Spartans split the weekend but look dominant
Anytime any of MSU’s athletic teams face off against the weasels you can expect some fireworks. This weekend had a whole lot of whistle blowing as both teams hit the penalty box their fair share. Some of those penalties were undoubtedly game changers, some were sloppy sticks and some were questionable sportsmanship. What I saw this weekend were even more reasons to love this team. Let’s have a quick recap.
Friday night’s game at Munn is still burning an annoyance in my soul. O actually asked if I was going to write about the Friday game and I said it would get an honorable mention but I am primarily here to chat about the Russell penalty that really changed the game. The major on Russell seemed to knock the Spartans off their path and they never seemed to get back to their style of play. 31 penalty minutes is tough to overcome, but the Spartan PK played well against one of the nations best power play squads. MSU scored first in the contest and the weasels tied it up during the 5 on 3 advantage.
MSU had a dominant second period but just couldn’t find the net. They out shot and won more face-offs but the period remained at a deadlock. The third period was close as well with the weasels taking a slight advantage in offensive opportunities. Then, as of now, the most annoying goal of the season goes in via a lucky deflection off Schifsky. I have rewatched this goal numerous times and it still looks like it may have hit a defending stick as well making the directional changing nearly impossible for Augustine to stop. The goal gave MSU its first loss at Munn since BC and a very sour taste as they took to the road for the battle in the D.
Saturday’s game was most definitely more fun for Spartan fans. We thought there were a lot of penalties on Friday but Saturday refused to be denied as the two teams combined for 65 penalty minutes. This game was chippy from the start and when Coach Naurato was asked if this type of play knocked them off what they do he said, “No, this is what you expect in a rivalry game”. Something tells me his athletic department may give him a stern talking to for having admitted a rivalry against MSU.
The weasels started off the whistle blowing with a high sticking at the 3:19 mark of the first which led to a power play goal by Vansaghi. He talked about how cool it was to play at LCA and it was the largest crowd he’d ever played in front of and was happy he’d earned his way onto the power play line. MSU continued to do well on the PK, specifically with great face-off wins by Shoudy, and the scored was 1-0 MSU heading into first intermission.
Period two saw the Spartans continue to dominate with shots but the weasels managed to tie it up at the 11:26 mark with a goal by Duke, who’s brother made his NHL debut just a few hours earlier. Luckily, MSU had a quick answer with a goal by O’Connell at 13:31 followed by a scrapper goal by Deangelo at 15:38. The weasels challenged Mikey’s goal for interference but the call stood and MSU went into the second intermission up 3-1.
Period three is where the wheels of sportsmanship started to fall off and the utter disdain of certain colors took over. Larson got an early goal at 1:15 when the puck went off his skate from a Dorwart shot and into the net. MSU was then up 4-1 and it was already clear their conditioning was playing a factor. They were out skating, hustling to beat icing calls, playing with longer sticks and keeping the weasels gasping for air. You knew it was going to start getting ugly when, I believe it was Stramel, was knocked down in front of Korpi and his skate caught the goaltenders arm and Korpi clearly thought it was intentional and shoved a fist into his back. This started a small skirmish in which Felicio was given a roughing penalty. At 7:49, Shoudy connected with a nice slap shot and put MSU up 5-1. At about the 14 minute mark is when all the extra curricular activities started to take place. Howard was face masked and bleeding in from of the weasel bench when Shoudy and the Spartans came over to defend the nation’s top goal scorer. I am not going to spend a lot of time commenting on the fact that MSU had too many penalties because as a hockey fan, and hater of everything the color of corn, I was enjoying the fight back and aggression. A lot of MSU’s penalties were really for some sloppy stick play as hooking was happening a lot. I also loved that Nightingale challenged the call and returned the favor to Naurato and won the challenge to give Hage the major. With the Spartans on the 5-3 advantage, Howard got his revenge with his 22 goal of the season. MSU skated of to the 6-1 victory and trophy presentation.
Steve Neumann
The Spartans end the weekend with a 5 point lead over Minnesota and have a bye this week. Two more series remain as PSU comes to East Lansing Feb 21/22 and then the Spartans close the season and February in South Bend. Definitely interested to see where Pairwise has MSU ranked this week, but they look like a one seed for the tournament. The weekend may have been a split, but MSU was the better team. Too bad a couple of Saturday’s goals didn’t sneak in on Friday. Go Green and enjoy the bye week.