Michigan State University
Nebraska-Omaha
Hockey Falls To Nebraska-Omaha In OT
1/13/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Jan. 13, 2000
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Late goals in the second and third periods allowed Nebraska-Omaha to send Thursday's game with Michigan State to overtime, where Dave Noel-Bernier ended it 3:48 into the extra session, giving the visiting Mavericks a 4-3 win over the Spartans.
Michigan State dropped its second straight game and is now 15-7-0 overall and 11-5-0 in the CCHA. The Spartans are in a three-way tie for the conference lead with Northern Michigan and Michigan, but have played one more game than both of those teams.
UNO is 7-10-4 overall (5-6-4 CCHA) after one of the biggest wins in the three-year-old program's history. The two teams meet again Friday night at Munn Ice Arena at 7:05 p.m.
"We keep getting beat by hard work, and that's what's frustrating," senior center and team captain Shawn Horcoff said. "We're a team that prides itself on our work ethic, yet other teams are out-working us."
Horcoff had three assists in the game, giving him an NCAA-leading 37 points for the year. He passed Wisconsin's Steve Reinprecht (35 points) with his two first-period assists.
Although the Spartans scored twice in the first period, Nebraska-Omaha struck first. Zach Scribner popped in a rebound off of Ed Cassin's shot from the point at the 6:08 mark to give uNO a 1-0 lead. MSU fell to 1-7-0 when its opponent scores first.
That lead was short-lived, however, after a pair of Spartan power-play goals just 3:34 apart later in the period. Horcoff set up Brian Maloney on the doorstep for the first of Maloney's two goals of the game, then Andrew Hutchinson scored his first goal of the season.
The Spartans appeared to be headed into the third period with a 2-1 lead before the Mavericks scored with just three seconds left in the second. Nick Fohr scored his fourth goal of the year on assists from Derek Reynolds and Scribner.
Maloney gave MSU another lead, 3-2, at the 3:47 mark of the third on yet another feed from Horcoff.
At 15:09 UNO drew even. Jason Cupp followed his own shot into the Spartan net, barrelling over goaltender Joe Blackburn in the process. Head coach Ron Mason had no objections to the goal, and the teams seemed headed to overtime.
Michigan State had a few good chances late inthe third, as Horcoff fired a pair of quality shots on net, but he couldn't solve Rodney McLeod.
McLeod made 33 saves on the night as the Spartans outshot Nebraska-Omaha, 36-21.
Omaha got the winner on a terrific play by Cupp. David Brisson fed the puck to Cupp in the slot, who instead of shooting passed it back to the right wing post, where Noel-Bernier easily found the net.
"I saw their guy pass it out front and I was ready for the shot there," said Blackburn. "He made a nice pass to my left and I couldn't quite get over there. My stick kind of got caught in the net as I went over and I couldn't reach it. It was a nice play by them. They were around the net all night."
Michigan State has 24 hours to regroup before tomorrow night's game, when they will benefit from the return of junior left wing Damon Whitten and senior defenseman Brad Hodgins, who missed this game with suspensions for fighting against Michigan Jan. 7. Also out of the lineup was junior forward Rustyn Dolyny, who has the flu and will be reevaluated in the morning to determine his status for Friday night.
"Those are three older guys who step up every night and know what it takes to win," Horcoff said. "I'm looking forward to getting them back in the lineup."
