1. Minnesota is the only team allowed to win the regular-season Big Ten title.

Congratulations to the Golden Gophers for their fourth straight regular-season Big Ten conference title! For those keeping track, the Big Ten has only been around as a hockey entity for four seasons. For others paying close attention, this is Minnesota’s sixth straight regular-season conference title — an NCAA record — including the Gophers’ regular-season WCHA titles at the end of the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons. Given the ever-changing landscapes of top programs like Minnesota, this is a particularly impressive achievement.

More good news for the Gophers: only two more seasons before they set an NCAA record for consecutive regular-season titles playing in a single conference. I’m kidding. Maybe.

There are lots of interesting things that can be said about Minnesota following the 4-0 win over Michigan State Friday and the 1-1 tie against the Spartans Saturday, but my favorite story is that of sophomore defenseman Jack Sadek. Sadek had the first two goals of Friday’s shutout, meaning that he had the game-winning goal in that contest. Those were the second and third goals of his career, and his goal Friday — the game-winning goal that ultimately led to Minnesota’s fourth B1G championship and NCAA-record sixth regular-season title — was his first goal in a Big Ten game. Sadek didn’t score in 15 games with the Gophers last season, and prior to this weekend, Sadek’s only goal was against St. Lawrence Oct. 29, 2016.

2. Michigan has decided to play, finally.

If you’re a fan of the Wolverines, these last three weekends of play have been the highlight of your season, culminating in a sweep of Penn State with 3-2 and 4-0 wins in Yost Ice Arena. Michigan finished the Big Ten season with a record of 6-12-2-2, but four of those wins came in the last three weeks of play against three ranked teams, and two of those wins shut out two of the top three offenses in the country, Penn State and Ohio State (Feb. 25). Senior goaltender Zach Nagelvoort earned three of those four recent wins, including the two shutouts; in Saturday’s game against Penn State, Nagelvoort made 46 stops for his 10th career shutout. Hayden Lavigne had a very solid win in net Friday night.

After losing a significant amount of offensive firepower following the 2015-2016 season, the Wolverines at least looked good defensively at the start of this season. Somewhere, though, Michigan lost its way completely until recently, and now the Wolverines are playing better defense and are remembering how to score a few goals, too. Junior Tony Calderone, Michigan’s only player with ten or more goals (15), has netted five in his last four games following an eight-game goal-scoring drought; he had the first two in Friday’s 3-2 win and added another Saturday. Freshman Adam Winborg had his first game-winning goal Saturday, his first goal in six games.

3. Three B1G nights at JLA.

The three-night Big Ten championship tournament should be very exciting, even if Thursday’s games will be played in front of hundreds of fans. I wish I were being snarky. No, I have no advance notice of ticket sales, but if the 2015 tournament is prologue, we know that attendance will be low. Hopefully the title game itself Saturday night will provide a fitting college-hockey sendoff to Joe Louis Arena.

Both the Spartans and Wolverines play Thursday, so there is some hope for the gate — and some atmosphere — there. No. 6 Michigan State and No. 3 Ohio State play the 4:30 p.m. game; No. 5 Michigan plays No. 4 Penn State at 8:00 p.m.

The Spartans beat the Buckeyes on March 3 and the Wolverines just swept the Nittany Lions, so it’s safe to say that anything can happen Thursday. If either the Spartans or Wolverines lose, their seasons will be over; a loss for Ohio State or Penn State may very well be season ending, too, since OSU and PSU are both PairWise bubble teams.

On Friday, No. 2 Wisconsin will play the winner of the Michigan State-Ohio State game and No. 1 Minnesota will play the winner of the Michigan-Penn State game.

While I don’t see the Spartans winning three games in the tournament, I think that any of the other three teams without a bye can do it. The Big Ten season seemed a little dull to me; the Big Ten championship tournament should be anything but.

To refresh your memory, the Wolverines are the defending Big Ten playoff champs.

Bulldogs put Miami to bed
Second-seeded Minnesota-Duluth found No. 7 Miami to be a tough out this weekend in the teams’ best-of-three NCHC first-round series, but UMD did enough to end the RedHawks’ season.

On Friday, Duluth used a Dominic Toninato goal 7:24 into overtime to lift the Bulldogs to a 5-4 Game 1 win. After winning a faceoff draw, Toninato put away a shot from close range after teammate Alex Iafallo was unable to stuff the puck in past Miami goaltender Chase Munroe.

The RedHawks lost starting goalie Ryan Larkin early in Friday’s second period after a UMD skater was pushed into him. Munroe was back in action Saturday, making 31 saves in a 5-3 Game 2 loss to Duluth.

Miami led 3-2 early in Saturday’s third period after scoring twice in the frame’s first 3:17. UMD roared back in the final eight minutes, using goals from Iafallo and Jared Thomas to move ahead at 4-3 before Toninato buried an empty-netter with 1:05 left.

A young Miami team with three seniors and just six upperclassmen in all ends its season at 9-20-7.

UND cements national tourney chances
North Dakota’s 2016-17 season continues at another talented team’s expense.

Fourth-seeded UND further solidified an opportunity to defend its 2016 national championship at this year’s NCAA tournament after sweeping No. 5 seed St. Cloud State out of the conference playoffs. A 5-2 Fighting Hawks win in Friday’s first game was followed by a 6-5 overtime victory over SCSU on Saturday.

Five different UND players scored in Friday’s series opener, with insurance goals coming from Austin Poganski and Joel Janatuinen in the game’s final eight minutes. Both SCSU goals Friday came on power plays.

Saturday’s rematch featured five ties before Trevor Olson potted his fifth goal of the season 7:38 into the extra period. It was a cruel way to end St. Cloud’s season, as Olson deflected a Johnny Simonson shot from the boards home past Huskies goalie Jeff Smith, who ended the game with 35 saves.

UND will face in the NCHC semifinals a Denver team that swept in-state rival Colorado College in the teams’ first-round series this weekend. SCSU (16-19-1) snaps a four-year string of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.

Omaha bows out in deciding third game
Another series which saw teams on the bubble around the country breathe a little easier took place in Kalamazoo, Mich., where Western Michigan downed Omaha in three games.

UNO started the weekend brightest, using a goal from senior forward Justin Parizek 4:17 into overtime on Friday night that gave the Mavericks a 2-1 win. Omaha wasn’t as lucky Saturday, as three third-period goals from WMU saw the Broncos roll away with a 5-2 victory to level the series at one game apiece.

In Sunday’s decider, first-period goals from Omaha’s Tyler Vesel and Western’s Griffen Molino – both coming on UNO power plays – canceled each other out. After nobody scored in the second and third periods, WMU’s Michael Rebry backhanded a shot past Omaha goalie Evan Weninger 34 seconds into overtime to book the Broncos’ NCHC semifinal spot against UMD.

UNO, which needed a deep conference playoff run to qualify for this year’s NCAA tournament, instead finishes its season at 17-17-5.

In all, home teams went 8-1 during this year’s NCHC playoff opening round.