March 20, 2016

2016 NCAA Bracket | Irish NCAA Tournament Central

By Dan Colleran

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame hockey team will play Michigan in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, March 25 in Cincinnati, Ohio at the U.S. Bank Arena.

Notre Dame is the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Regional, while Michigan is the No. 2 seed. Friday’s game will be televised on ESPNU and also be available on the WatchESPN App.

The other opening round game of the Midwest Regional will feature No. 1 seed North Dakota versus No. 4 seed Northeastern (2:00 p.m.).

The Irish (19-10-7, 15-5-2 HEA) will be making their eighth appearance in the NCAA Championship field, including their third appearance in the last four seasons.

Notre Dame and Michigan’s only other meeting in the NCAA Tournament came at the 2008 Frozen Four (Denver, Colo.) when the Irish posted a 5-4 overtime win to advance to the NCAA championship game.

The Wolverines posted a 24-7-5 record this season (12-5-3 Big Ten) and won the Big Ten Tournament title with a 5-3 victory over Minnesota on Saturday night (March 19).

Former CCHA rivals, Michigan and Notre Dame have played 134 times (Michigan leads the series 73-56-5) dating back to 1921. The teams’ last meetings came during the 2012-13 season when Notre Dame went 5-0-0 against the Wolverines, including a 3-1 victory in the championship game of the CCHA tournament.

The 2016 championship field was revealed on ESPNU’s NCAA Div. I Men’s Hockey Selection Show on Sunday afternoon.

— ND —

Dan Colleran, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been a part of Fighting Irish Media since August 2015 and coordinates all media and publicity efforts surrounding the Notre Dame hockey and men’s golf programs. A native of Walpole, Massachusetts, Colleran spent the previous three years working with the men’s hockey and soccer programs at Providence College. Colleran also spent two years as an Assistant Executive Director of Communications & Championships at the Ivy League and is a graduate of Providence College (’06 & ’08G).