MSU hockey tops Notre Dame in Game 3 for first Big Ten tournament series win

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Michigan State hockey program took a huge step forward Sunday night.

The Spartans won their first-ever Big Ten tournament series, scoring three unanswered goals and going on to a 4-2 victory over Notre Dame in Game 3 of their best-of-3 series.

"It was great, and the guys did a heck of a job. It's only the second time in the history of the Big Ten that the road team has won, so to go down one and come back and hang on, it was huge for our program," MSU coach Adam Nightingale said. "Notre Dame is such a quality program, and I thought that was their best game of the series. We had a little bend-don't-break, but that's what this time of year is about, you have to find a way to win."

MSU will now travel to face No. 1 seed Minnesota next Saturday in a one-game semifinal for a spot in the Big Ten tournament final.

Notre Dame's Justin Janicke opened the scoring for Notre Dame on the power play just over five minutes into the game. But MSU senior forward Nico Muller responded later in the first period by jumping on a loose puck from a blocked shot and sending it over the glove of Notre Dame goaltender Ryan Bischel.

It was Muller who instigated the Spartans' lead in the second period, winning an offensive zone draw and immediately sending the puck across the crease, where junior forward Jeremy Davidson charged and potted the puck past a sprawling Bischel for a 2-1 lead.

"We were on the same page, and I was telling him in the TV timeout that I was going to do it," Muller said. "We didn't plan it before the game, but I was just feeling for it and it worked out."

MSU extended its lead to two after a point shot from defenseman Nash Nienhuis hit MSU's Miroslav Mucha on its way to the net. The deflection took Bischel out of position, and freshman forward Tiernan Shoudy was able to quickly find the rebound and put it away.

Notre Dame's Hunter Strand scored on the power play with 3:23 remaining to make it 3-2 and got the Notre Dame crowd as loud as it had been all series. But with the goaltender pulled, Muller gained possession in the defensive zone and lobbed the puck the full length of the ice, where it trickled into the empty net to give MSU a 4-2 lead.

"It was a great performance from the team and we were working for each other," Muller said. "It was a really fun game, and I think it means a lot for us. We've been working so hard, and after getting the empty-netter it felt really good."

MSU goaltender Dylan St. Cyr made a number of big saves down the stretch, most notably a stretching pad save on Notre Dame forward Grant Silianoff that would've cut the Irish's deficit to just one with plenty of time left to find an equalizer.

St. Cyr, who played his first four collegiate seasons at Notre Dame, finished with 37 saves and earned back-to-back wins over his old team.

"I never would've thought my best games (at Notre Dame) would be wearing green and white, and it felt great to get this win with Michigan State," St. Cyr said. "We knew we played really well the first game and some bounces didn't go our way, but we're a process-driven team and we stuck with it and it showed in the last two games."

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Muller, who had just six points all last season, finished with two goals and an assist to give him a team-leading 34 points on the season. Davidson has now scored in back-to-back games, and Shoudy, who had been disruptive all series, was rewarded with his sixth goal of the season.

MSU's players have preached all season that Nightingale's practices are harder than the actual games, and the conditioning and intensity of those practices certainly helped the Spartans down the stretch in a series with three games in three days.

"A hundred percent it made an impact, and I think that's something you can control and your body is capable of more than sometimes you give it credit," Nightingale said. "Our university supports us in a great way and we're able to feed our guys well and get the treatment they need to stay healthy. It's really exciting for the guys to see success when you train like that, that matters."

RELATED: Inside Adam and Kristin Nightingale's wild ride back to East Lansing to lead Michigan State hockey

MSU went 0-4 against Minnesota this season but has a chance to rectify that next Saturday at 9 p.m. and further bolster its NCAA tournament chances. The Spartans will still likely need some teams to stumble in their respective conference tournaments, but MSU jumped to No. 16 in the Pairwise rankings. It appears the top 15 teams will get in the NCAA tournament field, assuming all the conference winners are teams within that 15. The Atlantic Hockey Conference doesn't have a team in the top 16, but will get an auto bid, taking one of the 16 spots in the field.

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

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State hockey wins Game 3 for first Big Ten tourney series win