The state's best head to Columbus for the 2026 OHSAA hockey tournament

The names are somewhat familiar, but there will be plenty of new blood this weekend as the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s state hockey tournament takes place at Nationwide Arena. 

All four teams that will head to Columbus for the 49th edition of the Frozen Four have been there before, but not necessarily all that recently. While eight-time state champion Cleveland St. Ignatius will be back for the fourth straight season, Sylvania Northview is headed south for the first time since 2023, Gates Mills Gilmour Academy has qualified for the first time since 2022 and Dublin Jerome will be making the short bus ride for the first time since 2019.  

Gilmour Academy enters as the top-ranked team in the state by MaxPreps, but all four programs in Columbus have championship lineage, which should make for some fun hockey at the home of the Blue Jackets. One guarantee, though, is there will be a new state champion as 2025 winner Upper Arlington fell in the Columbus regional semifinal.  

Tournament information follows with capsules of each team below.   

Schedule  

Saturday, March 14 

1 p.m. – Semifinal Game: Gilmour Academy vs. Sylvania Northview 

4 p.m. – Semifinal Game: Dublin Jerome vs. Cleveland St. Ignatius  

Sunday, March 15 

4 p.m. – OHSAA Championship Game  

Streaming: Both semifinals and the championship game will be streamed live on the NFHS Network. 

Ticket info: Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students (Saturday's ticket is good for both semifinal games). To order, visit Ticketmaster.com. Tickets may also be purchased at the Nationwide Arena Box Office or through the OHSAA website.

OHSAA State tournament coverage: Click here

No. 1 Gates Mills Gilmour Academy (34-1-0)

If there’s a favorite going into the tournament, you’d likely to have to say it’s Gilmour, which leads the MaxPreps rankings and has just one loss on the year (to St. Ignatius on Dec. 23) while playing most of the top teams in the state. The Lancers also feature the state’s coach of the year, John Malloy, as well as first-team all-state forward Zachary Cox, second-team All-Ohio goalie Donato Iacurci and third-team all-state forward Ben Slifko.  

The Lancers are making their fifth appearance in the state tournament, winning it all in their last visit in 2022, and got some help at the start of the year with some additions from the school’s prep team. Those players have mixed with a determined group that has had its eyes on Columbus from the drop of the puck, and maybe that helped the squad prevail in a classic four-overtime regional final win vs. rival University School.

“We had a core of really good players coming back, which we had a good team last year,” Malloy said. “Whenever you have upperclassmen returning maybe a little bit disappointed at the end of the year, there was a large focus on having this season end a little differently than last season. It just means a lot to these kids because it will be their first time going down to the final four, and with last year ending prematurely in their mind, they were really focused on coming back and getting down there this year.” 

State tournament results (Kent region): 10-0 win over Solon in the district final; 6-2 win over Shaker Heights in the semifinal; 3-2 win (4OT) over Hunting Valley University School in the regional final  

Top scorers: 11 Zachary Cox (43-49-92), 7 Galen Frizzie (46-34-80), 3 Ben Slifko (42-23-65), 8 Brady Panteck (14-18-32), 16 Simon Kunin (5-20-25) 

Top goalie: 33 Donato Iacurci (18-1-0, 1.49 GAA, .941 save percentage)  

Coach Malloy on the matchup with Northview: “There’s the old comment or statement that every sports team makes, but I think it holds true – we're just going to have to play our game. We play fast, we play hard and we play disciplined, and I think we just have to do those things. A well-coached team like Coach Elliott has, you know that they’re going to bring it, you know that they’re going to be disciplined, you know that they’re going to stay together as a team. We just have to make sure we limit our penalties and try to create a lot of speed where they take a couple penalties that they don’t want to take and then take advantage of those power plays.”

No. 4 Cleveland St. Ignatius (24-11-2)

If it’s springtime in Columbus, that likely means St. Ignatius is headed down I-71 for the state final four. The eight-time champions are making their fourth straight trip to the tournament, a run that includes a state title in 2024 and an appearance in the final a year ago. 

Head coach Pat O’Rourke said this year hasn’t been easy for Ohio’s most decorated high school program, though, with injuries and illness popping up throughout the season to impact a squad that features second-team all-state defenseman Aidan White. 

“It’s been kind of a weird year, just like lots of injuries and illnesses,” O’Rourke said. “I just think they seem like a resilient bunch. It’s like one more obstacle in place in front of them. We haven’t really had our ‘A’ lineup together much this year. It’s just been one of those crazy years. It happens in sports, but they’re dealing with it very well. They kind of don’t miss a beat and somebody steps in – next man up, as they say, and that’s the nice thing about being deep is those things don’t kill us.” 

