{"id":126888,"date":"2021-03-11T17:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T23:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=126888"},"modified":"2021-03-11T09:43:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T15:43:56","slug":"this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-conference-tournament-looming-teams-thankful-for-season-as-this-pandemic-has-affected-everybody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2021\/03\/11\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-conference-tournament-looming-teams-thankful-for-season-as-this-pandemic-has-affected-everybody\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: With conference tournament looming, teams thankful for season as ‘this pandemic has affected everybody’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Ohio State and Michigan battle in a Big Ten matchup in January at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. (photo: Ohio State Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Are we there yet?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a valid question, given how long this COVID-compressed season has felt, given how easily the season could have been derailed, given the intensity of competition that\u2019s taken place in mostly empty arenas.<\/p>\n

As each team in the Big Ten prepares for the three-day, single-elimination playoff championship tournament that begins March 14, a picture of a unified, almost defiant conference emerges along with snapshots of the unique, specific experiences that define each team in the league.<\/p>\n

First, the unity<\/h4>\n

In Zoom press conferences with each coach this week, there was a lot of praise for how the Big Ten itself handled this pandemic season, beginning with the league\u2019s foresight about what might have transpired.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Big Ten did an outstanding job of being the first conference to be up and running,\u201d said Wisconsin\u2019s Tony Granato. \u201cAll of our athletic departments went out of their way to keep our assets because there were lots of players who had different options of places to go play, whether it be professionally or moving on to different leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our programs, for the most part, were able to keep all of our players, and I think that\u2019s going to really pay dividends down the road the next couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those dividends are paying off now.<\/p>\n

All it takes is a look at the number of professional-caliber players in the Big Ten this week as the regular season ends to appreciate the conference\u2019s commitment to hockey this season.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the returning core of the Wisconsin team that went from last-place in 2019-20 to regular-season champs this year. There\u2019s Michigan\u2019s impossible-to-overrate freshman class. Eight Big Ten players brought home gold medals when Team USA won its fifth-ever gold in the IIHF World Juniors, and a ninth player \u2013 Wisconsin sophomore Dylan Holloway \u2013 earned a silver medal with Team Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been some teams in college hockey that have lost some of those players,\u201d said Granato. \u201cI think the respect our conference gained as a conference for how we did it will only continue to get the best players to come to our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik credited his own athletic director, Gene Smith, for getting all the balls rolling \u2013 so to speak \u2013 last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, if it wasn\u2019t for Gene Smith and what he\u2019s done here, even back with football when it was basically Ohio State and Nebraska fighting for football, if Gene Smith didn\u2019t get out there and do what he did, if we didn\u2019t have football, none of us would be on this call today. And that\u2019s 100 percent for sure,” Rohlik said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKudos to Gene, kudos to our administration and to all the Big Ten to fight to give these athletes a chance. I think that\u2019s something you\u2019ve got to hang your hat on and feel pretty good about, that we have had the opportunity to play games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danton Cole at Michigan State implied that the move to a single site for the playoff tournament is a reflection of how everything came together this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think getting us all together, I think there\u2019s been a lot of work done this year as far as the head coaches and the sports administrators,\u201d said Cole. \u201cThe success that the Big Ten and college hockey has had overall this year has been outstanding. If you look at any other sports in the Big Ten, the number [of games] that we\u2019ve got completed percentage-wise is pretty high.\u201d<\/p>\n

The consensus among a coaching fraternity that was already tight before the global pandemic threatened to wipe out more than just a college hockey season is that the Big Ten did things right, that administrations and staffs did things right, and that each team did all it could to get to this point.<\/p>\n

But even though each coach feels part of a story bigger than his own team, each team\u2019s experience this season was unique \u2013 and it may take years before we learn all about it.<\/p>\n

\u201dPeople don\u2019t understand,\u201d said Rohlik. “I think there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s 100 percent for sure, and that\u2019s this pandemic has affected everybody. There\u2019s no question. But the pandemic has affected every team differently and no one will really understand exactly what you go through unless you\u2019re in that locker room, unless you\u2019re within the team, the players, the coaches. What my group\u2019s gone through might be a lot different than other guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the snapshots<\/h4>\n

