Michigan State hockey wins first Big Ten title in program history

Michigan State hockey beat No. 4 ranked Wisconsin 5-2 to secure the first Big Ten title in program history.

For the first time in school history, the No. 5 Michigan State Spartans (22-8-3) are the Big Ten champions in men’s hockey. In a game that went down to the wire, Michigan State hockey was able to end any doubts about holding on to the conference. Those doubts were ended by a big 5-2 win against the No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers (24-9-2). The team needed three points to secure the conference title, and that is exactly what it secured.

We will get more into what this means for the Big Ten Tournament.

First, let’s discuss this game.

First period

The period started about as bad as it could for MSU. Within the first minute of the game, Daniel Laatsch ripped a shot almost from the blue line to give the Badgers an early 1-0 lead. It looked like Augustine didn’t expect Laatsch to take the shot and it caught him off guard.

This team hung tough, though.

Five minutes later, the Spartans got on the board with Artyom Levshunov’s goal. He took a shot from a similar spot to the Laatsch goal only this time, the goalie got a piece of the puck. It looked like McClellan was going to snag the puck. He misjudged the shot though and the puck ended up going into the back of the net. The goal was Levshunov’s ninth goal of the season and tied the game at 1-1.

Michigan State hockey did not finish there, though. With just under two minutes remaining in the first the Badgers had a bad turnover that led to a 2-on-1 breakaway. Reed Lebster took the puck down the ice and passed it across to Jeremy Davidson who fired a missile past McClellan. The goal was Davidson’s ninth of the year and helped to extend that lead after the first to 2-1.

Even though he did let in an early goal, the early mistake seemed to help Augustine take his game to a new level. It builds him up more as a goalie who will bend but won’t break. The Badgers outshot the Spartans by a 19-7 margin in the first and if it wasn’t for Augustine, this game could’ve gotten out of hand. Instead, he did what he has done all season and stood tall to keep this game close.

Second period

The second period belonged to the Badgers. The Michigan State offense struggled to generate a lot of chances in the period with only seven registered shots. Wisconsin, on the other hand, more than doubled those shots and ended with 15. Wisconsin tied up the score in the second to make things interesting. Just over halfway through the second period, Mathieu De St. Phalle redirected a shot from the blue line just out of the reach of Augustine on the powerplay. Realistically, there was nothing that Augustine could’ve done to stop this puck because of the change in angle. This left us tied 2-2 going into the third.

Third period

The third period started very evenly. Both teams kept exchanging shots, but both goalies denied all the chance. Even though Wisconsin dominated in the shot department in the first two periods, the third ended with each team registering 15 shots on net. The biggest of those shots occurred with about seven minutes left in the period. Lebster took the puck down the ice once again and instead of passing, this time he did it all on his own. He caught McClellan out of position and was able to go around him to bury what would end up being the game-winning goal. The goal was Lebster’s sixth of the season and gave the Spartans a 3-2 lead late.

The only real threat to that lead came on a great breakaway chance for the Badgers that Augustine turned away with about four minutes remaining. After that, the Badgers ended up pulling the goalie twice in to try and get the game tied up. It was not to be though as the Spartans added two more goals with the net left open. Jeremy Davidson got his second of the night and his tenth goal of the season. That was followed up by Tiernan Shoudy who scored his fourth of the year. That effort sealed the deal for the Spartans and made them the outright champions of the Big Ten for 2024.

Overall thoughts

This wasn’t a pretty game, but Michigan State hockey did what it needed to do to get the win. Augustine was a force of nature in goal making a total of 44 saves on 46 shots. The offensive performance by Lebster is also one to take note of. He ended the night with three points. This gritty win is exactly what this team needed and hopefully will set up the Spartans well for postseason play.

The focus now needs to be finishing strong on Saturday night against the same Badger team, and then moving on to the Big Ten Tournament. The win on Friday night guarantees that Michigan State will be the first seed in the tournament. This means that the team will get a week off following Saturday’s game. The lowest seed remaining after the best-of-three round next week will head to Munn Ice Arena for a single elimination game against the Spartans on March 16.

Before we reach the tournament though, the Spartans will wrap up the regular season on Saturday night. Puck drop will be at 9 p.m. EST from Madison, Wisc., on BTN+.