Couch: Michigan State hockey has Munn buzzing again, back on track for NCAA tourney bid
EAST LANSING – I don’t know if Munn Ice Arena will ever again be THE place to be, the way it was years and years ago. But it’s become A place to be again.
That’s become increasingly clear this season, including during Saturday night’s game against Penn State — a standing-room-only crowd there not because a rival was in town or the fifth-ranked Nittany Lions are a must-see, but because the Spartans are worth seeing. Fans again left heartened and entertained. There was and is an energy in the building that is inviting and exciting, propelled by what’s happening on the ice.
MSU’s showing against Penn State — a 3-2 overtime win Friday and a 4-4 tie/shootout win Saturday — was, arguably, the most important weekend performance by the Spartans in a decade. Because there is, for the first time in forever, an NCAA tournament bid legitimately at stake and, yet, still a ton of scarred history to overcome. Many of the players on this roster were part of losing 15 of 16 games to close last season — after a solid start through Christmas — which led to the coaching change.
This season, after after an eye-opening first three months, MSU fell twice at the Great Lakes Invitational and then was clobbered at Ohio State last weekend, a four-game stretch that brought with it a sense of dread, a feeling — from the outside at least — that maybe the program’s recent DNA would be too much to shake in Year 1 under Adam Nightingale.
And then, twice in two nights, the Spartans rallied from two goals down to force overtime and then took the extra point. That’s not unexpected anymore. Deficits aren’t daunting. MSU has won five times when the opponent has scored first and is scoring nearly three goals per game after averaging closer to two a year ago.
But after another post-Christmas swoon … this weekend was big. The first real test of MSU’s mettle and punch in the Nightingale era.
“This is probably the first real big bump that we've had,” Nightingale said Saturday night. “I’m excited about that, because we’ve got to go through this and we’ve got to find out what we're made of. And there's actually more opportunity for growth when things don't go your way, if you have the right mindset.”
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Last season’s demons now seemingly dead, the Spartans enter a bye week before a trip to face, perhaps, the best team in the country in Minnesota. That begins a sprint to the finish, with two-game series ahead at home against Notre Dame, at home and in Detroit against Michigan and then at Wisconsin to wrap the regular season.
MSU, at 13-11-2 overall and 7-7-2 in the Big Ten, is in position to host a first-round Big Ten tournament series, sitting in fourth in the seven-team league standings. The No. 4 seed hosts the 5 seed in the quarterfinals, which, as of today, would be Michigan. More importantly, the Spartans are ranked 12th in the metrics-based Pairwise rankings, which largely determine the 16-team NCAA tournament field. Their efforts against Penn State (No. 3 in the Pairwise) were a boost. Getting a result against the Gophers (No. 1 in the Pairwise) in two weeks would be significant.
Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky has seen plenty of the Spartans over the past decade, since starting the Nittany Lions’ program in 2011, and plenty of them this season — four meetings already — including a 4-3 Penn State win and 7-3 loss to MSU in November in State College.
“Obviously, they're having a tremendous year,” Gadowsky said Saturday night. “They play extremely hard. I think they're playing with a lot of heart. They're getting great goaltending. And they're finishing. … They're fun to watch. I like the way they play, too. It's up and down. It's good hockey. It's a great brand of hockey. I think it's exciting hockey. And they're proving that it's winning hockey.
“You look at the shot totals compared to the past and that's been greatly elevated (34 per game compared to 27.5 last season) and so they're certainly playing a faster, higher-octane game of offense, and it's fun to watch.”
It looks different — the skill and confidence and approach, even with a lot of familiar players. And it feels different in the building. The players feel that, too.
“I mean, this is obviously somewhat of a new feeling for most of the guys in the locker room here,” senior top-line forward Jagger Joshua said. “We haven't had a chance to have success like this in the past.”
Joshua is one of those holdovers who’s playing at a different level, one of two players in college hockey with multiple hat tricks on the season, after notching his second three-goal game Saturday night.
Getting Munn back to this point has been the goal of three coaches now. Nightingale is the first to do it. The first that recaptured the belief of a fan base that needed to see it to come back.
“I think that's really where Michigan State is different. This is a real hockey fan base,” Nightingale said. “I think they understand good hockey. And when they come to the rink, they want to watch good hockey. We obviously want to win every game, but I think if you're in the stands, you can tell (from the fans) when there's a real hockey play made. We've got a real crowd that's into it. You know what I mean? And I think our guys feed off of that.
“I’m proud of our guys, because I think they've earned people's respect in town. We still have a ways to go. But I do think our work ethic, our team play, our willingness to do things that Michigan State fans really respect, it’s kind of built the crowd up here. And now it's our job to maintain it.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU hockey, on track for NCAA tournament bid, has Munn buzzing again
