Spartans Drop Opener at Michigan

ANN ARBOR – The Michigan State hockey team dropped the first of a two-game series with No. 9 Michigan on Friday night in Ann Arbor, 9-0.

Michigan (6-5, 4-5-0-1-0-0) scored three goals in the opening period, the first of which came at the 5:08 mark when Thomas Bordeleau was able to get open in front and slide the puck under the pads of Drew DeRidder.

The Spartans (4-5-2, 3-5-1-2-0-0) killed the first Wolverines power play of the night, but with the puck still in the MSU zone seconds after the penalty expired, Nick Blankenburg was able to snap a shot into the net from the right point to make it 2-0 just prior to the midway point of the opening period.

Johnny Beecher pushed the U-M lead to 3-0 less than two minutes later, scoring off the rush from the right circle.

Pierce Charleson replaced DeRidder after the third Michigan goal, making his collegiate debut. The freshman went on make 29 saves in playing the final 48:26.

"I thought through the end of the first through most of the second he did a real nice job and had some bad puck luck," MSU head coach Danton Cole said. "There were two or three where guys were falling down, pucks are bouncing off things and going in, so that was unfortunate. But, he got his feet wet and like any other goalie, I'm sure he would have liked to have given up a few less. By the same token he got in there and battled and has something to build on."

While playing 4-on-4 early in the second period, a turnover in the MSU end allowed Michael Pastujov to get the puck near the right circle and wrist it past Charleson.

Garrett Van Wyhe made it 5-0 with a power-play goal at 7:31 of the third period.

Jack Becker (6:22), Matty Beniers (6:50), Kent Johnson (power-play; 14:11) and Jay Keranen (17:49) all scored in the third period.

U-M goaltender Strauss Mann made 21 saves for the shutout.

"We had several chances in the first period where we got to an area and could have put it on net and maybe gotten 1-2 shots out of it and we turned it down," Cole said. "As they say, when you put pucks on net good things happen."

The two teams will meet again on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Munn Ice Arena. The game will be televised by BTN.

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Team Stats

Charlie Combs

Mitchell Lewandowski

Gianluca Esteves

Cole Krygier

Players Mentioned

Pierce Charleson

Players Mentioned

Pierce Charleson