There are two weeks left before the Big Ten playoffs and there are only two teams contending for the regular-season title: Michigan State and Wisconsin.
Last weekend, the Spartans were idle.
Last weekend, the Badgers did themselves no favors.
Second-place Wisconsin entered the weekend four points behind Michigan State with two games in hand. They exited the weekend even with the Spartans in remaining games and no richer in points, as Wisconsin dropped two on the road to last-place Ohio State.
“For us, I just thought that our details weren’t where they needed to be, being offensively a bit more aggressive at trying to possess a puck, attack when we had options,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings. “I thought Ohio State got us out of rhythm. I thought they were good at being physical and keeping us to the outside and our want to get to the inside wasn’t what it needed to be.”
The Badgers now need to win their four remaining games to finish in first place. That would include a road sweep against Penn State this weekend and two wins at home against Michigan State the following weekend.
The Spartans need to win three of their remaining four to earn that first-round bye, starting at home this weekend against an Ohio State team that will be confident following the series against Wisconsin.
Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale said that his counterpart at Ohio State, Steve Rohlik, “does a really good job” and that the Buckeyes are “a well-coached team and organized, and they have some offensive players that are very dangerous.”
Nightingale said that their defensemen are difficult to play against and that their goalies are playing well.
“I think the margin of error in our conference is so small,” said Nightingale. “They obviously had a really big weekend, so we’re expecting a really quality weekend.”
For the Buckeyes, Friday’s 3-2 overtime win against Wisconsin snapped a seven-game losing streak that began with a 5-2 loss to Notre Dame Jan. 13. In that span, Ohio State had allowed 4.5 goals per game on average while scoring 2.28. The Buckeyes held the Badgers to three goals on the weekend.
The sweep was the first for Ohio State in B1G play this season and the Buckeyes’ third conference win so far.
“It’s huge,” said alternate captain Cam Thiesing, who had the first goal in Saturday’s 3-1 win. “We’ve been itching for something like this all year long, and we came together as a team. I can’t even describe it, the stuff that we went through this week, and it shows on the ice. We came together, we had faith even last night, same as tonight.”
In Friday’s game, the Buckeyes came from behind twice, including a response to a late third-period goal that put the Badgers ahead by one. At 16:26, Ben Dexheimer’s unassisted goal made it a 2-1 game, but Stephen Halliday evened it for Ohio State with 1:39 remaining in regulation. At 4:38 in OT, David Burnside’s goal won the game.
Saturday, the Buckeyes led 2-0 after one on Thiesing’s goal and Burnside’s second of the weekend. “You know, it’s different when you’re playing with the lead,” said Rohlik, “and to get the lead for us tonight was huge and we did enough to control them.”
Logan Terness earned Friday’s win with 28 saves on 30 shots and Kristoffer Eberly stopped 27-of-29 for the Buckeyes Saturday. “Both goalies have been playing well,” said Rohlik.
The Buckeyes gained a little ground on sixth-place Penn State after the Nittany Lions split at home against Michigan, but Ohio State is still eight points back with four games left. Following their series against Michigan State this weekend, the Buckeyes finish at home against the Nittany Lions.
Both Ohio State and Penn State will travel for the first round of the Big Ten playoffs. The Buckeyes can finish no higher than sixth place and overtaking Penn State is a longshot. The Nittany Lions can finish as high as fifth, but to do so they’d have to overcome an eight-point deficit behind Michigan.
Because of their position, Rohlik said that these last regular-season games are intense, calling the series against Wisconsin “playoff time” for the Buckeyes.
“We knew we had one of the top teams in the country coming in this weekend,” said Rohlik, “and another good opportunity for us to continue to get better.”
When the Spartans and Buckeyes met in Columbus the first weekend of November, Michigan State picked up two wins and a literal dozen goals to Ohio State’s four. The 6-0 Nov. 3 win was Trey Augustine’s first collegiate career shutout.
Nightingale said that the results of that series in no way predict what may transpire in Munn Arena this weekend. “I thought the scores were not reflective of the games,” said Nightingale. “I thought they were a lot closer than the scores, and they’re obviously playing very good hockey right now, so we’re looking forward to having them.”
Heading into Penn State, Hastings said that the Badgers have “enough on our plate” and will be focusing on themselves as much as possible following the losses in Columbus.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us, but that’s what we all signed up for when we started this season,” said Hastings. “Just because you hit a little ripple in the water, you’ve got to understand that’s part of this process. We can learn from that, and we’ve got to embrace that and move on.
“Nobody’s feeling sorry for the Badgers because they didn’t get it done on Friday or Saturday and Ohio State earned it. Now we’ve got to be okay going and earning our week and the opportunity to compete on Friday.”
