Michigan State Hockey: 6 quick takes from series win over Minnesota

When two top-four teams are scheduled to go against each other, it gets attention. This is the second weekend when Michigan State hockey (20-3-2) and Gophers (19-6-2) have met as top-four teams this season. Both teams have been far and away better than the rest of the conference.

This weekend could very well have decided who ends up being the regular-season Big Ten champ and the No. 1 seed going into the Big Ten Tournament. Following this weekend series, only four weekends remain in the regular season.

The No. 2 Spartans opened up the weekend series with a thorough dismantling of the No. 4 Gophers by winning by a score of 9-3. That final score was the largest margin of victory for the Spartans in the history of this series. On Saturday, it was much closer as it ended in a 3-3 tie and the Spartans gained the extra point in the standings with a shootout win.

Let’s look at some of the things that factored into this series victory, starting with Game 1.

GAME 1 (MSU wins 9-3)

1. Third-line highlights depth

After the final horn sounded, it may have felt like this was the usual story for Michigan State hockey. The first line of Howard, Russell, and Stramel carried the team to victory. While that line did provide eight points between the three of them, most of their contributions did not start going in the net until the second half of the second period when the Spartans started to skate away with the game.

Before the floodgates opened on scoring in this game, it was the third line of Mannisto, Shoudy, and Kelly who got the Spartan offense going. Kelly was the first to score followed by Mannisto. Shoudy was able to get himself a point on the Mannisto goal. Up until this line started going, the game was relatively even. The Spartans had a slight advantage thanks to their high-volume shot offensive style. It was nice to see that these guys who usually operate as the third or fourth line were the ones to get the team going. That is one of the biggest strengths of the Spartans. They do not rely on the first line to produce all of their offense, it is spread throughout the lineup. That is a nightmare for a coach trying to gameplan because most teams don’t have the defensive depth to compete with that.

The offensive depth that MSU possesses is one of their biggest strengths and it showed up against a fantastic Minnesota team. Once all of the lines started heating up, it was too much for the defense and both goalies to handle and led to an embarrassing loss.

2. Building the Isaac Howard Hobey Baker case

Though it is important to have depth, any team that wants to be a contender needs a few stars. The Spartans are lucky enough to have a few, most notably Trey Augustine and Isaac Howard. Though Howard was expected to have a good season based on last year, few could have predicted that at this point in the season, he would be leading all the NCAA in both points and goals.

Howard’s performance this season has him in serious contention for the Hobey Baker Award. If you are new to college hockey, the award is equivalent to the Heisman Trophy. It would be the third time that a Spartan has won the award after both Kip and Ryan Miller (cousins) won the award in 1990 and 2001, respectively. It is important to have several showcase games during the season for players to win these awards. Howard now has at least two including the Penn State game where he scored four goals. Howard turned on the heat in the second half of the game to join in on the fun his teammates were having. He added two goals and an assist to help him earn the first star of the game in the victory. There is no telling how the final voting will go this year. Fans do get some say in the award voting though which is open. Both Howard and Trey Augustine are likely finalists for the award this year.

3. Defense breaks through on offense

It is said that the best defense is a good offense. It also helps when the defense is offensively gifted as well. The Spartan defense not only made a difference in blocking shots and preventing chances on Friday night, they got on the score sheet. A total of 10 points came from defenders during the Friday game. That is one of the highest-scoring nights for the defense the program has had. This defensive production was led by David Gucciardi (2-0-2) and Maxim Strbak (0-4-4). Both defenders made their presence known on the blue line and made life difficult for the Gophers.

This scoring help from the defense was a highlight of this game, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary. Michigan State hockey is currently ranked sixth in the country in scoring defense. When combined with the fact that the Spartans have the fourth-ranked scoring offense, it is not hard to see why this team is just continuing to steamroll its way through teams.

GAME 2 (3-3 tie, shootout win)

Another victory for MSU.

To say that historically this hasn’t been much of a rivalry, would be an understatement. The two teams have played each other a total of 210 times and the Spartans record against the Gophers is 54-136-20. With all that being said, Michigan State hockey finished off the technical sweep of Minnesota this year in the regular season. The Spartans ended up winning Game 2 in a 4-3 shootout victory.

While it does go down as the second tie the Spartans and Gophers have had, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the Spartans won all four regular-season matches. This is the first time since Big Ten hockey was founded that Michigan State hockey has beaten the Gophers in every matchup.

Before we shift focus to Columbus and the series with the Buckeyes next weekend, let’s take a look at this 4-3 win.

1. Great Showing by David Gucciardi

David Gucciardi is not a name that gets much attention around this Michigan State hockey team. The senior defenseman is one of the few remaining Spartans from before coach Adam Nightingale arrived. He has always been a solid second or third-line defenseman. It looks as though the former seventh-round pick by the Washington Capitals wants to go out with a bang. His offensive explosion this weekend has allowed him to surpass his career-best in points with games to spare (4-8-12).

This weekend, Gucciardi scored two goals and added two assists. A lot of those looks came right on the blue line where he likes to use his slap shot with pressure in front of the net. He was able to get several great looks from the slot all weekend and that allowed him to have a weekend to remember. The fact that this all happened against a great Minnesota team, only makes it that much sweeter. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come from Gucciardi and he can keep up at least some of this production. If the Spartans can get a fraction of that defensive scoring, it will go a long way to helping him potentially go out a champion.

2. Augustine gets the job done

Trey Augustine’s performance this weekend was not very characteristic of his usual play. He was able to make a number of those special saves that he provides but seemed to struggle. In both games against the Gophers, Augustine gave up three goals. Though Augustine did not have the greatest set of performances this weekend, he often doesn’t need to because of the team around him. One of the biggest strengths of this team is that even if Augustine is having an off-game or series, the rest of the team is there to help out. Augustine has won more than a few games for this team with his play as well though.

This weekend is not indicative of what Augustine is because Spartan fans have seen what he can do. As the next few series come and go, it will be important for him to ramp his play back up. This team needs Augustine to get back to his game to help set the Spartans prepare for the tournament.

3. Defense limits chances

The Spartan defense was stellar in several ways this past weekend. On both the offensive and defensive side of the puck. In the second game of this series, the Gophers were only able to get off a total of only 21 shots on goal. Considering that the Spartans were playing the highest-scoring offense in all of college hockey, that says a lot about the defensive play.

The Spartans were able to get many blocked shots and also prevent high-quality shots. Typically, high-quality shots refer to shots taken from the area in between the faceoff circles. Good defenses can prevent chances in this area because they force the offense to take shots from low-percentage areas.

Overall thoughts

At the end of the day, Michigan State hockey got the job done. For the first time since the Big Ten started, the Spartans beat Minnesota in every matchup. Though it goes down as a tie, it is a huge victory for the Spartans. Even more importantly, the Spartans were able to create a gap in the Big Ten standings. The Spartans now have a 4-point gap between them and the Gophers. With only four series to go, the Spartans are in prime position now to secure the Big Ten regular-season championship if they continue their level of play.

The Spartans will now shift their focus to No. 9 Ohio State. The Buckeyes (15-7-2) are coming off of a weekend where they were swept by Penn State and will be looking to get back on track. Ohio State has been a surprise in their shift in play from last season as they are now a top-10 team. The games will both be taking place at Value City Arena in Columbus.

This series will be a Thursday and Friday night series. Thursday’s game will start at 8 p.m. EST and Friday’s will start at 7 p.m. EST.