Michigan State beats Michigan, 5-4, in OT; wins Big Ten Hockey Tournament

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State doubled up on its Big Ten hockey title hardware Saturday night by defeating Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game in one of the more raucous, eventful nights in Munn Ice Arena history. 

The tournament title joins Michigan State’s regular season Big Ten championship, which the Spartans clinched three weeks ago at Wisconsin.

Freshman defenseman Patrick Geary (6-1, Buffalo, NY) notched his name in Michigan State hockey history when he scored from the left point at 13:47 of overtime to give the Spartans an euphoric 5-4 victory over Michigan.

“I kind of just got the puck and our backup goalie (Jon Mor, from the bench) just told me to shoot it so I did,” Geary said. “And I looked up in the last second just to see it go in and then I just went and found (goalie) Trey (Augustine) because he’s a big reason why we won that game.”

HISTORIC SCENE AT MUNN

Tickets were priced at $800 just to get in the building earlier in the week, and the show didn’t disappoint. After the Spartans won the championship, they skated around the still-packed house with their new trophy, like a Stanley Cup celebration, for their last game at Munn of the season.

“For them to sit and watch that, I thought that was pretty special,” said Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale, who has led an amazing turnaround for the program in just two years as head coach. “I was excited, especially to do it at home. You could argue that that might have been the biggest game at Munn in the history. I mean that crowd was awesome. It was awesome last week and it’s been awesome all year. 

“I think we’ve sold out twenty-some in a row now. There were people here at 4 a.m., lined up to go in. This is a hockey town. That goes back to Ron (Mason) laying the foundation of making it a hockey town, active in the community, wasn’t too big to talk to different people and I think we’re bearing a lot of the fruits of Ron’s labor in getting it back.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Next week, Michigan State (24-9-3) will play in the NCAA Tournament, likely as a No. 1 seed. Michigan State is ranked No. 4 in the Pairwise Rankings. 

Regional sites are set for Springfield, Mass.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Providence, R.I.; and Maryland Heights, Mo.

HOW IT WENT DOWN

Michigan came out firing, scoring just :59 seconds into the game when Frank Nazar scored for the Wolverines. 

The Spartans settled in, getting the equalizer on just their second shot of the game just over 10 minutes into the first period, when junior Tanner Kelly scored. Tiernan Shoudy assisted, to tie the game at 10:53 of the first period.

In a high flying second period, the teams combined for five goals. Michigan State’s Daniel Russell (Soph., Traverse City) gave Michigan State a 2-1 lead, assisted by Isaac Howard and Nash Nienhuis. 

After Michigan took a 3-2 lead, Jeremy Davidson (Sr., Kalamazoo) tied the game at 3-3 at 18:41, and then Matt Basgall (Soph., Lake Forest, Ill.) scored with less than :01 second left in the second period to give the Spartans a 4-3 lead going into the third.

Michigan’s Nazar tied the game at 4-4, 2:54 into the third period. 

Then the two teams went back and forth with chances to score what would have been the game winner throughout the middle and late stages of a heart-pounding third period. 

In a high-energy overtime period, the Spartans and Wolverines went shot-for-shot, each getting six shots overtime. Geary finally ended it with his game-winning goal from the left blue line, beating Michigan goalie, Jake Barczewski. Madness ensued, as Geary turned around to find Big Ten Tournament MVP Trey Augustine at the other end of the ice and the celebration began.

GEARY AN UNLIKELY HERO

The game-winning goal in the Big Ten Championship came from an unlikely hero, as it was just the fifth goal of the season for Geary and only the second of 2024, with three of his five coming before the calendar flipped.

“Patrick has been really good for us,” Head Coach Adam Nightingale said. “What I like about Gears (Geary) is he’s a team (guy) and a heart and soul guy. I think he’s an untapped athlete and a very competitive player. He’s fought his way to produce some offense for us.”

Geary was listed as a healthy scratch early in the season while he was adjusting to college hockey. Since, he’s been a reliable, physical defender for the Spartans.

“What I like about Gears is, he scores a goal and he’s not in my office the next day saying ‘Hey why am I not on the power play?’” Nightingale said. “He wants to help the team and he’s great on the penalty kill, his teammates love him and he’s only a freshman. He’s going to keep getting better.”

AUGUSTINE, MOST OUTSTANDING

Augustine was named the Tournament Most Outstanding Player. He made 33 saves in turning away heavy Michigan pressure.

Augustine has been everything and then some he was cracked up to be when he entered this season, fresh off being selected in the second round of the NHL draft by the Detroit Redwings last June. Augustine grew up in South Lyon, Michigan and was at one-time a Michigan hockey commit.

“It’s right up there with the gold medal game,” Augustine said of his World Junior Champions title over the holidays. “Being from Michigan and seeing this rivalry,I just wanted to be a part of it and it’s just unreal to do it in front of our home crowd.”

Michigan State became just the third team to win the Big Ten regular season and tournament championship in the same season, joining Notre Dame in 2017-18 and Minnesota in 2014-15.