EAST LANSING, Mich. — Nothing about this game was pretty.
Nothing about this game was neat.
But with goals from Ryan Keller and Brent Darnell, Michigan State beat Ohio State 2-0 to earn the Spartans their first two-game sweep of the season.
“It never comes easy, but it was nice to get a second win at home, finally complete the six periods,” said Michigan State coach Tom Anastos. “I thought we played three pretty solid periods. Obviously, goal-scoring chances were tough to come by.”
Jake Hildebrand made 22 saves to earn the shutout for MSU.
The game-winning goal came at 17:12 in the second, Keller’s knock-in of Villiam Haag’s initial shot from the circle – a messy, scrambly thing in front of Ohio State goaltender Christian Frey (32 saves) and so confusing at first that it was credited to Travis Walsh, who had skated over from the left circle to the crease to be in position for a rebound after having passed it to Haag to begin with. Walsh took a whack and missed and Keller picked up the trash for his fourth goal of the season.
Darnell’s goal was scored when the Spartans had an extended two-man advantage late in the third when two different Buckeyes were in the penalty box serving five-minute major penalties. Both infractions were committed against Michigan State captain Michael Ferrantino, who took a wicked hit to the head from OSU’s Matthew Weis at 14:49 and then a hit from behind from Josh Healey at 18:23. Darnell scored at 18:49, a tic-tac-toe tally with a minute left in the penalty to Weis.
“He is relentless on that forecheck,” said Anastos of Ferrantino. “He is relentless. Obviously, he’s an important part of our team in that regard and whether he got under their skin or not, I’m not sure.”
Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik was optimistic about his team’s chances until the Buckeyes lost their cool.
“To be honest with you, for almost the whole game, I thought we did what we needed to do to win on the road,” said Rohlik. “We kept the score tight, our goalie played well.
“The last five minutes is just inexcusable. It just can’t happen. It’s almost like guys want to try to hard and you can’t lose control like that. For a team down one-zip, let’s give ourselves a chance. When you’re playing a good hockey team that doesn’t give up much, we basically just shot our foot off at the end.”
Rohlik said he didn’t get a good look at the infractions, but said, “When you hit a guy up in the head, it’s going to be a penalty.”
Anastos said that he didn’t much like the way the Spartans began the game – which was slow and uneventful for nearly the first two periods – but said that his team improved as the first period progressed.
“The way that we’re playing requires a little bit of control and poise with the puck, because they were doing a good job clogging areas, and I thought we were jamming things and forcing things, but I thought we did a better job of moving and supporting the puck, being patient, poised,” Anastos said. “We just couldn’t create quite as many scoring chances as we did last night.
“We got enough to win, and that’s the important thing. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good effort and a pretty good weekend for our team to build some confidence and move forward.”
The Buckeyes (7-13-2, 2-6-0-0 Big Ten) next play when they travel to Minnesota for two games against the Golden Gophers Feb. 6-7. Next up for the Spartans (9-11-2, 3-3-2-2 Big Ten) is a single game against Michigan at Joe Louis Arena on Jan. 30.
