Prospects Update | 6 Sabres prospects gear up for NCAA tournament

Buffalo Sabres prospects Owen Power, Erik Portillo, Ryan Johnson, Aaron Huglen, Devon Levi and Matteo Costantini will begin the quest for a national championship this week.
Those six players will represent four of the 16 programs across the country who punched their ticket to play in the NCAA men's hockey championship.

The first two rounds will take place at regional sites this weekend with the four programs remaining shipping up to TD Garden in Boston for the Frozen Four on April 7 and 9.
The full bracket can be found here.
Let's look at the paths the Michigan Wolverines, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Northeastern Huskies and North Dakota Fighting Hawks will have to take to win a national championship.

No. 1 Michigan Wolverines

The University of Michigan secured the top-overall seed in the Allentown, Pennsylvania region following their 4-3 victory in the Big Ten championship game over Minnesota on Saturday. It is the fourth time in program history that the Wolverines will be a No. 1 seed.
Portillo, a third-pick of the Sabres in 2019, was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, stopping 90 of the 95 shots he faced. He has started every game for the Wolverines this season.
Power, the top pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, was named to the All-Big Ten First Team after recording 27 points (3+24) in 30 games played.
Michigan will face the American International Yellow Jackets in the first round Friday at 3 p.m. on ESPNU. AIC, ranked 18th nationally, beat Air Force 7-0 in the Atlantic Hockey Championship to secure a tournament berth.
The winner between Michigan and AIC will play Quinnipiac or St. Cloud State in the second round on Sunday.
Michigan's last NCAA tournament appearance was back in 2018 against Notre Dame. Last season, the Wolverines were unable to participate in the tournament due to positive COVID-19 cases on the team.
Michigan owns the most all-time national championship wins with nine, and are looking for their first since 1998.

No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers

In the Big Ten Championship, the Golden Gophers had their nine-game win streak snapped after losing to Michigan. However, Minnesota, who finished first in the Big Ten at the conclusion of the regular season with a record of 24-12, still received an at-large bid. This is their 39th appearance in the NCAA tournament, which ranks first all-time.
Minnesota, ranked second in the region, will play the reigning NCAA champions, the UMass Minutemen at 6 p.m. on Friday in Worcester, Massachusetts. Minnesota has never played UMass in the NCAA tournament, but lead the all-time series 4-0.
Top-seeded Western Michigan will play Northeastern at noon on Friday to kick off the regional.
Johnson, a junior defenseman, recorded his best numbers in his Golden Gopher career, recording two goals and 15 assists. Johnson was drafted in the first round by the Sabres in 2019.
Huglen, a fourth-round selection by the Sabres that same year, finished his freshman season with six goals and eight assists.
Minnesota's last national championship came in 2003.

No. 4 Northeastern Huskies

Finishing the season as the No. 12 team in the country, the Huskies are a four seed in the Worcester region and will square up against the Western Michigan Broncos on Friday at noon on ESPNU.
Northeastern was the regular-season Hockey East champions with a 25-12-1 record, but fell to UConn 4-1 in the semifinals of their conference tournament and received an at-large bid.
Between the pipes, Levi has been Northeastern's backbone all season long. He enters the tournament as a Top 10 Hobey Baker finalist in large part to his eye-popping .951 save percentage, 1.64 goals-against average, and five shutout performances.
Levi has already won many Hockey East awards including Rookie of the Year (the first in program history), Goaltender of the Year, the Three Stars Award. He was named a conference First Team All-Star, and was runner up for Hockey East's Player of the Year award.
Buffalo acquired Levi in a trade with Florida during this past summer's draft. He was selected in the seventh round by the Panthers in 2020.
Northeastern has been in three of the last five NCAA tournaments and is looking for the program's first-ever national championship.
Friday will be the sixth all-time meeting between the two programs and the first since 2013. Northeastern holds a 3-1-1 series lead. The game will be at noon on ESPNU.

No. 2 North Dakota Fighting Hawks

North Dakota will play in their 34th NCAA tournament with first-round action against Notre Dame on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Albany.
Finishing the regular season with a 24-13-1 record, the Fighting Hawks lost to Western Michigan in the NCHC semifinals following a two-game sweep of Colorado College in the opening round.
Costantini had a remarkable first season in Grand Forks, scoring eight goals and dishing out 13 assists. Costantini was tied for fifth on the team in points. Buffalo selected him in the fifth round of the 2020 NHL Draft.
Notre Dame and North Dakota's last matchup was in 2012. The two programs are tied at 17-17-3 all-time but have never played in the NCAA tournament against one another. Notre Dame is making its seventh-straight NCAA tournament appearance, their highest streak in program history.
The Fighting Hawks have won eight national championships, including their more recent in 2016 over Quinnipiac.
The winner of Thursday's game will play No. 1 Minnesota State or No. 4 Harvard in the second round on Saturday.