No. 2 Michigan State hockey looking to copy NHL approach

EAST LANSING – Adam Nightingale drove to Detroit with his family on Monday night to see the Red Wings skate to a 5-2 win against the Kings. The Michigan State coach, who spent three seasons on staff with Red Wings, ran into familiar faces at Little Caesars Arena. He also recalled how the NHL changed this time every year with teams looking to push toward the playoffs. “We want to do the same,” Nightingale said after practice on Tuesday, “we want to be playing our best hockey. … If you look at our playoff structure, it’s one-game shots. You can’t wait until then to crank it up, you’ve got to be playing playoff-type hockey this time of the year. I think our guys are starting to trend towards that.” The No. 2 Spartans (20-3-3, 11-2-3 Big Ten) continue to roll in the year three of Nightingale’s massive turnaround with the program’s best start since 2000-01. They picked up five of six possible points at home last weekend against No. 4 Minnesota with a 9-3 win followed by a shootout victory to cap a 3-3 tie. “I think that’s one of the biggest challenges in sports is complacency, right, especially the world we live in with outside noise and social media and people telling you how good you are,” Nightingale said. “We’ve really tried to help the group stay grounded on things that matter and really what matters and has substance is you get better and you put the team first.” Michigan State, heading into a series at No. 11 Ohio State (15-7-2, 8-5-1), will play the rest of the way without senior forward and team captain Red Savage. He missed the last three games with an upper-body injury that Nightingale on Tuesday announced is season ending. “That’s tough news but that’s the reality of any team sport,” Nightingale said. “Injuries are a part of it, unfortunately, and we’ve got more than enough in our room to get the job done.” The Spartans went 2-0-1 in the three games Savage recently missed and success against Minnesota led to expanding their lead in the Big Ten from one point to five. Nightingale said there isn’t much discussion about conference standings with a month left in the regular season. “To be honest, it doesn’t feel like much of a cushion anyway,” junior defenseman Matt Basgall said. “We’ve got eight games to go, there’s a lot of points up for grabs.” Michigan State, which won Big Ten regular season and tournament titles last season, swept the first series against Ohio State in early November. The Spartans prevailed 4-2 and 4-1 at Munn Ice Arena and will face the Buckeyes on the road on Thursday (8 p.m., BTN) and Friday (7 p.m., BTN+) looking to maintain a high level of play. “These guys have done a great job and we’ve got to keep doing it,” Nightingale said. “You can’t assume that’s going to keep happening. They’ve got to stay disciplined with their mind and their thoughts that we’ve got to be a hungry hockey team here.”