The No. 2 Michigan State Spartans hockey team had a bye last week, a reward earned from winning the Big Ten Championship and the No. 1 seed for the Big Ten Tournament, but the college hockey world continued on, with lots of surprises.
Especially so in the Big Ten.
While the Spartans get back to work this weekend after celebrating dual Big Ten Championships with the basketball team on Sunday at Breslin Center, I wanted to take today to set the table for the week ahead and a look around the country as the NCAA Tournament approaches.
Big Ten Tournament Update
The first round of the Big Ten Tournament concluded Sunday, with only one series sweep and two upsets. The sole sweep, and one of the "upsets" was 5-seed Penn State beating 4-seed Michigan in two games. The Nittany Lions won 6-5 in overtime on Friday, led by a hat trick from freshman J.J. Wiebusch. Saturday saw the Nittany Lions win 5-2 in much more dominant fashion, with freshman Charlie Cerrato putting the final exclamation point on the series with a penalty shot goal in the third period, against the team he was at one time committed to, and then released from.
The wins likely moved Penn State safely into the NCAA tournament, and put Michigan, for now, as the last team in the NCAA tournament, which is a very tenuous position to be in. Michigan continues to have struggles in goaltending season after season, and next season has quickly become a very important one for head coach Brandon Naurato.
The Nittany Lions will be traveling this weekend to Columbus, Ohio as the 3-seed Ohio State Buckeyes rebounded from a Friday loss to 6-seed Wisconsin, and won the pivotal third game 3-2 on Sunday.
The Buckeyes played true to their defensive form, and will be a clash of styles with the Nittany Lions this Saturday. The other series to go to three games was the headlining series, as 7-seed Notre Dame - who finished 13 points behind 6th place Wisconsin - went on the road and beat the 2-seed and co-conference champions, the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Notre Dame used soft goals on Friday night to beat the Gophers and chase starting netminder Liam Souliere after 21 minutes with three goals against on eight shots, resulting in a 3-2 win.
Minnesota won the third period Saturday to break a 1-1 tie, en route to a 4-2 win. It was another poor night from the Gophers goaltending Sunday, as Nathan Airey allowed three goals on 17 shots, and the Fighting Irish won going away, 4-1.
The Golden Gophers will now have almost three full weeks off before playing in the NCAA tournament, and also is sitting on the edge of losing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, pending if Western Michigan and Maine perform well in their league tournaments.
Notre Dame winning Friday allowed retiring coach Jeff Jackson to get career win No. 600, and they will play Saturday in East Lansing versus the Spartans.
