Jan. 13, 2010
CHICAGO - Set your DVRs college hockey fans. You will have the opportunity to relive some of the great moments in the game’s history, as the Big Ten Network debuts five hockey episodes of The Big Ten’s Greatest Games this season. The classics will precede selected live hockey telecasts on Fridays and Saturdays in January and February.
All five Greatest Games episodes are recent national championships captured by Big Ten schools.
The highlight for Badger fans comes at 3:30 PM CT on Saturday, Feb. 6, when the network will present Wisconsin’s 2006 national championship game against Boston College. In that game, Wisconsin star and new Big Ten Network studio analyst Adam Burish assisted on both Badger goals in a 2-1 victory. At 5 PM CT, the network will present the live telecast of the Michigan-Wisconsin game from Camp Randall Stadium.
The series begins at 5 PM CT on Friday with Minnesota’s 2002 national championship victory against Maine. Immediately after, at 7 PM CT, the network will present the live telecast of Minnesota-North Dakota from Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis.
At 4 PM CT on Jan. 29, the network will show the 1998 national title game, Michigan’s stunning 3-2 victory against Boston College in front of a partisan crowd in Boston. That encore showing will be followed by the live Michigan-Michigan State game from East Lansing.
At 4 PM CT on Friday, Feb. 12, the Big Ten Network will show the 2007 national title game, Michigan State’s 3-1 victory against Boston College. The Spartans snapped a tie with 18.9 seconds to go and tacked on an empty-net goal to earn the program’s third national title.
At 5 PM CT on Friday, Feb. 19, the network will re-air Minnesota’s 2003 national championship game against New Hampshire. The Gophers skated to a dominating 5-1 victory en route to back-to-back titles. At 7 PM CT, the Big Ten Network will have the live Colorado College-Minnesota telecast.
Overall, the network is quadrupling its live men’s ice hockey coverage with studio shows, nine game telecasts and more than 20 live streamed games in 2009-10.
The network has added a pair of former WCHA stars to its studio lineup, including Burish, the former University of Wisconsin captain and current Chicago Blackhawks winger, and former Golden Gopher and retired NHL veteran Darby Hendrickson.
Burish and Hendrickson will rotate as studio analysts for the network’s pre- and post-game shows that will air in conjunction with the network’s live telecasts beginning Friday. Each will work alongside studio host Rick Pizzo, who played goaltender at the NCAA Division III level.
A complete television and streaming game schedule can be found at www.bigtennetwork.com.
About the Big Ten Network: The Big Ten Network is the first internationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. With approximately 350 live events, and nearly all of them in HD, the network is the ultimate destination for Big Ten fans and alumni across the country, allowing them to see their favorite teams, regardless of where they live. The network operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, showcasing a wide array of classic-to-current sports and televising more Olympic sporting events and women’s sports than has ever been aired on any other network. Original programming highlights activities and accomplishments of some of the nation’s finest universities. Each year, the network offers between 35 and 40 football games, 105 regular season men’s basketball games; 55 women’s basketball games; dozens of Big Ten Championship events; studio shows; coaches’ shows; and classic games. Available to all cable and satellite providers nationwide and in Canada, the network currently has agreements with more than 300 affiliates, including AT&T U-Verse, Atlantic Broadband, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox (Cleveland, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Omaha), DirecTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Rogers Cable (Canada), Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct (Canada), Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS. For updated information on the Big Ten Network, go to www.BigTenNetwork.com.
