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With victory against U-M on the road, MSU hockey clinches bye in Big Ten tourney

March 14, 2015

One night after the Wolverines spoiled the Spartans Senior Night, MSU hockey (17-15-2,11-7-2-2 Big Ten) returned the favor. MSU defeated its in-state rival 2-1 in a game that had nearly everything on the line.

With Saturday night being the last game of the regular season, MSU picked up a victory that guaranteed itself a bye in the first-round of the Big Ten tournament. Simultaneously, the Spartans helped ruin Senior Night at Yost Ice Arena and finished above UM in the conference standings.

Junior captain Michael Ferrantino scored 7:50 into the first period to open the scoring, and junior forward Matt DeBlouw scored 29 seconds into the third period to cap the scoring.

Junior goaltender Jake Hildebrand rebounded from Friday’s loss and made 37 saves.

Hildebrand was named the First Star of the game as he shut the door on UM making 14 saves in the third period, many of them in the highlight-reel fashion.

“(Hildebrand) had the best game of the season on maybe the biggest night of the season for us,” head coach Tom Anastos said.

The Wolverines had a relentless offensive attack throughout the night. It was never more obvious than the final two minutes of the game with an empty net and the desperation of needing to tie the game.

“It was kind of one big blur,” Hildebrand said of the closing moments. “Everybody was doing their job and pulling the rope, and we got the result we were looking for. It was just a special night for everybody,”

DeBlouw’s game-winning goal in the third period came off a breakaway that was set up by sophomore forward Mackenzie MacEachern.

“Mac made a great pass to me and just went down thinking shot the whole way,” DeBlouw said.

The shot beat UM goaltender Zach Nagelvoort to the far post over his blocker. It was also DeBlouw’s third goal of the season against the Wolverines.

Still, the story of the night seemed to be Hildebrand.

“He’s unbelievable,” senior forward Brent Darnell said. “I think he’s the most important player on any college hockey team.”

The seniors, playing in their last regular season game as Spartans, had never won at Yost before. Hildebrand pointed to that as a tool for motivation.

“We knew our seniors had never won a game here,” Hildebrand said. “We wanted to make their last regular season game here something special.”

And what a special night it was for the Spartans.

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