Less than 24 hours after punching its ticket to the NCAA tournament, the Cornell men's hockey team learned exactly where its quest for the national title will begin – Green Bay, Wis.
 
The Big Red was named as the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Regional, where it will play No. 1 seed (No. 2 overall) Michigan in a first-round matchup Friday, March 23 at Resch Center. The game will start at 8 p.m. local time (9 p.m. EDT).
 
Ferris State and Denver will tangle in the regional's other semifinal later Friday, with the winners advancing to the regional final at 4 p.m. CDT Saturday. The winner of that game then advances to the Frozen Four from April 5-7 in Tampa, Fla.
 
Cornell (18-8-7) will be making its 19th all-time apperance in the NCAA tournament and chasing its third national title. It's also the Big Red's seventh trip to NCAAs in the last 11 years, marking a third trip for this season's four-man senior class. Cornell suffered a 6-1 loss to Harvard in Friday's ECAC Hockey Championship semifinals in Atlantic City, N.J., putting its season on the brink. But the Big Red responded with a 3-0 victory over Colgate the following day to assure itself at least one more game this season. In fact, Cornell will be the only team in the regional which won its last game.
 
Michigan (24-12-4) advanced to the national title game last season before falling to Minnesota-Duluth in overtime. Eight seniors graduated from that squad, and a younger version of the Wolverines then started this season 6-1-1 before it slid below .500 with a seven-game winless streak through November and early December. Included in that slide was a 6-3 loss to ECAC Hockey champion Union. Michigan reeled off a 17-3-2 from there before falling to Western Michigan in Saturday's CCHA title game. There are 11 NHL draft picks on Michigan's roster.
 
The last time Cornell and Michigan met was Jan. 7, 1997, with the game ending in a 3-3 tie at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. It was Mike Schafer's second season as the head coach for the Big Red, which went on to win the ECAC Hockey title that season. The last time the teams met in postseason play was March 15-17, 1991 in an NCAA East Regional first-round series at Yost. Michigan won the series, 2-1.
 
In the other regional semifinal, which will be staged at 4:30 p.m. CDT, the CCHA's Ferris State (23-11-5) will take on the WCHA's Denver (25-13-4). Second-seeded Ferris had 15-game unbeaten streak from January to February with a long stint atop the major college hockey polls before dropping its regular-season finale to Western Michigan. The Bulldogs were then eliminated in a CCHA quarterfinal series by Bowling Green. Denver surged through the second half of the season, posting a 15-5-1 record after a home loss to Alabama-Huntsville on Jan. 6. The Pioneers were the third seed in the WCHA tournament, advancing to the title game with a double-overtime win over second-seeded Minnesota-Duluth. North Dakota then defeated Denver in the WCHA final, 4-0.

NCAA brackets