No. 7 Michigan State Hockey earns two-game sweep over No. 20 Notre Dame
This past weekend, No. 7 Michigan State hockey swept the No. 20 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a two-game series ahead of a nearly three-week Christmas break for the Spartans. MSU scored seven goals on a whopping 96 shots combined in the two games against the Fighting Irish.
In the first game, a 5-2 victory for Michigan State, sophomore Tiernan Shoudy opened the scoring in the second period on a tap-in goal. Notre Dame seemed unperturbed by the goal, as the Fighting Irish responded just over a minute later. The Spartans would then kill off a penalty with freshman goalie Trey Augustine making a couple big saves.
Shortly after, the Spartans got their own power play opportunity. Sophomore Joey Larson received a pass and attempted a one-time shot, which was saved by Notre Dame goaltender Ryan Bischel. However, Bischel gave up a rebound which Larson put over Bischel’s shoulder to give the Spartans back in the lead.
“I thought I had that one,” Larson said in a postgame interview. “Then the goalie made an awesome save, then obviously popped right back to me, saw the net and just ripped it.”
With that goal, Larson became the leading goal scorer for the Spartans this season. Michigan State opened up its lead further when freshman Artyom Levshunov perfectly placed a shot over Bischel’s shoulder and into the back of the net. This was followed by sophomore Isaac Howard’s score around the halfway mark in the third period. Sophomore Daniel Russell had the final tally of the night for MSU, when he scored an empty net goal finalizing the Spartan’s 5-2 win in Game 1.
“That was a good game,” Spartans head coach Adam Nightingale said after the game. “I thought we played a quality opponent, the crowd was awesome, the students were into it right away. Coming out of break you don’t know for sure what you’re going to get.”
After a nearly two-week layoff since earning a split against Minnesota over Thanksgiving weekend, Nightingale was concerned Michigan State would come out slow after the gap between games. But, Nightingale held his team to a high standard and expectation, which the Spartans achieved.
The second game, a 2-1 victory for Michigan State, was more of a goalie battle. Both Augustine and Bischel averaged a higher than .950 save percentage and had 31 or more saves in the game. Michigan State sophomore Karsen Dowart got the scoring started after Howard directed the puck from behind the net, causing Bischel to lose sight and allowing Dowart to sneak it in.
“I tried to beat the guy to the puck in the corner and then throw it to Isaac in front,” Dowart said when asked about the goal. “It got stuck in the goalies skate and I just wacked it.”
The Spartans would get on the board again in the second period when junior Red Savage buried the rebound off a Larson one-time shot. Michigan State would give up the only Fighting Irish goal in the game in the final 15 seconds, ending Augustine’s shutout hopes. However, with his performance over the weekend, Augustine won the Big Ten’s first star of the week award for posting a .956 save percentage in the series.
“Effort was great,” Augustine said of the Spartans’ weekend sweep. “I think they did a good job keeping everything to the outside, picking up sticks in front and made my job pretty easy this weekend.”
After two wins over the Fighting Irish, Michigan State improves to 12-4-2 overall and adds to its lead atop the Big Ten standings at 7-1-2 in conference play. The Spartans enter a sizeable break now heading into Christmas, with their next action coming on December 28. MSU will travel to Houghton, Michigan to take on Ferris State in the annual Great Lakes Invitational.
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