The win gives the Wolverines back-to-back titles — the team’s 16th title overall — in the Great Lakes Invitational and certainly will leave a sour taste in the mouth of head coach Tom Anastos and the Spartans heading into the second half of the season.

“We certainly had our opportunities to win the game, and we didn’t,” Anastos said. “We’re obviously disappointed in the result, but we’re real proud of the effort of our team, and this experience will be an experience we’ll have to learn from and build on.”

MSU (11-7-2 overall, 6-5-1 CCHA) advanced to the title game after beating Michigan Tech, 3-1, on Thursday while the Wolverines notched arguably their biggest win of the season in a 4-2 effort against No. 3 Boston College to play for the title.

After a scoreless first period, freshman forward Tanner Sorenson couldn’t have picked a bigger stage for the first goal of his Spartan career. Late in the second period, Sorenson took a pass from Krug and fired a shot from the top of the right circle past Wolverine goalie Shawn Hunwick to give the Spartans a 1-0 advantage.

Trailing by a goal, the Wolverines came out with a strong attack in the third period and would tie it up on a goal by Derek DeBlois. Palmisano made the first save on a shot by Phil DiGiuseppe, but DeBlois would pick up the rebound and move left to right and put the puck over Palmisano to bring the game to a 1-1 tie at the 10:11 mark.

Several minutes later, former GLI tournament MVP and senior forward Brett Perlini gave the Spartans the go-ahead goal and the momentum for the time being. Freshman forward Kevin Walrod found Perlini on a smooth turnaround pass in the left circle that was picked up and sent to the back of the net on a blast by Perlini to put MSU ahead, 2-1.

With freshman forward Brett Darnell in the penalty box for tripping, U-M got the push it needed to tie the game at 17:42. Kevin Lynch got a stick on a pass from Luke Moffatt and deflected the puck in the goal to force overtime. U-M would outshoot the Spartans, 24-3, in the third period and certainly forced the issue at both ends of the ice to make it to the extra frame.

The Wolverines mostly maintained possession of the puck for the duration of overtime and Clare’s goal at 11:44 into the extra period sent the team over the top and denied the Spartans of their 13th GLI title.

“I thought we played hard the whole game,” Krug said. “We competed the whole game. I thought we did a good job making the little plays inside and outside the blue line. It’s a disappointing loss for us. … They’re a good team, and losses like that make you sick to your stomach. But we’ll bounce back.”

The Spartans will get back to work this week, as Miami (Ohio) comes to East Lansing for a two-game series at Munn Ice Arena. Against the Redhawks, MSU holds a 68-27-5 all-time series advantage but is an abysmal 3-7 in the last 10 meetings between the two teams.

Not all sour grapes
For their efforts, three Spartans were named to the All-Tournament Team — Palmisano, Krug and Perlini. Most notably of the three, Palmisano broke the GLI tournament record for saves (90) and was a shoo-in for the GLI’s tournament MVP, had MSU won the game.

“As a goalie, I play my own game and don’t worry about the shots,” Palmisano said. “I like to think then when I make those kind of saves early on, it kind of gets in the opponent’s heads and makes them think twice before they just kind of throw it at me. Then you overthink, which helps us out.”

U-M would close out the All-Tournament Team with forwards A.J. Treais, David Wohlberg and defensemen and tournament MVP Clare.