Week five is officially in the books. The Big Ten mostly stayed out of conference, save for Michigan and Penn State playing each other to a split in Hockey Valley. In non-conference play, the Big Ten shined. With an 8-2 record, the conference made a strong statement that they can compete out of conference this year. The Big Ten’s lone defeats of the weekend were Wisconsin dropping a 6-3 home decision to a decent Saint Lawrence team, and Notre Dame falling 6-4 to Nebraska Omaha on Thursday.
Hockey season is still very young. These rankings are obviously going to move around, especially with how tough the Big Ten gets during conference season. Hopefully Michigan stays planted right where they are at though.
1. Minnesota
Minnesota shook off an inconsistent start to their season with a win over Clarkson, who is a pretty solid hockey team. They’re already 1-1 in conference play, but I think they’re playing the best hockey in the conference right now after outscoring Clarkson 5-2 at home. The play between the pipes needs to remain solid. The Gophers definitely have the depth to make a run at the Big Ten title, but they have to be aspiring for more.
2. Ohio State
The Buckeyes are off to a surprising 5-1-2 start to the season and just swept Robert Morris in a home-home series. Robert Morris is not off to a great start, but the Buckeyes did what good teams do: they handled a team they were supposed to beat and were rather impressive doing so.
3. Wisconsin
Wisconsin is my pick to win the Big Ten this year. Like Minnesota, they have the talent to compete with anyone in the nation on any given weekend. I’d like to see more consistency before I go ahead and crown them. They’re sitting at number three right now but I think as the season comes together, Wisconsin could put together a really special year in Madison.
4. Michigan State
MSU has looked a million times better with new leadership behind the bench. At 4-2, the Spartans are already just three wins away from matching their win-total from a dismal 2016-17 campaign. MSU is getting ready for a trip up to Minnesota with momentum following a home sweep of former CCHA rival Lake Superior (who is very bad). A split in Minnesota would be huge for an upstart MSU squad. A sweep and we might be talking about these guys being for real this year.
5. Notre Dame
Notre Dame was absolutely gutted in the offseason, losing a ton of talent to professional contracts. Had those guys stuck around, Notre Dame had what could have been the deepest team in the country. However, ND is still loaded and they have shown flashes of being a great team. Inconsistency has killed them so far in a brutal non-conference slate. I think we’ll find out what kind of team we really have here when conference play starts to pick up.
6. Penn State
Penn State is off to a less-than stellar start, after flying out of the gates last year. Their streak of inconsistency continued with a home split to Michigan, another inconsistent team in the Big Ten. It was a huge task to ask them to repeat the early success they had last season, but I was definitely not expecting this. Penn State needs to get it together or they could be struggling to tread water in a very competitive conference.
7. Michigan
To be fair to Michigan, I could see them anywhere at 5-7 in these rankings right now. I’m interested to see what they do moving forward in year one without Red Berenson behind the bench. 4-2 is very respectable for a talented team that has struggled to put it all together in recent years. Their next four games are against Ferris State and Minnesota. After the next two weeks, I think we’ll have a much better idea of what this team looks like moving forward.
