EAST LANSING, Mich. — After trailing 1-0 to Michigan State early in the first period, North Dakota scored four unanswered goals – two within 1:01 later in the first – to secure a road sweep of the Spartans with a 4-1 win.
Drake Caggiula scored twice in the game, the game-winning first-period goal and a second-period shorthanded breakaway, giving him four goals in the series and seven goals in his last four games.
The line of Caggiula, Nick Schmaltz and Brock Boeser was responsible for five of the seven goals North Dakota scored in the weekend.
“After these two games, we have no answer for their one line,” said Michigan State coach Tom Anastos. “That’s the story of the weekend.”
North Dakota coach Brad Berry thought there was more to the Fighting Hawks’ success than their first line.
“I thought it was a little bit of a slow start on our part,” said Berry. “I thought we were a little sloppy in the first but got better as the game went on. Cam Johnson was sharp early on and that kept us going. I thought he was a big reason we won today.”
Johnson, a native of the Detroit suburb of Troy, stopped 33 tonight and 24 in Friday’s 3-1 win, but had to be good early in the first as the Spartans outshot the Fighting Hawks 15-8.
“Their goalie probably played as well as any goal we’ve seen all year so far,” said Anastos. “We didn’t test him the other night, but tonight, I thought we had some good opportunities we didn’t take advantage of.”
Michael Ferrantino put the Spartans on the board at 7:50 in the first on his power-play goal, a one-timer from the top of the slot, but at 13:03, Joel Janatuinen netted his first career goal to tie the game and Caggiula had his first of the night at 14:04. Janatuinen’s goal was set up by a timely pass from Tucker Poolman.
“That was a big goal,” said Berry. “Starting the play, Tucker Poolman made a great play, possession play, and seeing [Janatuinen] going to the net and made a great pass, and the other part was Joel. He had to extend a little bit to get that puck and made a great play on the goal. That was a huge part of the game, responding to that [Michigan State] goal to get back in the game.”
Poolman also had the second assist on Caggiula’s goal a minute later.
Boeser scored on the power play at 5:11 in the second to make it 3-1, and Caggiula’s shorthanded goal at 11:39 in the second capped the scoring.
That three of the game’s five total goals involved special teams isn’t surprising, given the number of penalties in the game. Each team had a player assessed a five-minute major with a game misconduct. North Dakota had 10 penalties for 28 minutes; Michigan State had eight for 27.
“I thought our discipline with penalties tonight got a little bit away from us,” said Berry. “It’s something we’ve got to keep addressing. We’re a young team, but we’ve got to make sure that we play the right way and play disciplined, because that’ll get you in the end if you take too many penalties.”
“I thought we played really hard,” said Anastos. “We didn’t take advantage of opportunities that presented themselves, whether it’s really good scoring chances, whether it was the five-on-three power play, and then when we made mistakes and they capitalized.”
Next weekend, North Dakota (12-2-2) hosts Denver for a two-game NCHC series, while the Spartans (4-7-2) begin Big Ten play with two games against Penn State.
