3&Out: Michigan State is back and so is Munn

East Lansing, Mich. – Three takeaways from Michigan State’s 2-1 hockey victory over Notre Dame on Saturday and the weekend sweep against the Irish.

1. MICHIGAN STATE IS BACK, AND SO IS MUNN

We’ve seen little spats of success over the past 15 years, and hints of Munn Ice Arena returning to the loudness and energy of the glory days of the Ron Mason era. Pretty much every time, Michigan State hit a skid in the second half of the season and the vibe was broken. It’s usually just been a tease.

This time, Michigan State is for real. And crowd support is back in full-force right along with it. 

In recent years, we’ve seen the occasional capacity crowd. But this year we’ve seen it for three straight series, and with only five regular season home games remaining, Munn is going to be a tough, exciting ticket for the rest of the season.

This time, this spat of success is not an outlier. Munn is back. On Saturday, the event included green light sabres in the student section for Star Wars Night, and a raucous pre-game ceremonial puck drop by new football coach Jonathan Smith, decked out in a No. 26 Michigan State hockey jersey with the Gruff Sparty logo on the front.

Best of all for Michigan State hockey fans, the crowd is having an impact on the Spartans’ performance.

“It’s awesome going out there every game, the support we have,” said sophomore center Karsen Dorwart, who scored the game’s first goal on Saturday. “You get a lot of juice from the fans. It’s a lot of fun for us.”

Said freshman goaltender Trey Augustine: “Seeing this whole first half (of the season), going to other places, I don’t think there’s been a louder building.”

When second-year head coach Adam Nightingale was asked what was the best takeaway from the weekend, he too cited the crowd.

“I think the atmosphere at Munn and the advantage that it is for our team,” Nightingale said. “I thought the students were unbelievable. The whole crowd. I even look back at the night before when Trey made that save in the third period on that lateral (move), the way the crowd reacted. 

“We’re pretty lucky to have a hockey crowd, a standing ovation for a save. I think they respect that our guys work hard.”

Michigan State is 12-4-2, 7-1-2 in the Big Ten and ranked No. 7 in the USCHO.com national poll. The Spartans end the first half of the season in first place in the conference standings. In 10 years of Big Ten hockey, Michigan State has never won the Big Ten regular season championship. The Spartans have a chance this year, and a terrific shot to gain an NCAA Tournament bid, and make some noise in March, and maybe April. 

Why is this team different? Speed, quickness, skill, talent. Skating ability, conditioning and adherence to team concepts had the Spartans being first to loose pucks, winning 50-50 battles and quickly turning them into scoring opportunities all weekend against a Notre Dame team that is usually steeped in defensive discipline.

Michigan State is getting productivity from all four lines. The goaltending is excellent. And Nightingale is pushing these guys in a hard-to-please, constructive fashion.

The Big Ten usually is wrought with parity. Typically, few points separate the top three or four teams. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if Michigan State takes on some losses and sinks back to the pack a bit at some point this season. But the skill level, speed and depth will remain positives, and this team will be dangerous all season.

In the meantime, there are those five home games at Munn, plus two games in the Great Lakes Invitational in Grand Rapids, Dec. 28-29, and the Duel in the D game against Michigan at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Feb. 10. It will be interesting to see if MSU’s following in neutral site games increases as well. 

And then comes the strong possibility of playing host to Big Ten Tournament games in March.

I’m not saying a streak of 200 straight sellouts has started, but there’s no question the home vibe is rocking like it’s 1985.

“For us, I think our guys have earned some respect from our fanbase,” Nightingale said. “We have to keep it. But that was a big point of the weekend, knowing for sure Munn has our back.”

2. A WIN TO GROW ON

In the quirky scheduling world of college hockey, Michigan State has only two games in the next 33 days, not counting an exhibition against the U.S. National Team Development Program on Friday, Jan. 5.

The Spartans have a lot to feel good about in the first half of the season. But if the Spartans would have failed to finish the sweep on Saturday, things would have seemed stale for the next month.  

“This was our opportunity to finish the first half strong,” Nightingale said. “We talked about before just having qualities as a team and finishing strong.”

Michigan State dominated a good Notre Dame team in the second period on Saturday night. Then the Irish played their best period of the weekend in the third. Michigan State withstood it, Nightingale came up big when he had to, and they were rocking to loud music in the locker room afterward. 

“I think it’s huge to finish the first half on a high note like that,” Dorwart said. “We worked really hard during the bye week. To get rewarded with two wins was awesome and I think it will have everyone in good spirits going into break and then hopefully carry that into the GLI.”

3. FIRST-WORLD PROBLEMS

The best programs send players to their national teams every December for the prestigious World Junior Championships. Michigan State hasn’t been among those teams in years.

Michigan State hasn’t lost a player in December to the World Junior Championships since Justin Abdelkader in December of 2007. 

This year, five Spartans have been invited to selection camps for the 20-and-under World Junior Championships, including Augustine, left wing Isaac Howard and defenseman Patrick Geary for Team USA, defenseman Maxim Štrbák for Slovakia and left wing Tommi Männistö for Finland.

That means Michigan State will be without Augustine at the GLI. The Spartans will go with Luca Di Pasquo, a freshman from Livonia, in goal in Grand Rapids. He is 1-1 in two starts this year. 

“He’ll be ready to go,” Augustine said. “We push each other every day in practice. I’m sure he will be super excited. I can’t wait to see him out there and playing.”

Nightingale has one of the best poker faces in the game. It’s hard to tell when he’s angry or pleased. But he couldn’t hide the fact that he wishes the December interruption wasn’t upon us.

“I wish we could keep practicing,” he said, “but the guys will go home for a little bit and get ready for the GLI.”

They’ll take final exams this week, and then most of them will return to their hometowns for nearly three weeks – another quirk to the college hockey calendar. 

It will be a challenge for Michigan State to maintain the momentum they have generated. 

“A big part of what we’re trying to do is how committed we are in practice,” Nightingale said. “It’s hard to replicate that on your own. That will be our guys’ task. 

Players will be asked to stay in shape on their own. Nightingale puts a major emphasis on establishing a conditioning edge on his opponents. That edge is several weeks, and months, in the making. Now comes three weeks away from the coaching staff. The edge could be lost.

“We treat our guys like pros and we expect them to act like pros,” Nightingale said. “They will be on break. We will be able to skate this week. Some guys are local. They will be able to come in and skate on their own. But just trying to recover a little bit and keep your edge conditioning-wise so we can hit the ground running when the GLI starts.”

Michigan State fans have re-acquired a taste for winning. Having so many days off between games will probably increase the appetite even more, heading into the holidays and New Year.

If you’re of a certain age, this feels like old times. If you’re young, it’s brand new. Either way, it sure is fun, isn’t it?