DENVER – The University of Denver hockey team is the No. 2 seed in the NCAA West Regional in Loveland, Colorado, and will face No. 3-regional seed Cornell University in the first round of the national tournament on Friday at 4 p.m. MT at Blue Arena (Stream: ESPN+).
 
The entire 16-team bracket for the 2026 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was unveiled on Sunday afternoon during the NCAA Selection Show on ESPNU. Denver is the hosts of the Loveland Regional and was guaranteed to play in Northern Colorado as long as the team qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
 
Denver and Cornell are meeting for the third times in the past four years in regionals and the seventh time overall in the NCAA Tournament. The Pioneers beat the Big Red 2-1 in their last meeting in the 2024 Northeast Regional Final in Springfield, Massachusetts, after Cornell earned a 2-0 victory the previous year in their first-round matchup in Manchester, New Hampshire.
 
DU is 8-6-0 all-time against Cornell but the teams are each sport a 3-3 record in the national tournament. Denver defeated CU 4-3 to win the 1969 national championship in Colorado Springs, as goaltender Gerry Powers outdueled future hall of famer Ken Dryden in a 4-3 victory.  Cornell beat Denver 7-2 in the 1972 national semifinals, and both teams picked up wins against one another in the two-game quarterfinals in 1986, with the Pioneers advancing to semifinals based on goal aggregate (8-7).
 
Denver is making its 35th appearance in the national tournament and has reached the dance in 17 consecutive full seasons since 2008. The Pioneers have made it to the NCAA Frozen Four in three of the past four seasons and six times in the last nine held tournaments. DU's 10 overall national titles are the most in college hockey, with its most recent coming in 2024.
 
Fellow NCHC-foe Western Michigan is the No. 4 overall national seed and the top-seed in the Loveland Regional. The Broncos will play No. 4-seed Minnesota State in the first regional semifinal at Blue Arena on Friday at 12:30 p.m. MT.
 
DU earned one of the six automatic qualifiers for the national tournament after winning the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship on Saturday night at Magness Arena. Denver beat Minnesota Duluth 4-3 in double-overtime to win its NCHC-record fourth tournament title in conference history.
 
The Pioneers are on a season-long nine-game winning streak and are unbeaten in their past 13 games (12-0-1), tied for the fifth longest such stretch in a single season in program history and the longest since the 2016-17 squad won 13 straight games late in their championship-winning campaign.
 
Denver has a 46-26 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament and is 12-3 in its last 15 games and a 17-4 mark dating back to 2017.
 
The University of Denver is serving as the host institution for the third time at Blue Arena, the home of the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles. Denver previously hosted in Loveland in both 2021 and 2022, with the latter year springboarding the Pioneers to winning that season's national championship in Boston. Denver will also host regionals at the venue next year in March 2027 before hosting the 2028 Frozen Four at United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
 
TICKETS: Limited tickets are available for DU hockey's games in the NCAA West Regionals next weekend at Blue Arena in Loveland, Colorado. Click here for more information.