MARQUETTE, Mich. (WILX) – Michigan State hockey secured its second shutout of the season on Friday night, taking down Northern Michigan, 4-0, from the Berry Events Center.
“Northern made it really hard on us, especially in the first period,” said Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale. “We got to our game in the second and I thought our penalty kill did a heck of a job. Trey (Augustine) made some saves when we needed him to make some saves.”
The Spartans improve to 4-1-0 overall while Northern Michigan falls to 0-7-0. MSU returns to the Berry Events Center on Saturday night for game two of the series at 6:00 p.m.
Michigan State out-shot NMU, 40-24, and held a 40-32 face-off advantage. The Spartans found success on the penalty kill all night going 6-for-6 in shutting down the Wildcat power play.
Junior goaltender Trey Augustine made 24 saves in net en route to his eighth career shutout. Augustine moves into sole possession of seventh all-time for career shutouts at MSU, breaking a tie with Bob Essensa.
The Spartans got goals from freshman Porter Martone, senior Charlie Stramel, junior Gavin O’Connell (power play) and junior Tommi Mannisto (empty net). Junior Maxim Strbak tallied two points with a pair of assists in game one. Strbak was joined by senior Travis Shoudy, senior Matt Basgall, senior Tiernan Shoudy, senior Daniel Russell, freshman Anthony Romani and Martone in collecting assists. It’s the third multi-point performance of the season for Martone.
How It Happened
MSU successfully killed a penalty mid-way through the first period, taking a 1-0 lead just seconds after getting back to even strength. Travis Shoudy found Martone with the puck down ice, who sized up the Wildcat goaltender and sniped a shot into the upper corner of the net. Stramel increased the Spartan advantage to 2-0 with just 10 seconds remaining in the period. An attempted clearance by the NMU goaltender found the stick of Martone, whose shot rebounded and landed right in front of the crease for Stramel to clean up.
Michigan State increased its lead to 3-0 in the second period scoring its third power play goal of the season at the 13:56 mark. Strbak sent a shot in from the blue line which ricocheted out and found the stick of O’Connell on the left dot. O’Connell beat the goalie for his first of the year.
Russell and Stramel both had short-handed shots on goal saved late in the game as MSU searched for added insurance. Northern Michigan pulled its goalie with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, but Mannisto was there to make the Wildcats pay. Mannisto beat the out-stretched dive of an NMU defender, taking the puck down ice with ease to score the empty-netter and increase the Spartan advantage to 4-0 with 50 seconds to go.
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