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LATE PENALTIES LEAD TO 5-5 TIE
Fit to be tied...again.
Michigan State scored two late power play goals to overcome a 5-3 deficit and tie Michigan for the second straight night. The Spartans also extend their unbeaten streak against Michigan to seven games.
The Wolverines, simply put, blew it with two bad late penalties. First, Matt Hunwick was called for high sticking which to Tyler Howells putting in a rebound off the endboard to make it 5-4 with 8:23 left in the third.
Then Tim Miller took a flat out horrible hooking penalty with about five minutes remaining as he was chasing the Spartan puck-carrier up ice and unnecessarily kept poking his stick in his side until he finally hooked him down. The Spartans tied the game on the ensuing power play on a missle of a shot fired by David Booth.
In overtime, Justin Abdelkadar had the best opportunity on a two-on-one break, but Billy Sauer came up with the huge save. The Wolverines then went on the power play for the final minute, but Jeff Lerg held his ground to preserve the tie.
The Wolverines got on the board early in the first period during a 5-on-3 power play. Kevin Porter one-timed a shot that Lerg got a piece of but deflected into the top of the net.
Howells would tie the game with 6:13 left in the opening stanza with a backhander through a screen that beat Sauer in the top corner.
U-M would respond 1:33 later when Andrew Cogliano's shot from the right circle was stopped by Lerg, but the rebound popped up and went off the stick of a net crashing David Rohlfs and into the net.
But 1:20 later, back come the Spartans with a make-up goal of last night's no goal. Colton Fretter powered his way to the net, but Sauer stopped his. Sauer then stopped Chris Mueller's rebound shot, but Mueller scored on his own rebound. However, replay shows that he kicked the puck into the top corner of the net. But the referee decided that no replay was necessary and awarded the Spartans the goal.
Then with 1:32 left in the first period with the Spartans on the power play, Tim Miller stole the puck at the MSU blueline, skated in two-on-one, dished the puck across to Andrew Cogliano and he fired a wrist shot that beat Lerg on the shortside to give the Wolverines a 3-2 edge heading into intermission.
The Spartans started the second period with 1:57 power play due to a late U-M penalty. Cogliano would take a tripping penalty to put MSU on a 5-on-3 power play. On the ensuing faceoff in the U-M zone, David Booth would get the puck off the draw and beat Sauer shortside with a wrist shot from near the top of the left circle.
After being outshot 19-6 in the first period, MSU was much stronger during the second period as U-M spent much of the next ten minutes chasing after the puck. Michigan would finally start finding their legs during the latter half of the period and get a late power play opportunity.
Jack Johnson threw a shot on net from the blueline that was deflected in front. Jeff Lerg thought he had the puck between his pads when in fact it was sitting right in front of him. Brandon Kaleniecki crashed the net and put it between Lerg's legs to put the Wolverines ahead 4-3 at the end of two periods.
Just 36 seconds into the third period, Kaleniecki would strike again as he banged in a perfect centering pass by Andrew Ebbett to put U-M up 5-3.
The period was going as planned until the midway point when U-M got into penalty trouble that cost U-M a victory.
Except for another disappointing tie, this was an exciting, back-and-forth, hard hitting game.
The Wolverines return home Tuesday night to host Western Michigan, then play host to Ohio State for a weekend series at Yost. For those of you attending Saturday's Ohio State game, that game will be the annual Maize Out. Also, due to the Tuesday night contest, the Red Berenson Show will air Monday night for the next two weeks as U-M will travel to Western the following Tuesday.
That's all for now...
Go Blue!
Jason
Michigan Hockey Net
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