Hockey Beats No. 11 Ohio State, 4-2

Jan. 23, 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Behind the strength of Jim Slater's two goals, Michigan State (14-12-1 overall, 10-6-1 CCHA) picked up a 4-2 road win at Ohio State on Friday (Jan. 23) at Value City Arena. The win marked MSU's first victory over OSU in six attempts, and the Spartans first win in Columbus since Feb. 24, 2001.

"That was a very good win for us," said MSU head coach Rick Comley. "We struggled with them the last four times we played them. They got a good jump on us in the first, but them we seemed to settle down. I thought we played a very good second period. It was huge for our team to come down here and get a win."

Ohio State (15-11 overall, 10-8 CCHA) opened the scoring at the 14:50 mark of the first period on a goal by Chris Olsgard. MSU netminder Dominic Vicari (Clinton Township, Mich.) was screened in front as the puck was redirected off Olsgard's skate.

MSU would storm back with 40 seconds left in the opening stanza to tie the game at one. Freshman forward Drew Miller (East Lansing, Mich.) registered his second goal of the season as he poked home a rebound on a shot by freshman defenseman Ethan Graham (Xenia, Ohio).

Junior forward Jim Slater (Lapeer, Mich.) put the Spartans up 2-1 with his 14th goal of the season, just 3:42 in the middle period. Slater took a feed from Mike Lalonde (Jr., Chetwynd, B.C.), split the Buckeyes' defense and slid the puck past OSU netminder Mike Betz. Lalonde's assist marked his first point in five games.

The Spartans made it 3-1 at the 15:08 mark as sophomore forward David Booth (Washington, Mich.) fired a shot that beat Betz high to the stick side as he crossed over the blueline. Freshman blueliner A.J. Thelen (Savage, Minn.) picked up an OSU rebound and got the puck up to Ash Goldie (London, Ont.), who found a streaking Booth. The goal was Booth's fourth of the season and his first since the Dec. 6 game vs. Michigan.

"We weathered the storm the first 10 minutes," said Booth. "We got a goal at the end of the first period and that really seemed to help us. I threw the puck at the net and good things seem to happen."

OSU's Rod Pelley cut the lead to one, 3-2 with his seventh goal of the season. Junior Matt Migliaccio (Wyandotte, Mich.) made the initial save on Doug Andress' shot, but couldn't find the rebound and Pelley tapped it into the open net.

Slater sealed the Spartan win with an empty-net tally with 34.7 seconds left. Slater stole the puck from an OSU defender in the offensive zone and tapped the puck into the empty net.

Dominic Vicari started the game for the Spartans, stopping 30-of-31 shots before suffering a leg injury with 1:05 to go in the second period. Junior Matt Migliaccio came in to replace Vicari and stopped 12 shots. OSU's Mike Betz and Dave Caruso combined to stop 22 shots.

"I wanted to come in and play well," said Migliaccio, on replacing Vicari. "Our team was playing really well and I didn't want to have any letdowns."

"Matt came in cold, but he made a couple of good saves to really help us out," remarked Comley.

The Spartans and Buckeyes close out their two-game set tomorrow night (Jan. 24) with a 7:05 p.m. face-off at Value City Arena.

Spartan Notebook
* Freshman forward Tommy Goebel (Parma, Ohio) returned to the Spartan line-up after missing the last six games due to mononucleosis.

* MSU has a pair of skaters on its squad from the State of Ohio in Tommy Goebel (Parma) and Ethan Graham (Xenia).

* Junior forward Jim Slater scored his 14th and 15th goals of the season vs. OSU. He paces MSU in goals with 15.

* MSU lost the services of freshman netminder Dominic Vicari, who injured his leg with 1:05 left in the second period. Vicari had stopped 30-of-31 shots in the game.

* The Spartans have killed off 15-of-16 opponent power plays, dating to the Jan. 9 game vs. UMass-Lowell.