Oxford, Ohio – It could have been the physical dominance at both ends of the ice. It could have been the four goals in the second period that effectively ended sophomore goalie Will Yanakeff’s night. It could have been the weight of almost four years without a playoff win.
Whatever the case, No. 4-seed Miami (Ohio) had little problem finding the back of the net against the No. 5-seed MSU hockey team. The RedHawks bullied MSU from end-to-end for a majority of the game and turned physicality into a potent offensive attack to seal a 6-0 victory at Steve Cady Arena on Friday night.
With the Spartans down 1-0 in the best-of-three series and facing elimination from the CCHA Tournament, junior forward Anthony Hayes said the team had plenty of time to reflect on the loss and wants to move on to a new day and a new effort Saturday against the RedHawks.
“Well, I think this game has sat with us enough already,” Hayes said. “We don’t really need much more to motivate us. We just absolutely got throttled, 6-0. That group of guys (in the locker room) are motivated enough right now. We don’t need to think about this game anymore. We know the feeling we had when we got to that locker room and we don’t ever want to have that feeling again.”
MSU fell behind by a goal early before allowing the flood gates to open on a four-goal period — the most allowed in a single period by the Spartans this season — in the second frame.
The Spartans were outshot, 39-27, in the game and didn’t have near the amount of scoring chances that the RedHawks managed to get. Even worse, the Spartans struggled to clear the puck out of the attacking zone and allowed easy second-chance opportunities for Miami to capitalize on throughout the game — which they did with a pair of rebound goals by Jimmy Mullin and Curtis McKenzie.
Fighting for their playoff lives, the Spartans have plenty to think about as they return to action against Miami in game two at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday at Steve Cady Arena.
But if MSU hopes to get to Sunday and possibly advance to the semifinals of the CCHA Tournament next weekend at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, it starts with matching the physical style of play and finding a way to generate offense on Saturday, MSU head coach Tom Anastos said.
“We’ve got to figure a way to compete more aggressively against their team,” Anastos said. “We know they’ll be very aggressive, and they’re hard to play against. We knew coming down here, it wouldn’t be easy.
“I told our guys, ‘You’ve got to forget about this game whether we lost by 10 goals or one goal, it doesn’t matter. It’s a loss.’ If we want to play on Sunday, we have to find a way to win tomorrow.”
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