No. 1 Michigan State Preparing for Great Lakes Invitational
It seems like it's been quite a while since Michigan State hockey downed Minnesota in its comeback win in Minneapolis.
The Spartans took back their No. 1 ranking after losing it the weekend prior when they were shut out 4-0 in the first game of their road series with Wisconsin. Fittingly, Michigan State had the opportunity to reclaim its spot as the nation's best with meeting with the Golden Gophers, who had taken said spot.
Michigan State tied Minnesota in a shootout on Dec. 13 before pulling off a thrilling comeback to defeat the Gophers, 5-3, the following night.
Now, the Spartans are getting ready for the annual Great Lakes Invitational, which will be hosted at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. The two-day invitational will be a good opportunity for Michigan State to get some competition in before it resumes Big Ten play the first week of the new year.
The Spartans will first face Northern Michigan on Sunday. The winner of that game will then play the winner of the matchup between Michigan Tech and Western Michigan in the GLI Championship the following day.
Michigan State leads the all-time matchup with Northern Michigan, 37-12-2. The Huskies have won just one game this year.
"Looking forward to playing in the GLI," said Spartans coach Adam Nightingale when he addressed the media on Friday. "Probably biased, but I think it's the best college hockey tournament. I think Michigan Tech does an unbelievable job running it. We're excited about it being in Grand Rapids. We got so many alums on that side of the state, and hockey's really growing there, and I think we got to do our part to be a part of it. So, thankful that they want us to be in it and looking forward to get going."
Michigan State hasn't won the GLI since 2009 when it won its 12th all-time title.
"It's been a while since we've won that thing," Nightingale said. "I think the last two years since we've been here, I thought we played really good hockey and maybe haven't gotten the results that we thought we could have gotten by the way we played, but that's our sport. And so, we just got to focus on, again, really kicks off an opportunity to play for a trophy to kick off the second half of the season."
Sunday's game is set for 7 p.m.
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