Michigan State men’s ice hockey took a loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals Saturday night by a final score of 5-1.
Despite the final score, the story of the game felt different. MSU opened the scoring when junior right wing Jeremy Davidson found the back of the net on a nicely-executed power play. However, that 1-0 lead didn’t last long. Unfortunately, it was also all MSU could generate in terms of offense.
Minnesota scored its first goal when Jaxon Nelson put the puck past Michigan State goaltender Dylan St. Cyr after freshman defenseman Viktor Hurtig was whistled for tripping. With two minutes remaining, John Mittelstadt added another for the Golden Gophers, putting Minnesota up 2-1 at the break.
The Gophers added another goal in the second period when Cal Thomas found Aaron Huglen. Two more were added in the third, both by Logan Cooley; one of which was on an empty net after the Spartans pulled St. Cyr with slightly more than four minutes remaining.
David Gucciardi played well with timely blocks and contributing to MSU’s shot total. Despite the 5-1 loss, Michigan State outshot the Gophers 30-24. It was the Minnesota forecheck that really gave an advantage toward the nation’s No. 1 team. Michigan State was unable to break out of its own zone on numerous occasions and it was difficult to work into transition.
Minnesota’s win means it will host Michigan next weekend for the Big Ten Championship.
Moving forward, MSU’s already near-impossible odds of an NCAA Tournament bid got a bit more difficult after this past weekend.
At the end of the regular season, MSU needed a win above all else against Notre Dame. The Spartans also needed losses from teams in front and behind in the computerized Pairwise rankings. That included Northeastern and Merrimack. Additionally, MSU needed to hope that zero teams outside of the top 16 wins its conference tournament since those schools would receive automatic bids to the field.
By default, none of the teams in the Atlantic Hockey conference would be eligible for the tournament otherwise, however, one team is going to go regardless. Whichever team wins will take the No. 16-seed in the tournament.
With that said, Northern Michigan just upset Michigan Tech today. Michigan Tech is eligible via the Pairwise rankings while Northern Michigan is No. 27 even with the win against the Huskies. If Michigan Tech defeats Minnesota State in the CCHA Finals, the cut-off to the Pairwise rankings will be at 14.
As far as Northeastern goes, it lost to Providence on Saturday night, falling to No. 20 in the Pairwise and eliminating its chances at a tournament appearance. For Merrimack, it defeated Boston College in double-overtime.
MSU is still at No. 16 after the loss to Minnesota, being that the Gophers are at the top. Merrimack still stands at No. 15, meaning the Spartans are effectively the “first team out” as it stands.
Regardless, even if MSU does not make the tournament, the fact that the program is in this position speaks volumes as to the progress its made over the course of one year.