The ninth-ranked Gophers men’s hockey team and No. 4 Wisconsin played two classic games over the weekend in Madison, Wis. — a 2-1 Gophers’ overtime victory Friday and a 1-1 double-overtime tie on Saturday in which the Badgers picked up the extra point in a shootout.
Ordinarily, Gophers fans would be excited by two great games in the border battle rivalry and a series win for Minnesota, but the broadcast situation left many fans frustrated. The weekend series was televised exclusively on Big Ten Network’s streaming service, BTN+, opposed to being broadcast by BTN nationally.
Great call by @BigTenNetwork to have the huge Gopher-Badger hockey rivalry games on a streaming service only. Sometimes you can’t make this stuff up. https://t.co/WUE6PNHPtp
— Tom Hauser (@thauserkstp) February 4, 2024
Instead of those two games, which were 7 p.m. puck drops on both Friday and Saturday, BTN chose to televise a wrestling dual between No. 2 Iowa and No. 12 Michigan and a men’s hockey game between No. 12 Michigan and Ohio State on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
How on earth is the #Gophers men’s hockey game against Wisconsin not on TV?
Travesty in so many ways. pic.twitter.com/vV52BkdkTQ
— GopherHole.com (@GopherHole) February 3, 2024
The previous border battle series on Oct. 26-27 was televised on BTN.
Over half of the Gophers’ games this season have been televised by BTN+, but several of those games have also been broadcast on a local affiliate, but that wasn’t the case for the weekend series against the Badgers.
Of the Gophers’ three remaining series, only one will be streaming exclusive, the Feb. 16-17 matchups against Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., which will be on Peacock.
