Wednesday, March 11
Madison, Wis.
8 p.m. ET
Ohio State
at
Wisconsin (Quarterfinals)
B1G Tournament Quarterfinal at No. 10t/11 Wisconsin Up Next for the Buckeyes
3/9/2026 10:13:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey
Teams will meet Wednesday in Madison
The Basics
- The Ohio State men's hockey team begins postseason play with a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal game at No. 10t/11 Wisconsin.
- The Buckeyes and Badgers will meet at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday in the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.
- Ohio State is the tournament's No. 5 seed, with the Badgers No. 4.
- The game will be streamed through B1G+.
- 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 12-20-2 on the year (8-15-1, 29 points Big Ten) and ended the regular season with two overtime losses to Notre Dame in Columbus last week (L OT 4-5, L OT 3-4). Wisconsin was 21-11-2 in the regular season (14-10, 39 points B1G). Last week, the Badgers posted a sweep at Penn State (7-3, 5-2).
- This is the third year in a row Ohio State and Wisconsin are meeting in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. Ohio State posted an upset on the road in 2024 and won in Columbus last year, with both series going to three games.
- The tournament format changed this year to a single elimination quarterfinal. The first round winners will advance to the single-elimination semifinals Saturday, hosted by No. 1 seed Michigan State and at the highest seeded advancing team. The lowest advancing seed will face the Spartans, with the other advancing team playing in the other semifinal.
- The Buckeyes are scoring 3.12 goals per game this season, allowing 3.65 a contest.
- The power play is 19th nationally, converting 22.6 percent of its chances. The penalty kill has stopped 72.1 percent of its opponents' opportunities. Ohio State averages 11.59 penalty minutes a game. The Buckeyes have won 51.2 percent of their faceoffs.
- Jake Karabela leads the team with 31 points, followed by Davis Burnside (29), Felix Caron (27), Max Montes (26) and Riley Thompson (23).
- Montes has a team-high 14 goals, with Karabela, Burnside and Caron each scoring 12 and Thompson and Adam Eisele with 11 each.
- Karabela is first with 19 helpers. Broten Sabo and Burnside are next with 17 assists each and Ryan Gordon has 16.
- Ohio State is 38-30-5 all-time vs. Wisconsin and leads the regular season series since the start of Big Ten play, 31-15-5, with a 37-19-6 mark overall since 2013-14 (including postseason play).
- In Madison, Ohio State leads the series all-time, 16-14-3, while in B1G Tournament action, the Buckeyes have the edge, 6-4.
- The Buckeyes were 2-2 against Wisconsin in the regular season. In Madison Nov. 14-15, the teams split with a 5-1 Buckeye win and 6-5 Badger overtime victory. In Columbus Feb. 13-14, the squads again split. The Badgers took the opener 4-2 before a 2-1 Ohio State victory.
- In the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal series last year in Columbus. The No. 6 seed Badgers took game one, 4-1. No. 3 seed Ohio State prevailed 3-2 in overtime in game two and then won game three, 3-2, to advance to the semifinals. In the quarterfinals in 2024, the No. 7 seed Buckeyes won games one (3-1) and two (3-1), with the No. 2 Badgers claiming game two (4-2).
- The other B1G tournament meetings between the teams were a 5-4 overtime win by the Badgers in the inaugural tournament final in 2014 in Saint Paul, a 2-1 Wisconsin win in the semifinals in 2017 in Detroit and a Buckeye sweep of a quarterfinal series in 2020 (9-1, 2-1 OT) in Columbus.
- Davis Burnside leads the current Buckeyes with 22 games played against Wisconsin, while Max Montes has skated in 18 contests vs. the Badgers and Nathan McBrayer, William Smith and Thomas Weis have all played in 17 games against UW. Burnside and Montes both have 14 points against the Badgers. Burnside has a team-high 10 goals, with four assists, and Montes has nine goals and a team-best five assists. Riley Thompson has eight points, on four goals and four assists, in 11 games against UW. Adam Eisele (3g, 1a, 4p) and Ryan Gordon (3g, 2a, 5p) each have three goals vs. Wisconsin.
- Ohio State head coach Steve Rohlik is a 1990 graduate of Wisconsin, where he was a captain on the Badgers' national championship team.
- Buckeye junior forward Thomas Weis is a native of Madison, Wis., and his classmate Montes is from Hartland, Wis.
- Wisconsin is 21-11-2 on the year and was 14-10 in B1G play to finish fourth.
- The Badgers are fifth in the NCAA in scoring offense (3.79 goals per game) and rank sixth on the power play (.274), ranking seventh in faceoff winning percentage (.537). The team allows 2.97 goals a game and the penalty kill has stopped 72.8 percent of its opponents' chances.
- The Buckeyes are 18-15 all-time in Big Ten Tournament action.
- In the quarterfinals, Ohio State is 15-6, with four wins when the tournament was single elimination at neutral sites, home sweeps of Michigan State (2018) and Wisconsin (2020), wins in three games against Penn State in Columbus (2023), at Wisconsin (2024) and vs. the Badgers (2025) and a loss in three games to Penn State in Columbus (2022).
- 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 eight times (with the 2020 game canceled).
- This is the fourth time the Buckeyes are the tournament's No. 5 seed, with a 4-4 mark as the No. 5.
- The program has two conference postseason tournament titles, winning the CCHA in 1972 and 2004.
- The winner of Wednesday night's quarterfinal game will advance to the semifinal round, which will be held Saturday. Semifinal sites and matchups will be determined following the quarterfinal round.
Players Mentioned
Forward
/ Men's Ice Hockey
Forward
/ Men's Ice Hockey
Forward
/ Men's Ice Hockey
Forward
/ Men's Ice Hockey
Defenseman
/ Men's Ice Hockey
Forward
/ Men's Ice Hockey
Defenseman
/ Men's Ice Hockey
Defenseman
/ Men's Ice Hockey
Forward
/ Men's Ice Hockey
Forward
/ Men's Ice Hockey No videos available.
