{"id":131209,"date":"2022-01-06T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=131209"},"modified":"2022-01-04T22:04:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T04:04:35","slug":"this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan readying for defending NCAA champion UMass, Michigan State prepping for Minnesota"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Michigan’s Erik Portillo has played in every game so far during the 2021-22 season (photo: Michigan Photography).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The game it didn\u2019t play to end the year garnered most of the attention for Michigan last week, but with the defending national champion coming to town this weekend, it\u2019ll be important for the Wolverines to turn the page into the new year quickly.<\/p>\n

Michigan and the Minutemen will play a Saturday-Sunday series at Yost Ice Arena this weekend.<\/p>\n

With the game against Western Michigan not being played, the last result for Michigan was a 0-0 tie against Michigan Tech.<\/p>\n

It was the first time the Wolverines have been shutout this season. Even with a plethora of high-profile players missing, head coach Mel Pearson said that zero goals on the board shows that the team needs to do some things better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get more traffic to the net,\u201d Pearson said after Wednesday\u2019s game against MTU. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be harder at getting to the net. We looked a little rusty but, again, we have to put more pressure on the net and get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bright spot for Michigan, as it usually is for both teams on each side of a scoreless draw, was goaltender Erik Portillo. The sophomore netminder made 27 saves in the contest and picked up his second shutout of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I really trusted my game,\u201d Portillo said after the game. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve been working on all season, just trusting myself and knowing that I can make every save. I don\u2019t have to overdo anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearson said that, aside from stopping the puck, he liked how Portillo worked with the defensemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe stood his ground and really did a good job there,\u201d he said. \u201cHe played the puck extremely well tonight. It really took a lot of pressure off our defensemen and made it easier for them. He looked calm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The games against UMass wrap up the nonconference schedule for the Wolverines. They currently have a 7-1-0 nonconference record.<\/p>\n

Michigan State looks for home cooking against Minnesota<\/h4>\n

Michigan State ended up being the only team that played both of its home games in the modified Great Lakes Invitational Showcase, going 1-1.<\/p>\n

With the Gophers coming to town this weekend, the Spartans will look for some rare home success against the Gophers. Since becoming conference mates Michigan State is 3-10-2 against Minnesota at home. The two teams will play on Friday and Saturday at Munn Ice Arena.<\/p>\n

The Spartans were dropped 3-1 by Western Michigan last week and rebounded by defeating Michigan Tech 3-2 in overtime. Like Michigan, goaltending was key for the Spartans in the game against the Huskies. Drew DeRidder had 43 saves in the contest, including 19 in the second period.<\/p>\n

Since getting swept by Michigan in early November, Michigan State has a 7-3 record. DeRidder has been the goaltender for six of those wins and is averaging 29 saves in those contests. He has an 8-5-1 record with a 1.99 GAA this season.<\/p>\n

PairWise check-in<\/h4>\n

The adage is that you shouldn\u2019t put too much stock into the PairWise Rankings until after the new year so, with 2022 officially here, let\u2019s take a look where the Big Ten\u2019s seven teams find themselves.<\/p>\n

Michigan leads the pack, coming in at No. 6, followed by No. 11 Minnesota, No. 13 Ohio State, No. 15 Notre Dame, No. 18 Michigan State, No. 20 Penn State and No. 37 Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the amount of games remaining can and will change things on a week-to-week basis, but it\u2019s a fun thing to watch. One question remaining is with more games being canceled or postponed, like this weekend\u2019s Ohio State and Wisconsin series, will the format for selecting NCAA tournament teams be changed again this season?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The game it didn\u2019t play to end the year garnered most of the attention for Michigan last week, but with the defending national champion coming to town this weekend, it\u2019ll be important for the Wolverines to turn the page into the new year quickly. Michigan and the Minutemen will play a Saturday-Sunday series at Yost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":131210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[855],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan readying for defending NCAA champion UMass, Michigan State prepping for Minnesota - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The game it didn\u2019t play to end the year garnered most of the attention for Michigan last week, but with the defending national champion coming to town\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131209\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan readying for defending NCAA champion UMass, Michigan State prepping for Minnesota - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The game it didn\u2019t play to end the year garnered most of the attention for Michigan last week, but with the defending national champion coming to town\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131209\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-06T12:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-05T04:04:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/portillo_miphoto.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Drew Claussen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Drew Claussen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/\",\"name\":\"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan readying for defending NCAA champion UMass, Michigan State prepping for Minnesota - College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/portillo_miphoto.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-06T12:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-05T04:04:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fbf976132f97155e5f6e6487fbde73fd\"},\"description\":\"The game it didn\u2019t play to end the year garnered most of the attention for Michigan last week, but with the defending national champion coming to town\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/portillo_miphoto.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/portillo_miphoto.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Michigan's Erik Portillo has played in every game so far during the 2021-22 season (photo: Michigan Photography).\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan readying for defending NCAA champion UMass, Michigan State prepping for Minnesota\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/\",\"name\":\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"description\":\"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fbf976132f97155e5f6e6487fbde73fd\",\"name\":\"Drew Claussen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/4e1d9091eeac610709a57e965bd893f6\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f42f2ce3549e15735a085b06d411cbce?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f42f2ce3549e15735a085b06d411cbce?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Drew Claussen\"},\"description\":\"Big Ten Columnist Drew Claussen covers the Big Ten for USCHO.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/author\/drewclaussen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan readying for defending NCAA champion UMass, Michigan State prepping for Minnesota - College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"The game it didn\u2019t play to end the year garnered most of the attention for Michigan last week, but with the defending national champion coming to town","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131209","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan readying for defending NCAA champion UMass, Michigan State prepping for Minnesota - College Hockey | USCHO.com","og_description":"The game it didn\u2019t play to end the year garnered most of the attention for Michigan last week, but with the defending national champion coming to town","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131209","og_site_name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/","article_published_time":"2022-01-06T12:00:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-05T04:04:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/portillo_miphoto.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Drew Claussen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@USCHO","twitter_site":"@USCHO","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Drew Claussen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/","name":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan readying for defending NCAA champion UMass, Michigan State prepping for Minnesota - College Hockey | USCHO.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/portillo_miphoto.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-06T12:00:51+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-05T04:04:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fbf976132f97155e5f6e6487fbde73fd"},"description":"The game it didn\u2019t play to end the year garnered most of the attention for Michigan last week, but with the defending national champion coming to town","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/portillo_miphoto.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/portillo_miphoto.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"Michigan's Erik Portillo has played in every game so far during the 2021-22 season (photo: Michigan Photography)."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/01\/06\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-michigan-readying-for-defending-ncaa-champion-umass-michigan-state-prepping-for-minnesota\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan readying for defending NCAA champion UMass, Michigan State prepping for Minnesota"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/","name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fbf976132f97155e5f6e6487fbde73fd","name":"Drew Claussen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/4e1d9091eeac610709a57e965bd893f6","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f42f2ce3549e15735a085b06d411cbce?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f42f2ce3549e15735a085b06d411cbce?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Drew Claussen"},"description":"Big Ten Columnist Drew Claussen covers the Big Ten for USCHO.","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/author\/drewclaussen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131211,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131209\/revisions\/131211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131209"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=131209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}