Hockey Faces First Road Test at RIT

No. 3/3 Michigan State (2-0-0, 0-0-0 B1G) at RIT (1-2-1, 1-1-0 AHA)
Dates/Location	Saturday, October 17, 7:00 p.m. Blue Cross Arena \| Rochester, N.Y.
Radio	MSUSpartans.com \| Michigan State Athletics App Scott Moore (PxP) & Rob Woodward (Color)
Streaming	Youtube \| FloHockey \| Prime \| Fubo
Live Statistics	Click Here
Game Notes	Click Here

STREAMING:
Saturday's game will be streamed on FloHockey24/7 - a free ad supported streaming television (FAST) channel available on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video (US only), Fubo (US and Canada) and Bell Fibe (Canada only) among other select partner networks, including The Roku Channel and LG Channels.

NOTES TO KNOW:

• Michigan State opened its 2026-27 season with a series sweep over Northern Michigan (6-2, 5-1) at Munn Ice Arena last weekend.

• Anthony Romani (3-1-4), Jack Hextall (2-2-4) and Ryker Lee (1-3-4) each led MSU in points last weekend with four each. Chase Reid (0-3-3) and Eric Nilson (0-3-3) matched Lee for the team lead in assists with three. The Spartans had eight different goal scorers and 12 different players record points in the opening weekend.

• Michigan State's special teams units were clicking on all cylinders last weekend going 8-for-8 (1.000) on the penalty kill and 7-for-13 (.538) on power play chances.

• This week marks the first road game of the season for MSU, who went 17-3-1 away from Munn Ice Arena in 2025-26 and are 31-7-3 at road and neutral sites over the last two seasons combined.

• MSU is ranked No. 3 in both the USCHO and USA Hockey polls for the third consecutive week.

• Associate Head Coach Jared DeMichiel is a 2010 RIT graduate and an RIT Athletics Hall of Famer, playing four seasons for the Tigers where in his senior season he led all of Division I with 27 victories, was second in shutouts (6), seventh in goals against average and eighth in save percentage. He led RIT to the 2010 Frozen Four and was named the Atlantic Hockey Association Goaltender of the Year.

• Read this week's feature story on DeMichiel

• Head Coach Adam Nightingale is 3 wins away from 100 in his career as a Spartan. Entering this weekend Nightingale is 97-44-11 overall with a .674 career winning percentage. Ron Mason was the quickest to reach 100 wins at MSU, doing so in 182 games. Nightingale has coached in 152 since taking over as head coach.

• Michigan State was selected to finish second in the Big Ten Preseason Coaches Poll coming off back-to-back-to-back Big Ten regular season championships in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26.

• MSU sophomore forward Ryker Lee was selected to the Preseason All-Big Ten Second Team following a freshman season that saw him finish fourth on the team in scoring and third in goals with 15 goals, 15 assists and 30 total points.

• Michigan State has the second-most NHL draft selections on its roster in the NCAA this season with 17. MSU's nine first round picks are the most of any NCAA team this season. There are only 30 first round NHL selections slated to play college hockey in 2026-27, with MSU rostering 30% of them.

• 17 NHL Draft picks are tied for the most all-time at MSU with the 1990-91 season being the last time the Spartans boasted 17 selections. The 1990-91 team featured three first round selections (Jason Muzzatti, Bryan Smolinski and Michael Stewart).

• Patrick Geary was selected as the program's 81st captain and will wear the "C" on his chest this season. Geary's assistant captains are senior Tommi Mannisto and junior Shane Vansaghi. Both Mannisto and Vansaghi are first time captains.