Freshman forward Ben Warda, left, attempts a shot past the defense of Lake Superior forward Chad Nehring, center, with junior forward Jay Sprague, right, during the game Friday night at Taffy Abel Arena. The Spartans lost, 2-0.
Sault Ste. Marie — A goal from 110 feet away put Saturday’s game out of reach for the MSU hockey team.
While shorthanded, Lake Superior’s Nathan Perkovich fired a slap shot from behind the red line at MSU goaltender Jeff Lerg. The puck rose on the Spartans senior netminder and went over his glove into the top-shelf of the net.
The Spartans were unable to bounce back and couldn’t get the puck past Lake Superior goaltender Pat Inglis – as MSU fell 2-0 to the Lakers at Taffy Abel Arena.
“The second goal really hurt us,” MSU head coach Rick Comley said. “It put us in a hole, but it happens. That’s a save Jeff makes 100 times in a row.”
The win snapped MSU’s 14 game unbeaten streak against the Lakers.
The loss extends MSU’s losing streak to four games and it was the third time this season the Spartans have been shutout.
Comley said the season ending suspension of freshman forward Andrew Conboy and sophomore forward Corey Tropp made it a “very tough week” for his team.
Their loss also takes away from the team’s depth – which has caused Comley to dress everyone on the roster who isn’t injured.
“I tweaked the lines and I don’t have any other players,” Comley said. “This is all I’ve got. So we tweaked it to try and find something that will compliment each other. But I think it’s a team that’s going to need to score early. That will be important for them.”
The Spartans (7-17-3 overall, 4-13-2-2 CCHA) recorded 20 shots on Inglis, but Lerg said his team has to do a better job of getting to the net.
“We have to try to pick up their sticks and be strong in front of the net,” Lerg said. “We need to get some rebound goals and some tipped goals. (Inglis is) a big guy and I don’t think we are going to beat him on the first shot. It’s the second and third opportunities where we are going to beat him.”
MSU sophomore forward Dustin Gazley said the second and third chance opportunities weren’t there for the Spartans all night. Instead, MSU played a majority of the game in their defensive zone.
“We just have to come out strong and win the battles,” Gazley said. “We lost a lot of stick battles in the defensive zone. We have to play a lot better defensively than we did today. We need to get the puck out and do the simple plays.”
The Lakers struck first at 8:18 of the first period when Tyson Hobbins received a pass from behind the goal line and took a quick one-timer from the right of the crease.
Then, at 15:06 of the second period, Perkovich scored on his bomb of a shot from center ice.
“I shut my glove and it didn’t shut the right way,” Lerg said. “It hit off the tip and went in. So it was kind of a fluky thing.”
Late in third period Comley re-jumbled the lines in an effort to bring the game back within striking range.
“I thought the kids worked hard and I thought we got better toward the end,” Comley said. “Our best play was the last 12 minutes and hopefully that will carry over to tomorrow,”
The two teams will face off again at 7:05 Saturday at Taffy Abel Arena.
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