The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team is ready. They have spent a season battleing it out on the ice, and have been up or down inside the top 5 rankings for most of that time. This was their first season as members of the Big 10 - and they spent that time beating up the conference on their way to winning both the regular season title AND the conference tournament.

The Irish are one of the more battle-tested teams in the country, and they will have to draw on all of that experience as they begin their quest to win the Frozen Four.

First up... the Michigan Tech Huskies.

WHERE, WHEN, AND HOW TO WATCH

WHAT: 2018 NCAA Hockey Tournament Round 1

WHERE: Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport, CT

WHEN: Friday, March 23, 3:00 PM EST

HOW TO WATCH: ESPN2 or the WatchESPN app

LIVE GAME CHAT

The game thread is open below. I know many of us are on Twitter for most of the game, but I encourage you to vent and do other things that require more than 280 characters here.

GO IRISH!