2021–22 Big Ten Conference ice hockey season explained

Color:	color:white; background:#0088CE;
Color Text:	white
Season:	2021–22
Season:	2021–22
Conference:	Big Ten Conference
Shortconference:	Big Ten Conference
Division:	Division I
Sport:	ice hockey
Sportname:	ice hockey
Pixels:	225 px
Duration:	October 2, 2021– April 7, 2022
No Of Teams:	7
Draft:
Top Pick:	David Gucciardi
Picked By:	Washington Capitals
Regular Season:
Season Champs:	Minnesota
Mvp:	Ben Meyers
Mvp Link:	Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Player of the Year
Top Scorer:	Matty Beniers
Tournament:
Tournament Champs:	Michigan
Tournament Place:	Minnesota
Mvp2:	Erik Portillo
Mvp Link2:	Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament Most Outstanding Player
Top Scorer2:	Nick Blankenburg (6)
Ncaa:
Bids:	3
Conf Rec:	5–3
Best:	National semifinal
Ncaa Team:	Michigan, Minnesota
Prevseason:	2020–21
Nextseason:	2022–23
Labelstyle:	background:#eeeeee;

The 2021–22 Big Ten Conference ice hockey season was the 32nd season of play for the Big Ten Conference's men's ice hockey division and will take place during the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season. The regular season is set to begin on October 2, 2021, and conclude on February 26, 2022.^[1] The conference tournament is scheduled to begin in early March, 2022.

Coaches

Records

Team	Head coach	Season at school	Record at school	Big Ten record
Michigan		5	68–55–15	41–39–10
Michigan State		5	46–78–11	30–55–9
Minnesota		4	58–37–11	36–24–10
Notre Dame		17	348–219–66	49–36–9
Ohio State		9	140–114–34	66–67–17
Penn State		11	155–132–23	72–83–14
Wisconsin		6	82–82–13	53–52–11

Non-Conference record

Of the sixteen teams that are selected to participate in the NCAA tournament, ten will be via at-large bids. Those 10 teams are determined based upon the PairWise rankings. The rankings take into account all games played but are heavily affected by intra-conference results. The result is that teams from leagues which perform better in non-conference are much more likely to receive at-large bids even if they possess inferior records overall.

As a conference, the Big Ten had a tremendous non-conference season. Only one of the seven league members (Wisconsin) had a losing record in non-league games. Four teams had at least an 80% winning percentage. On the whole, only one conference possessed a winning record against the Big Ten (NCHC), however, they did so by only one victory.

Regular season record

Team							Total
Michigan	2–0–0	3–0–1	0–0–0	2–0–0	0–0–0	2–1–0	9–1–1
Michigan State	1–1–0	3–0–0	0–0–0	0–1–1	0–0–0	2–1–0	6–3–1
Minnesota	2–0–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	1–1–0	2–4–0	5–5–0
Notre Dame	4–2–0	2–0–0	0–0–0	1–0–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	8–2–0
Ohio State	2–2–0	2–0–0	0–0–0	2–0–0	2–0–0	0–0–0	8–2–0
Penn State	3–1–0	2–0–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	2–0–0	1–0–0	9–1–0
Wisconsin	2–0–0	0–2–0	1–1–1	0–0–1	0–0–0	0–2–0	3–5–1
Overall	16–6–0	12–2–1	2–1–1	5–1–2	6–1–0	7–8–0	48–19–4

Statistics

Leading scorers

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes^[2]

Player	Class	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
	Sophomore		20	13	14	27	10
	Junior		19	13	11	24	4
	Freshman		24	13	9	22	10
	Junior		24	1	21	22	6
	Freshman		18	6	14	20	4
	Freshman		23	11	9	20	8
	Freshman		24	5	14	19	6
	Senior		24	7	12	19	0
	Sophomore		16	2	16	18	4
	Sophomore		22	7	11	18	14

Leading goaltenders

Minimum 1/3 of team's minutes played in conference games.
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average^[3]

Player	Class	Team	GP	Min	W	L	T	GA	SO	SV%	GAA
	Junior		15	750	10	2	0	21	2	.938	1.68
	Graduate		14	728	9	4	0	25	1	.926	2.06
	Sophomore		24	1403	16	8	0	54	2	.924	2.31
	Junior		16	716	8	3	0	28	1	.921	2.34
	Freshman		24	1299	13	9	2	53	1	.928	2.45

Conference tournament

See main article: 2022 Big Ten men's ice hockey tournament. Note: * denotes overtime periods.Note: * denotes overtime periods.

NCAA tournament

See main article: 2022 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament.

Regional semifinal

East

Regional final

East

National semifinal

Ranking

See main article: 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey rankings.

USCHO

Michigan	3	3	3	1	2	3	2	1	4	3	3	3	6	4	3	4	3	4	2	2	5	4	4	2	3
Michigan State	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Minnesota	4	4	4	4	7	5	6	7	11	11	10	11	9	8	11	10	8	7	5	4	2	2	2	5	4
Notre Dame	18	19	17	13	14	17	15	14	8	8	8	10	13	13	13	11	13	11	12	9	7	8	9	9	8
Ohio State	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	18	17	17	18	17	17	17	16	15	12	9	8	11	12	12	15	16	16	16
Penn State	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	16	19	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Wisconsin	11	13	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

^[4]

