Huskies advance to GLI title game with 3-2 OT win over Spartans (with photos)

Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey
Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey

 

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT –  It was all too familiar of a scenario for Michigan State in the Great Lakes Invitational opener Tuesday afternoon.

For the third time in three meetings this season, the Spartans blew a third-period lead against the Michigan Tech Huskies. The first outing on Nov. 21 saw MSU ultimately fall in overtime. In the second meeting, the very next day, MSU rebounded to win in a shootout, though the game went in the books as a tie. On Tuesday, it cost the Spartans again, as the Huskies completed the comeback to win 3-2 in overtime.

Brent Baltus scored the game-winner with 1:02 left in the extra frame. Jake Lucchini and Alex Gillies scored the other MTU goals, while Matt DeBlouw and Mackenzie MacEachern scored for the Spartans.

The Huskies will play for its 11th GLI title Wednesday night, and head coach Mel Pearson gave credit to MSU netminder Jake Hildebrand, who kept the Spartans in the game.

“I thought we got better as the game went on, but we needed a goal, we need a spark,” Pearson said. “I thought Hildebrand played well through two periods… Extremely proud of our players, they stayed with it. We’ve been in this situation before and that’s one thing about this team; they’re going to play until the end, so I’m extremely proud of them.”


Photos by MiHockey’s Andrew Knapik and Michael Caples

For the Spartans, it was a frustrating way to go, but an accurate indicator of how their season has gone so far.

“To give up a lead, the way it played out the way it did, very frustrating for our team,” Spartans head coach Tom Anastos said. “I thought it was a hard-played game. We’ve had three of those with them and they’ve all had very similar recipe I guess, and we came out on the short end and we did again.”

At 5:24, the Spartans opened the scoring, as DeBlouw drove the net and saw a rebound from a JT Stenglein shot deflect off his skate and in past Jamie Phillips for just his second of the season. Video review confirmed DeBlouw did not kick the puck in, so the goal rightfully stood.

Nearly five minutes into the second stanza, Hildebrand made a tremendous save on MTU’s Tyler Heinonen, diving across the crease to keep the Huskies off the board.

A lengthy 5-on-3 shortly after saw Michigan Tech with a golden opportunity to get on the board, but Hildebrand and the Spartans killed it off.

With 6:55 left, MacEachern potted a power-play goal, a one-timer from the right circle off a Mike Ferrantino pass that beat Phillips on the short side.

Shortly after, Phillips came up with a big save off his mask to keep the Huskies’ deficit at two. That’s how things stood after 40 minutes.

Halfway through the frame, with Hildebrand sprawling after having slid across to make a save on a Huskies’ rush, the Huskies ultimately scored their first of the contest. Michigan Tech’s Alex Gillies, who crashed into Hildebrand on his way down on the initial chance, stood up just in time to whack home the rebound to put his team on the board with 11:16 remaining in the period.

After brief review, it was confirmed to be a good goal as Anastos said that officials told him there was no goaltender interference on the play.

“We were fortunate to get the call on the goal they reviewed,” Pearson said. “I thought that obviously changed the game, changed the whole momentum.”

The Spartans received a power-play opportunity just 30 seconds later and nearly cashed in on it, but the shot blocking and active sticks of the MTU penalty killers kept it a 2-1 game.

And then the Huskies evened things up with just 1:26 to play, as Jake Lucchini cashed in off a great pass from St. Clair Shores native Mark Auk.

Baltus capped off the comeback with 1:06 to play to seal it for Michigan Tech.

“I got a pass out from (Chris) Leibinger and I didn’t think I had a lot of support, so I just tried to slow it down a bit, and we’ve talked a lot about just getting pucks to the net and that’s all I did and luckily it found a way,” Baltus said.

Michigan Tech will face the winner of the Michigan-Northern Michigan game.