Previewing Michigan State hockey season-opening series vs. Lake Superior State

Michigan State hockey season is here. Get ready for the Spartans to take on the Lakers in this series to open the 2024-25 season.

It’s opening weekend. The ice is clean, the sticks are taped, and the defending Big Ten champions are ready to defend their title. The road begins with a series against Lake Superior State up in Sault Ste. Marie. Michigan State hockey brings out a new squad and look to continue the momentum from last season.

Matchup history

The Spartans and the Lakers have played each other a total of 31 times. This matchup is a renewal of an old conference matchup from MSU’s days in the CCHA. Though both teams spent a long time as members of the CCHA, the teams first played in 2002. This weekend will mark the 32nd and 33rd all time meeting between these teams. Michigan State has the edge in the series as they are a combined 17-10-4 against the Lakers all time. The last time that these two teams played each other was last season. There was a two game series at Munn Arena last season where the Spartans won both games.

There is also another interesting piece of history that these two schools share, legendary Spartan hockey coach Ron Mason who is fourth all time in NCAA hockey wins, and coached for both the Lakers and Spartans. Mason, actually served as the first head coach in the history of Lake Superior State. He served as head coach there from the inception of the program in 1967 until 1973. He would go on to take a job at Bowling Green from 1973 until 1979 before going to the Spartans where he coach for the rest of his career from 1979-2002.

Also of note, Spartan head coach Adam Nightingale spent time playing for Lake Superior State in the late 1990s before transferring to play for Michigan State.

Lake Superior State overview

The Lakers had a fairly disappointing season last year. The team finished with a record of 17-20-1 and reached the second round of the CCHA conference tournament. They lost in that round to Bemidji State. Overall, the team finished middle of the road in many categories including powerplay percentage (T-19th), scoring defense (32nd), and scoring offense (T-25th). One category where this team really struggled last year was face-off percentage. The Lakers ranked second to last in the league with their face-off percentage (0.458).

These stats show that while this team wasn’t terrible last year, they definitely struggled to sustain any consistent success.

Though the team struggled last season, that does not mean that they are devoid of weapons. For this Lakers team their best offensive weapon that is returning is junior forward Connor Milburn. In a breakout year, Milburn was able to score 16 goals and add 19 assists for 35 points in total. He also had a +14 +/- rating which shows his ability to help elevate the offense. He also has sneaky good hands that can help him while he is down in the zone. Expect the Spartans to be on top of that throughout the weekend.

Another player to look out for this weekend is sophomore defenseman Evan Bushy. Bushy is a skilled offensive defenseman who is not afraid to make some space and rip a shot off from the blue line. In his freshman season last year, Bushy put up one goal and 14 assists for a total of 15 points. He was the teams highest-scoring defenseman and ranked seventh on the team in scoring. His +/- was a +7 rating as well which came from a great deal of time on the powerplay unit. I would assume that role will only be expanded going into his sophomore season.

Michigan State overview

It goes without saying, that this team is coming off of a high from last season. It was easily the best finish that the Spartans have had since they last won the national championship back in 2007 going 25-10-3. That is not enough though for head coach Adam Nightingale and this team though. They have their eyes set on using last season as a stepping stone for this year. This step will also need to happen with a few new faces including transfers Nicklas Andrews and Charlie Stramel.

Last season, Michigan State hockey did very well in a number of categories including powerplay percentage (5th) and scoring offense (7th). The one area that the Spartans hopefully have improved on this season will be the trips to the penalty box. Last season the team was 12th in average penalty minutes. Too often this put the team into a bad position and sometimes proved costly like in the NCAA tournament against Michigan.

The players to watch over the weekend are going to be goalie Trey Augustine and forward Red Savage. Both of these guys are draft picks of the Detroit Red Wings and are going to play a crucial role on this team. Savage is taking over the captaincy for his senior year and seems to be primed to take the next step in elevating his game. He provides a good goal scoring touch while also providing a strong physical presence that will allow him to work well in his new role. For Augustine, he was one of the best goalies in college hockey last year, there is a reason the Red Wings are very excited about this kid. He is coming off a summer where he played with NHL players in the World Championships and a season where he was a consistent steady hand in net.

Look for both of these guys to start the season strong in this series.

Where to watch?

The weekend series between the Lakers and the Spartans will begin on Friday, Oct. 4, at 6 p.m. ET and the Saturday game will be at 4 p.m. The series will be streamed over the CCHA streaming site MidcoSports Plus. The Spartan radio broadcast will be covering both games as well. The station for that locally is WVFM 730 AM and the audio will also be streamed on the Spartan Media Network.