What MSU’s Nightingale Said Following Stunning Loss to New Hampshire

Michigan State hockey suffered a heartbreaking loss to New Hampshire on Thursday night to start its 2025-26 season. The Wildcats scored with 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation to stun the second-ranked Spartans, 4-3.

After the loss, head coach Adam Nightingale talked to the media about the loss and what he thought UNH did well and what his team didn’t do enough of.

The complete video of his postgame press conference is below. MSU will get a chance to earn a split in the series against the Wildcats on Friday at 7:30 p.m. on B1G+.

In addition, a partial transcript of the press conference has been provided.

NIGHTINGALE: Obviously, tough start to the year, for sure. I thought the crowd was great. I thought it was a pretty normal start of the year; hockey was a little bit helter-skelter. I thought, you know, the second we kind of got to our game but — give UNH credit, I thought they did a lot of good things. I thought they were heavy at the puck, competitive in front of their net and did a heck of a job blocking shots.

We take the five-minute major, we’re only able to kill (three minutes), we only gave up one. But, I thought Tommi (Mannisto made a) great play and was staying with it and (Sean Barnhill) to tie it up.

And obviously, that’s a super tough finish. But, I told the guys after the game, I mean, this is a team sport. You win as a team, you lose as a team, and clearly, we’ve got a lot to work on.

Q: What most concerned you or disappointed you? What do you want to see most worked on, I guess?

NIGHTINGALE: I don’t think concerned, disappointed are the right words. I think that knowing our group, we have a lot to work on, right? And one of them is the pace of the games played at the college level.

I think we’ve got a lot of new guys, and understanding that it’s super competitive every night, it’s like a playoff game. And not that I thought our guys weren’t competitive, but I think that’s a great reminder for our guys that this is hard. College hockey is hard and there are no nights off and they’re (New Hampshire) a really good team.

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