In its 15th year under head coach Amo Bessone the team compiled a 16–13–0 record and reached the NCAA tournament for the second time in its history.
MSU met their first Big Ten opponent when Minnesota arrived in mid-January but after the Golden Gophers handed Amo Bessone's team two losses the Spartans were wallowing near the bottom of their conference with a 3–7 record.
Despite the hostile crowd MSU was able to win the game against the 5th-place Wolverines and, because of an odd arrangement for the second round, headed back home for a match against top-seeded Michigan Tech.
Despite having a worse record than Denver, Michigan State was slated to play lower-seeded Boston University in the opening round, a team who was only in the tournament because ECAC runner-up Cornell declined the invitation.
[2] Michigan State's showed up in full force against the Terriers, holding BU to a single goal and winning a nail-biter 2–1 to advance to the title game.