Springfield hosts UMass ice hockey in NCAA regionals
Mar 28, 2024
The NCAA Division 1 hockey tournament begins Thursday and the UMass Minutemen are playing close to home.
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The NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament begins today, and the UMass Minute Men are playing close to home.
Tonight's News Reporter, Doug McLean, is live in Springfield with a preview for us.
Rich Taylor, it's a beautiful day here to hold up inside the Mass Mutual Center in the city of Springfield,
which joins Maryland Heights, Missouri, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Providence, Rhode Island,
as regional hosts for the opening round of the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey National Championship Tournament.
Springfield and the Mass Mutual Center are hosting for the very first time, giving the Minute Men
the shortest trip of any team in the tournament to their opening round game today.
They'll face the University of Denver this afternoon, followed here by a matchup between Maine and Cornell.
Boston College, the overall number one seed, the next shortest trip.
They're headed to Providence, but poor Boston University, the two seed, playing in South Dakota tonight.
The Minute Men and Denver have met seven times in their history, all since 2005.
The Pioneers holding a 4-3 overall advantage, but the Minute Men have recent bragging rights
and have never lost to Denver on this side of the Mississippi River.
Puck drops for that game at 2 p.m. here at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield.