Spartans Sweep Wisconsin to Move into First Place in the Big Ten
Spartans Sweep Wisconsin to Move into First Place in the Big Ten
EAST LANSING - The Michigan State hockey team blanked Wisconsin, 3-0, for the second straight night on Saturday at Munn Ice Arena in front of a season-high capacity crowd of 6,994. The win moved the Spartans (16-14-2, 10-6-2-2) into sole possession of first place in the Big Ten with 34 points - one ahead of both Minnesota and Michigan.
Goaltender Jake Hildebrand posted his sixth shutout of the season, and 10th of his career, with a 38-save performance. It marked the third time this season MSU has shut out Wisconsin (4-24-4, 2-14-2-2).
“I’ll take a shutout any way I can get it,†Hildebrand said. “It was something special. Our team scored three goals both nights and I think our team’s record when scoring three goals is pretty good.â€
Leading by a goal entering the third period, the Spartans scored twice in a 54-second span to put the game out of reach.
“We told the team before the start of the third period that we were going out to play the most important 20 minutes of the season to date and we needed to pull together,†MSU head coach Tom Anastos said. “We stayed together, we worked together and stayed with the process.â€
Mackenzie MacEachern scored on the power play at the 4:00 mark and Ryan Keller made it 3-0 54 seconds later when he put home a pass from Joe Cox.
Matt Berry set up the power-play goal with a pass from the right circle that found its way to the front where Thomas Ebbing tipped it to MacEachern, who tapped the puck into an open net.
Cox made a great play on the goal by Keller as he made a pass from both knees after stealing the puck in the UW end. While sliding on his knees, Cox sent a perfect pass to Keller in front, who rifled the puck upstarts to put the Spartans up by three.
“Those were pretty big goals,†Anastos said. “That took a little pressure of us and put more on them. I thought we could continue to play the type of game we wanted to play without having too much pressure of it being too tight of a game.â€
Berry gave MSU a 1-0 lead 1:42 into the second period.
Berry started the play when he intercepted a Badger pass along the boards in the MSU zone and raced ahead 2-on-1 with Cox. Berry carried the puck into the Wisconsin end and snapped a low shot past Wisconsin goaltender Landon Peterson on the short side for his third goal of the weekend series.
Hildebrand turned away all nine shots he faced in the opening period and was tested several more times in the second as the Badgers fired 16 shots on the netminder.
Hildebrand was the Spartans’ best penalty killer as MSU skated off three Wisconsin power plays in the second period. His best stop came at the end of the Badgers’ third power play of the period when he robbed Cameron Hughes with a glove save at the top of the crease.
Hildebrand made 13 saves in the third to preserve the shutout - his fourth in the last eight games.
The Spartans will close the regular season next weekend by meeting Michigan in a home-and-home series. The two teams will meet on Friday (7 p.m.) in East Lansing and on Saturday (5 p.m.) in Ann Arbor.
