Last April at Xcel Energy Center, the Big Ten as a hockey conference had its coming out party. Three teams from the conference — Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan — advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four, with only Minnesota Duluth’s championship run preventing the Big Ten from hanging its first banner since the new league began play in 2014. Fast forward 10 months, and the Big Ten will be hard-pressed to repeat that feat. In fact, if the NCAA tournament started today, only one conference team – Ohio State — would make the 16-team field. The Buckeyes, ranked No. 3 in the PairWise Ratings (the formula that mimics what the NCAA uses to pick its tournament teams), are the class of the Big Ten, holding a commanding 11-point lead on second-place Michigan. After that, none of the other six Big Ten teams, including the Gophers, are in an NCAA…
Continue Reading: Ohio State dominates Big Ten men's hockey, as six other teams scramble
