Minney's 40 saves for MSU hockey can't stop Gophers in 4-2 loss

EAST LANSING – Michigan State hockey faced a barrage of shots for much of the night. If it weren't for junior goaltender Ed Minney's heroics, the final margin likely would've been much worse.

Despite a career game from Minney, the Spartans opened conference play with a loss Friday night, falling to No. 11 Minnesota, 4-2, the Gophers final tally coming on an empty-net score in the waning moments. The two teams will complete the series at 8 p.m. Saturday at Munn Ice Arena.

Minnesota (8-5-2, 2-1), which was the aggressor for most of the night and outshot MSU  (4-7-1 overall, 0-1 Big Ten) 44-11, showed why it's considered the favorite to win the Big Ten Conference.

Coach Tom Anastos called Minney, who finished with a career-high 40 saves, a bright spot in an otherwise uneven game. Senior forward JT Stenglein and freshman forward Taro Hirose added a goal each.

"Even though it sucks to lose tonight, it's nice to know that they didn't do anything different than we thought," Minney said. "This game was strictly on us. We just didn't play to our full potential and I think that had we played to our full potential, it would've been a different game."

The Spartans came out strong. Stenglein scored his first goal of the season at the 16:30 mark of the first period, taking advantage of a transition opportunity to flick the puck in from the left side of the net.

MSU started the first with a 5-1 shot advantage, but Minnesota outshot the Spartans 15-3 for the remainder of the period.

Minnesota senior forward Justin Kloos answered Stenglein's goal just over seven minutes later to tie the game.

"I wasn't happy with two and a half periods of hockey," Anastos said. "I liked our start and obviously something changed."

The Golden Gophers scored two more goals late in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. The second goal, which bounced off of the top goal post and into the net, was a bit of a "fluky" goal, according to Anastos, and hurt MSU's momentum.

"We never recovered from it, the rest of the game," Anastos said. "They won all the puck battles, they won the races, they were stronger one-on-one on puck and we weren't hard enough to play against."

Hirose split two Minnesota defenders and scored with 3:03 remaining in the period to cut the Golden Gopher's advantage to one heading into the third.

Through two periods, Minnesota led in shot attempts, 29-11. MSU was held to just three shots in the second.

MSU killed three Minnesota power plays in the 3rd period, but couldn't get a shot to go in. The Spartans went with an empty net with about a minute and a half remaining, but the Golden Gophers scored their final goal to secure the win.

Minnesota entered Friday's game as one of the top teams in the nation in power-play percentage, but the Spartans killed five power plays on the night.

"That's progress," Anastos said, noting that MSU was missing two of its best penalty killers due to injury.

The Spartans take some solace in knowing they had the right game plan against one of the best teams in the country, but couldn't execute. Saturday will give them the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

"I think that Michigan State can be better than what we were tonight, and will be," Anastos said.