Thursday, April 19, 2012

Big Ten Tournament Announces Sites, Dates


The Big Ten has ended one of the worst-kept secrets since the league's sponsorship of hockey and has announced that the first four conference tournaments in history will rotate between the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN and Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. Specifically...
The inaugural Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament will be held March 20-22, 2014, at Xcel Energy Center. The tournament moves to Joe Louis Arena the following year and will be held March 19-21, 2015, and March 16-18, 2017, in Detroit. The 2016 event will return to Saint Paul and be held March 17-19. Tickets for the 2014 Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament in Saint Paul are expected to go on sale in the summer of 2013.

The tournament will feature all six teams - Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin - in a single-elimination format. Thursday's quarterfinals will feature the No. 3 seed facing the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed battling the No. 5 seed. The top two seeds will open tournament play in the Friday semifinals, with the No. 1 seed against either the No. 4 or 5 seed and the No. 2 seed facing the No. 3 or 6 seed. The championship game will be held on Saturday.
There's really not much more to say about it, so I won't. Congratulations to the Big Ten on making the tournament accessible to more than one fanbase at least half of the time.

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