The No. 3 Michigan State hockey team has played 12 games out of a 34-game 2025-2026 regular season, meaning as wild as it is to consider, the season is just over one-third of the way complete already. MSU's campaign marches on with games on Wednesday night and Friday afternoon, hosting the Colgate Raiders at Munn Ice Arena.

For only the second time this season, the Spartans will be coming into the series off of a loss, a sweep at the hands of now No. 2 Wisconsin, and it also means for the first since the 2023-2024 season the Spartans lost two games in a row. So with this being a time for pause and giving thanks with friends and family, I thought today I would take a pause and instead of the usual preview of the week's opponent, look at the season thus far, look at what went wrong against Wisconsin last weekend, and look ahead to what needs to be the goals of the middle third of the season that the Spartans are now embarking on.

(Mostly) Meeting Expectations

The Spartans entered the season ranked No. 3 in the country in the USCHO poll, behind Boston University (No. 2) and defending champions Western Michigan (No. 1). Michigan State has certainly met the expectations placed on the team by the polls better than the two teams that were ahead of the Spartans, as Boston University is now listed at No. 19, standing 6-7-1 overall, including a home sweep at the hands of the Spartans; while the Western Michigan Broncos are currently No. 7 at 9-5 overall.

As expected, the Spartans, with junior Trey Augustine in net, have one of the top defenses in the country, surrendering just 1.75 goals against per game, while the offense is in the top 25% in the country, scoring 3.50 goals per game. The season has seen the highs of sweeping Penn State and Boston University, and will see the Spartans in a new place this week as they come to Munn Ice Arena looking to wipe a series loss out of their mouth.

As expected, freshman Porter Martone has played like a top 10 NHL draft pick, leading the Spartans in scoring with 18 points on 10 goals and eight assists. Martone has found chemistry with his linemates, junior Charlie Stramel and senior Daniel Russell, with Stramel having a breakout campaign, delivering on his own promise as a former first-round draft pick as well. The first line has done a lot of their best work off the rush, typified by Martone's goals against Notre Dame.

Of concern for the Spartans is they are scoring under their expected goals per game, and finding consistent scoring below the first line. The Spartans will reach their peak when guys like a Gavin O'Connell (one goal), Ryker Lee (four goals) Shane Vansaghi (one goal) and Cayden Lindstrom (one goal) start contributing more goals consistently. With MSU ranking in the bottom-fourth of the country at finishing right now, one has to assume there will be some progression to expectation, which can be a scary thought for opponents that the Spartans are 9-3 right now while not scoring at the clip they should be.

Wisconsin Struggles