SATURDAY ROUNDUP: No. 3 Denver, No. 4 Michigan, No. 5 Boston University, No. 11 Cornell among top teams to fall on Saturday as standings, PairWise get late-season shakeup across the nation

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Ohio State earned a 4-2 victory over Michigan in front of 45,523 fans at First Energy Stadium in Cleveland. It completed a five-point weekend for the Buckeyes over the Wolverines in Big Ten play (Photo: Ohio State Athletics)

It’s been a few years since Ohio State has earned a victory over rival Michigan on the football field. On Saturday, the Buckeyes hockey team corrected that.

In the first-ever college hockey game played at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, No. 10 Ohio State earned a 4-2 victory over the No. 4 Wolverines to cap a five-point week in the two-game Big Ten series for the Buckeyes.

The two clubs tied, 3-3, on Thursday in Columbus with Ohio State winning the shootout. The two teams are now deadlocked for second place in the Big Ten standings with two games remaining for each club.

Ohio State erupted for three goals in less than five minutes in the second period to take a 3-1 lead in the third. Despite Michigan’s Eric Ciccolini cutting the lead to a goal with 8:46 remaining, but Stephen Halliday’s response less than a minute later capped the scoring and the outcome.

Jake Wise tallied a goal and two assists for Ohio State, while goaltender Jakob Dobes earned the victory making 35 saves.

SCOREBOARD  |  PAIRWISE RANKINGS  |  STANDINGS

No. 20 Merrimack 4, No. 5, Boston University 3 (OT)

Ben Brar scored his second goal of the game with 0.1 seconds remaining in overtime as Merrimack completed a weekend sweep of Boston University, earning five-of-six much needed points in the Hockey East standings.

Brar goal came with an extra attacker as a delayed penalty was upcoming on Boston University. Instead of allowing BU to touch the puck for a short power play as overtime expired, the Warriors kept forechecking, finally finding Brar in the slot before the final buzzer sounded.

The goal came seconds after goaltender Hugo Ollas stopped BU’s Jay O’Brien on a breakaway to extend the overtime session.

Merrimack jumped to an early 2-0 lead on goals by Matt Coppani and Mick Messner in the first. But after BU’s Matt Brown scored early in the second, a major penalty to Merrimack’s Liam Dennison translated to back-to-back power play tallies by Ryan Greene and Lane Hutson.

BU’s Sam Stevens took a penalty early in the third allowing Brar to score his first of the night and tie the game at 1:26 of the third, setting up to dramatic finish.

With Northeastern earning a 3-0 win at Vermont on Saturday, the Huskies move a point ahead of BU for first place in Hockey East with two weekends remaining.

Minnesota Duluth 6, No. 3 Denver 5

In a wild back-and-forth game, Wyatt Kaiser posted a four-point game as visiting Minnesota Duluth sweated out a 6-5 victory over Denver.

The Bulldogs never trailed in the game taking leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 5-2 before Ben Steeves scored his second goal of the night at 2:26 of the third to give Minnesota Duluth a 6-4 lead. Massimo Rizzo, who tallied two goals for the Pioneers, cut the deficit to 6-5 with 11:38 remaining, but goalie Matthew Thiessen shut things down from there, finishing the game with 29 saves.

Combined with Western Michigan’s 2-1 victory over Colorado College, Denver’s lead atop the NCHC slips to five points with four games remaining for each club. The Pioneers and Broncos face off next weekend at Lawson Arena in Kalamazoo.

St. Lawrence 1, No. 11 Cornell 0

Aleksi Peltonen scored the game’s only goal with 2:45 remaining in regulation as St. Lawrence upset No. 11 Cornell, 1-0.

It was the second home loss in as many nights for Cornell, which fell to Clarkson, 4-3, on Friday. The lost weekend leaves the Big Red in a precarious position in the PairWise with just one weekend remaining in the regular season.

Cornell now sits squarely on the PairWise bubble, tied for 14th, though currently holding the tiebreaker of higher RPI over Notre Dame, which is one spot below the cut line.

The Big Red also dipped to third place in the ECAC standings with Harvard passing them after a 4-0 win over Rensselaer.

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