, and suddenly it was 4-2. Not to worry.

Justin Fontaine, one of the heroes of UMD’s 2011 NCAA title run, followed up his assists on the Vanek and Brodin goals by scoring himself, and it was 5-2, and Mikko Koivu’s power-play goal made it 6-2 midway through the third period. A later power-play goal by Paul Stastny cut it to 6-3 ro send the fans home happy.

Billy Robertson, new commissioner of the WCHA, and former menu-king of all NHL arenas when he was with the Wild, tried his best in the press room, with good hamburgers and hot dogs, but things have changed in Billy Rob’s Restaurant. The Wild owners, it seems, own a catering company as well as a hockey team, so the food is much more pedestrian at Wild pregame meals, and media types have to pay something like $11.50 to eat it. So Billy Rob was limited to that catering outfit’s outlay, and it was fine, and free. It just finished a distant second to those bins full of walleye.

On the ice, however, the WCHA continues to be the best story in college hockey this season. Michigan Tech, well-coached by Mel Pearson, came ready to play, as did Mike Hastings and his Mavericks. Blake Pietala gave Tech the early lead, but Chase Grant tied it midway through the first period. Tech’s Alex Petan made it 2-1 early in the second, and the Huskies were clinging to that lead until near the midpoint of the third, when Jordan Nelson tied it for MSU-Mankato.

Then it was time for one of those neat stories that jump up every spring in college hockey. Brad McClure, who had scored twice in the semifinal victory over Ferris State, got his 13th goal of the season, then his 14th, and then his 15th, with the latter two on power plays. But the pure hat trick, from a comparatively obscure third liner, told volumes about the Mavericks talent level and depth.

Both teams, however, go on to the NCAA. They have, virtually singlehandedly, lifted the WCHA from a league many were calling “the remnants” after the Big Ten and NCHC went their elitist ways, back to the high standards of its heritage. Pearson, mad at the penalty string that engulfed his team, said: “I hope we and Minnesota State can do some damage in the tournament.”