The Buckeyes, for example, are a team that went from having the 13th-best defense in the nation last year to No. 45 this season, a team that went to the Frozen Four in 2018 and is finishing 2020-21 with six conference wins. Ohio State experienced big veteran turnover in the last two seasons, but Rohlik points to a lack of consistency this year, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it could be period to period,” said Rohlik. “Lately, it can be one game to the next. Let\u2019s hope we catch ourselves on the right night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spartans are a team that everyone sees as continuing to prove under Cole\u2019s tenure, but Michigan still finished the season in last place. Cole said of the results \u201cit is what it is\u201d and that the program will \u201csort all of that out,\u201d but that there are things in play that cannot be defined \u2013 good things like \u201chow people come through, how they do mentally, how they stick together, how they\u2019ve battled, how they\u2019ve seen some tough times and how they\u2019re working through this right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Cole, \u201cBy the end of the year, I always end up loving the teams I have, and I know the sacrifices they go through. Everybody doesn\u2019t [know]. They don\u2019t know the injuries and what everyone\u2019s gone through, but we see it every day, so I\u2019ve been impressed with them and they\u2019ve made it. That hasn\u2019t resulted in the number of wins they\u2019ve wanted, but it rarely does.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fourth place, Notre Dame is having a tough time putting a full game together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had stretches where we\u2019ve played really well, then, you know, we come down a notch,\u201d said Fighting Irish coach Jeff Jackson. \u201cI think we\u2019ve been playing well, at times real well, and then we have a tendency to back off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say that we\u2019ve gotten better in the last several weeks in that area, but it\u2019s still a concern of mine just being able to play the full 60 minutes at a high level. Hopefully going into the playoffs, we\u2019ll have that sense of urgency to play three full periods, maybe even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Minnesota, it was watching a regular-season championship slip away. The Golden Gophers led the conference until the final two weeks of the season. Needing a win and a tie in the final weekend of the season, Minnesota split a series with Michigan.<\/p>\n

And for the entirety of the season, the Gophers have been playing with an eye toward the national tournament after spending the second half of last year\u2019s truncated campaign working their way toward a berth. When the Minnesota women\u2019s team wasn\u2019t selected as one of the eight teams heading to the NCAA championship tournament for the first time since 2007, the men began to think about their own chances.<\/p>\n

The Gophers look like a lock on paper and coach Bob Motzko clearly didn\u2019t want to talk about it when asked this week, but it\u2019s not something easily ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re putting ourselves in a good spot, but our whole focus for our week is to get ready for the Big Ten tournament,\u201d said Motzko. “Does that loom out there? Yeah. Crazier things have happened. We\u2019re just getting ready to play Michigan State right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team that overtook the Gophers to win the regular-season title has had more than its share of obstacles along the way, not the least of which was recovering from a seven-win season in 2019-20.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe confidence that they\u2019ve had after coming off a horrendous season, I can\u2019t say how difficult that is,\u201d said Granato. \u201cYou don\u2019t do it without great character kids and without great leadership from within your locker room. The feeling that it was going in the right direction, from the opening game at Notre Dame, you could sense something different and it\u2019s carried on through really tough, tough situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go down and lose five players at one time, you lose Dylan [Holloway] for 10 games, you play four games with 15 players. Different things have happened that have been really challenging. We haven\u2019t flinched.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not even through two COVID-19 pauses.<\/p>\n

The two teams affected most recently by COVID pauses, though, are third-place Michigan and fifth-place Penn State.<\/p>\n

The Wolverines lost two weeks when the entire University of Michigan athletic department was put on hold because of a local surge in COVID cases. Officials from Washtenaw County asked the school to shut everything sports-related down, and even though no one from the hockey program tested positive, that meant quarantining at home for two solid weeks.<\/p>\n

