Brandon Warner scored his first collegiate goal, which turned out to be the game winner, Saturday against No. 2 Cornell to salvage the weekend split for the MSU hockey team - all while playing forward instead of his usual position on defense.

An influx of injuries to the No. 10 Spartans prompted Warner's move to offense.

After a disappointing loss Friday, MSU (3-1-1) scored four second-period goals to go up 4-1 after the second period on Saturday, and freshman goaltender Jeff Lerg, in his collegiate debut, preserved the lead with 22 saves, including 11 in the third period as Cornell (1-1-0) made its charge to try and even up the game.

Big nights were recorded by junior forward Tyler Howells, who had two goals and an assist, and sophomore forward Bryan Lerg, who tallied four assists.

"Jeff played great in net and really made some key stops for us," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "We got the four-goal lead for him and he made it stand up."

Cornell struck first at the 11-minute mark of the first period when forward Matt Moulson notched his third goal of the weekend.

"The first period was pretty even and we played pretty strong considering we were in the penalty box quite a bit," Warner said.

The Spartans special teams took over the game in the second period and got started with freshman forward Tim Crowder's power-play goal.

Less than two minutes later, while shorthanded, Howells got his first of two goals in the night.

Later in the period the special teams clicked once again when Howells scored his second, this one on the power play with assists from Bryan Lerg and junior forward Drew Miller.

"We got opportunities all night and we were making them all count," Warner said. "The shorthanded goal was huge because instead of them going ahead we were able to capitalize and take the lead and the crowd out of the game."

Warner finished the scoring for the Spartans with the game-winner with less than a minute to play in the second period. Bryan Lerg got his fourth assist of the night.

"The second period was the best period of the game for us," Jeff Lerg said. "The special teams came up huge for us and the three-goal lead was big heading into the final period."

Cornell didn't go away though, scoring three minutes into the third to cut the deficit to two.

Just four minutes later with the Spartans in the penalty box, Cornell cut the lead to one and started to turn up the pressure on the Spartans' defense.

"Our injuries really started to get to us in the third period," Jeff Lerg said. "We were sort of holding on for dear life at the end there."

Cornell never was able to get the equalizer as Lerg came up big time after time to help the Spartans pick up the win.

"This was a critical win for us as a team with all of the injuries that we have suffered," Comley said. "There were a lot of guys who played hard and stepped up into the lineup for us tonight."

On Friday, an early third-period goal was the difference as the Spartans were playing catch up all night before finally being unable to tie it up late in the game.

The Spartans had a prime chance to get even when Cornell was assessed a five-minute major for hitting from behind, but MSU was unable to find the net and Cornell would eventually add an empty-net goal with under a minute to play.

"We outshot them (Friday), but we just couldn't capitalize on our chances," Comley said after Saturday's game about the game the night before.

"We played well enough to tie or win (Friday). (Saturday) though, the four-goal flurry was huge for us and kind of shocked everyone in the stadium."