NCAA hockey championship preview: Nation's two best teams clash for immortality

TAMPA, Florida – On Dec. 1, Penn State was the No. 1 in the Pairwise rankings, but the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Quinnipiac Bobcats were 2 and 3.

A couple weeks later, the Nittany Lions had dropped out, and Minnesota and Quinnipiac never looked back. They've been the top two teams in the nation for almost four months straight. And it all ends tonight, one way or the other, with the national championship on the line.

This is just the fourth time in the last several decades that the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the country will meet for the national championships.

Hockey being what it is, a game of bounces and mistakes, one-and-done playoff formats help ensure that these kinds of kaiju battles are rare. That's even true of tournaments with best-of-seven series; ask any NHL fan how frequently the Pr