“I thought we were a little simpler and a little faster,” head coach Danton Cole said. “Both teams had their chances and they were pushing.”

U-M’s junior forward Cooper Marody striked first almost five minutes into the game to bring his team up 1-0. The Spartans would end up getting out shot in the first period 15-10.

Heading into the second period, the Spartans lost lead goal scorer freshman forward Mitchell Lewandowski after getting ejected from the game for a check from behind on U-M’s junior forward Brendan Warren. Freshman forward Brody Stevens served the five minute major, where U-M’s freshman forward Jack Becker scored the second goal of the game on their power play. 

“I thought we were playing faster,” sophomore forward Patrick Khodorenko said. “We were just getting pucks deeps and getting on their (defense). We created a lot of chances from that.”

After starting the third period with a power play, sophomore forward Taro Hirose scored the Spartans first goal to put them on the board. Fellow linemate Khodorenko would set up the goal right in front of the net to get past U-M’s sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne. 

During the night, the Spartans served five penalties giving up one goal to the Wolverines during this time. 

With another assist from Khodorenko, freshman forward David Keefer would lift the puck up past Lavigne’s glove to make it 3-2.

“We played a little bit more desperate in the third period,” Hirose said. “We knew were down a couple of minutes and start pushing. Just get the puck in deep and keep doing what we do.”

The Spartans will play again next weekend against Penn State for their last home games of the regular season with a 6:30 p.m. puck drop on Feb. 16 at Munn Ice Arena. 

“It’s easy to get cautious, but you can’t play that way,” Cole said.