There was limited time for the Spartans to celebrate winning the Great Lakes Invitational after ending a 15-year drought as the No. 1 ranked Michigan State men's ice hockey team returns to play tonight. The Spartans host Big Ten opponent Wisconsin at Munn Ice Arena Thursday nice before playing a neutral-site game at Wrigley Field Saturday night.
The Badgers have played much better since the calendar turned to December, beginning with a 4-0 win over the Spartans, going 4-2 in their last six games overall. Those two losses both came in overtime to Michigan and MSU, respectively. In that same stretch, UW has won three times in shutouts (MSU, UM, and Ferris State), riding a hot goalie in senior transfer Tommy Scarfone. The Badger goaltender boasts a .920 save percentage and 2.04 goals against average.
Wisconsin wants to play a defensively sound brand of hockey under second-year head coach Mike Hastings. Scarfone has reaped the benefits of that style, providing a backbone for a team that was drowning in the early part of the season.
In the 4-0 Badgers win over the Spartans, UW took a 1-0 lead 15 minutes into the game and sat on that lead until five minutes into the third period. In that final period, the Badgers scored on a power play, earning a 2-0 lead. Wisconsin just suffocated the game out, adding one more goal with a goaltender and then an empty net goal to bring the final score to the lopsided 4-0 margin. It was not the best game performance by Michigan State, but that is not to take anything away from Wisconsin who imposed the game to be at the Badgers' speed and style.
When the Spartans bounced back the next night for an overtime win, they had to battle back from being down 2-0 to the Badgers before taking control of play in the second period using a Charlie Stramel power play goal to breakthrough for the first MSU goal of the weekend. The Spartans then tied the game in the third period and won on an Isaac Howard three-on-three overtime goal.
Keys To Thursday's Game
Charlie Stramel
In both games in Madison, the former Badger played some of his best hockey in green and white. Stramel was clearly fired up to be playing a team that limited his role when Hastings was hired as he played with an edge physically, was active after whistles, and turned that into one of his five goals on the season so far.
Stramel can be the spark to the fire in a very important game as the Spartans sit five points back of league leader Minnesota, with two games in hand. A sweep is MSU's goal this weekend, and Stramel — with a home crowd against his former team — can be huge to the success tonight.
Fast Start
Both games in Madison saw the Spartans play from behind and, as we saw, that is not an easy task to play yourself back into a win, particularly on the road. Playing with a lead against a defensive team like the Badgers gives MSU a great chance to succeed, especially with Luca Di Pasquo making his debut against a Big Ten league opponent as a sophomore. Get out in front early, make a team break out of their shell and beat them on a counter attack, is a great recipe for success for the Spartans.
Männistö-Shoudy-Kelly Line
The 3rd line of Tommi Männistö, Tiernan Shoudy, and Tanner Kelly was the best line going in the Monday night GLI final. They multiple times hemmed the Broncos into their own zone, scored the tying goal just 15 seconds after WMU took a lead, and played physical without ending up in the box, something Männistö and Kelly struggled with at times in past seasons. In the first season series the Spartans did not get enough out of their lower lines, relying heavily, certainly on offense from their first line. This is a game the 3rd line can thrive in, as it plays to their style and they can greatly tip the scale towards the Spartans if they play similar to how they played in that GLI Final.
Details/How to Watch
Time: 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Thursday Jan. 2nd
Location: Ron Mason Rink at Munn Ice Arena, East Lansing, Michigan
Television: Big Ten Network
Streaming: Fox Sports
World Junior Championship and Recruiting Notes
Thursday sees the beginning of the knockout stage of the 2025 World Junior Championships in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and the two Spartans playing in the WJC are having personal and team success to mention. Trey Augustine made 38 saves on New Years Eve in a 4-1 USA win over Canada, that secured the USA the top spot in Group A.
The Americans will play Switzerland in the Quarterfinals at 2:30 PM Thursday on NHL Network. Augustine will backup WMU goaltender Hampton Slukynsky today. The same thing was done at WJC last season with Augustine sitting the Quarterfinal game and then starting the Semifinal and Championship game on short rest.
Maxim Strbak helped Slovakia avoid a meltdown upset to Kazakhstan on December 30th, scoring the winning goal in overtime after the Slovaks had lost a two-goal lead in the final minutes, surrendering two short handed goals.
Slovakia finished third in Group B, playing Finland in the quarterfinals at 5 PM Thursday. Strbak has one goal and four assists in five games played. If Slovakia were to lose today, it is possible to see Strbak in the lineup for the Spartans when they play at Wrigley Field on Saturday evening.
Minutes after the GLI Championship went final, the Spartans added a commitment to their roster for the 2025-26 season in defensemen Tyson Jugnauth. Jugnauth is currently skating with the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League (WHL), is a Seattle Kraken NHL Draft pick (2022 4th round), and will have two years remaining of NCAA eligibility. Jugnauth previously played 1.5 seasons with Wisconsin (45 games played, five goals, 12 assists) and left during the 2022-23 season to join the Winterhawks.
Previous to this season, playing in the WHL would have ended Jugnauth's NCAA eligibility, but since CHL players can now play in the NCAA it opened things back up for the Spartans. Jugnauth has 46 points (six goals, 40 assists) in 33 games played this season with Portland.
This is the first current CHL player to commit to the Spartans, but they did have two commits previously leave their BCHL (Savin Virk) and NAHL (Chase Reid) teams to sign with the WHL and OHL respectively. Having a player who has his NHL rights already retained commit to the Spartans for just one (maybe two) seasons of development, speaks volumes of how the staff is viewed. Seattle holds Jugnauth's NHL rights until the summer of 2026, so it is possible Jugnauth is a one and done candidate if he plays well, as Seattle would hate to lose him to free agency if he returns for a senior season in East Lansing.
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