MSU finishes 3-1 against OSU this year
MSU headed into Buckeye territory for the final two games of the season between the two ranked teams. MSU has been playing extremely well but did get some rough news earlier this week with the announcement the captain Red Savage would be out for the remainder of the season with an upper body injury. Thankfully the Spartans are a solid four lines and Savage can still maintain leadership and captain duties. Nonetheless, the news perhaps left the Spartans with a heavy heart as they left Ohio with a split.
It’s a lucky place to be when you rarely have to take a defeat and this season, three Spartan defeats have come from top 11 teams. Thursday night’s game was not lost for lack of effort as the Spartans were pending the net with opportunities. 37 shots on goal and 35 stopped by the hot Buckeye goaltender, Terness. Buckeye defenders did an outstanding job of blocking shots as well before they even reached the net. MSU jumped out to an early lead but the Buckeyes stormed back to tie and close the period with the 1-1 tie.
Period two saw the Bucks take the lead on an unlucky bounce of a Spartan defender and past Augustine. MSU tied the game at 2 within a few seconds of beginning a power play. Dorwart won a face-off and passed over to Bagsall who tased it right back to Dorwart who slapped it in. Both teams skated to a tie for the remainder of the period.
The third period saw OSU take the lead on a questionable goal. MSU challenged Fontaine’s goal due to Thompson taking up a short residency in the crease. This was a long review, but the call stood and MSU went down 3-2 and then gave up another goal with about 6.5 minutes left in the period. Obviously the no call on the interference put a damper on the game and made it even more difficult to swallow the first Spartan regulation loss since Dec 6.
Friday night’s game had a very different outcome. The first period was scoreless but was quite an impressive display. The Spartans allowed only three shots on goal, the second fewest in any game this year. Only 13 face-offs and barely a whistle made for a very fast and scoreless end to the first period.
The Spartans first goal was some beautiful puck movement by the three T’s connection. Tiernan sent a long stretch pass to Tommi who got it to Tanner who sent it over Eberly’s glove. *Side note, Shoudy is having a very under the radar good season. OSU answered with a sloppy hack goal that squeaked past Augustine. National goal leader, Howard, had the Spartans second goal after a steal from the defender and shot a bullet past Eberly. MSU got one more goal to close the period on a goal from O’Connell.
The third period saw both teams skate scoreless until OSU pulled Eberly with three minutes remaining. That is a lot of time left to add the extra skater but OSU’s defenders did a fantastic job over the two games blocking shots. Clearly they saw an opportunity but the Spartans did not break. Russell scored an empty netter as he broke free with Stramel to give MSU the 4-1 victory.
Spartans will remain on top in the conference but it will be interesting to see where they end up in the pairwise ranking on Monday. The Spartans are looking to end the season in the top 4 to get a number one seed. MSU hosts the AA weasels on Friday and heads to Little Caesars Arena on Saturday. A weekend sweep would be great before the break. Only three series left this season and MSU is in great shape to do big things.