Wisconsin kept the pressure on the idle Gophers to finish strong by routing Ohio State 7-0 on Saturday at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.
With the win, the Badgers (17-8-1, 15-6-1 Big Ten) have a conference winning percentage of .705 — the second best in the conference.
The first-place Gophers have a .750 winning percentage, which because of this season's unbalanced schedules will be used to determine the Big Ten champion.
Both the Gophers and Badgers have two games left. Minnesota (19-5, 15-5) hosts Michigan on Friday and Saturday while Wisconsin plays at Michigan State the same days. If the Badgers sweep their series, Minnesota would need a win and a tie at least vs. Michigan to win the title.
In Saturday's rout, Cole Caufield had a hat trick to give him an NCAA-leading 22 goals Ty Pelton-Byce scored the last two Badgers goals.=
Notre Dame 2, Michigan State 0: Colin Theisen and Landon Slaggert scored power-play goals and Dylan St. Cyr stopped 29 shots as the visiting Irish (12-12-2, 10-10-2) swept the Spartans (7-14-2, 5-13-1).
No. 7 Michigan 1: Arizona State 1 (OT): Goalie Cole Brady of the visiting Sun Devils (6-15-3) made 41 saves; Strauss Mann of the Wolverines (13-8-1) stopped 12 shots.
NCHC
No. 10 Minnesota Duluth 5, No. 6 St. Cloud State 1: Nick Swaney had a hat trick as the host Bulldogs (13-8-2) beat the Huskies (14-9.
