Ann Arbor — The Spartans had not lost a single matchup against the Wolverines in the past nine games they played against them leading up to Nov. 4, but as of Tuesday night, Michigan decided to do something about that.
U-M's 2-1 win over MSU at Yost Ice Arena on Tuesday was all about special teams, and it gives the Wolverines a two-game winning streak against their East Lansing counterparts.
No. 7 U-M scored two power-play goals, while the Spartans went 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
"The whole game I thought we competed really hard," senior captain Chris Lawrence said. "We played hard, but it's not good enough. We want to be known as a top team, and we got to win one of these games here."
Just as MSU head coach Rick Comley had hinted at in his Monday press conference, the Spartans (6-4-1 overall, 4-4-1 CCHA) came into Ann Arbor and played a much more conservative game to start.
The first period ended deadlocked at zero, and both the Spartans and Wolverines skated to their respective dressing rooms after trading only a few good chances in the opening stanza.
"Last time, we got dominated down here," Comley said. "We tweaked a little bit what we were doing with our forwards, and defensively, we were just an awful lot better."
The game wouldn't stay scoreless long, though. Just 59 seconds into the second period and while playing four-on-four hockey, sophomore forward Tim Kennedy picked up a puck in the MSU zone and took it 200 feet the other way before ending a superb individual effort with his seventh goal of the season.
"When it's four on four, there's just so much more ice, so coach tells us to be creative and gives us the freedom to do whatever we want out there," Kennedy said. "I took that freedom and just made something happen."
But U-M (10-3-0, 7-2-0) would tie it up at the 12:22 mark of the second to set the stage for a 1-1 game entering the final and deciding period of play.
Forward T.J. Hensick scored another U-M power-play goal 6:28 into the third to give the Wolverines a 2-1 lead.
That was all they needed.
MSU had a golden opportunity to tie the game when it was given a game-ending power play. With sophomore goaltender Jeff Lerg pulled from the net for an extra attacker, the Spartans played two men up on U-M.
Despite numerous chances, U-M goaltender Billy Sauer stood tall in net, denying any chance of a comeback. MSU's record on the road now falls to 1-4-0.
"We have some areas we have to improve at, so we just got to keep chipping away," Comley said.
The Spartans will resume play Friday when they meet Wisconsin.
