The Ohio State University men’s hockey team begins the 2024 portion of their Big Ten schedule hosting the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a two-game series in Columbus this weekend.

     The Buckeyes (8-8-4, 0-8-2) are coming off a sweep of Bowling Green last weekend, their last non-conference series of the season, and will try to avenge a pair of Notre Dame (10-10-2, 4-6-2) victories when the teams faced off in South Bend in November.

     “Every game is big, conference, non-conference,” Buckeyes’ head coach Steve Rohlik offered while discussing his team’s recent schedule that included a mix of conference and non-conference games. “For us, we’re trying to get better every night. We certainly got to be at our best this weekend.”

      After a loss and a tie/shoot out win in two conference games against Minnesota in early December, Ohio State has rebounded with three non-conference victories since December 30th. The four-game unbeaten streak is a season high for the Buckeyes.

     “I think the break was a good reset for us. We’ve had good practices lately and two weekends of pretty good hockey,” offered sophomore forward Davis Burnside recently.

      The Buckeyes have struggled in Big Ten conference play and Burnside believes a key to improving during the second half of the conference season will be getting off to a good start in the opening games of the upcoming series.

     “We’re resilient, obviously not the start we wanted. The second half we’re playing great hockey. We’re just trying to build off every weekend. We just need to focus on ourselves and get a good start. Fridays haven’t been great for us this season, so we are going to try and improve on that and have a great start.”

      Puck drop at Value City Arena is 7:00 PM on Friday night and 7:15 PM on Saturday.