I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween weekend. Mine was pretty great, considering it was spent staying home and watching sports. Four of the six Big Ten teams were in action this weekend with Minnesota and Michigan State taking the week off.
Here’s how things panned out:
- Penn State tied St. Lawrence 2-2 on Thursday night and lost 4-2 on Saturday night.
- Wisconsin swept Arizona State at home.
- Ohio State and Mercyhurst split a series at Ohio State.
- Michigan and Robert Morris split a series at Michigan.
Here’s my three things from the weekend:
1. Penn State was brought back to earth
With 52 shots on goal, Thursday’s tie has to be a tough pill to swallow for the Nittany Lions. I got my first chance of the season to watch Penn State on Thursday, thanks to the fact that they’re streaming their nonconference games, and they looked good. St. Lawrence goaltender Arthur Brey was better on Thursday. Penn State losing its touch on the power play and going 0-7 didn’t help, either.
The loss on Friday made Thursday’s tie hurt that much more, but I still saw signs of a team that could do some damage when it comes to conference play.
Side note: Both of the teams I’ve focuses on in the columns I’ve written this season have gone to have winless weekends after I wrote about them. If it happens again we might have a curse on our hands.
2. On Wisconsin
The Badgers waited until the end of November last season to pick up their first victory of the season, they improved that mark by about 30 days this year. Sure, it was two wins over a team that is in its first year playing Division I hockey, but that doesn’t always equal wins (ask Alaska-Fairbanks, or the 2012-13 Badgers).
The wins were also important because Wisconsin is in for some tough sledding over the next four weeks.
Side note: Ohio State also picked up its first win of the season this weekend. No more winless teams in the B1G.
3. Michigan looks shaky
The Wolverines split with a team they probably should have swept at home this weekend. Michigan has been giving up more goals than it probably wants to so far this season and we witnessed what happens if that trend continues and the offense goes stagnant during Saturday’s 4-0 loss to Robert Morris.
All that being said, the Wolverines are still off to a 4-1-1 start. Its offense looks solid, but the cliché doesn’t say that offense wins championships.
