What a wild, wild weekend in the Big Ten. I would say some teams look like they're in trouble, but just about everyone had some issues in game one around the country. The Big Ten DID seem to come out the worse off, however. I will run down each team's opener really fast.
Penn State
Talk about a SHOCKING loss. Penn State, fresh off being 1 goal away from heading to a title game, fell to Colgate on a last-minute goal resulting from a horrible clear. I will be honest: that's a devastating loss for this team. Especially seeing how Colgate got absolutely boat-raced by Syracuse two days later. Sure, opening game jitters, lots of turnover, blah, blah. But with THAT talent amd experience, Penn State should have won going away.
Kyle Lehman, their superstar freshman, had 3 goals, and TJ Malone registered 7(!) assists. Others struggled shooting, and that defense was not good. Fracyon struggled badly, as well.
Nittany Lions will need to regroup, because the schedule gets no easier for them, either.
Maryland
Terrapin Nation had a nailbiter to deal with as Richmond gave the Terps all they could handle. A few close shaves kept the Spiders from shutting the door, though, and that's not how you beat Tillman and co. Maryland struggled to overtime, and scored a gamewinner in 2OT.
The offense struggled. No other way to say it. Dan Maltz went 2-9 shooting, which is very poor. Sophomore Braden Erksa had a hat trick. But that is about it for bright spots. Maryland is getting some of that Alabama under Saban treatment, with a revolving door of offensive coordinators. Some better than others.
Defensively, Maryland did enough to win, but wasn't in full form yet. Both goalies had at least 10 saves. The teams had an equal number of shots. Just a close game that Maryland won.
TTUN
Opens Saturday at UVA. Circle that one.
Johns Hopkins
The Jays had Denver on the ropes, and just let them stick around too long. Offensively, Hopkins had a pretty good day. Top-25 2023 recruit Hunter Chauvette scored a hat trick. Jacob Angelus was exceptional. The rest of the offense was merely adequate. The problems that I saw for Hopkins were more about defense.
Holy cow, do the Jays leave guys open across the field. Certainly, allowing JJ Sillstrop to score 4 straight goals, and 6 total, isn't good. But I saw Denver dodgers throwing across the entire field to guys left WIDE open more than once.
Chayse Ierlan is a good goalie. But you can't give a team like Denver that many opportunities. Especially when you know it is going to be hard to win faceoffs already. Denver also had 46 shots to Hopkins' 35. That's just wild. Hopkins also gave up 5 EMOs in the 3rd quarter. Lots to work on in Baltimore.
Rutgers
The Scarlet Knights struggled to a 14-12 win over Lehigh in their opener on Saturday. A lot was made of this win, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Lehigh is a shell of themselves. Their faceoff unit is back to the mean for their level, the best Lehigh goalscorer moved to Syracuse for a chance at glory, and the rest of the team is below average.
Rutgers dominated faceoffs, groundballs, and special teams. Lehigh still had more shots, was better clearing, had fewer turnovers, and the same number of saves as Rutgers. This was a game Rutgers should have won by 5 goals, but they struggled until the end. I still think they are in the Big Ten basement come April.
Ohio State
You saw my review post last Saturday. It was a good win, aided by the injury of Utah's best player by a completely clean hit. Very unfortunate for the Utes. Ohio State was bad on offense. The rotation will tighten once the big boys come up on the schedule.
Right now, the only team we don't know anything about is the Wolverines. With Virginia as an opener, I suspect it will be a rout, and quickly. We will see.
Go Bucks!
