After claiming its second Hockey East Tournament title in four years, Northeastern leads the conference’s three representatives into the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

Hobey Baker candidate Cale Makar and the No. 4 nationally ranked UMass Minutemen, along with No. 11 Providence, join the red-hot No. 5 Huskies as the three Hockey East representatives in the national postseason. The trio is headed to host-city Buffalo for this weekend’s opening round of the single-elimination tournament.

The bracket: game times, locations and TV networks.#NCAAHockeyhttps://t.co/3KvB27qbJI pic.twitter.com/Cg7cNjIsex

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It will be the third NCAA Tournament for the Huskies in the past four years, where they’ll look to get past the opening round for the first time in their last six NCAA appearances (third place, 1981-82).

The Huskies have been on the right side of close games as of late. They enter the NCAA Tournament on a six-game winning streak and having suffered just one loss over their past 12 games.

“I don’t think we’re playing our best hockey,” coach Jim Madigan told Ian Thomsen of News@Northeastern.“And that’s a good thing for our club, that there’s still more there. We’re going to need that in our next round of the NCAA Tournament.”

On the surface, Madigan’s comments seem out of place, but it’s complacency that turns a hot streak into an offseason. The Huskies won’t settle for anything less as they focus on their first opponent.

The Huskies will take on No. 10 Cornell, where Mike Richter Award nominee Cayden Primeau will be under pressure with the team’s 2-6 record against ranked teams this season. But with a deep offense featuring six double-digit goal-scorers that doesn’t include leading-scorer Jeremy Davies, Primeau will have a lot of support.

Sophomore captain Makar is among the best players in the NCAA and led the Minutemen to a historic season of firsts. But it’s their second NCAA Tournament bid in program history after losing in the regional finals in 2007.

After a huge first half of the season, UMass has trailed off a bit in recent weeks, going 10-6 over its past 14 games after losing just three games over their previous 21 contests.

“You have a really good year and the one downside to that is you don’t play desperate down the stretch,” UMass coach Greg Carvel told Josh Walfish of The Greenfield Recorder. “You want your team playing at a certain desperation level and we haven’t had to and it’s just because we put ourselves too far ahead of the pack with a couple of weeks to go.”

Expect a more desperate Minutemen squad to show up in the opening round matchup against No. 13 Harvard. The offense is dynamic with four point-per-game players and a steady tandem of Matt Murray and Filip Lindberg won’t hurt.

The Providence Friars also boast a Mike Richter candidate in Hayden Hawkey, who has helped carry the load on the Friars’ way to their sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, including winning the NCAA Tournament in 2015. 

But past success is no determination of the future and the Friars won’t take anything for granted after years of early NCAA losses.

“It’s a new beginning. We had a good regular season, we earned our way in,” Providence coach Nate Leaman told Peter Gobis of The Sun Chronicle.

With a new beginning, the Friars will look to add to their impressive 6-4-2 record against ranked teams this season; they’ve gone 5-0-1 against such teams since late November. 

That record will be in jeopardy against No. 3 Minnesota State, which holds the top spot in their region and should be considered one of the top contenders in Buffalo this weekend.

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