Duel in the D to Highlight Weekend Series Against No. 2 Michigan State

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 13-ranked University of Michigan ice hockey team (15-11-2, 9-8-1 Big Ten) and No. 2 Michigan State (21-4-3, 12-3-3 Big Ten) close out the season series this weekend. The weekend series starts on Friday (Feb. 7) at 7 p.m. in East Lansing at Munn Ice Arena. Saturday (Feb. 8) features the Duel in the D at 8 p.m. inside at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Friday's game will be streamed live on B1G+, while the finale will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network.

Notes

• The Wolverines enter the weekend at No. 14 in the Pairwise rankings. The squad is fourth in the Big Ten with 25 points as Michigan looks to secure home ice for the Big Ten Tournament with three weekends remaining in the regular season.

• Michigan holds a 178-143-24 edge in the all-time series with MSU since the teams first met during the 1924-25 season. The teams split the first series three weeks ago with Michigan winning 3-2 in overtime at Yost before the Spartans took a 4-1 game in East Lansing the next night.

• Saturday's game marks the ninth Duel in the D with Michigan winning six of the eight that have been contested. MSU won the first in 2016 before Michigan won six straight; Michigan State recaptured the Iron D trophy in 2024. The game was not played in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Freshman defenseman Will Felicio was named the Big Ten Third Star of the Week on Monday (Feb. 3). He is on a four-game point streak that had him collect four points last weekend against Penn State. He had two points in each game and finished a +5.

• T.J. Hughes leads the team in scoring with 31 points (12 goals, 19 assists). Freshman Michael Hage has 28 points on 12 goals and 15 assists. Evan Werner has also reached 20-plus points with 22 to his credit. Michigan has split goaltending duties between graduate transfer Logan Stein and freshman Cameron Korpi.

• Hughes has the longest active point streak in the nation at 11 games. He has scored seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points dating back to Michigan's Dec. 14 game. Hughes joined the Michigan Century Club in his 100th career game in January.

• Michigan's power play ranks third in the nation, converting on 29.1 percent of its chances (25-for-86). The squad went 21 percent during the first semester and has gone 50 percent since.

• MSU is ranked second in the nation and the Pairwise rankings with a 21-4-3 overall record. The Spartans sit in first place in the conference standings with 40 points, two ahead of Minnesota. Isaac Howard leads the offense with 40 points, followed by transfer Charlie Stramel with 24. Trey Augustine is the starting netminder and owns a .926 save percentage and a 2.12 goals-against average.