New year. New goalie. Same result.
Senior goaltender Joe Blackburn earned his first start of the year and led the top-ranked Spartans to a 5-0 win over Yale at Munn Ice Arena on Friday with a 31 save shutout.
MSU (15-1-4 overall, 9-1-3 CCHA) extended it’s unbeaten streak to 17 (14-0-3) with the win over the Bulldogs (6-7-0). The teams will square off again at 7:05 p.m. Saturday night at Munn Ice Arena, for MSU’s last non-conference contest of the regular season.
After earning All-American honors his sophomore season, Blackburn split time with then-freshman Ryan Miller last year and lost his starting job entirely to Miller this season. Blackburn had yet to play a second this season and had not started since March 4 last year.
Miller had started 24 straight games for MSU and has posted a league-leading 1.46 goals-against-average this season. He’s allowed two goals or fewer in 17 of his 19 starts this season, and is a leading candidate for All-American honors.
After waiting almost a period and a half for a power play opportunity, the Spartans scored a mere 19 seconds into their first man-advantage as junior right wing Adam Hall gave MSU a 1-0 lead 7:42 into the second period.
Hall tipped a John-Michael Liles point shot past Bulldog goaltender Dan Lombard for his 10th tally of the year. Liles, a sophomore defenseman, and sophomore left wing Brian Maloney assisted on the goal.
Hall becomes the first Spartan with a double-digit goal total this season.
MSU added to its lead less than three minutes later as senior center Andrew Bogle finished a 2-on-1 rush with his fourth goal of the year. Bogle took a beautiful cross-ice pass from senior left wing Sean Patchell, waited for Lombard to drop to the ice, and fired a wrist shot over the goaltender’s glove.
The Spartans got a scare early in the third period as sophomore defenseman Brad Fast had to be helped off the ice after being checked from behind into the boards right in front of the MSU bench.
Bulldog left wing Lee Jelenic received a five minute major and a game disqualification for the hit and Yale was whistled for another penalty 36 seconds later, leaving MSU with a full two minutes of 5-on-3 play.
The Spartans capitalized on both penalties as Liles scored at 4:27 and senior right wing John Nail scored at 7:02, giving MSU an insurmountable 4-0 lead.
Fast returned to the game later in the third period.
Bogle finished the scoring at 13:56 of the final period, taking an assist from Patchell and stuffing it past Lombard. Patchell finished with three assists on the night.
MSU finished the game 3-for-5 on the power play.
Despite combining for 26 shots in the opening period, the teams went into the first intermission in a scoreless deadlock.
Blackburn stopped 14 Bulldog shots in the period, including a couple of tricky bounces that almost eluded the netminder. Lombard made 12 saves in the period and 27 for the game.
Blackburn was steady for the whole game and spectacular when he had to be, including a glove save on Bulldog left wing Adam Suave’s breakaway late in the second period.
The shutout is the fifth of his career.
Coming into Friday’s game, the teams had combined for 3,881 hockey games over 106 years, but had never faced each other.
Yale head coach Tim Taylor, a 23-year veteran with the Bulldogs, missed Friday’s game and a head-to-head match-up with MSU’s head coach of 22 years, Ron Mason. Taylor is at the World Championships in Moscow serving as an assistant coach with the U.S. National Junior Team.
