Top-10 Matchup Again: No. 1 Michigan State Hockey hosts No. 7 Wisconsin

Last weekend the No. 1 Michigan State hockey team traveled to South Bend, Indiana and avoided its first trap series of the season, leaving with all six points on the weekend. Each night featured a 2-1 game during the third period, but the Spartans did not slip up in sweeping the rebuilding Fighting Irish, vaulting themselves to a tie at the top of the Big Ten standings with No. 2 Michigan and this weekends foe No. 7 Wisconsin, albeit with the Spartans playing two less games than the Wolverines and Badgers.

With Colgate sandwiched in between, the Spartans will play the Badgers and Wolverines in two of their next three series, meaning they potentially could set themselves up very well in the Big Ten standings heading into the semester break.

No. 7 Wisconsin Badgers (8-2-2)

After a down season for the Badgers last year, they have had a hot start and recovered to their expected level this season under head coach Mike Hastings in his third season in Madison. Hastings has been known, since his time at the helm running a solid program at Minnesota State, to be a coach who prefers a veteran team, built on physicality and defense. It has been a rocky transition to the Big Ten at times, with having access to more NHL dDaft picks and offensive talent to mesh his style with the players available (example, see Charlie Stramel leaving after his freshman season to join Michigan State and jump start his career). In year three, the Wisconsin roster features a mix of high end talent, including players from the Major Junior leagues in Canada as now allowed, and players such as 24 year old Simon Tassy, who followed Hastings to Madison three years ago and has five goals and five assists so far this season.

The leading goal-scorer for the Badgers thus far is Christian Fitzgerald, who is 23 years old and who also followed Hastings to Madison. He has eight goals on the campaign so far.