Maine and Boston University are both back from last year while UConn and Northeastern are making their first appearance since 2022.

The UConn Huskies and BU Terriers battle it out in Boston for a trip to the Hockey East Finals at the TD Garden.

Officially it’s the Hockey East championship, but during the league’s four decades it might as well have been called the Bay State Invitational. Year in, year out there has been at least one and usually two Massachusetts sextets playing for the trophy at TD Garden.