Hockey coaches and players famously embrace both the world of belief and the world of self-determination.
They’re a superstitious lot, some more so than others.
They can look you straight in the eye and begin a sentence with gratitude for puck luck and finish it with a triumphant declaration of TCB.
Never is that dichotomy more apparent than in the final days of a regular season with a conference title on the line, or as Minnesota coach Bob Motzko says, “The moment doesn’t care about you; you care about the moment. Just stay in it.”
Could any advice better combine the mystical and physical into one perfect hockey sentiment?
After sweeping Ohio State at home and following Michigan State’s one-point road performance against hotter-than-hot Penn State, Minnesota is now once again at the top of the Big Ten standings, two points ahead of the second-place Spartans.
Of the three Big Ten teams for whom the regular-season title is still mathematically within reach, only Minnesota controls its own fate. Two wins outright in the final weekend of play would give the Gophers a first-place finish and first-round bye for the Big Ten playoffs.
One slight potential problem: the Gophers are playing that hotter-than-hot Penn State team.
“They started out on the wrong side early but just stuck with it,” said Motzko of the Nittany Lions.
In his weekly press conference, Motzko said that the return of Penn State’s goaltender Sergei Andreev following an early-season injury helped to turn around a bad start for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State began first-half B1G play with eight straight losses. In Andreev’s first weekend back, the Nittany Lions earned a tie and their first Big Ten win. Including that series, they’ve been 8-2-4 in conference games.
Andreev “seems to be the one big thing that’s happened,” said Motzko. “That and confidence. They’re brimming with confidence right now.”
The Nittany Lions are especially confident after tying and knocking off then-No. 1 Michigan State in Munn Ice Arena last weekend. The Spartans had been coming off a bye week prior to facing Penn State.
“Tough weekend for us, for sure,” said Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale in his weekly presser. “Going into the weekend, we thought we had two good weeks of practice. One thing for our group is that we really hadn’t hit a bump, and this is definitely a bump, but our guys are excited about the challenge.”
Nightingale said that the Spartans learned some valuable lessons from the losses, including valuing the puck and that “you can’t dig yourself a hole.”
The Spartans played from behind in both games, having to answer for Penn State’s scoring to get to that 2-2 Friday. In Saturday’s 3-2 loss, Michigan State was down 3-0 after two and found the back of the net in the third period, 20 minutes in which the Spartans outshot the Nittany Lions 19-5.
Of lessons learned from that one-point weekend, Nightingale said, “It stings a little bit more,” adding, “we’ve learned a lot from wins this year, too.”
Now chasing the regular-season title, the Spartans will face last-place Notre Dame on the road, and these are two games that Nightingale knows can’t be taken for granted. Given that the Fighting Irish will play on the road throughout the Big Ten playoffs, these will be the last two home games for Jeff Jackson, who announced his retirement prior to this season.
“It’s a big weekend for them,” said Nightingale. “Coach Jackson, one of the legends of not just college hockey but all of hockey.”
Nightingale, who grew up in Cheboygan, Mich., said that he and his hockey-playing brothers Jason and Jared all admired Jackson when they were young.
“You look at what he did at Lake Superior in really building that program into a national power,” Nightingale said. “He was the first coach of the U.S. national team. At the time when he did that it was kind of taboo. You look at what that’s done for USA Hockey.”
The emotions will be high in the Compton Family Ice Arena.
“It’ll be a really good test for our group,” said Nightingale. “Hard building to play in. We’re going to have to play our best hockey if we want to be successful.”
Both Nightingale and Motzko say that they’re focused on a much smaller picture than the possibility of earning a regular-season title.
“We don’t spend much time talking about standings and all those things, or rankings,” said Nightingale. “We don’t look at any of that stuff. None of that stuff matters to us. It’s just about getting better and improving. The nice thing for us is that we’ve established that, so our guys know that.”
“You battle through your season,” said Motzko. “Win the series against the team you play.
“We can’t worry about what Michigan State does. All we had to do last week is worry about who we were playing. Right now, it’s Friday night against Penn State. Then we’ll see what’s in front of us the next day.
“To think anything more than that, it’s just wasted energy.”
Penn State is 9-5-2 at home this season and Minnesota is 7-4-2 on the road. The Golden Gophers swept the Nittany Lions in Minneapolis Nov. 1-2. The Nittany Lions can finish no higher than fourth place – but that’s a very important fourth place, as the teams that finish second through fourth host a first-round playoff series. Even if Penn State sweeps Minnesota, the Nittany Lions aren’t guaranteed that spot in fourth.
Minnesota and Penn State meet for two games in Pegula Ice Arena this weekend, with Friday’s game starting at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday’s at 8:00. Both games will be televised by the Big Ten Network.
The Fighting Irish broke a five-game losing streak in their split against Wisconsin on the road last week, a 6-1 win that followed a 7-3 loss. Notre Dame is 5-10-0 at home and Michigan State is 8-3-2 on the road.
The Irish have no place to go in the standings and will finish in last place. A single win for the Spartans guarantees them a spot no lower than second in the final standings, and if they’re swept, they can finish no lower than third place. Friday’s game begins at 7:00 p.m., Saturday’s at 6:00 p.m.
There is one more series this weekend, that between arch-rivals Michigan and Ohio State. Sitting in third place with 40 points – six behind Minnesota – the Buckeyes can finish in first place, theoretically, but that would require some planets to align. Because they’re four points behind Michigan State, the Buckeyes also need a little magic to finish as high as second, but even if they lose out this weekend, they can’t finish lower than third.
With two wins over Ohio State this weekend, Michigan finishes in fourth place regardless of all else that transpires in the league. The Wolverines can finish no lower than fifth.
The Wolverines and Buckeyes play in Value City Arena, with Thursday’s game beginning at 8 p.m. and Friday’s at 6 p.m. The Big Ten network will televise both of those games.
Wisconsin, locked into a sixth-place finish, has a bye for the final weekend of the regular season.
