Notre Dame tied Minnesota, 3-3, in South Bend on Friday night. Or did it? The record will show the Gophers (13-11-5, 8-6-5-4) earning an extra Big Ten point because they scored in their lone shootout attempt whereas the Irish (12-11-6, 7-7-5-3) did not. The only logical conclusion to this is the way the conference does its league play is stupid beyond stupid.
You already have hockey traditionalists like my dad who detest the idea of a shootout in the sport at all. How can one explain to them that in the Big Ten, shootout wins mean extra points in the standings but not actual wins? Furthermore, why is it possible to have it end after one round instead of at least making it best-of-three like the rest of the hockey world? I don’t get it.
I’d like to say I’m going to make a stink big enough to cause the Big Ten to rethink all this, but the conference has gotten away with way worse, so I doubt this will bat anyone’s eye.