• The 2018 Big Ten Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament continues Saturday with a pair of single-elimination semifinals at campus sites. The highest-seeded team remaining after the semifinals will host a championship game scheduled for Saturday, March 17 …
• As the top-seeded team, Big Ten Champion Notre Dame earned a bye to the semifinals and will host No. 4 seed Penn State at 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday on ESPNU. The Nittany Lions advanced to the semifinals by sweeping No. 5 seed Minnesota last weekend. Notre Dame won the regular-season series between the two teams, 3-0-1-1 …
• Saturday’s second semifinal will feature second-seeded Ohio State hosting third-seeded Michigan at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. The Buckeyes swept No. 7 seed Michigan State last weekend, while the Wolverines claimed a 2-0 series win over No. 6 seed Wisconsin. The Buckeyes swept the regular-season series against the Wolverines, 4-0-0-0 …
• Finalists were announced Wednesday for 2017-18 Big Ten hockey individual awards. The list of finalists can be found on Page 2. The winners, along with All-Big Ten teams, will be announced on March 13 …
• Michigan enters the weekend on an eight-game unbeaten streak, going 7-0-1 over that stretch. The Wolverines led all Big Ten schools in the second half of the conference season, going 8-3-1-1 …
• Ohio State continues to lead the nation on the penalty kill, stopping 90.6 percent of opponent opportunities (115-of-127). Notre Dame ranks second nationally at 89.1 percent (98-of-110) …
• Ohio State and Notre Dame currently rank in the top 10 nationally in scoring defense. The Buckeyes are fourth nationally and pace all Big Ten teams by allowing just 2.08 goals per game, while the Fighting Irish are tied for eighth at 2.18 …
• Over the last five years, Ohio State is the only school to have won at least one game in the Big Ten Tournament each season. The Buckeyes have won seven Big Ten Tournament games over the last four seasons, tied with Penn State for the most of any school …
• Notre Dame’s Cale Morris and Ohio State’s Sean Romeo were named among the 10 semifinalists for the 2018 Mike Richter Award, which honors the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA men’s hockey. The five finalists for the fifth annual award will be announced on Thursday, March 22, with the winner presented on Friday, April 6 at the 2018 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn. …
• With 27 points in 24 conference games, Michigan junior forward Cooper Marody earned the conference scoring title. Marody paced all Big Ten players with 21 assists in conference play and added six goals. Marody is the third Wolverine to claim the Big Ten scoring title, joining Zach Hyman in 2015 and Kyle Connor in 2016 …
• Michigan’s Sam Piazza and Notre Dame’s Jake Evans have been named among the 10 men’s hockey finalists for the 2017-18 Senior CLASS Award. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award honors the attributes of senior students in four areas: community, classroom, character and competition …