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Two former Alaska Nanooks hockey coaches have guided their current teams into the 2008 NCAA Division I tournament that gets under way this weekend.

Don Lucia (1987-1993) will be behind the bench when the Minnesota Golden Gophers take the ice in the Northeast Regional at Wocester, Mass.

Guy Gadowsky (1999-2004) will lead the Princeton Tigers into action in the Midwest Regional in Madison, Wis.

Top-seeded Michigan will open the tournament against Niagara in the East Regional, while No. 2 Miami of Ohio will face Air Force in the Northeast.

Michigan, seeded No. 1 overall for the first time since 1997, won the Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season and playoff titles, beating Miami 2-1 in the tournament final Saturday night.

“I think it’s a good accomplishment for our team,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “So many of the other No. 1 teams (in their conferences) got knocked off in their conference tournaments.”

Michigan (31-5-4) and Niagara (22-10-4) will play Friday night in Albany, N.Y. St. Cloud State (19-15-5) will face Clarkson (21-12-4) in the other first-round game at The Times Union Center.

Miami (32-7-1) and Air Force (21-11-6) will play Saturday in Worcester, Mass. In the other game at DCU Center, Boston College (21-11-8) will face Minnesota (19-16-9).

On Saturday in the Midwest Regional Denver (26-13-1) will face Wisconsin (15-16-7), and North Dakota (26-10-4) will meet Princeton (21-13).

Denver and Princeton won conference tournament titles Saturday night, with Denver edging Minnesota 2-1 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association final, and Princeton beating Harvard 4-1 in the ECAC championship game.

Defending champion Michigan State (24-11-5) will open against Colorado College (28-11-1) on Friday night in Colorado Springs. In the other game at World Arena, New Hampshire (25-9-3) will face Notre Dame (24-15-4).

The regional winners will advance to the Frozen Four in Denver on April 10-12.