While some of America was shopping on Black Friday and getting rid of Thanksgiving leftovers, MSU hockey (5-8, 1-1 Big Ten) was facing off against Princeton University (2-7-1) in New Jersey. On Friday night, the Spartans were defeated 3-1 after allowing three unanswered goals. MSU rebounded Saturday and was able to defeat the Tigers 3-2.
"I was really disappointed with our Friday night result," head coach Tom Anastos said. "[It] was one of those games that we did some things we really liked. We made some big mistakes which cost us."
MSU was able to take a 1-0 lead early in the second period. After senior forward Matt Berry threaded a pass through the slot, junior forward and captain Michael Ferrantino fired a one-time in the back of the net. It was Ferrantino's sixth goal of the season which put him three shy of tying his 2013-2014 total on nine goals.
The Spartans had their highest shot total of the season in Friday's loss, outshooting the Tigers 45-26. Unfortunately for MSU, the puck just wasn't finding the back of the net.
"A theme that's been pretty consistent is just finding the back of the net," Anastos said. "It's pretty tough to score just a goal and win...we just didn't have everyone going that night and that's not going to be good enough for our team to have success."
Attempting to shake off the loss, the Spartans had a morning skate on Saturday to refocus and retool for the second game of the weekend series.
"[We] played a pretty complete game on Saturday night and really kind of let them back into the game," Anastos said. "But I thought overall we played pretty well. It was nice to see the puck go in a little bit."
Ferrantino scored the game's first goal for the second night in a row. Berry, junior forward Matt DeBlouw and senior forward Tanner Sorenson all added a goal and an assist for the Spartans as well. With their goals on Saturday, Berry and Ferrantino are now tied for the team lead with seven goals apiece which is also good for second in the Big Ten.
MSU set the pace right from the puck drop. Sophomore forward Joe Cox made an impressive effort play and got the puck to Ferrantino who was awarded with a goal 5:01 into the contest. The Spartans jumped out to 3-0 lead through two periods, but the Tigers clawed back into the game.
After cutting their deficit to 3-2 just over midway through the third period, Princeton had two more good looks to tie the game. Junior goaltender Jake Hildebrand stood tall for MSU down the stretch, stopping 20 of 22 shots in the game and securing the Spartans a weekend split.
"I thought we really had a lot of momentum going at one point and they called a really good timeout," Anastos said. "We've got to be able to respond to that stuff because that's going to happen - where we've got the momentum and then all of a sudden it changes - you've got to weather that storm and vice-versa."
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