Spartans sputter in shootout at Munn
Neil Koepke nkoepke@lsj.com
November 07, 2009 15:22 PM

EAST LANSING - Michigan State's winning streak came to an end on Friday night. The Spartans are still streaking, however, but now it's an unbeaten skein.

MSU is unbeaten in five consecutive games after a 3-3 tie with Nebraska-Omaha and subsequent 2-1 loss in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association shootout to the Mavericks in front of 4,147 fans at Munn Arena.

The No. 17 Spartans (7-2-1 overall, 3-0-1-0) earned one point in league play under the new CCHA points format, while No. 10 Nebraska-Omaha (4-1-3, 1-1-2-1) picked up two points.

A victory in regulation time or overtime is worth three points. Two points are awarded for a shootout win; a team losing in the shootout receives one point.

Coupled with Thursday's 3-0 win in the series opener, MSU earned four of a possible six points and heads into next weekend's home-and-home series against Michigan with a 4-0-1 record in its last five games.

"It was a struggle. They were better from Thursday and we weren't as good," MSU coach Rick Comley said. "We scrapped and stayed around and tied it (in the third period), but we really hurt ourselves with penalties."

The Spartans saw a 2-1 lead disappear in the second period when Nebraska-Omaha scored a fluke goal from the right corner at 5:34, and the Mavs took a 3-2 lead on Joe Martin's power-play goal at 13:06.

MSU spent nine minutes of the middle period shorthanded, including a five-minute stretch due to a major penalty to freshman Dean Chelios for checking from behind.