Hockey falls 4-3 in deciding game three to Michigan State
March 12, 2013
Jamie Foland
907-474-6807
Despite a gutsy rally by sixth-seeded ÐÓ°Épro late in the third with a pair of goals in the final two and a half minutes, it wasn't enough as 11th-seeded Michigan State won 4-3 to claim the decisive third game 4-3 in the opening round of Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs Sunday night at the Carlson Center.
The Spartans (13-23-3) advance to next week's CCHA quarterfinals at top-seeded Miami while the Nanooks (17-16-4) saw their season likely come to an end.
After falling behind 1-0, MSU reeled off four straight goals as Greg Wolfe, Jake Chelios, Matt Berry and Anthony Hayes each lit the lamp for the visitors. Kevin Walrod notched a pair of assists while Berry and Hayes both recorded two-point nights by adding one helper each.
Jake Hildebrand got the win in net for the Spartans and improved to 8-15-2 after making 28 saves in the win while Nanook rookie goaltender John Keeney (Twin Peaks, Calif./Business administration) took the loss between the pipes with his 22 stops to fall to 13-11-3.
Seniors Andy Taranto (Woodridge, Ill./Communication), Jarret Granberg (Foremost, Alberta/Business administration) and Adam Henderson (Whitehorse, Yukon Territories/Business administration) scored ÐÓ°Épro's three goals while fellow senior Nik Yaremchuk (St. Albert, Alberta/Business management) added two assists and Granberg and freshman Colton Parayko (St. Albert, Alberta/Business administration) each added one helper apiece. The Nanooks outshot the Spartans 31-26 on goal but MSU dominated the face offs by a 30-19 count.
Taranto opened the scoring at 5:36 of the first period. With MSU's Walrod serving a two-minute minor for boarding, the Nanooks capitalized on their second power-play chance of the game. Parayko controlled the puck at the right point and fed it to Yaremchuk in the slot. He sent it to Taranto in the left face-off circle, where he wristed a perfect shot past Hildebrand to make it 1-0.
The Spartans responded with the equalizer at 9:41, just as the Nanooks killed off a tripping minor to freshman Richard Coyne (Cave Creek, Ariz./Business Administration), Wolfe fired a backhanded shot from the bottom of the right circle over Keeney's glove hand.
MSU scored the go-ahead goal at 3:19 of the second period, when Chelios beat Keeney with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle high on his stick-side to give the visitors a 2-1 lead. Only 33 seconds later the Spartans doubled the lead to 3-1 when the Nanooks failed to clear the puck and Ryan Keller picked off the pass, dished it off to Berry, who buried it in the net for the two-goal advantage.
MSU's advantage stretched to 4-1 34 ticks into the final stanza when Hayes scored the eventual game-winner with the assist being credited to Walrod.
The Spartans maintained the three-goal lead until late in the third. Following an ÐÓ°Épro shot, a MSU defender possessed the puck with his glove and dropped the puck but Granberg was there to blast it past Hildebrand's glove hand.
The Nanooks went empty net trailing 4-2 and cycled the puck out in front of the MSU net. Eventually, Henderson had possession and put the puck on net and it slid past Hildebrand to bring ÐÓ°Épro to within one.
In the closing seconds, ÐÓ°Épro had a pair of good opportunities to square the game at 4-4 but Hildebrand came up with the series-clinching saves and time ran out on the Nanooks