Michigan State Hockey: Spartans Sweep Penn State in Weekend Blowout

How Sweep It Is!

Over the course of a season, there are few games that can be given the status of a statement game. The Saturday night 5-0 shutout of the Penn State Nittany Lions (9-3-0) was just that. The top-ranked Spartans (7-1-0) brought everything they had to pull out a 5-0 victory over a top 3 opponent. Michigan State hockey will continue their reign as the top team in the country.

1st Period

This game in many ways was a continuation of Friday night. It was very physical, and had some very high skilled talent on display. Unlike Friday night though, the offense was firing at full power. The Spartans started fast off the faceoff and took the puck to the net early. Charlie Stramel opened up scoring for Michigan State only 2 minutes into the game. After receiving a cross ice pass from Porter Martone, Stramel ripped a wrister from the top of the circles that was never in doubt. The goal was just the start of an impressive night for Stramel.

Later on in the period, Stramel decided to return the favor to Martone. Deep in the zone, Stramel found Martone who took advantage of Fleming’s wide open back door. To that point, the Munn crowd had been great, especially whenever Gavin McKenna had the puck. The Spartan faithful made their opinion of his collegiate decision known. After Martone’s goal though, the energy in the arena found a new level to match this huge game.

2nd Period

The second stanza continued the pace of the first. Michigan State hockey kept the pressure high on the Nittany Lions and continued to expose their defense. In defense of the Penn State goaltender, Josh Fleming, he didn’t have a terrible game, he just didn’t have much help. As the period continued, the Nittany Lions got exposed, specifically in the slot. In the first two periods alone, the Spartans outshot Penn State 32-24.

About halfway through the period, the Spartans extended their lead to 3-0. The goal was scored by transfer defenseman Colin Ralph for his first as a Spartan. The shot itself was a booming slapshot from the blueline that squeaked past Fleming. From here to the end of the period, the Spartans had full control and Penn State began to lose their composure.

3rd Period

In between the periods, whatever message Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky had, got their team going. For the first half of the 3rd period, Penn State displayed their talent. They were getting shots and generating strong chances. The problem that they ran into, though, was Trey Augustine. Augustine demonstrated why he is one of the best goalies in college hockey by making a number of huge saves when he needed to. About halfway through the period though, Penn State began to run out of gas and patience.

With about 6 minutes remaining in the game there was a big scrum following a whistle that involved Ryker Lee, Eric Nilson, Jackson Smith, and Jarod Crespo. The two freshman refused to be bullied around and sucked all the momentum out of the Nittany Lions. Not long after the fight, on a 4-on-4, Gadowsky pulled the goalie and it quickly went wrong when Daniel Russell found Charlie Stramel for his 2nd of the night and 4th point of the game. This would not be the end of the scoring though as Anthony Romani would find the back of the net less than two minutes later. A very sloppy ending to the 3rd period prevented Penn State any chance of a comeback and sealed the Spartan 5-0 victory.

Overall Thoughts

This game is the best example of what the Spartans can be. Teams under Adam Nightingale always are depth heavy and full of “blue-collar” players. The skill is there for these players, but that is not their hallmark. It has been great to see that as Nightingale’s tenure has gone on, the strength in depth has stayed the same even with adding more skill players. In his post game presser, Coach Nightingale described this team as “humble” and as the sport gets more entrenched with personal glory and NIL deals, this is becoming much more rare.

A great example of this is Penn State. It was obvious that they had a number of young players because of the discipline issues. The Nittany Lions are too talented on paper to have these results. It will be extremely interesting to see how different these teams look when they meet again at the end of January. That series will also include an outdoor game at Beaver Stadium.

The Spartans now prepare to face off against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in South Bend, Indiana. Both games will be streamed on Peacock. The audio for the games will also be available on the Spartan Media Network.

For more coverage on Spartan Hockey, keep checking back on X, with @spartan_shadows and @ikerss98.