• The 2020 Big Ten Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament opens Friday with three best-of-three quarterfinal series at campus sites. The seventh edition of the tournament will continue to feature a three-weekend format for the quarterfinals, with all games taking place on the campus of the higher-seeded teams.
• The tournament begins March 6-8 as No. 2 seed Ohio State will host No. 7 seed Wisconsin, No. 3 seed Michigan will entertain No. 6 seed Michigan State and No. 4 seed Minnesota will host No. 5 seed Notre Dame. The Wolverines, Golden Gophers and Buckeyes all tied for second place in the final standings, but Ohio State claimed the No. 2 seed due to the Buckeyes and Wolverines having more conference victories than the Gophers, as well as Ohio State’s 3-1-0 record against Michigan this season.
• Penn State claimed its first Big Ten Championship and, as the top-seeded team, the Nittany Lions will have a bye to the single-elimination semifinals, which are scheduled for the weekend of March 14-15. The field will be re-seeded following the quarterfinals, as the highest-seeded team advancing from the quarterfinals will host the second-highest advancing seed, while the lowest-seeded advancing team will play at Penn State.
• The highest-seeded team remaining after the semifinals will host the championship game the weekend of March 21-22. Notre Dame has won the last two Big Ten Tournaments, defeating Penn State, 3-2, in last year’s final.
• The winner of the Big Ten Tournament receives an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship, which culminates at the NCAA Frozen Four, April 9-11 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
• Over the first six years of the Big Ten Tournament, five different schools have claimed the tournament title:
2014 – Wisconsin (No. 2 seed)
2015 – Minnesota (No. 1)
2016 – Michigan (No. 2)
2017 – Penn State (No. 4)
2018 – Notre Dame (No. 1)
2019 – Notre Dame (No. 2)
• Penn State became the fourth different team win the Big Ten Championship over the past four years and fourth team overall since the Big Ten launched conference play in 2013-14:
Minnesota – 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
Notre Dame – 2018
Ohio State – 2019
Penn State – 2020
• A trio of Big Ten squads continue to be ranked in the USCHO.com and/or USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls this week. Penn State leads conference teams in both polls at No. 8/7, followed by Ohio State at No. 11/11 and No. 19/– Minnesota. Michigan is first among other teams receiving votes in the USCHO.com poll, with Notre Dame and Michigan State also receiving votes. The Golden Gophers and Wolverines are among teams receiving votes in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll.
• For the third time in conference history, every Big Ten team has reached 12 overall victories on the season, with every squad posting at least 14 wins.
• With 24 points in Big Ten games, Wisconsin freshman forward Cole Caufield earned the conference scoring title. Caufield paced all Big Ten players with 11 goals in conference play and added 13 assists. Caufield is the first Badger to claim the Big Ten scoring title since the accolade’s inception in 2015.
• Three Big Ten goalies continue to be among the top 10 nationally in save percentage this season. Michigan State’s John Lethemon is fifth nationally with a .937 save percentage, followed by Michigan’s Strauss Mann (6th, .936) and Ohio State’s Tommy Nappier (9th, .929). The above trio of goalies also are among the top 20 nationally in goals against average: Mann (8th, 2.00), Nappier (12th, 2.08) and Lethemon (17th, 2.11).
• Notre Dame’s Cal Burke and Ohio State’s Tanner Laczynski were named finalists for the 2019-20 Senior CLASS Award. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award honors the attributes of senior students in four areas: community, classroom, character and com¬petition. To be eligible for the award, student-athletes must be classified as NCAA Division I seniors. The finalists were chosen by national media from the list of candidates announced in the fall.
• Nine standouts representing five Big Ten programs are among the 79 nominees for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, given annually to the top NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey player in the nation. The list of nominees includes Michigan State’s Patrick Khodorenko, Notre Dame’s Cale Morris, Ohio State’s Tanner Laczynski and Tommy Nappier, Penn State’s Cole Hults and Peyton Jones, and Wisconsin’s Cole Caufield, Wyatt Kalynuk and Linus Weissbach. The Hobey Baker Memorial Award will be presented to the winner on April 10 during the NCAA Frozen Four in Detroit.
