With Saturday’s 5-3 loss and Friday’s 6-2 defeat to No. 8 Michigan, the MSU hockey team lost five straight to the Wolverines for the first time ever in a single season. And to make matters worse, the Spartans now sit in last place in the CCHA. But the long-term hit to the Spartans will result from actions that took place in the final minute of Saturday’s game. MSU freshman forward Andrew Conboy and sophomore forward Corey Tropp likely will not travel with the team this weekend when they head to Lake Superior for a two-game road series after both players attacked U-M’s Steve Kampfer.
MSU head coach Rick Comley called the actions of his players “cheap and uncalled for” and said he would deal with the disciplinary actions.
Kampfer was taken out on a stretcher after the game, and his status for the rest of the season is unknown.
When Conboy got out of the penalty box after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty late in the game, matters quickly took a turn for the worse.
Kampfer went for an open ice hit on Tropp, and Conboy took exception to the big hit when the game seemed to already be in hand for the Wolverines.
Conboy charged up to Kampfer and sent him to the ice with a punch to the back of the head.
Then in came Tropp, who slashed Kampfer across the head with his stick moments after he hit the ice.
Tropp was given a double game misconduct for his actions and Conboy returned to the penalty box to serve two roughing penalties.
The loss of Conboy and Tropp — who have teamed up for 17 points this season — will force Comley to start everyone on the roster who isn’t injured.
After the game, Comley apologized to U-M head coach Red Berenson for his players’ actions.
“Hopefully Kampfer is fine,” Comley said. “I apologize for it on behalf of our players. I don’t condone what happened, and I’ll deal with it.”
The Spartans’ frustration stemmed back to the first minute of the game, when the Wolverines took an early lead before the Spartans had time to blink.
Only 36 seconds into the first period, U-M recorded its first goal. By the end of the first frame, the Maize and Blue had a commanding 3-0 lead.
MSU came out with a sense of urgency in the second period and MSU senior forward Matt Schepke and sophomore forward Andrew Rowe each netted goals 15 seconds apart to bring the game back within a goal.
Comley said his team played a solid second period, after coming out very flat in the first frame.
“That was maybe the most resilient we’ve been all year,” Comley said. “We came back and made it a hockey game.”
The third period was dominated by the Wolverines and they extended their lead to 4-2 only 12 seconds into the final frame.
The Spartans quickly responded and brought the game back within a goal when freshman forward Adam Henderson scored his first collegiate goal about a minute later.
“We scored some key goals at key times,” Comley said. “They outshot us obviously, like everybody does, but we showed some spunk tonight.”
In the third period, U-M’s constant barrage on MSU freshman goaltender Drew Palmisano — who faced 51 shots — proved to be simply too much for the Spartans to handle.
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The Wolverines scored the final goal of the game at 8:32 in the third period after U-M’s Aaron Palushaj clipped Palmisano and knocked him down. Palmisano was unable to regain proper position and before he knew it, the puck was behind him and into the net.
The officials reviewed the play and Comley felt the goal should have been waved off.
Tempers flared in the last five minutes of the game as U-M’s Tristin Llewellyn took a boarding penalty after hitting Conboy away from the play.
Instead of getting up and skating to the bench, Conboy went over to Llewellyn and verbally taunted him, resulting in a two-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for Conboy.
The loss of the power play might not have been that costly for the Spartans, as they were 0-for-7 on the night and 0-for-13 on the weekend.
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