Connor Earegood The Detroit News
East Lansing — The Michigan State hockey team knew winning Saturday’s game against Minnesota would be difficult. Certainly not as easy as Friday’s 9-3 blowout win. Not against a top-five team in the country every bit as talented as the Spartans.
It took overtime and a shootout to decide a winner at Munn Ice Arena, but No. 2 Michigan State (20-3-3, 11-2-3 Big Ten) prevailed in the shootout. The game is officially a 3-3 tie, but the Spartans picked up a vital extra point in the Big Ten standings by beating No. 4 Minnesota in the shootout.
“Our challenge coming into tonight was moving past what happened the night before and getting back to our game right off the bat,” Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale said. “… I think it’s actually harder to handle success, and so you gotta put your nose down, you gotta be ready to work and remember who we need to be as a team. And I thought we did a great job of that.”
Michigan State remains atop the Big Ten with a five-point lead on second-place Minnesota. Claiming 10 out of 12 available points against the Gophers is a big reason. It’s the first season series win against Minnesota since going 3-1-0 in 2018-19, and the best overall since 1972-73, when Michigan State went 3-0-1.
Much like Friday’s opener, Saturday’s game started off with a slow burn. After Michigan State earned a few chances in the first, the opening goal came from defenseman Matt Basgall with 3:49 left in the first period. His third straight series with a goal, Basgall’s tally came off a faceoff win from center Tanner Kelly, followed by a pass from defense partner David Gucciardi.
A 1-0 lead heading into the second period matched the script of Friday’s performance, and so did the scoring sequence thereafter. Minnesota (19-6-3, 10-4-2) scored a tying goal before Michigan State regained the lead within a couple minutes. The Gophers re-tied the score quickly.
Minnesota star Jimmy Snuggerud scored both those goals for his team, the first of which he sniped past MSU goaltender Trey Augustine six minutes into the second period and the second of which he fluttered past Augustine at 10:20. A goal from Michigan State forward Joey Larson interrupted the sequence.
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Here’s where this game deviated from Friday’s example. For the longest span yet in the weekend series, Snuggerud’s second goal kept the score knotted for longer than two minutes. That is, until a goal from forward Tanner Kelly gave the Spartans a 3-2 lead just over four minutes later.
“Just a scrum in front of the net, (I was) just trying to get a stick on it and fire it on net,” Kelly said. “I saw an open corner there, so it’s good to get that one in the back of the net.”
But yet again, Minnesota pulled level. On a power play in the period’s final minute, defenseman Luke Mittelstadt batted a loose puck past Augustine with 15.2 seconds left in the frame.
Despite a 28-15 edge in shots and a 29-15 advantage at the faceoff dot through 40 minutes, the Spartans couldn’t separate from an opponent motivated by the receiving end of Friday night’s 9-3 thumping. But for a period that Michigan State prioritizes, controlling the game if not the score was a favorable outcome.
“Most good teams, you look at the scoring differential and shot differential, the best teams are always good in the second period,” Nightingale said. “And I think they (the Spartans) understand how to play team hockey. They understand when to change, potentially catch a team tired and wear them down.”
If the Spartans did so in the second period, the third period saw a much more even contest. The teams traded chances in a wide-open frame. None of these beat either goaltender.
Overtime meant each side would leave with a point, but that extra Big Ten point mattered for the top two teams in the conference. The teams played like it, too. Anticipation built as the overtime period continued. But neither team scored, and the game went to a shootout to decide who got the vital shootout point.
Russell scored in the shootout to give Michigan State a lead, while Augustine stopped both shots he faced. Forward Isaac Howard followed Russell’s goal with one of his own to ice the win.
Augustine made 18 saves on 21 shots while Minnesota’s Liam Souliere saved 35 of 38.
“I think it was actually one of our best weekends, just putting together 120 minutes,” Basgall said. “So I think it showed a lot of character out of our group to see that even after a blowout type game yesterday, we were able to come out and execute the same way.”
Nightingale agreed, giving credit to the way his players have stayed focused no matter the opponent or the stakes. He emphasized the need to build on it.
“Still stuff to clean up,” Nightingale assessed, “but I think that, again, looking at who we’re playing, the time of the year it is, this is what you want, right?”
The Spartans want it to keep going as they travel to Columbus for a Thursday-Friday series next week. Winning the series against Minnesota gives Michigan State the right to control its own destiny, but it takes consistency to make use of it.
“We know we’re in a position to do something big this year, but we got our eyes set this week on Ohio State,” Basgall said. So we’ll turn the page quickly, got eight big games coming up. So (it’s) great to get the points, but we’ll continue to go one step at a time.”
cearegood@detroitnews.com
@ConnorEaregood
East Lansing — The Michigan State hockey team knew winning Saturday’s game against Minnesota would be difficult. Certainly not as easy as Friday’s 9-3 blowout win. Not against a top-five team in the country every bit as talented as the Spartans.
