The NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Committee will review the starting time of Friday and Saturday night NCAA Tournament regional games.

The move comes in the wake of the University of Maine-Minnesota Eastern Regional game that didn’t begin until 9:40 p.m. on a Friday because the first game went to double overtime.

The Colorado College-St. Lawrence game had started at 5 p.m. with the Maine-Minnesota contest slated for an 8:30 start. The Maine-Minnesota game also went into overtime and the game didn’t end until 12:57 a.m.

The game times were the same on Saturday night, 5 and 8:30.

“I just think seeing all those little children at games and things, it’s time we take a look at what’s best for the student-athletes first, coaches and the fans,” said Quinnipiac College (Conn.) athletic director Jack McDonald, who is a committee member. “If we can move it so that the fans have a little less discomfort and aren’t leaving the building at 1:30 in the morning, we have to take a look at it.”

McDonald added that the committee first needs to “talk to the student-athletes and coaches and see what’s best for them.”

Northeastern University athletic director Ian McCaw, another committee member, agreed.

“It was an extremely late night and when you go through something like that, you want to take a look at the starting times. We’ll take a look at them this summer,” said McCaw.

The Western Regional was held on Saturday and Sunday with games starting at 2 and 5 p.m. each day, as opposed to the Eastern Regional’s Friday-Saturday format.

The schedule alternates next year, so the Eastern Regional will be held Saturday and Sunday and the Western Regional will be Friday and Saturday.

“We stagger the schedule for TV reasons. We want to maximize our television opportunities,” explained McCaw.

“We feel pretty good about the 2 and 5 o’clock starts on the weekends. Shawn [Maine coach Walsh] suggested that we play [the Friday-Saturday regional games] at 4 and 7:30. That makes a lot of sense,” McCaw said.

McDonald pointed out the 8:30 start Saturday night creates difficult deadline situations for sportswriters with Sunday newspapers.

In other NCAA news, McCaw said the committee hopes the tournament expansion from 12 to 16 teams will occur in the next three years.

“The expansion of the men’s ice hockey bracket has been approved by the NCAA championships cabinet, subject to final approval from the management council and funding by the NCAA,” said McCaw. “The NCAA budget for bracket expansion and championship expansion is limited so as dollars become available, additional championship opportunities are created.

“For example, this coming year, it looks like the [men’s and women’s] soccer bracket will be expanded from 48 to 64. Those are two of the sports prioritized ahead of men’s ice hockey. So we’re hopeful as time goes on, men’s ice hockey moves to the top and gets funded for the expansion,” added McCaw.

He added that expansion to 16 teams by the 2003 tournament would be the most optimistic scenario.