No. 8 Michigan State hockey hits the road for series with stingy Notre Dame
A difficult road test is next for the Michigan State hockey team in its quest to remain atop the Big Ten standings.
The No. 8 Spartans (17-6-3 overall, 11-3-2 Big Ten), who have just four more leagues series remaining, will face Notre Dame (13-11-2, 7-7-2) in a two-game series in South Bend, Ind. MSU swept the Irish 5-2 and 2-1 back in the teams' first meeting in early December at Munn Arena.
MSU is coming off a weekend split with No. 9 Minnesota in which it ended a 15-game regulation losing streak to the Gophers in Friday's thrilling come-from-behind win, capped by sophomore Daniel Russell's goal with just four seconds remaining. Minnesota then won the following night, 5-1.
"We had some exciting hockey this past weekend against a really talented opponent that we knew was going to test us," MSU coach Adam Nightingale said. "We're looking forward to playing Notre Dame. They are a hard team to generate offense against. They aren't going to give us anything, so if you want something you're going to have to earn it."
Notre Dame prides itself on defense, allowing just 2.58 goals per game. The stinginess starts with fifth-year senior goaltender Ryan Bischel, who boasts a 2.41 goals against average and a .928 save percentage.
It will be quite the challenge for MSU's high-scoring offense. The Spartans have scored 107 goals — 4.12 per game, which ranks fifth nationally — and have six players with more than 20 points, led by sophomore Joey Larson with 15 goals and 28 points.
"Every team is getting better throughout the season. We are going to see every team's best going forward and we embrace that challenge," MSU defenseman Nash Nienhuis said. "It comes down to execution and us playing the way we want to play. We'll have to go to hard areas and get some gritty goals, especially against a guy like Bischel, but that's a big part of our game."
Notre Dame is also successful in the faceoff circle, winning just under 55 percent of draws, which is the best in the Big Ten and sixth nationally. The Fighting Irish aren't as proficient offensively, however, with just one player — senior forward Landon Slaggert — with more than 10 goals and 20 points. Freshman forward Danny Nelson, who played on the U.S. World Juniors team over the holidays with MSU's Trey Augustine and Isaac Howard, has 19 points in 22 games.
MSU has now split its past two series after starting the second half of Big Ten play with a road sweep at Penn State. MSU has fallen behind in each of its past four games — a trend that it hopes to reverse this weekend.
"When we play our game, we are really tough and we make it really hard to play against," MSU freshman forward Griffin Jurecki said. "Good teams are going to make plays and capitalize, but we want to eliminate that we've given away some momentum early. Our starts haven't been that bad outside of the scoreboard, but you want to keep the puck out of the net early."
MSU and Notre Dame will play at 7:30 p.m. Friday and at 6 p.m. Saturday at Compton Family Ice Arena. Both games are available to be streamed on Peacock.
Contact Nathaniel Bott at nbott@lsj.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @Nathaniel_Bott
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State hockey hits the road for series with stingy Notre Dame
