Ohio State men’s hockey makes NCAA Championship bracket

The Ohio State Buckeyes men’s hockey team is back in the NCAA Championship, and will face Denver on Friday in a West Regional matchup taking place at Scheels Arena in Fargo, N.D. The winner from OSU-Denver gets the winner of St. Cloud State-American International on Saturday, with the winner of that game heading to Buffalo for the Frozen Four.

On Sunday, the NCAA Championship field was announced, with Ohio State securing an At-Large bid. Sixteen teams comprise the tournament field, with Notre Dame joining the Buckeyes as the only squads from the Big Ten.

Within the West Regional, St. Cloud State and Denver are the top two seeds, respectively. Ohio State comes in at the No. 3 seed, while American International is No. 4.

Both OSU and Denver have met before in tournament play. Last season, the Buckeyes took down the Pioneers, 5-1, in the Midwest Regional Final—punching their ticket to the Frozen Four. However, the last time Ohio State played in Fargo for a tournament game was in 2017, where they lost to Minnesota Duluth in overtime.

This will be the Bucks’ ninth appearance in the NCAA Championship, with this one coming off the skates of a 20-10-5 season. Even if they don’t win it all, Ohio State will end this season with some hardware as they were crowned Big Ten regular season champions with a 13-7-4-3 record.

Face-off between Ohio State-Denver is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET Friday. ESPNU will broadcast the game.