The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet has approved the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Committee's recommendation that Worcester, Massachusetts, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, serve as host cities for the East and West Regionals for the 2002 and 2003 championships, respectively.

Worcester's Centrum Centre already is scheduled to host the 2001 East Regional, its fifth such Division I ice hockey assignment. It has been the site of the East Regional every other year since 1993, alternating with Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York. The Centrum Centre hosted a regional record crowd of 12,517 during the second day of the 1999 tournament.

Ann Arbor's Yost Ice Arena serves as the home facility for the University of Michigan ice hockey team and has been an NCAA tournament host on three occasions. The most recent was during the 1998 West Regional, which played to sellout crowds both nights of the tournament.

Dates for the Worcester regionals are March 23-24, 2002, and March 28-29, 2003. Ann Arbor's regional games are scheduled for March 22-23, 2002, and March 29-30, 2003.

Other cities considered were Buffalo, New York (Marine Midland Arena); Colorado Springs, Colorado (Colorado Springs World Arena); Fort Wayne, Indiana (Allen County War Memorial Coliseum); Grand Forks, North Dakota (Engelstad Arena); and Omaha, Nebraska (Omaha Civic Auditorium).

Frozen Four locations also are scheduled through the 2003 championship. Albany, New York, which hosted the 1992 event, returns as the site for 2001, co-hosted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Eastern College Athletic Conference. St. Paul, Minnesota, welcomes its fourth Frozen Four in 2002, hosted by the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in The New St. Paul Arena, an 18,600-seat facility scheduled for completion this fall.

Buffalo, New York, takes its turn in 2003, staging the event at 18,595-seat Marine Midland Arena with tri-hosts Canisius College, Niagara University and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. That will mark the state of New York's 10th Frozen Four, dating to 1959. That is second only to Colorado, which hosted the tournament 14 times between 1948-76.