Buckeyes Set for B1G Semifinal vs. No. 3 Spartans

Saturday, March 14

East Lansing, Mich.

7:30 p.m.

Ohio State

Michigan State (Semifinals)

Buckeyes Set for B1G Semifinal vs. No. 3 Spartans

3/12/2026 6:18:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Teams will meet in East Lansing Saturday

The Basics

The Ohio State men's hockey team will take on No. 3 Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals Saturday.
The Buckeyes and Spartans will meet at 7:30 p.m. in Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing, Mich.
The game will be televised by BTN and on the Fox Sports app.
Ohio State Radio will carry the action (1460 AM Columbus, WBNS-FM-HD2, streamed on espncolumbus.com and OhioStateBuckeyes.com and on the Ohio State Buckeyes app).
Live stats can be linked from the schedule page on OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
Ohio State is the tournament's No. 5 seed and advanced with a 7-1 road win in the quarterfinals at No. 4 Wisconsin Wednesday. Michigan State is the No. 1 seed and had a quarterfinal bye.
Ohio State is 13-20-2 on the year (8-15-1 B1G). Michigan State is 25-7-2 (16-6-2) and captured the Big Ten regular season title.

Buckeye Notes to Know

This is the third year in a row Ohio State and Michigan State are meeting in the Big Ten Tournament, with all three games in East Lansing. The Spartans won a semifinal game in 2024 (2-1) and the final in double overtime last year (4-3).
Ohio State advanced with a 7-1 win over Wisconsin, the third year in a row the Buckeyes eliminated the Badgers from the Big Ten Tournament in the quarterfinal round. Wednesday, Riley Thompson had a team-high three points and was one of seven goal scorers. The seven goals (with three on the power play) were a Buckeye season high and the second-most in a Big Ten Tournament game for the program.
The Buckeyes are scoring 3.23 goals per game this season, allowing 3.57 a contest.
The power play is 14th nationally, converting 23.8 percent of its chances. The penalty kill has stopped 72.5 percent of its opponents' opportunities. Ohio State averages 11.43 penalty minutes a game. The Buckeyes have won 50.9 percent of their faceoffs.
Jake Karabela leads the team with 33 points, followed by Davis Burnside (31), Felix Caron 2827), Max Montes (27) and Riley Thompson (26). Montes has a team-high 15 goals, with Karabela and Caron each scoring 13 and Burnside, Thompson and Adam Eisele with 12 each. Karabela is first with 20 helpers. Burnside is next with 19, followed by Broten Sabo with 18.
Burnside leads the current Buckeye squad with 111 career points (49g, 62a), ranking eighth among current NCAA skaters. He is tied for second nationally with 153 games played.

Buckeyes vs. Spartans

Ohio State trails the all-time series with Michigan State, 60-103-14 and in East Lansing, the Spartans have the lead in the series, 55-24-8.
The Buckeyes were 2-1-1 vs. Michigan State in the regular season this year. The teams faced off in Columbus Jan. 9-10. The Spartans claimed game one 6-2 before a 2-1 Buckeye victory. In East Lansing Feb. 27-28, Ohio State won the opener 5-1 and the teams skated to a 3-3 overtime tie, with the Spartans winning the shootout in a B1G record 13 rounds, 3-2.
In the postseason, the Buckeyes are 7-8 all-time against Michigan State and in the Big Ten Tournament, Ohio State is 5-2 vs. the Spartans. The Buckeyes won a single-game quarterfinal in overtime in both 2014 (2-1) and 2016 (4-3) in Saint Paul, Minn. and posted a 6-3 quarterfinal victory in Detroit in 2017. The squads met in a best-of-three quarterfinal series in 2018 in Columbus, with a Buckeye sweep (6-2, 4-3 OT). In 2024, Michigan State won in the semifinals on its home ice, 2-1. Last year, the teams faced off on Spartan home ice in the Big Ten Tournament final March 22, 2025, won in double overtime by Michigan State, 4-3.
Davis Burnside leads the current Buckeyes with 18 games played against Michigan State and is first with six goals and six assists for 12 points. Max Montes is second with 11 points, on five goals and six assists in 14 games played vs. MSU. Ryan Gordon and William Smith both have four assists in 14 games vs. Michigan State and Nathan McBrayer has also seen action in 14 games vs. MSU. Riley Thompson has three goals and four assists for seven points combined in nine games vs. MSU.
Three Buckeyes - Kristoffer Eberly (Pinckney), Sam Hillebrandt (St. Clair) and Bryce Ingles (Port Huron) - are Michigan natives.
Michigan State is fourth nationally in scoring defense, allowing 2.09 goals a game, and is sixth in scoring offense, with 3.79 goals per outing, ranking third in scoring margin (+1.71). The power play (.280) is third in the nation and the penalty kill has stopped 81.7 percent of its opponents' chances. The squad averages 16.56 penalty minutes a game.
Porter Martone is fourth nationally in points per game (1.44) and Charlie Stramel is 10th (1.29). Martone ranks second in goals per game (.72) in the NCAA. In goal, Trey Augustine is fifth in the NCAA in save percentage (.930) and eighth in goals-against average (2.06).

Buckeyes in the B1G Tourney

The Buckeyes are 19-15 all-time in Big Ten Tournament action.
In the semifinals, Ohio State is 3-6, with a 1-3 record when the tournament was played at neutral sites and 2-3 record on campus sites. The Buckeyes defeated Michigan in the 2018 semifinals in Columbus, fell at home to Penn State in the 2019 semis, dropped games at Michigan in 2023 and Michigan State in 2024 and defeated Penn State in Columbus last year.
Ohio State has never won the Big Ten Tournament, reaching the title game three times (2014, 2018, 2025). The squad has advanced to the semifinals nine times (with the 2020 game canceled).
This is the fourth time the Buckeyes are the tournament's No. 5 seed, with a 5-4 mark as the No. 5 seed through Wednesday's quarterfinal win.
The program has two conference postseason tournament titles, winning the CCHA in 1972 and 2004.

Up Next

The semifinal winners will meet in the Big Ten Tournament final next Saturday, March 21, on the campus of the highest advancing seed. The tournament winner earns the Big Ten's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.