After trailing 2-0 for most of the game, Ferris State came back to tie Michigan State and send this game to overtime, but the Spartans prevailed, 3-2, on Taro Hirose’s third goal of the season at 3:47 in OT.
“I thought we did a good job for probably the first 35 minutes and then the tide really turned,” said Michigan State coach Danton Cole. “Give Ferris a lot of credit. They really started pushing it. They scored with 29 seconds to go or whatever in the period, but they really started pressing with about five minutes to go [in the second]. I don’t know if we were on our heels, but we weren’t playing very well and spending a lot of time chasing them back toward their own net.”
Ferris State coach Bob Daniels said that the Bulldogs came out flat at the start of the game. First of all, I thought Michigan State was really good,” said Daniels. “I thought they played really well. I was really disappointed with how we came out in the first. I was just beyond myself. We just didn’t compete. It wasn’t until we fell behind by two that we had any urgency at all.”
The Spartans’ first line of Hirose, Mitchell Lewandowski and Patrick Khodorenko had a hand in all three of Michigan State’s goals. Lewandowski scored at 3:17 and 9:15 in the second to give Michigan State its two-goal lead, and Lewandowski had the second assist on Hirose’s game-winning goal, but that line was also on the ice for the two Ferris State goals.
“The goals were nice, but I thought they [the line] were just okay, though,” said Cole. “We’ll chat a little about that, because it’s nice to score those goals but you’ve got to take care of things. The turnovers and some of the high-risk plays – they’re going to lead and if they start doing it, then everybody feels like they can do it, so we’ll help them be a little better at that.”
On his first goal, Lewandowski took a pass from Carson Gatt and muscled his way through two Ferris State defenders in the slot and shot from the left side of the net, beating Ferris State goaltender Darren Smith long. Hirose fed Lewandowski on the second goal, skating in on the right wing after stealing the puck and then dishing left to Lewandowski.
The Spartans led 2-0 until there were 26.9 seconds left in the second period, when Mitch Maloney forced a turnover and skated in alone on Michigan State goaltender John Lethemon, unleashing a shot from the left circle that Lethemon could not stop.
It was all Ferris State in the third period, when the Spartans found themselves in a little bit of penalty trouble and were outshot 14-6 in the final 20 minutes. At 15:36, the sustained effort by the Bulldogs paid off when Ryker Killins notched his third of the season, a shot from the left circle.
“If we’d come out of here with a tie, that would’ve been okay,” said Daniels. “I thought we didn’t play very well early on. Disappointing. I’m glad to see we had some resilience to us, though. That’s a positive. Things were not going for us at all in the first period and a half.”
On Hirose’s game-winning goal, Lewandowski took the initial shot but Smith made the save and the puck went behind the net to Khodorenko, who passed out front to Hirsose, who hit the far bar and bounced the puck into the net from the left side. There was a brief review of the goal before it was allowed.
“It was a nice play on the game-winning goal,” said Daniels. “Good feed from behind the goal, good finish. I’m not sure what they were reviewing. Maybe they thought that it didn’t go in, but it was clearly in to me.”
Said Cole, “Lots of lessons for the young guys and how you’ve got to keep playing and how you’ve got to do things the right way and how if you cheat the game, it bites you. Fortunately tonight we could learn some lessons through winning. We’ll move forward and try to do better tomorrow.”
The Spartans (6-5-0) and Bulldogs (5-7-1) meet Saturday at 7:07 p.m. in Big Rapids.
WCHA roundup
No. 6 Minnesota State 6, Bowling Green 1
After leading Bowling Green scored to cut No. 6 Minnesota State’s lead in half early in the second, the Mavericks opened up with three unanswered goals – two by Ian Schied on the power play – in the second half of the second en route to their 6-1 home win over the Falcons.
The Mavericks went three-for-five on the power play, beginning with Brad McClure’s goal at 3:57 in the first for the early 1-0 lead. Reggie Lutz had the game-winning goal at 7:12 in the first and Minnesota State led 2-0 after one.
Bowling Green’s single goal came at 6:09 in the second, a power-play tally by Stephen Baylis, his third power-play goal of the year. Schied scored his two consecutive goals at 11:05 and 17:09 in the second; three of his four markers are with the man advantage this season.
Jake Jaremko and Walker Duehr also scored for the Mavericks. In net for Bowling Green, Eric Dop allowed five goals on 18 shots and Ryan Bednard finished the game, giving up Duehr’s third-period goal. Connor LaCouvee stopped 24-of-25.
Lake Superior State 3, Alabama Huntsville 1
Lake Superior State picked up its second conference win of the season with a 3-1 road decision over Alabama-Huntsville. Three different Lakers scored in the effort, and both the Chargers and the Lakers allowed very late-period goals in this contest.
The Lakers led 2-0 after the first period. Diego Cuglietta scored his fourth of the season and second on the year on the power play 5:18 into the game. Jake Hand scored the game-winning goal when each team was down a man at 18:33 in the first.
The Chargers’ goal came at 19:07 in the second, Madison Dunn’s second of the year. At 19:52 in the third, Max Humitz added the empty-net shorthanded goal for Lake Superior State to bring the score to 3-1. Junior Nick Kossoff earned his second win of the season, turning away 26-of-27 shots on goal. Jordan Uhelski made 19 saves for the Chargers.
Attachments area
No. 20 Northern Michigan 5, Alaska 3
With the score tied 2-2 early in the second period, No. 20 Northern Michigan scored three goals within a seven-minute span – two by senior Robbie Payne to complete his second career hat trick – to surge ahead of Alaska in a 5-3 win in Fairbanks.
Payne opened the scoring in the first period at 10:33 to give Northern Michigan the 1-0 lead. Alaska’s Tyler Cline scored at 15:25 to tie the game for the first time, but Wildcat Adam Rockwood answered on the power play at 16:56 with his first goal of the season and it was 2-1 after one.
Ross Heidt knotted the score again for Alaska at 4:46 of the second, but Payne responded with his second goal of the night at 4:46, followed by Darien Craighead’s game-winning goal at 8:30 and Payne’s third goal at 11:55 on the power play, assisted by Craighead and Rockwood, giving the Wildcats a 5-2 lead after two. Colton Leiter added Alaska’s last goal at 4:19 in the third.
Atte Tolvanen made 32 saves in his sixth win of the season. Anton Martinsson began the night in net for Alaska and gave up five goals on 21 shots on goal. Niko DellaMaggiore came into the game in the second period and finished for the Nanooks, stopping all 10 shots he faced.
With the hat trick, Payne now has 12 goals in 11 games; he had a career-high 13 goals in 39 games last season.
Michigan Tech 1, Alaska Anchorage 1
Alaska Anchorage earned two points with a shootout win after tying visiting Michigan Tech, 1-1. Corey Renwick scored the only goal in the shootout, in the fifth round, to give the Seawolves that extra point. Alaska Anchorage goaltender Olivier Mantha made 36 saves on 37 shots in the overtime game as the Huskies outgunned the Seawolves, 37-14.
The only scoring in regulation came in the first period. Michigan Tech’s Thomas Beretta scored his second power-play goal of the season at 2:20 in the first from Keegan Ford and Jake Jackson. At 15:35, Austin Azurdia scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season from Jonah Renouf and Jarrett Brown to tie the game, 1-1. Azurdia, a senior, is two goals short of his career-best eight-goal freshman year.
Patrick Munson finished the night with 13 saves on 14 shots.
