Ohio State upsets No. 4 Michigan State; Big Ten title chase tightens

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State had the opportunity to potentially clinch the Big Ten regular season championship this weekend for the first time since the Big Ten hockey conference was formed in 2013. However, after Friday night’s 6-2 upset loss to Ohio State, the Big Ten regular season champion will be decided next weekend when the Spartans play at Wisconsin, not this weekend at Munn Ice Arena.

The Spartans could have clinched with a weekend sweep of Ohio State, along with one Wisconsin loss at Penn State this weekend. However, the Badgers defeated Penn State, 6-0, on Friday night. 

Wisconsin pulled to within one point of Michigan State in the Big Ten standings with 45, compared to the Spartans’ 46.

“I just talked to the guys, and there’s a difference between expecting to win and being entitled that you’re going to win and I thought we played the game a little bit entitled,” said second-year Michigan State hockey coach Adam Nightingale. 

Next weekend, No. 4-ranked Michigan State and No. 6-ranked Wisconsin will settle the regular season championship in a two-game set in Madison, Wis. The magic number to clinch will be determined by the outcome of Saturday’s games. Michigan State will play host to Ohio State at 6 p.m. at Munn Ice Arena. Wisconsin will play at Penn State at 6 p.m.

Michigan State is seeking its first regular season conference championship since 2000-01 when the Spartans were in the CCHA.

WHAT IT MEANS

The Spartans can finish no worse than second in the conference regular season standings, and are guaranteed to host at least one Big Ten Tournament game at Munn Ice Arena in March. But the Spartans have come this far, and want to add to a well-stocked Munn Arena trophy case which hasn’t seen new brass in a long time. 

Nightingale said earlier this week that he thought the Big Ten was one the deepest conference in college hockey. Ohio State supported that viewpoint by winning their last three games over the first and second place teams in the league, after starting the conference season, 1-15-2. 

“They (Ohio State) are playing with a lot of confidence and they had a really good weekend last weekend,” Nightingale said. 

WHAT WENT WRONG?

Michigan State jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a goal by freshman left winger Gavin O’Connell, 1:50 into the game. But Ohio State tied the game at 1-1 midway through the first period, and added three goals in the second period to take a commanding 4-1 lead.

“We scored early (tonight) but it didn’t frazzle them and they stayed with it,” Nightingale said. “And there were times when we didn’t play the body and they were skating through us. You’ve got to make it hard on teams and I don’t think we did tonight.

“I liked our start. I thought we had a good couple of weeks of practice and then as the game went on, (I didn’t like) the amount of puck battles they won, compared to us; the amount of races they won, compared to us.

“I thought we got loose. We ended up giving up way too many chances in the first (period), and we were chasing the game. Credit to Ohio State, I thought they were the hungry hockey team. If we want to keep playing hockey, we have to be a lot better.”

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

The Spartans outshot the Buckeyes 36-33 and won 48 faceoffs compared to just 27 faceoff wins for Ohio State. Despite that, a big second period that saw the Buckeyes find the back of the net three times on just seven shots in the period.

O’Connell (6-0, 181, Fr., Plymouth, Minn.) scored his twelfth and thirteenth goals of the season as the only goals for the Spartans. His first goal came on the powerplay which gave the Spartans an early 1-0 lead. His second goal came with :28 seconds left in the second period to cut the Buckeyes’ lead to 4-2 after a flurry of Ohio State goals in the second period.

Ohio State matched their season high in goals with six, and blocked 26 shots by Michigan State, which is the most of a Big Ten opponent against the Spartans this season. Ohio State goaltender Logan Terness made 34 saves in addition.

“I think we wanted it easy and they did a good job of keeping us to the outside,” Nightingale said. “You’re not going to have much success when you play perimeter and I thought that’s what we were offensively. They capitalized on their chances and made some really good plays.

“Part of playing team hockey is going to hard areas even if you’re not going to get the puck and create space for other people and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Isaac Howard (5-11, 190, Soph., Hudson, Wis.) and Matt Basgall (5-10, 190, Soph. , Lake Forest, Ill.) assisted on O’Connell’s first goal. Defensemen Nash Nienhuis (5-10, 185, Sr., Sarnia, Ont) and Artyom Levshunov (6-2, 210, Fr., Zhlobin, Belarus) assisted on the second.

Ohio State’s Sam Deckhut scored two goals.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Saturday night’s matchup looms large for both Michigan State and Wisconsin. If Michigan State can remain ahead of Wisconsin by one point following Saturday’s games, the Spartans can win the Big Ten outright with a split at Wisconsin next weekend. 

Another loss to the Buckeyes, combined with a Wisconsin win, would give the Badgers a two-point edge heading into next weekend. Michigan State would then have to take at least four of the six possible points to get a regular season Co-Big Ten Championship.

Michigan State is in contention for the championship because the Spartans have responded well to occasional losses this year. Now, they desperately need to do it again. 

“The group has done a really good job of that,” Nightingale said. “We talked about noise a lot. It’s really hard to tune it out, especially the garbage on social media and all that stuff. You just have to focus on things that have substance, and social media is not one of them, and make sure we’re focused on things within our team. That’s the big test for our guys. But they have responded and we’ve got an opportunity to do it tomorrow.”

QUOTABLE

Michigan State has recorded its most wins in a Big Ten conference season since the league began in 2013, with 14. That hasn’t happened by accident and both Nightingale and O’Connell agreed they got away from what got them to this point in the loss on Friday night.

“We haven’t had the year that we’ve had because we’re the most talented team,” Nightingale said. “We play as a team and we play hard and we didn’t do that tonight.”

“I think there’s certain things that make us special and I think that we got away from that a little bit tonight,” O’Connell said. “The whole team was playing a little selfish, that’s just not our way.”

“We play team hockey, and I think all of us got away from that and I think that’s what gave them momentum and ultimately gave them the win tonight.”