EAST LANSING, Mich. — With three second-period goals, Wisconsin beat Michigan State 3-0 to win the second game of this weekend series to give the Badgers their first Big Ten win of the season.
Seamus Malone, Matthew Freytag and Luke Kunin scored for UW.
“We needed that medicine tonight,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves. “For the past four games, we’ve been knocking on the door and we’ve had leads and let them slide. We got the win and we overcame the boogeyman of having the lead and not being able to hold on, so for twofold that was important.”
Freshman goaltender Matt Jurusik picked up his first collegiate shutout, turning aside 28 shots in the effort, 15 in the last period alone.
“He was good,” said Eaves. “He looked calm, didn’t he? He controlled the rebounds. I particularly liked his attention to detail when he sat on the puck.”
Tonight’s game was something of a reversal of fortune for the Badgers, who have scored 16 goals in their last four games against Michigan and Michigan State, but have a 1-2-1-0 Big Ten record to show for it. In Friday’s contest, the Badgers saw two leads over the Spartans evaporate before Justin Hoomaian scored the game-winning goal for Michigan State late in the third period.
Eaves said that the Badgers were able to turn things around fairly quickly because of the way they dealt with Friday’s loss.
“We went back to the hotel room and had an honest talk about it,” said Eaves. “We addressed it. We didn’t hide anything. We talked about it in terms of what we could do better. We went around the room and every guy spoke and had their piece, and they went out and did that today.”
That the Spartans couldn’t capitalize on the momentum from Friday’s come-from-behind win was difficult to take, said Michigan State coach Tom Anastos.
“I was really disappointed in our performance today,” Anastos said. “I thought Wisconsin came out ready to play right from the drop of the first puck. I thought they were better. They were better all over the ice. They won every one-on-one battle it seemed. They created their puck luck.”
Two of Wisconsin’s three goals were redirected, the first one unintentionally so. At 4:50, Malone shot the puck from near the right boards across the crease, and the puck ricocheted off of Michigan State forward Joe Cox’s leg and in past Jake Hildebrand on the short side. At 13:00, Freytag one-timed the puck from the left dot and at 19:02, Jake Bunz shot from the top of the slot and Kunin tipped it from the left circle for the 3-0 lead.
The Spartans pressured in the third period, when Anastos said that he mixed up the Michigan State lines to get some offense going, resulting in MSU outshooting UW 15-4 in the final stanza.
“You don’t play that many games,” said Anastos. “Too many guys today did not bring the level of intensity that we have to have to play every game. It’s maddening. You’re at home. It’s your last home game before Christmas break, and why does it take to the third period to get that energy level? That’s not good enough.”
The Badgers (4-7-5, 1-2-1-0 B1G) play their next game in exhibition Jan. 1, 2016, against Trinity Western University, a Canadian team from British Columbia. The Spartans (5-10-2, 1-3-0-0 B1G) finish the first half of the season with a single nonconference road game against Northeastern Dec. 19 before participating in the Great Lakes Invitational Dec. 29-30.
