Senior forward Bryan Lerg looks to pass the puck during the third period Friday at Munn Ice Arena. Lerg scored two goals in MSU’s 4-2 win against Nebraska-Omaha on Saturday.
Riding an eight-game unbeaten streak, this weekend’s series against Nebraska-Omaha was supposed to be a chance for the MSU hockey team to cut down Miami (Ohio)‘s five-point CCHA lead.
Instead of coming away with four desperately needed points, the Spartans could only muster two, as the Mavericks came away from Munn Ice Arena with a 5-4 overtime victory Friday before MSU stepped up its game to win 4-2 on Saturday.
“I thought this was kind of a make-or-break game for us,” MSU head coach Rick Comley said of Saturday’s game.
“I thought we had to get back to our game. The important thing, our identity and who we are, we’re a team that gets it deep, hits a cycle. If we do that, we’re playing well. (Friday) we didn’t do either.”
The line of senior captain Bryan Lerg, freshman Andrew Rowe and junior Tim Crowder sparked the Spartans (18-6-5 overall, 14-3-3 CCHA) through the first two periods.
Playing together for the first time this season, the trio immediately clicked on their first shift of the game, giving MSU a 1-0 lead 69 seconds into the contest.
“I gotta give credit to Rowe and Crowder,” Lerg said. “They did the work down low and I was there poppin’ it in.”
The goal was one of five MSU shots in the period.
The magic continued in the second period as Rowe scored on a wraparound 68 seconds into the stanza. Crowder, wanting to get in on the act, scored one of his own 27 seconds later to put the Spartans ahead 3-0.
Lerg scored his second of the game off a pretty combination, receiving a pass from Crowder at the top of the circles and patiently walking in and throwing a backhand past Mavericks goaltender Jerad Kaufmann.
The goal, which put MSU up 4-0, forced Nebraska-Omaha head coach Mike Kemp to call a timeout.
The Mavericks (12-13-3, 9-10-3) would attempt to climb back into the game, scoring late in the second period and again more than eight minutes into the third period.
Any hope of a Nebraska-Omaha comeback seemed to be squashed when Tomas Klempa took a checking from behind major with 2:33 remaining.
But that quickly changed as Mavericks forward Bill Bagron was hauled down on a breakaway by freshman defenseman Jeff Petry and was awarded a penalty shot.
Looking to make it a one-goal game with 57 seconds left, Bagron skated in on junior goaltender Jeff Lerg but had the puck slide off his stick and was unable to get a full shot away.
“I’m not sure if he knew what he was doing at first because he was going side-to-side, looking like he might shoot. Then he held onto it again, so I tried to stay with it as long as I could and shut down everything on the ice to make sure it didn’t sneak under me,” Lerg said.
After allowing as many goals Friday as he did in the previous five games combined, Lerg made 18 saves in the third period and 37 for the game.
“Those last five minutes I think they had more scrums and loose pucks in front of our net than they did the whole night,” Lerg said.
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