Michigan blasts Michigan State, 7-1: What went wrong & what's next

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State’s hopes of making a big statement on the local, regional and national college hockey landscape were put on hold for a while – and judging by the way Michigan dominated the host Spartans on Friday at Munn Ice Arena, it might be a long while.

Michigan was too fast and too skilled for the Spartans, posting a 7-1 victory over Michigan State before a sellout, crammed-to-the-gills crowd of 6,555.

Michigan State (15-5-3 and 9-2-2 in the Big Ten) came into the game ranked No. 3 in the nation in the Pairwise Rankings. With the loss, Michigan State fell to No. 8. Michigan (11-7-3 and 4-5-2) rose to No. 12.

Michigan scored short-handed, on a 5-on-3 power play, and at even strength in the final eight minutes of the first period, in taking a 3-0 lead into the first intermission, and was never challenged the rest of the night. 

“One area I was disappointed is once we got down we seemed a little deflated,” said second-year Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale. “Our message to our group, and this is on me, I have to do a better job, is it’s always about your next shift, regardless of the score. It’s human nature to fall into that, and I did. It’s super hard and I have to fight those emotions too. 

“I liked us for the first couple of minutes, I liked our jump. Obviously the discipline side really bit us today.

“Michigan played really well. They played hard and they made it hard on us to get to the inside. The few times they were able to, they had a guy there, and good sticks. 

“For our guys, it’s about trying to get better. But it gives us an opportunity for growth and I think this is one of the things when I took over here is looking forward to opportunities. Obviously we have a lot to work on, so now is about rest and recovering and getting ready for Saturday.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Michigan State will play at Michigan at 7 p.m. on Saturday (BTN+). Friday’s game marked the Wolverines’ only visit of the year to Munn Ice Arena. The two teams will play for a third time on Feb. 9 in Ann Arbor, and on Feb. 10 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. 

The final six minutes of the game were delayed by a handful of scrums, rumbles and dust-ups, which will add intrigue to Saturday’s rematch.

Five Michigan State players received 10-minute misconduct penalties and one Spartan, Tanner Kelly, received a game misconduct. No one will be suspended for Saturday’s rematch. 

Five Michigan players received 10-minute misconduct penalties.

Four-teen roughing penalties were called, seven to each team. 

Nightingale was asked if it will be difficult to keep the bad blood from carrying over to Saturday.

“That’s a tall task,” he said. “I have a tone of respect for our guys because I know how hard they train and they want to play the game. Sometimes in our sport, that spills over. That doesn’t make it right. But the reality is that does happen at times. We have to look for ways to use that emotion to impact the game, not after the whistle.”

THE BIG PICTURE

Michigan State came into this game as one of the hottest teams in the nation, having been beaten only once in regulation in its previous 14 games. Things seemed primed for the Spartans to make a statement against its in-state rival which has had its way in this series for most of the last 15 years. 

Michigan State still may prove itself to be the best team in the state and Big Ten this season, but much will need to be altered to make that happen, judging by Friday’s outcome. 

“I think that was probably about as poor as I’ve seen us execute,” Nightingale said. “I don’t know if the moment for the guys (was a problem) … or if they were over-thinking it or whatever, but I thought Michigan played really well. We have a ton of respect for their program. But I don’t think it was a case where we were pressing. 

“Once they started getting going, and they controlled large portions of the game, and you take penalties and multiple 5-on-3s, we can’t do that. I will take responsibility for that and talked to the team about it and tried to address it that way, but there needs to be more action. That’s definitely an area to start to clean up.”

WHAT WENT WRONG?

Michigan State has been outstanding this year with burst to the puck, crafty in winning loose pucks and 50-50 battles, and then heading the other way quickly with explosiveness and excellent puck possession. In this game, Michigan did those things better than the Spartans. The Wolverines were quicker to loose pucks, and maintained possession with speed, talent and crisp teamwork. 

Michigan State has been rifling 30 or 40 shots per game at opponents on a consistent basis this year. But early in the third period of this game, Michigan held a 26-14 edge in shots on goal. 

