There you have it. The 2026 NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament bracket is set. We knew #5 overall Denver would go to Loveland as the host of that regional, but the only questions that remained were what #1 seed would join them at Blue FCU Arena, and who they would play in the first round. The answers are Cornell – again – and #4 overall Western Michigan. The full bracket is below:

The WMU-MSU matchup will be at 12:30pm MT (ESPNU), while the third NCAA Tournament matchup between Denver and Cornell in the last four years will begin at 4pm MT (ESPN+). The regional final between the winners of the two semifinals will take place on Sunday.

The only real “surprise,” if you can even call it that, was flipping Wisconsin and Cornell as 3-seeds to avoid a Dartmouth-Cornell first-round matchup since both teams are in the ECAC. Had the committee stuck with strict bracket integrity, Denver would have faced the #12 overall seed Badgers instead of the #11 Big Red.

Denver’s march to its 11th national title begins next weekend.