Buckeyes Burned By Badgers, Host Them Again In Playoffs

Ohio State men’s hockey took one out of six possible points in its home series against last-place Wisconsin and blew a chance to win its second straight Big Ten regular season title.

Instead, the No. 10 Buckeyes (18-11-5, 11-9-4-1 Big Ten) earned the No. 2 seed and will host a best-of-three quarterfinal series at Value City Arena on March 6, 7, and if needed, 8. All games are 7 p.m.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the same opponent that beat them 3-2 on Friday and overcame a three-goal deficit for a 3-3 tie and ultimately a 3-on-3 overtime win on Saturday returns to Columbus for the playoffs.

Yes, Wisconsin (14-18-2, 7-15-2-2) is eager to take it to the Buckeyes again after two solid performances.

“I’m sure  (the Badgers) feel good about their game and I know our guys right now, we just talked about, we just we just want to get back at work on Monday,” OSU coach Steve Rohlik said. “We just want to have the best week of practices here. And I think if we do that, we’re going to give ourselves a better chance.”

The Buckeyes entered the UW series tied for second with Minnesota at 37 points, four behind idle Penn State, who owned the tiebreaker against each team if they all finished at 41 points.

OSU had the tiebreaker over the Golden Gophers, so all the Buckeyes had to do to win the title was match Minnesota if each surpassed 41 points.

As it turned out, Minnesota only took one point in their series vs. Michigan so the Buckeyes, Gophers and Wolverines all finished at 38.  OSU was awarded the second seed by virtue of a 3-1-0 season mark vs. the Wolverines.

Wisconsin is peaking at the right time, going 4-1-1 in the past six games, all against top-10 opponents.

The Badgers have 12 NHL draft picks, including first-round selections Alex Turcotte (2019 fifth overall to the Los Angeles Kings), Cole Caufield (2019, 15th, Montreal Canadiens) and K’Andre Miller (2018, 22nd, New York Rangers).

Ohio State has five NHL draftees with the highest being freshman defenseman Layton Ahac (2019, 86th, Vegas Golden Knights).

The two programs do not like each, and with the stakes so high, it will be very entertaining.

“I think they gotta watch out what’s coming from us,” OSU freshman Tate Singleton said. “I mean, after the game, they’re chirping, and I think we’re just going to come in and we’re going to play our game and they better watch out.”

The Buckeyes remain 10th in the PairWise rankings but losing a playoff series to Wisconsin  would damage their chances to make a fourth straight NCAA tournament.

Badgers Bite Buckeyes

Wisconsin took the opener on a power-play goal by Max Zimmer with 5:09 left in regulation in a see-saw game witnessed by 6,229.

Senior Tanner Laczynski put the Buckeyes ahead 1-0 at 1:43 of the second period with assists to junior Austin Pooley and freshman defenseman Layton Ahac.

The Badgers responded at 6:15 of the second on a goal by Turcotte.  Brock Caufield put Wisconsin up 2-1 five minutes later before senior captain Ronnie Hein tied it with 1:06 remaining in the second period with his seventh goal.

He backhanded a shot by senior Carson Meyer. Freshman Jaedon Leslie had the secondary assist.

Nappier made 35 saves. Daniel Lebedeff stopped 35 shots for the Badgers.

“We’re obviously disappointed,” Rohlik said. “We have to be better. It’s the time of year where we have to be consistent and we didn’t do that today.”

The Buckeyes jumped to a 3-0 lead in the rematch on goals from Singleton, Meyer and Laczynski  before Wisconsin scored three straight, the last by Tyler Inamoto with 3:09 left in regulation before a turnout of 9,152 on Senior Night.  Ty Pelton-Byce scored the winner during the 3-on-3.