USA Today

Michigan	2	3	3	1	3	4	2	1	3	2	3	3	7	5	4	4	4	4	2	2	4	4	4	2	2	3
Michigan State	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Minnesota	4	4	4	4	7	5	8	7	12	12	11	11	11	8	11	10	10	8	6	4	2	2	3	6	4	4
Notre Dame	NR	NR	NR	12	NR	NR	15	15	8	8	8	10	13	13	14	12	12	11	11	8	7	8	9	10	8	8
Ohio State	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	14	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	15	15	11	8	7	12	12	12	15	NR	NR	NR	NR
Penn State	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Wisconsin	12	14	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

^[5]

Pairwise

Michigan	14	10	1	2	4	5	2	3	2	3	1	6	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	bgcolor=gold	1
Michigan State	14	37	5	25	16	21	23	20	18	20	18	19	24	29	31	30	31	32	35	33	37	37	35
Minnesota	14	25	22	23	11	10	8	18	12	11	11	11	8	11	11	11	8	5	5	3	3	3	bgcolor=gold	6
Notre Dame	14	14	2	7	15	20	9	7	5	8	10	16	15	15	12	12	12	12	11	5	8	6	bgcolor=gold	8
Ohio State	14	30	16	19	21	11	12	16	20	17	16	15	13	14	9	10	10	12	13	13	15	15	15
Penn State	4	7	21	10	7	12	21	22	20	24	24	20	23	28	21	23	24	24	26	25	25	25	25
Wisconsin	14	49	9	37	23	23	31	36	41	40	38	37	38	33	37	39	35	34	36	38	34	35	37

Note: teams ranked in the top-10 automatically qualify for the NCAA tournament. Teams ranked 11-16 can qualify based upon conference tournament results.^[6]

Awards

NCAA

^[7]
West First Team	Position	Team
Matty Beniers	F	Michigan
West Second Team	Position	Team
Luke Hughes	D	Michigan
Owen Power	align=center	D	Michigan
Ben Meyers	align=center	F	Minnesota

Big Ten

Award	Recipient ^[8]
		Ben Meyers, Minnesota
		Brock Faber, Minnesota
		Jakub Dobeš, Ohio State
	Jakub Dobeš, Ohio State
Luke Hughes, Michigan
		Matty Beniers, Michigan
		Bob Motzko, Minnesota
		Erik Portillo, Michigan
	Position	Second Team
Jakub Dobeš, Ohio State	align=center	G	Erik Portillo, Michigan
Owen Power, Michigan	align=center	D	Luke Hughes, Michigan
Brock Faber, Minnesota	align=center	D	Jackson LaCombe, Minnesota
Matty Beniers, Michigan	align=center	F	Brendan Brisson, Michigan
Ben Meyers, Minnesota	align=center	F	Matthew Knies, Minnesota
Georgii Merkulov, Ohio State	align=center	F	Max Ellis, Notre Dame
	Position
Jakub Dobeš, Ohio State	align=center	G
Luke Hughes, Michigan	align=center	D
Mason Lohrei, Ohio State	align=center	D
Matthew Knies, Minnesota	align=center	F
Georgii Merkulov, Ohio State	align=center	F
Mackie Samoskevich, Michigan	align=center	F

Big Ten tournament

		Michigan
Player	Pos	Team
		Michigan
		Minnesota
		Michigan
		Michigan
		Michigan
		Michigan

2022 NHL Entry Draft

See main article: 2022 NHL Entry Draft.

1	3	Logan Cooley^†	Minnesota	Arizona Coyotes
1	13	Frank Nazar^†	Michigan	Chicago Blackhawks
1	14	Rutger McGroarty^†	Michigan	Winnipeg Jets
1	23	Jimmy Snuggerud^†	Minnesota	St. Louis Blues
1	25	Sam Rinzel^†	Minnesota	Chicago Blackhawks
2	37	Ryan Chesley^†	Minnesota	Washington Capitals
2	46	Seamus Casey^†	Michigan	New Jersey Devils
3	78	Quinn Finley^†	Wisconsin	New York Islanders
4	100	Tyson Jugnauth^†	Wisconsin	Seattle Kraken
4	104	Stephen Halliday^†	Ohio State	Ottawa Senators
4	124	Cruz Lucius^†	Wisconsin	Carolina Hurricanes
6	180	Jack Sparkes^†	Michigan State	Los Angeles Kings
6	192	Connor Kurth^†	Minnesota	Tampa Bay Lightning
7	201	Owen Mehlenbacher^†	Wisconsin	Detroit Red Wings
7	212	Brennan Ali^†	Notre Dame	Detroit Red Wings
7	213		Michigan State	Washington Capitals

† incoming freshman^[9]

External links

• official website

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2021-22 Big Ten Schedule . Big Ten . September 2, 2021.
2. News: 2021-2022 Men's Ice Hockey Conference Statistics . Big Ten . September 14, 2021.
3. News: 2020-21 MEN'S COLLEGE HOCKEY NATIONAL STATISTICS DATABASE . Big Ten Conference . September 14, 2021.
4. Web site: USCHO Division I Men's Poll . USCHO.com . November 26, 2019.
5. Web site: USA Today Men's Poll . USCHO.com . November 26, 2019.
6. Web site: Men's Division I PairWise Rankings . USCHO.com . November 26, 2019.
7. News: Four players return to 2021–22 Division I men's All-American teams, led by three-time pick Dryden McKay . USCHO.com . April 8, 2022 . April 8, 2022.
8. Web site: Hockey Postseason Honors Announced . https://web.archive.org/web/20220315161640/https://bigten.org/news/2022/3/15/general-hockey-postseason-honors-announced.aspx . dead . March 15, 2022 . BigTen.org . . March 15, 2022 . March 15, 2022.
9. News: NCAA player rankings, selections in 2022 NHL Draft . USCHO.com . July 9, 2022.