“After last night’s game, we really took a professional approach,” junior captain Michael Ferrantino said. “There was no celebration that we won one game…Guys came out tonight and I thought we were better tonight, so that shows you the maturity of our group and I think we’ve come a long way.”

Both the Spartans and the Buckeyes came out of the gate rather sluggish. MSU registered just eight shots on goal in the first period, while OSU managed just five. MSU did generate a handful of quality scoring opportunities; most notably from junior defenseman Travis Walsh and sophomore forward Thomas Ebbing.

“I didn’t like how we started the game,” head coach Tom Anastos said. “But I thought our first period kept getting better as it went.”

The first action of any kind finally took place late in the 2^nd period when freshman defenseman Josh Jacobs took a tripping penalty deep in the Spartans zone. After killing off all four OSU power plays Friday night, MSU had no problem taking care of the Buckeyes’ first power play of Saturday night. Hildebrand did not have to make a single save in the two-minute man advantage.

Less than one minute after the Spartans killed off OSU’s penalty, Keller found the back of the net. Walsh started the play by making a nice pass through the slot to sophomore forward Villiam Haag. After taking the pass off his skate, Haag slid the puck towards the front of the net where Keller had already gained his position. Keller fended off a Buckeye defender and chipped the puck past OSU goaltender Christian Frey to give MSU a 1-0 lead.

The Spartans almost took a costly penalty late in the game when they were called for 'Too Many Players On The Ice' nearly halfway through the final period. Anastos wasn’t happy at all following the game, saying those kinds of penalties eat away at him.

“When I asked who jumped early, I had no volunteers,” Anastos said with a sly grin. “But we do have video.”

MSU doubled its lead late in the game after OSU had two players sent off for Game Misconduct, resulting in two five-minute power plays that overlapped for 1:26. Ferrantino took the brunt of both penalties. OSU’s Matthew Weis was called for Contact To The Head after laying a blindside hit on Ferrantino, and just minutes later Ferrantino was checked from behind right into the boards. Both were scary plays that left Ferrantino on the ice for a few seconds, but ultimately helped close out the game for the Spartans.

“If that’s what it takes to get on the power play and score another goal, I’ll do that all night long,” Ferrantino said. “It’s tough to take some of those sometimes, but it’s part of the game.”

Darnell ended up scoring on the 5-on-3 off a pass from Jacobs. Darnell fired a one-timer from the face-off circle with just 1:11 left in the game. It was Darnell’s second goal of the weekend and fourth point overall, giving him 11 points in his last eight games (5 goals, 6 assists).

“We’ve just got to build off of it,” Hildebrand said. “As coach said after the game, we want to enjoy this for a little bit but then we realize that our biggest rival is next weekend in a big game. The last time we played them they took the championship of the [Great Lakes Invitational] away from us.”