Michigan Aims to Three-Peat in B1G Championship Game

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 10-ranked University of Michigan ice hockey team (21-13-3) plays for the 2024 Big Ten Tournament championship against No. 5 Michigan State (23-9-3) on Saturday (March 23) at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing. Puck drop is set for 8 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network.

Notes

• Michigan is the two-time defending Big Ten Tournament champion, winning in both 2022 and 2023, topping Minnesota in both games. In total, the Wolverines have three tournament championships since the league was created in 2014, including a title in 2016.

• This is the first time Michigan and Michigan State are competing for the Big Ten tournament championship, but not the first time they have faced off in a conference championship. The teams competed in the CCHA Tournament championship game against each other three times, in 1997 (Michigan won 3-1), 2001 (MSU won 2-0), 2002 (Michigan won 3-2) all at Joe Louis Arena.

• Michigan owns the most wins in the Big Ten Tournament with 20, sporting a 20-7 mark over the last 11 seasons.

• Michigan is 5-0 against MSU in the Big Ten Tournament, defeating them four times in the quarterfinals and once in the semifinals.

• Gavin Brindley was named the Big Ten Player of the Year on Tuesday (March 19). He was one of three Wolverines on the All-Big Ten first team as Michigan made up half of the first-team honorees, along with Seamus Casey and Rutger McGroarty. Dylan Duke captured second-team honors while T.J. Hughes and Frank Nazar III earned honorable mention nods. Jacob Truscott is Michigan's recipient of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.

• Six skaters are averaging more than a point per game: McGroarty (1.59), Brindley (1.42), Hughes (1.19), Casey (1.19), Duke (1.14), Nazar (1.00). No Michigan team in the last 25 years has had more than four point-per-game players. As a team, Michigan is averaging 4.22 points per game, ranked fourth in the nation in tops in the Big Ten.

• Michigan's power play holds steady at No. 1 in the nation at 35.3 percent. They have converted on 48 of 136 chances and have power-play goals in 24 of 37 contests. The next best team is Boston University at 27.9 percent.

• Michigan's 11-member sophomore class has scored 282 points. That is more than 31 teams men's Division I teams this season.

• Michigan has won four straight games by one goal for the first time since March 1927, when it won five straight one-goal games (three vs. Wisconsin, two vs. Minnesota) to end the program's fifth season of varsity play.