Recapping the first half of the top four Big Ten teams
A look at where the top four teams in the league stand after the first half of the year
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Tommy Miller’s overtime winner for Michigan State ended the first half of the Big Ten season on Sunday night, and there’s already less than two weeks until things get going again. In total, the Big Ten played 95% (38 out of 40) of its games and only one series was postponed because of Covid. If you’d told me at the beginning of November that they’d pull it off with such success, I would not have believed you.
I also wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me Miller was a defenseman who’d only scored four goals in his 115 career games for the Spartans until this one — what a freakin’ move.
We’ll talk more about Miller and the Spartans tomorrow when we look at the bottom half of the Big Ten. Today, it’s the top four teams, so let’s take a look at where Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona State and Notre Dame stand after the first half.
Minnesota (8-0, 24 points)
Let’s start with the most astounding stat of them all: Minnesota has yet to trail in a game this year. The Gophers struck first every time in their undefeated first half, and this looks like a team that’s poised to be a serious contender. The defense is rock-solid and hasn’t given up more than two goals in a game, Jack Lafontaine has been outstanding in net, and the forwards picked up where they left off last year.
Lafontaine was good to end last year, too, so I’m not quite counting him as a breakout player for Minnesota, but his performance shouldn’t go unmentioned. His .965 save percentage is second in the nation, behind Justin Evenson at Army who’s only played one game. Lafontaine’s 1.00 GAA leads the nation, and he’s tied for the lead in shutouts with two. Bob Motzko keeps saying he didn’t intend to play Lafontaine in all eight games, but they just couldn’t take him out of the net with how good he’s been.
Breakout player(s): Pretty much everyone has been impressive, but I’ll name Ben Meyers here — if it’s possible to be a breakout player after putting up 26 points as a freshman. Regardless, Meyers has been really good for the Gophers and is tied for the team lead with nine points (4G, 5A). Every time I watched Minnesota, Meyers stood out throughout the game. On defense, Brock Faber just has one goal, but he’s looked comfortable and poised, particularly for an 18-year-old freshman. His pairing with Ryan Johnson is always a treat to watch.
Player(s) I expected more from: Again, everyone has been pretty impressive, so naming someone here feels a little like I’m short-changing them. Sammy Walker is someone who hasn’t quite put up the points that would be expected after he led the team with 30 last year, so he could fit here. His speed pops in every game, and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before the points really start coming — and it’s not like five points in eight games is exactly bad, either.
Wisconsin (5-5, 16 points)
After a strong start that included a road sweep at Notre Dame and two commanding wins over Penn State, the Badgers were hit with Covid issues and lost Ty Pelton-Byce, Tarek Baker, Roman Ahcan and Dominick Mersch to contact tracing for their final four games. Wisconsin went 1-3 in that stretch and its final series, which was supposed to be at Michigan State, was postponed because of another positive test inside the Badgers’ program.
Dylan Holloway had a goal in each game against the Fighting Irish before heading out to Alberta for Canada’s world junior evaluation camp, and the four losses mentioned above certainly didn’t help down the stretch. It’s a little tricky to get a read on where Wisconsin is right now — when they’ve been healthy, they’ve been really good. The goaltending appears to be much improved, and I’m excited to see what a healthy, complete team looks like in the second half. Hopefully they’ll have more than the two games they had with everyone available in the first half.
Breakout player(s): Brock Caufield came back for his junior year as a whole new player — and even scored his first goal of the year before his brother Cole did. Todd Milewski has all the details on how Brock got his game in the shape it is now, and it’s certainly been fun to watch. He’s already more than doubled his output from last year with seven points, and as the Badgers dealt with a short bench because of their Covid issues, he was able to step up in a major way. I’ve been really impressed. Linus Weissbach has also been excellent. I’ve always felt like he’s flown under the radar, but he’s starting to get some (well-deserved) attention.
Player(s) I expected more from: This is a tricky category given all the players that missed time. I would’ve loved to see if Holloway kept his hot start going, and the four who were out due to contact tracing are all key pieces. For Wisconsin, I’ll say that I’m hoping to see big things from these five players when they’re all back, healthy and ready to go.
Arizona State (4-6-2, 16 points*)
*Yes, the Sun Devils are technically a non-conference opponent, and their games don’t count in the standings. But for our purposes, to see where they stack up against the rest of their opponents, I gave them a point for every game that went to overtime, whether it ended in a tie or they lost. It’s a rough estimation, but it puts them in third place with 16 points and four league wins.
After a 0-3-1 start to the year, Arizona State found its offense in a sweep over Wisconsin and didn’t look back. The Sun Devils scored 11 goals in that series — and they’d scored just two in the previous four games. An all-road slate was destined to be challenging, but as the weeks went on, they seemed to find their stride. They lost the second game to Notre Dame on a last-second goal and played four incredibly close games down the stretch against Penn State and Ohio State. If they played Michigan right now, I don’t think it would go the way it did in November.
Freshman Matthew Kopperud is tied for the national lead in both points (13) and goals with (7) and has been a major bright spot. The goaltending, which has been split between Evan Debrouwer and Cole Brady, probably hasn’t been quite where they’d want it to be so far, but Debrouwer has looked more and more settled as the weeks have gone on.
Breakout player(s): Kopperud has to get the honors here. He’s tied with Jordan Kawaguchi and Shane Pinto for the national lead in points as a freshman and has been impressive throughout the first half. There’s not much else I can say that hasn’t already been said about him, but read Craig Morgan and Greg Cameron for more.
Player(s) I expected more from: It has to be Johnny Walker, though it’s not really his fault that he missed the last 10 games. Walker, who came into the season with big expectations after scoring 60 goals in his three prior years, suffered a lower-body injury in the second game against Michigan and hasn’t played since. Arizona State coach Greg Powers kept referring to him as day-to-day, so I’m hopeful we’ll see Walker back on the ice in January. He looked dangerous in his one healthy game and would be a boost to an already solid Sun Devil offense.
Notre Dame (4-5-1, 12 points)
The Fighting Irish had an uncharacteristically uneven first half of the year, opening with getting swept at home by Wisconsin before going on the road and sweeping Michigan. They seemed to find their footing in that series against the Wolverines, going 4-1 through the middle part of the schedule, and then finished 0-2-1 in their last three.
The goaltending, which is historically a calling card of Notre Dame with Cale Morris, has been inconsistent. Ryan Bischel and Dylan St. Cyr have played six games each and, at various times, have looked like either the second coming of Morris or like bottom-of-the-pack netminders. Bischel has a slight edge in save percentage and GAA, but it’s close — 2.58 GAA and .903 save percentage against 2.82 and .887 for St. Cyr.
Breakout player(s): Every time I looked at a box score or watched a Notre Dame game, junior defenseman Nick Leivermann stood out. A seventh-round pick by the Avalanche in 2017, Leivermann is third on the team with seven points and had an eye-popping 10 shots against the Spartans on Sunday. He leads all Big Ten defensemen with an average game score of 0.93 — the next closest is Cam York at 0.68.
Player(s) I expected more from: Jake Pivonka has just three points in 10 games. He didn’t put up many points last year as a freshman — four goals and seven assists for 11 total — but I expected him to take a step this year. I’ll be interested to see if he takes that step in the second half. Spencer Stastney could go here, too. After putting up 20 points last year, he has just four so far. He’s someone I always like to watch and definitely could be producing more for the Fighting Irish from the blueline.
I originally planned to talk about all eight teams here, but then I wrote 1,400 words on just these four and decided to spare you 2,800+ words all at once. The other four are coming tomorrow, so stay tuned for that! Make sure you subscribe so you get it in your inbox right away.