No. 8 Michigan State hockey looks to continue fast start on road at Air Force
The Michigan State hockey team is set to get out on the road for the first time this season.
The Spartans, who jumped up one spot to No. 8 in the United States College Hockey Online national poll following two wins over Lake Superior State last weekend, will travel to Colorado Springs, Colorado, for a series with Air Force out of the Atlantic Hockey Conference.
"We're excited about getting on the road," MSU coach Adam Nightingale said. "Air Force always plays hard. It's a tough rink to play in and they are a well-coached and well-conditioned team so it'll be a good challenge for us."
Eight different Spartans scored goals against LSSU — the program's first opening-weekend sweep since the 2009-10 season. Junior forward and Miami (Ohio) transfer Red Savage was the only Spartan with two goals. Senior forward Nicolas Muller led MSU with four total points (one goal, three assists) in the series and was named the Big Ten's second star of the week.
In total, 17 different MSU skaters recorded at least one point against the Lakers, with six earning multiple points.
Freshman goaltender Trey Augustine became the first goaltender to win his first two games as a freshman to start the season in program history, making a total of 55 saves and allowing just two goals in each game.
"It feels great to have finally got the first games and get wins, but we were a little rusty at times and got away from our game a little," Muller said. "... We just need to recover and focus on that and I think playing our game for 60 minutes is the goal for our season. We can get better and more detailed."
MSU played Air Force two seasons ago at Munn Ice Arena, falling in overtime the first night before winning 5-1 to open the 2021-2022 season.
The Falcons split their opening series with Lindenwood last weekend, winning 4-1 the first night before dropping the second game, 4-3 in overtime. Air Force senior defenseman and captain Luke Rowe was the AHA defenseman of the week after tallying five assists in the two games.
MSU and Air Force meet Thursday and Friday night, with both games at 9 p.m. The games are available to stream on FloHockey. Thursday's radio broadcast will be on WVFN 730-AM and Friday's will be on WJIM 1240-AM.
Contact Nathaniel Bott at nbott@lsj.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @Nathaniel_Bott
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: No. 8 MSU hockey hits the road for the first road trip at Air Force
