Returning Olympians ignite a furious first-period offensive surge, securing a dominant early lead against the Buckeyes and setting the tone for victory.
The Spartans are all back together for the first time in over a month. Four Spartans went off to Minneapolis for a week and a half of fun in the snow to compete in the World Juniors Hockey Championship (WJHC), as Porter Martone, Ryker Lee, Shane Vansaghi, and Eric Nilson took a sabbatical from Michigan State to represent their respective countries.
Ultimately at the WJHC, it was Eric Nilson who brought home the gold medal with Team Sweden, while Porter Martone and Team Canada brought home silver. Lee and Vansaghi sadly fell short in the quarterfinals. All four players made big impacts on their teams, but now they return to East Lansing to make an impact on the Spartans.
Michigan State, without those four, last played hockey that counted toward their record at the Great Lakes Invitational, where the Spartans defeated Ferris State and then Michigan Tech in back-to-back days to win the hardware in Grand Rapids. The Spartans followed the tournament up with an exhibition game against the USA Hockey 18U team.
Now, as the new year sets in and the midseason tournaments become memories, the holiday chipperness turns to gray. Self-loathing creeps in as people return to the mundane day-to-day, and we move on from the happy, fun tournaments. Winning trophies for two-day tournaments isn’t the goal for the Spartans, and now the season kicks into overdrive.
The Spartans have eight series remaining, and it’s all Big Ten hockey from here on out.
Kicking things off are two games in Columbus, Ohio, as the Spartans take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in a two-game series.
Michigan State enters as the No. 2 team in the nation and has not been ranked lower than fourth, where they started the season. The Spartans brought their 14-4, 5-3 record up against an Ohio State team that has been desperately trying to produce a winning product. The Buckeyes were 6-11-1, 2-6 heading into the matchup and had only won one game in their last ten opportunities (1-8-1). Ohio State was going to have to do everything they could—and then some—to pull out a victory. The one thing they couldn’t do was allow fast goals to MSU early.
Then the puck dropped.
Ohio State and Michigan State battled back and forth like a fight for field position on a football field, but on the rink. The Spartans opened the scoring when Anthony Romani received a pass from Cayden Lindstrom in the middle of the ice and fired it to the back of the net. That first goal was all MSU needed to break the doors open to an onslaught.
Seven seconds later, returning captain Porter Martone scored his first of two goals on the night.
Sixteen seconds after that, Charlie Stramel added a third goal for Michigan State, putting the Spartans up 3–0 before the 14-minute mark of the first period.
Before the first-period buzzer could sound, Martone added his second goal of the night on the power play.
In the second, Michigan State played more defensively than offensively. Ohio State’s Max Montes was able to get the Buckeyes on the board, cutting the score to 4–1. Davis Burnside added another Ohio State goal to kick off the third period, cutting the lead in half at 4–2. However, the Spartans would have none of that, as Charlie Stramel added his second goal of the night just two minutes later, and Ryker Lee scored one of the prettiest goals of the year to finish off the game.
Lee pulled a 360 right in front of the goal, gathered his feet, and rifled a shot up top where the peanut butter is to put the final cherry on top. We saw Lee score a couple huge and impressive goals with Team USA, and it truly looks like this kid is coming for the title of most flashy player on the ice—in an eye-popping, can’t-look-away kind of way.
After Friday’s game, the Spartans are now led by Charlie Stramel with 26 points (12 goals, 14 assists). Porter Martone returned and added two goals to keep a slim lead over Stramel in goals scored on the year with 13. Daniel Russell leads the way in assists for MSU with 16. Spartan goaltender Trey Augustine continues to dominate between the pipes with a 1.70 GAA, a .938 save percentage, and a 13-4 record on the year.
The Spartans and Buckeyes will face off again today at 5 p.m. EST in Columbus, Ohio, and the two teams will meet again late in February.