No. 13 Michigan State hockey falls 6-3 to No. 4 Minnesota: Analysis and reaction

Lansing State Journal sports reporter Nathaniel Bot breaks down Michigan State's 6-3 loss to the Gophers, who completed a road weekend sweep of the Spartans on Saturday night.

What happened

The Spartans started with good energy in front of an eager crowd at Munn Ice Arena, looking to bounce back from Friday night's 5-0 loss to the Gophers.

After a solid first five minutes, an MSU turnover led to a two-on-zero break for Minnesota freshman phenoms Jimmy Snuggerud and Logan Cooley, with Snuggerud scoring on MSU's Dylan St. Cyr for a 1-0 lead.

MSU's second period saw another missed pass result in a breakaway for Minnesota — this time senior forward Bryce Brodzinski beat St. Cyr to make it 2-0. Senior Jaxon Nelson scored few minutes later, and sophomore standout Matthew Knies added a goal on a redirected pass late in the period to blow things open.

Trailing 4-0, MSU came out in the third period and did exactly what it needed to — score early. Christian Krygier drove at the net before feeding a pass to sophomore forward Jesse Tucker, who one-timed a shot past Minnesota's Justen Close for the Spartans' first goal of the night and series.

MSU forward Jeremy Davidson made it 4-2 after the junior jumped on a puck in front of the net and buried a wrist shot with about 10 minutes remaining. The Spartans had some life, but Minnesota responded twice, with a goal off of a rebound and another deflected off an MSU player.

Davidson added a second goal for MSU, his fifth of the season, late in the third, to make it a 6-3 final.

St. Cyr made 35 saves for the Spartans, and Close stopped 40 MSU shots to earn the sweep for the Gophers. MSU now sits in third place in the Big Ten, staying at 17 points.

What it means

This certainly isn't the weekend result MSU wanted, but also not what it expected, given the tear the Spartans were on in November.

Saturday night was a better showing for MSU, which outshot the Gophers 43-41 — another sign of the Spartans' considerably improved offense and more aggressive style.

MSU will not face a better team this season than the Gophers — who have a number of highly touted NHL prospects — and it won't have to defend a more difficult line than that of Knies, Cooley and Snuggerud. If not for St. Cyr, Cooley would've found himself on the scoring sheet multiple times Saturday night.

Minnesota made life difficult for MSU in ways prior opponents haven't. The Gophers were all over MSU on the forecheck and made MSU have to work to get it out of its defensive zone. Multiple goals this weekend came from the Gophers' relentless pressure, forcing mistakes in transition that MSU hasn't made all season. It's a testament to Minnesota's depth to have forward lines consistently making that push on the forecheck.

It was a bit of a reality check for the Spartans, but the third period Saturday showed that MSU has the capability to play with the best in college hockey.

What they said

MSU coach Adam Nightingale, on the game overall: "Not the way we wanted the weekend to go, and give a lot of credit to Minnesota, they are a really good team. I really liked the way we came out in the game, but we dug ourselves a hole. I liked our push in the third and we talked to our guys about winning the third period so I'm proud of our guys for that. We talk about developing and it's not always a straight path up, there's some steps back. We found some things as a team that we need to get better at and we'll get to work on it Monday."

Nightingale, on the better third-period performance: "(Minnesota) is really good at defending, and I don't think they always get credit for that, but you have to play with hard skill and I thought we were more competitive at the puck and it was good to see that pressure from our guys. It shows a lot about the character of this group, and when things don't go your way I think that's where character is revealed."

Davidson, on playing Minnesota: "I think we took a back seat to them yesterday, and they can be an intimidating team with the abundance of skill they have and the depth they have. I think we need to find that we can play and beat any team in the country because we can and we can go from there and learn a lot from this weekend."

What's next

MSU faces off in a home-and-home series with Michigan next weekend, with Friday's game at Munn Ice Arena scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. puck drop and Saturday's game at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor also scheduled for 6:30. Both games will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

Contact Nathaniel Bott at nbott@lsj.com and follow him on Twitter @Nathaniel_Bott

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU hockey swept by Minnesota Gophers, 6-3: Analysis and reaction