What a weekend of college hockey. Michigan Tech is still undefeated, Minnesota lost both games to Minnesota-Duluth and Ohio State played Bowling Green well — and earned the series split.

Ohio State and Minnesota’s results were very surprising, but for different reasons. The Bulldogs earned 3-0 and 2-1 wins, backed by Kasimir Kaskisuo in net. On Friday, Minnesota’s home winning streak of 17 games was snapped with the shutout loss. The last time the Gophers lost on home ice was also to the Bulldogs.

After an early 2-0 hole on Saturday, the Gophers battled back in the third. But it was too little too late, and Minnesota wasn’t able to tie the game. The already intense rivalry became more intense when Dominic Tonanato hit Minnesota’s Kyle Rau in the closing minutes of the game, forcing a scrum that almost turned into a full-fledged flight.

The Buckeyes pleasantly surprised this weekend against in-state rival Bowling Green. In the first game, the Falcons struck first. But the Buckeyes scored three goals in the third — including the game winner from Anthony Greco with 34 seconds left in regulation. Scoring was more spread out the next night, but the Falcons also scored the game-winning tally late in regulation.

It was an interesting weekend for Penn State as well. The Nittany Lions lost to UMass Lowell 5-3, which prompted a goalkeeping switch to Eamon McAdam in the middle of the game. McAdam started the second game, helping Penn State to a 4-1 win. Casey Bailey had four points on the weekend, while Taylor Holstrom — who’s tied for the nation’s lead in points — had five. His 16 points also leads the Big Ten.

As expected, the Spartans fell to Boston College. After a 2-0 deficit, the Spartans rallied just short and lost 3-2. Michigan State blocked less shots than BC, something to keep an eye because they were notorious for blocking shots last year.

Michigan swept AIC at home, but that indicates nothing of how Michigan will play this season, especially in conference games. The Wolverines won 5-2 and 5-3, and Andrew Copp had four points on the weekend, while Zach Nagelvoort started both games.

(After the jump: More goalkeeping controversy, stop looking at PairWise, and the great rivalries)

Goaltending controversy

At the end of last season, we were discovering stellar goalkeeping battles in the Big Ten tournament. We watched tense overtime games and improbable saves from Minnesota’s Adam Wilcox to rookies Christian Frey and Zach Nagelvoort. Last year had its goaltending controversies, as Nagelvoort was thrown in when Steven Racine suffered an injury and Frey was a midseason addition to a very depleted Ohio State netminding core.

But this season the controversies seem worse. Penn State entered the season with Matthew Skoff as their starter, but Guy Gadowsky pulled him in favor of Eamon McAdam on Friday, and started McAdam on Saturday. That might not be permanent, but Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin have series goaltending issues.

The Badgers hoped Joel Rumpel would be strong enough in net to let their very young team find an identity, but Rumpel has struggled so far. He’s not like the netminder of last year, and Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves has admitted that Rumpel has struggled this season.

It’s a never-ending goalkeeping roatation for Michigan and Ohio State, two teams who thought they found their starters at the end of last season. Nagelvoort has appeared in more games than Racine, though neither goalkeeper has been strong enough for Michigan. The Buckeyes have consistently switched out Matt Tomkins and Christian Frey, and their save percentages are higher than that of their Michigan counterparts.

Don’t look at the PairWise

The PairWise is up. Michigan Tech – the only undefeated team in the country – is No. 1. Falling behind the Huskies are Minnesota State, Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota. And Wisconsin is dead last.

But don’t take the PairWise too seriously. It’s still really early in the season, and the rankings will change. I’m not discrediting the teams at the top, because they’ve all played well thus far. It’s going to be more interesting when Michigan Tech faces Minnesota State this weekend.

Rounding at the top-16 are teams like Merrimack and St. Lawrence, and it’s hard to think those two programs will stay that high in the PairWise rankings. Although I’m willing to bet Wisconsin won’t make the top-16.

Minnesota-UMD is a good rivalry

The end of the second game almost broke out into a full-fledged fight after Dominic Tonanato hit Kyle Rau. It looked like a head shot, and after play stopped, the two teams went after each other. There was a scrum and punches were exchanged, but it was broken up before getting to last season’s Union-RPI level.

The series was intense before the hit, and it’s a little sad knowing how conference realignment has taken away some in-state rivalries in the Midwest.

I really used this as an excuse to push Minnesota-Duluth’s intro video from the weekend — it shows how intense the rivalry is, and it’s one of the best I’ve seen.

 

Tuesday, November 18th, 2014 - 6:29 pm | Big Ten, Blogs, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings