The four Big Ten teams in the 2023 NCAA men’s hockey tournament started with unprecedented scoring outputs.
Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan all scored at least eight goals in their first-round games, part of a largely uncompetitive first two days of the tournament.
It was the first time since 1992 that there wasn’t a game decided by one goal in the first round. And in 1992, there were only four first-round games.
Only eight of 285 NCAA tournament games from 2003 to 2022 had a team score eight goals or more. The Big Ten quartet did it four times in the first eight games of the 2023 event.
The four games involving the Big Ten teams had them outscoring their opponents 36-4.
Minnesota scored eight unanswered goals Thursday in a 9-2 victory against Canisius that tied the record for largest margin of victory in a regional game.
Ohio State equaled that record in an 8-1 victory against Harvard in the first game on Friday. Penn State did one better than the Buckeyes later in the day, becoming the first team to win a regional game by eight goals with an 8-0 triumph against Michigan Tech.
Michigan scored seven times in the second period en route to an 11-1 victory against Colgate to finish the first round on Friday night. The Wolverines were only the fourth team to score at least seven times in a period of an NCAA men’s hockey tournament game. They joined:
• Colorado College, 10 goals in the third period of the 1950 championship game against Boston University.
• Michigan Tech, eight goals in the second period of the 1960 semifinals against St. Lawrence.
• Colorado College, seven goals in the third period of the 1957 title game against Michigan.
Michigan’s 11 goals was the most in the tournament since Denver defeated St. Lawrence 12-2 in the 1961 championship game. The 11-1 result tied for the third-largest margin of victory in an NCAA men’s tournament game.
The record for games in one tournament with a team scoring at least eight games is seven in 1991, when the field was 12 teams but the first two rounds were best-of-three series. There were 22 games in that tournament, which culminated with Northern Michigan’s 8-7 victory against Boston University in three overtimes.
