After a short winter break, college hockey is back in action starting today. The second half of the season kicks off with several tournaments, featuring a couple Big Ten teams. The Three Rivers Classic, Florida College Classic and, of course, the Great Lakes Invitational all take place this week. The Gophers host their own annual tournament, the Mariucci Classic, this weekend.

While five Big Ten teams are playing this week or weekend, the Badgers have another “bye” week. They face Trinity Western on New Year’s Day in an exhibition match – Wisconsin’s only exhibition game of the season.

Michigan State and Michigan vs. Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan, Great Lakes Invitational: Dec. 29 and 30 at 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

This has been a really difficult season for Michigan State. Even having one of the best goaltenders around isn’t enough to support a very struggling defense. A part of that could be because of Josh Jacobs’ unexpected offseason departure (he was one of their best defenseman). But whatever the reason, the team defense has looked very weak. The offense has stepped up a little bit though, with freshman Mason Appleton contributing 15 points. Michael Ferrantino,  J.T. Stenglein and Mackenzie MacEachern have 14. The Spartans have one win in their last 10 games.

Michigan fared well in out-of-conference play, but didn’t destroy Wisconsin the way it was expected to. The Wolverines have a 9-3-3 record so far, with a pretty powerful offense backed by Kyle Connor. But they are without Zach Werenski, who’s at the World Junior Championship. Connor leads the team with 22 points and is amongst the nation’s highest-scoring players. Michigan has used two goaltenders again this year, but Steve Racine received most of his starts in November and Zach Nagelvoort had most of his in December. While Michigan lacks a stellar defense, the team leads the nation with 4.47 goals per game.

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Talking to several college hockey coaches this week on a variety of topics, one issue that keeps coming up is the proposed Big 10 legislation to limit the recruiting of 21-year-old freshmen.

According to five different coaches this week, all who voted against the measure in the informal straw poll that was conducted, they expect the measure to pass when the NCAA council votes officially on the legislation next year.

As one coach put it:

“This is big in terms of college hockey, but for the people voting on this council, this is not a big deal. They’re going to look at this, see that it was proposed by the Big 10, and I’m expecting it will be passed in a matter of minutes. They’ll have more important things to discuss.”

If that comes to fruition, it’s good news for the 11 programs that voted in favor of the measure. Some of those head coaches have cited “stockpiling” as a reason for the proposal being needed.

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The holiday break has started for almost all of college hockey, and the Big Ten.  Michigan State is the only conference team in action this weekend, and the Spartans travel to Northeastern for a Saturday game. After that, Big Ten play breaks for just over a week.

Michigan State at Northeastern: Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. 

The Spartans travel to Northeastern for their only game of the weekend. Michigan State has struggled this year, especially on the defensive side. The Spartan offense has improved a little bit, though. Michigan State just snapped a seven-game winless streak with a win over Wisconsin last weekend.

The Spartan offense ranks 27th in the country, while Northeastern’s is tied for 48th with 2.29 goals per game. The Huskies have also struggled to win this year, and has just two wins this season – both over Colgate. Zach Aston-Reese leads the Huskies with 15 points.

Prediction: Michigan State wins

Last weekend featured five Big Ten teams in action. Penn State defeated Princeton, Ohio State was on a bye and Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan State participated in the only two conference matches.

Both series ended with splits, leaving little to glean from the weekend. We already know that Wisconsin is a better team than expected. And the quality of the conference isn’t great overall, and many of the games have been close so far. It’s still hard to figure out exactly what the deal is with Minnesota and Michigan, especially when it comes to goals allowed. Michigan beat Minnesota 8-3 on Friday night, but fell 3-2 on Saturday. Michigan State beat Wisconsin 4-3 but lost to the Badgers 3-0 the next night.

It’s still early and the standings don’t mean much, but Minnesota is currently in first place. Michigan is second, Penn State third, Wisconsin fourth, Michigan State fifth and Ohio State sixth.

(After the jump: Kyle Connor should be at WJC camp, what’s wrong with the Spartans and the problem with the Big Ten is…)

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Play continues this weekend for all Big Ten teams except for Ohio State. Penn State hosts out-of-conference Princeton, while Michigan, Minnesota, Michigan State and Wisconsin continue conference play.

Last week, the first weekend of Big Ten play, didn’t reveal much. But it seems as if most matches will be close, based on Ohio State losing two one-goal games to Minnesota and Wisconsin playing a pair of close games with Michigan.

