The Aurora University ACHA D2 club men's hockey team will return to the ACHA D2 National Championship Tournament as the Spartans finished the 2017-2018 season with an unblemished 32-0 record.

AU was rewarded for their strong play on the ice this season with one of four No. 1 seeds in pool play. The Spartans are making a return trip to Columbus, Ohio as the 2016-2017 AU team went to the national championship and had a 0-1-2 record, tying the eventual national champion in New York University while also tying Florida Gulf Coast and losing in overtime to Utah State.

"We are very excited about the opportunity to go back to nationals for a second consecutive year," Head Coach Ryan Buchanan said. "I am happy to see the guys get rewarded for their hard work all season with the No. 1 seed. We learned a lot from last year's experience and that will make us a more prepared group this time around."

This year's Spartans earned an automatic bid to the D2 nationals as the top seed in the central region. In just the second season of existence as a ACHA D2 program, the Spartans won the Northern Collegiate Hockey League regular season and conference playoffs.

"This was our goal from day one to get the No. 1 seed in the region and an automatic bid to nationals," said defenseman Tyler Richison. "We knew we had the talent to achieve our goals but the all important bigger goal is still ahead of us."

Buchanan's Spartans are led offensively by Andrew Bergquist (62 points, 26 goals, 36 assists), Trevor Hoth (53 points, 30 goals, 23 assists) and Raurie Petrich (43 points, 18 goals, 25 assists). On the season, every Spartan has tallied a point, including the goalies and every AU skater has a goal. The defensive group led by Richison, Gregory Sauers and Nicholas DeSimone have dominated in front of the goalie combination of Brad Neal (19-0, 1.21 goals against, .956 save%) and Chandler Hill (13-0, 2.18 goals against, .909 save%).

"I really like our team depth, we have balanced scoring on all four lines which really helps in a tournament like the upcoming nationals," said Buchanan. "We look forward to the opportunity to represent our program and AU at the national level."

The Spartans open up pool play on Friday, March 9, 2018 against the University of Denver at the Chillers North Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Puck drop is slated for 2:00 p.m. (est). Earlier this season, AU was victorious over Denver 6-3 at All Seasons Ice Arena.