Around the Big Ten Hockey: Feb. 9
Only three weeks left in the Big Ten season and things are getting very tight. Four teams are tied for second place in the conference. It will surely be a dogfight as we head toward the regular season finish line.
Penn State headed to Columbus, Ohio to do battle with the Ohio State Buckeyes. It was a very back-and-forth series with OSU tying the game in the 3rd period in game one. Heroics by Kevin Wall gave the Nittany Lions the go-ahead goal and it was enough to hold on to the win. Wall and Connor MacEachern both finished with two goals.
Game two had a similar structure with both teams answering each other on the scoresheet. Flipping the script, Ohio State’s Tate Singleton scored late in the game and an empty net goal gave the Buckeyes the win.
Penn State heads into another bye week while Ohio State prepares for Notre Dame.
The Michigan Wolverines welcomed the Wisconsin Badgers and took care of business quite easily. In game one, Adam Fantilli tallied four points en route to a 6-2 win. In game two, we saw similar results with domination from Michigan. 7-4 was the final.
Michigan will have a date with their Michigan State neighbors, and Wisconsin will hope for the best against Minnesota, which is coming off the bye.
The Michigan State Spartans were feeling lucky against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Sweeping the series and staying in the hunt for a higher seed. Goaltender Dylan St. Cyr pitched a 32-save shutout in game one for a 3-0 win, and in game two a tie-breaking goal by David Gucciardi was all the Spartans needed for the 3-2 win.
The standings are intriguing heading toward the end of the season. Minnesota isn’t worried at all as they sit on top of the conference with 43 points and are also the No. 1 team in the country according to USCHO.com.
No. 8 Penn State, No. 7 Ohio State, No. 5 Michigan and No. 15 Michigan State are all tied for second place with 30 points each.
Not too far behind is Notre Dame with 26, and at the bottom is Wisconsin with just nine points.
Michigan’s Adam Fantilli still leads the Big Ten in points with 45 and Luke Hughes leads the Big Ten defensemen in points with 31. Minnesota’s Jimmy Snuggerud has 37 points and Logan Cooley has 36.
There’s a positive in the Badgers season with freshman Cruz Lucius being a point-per-game player with 28 points in 28 games.
These matchups are only going to get more intense in the last three weeks of the season. The standings could look completely different a week from now.
Anthony Desher is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email acd5698@psu.edu.
