Big Ten Tournament Bracket Announced, Buckeyes to Host Nittany Lions
2/27/2022 11:06:17 PM | Men's Ice Hockey
The Big Ten announced the 2022 Big Ten Men’s Hockey Tournament bracket over the weekend.
The Buckeyes (21-11-2, 13-9-2-1-1-1 B1G) are the tournament’s No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 Penn State (15-18-1, 6-17-1-1-1-1 B1G) in a quarterfinal, best-of-three series Friday-Sunday in Value City Arena in The Schottenstein Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. for games one and two and game three will be at 8 p.m. if necessary. The games will be streamed through Big Ten Plus and can be heard on Ohio State Radio.
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. The tournament winner earns the Big Ten’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio State was 3-0-1 vs. Penn State during the regular season, with two wins in Columbus Nov. 5-6 (5-2, 4-1). In State College Jan. 28-29, the teams tied the opener 2-2 before the Nittany Lions won the shootout for the extra B1G point. Ohio State took game two, 6-0.
The teams have met twice in the postseason. March 19, 2015, No. 5 seed Ohio State posted a 3-1 win over No. 4 Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit when the tournament was all single elimination. No. 4 Penn State won in Columbus March 17, 2019 in a semifinal game when Ohio State was the No. 1 seed.
The Buckeyes are 10-7 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament, with an 8-1 record in quarterfinal games. The squad is 5-1 at home in Big Ten Tournament contests, including a sweep of Wisconsin March 6-7, 2020 in the last tourney games in Columbus. Last year the No. 6 seed Buckeyes lost to No. 2 Michigan in a single-elimination quarterfinal game held at Notre Dame.
