Here is a look at how the tournament sets up for each Jets prospect.
HARRISON BLAISDELL - UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
The 20-year-old Blaisdell had four assists in 17 games with the Fighting Hawks this season. It was his second NCAA campaign with the Fighting Hawks, who once again finished the season as the top ranked team in the country.
North Dakota's overall record this season was 21-5-1, with a National Collegiate Hockey Conference record of 18-5-1. That earned them their second consecutive Penrose Cup as the conference regular season champions. They carried that momentum in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, beating St. Cloud State 5-3 in the final.
That made North Dakota the first school to win both the Penrose Cup and the Frozen Faceoff in the same season.
Blaisdell (Winnipeg's fifth round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft) and the Fighting Hawks will face American International in the First Round of the NCAA tournament. It will be the first time the two schools have faced each other. Puck drop goes at 8:30 pm CT on Mar. 26.
NATHAN SMITH - MINNESOTA STATE UNIVERSITY MAVERICKS
Like Blaisdell, Smith also completed his second NCAA campaign in 2020-21. The 22-year-old centre scored five times and racked up 21 points in the Mavericks' 25 games this season.
Overall, Smith - who the Jets took in the third round of the 2018 NHL Draft - helped the Mavericks to a 20-4-1 record overall, and 13-1-0 in Western Collegiate Hockey Association play.
While the Mavericks lost 5-1 to Northern Michigan in the second round of the WCHA playoffs, their conference record was good enough to earn them the MacNaughton Cup as the 2021 regular season champion.
Minnesota State's seventh NCAA tournament appearance begins on Mar. 27 at 4 pm CT against Quinnipiac.
JARED MOE - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Goaltender Jared Moe, Winnipeg's sixth round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, played three games for Minnesota in this second NCAA season.
He finished with a 2-0-0 record with a 3.45 goals against average and a 0.852 save percentage. On top of that, he was one of 114 students from the university to earn Academic All Big Ten merits. That requires students to be enrolled full time and carry a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.
The 21-year-old Moe is part of a goaltending duo in Minnesota with 2021 Hobey Baker finalist Jack LaFontaine. LaFontaine, a senior, was named the Big Ten Goaltender of the Year, and was also named the Most Outstanding Player in the Big Ten Playoff Tournament.
Minnesota won that tournament with three victories over Michigan State, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Overall, Minnesota (the second ranked team in the NCAA, behind North Dakota) had a cumulative record of 23-6 and a conference record of 16-6.
This will be the 38th time Minnesota has competed for the national title, an NCAA record, and they'll open the tournament against Omaha at 9 pm CT on Mar. 27.
