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Tonight was a big test for the Wolverines. Coming off of a loss to the Spartans at JLA the night before, tonight's contest at Munn became a must-win game.
They passed the test. It wasn't crisp but winning on the road doesn't have to be.
Berenson's key to the game is always starting off on the right foot and in every game this season against MSU the Spartans scored first. That wasn't the case tonight with the Wolverines getting the early start they wanted outshooting the Spartans 20-3 in the first period to take the crowd out of it. At the 8:10 mark of the first period Justin Selman opened the scoring on a turnaround shot from the mid-slot that beat Hildebrand.
Michigan State had a number of chances to tie the game with the Wolverine defensemen overplaying in the neutral zone and leaving Steve Racine out to dry but on a pair of early 2-on-1's the Spartans rang iron twice. From there it quickly turned into that kind of night where their chances weren't going to fall and Steve Racine slammed the door shut.
The Spartans would respond with a big surge coming out of the locker room to even the shot total and again they couldn't solve Steve Racine. With the Wolverines surviving the push from State Michigan's offense finally took the game over.
JT Compher would push the lead to 2-0 off a pretty feed from Tyler Motte in the second period. Early in the 3rd a Spartan forward who had been shifted to defense fell down on a dump-in and Brendan Warren grabbed the loose puck below the goal line, turned and found Justin Selman to make it 3-0.
Tyler Motte would add his NCAA leading 25th goal of the year on the power play one minute later. The play was made by Zach Werenski who waited patiently with the puck in his defensive zone until a lane opened and he hit Motte right down the middle for a breakaway.
Eventually with the game far out of reach the Spartans would end Racine's shutout bid on a Villiam Haag power play goal.
The Wolverines end the season series with two wins at Munn. I attempted to look through the archives to find the last time Michigan won all of their games at Munn in a season. When I reached 1972 and still hadn't found it I gave up. It's a rare accomplishment.
Up next the Wolverines head to Madison to face the Wisconsin Badgers.