This weekend, Michigan hosts Minnesota – a matchup of the preseason top two teams. The Gophers have struggled this year, but they do have goaltending. Meanwhile, Michigan State hosts Wisconsin. The Spartans have been a difficult team to characterize this year and the Badgers have been better than expected.

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The first weekend of Big Ten play concluded in interesting fashion. The Wolverines participated in a high-scoring shootout with Wisconsin, Ohio State hung in with Minnesota and Penn State demolished Michigan State.

The Nittany Lions defeated the Spartans by a combined score of 10-3. The Wolverines sneaked by the Badgers on the first night, and then tied ina 6-6 contest the next night. Minnesota swept the Buckeyes, but both games were one-goal contests.

While I didn’t know what to expect last weekend, I definitely wasn’t expecting that. The Gophers and Nittany Lions are tied for first place right now, while Michigan State and Ohio State are tied for last.

It’s really early to jump to conclusions (and the PairWise, stay away from the PairWise) but there are some things we can infer – like Michigan’s lack of defense and goaltending.

(After the jump: Michigan’s weakness, bad defenses, World Junior rosters)

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And now the fun starts. The rest of college hockey is still fuming at the Big Ten, and non-conference play is now almost over for the six power conference teams. So far, all Big Ten teams have struggled – making it interesting to see who’ll do well in the league.

The Big Ten has a 29-32-11 non-conference record, third-worst in the country behind the WCHA and Atlantic Hockey. But if you take away the 23 non-conference wins against Atlantic Hockey, the Big Ten’s record drops to 17 non-conference wins.

Right now, Penn State has the best record at 8-2-3. The Wolverines are behind them with seven wins, while Minnesota and Michigan State are tied with four. The Badgers and Buckeyes both have three wins, but Ohio State’s nine losses are more than Wisconsin’s.

It’s pretty early to tell which teams will fare well in the conference, although competition may be closer than we think. (more…)

Another weekend, another slate of questionable results for the Big Ten. Losses were the norm again, dominating a weekend where Big Ten teams combined for two wins and a tie. This weekend marked the end of full non-conference play, as the Big Ten enters conference matchups next week. While it’s way too early to look at PairWise rankings, these non-conference losses will hurt Big Ten teams later in the season – as it did last year.

After last week’s age limit proposal, there’s been a lot of controversy around the Big Ten. Ironically, as one fan pointed out, Minnesota’s third-string goaltender Brock Kautz is a 21-year-old freshman. And sophomore Nick Lehr, the backup goalie who replaced Eric Scheirhorn, was born in 93 – making him a 21-year-old when he was a freshman as well.

There wasn’t much new to learn about the Big Ten this year, expect Ohio State has continued scoring. The Buckeyes have now notched four or more goals in four of its last five games. Michigan is still inconsistent, Minnesota is still struggling and so far Penn State has fared the best out of conference.

Also, Nick Seeler was suspended one game for a malicious headshot against St. Cloud’s Niklas Nevalianen.

(After the jump: Reinforcing thoughts about Michigan, Minnesota’s mistakes and who’ll finish first in the Big Ten.) (more…)

Fresh off the age-limit proposal controversy, the Big Ten is back in action in its last weekend of regular-season play before Big Ten play begins. The conference has been playing a little bit better as of late, but still struggles against top-tier opponents.

Wisconsin has a bye this weekend, but all other five teams are in action.

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The Big Ten finished an okay weekend in non-conference play. But it’s what happened off the ice that is tremendous not only for Big Ten hockey, but for college hockey as a whole. The conference proposed a legislation to the NCAA that would penalize players who entered their freshman year of college aged 21 or older.

The players would forfeit a year of eligibility, a rule the Big Ten is pushing to limit the age of college hockey. This, unsurprisingly, was met with discontent by many across college hockey from teams to coaches and fans, and even some alumni. The proposal is something that would benefit maybe a dozen teams in college hockey, most notably the Big Ten, which has struggled since its inception.

On the ice, Michigan State registered a winless weekend against Michigan Tech with a tie and a loss. The Wolverines split with Boston University, Wisconsin also played Denver to a tie and a loss while Penn State earned a tie and a win against Alaska Anchorage.

(After the jump: The Big Ten’s proposal, a different Michigan State and Wisconsin isn’t who we thought they were.)

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