MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. – Among the many talents that have allowed this Michigan State hockey team to achieve all it has this season: These guys don’t panic.
Not even when they probably should.
Friday night, facing a two-goal deficit in the third period and then still trailing by a goal with a minute to play in regulation, their season on the line, they kept pushing.
“Just sticking with it, like we do all year,” said MSU senior forward Jeremy Davidson, who scored the game-winning goal 11 minutes into overtime.
Easy peasy.
Only it’s not.
Most teams don’t do this. Most teams would be headed home Saturday instead of preparing to play in an NCAA tournament regional final on Sunday night.
The Spartans’ 5-4 overtime win over Western Michigan on Friday evening in suburban St. Louis was the latest feat in a season that’s truly been the renaissance MSU fans have dreamt of for more than a decade — the winning, the blue-chip talent, the trajectory. The poise. Advancing in the NCAA tournament.
The last time MSU won an NCAA tournament game, 16 years ago, their current coach was working in construction and their star defenseman and goalie — both touted NHL prospects — were toddlers.
Probably best that Spartan fans didn’t know then how long the wait would be — though this team is doing it’s best to make it worth it.
They’ll play Michigan for the sixth time this season on Sunday. MSU’s journey against the Wolverines this season — four wins, one improbable comeback, a tense overtime thriller in the Big Ten tournament championship a week ago, and one humiliating and jarring home defeat back in January — played a large part the Spartans’ road to becoming a team that doesn’t sweat or overreact or give in.
RELATED: Michigan hockey’s ferocious finish nips North Dakota in NCAA opener. Clash with MSU next.
Friday night we saw that calm determination right down to the wire — exemplified by MSU freshman defenseman Artyom Levshunov streaking down the right side of the ice past three defenders paying too much attention him, before finding wide-open teammate Karsen Dorwart in front of the net for the game-tying goal with 55.8 seconds left.
“I tried to do something,” Levshunov explained.
That assist would qualify as something. That was a legacy play for the soon-to-be top-five NHL draft pick, more than any he’s had to this point in a sensational freshman season.
“Good players find a way to elevate when the game’s on the line,” MSU coach Adam Nightingale said. “And he certainly did.”
MSU’s late-game oomph — also seen this season against Minnesota and Michigan and in its Big Ten regular season title-clinching win at Wisconsin — is largely a combination of competence, confidence and conditioning.
There was no exhaling when they went to the locker room after sending the game to overtime. Likewise, the same calm they had when they were behind remained.
“It helps that we just had the exact same score for an OT game last week,” sophomore center Tiernan Shoudy said. “Everyone’s saying like, ‘Hey, job’s not done. We still gotta go out there and finish it.’ We knew we had the legs and they were kind of kind of falling off a little bit. It just goes back to that training that (strength and conditioning coach) Will Morlock has put us through the whole summer and last year even.”
Find me a game when MSU finished strong this season and I’ll show you a player crediting Morlock.
Morlock’s work is the long game. On the bench, with a little over six minutes to go and MSU down a goal, the coaching staff was preparing the Spartans for the finish in real time.
When MSU challenged a non-call on the ice, hoping for a five-minute major penalty against WMU, they knew if the challenge failed, they’d lose a timeout. The break during the review would be the last time they’d have a few moments to instruct…
This article was originally published by a www.lansingstatejournal.com . Read the Original article here. .