No. 20 Northern Michigan Squeaks By Spartans, 2-1

Nov. 19, 2011

Marquette, Mich. - Michigan State had its five-game winning streak snapped with a 2-1 loss to No. 20 Northern Michigan on Saturday in Marquette. It was a tight game throughout, with the Spartans having late chances at an equalizer which never found the back of the net. The goalies - MSU's Will Yanakeff and NMU's Justin Coreau - were the first and second stars of the game, respectively: Yanakeff made 28 stops, while Coreau's night included 20 saves in his own end.

The game was marred with multiple disqualifications as a scuffle broke out at the end of the contest. Northern Michigan ended up with three players getting DQ'd, which included one abuse of officials call; MSU's Torey Krug (facemasking) and Greg Wolfe (fighting) both received major penalties for those infractions and will not be available for next Friday's game against Minnesota after also receiving game disqualification penalties.

The first goal of the game did not come until the final seconds of the second period. Justin Florek was the goal scorer for the Wildcats on the power play, flipping a puck from the left hash mark over the glove-hand shoulder of Yanakeff, who stopped the first 24 shots he saw on the night. It was Northern Michigan's third power-play try of the night and seventh of the weekend.

Matt Berry made it a tie ballgame at 12:24. Kevin Walrod and Berry were cycling below the goal line, and Berry ended up with the puck on his stick to Coreau's left, at the post. Berry's attempt squeaked between the post and the goalie's leg pad, knotting the score as the teams entered the final eight minutes of play.

Three minutes later, the Wildcats ignited their crowd with another go-ahead tally. Taking a pass from Wade Epp, Brian Nugent came in on a two-on-one, held the puck for an extra beat, and got the puck past Yanakeff for his first tally of the season. It appeared that Northern took a 3-1 lead just 50 seconds later, as Yanakeff tried to smother a Erik Higby shot, but it trickled into the back of the net through Yanakeff's legs five-hole. The goal went to review, and was disallowed as it was determined that the puck crossed the goal line after the official had blown the whistle.

The Spartans got a bit of a lift from the disallowed marker, and pressed for the equalizer as time wore down in the period. MSU got an extra lift when Florek was whistled for cross-checking with 42 seconds remaining in the period; with Yanakeff on the bench, MSU got the 6-on-4 advantage. The Spartans had one last gasp, a faceoff to the right of Coreau with two seconds remaining; however, that last faceoff led to fisticuffs at the final buzzer.

MSU was outshot in the contest by a 30-21 margin; Yanakeff had his fourth straight start with allowing just two goals, and the Spartans are tagged with a loss for the first time when allowing less than three goals.

The Spartans will be back in action next weekend, hosting top-ranked Minnesota at Munn Ice Arena for a pair of non-conference games. Both games will start at 7 p.m. and will air live on FS North.