One year after the NCAA canceled their National Tournament because of the coronavirus pandemic, they announced the 16-team field for the 2021 tournament Sunday night and the Boston Bruins have some prospects that will be playing for a National Championship beginning this coming weekend.
Three Bruins prospects that were drafted by general manager Don Sweeney will participate in the upcoming single-elimination tournament, with one out for the season following surgery.
Boston College
The Eagles won the Hockey East regular-season championship, but fell to the UMass-Lowell in the conference semifinals. BC still earned an at-large bid to the national tournament.
Boston College (17-5-1) is the top-seed in the East Region and will open up against fourth-seeded Notre Dame on Saturday in Albany, New York. St. Cloud State is the second-seed and Boston University is the third-seed. The two winners will advance to Sunday’s Regional Final.
Bruins’ 2020 draft pick in the third round and 89th overall, Trevor Kuntar, has six goals and four assists in 22 games in his freshman season for the Eagles.
Michigan and Minnesota-Duluth
Why are these two teams on the same line? Simple. They will face off against each other on Friday in the first game of the West Region in Fargo, North Dakota.
Minnesota-Duluth (14-10-2) is the defending National Champions after beating UMass-Amherst in 2019. The Bulldogs lost in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference semifinals to St. Cloud State Univerity 3-2, but like BC, earned an at-large bid.
Sophomore Quinn Olson has three goals and seven assists in 26 games for UMD. Olson was selected by the Bruins’ 92nd overall in the third round in 2019.
Michigan (15-10-1) lost to the University of Minnesota, 3-2, in overtime in the Big 10 Conference semifinals, but the Wolverines still earned an at-large bid in the tournament field.
The Wolverines have two Bruins draft choices on their roster. Senior Jack Becker, who was picked 195th in the 2015 draft in the seventh round has four goals and five assists in 23 games. Sophomore center John Beecher won’t play in the tourney as he underwent shoulder surgery in February and is out for the season. In 23 games, the first-round selection in 2019 at No. 30 overall had four goals and four assists for Michigan.
The winner of this game will play either top-seed and host the University of North Dakota or fourth-seeded American International College in the Regional Final Saturday. The Frozen Four will be played in Pittsburgh, beginning April 8 with the semifinals and the title game two nights later.