No. 1 Hockey Earns Shootout Victory on Senior Night

Saturday, February 28

East Lansing, Mich.

8 PM

Michigan State University

24-7-1, 15-6-1

Ohio State

12-18-2, 8-13-1

OT 1

OT 2

Ohio St.

Michigan St.

Photo by: Matthew Mitchell Photography

3/1/2026 12:58:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

EAST LANSING, Mich – It took a 13-round shootout to finish it, but No. 1-ranked Michigan State hockey earned a shootout victory over Ohio State on Saturday night at Ron Mason Rink at Munn Ice Arena. The teams tied 3-3 in regulation with MSU winning the shootout, 3-2.

"I thought that was a really, really good response out of our group, and I think that embodies what our seniors are about," said Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale. "They're a resilient group. Stuff's not always going to go your way. They've always found a way to get up off the mat and, even within the game, we were down two different times and there wasn't a panic. Obviously, some big-time execution on the power play, but I thought we were much better tonight. Ohio State is a really good team this time of year. It's hard to win. I think that can happen sometimes. We've been fortunate to win quite a few games the last few years and you can lose respect for what it takes and for what we need to do to win a hockey game. I really think that type of win — a character win — really embodies what our senior group is about. We're thankful we have them and hopefully we get to play a lot more hockey with them."

MSU moves to 24-7-1 overall and 15-6-1 in Big Ten action this season, earning the extra point towards the conference standings with the shootout win. Michigan State (47) is two points behind Michigan (49) with two regular season games remaining. The Spartans are back in action next week, taking on Minnesota March 5-6 at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Michigan State out-shot the Buckeyes 37-31 overall including by a 12-6 margin in the third period to net the game tying goal. The Spartans saw success on special teams going 2-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill in the series finale. Junior goaltender Trey Augustine made 28 saves in regulation but stopped 11-of-13 Ohio State shots in the shootout to seal the extra point for MSU.

Trey Augustine makes his 11th stop of a 13 round shootout to earn the extra point for Michigan State!

It'll go in the book as a tie but MSU comes away with two points in the standings. pic.twitter.com/Jj9wz16Xf2
— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) March 1, 2026

Freshmen Ryker Lee, Porter Martone and Anthony Romani did the scoring for the Spartans on senior night, with Martone notching a two-point night via a secondary assist on Lee's power play goal. Adding assists for MSU were senior Matt Basgall, senior Charlie Stramel, sophomore Owen West, freshman Eric Nilson and freshman Matt Lahey.

Russell, Stramel and sophomore Colin Ralph scored for MSU in the shootout.

How It Happened
An early power play chance provided a quick goal scoring opportunity for Michigan State when Lee went bar down just two minutes into the contest to open the scoring after a pair of precision passes from Basgall and Martone.

Ohio State scored twice in a matter of a minute mid-way through the period to take a 2-1 lead, scoring at 12:02 and 13:13 of the first, but Stramel found a soft spot in the Buckeye defense late, spotting Martone who used his backhand to tie the game at 2-2.

Ryker Lee with a snipe on the power play to quickly give us a 1-0 lead! pic.twitter.com/UtIQlsRVIG
— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) March 1, 2026

Ohio State got a 1-on-1 chance against Augustine late in the second period to take a 3-2 lead into the second intermission.

The Spartans tied the game 7:04 into the third period with their second power play goal of the evening, this time it was Romani who tucked the puck in the upper corner of the net for his second goal of the series.

Anthony Romani ties it on the power play, his second goal of the weekend! pic.twitter.com/JJitHi5ugG
— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) March 1, 2026

Teams played to a tie in the overtime period, forcing MSU to a shootout for the first time this season.

Russell scored in the opening shootout round to give the Spartans an early 1-0 edge. Stramel put Michigan State ahead 2-1 in the fifth round, but Ohio State responded to tie the shootout at 2-2. Augustine made seven consecutive saves for MSU to force a 13th round where Ralph tallied the winning goal. Augustine's 11th save of the shootout round sealed it for the Spartans.