UMass and Providence will represent Hockey East and the New England region at the 2019 NCAA Frozen Four April 11 and 13 in Buffalo, N.Y.
UMass, the tournament's fourth overall seed, earned the trip to Buffalo with consecutive 4-0 wins over Harvard and Notre Dame at the Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H. The Minutemen will face Denver in the second semifinal next Thursday at 8:30 p.m.
"I’m extremely proud of this group, staff, players, administration," said third year coach Greg Carvel. "This is a first for our program and we didn’t stumble into this. We knocked the door down, and we’re headed to the Frozen Four flying high."
Sophomore defenseman Cale Makar, the frontrunner to win the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, was named Most Outstanding Player at the Northeast Regional. He had a goal and an assist, but was a puck-moving, possession machine throughout the two games.
"He is a special, unique, generational player, at this level. To me he is the best player at this level by ten miles. It’s not even close," Carvel emphasized.
Freshman goaltender Filip Lindberg stopped all 30 shots he faced over the two games. He has a .975 save percentage over his last four starts, three of which have been shutouts.
Joining the Minutemen will be the Friars, the fourth seed out of the East Regional. Playing a few miles from campus at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, Providence rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat top seeded Minnesota State in the semifinal. Then, Nate Leaman's team put together quite possibly its best game of the year in a 4-0 triumph over Cornell in the regional final.
Junior center Josh Wilkins was named Most Outstanding Player. The Raleigh, N.C., native had three goals and two assists in the regional. Four of his five points came on the man advantage. Providence struck five times on the power play in nine attempts during the course of the two games.
"They're feeling it which is really good. You know I think the chemistry is very good on both units and they're dangerous and this is the right time of the year to be dangerous," said Leaman of his team's success on the power play this weekend.
Another standout for the Friars was junior defenseman Jacob Bryson who was on the ice for eight of the team's 10 goals on the weekend. He made retrievals look easy and quickly turned defense into offense while moving pucks north.
"He's a ballplayer. He's still the best defenseman I've ever coached, and he's dynamic with the puck, he's poised, he doesn’t force the game," said Leaman.
Up next for Providence is a date with defending national champion Minnesota Duluth in the first semifinal at the Frozen Four. Puck drop is scheduled for April 11 at 5:00 p.m. The Friars will be gunning for their second national title, the other being in 2015.
The 2018 Frozen Four was an anomaly without a New England team in college hockey's penultimate event. Harvard made the field in 2017 and Boston College and Quinnipiac earned the distinction in 2016.
