GREEN & WHITE HOCKEY
MSU hockey falls 5-3 to U-M, slides out of first place
Alyssa Girardi
For the Lansing State Journal
EAST LANSING —Friday evening was senior night for Michigan State hockey, but a group of Michigan freshmen stole the show early in the game. First-year players Dexter Dancs, Cutler Martin and Dylan Larkin notched the first three goals in the Wolverines' 5-3 defeat of the Spartans (16-15-2, 10-7-2-2 Big Ten), with senior Zach Hyman and sophomore Tyler Motte also contributing goals.
"They won key moments, we didn't," MSU head coach Tom Anastos said. "They won the out-front battle, and that's something that we thought was key to the game. And they won it, so they won the game."
In the close league race, Michigan's and Minnesota's wins on Friday moved both into a tie for first place with 36 points. MSU follows with 34 points, trailed by Penn State with 31.
Michigan (20-13-0, 12-7-0-0 Big Ten) jumped on the Spartans early in the game, while MSU took 12 minutes to register its first shot on net. By that point, No. 19-ranked Michigan had already scored two goals.
"I thought they started way faster than us the first ten minutes," Anastos said. "I thought we looked tight, kind of slapping the puck around. I thought we finally settled down and got through that period and then we started to play a little better."
Helping his team to an explosive start, Dancs notched his third career goal at 3:54 after JT Compher backhanded a loose puck behind the MSU net to Dancs out front.
Michigan's lead doubled minutes later when MSU's JT Stenglein mishandled the puck at the opposing blue line and allowed Martin to take off on a breakaway, resulting in a five-hole goal.
"We gave up goals too easily," Anastos said. "Especially the way they scored a couple of their goals; they were miscues by us. And they took advantage of it."
Junior Ryan Keller led MSU's comeback effort with a highlight-reel hat trick performance. A five-man effort with 6:17 remaining in the first put the Spartans on the board, with Keller scoring on the rebound for his first goal.
In front of a crowd of 6,681 at Munn Arena, Keller struck again at 11:59. Michigan goaltender Zach Nagelvoort came out of his net to make a play, but Keller took a dive and beat him to the puck, poking it into the net to tie the game. His final marker came early in the third period when his shot from the right wing hit off Michigan's Michael Downing and bounced into the net.
"They got a couple of timely goals," head coach Red Berenson said. "We bent but we didn't break, and it was good to see our team hang in there and win the third period. Good game, either team could win, that's how close these games are."
The Wolverines entered the final period up a goal after Larkin scored on his own rebound with 2:21 left in the second frame. Keller's third goal tied it up, but Michigan pulled ahead with a goal by Lynch at 14:57. Motte sealed the game with an empty-netter.
Despite failing to take the lead at any point, MSU battled back from two goal deficits twice — a positive MSU captain Michael Ferrantino is emphasizing before the teams meet again at 5 p.m. Saturday night at Ann Arbor's Yost Arena.
"We showed some real grit coming back." Ferrantino said. "We proved tonight we could play with them. I thought they came out really strong, and we were able to take it from them and turn it around. … I thought, mainly in our defensive end, we got way better."