How strange is this season of Big Ten hockey? If the season were to end today, five of the conference’s seven teams would play in the NCAA tournament.
Minnesota would be the overall No. 1 seed and Penn State would likely be the top seed in its regional.
How strange? Of the five Big Ten teams currently among the top 16 in this week’s PairWise Rankings, none is lower than No. 12.
Stranger still? One of the five B1G teams in that field, Michigan, has a losing conference record (5-7-0) and is the sixth-place conference team. The fifth-place Fighting Irish are currently on the outside of the PWR field at No. 18. Michigan? No. 8.
And now three Big Ten teams are clustered together in second place, each with 24 points: Penn State (7-6-1-0), Ohio State (8-6-0-0) and Michigan State (7-7-2-2).
To paraphrase the immortal words of David Byrne, well, how did we get here?
Before last weekend’s contests, the Spartans trailed the Nittany Lions by two points with Ohio State sandwiched right between them – and with Minnesota ahead of second-place Penn State by eight points.
That was before Michigan State took four of six points from Penn State at home, Ohio State earned three points in a road split with Michigan, and Minnesota took four on the road from Notre Dame.
With their 3-2 win over the Nittany Lions Friday, the Spartans snapped a five-game losing streak that extended back to Dec. 10, then added a 4-4 tie with shootout point Saturday.
“Going into this weekend, we’ve talked a lot about listening to noise when things are going well and listening to noise when things aren’t going well,” said MSU coach Adam Nightingale, “and I think our guys really got back to playing our way.”
The Spartans trailed in the third period of each game, and it’s how the team played from behind that made the difference, said Nightingale.
“It’s been our message from the start of the year,” Nightingale said. “It’s always about the next shift. You can’t get flustered. You can’t get rattled. You’ve got to play with poise. You’ve got to play with composure.”
After beating Michigan 7-2 Friday, Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik said, “We will keep looking to improve and play a 60-minute game. We know they’ll be better tomorrow, and we will need to be better tomorrow as well.”
And, indeed, the Wolverines were better. After the Buckeyes lost 4-2 Saturday, Rohlik said, “We were not quite good enough tonight and lost the special teams battle. They made a big push, and we weren’t able to match it. It’s back to work on Monday.”
Does that sound cliched? Maybe a little. It also sounds like the story nearly any B1G team will be telling following any weekend of conference play between now and the end of February.
The one exception to this familiar narrative may be Minnesota, the team that everyone is chasing. With an 11-2-1-0 B1G record, the Golden Gophers have been nearly perfect this season, with sweeps over every conference opponent except for the Nittany Lions and Buckeyes. Since returning to play in the second half, though, Minnesota is 3-1-1 in its last five.
“We have not been playing our hockey yet, since Christmas,” said Gophers coach Bob Motzko. “Don’t feel sorry for us. We’re still doing okay. We’re just trying to get it going again. You can’t help it. It’s probably playing out all over the country, too. You take all those days off and you just want to snap your fingers and get back at it.”
Motzko said that the Gophers have played well defensively with strong goaltending but that other factors of their game are slightly off. “We’ve been in the same game now for five straight. Every game since Christmas has been almost a carbon copy.”
He added that this should be a pattern familiar to anyone following Minnesota hockey and that the start of the academic term should be helpful.
“We’ve done this every year,” said Motzko. “We’re rusty to start … kind of get through it. Tuesday was my favorite day. Classes started again. Continuity back in our day, and then all of a sudden it starts to smooth out again. I hope it tracks like it has here in the past and we start playing our better hockey down the stretch.”
No one in the Big Ten is going to have it easy down that stretch, not even the league-leading and PairWise-topping Golden Gophers. The Gophers host Michigan and Michigan State for their next four games, play two at Wisconsin and two at Penn State, and finish the season at home against the Buckeyes. Along with Minnesota, the Wolverines, Nittany Lions and Buckeyes are among the top 10 scoring offenses in the country. The Badgers have scored four or more goals in eight games this season – including in a 6-4 loss to Minnesota. Michigan State has several players who can change the outcome of a game, including goaltender Dylan St. Cyr. Not one game is a gimme for the Gophers.
But Minnesota’s conference success so far has given the Golden Gophers an advantage that no other team in the league possesses: Minnesota is the only team in control of its own fate. If the Gophers win seven of their remaining 10 conference games, they’ll win the regular-season title outright regardless of how anyone else fares.
After Saturday’s tie against Notre Dame capped those first five games of the second half, Motzko said that Minnesota’s done with dodging bullets.
“I think the button’s already been pushed,” Motzko said. “A little desperation. Enough. Let’s start playing better again.”
The Gophers host the Wolverines this weekend, Penn State hosts Notre Dame and Ohio State travels to Wisconsin. Michigan State, the team that has played more conference games (16) than any other B1G team, has a bye this weekend.
