East Lansing, Mich. – No. 4 Michigan State rallied from 2-1 and 3-2 deficits to post a 4-3 victory over No. 2 Boston College on Saturday night at Munn Ice Arena. The Spartans pushed their record to 3-1 on the season and split the weekend series with the Eagles.
The victory was MSU's 600th at Munn Ice Arena. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024-25, Munn has hosted 955 Spartan games, and MSU holds a 600-282-73 record in its home facility all-time. Members of the 1974-75 Spartan hockey team – the first team to play at Munn - were on hand for the weekend festivities to kick off the anniversary year.
The Spartans scored first on Saturday but trailed 2-1 after one period. MSU and BC traded goals in the first three minutes of the middle frame, and both goalies were up to the task in the third as MSU held on for the 4-3 victory.
MSU shuffled its lineup after Friday night and got rewarded with goals from each of its top three lines. Charlie Stramel had his first two goals as a Spartan, while Red Savage and Daniel Russell each had a score.
Trey Augustine came out on top in the goaltender battle, making 13 of his 32 saves in the final period. Jacob Fowler made 25 stops for BC.
BC got goals from Gabe Perrault, Ryan Leonard and Lukas Gustaffon in the loss. It was the first goal of the season for each of the players.
MSU has an exhibition game next Friday against Windsor as its only game of the week. The puck drops at 6 pm at Munn Ice Arena.
STATISTICS OF NOTE
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MSU earned the weekend split after a 3-0 shutout loss on Friday.
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The Spartans had two penalties to BC's one in the game. The two teams each had three penalties in the two-game series. MSU surrendered its first power play goal of the season and are now 9-for-10 on the kill over four games.
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MSU now owns a 17-12-1 mark all-time against the Eagles. The Saturday victory snapped a six-game winning streak for the Eagles in the series; MSU's last victory was the 2007 National Championship game, 3-1.
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BC and MSU ranked second and third, respectively in points returning to the roster for the 2024-25 season. The lineups also feature arguably the top goaltenders in the college game.
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Charlie Stramel's two goals served as his first multiple-goal game of his collegiate career. Stramel totaled three goals last year as a sophomore at Wisconsin.
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Daniel Russell's second-period score was his third goal of the season, and he is now tied with Isaac Howard for the team lead in goals (3). Each of his goals have been the game-winners this season for the Spartans; MSU's leader in that category last year had four game-winners.
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Red Savage had his first score of the season in the second period.
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Isaac Howard had his third multiple-point effort in four games with his pair of assists.
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Trey Augustine had a season-high 32 saves. He had 25 in each game at Lake State and 26 in Friday's game.
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Karsen Dorwart returned to the lineup after missing the LSSU series and had the primary assist on Daniel Russell's goal.
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Several Spartans picked up their first points of the season on assists: Gavin O'Connell, Tanner Kelly, David Gucciardi, and Dorwart.
First Period: The Spartans got their first score of the weekend at the midpoint of the opening frame. Gavin O'Connell dished the puck ahead to Isaac Howard as they entered the zone, and Howard carried it into the bottom of the right circle. The winger then dished it across the low slot for Charlie Stramel just above the goal line on the left side, and his sharp-angle shot went behind Fowler for his first goal in the Green and White. As the time ticked down, Boston College got a pair of breakaway opportunities 70 seconds apart that turned a one-goal deficit into a 2-1 lead for the visitors. First, it was James Hagens and Gabe Perrault sprung on a breakaway that Perrault finished over Augustine's right shoulder, and the second a Ryan Leonard score off a lead pass by Oskar Jellvik.
Second Period: MSU exploded for three goals in the second period The squad first knotted the game at 2-2 just 30 seconds in - Tanner Kelly corralled the puck in the left corner and dished to Tiernan Shoudy just behind the goal cage on the right side. Shoudy sent the puck out to Red Savage in front for the captain's first goal of the season. The Eagles went up 3-2 on a power play marker just over two minutes later when Teddy Stiga set up Lukas Gustafson to Augustine's right. MSU rallied for two more scores – at 7:32, a heavy point shot by David Gucciardi was tipped in front by Stramel for his second goal of the night, and the fourth goal came at 13:28 when Nicklas Andrews rimmed the puck from the right point over to Karsen Dorwart on the left half-wall, and he sent his shot toward the net for Russell to redirect. It ended up as the game-winner.
Third Period: The teams skated through a scoreless period – its third clean sheet period of the weekend. The Eagles rallied for 13 shots on net, looking for the equalizer – but Augustine was up to the task. The Eagles pulled Fowler for the final 90 seconds for an extra skater, but could only get one shot on net as time expired and the Spartans earned the series split.
This story originally appeared on MSUspartans.com