Michigan Hockey vs. Michigan State: Rivalry Weekend

Neither Michigan hockey nor Michigan State have been having much success lately. Still, this is an in-state rivalry and a chance to get back on track.

For the second time this season Michigan hockey will face the rival Spartans this weekend in a home-and-home series.

Michigan beat Michigan State once already this year in the consolation game of the Great Lakes Invitational. The Wolverines jumped out to a commanding 4-1 advantage before seeing MSU make a charge. Tony Calderone, the leading goal scorer for Michigan, put in his second of the game to get the 5-4 edge in overtime.

Neither team was playing well coming into the GLI. Neither team has played well since. State is 0-4 in 2017, giving up 5 goals in every game. Dating back to December, the Spartans have now given up 43 goals in their last nine games—ouch. There will be offense this weekend.

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It isn’t that simple though. No one would claim the Spartans are playing good defense or getting good goaltending. But for large stretches of games, they do. Last Saturday night on the road against top-ranked Penn State, MSU led until the 9:31 mark in the third period.

After tying the game 2-2, Penn State and MSU stayed tied until less than five minutes to play in regulation. Penn State scored two goals in nine seconds and tacked on a third goal a couple minutes later. The Spartans went from a 2-1 lead to a 5-2 deficit in about eight minutes of game play. That has been the story of too many State games this year.

When the floodgates open, the Spartans fold. It is the most obvious sign of a program that has faded into a losing culture.

Michigan hasn’t been much better. The Wolverines got swept up in Minneapolis last weekend in their only contests in 2017. Michigan got a win against Wisconsin the second weekend of December, or else they too would be goose-egged outside of the GLI over the past month and a half.

It’s a matchup of 2-6 vs. 0-9 the past seven weeks. It has been 35 years since this rivalry has meant this little in conference play.

State has struggled at Yost recently but Friday night’s puck drop is at 6:30 to accommodate the Big Ten Network. It will be a sparse crowd early. It is the best possible scenario for the road team.

Michigan has been pretty thoroughly dominated in this stretch of bad hockey. The Wolverines were never in a game in Happy Valley. They split against Wisconsin but were outplayed both nights. Tech outshot them by a two-to-one margin in the GLI. They never challenged in Minneapolis.

State can at least claim leads twice against Minnesota in December before collapsing and in Happy Valley last week. Maybe it doesn’t matter much how a team loses, but I think it does. State right now seems closer to getting wins.

On the other hand, tonight at home is one of Michigan’s best chances for a win on the conference schedule. It would sting to squander the opportunity.

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My prediction for the weekend is a split with each team winning at home.

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