Week 22 Hockey Release

Photo courtesy of Notre Dame Athletics

OFFICIAL RELEASE

• The 13th Big Ten Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament begins this week, featuring a new format that will shorten the event from three weeks to two. Quarterfinals, which used to be a best-of-three weekend series, are now single-elimination games to be held on Wednesday, March 11, involving seeds No. 2-7. Those games will be streamed on B1G+. Semifinals are slated for Saturday, March 14, with the championship game following on Saturday, March 21 — all three games will appear on the Big Ten Network.

No. 7 seed Notre Dame (9-22-5) at No. 2 seed Michigan (26-7-1)
Notre Dame enters the postseason having gone unbeaten in six of its last eight games (4-2-2) under first-year Head Coach Brock Sheahan. The Fighting Irish have played in four-straight overtime contests, winning the last three. Michigan, the consensus No. 1 ranked team, won all four games against Notre Dame this season and is 3-0 all-time against the Irish in the Big Ten Tournament.

No. 6 seed Minnesota (11-21-3) at No. 3 seed Penn State (20-12-2)
No. 10/10 Penn State looks for its second Big Ten postseason crown to go with the banner it won in 2017. The Nittany Lions took three of four games against the Golden Gophers this season, including both games at Pegula Ice Arena. Minnesota is a road team in the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 2021, having played its last 10 tourney games on home ice. Penn State and Minnesota have split six games in the Big Ten Tournament.

No. 5 seed Ohio State (12-20-2) at No. 4 seed Wisconsin (21-11-2)
No. 10/11 Wisconsin and Ohio State are meeting for the third consecutive season in the Big Ten Quarterfinals. Ohio State has won the last two postseason series between the teams and owns a 6-4 edge all-time in the Big Ten Tournament. OSU Head Coach Steve Rohlik owns more Big Ten Tournament wins (18) than any other coach. The Badgers exploded for 12 goals last week at Penn State and search for their first Big Ten Tournament championship since winning the inaugural event in 2014.

No. 3/3 Michigan State receives a quarterfinals bye after claiming its third-straight Big Ten regular season championship on March 5. Three-straight is a Spartan record and marks only the second time it’s happened in Big Ten Hockey. MSU has won the last two Big Ten Tournaments and sports a 6-1 record over its last seven tourney contests.

Freshman Gavin McKenna became the first Penn State player to win the Big Ten scoring title on Friday, finishing the conference schedule with 38 points (11 goals, 27 assists) in 24 contests. He finished two points ahead of Michigan’s T.J. Hughes and Michigan State freshman Porter Martone.