Halloween game doesn't scare Spartans away from win

Kalamazoo – All the players on the MSU hockey team were ready for a scary atmosphere on Halloween night at Lawson Ice Arena.

But the building didn’t live up to the hype and the Spartans’ were able to earn their first conference sweep, beating Western Michigan 5-3 on Saturday.

The Spartans almost gave up another lead late in the game, but were able to hold on and earn the victory.

Senior goaltender Bobby Jarosz played solid between the pipes for MSU, facing 21 shots – most of which came late in the game – to earn his first conference victory.

The Broncos’ are a weird team. They don’t attack very often. I’d almost compare their style to the counter-attacking system you often see in soccer. They don’t spend a lot of time in their opponent’s offensive zone and they like to collapse low in their zone.

Late penalties continue to plague the Spartans. Freshman defenseman Torey Krug was given a five minute penalty and a game misconduct for checking from behind with four minutes remaining in the game. In both games against the Broncos’ this weekend a Spartan has been sent off with a game misconduct, as last night freshman defenseman Matt Grassi committed the check from behind.

The Spartans need to clean the penalties up. But other than that, they are still looking good. It was nice to see offensive contributions from all the lines tonight.

So far things are looking up for the MSU hockey team. But let’s not forget that the wheels didn’t fall off last season until mid-November.

Questions:

After last night’s crazy game, who will have the momentum early?

I would have thought the Broncos would have come out of gates much hungrier tonight, especially with last night’s finish. But the Spartans looked shaper early in the first period – as freshman forward Anthony Hayes recorded his first career goal as a Spartan only 1:44 into the game.

How wild will the atmosphere be in Lawson Ice Arena?

All week I’ve been hearing about crazy the fans are at Lawson. But I’ll be honest; I’m a bit disappointed with the turnout tonight. The building is no where close to being full and the student section was extremely mild. Last season when I was here for the game, everyone in attendance was given thunder sticks and it was easily the loudest game I covered all year. I guess it’s understandable this year, as it is Halloween tonight.

Can the Spartans win the third period?

In the last four games, the Spartans’ have fallen apart in the final minutes of regulation, winning only two of the four games. But tonight, MSU held tight even though they were shorthanded for the last four minutes of the game. They aren’t making it look easy, but they were able to hold on again tonight.