2018-19 Big Ten Season

This is the 2018-19 Big Ten Conference men's ice hockey season. This is the conference's 6th season.

Outdoor Game
In conjunction with the 2019 NHL Winter Classic the Notre Dame Fighting Irish played the Michigan Wolverines on January 5th at Notre Dame Stadium. Michigan won the game 4 to 2.

Membership changes

 * None

Format
Due to the poor attendance of the neutral site tournaments, and the addition of Notre Dame as a Big Ten team in hockey, the 2018 tournament introduced a new three-week playoff format. In the first round, the No. 1 team in the regular season conference standings receives a bye, and the remaining six play in a set of best-of-three series. The winners of these three playoff series, along with the No. 1 team, will then participate in two semifinal games. Their winners will advance to the Big Ten championship game.

All games will be held at the home arena of the highest seed in each match-up, rather than a neutral site. Unlike other playoff-style conference tournaments in college hockey, the Big Ten will only use single-game semifinals and finals to reduce the likelihood of conflicts with other events that may be scheduled at team arenas.

Quarterfinals

 * Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated Michigan State Spartans 2 games to none
 * Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated Michigan Wolverines 2 games to none
 * Penn State Nittany Lions defeated Wisconsin Badgers 2 games to 1

Semifinals

 * Penn State Nittany Lions defeated Ohio State Buckeyes 5-1
 * Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated Minnesota Golden Gophers 2-1 (ot)

Final

 * Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated Penn State Nittany Lions 3-2