Hockey comes up a split second short against Spartans

By Mark Rudi
Sports Editor

One second.

That’s how much more time the Western Michigan University hockey team needed to take No. 20 Michigan State University into overtime. Instead, WMU leaves East Lansing with a loss.

The Broncos (4-1, 0-1-0 Central Collegiate Hockey Association) lost 2-1 to the Spartans Friday night at Munn Ice Arena in heartbreaking fashion.

As time expired and with the buzzard going off, junior center Max Campbell scored the game-tying goal off a rebound off a shot by Greg Squires. The referee signaled the goal was good and it looked like the game was headed into overtime.

Or so everyone thought.

But after further video review by CCHA officials, it was determined that the puck did not beat the buzzer and it was ruled no good.

“We have video replay and we have the technology and we use it,” head coach Jim Culhane said. “I have the utmost confidence that the guys made the right call. You wish you had an extra split second and you’d be in overtime right now.”

“It was pretty exciting and I thought at the time that we beat the buzzard and we were all just kind of shocked that we tied it and getting ready for overtime,” Campbell said. “But unfortunately, it happened be after time expired.”

During the review, everything was quite inside Munn Ice Arena, until the referee came out to signal the goal was no good, when at that point, the Green and White faithful erupted in a big cheer.

”My team was telling me that they thought it beat the buzzard,” Campbell said about waiting during the review. “I was nervous. I didn’t know what to expect, so I had to wait for the ref.”

Western Michigan came out flat in the first two periods and had to build a rally in the third. With MSU (5-2, 2-1-0 CCHA) up 2-0, freshman left wing Trevor Elias found the net off a rebound past MSU goalie Drew Palmisano with the Broncos on the power play.

“It was kind of a good face off play on the power play,” Elias said. “Good shot from [Luke] Witkowski and just happened to pop up right beside him.”

The goal was Elias’ third of the season and the third game in a row the Calgary, Alberta native has scored a goal. He was also named CCHA Rookie of the Week last Monday.

“As a young guy, it’s a big goal and it cuts it to a one goal game,” Culhane said. “He’s done a good job.”

Culhane said the third period was by far WMU’s best period of the night. The Broncos only had three shots in the first period and eight in the second period, but recorded 13 in the final period and ended up out shooting MSU 24-21 for the game. Western Michigan also had a five-minute power play in the second period, and managed to six of its eight shots from the period on that power play.

“There was a little bit of a feeling out stage for both teams in that first 20 minutes of play,” Culhane said. “They’re able to get a two goal lead and the guys handled it well, [goalie] Riley [Gill] responded well and we cut it to a one goal game and almost tied it up.”

Michigan State came into Friday’s game on a very high note, after knocking off No. 1 Miami University of Ohio 4-3 in overtime last Saturday night and Palmisano looked like he was still that on that high.

The Broncos had no answer for the Spartan goalie, as Palmisano had 23 saves on 24 shots. He came into Friday’s game second in the conference in saves, averaging 35.5 per game, and third in goals against average, which was at 1.90.

“I don’t think we got as many shots as we needed,” Campbell said. “He [Palmisano] played well, but so did Riley.”

Michigan State got the scoring going with a goal from freshman Chris Forfar at 11:43 in the first period, which was assisted by Andrew Rowe and Tim Buttery. The goal was Forfar’s second of the season.

The Spartans would then go up 2-0 with a goal from junior forward Dustin Gazley, who scored off a rebound off of WMU goalie Riley Gill at 17:17 and on the power play.

The third period will give the Broncos momentum as the Spartans and Broncos head to Kalamazoo Saturday night for the back end of the home-and-home series. WMU knows they can’t come out slow like they did Friday night.

“For the first two periods we came out kind of weak. We weren’t playing our game,” Campbell said. “After seeing that third period and what the team can do, we need to start that way tomorrow and I’m pretty excited to get her going again.”

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Posted by heraldstaff on Oct 30 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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