The legendary Vince Lombardi once said “it’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”
And, oh boy did the MSU hockey team get knocked down Friday night.
This weekend was supposed to be a landmark weekend for Michigan State hockey, starting with a home game Friday night against -- a night that seemed like it could have marked a turning point for the Spartans, from sleeping giant in college hockey to arriving back on the national scene with a satisfying victory over its biggest rival.
Friday’s meeting between Michigan State and Michigan was the most anticipated game at Munn Ice Arena in at least a decade. Before the puck dropped, there was a buzz in the arena. There was a confidence among the fans that the Spartans not only belonged on the ice against a talented Wolverines’ team, but that they could beat them, perhaps handily.
Instead, sold out Munn crowd was left stunned, disappointed, and wondering what happened to their team after a 7-1 drubbing by the Wolverines. Michigan State didn’t lose because it wasn’t on Michigan’s level but, rather, because it was the sloppiest game that the Spartans played all season.
“That was probably as poor as I’ve seen us execute,” coach Adam Nightingale said Friday night after the loss.
Michigan State was held to just 23 shots on goal, its lowest of the season. The Spartans allowed seven goals, the most they’ve given up all season. Additionally, MSU posed no threat on the power play (0-for-5), while Michigan scored four power play goals and a shorthanded goal. Trey Augustine only had a save percentage of .800, the lowest mark he’s had this season.
Augustine was bombarded all night as Michigan had 23 quality chances compared to 14 by Michigan State. The Wolverines also had 11 rush chances which resulted in multiple goals.
The game turned chippy in the third period once it was out of hand in Michigan’s favor. The final 20 minutes featured a combined 151 penalty minutes.
“That’s a tall task,” Nightingale said about not letting the emotions run high heading into game two of the series. “(I've) got a ton of respect for our guys because I know how hard they train and they want to play the game. Sometimes in our sport, that spills over. Doesn’t make it right, but the reality is, that does happen at times. (We've got to) look for ways to use that emotion to impact the game, not after the whistle.”
Team meeting
After the 7-1 loss on Friday, Michigan State had a team meeting at Munn the next morning to refocus and regroup ahead of the rematch on Saturday night.
"We actually had a really good conversation with (MSU basketball) coach (Tom) Izzo," Nightingale said about the team meeting. "He's been great. He texts me. You don't get as many texts when the game goes that way. Him and Jake Boss texted me.
"He (Izzo) just talked about when he took over, and the rivalry, and finding that balance between respect and not liking them," continued Nightingale. "I think I needed to do a better job of that. Obviously, I talk about it. But I think it's a ton of respect for their program and our guys too. I thought Friday night, when you take penalties, I don't think it's respecting your opponent because you're not respecting the danger of their power play. (We've got to) make sure we maintain that."
Bounce back in Ann Arbor
For the first half of the Saturday night rematch at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, it was the same story as the previous night. T.J. Hughes and Rutger McGroarty slotted home two goals apiece as Michigan built a 4-1 lead against Michigan State in the second period.
Michigan State had gotten punched in the face, not unlike Friday night.
But this time, the Spartans showed resilience, got up, and answered back.
Just 40 seconds after Michigan’s fourth goal, a switch seemed to immediately flip. Michigan State scored four goals in the final 10 minutes of the period to take a 5-4 lead heading into the final 20 minutes. The goals were scored by Isaac Howard, Nicolas Muller, Gavin O’Connell, and Jeremy Davidson.
Nightingale talked to his team after the fourth Michigan goal during a tv timeout; that's what seemed to spark the comeback.
"Just remind them what we had talked about," Nightingale said after the win. "It's never about the score. We want to keep getting better and get to our game. I think we have a good team. The key there is team. It's not about one guy. (We've got to) play team hockey. So just staying with it and don't worry about the score. I know it's hard. (We've got to) fight it but keep doing it the right way."
In the third period, Muller added his second goal of the night to cap off a career-best four point performance. Joey Larson added an empty net goal to give Michigan State a 7-4 lead. That made it six unanswered goals by the Spartans before Dylan Duke got one back late in the game.
The Spartans hung on to win 7-5, marking the program’s first win at Yost since 2019, snapping an eight game losing streak at the venue in the process. It was a necessary bounce back to prevent a severely underwhelming weekend.
Following Nightingale's lead, the Spartans dug deep and turned it around midgame Saturday night. The turnovers which had haunted Michigan State on Friday, haunted their opponent on Saturday instead. And despite being outshot 48-30, MSU converted when it mattered.
While the road victory might be dampened because of the 7-1 home beat down on Friday, Spartan fans shouldn't let it distract them from seeing what their hockey team showed their true colors to be: a resilient, high-powered offensive team that can beat some of the most talented squads in the country.
In another universe, Saturday’s game could have gone off the rails, just like Friday. It sure seemed like it was headed that way, at the midway point of the second period -- before the Spartans scored six of the last seven goals.
Honestly, if Saturday night's game goes off the rails, the season might have gone spiraling out of control with two embarrassing losses to an in-state rival, something that’s difficult to recover from, especially in a tough conference like the Big Ten.
But that didn’t happen.
Nightingale and the Spartans showed who they really were on Saturday, and MSU will still have at least two more chances at Michigan.
Before that, Michigan State will have meetings with Minnesota and Notre Dame, but more importantly, a chance to get better. A chance to work out kinks that might not have been exposed if it weren’t for Michigan’s 7-1 domination on Friday. A chance to turn it into a learning experience. A chance to get back up after being knocked down, just like the Spartans did on Saturday.
"I think that we learned a lot," Nightingale said about the series. "Obviously, we got a lot to still work on. And I think that's what I've enjoyed about this group. It's a humble group. They don't think they have all the answers. We had a tough meeting this morning. And the areas we try to kinda pride ourselves in, playing winning hockey, and that's my responsibility, we didn't play that on Friday and let's get back to it. We're excited about the direction of our team. We played a lot of good hockey but still a lot of room to grow."
