Hockey Bucks Look to Turn Road Games into Conference Points

Hello again, hockey fans. Welcome to your weekly puck previews. We’re entering the final month of the men’s hockey season. The Buckeyes’ postseason dreams depend on the team winning big down the stretch. They begin their run at Michigan State.

The women’s regular season wraps up this week. Ohio State has one last chance to improve its conference playoff seeding. The Buckeye women take on North Dakota on the road. Without further ado, here’s the lowdown on all the action.

No. 14 Buckeye Men at Michigan State

Ohio State comes into this week’s series fresh off a high-scoring split with No. 5 Minnesota. Now the Bucks face the first of three consecutive match ups against Michigan teams. First up is Michigan State.

This has been a difficult season for the Spartans overall. They have just six victories on the year. Nationally they rank No. 47 in offense, No. 57 in defense, No. 46 on the power play, and No. 57 on the penalty kill. (That’s out of 60 total D-I teams.) 

But, if we’ve learned anything this season it’s that, while the Buckeyes are capable of defeating any given team on any given night, they are also capable of losing to pretty much any team too. Michigan State isn’t quite the doormat the statistics would lead you to believe. If Ohio State isn’t ready for a battle when the puck drops this series could easily go pear-shaped. 

The Spartans have played several tight games against tough teams this season. They were within a single goal in the final period of contests with current No. 2 Denver, No. 5 Minnesota, and No. 12/13 North Dakota. Though they fell short in four of those games, the Spartans did go 1-0-1 against the Fighting Hawks. 

MSU’s generally modest offense is enjoying a February surge. Sparty is averaging 3.50 goals per game this month. Sophomore Mason Appleton leads the team in goals (10), power play goals (7), and points (23). Freshman Taro Hirose is another player to watch. He has 20 points to his credit, including a pair of shorthanded tallies.

While junior goaltender Ed Minney has seen the bulk of the starts for Michigan State this year, Ohio State may get a look at John Lethemon. The freshman has seen action in each of the Spartans last four games. He made 23 saves against Michigan in his last outing to claim his first collegiate victory.

I think the Buckeyes will get the job done this week. However I suspect that at least one game is going to go down to the wire and give you a heart attack. Since the formation of the Big Ten these teams have met 13 times. Seven of those tilts have gone to overtime.

Noteworthy

• Ohio State will be without the services of key defender Josh Healey this week as he serves his two game suspension.
• The Buckeyes are 9-2-3 in road games this season.
• Mason Jobst (14-26--40) has points in 14 consecutive games and is tied for No. 8 among the NCAA’s points leaders.
• Nick Schilkey’s 22 goals are the third most scored by any player in the NCAA.
• Schilkey also ranks near the top (tied for No. 2) of the national list of power play goal scorers with 12 man-advantages tallies. 

Postseason Outlook

With the Minnesota split the Bucks retain a very slight hope of both finishing in one of the Big Ten’s top two spots and nabbing an at large bid to the NCAA tournament. In order for that to happen they just about need to win out. They also need a couple teams ahead of them to falter down the stretch.

Seven wins in their final eight games would give the Buckeyes 12 victories and 38 points in the Big Ten. Historically those numbers are enough to put the team in the mix for a top spot in the B1G and a first round conference tourney bye. But they would still need Wisconsin and Penn State to stumble a bit in these final weeks.

As far as the NCAA tourney goes, any loss at this point pretty much kills Ohio State in the PairWise. The Bucks are currently tied for No. 14. They probably need to be No. 12 or 13 to have any realistic chance at an at-large bid. Their remaining games are almost all against teams in the bottom third of the rankings. Those victories won't improve OSU's position on their own merit. Even if the Buckeyes do win out, they will still need help to move up. 

Buckeye Women at North Dakota

Ohio State’s battle for positioning with St. Cloud State and Bemidji State still doesn’t have a clear victor. As the teams enter the final series of the regular season just four points separate the fifth place Huskies from the seventh place Beavers. The Buckeyes are wedged in the middle, a point back of St. Cloud.

The winner of this battle travels to unranked, modest scoring North Dakota for the first round of the conference playoffs. The losers get road series at conference and national powers No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth and No. 4 Minnesota. So a lot is riding on this week’s results. The Buckeyes skate their ultimate series at - interesting plot twist - North Dakota. 

The Bucks and Fighting Hawks are similar teams. Both are good defensively. Neither lights up the scoreboard, though North Dakota has deeper scoring and a better power play. 

OSU and North Dakota met back in December with the Buckeyes taking four of the series’ six available points. The teams tied 1-1 in the opener before the Hawks took the shootout win. Ohio State claimed victory in the second game, 2-1.

Leading scorer Maddy Field was the lone Buckeye lamplighter in the tie. Freshmen Sam Bouley and Rebecca Freiburger powered the Bucks’ win. Goalie Kassidy Sauve was key in the series, as always, facing two shots for every one the North Dakota netminder saw. 

The first goal this week might be the most important one. North Dakota is undefeated this season (13-0-3) when scoring first and winless (0-13-3) when it coughs up the first tally. I think Ohio State pulls some points out of this series. I just don't know whether it will be enough to top St. Cloud and Bemidji.