Michigan State wrapped up its opening weekend on the ice with a two game sweep of Lake Superior State. This is back to back years the Spartans have opened the season with a two game sweep of Lake Superior State.
Game one was a close game with both teams scoring in the first period. The game remained that way for the remainder of regulation. Thirty nine seconds into overtime Daniel Russell slapped the puck off a defender to give the spartans the OT victory.
The Spartans definitely wrapped up game one with a few red flags that need some immediate attention. MSU was manhandled at the face-off, losing 30 of 45. Sparty has to get better on the faceoff circle and set the offense up for greater success. The struggles at the faceoff absolutely have a direct impact to the fact MSU had only 13 shots on goal through the first two periods. They did manage to get on top of the total shots on net thanks to 25 coming in the third.
Another big issue from last season reared itself again on Friday and that was the penalties. The Spartans played a good chunk of the second short handed thanks to three penalties, including one major. Thankfully, Augustine looked fantastic in the net. Singlehandedly keeping the Spartans in the game and giving the offense a chance to warm up.
Saturday was a much different look for MSU as they came out hot and pushed the tempo with 21 shots on goal in the first period. The Spartans finally broke through early in the second with three relatively quick goals. Augustine managed to shut out LSSU for 93 minutes from Friday to the third period goal on Saturday.
MSU was much better at faceoffs Saturday which definitely gives some hope that they do have the ability to play better in that facet of the game. Penalties continued to present its ugly head but the penalty kill was fantastic for the Spartans and did not let up one goal short handed. On the other side of that, MSU’s power play was ineffective finishing the weekend 0-6.
The Spartans will need to be better when power play opportunities present themselves this weekend as they face perennial ice hockey juggernaut Boston College. This will be a true testament to how MSU measures up this season. It will be an exciting weekend kicking off its first home games to a sold out Munn that is celebrating 50 years with the 1974 team in attendance. Howard and Russell opened up with 5 and 4 points each and hope to stay hot and propel MSU to the upset of number 2 Boston College. Look for the game on the BIG Network on Friday. Go Green!
Just wanted to take a quick moment to give the MSU Women’s soccer team a shout out to their amazing start to the season. MSU is currently on a 13 game win streak that ties them for the longest in the nation currently with Utah. A record breaking crowd of over 5,000 fans filled DeMartin Stadium this past Saturday to watch MSU defeat that other school 1-0. The Spartans are ranked number 5 in the country and head to Oregon on Friday as they attempt to remain unbeaten.
If you haven’t been paying attention to Women’s Soccer or Men’s Hockey, now is the time as both have potential to make this a very special season.