2024 big ten hockey tournament

ESSENTIALS

OVERVIEW 

For the third straight year, Michigan is playing for the Big Ten Hockey Tournament championship. The last two went pretty well, so why not do it a third time? In 2022 Michigan rolled into the Twin Cities and scored four goals in the first half of the game before allowing two late goals with the net empty that briefly made it close before ultimately holding on to win. Last year they rematched with Minnesota and played a back-and-forth game that was eventually won with Dylan Duke’s third period goal. Like the last two years, Michigan is playing the B1G Regular Season Champions in the title round, but this year that champion is a new team, the Michigan State Spartans. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: the preview]

3/16/2024 - Michigan 2, Minnesota 1 - 21-13-3 (10-10-2-2 B1G) 

Entering this weekend, Michigan Hockey had held a third period lead against an opponent and not won the game in regulation eight different times, out of 36 total games. That doesn't include games that were tied in the third, only to see the opponent edge past the Wolverines late, or the matchup against Michigan State in January that Michigan led 4-1 in the second period, because they blew the entire lead in the second period (four straight goals against in the span of ~seven minutes). To say the Maize & Blue have had trouble finishing games off in the third period is an understatement. It's been the defining theme of this season. 

Poor defense has also been a theme too often. Michigan is only middle of the pack in goals against nationally but considering that they are a team ranked in the tournament picture, it isn't good. Michigan is tied for the most goals against per game among the 16 teams currently in the tournament picture. They have a tremendous offense, top five in goals per game scored with a historically great power play, but the other half of the game they have struggled with often this season. Michigan typically blows leads in the third period because they are not a good team at keeping pucks out of the net, period. 

Against Minnesota in particular, it's been a major problem. Coming into Saturday night, three of those eight third period blown leads came at the hands of Minnesota. Those three games constituted three of the four games that Michigan played against Minnesota this season. They led the first game 3-1 in the second before conceding a goal with one second left in the 2nd period and then two in the third. They led the second game 2-1 entering the third period and ended up having to win in a shootout. And then two weeks back, a backup-goalie meltdown saw Michigan need overtime to win a game that they led 3-0, 4-1, and 5-4, all in the third period. It's been a bit of a broken record of the same problems and especially in this matchup, the same opponent. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: What changed]

CLICK HERE for game Recap from Kristy McNeil and other pertinent information and HERE for current Pairwise Rankings.

Setting The Stage:  Michigan (20-13-3-0) and Minnesota (22-9-5) are set to renew their rivalry as they battle for the right to play in next week's Big Ten Tournament Championship Game against Michigan State. This will be the 3rd year in a row that Michigan has played a Tournament game at Mariucci, with the previous two both being victories for the Big Ten Tournament Championship. Tonight is the 5th meeting of the season between the Wolverines and Gophers. Michigan won 3-2 at Yost in a shootout on November 11th and won again on March 2nd, taking a thrilling 6-5 overtime victory in the last game of the regular season. Michigan advanced to this game by defeating Notre Dame in the Big Ten Quarterfinals 5-4 and 4-3 last weekend at Yost. Minnesota defeated Penn State 5-1 and 3-2 in overtime in Minneapolis last weekend.

The Battle: In a complete contrast to the game these two teams played two weeks ago, where wide-open hockey was the order of the day, this was a classic playoff game where every inch of ice was contested from the drop of the puck to the final horn. This game was won by the Wolverines in the trenches, where they consistently beat the Gophers in puck battles in both the offensive and defensive ends of the ice. This section is commonly taken up with the exploits of Brindley, McGroarty, Hughes and Casey after Michigan victories but tonight the spotlight is on players like Draper, Estapa, Eernisse, and Warren who hounded the puck all night and generated a lot of offensive plays on transition from their stellar defensive work.

Kienan Draper opened the scoring just over three minutes into the 1st period on a rebound from a shot by Chase Pletzke. It's worth noting that the assist Pletzke received on that play was his first since the 2020-21 season. The Wolverines appeared to extend the lead just over three minutes later when Luca Fantilli scored from the front of the net after being set up by Phillippe Lapointe, but Minnesota challenged the goal and the play was ruled offside. Michigan did extend the lead to 2-0 late in the 2nd period after Gavin Brindley took a long pass from Marshall Warren and put a laser over Justin Close's right shoulder just under the bar. Rutger McGroarty started the play retrieving a loose puck in his own end and making a cross ice pass to Warren.

Minnesota had a couple of good looks in the 3rd, but Barczewski was up to the challenge until Jimmy Snuggerud fired a wrist shot by him with 1:29 left in the 3rd while the goalie was pulled for an extra attacker. Barczewski was screened on the shot by the Gophers' Oliver Moore and never saw the shot. Although Minnesota had the puck on the perimeter after they pulled the goalie again with less than a minute left, Michigan didn't allow them to penetrate the house and the exclamation mark on the great team defensive effort happened when T.J. Hughes blocked a shot near the end of the game.

[AFTER THE JUMP: More Winning Content]