Big Ten play has been picking up, although not every team in the conference has faced off yet. All teams, except for Michigan, have now played at least six league games. Minnesota leads Big Ten play with a 7-0-1 record over eight games.

Michigan and Wisconsin were idle over the weekend, while Michigan State swept Penn State and Minnesota swept Ohio State.

With the limited amount of conference games, it’s hard to tell which teams — aside from the Gophers — are elite in Big Ten hockey. But the Buckeyes proved over the weekend they’re capable of playing against the best.

The Nittany Lions are still searching for their first conference win, and their four wins this season have all been against Atlantic Hockey teams. In Saturday’s contests against the Spartans, Penn State lost 3-2 but played well and tied the Spartans twice during the game.

But the rest of the season is only going to get harder for the Nittany Lions, who resume against Boston College. The Eagles defeated Penn State 8-2 earlier in the season. After that, Penn State will play 14 games against Big Ten teams.

(After the jump: Minnesota’s offense, Ohio State’s goalkeeping and Ryan Dzingel) (more…)

Ohio State (11-6-1, 1-2-1 B1G) at Minnesota (15-2-3, 5-0-1 B1G): Jan. 17 at 8:07 p.m., Jan. 18 at 5:07 p.m.

The No. 2 and 3 offenses in the country will face off in the Hockey City Classic on Friday, which will be played at Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium. The Gophers average 3.95 goals per game, while the Buckeyes average 3.83 goals per game. Minnesota hasn’t lost since Nov. 24 and holds the longest unbeaten streak in the country.

Ryan Dzingel’s 27 points leads the Buckeyes and the Big Ten in scoring. Three different freshmen — Logan Davis, Christian Frey and Matt Tomkins — have started in net for the Buckeyes this season.

Sam Warning paces Minnesota’s offense with 23 points this season. Adam Wilcox, who’s started all but one game in net, has a .925 save percentage and a 2.13 goals-against average.

This is the first meeting between both teams since 2007.

Prediction: Minnesota sweeps the series

Penn State (4-12-1, 0-4-0 B1G) at Michigan State (6-10-3, 0-2-2 B1G): Jan. 17 at 6:35 p.m., Jan. 18 at 7:05 p.m. (NBCSN)

The Nittany Lions have yet to win a conference game this season and have lost nine of their past 10 games. Michigan State’s lone win over the past six contests came against Michigan at the Great Lakes Invitational.

These teams faced off last season, splitting the series. Penn State’s Casey Bailey and Max Gardiner each had four points, while Mike Ferrantino netted three for the Spartans.

Goalkeepers Jake Hildebrand and Matthew Skoff are both from the Pittsburgh are and played together for the Sioux City Musketeers in the USHL. The two netminders faced off in Penn State’s 3-2 win last season.

Eric Scheid leads Penn State’s offense with 13 points and eight goals. Michigan’s State’s Jake Chelios has 14 points, while Greg Wolfe has tallied seven goals.

Prediction: Series split

This past week is the first time all six Big Ten teams were engaged in conference series. Yes, it’s January. At the same time, this past week also kicked off BTN’s Frozen Friday doubleheaders that are to be a staple in the second half (the conference play half?) of the season.

And I enjoyed it.

The pre-game and doubleheaders, which admittedly I watched after the fact on DVR, weren’t without issues. There was some awkwardness in the analysis. Schottenstein Center couldn’t look worse on television. On the same weekend that Penn State and Minnesota played a Sunday game that wasn’t televised or even on BTN2Go, aka a doomsday “Big Ten is ruining college hockey” argument, BTN had two games which, as dirty as I feel to say, the conference couldn’t have scripted better with a pair of hat tricks.

More importantly, what won me over was the presentation. College hockey often gets shifted to the back pages of the sports section or has national games where, once it ends, gets ignored as the station goes right into the next program. BTN made it feel like an actual event rather than a second-class production.

For once, the discussion that normally happens on Twitter happened during intermission and a post-game show.

That is something you expect to see with sports although it doesn’t happen that often with hockey in the U.S. (CBS Sports Net probably comes closest with the college game). There aren’t many talking heads. The mixture of regional games with national broadcasts is still slanted towards the former or nothing at all.

Of course, one weekend doesn’t make everything hunky-dory. Not even everything this weekend was when it comes to college hockey on TV, yet coming out of the first BTN Frozen Friday broadcast, my thought was why couldn’t the conference give this type of attention towards the first half (aka the non-conference half)?

That’s a good place to be given some of the other problems in the first year of realignment.

This week’s attention shines a light towards the following things: Ryan Dzingel and Michael Mersch both notching hat tricks, Michigan and Wisconsin passing each other like ships in the night, and how Penn State can take a page from Minnesota. (more…)

Finally, the “less Big Ten teams played than number of things” week is upon us and honestly, it isn’t as bad as I would have thought.

