Big Ten hockey coming to Detroit

Hockey fans in Michigan can still expect to see the Spartans and Wolverines skate at the Joe in March.

The Big Ten announced today that they will alternate between the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn. and Joe Louis Arena in Detroit for their postseason tournament when the league begins play in 2013-14.

The Big Ten’s hockey tournament will be held at the Xcel Energy Center in 2014 and 2016, and at the Joe in 2015 and 2017. The inaugural tournament will take place on March 20-22, 2014, and the first time in Detroit will be from March 19-21, 2015.

The 2017 tournament will be played from March 16-18 at the Joe.

The Big Ten also announced the format for the competition; all six Big Teams will play in the tournament. It will be single-elimination, with the top two seeds getting byes to the semifinal round.

It will be in a bracket format; the No. 3 seed will play the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed will play the No. 5 in the quarterfinals, and then the No. 1 seed will take on the winner of the 4 vs. 5, and the No. 2 seed will take on the winner of the 3 vs. 6.

The tournament will run from Thursday to Saturday.