Week 18 Hockey Release

Photo by Brad Rempel / courtesy of Minnesota Athletics

OFFICIAL RELEASE

• Big Ten Hockey enters the homestretch with four weekends left in the regular season. No. 2/2 Michigan will host No. 6/7 Penn State in Ann Arbor—the Nittany Lions swept two games in their last visit to Yost Ice Arena during the 2025 Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals. Saturday’s contest will air on the Big Ten Network. Two teams coming off sweeps meet in Columbus as No. 13/12 Wisconsin takes on Ohio State. The Badgers and Buckeyes split a November series in Madison. Saturday’s series finale will be the second game of a BTN doubleheader. Minnesota travels to Notre Dame with both sides looking to build momentum in the final weeks of the season. The Gophers allowed just one goal to the Irish in a November series held in Minneapolis. This weekend’s games will stream on Peacock. No. 1/1 Michigan State has a bye week.

• This past weekend saw a change to the Big Ten leaderboard as Michigan State moved a point ahead of Michigan for first place. Playing for the 355th and 356th time, college hockey’s most-played rivalry produced its first No. 1 versus No. 2 scenario. Michigan claimed a 4-3 overtime win in Ann Arbor before Michigan State rebounded with a 5-2 win Saturday to capture the Iron D Trophy in Detroit. The sellout crowd of 19,515 at Little Caesars Arena was the largest attended indoor game in the NCAA this season. On Monday, the Spartans claimed the top spot in both national polls, ending Michigan’s 10-week reign as the consensus No. 1 team. The top-two women’s teams in the country also met last week, resulting in a split between No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 2 Ohio State in Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) action.

• The latest NCAA Power Index (NPI) includes four Big Ten programs in the top 16—Michigan State (first), Michigan (second), Penn State (fifth) and Wisconsin (14th). The NPI is a formula used to determine at-large berths for the 16-team NCAA Tournament field.

• Penn State freshman goaltender Josh Fleming was recently named Co-Rookie of the Month by the Hockey Commissioners Association (HCA). Fleming helped the Nittany Lions to a 7-3 record in January along with a Big Ten-best .952 save percentage and a 1.62 goals-against average. Fleming is the sixth player from the Big Ten to win a HCA monthly award in 2025-26, joining teammate JJ Wiebusch (Co-Forward, October) along with Michigan’s Ben Robertson (Co-Defender, October), Will Horcoff (Forward, November) and Jack Ivankovic (Goalie, December) and Michigan State’s Anthony Romani (Rookie, December).

• Nine Big Ten-affiliated players will begin their Winter Olympic journeys this week in Milan, Italy. Big Ten alumni will skate for the United States, Finland, Germany and Italy. In addition, Big Ten linesman Jake Davis has been assigned as a game official. Big Ten schools have produced 171 Olympic selections who have represented 11 different countries over 22 Winter Olympiads.