Week 21 Hockey Release

OFFICIAL RELEASE• The 11th Big Ten Hockey Tournament begins this week with three quarterfinal series on campus sites in a best-of-three format. Winners advance to next week’s single-elimination semifinals. Michigan State, which claimed the No. 1 seed with its first regular season championship, has earned an opening round bye and will host a semifinal game March 16 in East Lansing. Broadcast coverage for the quarterfinals will be provided by FS2 and B1G+. The tournament pairings for this weekend:

No. 7 seed Ohio State (12-18-4) at No. 2 seed Wisconsin (25-9-2)
The teams split four games this season. Wisconsin outscored Ohio State, 9-1, during a December series in Madison before the Buckeyes returned the favor with a home sweep Feb. 16-17. Ohio State is 13-11 (.542) all-time in the Big Ten Tournament while Wisconsin is 6-14 (.300). The Badgers won the inaugural tournament in 2014.

No. 6 seed Penn State (15-16-3) at No. 3 seed Minnesota (20-9-5)
Minnesota claimed three of four games from Penn State this season, which included back-to-back shutouts on Feb. 9-10 in Minneapolis. The Gophers stand 12-9 (.571) all-time in the Big Ten postseason and Penn State owns a 14-11 mark (.560). With 14 wins, PSU’s Guy Gadowsky is the winningest coach in Big Ten Tournament history.

No. 5 seed Notre Dame (15-17-2) at No. 4 seed Michigan (18-13-3)
After Notre Dame posted a 6-1 win in the series opener, Michigan rebounded to win the next three games by a combined 8-2 count. This weekend’s series pairs the teams with the two best winning percentages in the Big Ten Tournament — Michigan sporting a .708 norm (17-7) and Notre Dame owning a .588 percentage (10-7).

• Forward Gavin Brindley of Michigan posted a four-point weekend to capture the Big Ten scoring title with 29 points in 23 conference games. The sophomore edged out teammates Rutger McGroarty (27 points) and Dylan Duke (26 points) for the honor. Brindley becomes the fifth Wolverine to lead the conference in scoring, joining Matty Beniers (2022), Cooper Marody (2018), Kyle Connor (2016) and Zach Hyman (2015), all of whom have played in the NHL.

• The Big Ten Conference will release its All-Big Ten teams, All-Freshman Team and individual award winners on Tuesday, March 19. Prior to the reveal, finalists will be announced for Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Goaltender of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Coach of the Year on Wednesday, March 13. Balloting is conducted by conference head coaches and a media panel. Details on award winners will be available on BigTen.org.