The #7 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes had a rough series on Friday and Saturday against the #5 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers. On Friday, they lost 4-1, and on Saturday, they lost 6-3. This drops the Buckeyes to 20-10-2 on the year and puts the pressure on them as they host that team up north this coming weekend in the home and regular -eason finale series.
Minnesota took three of four of the games between them and Ohio State this 2024-2025 hockey season. After the Bucks won 5-1 at home on January 10th, it’s been all Minnesota since, with them winning the next three games against Ohio State by a combined score of 16-5.
Minnesota is easily one of the top four teams in college hockey history, and they play like it. They’re now in lone possession of first place in the Big Ten standings. This says a lot, as the conference is the class of college hockey this season, with five of its seven teams being ranked in the top 20, and four of them being in the top 10.
The Buckeyes' home finale this Friday and Saturday against that team up north will have all the pressures rivalries bring to the table and then some. It’s a home series against your rivals, it is the last home series for this senior class.
It will have a huge impact on the Big Ten standings and tournament seedings, it will have a huge impact on the NCAA tournament for Ohio State, and it is once again another face-off in the biggest rivalry out there. Football may be king, but these schools compete against each other in blood drives and recycling, so it will be intense in hockey too.
Ohio State beat them on January 3rd at Wrigley Field in a Frozen Confines game 4-3. They then took them to overtime two days later in Ann Arbor, where they lost 3-2. Ohio State is 20-10-2, while the hockey team up north is 17-12-2. As their records and previous two games indicate, these two teams are very close to each other, and I expect them to play like it again this weekend.
They could easily face each other again in the postseason, both at the Big Ten and NCAA levels, but expect them to do nothing less than leave it all on the ice every time they do. Go Bucks, beat TTUN!