With all eyes on the IIHF World Junior Championship tournament last week and the young Big Ten talent that was on display there, it’s easy to see why Minnesota is the top team in the conference and why Michigan looks very much like it will be in the NCAA tournament mix yet again.
Both the Golden Gophers and the Wolverines have had highly touted recruiting classes for the past several seasons and are programs deserving of the attention they receive.
Penn State is another B1G team making noise that no one can ignore. The Nittany Lions have returned to their high-flying days of old, averaging 3.73 goals per game and with at least one win over every Big Ten opponent. Eight points behind league-leading Minnesota, the Nittany Lions look to finish this season far above their second-to-last place showing of 2021-22.
There’s another Big Ten team, though, that is playing itself into the end-of-season conversation. After a home sweep of Michigan State last weekend, Ohio State climbed ahead of the Spartans in conference standings and now sits in third place, one point behind Penn State. The Buckeyes may not get the chatter, but they’re getting the points – and that’s all that matters to coach Steve Rohlik.
After dropping two road games to the Spartans in November, the Buckeyes earned their second conference sweep of the season with 3-1 and 6-0 home wins.
Rohlik said that the earlier games at Michigan State “could’ve gone either way” and that Adam Nightingale “has done an incredible job with that program and obviously they’re as good as anybody, which they’ve already proven. If people haven’t watched them play, then they’re missing something because they’re good and can beat anybody in our league.”
While those losses in East Lansing were frustrating, Rohlik said all the Buckeyes were focused on in the rematch this past weekend was winning games.
“To me it’s about the process and it’s about the next game and right now for us it’s about Fridays – get a chance to win Friday, and then it’s about Saturday,” Rohlik said. “To me, it’s about getting two wins.”
With those wins, Ohio State joins Minnesota and Penn State as the three teams in the conference who have at least one win over every other Big Ten opponent.
“I say this, and I’ve said it for a long time — it’s so hard to win at this level, and you’ve got to applaud every time you win because you’ve definitely done something right,” said Rohlik. “If you are ever fortunate to be in a position to win on back-to-back nights, you kind of put that in your back pocket and then it’s back to work on Monday and prepare for the next week.”
That blue-collar work ethic is something that has helped Ohio State reach the NCAA tournament three times in the 10 years that Rohlik has been head coach, including a Frozen Four appearance in 2018. Since their last tourney appearance in 2019, the Buckeyes have worked to find the kind of consistency that will get them there again – and they may have found it this season.
Many coaches talk about chemistry and commitment and culture, but Rohlik’s language about this year’s eam is as pragmatic as it is enthusiastic. The Buckeyes, he said, function as a team first and foremost.
“I think it’s been from the start,” said Rohlik, “just our talk about how we’ve got to win together, we’ve got to win as 27, and it’s going to take all of us.”
Like most teams, though, the Buckeyes have found themselves without key players.
“Sure enough, you get five games into the year, you lose two guys for the year,” said Rohlik. “People forget Gustaf Westlund, who’s a pretty darned good player, is out for the season five games into it. Mark Cheremeta’s out for the season. We’ve had guys out six, seven weeks at a time.”
Westlund, a fifth-year player, had eight goals and eight assists last season. Cheremeta, a junior, had five last year. Without depth, said Rohlik, any team has difficulty putting itself in a position to succeed.
“I credit our guys for how hard they’ve worked and it’s a team thing,” said Rohlik. “The guys that have zero or one goals are just as happy for the guy that’s got nine or 10. That’s really the difference.”
The Buckeyes have a trio of forwards – Davis Burnside, Joe Dunlap, Cam Thiesing – who have 10 goals apiece, but not a single Ohio State player is among the top 20 scorers in the country for goals per game or points per game, and only sophomore Mason Lohrei is among the nation’s leaders in assists, tied for 17th (0-17—17). Yet Ohio State is seventh nationally in goals per game (3.64), a stat emblematic of the Buckeyes’ team-first approach.
No one embodies that more, said Rohlik, than team captain Jake Wise, a fifth-year player who spent his first three seasons with Boston University.
“First and foremost, he’s a better person than he is as a hockey player, and that to me is amazing,” said Rohlik. “When you’ve got a guy wearing a ‘C,’ you talk about leadership, it’s about how many guys want to follow him, how many guys are doing what he’s doing. That’s the thing that he brings.”
With seven goals – four on the power play – and 14 assists, Wise is tied with freshman Stephen Halliday (6-15—21) for team points leader. In addition to his leadership qualities, Rohlik said that Wise is easy to coach, a player always working on his game.
“He’s learning to be a 200-foot player,” said Rohlik. “He’s learning to be in all aspects. He’s learning how important draws are every night. He’s killing penalties. He’s on the power play. He’s four-on-four. He’s in the middle of everything, but he’s one of the biggest team guys that you can ever imagine.”
Another key to Ohio State’s steady climb this season is sophomore goaltender Jakub Dobes, whose goals-against average (2.12) is 13th best in the nation while his save percentage (.923) is 11th.
“He goes in there and he gives you a chance every night,” said Rohlik. “He gives you that little extra step that you need to maybe make that extra play. A mistake might happen, and he’s there for you. The best part about Jakub is his intent in trying to get better every day.”
This weekend, Ohio State travels to play Michigan, a rivalry as intense as any in collegiate sports. Rohlik doesn’t care what the standings say. He’s preparing for a team that’s “so talented, so dangerous” that it’s easy for people to forget how young Michigan’s team is.
“It takes time sometimes,” Rohlik said, “when you’re dealing with 18-year-old kids that are stepping into the college level that certainly are elite, but they’re dealing with school, they’re dealing with other pressures, they’re dealing with you name it. When all of that clicks, that’s when you see a team take off.
“We understand what they are. We understand how good they are and that we’ve got to be at our best. Any time we play that team up north, no matter what team’s what, it brings the best out of everybody. It’s competitive, and you just never know.”
This series will be the first non-exhibition action the Wolverines (12-7-1, 4-6-0-0 B1G) have seen since their 2-1 home win over Michigan State. Dec. 10. Michigan is 7-5-0 against Ohio State in the last three seasons, and the Buckeyes (14-7-1, 7-5-0-0 B1G) have dropped the last four meetings in Yost Ice Arena.
