5 players to know as Michigan, Michigan State face off in hockey in Detroit
The most-played college hockey rivalry in the country drops the puck another couple of times this weekend in East Lansing (7 p.m. Friday) and Detroit (8 p.m. Saturday) as Michigan hockey and Michigan State hockey face off for the 341st and 342nd times.
The Wolverines lead the series, 177-139-24, with a margin that has been pumped up a bit by the Spartans’ woeful record over the past 18 meetings: 4-14 against U-M since January 2019. That includes three straight losses to the Wolverines in the “Duel in the D,” the annual game played now at Little Caesars Arena (after decades at The Joe).
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But hey, the rivalry has a renewed freshness this season, with new coaches — Brandon Naurato is the Wovlerines’ interim skipper, while Adam Nightingale, hired in May, is the full-time Spartans boss — and a newly competitive MSU roster that was ranked No. 15 in the most recent USCHO poll. The Wolverines are, once again, in the top five, with an NCAA tournament berth all but locked up. The Spartans could use a signature win (or two) to help their case — and help their seeding in next month’s Big Ten tournament: U-M and MSU are tied with Ohio State and Penn State for the 2-seed (though U-M and OSU have played two fewer games).
And so, with that in mind, here are five players to know going into this weekend’s games, which will even get some national attention with a broadcast on ESPNU on Saturday.
F Adam Fantilli, Michigan
Fantilli arrived in Ann Arbor already projected as a top-three pick in this summer’s NHL draft and has lived up to his billing, leading the Wolverines in goals (17), assists (28), points (45) and plus/minus (+17) in 24 games. That’s despite missing a month of action while playing in the World Juniors. Since returning from his gold-winning “vacation” — three goals and two assists in seven games for Canada — the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Ontario native went scoreless in two games against Ohio State, then scored six goals in his next six games. In all, Fantilli has two National Player of the Month awards and leads the NCAA in points per game (1.88).
Last month, the NHL’s Central Scouting Service ranked Fantilli as the No. 2 position player in North America, and on Thursday, he was named to the watch list for the Tim Taylor Award, given annually to college hockey’s top rookie. Of course, he’s not the only rookie who’ll be suiting up this weekend; there’s also …
F Karsen Dorwart, Michigan State
The native Oregonian is also on the Taylor Award watch list, thanks to his nine goals and 16 assists in 30 games. His 25 points are tied for the Spartans’ lead (with Swiss senior Nicolas Müller, who has five goals and 20 assists) and he leads the roster in plus/minus (+13). December and January brought a bit of a cold snap for the 6-1, 191-pound West Coaster; he went 11 games without a goal before breaking through with two in his past three games combined, with one each against Minnesota (the Big Ten leaders) and Notre Dame.
The Spartans’ offense isn’t exactly electric — at 2.83 goals a game, they rank 38th in the nation, and more than a goal behind the Wolverines, No. 3 at 4.11 per game — but Dorwart can provide some gas, which means he’ll likely draw the attention of …
D Luke Hughes, Michigan
The defenseman was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft (before even arriving in Ann Arbor), was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award (college hockey’s version of the Heisman Trophy) as a freshman and then opted to come back for his sophomore year, rather than join big brother Jack with the New Jersey Devils. So far, so good: Hughes is second among Wolverines in assists (24), points (32) and plus/minus (+16) in 28 games. (He took some time for the World Juniors, too, putting up four goals and an assist while captaining Team USA’s bronze effort.)
Hughes’ task this season has been learning to embrace the, y’know, defensive part of his position, after scoring 17 goals as a freshman. His goal pace is down in Year 2, but he can still take over a game; just ask Penn State, which Hughes shredded for four goals in less than 20 minutes of game time on Jan. 28 as he led the Wolverines from a 3-0 deficit to a 5-4 win. So, yeah, he’s probably on the scouting report for …
G Dylan St. Cyr, Michigan State
If it feels like St. Cyr has been around forever despite being in his first season in East Lansing, well … you’re not wrong. The Northville native — who’s the son of goaltender Manon Rheaume, the first woman to play in an NHL preseason game — came up through the U.S. National Team Development Program when it was located in Ann Arbor, then spent four seasons at Notre Dame (though he only received serious playing time as a senior in 2020-21, posting a .923 save percentage and 2.44 goals-against average for the Irish). He still had a year of eligibility, so it was off to Quinnipiac, where he backed up Hobey Baker finalist Yaniv Perets, who set the NCAA record with a 1.17 GAA despite giving up four goals in 40 minutes to the Wolverines in the NCAA tournament; St. Cyr’s numbers were pretty good for the Bobcats, too: .936 save percentage and five shutouts in 11 appearances.
The NCAA’s COVID waiver gave St. Cyr one more season, and so it was on to East Lansing, where he has a 2.74 GAA and .917 save percentage in 21 games for the Spartans. St. Cyr started both December games against the Wolverines, winning the first and dropping the second one on a second-period goal by …
F T.J. Hughes, Michigan
No relation to Jack, Luke or Quinn (their oldest brother and a defenseman who’ll take the LCA ice at noon Saturday for the Vancouver Canucks), the Hamilton, Ontario, native hit Ann Arbor with some goal-scoring credentials after leading his juniors league in Alberta with 66 goals in 60 games. In his freshman season with the Wolverines, Hughes has 10 goals, good for fourth on the roster, and 17 assists (third). He also has a knack for scoring when it counts; in addition to his winner against the Spartans in Ann Arbor, he opened the scoring the previous night in U-M’s 2-1 loss in East Lansing.
And in the spirit of finishing with someone who knows how to start things, Hughes is also the Wolverines’ top faceoff-taker; he won 58.6% of the battles in the circle in those two December games against the Spartans. Just something to think about when they drop the puck Saturday night in Detroit.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan vs. Michigan State hockey play in Detroit: 5 players to know
