After scoring his first career goal at 8:12 of the second period to give the Spartans the 1-0 lead, No. 16 Ohio State battled back and scored the tying goal with 10.7 seconds left in the game to send it to overtime.

With no goals being scored in the extra session and the game ending in a 1-1 tie, the two teams squared off for a shootout – and the Spartans prevailed there, winning it 2-1 to earn the extra point.

The Spartans (8-18-4 overall, 5-14-4-3 CCHA) held the CCHA’s highest powered offense to a single goal and gave the Buckeyes their first shootout loss in four attempts.

MSU head coach Rick Comley gave his team credit for rising up through all the adversity they have been dealing with this season and leaving everything they had on the ice on Friday.

“I thought we played really well,” Comley said. “These kids are playing hard. I think it’s obvious to everyone these kids are getting better and they haven’t quit yet and they are very competitive.”

MSU senior goaltender Jeff Lerg said he had his best game of the season – stopping 36 shots on the night, a handful of which were high quality, point-blank scoring chances.

“I felt good down the stretch and I think I had to make some of my best saves down the stretch,” Lerg said. “After I made two or three big ones in a row I thought we were going to seal it out. To be honest, I’m a little disappointed.”

With no goals being scored in the first period, Perlini broke the scoreless deadlock at 8:12 of the second period when he took advantage of a turnover in front of the net and backhanded the puck past Ohio State goaltender Dustin Carlson.

Then Lerg took over.

At the eight minute mark, Lerg made a huge blocker save when Ohio State’s John Albert came in with speed and fired a shot from inside the right faceoff circle.

Three minutes later, Lerg looked like a fish out of water when he went post-to-post and stacked the pads to deny another point-blank opportunity.

The third period was played mainly in MSU’s end – as the Spartans were desperately trying to hold onto the one goal lead.

With a game-changer like Lerg between the posts, freshman forward Ben Warda said the team could afford to sit back and still feel confident.

“Jeff made unbelievable saves at the end,” Warda said. “But we kept a lot of their top goal scorers to perimeter shots only.”

MSU freshman forward Daultan Leveille had a great opportunity for the Spartans with 13 minutes left in the third period.

Leveille laid out a hit at the blue line and sophomore forward Andrew Rowe got the puck back to Leveille and he flew down the left side of the ice. When Leveille was at the bottom of the left circle, he fired a wrist shot that had eyes to the top right corner. But Carlson just got enough of the puck off his left shoulder to keep it out of the net.

Then it was Lerg’s time to regain the spotlight.

With 5:35 left, Lerg made a save on an Ohio State forward who walked right into the high slot and fired a wrist shot. Lerg showed his cat-like reflexes by flashing the leather and getting enough to deflect the puck over the net.

As the clock crept down, the Buckeyes fired a flurry of shots at Lerg – but he held strong.

With less than a minute left, Lerg made three saves in a row to keep the Spartans in the lead. The first was a shot through traffic from the point. Moments later Lerg completely sprawled out to his right to make a point-blank stick save at the top of the crease. He was unable to corral the rebound, but it didn’t matter. He squirmed over to get back in position and gathered a yet another shot from the slot in his chest.

But an unlucky bounce gave the Buckeyes the tying goal with mere seconds remaining on the clock.

Ohio State was cycling the puck with its goaltender pulled when a defenseman fired a shot from the point at Lerg. The puck hit off a skate and went across the ice to the right circle – right onto the tape of Ohio State’s Hunter Bishop.

Bishop fanned on the first shot, but got enough on the second to get it over Lerg – thus breaking the shutout and forcing the extra session.

“I’m not sure how he was so open,” Lerg said. “I feel like he was on his own planet over there. I looked and I didn’t see not one other person close to him. It was kind of a heartbreaker.”

With most of the overtime being played in the neutral zone, the extra point was going to be earned in a shootout.

It took four shooters for both teams to decide the outcome – with senior defenseman Kurt Kivisto and Warda scoring two goals for the Spartans.

The last shooter for the Buckeyes was Bishop and he needed to score to keep the Buckeyes hopes alive.

But Lerg earned some well-timed payback.

Bishop came at Lerg with speed and tried to go stick-side. But the senior captain held strong and calmly slid to his right and played the puck off his waffleboard.

Despite earning two points, Lerg wasn’t pleased with the way his team closed out the game.

“I felt like I gave it my all and for 20 seconds we just couldn’t push a little extra and work a little harder,” Lerg said.

“I felt like I was in the zone and we just really wish we could have taken two and given them nothing.”

The Spartans will face off against the Buckeyes again tomorrow, with the puck dropping at 5:05 p.m. at Munn.