Timely special team scoring and the continued strong play of sophomore netminder Strauss Mann paced Michigan to a 3-0 shutout win over Michigan State Friday night at Yost Ice Arena in the opening game of their best two-of-three set in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal round.
Mann turned aside 25 Spartan shots and senior forwards Jake Slaker and Nick Pastujov both posted power play goals in the victory for the Wolverines.
The in-state rivals had split the regular season series with Michigan State winning a two-game set in mid-November. Michigan replied with a two-game sweep of their own in mid-February to even the season series at 2-2.
After recording the first six shots on goal of the game, Michigan made their seventh shot count. Skating with a five on three manpower advantage, Michigan sophomore defenseman Nick Blankenburg fed the puck from the left point to the corner to senior forward Will Lockwood. Lockwood found Slaker open at the side of the net and fired a pass across the goalmouth to Slaker who deposited it in the net for a 1-0 Michigan lead. The goal by Slaker was his 13th of the season, the team leader in that category.
Freshman forward Johnny Beecher extended the Michigan lead to 2-0 early in the second period on another goalmouth play initiated this time by senior defenseman Luke Martin from the right point.
Michigan further extended their lead to 3-0 late in the second period when Spartan forward Jagger Joshua took a hooking penalty with only ten seconds left in the middle stanza. Michigan capitalized only three seconds later at 19:53 when sophomore forward Jimmy Lambert directed a faceoff draw directly to Pastujov who buried the opportunity from a nearly impossible angle.
In other Friday night Big Ten Tournament action, Ohio State and Notre Dame both won the opening game of their quarterfinal series. Ohio State embarrassed Wisconsin, 9-1, in Columbus and Notre Dame held on at Minnesota for a 1-0 win over the Gophers.
Michigan will target Saturday night’s re-match with Michigan State to complete a two-game sweep and earn a berth in next weekend’s Big Ten Tournament semi-finals. Puck drop at Yost is 7 pm Saturday. If Michigan State wins on Saturday and three game are needed to complete the series, the tie-breaking game is set for Sunday at Yost at 6 pm.
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