NCAA Belfast

[Arn]

This weekend sees the NCAA play a tournament outside the USA for the first time.

UMass Lowell, Colgate, Brown and North Eastern are playing in the inaugural "Belpot" or "Friendship Four"  at the Belfast Giants Odyssey Arena in Northern Ireland.

Friday night sees Colgate v Brown in an ECAC conference game and UMass Lowell face Noth Eastern in a Hockey East Conference game. The winners then go on to play in the Belpot final on Saturday.

I believe all the games (there is also a 3rd/4th game) will be broadcast on TSN and NESN.

If you want to follow some buildup coverage the following twitter people are doing good work

https://twitter.com/avftb (This is my podcast if anyone wants to listen, we did a good preview show)

https://twitter.com/belfastgiants

Or the hashtag #friendshipfour https://twitter.com/hashtag/FriendshipFour?src=hash

There's also a preview here from the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/ice-hockey/34921624

I'm pretty excited about seeing something other than British Elite League anyway... (And my money is on UMass to win the tournament).

[Arn]

Mass Lowell claimed the victory tonight with a penalty shots win in a 5-5 game. Really entertaining and watchable style of hockey. A bit manic at times.

And also announced that there will be another tournament next year in Belfast which is quite exciting.

[Arn]

Highlights of the final between UMass Lowell Riverhawks and Brown Bears here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqPeh4xa_tY&feature=youtu.be&a

[Tigger]

Awesome, that's a remarkable tournament, and a good final game in the highlights.

From the sounds of it the goal was to keep this going for as many years as possible, hopefully that's the case.

[Arn]

It was really enjoyable, I was genuinely surprised at the high level of quality of the teams - in particular Brown and UMass Lowell (although they're ranked 4 in NCAA I think). It was definitely an even higher standard than I was expecting. Hopefully a few of the guys on show here this weekend will make it up to the NHL.

Also, all the teams dressed 3 goalies. Does anyone know why that is?

[Arn]

Awesome, that's a remarkable tournament, and a good final game in the highlights.

From the sounds of it the goal was to keep this going for as many years as possible, hopefully that's the case.

About a month until this year's event now just. Quinnipiac University, The University of Vermont, St. Lawrence University and University of Massachusetts are the NCAA sides coming over.

Looking forward to it again, and I believe it will be broadcast on TSN live all weekend. You may even get to see me helping out with the coverage if things go well (or badly )

[Arn]

4th year of this tournament now and probably the best yet. Union College just defeated Boston U 2-1 in the final in one of the best games of hockey I've seen. Yale claimed 3rd beating Connecticut 6-3.