The last weekend in March means one thing: it's time for the college hockey NCAA Tournament. This year, there are a slew of Boston Bruins prospects who begin the march for a championship in the 16-team field that kicks off Thursday with four games.
This year, the tournament will begin on Thursday and Friday with the first rounds, rather than Friday and Saturday. The reason is that the teams will get a day off rather than play on a back-to-back. Thursday, three Bruins prospects will begin their tournament and two will be matching up against each other in the first round.
Three Bruins prospects begin march for an NCAA Tournament Championship
The first Boston prospect to begin play in the NCAA Tournament is Ryan Walsh and the Cornell Big Red. They will play Michigan State in the Toledo Regional at the Huntington Center in Toldeo, Ohio at 5:30. This season in 34 games for Cornell, Walsh had 14 goals and 14 assists. He was picked in the sixth-round of the 2023 Entry Draft. The other game in this regional is Boston University playing Ohio State at 2 o'clock in the opener.
Two Black and Gold prospects will battle each other in the first round of the Fargo Regional in North Dakota on Thursday night with the winner advancing to the Regional Final on Saturday. Dans Locmelis and UMass will play Beckett Hendrickson and the University of Minnesota.
This season for UMass, Locmelis had seven goals and 23 assists and really came along in development. The fourth-round pick, 119th overall in the 2022 Draft has become one of the more interesting Bruins prospects in college. Hendrickson, picked in the fourth round of the 2023 Draft, had three goals and nine assists for the Golden Gophers this season in 38 games. The winner of this game will play the winner of the first game between Minnesota State and Western Michigan on Saturday.