Ann Arbor - Coming into Friday night's rivalry matchup with No. 8 Michigan, the MSU hockey team stressed the importance of playing well in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, they couldn't even finish their first shift before they were trailing 1-0.
U-M's star freshman forward, Jeff Tambellini, netted two goals - including one 13 seconds into the game - to lift the Wolverines to a 3-1 victory in front of a fevered sellout crowd at Yost Ice Arena.
MSU sophomore goaltender Matt Migliaccio made 24 saves, but he badly misjudged Tambellini's first goal. The Wolverine's leading scorer took a tough-angle shot from the goal line that squeaked between Migliaccio's left pad and the near post for a quick 1-0 Wolverine lead.
To the Spartans' credit, they didn't seem to get rattled by the fluke goal and played well for the rest of the period and most of the second. But in the end, the Wolverines were too fast and U-M goaltender Al Montoya (34 saves) was too stingy to pull off the upset.
MSU (16-11-2 overall, 12-8-1 CCHA) will try to avenge the loss in a rematch at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Munn Ice Arena.
"I thought Montoya played outstanding," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "We gave up a couple of soft ones, but our kid made a lot of good saves, too.
"It was OK. I thought we went with them toe-to-toe and fought hard."
The Wolverines (21-7-1, 15-5-1) pretty much held target practice on the MSU net in the first period. But fortunately for the Spartans, most of those shots missed the target, or U-M could have been up three or four goals going into intermission.
Migliaccio looked nervous early, particularly on Tambellini's goal, but he settled down a bit later in the period.
He stopped center John Shouneyia's dangerous redirection with his left pad seven minutes into the first and then turned away two golden chances by U-M right wing Mark Mink late in the frame. As Mink cut across the top of the crease, Migliaccio made a lunging blocker save and then denied the rebound chance with his out-stretched stick.
"It was a tough one to give up early - I don't know if it was redirected or what," Migliaccio said. "But I thought the game could have (gone) either way, really. We're going to come out with our best tomorrow. That definitely wasn't our best out there."
On Friday, the Spartans' league-leading power play (.254) could only convert on one of seven chances against the Wolverines' NCAA-best penalty kill (.929).
But the goal, scored by MSU sophomore center Jim Slater at 1:49 of the second period, was the first man-advantage tally allowed by U-M since Jan. 5.
On the play, senior defenseman Brad Fast sprung Slater with a long lead pass, and once in alone, Slater slipped the puck under Montoya's pads for his 10th goal of the season, tying the game 1-1.
However, less than three minutes later, Tambellini reclaimed the momentum for U-M. On a 3-on-2 rush, Tambellini picked the top right corner with a wrist shot from the left circle for his second goal of the game.
The Spartans had a 5-on-3 advantage for 43 seconds midway through the period, but the closest they came to scoring was a Slater wrist shot from the slot that hit the crossbar.
"I thought I had him," Slater said. "I beat him, but that was just the kind of luck we had. If we score that, it may be a different story."
Two minutes after the Spartan power play expired, U-M took a commanding two-goal lead as left wing Jason Ryznar cut across the slot and beat a moving Migliaccio stick-side to make it 3-1.
MSU had more shots than U-M in all three periods, and outshot them 34-27 for the game. But the Wolverines seemed to generate better offensive chances all night.
The Wolverines were 0-for-4 on the power play.
Personnel: As expected, freshman Nenad Gajic was back in the Spartan lineup after a two-game absence. Gajic replaced freshman right wing Chad Hontvet, and centered the fourth line with junior Tim Hearon at left wing and senior Troy Ferguson at right wing.
Gajic's brother, Milan Gajic, played right wing on the fourth line for U-M.
