“I thought it was a good hockey game, tough way to lose for sure,” head coach Tom Anastos said. “The combination of giving second and third chances, which is a game objective of ours, costs us goals, two goals.”

The game was high-flying and fast-paced all evening, with plenty of exciting offensive opportunities but it was goaltending that stole the show. Both sophomore goaltender Jake Hildebrand and U-M freshman goaltender Zach Nagelvoort finished the game with 30-plus saves and were voted as two of the three stars of the game.

It appeared senior forward Dean Chelios struck first for MSU only 13 seconds into the game, but a blown call by the officials kept the game tied at zeros. The official in the corner blew the whistle when the puck still appeared free and uncovered by Nagelvoort, taking a sure goal off the scoreboard for MSU.

Despite not having the goal to mathematically tie the game, afterwards, Chelios said the goal could have given MSU the early momentum needed to pull out the win.

“It’s just a rough call because it’s not like I dug it out of him, it just bounced off of him when he fell down, so the ref was in the spot where he couldn’t see it,” Chelios said. “It’s just one of those rough calls, but I definitely think it would have changed the momentum.”

The game went into the first intermission in a scoreless tie, in large part because of the stellar play of Hildebrand. He made 10 first-period saves, including a glove save on a point blank shot in the slot late in the first period during a Wolverine power play.

Hildebrand also received help from the goal post to keep U-M off the scoreboard in the first period.

After four-and-half scoreless periods against MSU, the Wolverines finally got one past Hildebrand. Wolverine freshman forward JT Compher scored off his own rebound that hit Hildebrand’s glove, giving U-M the lead with 8:24 left in the second period. The goal was assisted by senior forward Derek DeBlois.

Despite not scoring in the second period, MSU had plenty of opportunities in front of the net and on odd man rushes. Compared to the first period, the Spartans were able to get a lot more scoring opportunities in front of the net instead from the outside.

MSU finally broke through off a quick bang-bang play off the draw. Sophomore forward Michael Ferrantino tipped one past Nagelvoort to tie it at 1-1 with 13:56 left. The goal was tipped in off a freshman forward Joe Cox shot. Redshirt freshman Rhett Holland also had an assist on the play.

Only moments later redshirt freshman Brock Krygier made at the time a game-saving play after a shot hit Hildebrand’s shoulder and nearly bounced it. Krygier came through the crease and swatted it away before the puck could trickle past the goal line.

It appeared the game would be heading to overtime, but in a scramble in front of the net Giuseppe popped one home. Sophomore forward Andrew Copp and freshman defenseman Nolan De Jong had the assists on the play.

Hildebrand blocked the first two shots on goal before the puck finally bounced onto Di Giuseppe’s stick for the game winning goal.

“The puck was just pinballing around, took some good bounces their way,” Hildebrand said of the final goal. “One of their shots trickled through, it hit my pad, they got another one, it hit my stick, bounced onto their stick and he buried it.”

It was evident after the game that Anastos was frustrated with the outcome of the game, but felt the effort was there. He said the team is moving in the right direction, but still needs to take advantage of scoring opportunities to become an elite team.

“I really liked how hard we played all game, we’ve got to get over the hump where we finish,” Anastos said. “We had some really good scoring chances, and we didn’t finish. So it’s hard to win scoring one goal a game.”

MSU will have the opportunity to get over the hump on Friday night against the Wolverine team at Munn Ice Arena. The game is set to begin at 6:30 p.m.