Perlini lifts Spartans over Nanooks in overtime
By Brittany McCormick –
EAST LANSING – An exciting night at Munn Ice Arena came to a fitting end when senior Brett Perlini scored in overtime to help Michigan State take down Alaska, 3-2, in a Friday night CCHA showdown.
In his second-to-last game at Munn Ice Arena, Perlini made sure the Spartans came out on top. The senior forward took the puck away off of a clearing pass and beat goaltender Scott Greenham over his right shoulder, securing the Spartans’ second overtime win of the season.
“I saw they had a little bit of trouble with the bouncing pucks there, so I just tried to pounce on it, and fortunate that I got a good bounce,” Perlini said. “I had been shooting all game so I thought I would change it up, went with a little deke, and it went post and in. I was just happy to see it in, our team worked hard all game, and we deserved to get a good bounce like that.”
The Spartans’ only two regulation goals, scored both by freshman Brent Darnell, were scored in the first period.
“It was good to get on the board early there,” Darnell said. “Last weekend our line had quite a few chances, and it was just good to get one early, get some confidence going for us, and then went right back out after that power play and got another quick one, [Torey Krug] made a great pass to me, so it was definitely good to get on the board early, our line really needed that.”
It was the visiting team that got on the board first on a delayed penalty call. Jarret Granberg tipped the puck to Cody Butcher, who found Scott Enders at the point. Enders netted his first goal of the season at 8:33.
The Spartans then went on their first power play of the game after Alaska’s Colton Beck was whistled for tripping. MSU failed to capitalize on the man advantage and the Nanooks almost went up by another goal, but it was eventually waved off.
The Spartans were able to take advantage of their next power-play opportunity, when Darnell tallied his fifth goal of the season. After Jake Chelios’ initial shot went wide and wrapped around the back of the net, Darnell gathered the puck on his stick and backhanded it into the net.
Darnell wasn’t finished scoring just yet. Captain Torey Krug found Darnell on the right side of the net, who had a clear shot and netted his second goal of the night, a mere 35 seconds after his game-tying goal.
Goaltender Will Yanakeff robbed many of the Nanook’s good shots, keeping his Spartans in the lead, until Alaska went on the power play with less than just eight minutes left in the second period. Michael Quinn and Andy Taranto moved the puck across the ice on their power play to Cody Kunyk who tied the game back up.
The Nanooks had a five-on-three advantage in the beginning of the third period after both Tanner Sorenson and Chris Forfar took penalties, but the CCHA’s best penalty-killing team was able to prevent them from scoring. Walrod had a golden short-handed opportunity, but his shot went wide of the cage.
Each team battled through the third period, trying to take the victory but came up scoreless. Overtime was needed to decide the winner – and Perlini delivered.
“I thought it was a hard effort by both teams tonight,” Perlini said. “I feel like they competed hard, they really battled for 60 minutes. We had a little bit of a slow start tonight, but third period, we came out hard, and it was really a gut-check time for us this late in the season, and we found a way to get it done in overtime. Not the prettiest effort, but we found a way for it to work.”