Tuesday, March 19, 2024

MSU hockey comes out on top of Northern Michigan, 4-2

	<p>Northern Michigan forward Kory Kaunisto tries to shoot past junior defenseman Jake Chelios. The Spartans defeated the Wildcats, 4-2, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013, at Munn Ice Arena. Justin Wan/The State News</p>

Northern Michigan forward Kory Kaunisto tries to shoot past junior defenseman Jake Chelios. The Spartans defeated the Wildcats, 4-2, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013, at Munn Ice Arena. Justin Wan/The State News

Photo by Justin Wan | The State News

Coming off Friday night’s game where fatal mistakes were the demise of the MSU hockey’s 5-3 loss to Northern Michigan, the Spartans managed to find the positives and apply it to Saturday evening.
This time, the effort and the execution outweighed the mistakes, and MSU (13-15-4 overall, 7-13-4-1 CCHA) came out on top of the Wildcats, 4-2.

“To be honest with you, I was a little concerned coming in after yesterday’s game how we were going to respond,” head coach Tom Anastos said. “I really liked how the guys responded. They played really hard. I liked the resiliency they showed mentally.”

MSU dominated the first period, and Anastos called it “maybe the best period of the season,” but the Spartans still headed into the first intermission a tally behind.

Northern Michigan defenseman Mitch Jones took a shot from the point and the puck hit a few bodies in front, switching directions and getting past MSU freshman goaltender Jake Hildebrand. It was Northern Michigan’s first shot of the game.

The Spartans were scoreless in the first, but outshot the Wildcats, 19-3.

“We put pucks in their goalie’s feet,” freshman forward Michael Ferrantino said. “There were lots of rebounds sitting there (Friday) that we couldn’t get to, so tonight, we really tried to come in and not only be tough to play against, but put everything towards the net and go from there.”

Junior forward Lee Reimer tied the game up in the second period with a shorthanded goal on a breakaway, but MSU fell behind once again when Northern Michigan netted a backhander five minutes into the final frame.

MSU’s resilience once again came through, as Ferrantino picked up a rebound in front of the net and buried it.

He shot the puck high and right, noticing Northern Michigan goaltender Jared Coreau’s tendency to stay down.

“It started off a face-off, we were trying to go to the net with it,” Ferrantino said. “It bounced around and eventually made it back to our point. (Sophomore forward R.J.) Boyd had a good shot, it bounced around a couple times again, and I was fortunate enough to find it and put it home.”

Senior forward Chris Forfar scored MSU’s winning goal after skating in from the left corner and finding a spot between Coreau’s arm and body. Sophomore forward Tanner Sorenson topped the game off with an empty-netter with less than a minute to play.

“It was definitely a solid 60 minutes that (we) played tonight,” Forfar said. “From the drop of the puck, we were finishing checks and doing all the little things right and it showed on the scoreboard.”

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