Big Rapids - Everything Chris Kunitz did Tuesday night, Adam Hall had an answer for.
Kunitz, a Ferris State left wing and the CCHA’s leading goal-scorer, put the Bulldogs up 1-0 and 2-1, but MSU senior right wing Hall provided the equalizer each time.
And just when a scoring duel seemed to be shaping up between the two players, MSU freshman center Jim Slater gloved a bad clearing attempt deep in the Bulldog zone, and banged home the game-winning goal to lift No. 6 MSU to a 3-2 victory at Ewigleben Ice Arena.
MSU (17-5-2 overall, 12-4-1 CCHA) outshot the Bulldogs 29-28 and went 1-for-5 on the power play in beating Ferris (10-11-1, 8-9-1). The win puts MSU alone atop the CCHA, two points ahead of Michigan.
“Coming over here, we didn’t know what to expect,” MSU head coach Ron Mason said. “We wanted to get points out of here, and we were fortunate we got two points.
“It was a hard-fought road win, and those are pretty hard to come by in this league. We had a combination of pretty damn good goaltending and a great effort by our captain (Hall).”
Despite the big win, the Spartans suffered a couple of casualties Tuesday night. Junior right wing Steve Jackson left the game in the second period with a left thumb sprain that will keep him out at least four weeks. Freshman center Lee Falardeau sprained his left knee and will be out three to four weeks.
The Spartans play No. 8 U-M on Saturday at Yost Ice Arena.
In Tuesday’s game, Kunitz was able to break the Spartans’ vaunted penalty-killing unit for power play goals in the first and second period, although both leads were fairly short-lived.
The Bulldogs went up 1-0 on Kunitz’s 20th goal of the season, 6.5 seconds before the first intermission. Junior goaltender Ryan Miller appeared to think he had stopped Kunitz’s wrist shot from the high slot, but the puck squeaked under his right armpit and into the net.
But 31 seconds into the next period, Hall, who leads MSU with 13 goals, corralled a rebound to Ferris goaltender Mike Brown’s left and roofed a wrister to knot the score.
“Some games it just comes for you,” Hall said. “We tried to throw wave after wave at them and stay positive on the bench. I think we showed a lot of character coming back like that.”
Kunitz struck again at 4:37 of the second, beating Miller with a backhand after a blown coverage by the Spartan penalty killers.
But Hall, this time on the power play, was in the right position for another rebound at 8:49 and slid his second goal of the period between Brown’s legs to make it 2-2.
Slater broke the tie two minutes later with his first goal since Dec. 1. Skating down the slot, Slater grabbed a clearing attempt out of mid-air, dropped the puck on the ice and beat Brown stick-side.
“It was a pizza right in the middle of the ice - delivered right to me,” Slater said. “I was in a little bit of a slump there, coming off World Juniors (tournament), so it felt real good to get one.”
Miller made Slater’s tally stand up the rest of the way, turning away point-blank scoring chances by Bulldog center Mike Kinnie, left wing Phil Lewandowski and Kunitz in the third.
Coming into Tuesday’s contest, Miller was 3-0-1 against the Bulldogs with a 0.24 goals against average and a .988 saves percentage.
In all, he made 26 saves Tuesday. Ferris’ Brown also stopped 26 shots.
Going away party: Tuesday’s game was Duke Shegos’ last as a CCHA referee. The authoritative, charismatic, well-respected Shegos is retiring after 18 years with the league. But, in fitting fashion, he was still the target of “You suck, Shegos” bellows for almost every Ferris penalty.
