Michigan Hockey: 3 keys vs Michigan State in Big Ten Quarterfinals

This weekend is a huge series for the Michigan hockey team. Michigan is 4-0 against Michigan State this season. With a regular season sweep, the Wolverines come into this weekend looking for a perfect season against their rival.

While this is not necessarily what the Wolverines wanted and they would have much preferred the first-round bye, this is the perfect opportunity for the Wolverines to play their much hated rivals in front of a sold out crowd at Yost Ice Arena once again.

If Michigan hockey wins this best out of 3 series, it will move onto the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. Here are three keys to making that happen.

3 Keys for Michigan hockey against Michigan State

Play disciplined, physical hockey: It’s no secret that Michigan hockey is a high penalized team. Agree or disagree with the calls, penalties are a huge issue for the Wolverines.

In the last four meetings, Michigan had 17 penalties combined, totaling a whopping 64 penalty minutes. While the Spartans only had four goals off of those penalties, 64 penalty minutes is simply unnecessary, and puts the Wolverines in risky situations that can be avoided.

Yes, Michigan State is a much older and more physical team than the Wolverines. However, Michigan must match that physicality all while limiting penalties as much as possible.

Shots. On. Goal: Michigan vs Michigan State in the past four meetings have been high scoring, mostly on the Wolverines part.

With weak goaltending from Michigan State and the immensely talented and young forwards on Michigan, the Wolverines must keep that trend going, especially going into this weekend.

Michigan must put pressure on MSU’s goaltenders. The Wolverines need to take consistent shots like they have been for the previous four games against MSU, instead of passing the puck back and forth waiting for a wide open net.

If they do this, I would not be surprised if we have multiple different players scoring goals this weekend.

Make clean passes & limit turnovers: In last week’s series against Notre Dame, there was a clear lack of chemistry between some of the lines. Passes were sloppy and were not connecting like we have seen in previous games. Because of this, this led to many turnovers and some breakaway chances.

Obviously, the chemistry on the team was going to be tampered with slightly, especially because of the Olympians returning to the team. But in order to win this week, the Wolverines must limit the amount of costly turnovers that could possibly lead to a goal on the opposition.

Defense & Erik Portillo: This is a weekly discussion before every single series. Erik Portillo must play his best game. Against a rival, it is hard to not let your emotions get the best of you. But Portillo has to stay focused and dialed in throughout all 60 minutes.

The Wolverine defense must also help him out as much as they possibly can.  They need to block shots and limit the shots on goal so he does not get pressured too much, and he is able to make more saves throughout the game.

Overall, Michigan has completely outplayed Michigan State in every single game this season. While rivalry games always mean a lot, there is a lot more on the line here with this series.

There are Big Ten title hopes with both teams. Michigan has a lot of pressure on them from their fans, professional analysts, college hockey fans throughout the country, and even themselves.

This game is going to be physical and tensions are going to be high, however the best team in the Big Ten will come out on top in just a few short weeks. Michigan hopes to be that team, but first, it has to get through Michigan State.