Turns out, the Gophers men's hockey team's quarterfinal series at Penn State this weekend will be televised after all.
The Gophers on Wednesday announced that Fox Sports North will televise the best-of-three quarterfinal series from Pegula Ice Arena in State College, Pa. Friday's opener will air on FSN Plus, and Saturday's will air on FSN. Sunday's game, if necessary, will air on FSN. Each game is a 6 p.m. Central start.
Previously, the only live video of the game was going to be the BTN2Go streaming service. With FSN picking up the broadcast, Fox Sports Go also will stream the series.
"After receiving our initial broadcast schedule for this weekend's series, we immediately began discussing alternative options that would get the games on television here in Minnesota. I'm grateful to our staff and the Big Ten for finding a way to get that done," Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle said in a statement. "It is important to us and important to our fans that Gopher Hockey games are broadcast on television throughout Minnesota. FOX Sports North stepped up in a big way to make that happen. We are happy to have this weekend's series on TV thanks to their partnership and the flexibility shown by Commissioner [Jim] Delany, his team, and the Big Ten Network."
The winner of the Gophers-Penn State series will advance to a semifinal on March 10 at a campus site to be determined. The other two quarterfinal series in the seven-team conference are No. 7 Michigan State at No. 2 Ohio State, and No. 6 Wisconsin at No. 3 Michigan. Conference champion Notre Dame has a bye into the semifinals. The semifinals will be televised on BTN or ESPNU, according to the BTN website, and the final on March 17 will air on BTN.
The Big Ten is in is fifth season as a hockey conference, and the first four seasons featured a three-day conference tournament rotating between Xcel Energy Center and Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. But poor attendance at those sites prompted the conference to go to a three-week, on-campus format of best-of-three quarterfinals, then single-elimination semifinals and single-game final.
