Hockey Preview: No. 1 Michigan State vs. No. 10 Michigan

As the puck drops at Munn Ice Arena on Saturday night, it will begin the 350th contest between the Michigan State Spartans and Michigan Wolverines in a college hockey game. That is the most played series in college hockey, and after meeting six times last season — including in a Big Ten championship game (MSU win) and NCAA Regional Final (Michigan win) — there has not been this much hype for game one of the season series in quite some time.

Game 349 on Friday night in Ann Arbor will see the Spartans as the top-ranked team in the country and top team in the Big Ten take on a Michigan team that is ranked No. 10 in the polls, but 12th in the Pairwise, and a disappointing fifth in the Big Ten standings, 10 points back of the Spartans.

This weekend is of vital importance for each team beyond the rivalry. The Spartans need to get their fair share of points, ahead of a monster home series with the second-place Minnesota Golden Gophers next weekend. Michigan is safe for the NCAA Tournament right now, but has not given itself too much wiggle room to keep dropping games, and if the Wolverines want to make any type of run for the conference championship, they can take almost nothing less than a sweep this weekend.

Move out from this season and you have what makes this rivalry so contentious and great every season, and unique to hockey over some of the other sports these teams compete in. MSU's Tiernan Shoudy and Tanner Kelly were teammates of Michigan forward Mark Estapa going all the way back to 2015-2016 as 13-year-olds with Little Caesars AAA Hockey in Detroit. They spent four seasons in their childhood traveling to showcases, chasing national championships and navigating college recruiting together. This weekend, these three will battle on the ice as bitter rivals, and for Kelly and Estapa, they are have already played 16 games against each other in the MSU vs. UM series. This is a personal rivalry, and it sets the tone of walking into the summer skates in metro Detroit with your chest puffed a little extra, or slinking in timidly, and with top-10 talent on both sides, this will be another cinematic chapter in a Tolstoy epic.

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Looking Back

Last season saw quite the range of emotions in the Michigan State-Michigan series. Game one of the season was at Munn Arena, with a buzz around the Spartans in their second year under head coach Adam Nightingale that had been dead for decades. The excitement in town leading up to the game was palpable, and perhaps that got to a young team still learning to deal with expectations as the Spartans came out too emotional, full of mistakes and lacking discipline, leading to a Michigan 7-1 victory. The Spartans were slow to start the following night in Ann Arbor, falling down 4-1 mid second period, before ripping four goals in less than 10 minutes to lead 5-4 entering the third period, on their way to a 7-5 victory.

Michigan State would go on to sweep Michigan by final scores of 5-1 and 3-2, with wins at Yost Ice Arena and Little Caesars Arena last February. The Spartans would then get a second chance at Munn Arena last March, hosting the Wolverines with a Big Ten Playoff Championship on the line, and a back-and-forth game led to the Patrick Geary overtime winner posted above. It felt like the story was all written for the 2023-2024 season in this rivalry, but two squads found each other again in St. Louis, meeting for the first time in a NCAA Tournament game. The Wolverines had the last laugh, winning 5-2, pulling away with back-to-back goals in the third period, on their way to a Frozen Four berth.

The 2023-2024 season series ended with MSU winning four games, winning a Big Ten Playoff Championship and scoring 23 goals. The Wolverines won twice, coming out victorious in a NCAA Regional Championship game and scoring 24 goals.

Now moving ahead to the 2024-2025 season, one big storyline entering the weekend is production returning. The Wolverines return just six of their 24 goals from this series last season. Dylan Duke alone outscored the returning production for the Wolverines, scoring seven goals against the Spartans last year, before leaving school a year early to sign with the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning. T.J. Hughes is back for the Wolverines, after scoring three goals against the Spartans last season, and he is second on the team with seven goals, 13 assists and 20 points for the Wolverines this season.

On the other side, the Spartans return 16 of their 23 goals scored from the series last year, and spread those goals among 11 players, compared to the Wolverines' four players. Isaac Howard, currently the nation's leading scorer with 18 goals and 15 assists for 33 points, scored just one goal in this series last season. The leading returning scorer for the Spartans in the season series is Tanner Kelly, who scored four goals in five games, as he was a healthy scratch for the second game of the series last year, after having a fight filled first game.

No. 10 Michigan Wolverines

It was always expected that the Wolverines would see a step back this season after losing a metric ton of talent from their roster last season. Michigan lost its top-three scorers in Rutger McGroarty, Gavin Brindley and Dylan Duke. Brindley led the Wolverines in scoring last year with 53 points in 40 games played. This season, by comparison, Michael Hage is the leading scorer for UM, with 11 goals, 13 assists in 24 points in 19 games played. Hage is a freshman, and first round draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 2024.

Hage will absolutely be a player to key in on, as well as the aforementioned Hughes, who has five power-play goals on the season. With Hage being a freshman, it is also possible it takes him some time to find balance in a rivalry game like this. William Whitelaw is a talented junior transfer from the University of Wisconsin, and former teammate of current Spartan Charlie Stramel, who has scored a goal each of the past two weekends, possibly finding his offense again after going six games without a point from November through Jan. 3.

This has been a season with a different feel in Ann Arbor, as the Wolverines are much lower ranked offensively, scoring just 3.1 goals per game (20th in the country), and their 3.1 goals against per game speaks to the 13-8-1 record they have. In net, Michigan has shuffled between graduate transfer Logan Stein, formerly of Ferris State, and talented freshman Cameron Korpi. Korpi has had the better stats overall, but also was pulled after just 28 minutes with five goals surrendered last Saturday night in a 7-4 loss to Notre Dame, so I would assume Stein is the plan for both games this weekend.

The Wolverines got themselves rolling in November, winning seven of eight games, including six-straight at one point — sweeping Boston University on the road, sweeping Notre Dame in a home-and-home and sweeping Penn State (in an offensive series 6-5, 10-6), before closing the month by splitting home wins with Western Michigan. Since then the Wolverines have been middling, being swept by Minnesota (with no goals in the weekend, losing 6-0, 2-0), splitting with Wisconsin (including a third-straight shutout loss), splitting with Ohio State, and finally splitting with Notre Dame.

Michigan is a team not playing it's best hockey, and with the stretch run of the season approaching, it would be wise for the Spartans — winners of six of their last seven games, with the non-win being a shootout loss — to jump on the Wolverines in this series and look to give them no confidence in things turning around.

For more MSU hockey talk, watch the "Locked On Spartans episode below, starting around the 11:48 mark.

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