For the first time since the 1982-83 season Northern Michigan swept the Michigan State Spartans with the 4-1 win on Saturday night at the Berry Events Center. The last time the Wildcats swept the Spartans was Nov. 12-13 in East Lansing by scores of 2-1 and 3-1. It was also the 10th meeting between Walt Kyle, the student, and Rick Comley, the mentor. For Kyle he is now 7-3 against Comley and has now won four straight in the series.
With the win the Wildcats improve to 3-1-0 overall on the season and 2-0-0 in the CCHA. The Spartans are now 1-3-0 and 0-2-0 in the conference.
“This team is not going to be a team of stars,” Kyle said.
Patrick Murphy scored his first goal of the season on the power play at 8:18 of the first period to give the Wildcats the early 1-0 lead. Andrew Contois and Jamie Milam assisted on the goal.
Milam, playing as a forward this weekend, would then score a power-play goal of his own at 18:52 of the opening period as the Wildcats took the 2-0 lead.
“Everyone played together and we got it done today,” Milam said. “I could not even take a nap before the game because I was so wired.”
The third power-play goal of the night was scored by Jim Slater of MSU at 45 seconds of the third period to get the Spartans to within one at 2-1. Colton Fretter and A.J. Thelen assisted.
Milam scored his second goal of the night also on the power play to give the Wildcats the 3-1 lead at 4:36 of the period. Olver and Nathan Oystrick assisted on the goal.
Mike Santorelli capped the scoring on the night with his second goal of the season at 13:23 of the final 20 minutes. Dirk Southern and Contois assisted.
Tuomas Tarkki in goal for NMU tonight turned away 37 shots.
“It was a good game. I had no problem seeing ever shot,” Tarkki said.
Dominic Vicari had 29 saves on the night. MSU took 38 shots for the game while the Wildcats had 33. NMU was 3-8 on the power play as MSU was 1-10.
