Michigan State hockey soars to No. 6 in national rankings

After sweeping Michigan this past weekend, Michigan State hockey jumped from No. 9 to No. 6 in the national rankings.

The Michigan State hockey team is riding high as it heads into its bye week. The Spartans just swept the No. 11 Michigan Wolverines this past weekend, beating them 5-1 in Ann Arbor and then 3-2 in the Duel in the D.

In the latest college hockey rankings, the Spartans jumped all the way up to No. 6 in the country. Michigan State is also the second-highest-ranked Big Ten team, behind only No. 4 Wisconsin.

Speaking of the Badgers, things are really starting to heat up in the race for the Big Ten championship and it appears to be coming down to the final weekend.

Big Ten championship update

With three weekends remaining in the regular season, the Spartans hold a narrow five point lead atop the conference standings. Wisconsin is the only team in striking range, and they likely will catch up this weekend.

Michigan State has the weekend off while Wisconsin plays last place Ohio State twice. With two wins, the Badgers will take a one point lead over MSU. But that isn’t the end of the world for Michigan State. The Spartans then take on Ohio State the following weekend of Feb. 23-24 in their last home series of the season. They likely will get two more wins themselves and will be at worst just one point behind Wisconsin.

This is when the fun really starts. The last regular season weekend series will see MSU travel to Wisconsin. Both teams likely will have a chance to win the regular season title this final weekend, so these will be two games you won’t want to miss.

The Spartans have never won the Big Ten since the conference created a hockey league about a decade ago. This is their now best shot to do so which would earn them the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and a first-round bye.