You can color the second period RED. We scored three times, including two in the last 4 minutes. At the 7:31 mark, freshman defenseman Travis Mitchell sent a cross-ice pass to sophomore forward Liam Motley. Liam flew into the Michigan State zone and snapped a shot from the top of the right circle past the left pad and blocker of the goaltender to make it 2-0 in our favor. About 8 minutes later, sophomore forward Michael Regush scored the first of his two goals on the night, converting a rebound off a shot by Brenden Locke. With 2:06 remaining in the period, Morgan Barron tipped a shot by Malinski past the goaltender to make it 4-0. In that period, our defense allowed just five shots on goal and just one of them came within 40 feet of Galajda.
Just 41 seconds into the third period, we went on the power play. Malinski worked the puck to Kaldis at the top of the left circle. Yanni forced the puck into the slot for Regush to tip it past the goaltender for a 5-0 margin. Michigan State scored a pair of power-play goals at 6:47 and 9:09 of the third period to narrow the score to 5-2. With 6:50 remaining, Malinski scored on the power play with assists to Kaldis and Barron.
Galajda made 19 saves, including eight in the final 20 minutes. Two Spartan goalies stopped 24 shots. We were 3-for-6 on the power play and Michigan State was 2-for-5. I thought our guys really got into the flow of things and got going offensively. All weekend I thought the defense executed really well. The penalty kill needs some work, but the power play was successful compared to last year.
ECAC competition starts with a pair of games at Lynah Rink this weekend … Brown on Friday night and Yale on Saturday. Those teams played one another last weekend with Yale winning Friday in New Haven, 3-2, and Brown winning Saturday in Providence 5-1. We’ll be building on the confidence and momentum generated by two great wins on the road as we start our league games. Hope to see you at Lynah Rink this weekend!