Men's Frozen Four - Championship preview, predictions, stats - ESPN

The 2025 men's Frozen Four, the culmination of the NCAA hockey tournament, features two teams with a lot of experience on this stage and two newcomers, with the semifinal matchups pairing familiar foes and teams meeting for the first time.

The semifinals will be Thursday at 5 and 8:30 p.m. ET at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, with the winners facing off in the final Saturday at 7:30 p.m. All three games will be on ESPN2 and streaming on ESPN+.

In Thursday's first game, reigning national champion Denver is back to defend its title, with the Pioneers facing fellow NCHC team Western Michigan, which is in the Frozen Four for the first time. The teams have met three times this season, with the Broncos beating Denver in double overtime in the NCHC championship game after the teams split two meetings in the regular season.

The other semifinal matches Boston University, which is in the national semifinals for the third straight year, and Penn State, which makes its Frozen Four debut. This is the first meeting between the Terriers and Nittany Lions.

Western Michigan is the only one of the top four overall seeds to make the Frozen Four, marking the first time since 2011 that only one of the top four seeds has made it this far. Boston College, Michigan State and Maine all were eliminated in regional play.

In terms of NHL talent, a combined 38 players have been drafted from the Frozen Four teams. BU leads the way with 14, Denver has 13, Western Michigan 8 and Penn State 3.

Below is a look at what needs to go right for each of the four teams to win the national title, with insight from ESPN college hockey analysts Colby Cohen and Andrew Raycroft, as well as players to watch and key statistics from ESPN research.

How the Pioneers