Michigan outshot Michigan State 35-23 for the game.

HOW IT WENT DOWN

Michigan State controlled the action in the first four minutes, out-shooting the Wolverines 3-0 in the early going. Then things settled down evenly for the next four minutes, then Michigan sprang Kienan Draper open for a short-handed breakaway at the 10:16 mark of the first period. 

Michigan State goalie Trey Augustine turned Draper away on that opportunity, but the Wolverines would have four or five more breakaway chances throughout the evening. Michigan State had one. 

Michigan was occasionally faster around the outside of Michigan State defensemen, and skillful in maintaining possession and finishing opportunities. 

THE MICHIGAN QUESTION

Michigan has one of the most talented rosters in the country. The Wolverines were bothered by injuries earlier in the season but hadn’t come close to playing this well all season. Michigan hadn’t played against a reputable opponent since Dec. 1-2 when splitting with Notre Dame, which included a 5-1 loss to the Irish.

Michigan had played only two games in the past six weeks, and those were against winless Stonehill, the worst team in college hockey, last week.

There was a common belief that Michigan’s light schedule over the last six weeks would be a problem for the Wolverines when stepping back into the ring against a Top 10 team. But the opposite held true. 

“They made it hard on us to get to the inside, and we started to fall in love with the outside,” Nightingale said. “They did a great job in front of their net, and their power play was executing at a high level. It was a combination of all of those.”

Michigan has 10 players who have been selected in the NHL Draft (Michigan State has five), including four Wolverines who have been chosen in the first or second round (Michigan State has three).

“I’ve had a chance to coach quite a few of those guys,” Nightingale said, in reference to his days with the US National Team Development Program. “They have a lot of talent over there and they were hungry to play. That goes back to the emotion side of it. It’s easy to talk about playing in this game, but you have to channel it and use it in the right way.

“They have a lot of talent, and their ability to create space and time, they did a great job of it. I didn’t think we hung onto enough pucks offensively. Execution was pretty poor. That is part of being a great team, execution is very important and we weren’t very good in that tonight.”

WHAT DID MICHIGAN STATE LEARN?

Eleven Michigan State players who saw action on Saturday were playing in their first Michigan-Michigan State game, which is widely considered to be the best, and most-heated rivalry in college hockey. 

What did Michigan State’s first-year players learn from this game?

“I think just keeping your emotions in check,” Nightingale said. “Obviously our guys were excited about playing in a game like this but you can’t let your emotions control you. It’s a hard game to play. You have to play with poise.

“The other side is the reality that every time you play and turn the scoreboard on, if you’re not detailed, this could happen. Obviously no one is excited about it happening. But this is sports, this big boy hockey and obviously they are a good team and took it to us tonight.”

Michigan State captain Nash Nienhuis said he is eager to turn the page to Saturday’s game.

“Everyone was really excited to play this game,” he said. “Sometimes that can happen with a young team, you can be a little too excited to an extent, so you have to learn from it.

“They played a good game. Sometimes in hockey, they can go up with a lead and sometimes naturally you can check out, and that’s something we need to work on and learn from so that hopefully it never happens again.”

SPECIAL TEAMS PROBLEMS

Michigan, which came into the game with the nation’s best power play unit, finished the night with three power play goals.

Michigan’s penalty kill has statistically been one of the worst in the Big Ten, but Michigan State was unable to capitalize on five power play opportunities. 

“We bobbled some pucks,” Nightingale said. “That goes back to practice. I thought we were pretty good during the week on the power play. They (Michigan) did a good job. They obviously had a good plan coming in and made it hard on us. When you get a power play early in a game like this, you have to be ready to execute.”

LINEUP CHANGES?

Nightingale has stayed pretty steady with his four lines and defenseman pairings all season. He was asked if some changes could be coming.

“I think we’ll look at everything,” he said. “I also don’t want to do knee jerk things. We have played some really good hockey this year and obviously that wasn’t our best and that’s not acceptable, but I also want to make sure that we believe in our group of guys. If we think we can make a move to help our team get better, we’ll do it.”