REHASH & ANALYIS: No. 7 Michigan State cruises past Ferris State, 4-1, in GLI Semifinals

Grand Rapids, Mich. – Michigan State might have shown a little bit of holiday rust in the opening minutes of the Spartans’ 4-1 victory over Ferris State in the Great Lakes Invitational Semifinals, Thursday at Van Andel Arena. But the rust didn’t last long.

After being outshot 5-1 in the early going, No. 7-ranked Michigan State dominated every inch of the ice for the rest of the night and earned its way to the GLI Championship Game (tickets), which will be played at 7 p.m. on Friday (WILX TV | Channel 10 | Lansing). 

Michigan State (13-4-2) was playing for the first time in three weeks. Ferris State (5-12-1) was coming off a 12-day layoff.

Michigan State will go for its 13th GLI title, and its first since 2009, when the Spartans face Michigan Tech (9-8-3) on Friday. Michigan Tech defeated Alaska 3-2 on Thursday in the early semifinal.

“The opportunity to play the host school tomorrow is a special opportunity for us and we’re looking forward to it,” said Michigan State second-year coach Adam Nightingale. “We have a group of guys that understand that. When we watch them practice and train, they understand the importance of it. But we think every game is important and every shift is important and for our guys to develop, we want to have that mindset.”

It will likely take every shift to beat Michigan Tech, which has played host to this event for 57 years and treats the GLI as its annual Super Bowl. 

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

Jeremy Davidson (5-10, Sr., Kalamazoo) scored twice, opening and closing the scoring for Michigan State. 

“It was huge,” Davidson said. “Being from Kalamazoo, I had a lot of family here. It was pretty cool. But I’m just happy to get the win and hopefully we can do it tomorrow.”

Tanner Kelly (5-10, Jr., San Diego), playing on the No. 1 line in place of Isaac Howard, gave Michigan State a 2-0 lead at 14:13 of the first period. It was Kelly’s fourth goal of the season. Daniel Russell and Nash Nienhuis assisted. 

Karsen Dorwart (6-1, Soph., Sherwood, Ore.) made it 3-0 when he pounded in a rebound of a Russell shot. Freshman defenseman Artyom Levshunov also assisted. 

Travis Shoudy, the brother of Michigan State center Tiernan Shoudy, scored at 16:12 of the second period to cut the lead to 4-1 and close out the scoring.

“He (Tiernan) was definitely pumped to play this game,” said Michigan State forward Reed Lebster. “He was chuckling when Travis scored. It’s tough that his brother scored, but Tiernan is definitely happy we were on the winning side.”

Michigan State had a 33-10 edge in shots on goal late in the second period. But Ferris State closed the final gap to 39-27. The Bulldogs outshot Michigan State 11-4 in the third period.

Freshman goalie Luca Di Pasquo, making his second start of the season, turned away 26 shots. 

“He’s a team guy, a selfless guy,” Nightingale said of Di Pasquo. “We had all the confidence in the world for Luca to come in and play well, just like he did tonight.”

Van Andel Arena, which seats 10,834-seat for hockey, was more than half full when Thursday’s second semifinal began.

OPPOSING COACH’S VIEW

Bob Daniels, a Michigan State graduate and in his 29th-year as Ferris State’s head coach, offered an interesting perspective on the progress the Spartans have made since last year. His Bulldog team upset Michigan State in the GLI Semifinals last year, but had no such luck this time. 

“Michigan State, I thought, was very good in terms of their play in our defensive zone, their offensive zone,” Daniels said. “I thought they were dynamic, hard to handle, and played a really good game.

“I think they have more offensive capability throughout the lineup now. I think the depth of the scoring, certainly through the first three lines, is really good. There is not a certain line you can key on and maybe go after.

“Their defensemen were rock-solid, maybe not overly flash, but certainly rock-solid.

“To me, it looks like they are playing as more of a cohesive team than we saw a year ago. I was impressed.”

TURNING POINT

With Ferris State outshooting Michigan State 5-1 in the early minutes, Di Pasquo was able to get some early work and settle in. He was solid all night, stepping in for Trey Augustine, who is playing for Team USA at the World Junior Championship.

After the early 5-1 deficit on the shot board, Michigan State out-shot the Bulldogs 32-5 over the next period and a half.

Along the way, Michigan State changed the tenor of the game when Davidson scored his fourth goal of the season to give Michigan State a 1-0 lead at 7:38 of the first period, with portions of the fourth line making it happen:

FOURTH LINE JUST FINE

Michigan State’s fourth line has been a effective and reliable all season, and it continued in that fashion in this game, despite two stand-in members.

Freshman left winger Griffin Jurecki did a great job of quick stick work to gain control of a loose puck in the Bulldog zone and feed Davidson for a one-time slap shot and the first goal of the game. 

Tiernan Shoudy (5-9, 180, Soph, Marysville, Mich.) also assisted on the goal.

Shoudy has been a crafty pest as the fourth-line center all year. Usually, he has junior Tanner Kelly on his right wing and freshman Tommi Männistö to his left. But Männistö is with Team Finland at the World Junior Championship. And Kelly moved up to the No. 1 line to replace Isaac Howard, who is with Team USA at the World Juniors. 

The fourth line was its usual quick and bothersome self on this night. Shoudy and Jerecki set up Davidson (a second-line winger) for the opening goal, as part of a partial change.

The fourth line played well enough early on that Shoudy, Jurecki and Owen Baker continued to see a lot of good, effective ice time the rest of the night.

Jurecki had played only two games this season prior to Thursday night, and Baker had played only six. Nightingale said the Spartans have good players in reserve who haven’t been able to crack the lineup this year. Jurecki and Baker proved his point in this game, with Shoudy providing good glue between them. 

IT WAS OVER WHEN

Davidson scored his second goal of the night on a beautiful spin-a-rama backhander, which is worthy of an ESPN Top 10 play of the night, if they get the video feed.

Davidson received a perfect 60-foot stretch pass from defenseman David Gucciardi, skated in one-on-one against a Bulldog defender, and beat him, and the Ferris goalie, with a gorgeous spinning backhander. 

“I came off the bench and Gucciardi found me in the middle,” Davidson said. “The guy caught up to me so I didn’t have much space so I kind of spun and just shot it and luckily it went in.”

That gave Michigan State a 4-0 lead at 13:40 of the second period. 

Gucciardi’s pass was emblematic of MSU’s defenseman passing all night. Michigan State was hitting stretch passes, and making good reads on first passes throughout the game.

TECH VS STATE GLI HISTORY

Friday’s game will mark the first time since 2000 that the Spartans and Huskies have met in the GLI Championship Game. Michigan State won the title that year. 

Michigan State and Michigan Tech have met six times in the GLI Championship Game. In the other meetings, Michigan State won in 1984, 1983, 1982, 1973. Michigan Tech won in 1971.