The Big Ten Tournament bracket has No. 6 seed Wisconsin playing the No. 3 seed Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio on March 7. No. 2 seed Minnesota will play No. 7 seed Notre Dame, and No. 4 seed Michigan will play No. 5 seed Penn State.
Wisconsin men’s hockey is seeded second-to-last in the Big Ten rankings. The regular season across the NCAA ended last weekend with multiple Big Ten matchups across the conference.
Penn State played a tough two weekends while at No. 1 seed Michigan State on Feb. 21 and 22 and against No. 2 seed Minnesota last weekend. They took an overtime and a regulation win against Michigan State and split the series with Minnesota.
Michigan State and Minnesota finished as co-champions for the first time in Big Ten hockey history, but due to a tiebreaker Michigan State took the No. 1 seed.
Wisconsin will have a tough match-up versus Ohio State, having lost the last five games played against them. The Badgers’ statistics have slowly dropped throughout the season, and the team will have to play their best hockey this weekend.
Wisconsin is 7-16-1 in Big Ten play, facing a much stronger 14-9-1 Ohio State. The Badgers have 1,144 shots on goal this season but have only scored 100 goals for a 0.87 shot percentage, while their opponents have a .117 shot percentage.
Wisconsin’s power play could be a saving grace this series, having a 2.14 percentage compared to Ohio State’s .190 power play percentage. But the Badgers will need their top goal-scorers to step up and get the team on the board, with or without the man-advantage play.
The Badgers are likely to start senior goaltender Tommy Scarfone — who has a .896 save percentage — in net this weekend. He’ll be backed by sophomore goaltender William Gramme, who has a .878 save percentage.
Wisconsin plays a relatively clean game with little penalties, their power play and penalty kill are ranked average and they can shoot the puck at the net. Their biggest issue is scoring, and they will need to find that strength to face Ohio State.
The Big Ten Tournament starts with the first round in a best-of-three series with the No. 2 through No. 7 seed teams, giving the No. 1 seed a bye-week until the single-elimination semifinals.
If Wisconsin makes it out of the quarterfinals and Minnesota wins against Notre Dame as predicted, Wisconsin will play Michigan State. Minnesota would then play the winner of Michigan versus Penn State.
Wisconsin has a long road ahead of them to make the NCAA Frozen Four playoffs. They need to win the Big Ten Tournament to be included in the 16-team bracket due to falling out of the NCAA rankings. The six conference champions across the NCAA get an automatic bid, with the remaining spots going to the next 10 best teams as determined by the Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee.
Big Ten Tournament play starts on March 7 and will go on until March 22 when the single-elimination championship game is played at the home of the highest-seeded team.
Wisconsin’s games will start at 6 p.m. on Friday and 6 p.m. on Saturday at Value City Arena in Columbus. If a third game is needed, the Badgers and Buckeyes will face off again at 6 p.m. on Sunday in Columbus.
