DETROIT — Hayden Lavigne made 32 saves in Michigan’s 3-2 win over Michigan State in Detroit tonight, but the save of the game goes to Lavigne’s teammate, junior defenseman Joseph Cecconi. With 2:15 remaining in the third period and Lavigne drawn to the left of the crease and completely out of the net, Cecconi stopped a sure goal fired by Michigan State’s Cody Milan, preserving Michigan’s one-goal lead and fueling the Wolverines on to the win.
“I’ve had maybe one or two of those, but that was probably the best one,” said Cecconi of the save, which was subject to a lengthy review. The puck hit Cecconi in the chest when he was backed into the net, and the officials watched the replay to see if the puck had crossed the line. “Once I saw the replay,” said Cecconi, “I knew that it wasn’t a goal.”
Michigan coach Mel Pearson had no comment on the play — because he didn’t see it.
“I couldn’t watch the last two minutes,” said Pearson. “We have to get better. We have to learn to play with a lead.”
The Wolverines took a 2-0 lead into the third period thanks to Cooper Marody’s first-period goal and Jack Becker’s power-play marker at 18:30 in the second, scored with just five seconds remaining on a five-minute power play that resulted from Mitchell Lewandowski’s major penalty and game misconduct for checking from behind.
Leading 2-0 and outshooting the Spartans 27-20 after two, the Wolverines looked to be in control of the game until Taro Hirose scored 21 seconds into the third period. Patrick Khodorenko won a faceoff in the Michigan right circle and dropped the puck back to Hirose, who fired past Lavigne to make it a 2-1 game.
Quinn Hughes scored at 14:06 to give the Wolverines a 3-1 lead — a really nice goal that was the end result of Michigan having spread the Spartans’ defense after carrying the puck into the Michigan State end — but at 15:25, David Keefer skated into the Wolverines’ zone and scored on a pass from Khodorenko to cut the Michigan lead to one again.
“When you’re in 2-0 and a faceoff goal — bang! — and now you’ve got a game,” said Pearson. “We get 3-1. That should have been it. They should not get another grade A opportunity after that. We’ve got to learn how to play in tight games with a lead when there’s a lot on the line.”
There was a lot on the line tonight. The five points that the Wolverines earned against the Spartans in two games this weekend help solidify Michigan’s position in third place with just four regular-season games remaining.
“Huge,” said Pearson. “You can’t say it enough. We want home ice in the playoffs. I think we were picked to finish sixth in the conference, so we’ve got something to prove.”
While the Wolverines hoisted the Iron D trophy, awarded annually to the winner of this game known as the Duel in the D, the players had other things beside hardware on their minds tonight.
“We needed the win for the Big Ten and the PairWise,” said Cecconi. “That was more important than bringing home a trophy.”
The game was a bit intense in spots, with the Spartans taking six penalties for 23 minutes, including the major to Lewandowski. The Wolverines had three penalties for six minutes and were the only team to capitalize on the power play. Michigan State coach Danton Cole said that untimely penalties undermined the Spartans in the first two periods especially.
“It’s kind of a fine line,” said Cole. “You want to be aggressive, but you’ve got to keep your sticks down, you’ve got to get to different sides. We don’t want to take away from the aggressive side. Yeah, you’ve got to take less penalties, but sometimes that’s just the timing of the game. It was every time we got rolling and, boom, we had to come back and kill.”
Next weekend, the Wolverines (14-13-3, 9-10-3-2 B1G) play a Friday-Sunday home-and-home series against newly crowned Big Ten regular-season champs Notre Dame. The Spartans (10-18-2, 4-14-2-1 B1G) host Penn State next Saturday and Sunday.