It took overtime and a shootout to decide a winner at Munn Ice Arena, but No. 2 Michigan State (20-3-3, 11-2-3 Big Ten) prevailed in the shootout. The game is officially a 3-3 tie, but the Spartans picked up a vital extra point in the Big Ten standings by beating No. 4 Minnesota in the shootout.
“Our challenge coming into tonight was moving past what happened the night before and getting back to our game right off the bat,” Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale said. “… I think it’s actually harder to handle success, and so you gotta put your nose down, you gotta be ready to work and remember who we need to be as a team. And I thought we did a great job of that.”
Michigan State remains atop the Big Ten with a five-point lead on second-place Minnesota. Claiming 10 out of 12 available points against the Gophers is a big reason. It’s the first season series win against Minnesota since going 3-1-0 in 2018-19, and the best overall since 1972-73, when Michigan State went 3-0-1.
Much like Friday’s opener, Saturday’s game started off with a slow burn. After Michigan State earned a few chances in the first, the opening goal came from defenseman Matt Basgall with 3:49 left in the first period. His third straight series with a goal, Basgall’s tally came off a faceoff win from center Tanner Kelly, followed by a pass from defense partner David Gucciardi.
A 1-0 lead heading into the second period matched the script of Friday’s performance, and so did the scoring sequence thereafter. Minnesota (19-6-3, 10-4-2) scored a tying goal before Michigan State regained the lead within a couple minutes. The Gophers re-tied the score quickly.
Minnesota star Jimmy Snuggerud scored both those goals for his team, the first of which he sniped past MSU goaltender Trey Augustine six minutes into the second period and the second of which he fluttered past Augustine at 10:20. A goal from Michigan State forward Joey Larson interrupted the sequence.
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Here’s where this game deviated from Friday’s example. For the longest span yet in the weekend series, Snuggerud’s second goal kept the score knotted for longer than two minutes. That is, until a goal from forward Tanner Kelly gave the Spartans a 3-2 lead just over four minutes later.
“Just a scrum in front of the net, (I was) just trying to get a stick on it and fire it on net,” Kelly said. “I saw an open corner there, so it’s good to get that one in the back of the net.”
But yet again, Minnesota pulled level. On a power play in the period’s final minute, defenseman Luke Mittelstadt batted a loose puck past Augustine with 15.2 seconds left in the frame.
Despite a 28-15 edge in shots and a 29-15 advantage at the faceoff dot through 40 minutes, the Spartans couldn’t separate from an opponent motivated by the receiving end of Friday night’s 9-3 thumping. But for a period that Michigan State prioritizes, controlling the game if not the score was a favorable outcome.
“Most good teams, you look at the scoring differential and shot differential, the best teams are always good in the second period,” Nightingale said. “And I think they (the Spartans) understand how to play team hockey. They understand when to change, potentially catch a team tired and wear them down.”
If the Spartans did so in the second period, the third period saw a much more even contest. The teams traded chances in a wide-open frame. None of these beat either goaltender.
Overtime meant each side would leave with a point, but that extra Big Ten point mattered for the top two teams in the conference. The teams played like it, too. Anticipation built as the overtime period continued. But neither team scored, and the game went to a shootout to decide who got the vital shootout point.
Russell scored in the shootout to give Michigan State a lead, while Augustine stopped both shots he faced. Forward Isaac Howard followed Russell’s goal with one of his own to ice the win.
Augustine made 18 saves on 21 shots while Minnesota’s Liam Souliere saved 35 of 38.
“I think it was actually one of our best weekends, just putting together 120 minutes,” Basgall said. “So I think it showed a lot of character out of our group to see that even after a blowout type game yesterday, we were able to come out and execute the same way.”
Nightingale agreed, giving credit to the way his players have stayed focused no matter the opponent or the stakes. He emphasized the need to build on it.
“Still stuff to clean up,” Nightingale assessed, “but I think that, again, looking at who we’re playing, the time of the year it is, this is what you want, right?”
The Spartans want it to keep going as they travel to Columbus for a Thursday-Friday series next week. Winning the series against Minnesota gives Michigan State the right to control its own destiny, but it takes consistency to make use of it.
“We know we’re in a position to do something big this year, but we got our eyes set this week on Ohio State,” Basgall said. So we’ll turn the page quickly, got eight big games coming up. So (it’s) great to get the points, but we’ll continue to go one step at a time.”
cearegood@detroitnews.com
@ConnorEaregood
