Michigan State University
Miami (Oh)
Spartans Stun Miami, 4-1
1/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Jan. 16, 2009
Oxford, Ohio - Michigan State won its third game in five tries - and its first road game of the season - with a convincing 4-1 victory at No. 9 Miami on Friday night. Corey Tropp had a two-goal effort, and Jeff Lerg made 35 saves in the win for MSU, which improves to 7-13-3, 4-9-2-2 in CCHA play. The Red Hawks dropped their fifth straight game and fall to 12-8-3, 10-5-2-1 in conference action.
Michigan State took at early lead with a four-on-four goal at 3:25. The play initiated behind the net, when Daultan Leveille won the battle behind the cage and slid the puck out to Brandon Gentile at the left point. Gentile shuttled it the length of the blueline to defensive partner Tim Buttery, who sent a slapshot netward; Buttery's shot was tipped by Tim Crowder at the left hash mark, and the puck fluttered five-hole past Cody Reichard for an MSU advantage.
Miami had a flurry around the midpoint of the second period, but outstanding play by Lerg - and a little puck luck as well - kept Miami off the board. Skating on the power play, the puck found its way to the weak side to an all-alone Tommy Wingels, who had an entire open cage to shoot on, but hit the post. Lerg followed that up with four point-blank saves over the next two minutes.
MSU got its own power play chance with five minutes remaining in the second period, when Vincent Loverde was whistled for roughing. Less than a minute into the man advantage, Tropp took a pass from Matt Schepke at the right point and skated into the left circle, and wristed a shot past Reichard for a 2-0 advantage. The Spartans jumped ahead to a 3-0 lead at 17:18, when Dustin Gazely had a quick shot that beat Reichard low. The second goal chased Reichard, as Connor Knapp came out in net for the Red Hawks for the third period.
The Spartans got in some penalty trouble late in the period, which led to Miami breaking up the shutout at 15:23. After about three minutes of consecutive penalty kill time, Pat Cannone tipped a Chris Wideman shot from the high slot to get the Red Hawks.
Tropp took away any momentum that Miami hoped to generate by adding his second of the night just a minute after the Red Hawk goal. Draped by three defenders, he carried the puck into the offensive zone and beat Knapp low, stick-side for a 4-1 MSU lead.
The teams will meet again on Saturday evening in Oxford. Gametime is 5 p.m. for a game that will be carried on CBS College Sports.
NOTES: The Spartans snapped a four-game losing streak against the Red Hawks, and improve to 66-22-5 all-time against Miami. MSU also won its second straight game at Steve Cady Arena ... Michigan State is now 3-2-0 since the holiday break, and has guaranteed no worse than a split for the third straight series ... Michigan State is 7-1-3 when scoring two or more goals and 5-0-1 when leading after two periods ... MSU's four goals was the most scored since the Spartans scored four on the road at Minnesota on Nov. 29 in a 4-4 tie ... The four goals was also the most that MSU had scored in front of Lerg all season ... The Spartans were outshot by a 36-16 margin ... Michigan State blocked 34 shots in the game, compared to 11 for host Miami. With the injury to freshman Matt Crandell, senior Kurt Kivisto dropped back to defense for the first game in his career and blocked a career-high seven shots ... Jeff Lerg tied Ryan Miller with his 73rd career victory, good for fourth on the all-time MSU list ... Lerg had his sixth straight game of 29 saves or more ... Corey Tropp had his first two-goal game of the season ... Tim Crowder had his first goal since the Wisconsin game on Nov. 28, and Tropp his first since Nov. 15 when MSU met Miami at Munn Arena ...
