Men's Ice Hockey | March 19, 2017

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan hockey team will travel to Providence, R.I., to take on Air Force in the NCAA East Regional Semifinal on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. The game will be shown live on ESPN3.

Western Michigan earned its trip to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed after finishing sixth in the Pairwise Rankings after a 22-12-5 record in the regular season. Air Force earned its trip as a No. 3 seed after winning the Atlantic Hockey Tournament Championship, beating Robert Morris 2-1. The Falcons finished the regular season with a 26-9-5 record and are 12-1-1 in their last 14 games.

"There are 60 teams in college hockey and for us to be one of the final 16 is gratifying," said head coach Andy Murray. "We are forewarned with our series earlier this season. Air Force competes hard. They are very well conditioned and come after you for 60 minutes. They are deserving champions of Atlantic Hockey and they gave us two really tough games at Lawson."

WMU and AF played back at Lawson Ice Arena on Nov. 18 and 19. The two teams tied 5-5 in the series opener and the Broncos got the best of the Falcons the following night, 4-1. The all-time series is tied at 3-3-1 and this will be the first neutral site game between the two teams.

Ticket information for the NCAA East Regional will be announced in the coming days at WMUBroncos.com.