Michigan State University
Lake Superior
Hockey Falls To Lake Superior, 3-1
2/5/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Feb. 5, 2000
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State continued to struggle with goal scoring as the Spartans lost to Lake Superior, 3-1, Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena despite outshooting the Lakers, 38-28.
The loss drops the Spartans to 18-9-2 (13-7-1 CCHA), as they missed an opportunity to gain ground on first-place Michigan, which lost to Ferris State, 4-2. Lake Superior is 14-13-1 (13-8-1 CCHA) and ended a 10-game losing streak against the Spartans.
"We had some good rips at it, and the puck was behind their goalie a few times, we just couldn't put it in," said head coach Ron Mason, whose team is 3-4-2 since winning the Great Lakes Invitational at Joe Louis Dec. 30. "We didn't finish and I have no answer for that.
"I'm not worried about our team right now," Mason continued. "We've got a good group of guys who work really hard, and we're going to keep playing our game until the pucks start to go in for us."
Lake Superior scored first with the fastest goal the Spartans had allowed to start a game all season. Yevgeniy Dubravin scored on a rebound off the back boards at the 24-second mark, slipping it past freshman goaltender Ryan Miller before Miller could move from his right to left fast enough.
MSU answered back just over four minutes later, as juior right wing Rustyn Dolyny scored on the Spartans' first power play of the night. Senior center Shawn Horcoff passed the puck to sophomore right wing Adam Hall in the slot. Hall's stick was tied up, however, and Dolyny came in from the left point to fire the loose puck into the net.
"I was worried about their first goal because the first five minutes can really define a game," Miller said. "It was great that we were able to come right back and tie the score."
Lake Superior made it 2-1 on a turnover in the MSU defensive zone. Defenseman Andrew Hutchinson got tripped up while trying to clear the puck, and Fred Slukynsky was the beneficiary, firing it past Miller at the 1:21 mark of the second period.
"The goal in the second period really deflated us," Miller said.
Chris McNamara made it 3-1 at the 9:41 mark of the third period, and while the Spartans fired 15 shots on goal in the final period, but could not score.
Michigan State finished 1-for-10 on the power play, while Lake Superior was 0-for-4.
The Spartans return to action next Friday and Saturday against second-place Northern Michigan, which swept Western Michigan this weekend.
