MSU’s hockey team needed some late heroics to advance to the regional final
It was another tense game for the MSU men’s hockey team as they opened up their NCAA Tournament appearance with a performance that left a lot to be desired, but also showed this team is never out of it. That said, Friday night, this team was (hands an inch apart) close to being eliminated. It took a strong third period attack, and admittedly a bit of good fortune, for the Spartans to come back from a two-goal deficit against the Western Michigan Broncos to force overtime. There, for the second time in less than a week, an unlikely hero emerged to give MSU a 5-4 victory in the extra session.
MSU came out looking like the better team in this one, getting shots and opportunities early against Western Michigan. The Broncos, however, struck first, getting a goal 7:30 into the game. That would be the only scoring in the first period.
The second period gave a lot more work to the scorekeeper. Michigan State got the equalizer five minutes in when Daniel Russell took a cross-ice pass coming out of the defensive zone and broke in on the right side uncontested before slipping a wrister five-hole. Five minutes later, David Gucciardi put the Spartans ahead with a slap shot from the top of the circle right off a face-off win. In between those two goals, Western nearly had a goal of their own when a wrister squeezed underneath goalie Trey Augustine’s armpit and landed in the crease. Fortunately for the Green & White, he sensed it and fell back on it for the cover-up before any Broncos could get to it.
MSU did not hold the lead long, though, and the Broncos went on a spree that had Spartan Nation in a panic. WMU netted the equalizer with just over seven minutes remaining in the middle period, a power play goal. Less than two minutes later, they reclaimed the lead, and about 90 seconds after that, they added some separation. The three goals in about three and half minutes were the result of an unlucky deflection off a skate in front of the MSU net, a neutral-zone turnover, and a screening of Augustine’s view on a shot from just inside the blue line, respectively. The Broncos took the 4-2 lead into the second intermission.
Michigan State needed nearly half of the third period to begin to claw back into this one, though each team had some near-goals before that point. It was the MSU captain, Nash Nienhuis, who would get the goal, picking up a loose puck at the top of the circle and wristing it into the corner of the net above the goalie’s glove hand. The Spartans had life.
Over the next ten minutes, WMU looked like the better team and were the side getting more scoring opportunities as they looked to put the game away. But Trey Augustine, the 18-year-old who has already been drafted by the Detroit Red Wings, came up time and again to keep his team in it. Finally, with just under one minute remaining, Artyom Levshunov, another Spartan who will be in the NHL very soon, grabbed the puck and began moving it up the right wing. In a bit of unawareness, three Broncos defenders moved with him as he brought it into the attacking zone and toward the right corner. Having just the slightest lead on the procession, he slid the puck past his three pursuers into the low slot onto the stick of his teammate, Karsen Dorwart, who was completely left alone as he had come up the middle of the ice. Uncontested, Dorwart easily placed the puck in the back of the net before the Broncos goalie could scramble back across his goal. And just like that, MSU had rallied back to tie the game.
In overtime, the action went back and forth though most of the shots seemed to be missing the goal and hitting the boards instead. Finally, approaching nine minutes in, the Spartans Jeremy Davidson collected the puck along the right wing, skated down toward the goal line, and sent a wrister toward the goal. The Broncos goalie followed it, moving to his right. But the shot deflected off a Broncos defender’s stick and went to the goalie’s left, fitting just inside the post and into the goal to give MSU the 5-4 overtime victory.
For the game, Western Michigan got more shots on goal, 38-32. Trey Augustine made some great saves to prevent WMU from having scored any more goals. With the win, and with the result of the second game Friday in Maryland Heights, Missouri, Michigan State will take on um in the regional final on Sunday with the winner going to the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minnesota. This will be the sixth matchup between the in-state foes this season. MSU won the regular-season series three games to one and also beat um in last weekend’s Big Ten championship, also a 5-4 overtime game. Here’s hoping that MSU can win this next game in a more comfortable manner.