The Michigan State Spartans hockey team, ranked No. 2 in the polls and PairWise standings - who now own a 5-point lead in the Big Ten standings - will look to keep their stranglehold on the league title this week, travelling for a Thursday-Friday set of games at No. 11 Ohio State.

The Spartans announced they will be without senior forward captain Red Savage for the rest of the season, as he was having surgery this week on a wrist injury. Savage did not feature in the Spartans lineup last week as the Spartans beat Minnesota 9-3, and won in a shootout on back-to-back nights.

With the results of last weekend the Spartans have locked up inclusion in the NCAA National Tournament and, according to college hockey insider Mike McMahon, they have a 94% chance of being a 1-seed in the tournament. It is looking like this will not be the last trip for the Spartans to the state of Ohio this season, as it is very likely they will be the 1-seed in the Toledo Regional in March.

However, before looking too far ahead to single elimination hockey, the Spartans will need to take care of business this week against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

These two teams met back in November, opening the conference season for the Spartans, with Michigan State sweeping the Buckeyes 4-2, 4-1.

At the time the Buckeyes were expected to be a bottom team in the conference, but they have surprised everyone, finding themselves in third for most of the season, just behind Minnesota. Ohio State did hold a lead for 11 minutes in the second period of the game on Saturday in November, but the Spartans scored twice in just over a minute to take control of the game and close out the series sweep.

During Adam Nightingale's tenure as MSU head coach, the Spartans are 7-3 against the Buckeyes, going 2-2 in Columbus.