Mel Pearson said that heading into the Big Ten tournament, the Wolverines still aren\u2019t where they were before they were forced to take a break, as evidenced by their split against Minnesota last weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were good offensively,\u201d said Pearson. \u201cWe did some great things offensively, moving the puck, creating great opportunities going to the net, but defensively, we weren\u2019t very good at times and that\u2019s where the disconnect is right now and that scares me a bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, I felt we were playing lights-out defensively. You might look at the scores and say, well, we only gave up two goals in the one night \u2013 and we\u2019re sitting on two goals against a game, which is really good \u2013 but too many chances against. The goalies have had to bail us out too much recently, and we\u2019ve been inconsistent. No, I don\u2019t think we\u2019re all the way back yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Penn State, a very long break because of COVID couldn\u2019t have come at a worse time. The Nittany Lions didn\u2019t play a single game for the entire month of February. Their first series of the month was postponed \u2013 and then cancelled \u2013 because they were scheduled to play Michigan and the Wolverines were out. That meant that at least Penn State could practice and keep conditioning.<\/p>\n

Then the Nittany Lions were hit with their own COVID woes as multiple Tier 1 individuals \u2013 people directly involved with the team, such as players, coaches, trainers and other staff \u2013 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Last weekend was the Nittany Lions\u2019 first competition since and they dropped two games to Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of time off was one factor,\u201d said Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky. “But the fact that our guys were not able to do anything when they had that time off is another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions were the 2019-20 regular-season Big Ten champions. Penn State finishes this season with seven conference wins.<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s gratitude \u2013 and a little knocking on wood<\/h4>\n

From the start of the season, Gadowsky has been frank about how difficult he\u2019s found it to coach during the pandemic, citing everything from virtual meetings with players to the extra necessary precautions that can be difficult to track. This week, he said he still can\u2019t wrap his head around all of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m struggling with it myself, what to learn from this,” Gadowsky said. “I want to learn as much as we can, but boy, I\u2019m not sure what that is yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s grateful to have made it this far, to be able to take his team to a tournament this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get a chance to compete, we get a chance to go to the Big Ten tournament and at this point, I\u2019ll take it,\u201d said Gadowsky.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to be able to compete, it\u2019s a privilege to be able to play for a championship. It really is. There are programs that we see right now that have announced that they won\u2019t have that opportunity and there\u2019s other programs that already from the start of the year don\u2019t have that opportunity. We\u2019re very fortunate that we\u2019ve been able to compete this season and we\u2019ve gone through some challenges here lately, but we\u2019re still able to get a chance to participate in the tournament, so we look at that as a real privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was another sentiment that echoed through the individual Zoom conferences, as strong as the sense that the league had come together as a whole to preserve a season and, it appeared, just as unifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give my guys a ton of credit for what they\u2019ve done, and again to give themselves opportunities to play within the year [and] to have a chance to go to a Big Ten tournament,\u201d said Rohlik.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve still got a few days to get there, and every team\u2019s holding their breath, right? Things can change just on a dime like that. We all can see that throughout college hockey and any other sport, there\u2019s cancellations left and right. It goes back to what my guys have gone through and yet we\u2019re very thankful for this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a grind,\u201d said Pearson. \u201cI don\u2019t think people realize the grind that it\u2019s been, not only on the ice, but just the COVID situation and everything. We had a guy get tested this weekend again because he had a false positive and it just sends shivers through your team.\u201d<\/p>\n

For every coach \u2013 for absolutely everyone \u2013 the games themselves cannot come soon enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, we\u2019re not there yet,\u201d said Motzko. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to continue to watch our backs right now. It\u2019s still out there. We call it the boogeyman. It\u2019s still out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are we there yet?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a valid question, given how long this COVID-compressed season has felt, given how easily the season could have been derailed, given the intensity of competition that\u2019s taken place in mostly empty arenas.<\/p>\n

As each team in the Big Ten prepares for the three-day, single-elimination playoff championship tournament that begins March 14, a picture of a unified, almost defiant conference emerges along with snapshots of the unique, specific experiences that define each team in the league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":126889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,1,7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[802],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in Big Ten Hockey: With conference tournament looming, teams thankful for season as 'this pandemic has affected everybody' - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Are we there yet? 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