By Alyssa Girardi –
ANN ARBOR — For the second time in his 57 games as a Spartan, Jake Hildebrand was pulled from net and replaced by another goaltender.
And of all the nights for MSU to have troubles in goal, Friday wasn’t good timing. MSU was defeated by rival Michigan, 7-1, in the first game of the final regular season series between the two.
“It’s not the end of the world,” MSU captain Greg Wolfe said. “But it’s probably the worst feeling I’ve had in a long time.”
Hildebrand allowed five goals on 17 shots through two periods, including two MSU deflections. His first time being pulled was last season’s 4-1 playoff loss to Miami (Ohio) that ended the Spartan’s postseason run.
In Yanakeff’s first appearance in net since Nov. 9, he allowed two goals and made 11 saves.
“On some of those goals Hildy gave up, he didn’t even have a chance on them,” head coach Tom Anastos said. “And that’s how it’s been going for us. A lot of pucks have been deflecting off of us and going in the net. It is frustrating, for sure.”
With Michigan’s clear advantage in the final minutes of the game, the chippiness was brought out of both teams, and MSU took the brunt of the penalties.
With about nine minutes remaining, a scrum ensued that found three Spartans and two Wolverines in their respective boxes. At 18:02, Thomas Ebbing (Troy) received a 10-minute game misconduct and Dean Chelios (Bloomfield Hills) was called for hitting after the whistle.
“It’s an emotional game, it can be a physical game. I’ll have to review those instances,” Anastos said of the events leading up to the penalties.
The Wolverines took an early 2-0 lead, with their first marker coming only 54 seconds into the game. A failed clearance behind MSU’s net led to a rushing Derek DeBlois one-timing a pass from Alex Guptill.
Luke Moffatt zoomed down the right side on a breakaway and slammed on the breaks right outside Jake Hildebrand’s crease before netting the puck in the top left corner at 7:46.
Michael Downing (Canton) was sent to the box for hooking and MSU took advantage with a power-play tally. Tanner Sorenson’s wrister from the blue line banged off the pipes and Matt Berry (Canton) was there to tap in the rebound.
“Obviously getting scored on in the first minute is never a good thing, kind of a miscommunication and the puck ends up in our net,” Wolfe said. “But I thought we battled back after that, but it just kind of snowballed.”
A three-goal second period by Michigan gave it a four-goal advantage heading into the final 20 minutes.
The Wolverines scored a power play goal 3:55 into the period when Guptill snapped a wrist shot from the high slot and Zach Hyman redirected the puck from the top of the crease.
About a minute and a half later, Phil DiGiuseppe threw the puck at MSU’s net from the goal line and it hit off RJ Boyd’s skate past Hildebrand. With 1:44 remaining, Andrew Sinelli (Dexter) carried the puck into the Spartan zone and took a shot from along the right boards. The puck bounced off skate of Travis Walsh (Haslett).
Sinelli scored two more in the second period, earning him the natural hat trick.
At 7:10 p.m. Saturday at Munn Ice Arena, the Spartans will look for the win to keep the Wolverines from a four-game season sweep.
“The important thing is that we gotta get refocused,” Anastos said. “Obviously, we’re leaving here not feeling too good about our performance tonight. So it’s a game, yet it counts the same as a loss. And so we’ve gotta figure a way to regroup and have a better effort (Saturday) night.”