With first-place Michigan sitting idle this weekend, the Big Ten schedule is setup for some movement heading into the final month of the regular season.
Though games in hand for Minnesota and Notre Dame don’t make it a perfect storm, the docket for this weekend could see some shuffling in the standings with three teams from the top of the table playing three at the bottom. Second-place Ohio State hosts sixth-place Wisconsin, third-place Minnesota entertains seventh-place Michigan State and fourth-place Notre Dame welcomes fifth-place Penn State to town.
All three series are a rematch from the second weekend of January where Minnesota swept at Michigan State and both Ohio State and Notre Dame took five of six conference points at Wisconsin and Penn State.
Currently, Michigan leads the race with 39 points, Ohio State has 37, Minnesota has 31 and Notre Dame has 26. Though a nine-point gap between the Irish and Penn State make it seem like there’s going to be a four-team race, the teams at the bottom are also in a close race for conference tournament seeding. The Nittany Lions have 17 points, Wisconsin has 16 and Michigan State has 14 with two games in hand.
“We do have a dog fight going up top right now and our job is to try and stay in that thing,” Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said on his radio show this week. “I just want to keep playing how we’re playing; I just want our team to continue to do what we’re doing. The points in the standings will happen, but right now all our concentration is on Michigan State.”
This weekend also marks the first games Minnesota will lose its three Olympians: Ben Meyers, Matthew Knies and Brock Faber.
“There are guys now that are going to get added ice time, so there’s excitement there,” Motzko said. “Certain guys are going to get a little more special teams time. We’ve got good players here, so we’re just going to get after this thing and have a little fun with it.
“It’s a challenge and that’s how you have to approach it.”
The word “challenge” can also be used to describe how the season has turned for the Spartans after facing the Gophers. MSU has dropped the four games it’s played since, sweeps at the hands of Wisconsin and Ohio State. Michigan State was off last weekend.
The home teams this weekend coming off a weekend where they found various levels of success but also left room for improvement.
The Irish and Gophers played each other in South Bend with Minnesota winning convincingly on Friday, but Notre Dame managed to respond with a 3-2 overtime victory on Saturday. Ohio State lost at Penn State in a shootout on Friday but responded with a convincing 6-0 victory on Saturday.
In a series that had to be moved back a day because of COVID issues, the Ohio State dropped a point in the Sunday matinee against the Badgers after winning on Saturday in Madison. With Minnesota and Notre Dame having two games in hand, and a tough schedule that features a home series against the Gophers and a trip to Michigan to close out the regular season, a full six points this weekend could go a long way for the Buckeyes in their title hopes.
Michigan State goes Hollywood
The Spartans may have had last weekend off, but they, or more specifically one of their jerseys, still managed to grab a few headlines.
A green Michigan State jersey was sported by an actor in a minute-long Chevrolet ad that debuted during NFL conference championship games on Saturday. The ad follows the story of Walter, a cat that acts like a dog. The jersey shows up in a pond hockey scene where the cat is chasing a puck.
Head coach Danton Cole was asked at his media availability if he was watching football on Sunday. He said he wasn’t, but quickly added “but I did see the commercial.”
“My phone was blowing up last night, with family and friends and alums,” he said. “It was kind of cool.”
