The Big Ten officially opened up conference play this weekend, and the three conference contests provided a ton of entertainment.
Here are three things I saw.
Seth Ambroz is apparently a goal scorer now
The fact that Minnesota swept Wisconsin this weekend isn’t that shocking. The fact that Seth Ambroz netted four goals is.
Ambroz lit the lamp twice in the Gophers’ 4-1 victory on Friday night , the second was an empty netter. On Saturday he had two more, including the game-winning goal with 26 seconds left in the third period.
“I was a little surprised. They were just skating out when the turnover happened, and I just went right to the net,” Ambroz said of the game-winning goal. “I was a little surprised, but our line has been creating turnovers all weekend. So it was nice to have another one, right there at the end.”
Ambroz has seven goals and five assists this season. He had nine goals and seven assists last year and five goals and three assists during his freshman campaign.
Michigan downs Ohio State in OT
The Wolverines and Buckeyes provided an interesting nightcap to the Big Ten doubleheader on Friday.
Andrew Copp scored on a breakaway in overtime to give Michigan the 4-3 victory. Nine different Michigan players tallied a point in Friday’s game.
“I thought we were playing well at times, and I thought we were sloppy at times,” Michigan head coach Red Berenson said. “Let’s face it, you have a-one goal lead in the third period at home, that’s pretty disappointing when you give it up, and especially in the way we gave it up.”
Ohio State head coach Steve Rohlik saw the close loss as a good learning experience for his team. The two teams will face off again in Columbus on Monday.
“Our kids emptied the tank, we played hard and there were some chances on both sides,” Rohlik said. “We just came out on the short end. You always have to learn from things and we’re going to learn from this and get better.”
Michigan State gets much needed sweep
With its inaugural Big Ten series with Minnesota looming, Michigan State desperately needed a sweep of Princeton this weekend.
The Spartans won 4-1 on Friday and opened up the offense in Saturday’s 8-2 victory.
Seven Michigan State skaters had multiple points on Saturday.
“It was nice to see the puck go in the net,” head coach Tom Anastos said. “”It was also nice to see the puck movement as well as having four lines and all six defensemen involved. The game gave us an opportunity to give some guys some experience as well.”
Michigan State scored four power play goals this weekend, and it didn’t allow a power play goal.
“We seemed to find some chemistry and some pretty good puck-movement on the power play today,” Anastos said after Saturday’s game.
