The Spartans dropped one spot in the USCHO polls to second after splitting their weekend with Michigan, losing the first game in overtime before bouncing back with a 4-1 win in the second. Charlie Stramel was the standout player in night two’s victory as he had two goals and an assist that propelled them to win.

The Golden Gophers trailed the Spartans by just one point in the Big Ten standings. Minnesota also dropped one spot in the USCHO polls to fourth after a split with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish where they won in dominant 5-2 fashion and took a Saturday overtime loss with a final score of 4-3.

The Spartans started strong in the first period, prepared to face the Golden Gophers’ dominant lineup.

MSU struck early, taking the lead six and a half minutes into the first period when junior forward Tanner Kelly redirected a loose puck past Minnesota’s Nathan Airey through the five-hole, continuing to keep offense pressure present in the matchup.

Capitalizing on turnovers was the story of the first period as MSU was able to break up neutral zone breakouts and take over puck possession to attempt to turn a one goal lead into two. The Spartans were able to poke check the puck off the stick of Minnesota skaters to give them a one up on their power house opponents. But their capitalization on Golden Gopher mistakes gave the green and white their one goal lead going into the second period.

The second period began in Minnesota’s favor, with Oliver Moore scoring just 26 seconds in as his shot trickled past sophomore netminder Trey Augustine, briefly tying the game.

MSU quickly responded, with sophomore forward Tommi Männistö banking in a rebound off Airey’s pads just 75 seconds later.

"Those shifts after goals are really important, and so much of the game is momentum, if you lose it you want to try and get it back," head coach Adam Nightingale said. "It's not always going to be scoring, but a good solid shift."

Brody Ziemer was able to tie it up again as he shot the puck over the shoulder of Augustine’s glove side, but the responses continued for MSU as a one time shot off of a winning faceoff draw allowed Gucciardi to give the Spartans their lead back.

With a man advantage on the power play the Spartans took their first two goal lead of the night off of a shot from just outside the right circle from Russell and just soon after MSU was able to bank in another shot as Gucciardi tagged his second of the night, getting behind Airey and putting the loose puck behind the blue paint. With five goals, the Golden Gophers made their goalie change, bringing in Liam Souliere to relieve Airey.

With just under five minutes to go, the maroon and gold were able to get back within two as Jimmy Snuggerud cut the deficit, but the Spartans were able to hold on to their two goal lead heading into the final period of game play.

The Spartans dominated the final period, with junior forward Daniel Russell firing a shot at Souliere that was tapped in by junior forward Isaac Howard just before it crossed the goal line. The goal marked Howard’s 19th of the season, solidifying his lead in the national points race.

And MSU continued to dominate after Stramel was able to rip the puck from the right circle past Souliere. And with just five and a half minutes to go Howard put his second of the night on the board on a breakaway shot for goal number 20 of the season and a five goal lead over the Golden Gophers.

"I think sometimes you're not going to score every night, but I really thought our quality of play was really good up and down our line up," Nightingale said.

Michigan State and Minnesota return to action on Saturday, Jan. 25, at 6 p.m., with the Golden Gophers aiming for a split and the Spartans looking to secure the sweep.