{"id":143730,"date":"2023-11-29T14:00:45","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T20:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=143730"},"modified":"2023-11-28T21:55:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T03:55:56","slug":"this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: With calendar soon flipping to December, conference play proving that ‘little things make a difference’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Logan Terness made 15 saves in Ohio State’s 4-3 win over Princeton last Saturday (photo: Ohio State Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What a good weekend it was for Big Ten hockey \u2013 and what an interesting season this is already proving to be.<\/p>\n

B1G teams went 6-2-1 in nonconference play last week, bringing the league\u2019s overall nonconference record to 36-14-4 on the season for the best win percentage (.704) among all conferences in nonleague play.<\/p>\n

Especially welcome were the sweeps by Ohio State and Penn State, and the number of goals each team pocketed. In two games against Princeton, the Buckeyes scored 10 goals to the Tigers\u2019 six and Ohio State halted a four-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good weekend getting back to our winning ways,\u201d said OSU coach Steve Rohlik. \u201cIt\u2019s always hard to win at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cam Thiesing and Scooter Brickey each had five points in the series, and Brickey is very quietly having his best collegiate season. A fifth-year player in his second season with the Buckeyes, Brickey\u2019s five goals in 11 games are two more than he scored in 40 with Ohio State last season and two more than he had in 59 games in his three seasons at Western Michigan prior to that.<\/p>\n

For the Nittany Lions, the wins were even more lopsided. Penn State beat Lindenwood 9-3 and 7-1, extending the Nittany Lions\u2019 win streak to three games.<\/p>\n

The sixteen total goals are two fewer for a single series than PSU\u2019s all-time high of 18. Rookie Aidan Fink had a goal and two assists in each of the games against Lindenwood. Fink leads all Nittany Lions in scoring (9-12\u201421) and is riding a five-game goal streak into Penn State\u2019s series against Minnesota this weekend.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the nonconference play was Wisconsin\u2019s split with visiting Alaska Anchorage and Michigan\u2019s win and tie on the road against St. Cloud, plus Notre Dame\u2019s single loss at home to Boston College.<\/p>\n

Most of this is positive. Some big wins, the best nonconference record in D-I hockey, some players having nice seasons.<\/p>\n

Little of this does anything to help the Big Ten\u2019s collective NCAA playoff chances a little over four months from now.<\/p>\n

Only two B1G teams are among the top 10 teams in the PairWise Rankings. Michigan State is No. 9, Wisconsin is No. 10, Minnesota is No. 12. Then Penn State (15), Michigan (16) and Notre Dame (18) are bubble teams with the Irish out at the moment.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s the end of November. Yes, this matters.<\/p>\n

Between now and the midseason holiday break, there is nothing but conference play for Big Ten teams. Nonconference games in the second half feature no team currently ranked higher in the PWR than Ohio State, the lowest-ranked B1G team at No. 24.<\/p>\n

Given all of that, there is little room for PWR movement for Big Ten teams between now and March. That likely means low seeds for B1G teams in the NCAA tournament and could result in as few as just two B1G teams playing their way into the NCAA tourney, depending on how teams near them in the PWR fare throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Thank goodness, then, that there\u2019s Big Ten hockey to be enjoyed for its own sake.<\/p>\n

The single Big Ten series between Michigan State and Minnesota Thanksgiving weekend revealed a bit about each team and proved highly entertaining. The Spartans tied the Golden Gophers 3-3 Friday and gained the extra point in the shootout. Minnesota took the Sunday game in overtime 6-5.<\/p>\n

The five points that the Gophers earned moved them from sixth to fourth place in the conference standings, although Minnesota remains nine points behind the first-place Spartans.<\/p>\n

In the OT win, the Gophers were two ahead of the Spartans with 10 minutes remaining in the third. Nash Nienhuis \u2013 another B1G player having a career season with six goals in 16 games, one shy of his total goals scored in 96 previous games in three season \u2013 pulled the Spartans to within one at 15:14 in the third and Joey Larson\u2019s eighth goal of the season tied the game for Michigan State in the final minute of regulation.<\/p>\n

It was freshman Jimmy Clark\u2019s fourth overall goal and his first game-winner at 3:58 that lifted the Gophers past the Spartans. It was a game in which the Gophers themselves at one point had to come from behind and in which they were uncharacteristically outshot by their opponent. Shots were 46-41 in Michigan State\u2019s favor at the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of a microcosm of our season,\u201d said Gophers coach Bob Motzko after the win. \u201cIt was the good, the bad and the ugly at times.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also a game in which the Spartans took seven penalties and allowed three power-play goals. \u201cFive-on-five, I really liked us,\u201d said Adam Nightingale. \u201cObviously, special teams didn\u2019t go our way tonight and we need to work on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loss snapped Michigan State\u2019s seven-game (5-0-2) unbeaten streak, with every point in that stretch earned against B1G opponents. The Spartans don\u2019t return to play until Dec. 8, which means that everyone in the league will be looking to gain ground on Michigan State this weekend.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin and Notre Dame are tied for second with 12 points each and each has two games in hand on Michigan State. Three points separate unranked Notre Dame from No. 13 Michigan as the Irish travel to Yost to take on the Wolverines. No. 6 Wisconsin hosts unranked Ohio State. The Buckeyes have no wins yet in six B1G contests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference between winning and losing as you see in college hockey is minute,\u201d said Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings. \u201cLittle things make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hastings called said the Buckeyes have \u201can aggressive-style mentality\u201d and that Rohlik \u201cdoes a really good job of getting them to try and force you into mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

