Michigan State University
Michigan
Michigan State Falls To Michigan, 5-3, in Home Finale
3/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
EAST LANSING - The Michigan State hockey team fell to No. 19 Michigan, 5-3, on Friday night at a raucous, sold-out Munn Ice Arena in the first of a home-and-home series between the teams.
Travis Lynch broke the 3-3 tie with 5:03 to play when Andrew Copp threw a pass out front to Lynch in the slot, who one-timed it past goaltender Jake Hildebrand. Tyler Motte sealed the game with an empty-net goal with 1:10 to play to make the final score 5-3.
The win moves Michigan to 20-13-0 overall and 12-7-0-0 in Big Ten play while Michigan State is 16-15-2 overall and 10-7-2-2 in Big Ten action. MSU is now alone in third place in the Big Ten with 34 points - two behind both Michigan and Minnesota.
The Spartans and Wolverines conclude their home-and-home series to end regular-season play on Saturday, March 14 in Ann Arbor at 5 p.m.
Ryan Keller scored all three goals for Michigan State to record his first-career hat trick.
"It was a tough game. They played a really good road game, I thought," MSU head coach Tom Anastos said. "We gave up goals too easily."
Michigan grabbed a 1-0 lead at the 3:54 mark of the first on a goal by Dexter Dancs.
Cutler Martin pushed the Michigan lead to 2-0 at the 9:42 mark when he picked up the puck and raced in alone on Hildebrand and beat him with a low shot.
"I thought they started much faster than us; we just looked tight," Anastos said.
The Spartans got on the board with 6:17 to play in the opening period as Keller put home a rebound to make it a 2-1 game. Brock Krygier fired the puck from the right point and it bounced off of goaltender Zach Nagelvoort and into the high slot where Keller corralled it, spun, and put the puck into the net along the ice.
Matt Berry nearly knotted the game before the final horn of the first period, but Nagelvoort stopped his semi-breakaway in the closing seconds.
Michigan generated a majority of the scoring chances in the first half of the second period, but it was Keller that struck again at the 11:59 mark to tie the game, 2-2.
Keller started the play when he forced the puck into the neutral zone and down the ice past both Wolverine defenseman. Nagelvoort hesitated and then came out to play the puck, but it was too late as Keller was bearing down and dove at the puck. The two players collided and Keller swept the puck into the open net.
The tie game lasted until there was 2:21 to play in the period when Dylan Larkin batted home a rebound to regain the lead for the Wolverines, 3-2.
The Spartans continued to battle and climbed back to knot the game again at the 4:53 mark of the third period.
MSU got some help from the Wolverines on the goal as Keller's centering pass banked off the skate of a Michigan defenseman in the low slot and trickled through the legs of Nagelvoort to make it 3-3.
The goal completed the hat trick for Keller and was the second by a Spartan this season, joining Mackenzie MacEachern (vs. Penn State, Feb. 14).
The Wolverines outshot the Spartans by a count of 44-27 for the game.
Friday night was MSU's Senior Night, as the Spartans honored their five seniors, Matt Berry, Ron Boyd, Zack Cisek, Brent Darnell and Tanner Sorenson in a pre-game ceremony.
Saturday's regular-season finale will be televised on Fox Sports Detroit.
