Sports
MSU hockey extends Big Ten lead with shootout win over Minnesota
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 victory. Not against a top-five team in the country as talented as the Spartans.
It took overtime and a shootout to determine a winner at Munn Ice Arena, but No. 2 Michigan State (20-3-3, 11-2-3 Big Ten) had the upper hand in the shootout. The game is officially tied at 3-3, but the Spartans picked up a vital extra point in the Big Ten standings by beating No. 4 Minnesota in the shootout.
Our challenge tonight was to move past what happened the night before and get right back to our game, Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale said. … I think it's actually harder to deal with success, and so you have to put your nose down, you have to be ready to work and remember who we have to be as a team. And I thought we did an excellent job.
Michigan State remains atop the Big Ten with a five-point lead over second-place Minnesota. Claiming 10 of the 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 won 3-0-1.
Like Friday's opener, Saturday's match started slowly. After Michigan State earned a pair of chances in the first, defenseman Matt Basgall's opening goal came with 3:49 left in the first period. His third straight with a goal, Basgall's tally, came on a faceoff win from center Tanner Kelly, followed by a pass from defense partner David Gucciardi.
A 1-0 lead in the second period fit the script of Friday's performance, and so did the scoring run afterward. Minnesota (19-6-3, 10-4-2) scored the tying goal before Michigan State took the lead again within a few minutes. The Gophers quickly tied the score again.
Minnesota star Jimmy Snuggerud scored both goals for his team, with the first firing past MSU goalie Trey Augustine six minutes into the second period and the second fluttering past Augustine at 10:20. A goal by Michigan State forward Joey Larson interrupted the streak.
This is where this game deviated from Friday's example. For the longest spell so far in the weekend series, Snuggerud's second goal kept the score level for more 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 just tried to get a stick on it and fire it at the net, Kelly said. I saw an open corner there, so it's good to get it in the back of the net.
But again Minnesota drew level. On a power play in the final minute of the period, defenseman Luke Mittelstadt knocked a loose puck past Augustine with 15.2 seconds left.
Despite holding a 28-15 edge in shots and a 29-15 faceoff advantage through 40 minutes, the Spartans couldn't separate themselves from an opponent motivated by being on the receiving end of Friday night's 9-3 thumping . But during a period that Michigan State is prioritizing, controlling the game, if not the score, was a favorable outcome.
Most good teams, you look at the score differential and the 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 causing a team to become tired and exhausted.
If the Spartans did that 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 goalkeeper.
Overtime meant each team would leave with a point, but that extra Big Ten point mattered to the conference's top two teams. The teams played like that too. Anticipation grew as the overtime continued. But neither team scored and the match went into a shootout to decide who got the crucial shootout point.
Russell scored in the shootout to give Michigan State the lead, while Augustine stopped both shots he faced. Striker Isaac Howard followed Russell's goal with one of his own to ice the win.
Augustinus 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, with only 120 minutes, Basgall said. So I think it showed a lot of character from our group to see that even after a blowout game yesterday, we were able to come out and execute the same way.
Nightingale agreed, crediting the way his players stayed focused no matter the opponent or the stakes. He emphasized the need to build on this.
There are still things to clear up, Nightingale assessed, but I think, again, looking at who we're playing and the time of year it is, this is what you want, right?
The Spartans want to keep things going as they travel to Columbus next week for a Thursday-Friday series. Winning the series against Minnesota gives Michigan State the right to control its own destiny, but it will take consistency to take advantage of that.
“We know we can do something big this year, but this week we have our eyes on Ohio State,” Basgall said. So we'll turn the page quickly, there are eight big matches on the schedule. So it's great to get the points, but we'll continue step by step.
@ConnorEaregood
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Sources 2/ https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/more-colleges/2025/01/25/msu-hockey-solidifies-big-ten-lead-with-shootout-win-over-minnesota/77952116007/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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