After starting hot and spending a week at No. 1 in the USCHO.com Division I Men\u2019s Poll, the Badgers floundered a bit and ended a three-game losing streak with their 5-0 over Anchorage Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, we\u2019re still focusing a little bit on what we\u2019re trying to get done,\u201d said Hastings. \u201cOne, for us to be a little bit more aggressive at possessing some pucks and holding on to them and trying to spend a little bit more end-zone time with the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hastings knows that the last-place Buckeyes will be \u201chungry\u201d in the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom top to bottom, there isn\u2019t a soft weekend when you play in league play,\u201d said Hastings.<\/p>\n

No. 7 Minnesota travels to No. 19 Penn State to fill in the Big Ten schedule this weekend. In fourth place, the Golden Gophers are two points ahead of the Nittany Lions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a good weekend it was for Big Ten hockey \u2013 and what an interesting season this is already proving to be. B1G teams went 6-2-1 in nonconference play last week, bringing the league\u2019s overall nonconference record to 36-14-4 on the season for the best win percentage (.704) among all conferences in nonleague play. Especially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":143731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[802],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in Big Ten Hockey: With calendar soon flipping to December, conference play proving that 'little things make a difference' - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What a good weekend it was for Big Ten hockey \u2013 and what an interesting season this is already proving to be. B1G teams went 6-2-1 in nonconference play\" \/>\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\/143730\" \/>\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: With calendar soon flipping to December, conference play proving that 'little things make a difference' - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What a good weekend it was for Big Ten hockey \u2013 and what an interesting season this is already proving to be. B1G teams went 6-2-1 in nonconference play\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143730\" \/>\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=\"2023-11-29T20:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-29T03:55:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/terness_osu.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"713\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"473\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paula C. Weston\" \/>\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=\"Paula C. Weston\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/\",\"name\":\"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: With calendar soon flipping to December, conference play proving that 'little things make a difference' - College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/terness_osu.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-29T20:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-29T03:55:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7af35c92417e30bd0dde3637ed101757\"},\"description\":\"What a good weekend it was for Big Ten hockey \u2013 and what an interesting season this is already proving to be. B1G teams went 6-2-1 in nonconference play\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/terness_osu.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/terness_osu.jpg\",\"width\":713,\"height\":473,\"caption\":\"Logan Terness made 15 saves in Ohio State's 4-3 win over Princeton last Saturday (photo: Ohio State Athletics).\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: With calendar soon flipping to December, conference play proving that ‘little things make a difference’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.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:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7af35c92417e30bd0dde3637ed101757\",\"name\":\"Paula C. Weston\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/8ca927e9f51d403bfd423fbbb1331c95\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7ab9970d5ede2145c958e295a4d36781?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7ab9970d5ede2145c958e295a4d36781?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Paula C. Weston\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/author\/paula\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: With calendar soon flipping to December, conference play proving that 'little things make a difference' - College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"What a good weekend it was for Big Ten hockey \u2013 and what an interesting season this is already proving to be. B1G teams went 6-2-1 in nonconference play","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\/143730","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: With calendar soon flipping to December, conference play proving that 'little things make a difference' - College Hockey | USCHO.com","og_description":"What a good weekend it was for Big Ten hockey \u2013 and what an interesting season this is already proving to be. B1G teams went 6-2-1 in nonconference play","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143730","og_site_name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/","article_published_time":"2023-11-29T20:00:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-29T03:55:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":713,"height":473,"url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/terness_osu.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Paula C. Weston","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@USCHO","twitter_site":"@USCHO","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Paula C. Weston","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/","name":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: With calendar soon flipping to December, conference play proving that 'little things make a difference' - College Hockey | USCHO.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/terness_osu.jpg","datePublished":"2023-11-29T20:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-29T03:55:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7af35c92417e30bd0dde3637ed101757"},"description":"What a good weekend it was for Big Ten hockey \u2013 and what an interesting season this is already proving to be. B1G teams went 6-2-1 in nonconference play","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/terness_osu.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/terness_osu.jpg","width":713,"height":473,"caption":"Logan Terness made 15 saves in Ohio State's 4-3 win over Princeton last Saturday (photo: Ohio State Athletics)."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/29\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-calendar-soon-flipping-to-december-conference-play-proving-that-little-things-make-a-difference\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: With calendar soon flipping to December, conference play proving that ‘little things make a difference’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.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:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7af35c92417e30bd0dde3637ed101757","name":"Paula C. Weston","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/8ca927e9f51d403bfd423fbbb1331c95","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7ab9970d5ede2145c958e295a4d36781?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7ab9970d5ede2145c958e295a4d36781?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Paula C. Weston"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/author\/paula\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143732,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143730\/revisions\/143732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143730"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=143730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}