Flames Prospects at the NCAA Frozen Four

The Flames have 5 prospects playing NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey and three of those players will get an extra chance to showcase themselves in the coming weeks with the NCAA Frozen Four. Providence College’s Mark Jankowski and John Glimour, along with BU’s Brandon Hickey will all be playing in the tournament. Here’s the bracket and schedules for the tournament.

Jankowski and Gilmour have the best chance to go far in the tournament as they play on the defending NCAA Championship team at PC. Providence finished the season at #4 in the country with an astounding record of 27-6-4. Jankowski, a senior, was drafted with the 21st overall pick in 2012 by the Flames. The Ontario native has racked up quite a career at PC and another championship would solidify his place in Friar history. John Gilmour, a Montreal native, was taken by the Flames in 2013 with 198th pick in that draft. The 6’0 defenceman has been intrusmental in PC’s succeess, not only on the blue line, but as a point producer as well. It would appear both players are in the future plans for the Flames and an early exit in the tourney could land them in Calgary sooner than later (ie. Johnny Gaudreau and Bill Arnold). Here’s how they have fared this season:

Up the road from Providence is Brandon Hickey, who’s playing at perenial Hockey East powerhouse Boston University. The Terriers were up and down this season finishing with a 21-12-5 record which landed them 9th in the country. The Le Duc, Alberta product was drafted by the Flames with the 64th pick of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. The 6’2 defenceman is a shot blocking machine as he has 55 blocked shots this season, which puts him second on the Terriers in blocked shots. He also had the honor of representing Team Canada in the World Juniors. Hickey is only a sophomore, so don’t expect him to make the jump if BU gets bounced from the tournament early. Hickey’s offensive game could use some fine tuning next season at BU. Here’s his stats for 2015-16:

The NCAA Frozen Four starts March 25th at 2pm ET with North Dakota taking on Northeastern on ESPN U. Providence plays at 4:30 PM ET on the 25th and BU plays at 6:30 PM ET on the 26th.

by Mark Parkinson