Spartans Lose First of Three versus UAF

Written by Matt MossThe Michigan State Spartans hockey team lost game one of best-of-three quarterfinal series of the CCHA playoffs, Friday night at Munn Ice Arena to Alaska Fairbanks, with a score of 2-1. Giving UAF a 1-0 series lead.

One of the key things that lead UAF to victory, was that MSU was 1-for-11 on the poweplay throughout the night. This was States first game in thirteen days, since ending the regular season, so getting back into a game setting had a effect on the team. "You never know how you are going to play after a layoff, and I thought we were sluggish early," said MSU head coach Rick Comley.

UAF scored the game's first goal at 5:59 of the first period, from freshman forward Trevor Hyatt's second goal of the season. It didn’t take long for UAF to gain even more momentum, as sophomore forward Aaron Lee scored for the Nanooks at 1:57 of the second period.

The Spartans did capitalize on one power play during the game when MSU senior forward David Booth scored at 19:22 of the second period, but the score would not change from there. The third period was full of penalties and Michigan State didn’t seem to be play aggressive towards the end of the game.

With less than a minute left in the third, MSU decided to pull their freshman goalie Jeff Lerg. The only thing that resulted in this was a load of penalties. At 19:56 of the third period, there was some physical
exchanges given out by both teams. Senior defensemen Cory Potter of MSU was given a 10-minute misconduct for roughing and Spartan freshman forward Justin Abdelkader was given a penalty for roughing. Along with two players from UAF given two roughing penalties at that time. MSU could not tie the game with the last four seconds, as they lost, ending the game on a “to be continued…” note.