2025 NCAA Men's D-I Hockey Tournament Set

The field is set for the 2025 NCAA Division Men's Ice Hockey championship, which begins this Thursday.

As has been the case since 2003, 16 teams are grouped into four regionals of four schools each, beginning with two regional semifinal games (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3), and then the semifinal winners meeting two days later in the regional final contests. The top four seeds overall in order are Boston College, Michigan State, Western Michigan and Maine.

Allentown, PA Regional (PPL Center)

1. Maine (24-7-6) * 

2. UConn (22-11-4)

3. Quinnipiac (24-11-2) 

4. Penn State (20-13-4) #

Fargo, ND Regional (SCHEELS Arena)

1. Western Michigan (30-7-1) *

2. Minnesota (25-10-4)

3. Massachusetts (20-13-5) 

4. Minnesota State (27-8-3) *

Manchester, NH Regional (SNHU Arena)

1. Boston College (26-7-2)

2. Providence (21-10-5)

3. Denver (29-11-1)

4. Bentley (23-14-2) *

Toledo, OH Regional (Huntington Center)

1. Michigan State (26-6-4) *

2. Boston University (21-13-2) 

3. Ohio State (24-13-2)

4. Cornell (18-10-6) *

Team overall records in ( )

* Conference tournament champion (receives automatic NCAA bid)

# Regional host school

The full bracket with dates, times, and TV coverage can be found here.

Denver is the defending NCAA champion, while Bentley and UConn are in both the championship for the first time ever.

The four regional champions will advance to the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals in St. Louis on April 10. The national championship game will contested on April 12.

Badgers Win 2025 Women's Hockey NCAA Title

Kirsten Simms scored on a penalty shot with 18.2 seconds remaining in regulation, then converted a rebound less than three minutes into overtime to lift top-ranked Wisconsin to a 4-3 victory over No. 2 Ohio State in the 2025 NCAA Division I Women's Hockey national championship game at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. 

It is the eighth national title all-time for the Badgers, the most-ever in women's college hockey history, and their second in three seasons. It was also the eighth national title for head coach and former NHL forward/1980 U.S. Olympic hero Mark Johnson, who now has 667 career wins, all at his alma mater.

Simms finished with two goals and an assist on the afternoon, and scored the tying goal after Wisconsin was awarded a penalty shot after an official video review determined that an OSU player had covered a loose puck in the Buckeye crease with a glove. She then put home the rebound of a Lacey Eden shot just 2:49 into the extra session to end it.

Eden recorded two assists for Wisconsin (38-1-2 overall), which overcame a 3-1 deficit early in the second period, while Laila Edwards had a goal and an assist for the Badgers, who also won both the WCHA regular-season and tournament titles. Joy Dunne, who notched the game-winning goal for OSU (29-8-1) in last year's national title game, opened today's scoring with a shorthanded goal in the first nine minutes of regulation. Amanda Thiele finished with 31 saves in net for the Buckeyes, while Ava McNaughton made 20 stops for the Badgers.

It was the third straight season that OSU and Wisconsin, the top two teams in the NCAA and WCHA, had met for the national title. Wisconsin won in 2023, and OSU in 2024, both by 1-0 scores. The Buckeyes were seeking their third NCAA title in school history. The 2026 women's Division I Frozen Four will be played at Penn State's  Pegula Ice Arena in State College, Pa.

Wisconsin's O'Brien Wins 2025 Kazmaier

The 2025 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winner as the top player in NCAA Division I women's ice hockey is University of Wisconsin fifth-year forward Casey O’Brien.

O'Brien, a graduate student from Milton, Mass., leads the Badgers in scoring this season with 26 goals and 62 assists for 88 points in 40 games, the highest-scoring season of her five-year NCAA career. She is also the top scorer in Wisconsin hockey history, men and women, all-time with 94-175—269 points in 179 outings, and the sixth Badger to win the Kazmaier Award, the first since 2017. 

O'Brien's Wisconsin teammates, Laila Edwards and Caroline Harvey, were the other two finalists this year for the award, which is named for the late Princeton University star and all Ivy League honoree from the 1980s. 

Wisconsin (37-1-2 overall) will now face WCHA rival Ohio State (29-7-3) on Sunday (4 p.m. ET, ESPNU) in the national title game for the third straight year.

