Icers tally first conference sweep, defeat Western Michigan, 5-3

Kalamazoo – The MSU hockey team isn’t making it look easy, but they are getting the job done.

On Saturday night, the Spartans earned their first conference sweep of the season, defeating Western Michigan 5-3 at Lawson Ice Arena.

The Spartans held a 4-2 lead entering the last four minutes of play in the third period. But a five minute major penalty and game misconduct to freshman defenseman Torey Krug gave the Broncos a power play for the rest of regulation.

And the Broncos’ almost made the Spartans pay, scoring a goal at 17:03 and almost netting the game-tying goal soon after. But MSU was able to hold on, and junior forward Dustin Gazley put the game away by scoring an empty-net goal with six seconds remaining.

“Good teams find a way to win no matter if the cards are stacked against them or not,” said freshman forward Anthony Hayes. “There are no excuses. If we would have lost that game or if we would have tied it and gone to overtime, there’s no excuse for that. We needed to come out with a win.”

Hayes and fellow freshman forward Dean Chelios recorded their first goals career goals as Spartans’ in the victory and senior goaltender Bobby Jarosz earned his first conference win between the pipes.

“I’m just happy that we won,” Jarosz said. “Any win is a great win, especially on the road in this barn where we’ve had some trouble playing in the past. I’m not too concerned about how we got it done, I’m just glad that we did.

Hayes gave MSU an early lead at 1:44 of the first period. Hayes took a wrist shot from the high slot that snuck under the arm of Western Michigan goaltender Riley Gill and trickled into the net.

The Broncos responded at 10:38 of the first period on the power play. Western Michigan forward Trevor Elias took the puck behind the net, which caused Jarosz to shift off his post. But when Elias passed the puck back in the direction he came, Western Michigan forward Jared Katz was waiting on the doorstep and beat Jarosz to the shortside to tie the game at 1-1.

With 1:39 left in the first period, the horn sounded and it appeared Western Michigan had taken the lead after springing a 2-on-1 from the red line. Despite the horn sounding, the referee called the play no goal, ruling the puck had hit the crossbar and not gone into the net. The call sent Western Michigan head coach Jim Culhane into a frenzy, especially because the play wasn’t sent upstairs to be reviewed.

Chelios also netted his first goal as a Spartan at 2:39 of the first period. Hayes skated the puck down the left boards and found Chelios crashing the net. Chelios beat Gill low to his blocker side on a wrist shot to give MSU a 2-1 lead.

The Spartans (6-2-0 overall, 3-1-0-0 CCHA) took a 3-1 lead 1:12 later when junior forward Andrew Rowe found a bobbling puck at the top of the crease and banged it into the net.

Western Michigan got a goal back at 8:00 of the second period when Katz capitalized on a MSU turnover in the Spartans’ defensive zone and fired a shot through a screen that beat Jarosz to make the score 3-2.

MSU had a 5-on-3 powerplay for 45 seconds midway though the second period, but the Broncos blocked a handful of shots and killed both penalties.

At 6:44 of the third period, senior forward Nick Sucharski dished junior forward Corey Tropp a perfect cross-ice pass and Tropp roofed a shot on his backhand to give MSU a 4-2 lead.

But with at 15:07 of the third period, freshman forward Kevin Walrod was sent to the penalty box for boarding. Then, only 51 seconds later, Krug was called for the five minute penalty and game misconduct, giving Western Michigan a 5-on-3 for 1:10 and allowing them to stay on the power play for the rest of the game.

And the Broncos were able to capitalize. Forward Chris Clackson scored at 17:03 to bring the game within one goal.

Western Michigan pressed hard late in the game, very much similar to the way they played in the waning minutes of Friday’s game, but the Broncos weren’t able to tie the game and Gazley put the game on ice with his empty net goal with six seconds left.

MSU head coach Rick Comley said he was pleased with the effort of his team, but said the Spartans’ need to work on closing out games.

“Their goalie played well and they block a lot of shots,” Comley said. “It was a game where I thought we could have been up four or five. But we just couldn’t separate.”