A second short: MSU holds off Western Michigan, 2-1

Spartans improve to 2-1 with close win

Two hours and 38 minutes before the official start of Halloween, the No. 20 MSU hockey team received quite the scare.

With no time remaining on the clock, Western Michigan netted the game-tying goal and it appeared the game was headed for overtime.

But when the play was reviewed, the referees deemed time had expired before the puck crossed the line, giving MSU a 2-1 over the Broncos in the Spartans’ conference home opener at Munn Ice Arena on Friday.

“I knew it was really close,” MSU head coach Rick Comley said of the last second play. “Obviously the green light came on, so the red light can’t. (The referees) said it showed that the puck clearly was not in.”

Sophomore goaltender Drew Palmisano said he had no idea if time had expired before the puck snuck past him and went into the net.

“The referee wasn’t pointing when I looked behind the net,” said Palmisano, who made 23 saves on the night. “I was just hoping that it wasn’t a goal. Luckily things went our way tonight.”

Palmisano didn’t have much work in the first period, but late in the third period, the MSU netminder had his hands full, as the Broncos desperately looked to tie the game at two.

“He played great and he kept us in the game,” junior forward Dustin Gazley said of Palmisano. “We couldn’t have got that win without him.”

The first period was all MSU, with the Spartans recording nine shots and the Broncos firing only three. MSU held Western Michigan without a shot for a stretch of nearly 12 minutes through the middle portion of the first period.

Much of the credit for the Spartans’ first goal goes to junior defenseman Jeff Petry. After Petry had two shots blocked from the point, he skated into the right faceoff circle and found freshman forward Chris Forfar wide open at the left faceoff dot. Petry snuck the cross-ice pass through two Western Michigan defensemen and right onto the tape of Forfar. Forfar fired a quick one-timer that beat Western Michigan goaltender Riley Gill to give the Spartans the 1-0 lead at 11:43 of the first period.

Freshman defenseman Matt Grassi’s first game in the Green and White didn’t go as well as he would have hoped. After being out of the lineup every game this season with a thumb injury, Grassi was whistled for a five minute major and game misconduct for checking from behind at 2:05 of the second period.

The Spartans were able to bail Grassi out for the major, killing the penalty, but Comley said losing a defenseman early in the game hurt the team.

Gazley gave the Spartans’ lead a little padding on the power play at 17:17 of the middle frame. Junior forward Andrew Rowe took a shot from the slot that was blocked by a Western Michigan defenseman but the puck found its way onto the stick of Gazley, who easily tapped it into the net to give the Spartans a 2-0 lead.

The Broncos lone goal of the night came at 14:27 of the third period and was eerily similar to Gazley’s goal. Palmisano made the initial save on a slap shot from Western Michigan defenseman Luke Witkowski. But the rebound went right to Trevor Elias who was to the right of Palmisano and slid the puck into the net before the Spartans’ netminder could get back into position.

As the Broncos beefed up the offensive pressure late in the third period to try and tie the game, Palmisano proved he was up to the challenge and made a handful of quality saves – including two saves on Western Michigan 2-on-1’s.

“The game started slow and my rebounds were sloppier than normal,” Palmisano said. “But as game went on, they got more shots on me and got me into the game a little bit more. I felt good in the third period.”

But with 5.1 seconds remaining, a vacant Western Michigan goal and a faceoff deep in the Spartans’ defensive zone, the game almost slipped out of the Spartans’ grasp.

After Forfar won four-straight faceoffs in the third period, Comley decided he wanted the freshman center to take the draw with the game on the line. Forfar lost the faceoff and the puck bounced out to the point and was fired towards the Spartans’ net. Western Michigan forward Max Campbell was to the left of the crease and banged the bouncing puck into the net.

But the horn had sounded a split second before the puck crossed the line and when referee Brent Gawlick signaled no goal after the review, a deflated Munn Ice Arena exploded with excitement.

Gazley said the end of the game felt similar to the Spartans’ narrow victory at then-No. 1 Miami (Ohio) last weekend when the Spartans were clinging to a one goal lead at the end of the game.

“They scored the last goal but it didn’t count,” Gazley said. “We could have got the puck out but we didn’t. We have to do the small things that count better.”

The Spartans (5-2-0 overall, 2-1-0-0 CCHA) will travel to Lawson Ice Arena in Kalamazoo for a Halloween rematch against the Broncos at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.