"Our conference does such a great job of making it feel professional for our guys and the experience that they had," head coach Adam Nightingale said. "It ended up being a heck of a hockey game, could have went either way."'

The Spartans needed extra play in sudden death for junior forward Daniel Russell to score his sixth game-winning goal of the season and lead the Spartans to overtime victory.

The Spartans were 2-1-0 against Wisconsin heading into their final regular season game against the Badgers in Madison late November, losing their night one tilt 4-0 and coming back on night two with a 4-3 overtime thriller. On the banks of the Red Cedar Thursday night, the Spartans took another 4-3 comeback win before visiting on Wrigleyville, Chicago two days later to face the same opponent. 

The roar of the crowd at Wrigley Field rang out at puck drop, and the Spartans and the Badgers were off to the races in a battle of who could throw the first punch in the chilly outdoors of early January. 

Defense was the story of the first period as the Spartans held off the Badgers from shooting on goal until almost the seven-minute mark. Even when Wisconsin began to crawl back, getting into an offensive groove, the Spartan defense held strong. 

Without a shot on goal for five minutes just past the halfway point of the first period, MSU found the back of the net. With its sound defense playing well in front of sophomore netminder Luca Di Pasquo, the blue liners also helped create offense, as freshman defenseman Vladislav Lukashevich drew the first goal of the outdoor game with a shot from the point, mounting a lead on the Badgers going into the second period.

At puck drop to start the second period, the Spartans were left with 1:49 remaining on a penalty kill, a time when special teams, defense and Di Pasquo continued to shine.

Making an incredible sprawling save in the first period, Di Pasquo played soundly between the pipes, continuing to be the backbone of MSU's defense in the absence of sophomore goaltender Trey Augustine.

The Spartans took a 2-0 lead after a shot from the blue line by sophomore defender Austin Oravetz rebounded for Russell to bank it in, but the Badgers finally took action to respond.

Gavin Morrissey caught Di Pasquo on his glove side, crawling back within one goal with just 5:30 to go in the period. The Big Ten's leading goal scorer in Quinn Finley knocked the puck into an empty net, tying the game up heading into the final 20 minutes of action.

With a tie game going into the final period, MSU needed to get back to its first-period pace, and it held strong on the blue line and created offense up and down the ice.

Momentum was reclaimed by the Spartans as junior forward Isaac Howard’s hot streak continued for goal No. 13 of the season for the top line forward, taking the lead with just under 12 minutes remaining in regulation. 

But with an empty net, the Badgers tied the game with 48 seconds and the teams needed more time to decide the rare outdoor game. 

With just 1.4 seconds left before ending in a tie, Russell’s second goal clinched the 4-3 win for the Spartans at the Frozen Confines. 

"Our group did a good job of responding during the game," Nightingale said. "We were up 2 to nothing, they tie it, we go up, they tie it at the end. A lot of times you can melt in those situations, but we talked about playing for 60 minutes or 65, whatever it takes."

Michigan State will head on the road to Happy Valley, Pa. to play Penn State for its first matchup of the season against the Nittany Lions on Friday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 11 at 6 p.m.