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Spartans hold on, top NMU 2-1

MiHockey Staff

By Michael Caples –

EAST LANSING – On Friday, the Northern Michigan Wildcats score a goal in the final minute of each period.

The Spartans kept them from accomplishing the same feat on Saturday.

Brock Shelgren scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal at the 8:02 mark of the second period, and the Spartans kept the Wildcats off the board for the duration of the contest en route to a 2-1 win.

“Very tough hockey game tonight,” Spartans coach Tom Anastos said. “I was real pleased with the 60-minute effort of the team. We were obviously pleased with the result against what we thought was a very good team.

“I was real proud of how hard we played defensively tonight, I think that’s how we have to play to give ourselves a chance to win regularly against good teams like this where we did a better job limiting the quality shots, and when we did have a breakdown, our goaltender came up with a big or a timely save. I think that’s the recipe for us to have success, and obviously it turned out in our favor tonight.”

The win improves Michigan State’s record to 12-9-3, and 7-7-2-2 in CCHA play. The Wildcats drop to 10-8-5, and 6-7-5-2 within conference play.

Sophomore Will Yanakeff picked up his seventh win of the season by stopping 23 shots. Wildcats goaltender Jared Coreau took the loss despite making 28 saves.

“Tonight was a very fun game to play in,” MSU captain Torey Krug said. “Obviously Will [Yanakeff] played great, the crowd was great once again. Every time I come up here I feel like that’s something I say, but the students were awesome, the band’s the best band in the league. The crowd was awesome, and the game was a lot of fun to play in.”

Northern Michigan’s Matt Thurber opened the scoring 4:48 into the first period, on what would turn out to be the Wildcats’ only goal.

Exactly 11 minutes later, Matt Berry scored for the Spartans, firing a shot that rolled through goaltender Jared Coreau.

On the deciding goal, Shelgren jumped into the Spartans’ attack to sneak behind teammate Chris Forfar and knock in a rebound off captain Torey Krug’s initial shot.