State tournament results (Brooklyn region): 7-0 win over Cleveland Benedictine in the district final; 4-1 win over Rocky River in the semifinal; 3-1 win over Lakewood St. Edward in the regional final  

Top scorers: 71 Cade Bradley (18-20-38), 3 Patrick Rose (17-17-34), 17 Levi Gallucci (14-20-34), 56 Kyle Rucinski (13-19-32), 16 Aiden White (14-15-29) 

Top goalie: 70 Blake Benedictis (17-7-2, 2.40 GAA, .927 save percentage)

Coach O’Rourke on the matchup with Dublin Jerome: “Ironically we just played them (Feb. 20, a 2-2 tie), so I think both teams are probably happy that happened because we both got a good look at each other. I was just watching film and I was thinking, ‘What the heck are we going to do against them?’ These guys are fast, they’re good, they’re skilled, they’re tough. Hopefully we are, too. It’s gonna be a great matchup.”

No. 5 Dublin Jerome (25-10-3)

The Columbus region has taken home two of the last three state titles, a testament to how hockey has grown in the capital city, and Dublin Jerome beat out a deep field – including Capital Hockey Conference and Blue Jackets Cup champion St. Charles – to make it to the final four. 

It will be Jerome’s first appearance since 2019, when it became the first Central Ohio team to win a game at the state tournament, and fourth overall. The Celtics are a defense-first squad, having allowed just two goals in three OHSAA tournament games, and are powered up front by third-team all-state selection Luke Myers as well as Nick Myers, the two goal scorers in the team’s regional final win vs. St. Charles. 

“We’ve gotten progressively better as the weeks have gone by,” head coach Pat Murphy said. “The kids are obviously improving their individual skills and abilities, and I think the big thing is they figured out how to play like a team. Everybody contributes, everybody plays their role, everybody stays positive and sticks together. Especially in the last three weeks, we’ve seen real improvements in our performance based on everybody’s buying in, everyone’s working hard, everyone’s been positive.” 

State tournament results (Columbus region): 6-1 win over Lewis Center Olentangy Orange in the district final; 3-1 win over Upper Arlington in the semifinal; 2-0 win over Columbus St. Charles in the regional final  

Top scorers: 9 Luke Myers (26-18-44), 13 Nick Myers (19-15-34), 53 Theodoris Makrogiannis (18-14-32), 11 Dylan Forney (13-14-27), 10 Luke Snyder (13-5-18) 

Top goalie: 35 John Michael Beuselinck (16-6-2, 1.58 GAA, .934 save percentage) 

Coach Murphy on the matchup with St. Ignatius: “We’ve played terrific defense all year long. Our goaltending is great, our defensemen are great, our forwards do a great job in our end of the rink and when we don’t have the puck. Our goals-against average for the season is under 2. We have to continue to do those things that we’ve done well all year. What we really need to improve on or do better, I would say, is putting the puck in the net. We have plenty of opportunities game in and game out, we just need to find a way to get the puck past the opposing goalie. If we can score four goals, we’ll probably win because we don’t give up much against.”

No. 6 Sylvania Northview (26-9-3)

A two-time state champion (2012, ‘14), Northview is making its 14th appearance in the state final four, having downed fellow Northwest Ohio power Toledo St. Francis in overtime by a 3-2 score in the regional final on a goal by Liam Elliott, who recently returned from a knee injury to score the critical tally.

It’s a tight-knit squad, with many of the kids growing up together and attending elementary school with one another, and that has shown in the team’s play throughout the season according to head coach Steve Elliott. 

“We have strong leadership across the lineup, really,” Elliott said. “We have a fairly veteran team, a decent amount of seniors and juniors in this group, so they’ve been around a long time. We’ve always said the quicker the team takes over the locker room and the leadership of this and we can start guiding it, the better we are. They’ve taken ownership quite frankly (in the) preseason. It wasn’t a hard team to get to show up for the offseason. They put in work, they wanted to be successful, and we just had to guide this thing and make sure it was going in the right direction a little bit.” 

The Wildcats are led by a pair of third-team all-state players in defenseman Carter Tillman and goalie Parker Palcisko.  

State tournament results (Bowling Green region): 7-0 win over Amherst Steele in the district final; 6-3 win over Findlay in the semifinal; 3-2 win (OT) over Toledo St. Francis in the regional final  

Top scorers: 4 Wyatt Spence (22-37-59), 24 Kolten Omey (19-33-52), 7 Jack Nowak (16-19-35), 11 Boston Kopke (8-19-27), 16 Carter Tillman (5-21-26) 

Top goalies: 30 Parker Palcisko (12-5-2, 1.79 GAA, .935 save percentage), 33 Gavin Smith (13-4-1, 2.17 GAA, .918 save percentage) 

Coach Elliott on the matchup with Gilmour Academy: “Very similar to last Saturday vs. St. Francis, we would think that they probably have a little bit higher-flying offense than we do, so I can’t imagine a scenario in my head anyways that we win a game 7-6. That’s not the style of play that we want to get into. We want to do what we did last week and keep this thing to five goals being scored combined between the two teams. If we can get into a 2-2 type of game, a 2-1, 3-2, and keep it that way, it probably serves us better.”