A week away from a full slate of Big Ten games, there are a number of interesting nonconference series for B1G teams, including No. 8 Michigan State’s pair at No. 3 Boston College and No. 16 Ohio State visiting an old CCHA foe, No. 20 Omaha.
Last weekend, B1G play began with a single series, Ohio State at No. 6 Michigan. The Wolverines took it to the Buckeyes in a 7-1 win Friday, but Ohio State rebounded with a 2-2 tie and extra point in the shootout.
This week, there’s another single Big Ten series and it’s a doozy – No. 14 Wisconsin at No. 1 Minnesota.
Mike Hastings, in his first year behind the Wisconsin bench, understands the significance of this rivalry and he’s eager for the challenge the series will bring.
“When I was hired at Minnesota, I was told that there was only one thing that couldn’t happen, and we couldn’t get beat by the Badgers,” said Hastings. “So that I learned a long time ago, on the side of Minnesota.”
Hastings knows the Minnesota side of hockey. After 14 seasons as a head coach in the USHL, Hastings made his return to college hockey as the Minnesota assistant coach for a single season in 2008-09. After that, he spent three years as an associate head coach at Omaha. Prior to coming to Wisconsin, he was the head coach at Minnesota State. He’s a native Minnesotan, too, and a St. Cloud State alum.
“Whether it’s any sport you talk about in the Big Ten, when you have a border battle like Minnesota and Wisconsin,” said Hastings, “it’s unique, it’s special, it’s historic.”
Wisconsin comes into the series with a 5-1-0 record, the lone loss to North Dakota in the Icebreaker title game Oct. 14. The Badgers are off to their best start since 2004-05.
Last weekend, the Badgers swept Michigan Tech on the road, 4-2 and 5-2. That series earned Wisconsin its first appearance in the USCHO.com Men’s Division I Poll this week. For some additional perspective, the wins brought Wisconsin’s road win total to three – the same number of away-game wins the Badgers had for the entire 2022-23 season.
Because the series in Minnesota is Thursday-Friday, Hastings said that there hasn’t been a lot of time to focus too much on the rivalry. “Probably a little bit more focus on cleaning up what happened Friday, Saturday [against Michigan Tech], discussing that, and then turning the page.”
Hastings said that the first three weeks have given him some hope that the Badgers will have depth this season, and he’s impressed with the tenacity of his squad.
“Hopefully we can maintain a mentality of resiliency,” said Hastings. “We’ve been down quite a few times on the road and still found ways to come back, a couple of times to come back and win a hockey game.
“The opportunity at North Dakota, we didn’t quite get there, but I like that we didn’t go away, even though we were down, so that’s the positive.”
Having some difficulty with North Dakota is something that the Badgers have in common with their opponent this week. After beating the Fighting Hawks 4-0 in Grand Forks Friday, the Golden Gophers fell 2-1 the following night. Minnesota took a lot of penalties in the two games, including six for 12 minutes in Saturday’s loss.
“It’s pretty simple,” said Minnesota coach Bob Motzko after the loss. “We can’t take the penalties we took. A couple of questionable calls, too, on top of us being really dumb tonight, that put us behind the eight ball.”
Motzko said that there were “a ton of positives” for the Gophers from the weekend, but added, “We’d better learn that we can’t take penalties like that. We got worn down by killing penalties and North Dakota had a hard charge tonight.”
The Gophers made a third-period push in that loss to North Dakota, outshot 24-12 through the first two periods, largely because of those penalties. When asked about the play of Justen Close in the Minnesota net, Motzko said, “You want to go back and forth with this again? He’s just a really good goalie.”
Close stopped 57 of 59 shot he faced in North Dakota, with a 1.01 GAA and .966 save percentage, earning him this week’s Big Ten first star.
“There’s not a moment too big,” said Motzko after Saturday’s game. “He just stood in there tall for us and gave us a chance tonight. We need to play better in front of him.”
The series between the Badgers and the Golden Gophers goes all the way back to 1922, and Minnesota leads all-time 181-101-24. Last season, Minnesota took three of four games from Wisconsin, but the teams split a series in Madison (Feb. 10-11), with Wisconsin picking up the win in the second game, 3-1.
“Any time that you get into a rivalry situation, I think you can take records and throw them out the window because there’s history there,” said Hastings. “We’re in a situation where we’ve gotten off to a good start. They’ve gotten off to a good start. Both head coaches and their staffs are going to learn a lot about their teams by the end of Friday.”
The Badgers and Gophers have similar numbers offensively and defensively heading into the series. Through six games, the Badgers are averaging 3.33 goals per game and allowing 1.50. Through four games, Minnesota is averaging 3.50 goals per game and allowing 1.75.
A significant difference is in special teams. The Gophers have yet to allow an opponent power-play goal through 16 attempts, while Wisconsin’s PK has a success rate of 86.2 percent. Minnesota’s power play (27.3%) is also significantly better than Wisconsin’s (11.5%).
Hastings said that the series in Minneapolis gives the Badgers the opportunity to “look in the mirror a little bit.”
“I think there’s a wealth of respect on both sides of the fence,” said Hastings, “and you’ll find out if you’re not prepared and not playing well. You’re not only going to get beat, you’re probably going to get embarrassed because they’re that quality of a hockey team.
“Obviously, what they did at North Dakota was pretty impressive. North Dakota had to put together a really good game plan and execute it on Saturday to beat them.
“I don’t think that’s going to be any different for us. We’re going to have to be really good if we want to go in there and get points this weekend.”
