For college hockey fans, this is the most wonderful time of year. Before the 16-team NCAA tournament field set to be revealed on Sunday night (7 p.m. on ESPNU), at least one New England team will be playing among the final four teams in each of the three conferences centered in the region.
While Hockey East once again takes center stage at Boston’s TD Garden, Harvard and Brown will both battle it out for spots in the ECAC title game at Lake Placid, N.Y., while American International is the top seed in Atlantic Hockey’s field playing in Buffalo for the first time ever.
The Hockey East field includes all three Beanpot teams for the second consecutive year, but UMass joins that group at the Garden for the first time since 2007 and will be playing as the No. 1 seed. The Minutemen and Northeastern are sure of their NCAA fate, but Boston College and Boston University will need to post back-to-back wins in order to extend their seasons for another weekend.
Brown punched its first ticket to Lake Placid since 2013 with an impressive sweep of Quinnipiac, while Harvard is back among the ECAC’s final four for the fifth straight year. AIC has been one of college hockey’s top stories this season and enters Harborcenter after winning its first-ever Atlantic Hockey regular-season title.
Here’s our preview of conference semifinal games featuring the region’s clubs:
HOCKEY EAST
No. 5 Boston University (16-17-4) vs. No. 3 Northeastern (15-8-1)
Friday, 4 p.m. at TD Garden, Boston
What to watch for: These two teams have have gone head-to-head in three Hockey East quarterfinal series since last meeting at this point in the league’s postseason in 1994 at the old Boston Garden, but they are awfully familiar with each other as Beanpot rivals. Friday’s game will break a 1-1-1 tie in this season’s head-to-head series, which includes a November home-and-home and Northeastern’s semifinal win en route to the Beanpot. Sophomore Cayden Primeau led the Huskies to a pair of 2-1 wins over Maine last weekend, while the Terriers needed three games to get past UMass Lowell for a road upset. The back end was key to BU’s weekend as juniors Chad Krys (Ridgefield, Conn.) and Dante Fabbro combined for seven points, while Jake Oettinger pitched a Friday shutout and backstoped a 4-1 clinching win.
Fun fact: On Thursday night, Joel Farabee became the third BU player to be named Hockey East Rookie of the Year in the last five seasons, joining current NHLers Jack Eichel and Clayton Keller.
No. 7 Boston College (13-21-3) vs. No. 1 Massachusetts (28-8)
Friday, 7:30 p.m. at TD Garden, Boston
What to watch for: The second semifinal at TD Garden is a tale of two teams. UMass was a clear Hockey East frontrunner from the drop of the puck, while BC surged at the start and tailed off at the end of the regular season before stunning Providence with back-to-back wins in a three-game quarterfinal set. UMass enters the weekend in an interesting situation as freshman Fille Lindberg started the second game of an eventual 5-4 (2OT), 6-0 sweep over New Hampshire after sophomore Matt Murray was pulled halfway through regulation in Friday’s series opener. As usual, the offense was well spread with senior Jacob Pritchard (2-2-4) and freshman Bobby Trivigno (3-2-5) leading the charge. For BC, sophomore Logan Hutsko was the hero for a pair of game-winning goals last week against the Friars.
Fun fact: With a win on Friday night, BC’s Jerry York would reach 600 for his head coaching career with the Eagles.
ECAC HOCKEY
No. 8 Brown (15-13-5) vs. No. 2 Cornell (19-9-4)
Friday, 4 p.m. at Herb Brooks Arena, Lake Placid, N.Y.
What to watch for: The Bears stunned Quinnipiac in back-to-back games last weekend to advance to Lake Placid with a perfect 4-0 mark on the postseason. Junior Brent Beaudoin (Londonderry, N.H.) has logged points in each game of that run, while senior Alex Brink has a plus-9 rating and scored in triple overtime against Princeton for the first of Brown’s two playoff overtime wins. Strong goaltending from junior Gavin Nieto (4-0, 1.81, .924) has also been a key to Brown’s deepest tournament run in a handful of years, including the 2-1 and 4-3 wins last weekend in Hamden, Conn. While the Bears dropped a one-goal game in Ithaca, N.Y., in January, they earned a 3-3 home tie on Feb. 15 after scoring three goals in a 53-second span early in the third period.
Fun fact: Brown is 8-0-0 this season when junior Jack Gessert scores a point, as he did with the game-winning goal last Friday against Quinnipiac. All three of his goals have come in Bears victories.
No. 4 Harvard (19-9-3) vs. No. 3 Clarkson (24-10-2)
Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Herb Brooks Arena, Lake Placid, N.Y.
What to watch for: The Crimson swept Dartmouth by 3-1 and 4-3 (OT) scores last weekend to set up a rematch of last year’s league semifinal once again in Lake Placid. The Golden Knights took that 2018 contest in overtime and split two meetings during this regular campaign. Harvard’s win came on home ice in January, but Clarkson has gone 5-0-2 in its last seven games. Harvard becomes the third ECAC team in this decade to make five consecutive semifinal appearances. The game features two Hobey Baker finalists in Harvard’s 46-point defenseman Adam Fox, the ECAC Player of the Year, and Clarkson junior captain Nico Sturm. The Crimson’s recent success has been achieved with senior Michael Lackey injured, but junior Cameron Gornet has stepped up and provided .938 goaltending over the last six games.
Fun fact: Two of Harvard’s 10 conference tournament titles have come as the No. 4 seed. This year’s club will look to join those of 1971 and 2006.
ATLANTIC HOCKEY
No. 8 Robert Morris (16-21-2) vs. No. 1 American International (20-16-1)
Friday, 4:35 p.m. at Harborcenter, Buffalo, N.Y.
What to watch for: Both of these teams played to the maximum three games last weekend to advance to Buffalo as Robert Morris eliminated Bentley on the road and Atlantic Hockey Coach of the Year Eric Lang’s Yellow Jackets took down Army West Point to keep their historic, league-leading season alive. All-Conference First Teamer Blake Christensen was held scoreless over the first two games of the Army series before his two goals helped the 4-1 victory that clinched the series, which was junior Zackarias Skog’s 17th of the year in net. Juniors Hugo Reinhardt (1-2-3) and Nicolas Luka (0-3-3) helped to boost the AIC offense while Christensen was held scoreless. The Yellow Jackets posted a 62-34 shot advantage in a series split with RMU and stalwart goaltender Francis Marotte back in December.
Fun fact: AIC enters the semifinal game after receiving its first-ever national ranking at No. 19 in the USCHO.com poll earlier this week. While the Jackets are this far in the postseason for the first time ever, RMU is 4-1 all-time in league semifinal contests.
