Last Saturday evening, No. 3 Michigan State hockey was defeated in overtime by Ohio State in the Big Ten semifinal game at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing. It was the third defeat to the Buckeyes this season for the Spartans, and ended a string of fortunate Big Ten Tournament overtime games after two consecutive seasons winning the B1G Playoff Championship on home ice with overtime winners.

That recent loss to OSU means that for the first time since 2023, the Spartans are home and not playing during the weekend of the NCAA Tournament Selection, which is released on Sunday afternoon.

On the one hand, it is potentially concerning how the Spartans backed into a Big Ten Championship, with slips against Ohio State at the end of the regular season, a shootout loss to Minnesota and then a loss again to the Buckeyes. Most concerning is how Ohio State plays a structured defensive game, one that you are likely to see a lot of in the playoffs, and that system stymied the Spartans' offense for three games, while also showing some holes for goaltender Trey Augustine. Is it a terrible matchup or long term concern? That will be the question on the minds of Spartan fans as the NCAA Tournament gets underway next week.

On the other hand, for the past two seasons the Spartans entered the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 seed — fresh off thrilling Big Ten Tournament victories — only to be bounced out of the NCAAs quickly. Two seasons ago, MSU needed a ferocious comeback to beat Western Michigan in overtime, before losing to Michigan in the regional final, one week after beating the Wolverines in the conference championship game. Last season, the Spartans were the top overall national seed, but couldn't win their first game — despite a crowd advantage playing in Toledo — losing to Cornell on a game-winning goal with less than 30 seconds to play.

The Spartans finished the 2025-2026 season 9-6-1 at Munn Ice Arena, going an impressive 16-2-1 in games played on the road or at neutral sites. Perhaps entering the NCAA Tournament off a loss, chewing on nails for a week, while also being a team that plays its best hockey away from home is the slight change needed for the Spartans to find a way to win four-straight games to get their first NCAA Championship since 2007.

What Has Gone Wrong

When Michigan State opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game last Saturday, it seemed most of the concerns of a rematch with Ohio State were quelled. The Spartans could have scored in the opening minute of the game, instantly earned a power play and scored quickly on said power play, a much better start than they had shown in the previous series against the Buckeyes. MSU dominated shots for most of the first period, but the Spartans could not extend their lead and needed a late Porter Martone second-period goal to tie the game 2-2 after the Buckeyes had scored in each period. Michigan State again had its chances to win in regulation, but OSU continued to utilize excellent goaltending to push the game to overtime.

In overtime, the Spartans made a poor line change with their net at the far end, and Ohio State had an easy zone entry allowing for a drop pass that was hammered home in a one timer to beat a screened Augustine, who was blocked from his line of sight by his own defensemen retreating.

While the loss brought about a mounting angst online (not helped likely by the MSU men's basketball team losing the day before), with the privilege of reflection time, the result may have been the least concerning of the losses to Ohio State. The Spartans controlled large parts of play in the first and third period, and even had their chances early in overtime. Unlike previous games, Martone and the first line was buzzing and contributing offensively. The third line saw excellent games from Cayden Lindstrom and Gavin O'Connell. O'Connell was chief among the players robbed of goals by the Buckeyes' goaltending.

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