What a good weekend it was for Big Ten hockey – and what an interesting season this is already proving to be.
B1G teams went 6-2-1 in nonconference play last week, bringing the league’s overall nonconference record to 36-14-4 on the season for the best win percentage (.704) among all conferences in nonleague play.
Especially welcome were the sweeps by Ohio State and Penn State, and the number of goals each team pocketed. In two games against Princeton, the Buckeyes scored 10 goals to the Tigers’ six and Ohio State halted a four-game losing streak.
“It was a good weekend getting back to our winning ways,” said OSU coach Steve Rohlik. “It’s always hard to win at this level.”
Cam Thiesing and Scooter Brickey each had five points in the series, and Brickey is very quietly having his best collegiate season. A fifth-year player in his second season with the Buckeyes, Brickey’s five goals in 11 games are two more than he scored in 40 with Ohio State last season and two more than he had in 59 games in his three seasons at Western Michigan prior to that.
For the Nittany Lions, the wins were even more lopsided. Penn State beat Lindenwood 9-3 and 7-1, extending the Nittany Lions’ win streak to three games.
The sixteen total goals are two fewer for a single series than PSU’s all-time high of 18. Rookie Aidan Fink had a goal and two assists in each of the games against Lindenwood. Fink leads all Nittany Lions in scoring (9-12—21) and is riding a five-game goal streak into Penn State’s series against Minnesota this weekend.
Rounding out the nonconference play was Wisconsin’s split with visiting Alaska Anchorage and Michigan’s win and tie on the road against St. Cloud, plus Notre Dame’s single loss at home to Boston College.
Most of this is positive. Some big wins, the best nonconference record in D-I hockey, some players having nice seasons.
Little of this does anything to help the Big Ten’s collective NCAA playoff chances a little over four months from now.
Only two B1G teams are among the top 10 teams in the PairWise Rankings. Michigan State is No. 9, Wisconsin is No. 10, Minnesota is No. 12. Then Penn State (15), Michigan (16) and Notre Dame (18) are bubble teams with the Irish out at the moment.
Yes, it’s the end of November. Yes, this matters.
Between now and the midseason holiday break, there is nothing but conference play for Big Ten teams. Nonconference games in the second half feature no team currently ranked higher in the PWR than Ohio State, the lowest-ranked B1G team at No. 24.
Given all of that, there is little room for PWR movement for Big Ten teams between now and March. That likely means low seeds for B1G teams in the NCAA tournament and could result in as few as just two B1G teams playing their way into the NCAA tourney, depending on how teams near them in the PWR fare throughout the season.
Thank goodness, then, that there’s Big Ten hockey to be enjoyed for its own sake.
The single Big Ten series between Michigan State and Minnesota Thanksgiving weekend revealed a bit about each team and proved highly entertaining. The Spartans tied the Golden Gophers 3-3 Friday and gained the extra point in the shootout. Minnesota took the Sunday game in overtime 6-5.
The five points that the Gophers earned moved them from sixth to fourth place in the conference standings, although Minnesota remains nine points behind the first-place Spartans.
In the OT win, the Gophers were two ahead of the Spartans with 10 minutes remaining in the third. Nash Nienhuis – another B1G player having a career season with six goals in 16 games, one shy of his total goals scored in 96 previous games in three season – pulled the Spartans to within one at 15:14 in the third and Joey Larson’s eighth goal of the season tied the game for Michigan State in the final minute of regulation.
It was freshman Jimmy Clark’s fourth overall goal and his first game-winner at 3:58 that lifted the Gophers past the Spartans. It was a game in which the Gophers themselves at one point had to come from behind and in which they were uncharacteristically outshot by their opponent. Shots were 46-41 in Michigan State’s favor at the end.
“That’s kind of a microcosm of our season,” said Gophers coach Bob Motzko after the win. “It was the good, the bad and the ugly at times.”
It was also a game in which the Spartans took seven penalties and allowed three power-play goals. “Five-on-five, I really liked us,” said Adam Nightingale. “Obviously, special teams didn’t go our way tonight and we need to work on it.”
The loss snapped Michigan State’s seven-game (5-0-2) unbeaten streak, with every point in that stretch earned against B1G opponents. The Spartans don’t return to play until Dec. 8, which means that everyone in the league will be looking to gain ground on Michigan State this weekend.
Wisconsin and Notre Dame are tied for second with 12 points each and each has two games in hand on Michigan State. Three points separate unranked Notre Dame from No. 13 Michigan as the Irish travel to Yost to take on the Wolverines. No. 6 Wisconsin hosts unranked Ohio State. The Buckeyes have no wins yet in six B1G contests.
“The difference between winning and losing as you see in college hockey is minute,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings. “Little things make a difference.”
Hastings called said the Buckeyes have “an aggressive-style mentality” and that Rohlik “does a really good job of getting them to try and force you into mistakes.”
After starting hot and spending a week at No. 1 in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll, the Badgers floundered a bit and ended a three-game losing streak with their 5-0 over Anchorage Saturday.
“For us, we’re still focusing a little bit on what we’re trying to get done,” said Hastings. “One, for us to be a little bit more aggressive at possessing some pucks and holding on to them and trying to spend a little bit more end-zone time with the puck.”
Hastings knows that the last-place Buckeyes will be “hungry” in the series.
“From top to bottom, there isn’t a soft weekend when you play in league play,” said Hastings.
No. 7 Minnesota travels to No. 19 Penn State to fill in the Big Ten schedule this weekend. In fourth place, the Golden Gophers are two points ahead of the Nittany Lions.
