Michigan State hockey, just a few years after rebounding from more than a decade of struggles, enters the 2025-26 season firmly re-established as one of the nation's elite programs.

The Spartans reached the NCAA tournament just once (2012) from 2009-2023. But that was before the arrival of coach Adam Nightingale, who has led the program to back-to-back Big Ten regular-season and tournament championhips and NCAA tournament No. 1 seeds in each of the past two seasons.

Nightingale enters his fourth season behind the bench with a 69-35-9 overall record – the best three-year start for an MSU coach in program history.

And no one expects the Spartans to slow down a bit this winter. MSU is ranked No. 3 in both the USCHO and USA Hockey preseason polls and is the Big Ten coaches' pick as the leag

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