Plans are in the works for Northeastern, UMass-Lowell, Brown and Colgate to face off in a hockey tournament in Belfast later this year. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and leaders of Belfast, Ireland plan to join local college hockey officials to make an announcement Friday outside the TD Garden, which is hosting the NCAA Frozen Four this weekend.

The Reporter has learned that the event will be called "The Belpot" and will be played over Thanksgiving weekend 2015. The trip will include educational and sporting events hosted by the visiting college students and the Belfast Giants hockey team.

It is not the first Boston-Belfast hockey connection. In 2011, the Boston Bruins visited Belfast to play the Giants in front of a sellout crowd.

Providence faces Omaha followed by Boston University against North Dakota at the Garden Thursday night. Walsh will be at the Bobby Orr statue outside the Garden at 10 a.m. Friday for an announcement that City Hall says stems from his visit to Ireland last fall.

State House News Service contributed to this report.