March Madness lingers right around the corner, and the millions upon millions of brackets that fail to reach perfection wait to laugh in your face as you once again tell yourself, “This is the year.” If you’re anything like me, you simply can’t wait.
And with the Hockey East Tournament beginning Wednesday night with a game between 11-seed Vermont and 6-seed Boston University, I have an excuse to show off my bracket-making abilities.
Only consisting of 11 teams and four rounds, Warren Buffett doesn’t offer $1 billion for a perfect bracket. But with the absolute rollercoaster of a season Hockey East has given us, perfection is going to be just as difficult as it will be when it comes to the hardwood.
But hey, I’ll give it a shot.
Round 1
No. 11 Vermont vs. No. 6 BU
This may be the only “gimme” game of this year’s tournament, as the bottom-seeded Vermont must take on a BU team that failed expectations but finished on a high note with back-to-back wins over then-No. 13 Boston College.
Even then, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself—the Catamounts toppled then-No. 18 BU 3–2 at Agganis Arena in one of Vermont’s eight Hockey East wins.
Still, the Terriers terribly underperformed given their NHL-loaded roster, and BU was given a much lower seed than it might actually deserve. Vermont doesn’t really have anything going for it. I’ll take a 4–1 BU win.
No. 10 New Hampshire vs. No. 7 Northeastern
New Hampshire ended its season with three straight losses, while Northeastern capped off the regular season with a 4–2 win over BC.
Despite both being sub-.500 teams, Northeastern has proven itself with convincing wins over Providence, Denver, BC, and Massachusetts. Its hot start proved the Huskies are capable of winning bigger games, though they’ve noticeably slowed down since.
The Wildcats have the worst offense in the conference statistically, and I don’t see them breaking through Lawton Zacher on Wednesday night. Give me a 3–0 Northeastern win.
No. 9 UMass Lowell vs. No. 8 Merrimack
After back-to-back losing seasons, Merrimack strung together a fairly impressive season that featured wins over Providence and Quinnipiac, and included a 2–1 record against UMass Lowell.
Lowell was ranked in the top 20 for a majority of last season, which was impressive given its 8–24–4 record in 2023–24. But it wasn’t handed very lofty expectations entering this season—and it wouldn’t have met them anyway.
I was set on picking Lowell before really looking into this matchup purely because I’m a fan of head coach Norm Bazin. But even as the 8 seed, Merrimack posts the third-best shot percentage and best power-play percentage in Hockey East, which has convinced me to choose the alternate route.
This will be the best game from the first round: expect it to be fast-paced, high-scoring, and highly physical. Let’s go with a 4–3 Merrimack win in overtime.
Quarterfinals
No. 5 Maine vs. No. 4 BC
The Eagles won the regular-season crown for Hockey East last year, then followed it up with a quarterfinal exit to No. 9-seeded Northeastern on home ice. This team has faced enough adversity this season, though, and won’t enter this year’s tournament thinking it’ll run the show.
Maine finished its season with four straight wins over unranked opponents, followed by a 5–3 loss to Vermont. Nothing has been extremely impressive about this Black Bears team besides its high-scoring offense, which has racked up the second-most goals in the conference.
The special teams will decide this game. BC’s other-worldly power play will give Maine’s below-average penalty-kill unit problems if things start to get chippy. I can see a 4–2 win for the Eagles at Conte Forum.
No. 1 Providence vs. No. 8 Merrimack
Providence has a good chance of bulldozing its way through this tournament and perhaps even continuing that pace into a hardware-capped NCAA Tournament run.
John Mustard, Logan Sawyer, and Roger McQueen are a dangerous trio that helped the Friars lead the conference in goals. And the Jack Parsons–Philip Svedebäck tandem has been a brick wall, helping Providence give up the fewest goals of any team in Hockey East.
Merrimack will have had its moments in its previous game versus Lowell, and I could see them striking fear into Providence with an early goal to kick things off. Still, I’m taking the Friars for a 5–2 win.
No. 2 UMass vs. No. 7 Northeastern
Predicted at No. 6 in the Hockey East Preseason Coaches’ Poll—21 voting points below No. 5—UMass finished No. 15 in the nation, securing itself a spot in the NCAA Tournament if it were to start today.
