Big Ten moves postseason college hockey tournament from March 18-20 to March 14-16 in interest of safety

Notre Dame is set to host the 2021 Big Ten postseason tournament in March (photo: Notre Dame Athletics).

The Big Ten announced Thursday that it has changed the dates of the 2021 Big Ten men’s hockey tournament from March 18-20 to March 14-16.

The tournament will take place as previously planned at Compton Family Ice Arena on the campus of Notre Dame.

According to a Big Ten press release, the decision to change the dates of the tournament was made “in order to ease compression between the regular season and postseason tournaments in the interest of the health and safety of student-athletes, coaches and officials.”

The tournament will include Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin, and will consist of six games, with three games on Sunday, two games on Monday and the championship game on Tuesday.

All six games will be carried live on Big Ten Network.

Sunday, March 14
12 p.m. ET: Quarterfinal #1
4 p.m. ET: Quarterfinal #2
8:30 p.m. ET: Quarterfinal #3

Monday, March 15
4:30 p.m. ET: Semifinal #1
8:30 p.m. ET: Semifinal #2

Tuesday, March 16
8 p.m. ET: Championship Game

Due to the number of games postponed this season and the limited number of windows remaining to reschedule contests, the Big Ten champion and Big Ten tournament seeding will be determined using the protocol for unbalanced schedules approved prior to the start of the season. The first element of that protocol is winning percentage in Big Ten games, with wins in regulation and overtime counted as wins and shootout results counted as ties for the purpose of calculating winning percentages.

All institutions affected by postponements will continue to work with the conference to identify rescheduling options prior to the end of the regular season.