OSU, Wisconsin to Meet Again for NCAA Women's Hockey Title

For the third year in a row, the NCAA Division I women's ice hockey national title game will pit Ohio State against Wisconsin.

Defending national champion and second-ranked OSU advanced to Sunday's title game (3 p.m., ET, ESPNU) with a 4-2 win over Cornell today in the first NCAA semifinal at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Joy Dunne scored the only two goals of the third period for the Buckeyes, who also got a goal and two assists from Makenna Webster. 

No. 1 Wisconsin (37-1-2 overall) punched its ticket to Sunday with a 6-2 victory over host Minnesota in tonight's nightcap. Laila Edwards scored three goals for the Badgers, while Caroline Harvey tallied one goal and set up three others. Both Edwards and Harvey, along with teammate Casey O'Brien, are finalists for the 2025 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the nation's top women's player, with the winner to be announced tomorrow (NHL Network, 12:30 p.m. ET).

OSU (29-7-3) advanced to this year's Frozen Four by routing St. Lawrence in the quarterfinal round, while Wisconsin bested Clarkson. The Badgers also won this year's WCHA tournament, while the Buckeyes were eliminated by Minnesota in the conference semifinals. Wisconsin won this year's head-to-head WCHA regular-season series with OSU with two wins, one loss and one tie (shootout win by OSU).

The Buckeyes beat the Badgers in last year's national title game in Durham, N.H, while Wisconsin edged OSU in the 2023 championship in Duluth, Minn., with both games decided by 1-0 scores. OSU is seeking its third national title ever, and third in four years, while Wisconsin is vying for a record eighth NCAA crown overall, and fourth in the last six seasons.

Jackson, Riley Coach Final Games

A pair of longtime men's college hockey coaching careers came to an end over the weekend.

Jeff Jackson coached his final game in Notre Dame's 1-0 loss at Michigan State on Saturday in the Big Ten semifinal round. An MSU graduate, Jackson finished his storied career with an overall record of 601-343-99. He coached at Lake Superior State from 1990 to 1996, winning two NCAA championships with the Lakers, and then helmed the Irish from 2005 to 2025, guiding UND to four Frozen Fours and two NCAA title games. He was also won a pair of Spencer Penrose Awards as NCAA coach of the year.

Brian Riley concluded his career that same night as Army West Point fell, 3-1, at Holy Cross in the deciding contest of their Atlantic Hockey America best-of-three quarterfinal series. A Brown graduate, Riley finished 258-379-94 in overseeing Army from 2005 to 2025, winning the 2008 Atlantic Hockey regular-season title. His retirement ends a 75-year tenure of Riley head coaches behind the Black Knights bench.

Hockey St. Patrick's Day 2025

 

Fontaine, OSU Advance to Big Ten Title Game

Gunnarwolfe Fontaine shot Ohio State University into the 2025 Big Ten championship game.

The Rhode Island native scored just under 15 minutes into overtime last night at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio to lift third-seeded OSU to a 4-3 victory over visiting fifth-seeded Penn State University. The Buckeyes will now face defending champion Michigan State next Saturday night for at Munn Arena for the league crown and the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. Top-seeded MSU outlasted seventh-seeded Notre Dame, 1-0, in East Lansing, Mich. yesterday,

Fontaine opened the scoring in Columbus on a first-period deflection, and the two teams then traded goals over the next 40 minutes, with Penn State's Matt DiMarsico connecting with just under six minutes remaining in regulation to force the extra session. Logan Terness made 31 saves in net for tenth-ranked OSU (24-12-2 overall), while Arsenii Sergeev finished with 38 stops for No. 11 Penn State (20-13-4), which lost for the only the second time since Feb. 1. 

Fontaine, who spent the first four years of his college career at Northeastern, now leads OSU with 16 goals and 23 assists for 39 points through 38 games. He kept OSU's season alive in the Big Ten quarterfinals by scoring the game-tying goal late in Game Two against Wisconsin, after the Badgers had won the first game, and the Buckeyes went on to win the series in three games. In 169 career NCAA outings, he now has 48-88—136 points overall, including 13 power-play goals and eight game-winners.

Even without the automatic conference bid, both OSU and Penn State are likely to qualify for the 16-team NCAAs according to the Pairwise Rankings.