No. 7 Buckeyes Wrap Up Regular Season vs. Michigan State This Weekend
2/28/2019 5:36:30 PM | Men's Ice Hockey
Buckeyes vs. Spartans
• The No. 7-ranked Ohio State men’s hockey team closes the regular season this weekend in Columbus against Michigan State.
• The Buckeyes and Spartans will meet at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday in Value City Arena.
• BTN and BTN2Go will televise Friday’s game, with Jon Rosen and Paul Caponigri calling the action, and the series finale will be streamed through BTN Plus.
• Ohio State radio will have the games on 1460 AM, online on OhioStateBuckeyes.com and through the Ohio State Buckeyes mobile app, with Herb Howenstine and John Mowat on the call.
• Video, radio and live stats links can be found at go.osu.edu/mhkylivestats18.
• Ohio State is 19-8-5 this season and clinched first place in the Big Ten last Saturday. Michigan State is 11-16-5 on the year and has a 7-11-4-2 ledger in B1G play, standing in seventh.
• Ohio State was 0-1-1-1 at Michigan last weekend, with a 4-2 loss and 3-3 OT tie/3×3 shootout win. Michigan State last played Feb. 15-16, splitting a series with Penn State in East Lansing, with a 5-3 win and a loss by the same score.
• The Buckeyes and Spartans met in East Lansing Jan. 4-5. The Spartans rallied for a 7-7 OT tie and scored in 3×3 overtime in game one before a 6-0 Ohio State victory in game two.
B1G Champs
• The Buckeyes clinched the outright Big Ten title after earning two points Saturday. It is the first Big Ten title in program history and the first conference regular season championship won by Ohio State since the 1972 CCHA title.
• After the game Saturday, a banner ceremony will be held to commemorate this year’s championship.
Thank You Seniors
• Saturday, the eight members of the Buckeye hockey Class of 2019 – Freddy Gerard, Mason Jobst, Dakota Joshua, Sasha Larocque, Brendon Kearney, Tommy Parran, Sean Romeo and John Wiitala – will be recognized pregame.
• Over the last four years, the group has been a part of 80 wins (the most for a senior class since 2008) and claimed the first Big Ten title in program history. They have made two NCAA appearances and are looking to join the 2005 seniors as the second Ohio State senior class to earn three NCAA tournament berths.
Buckeye Notes to Know
• Two-time captain Mason Jobst leads current NCAA skaters with 164 career points, tying for 12th in Ohio State history (and the most since 1988) and is the all-time leader in points in Big Ten games with 108 (1.27 points per game) and goals (48). Jobst has a team-high 17 goals and 36 points this year, ranking in the Top 15 in the NCAA.
• The Buckeyes ended the season with a 10-2-5 mark in road games. Over the last three years, the squad was 24-9-10 in true road contests. The four-year members of the senior class lost their first eight road games but went 4-2-3 the second half of that season in away games.
• Ohio State is on a four-game winless streak (0-3-1), the longest since going 0-2-2 in a stretch Jan. 9-22, 2016.
• The Buckeye squad is 8-6-2 on Friday and 11-2-3 on Saturday this season.
• Junior Tanner Laczynski returned to the lineup Friday after missing six games with an injury and notched his ninth goal – and 26th point – of the season.
