From now on, Michigan State hockey is playing single-round elimination this season.
The Big Ten changed its hockey tournament format to three rounds of single elimination this season. The Spartans will test it when they host Ohio State on Saturday, March 14. The game is set for 7:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network.
MSU’s opponent was unknown until Wednesday night, when No. 5-seeded Ohio State upset No. 4-seeded Wisconsin 7-1. The Spartans secured the No. 1 seed and a bye in the tournament’s first round after winning the regular-season title last week.
Their competition with Ohio State is a semifinal of the tournament, in which No. 2-seeded Michigan and No. 3-seeded Penn State are also remaining.
The Big Ten tournament previously included a best-of-three quarterfinal round. The switch to single-elimination rounds is meant to shorten the tournament and prevent teams from having long bye periods, especially before NCAA tournament games. The last time the Big Ten won a national championship in men’s hockey was in 2007, when MSU brought home the title.
“When you win the league, you sit for two weeks,” MSU coach Adam Nightingale said last week. “You're trying to set it up for your top team to have success in the tournament. We got to win one of these (NCAA tournaments) as a conference. I think that's the thought process behind it, to try to keep teams going, especially if you're a team that was on the bye.”
Nightingale said the team has never lost in the NCAA tournament because it's been rusty, though.
MSU emphasized a focus on itself leading up to the Big Ten semifinals, like each game of the season. Unlike the other Big Ten teams, MSU had four potential opponents prior to Wednesday.
“You're going to play a good team that's going to be hungry,” Nightingale said on Tuesday. “If you want to have success, you got to be at your best. And that doesn't — that's not going to change with who we're playing.”
MSU has been preparing to face anyone, but Ohio State is one of the last teams Spartan fans wanted to host at Munn.
