WATCH: Michigan State's Patrick Geary Talks Big Ten Tournament Championship
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State hockey is on the verge of a second-straight Big Ten Tournament title.
The achievement would come shortly after the Spartans won a second consecutive regular season conference championship.
Michigan State won last year's Big Ten Tournament Championship over rival Michigan in an overtime battle. The Spartans prevailed with a game-winning goal from then-freshman defenseman Patrick Geary.
Geary will be vital for the Spartans the rest of this postseason.
He discussed Saturday's matchup against Ohio State when he addressed the media on Wednesday. You can watch below:
Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale also spoke to reporters on Wednesday. Below is a transcript from his opening statement:
Nightingale: "Well, it was a good weekend. I thought, obviously, Munn was rocking, and we were playing a team that was hot and playing some really good hockey. And I think our guys stayed with it; I think that's the message to our guys is playoff hockey's hard, and so, you know you can't expect offense to be easy. And we had to work for it to stay with it.
"I didn't think we deviated. And that's a good reminder for us down the stretch and how we need to play. And obviously, playing a really good Ohio State team coming into Munn here. Ton of respect for their team, their program. And I think they're really well-coached. They're built really similar to us [with] the depth. They have good goaltending.
"But excited about our guys getting an opportunity to play another game at Munn, right? That in order to do that, you got to win the regular season, which we did, and they got to win another game, so now, we got a chance to play another game in front of our home crowd."
Geary was one of the key pieces in turning this program around. Prior to his arrival, the team wasn't in a very good place, but here he is as a two-time Big Ten champion.
He will be looking to call himself a two-time Big Ten Tournament champion by Saturday's end.
Saturday's contest is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be played at Munn.
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