Michigan
11-8-3, 4-6-2
Michigan State
16-5-3, 10-2-2
Four Straight Second-Period Goals Derail Michigan Against No. 5 Michigan State
1/20/2024 10:49:00 PM | Ice Hockey
» Rutger McGroarty scored a pair of goals and added two assists.
» T.J. Hughes also notched four points with two goals and two assists.
» Garrett Schifsky finished the night with two assists.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A three-goal lead for the No. 15-ranked University of Michigan ice hockey team evaporated in the second period Saturday night (Jan. 20), as visiting No. 7 Michigan State scored four straight goals to take a lead it did not surrender en route to a 7-5 win at Yost Ice Arena. The Wolverines settled for a split following Friday night's 7-1 win in East Lansing.
Michigan held a 4-1 lead, but over the final 10 minutes of the second period, MSU capitalized on mistakes and four straight goals to end the stanza with a 5-4 lead. The Spartans tacked on two more goals in the third, before the Wolverines ended the drought with an extra-attacker goal.
Goaltender Jake Barczewski turned aside 24 of the 30 shots he faced while shouldering the loss.
After a four-point night Friday night (Jan. 19), Rutger McGroarty added to his weekend point total by forcing a turnover below the goal line and passing to T.J. Hughes. Hughes muscled a quick shot from close quarters into the back of the net at 10:22 to open the scoring.
Michigan State (16-5-3, 10-2-2 Big Ten) tied the game on the power play with four minutes left in the first period when a shot from the blue line worked its way through traffic to give Michigan's penalty kill unit its first blemish of the weekend.
After one period of fast-paced rivalry action, the Wolverines (11-8-3, 4-6-2 Big Ten) ascended the steps with a large lead in shots on goal (19-7) as well as a narrow edge in the faceoff dot (12-11), but the game was tied at one.
Hughes netted his second goal of the game at 3:42 when he cashed in on an odd-man rush. Jacob Truscott started the play with a breakout pass from the defensive zone onto the stick of Nick Moldenhauer. The freshman forward dashed down the ice with Hughes skating to his right, shuffled a backhand pass across the slot and Hughes hammered it home to give Michigan a 2-1 lead.
The Wolverines doubled their lead at 5:40 and made it a 3-1 game when McGroarty finished off a strong possession by wiring a low shot inside the left post from the high slot.
Michigan State was penalized for holding at 7:30 to give the Wolverines a power play. With 15 seconds left on the initial infraction, the visitors took another for high-sticking to prolong the special teams chance for the Maize and Blue.
Shortly after the advantage returned to 5-on-4, McGroarty notched his second goal to give Michigan a 4-1 lead at 10:13 on the team's 30th shot of the game. Hughes and Schifsky collected the assists on McGroarty's seventh point of the weekend.
MSU responded 40 seconds later by scoring the first of four straight goals over a seven-minute span to take their first lead of the weekend, 5-4.
After a frenetic period that featured a strong push from the visitors, Michigan trailed by one goal with 20 minutes left in regulation.
Michigan State doubled its lead and made it 6-4 at 8:37 after U-M was unable to clear the zone.
The Spartans added an empty-net goal with 3:18 left to bump their lead up to 7-4.
Michigan struck back once more with 2:03 left when McGroarty threw a shot on goal from the right point that reached the crease, where Duke was waiting to bang it across the goal line to make it a 7-5 contest. McGroarty and Hughes tallied the assists on the elder Duke's 13th goal of the year.
The comeback effort fell short for the Wolverines when the final buzzer rang on a two-goal loss. U-M ended the night with a 48-30 lead in shots on goal as well as a 43-40 edge in faceoffs, but MSU's strong second-period push proved to be too much to overcome.
Next week, Michigan welcomes Wisconsin to Yost Ice Arena for a pair of games next Friday and Saturday (Jan. 26-27). Puck drop for both games is set for 7 p.m., and the contests will be streamed live on B1G+.
