Notre Dame Hockey: Irish will face Wisconsin in Big Ten Hockey Tournament

Shortly after the Notre Dame Fighting Irish finished off a season sweep of the Michigan Wolverines, the Minnesota Golden Gophers took down the Wisconsin Badgers to set the Big Ten Hockey Tournament bracket.

Notre Dame will face Wisconsin in a 3 game series inside Compton Family Ice Arena starting on March 4th.

From the Big 10:

ROSEMONT, Ill. - The Big Ten announced on Saturday the bracket for the 2022 Big Ten Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament, with Big Ten Champion Minnesota collecting the top seed after earning its fifth Big Ten title and the program’s first since 2017. The 2022 Big Ten Tournament will feature a three-weekend format with all games taking place on the campus of the higher-seeded teams.

The tournament will open March 4-6 with three best-of-three quarterfinal series, as No. 2 seed Michigan will host No. 7 seed Michigan State, No. 3 seed Notre Dame will entertain No. 6 seed Wisconsin and No. 4 seed Ohio State will host No. 5 seed Penn State. The Nittany Lions and Badgers tied for fifth place in the final standings, but Penn State claimed the No. 5 seed due to its 3-1-0 record against Wisconsin.

As the top-seeded team, Minnesota will have a bye to the single-elimination semifinals, which are scheduled for March 12. The highest-seeded team advancing from the quarterfinals will host the second-highest advancing seed, while the lowest-seeded advancing team will play at Minnesota.

The highest-seeded team remaining after the semifinals will host a championship game scheduled for the weekend of March 19. Michigan’s quarterfinal matchup will air on FS2 and Bally Sports Detroit, while the other quarterfinal matchups will be available on B1G+.

The quarterfinal schedule can be found below, while the complete tournament bracket can be found in the image above.

2022 BIG TEN HOCKEY TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINALS

March 4-6 | Best-of-three series

#7 MICHIGAN STATE AT #2 MICHIGAN

Game 1: Friday, March 4 – 7 p.m. ET on FS2
Game 2: Saturday, March 5 – 7 p.m. ET on Bally Sports Detroit
Game 3: Sunday, March 6 (if necessary) – 7 p.m. ET on FS2

#6 WISCONSIN AT #3 NOTRE DAME

Game 1: Friday, March 4
Game 2: Saturday, March 5
Game 3: Sunday, March 6 (if necessary)

#5 PENN STATE AT #4 OHIO STATE

Game 1: Friday, March 4
Game 2: Saturday, March 5
Game 3: Sunday, March 6 (if necessary)

NCAA Tournament Notes

Currently, Notre Dame is ranked #5 according to the Pairwise rankings system. The Irish have a fair chance to gain a top four seed after the conference tournaments conclude. Should the Irish win the Big 10 Tournament, a top four seed is very likely.

And then we skate towards a Frozen Four.