No. 3 Michigan State had the edge in the shot clock, owned the faceoff circle and still walked off the ice with a 6-2 loss to No. 13 Boston University on Friday night at Ron Mason Rink at Munn Ice Arena.
The Spartans fell to 5-2-0, while the Terriers improved to 7-2-0. Michigan State will try to answer back in the second game of the series Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
For Adam Nightingale, the night came down to a simple reality check.
"Tough one for sure," said Michigan State Head Coach Adam Nightingale. "I thought, give them credit; they're a good team.
I thought they deserved the outcome of the game today. But this is what it's about.
It's about getting better, right? We say we want to play good teams, and we obviously got exposed in some areas.
And the first place you look in the mirror as a coach is yourself. And I have to do a better job of helping these guys understand what it takes to be consistently good.
And we're not there yet."
Michigan State finished with a 35-24 advantage in shots and won the faceoff battle 38-26, with sophomore forward Cayden Lindstrom posting 11 wins at the dot. The Spartans also held Boston University to just four shots in the third period. MSU went 1-for-1 on the power play and 1-for-3 on the penalty kill.
The Spartans got goals from Ryker Lee and Lindstrom in the third period, and both came with help from Gavin O'Connell. Anthony Romani picked up a secondary assist on Lindstrom's goal and now leads the team with 11 points.
Boston University set the tone early. The Terriers opened the scoring 5:49 into the first period on a power play goal after Michigan State was called for bumping the goal off its posts, leading to a delay of game penalty. BU made it 2-0 late in the period when a shot slipped past freshman goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen at the 18:04 mark.
MSU had chances to get on the board before the first intermission. Romani nearly finished a deke in tight, but the puck died in the crease. Junior forward Shane Vansaghi also had a point-blank chance turned aside in the fourth minute, and the Spartans outshot the Terriers 10-9 in the opening frame.
The second period belonged to Boston University. Michigan State generated looks off odd-man rushes, but freshman forward Mason West and Lindstrom were stopped, and BU pushed the lead to 3-0 on a shot from the point 11:37 into the period. The Terriers then stretched it to 4-0 at 14:50 with an extra skater on the ice after a delayed penalty.
Michigan State finally broke through early in the third. Lee finished a power play sequence to cut the deficit to 4-1 after Romani spun away from his defender and found O'Connell in the crease, who then sent a through-the-legs pass to Lee at the doorstep.
Just two minutes later, Lindstrom buried a one-timer from the left dot for his third goal of the season and MSU's second of the period. The Spartans kept pressing and outshot Boston University 11-4 in the third.
Ravensbergen stopped 16 of 20 shots before junior goaltender Quentin Sigurdson took over with 23:39 remaining. Sigurdson made two saves on three shots as Michigan State tightened things up late, but BU still added a power-play goal at 16:32 after a too many men violation and an empty-netter in the final minute.
The loss left Michigan State with a long list of things to clean up, but also a clear chance to respond immediately on Saturday.
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