EAST LANSING– The Michigan State Spartans beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 5-2 on Saturday, clinching a share of the Big Ten Regular Season Championship for the second consecutive season. 

The Spartans entered the weekend two points behind the Minnesota Golden Gophers after only winning one point against Penn State the week prior. 

But the Spartans got the help of the Nittany Lions, as they beat Minnesota in overtime, leveling the top of the Big Ten standings as both teams had 47 points entering Saturday. 

Both teams won their games in regulation, finishing the regular season with 50 points and will share the Big Ten Title. This is the first time in Big Ten history that there are co-regular season champions. 

However, the Spartans hold the tiebreaker over Minnesota and will be No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. The top seed gets a bye in the quarterfinals and has home-ice advantage throughout the tournament. 

The Spartans will face the highest remaining seed in the semifinals in a single elimination game on March 15. 

MSU is the second program in Big Ten history to have multiple conference titles, behind Minnesota, who has seven. 

This is the first time the Spartans have won back-to-back conference titles since they won the CCHA in 1998 and 1999. 

The Spartans remain No. 2 in the PairWise Rankings, the power ranking formula that seeds the NCAA Tournament. It is likely that MSU will be the No. 1 seed in the Toledo Region in the first round.