Waterloo Black Hawks alumni are on eight of the teams named to the field of 16 for the 2021 Division I Men’s Hockey Tournament announced by the NCAA on Sunday.
Of the 18 Waterloo players participating in the event, five are members of programs that were seeded in the bracket: Griffin Ness and Peter Thome (#1 North Dakota), Jared Moe and Sam Rossini (#3 Minnesota), and Robbie Beydoun (#4 Wisconsin).
Three others remain part of the Minnesota-Duluth program after the Bulldogs won the most recent NCAA title in 2019: Jackson Cates, Hunter Lellig, and Nick Swaney. Swaney was also a member of UMD’s 2018 championship squad.
NCAA Regionals will be held next weekend in Fargo, North Dakota, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Loveland, Colorado, and Albany, New York. The winner of each region will advance to the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh April 8th, with the title game on April 10th.
Multiple former Black Hawks have been part of each of the past four NCAA championship teams. The group includes Brock Boeser (North Dakota, 2016), Blake Hillman (Denver, 2017), and Mikey Anderson (Minnesota-Duluth, 2018 and 2019), who have all gone on to make their NHL debuts. In total, 22 Waterloo alumni who have played for P.K. O’Handley during his 19 years as the Black Hawks’ head coach have celebrated a Division I NCAA national title.
A list of alumni participating in the 2021 NCAA Tournament appears below:
Player |
College |
Jacob Bengtsson |
Lake Superior State |
Yuki Miura |
Lake Superior State |
Niko Selivanov |
Lake Superior State |
Aaron Bohlinger |
Massachusetts |
George Mika |
Massachusetts |
Bobby Trivigno |
Massachusetts |
Garrett Wait |
Massachusetts |
Jared Moe |
Minnesota |
Sam Rossini |
Minnesota |
Jackson Cates |
Minnesota-Duluth |
Hunter Lellig |
Minnesota-Duluth |
Nick Swaney |
Minnesota-Duluth |
Griffin Ness |
North Dakota |
Peter Thome |
North Dakota |
Solag Bakich |
Notre Dame |
Ryder Rolston |
Notre Dame |
Evan Fear |
Quinnipiac |
Robbie Beydoun | Wisconsin |
The Black Hawks’ next game is at Young Arena on Friday against the Fargo Force, beginning at 7:05 p.m.
Waterloo Black Hawks Alumni Updates are presented by Karen’s Print Rite, 2515 Falls Avenue in Waterloo.