Hockey East Tournament Opening Round Bracket and Game Times Set

The third annual Hockey East #OCTOFINALS are set to begin this coming Thursday, March 3, as the bottom 8 teams in Hockey East do battle for the right to advance to the quarterfinals. For most teams, they will be battling to keep their seasons alive; only #5-seed BU is pretty much assured of more hockey even if they conk out this weekend. (Though really, if they lose 2-of-3 to UMass they probably don't deserve to go any further).

BC will get the weekend to rest and recover and prepare for the quarterfinals. As the tournament's 1 seed, BC will face the lowest remaining seed in the quarterfinals (HEA re-seeds after each round).

Here's your tournament bracket and schedule for the opening round.

BYES

#1 Boston College
#2 Providence
#3 Notre Dame
#4 UMass-Lowell

OPENING ROUND MATCHUPS

#5 Boston University vs. #12 UMass-Amherst
All games played at BU's Agganis Arena

Game 1 - Friday, 7:30 PM
Game 2-  Saturday, 7:00 PM
Game 3 if necessary- Sunday, 7:00 PM

#6 Northeastern vs. #11 Maine
All games played at NU's Matthews Arena

Game 1- Friday, 7:00 PM
Game 2- Saturday, 7:00 PM
Game 3 if necessary- Sunday, 7:00 PM

#7 Merrimack vs. #10 New Hampshire
All games played at Merrimack's Lawler Arena

Game 1- Thursday, 7:00 PM
Game 2- Friday, 7:00 PM
Game 3 if necessary- Sunday, 7:00 PM

#8 Connecticut vs. #9 Vermont
All games played at XL Arena in Hartford

Game 1- Friday, 7:00 PM
Game 2- Saturday, 7:00 PM
Game 3 if necessary- Sunday, 5:00 PM