Michigan State earns No. 1 seed in NCAA hockey tournament, will face Western Michigan

Michigan State will look to add to its historic season with some success in the NCAA tournament. Fresh off a 24-9-3 year that included Big Ten regular season and tournament championships, Michigan State learned that it will take on Western Michigan in the Maryland Heights regional semifinal of the NCAA tournament, Friday at 5 p.m.

Michigan State – which has not played in the NCAA tournament since 2012 – earned the No. 1 seed in its region. Games will take place at the Centene Community Ice Arena in Maryland Heights, Mo.

North Dakota will take on Michigan in the region’s other semifinal matchup.

Michigan State already cemented its spot in the NCAA tournament spot after it enjoyed its first 20-plus win season since 2007-08. But the Spartans put an exclamation point on their standing when they won the Big Ten tournament championship over Michigan last Saturday, in front of a packed Munn Ice Arena.

Spartan senior captain Nash Nienhuis expressed his excitement about earning a spot in the NCAA tournament for the first time in his career.

“To see it officially is great,” Nienhuis said following the NCAA Selection Show. “It’s exciting for our team to be there, not being there for a while. We’re looking forward to it.”

The NCAA hockey tournament is a 16-team, single-elimination tournament. Should Michigan State advance past Western Michigan on Friday, it will play either North Dakota or Michigan in the regional championship on Sunday. Should the Spartans win that game, they would head to St. Paul, Minn., for the Frozen Four.

Michigan State is just four wins away from achieving its ultimate goal, but Nienhuis is not looking too far ahead.

“It’s crazy, but we just have to go one game at a time and play as hard as we can every time we step on the ice,” Nienhuis said.

Should Michigan State and Michigan both advance past the regional semifinals, the teams would meet for the second time in just eight days. The Spartans have won four of five against the Wolverines this season, including a thrilling 5-4 overtime victory on Saturday for the Big Ten tournament championship.

“It’s exciting to have that possibility of playing Michigan again,” Nienhuis said. “It’s always great playing them – and beating them, you can’t beat that feeling. However, we’re not really looking too far ahead like that. We’re focusing on us and what we need to do to beat Western.”

Michigan State is no stranger to high-pressure moments. Every game matters during the 24-game conference schedule. Things especially ramped up for the Spartans over the last month as they competed for the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships.

Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale has appreciated his team’s effort all season long.

“We’re super fortunate this year to play in some really big environments,” Nightingale said. “We played in the championship of the GLI, the Duel in the D, we went on the road to Wisconsin in front of 13,000 people to win the regular season and last night, here, in the conference tournament championship. We have some guys who have been tested and some have played in big World Junior Championships, so I think we’re ready for that atmosphere.”

Nightingale is expecting to face a well-coached, tough, high-scoring Western Michigan team on Friday. Nightingale is familiar with Broncos head coach Pat Ferschweiler. The two spent time together on the Detroit Red Wings’ staff from 2017-19.

“I have a ton of respect for Western Michigan and I know Pat Ferschweiler well,” Nightingale said. “We worked together in Detroit and sat next to each other on plane rides. He’s a heckuva coach and he’s done a heckuva job.”

“(Western) is very competitive and (Pat’s) a great coach,” Nightingale continued. “He’s worked his way up, starting at the younger level and working all the way to the NHL at one point. He worked for some really good coaches, so you know they’re well-coached. They’re one of the highest-scoring teams in the country, and they play heavily. Those are all qualities of a really good team. There’s a reason they’ve had the season that they’ve had in a really good conference. It’ll be a really good test.”

Michigan State and Western Michigan are separated by just 80 miles, but they didn’t meet on the ice this season. The teams last met in the 2021 Great Lakes Invitational. The Broncos skated to a 3-1 victory over the Spartans that day.

From 1981-2013, both schools competed in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Michigan State left for the newly-founded Big Ten in 2014. Western Michigan subsequently left for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). 

The NCHC features Colorado College, Denver, Miami (Ohio), Minnesota-Duluth, Omaha, North Dakota, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan. Like the Big Ten, four NCHC teams made this year’s NCAA tournament: Denver, Omaha, North Dakota and Western Michigan. 

Western Michigan finished sixth in the conference standings. The Broncos lost in the first round of the NCHC tournament to No. 3 St. Cloud State. The Broncos finished the season with a 21-15-1 record. They finished 13th in the final Pairwise Rankings.