After hot start with Michigan State, Trey Augustine turns sights on World Junior Championship

Trey Augustine has led Michigan State hockey to a historic hot start to the season. Now, he looks to win with Team USA at the 2024 World Junior Championship.

PLYMOUTH, Mich. — Raise the bar, and there’s a high chance that Trey Augustine will reach it.

He started for the U.S. U18 World Juniors in his 16-year-old season. He won the starting gig at last year’s World Juniors before he’d even left junior hockey. And, he became one of the best goalies in college hockey this season as a freshman. Not a problem, any bit of it.

Needless to say, there’s a level of confidence that drives Augustine’s game, and it’s a big reason why he’s one of Team USA’s key returners. It’s also how he has helped Michigan State to a 12-4-2 record, its best start to a season since 2007-08.

“I think the staff has a lot of faith in me,” Augustine said Thursday at the U.S. National Junior Team training camp. “Obviously it goes a long way just knowing that they have my back, I have theirs. Kind of a good relationship I have with all of them.”

It’s easy to trust Augustine in net, especially when he delivers such good results. The Detroit second-round draft pick has earned a .916 save percentage this season and averages 2.97 goals against. His only loss in Big Ten conference play was a 6-5 overtime loss at Minnesota during Thanksgiving weekend. There’s hardly an angle from which to look at his performance and find a major flaw.

The poise central to Augustine’s game helps him deliver so consistently. He believes in his abilities, and he’s comfortable in his position. Even when asked questions about his talent or his role on Team USA, he tends to stick with one sentence answers that cut straight to the point. Most explanation or backstory is extraneous.

Such mental strength can lead to success for most goalies, but it’s particularly important for one in a rebuilding program like that of the Spartans. Augustine joined a team that second-year coach Adam Nightingale built from mostly freshmen and transfers, all joining a new situation together that could’ve ended up with lots of losses while trying to find an identity. Instead, Nightingale made the expectations clear from the get-go, and Augustine thrived.

“I think it starts with the culture that’s set the very first day,” Augustine said. “Coach Nightingale has done a great job getting everyone bought in, obviously always want to play for that guy. The whole team as well, we’re all just super tight and that kinda makes it easy to have each other’s backs out there.”

As much as Augustine, his teammates and his coach have each other’s backs, it’s been like that for longer than just this season. After all, it was Nightingale who called him up to play at the U18 World Junior Championships. That’s a big reason why the South Lyon, Michigan, local ended up flipping his commitment from Michigan to Michigan State once Nightingale set up his office in East Lansing. What seemed like a major recruiting coup was really a no-brainer for all those involved. That “trust” that Augustine described is more a long-term pattern than any sort of momentary team-building strategy.

A key indicator of culture is how a team responds under duress, and the Spartans showed that after a brutal sweep at the hands of now-No. 1 Boston College. After the only two regulation losses credited to him this season, Augustine said he and his teammates came together as one after those losses. That tracks with the box score results, as he remained unbeaten for the next seven straight games, including a home sweep of then-No. 1 Wisconsin that gave Michigan State control of the Big Ten. A pair of losses didn’t derail Augustine, but rather sparked a teamwide resurgence.

So when he takes the ice at USA Hockey Arena, there’s really no reason Augustine shouldn’t be confident. He’s a returner who’s excelled in his college games this season, proving how capable he is to keep the starting gig in Sweden.

Even with Boston College’s Jacob Fowler competing with him for the gig — the same goalie who swept him earlier this year — Augustine has thus far welcomed the motivation that such competition brings. His coaches are excited at the development too, even if it makes naming a true starter that much more difficult.

“Both guys have been excellent the first half of the season,” USA coach David Carle said. “We would rather have that than one guy be an excellent one guy be an average, and it’s a credit to both of them and the work they put in. So we have great depth in goal. We're not going to complain about that, and certainly feel comfortable with the goaltending options.”

Augustine, meanwhile, feels comfortable even when the expectations get higher. And whether he’s at Munn Ice Arena or in Frölundaborg later this month, that mental strength gives his team an edge.