The scoreboard that hangs from the rafters at center ice inside 3M Arena at Mariucci only has two digits that show up in the season record after the final horn blows. The number of goals recorded on the home and visitor side is what will be recounted in the record books years from now.

But with just two weekends left in the Big Ten regular season and the conference playoffs, then the 16-team NCAA playoffs ahead, there is much, much more going on beyond the final score.

“You have so many battles inside the battles — home ice, Pairwise, fighting for your life, league championships,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said this week. “It’s the fun time of college hockey.”

Minnesota has wrapped up home ice for the first round of the Big Ten playoffs, which will be a best-of-three series played March 7-9. In a bit of a surprise, based on the preseason predictions that had them finishing in the cellar of the seven-team league, No. 7 Ohio State (20-8-2, 13-6-1 Big Ten) has also clinched home ice, and the Buckeyes come to Minneapolis this weekend in control of their own destiny. While Michigan State is overwhelmingly likely to clinch the conference regular season title (the Spartans host Penn State this weekend), a sweep by either Ohio State or Minnesota this weekend would wrap up second place, and the right to host hard-luck Notre Dame in round one.

For the Gophers players, the mentality is that the playoffs have effectively begun a few weeks early.

“They’re going to be big the rest of the way,” defenseman Cal Thomas said this week. “It’s kind of good practice for playoffs because every game the rest of the way is going to feel like a playoff game, and they basically are. So it’s important for us to feel comfortable in those situations.”

No. 5 Minnesota (21-7-4, 12-5-3 Big Ten) is coming off an overtime loss and a tie at Michigan and the Gophers are a pedestrian 2-3-2 in their last seven, while the Buckeyes have won five of their last six. Ohio State is just 1-8-1 in the last 10 games played in Minneapolis, but rather than focus on larger implications of what two wins or two losses could mean this weekend, their coach has the players honing in on a smaller picture.

“We’re going in there with a mentality of Friday night. That’s all we’re thinking about right now,” Buckeyes coach Steve Rohlik said. “We’re trying to be the best versions of us, try to go in there and play ahead of the sticks and not hurt ourselves and stay out of the box. Some of that is a good recipe for success.”

At a time of year when illness and injuries tend to pile up, the Gophers got some good news, as it looks like veteran defenseman Mike Koster will be available versus the Buckeyes. In the first period of their tie Saturday at Michigan, Koster took an elbow to the head from a Wolverines player and had to leave the game early. He was a full participant in Gophers practice on Tuesday and Motzko said all indications are he will be good to go on Friday.

Friday’s game is a 7 p.m. start, with the Saturday rematch facing off at 5 p.m. Both games will be televised by Fox 9 locally. On Saturday, the team will honor its lone senior, forward Aaron Huglen, who became a father earlier this month when his wife Maddie delivered a healthy baby girl.