Michigan State hockey prepares for Ohio State Big Ten Tournament semifinals

Michigan State hockey will be taking on Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament this weekend. It’s time to learn a bit about this Buckeye team.

It was two weeks ago that No. 4 ranked Michigan State hockey (22-9-3) won its first Big Ten regular season title in school history. The Spartans defeated the Wisconsin Badgers to win the title. That allowed the Spartans to rest last week during the first round of the conference tournament. After an unexpected upset, the Spartans are set up to play the Ohio State Buckeyes (14-19-4).

Before that matchup on Saturday night, let’s look at back at the Buckeyes’ season and some players to look out for in the semifinal matchup.

Ohio State’s season in review

To say that Ohio State struggled in the regular season, would be an understatement. The Buckeyes finished last in the Big Ten by winning only three conference games. The team finished with 15 points in conference play, this was 12 behind the sixth-place Penn State Nittany Lions. Outside of conference play, though, the team played well, winning 11 of those games. While the Buckeyes have struggled against conference competition, they have taken conference wins from very good teams in the regular season (Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame). All of this information makes it all the more impressive that this team was able to pull together and beat Wisconsin twice at home. That alone shows that Michigan State hockey needs to take this team seriously.

Players to watch

• Scooter Brickey, Defenseman, Senior

Scooter Brickey has easily been the best goal-scorer for the Buckeyes this year. That is not something you typically say about a defenseman. He leads the team with 13 goals and has been a force on the Buckeye powerplay. He is a Michigan native who is originally from Mount Clemens. This is his fifth season in the NCAA, and his second with Ohio State. Previously, Brickey played in Kalamazoo with the Western Michigan Broncos. Prior to this season, he has never been an amazing goal-scorer, but he could get some points up. It goes without saying that some of the disparity here may just be that he is a grown man playing with people much younger. Whatever the case, Brickey is going to try to extend his college career as much as he can by extending this run.

• Logan Terness, Goalie, Junior

While Logan Terness has not been a world-beater in goal for the Buckeyes this year, he has been hot recently. In his last five games, Terness has won four of them and posted at least a .933 save percentage in all of those wins. His last two wins were against Wisconsin in the quarterfinals for the Big Ten Tournament. He’s clearly getting hot at the right time. If he continues his hot streak this could be big trouble for the Spartans. He was also in net on the night that the Spartans lost to the Buckeyes. On that night Terness let in two goals and posted a .944 save percentage in the 6-2 victory. The Spartans will be looking to bounce back though against the UConn transfer to advance to their first Big Ten Tournament title game.

Final thoughts

These players will be the difference on Saturday night against the Spartans. If they are on, Michigan State hockey will be in for a good fight. This team is very beatable though. If the Spartans can remember to play their game and execute, there is no reason we should move on to the championship game. The winner of this game will take on the winner of Michigan and Minnesota who play on Saturday night in Minneapolis. We will have to see what happens for the Spartans when the puck drops on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. ET at Munn Ice Arena. The game will be airing on Big Ten Network.