When Adam Nightingale arrived at Michigan State four years ago, he knew he had a lot of work to do if he wanted to turn things around at a once-proud college hockey program.
Nightingale knew that changes would have to come to recruiting and the athletic department invested more resources into that. He also knew that if he wanted to win in the Big Ten, he needed to have an elite defense and one of the best goalies in the country.
Trey Augustine was exactly that.
The South Lyon-native started from his freshman year in 2023-24 until his final season in 2025-26 and had a career 66-25-7 record in net. He also had a career 2.40 goals against average, a .922 save percentage, and he won the Mike Richter Award for the nation’s best goaltender — Michigan State’s first-ever winner of the award.
Losing him this offseason definitely hurt, but Joshua Ravensbergen has (almost) made Spartan fans forget that the Mike Richter Award moved onto the Red Wings organization.
The 2025 first-round pick by the San Jose Sharks has been one of the best goalies in the country through the Spartans’ first five games of the season. He’s played in four games and has a 1.27 goals against average, a .952 save percentage, and 112 total saves. He’s been absolutely killing it and sitting in the top five in the NCAA of some major categories like save percentage and goals against average.
While the defense struggled a bit recently, Ravensbergen stepped up and did all he could to give Michigan State chances to win. With him in net, the Spartans will always have a shot.
Going from having the best goalie in college hockey to arguably the best goalie in college hockey (through five games) is unfair for everyone else.
Joshua Ravensbergen will face his first true test this weekend
The freshman goalie is about to face the biggest test of his young career. The Spartans will be headed to Austin to face No. 8 North Dakota which is fresh off being swept by Minnesota.
Although North Dakota did get swept by the now-No. 18 Gophers (2-3-1), it still has some of the most NHL talent in college hockey and the Halloween matchup this weekend is going to feature the most first-round draft picks in one matchup in NCAA history.
Ravensbergen is going to face the test of a lifetime against the Fighting Hawks.
If he wants to be mentioned in the same breath as Augustine, he’s going to need to deliver another spectacular effort.
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