Lost in the sauce of the thrilling football game was the opening weekend for Michigan State hockey as Adam Nightingale and the Spartans officially kicked off their latest national title quest.
The No. 3 Spartans hosted Northern Michigan and did exactly what they did a year ago against the Wildcats. They dominated on both ends of the ice to run away with a lopsided series sweep. Last October, the two-game sweep happened on the road, but this time, the Munn Ice Arena crowd got to see an arguably more dominant effort in an 11-3 combined score over two games.
Michigan State (2-0) completed a breezy sweep against Northern Michigan (0-2) which came just one week after opening the year with a 5-2 exhibition win over No. 16 Boston College.
Through three games (two regular season, one exhibition), Michigan State is outscoring its opponents 16-5. All phases of hockey are being dominated from at least five goals being scored each game and the new goaltenders saving 36, 16, and then 29 shots. The goalies are holding their own in net; having a .941 save percentage is flashing some early dominance.
No Trey Augustine? No problem. OK, so he will definitely be missed, but it’s clear that Michigan State got a couple of really good goaltenders to replace him. Joshua Ravensbergen and Quentin Sigurdson combined for 45 saves during the opening weekend with a .935 combined save percentage.
Sigurdson had an incredible 29 saves on 30 shots attempts (.967 save percentage).
For reference, Augustine had a career .922 save percentage at Michigan State. Northern Michigan isn’t exactly a national title contender and things will get tougher, but the Spartans are off to a heck of a start, including freshman and first-round draft pick Jack Hextall who scored his first two career college hockey goals.
The team is already firing on all cylinders and it’s just mid-October. Obviously it’s more important to fire on all cylinders in March and April, but if this is the starting point, the sky is definitely the limit.
While “national title or bust” probably isn’t a fair conversation right now, it’s inevitable.
Adam Nightingale feels the “national title or bust” pressure
While he will never admit that “national title or bust” is the expectation at Michigan State, he knows just how much talent he’s had to work with and just how important it is to squeeze wins out of it.
The Spartans have won three straight Big Ten titles and have spent time as the No. 1 team in the country but yet they have not made a Frozen Four in over 20 years. Not even Nightingale’s last three dominant teams full of future NHL stars made it to the Frozen Four which is heartbreaking when you consider how they’ve been bounced.
Last season was the most crushing with a legit title favorite team just minutes away from playing in Michigan State’s first Frozen Four in two decades but Wisconsin pulled off the comeback of the year and won in overtime. That had to motivate Nightingale more than ever to finish the job.
All he did was recruit the most loaded class in program history with several first-round draft picks joining an already-elite roster. Now it’s just time to tune out the noise and take care of business.
They can’t let the “national title or bust” crowd get in their heads. Get better every week from now until March and the rest should take care of itself, including a favorable NCAA Tournament draw.
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