NCAA Men’s Frozen Four Preview: How to Watch Big Ten, Traditional Powers Battle for College Hockey Crown

In early April, the men’s and women’s Final Fours tend to get all the glory in college sports circles.

However, for those in the know, there is another alliterative event equally rich in drama on tap this Thursday and Saturday.

That would be the Frozen Four, the final act of the NCAA’s annual hockey season. On March 22, Wisconsin downed Ohio State 3–2 to win the women’s event in College Township, Pa. Now, four of the sport’s blue bloods will square off in the men’s event—wielding, between them, an eye-popping 33 national titles. In fact, the four teams rank No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 on the sport’s all-time national championship leaderboard.

Here is a brief guide to this year’s participants, as well as how you can watch this weekend’s action from Las Vegas.

2026 men’s Frozen Four teams

No. 1 Michigan

T.J. Hughes prepares to shoot during the 2025 Big Ten tournament. — T.J. Hughes, seen here during the 2025 Big Ten tournament, has remained a stalwart for Michigan in 2026. | Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

The Wolverines enter the Frozen Four as the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, having gone 29-7-1 in the regular season. Although it just missed the Big Ten regular season title—it finished two points behind Michigan State—Michigan won all three conference tournament games in lopsided fashion. The Wolverines beat Bentley and Minnesota-Duluth to reach the Frozen Four, and will aim for their first national title since winning two in three years in the late 1990s (1996 and 1998). The team’s star is forward T.J. Hughes, who led the team with 56 points and won multiple Big Ten honors.

Denver

The winner of three of the last nine national championships enters the Frozen Four unseeded but on fire, having dispatched Cornell and Western Michigan by multi-goal margins (a regional in nearby Loveland, Colo., helped). Like Michigan, the Pioneers finished second in their conference (the National Collegiate Hockey Conference) but won the tournament title—beating Minnesota-Duluth 4–3 in double overtime on home ice. Denver’s leading scorer and only first team All-NCHC player is defenseman Eric Pohlkamp, a fifth-round pick of the Sharks in 2023.

Wisconsin

Ben Dexheimer (center) and Finn Brink (right) prepare for the Frozen Four in Las Vegas. | Mark Stewart / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In the regular season, the Badgers didn’t look like anything too special—at least not compared to the Spartans and Wolverines, or even Ohio State, an inferior team that beat them 7–1 in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. College hockey, though, is a game of timing—and Wisconsin woke up in the NCAA tournament to take out Dartmouth and Michigan State. The Badgers have the fewest national titles of any remaining team with six, most recently in 2006. Wisconsin’s only first team All-Big Ten player was defenseman Ben Dexheimer.

No. 2 North Dakota

Keaton Verhoeff warms up for a game against Western Michigan. — Keaton Verhoeff will likely be a high pick in June’s NHL draft. | Michael Miller/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images

College hockey’s sleeping giant is wide awake—the Fighting Hawks are in the Frozen Four for the first time since winning it all in 2016. North Dakota is the tournament’s No. 2 overall seed, having entered the field with a 27-9-1 mark. After losing to Minnesota-Duluth in the NCHC tournament, the Fighting Hawks buckled down and shut out Merrimack and Quinnipiac in succession. Goalie Jan Špunar, a Czech national, anchored both of those shutouts, while defenseman Keaton Verhoeff is a top-five NHL draft prospect.

How to watch the 2026 men’s Frozen Four

Here’s a quick schedule in tabular form.

GAME	DATE/TIME	CHANNEL
Wisconsin vs. North Dakota	Thursday, 5 p.m. ET	ESPN2
Denver vs. Michigan	Thursday, 8:30 p.m. ET	ESPN2
Semifinal winners	Saturday, 5:30 p.m. ET	ESPN