BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott's men's ice hockey team will make its second consecutive trip to the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Northeast regional postseason tournament after the final rankings of the year were released this past weekend.
The Gulls (11-7-1) earned the #8 spot in the Northeast and will take on fifth seeded University of Connecticut on Saturday, February 23rd at 3:20 pm.
Teams seeded #3 - #10 in the Northeast will play in the Regional tournament, which takes place in Danbury, Connecticut. The two teams remaining after the weekend event will earn a spot in the ACHA National tournament in St. Louis, where they will join the top two teams, who have earned a bye, and the other survivors from each region.
Other matchups in the Northeast Regional include #3 Northeastern vs #10 Siena, #7 Boston College vs. #6 Bryant and #4 William Patterson vs #4 NYU. The winners of Saturday's games will play on Sunday afternoon in an effort to join #1 Marist and #2 University of New Hampshire in St. Louis in March.
The Gulls are hoping to reach and advance through Sunday's game, exceeding their effort last season when they reached the Northeast Regional as a #10 seed and fell to #3 Siena by a 4-2 score.
UConn has had the best of the Gulls so far this year, handing them a 9-1 loss in Storrs to start the season and then edging Endicott 5-4 at Pingree in October, but the teams haven't met in four months. Since that loss to the Huskies, Endicott has posted a 10-3-1 record.
Endicott and UConn will be playing at Liberty Rink at the Danbury Arena. For more information on the Regional tournament, go to http://danburyarena.com/ or call 203-794-1704.
The Gulls will play their final regular season game this Saturday night, February 16th at 7:30 PM at Pingree School, when they will honor the contributions of their Senior Class. Endicott will drop the puck against Boston College in a great tune-up for each team heading into next weekend's tournament.
