The No. 1 Michigan State Spartans came into Thursday night's game against Wisconsin flying high off a GLI championship win just a few days ago. The game seemed to be a trap game that a lesser team might overlook and lose, with the upcoming outdoor game at Wrigley Field on Saturday night against the same Badgers team - a Wisconsin team which gave the Spartans troubles earlier in the year, in Madison, beating MSU 4-0 prior to MSU battling out an OT victory the next night.
The Spartans needed a fast start and got that off the stick of Tiernan Shoudy just 5:36 into the game.
After a few more solid chances for the Spartans, the tides began to turn and Wisconsin was able to get one of their own at the end of the first period, making it 1-1. The second period began with multiple Spartans taking the skate of shame to the penalty box and Wisconsin was able to capitalize just 7 seconds into a Patrick Geary penalty to make the game 2-1. Shortly after killing off a Red Savage slashing penalty, Wisconsin scored again to stretch the lead to 3-1.
Spartan head coach Adam Nightingale liked his team's performance for the first 15 minutes or so.
"I thought we really got to our game, and then I thought the last five of the first and a lot of the second they were," Nightingale said. "We had to get back to us - and I thought we wanted things to be a little bit easy and they're a hard team to play against."
The Spartans were able to shift the momentum back to their side late in the third period with a silky pass from captain Red Savage on to the stick of junior forward Karsen Dorwart.
With the momentum on their side, the Spartans finished off the second period with multiple great scoring opportunities, including a breakaway for the Spartans top scorer Isaac Howard that was turned away by the Badger goaltender.
Howard would get his revenge just 57 seconds into the third period, though, off of a feed from ex-Badger Charlie Stramel.
Howard returned the favor later in the game when the pair linked up again. This time the roles were reversed as Howard found an open Stramel on a 2 on 1 as the Wisconsin transfer tucked in the game winning goal with just five minutes left in the game.
As Spartans Illustrated hockey insider Jeremy Dewer mentioned in his preview (MSU Hockey Roundup: Hosting Wisconsin, World Jr Championships, Recruiting), Charlie Stramel has played some of his best hockey this season against his former team, and that proved true once again in this one.
Falling behind 3-1 in the second period was not ideal, obviously, but Stramel said he and his teammates knew they could come back.
"You never want to go down in a game, but I think we were feeling very optimistic, if we go out there, do the little things, get the puck in their zone, finish hits and (good) things will come, and we'll continue to grind them down," Stramel stated.
That seems to be the recipe to win hockey games in the Big Ten and the Spartans continue to do so.
Michigan State improved to 16-2-1 on the season and will take this record and their No. 1 national ranking to Wrigley Field Saturday night in an outdoor Winter Classic game where they will look to secure this week's sweep against Wisconsin.