Okay last weekend wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was probably for the best that Big Ten play did not start again right after the holiday break. Everyone besides Ohio State (and many of the top ten teams nationally) has had at least one game where rust was prevalent in the last couple weeks. Friday may have been the worst night in conference history.

(After the jump, this week’s 3 Things about just 2 clubs playing turns in 5 things. Things discussed include the lack of Big Ten expansion, Minnesota’s shootout woes, Wisconsin’s Jake McCabe scoring twice to save the weekend for the Badgers, and next weekend’s showdown with Michigan.) (more…)

We’re back. Well kind of.

With four Big Ten players (Michigan’s Andrew Copp, Minnesota’s Brady Skjei and Hudson Fasching, and Wisconsin’s Nic Kerdiles) and one head coach (Minnesota’s Don Lucia) in Sweden representing the red, white and blue, every team besides the Gophers began the second half this past weekend.

A few teams might be wishing for a do-over. Despite being the most experienced teams for the elements, Michigan and Michigan State combined for a single win outdoors at the GLI. That win was due to the Spartans shutting out Michigan in a game that is considered non-conference.

“We didn’t show anything this weekend,” Wolverines head coach Red Berenson, whose team also lost to Western Michigan in OT, said to the Michigan Daily after Saturday’s loss to MSU.

In other Big Ten play, Penn State defeated Robert Morris 3-2 before falling to Boston College by an 8-2 final. Wisconsin continued a monster 12 game homestand at the Kohl Center with a pair of wins against Alabama-Huntsville while Ohio State dominated Mercyhurst in a two-game sweep.

January is set up to a great month for Big Ten hockey. Before it happens, however, this seems like a good time to shake off the cobwebs and look back. This week’s 3 Things include being worried about Penn State, newcomer Christian Frey along with my first-half All-Big Ten team picks. (more…)

Despite half the Big Ten having already finished the season’s first half and no conference play, the three teams that did play this week were involved in entertaining games. Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan State went a combined 2-1-1 against Ferris State and Colorado College.

No one is playing next week. Teams are off for finals and the holidays before the second half begins in earnest with tournaments and the majority of Big Ten conference games beginning January 10^th. Instead, this space will probably be used to name an all-first half team.

But that’s next week.

For now, let’s look at 3 things this week: the effect of a play that doesn’t officially count, Michael Mersch’s role in the Badgers winning four in a row, and Michigan State getting shut out once again. (more…)

After weeks of waiting for it, Big Ten Conference play finally happened last weekend. Minnesota and Wisconsin played a pair of games at Mariucci Arena. Ohio State and Michigan battled Friday in Ann Arbor complete with “beat Ohio” chants (the two teams also play tonight in Columbus).

With all apologies to Michigan State’s power play exploding in a sweep of Princeton and Penn State taking the Badgers’ crown Sunday night for the worst last second loss of the weekend, this week’s 3 Things solely focuses on conference games.

Don’t worry Spartans and Nittany Lions. There’s always next week. That’s when the two teams begin its 20 game conference schedule.

(After the jump, Minnesota’s third line impresses in a sweep, Andrew Copp plays for more than 60 and Mike Eaves explains Wisconsin’s inconsistency) (more…)

Finally, conference play is on the horizon. And it couldn’t have come any sooner.

The week of Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect and be thankful. That’s the case with this week’s Three Things, which looks at the odd scheduling quirk with half the conference idle and asks all six Big Ten teams one question.

Okay maybe this week only features two things. Or is it seven? I’m not sure. Either way read more after the jump. (more…)

A lot happened throughout the Big Ten with yet another weekend of non-conference play. Wisconsin traveled to Miami and Michigan went on the big stage to play Nebraska-Omaha in Omaha. Both B1G teams lost on national television Friday while winning the Saturday game, which has been par for the course so far this year. Other than Penn State beating Army to open Pegula Arena, every game initially intended for national broadcast has ended with the Big Ten team falling short.

Even 8-1-1 Minnesota’s tie and loss happened on BTN and NBCSN, respectively.

As conference play gets closer to starting, last weekend’s games – sandwiched around weeks where multiple Big Ten teams are off – does make me wonder what the national perception is so far for the conference. Has television hurt? Or are the non-televised games coming through to show a full picture where half the conference is among the nation’s top dozen teams?

(After the jump, Penn State’s measurement weekend, one area where Minnesota is struggling, and Wisconsin winning a game the Badgers needed.) (more…)

Last week was a good one for the Big Ten when it came to the win-loss column. The five teams playing (Minnesota was idle) went a combined 8-1-1. That includes a two-game sweep by Michigan over Michigan Tech and Penn State overcoming a 4 goal effort by Robert Morris’ Cory Wydo to snap a 4 game winless streak. Wisconsin, meanwhile, came back from a week off tying and defeating a previously unbeaten Lake Superior State team.

And of course there were plenty of things to think about and discuss. Here are three.

(After the jump, Nic Kerdiles continues to consistently score, freshmen goaltenders shining and extended non-conference play is not helping break in the Big Ten mindset) (more…)