Cal's Club Ice Hockey Team Gets a Berth in Regionals

The 27-1 Bears got an invitation to West Regional event, and will face Texas in its first-round game
Cal club ice hockey team
Cal club ice hockey team / Photo by Spencer Lee

Cal's club ice hockey team suffered its first loss of the season in the Pac-8 championship game on Sunday, but the Bears' season is not over.

On Tuesday, the American Collegiate Hockey Association announced the teams that will be participating in the four 12-team regional tournaments, and Cal received an invitation to the West Regional tournament, to be held February 21-23 in Westminster, Colorado.

Cal (27-1) received the No. 12 seed and will face ninth-seeded Texas in its first-round on February 21. If it wins that game, the Bears will advance to the second round on February 22 with the final day being February 23. Interestingly, Cal is seeded higher than Washington, which beat Cal in the Pac-8 finals 7-5.

You will note there is no No. 1 or No. 2 seeds in the regional tournament, and that's because the top two seeds in each regional bypass the regional tournament and advance directly to the national championships to be held March 13-25 in Maryland Heights, Missouri, just outside St. Louis.

Cal is hoping to advance to the nationals for the first time since 1996.

West D II Regional ice hockeu matchups
West D II Regional ice hockey matchups / Photo from ACHA site

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.