Jack Musa followed up his 34-point 2024–25 season with 33 points this season and will have plenty of postseason action to surpass that number.
While Zacher has had a spectacular season, Michael Hrabal has been on a tear as well, posting a 2.02 GAA and .935 save percentage, both top-two marks in Hockey East.
Given the expectation of outstanding goalie play from both teams, this game will stay relatively low-scoring, but I have to give UMass’ offense the edge and predict it ends 2–0 Minutemen.
No. 3 UConn vs. No. 6 BU
My bracket has been completely chalk thus far, and I’m simply not going to let this BU team sneak under my nose.
Being last year’s runner-ups, keeping the bulk of its roster, and boasting 17 NHL draft picks, I’m still not convinced this team deserves the No. 6 seed and just one vote in the USCHO poll.
UConn has been floating around the 15 to 20 range all season and snuck into an at-large bid after this week’s ranking, currently sitting at No. 14. Still, nothing is drawing me to pick them over the Terriers.
The Huskies had a rough skid to end the season, winning just once in regulation in their final six games. BU will have warmed up with a win over Vermont while the Huskies sat waiting. I see a 5–3 win for BU.
Semifinals
BC vs. UMass
Re-seeding gifts BC the good fortune of avoiding top-seeded Providence in the semifinals, but the next-highest seed won’t be much easier for the Eagles to handle.
The Eagles look to avenge their late-season loss to the Minutemen after beating them a combined 11–3 in the teams’ prior two matchups.
This is the type of game where I could see BC’s offense exploding, as it did at TD Garden just over a month ago. Hrabal stood on his head in the teams’ March 5 matchup, but the Eagles’ forwards have proven to be more than capable of getting the best of the junior goaltender.
I predict UMass to enter the third period with a 2–1 lead, perhaps a little too comfortable with it. Then will come the game-tying goal for BC, and the floodgates will open. I have a 5–2 win for BC to send the Eagles to the championship.
BU vs. Providence
Am I riding the eye test too far by putting BU in the semifinals as a .500 team? Absolutely. And it isn’t going to get this far without giving the Friars a healthy scare.
This will be the best game of the tournament. Providence, with so much at stake, is seeking to complement its regular season title with its third-ever tournament crown. BU will have defied expectations coming this far, but a loss means its season is over. Providence has a guaranteed spot in the NCAA Tournament, but the Terriers must go all the way to squeeze in.
What is sure to be a back-and-forth game will cement Hockey East’s status as the most competitive and must-watch conference, despite the success this season has seen from the Big Ten and NCHC.
As much as a Battle of Comm. Ave. final would surely draw all Hockey East fans and haters together, Providence vs. BC, in my humble opinion, has always been the right choice. I’ll take the Friars with a 4–3 win over BU.
Championship
BC vs. Providence
This is the matchup BC has been looking for all season—all the strife, the ups and downs, and non-believing critics have culminated in a championship matchup against the No. 5 team in the nation.
The Eagles have done a fairly good job of pleasing their fans on the big stage this season, toppling BU in their first matchup of the season and following it up with a 6–2 win in the Beanpot final.
Providence didn’t make it past the first round in the Hockey East or NCAA Tournament last year, and this year was its first-ever outright regular-season conference title.
BC has more blue-blood power than the Friars, but I still feel a 2015-type run coming from the black and silver. I’m going with a 3–1 win for Providence and its first Hockey East tournament title since 1996.
Champion
PROVIDENCE
We’re not sure yet what this means for the Eagles: Would their NCAA Tournament at-large bid be flushed down the drain with a loss? Who needs to win/lose in their respective conference tournaments for BC to get in? Would a semifinal win over UMass be enough to convince voters?
A lot of questions remain if BC fails to win the Hockey East championship—a UConn loss in the quarters and UMass loss in the semis, as my prediction follows, would help them, though.
Providence, on the other hand, would most definitely secure a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament given a Hockey East win, especially given that either North Dakota or Western Michigan will have to lose in the NCHC tournament, and either Michigan or Michigan State will have to lose in the Big Ten tournament.
The Friars have put together too stellar a season for them to throw it away against a team they’ve already beaten twice this year. Their top two lines will break through an inexperienced goalie and roll into the Frozen Four.
