Spartans top Wildcats in shootout

 

By Michael Caples –

EAST LANSING – Mike Merrifield said that while they won the shootout Friday night, it was a bittersweet feeling for the Spartans.

Michigan State rallied from a early two-goal deficit in the first period, only to relinquish a lead over their own to the Northern Michigan Wildcats with 26 seconds remaining in regulation. The Spartans prevailed 1-0 in the shootout after a 5-5 tie to earn an extra point in the CCHA standings.

“We played a real strong third, and we ended up instead of getting all three points, we only got two,” said Merrifield, who returned from an upper-body injury and was named first star of the night. “Northern’s a good team, you’ve got to give it to them – they never gave up. We just have to get better with those last-minute goals.”

The Wildcats recorded goals in the closing minute of all three periods Friday night, which kept them within striking distance throughout the contest. The visitors managed to erase a 5-3 Spartans lead in the third period, with Tyler Gron forcing overtime in the closing seconds.

“We have really, really good leadership on this team,” NMU coach Walt Kyle said. “Not only the guys that are wearing letters, but a lot of the guys who are around them, we’ve been resilient all year, I think we have really, really good character on this team, we’ve played in a lot of those close games, and I was certainly proud of the way the guys were able to bounce back and get that goal at the end.”

A scoreless extra session led to the shootout, where Spartan freshman Matt Berry was the only player to find the back of the net.

“I’m always a little nervous, but backhand’s kind of my move right now,” said Berry, who also scored the deciding shootout goal against Michigan Dec. 10. “It’s been working, so I kind of stuck to that, that’s pretty much it.”

Drew Palmisano stopped the Wildcats’ Andrew Cherniwchan, Gron, and Reed Seckel in the shootout after stopping 28 in regulation and overtime. The Spartans’ senior goaltender said his confidence rests in the shooters on his own roster.

“I have a lot of confidence in our shooters, just from seeing their moves every day in practice,” Palmisano said. “Espeically Berry, he buries a lot, so you know, I know they have confidence in me when it comes to this, so I think it’s a mutual thing.”

For MSU coach Tom Anastos, there’s plenty to work on heading into tomorrow night’s rematch.

“I’ve got mixed feelings on the game,” Anastos said. “Their team played hard, like we thought they would, I really think they play hard and got that two goal lead and we fought back from that to take a lead, which we felt good about. I didn’t think our energy level was where we wanted it to be at the start of the game. There were parts of the games I was happy with, and there were parts of the game I certainly don’t feel good about. Looking forward to looking back at the game tonight and watching it again. Very mixed feelings, one of our main objectives every game is to finish plus or even in the last minute of a period, and we didn’t do that very well tonight.“

Scoring started off in a hurry, with Brian Nugent and Justin Florek finding the back of the net in the first 10:25 to give Northern an early two-goal lead.

The Spartans responded with four straight goals of their own in the first period, on tallies from Chris Forfar, Merrifield, Anthony Hayes, and Kevin Walrod.

Before they could get to the dressing room, however, Matt Thurber scored for the Wildcats, topping off a seven-goal first period.

Michigan State struck first in the second period, when Tim Buttery scored on a one-timer from the slot that ended starting goaltender Reid Ellingson’s night early. He made 11 saves, while allowing all five MSU goals.

Jared Coreau entered as his replacement, and stopped 19 saves without allowing a goal until the shootout.

Scott Macaulay had the first Wildcats goal in the third period, with Gron striking in the closing moments to complete the regulation comeback.