Boston Bruins: Weekend Preview for Their College and Junior Prospects

Whether or not Zane Gothberg gets the nod in net for North Dakota, his team’s two-night home set with Matthew Grzelcyk and Boston University will be one of three amateur matchups this weekend with a Boston Bruins' prospect on each bench.

Elsewhere, Rob O’Gara and the Yale Bulldogs renew their Ivy League rivalry with Alex Fallstrom’s Harvard Crimson in Cambridge on Saturday. In the major-junior ranks, Malcolm Subban and the Belleville Bulls visit Seth Griffith and the London Knights as part of this weekend's OHL action on Friday.

The Knights will be dropping in on the Windsor Spitfires the evening prior and will simultaneously seek a favor from Dougie Hamilton’s Niagara Ice Dogs. The Dogs’ Thursday night visitor from Kitchener enters this week’s action tied with London for third in the Midwest Division, the OHL’s most competitive circuit so far.

Niagara will subsequently host the Guelph Storm, which will, in turn, host Griffith’s Knights on Sunday while the Ice Dogs visit Peterborough.

The Bulls’ visit to London will be the first stop on a three-game, four-night road trip, which continues across the border in Saginaw on Saturday and Windsor on Sunday.

Anthony Camara and the Barrie Colts will similarly be traveling for the duration of the weekend, entertaining the Sudbury Wolves and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Cody Payne and the Plymouth Whalers, who are in a virtual three-way tie with Windsor and Sarnia for second in the West Division, will engage a Sarnia Sting team boasting Montreal first-rounder Alex Galchenyuk in a home-and-home.

Matt Benning, the Bruins’ sole draftee currently in the U.S. Junior A system, will also be in Michigan this weekend. The Dubuque Fighting Saints have a rare instance of three consecutive game nights―one in Ann Arbor against the U.S. National Team Development Program on Thursday followed by a two-night stay in Muskegon versus the Lumberjacks.

As it happens, after two home weekends and a week free of extramural engagements, Colton Hargrove’s Western Michigan Broncos go out of state to face Notre Dame on Friday and Sunday. It will be the freshman’s first game against a CCHA cohabitant and the program’s first conference contest since winning last year’s league playoff title.

Sophomore Brian Ferlin and the Cornell Big Red will likewise commence their 2012-13 league schedule, waging a home-and-home with rival Colgate on Friday and Saturday. The aforementioned Yale and Harvard will constitute each other’s second ECAC matchup on Saturday, first visiting Dartmouth and hosting Brown, respectively, Friday night.

Ben Sexton and Clarkson will wait another week to start facing fellow ECAC tenants, first wrapping up a slew of five straight tilts against Atlantic Hockey programs with a two-night stay at Canisius.