Petry’s speed getting across the blueline to keep the two-man advantage alive and led to the Spartans scoring twice in a matter of 16 seconds to take the 2-1 lead which they would hold onto for the game’s duration.

MSU head coach Rick Comley said it this was a huge win for his young team, especially after the 3-0 loss on Thursday night.

“The kids will feel good about it,” Comley said. “We’ve had a lot of big wins here over the last three years, but this one for this team is really important confidence wise.”

Freshman goaltender Drew Palmisano played his first career game for the Spartans in place of senior captain Jeff Lerg and stopped 21 shots en route to his first collegiate win.

“It means a lot for the first win at home especially because we struggled last night,” Palmisano said. “(It felt great) just to get the first win under my belt and go from there.”

After firing only 16 shots in Thursday’s loss, senior forward Kurt Kivisto was pleased with the offense totaling 36 shots – even though they didn’t score until the third period.

“Even though we didn’t put the puck in the net we were generating some scoring chances,” Kivisto said. “We knew if we kept putting pucks to the net eventually something was going to go in.”

With seven minutes left in the first, the Spartans’ (2-2-0 overall) line of sophomore Andrew Rowe, senior Nick Sucharski and sophomore Dustin Gazely almost gave the Spartans the lead. It started when Rowe fed the puck to Sucharski on an odd man rush down low. Sucharski was unable to tip the puck into the net, but the Spartans kept possession and fired a slew of shots at UMass-Lowell junior netminder Carter Hutton.

Palmisano only had to make five saves in the first period, with his best save coming in the last three seconds of the period when he stoned a River Hawks (1-2-0) forward on the doorstep to keep the game scoreless.

Two minutes into the second period, Rowe stole the puck from a UMass-Lowell defenseman and was off on a breakaway. He tried to make a quick move on Hutton but lost the handle and was unable to get a quality shot on net.

Palmisano came up with a big save on a River Hawks power play four minutes into the second period. A shot came in from the point and was deflected right in front of the freshman netminder. A UMass-Lowell forward in front of the net was able to get a stick on the rebound but Palmisano held his ground and corralled the puck between his legs.

But with 1.2 seconds left in the second period, the River Hawks were able to find junior forward Kory Falite wide open down low. Falite beat Palmisano on his stick side to give the visitors the 1-0 lead.

Palmisano stayed confident going into the second intermission, even though he admitted it’s never good to give up a late period goal.

“You can’t let it bother you too much,” Palmisano said. “But you are only down one going into the third period in your own place.”

The Spartans didn’t dwell on the late second period goal and got off to a quick start in the third period. UMass-Lowell took early two penalties – setting up the Spartans 5-on-3 four minutes into the final period.

After Petry made the stop at the blueline, Warda made up for losing the faceoff. The Spartans cycled the puck and it eventually made its way onto the stick of freshman Andrew Conboy. Conboy fed a cross-ice pass to Warda who buried the puck into the net.

Only 16 seconds later, freshman defenseman Tim Buttery fired a slapshot that went wide. The long rebound went to senior forward Tim Crowder who was parked at the left faceoff dot and ripped a shot that beat Hutton to his left.

The River Hawks pulled their goalie with under a minute left, but were unable to set up on offense.

“It’s a good emotional win at home,” Comley said. “It sets up a positive week of practice before we play a really tough Northern Michigan team.”