The Irish head to Munn after huge upset of Minnesota
It is a beautiful time to be a Spartan. While the top seeded Spartan basketball team is in Indy to handle things there. The top seated Iceman are at Munn Saturday night to face Notre Dame. It is feasible that both Spartan teams are season champs and tourney champs, so let’s go get it!
Notre Dame hooked the Spartans up in the opening weekend by delivering the biggest upset of the postseason thus far by knocking out number 2 seed and number 3 in the country, Golden Gophers at Mariucci. The Irish as a whole this season have been a bit disappointing finishing at the bottom of the conference and all during coach Jackson’s farewell season. That being said, there could be some extra motivation on Saturday to pull off another upset for Jackson and get revenge for MSU spoiling the season home closer. Let’s take a look at the three stars to success for MSU on Saturday.
STAR 1: Augustine
Spartan goaltender Trey Augustine has put together another outstanding year in net. Augustine enters the post season as a finalist for B1G Goaltender of the Year , a semifinalist for the Mike Richter Award as the nation’s top goaltender in Division 1 and a semifinalist for the AAU Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete. Every hockey fan knows the importance of goaltending, especially in post season action. The Spartans are fortunate to have one of the best in the country. He will need to be even tighter than his .925 save percentage and 2.09 goals against average. Even more luck for the Spartans (sorry Irish, you may be known for this but not this time) they have B1G defender of the year finalist Matt Basgall blocking shots too.
STAR 2: Männistö, Shoudy, Kelly Line
This line has had 21 straight games together and has been extra hot towards the end of the season. Kelly is just two points behind his career high and you’ve heard me touting Shoudy all year as he finished the year with a two goal game. Männistö’s speed from end to end is a game breaker as he can create and defend on the PK and PP. The Spartans have found themselves in some penalty trouble throughout the season and this line will be crucial in cleaning up messes.
STAR 3: Conditioning
MSU’s preparedness and conditioning has led them to a great deal of success, especially in game twos. One thing we can count on with a B1G Coach of the Year finalist Nightingale team is conditioning. Having a two week break between games should not be an issue for the Spartans. Yes, they won the conference and closed the season getting the one seed, but this team has vision for bigger things. I don’t see them coming out slow and rusty at all. Look for the teams speed and depth to help the Spartans jump out front early.
Prediction:
MSU 4 ND 1, also predicting goals from Russell and Gucciardi as well of points for Player of the Year finalist Howard.
How to watch:
BTN 6pm Saturday
What’s next?
If the Spartans take care of business they will host the winner of the second game on BTN of PSU at OSU. That should be a great matchup and I expect the Nittany Lions to be taking a trip to East Lansing next weekend for the title. Go green!