In a couple of hard-fought games, MSU left Columbus, Ohio with two points in a two-game series against Big Ten foe Ohio State, including its second tie with a shootout victory of the season on Saturday night.
MSU (6-10-3, 0-2-2-2 Big Ten) blew third-period leads on both Friday and Saturday, falling 5-3 on Friday night against Ohio State (11-6-1, 1-2-1 Big Ten) and tying 1-1 with a shootout victory on Saturday. With the shootout victory, MSU earned an additional point to give the Spartans two from the game and four on the season. MSU is tied with the Buckeyes for fourth place in the Big Ten after the series.
Junior forward Matt Berry had a monster weekend in Columbus, having a hand on all of MSU’s goals in the two-game series. Berry finished the weekend with three goals and one assist, extending his scoring streak to four games. During the stretch, he has five goals and one assist.
On Friday night, MSU fell behind early, but used three goals in the second period, two by Berry, to enter the third period leading 3-2.
However, the game quickly changed when the third period began.
Ohio State scored two goals in the first 90 seconds of the period, regaining the lead and never looking back.
Buckeye junior forward Ryan Dzingel netted one more goal late in the game to ice it for Ohio State, also giving him a hat-trick on the night.
Through strong defense and goaltending, MSU experienced more success to earn a couple points in the Big Ten the following night.
Berry continued to hold the hot stick, giving MSU an early 1-0 lead only 2:49 into the 1st period.
Sophomore forward Michael Ferrantino and senior defenseman Jake Chelios had assists on the play.
The 1-0 lead would stick for nearly 50 minutes before Ohio State junior forward Darik Angeli found the back of the net, tying the game at 1-1.
After a scoreless remainder of third period and five-minute sudden death overtime, the game went to a shootout.
After junior forward Tanner Sorenson netted one in the sixth round, sophomore goaltender Jake Hildebrand stopped the Buckeyes, giving MSU the 3-2 shootout victory and additional point.
Ferrantino and freshman forward Joe Cox also had goals in the shootout for MSU.
Cox was the only other Spartan to score during the two-game series, with a goal in Friday’s game.
“It was a real good performance overall,” head coach Tom Anastos told Spartan Sports Network after the game on Saturday. “We made that late turnover to give up that goal, but I thought our compete level was hard, it was real hard.
“Our penalty kill was excellent, it came up big in a couple different instances, especially that 5-on-3, and I thought we had some good scoring chances. Overall a very good hockey game tonight.”
Saturday featured better fortune for Hildebrand after a giving up a season-high five goals the night before. Hildebrand made 28 saves on the night, including four stops in the shootout.
Hildebrand was only the second goaltender of the season to hold Ohio State to one goal and first in the last 10 games.
Chelios also had a big weekend in Columbus, racking up three assists in the two games.
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
With those three assists, Chelios now leads MSU in points with 14, including five assists in the last four games.
MSU will continue Big Ten play this weekend when Penn State (4-10-1, 0-2-0 Big Ten) travels to Munn Ice Arena for a two-game series.
Both of next Friday and Saturday’s games will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Discussion
Share and discuss “Team fought hard in two game series against OSU” on social media.
