Spartans Stunned at UNO, 7-1
11/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Nov. 21, 2008
Omaha, Neb. - Michigan State dropped its fifth consecutive game, a 7-1 loss at Nebraska-Omaha on Friday evening. Dan Swenson had a hat trick for the homestanding Mavericks, who improve to 8-2-1, 4-2-1-1 in CCHA play. Senior Kurt Kivisto had the Spartan goal, as MSU falls to 4-7-2 overall and 2-5-2-2 in conference action.
The Spartans jumped on the board midway through the first period, when Kurt Kivisto took a feed from centerman Ben Warda and beat netminder Jeremie Dupont glove-side.
UNO countered with an equalizer with 1.8 seconds remaining in the first period when Swanson's shot eluded Jeff Lerg; the Mavericks scored again in the opening minute of the second period, as Nick Van Bokern's shot from the left point made its way through traffic and beat Lerg stick-side.
The home team padded their lead to 3-1 at 6:15 of the middle frame, when Swanson got his second of the night. John Kemp had the puck behind the goal line to the left of Lerg; he fed it out in front to an unmarked Swanson in the low slot, who beat Lerg with a one-timer.
Lerg made plenty of outstanding plays to keep the game close. Among them, he made back-to-back point-blank saves on Dan Charleston at the midway point of the period, then a pad save on a Jeric Agosta breakaway attempt in the opening minute of the third frame.
The Mavericks added a goal at the 1:49 mark of the final period, their first of four in the frame. MSU had problems clearing the zone on the penalty kill, and Joey Martin made a cross-slot pass to Swanson, who completed his hat trick with the man-advantage tally. UNO added three more in the third: Rich Purslow pushed the lead to 5-1 when he put back a rebound on an odd-man rush at 10:48 of the final frame, and Kemp added a sixth at 15:26 when he took a cross-slot pass and sniped the puck over the glove-hand of Lerg. Charleston added his first goal of the night to go with his two assists with under three minutes remaining to close out the scoring.
The teams will meet again on Saturday to close the series. Gametime is 8 p.m. eastern.
NOTES: MSU's losing streak has reached five games, the longest skid since Jan. 31-Feb. 14, 1981 ... MSU hadn't allowed seven goals since March 20, 2003, against Northern Michigan ... Kivisto's first-period goal was his first of the season and second of his career; he scored the first on Oct. 28 vs. Sacred Heart at Munn Arena ... Dan Swanson's hat trick was the first by a Spartan opponent since Feb. 8, 2008 (Nick Sirota of Northern Michigan)
