Rankings going into the weekend, records coming out...
Overall | Conference | |
#1 Minnesota | 19-2-5 | 8-0-2 |
#9 Wisconsin | 14-8-2 | 5-4-1 |
#12 Michigan | 13-6-3 | 5-2-1 |
Michigan State | 8-13-4 | 2-5-3 |
Ohio State | 14-9-1 | 4-5-1 |
Penn State | 4-17-1 | 0-8-0 |
Spartans win a game 1 shootout, fall in game 2 (T 2-2 SO W, L 1-0)
Michigan State was able to get on the board first in game one, with a back-door goal by Spartan forward Michael Ferrantino at the 10:40 mark of period 1. The freshman Swede, Villiam Haag, put Sparty on the board 90 seconds later on a sweet shot that went past Minnesota defenseman Jake Bischoff who was blocking the view of goalie Adam Wilcox. With 55 seconds to go in the first period, Minnesota put their first goal on the board after a shot by Travis Boyd rebounded and allowed Hudson Fasching to score the PPG to bring the margin to 2-1. After a scoreless second period, the Gophers were able to tie the game on a controversial redirected goal off the skate of Justin Kloos.
It's a goal! Watch @GopherHockey freshman Justin Kloos score this bizarre goal off the side of his skate! - http://t.co/djvz9AWcbQ
— Big Ten Network (@BTN_Minnesota) February 1, 2014
The score would stay knotted at 2-all through the remainder of the third period and the five minute OT. The shootout is where things got really interesting...
Ultimately, the controversy didn't matter, as Michigan State was able to come away with the shootout victory, shocking the #1 team in the country who was unable to come back from a two goal deficit as they did a few weeks ago against Ohio State.
Saturday's game saw only one goal (after a goal had been waved off earlier in the period), and that by Minnesota's Kyle Rau, who was able to get the puck up over MSU goalie Jake Hildebrand's pads. Although there were opportunities for both teams, no one was able to get the puck across the line. The win was also the sixth career shutout for the Gophers' Adam Wilcox.
Next for Michigan State: 2/7 at Ohio State, 6:30 Eastern on BTN; 2/8 4:00 Eastern Fox Sports Detroit Plus & SportsTime Ohio.
Michigan takes care of Wisconsin (W 3-1, T 2-2 SO W)
Three weeks ago, the Michigan Wolverines were swept by the Badgers inside the Kohl Center in Madison. That series was the last time Michigan has lost a game. Of late, they've been able to flip the switch and play some good hockey and get some very good wins. The Wolverines got on the board first at 13:50 in the first period on a Tyler Motte goal that went easily through the wide open back side of UW goalie Joel Rumpel. Eighty seconds later, Michigan's Alex Guptill scored after Wisconsin's Joe Faust tripped at center ice, which allowed for the easy breakaway goal. The score would remain at 2-0 until 7:55 to go in the second period, when junior center Zach Hyman poked the puck past Rumpel's left skate to go up a commanding 3-0. Wisconsin was finally able to get on the board at 13:16 in the second, when Jedd Soleway got a bouncing shot through Michigan defenseman Kevin Clare's legs; the puck took an odd bounce over Zach Naglevoort's pads as he was going down to block the shot. That was the last goal by Wisconsin as Michigan walked away with the 3-1 victory.
Whereas Friday's game was pretty clean and never really in question, Saturday's game saw the return of a little chippiness from the series three weeks ago (four UW penalties vs. six on Saturday--this doesn't include the team penalties for too many men on the ice), and a tighter match-up. Even without any scoring in the first period, there was plenty of excitement as Derek DeBlois was knocked over by Bucky's Eddie Whittchow who, along with Sean Little, double-teamed Alex Guptill (all three got to sit down for a little bit). The Badgers' Michael Mersch got Bucky on the board with this admittedly pretty damn good goal.
On a goal that wasn't nearly as pretty as the one above, Tyler Motte used a very effective rebounding shot to knot the score at 1-1 in the second frame. It looked as though Michigan would go up 2-1 on an Andrew Sinelli goal, but it was waved off after it was determined that he bumped Rumpel in the crease (that sounds kinda dirty, doesn't it?). Instead, UW was able to go up 2-1 on a penalty shot after Mark Zengerle was taken down by DeBlois right at the point of attack. Luke Moffat then tied everything up at 2 a piece, where it would stay through regulation and OT before ending on the only score in the shootout coming off of Moffat's stick. Highlights!
Oh, and Happy Birthday to Zach Nagelvoort!
Home sweep of Wisco, best birthday present I could think of #GoBlue
— Zach Nagelvoort (@znagelvoort94) February 2, 2014
Next for Michigan: @ Penn State 2/7 at 7:00 and 2/8 at 5:00 p.m. on ESPNU.
Next for Wisconsin: Minnesota 2/6 at 8:30 and 2/7 at 9:00. Both games are on BTN.
Buckeyes use dual 5 game outings to sweep the Lions (5-1 and 5-2)
In further evidence that the Nittany Lions are going to shoot shoot shoot, they outshot the Buckeyes 47-32 on Friday night, but were able to muster only one goal. David Goodwin got a power play goal in the third frame to get PSU on the board, but the Buckeyes were led by Ryan Dzingel, who added two goals to his stat sheet to continue his hold on the leading scorer position in the Big Ten.
The teams met up again early Saturday afternoon and the Nittany Lions jumped out to a surprising 2-0 lead off of goals by Dylan Richard (2:30) and Casey Bailey (6:47). Unfortunately that would be the only scoring of the game for PSU, as Ohio State rattled off five unanswered goals. The first came off the stick of Tanner Fritz (and after what Buccigross called "velvety passing" by the Buckeyes) at the 2:07 mark of period two. Ryan Dzingel added another score to the stat sheet, while Anthony Greco closed out the second period with a goal of his own with 1:07 to go. Max McCormick and Darik Angeli added a goal each and pushed the Nittany Lions to 0-8 in the conference. Did I mention that OSU's Ryan Dzingel is very good?
DYK: @Ryandzingel had 6 points in the sweep of Penn State (3g/3a). Have you voted for him for Hobey today? http://t.co/mjyS0RG6uO #GoBucks
— Ohio State M Hockey (@OhioState_MHKY) February 2, 2014