Michigan State men’s ice hockey lost 4-2 to No. 5 Michigan on Friday night at home. It was MSU’s fifth home loss of the season and first since losing to Minnesota back in December.

The teams will rematch tonight at 8 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. The game will broadcast on ESPNU or TSN 2 in Canada.

Michigan got started early with Mackie Sasmoskevich scoring. Dylan Duke fired in a shot that went wide and Luca Fantilli collected it along the boards to send it back in. T.J. Hughes collected the puck in the corner and sent it out for Sasmoskevich, who blasted a one-timer past MSU goaltender Dylan St. Cyr to give Michigan a 1-0 lead.

It wasn’t long until Michigan answered with a second goal, this time on the power play. Freshman sensation Adam Fantilli walked up to the top of the slot and sniped a shot to the top-shelf, giving the Wolverines a 2-0 lead.

A third goal was scored moments later when Gavin Brindley was waiting for a cross-ice pass from Steven Holtz. St. Cyr was unable to go post-to-post as Michigan took a three-goal lead less than eight minutes into the game.

The rest of the game was far more even in a game that included more than 100 penalty minutes.

Michigan State scored five minutes into the second when Tiernan Shoudy sent the puck ahead for Miroslav Mucha, who went down the ice and sent the puck back out in front of Michigan goaltender Erik Portillo. Shoudy cleaned it up and put MSU on the board.

With five minutes to go in the period, Michigan State and Michigan started the biggest fight of the season. Adam Fantilli and Nash Nienhuis threw some words and a few shoves between each other. The play started with Adam Fantilli drawing a hooking penalty from Nienhuis. What would’ve been a power play for Michigan ended up with canceling penalties after Adam Fantilli cross-checked Nienhuis from behind.

What resulted was a several-minute altercation that resulted in several penalties. Adam Fantilli was assessed two minutes for cross-checking, five minutes for fighting and a game misconduct/ejection. Nienhuis was given two minutes for hooking, five for fighting and a game misconduct/ejection. Michigan State’s Tanner Kelly and Michigan’s Luke Hughes were both given two minutes for fighting.

The result was penalties that were offset.

MSU’s Nicolas Müller scored on the power play five minutes into the third period. Michigan State moved the puck around well to move Portillo out of position and set up Müller with an open net bringing MSU within one.

The Spartans were inches away from tying it up, but Michigan was able to collect the rebound and clear the puck. Brindley scored an empty-net goal, effectively icing the game and giving Michigan a 4-2 win.

After the game, Michigan interim head coach Brandon Naurato, when asked how rewarding it is to hear the final buzzer sound, said, "it's extremely rewarding."

"The game changes when — how do I word this? — we have the puck the whole game," he continued. "And we're chasing the game because we're in the box."

Naurato went on to say that Michigan State cannot skate with Michigan "unless they goon it up. So we got the bad end of the deal there."

Conversely, Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale said, "I thought our guys did a really good job of playing with emotion and controlling it."

Michigan averages 18.3 penalty minutes per game, which is second-highest only to Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), which averages 19 penalties per game. Meanwhile, MSU is seventh-highest in penalty minutes per game at 13.3 and 411 minutes total.