Junior forward Nick Sucharski skates toward the puck during the game against Notre Dame on Sunday. Sucharski had the only goal for the Spartans during the first period, also giving him his second consecutive goal in the series. The Fighting Irish tied the game in the third period.
South Bend, Ind. — It boiled down to the last 30 seconds for the MSU hockey team in Sunday’s 1-1 game with No. 6 Notre Dame.
The No. 10 Spartans were just about ready to walk away sweeping the weekend series until Notre Dame’s Ryan Thang scored his 12th goal of the season with 37.8 seconds left in the game.
Although they tied, the Spartans left the Joyce Center fairly pleased, MSU head coach Rick Comley said.
“We’re leaving here with three points this weekend,” Comley said. “I should think they would be highly frustrated.
“All in all, (this was) a very good weekend.”
Despite being outshot 35-15, the Spartans picked up their first and only goal in the second period from junior forward Nick Sucharski at 8:27.
This was his second consecutive goal in the Fighting Irish series.
“We just try and play our game,” Sucharski said. “Jeff Lerg was there. (He) was the main reason we were in it the whole time.
“He stands on his head for us every game.”
Lerg had 34 saves.
“It felt like the clock was just going so slow,” Lerg said. “They kept icing it and icing it. I had a bad feeling.”
Lerg added that once the game went into overtime, “we could be in trouble.”
The Fighting Irish peppered him with eight quality shots in the last five minutes alone and kept the puck in the Spartans’ zone for nearly the entire period.
And one shot hit the post, almost giving Notre Dame the go-ahead goal.
“We’re not too mad at ourselves,” Lerg said.
The lack of shots on goal wasn’t a concern for Comley, who stresses Notre Dame’s strong defensive play.
“I didn’t think we had the puck down there a lot,” Comley said. “They’re very good defensively, and this was a critical game for them.”
The Spartans post a 6-0-13 record in the last 19 overtime games and have killed 19 consecutive penalties over five games.
MSU heads to Columbus, Ohio to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in a two-game weekend series.
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