Spartans beat Nittany Lions Friday night at Munn
By Alyssa Girardi –
EAST LANSING — MSU’s all-senior line of Dean Chelios, Lee Reimer and Greg Wolfe tallied one goal and two assists apiece in the Spartans 3-0 shutout of Big Ten opponent Penn State.
The game marked MSU’s (7-10-3, 1-2-2-2 B1G) first Big Ten win, backed by a 48-save performance by sophomore Jake Hildebrand.
“It was good to see the Reimer line tonight because they create a lot of energy, they play hard,” head coach Tom Anastos said. “I would like to see them emerge offensively a little bit more and so it was nice to see that happen tonight.”
The win was Hildebrand’s second shutout of the season, and fifth as a Spartan. His 48 saves is a career high; he made 47 saves against Penn State on Jan. 26, 2013.
He admitted at certain points, it felt like a 48-shot game.
“I thought we played decent, or played well, at parts of our game, there were other parts that we really relied on our goaltender,” Anastos said. “We need to, we know that, he really stood tall. I would like to need to less.”
Chelios’ tally was his first in just shy of two years. The senior forward and Bloomfield Hills native received a medical redshirt last season after suffering an upper-body injury that put him on the sidelines.
Through 17 games this season, Chelios assisted on eight goals, but until Friday he was unable to find the back of the net. His last goal before the Penn State matchup came Feb. 25, 2012 in the final regular-season game of the 2011-12 campaign, a 4-2 win against Notre Dame.
“They haven’t come easy and I’ve gotten chances the past few games,” he said. “Usually, when you’re getting chances it’s a good sign. Maybe I got rewarded for getting chances but it was nice to get the monkey off my back.”
The goal came on a backhand off a rebound from Reimer’s shot from the top of the left circle. Chelios found a tight gap between goaltender Matthew Skoff’s right pad and the far post to sneak the puck in.
Three minutes later, he got his hand in MSU’s second goal. From the left circle, he spun and threw the puck toward Skoff’s crease, and it bounced off Reimer and found its way through traffic to MSU captain Wolfe (Canton). Wolfe pulled the puck to his backhand and buried it at the doorstep.
Penn State (4-13-1, 0-5-0-0 B1G) came out strong in the second period, putting 19 total shots on Hildebrand, and nearly mirrored its offense in the final period with 18 shots, but MSU finished off the game when Reimer walked in and put the puck past a sprawled Skoff at 15:08.
The two teams will meet again at 6:40 p.m. on Saturday night at Munn Ice Arena as MSU looks for its third sweep of the season and first against a B1G team.